Greenbriar Hills Color

I started working at Greenbriar Hills Country Club back in March of 2018 as a seasonal job on the turf crew there…really enjoyed it, my bosses all like rocks in some fashion, and are nice to work for too. Starting in September, I asked my big boss if I could take my camera with me and shoot sunrises when it looked like we were gonna have a pretty one and he was okay with that…and asked him about shooting fall color while working and he was good with that too. So on the morning of Sept 6th, as I was driving back from mowing Green # 2, I stopped on the bridge over the UP railroad tracks and shot this stunning cotton-candy sunrise….

 

…and again from 4 Fairway as well….

…and a few min later, I shot Green 7 as well as the lakes and fountain in one of the lakes, looking to the west…

I was on my way up to mow number 9 and 10 greens, as I drove down the cartpath by 9 Fairway, I looked back over my shoulder and liked the looks of the sun`s morning rays coming down thru the trees behind me….

A few mornings later, I was mowing 5 Green and spotted these pretty clouds up over the hillside east of me….

…and it bloomed into this beautiful cloud filled sky soon after….

A few weeks later, I was on my way back from mowing the Putter Green and as I approached the Driving Range, I spotted these pretty clouds in the eastern skies…I`ll post the lighter version so you can see some of the driving range as well as the darker version to get a truer sense of the cloud colors….

…a few minutes later, it morphed into this on my arrival at 5 Green….

After finishing up 5 Green, I headed west on the cartpath and from the Halfway House, looking across the lake, past 7 Green and uphill, I could see the beginnings of some fall color in the Maples on the hill above finally….

and in the Maples of subdivision homes to the north of the golf course, as seen from the hilltop teebox of number 12…

I was told that a retired NY Giants Baseball Player lives in the white colonial style house top middle of the photo. About an hour later, on my way to mow 14 Green, I spotted the pretty white Egret that has been hanging around our lakes, does a lot of fishing there….this time he was over on the west side of the lake under the pretty fir trees….

A few mornings later, I looked up from mowing 2 Green and spotted these pretty fluffy and deep orange clouds coming up over the treeline back to the west…..

…and a little lighter here….

A week later, we were finally starting to see the fall colors creep on into the trees around the course…we had some early cool temps, then it got hot again and kind of stalled things a bit, confused not only the trees but many of us as well…so we wound up having a rather colorful fall season,albeit a late one. One day late in the morning, I was mowing around the teeboxes, and was up on the hill near 12 when I spotted alot of beautiful color, so I took a quick photo of the color around the box….

…there are a lot of trees besides maples, planted up on the hill, that really sport some nice fall colors, and the cartpaths wind their way thru this canopy of color quite well, makes for an enjoyable day let me tell ya….

We were seeing a lot of deer once again, they were very active back in the springtime and of course in the fall you deal with the rut and they become super hyper-active, which can create a lot of extra work for us in maintaining the golf course. I didn`t seem to have my camera with me during some interesting sightings of the bucks…there were some big ones down there every morning…and we had a couple of does that had several fawns as well…we saw the triplets nearly every morning somewhere near the Clubhouse and on the other side of the course were two fawns with their momma. On my way home one afternoon, I had a fawn and doe cross the road in front of me and when momma stopped in the yard across the street, I stopped and photographed her through my truck window….

The next day, while I was out mowing greens again…we do that daily….headed down 3 Fairway to 3 Green, I noticed the maples on the hillside near 4 Teebox were coming on with the fall color….

…and after working on 3 Green, I headed to 4 Green, noticing these wild looking fluffy clouds on the way up there…

…thirty minutes later I was headed up to the hill and chose this cartpath up the beautiful canopy of fall colors….

…after finishing up on the hill, I drove down the hill and crossed 12 bridge,  then shot back across the lake, showing the fall color between 8 and 12 Teeboxes….

…and then drove over to 12 Green to mow it….this is the fall color backdrop behind the green, up on the hill in one of the subdivisions there….beautiful backdrops where I work at….

I was on my way up to the Clubhouse later that morning, so I took the street up around the course and discovered alot of fall color in the yards of the homeowners….luckily for me, most of them seem to like Maple trees too….

Five days later, even more color all over the golf course, central was the hillside tho, and from every angle it just looked better and better. I stopped along the cartpath up on 13 Fairway….

….to shoot 4 Teebox and the hillside of color behind it…one of my co-workers was on his way somewhere in a cart….

Later that afternoon, up on the hill, it was pretty too….

The next day was the last week of color for us, but also the week of the very best color too…it started raining and many of the leaves came off in the ensuing days…this was a little wet weather waterfall I spotted near 4 Teebox….

…the shortcut path up the big hill….

…and a beautiful tree/shrub next to 9 Fairway cartpath…..

…one of our trees in 6 Fairway was a late season stunner….

…shot that from the cartpath along 13 Fairway…which I think looks great either direction….

…and this little Maple beauty is a great fall color anchor at the entrance to the Driving Range…

A week later I started my fall vacation in Arkansas and while down there freezing my butt off, during the coldest fall season in southern Arkansas that I can remember, there were two small snowstorms in Missouri that ended my season at Greenbriar. It was nice while it lasted tho and I sure enjoyed it, made alot of new friends there…Nate one of my supervisors, is planning to go rockhunting with me this winter season if we get some good weather and he gets some free time to go. 🙂

 

 

 

What A Mess…Car Snaps Electric Pole in Sullivan

What a mess…Sullivan Fire Department was dispatched to a report of a car into an electric pole on Saturday morning, August 11th at the intersection of Beeman Street and Hughes Ford Road, next to the Odd Fellows Hall. I arrived and discovered a blue sedan had snapped the bottom of the pole and several wires were hanging above the car, along with a heavy streetlight. No injuries occurred but the young man driving was definitely a bit shaken up…and how he narrowly missed that fire hydrant is anyone`s guess !!

Had he sheared that off, there could have been some major problems as water rocketing out of a hydrant sheared off at the base, straight up into electrical lines, is never a good mix…firefighters would have had their hands full for sure had that happened. Luckily for all involved, Joe Thurmond, Electric Department Supervisor for the City of Sullivan, was in the area when it occurred and was quickly on scene to evaluate the situation. He then left to go to the Electric Department to call in manpower and then he and his crews returned to the scene shortly after the Fire Department arrived….

DSC_00751

….with equipment and trucks to remedy the situation….

…watching all of the city crews working together was something to see…talk about great teamwork and cooperation working toward a common goal was neat to watch…

DSC_00831

Once the crews removed the hazards, they they worked together to remove the base of the snapped off pole from the ground…

…so that a new pole could be installed…GREAT JOB by EVERYONE on scene !!

 

Cloudburst and Rainbow on August 7th, 2018

I was driving back from Mom`s house the evening of August 7th, after taking her supper and visiting with her as I have done every day since her release from the hospital earlier this year…as I turned on to the North Service Road just west of Sullivan, I spotted what appeared to be a cloudburst ahead in the skies….

 

 

I had always heard of them, but had never seen one up close like this….sure was neat to see…and when I stopped up on the Hwy FF Bridge over I-44 to shoot some more photos of it, I noticed there was a rainbow forming up under the cloudburst as well….

 

…and that seemed very unusual to me…I had never heard of such a thing nor seen anything like it, either…

…so I decided to drive close to town to see if it became more visible…as I approached Thomure Lumber, it became very bright and visible underneath the cloudburst !! 

…and as I sat there and watched, it appeared that a second rainbow was trying to form on the other side of the cloudburst as well….two rainbows under this cloud….I wonder what the chances are of that….

…here is a video I shot as well…the rainbow doesn`t show up as well as the photos….

DSC_00091

July Storms and Car Fire

I drove up to Cuba on the 14th of July to have some great BBQ for supper at Missouri Hick Restaurant…the Crawford County Fair was going on just east of MO Hick at the Cuba Fairgrounds and there was rain in the air as I came out after supper….I headed for home, east on the South Service Road and drove up the Hwy UU Overpass to get on eastbound I-44, and noticed a thunderstorm back behind me to the west and now over Cuba….I stopped to photograph it and shot some video as well…

DSC_0365

 

…it appeared to be moving at a pretty good clip, so I decided to stay out ahead of it and photograph it along the way, was hoping it would make it to Sullivan and bring us some much needed rain too. I left the interstate at Bourbon and photographed it from the Hwy J Bridge over 44 about 15 minutes later with the old Bourbon water tower in the photo….

…and then I stopped at Crawford Electric to shoot some more video and photos of it…it seemed to be gathering force as it approached there…

…as I drove thru Leasburg on 44, the rain caught up to me and was coming down in buckets…I drove out of it near Brand Road and didn`t see rain again til after it arrived in Sullivan. As it approached Crawford Electric it appeared to be getting stronger and more dramatic looking skies as well….here is the video I shot there….

DSC_0376

I drove a couple more miles east and stopped on top of the Hwy FF Bridge over 44 to shoot some more photos and video of it as it approached Sullivan….

DSC_0382

…and here is how the other half of the storm looked due south of where I was standing, with what appeared to be a wind cloud up above Hwy FF south of 44….

…and as I drove east on the North Service Road into Sullivan, I stopped across from my Doctor`s office building and photographed that wind cloud south of 44 again…

…and a few minutes later, here it is blowing…literally….through the Sullivan City Park where the ballfields and City Pool are located near my house….

DSC_0391

…and about 30 minutes later, Sullivan Fire Department was kicked out for a vehicle fire located behind the Super 8 Motel, so Onyx and I headed over to photograph it for the paper….on arrival finding Pumper 814 and crew on scene, they had been out on Hwy 185 north clearing some brush from the roadway, on their return to the fire station they heard the dispatch and responded, arriving just ahead of the paid crew in 854. Since it was still raining a bit and windy, I was not able to tell at first that it was a junky car on fire in the edge of the field behind the motel…

Firefighter Beau Kick pulled a preconnect hoseline to attack the fire and positioned himself on the far side of the fire while waiting for Jordan Shortt to charge the line….

Photos are a bit blurry as I was shooting with a low shutter speed due to the dim light, and Beau was moving faster than I was shooting…

DSC_0394

 

DSC_0401

 

 

Fireworks over Sullivan July 4th, 2018

I decided to try and find a different location to photograph the fireworks over Sullivan this year…wanted to try and shoot from the Hwy D Overpass that crosses the BNSF tracks, however the foliage on the west side of the bridge obscured my view of the Fairgrounds, so I drove down to the former doctors office building right across from the former Betz Printing and set up in the parking lot next to a nice couple. Just as the sun was setting, a nice guy came over and chatted me up about how to take better photos of fireworks, he had a nice camera and I gave him some tips, told him how I normally shoot them, and told him it can be a matter of luck, even for those of us that have been shooting them for years…we talked about Canon and Nikon Cameras as well as good lenses and settings…as he walked back to his spot to join his wife, I wished him the best of luck in getting some good images…as we were talking, folks down by the ball fields were lighting Japanese Lanterns and launching them into the skies overhead….

…the trails of the Lanterns became easier to see once the skies darkened more…

and then others with smaller fireworks set theirs off before the big show as well, some were very pretty…these just north of the railroad tracks….

…then the Big Show started off with a VERY appropriate burst of colors….too bad there was no music with it this year….here are the best of over 200 images that I shot of the show….

…this show was nice, some vibrant blues and purples in the colors….here are a few videos of the show….

DSC_0278

 

DSC_0279

 

DSC_0314

…and the finale video as well…..

DSC_0316

 

Another great show for sure, thanks to the City of Sullivan and the co-sponsors !!

Semi Trailer Fire near Leasburg June 25th

I heard Bourbon Fire District kicked out for a semi trailer on fire just past Brand Road on the North Service Road and headed that direction…when I arrived, it was at the old flea market building that also used to sell fireworks, an old trailer was well involved several feet from the building…I heard no sirens of approaching fire units, so called Crawford County`s CenCom Dispatch to update them on the fire…there were some workers there that were putting together some scrap iron, while attempting to remove some metal pins from the trailer with a cutting torch, they set it on fire….

…Leasburg Fire Department arrived moments after a deputy, with a tanker and brush truck….

…and extinguished the fire….

…and video….

DSC_01401

Job well done by the two firefighters and deputy that arrived in a timely manner.

Thunderstorms in Late June

From Mid June to the last part of the month, there were some dramatic looking thunderstorms that rolled through our area…spotted this one rolling in from the northwest on my way out to Mom`s house around 5 pm on the 19th…..

…shortly after leaving Mom`s house an hour later, I drove up the FF Bridge over 44 and photographed it, looking north here….

…and looking back to the northwest here….

…but this cloud to the north really captured my attention and held it for the longest time as a rain squall developed within it, starting to the north of Sullivan and then sweeping through town a little later, bringing rain down in buckets….

…as you can see above, the rain was definitely moving toward Sullivan…while below you can see yet another storm to the west….

…and some video I shot up there as well….

DSC_00721

 

DSC_0090

…luckily, all we had was some pretty good rain out of it, no wind or hail….a few days later, another one rolled through town while I was asleep and I missed out on a neat looking shelf cloud that several people were able to capture some nice images of…

…pretty neat photos for sure and nice clouds too !!

Park Hills Show Mid June with Sunrises and Rainbows

I decided I was going to drive down to the Park Hills Show on Sunday morning…I wanted to see if I could find some of those new agates out on the market, found in the country of Madagascar and some more of the chalcopyrite-bladed barite-sphalerite ball pieces found in the Washington County Quarry. Since I knew that would be at least half a day wandering around looking at everything and visiting with my dealer friend Johnny B from Mt Ida, who is always there, I decided to drive back to the Secret Spot Quarry on Saturday June 9th and see what else I could find there. Onyx and I were up before the crack of dawn thanks to my new job, which requires me to get up at 4 am these days to get ready to go to work…and as we exited I-44 at Cuba, I looked back and saw the beautiful sunrise….

…and when I reached Steelville, the sunrise only deepened and got better…

…and then when we reached Cherryville, we saw a beautiful rainbow…I was thinking, man what are we going to see next ??!!

For the story and photos on the Park Hills Show, check out other website at this link,….

Park Hills Show 2018