Farm Scene

Here’s a photo taken on our drive last weekend in northeast Iowa.  I loved this scene even before I removed a few clumps of weeds, trimmed some trees, and repaired the barn roof.  All without breaking a sweat!  I really liked the red buildings, so I jazzed up the colors so they would stand out more.  It looks a bit unnatural, but I still like it.

Amish Scenes

Yesterday my husband was talking to an Amish farmer and I sat in the pickup waiting for him.  Silo-filling was going on there.  Horse-drawn loads of cut corn waited to be unloaded at the gasoline-engine-powered silage chopper.  Its against their religion for the Amish to have their photos taken, but I figured the horses wouldn’t care.  The windmill does pump water out of the well---I could see it working.    

We also saw corn shocks out in the fields. 

This Amish community isn’t far from where we live.  Even though there’s an electric pole in view, they are Old-Order Amish and don’t use electricity.  They are also known as “House Amish” because they hold their church services in homes.  When I was a kid, we sometimes took Sunday drives in Amish country.  We’d see a farmyard full of buggies and know that that was where church was being held that day.  The word “Amish” comes from the name of their early leader in Europe, Jakob Ammann. 

Yesterday

Here’s how our soybean field looked late yesterday afternoon when I returned from my trip to the recycling center.  You can see how their vibrant gold color is now giving way to dusty brown.

Earlier, after leaving home, I suddenly got the notion to take a selfie.  Don’t worry, there was no traffic on our country road right then---there hardly ever is. 

I had a load of newspapers, magazines, tin cans, glass, a phone book, plastic grocery bags, and several bigs sacks full of all sorts of plastic containers.  What would our world be like without plastic!?  When I got to the recycling center I found out that they also take cereal boxes, chip bags, and even granola bar wrappers!  

Sandhill Cranes

Yesterday afternoon I was getting ready to make a run to the recycling center when my husband hollered for me to grab the camera and get in the pickup with him.  We drove out into the field where he had spotted a pair of Sandhill Cranes.

Skywatch

Sunset sky from a couple evenings ago…

Thanks for stopping by!  Visit Skywatch Friday to find photos from around the world.

Squirrels

My granddaughter and I saw some squirrels the other day.  She liked watching them!  I’d never seen a dark one like this before:

And, these two were chasing each other around a tree trunk:   

This Morning

Here’s a photo taken earlier this morning.  I can’t zoom in any closer on that big bird and if I walked any closer, it’d probably fly away.  I’m wondering if it might be an Osprey.  Its been sitting there every morning lately. 

More Road Trip Shots

Here’s a few more drive-by shots from my road trip the day before yesterday.  Without looking, I took this first one from the I-380 bridge over the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids.  (I did have to straighten it.)  On the right is Mays Island, home of city hall and the Linn County Courthouse.  The Tree of Five Seasons sculpture is in the scene, also: 

At a road work site on US 30, I had to wait and wait and wait for a pilot car.  At least it gave me a chance to get a shot of this locomotive:

Here’s what I caught of a mural that was along the main street of one small town I passed through:

And, in this final photo, a gold soybean field stands in contrast to another one in the distance that is various shades of green:

A Day Away

Yesterday I got called for grandma duty.  (My granddaughter was intrigued by our elongated shadows as we took a walk in the late afternoon):

Both my granddaughters live over two hours away, in opposite directions.  I don’t mind a road trip, though, so away I happily went.  I enjoy all the scenery and love road photos.  Could easily entertain myself by doing a blog of just road shots, I think.  This next scene is from the morning---I liked the hazy layers of trees which beckoned from the distance:

 

This next one was taken as I headed for home in the evening.  That tall bank of clouds in the distance was a line of storms to the north and it provided a great lightning show to watch as darkness set in.

 

The very hot, muggy day had given way to a very warm, muggy evening.  I drove with the window down and aimed the camera west to hopefully get some usable sunset shots.  Most were too blurry, though.  The lights in this next picture were from a factory of some sort:

Next time I’ll show you more along-the-way scenes from the trip.

Barnyard Opinion

Yesterday morning I wandered into the barnyard with the camera. 

It didn’t take Freckles long to express her opinion of being photographed:

Barn Charm

Here’s a barn we saw on our drive the other day:

Visit Bluff Area Daily for this week’s Barn Charm.

Dunning’s Spring & Ice Cave

On the edge of Decorah we followed the arrow to Dunning’s Spring:

We’ve been there a few times before but not for several years.  Water cascades down from the bluff above.  There is a hiking trail---you can see the wooden railing in the upper left of this next photo.  I wish we’d have had time to hike the trail, but we didn’t.

  

After that, we continued down Quarry Road for a little ways.  Notice the red vine on the left of this next photo.  I’ve always liked those.

 

Pretty soon we came to the Decorah Ice Cave site.  This stairway leads to the entrance:

We lacked a flashlight and other spelunking equipment so we didn’t venture in very far.  (Like we have any spelunking equipment!  Both of us are fairly claustrophobic.)  It was cool inside the cave but we didn’t see any ice.  Its all gone by this time of year.

 

We didn’t go on to Palisades Park as shown on the sign in the first photo.  I’ve been there before---it has a nice overlook of Decorah.  Here’s a view of the road as we left the cave site to begin our journey towards home and the cows who would need milking in a couple of hours:

Decorah, Iowa

Our drive on Saturday continued onward through the “hilly country” as my family called it back when I was a kid.  Before we knew it, we had reached Decorah.  This sign is along the road as you enter town:

The Winneshiek County courthouse is here.  I had time for one photo as we drove by it.  Sorry about the odd lighting and texture---I was shooting through the top of the windshield:

This mural is in the downtown area.  The “ONE WAY” sign is not part of the scene depicted.

We drove by the main building of Vesterheim, the Norwegian American Museum.  We have toured it several times in the past, but didn’t have time to stop there on this trip.  Thank goodness for the red light---it gave me time to get a decent photo!

The building is beautiful.  My other photo of it ended up tilted but I decided to leave it that way and have some editing fun:

Here’s some cool classics we saw along one of the streets.  I love that red Chevy.  In high school, one of my friend’s older sisters drove a car like that and I rode in it a few times.  If only I’d realized how cool things were back then!

I wanted to get ice cream at The Whippy Dip and even said that to my husband, but he drove on by.  Darn!  Decorah is home to Luther College, hence the “welcome back” sign.

In the next post, I’ll show you a couple other places we visited near Decorah.

Tractors, Etc.

During our drive on Saturday we of course saw lots of farm-related stuff.  At several farmsteads we noticed restored tractors sitting all clean and polished as if on display for passersby.  We finally deduced that there must be some sort of drive-by tractor show going on. 

I wish I would have taken more photos of them, but these two are all I managed to get.  There was a nice line-up of John Deeres that I missed.  Most of the time I was too busy gawking at the tractors to raise the camera to snap photos.  I grew up with Farmall/IH tractors which are the red ones in these photos.  I used to drive a 560 and a 656.  The third tractor from the left in the above photo might be an F-20 and we had one of those, too.  It started with a crank.

Near a seed corn field plot was this weather vane.  DeKalb is brand of seed corn.

And, finally, here’s a row of gravity box wagons (grain flows out the side via gravity) sitting at the edge of a field.  I suspect they might be retired for good.  These wagons which were once the new-fangled style are now old-fashioned.

Old Stone Church

Continuing on with pictures from our drive yesterday…

My husband and I have driven by this sign many times over the years, but had never followed the arrow.  This time I hollered, "Let's go there!", and we did.

The roofless old church made of limestone sits on a hilltop overlooking the surrounding farmland.

Here’s the plaque by the front door:

 

And, the interior:

The window arches are made of brick:

It was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed walking around outside the old building:

It was very peaceful there with a nice view in the distance.  I enjoy visiting places like this! 

Trees on the Horizon

As we meandered through the countryside yesterday, I kept busy watching for photo opportunities.  You have to decide quickly!  Every now and then, a grouping of trees would seem photo-worthy.

For the heck of it, I gave the above photo a cropping and an “old paper” effect:

 

Taking drive-by photo shots is so much fun!  You just never know what you’ll end up with!