Saturday, October 17, 2020

AND WINTER HASN'T EVEN STARTED YET

A fast-moving short storm blew through our neighborhood Friday night bringing high winds, lightning, thunder, rain, and hail.  The rolling thunder shuddered our house.  In the morning we woke up to scattered sunshine and brisk cold winds.

SLEEPY HOLLOW
A LARGE COMBINE RESTS BETWEEN HARVESTS
THIS BEANFIELD AWAITS IT'S DAY WITH THE COMBINE
A FEW FARMERS ARE BEGINNING TO COMBINE SOME OF THE CORN
THESE STAGHORN SUMAC ARE ALWAYS SO PRETTY IN THE FALL
Pheebs and I have to crank the heat up in the Jeep every morning now and this morning was no exception. We headed off to Goderich for no other reason than it's just somewhere to go and it beats sitting in the house looking out the window.  Rotary Cove road was open after being closed this past week so we followed Goderich's shoreline south from the harbor to the dog walking area.  Strong icy winds blowing in off the lake discouraged any dog walking.  A few pics and we headed back towards the harbor where we had seen a large ship docked at the grain elevators.

A COLD WINDY MORNING ALONG THE SHORES OF LAKE HURON

MORE LARGE BOULDERS HAVE BEEN BROUGHT IN TO BOLSTER THE SHORELINE
I don't think I had seen the large bulk carrier Torrent in Goderich's harbor before.  It sails under the flag of Cyprus and over this past year has traveled through the Canary Islands and the Straits of Gibraltar.  I'm assuming the ship was taking on a load of grain from the Goderich Elevators.


HATCH COVERS AMIDSHIPS ARE OPEN AS A CRANE LIFTS SOMETHING OUT OF THE CARGO HOLD
WORKERS BEGIN CLOSING THE BIG HATCH COVERS
STRONG ICY WINDS ARE BLOWING THIS ROPE ALMOST HORIZONTALLY
I WONDER IF THE SHIP'S CAPTAIN IS UP THERE DRINKING HIS MORNING COFFEE WATCHING OVER THE PROCEEDINGS
From the south side of the harbor we slipped over to the north side for a different perspective of the ship.  I think the big Goderich Salt Mine on that side of the harbor is open again after being closed for a few days after they had a small cave in last Monday night.  Nobody injured but I think some equipment was damaged.  The underground salt mine stretches for a couple miles out under the waters of Lake Huron.

With the Jeep's heater still on we headed for home.  Again, a beautiful sunny mid-October day but I had no interest in being outside puttering around with yard work in the cold.  Maybe it's my age catching up with me.  I curled up in my recliner by the fireplace, opened my Kindle reader, and as usual, fell asleep.  I have a feeling it's going to be another long, cold, dragged out winter.  And winter hasn't even started yet and is still over two months away.  Oh dear:((

OUR PARK ENTRANCE ALWAYS LOOKS SO NICE THIS TIME OF YEAR
HEADING DOWN OUR STREET
AND THAT'S US RIGHT THERE ON THE LEFT
Facebook threw me a 6-year-old memory for this day in 2014.  We were doing some morning grocery shopping at Basha's in downtown Wickenburg Arizona on this date.  We had headed for Arizona earlier than usual that year taking a different route over the top of Lake Superior, through Manitoba into eastern Saskatchewan then south crossing the border into North Dakota.  Worked our way further south from there down through South Dakota, Colorado, and Utah.  Had a lot of trouble with our new to us 2003 Triple E Class A Motorhome along the way that year and Kelly got sick before we reached our Congress Arizona house.  Luckily for us, we had a house to reach, relax, and slowly recuperate.  It certainly was not one of our better RV trips over the years..........

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A guy goes into a bar. He's sitting on the stool, enjoying his drink when he hears, "You look great!" He looks around - there's nobody near him. He hears the voice again, "No really, you look terrific."  The guy looks around again. Nobody. He hears, "Is that a new shirt or something? Because you are absolutely glowing!" He then realizes that the voice is coming from a dish of nuts on the bar.  "Hey," the guy calls to the bartender, "What's with the nuts?"  "Oh," the bartender answers, "They're complimentary."

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Tonight I’m gonna have possum soup made from Himalayan possum...Because I found Himalayan on the road.

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The man who broke up with his longtime girlfriend went on a consolational fruit-eating binge. When asked how he was handling it, the fellow merely raised a half-eaten piece of produce. “Can't you see,” he said, “I am in the depths of this pear.“

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9 comments:

  1. Geez Al, that 1st photo of the horse in the goldenrod with weathered barn in background- is breathtakingly beautiful. 🎃

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  2. Al, you have been doing a great job displaying the fall color changes. Thank you.

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  3. Winter has certainly arrived in our neck of the woods. Seven inches of new snow today and 25 degrees! UGH!

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  4. The Fall photos are just gorgeous!
    I see our neighbors from Canada came in yesterday. I guess if you fly in and have a house to quarantine in and keep cars here you can cross over. Plus do home grocery delivery enough to keep you going for 14 days or however long it is now.

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  5. I have often wondered about the salt that ships pick up. Is it road type salt or cooking salt or just what is it used for? And today’s ship was getting grain which I don’t recall ever reading about before? What type of grain? Thanks so much for always being informative and photogenic!

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    1. It is rock (road) salt they take out of that mine. Area farmers bring their beans, corn, and wheat to these elevators to be shipped round the world.

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  6. Just looking at the wonderful coloured landscape in your region must give you a real boost. So pretty especially with a bit of sunshine through it. The many different oceangoing ships in the harbour picking up salt are interesting to look at. You are lucky to live in such a great area.

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  7. Hmmmm....working in the salt mines was always supposed to be the ultimate dead-end job. But how about working in the salt mines several miles out BENEATH a Great Lake??

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  8. Pictures are beautiful, I have a Sumac in a pot, same bright red colour. I know how you are feeling about staying home, we are trying to make the best of it but it's not even the end Oct. and I'm sick of rain and gray skies.

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