Making Plans

Mom is doing well, has her eye doctor's approval to drive and will soon be done with the eye drops.  It looks like we will be able to hit the road on October 1.  We will take a few days to get to Des Moines and then see if our load will fit in the Jeep for the rest of the trip home.  We are missing our kids and grandkids really bad and realizing that we will not have much time to see them before we have to head south.  We have enjoyed our time here with Mom, but we seem to get the itch to be on the road after two or three months no matter where we are.

Friday Afternoon Walk

Beyond cooking at the soup kitchen on Mondays and Thursdays most weeks, I haven't been doing too much here.  We finished putting new screen on the back porch Wednesday and did some weed eating. This afternoon I drove over to a nearby trail that I had read about in the newspaper.  I walked on it for about 45 minutes and then it started to rain.  The trail is not too far from Mom's house.

It looks like several groups have cooperated to build this trail.  It was interesting to walk this trail, there were a lot of plants and trees identified with signs.  A forestry group has put up a model fire tower and some weather instruments.

These are the instruments in the boxes above.

Down the trail from the tower is a small sawmill.

The saw is powered by this small antique gas engine in the shed in the back of the shelter.

On down the trail is this building with an antique gas pump.

Inside the building is a gas engine powering what looked to be some type of corn sheller or grinder.

I even passed a gold mine!

I will have to go back and explore some more some day.