Another Walk

My intention is to walk a distance at least once a week and use exercise videos for strength and aerobic conditioning on other days. Sometimes my garden work counts as that too.

Besides being a good thing to do I'm also trying to build my stamina for a trip we are taking in April to Greece with Roads Scholar.  They rate their trips for physical stamina and this one requires being able to walk up to 3 miles and do a lot of standing.  That doesn't sound like much, but at my age with feet that hurt, knees that twinge, and hips that let me know when they're not happy, conditioning is a necessity.

This morning I set out on our country road.

A car passed and slowed ahead to let turkeys cross.  They were in the field by the time I got there.

In the field sits a double wide that had been removed from a hill further up the road.  The former owner of this farmland had lived there. The site is being prepared for another double wide.

Color showing.

New double wides are parked waiting to be put into place.

Dodge Hollow Road to my left goes straight up the mountain.  I've never been up there.  Maybe one day.

On to the next farm, a dairy operation.  I learned at the senior coffee hour yesterday a lot about dairy farming.  This farm has won lots of awards through the years as had Fred with his farm who was sharing and answering the myriad of questions we had. E.g. What is veal? How do you get calves to drink from a pail? How many gallons a day did his dairy farm produce? And much more.  Fred no longer farms.  He's sold that land and sold off his sugar bush after his son died who had been managing that.

One tree making a stand that it's time to change colors.

The road ahead lined with trees I've yet to identify.

A ridge showing color or just dying trees?

My favorite view.

Heading back.  Nice to be in the shade now.  I removed my sweatshirt for return trip.

Dairy farm again.

Down the last hill.

This farm with lots of land was purchased several years ago by the heiress to the Hartz Mountain company. Here where the cattle barns are they have had rock walls built. The question everyone asks is "why?"  No one really knows what they plan to do.

Final stretch. The open field on the left once had a house on it owned by Tim who cut our lawn.  He got a great price for the property from the heiress and purchased property a couple miles away.  The house was removed and the land just sits.

Almost back.

Another property also purchased by the heiress. Empty! In order to rebuild it has to be on same footprint. We did learn that it's full of asbestos and mold.  This one once held the post office. Two other houses in our town were also purchased by her and work to renovate has been happening slowly.

Back to my yard to turn off sprinkler.  We planted daylilies in a line along the left where you see that brown hill.  That is where huge box elder tree with multiple trunks was removed. We hope to establish a daylily bed along that hill.  I'll take better photos another time.

My iPhone Health app said I walked 2.2 miles.  Next time I'll try to go farther.  Today I had to return in time to do storytime on FaceTime with granddaughter #4.