If you weren’t outside raking up the fallen leaves, you may have been enjoying one last warm day out on the lake or climbing the bluffs around Devil’s Lake near Baraboo, Wisconsin. If you had more energy for more than a just scroll around the lake shore, you could hike the trails up on the bluffs to see some interesting rock formations like Prospect Point, Elephant Rock, Balanced Rock and the Devil’s Doorway as well as enjoying the view from the top.
Devil’s Lake
With a sunny sky and above normal temperatures, it would be a nice day for a walk in the woods, but with the winds last week, the trees have been stripped of their colorful autumn leaves so the trees are mostly barren again for the long winter. So only memories of pretty autumn days are left as the leaves blow and scatter across the ground (and on my lawn where I have raked the leaves already) where they will eventually be covered with snow.
Autumn Walk in the Woods
If the weather forecast is right, we will have three warmer and most sunny days so I’m sure the farmers will be trying to get their crops in. The non-raining days are probably appreciated by those who don’t have a nice warm and dry tractor cab like this farmer picking corn with horses.
Picking Corn by Horse Power
Maybe the ducks were the only critters who enjoyed last week’s wet weather. I just know that I am looking forward to some sunshine for a few days.
Duck Enjoying the Water
Today I saw little kids (and adults) dressed up in costumes for Halloween when you might see the spooks, ghosts and goblins. One might find a ghost haunting a lighthouse like at Seul Choix Point Lighthouse which is said to be haunted by a former keeper Captain Joseph Willy Townshend (1902 to 1910) who died in the upstairs bedroom. Joseph was a cigar smoker in life, but his wife refused to let him smoke in the house. Now cigar smoke is often smelled in the house, as well as other strange happenings, including moving silverware, rocking chairs moving on their own, pictures with hazy figures, images in windows, footsteps, and the sound of someone climbing the lighthouse steps.
The Gulliver History Society, which maintains this lighthouse, has kept detailed records of each ghostly occurrence at the lighthouse recorded in a logbook which has more than 300 entries thus far. It is believed that in addition to the ghost of Townshend , there are three other spirits, including young girls.
So while visiting the keeper’s house of the Seul Choix Point Lighthouse, take an extra peek at the mirrors and windows and see if you spot a spirit.
Seul Choix Point Keeper’s House
A lighthouse might provide the light that the missing sun hasn’t on another cloudy day. First lit in 1849, Whitefish Point Light was one of the first lighthouses on the shores of Lake Superior and is currently the oldest active light on the lake. It is arguably the most important light on Lake Superior. All vessels entering and leaving Lake Superior must pass the light. It stands on the treacherous southern shoreline of Lake Superior known as the “Graveyard of the Great Lakes” in an area with more shipwrecks than any other area of the lake. It is the closest lighthouse to the wreck site of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The view from the top of the 76 foot tower was spectacular even on a cloudy day.
Whitefish Point Light
The kitten would have needed more than a wire fence yesterday to stop the blowing snow so it better go find a wooden fence instead.
Climbing the Fence
As the harvest season continues, barns start reappearing which had been hidden from the road by fields of crops. I love this matching silo next to the barn.
Red Silo
The Bald Eagle has been the national emblem of the United States since 1782 and while not really bald, their white-feathered heads gleam in contrast to their chocolate-brown body and wings. At one time, the word “bald” meant “white,” not hairless. Young bald eagles attain adult plumage in about five years so the young are often overlooked without their ‘bald’ heads. One adult and two immature bald eagles were hanging out by the side of the road and this one is about two years old.
Immature Bald Eagle
This old truck reminds me of something that Ma and Pa Kettle would drive except it is missing the kids and critters hanging off of it too.
Loaded Old Truck
