Fall Vacation: Days 2 & 3

No stay at the farmhouse is complete without farm fresh eggs. Which get put to good use in elaborate and late breakfasts.

In addition, no stay is complete without morning snuggles, on the porch swing, over coffee and cocoa, with Tommy the cat.

They say September is the season of heavy dew.

More views of the much battered Bad Axe river.

A few brief glimpses of blue sky.

This years crop of field corn might be destined for silage only. Everything it still very wet.

 There were a few snakes out and about. Despite all the standing water.

Paula loves Elli.

Elli loves Tommy.

I led off yesterday's post with a picture of the farmhouse's suspension bridge that used to span the Bad Axe river. Obviously it is no longer functional. And may never be again. The farmhouse's owners had already repaired it once this year. So. In order to reach the back pasture, the cows, and the hiking trails the above method must be courageously undertaken.

Despite a long, hot summer the water was breathtakingly cold.

This is the debris line on the other side of the pasture. It was WELL above our heads. So during the height of the flood the river was rushing at about 16, or more, feet high. 

All the trees look very fall appropriate without their leaves. But these leaves weren't so much lost as completely stripped off.

This used to be a hiking trail.

As was this. Now it is a caved in river bank.

If you look very closely at the top left of this picture you can see the remains of what was once a foot bridge.

Not a lot of color this early. But it's starting.

We finally found the cows. 

These poor things. 

As recently as 2 days before our arrival some of them were still missing. They had all been washed downstream by the flooding. Which is crazy. Because they are HUGE. Though some are only calves, a few weeks old, still, they are HUGE.

Miraculously all of them survived. And found their way home. Either on their own. Or with help from neighbors. The last 3, a very traumatized mom and her 2 babies, had to be chased over the muddy countryside.

And this is what they came back to.

The return trip.

Fall skies.

They came running. Because they thought I had food.

 Nope. Just a camera.

Lynn. Not as sociable as Paula. But still pretty cute.

Twilight.

Another sunset. I always forget how fast the darkness descends in the Purdy Valley.