We woke up to steady showers, which cancelled out our planned morning walk. So instead we first watched the Wimbledon final, then the World Cup Final. Luke did a little tummy time and lots of nursing. We played with him quite a bit and were finally able to take a walk just before dark. It was pretty humid out but the fresh air was nice.
Well, I’m happy to see two of them. It has been a pretty relaxing afternoon. That is okay by me. A little rest is nice.
Last night I went to the Mountain Goat Trail near Pearl’s to photograph the fireflies. I set up two cameras and felt like the ‘flies might be a little lighter than usual as I observed. The finished product would seem to support this hypothesis. The first picture was taken at 55mm and the second at 135mm.
After the greenway I went to the farm on the back side of campus to photograph star trails. It would have been nice to stay longer but I was pretty tired. Also next time I’ll set up more than one camera.
Last night after the greenway I drove over to the university farm and attempted some star trail pictures. It’ll be interesting to see how they turned out. There were a few clouds, but tons of stars, as it was close to the new moon. A number of cars drove by, so I’ll have to remove those frames from the sequence. I think the camera ran for about an hour and a half.
We hit the road around seven this morning and took the highway off the mountain, the interstate to Beech Grove, then the back roads to the farm. It wasn’t too hot when we arrived. We worked on the corner trim for a little while, then my dad caulked and I cleaned up and packed the tools we are going to need up in Nashville.
And that is the vacation…working for three weeks at his project up by the Gulch. We are going to put down laminate flooring, assemble and install cabinets, and install trim. Hopefully we can get all of that done in three weeks. It was pretty frustrating not to finish the siding on the house, but I’m not dwelling on it. It’ll be waiting for us in three weeks.
In many ways it’ll be nice to have a break from the house, even if it is with another construction project. Doing the siding in the hot summer sun was a real beat down. It’ll also be nice to have less of a drive every day. If I leave before traffic picks up in the morning it should only take me about twenty minutes. In the evenings I’ll need to either leave before three or after seven.
I’m back at the condo now and am looking forward to relaxing this afternoon and tomorrow. Hopefully we will go on a walk once it cools down this evening.
We got an early start this morning and built on yesterday’s progress. That meant continuing with siding on the big gable end. Things were great until we ran out of siding even earlier than expected. My dad had to run up to Nashville for a little while so I worked on preparing the trim. When he returned we worked on trim for as long as we could take the heat, which was about one o’clock, then we hooked up the trailer and headed to Georgia for more siding. We took a mostly new route that was very pretty, although an hour longer than the interstate. It was worth it. Unfortunately the store had sold out of the siding we needed. They aren’t sure when more will be arriving. That was pretty frustrating, but not really a big deal because of where we headed next…The Mountain. Our first stop was the cottage for much needed showers. Then we had dinner at Papa Ron’s. It was delicious and the service was much improved since our last visit. We topped that off with ice cream from the Mountain Goat Market. Sitting on the terrace was very nice. We were a bit stuffed for a hike, but did drive over to campus. We visited the goats from a distance and stopped at the overlooks. They stunned, as usual. It was lovely out so we set up the folding chairs at Lake Cheston. That was very tranquil and scenic, but after a while we got restless, despite the theatre provided by the local family fishing nearby. So we headed back to the cottage. After a few minutes of sitting I decided to come photograph the fireflies on the Goat Trail, where I am now. It feels like there aren’t as many bugs out as usual. We shall see. It is so nice out here with the crickets chirping away. I’m not sure what time we’ll hit the road tomorrow. It probably depends on how well we sleep. Seeing sunrise could be nice, but I’m not sure if I’ll have the energy to get up for it.
