Bluff Spring Journal
October 2009
October 1, 2009 Thursday
October started out with my beautiful bride developing a serious relationship with the porcelain chair in our bathroom. Yes, the flu bug hit her with a vengeance. We think it was a combination of fatigue and being around a lot of people. She had only gotten about 6 hours of sleep during the preceding 72 hours. Her job had kept her up late working on a project that brought an external quality review team from around the state to review job processes in the district. All I could do was provide ginger ale, back rubs and God bless the pharmacist-a medicine called Emetrol. I had luckily stopped by our drugstore looking for any help I could find. The kind pharmacist recommended this nausea medicine that worked wonders but not before 12 hours of horrendous nonstop (I’ll spare you the details) sickness. I’m glad to report after 4 days she is on the mend and planning to go to work on Monday.
Saturday Oct. 3rd
There’s a full moon tonight. In fact it’s the Harvest Moon-being the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox. For the past three months I’ve wanted to hike the Goat Trail to Big Bluff and photograph the moon as it was setting over the Buffalo River that runs below the bluff. There was a 20% chance of rain but we hoped for the best and left the cabin at 2:30 am for the 30 minute drive to the Center Point trail head and what has become known as the Goat Trail. This trail is aptly named as you have to navigate some steep and rocky sections of the trail to reach Big Bluff. Since my lovely bride was still recovering from the flu I had persuaded Sue Schuble to go with me on this adventure. Of course with Sue it doesn’t take much persuasion to get her out in nature. She’s visited every national park in the United States, yes I said every one. Later in November she’s headed to Patagonia to see glaciers and the pampas. I want to be Sue when I grow up.
We covered the 3.2 miles in about an hour and fifteen minutes and carefully made our way out onto Big Bluff. It was about 4:15 am and clouds pretty much obscured the sky. So we went onto plan b and proceeded to do some light painting with the following results.
Big Bluff-light painted
This light painting was done with a 15 million candlepower spot light. It's a heavy sucker to carry in a backpack but it does provide some incredible light. .
Cedar tree on Big Bluff
As civil daylight provided us with natural light I photographed this old Cedar tree that shows the gnarled remnants of a life perched precariously on the bluff.
So what happened with the Harvest Moon photograph. Nothing. The 20% chance of rain turned into a cloud cover that kept me from getting the photograph I was looking for. Oh well, it gives me another excuse to get up in the middle of the night and seek out those occasions when nature lets you in on a few of her special moments.
Thursday Oct. 8th
We spent most of today helping get a cousin's house ready for sale. My lovely bride put me on the job of removing old vinyl tile from the kitchen and utility room. These squares had been glued down and over the years some of them had come loose. Of course the rest of them held on for dear life and I had to use a hammer and chisel to wrestle those little critters free from the glue and subfloor. Of course we had to waltz the stove, carts and refrigerator around to get to all of the tiles. In the utility room it took three of us to move an ancient deep freeze to get to the tiles underneath. Then when I had about 8 tiles left to chisel at my lovely bride commented, "I wonder if these tiles have asbestos in them?" Fine time to be telling the person she supposedly loves. No reason on stopping now. I just held my breath and pried the last tiles from the floor.
On the way home it rained steadily most of the time and in torrents occasionally. All I could think of was how great the fall was going to be with lots of water for waterfalls and fall color at the same time.
Friday Oct 9th
My oldest son Matt and girl friend Kimberly has been visiting us for the last few days and today I get to stay home and spend some time with them. It's good to just hang out around the house. I did get a couple of odd jobs done that will make me very popular with my betrothed. A shower door that hasn't opened right in six months and a dinning room lamp (with the help of an electrician) fell victim to my having some spare time.
If you need a good electrician, Richard O'Conner in Springfield is a great guy. He's retired from being an electrician at the airport and does a great job for a great price.
Saturday Oct. 10th
I love weekends with nothing to do. I took the time this morning to make one of my favorite dishes-Boeuf Bourguignon. It's the perfect meal for a chilly fall day. The rich sauce that results from some slow cooking is hard to believe. It takes some work with the kitchen knife but is well worth it as I hope to find out in about 2 hours. Here's the recipe.
Sunday Oct 18
I spent the weekend at the Bass Pro Outdoor Fitness Festival. Our Venture Crew camped out and spent time informing visitors to the festival about the crew. The Venture Crew is a coed group of older scouts who love the outdoors and high adventure. There are no advancement badges just kids getting together to enjoy the outdoors and volunteer to support some great causes.
The temperature got down to 30 degrees and there was ice on the tent flys. We shared the camping area with the Mountain Men. These guys know how to camp in luxury. It was a interesting view of old time camping and the next gen Venture Crew.
Of course we thought that we had the best food. Sue provided us with some great chili and Steve cooked pancakes that almost floated off the griddle. The cold night was held at bay by a campfire that no one wanted to leave. We finally stood close to the fire and then made a bee line to our tents hoping to take some of the heat with us.
If you're interested in joining the Crew, just search Facebook for Venture Crew 1971 the page has photographs and contact information. Steve Blair is the admin. The Crew is for students who are 14 and out of the 8th grade on through the age of 21. For those who aren't on Facebook you can email me at photo@bluffspring.com.
Saturday Oct 24
Well I'm staying near home this weekend because I could not go on the annual fall photography shoot with the Central State Nature Photographers. This is a great group and I always learn a lot from this group. But this year a bad transmission and the 9 workshops I have to do next week conspired to keep me home. I was having second thoughts anyway because my lovely bride is leaving for a week and I was wanting to spend sometime with her before she left. Overall, I got to shoot a few fall scenes and icing on the cake, I got to spend time with the my best friend.
James River Reflection on a foggy morning.