Here And There Around The Farm

Autumn is a beautiful time of year around the farm. Things are slowing down and I'm battening the hatches for winter. Our leaves turn colors, then begin to fall. The temperatures drop, and staying indoors becomes a delicious luxury. 

Little Bugsy, now neutered, found a cough drop wrapper on the floor and played with it for hours:

 I took the dogs for a ride and stopped along Lake Ozonia, just south of me, to snap this photo:

 The white fantail pigeons, who went all summer long without reproducing, began nesting in the autumn. The last successful hatching were these two in a nest built of feathers on the floor:

 An older nest of one baby, high up on a narrow shelf, was developing nicely:

 I bought Georgette a new bed to use on the kitchen table because she insisted on spending her days there. This happy scene, with Seamus looking on and Bramble snoozing on a chair in the background, was on a typical autumn afternoon:

 The dogs still enjoyed much time in their fenced back yard:

 The cattle spent almost two weeks in the north field, where I got to see them all day, every day as the leaves behind them turned brilliant colors and then began to fall. They'd eaten just about all the grass by the end of that period and I moved them back across the road into the south field with the horses:

 I was out in the south field when I took this photo, looking northeast across the gravel road to the north field. That bale feeder is now being kept filled with hay:

 We had two days of cold, autumn rain and this was the northeastern sky on the morning of the first day. As they say, "Red sky in morning, sailors take warning:"

 But at the same time, we had a pink and blue sky with a rainbow in the northwestern sky:

I dug PeeWee's old bed out of a closet and brought it downstairs for Georgette. Then, after she got a new bed, I put the old one down for the other dogs and cats. As you can see, it was a big hit with Bramble, Clover and Bugsy:

 The Rugosa roses put on a spectacular display of color as they began to slow down for winter:

Forests, Lake And Beauty On Lake Ozonia Road - Chapter 4

I'd turned around and was heading back the way I'd come on Lake Ozonia Road, and this gave me access to more photos because I was no longer angling my camera directly into the sun. This nice cottage, for instance, seemed to be set on the edge of a small bay:

A yellow cottage with a green outbuilding:

And everywhere was the Adirondack forest:

This spectacular cottage sat up on a hill, overlooking Lake Ozonia:

And this cottage sat closer to the shore:

Back on the main road, I passed by a few more cottages with lake views:

And this large home which sat up on a hill:

This place was not on the lake, but still in the forest:

And this small camping trailer brought back memories of my last drive along this road, some years ago. I'd seen two men at a campfire here and stopped to ask for directions. If I remember correctly, they were a father and son who were trapping and hunting together, a kind of working vacation:

As Lake Ozonia Road became larger and had more full time residences, I passed by this large, attractive home. Did you notice the log truck off on the side?:

I paused for a photo of the log truck. I used to work on a logging crew, and this brought back memories:

My last photo was of this nifty log cabin, a year 'round residence. Then I put my camera away and completed the drive into Hopkinton, where I still had 18 miles to go to get to Potsdam:

Forests, Lake And Beauty On Lake Ozonia Road - Chapter 3

I had been surprised at the Adirondack beauty of Lake Ozonia and the lovely cottages along its shoreline. This red house sat behind snow covered spruce trees:

And this cute little cottage sat right on the shoreline:

But my favorite sight of all was this spectacular, abandoned cottage. It still seemed to radiate happiness in spite of its dilapidated condition:

In fact, I liked it so much that I took another photo. I noticed that there were still curtains in one window and wondered what else a person might find inside:

Every time I got a glimpse of Lake Ozonia, or more likely, one of its inlets or bays, I was impressed by its Adirondack beauty:

And there was an abundance of cottages encircling the lake:

There were many cottages, some small and simple, some large and elaborate:

It appeared that no one made use of these cottages during the winter. I don't suppose I would either, though everything sure was pretty:

And every place was posted against trespassers:

Rustic logs for pillars and green trim - certainly an Adirondack, woodsy style:

A barbecue and a wood burning chiminea on this porch, everything overlooking the lake:

More classic camp beauty. But it was about time for me to turn around and head back toward the highway. I'll post the final installment, Chapter 3, tomorrow:

Forests, Lake And Beauty On Lake Ozonia Road - Chapter 2

I was just getting started on my driving tour of Lake Ozonia Road but had reached the heavily forested part, the part within the Adirondack Park. I began to see lots of summer cottages:

Some cottages could perhaps have been full time homes but their driveways weren't plowed. In this case, however, someone had driven through the snow to get to it:

This cottage had a nice porch and sat back in the trees. Someone had plowed this driveway, but not since the last snowfall:

And then I reached the access road to Lake Ozonia itself. It looked plowed, so I turned downhill toward the lake:

The Adirondack forest along the road was beautiful, like a scene from Norway:

I couldn't get very far because the snow plow hadn't opened up very much of the road. But I could see some cottages over toward the lake:

This rather large place sat right on the lake shore:

And Lake Ozonia itself was an Adirondack gem:

This building appeared to have been built on pontoons, floating on the water. Well, at this time of year it was frozen in place:

I returned to Lake Ozonia Road and explored a little farther, finding a lot of lakeside cottages which I could easily see from the plowed roadway:

And many of them were rustic and scenic:

This lakeside cottage sat beneath the spruces at the foot of a very steep hill. I hadn't expected to find so many scenic cottages in the winter, but since I was, I continued onward. I'll post Chapter 2 tomorrow: