I made a trip after church and chores this morning to my favorite antique mall, Front Porch in Ottawa, Kansas. It was nice drive down through the countryside, and I took my time, going the back way, instead of through Lawrence. One thing I have noticed in the last week is that it is so nice not to be hurried when I am doing something, I feel like most of my life was lived at breakneck speed.
There is something I have been meaning to write about... I mention it from time to time, but don't really dwell on it... but today, I realized it is not happening just here in Leavenworth County.
I took this picture some days ago.
This big field is just down around the corner from us, about a mile and a half from our place. You can see it is a healthy stand of corn and a swath of hay ... This 80 acre field was for sale as two forties, and we don't know if it sold, but the sign is gone. I digress.. what I wanted you to see was the stand of corn.
So I drove down to Ottawa today, and came back up Douglas County Road 1061, which stretches from 56 Highway, up through Eudora and thence to Tonganoxie in Leavenworth County.
I stopped to take some pictures.
My hand was shaking when I took this. I am deathly afraid of bridges.
That, folks, is the Kaw River at Eudora (Douglas County). On either side of the bridge were huge sandbars, normally under water. This is how low the Kaw (the Kansas) is right now at Eudora. Sorry for the cramped picture, but my hand was trembling.
I stopped on the other side of the bridge here:
This is a small cemetary that was deeded to the Delaware tribe, who had been removed here. There is a small historical announcement explaining that the cemetary was restored and maintained by Boy Scouts. There are very few marked graves here, but it is a beautiful place. On one side is this field:
Beans, still looking decent. (except for the foreground).
On the other side:
That's how the corn looked all up and down the road... browning in the fields. The farmers here are going to take a bad hit, I'm afraid.
Here is something else. I took this picture of the treeline just outside of Ottawa (Franklin County) .... as you can see, the trees are starting to turn. When I got home, I noticed that the trees on the ridge just east of us... around Spehar's ponds and house... are also starting to turn.
(hmmm I was outside the car when I took that picture, I have no idea what is on the lens)
And then, when I got in the door... it was to a huge sack of Granny Smith apples that Kathy next door had brought over to give us. She had finally picked her tree, laden to the ground. She told Keith they were a full month early. It is only July 8th!
And then finally... at the end of the day... we had this after an hour of thunder and bold lightning:
It rained for twenty minutes, but was not even enough to wet the ground. We did not get as high in temps as yesterday, and the rain brought it down to mid-seventies for the evening, so the air conditioner has not labored as hard. The weatherman said tonight that we will drop to mid-eighties for the week here, so it will be a blessing. I am off again tomorrow, but go back on Tuesday... for my last six weeks of work. After an appointment tomorrow, I'll go ahead and water again, and hopefully get a few things done that I put off in the intense heat of the last few days.
What can all this mean? Does it mean that we are going to have a beastly winter? Is it global warming? I can't even mention that to Keith without a diatribe starting. Can anyone explain it?
