Winter. It seems it is here to stay.

Back home and spring is nowhere in sight.  It is very brown here.  No rocks, no waterfalls.

Sigh.....

I bought this when I was in AR. 

I can't imagine living in a state where they can publish a fairly thick book of individual waterfalls.

Nebraska's book of waterfalls would be a flyer.

Or a note card.

Official total weight of the bottle and the rock.

Almost 4 pounds.

It was worth it.

No sign of spring at all in our redbuds.

Alan and Ryan are constructing a new dog run for the dog.
It's huge.  Bigger than a lot of people's back yards.

She doesn't appear to be much of an outdoor dog.

I received the last segment of this pattern.
I really like this one.

Ok, so it looks like spring might actually arrive.

Looks like they are progressing on the dog run.
It's getting serious.  They have fencing.
Man is that stuff heavy!  I cannot even pick up one end.

Mishka helping.  Not.

I hope she enjoys it considering the amount of work that went into this.

Meanwhile Mishka and I went to the dog park to wear her out.

She is the thirstiest dog there.  Do you think I can stop her from doing this?
No.  She always comes out of this spot with black mud socks.

But she is good and tired when we go home.
A tired dog is a good dog.

Back to working on the quilt for our bed.
Finished little blocks on the left.
The white stack indicates how many more to go.
Sigh.

I'm getting this pattern in segments too.
Brights are not usually in my wheelhouse but this one I like.

Another sign spring is coming!!
An actual flower.

Making myself useful around the house.
I picked up all of the trash that accumulates in our wind break.
It blows in from all the construction around us.

More progress.

Yep Alan, things are going to change around here with me home.
This is not going to cut it.

Made another trip to the dog park.
Met Buster who is 1/4 - chihuahua, corgi, blue heeler and pug.
Blue heeler soul patch on his chest.
Blue heeler sturdy body on chihuahua legs.
Corgi ears on a pug head with chihuahua nose and eyes.
Cute little guy.
Strange looking but cute.

800 quilts?!!

A photo taken in AR.
Yes, it has been enhanced but still magical looking.
Too bad it is poison ivy and tick infested.

I went to a quilt retreat.
Might as well since winter won't leave.
It was a fun time spent with friends.
And I managed to get some stuff done.

If you have never been to Minglewood in Gretna this is what it looks like.

Very beautiful.
Sound carries very far.
Lots of room to spread out.

My little sweat shop.

Brrrrrr......
So tired of this.

First time in the dog run.
She appeared to be ok with it.

The temperature dropped that evening.
Miserably cold.

Did I mention I left my hiking boots at Julies?
Fortunately she came up for the retreat and returned them to me.
They aren't purple.  That is the light reflecting off my purple coat.

Sick of working on the little blocks for our bed quilt.
Decided to work on a small project.
A table topper for the kitchen.

Quick progress on this.

Now that my boots are back I can hike again.
I did a hike around Lake Wehrspann.

Then Lori and Mishka joined me for a walk around the lake.
We took lots of breaks.
No naps, just breaks.

Turkeys along the trail.

Pretty cool to see the momma eagle feeding her babies.

Ok, Maybe Mishka took a short nap a couple of times when we stopped for a break.

The next day Lori and I went to Indian Cave State Park.
She learned what it feels like to haul a fully loaded pack up hills.

They must have had a recent burn because the floor of the forest was very clean.

Oh no!  A rock on the trail.
Definitely in Nebraska.

One side burnt.  One side not.

They do have steep hills at ICSP.
Sure am glad its not raining.

And they do have moss!

It was nice to see the glowing green up ahead.
They burnt this field too and the new grass was vibrant green.

A view of the Mighty Mo.
And Iowa.

What goes up must come down.
And at ICSP it goes down quickly.

Lori learns what a precipice trail is!

She was cautious and careful as she should be and had no troubles getting down.
It was a confidence builder.

Lunchtime.
Break time.
Take your shoes and socks off time.

These seed pods were pretty cool.  I'll have to ask Alan what tree they came from.  He'll know.

A rocky bluff.
In Nebraska.  Pretty cool.

If I didn't have a pack on I would have climbed up to check this out.
It wouldn't have bears in it but maybe a mountain lion.
Probably a good thing I didn't go.

Another pretty rock with moss.

This gives you an idea of the height of the bluff.

A river shot.  With a broken bush in the way.

Well, here is the "cave" the park is named after.

It includes this cool formation.
I'm sorry, I didn't read the sign that explained how this was formed.

A view looking down into the "cave".
The petroglyphs are above where Lori is standing.

The explanation.
Can you spot them below?

I wondered "how did they make these markings in the concrete"?

Another view of the river.
We're up high again.  More climbing up to the campsite.

Whew, it is a hot one.
And muggy.  It feels like tornado season.

Our campsite.  We camped in the large group camping area.
Lori was happy there were bathrooms.  Until she opened the doors.

We had to go back to the car for water.
A gal was parked her with her dachshund.  And a ton of hula hoops.
Not sure why you need that many.
I didn't ask.

Total steps for the day.  The mileage is wrong.  Too high.
The calories burned are wrong too.  Too low.
This app doesn't take into consideration the extra weight of the pack.
Or the heat and humidity.
I think it was closer to 9,150.  Ha ha!

But we are all smiles for dinner.
The bees liked Lori's food better.

Maybe because she had a melted Snickers bar.
(Another lesson learned)

Bees don't like curried chicken with cashews and peas.
But Betty does.

The campsite had a brand new shelter with nails to hang our bags.  Nice.
And a place to boil water out of the wind.

My camp shoes for this trip.
Ha ha ha!
They were comfy.

Saw this on Facebook.
Made me laugh.

Packing up for the hike back to the car.

We hiked further north up to the living history area and then back to the scenic "deck".
This was the view from the deck.

While we were there we met this gentleman.
Very interesting.  He is part of a religious group that does long 24 hour hikes.
Hence the lights on his cap.  He assured us he wasn't hiking that night.
Good thing with the predicted storms.

The last section we took the low trail which is mostly flat.

More fuzzy moss.

Lori was intimidated by this tree.
I guess I am used to these.  It didn't have any features to cause alarm.

Three buzzards followed us for a while.
We assured them we weren't dead yet.

Do you see it?
The Starship Enterprise docked for resupply.

We made it back injury free, hot, sweaty and tired.

It was a hot day.

When I got home I was just in time to see the storms begin to grow over the Missouri.
The news said this did create a tornado a little bit later after I took this pic.

This was the temp when I pulled up in our driveway.

Annnnnnd when I pulled up this was also in our driveway.
After inspection we were told our shingles were part of a bad batch from the shingle company.
They have had about 12 claims for this so far.  Lucky us we are now one of them.
Guess we will be getting a new roof.
Again.

Can you see him?
The lone goose I saw as we were walking around looking at the roof.

And winter is back.
I guess I can be glad we aren't in the blizzard zone.

We are just in the winter weather advisory area.
Right next to the winter storm which is next to the blizzard.

The sunset that evening was pretty.
This pic doesn't capture it but the sun is a giant orange ball.
Probably due to the field burning in Kansas.
Lot's of smoke in the upper atmosphere.

Then this happened.
Yuck.

So I worked on this and got it done.
Amazing what you can accomplish during a snowstorm.

The dog spent the night on the couch.
She is definitely not an outdoor dog.

I want to decorate my plain white bear bag so if I am in an area where there are several white bags I can easily find mine.
I thought I'd put gummy bears all over it or maybe Yogi Bear.
Then I decided to put Far Side cartoons all over it.
Like this one.........

Since the weather is so crappy today I decided to sit down and create these blog posts.

Just waiting now for my videos to upload.

Will have to post them later.