Sunday walk

Easter morning greeted me with crocuses in full bloom. Nice, huh?







After a quick breakfast at my sister's house, we went out to the sin-laws farm.




The sin-laws live in the country, over the river in Wisconsin. This is the view from their side yard. Isn't it lovely? I needed to get in a 5 mile training walk. Happily, there is a lot of land out there.

Here is a view of the barn from the far side of the hay field on the back edge of the property. One loop around the field is less than a mile.

Mr. J's mom likes to walk, so in addition to the loop around the hay field, she has paths she walks in the woods. They criss cross back over each other, which helped get in added distance. At first, we walked as a family.

Here are the hay wagons at the top of the field. In the summer, the hay is cut, dried, baled in the field by a machine that not only puts the hay in neat little rectangles, but also shoots the bales up into the wagon. Then the wagon is brought up to the barn for unloading. My job, along with Mr. J's sister, is to unload the bales onto the elevator. The bales are the carried up the elevator (which really should be called an escalator, in my view) into a window high up in the barn. The bales drop down and Mr. J and his brother in law stack them. I love 'doing hay.' You may rest assured there will be pictures when the time comes.

Zack, the dog, is just to the left of center in this picture. His appears to be wearing a cloak of invisibility in this picture.

And here's Logan. Isn't he a beautiful dog? He accompanied us for a while, but Logan is growing old. He's not as nimble as he used to be. He went up to the house early on.

On the far side of the property, there is a man who keeps chickens. Obviously, these chickens needed to be documented.

Another pic of the barn. I just love that place.

I walked past this tree a number of times. Eventually, it was just Zack and I walking. And not long after that, I was having Blair Witch flashbacks.

I popped out of the woods for a reassuring view of the barn, and looped the hayfield again. Then back into the woods with Zack.

Zack led the way through the trails in the woods. I've never been so lucky as to have a dog that you can walk with without a leash. It was great.

After about 2 1/2 miles, even Zack was exhausted. Alone, I circled the hay field over and over. Did you know there are Rattlesnakes as far north as MN and WI? It's true. I've never actually seen one outside of captivity. That said, I know that a guy was bit by a Rattlesnake just off the fairway on 18 at the golf course I frequent. Which is also in Wisconsin, not far from the sin-laws. As such, I chose to stay out of the woods and on the path around the hayfield once Zack left. (I also am totally comfortable with my decision to NEVER look for golf balls in the rough on 18 at my course of choice.)

I logged 4.5 miles and decided to call it close enough, in light of the challenging terrain, and the fact that it was Easter and time for pie!

If you'd like to donate in support of our walk, please go here:

http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/Walk/TwinCitiesEvent?px=3237566&pg=personal&fr_id=1302

Thank you for your support.