READ A BIT LOOK A BIT

MET THIS LITTLE FELLOW EARLIER TODAY

Almost without any gas guzzling thoughts this morning I loaded the furry little Giggle Buns into the Jeep & away we went.  Regardless of being on some of the same roads for the umpteenth time again it was just good to be out in the fresh country air.  Headed over to the Hullett-Marsh but there were so many duck hunter vehicles milling about the only thing Pheebs I would have got out of a walk there was a possible load of buckshot in the rear.  I am sure glad I do not have any interest whatsoever in any kind of hunting stuff unless it's with a camera & to the powers that be I say, thank-you, thank-you, thank-you for those good ‘no hunting’ genes I am fortunate enough to possess!! 

THIS GOLDEN FIELD OF CORN WILL SOON BE HARVESTED

  

JUST ANOTHER RELAXING DAY IN RURAL SOUTH-WESTERN ONTARIO FARM COUNTRY

We skirted the Marsh, cleared the area & leisurely headed off on a slow-poke gravel run.  Bean fields are being harvested at the moment so there's various large pieces of rather large farm machinery plying the back roads & one has to be vigilant.  Don't want a big monstrous combine scooping us up & spitting us out.  Still not a lot of Fall colors in the trees yet compared to last year at this time.

 

THIS BIG JOHN DEERE COMBINE IS TOWING IT’S BEAN HARVESTING HEAD BEHIND IT

 

SO TYPICAL OF OUR RURAL COUNTRYSIDE & IS IT ANY WONDER I PREFER TO SPEND SO MUCH OF MY TIME HERE

Turned out to be kind of a lazy low energy afternoon with my mind feeling about as relaxed as our gorgeous Autumn day.  Calm with nothing moving. 

 

ANOTHER BEAN HARVEST UNDERWAY

SEE THE GUY LEANING OUT OF THE ORANGE TRACTOR…..I THINK HE’S HOLLERING AT THE FELLOW IN THE GREEN COMBINE SAYING, “COME ON BILL STEP ON IT WE GOTTA GET THIS FIELD DONE BY SUNDOWN EH”

LOTSA BIG TIRES OUT HERE IN THE FARMING COMMUNITY 

A DRAINAGE COMPANY WORKS ON IRRIGATING A LARGE FIELD….NOTE THE LARGE ROLLS OF BLACK PLASTIC IRRIGATION PIPE

WHERE CORN FIELD MEETS BEAN FIELD

NICE TO SEE A SLIGHT SPLASH OF AUTUMN GOLD

As much as I am not a 'foody' person it sure is great to be eating good meals again now that Kelly is home.  I sometimes think I could live quite well on peanut butter & honey sandwiches, Cheerios, & toast but after some of the fine meals Kelly has cooked up this past week since returning from Spencerport NY I may have to re-arrange my foody thoughts & priorities.

THREE INUKSHUKS IN THE MAITLAND RIVER AS SEEN FROM BALL’S BRIDGE LOOKING SOUTH

WITH EARS JUST A FLAPPIN IN THE WIND

Took our wheelbarrow around the yard & began gathering up a few yard ornaments today.  Not as many out this year as we usually have so it wasn't a task requiring a lot of my time.  Knowing at this time of year weather can be unpredictable I like to have some of these yard things done while day’s are warm & sunny.

Been walking the pine forest trail every morning again getting my legs back in shape.  How fortunate we are here at our 5 Seasons Park to have such a great forested walking area which actually goes for miles & miles.  Although we've never done it we could walk right into Bayfield along the Bayfield River if we ever took it upon ourselves to do that sometime.  And Pheebs & I had ourselves another walk this afternoon:))

Did you know I sometimes write extra paragraphs just to fit my many photos in.  Yep it's true.  I've never liked stacking my photos up in a long line so I often sit at my keyboard trying to think up little blurbs to put in between the pictures.  I find if I see a bunch of photos one right after the other I have a tendency to kind of fast forward through them.  But that's just me.  My style is to 'read a bit, look a bit, read a bit, look a bit.  Can you tell I did that with tonight's post.  Here's a clue.......short paragraphs:))

GROANER’S CORNER:(( Senators William B. Spong of Virginia and Hiram Fong of Hawaii sponsored a bill recommending the mass ringing of church bells to welcome the arrival in Hong Kong of the U.S. Table Tennis Team after its tour of China.  The bill failed to pass, cheating the Senate out of passing the Spong-Fong Hong Kong Ping Pong Ding Dong Bell Bill.

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- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

LIBBY GETS A NEW TIRE & THE BIG EEE GETS A FROSTY WINDOW

A GREAT BLUE HERON LIFTS OFF OUR PARK’S POND

Sure miss the easy way Windows 97, XP, & 7 let me put icons on my desktop.  I much prefer easy to access desktop icons to the ‘Favorites’ feature but Windows 10 has seen fit to make that a big long drawn out procedure now which I’ve never had the patience to figure out.  Overall, we still like Windows 10 though & so far so good.  Hardly seems much different than Win 7 although it does have new features which I’ve taken little interest in so far.  Haven’t felt a need to have Cortana talking to me.  And apps schmapps who needs em anyways.

CAN YOU SEE A LITTLE PUPPY DOG FACE HERE??

Our wonderful Autumn weather continues to weave it’s mystique & today was just another one of those magical days.  Hard to explain but it is a time of year like no other filling some folks like myself with many pleasant reflective moods & memories.  These truly are natures wondrous days.  Actually our weather right now reminds me a lot of winter in the South-west.  Cool air & warm sun.  As I do in Arizona I am now switching into a warm T-shirt & long sleeve flannel shirt about 4 in the afternoon.  And that is my same attire in the morning until about 10 a.m.  Between 10 & 4 it is short sleeve shirt weather.  Very much like the South-west depending on area & altitude of course.

IT’S QUITE A MOSH OF SOUTH-WEST COLORS WE HAVE GOING ON HERE

We spent some more time in the Motorhome this afternoon just getting a feel for our slightly modified floor plan.  Kelly also tackled the job of cutting out & putting a frosted glass laminate type of covering on our rig’s door window.  It had been a clear see through pane of glass.  It comes off easy if we don’t like it.  There is a blind that comes down over the window but I’ve never liked it.  Going in & out it always knocks my hat off.

HEY I CONTRIBUTED MY EXPERTISE BY AT LEAST CARRYING OUT & SETTING UP THE STEP LADDER

 

HARD TO MAKE OUT THE FROSTED GLASS LOOK ON THE DOOR BUT IT’S THERE

 

THE DOOR WINDOWS FROSTED GLASS EFFECT IS MORE CLEARLY EVIDENT HERE

With darkness upon us much earlier each night now I thought I’d try for a Moon shot from our driveway Wednesday night.  Problem is all the pine trees overhead & with both the Earth & the Moon on the move I only managed one decent shot before the Moon was once again shrouded by numerous pine needles & there’s no point in moving the tripod & camera to another spot because it’s just pine trees everywhere here around our house.

Amazingly enough I actually remembered I had to have our Jeep Liberty into Clinton’s HURON TIRE & AUTO this afternoon at 2 for a rear tire replacement.  Number 2 bay was open & the new tire was sitting there all ready to go.  They were at it right away & the job was done in no time flat.  The tire coming off Libby was better than the spare on the back so that was taken care of as well.  My total time in & out the door was about 20 minutes.  Now how mighty darn nice is that eh:)) 

NEW TIRE WAS SITTING THERE WAITING FOR ME

We sanitized our fresh water tank in the rig this morning & again it was one of those operations that required 2 of us.  One to read the instruction book & the other to physically turn the right knobs & leavers in sequence.  For Full-Timers who routinely do this it is no problem to remember the procedure but Snow Birds only doing this maybe twice a year it can be aggravating trying to remember how you did it last time.  Contributing to that aggravation is the age factor of course & it’s ravages on short & long term memories.  Silly me thought he remembered how to do it so last week while Kelly was in Spencerport I thought I’d give it a try.  Well you know what thought did, right.  Needless to say my effort was a bust so this morning knowing Kelly was in the house I tried it again.  Well I wasn’t even close to getting things right so of course I had to enlist Kelly’s help & between the two of us with Kelly reading the manual & me turning the neighborhood air blue again we finally figured it out.  We’ve had 4 different RV’s in the space of 3 years & each RV has had a different way of doing things so that compounded our overall confusion as well.  Ok, Ok, MY confusion.  I remember going through this same procedure once before with the Big EEE & thinking to myself, ‘well that was pretty easy & I’m sure we’ll remember how to do it next time.  We didn’t!!

Pheebs & I just might have to take that new P235/65R17 Goodyear Wrangler S-RA tire for a spin in the morning.  Well that is if I feel like it.   For some reason I’ve noticed I’m not quite as eager to get out into the countryside these past few days or so & I’m thinking it might have something to do with knowing we’ll soon be leaving on a much longer journey.  Not sure how those two thoughts are connected but I have noticed a slight shift in my morning enthusiasm as of late.  In reality I’m probably beginning to tire a wee bit of travelling the same old country roads so often week after week.  Yes I could travel further afield but I feel a little guilty all the time about the gas I burn up & Jeep Liberty’s are not known for their superb gas mileage.  Always something huh…………………………….

GROANER’S CORNER:((  Sandy began a job as an elementary school counsellor and she was eager to help. One day during recess she noticed a girl standing by herself on one side of a playing field while the rest of the kids enjoyed a game of soccer at the other.  Not being too familiar with sports Sandy approached and asked if she was all right. The girl said she was.  A little while later, however, Sandy noticed the girl was in the same spot, still by herself.  Approaching again, Sandy offered, "Would you like me to be your friend?"  The girl hesitated, then said, "Okay," looking at the woman suspiciously. Feeling she was making progress, Sandy then asked, "Why are you standing here all alone?"  "Because," the little girl said with great exasperation, "I'm the goalie!"

OK, A MUCH SHORTER TITLE TONIGHT:))

Ooooops, guess Tuesday night's post title was a little on the long side & some may have had trouble opening it.  If so here is a much shorter link to my post.  Just click, ‘STANDOFFISH’.  Sometimes my head don't think so smart.

 

MY 70-300mm LENS HAS BEEN CHATTERING & VIBRATING SO BAD LATELY TODAY I DECIDED TO STRAP ON MY 50-200mm LENS & TRY IT OUT ON THESE MONARCH BUTTERFLIES

When in Goderich at the Maitland Valley Medical Center Tuesday I had intended to look for a couple things at the Canadian Tire store but drove right on by it twice without my brain tapping me on my shoulder & reminding me to stop in.  This morning Pheebs & I headed back to Goderich because we knew Harvey's still had their $3 burger on sale & Harvey's is in the same mall as Canadian Tire.  Ahhhhh yes, a method in my madness alright:)) 

  

A drive down around the harbor & a walk for Pheebs & I at the end of the beach netted me some Monarch Butterfly photos.  As rare as Monarch's have become in recent years I was happily surprised by at least half a dozen of them in one area flitting about from flower to flower.

 

Pheebs & I were home by 11 & I wasn't long in hauling the vacuum cleaner out to again suck up all the muffin crumbs everywhere.  A  few of Harvey's burger parts were found scattered about as well.  Pheebs & I have quite a time with ourselves sharing our burgs, subs, & muffins.

  

Loaded a few things in one of the rig's bins & spent some time inside checking out my recliner area.  Hauled my laptop out to see how things were going to work out when on the road.  A few new ideas, a few changes, & moved a couple cabinet contents around.  No matter what, this is definitely going to be the best floor plan set up we've ever had in an RV.  Finally, finally, finally, after all these years we both have recliner chairs.  As Ralph Kramden from the Honeymooners would say, "how sweet it is".

Four weeks from tonight we will be on the eve of our departure & I will be apprehensively anxious to get rolling.  I always experience of bit of apprehension before heading out on a long journey after a lay-up of half a year & the only thing that allays that apprehension is to get that gearshift into Drive & get those big wheels rolling.  Soon as we are on our way that apprehension immediately evaporates, the mission is on & my focus turns to the long journey ahead.  Yahouie Louie:))))))

Again I'd like to express my appreciation to all our readers for sticking with us & tagging  along through another long drawn out summer.  Thanks to ‘Facebookers’ for their ‘Likes’ & the folks getting back to us in our Shout Box.  Thanks to our faithful commenters on the blog & all the email folks for taking the time to send us those encouraging & heart warming emails.  I know I sound like an old worn out record here again but if wasn’t for folks like you reading the blog there wouldn’t be much point in me writing the blog.  And I thank you all for that:))

GROANER’S CORNER:((  I was scrubbing a bulkhead on the USS Kitty Hawk one Sunday morning when the loud-speaker announced:  "Religious services. Maintain silence about the decks. Discontinue all unnecessary work."  An hour later, the opinion many of us held regarding our daily routine, was confirmed with this announcement:  "Resume all unnecessary work."

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Two sea monsters were swimming around in the ocean, looking for something to do. They came up underneath a ship that was hauling potatoes. Bob, the first sea monster, swam underneath the ship, tipped it over and ate everything on the ship.  A little while later, they came up to another ship, again hauling potatoes. Bob again capsizes the ship and eats everything onboard.  The third ship they found was also hauling potatoes and Bob once again capsized it and ate everything.  Finally his buddy Bill asked him, "Why do you keep tipping over those ships full of potatoes and eating everything on board?"  Bob replied, "I wish I hadn't, but I just can't help myself once I start. Everyone knows you can't eat just one potato ship."