It was so quiet here this morning.
So peaceful…
…that I took a mug of coffee outside to enjoy the sunrise through the mist.
I don’t know who began the cacophony, perhaps the rooster who lives on the sheep farm across the way or maybe the sheep themselves – but soon the quiet was shattered by the shriek of cranes in the Minnesota Mosquito Refuge and the screech of pheasants along Five Drunk Creek – not to be outdone, the cattle up the road commenced to bellow and the donkeys who share their field brayed in harmony. Lastly, my dog Scooter joined the choir.
So my wife and I took a walk up the road.
The pond is still flooded – but you can hardly see it through the fog, though it might not be fog, it could be mosquitoes. They do get that thick.
Here is a photo of daffodils – just because.
And this is my latest project, the fire pit. I will have to gather and stack more stones – but it is serviceable as is.
It is one of my many, many projects, some assigned by nature, some assigned by spouse and others foolishly self-assigned, so my posting will be light for the month of May.
Update: I had planned to begin installing a pump and waterfall for the pond today but as you can see we have a flooding problem. The bridge should be two feet above the water. Scooter is doing his best to drain off the excess.
The dock was beached a week ago.
Almost Iowa 
It looks very pretty.
It is pretty – but loud. 🙂
Nice early morning shots, soft light and fog are a nice combo. I’m assuming that is fog, in my experience clouds of mosquitoes are a bit darker.
Usually the clouds of mosquitoes are much darker – but it has been so cold that many mosquitoes still have snow and frost on their wings.
Looks Idyllic. But when you spouse and nature assigned project list is long, don’t haze yourself with more…
I know… I know… Which means I should know better – but I don’t.
Early morning sounds here as well Craig. If I focus, I can hear the birds. But for the most part, they are drowned out by weed whackers. Spring is sprung, the grass is ris… And it is time to cut it down. Good dog Scooter! Soon he will be redistributing that water around your property. –Curt
There must be a special place in hell for the person who invented the gas-powered weed-whacker and an especially gruesome fate for the maketeer who thought selling what should be a commercial product to “civilians”.
You do know those walks can get you in trouble. You never know when you will take the road not taken and end up on the Yellow Brick Road. Pretty soon you’ll be in Kansas, and then what?
Kansas is not half-bad at all. Neither is Oz. I have been to both. (Oz as in Australia).
There are a couple challenges with Oz. Since you’re on the bottom of the earth, you have to walk upside down. That can be a major headache because your blood flows to your brain. Also they are a day off since they’re on the other side of the International Dateline and they’ve got their seasons all messed up. Winter is summer and summer is winter.
Great photos! Scooter does look as if he’s doing his best to help with the flooding problem. Dogs are thoughtful that way.
Dogs are thoughtful – sometimes. Other times they roll around on roadkill or in the much then try to sneak into the house. 😦
The photos are a wonderful addition to your blog to give us a sense of place, to enhance your writing.
Good luck on all those projects. You’re off to a great start.
I thought of doing a photo essay of the neighborhood. Maybe even a tour of the ghost towns of Freeborn County – but I prefer to make things up, it is such a welcome relief after a career of working to get every detail as accurate and precise as possible.
Your fire pit is quite good looking. Congrats. The weather this year has been unusual – your pond is overflowing and family in Kansas haven’t seen significant rain since October 2017. You have the mosquitos, and we have the tiny black flies. Bug spray – lots of it. 🙂
Ouch! That has got to be hard on the farmers. They need the soil moisture. The weather is hard on the farmers up here. The rain has kept them out of the fields and if they don’t get the crop in soon, they will dinged on their crop insurance. I believe 1% a day.
Scooter looks to be doing a good job. I hope he is suitably rewarded.
Oh, he is happy now. He found a mud hole to roll around in.
Love your photos Greg, I miss this time of year up north.
Hey, we paid a high price for spring this year. The sad thing is in a month our weather will be tropical. Great for corn and mosquitoes, not so good for dogs and people.
Nice photos of green emerging from fog, I mean, mosquitos. Do you have any idea how much I love the word cacophony? And your chorus of animals made the word come to life. Enjoy the pits! Fire pits, that is.
Cacophony is such a fine descriptive word, though at times I wish it were less applicable.
I know what you mean about that, Greg!
Beautiful pictures 🙂 I really hope it was fog and not mosquitoes.
I will keep you posted on whether those are mosquitoes or not. Not brave enough to check.
Great mug – the coffee one.
For quiet mornings, try summer Australian Bush and several thousand galahs arguing about the weather. Nature at it’s best.
Nice lawn – just missing a mob of roos. It’s so dry here they’d swim the ocean to mow it for you – no charge.
I could use those roos in my hay field. It has been so wet the last couple years we have not been able to get a crop off. It’s even too wet to let loose cattle in there
Just love those foggy photos. Love those daffodils too……just because. Great fire pit. Neat bridge over (well, almost over!) the pond. Good job Scooter! I think he earned an extra treat.
Gorgeous property Greg and kudos to you for keeping it so pristine. I would love to hear the sounds of all those creatures. The smells? Not so much! Lol. And even here in the Hudson Valley, NY, the mosquitos and no-see-ums vie for prime space, and in particular, MY body. Apparently I’m just a walking smorgasbord to them, even with spray on! Sigh….
🔹 Ginger 🔹
I’m a fan of fog and farm animals, Greg. Flooding not so much, but I do like those blue skies. May around here is insane too – the whole summer is nuts since most of the year we’re water-logged. Have fun with your projects. 😀
I had a friend from your area. He almost lost a foot to jungle rot in Vietnam. He took it in stride though, “We get that in Oregon too,” he told me. 🙂
It’s true!
It looks so serene. Just lovely. Sorry about the racket, but I’d trade the noise of “ospreys” for it any day — V22 Ospreys that fly over and make the whole house shake. 😉 Hugs.
OMG!! Sooooo cool. This is farm country, we love big, noisy machines……just not in the morning. 🙂
That fire pit is fantastic. It’s probably what started the rooster off – crowing about it, and with good reason.
There are times when the rooster can be outcrowed.
Everyone’s greening!
Love your misty shots. I’ve always found something very settling and soothing about fogs…must be all the moisture in the air.
Unless it’s mosquitoes. They get pretty thick here in Wisconsin, too.
My brother lives behind the cheddar curtain and I tell him that our mosquitoes can beat up your mosquitoes. He disagrees, saying that the Minnesota mosquitoes were the ones that got chased out of Wisconsin by their more burly cousins.
Thanks for the look around Greg. Looks like a cropduster would be good for the mosquitos. Your fire pit is coming along but that lawn is to die for.
There are six acres of it and to die for ends at three. 🙂 The original owner put in a gulf course. You can still see the greens and sand traps but the subsequent owners didn’t keep it up – but all that lawn is just to beautiful to let go to seed.
Seems fitting, from ‘Camelot’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg4YrOlAkds
Enjoy yo’selves down there on the border!
HEY!! Where’s all the lusty maidens? All I get is roosters, sheep, cranes, pheasants, cattle, donkeys and a dog who rolls around in roadkill.
Up in the Twin Cities, cavorting with all the lusty (older) lads?
Good luck with the project.
Oh, I will need luck just getting to the end of them.