photography

Harmony Winery gave us a break from the Highway 40 sale

/ Roadtirementvintage / 22 Comments

Today was another wet day, though not a total washout. Sher and I decided to visit a local winery in the early afternoon while our son stayed at our setup for the sale.

Tasting room/bar

Inventory racks

 

 

 

 

 

We headed west for about 5 miles to Knightstown, Indiana for a visit to the Harmony Winery. This comfortable and intimate winery is located in an historic building that used to be a chicken hatchery at the turn of the century. The winery has a great selection of wines and we decided to taste a flight of 5.

Tasting the flight

Our host was most helpful in our determination of which five wines to taste. He described not only the making of the wines we tried, but also gave us hints of other uses of wine in different ways. Some of the owners concoctions sounded very interesting. We purchased three bottles before we left and look forward to enjoying our selections each evening after the sale closes. This is the Harmony Winery website.

 

Rain rain go away

/ Roadtirementvintage / 53 Comments

The rain started last night at midnight. Sixteen hours later it has let up, but more is forecast tonight and tomorrow. This is really putting the damper on preparations for our Highway 40 Yard Sale.

We have set up some of our tables, put out a little bit of merchandise, and covered up with waterproof tarps. All day we have been watching the tables, but no wind to speak of and tarps have remained in place. Other vendors are also waiting to get set for the sale that was scheduled to start today.

Wet and disheveled

/ Roadtirementvintage / 8 Comments

After a pretty good rain storm a while back we noticed that a hatchling had fallen out of a nest in a tree limb in our backyard. This little fella looks quite wet and disheveled. One of the parents did come down to the ground in front of the hatchling, and the last we saw of the two (adult and youngster) they were still together across the yard. We can only hope that this story had a good ending.

Getting ready for the sale

/ Roadtirementvintage / 29 Comments

This shows the beginning of our set up for the Highway 40 yard coming this week. The sale is an annual event and it follows old US 40. Hundreds of folks set up and thousands shop along the route.

We’ll keep you posted as the week goes on. Sher and I always enjoy this event. We missed it last year due to Covid-19.

No singing here

/ Roadtirementvintage / 17 Comments

That is right. Downy Woodpeckers do not sing like most birds. They communicate by “pecking” or drumming on wood or even metal. Surprisingly these woodpeckers make very little or no sound when going after their insect prey. They are capable of feeding on insects that larger woodpeckers cannot catch, like fly larvae in weed stems.

Male Downy, the female does not have the red on her head

We see both male and female Downy Woodpeckers quite often in our backyard. They like the suet feeders, and we have spotted a male on our hummingbird feeder. Like the White-breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpeckers like to flit from branch to branch, lighting on the suet feeder, grabbing a bite or two and then off they go.

A colorful White-breasted Nuthatch

/ Roadtirementvintage / 3 Comments

This little guy has a beautiful song and quite a loud one at that. He likes to come to the feeders (really likes the suet) several times a day. He doesn’t stay long, regardless of how many other birds are around at the time. He likes to flit around from branch to branch, grabs some morsels and then off he goes.

The common name Nuthatch comes from a unique behavior. The primary diet is insects and large meaty nuts. They will take large nuts and acorns and jam them into the bark of trees. Then with their sharp bills they peck open the nuts, or “hatching” them.  They are also known for storing seeds and nuts in tree bark in preparation for winter.