Photos

Historic church and cemetery

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A few days ago Sher and I took a nice day trip in our RV to south east Indiana. Our first stop was Batesville, covered in a previous post. Next stop was Oldenburg, another town with a strong German heritage.

 

 

 

The Holy Family Catholic Church has a long history in Oldenburg. The stone church was finished in 1848 as seen in the pictures above. It replaced the original log church, and is now the Rectory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The current church is a magnificent structure. The day we visited was election day, so there was a fair amount of foot traffic in and out of the entrance to the Fellowship Hall. Social Distancing was not a problem. The large stone cross is a remembrance for the first Mission that was preached in 1848.

A road trip on a hot day

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Sher and I had had enough.  It has been since February 25th since we were in our RV. Roadtirement needed to hit the road again.  I put some water in the fresh water tank, and flushed the antifreeze out of the lines. That way we would have water for our bathroom.

We went a town in south east Indiana named Batesville. This town has a rich German history, and is home to the Batesville Casket Company, one of the largest in the world.  The Hill-Rom company, also headquartered in Batesville, is a manufacturer of high tech hospital beds and is also a Hillenbrand company.

Hillenbrand Mausoleum

We visited the Saint Louis Catholic Cemetery of the local church of the same name. This cemetery is in a beautiful setting with tree lined main roads. There is a section in the back of the cemetery that is the oldest portion and has the oldest graves. In addition this is the area where the founders of the Hillenbrand companies are interned in a striking mausoleum and a masonry fenced area.

It was great getting back on the road again, and from Batesville we headed to Oldenburg, another German influenced town in south east Indiana. We were safe, as we stayed far away from any people we saw. Stay tuned…

Finished with the mulch project

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If you’ve been following along with some of the projects Roadtirement has been working on during our COVID-19 stay safe at home time, you will know that mulching has been a big part of our flower garden design. (Whew, what a long sentence!)

Herbs and wildflower starts on an old stump

Still needing a bit of grass/weeding work, but close to done

Our son has been such a great help in toting bags of mulch and spreading same. The herbs are doing very nicely, and seem happy to be on the remains of an old trees stump. Sher spread some wild flower seeds on the rich soil on the sides of the stump, and several seeds have already sprouted.

Progress continues on the flower garden

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The past few days have been very productive in Roadtirement’s garden and landscape project list.  The primary task list included preparation for, and placing of a mulch base for the flower garden. Our son did most of this work.

A progression of progress

We still have a bit of mulch left to place. It will go around the old tree stump where Sher currently has a grouping of herbs. This stump may also end up as a Fairy Village.

Unfinished mulch job and placement of herbs on the stump

Close up view of one of the glacial rocks we collected for the garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

A better look at the “getting close to finished” project

In addition, Maj planted more trees that we got from the DNR. Our total tally ended up with two Black Cherry trees and three Tulip trees. We thought we only had two Tulip saplings,  when in fact we had three in the bundle.

Some more things spotted in the yard

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Here’s some more images of some plants around the yard. We did get a nice thunderstorm this afternoon. I won’t have to water anything today.

We decided to use both sink compartments for flower plantings. We’ll get another something for a bird bath. Since we have put up the bird feeder our backyard has become very popular with the neighborhood avian population.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rose bush is new, just got it planted a few days ago. We were surprised and happy to see the new bloom at the peak of the bush! Roses are so pretty…

Seen in our backyard

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Just a couple of images from our backyard. This really isn’t a photo blog, but we do like to share pictures. So maybe it is a photo blog….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The writing tool is in the mushroom picture for scale. We got the Black Cherry tree at a local DNR giveaway. It is in a tomato cage to protect it as it starts to grow. We also got a couple of Tulip trees as well.

We found an old growth forest and trail

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Every once in a while you stumble upon a new to you attraction. While researching  central Indiana trails and forests I came across a small but delightful gem in Shelby County, which is south east of Indianapolis. The gem is a nearly 50 acre nature preserve called Meltzer Woods Nature Preserve.

The unique quality of this property is found in its description: The forest is considered an original old-growth stand that was placed in Indiana’s Classified Forest Program in 1928. In 2014 it was protected forever when it was acquired by the Central Indiana Land Trust. An old-growth forest is one that has trees that are at least 150 years old and has not been cleared for a century or longer.

The trail

National Natural Treasure designation

 

 

 

 

 

Meltzer Woods is a wonderful place to spend time in nature, and to get a sense of what Indiana forests were like when the first European settlers arrived. Many of the trees are older than Indiana’s Statehood in 1816. Some have even been dated back to the 1600s. There is an easy and nearly level 1.3 mile trail that wanders through the forest. Magnificent trees, wildflowers galore, and interesting understory make for an inspiring walk through the forest and go back in time to when 80% of Indiana was covered in forests like this.

Dense understory

 

 

 

 

 

The Meltzer family first bought this ground in 1857. The family still owns adjacent farm ground and still farms today. Rain was threatening yesterday, and we decided to return another day when we could take the trail and really enjoy this historic and natural corner of Indiana. There is ample parking across the road, and Google Maps knows where it is if you are in the area.

A pair of Mallard ducks and a walk

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Even the ducks obeyed and stayed 6 feet away

Sher and I and our son ventured out yesterday for drive and a walk in the sun. We found the weather to be near perfect with temps right around 70 with a moderate breeze. Cabin fever is really starting to set in so we thought it best to get a change of scenery. A lot of people were out enjoying the day. Everyone we passed respected the “social distancing” recommendations. We felt that we were safe in this activity.

Are you struggling with cabin fever? How are you breaking up the monotony of the stay at home rules of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Follow recommendations to stay healthy!