December 2010

December was rather busy for us this year. Technically the picture below was from Thanksgiving, but if you add in Blake's family, my sister and her husband, the three little girls that we had during Christmas, and Jon's mom, and you would might be able to visualize what Christmas day lunch was like.

Karen started the Christmas season with a trip to Chicago with our friend Pam to get coffee and to do some shopping. They stopped at the Christmas Market and bought a few ornaments. I got to go pheasant hunting with Blake and the boys the first weekend of the month. That story was told in an earlier post. The real story, however, starts with the picture below. Karen, Clarice, Adelphia and Elizabeth went to the Nutcracker at Fort Wayne on December 10^th. Elizabeth was thrilled by the opportunity to dress up and go to the ballet.

On Saturday the 11^th Clarice and Jon took Skyler and Trae to Chicago to see the Christmas Carole play at the Goodman. Karen and I were invited along as well. We had discussed several options for going which included taking the South Shore out of South Bend. But in the end we decided to just drive up in Clarice and Jon’s truck.

Views of the Chicago River.

Grandma with two Grandsons

The other thing we planned to do in Chicago was to go the German Christmas Market which is an open air market in Daily Plaza. The weather was sort of messy that day; it started raining about the middle of the day while we were at lunch. We went to the Christmas Market for a while but because it was still pretty crowded and the weather was lousy we headed to the theater early.

Here we are waiting for the doors to open for the play. At least it was warm and dry.

The stage set was very good with lots of large sets moved onto stage for various scenes.

The play was well done and as hope Trae and Skyler enjoyed the experience. There were a few scenes that made everyone jump. They did a great job on the ghosts.

We went to a couple of Christmas parties near the middle to end of December some at work and some related to Church groups We even went Christmas Caroling with a group of folks from Church one cold winter’s night.

Deer season ended on December 19^th. I did not get a deer this year, but I enjoyed the time in the woods anyway.

On December 20^th I had surgery to repair some long time damage and deterioration on my right shoulder. I have to have my right arm restrained for several weeks and have 20 weeks of therapy ahead of me, but it is the off season so to speak and therefore I will only miss the ice fishing season this year.

One of the young couples from Church was planning to take a tropical trip for their 10^th anniversary. Karen and I volunteered to have their three little girls for Christmas so their uncle dropped off the girls on Christmas Eve. Clarice and Jon and Jon’s mother came over and helped us decorate our tree after the girls went to bed. In the morning they were surprised to see our tree decorated and presents for them as well. We had a very active Christmas day.

We did a big Christmas dinner in the early afternoon. Blake, Apryl, and the boys, my brother Ron, Judy and Len, Karen’s mom, my mom, Jon, Clarice, Jon’s mom, three little girls and a young man from Church were all there most of the day. We cooked most of the meal at our place but had the meal next door at mom’s since we had 17 and our place will not easily accommodate that many at a time. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

Our young friends on the tropical vacation got hung up with all of the blizzards and flight cancellations on their way back and had to spend Saturday night in the air port terminal in Memphis. They finally got back here about 6:30 Sunday night. Their girls were glad to see them.

On the 26^th we had the Christmas gathering for our family at Karen’s mom’s place. All three our kids and their families were there for a meal and to exchange gifts. It was a very pleasant evening.

Here is Jon enjoying the toys the boys were getting.

Carolyn overseeing the operation and making sure everyone was behaving themselves.

Trae and Skyler in their new sweat shirts.

Apryl and Blake watching the kids open gifts.

Since I had a bum shoulder I got assigned granddaughter duty. Elisea and I got to open her gifts and once we got to the second gift she had it pretty well figured out and she helped me open my gifts too.

We ended up with four play-dough elephants and then we made four frogs.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying the evening.

Karen and her mom made pajamas and night gowns so there needed to be a pajama parade.

Here is the spectator sections watching the events.

We spent New Years Eve with our friends the Bishops and the Berrys. Happy New Year.

Early December 2010

A cold windy snowy day in December, an invitation to go pheasant hunting, and the memories came flooding in. I spent most of my youth in Porter and Jasper counties in northwest Indiana. My dad was an avid hunter and I was usually invited to go along on his hunting, fishing and trapping trips. I learned a lot about the outdoors and how to get along in it, dressing properly to be out in the elements, safety, endurance, the responsibility of taking care of the environment, and care and use of the wild game we took home from the field. I have tried to pass on those principles to my son and grandsons. The legacy of hunting seems to be alive and well in the Jay Harris clan.

I decided to honor my dad by taking along his old double barrel 20 gauge shot gun, the old shell vest and a pair of bib overalls that he used to wear. When dad passed away I inherited his shot gun. He bought that particular gun in the 1940's when he was a teenager. He originally had a 12 gauge, but during World War II ammunition was scarce. Apparently he was able to get a case of 20 shot gun shells so he traded his 12 gauge for the 20 gauge side by side. Its probably close to 70 years old now, a simple gun worn with use, but still very effective. Dad was a great shot, quick and accurate, I learned that if I was going to get any shots I had to be quick and accurate too.

When we lived in Jasper County when I was in Junior High and High School dad had a farmer friend, Bud Daugherty, that farmed over 1000 acres which we were allowed to hunt. In those days pheasants were plentiful and it was not uncommon for us to limit out in a couple of hours no matter how many of us went out. Normally Dad, Bud, my brother Dave and I hunted every weekend during pheasant season.

My Brother Dave dated and eventually married a farm girl from Benton County so our hunting territory expanded to include a 1000 acres there as well. Back in the 60's and 70's farm programs and techniques included allowing many acres of land to lay fallow. Normally these fields were planted with grasses which provided great cover for birds and other animals. Even corn fields provided lots of cover. Herbicides were not as effective as today and cornfields normally had plenty of fox tail and other weeds, that combined with there cornstalks, provided great cover for pheasants, quail and rabbits.

There is nothing more exciting than walking through an 80 acre field and having a cock pheasant explode right at you feet in a flurry of wings beating and cackling or a covey of quail bursting out of heavy cover in a cloud of energy. Oh, those were great times, but like many things change occurs. Farming techniques changed, the fallow fields and wide fence rows between fields were removed and got plowed up. Cover for wildlife became scarce, and then in the winter of 1977-78 a blizzard came and wiped out all of the pheasants. In the fall of 1978 we hunted in the same fields we had hunted for years and did not see a single pheasant, not even a foot print. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources decided that they were not going to even try to re-establish pheasants, so I haven't hunted pheasants for nearly 30 years. Therefore, you can imagine the excitement and emotion that came with the opportunity to go pheasant hunting again.

Skyler, Blake, Trae and me ready to head out.

The first pheasant that took off was went in the direction of some buildings and our vehicles, so I had to wait to get a clear shot, but unfortunately it was pretty much out of range. But, the second one was just as I had remembered, a flurry of wings, wait, wait, bang, tumble, there it is, the first pheasant in the bag.

The farm we were hunting has had pheasants released, but the cover and the conditions were very similar to those back in the day. The owner of the farm also raises Labrador Retrievers so we took Blake's dog Toby with us. We started out with Toby's mother as well and soon his father and sister joined us, apparently there is a hole in the kennel fence and the desire to be in the field was too great, so the fields got covered pretty well.

The field was nicely divided into sections that were wide enough to cover with the four of us.

One pheasant that Blake hit landed on an island in a small pond. Luckily the water level was down a bit so were were able to retrieve the bird.

Another nice pheasant bagged.

Grandpa Harris gets one more. Yeah! This is great!

Skyler and grandpa, hoping to make more memories.

At the end of the day we had five pheasants and actually got two rabbits as well.

I think dad would have been pleased.

Dead Stuff in November

Usually my posts include pretty pictures like this one below. But November has had it's set of challenges, The furnace died, so I have been spending every spare moment in an interesting mechanical surgical procedure in a way too small space.


The old furnace has been on it's last leg for a couple of years. The new one is smaller in BTU output, bigger in physical size, and more efficient, however, with that efficiency comes more places to connect things. The old furnace had connections to gas, electricity, thermostat and a flue. The new one has a different method for venting and needs a connection to combustion air, plus a means to drain condensation. Apparently new furnaces extract a lot of moisture out of the air, therefore lots of water and drainage issues to resolve.

The old furnace had a vent that was share with the water heater, which is in the way now.

The new furnace is wider and deeper and the plenum is larger and therefore the old plenum needed to be revamped, which means that the plenum now looks like a sheet metal patchwork quilt.

Here is the new furnace sitting in the dining room ready to be transplanted into the old space. The process of removing the old furnace and finally getting the new one set in place hooked up to all the infrastructure and started to actually produce some heat has taken just over a week. I pulled the old furnace out on November 6th and had the new one running for the first time on November 15th. I still have some small details to finish, but it is operational.

Karen and I did get to go on a couple of short bike rides, even though by the time I get home from work now it is pretty much dark. So we will only be riding on the weekends and will need to find another way to get some exercise.

Also this past weekend Friday, late afternoon, Karen was in a car accident. She was in her car in North Webster and was hit from behind by a pickup truck. It was not a high speed hit but as it turned out it will take over $8000 and over two weeks to make the repairs. By the way Karen is OK and only has a bit of soreness.

Deer season started on Saturday the 13th. In the morning Blake, Trae, Skyler and I went out early in the morning and hunted until mid morning. We all saw deer, but none that we could or wanted to shoot. In the late afternoon Skyler and I went back out and Skyler shot this nice buck. It was pretty late by the time we found it and got it field dressed and loaded into the truck. It is one of the more positive dead things that happened this month so far. Good food for the table.

This time of year other dead stuff appears, corn stalks, leaves, grass and weeds. Trees are pretty much bare and lifeless looking. Even the sun is low in its path across the sky. But as the verse go there is a time for every season and November, brings on dead stuff sometimes.

October Color

This post will focus on fall color. During the first week of October Karen and I went on a short trip along the Mississippi River in Illinois and Wisconsin. After we got back home again in Indiana we had several nice weekends where we were able to get in some good bike rides. The fall leaf color was pretty much at peak in the middle of October so we were able to shoot several interesting fall color pictures while on our rides. I have not necessary included all of the most brilliant colors, but rather have included as much variety as possible to show the range of color. Some of the color comes from trees and a bit of the more dramatic color is from sunsets.

Sometimes life makes me feel like this old Osage Orange, scared up from the several crash impacts I've sustained, bound up with bits of wire fence that I've tried to hold up and a bit gnarly as a result.

Still Osage Orange (above and below) is kind of tough and a little wild and I like that. Karen and I ride by this old tree a couple times a month on our regular bike rides. This tree sits at the end of a road and has stopped its share of cars that didn't

Some evenings give a real warm glow to the sky.

This set of barns just a few week earlier had a lush green foreground of beans. Now the sky is the most prominent color in this subtle landscape.

Some of the boats have been hauled out. The ones that remain will be gone in just a few more days after this photo. Ducks are flocking together across the pale sky.

I thought these shots of cycling shadows were interesting.

Sugar maple trees can color from this reddish color to a bright yellow that you will see later.

The crops have been removed from the fields and the county road seems a bit barren.

In the distance across the empty bean stubble field the variety of color is beginning to show.

Here is another sugar maple in golden yellow.

The marsh a couple miles east of our place begins to take on a subtle mix of browns and sage green.

Shag bark hickory practically aways turns golden yellow in the fall.

Here's another sugar maple in more of an orange color

Ash can vary from this purple to yellow.

Because it is well watered this section of the upper Tippecanoe river is still pretty green. We went by this same place the last weekend of October and there were no leaves left. the change happened quickly.

The other interesting thing about fall color is that some trees peak at a much different time than others.

Sassafras trees have perhaps the widest variety of color even on the same tree. Here there is green to yellow to orange to red, all on the same branch.

We stopped at Pisgah Marsh and noticed that the color was much more subtle than out on the upland terrace areas.

Here's a close up of hickory leaves.

I think this is black gum. I could not get close enough to identify it.

This open field has some lavender color that is somewhat unusual this time of year.

I think this was a Gum as well.

Here you can see quite a difference in the color of these Sugar Maples as they transition into their fall color.

Here the sugar maples are more of a yellow to golden color.

Oaks tend to be more in the rust color ranges.

Of course there are some hardy flowers that provide some brilliant color in the fall.

As I mentioned earlier some of the most spectacular color comes in the form of sunsets.

October was a good month. There were some interesting sights to see, some challenges to overcome, and some great weather.