A Scrappy Fathers day weekend.

First comes the Thursday afternoon pics.  You see, the weekend came early.  By last break, almost all the racks were down, a good 80% of the fabric was ready to ship out, and the plant manager gave us a choice; go home now, or at usual time.  Same choice for Monday.  We simply don't have enough left for 33 people, especially given that at least a third are lady sewers not especially suited for the remaining tasks.

So we went home.  This time.

And Scrappy got an early walk.  It was hot, but a strong breeze was going.

I have gotten so fascinated by all the different flowers I find.

Scrappy examining a den near the Green Hole.

For you newbies, this is the Green Hole.

Despite the breeze, Scrappy was struggling.  We took a break here at the barn, cut through the woods, and headed across the field home...

...but about halfway between here and there, Scrappy decided to drop dead. (Actually, we just took a ten-minute break, with me providing shade.)

And when I say halfway, here's what I mean....

...this is where we came from...

...and this is where we were headed.

We made it home alive, and went Friday for an early morning jaunt.  I swear, it was so quiet, you could hear Scrappy trip over a bush (which he did.)  At last, we saw a chipmunk to indicate that we weren't the only things alive out there.  Then a buck that saw us and we didn't see him ran past. 

Just pretty scenes...

...and orange berries!

Mr. Bunny Rabbit...

...and a ground hog or two. At least I think this is what this is.  A second before, he was standing upright in the lane like a prairie dog!

Saturday morning we left a little earlier.  We saw something scurry behind a tree.  It peeked around it as we aproached, and then ran up it.  Guess who?

Yep, Mr. Raccoon.  Unfortunately, he went so high up it was a job to capture him well.

Her, I almost missed.  It's amazing how much a deer can look like a tree trunk when it wants to.  Fortunately, working with this camera is sharpening my ability to spot them (even if my "right in front of my nose" vision is deteriorating.)

That brings us to last night, when we took my son (y'know, the one with the fine analytical mind augmented by the moon) with us.

It was ground hog city!  Everywhere I looked, I was saying, there's another one!

This is #3 of about 5 sauntering across the lane...

...and this is Scrappy emerging from the hole he followed him into.

Then on the back trail, we saw this guy...

...just sprouting his antlers!

And that brings us to this morning.  Both I Scrappy, and the camera were worn out by this point ( I had enough juice for ONE picture, as it turned out. ) So we opted for a short trip along the river.  Now, the greenway trail overlooks the forest floor fo the first part of our journey.  There, with the dam shut, a channel that carves an "L" shape into the woods fills with water.  Past the L, its a large treeless patch of mucky grass before the woods resumes all around it.  I heard something walking through the water, but with trees between us and SOMEBODY insisting that there was an interesting smell ahead, I couldn't get a good look.  But as I moved up to a better vantage point...

I saw her, lying in the moist grass looking up at me.  Obviously her mate was the water-walker.  And that's when the camera gave out.  Not a bad thing, because we were pretty done in, too.