DocAndersen
When I was a child, we often went to my grandparent’s houses in Wisconsin. Cambridge and Wisconsin Dells when I was really little, and then my father’s parents moved to the town of Racine (well near Racine). That was a tradition that my parents carried as well. We often went to visit mom and dad for various holidays and family events. Mom and Dad’s back deck (which evolved over the years) was always art central.
Over the years there were many events held there. One of my favorites, after a few years when the apple trees started bearing fruit, was the annual apple cider event. We would all appear, harvest apple’s and then run that apple’s through Dad’s Cider press. Every single year we would always get fresh, natural cider to take home. We didn’t store any in a cool, dry place and try to make Apple-Jack, that wasn’t on the list. Plus that cider never made it a week once we pressed it. It was gone in 60 seconds.
Later in the winter dad had lots of bird feeders in his and mom’s yard. I spent a long day in the winter once taking pictures of all the birds that enjoyed the many feeders he had in the yard. Later, after he planted bamboo, you had to go outside to see the majority of the feeders. The bamboo grew in the middle of the backyard, once the play yard was gone. Bamboo by the by spreads very quickly after planting. The dogs loved adventures in the backyard because of the Bamboo forest!
Great close up of the spider, but it’s also quite scary!
Growing up with a scientist in the house (my father) I was told early on how amazing spiders are. When you have spiders you don’t have as many of the other bugs that have a larger impact. Spiders don’t spread diseases, in fact they actually help slow the spread by eating the bugs that do spread disease!