Tag Archives: animal

all the pretty horses near odin avenue.

all the pretty horses near odin avenue.

driving back from hockey practice in la crosse with odin, south down county road pc ( aka “rollercoaster road” ) like we’ve done hundreds of times, we call out “hallo odin avenue!” as we pass by and then we pass by these three horses grazing near the road. big and beautiful with manes blowing in the breeze and a hint of blue sky and almost too green pasture. if you look off in the distance you can see the organic valley wind turbines at our distribution center in cashton, wisconsin.


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i immediately get that feeling like i have to take a picture. if i don’t it will bug me for the rest of the day. but i don’t actually want to take the time to stop. the photographer in me argues with the part of me that just wants to get home and make dinner but i only make it a quarter mile past the horses before i hit the brakes.

odin looks up. “what are you doing?”

“can you grab my camera?”

odin looks around, “what’d you see?”

“horses.”

“oh, cool. let go take a look.”

for him this is absolutely, completely normal if even a bit mundane.

and as it happens, i couldn’t get all three horses to look up all at the same time and the wind had died down so their manes weren’t blowing, so it didn’t quite turn out like the shot i saw while i was driving by, but that’s the way it goes.

the shot almost didn’t get away 🙂

on waking, once again, to a bat in the house!

on waking, once again, to a bat in the house! I.

there’s nothing quite like waking up to the swoosh! swoosh! of a bat flying around your bedroom and not too far from your head! it’s been 6 years since we’ve had any bats in the living space of our home ( i have to qualify that statement because there are plenty of bats we can hear crawling around the walls from time to time they just don’t come on the living space anymore ), and while i love bats and the fact that they can eat thousands of insects an hour, i certainly don’t love them flying around in the house while we’re sleeping!

odin woke us up when he heard it and we calmly shut the bedroom door after the bat flew out and slept relatively soundly together while the bat presumably tried to find its way out. we left the front door open to our enclosed porch and luckily it was smart enough to find a sleeping spot in a corner of the porch since that makes removal a lot less traumatic for everyone involved. not nets or whatnot required, we just left the porch door open and he flew out the next evening after waking up from his slumber.

i’m not expert enough to tell if he’s a little brown bat or a juvenile big brown bat, but either way i hope he stays out of our house and safe now that the deadly white nose syndrome that’s decimating bat populations has been spotted thirty miles from wisconsin.

on waking, once again, to a bat in the house! II.

at least we know for sure he’s not a vampire since he chose to sleep in the space where there was 200 head of garlic drying ( he’s the little brown blob up in the corner )!

i wrote about some of run-ins with bats 6 years ago and was amused to take a trip down memory lane after discovering this bat. feel free to check out, “Mr. Big Brown Bat!”, “Invasion of The Big Brown Bats! or could we be any more stupider?”, “bats are supposed to stay in the belfry!” ( wherein i rescue a bat from the toilet ), “it’s time for another exciting round of What Would You Do?”, “O RLY?” and “bats be gone?”

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents!

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! I.

since fall is fast approaching ( or, rather, technically here ) that must mean halloween is not far away which means it’s time for our yearly trek to a local The Pumpkin Patch to search for the perfect pumpkins for jack-o’-lanterns.

it’s a seasonal ritual made all the more special this year because grandma and grandpa snowdeal came for a visit and got to partake in the pumpkin hunting fun.

the pumpkin patch we really enjoy has all sorts of fun stuff beyond pumpkins, including a barn with many different kinds of animals including very curious goats who like to nibble on anything they please.

odin isn’t quite sure whether or not he’s going to lose his whole glove to one particularly nibbly goat.

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! II.

i think the sheep would like to taste the camera.

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! III.

since we live in a small town it’s certainly not unusual for odin to run into a few friends who are on their own Pumpkin Patch Adventures. it’s mighty nice that the old tobacco drying barn has a slat missing that’s just the right size for posing.

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! IV.

it’s all fun and games jostling around the opening, at least until the llama decides it’s time to stand up and leave everyone guessing as to whether or not he’s going to spit on you!

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! V.

this is gunner. he’s one of the nice folks who drives a group of pumpkin patchers to the patch in a wagon pulled by a tractor.

you know it’s time to leave when he blows in the horn.

he asked odin to look after his horn when he jumped into the tractor. see if you can guess what happens to the horn.

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! VI.

and we’re off! gunner is happy to not look where he’s going and tell you all sorts of stories about the history of the area, including the fact that the very path we’re driving on was originally a horse and buggy trail that connected two nearby towns.

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! VII.

since halloween is approaching you never know what spooky, scary stuff might appear on the trip. since odin is a seasoned veteran he knows to keep on the lookout.

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! VIII.

SPOOKY!

one year they had a gorilla jump out onto the trail which i think freaked too many kids out since they haven’t done it since.

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! IX.

the ol’ riding the tractor like a bronco through “raging” stream bit never gets old.

every year, even though it never happens, i think there’s a small chance we’ll get stuck in the stream.

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! X.

finally, it’s pumpkin huntin’ time!

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! XI.

it doesn’t take long to find The Perfectest Pumpkin that’s all the more perfect ’cause it’s easy to carry.

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! XII.

and even the bigger ones are perfect when grandpa offers to help carry them on your head.

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! XIII.

odin poses in The Wilds of the Pumpkin Patch with his Prize Catch.

i almost think we should have it “stuffed”.

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! XIV.

grandpa and grandma caught documenting the adventure with their camera phones :-
)

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! XV.

we were lucky enough to find a few gourds which was a treat because odin really, really though grandma would enjoy taking a few back home to michigan.

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! XVI.

back on the wagon, odin says, “hey grandma, how about how put the horn on my head like a hat. that’d be funny!”

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! XVII.

the request, i think, was all a set-up for his next request to put the horn on her head so he could could talk into it and she could tell him if it was loud.

to the bemusement of the rest of the wagon riders, she complied.

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! XVIII.

what could be more perfect that a little picnic after pumpkin hunting? not much, expecially when the pumpkin patch place supplies brats and sauerkraut!

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! XIX.

of course, we can’t leave without saying goodbye to the goats!

day 2660: A Pumpkin Patch Adventure with Grandparents! XX.

such a fun annual tradition, much better than just picking up pumpkins in a parking lot. highly recommended if you’re in the area.

“tucker and becky’s pumpkin patch” on oboe road off PC between highways 27 and 33.

amusingly, our Pumpkin Patch Adventures take place a hop skip and a jump away from odin avenue. in fact, i think we first stumbled upon the road when we went on our first Pumpkin Patch adventure.