After Tuesday’s 6+ mile lumber, I returned to the woods on Wednesday morning for more of the same. Within the first mile, my body was NOT having it. I’m not sure it was the accumulation of two days of sweating my balls off working in the yard and an early morning lumber, or what, but my legs were heavy, my mind was cloudy, and I wanted a dirt nap. And I hadn’t even completed a mile yet! Shit.

My legs finally started to come around, but it wasn’t great. So, I ended the lumber at 5 miles, went home, ate, showered, and then napped for an hour and ACTUALLY slept. When I woke up, I felt much better, and it still wasn’t even 10 AM, so I didn’t ruin the day and got shit done.

Part of the shit that was done was fun. Like taking a short trip with my macro kit to the backyard pollinator garden looking for buds, bugs, bees, and boogers. OK, no boogers, but I needed another “B” word.

One bug found was a Harvestman Spider (AKA a Daddy Longlegs, which really isn’t even “officially” a spider at all).

I was stoked to see it, ’cause it just showed how the garden is working. Plant the flowers, the flowers grow, the pollinators come, bugs come, then other critters come to eat the bugs, then more critters come looking for the bug eaters. And all did was scatter some seeds; brilliant!

When I awoke on Thursday, I knew from the second I opened my eyes that I was back to feeling 100% and was in the woods by 6:20 AM.

It had rained overnight, and in the woods, under the cover of a thick canopy of green leaves, it was nearly dark as night. It was also as close to being 100% humidity as possible, without actually raining. What a sweat-fest!

Despite the wet, humid conditions, the lumber was swell, and I got in another 6+ loop and took a few pics.

So far this week, the only bird photo I’ve managed to get was a shot of a Norther Flicker from a distance on Wednesday (intro photo). Sort of discouraging, but at least the one I got was of one of my favorite birds, that’s not a bird of prey.

RANDOM UNAMUSING ANECDOTE

Late Wednesday afternoon, I was on the horn with Wifey, and as I looked out the window, there was what looked like flakes of snow falling from the bright blue sky. I made a mental WTF note and continued talking.

Then a few minutes later, I was off the phone and sitting in the heat on one of the deck chairs waiting for Lola (the dog) to drop a dook. As I sat, the tiny flakes continued to descend, and I double-checked my phone that a nuclear reactor wasn’t melting down. Then, I heard a subtle whirl in the distance, and it hit me; the big wheat field across the road was being harvested, and these flakes were the dust created from giant combines. I was relieved not to be sitting in a cancer storm, and chalked it up to another #rurallifeproblem, just like the smell of cow manure, a dust-covered car from dirt roads, and red hatted cult followers.

END

Time to finish up some random house shit, and get ready for France and Morocco at 4. Morocco has a real chance in this one, and in THEORY it should be a fun watch.

Later.