How 'bout a Horse?

Scraping the bottom of the barrel here. I haven't been out and about other than The Rez and nothing, I mean no kind of interesting wildlife, can be found. No geese. No ducks. Just birds, a rabbit, and a squirrel or two hiding from my camera lens.

So, today I'm posting a horse. This horse resides across the road from the Block Church where we stopped to visit the Roan graves.

Leftovers

I don't have any pictures from yesterday. I stayed in to do the usual weekend drudgery—laundry etc. So I'll post flowers from Saturday.

Not sure what kind of flowers these are—wild or otherwise, but they looked nice against this old weathered building.

A close shot of what I believe to be a Mexican sunflower. I liked seeing the fragments of pollen.

Holly Hocks against the Thomas Lincoln cabin...

...and another shot with the pups.

This jade plant resides on Bro O's front porch. I bought it in Texas somewhere during the early 90s. It was dying so took it to my mom. She saved it and look at it today. Still thriving. It has been trimmed and cared for, but you can see the huge trunk which proves its age.

Happy Monday!

Freedom Day

Yesterday is what our small town has named Freedom Day. It's the day we have our fireworks and festivities. The Kiwanis pronto pup stand is opened up for business. They serve the best pronto pups I've ever tasted. Since I'm on my 'be healthy' kick, I didn't have one this year. Usually Tex, Critter, and the young ones come, but this year the Critter side of the family had plans too, so I got Tex and Ad Schmad Addie. I didn't take pics of the fireworks. Instead this year I decided to just relax and enjoy them.

My guests came early, with their new pup Eevie (I'm told by Ad this is the correct spelling). Eevie is a girl. My two pups are boys. Even though, they didn't like each other, so it was a day of trying to avoid a dog fight. Mostly between Eevie and Findley. Fergus seemed to like her alright, but she growled at him.

So, we took 2 cars—loaded up the dogs—and went to Lincoln Log Cabin Historical Site for a walk.

Meet Eevie. According to the facility where she was adopted, she is part german shephard and part collie.

Fergus and Findley taking the lead.

No luck finding birds, but did get a shot of a Red Admiral sharing a flower with a Bumble Bee. 

This Red-spotted Purple didn't seem to mind waiting around for me to take a photo. 

This is a stray cat stopping by to visit Bro O.

Tex taking Ad to show him the 'dirt hill'. Which, by the way, is no longer dirt but covered in trees.

And my favorite shot of the day, a deer watching us from on top of the hill as we were heading back to my house.

In case you are unaware, you can click on the pictures to make them larger.

Happy Sunday!

On the Way

On the way to Bro O's last evening I stopped by
the covered bridge to see if any critters were out and about. It looked a lot like a gully washer was on the way.

 I saw this red-winged blackbird over in the trees next to the fence, so I took a shot—and then he flew. I thought he was gone for good, but then he landed...

...on a sign closer to my camera.

No other critters were about, so I drove on toward O's. There is an old oak tree that I always love seeing. It is larger than it looks in this picture. I liked the tractor in the background.

The wheat has now been harvested.

On down and around a curve I saw these tiger lilies along the ditch. Sure did look like rain.

Closer view. Pretty!

The creek was up and flowing. Reminded me of the days when the road had a concrete ford, before the bridge was built. The road would have been impassable. 

Kelly Paul's lane. It's growing up with grass and hardly looks like a road anymore.

Parked in the driveway at Bro O's house I saw this Eastern Phoebe land on a dead branch. He paused long enough for this shot and then took off for parts unknown.

Bro O showed me a lot of letters from Uncle O when he was in the army during WWII. He also had his dog tag, which looked to be damaged by the morter fire that killed him. Extremely moving...

Dor's Daylilies

Dor has a nice selection of daylilies along the west wall of the garage. These are some of them.

Happy Friday!

Kermit Revisited

Last night we drove down to the garden to check how the weeds were doing. They were growing amazingly well. Too bad it's too wet to run the rototiller and pull those nasty weeds. I guess we could have waded through the mud, but not sure if I would still be stuck in there. Plus, we are getting more rain today!

The tomato plants are looking good despite sharing their land with those weeds.

Kermit was looking mighty handsome in his pond.

As was Mrs. Red-winged Blackbird. She was guarding her nest and wasn't being very nice to me.

On the way home we spotted this doe enjoying some nice tender soybean greens.

Along the Road

Everything is green and lush after all the rain we have been having. These are pics taken on my way home from Lincoln Log Cabin.

 This is actually still iniside the Park grounds. I like the white flowers in the forground with the partial fence in the background.

 Soybean field.

 Brown-eyed Susans found in a ditch.

 Cool fence post. No longer in use. Moss does grow on the north side.

The creek to the east of town.

This 'n That

Last evening I saw the Red-headed Woodpecker again at The Rez. 

When he saw me he flew to the back side of an electrical pole. I waited. He waited. I won. He finally peeked out to see if I was still there. Then he took off for parts unknown.

Findley looking longingly at the water.

The water.

Today is a busy day at work, so I'm off early. Happy Tuesday!

The Hummers are Humming

Last year I saw the Hummingbirds occasionally appear at our feeder, but this year there are several. The difference is, in years past I have bought the Hummingbird mix at the store. This year I made my own—4 parts water to 1 part sugar. I boiled the water, added sugar, and let it cool. They seem to like the homemade variety much better. 

So, yesterday I parked a stool next to the front porch screen, propped it open with my foot and waited for the awe inspiring hummers to appear. 

Tired of waiting, I finally decided my only hope for a picture was this yellow jacket.

And then Mr. Hummer made an appearance, well, sort of. Notice him peeking from the back? I thought there would be a bird and bee fight, but no such luck. So I waited some more.

It wasn't long  until the Mrs flew up.

They are amazing creatures.

Not being as familiar with this camera as my other one, I struggled to get a good shot. So, what did I do. Well conducted a search on youtube, of course. And I found a series of tutorials by some guy in South Africa. I now have a bird setting under C1. 

Next time I have enough time to be patient and sit around waiting for a Hummingbird, I will give it a try again. For today, I'm off to work!

Couple of Pups

I ordered a coupler for the dogs so I could walk them both at the same time. I wasn't sure how that would work with about 100 pounds at the end of the leash.

We went to The Rez to give the coupler a try. They had a little trouble at first...

...but they soon figured it out. They both pulled, but it wasn't any worse than having one pup on the leash.

Since we were practiced up, I took the pups up to Lincoln Log Cabin later in the day.

These sheep greeted us and were blocking the path.
Fergus and Findley are Border Collies and are bred for herding sheep. My two were not aware of this fact.

They lagged back and refused to move forward without a mighty tug.

Once past the herd of sheep, we encounted this guy staring at us through the fence. The boys moved to the far side of the walkway.

Neither were interested in visiting Mr. Hog in the pen to the right. They steered clear.

They seemed to enjoy the sound of rushing water under the bridge. I don't think I have ever seen this creek as high as it was yesterday. We've been having a lot of rain and it looks like rain is possible each day throughout the week ahead and the coming weekend. Which is bad since next Saturday is Freedom Day and the fireworks.