Picture of the Day for October 10, 2012

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With the sunshine, even if a chilly day, the squirrels are busy gathering nuts for the long winter. The red squirrel is smart by stashing his in the oak tree but the other squirrels are digging holes in my lawn and burying them. I don’t know how they will get the nuts back once the ground freezes hard and buried under snow but apparently their keen sense of smell can help them locate nuts buried under a foot of snow. But because they don’t relocate all their buried stash of the estimated 1,000 to 10,000 nuts each autumn, the squirrel is the Johnny Appleseed of trees; a forest planter as many new trees sprout the next year, including all the ones in my flower pots!

Nutty Squirrel

Picture of the Day for October 9, 2012

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Many of the birds have made tracks south and hopefully the hummingbirds have left since the sugar water froze the other night and could freeze again tonight.

There are only a handful of current railroad companies running on the tracks now in Wisconsin compared to all the companies that existed in the late 1880s. The tracks may exist yet if the small company merged with another but other tracks are no longer being used and some are now bike or hiking trails.

Heading Down the Track

Picture of the Day for October 6, 2012

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The round barn in yesterday’s picture had a milkhouse next to it, and many of the milkhouses were built of stone or concrete for better insulation so long after the wood barn is gone, the milkhouse may remain as testimony of a dairy farm which once existed.

On some farms the early milkhouse and pump house were in the same building and later milkhouses would be next to the barn after sanitary regulations required that the milk be stored outside of the stable area. Windmills would pump water to the cold water reservoirs which held the milk cans waiting for pickup.

Milkhouse of Yesterday

Picture of the Day for October 5, 2012

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A round barn is a historic barn design that could be octagonal, polygonal, or circular in plan. Though round barns were not as popular as some other barn designs, their unique shape makes them noticeable. The years from 1880–1920 represented the height of round barn construction, especially in the Midwest.

George Washington designed and built a sixteen-sided threshing barn at his Dogue Run Farm in Fairfax County, Virginia in 1793. It is considered the first American round barn.

Round barns were cheaper to construct than similar-sized square or rectangular barns because they required less materials. Agricultural colleges began to push the design in the 1880s as they taught progressive farming methods, based on the principles of industrial efficiency.

The spread of machinery, especially with the Rural Electrification program, eliminated the advantages of labor-saving designs that were more complicated to build, and the popularity of round barns faded.

The list of current round barns in Wisconsin show only this one in Washburn county and I was able to visit it this week with help of a relative driving me to it, so a special thanks to Roger for the fall driving tour pass the round barn which was built in 1918.

Washburn County Round Barn

Picture of the Day for October 4, 2012

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The landscape turns to red, orange, yellow and brown in the fall with turning of the leaves, but if you look down while out leaf peeping, you might spot some purple too like this aster.

There are over 120 species of the genus aster found in the United States and are primarily known for their fall flowering. The late blooming flower provide nectar for the butterflies, bees and other insects. In the winter, the heads provide seeds for tree sparrows, grouse, goldfinches and chipmunks. But then my chipmunks just eat out of the bird feeder.

Wild Purple Asters

Picture of the Day for October 2, 2012

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Even if yesterday’s horses were more interested in grass than the color foliage, I was definitely on the hunt for the colored leaves when I went leaf peeping on Sunday with my mom. We both liked this spot on a side road and I was glad that no one was behind us since I would stop every few feet to snap some more pictures before inching forward to soak in the glorious color and view that pulled at your soul.

Autumn Allure

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