I'm looking like my dad looked at this age

Why do old guys do things like this - wearing a hat and carrying a walking stick? I'm actually going to go out in public like this tomorrow - the monthly afternoon tea at A&E.

Cattle pictures

I almost said "cow pictures" but that would have been discriminatory! And inaccurate! So - there are these two longhorns down the road here that I've been meaning to photograph for some time now and everything fell in line to do that today. Then we came across a field full of bovine creatures and added to the collection.

After a slow, steady rain all night . . .

there's water in the creek again - and the pond level is rising!

Unusual tree

I've been making some walking sticks and canes recently. (I made one a while back and haven't been able to stop.) Walking the trail the other day I found this tree that's now becoming a cane. Not too often that a tree twists itself a couple times and then falls over at a ninety degree angle. But it's becoming a nice cane since it saw fit to do that!

Birds at the feeder on a snow day

female House Finch

Chipping Sparrow

male House Finch

Song Sparrow ?

Black-capped Chickadee

male Northern Cardinal

American Goldfinch

Dark-eyed Junco

Tufted Titmouse

female Northern Cardinal

A couple days ago I stuck a small branch into one of the suet cages on the bird feeder so I could take pictures that look like they're in a natural setting rather than at a feeder. It's worked out very well! These were taken in two sessions of about fifteen minutes each - once when it was still snowing, the other, the next morning.

Treehouse in the snow

The snow was still coming down when I had to get out of the house and take a walk down the Orange Trail. I went towards the Treehouse down the zip line clearing and took these pictures. It is a magical place! The day before was cold but the sun was shining and I spent some time on the deck there drinking a coke and listening to some Nancy Griffith and Bill Staines!

How cows stay warm on a cold but sunny day

Walking the red trail, I detoured over to the fence where I could see some of Oscar's cows trying to stay warm. I like the picture! Before I could get off a second shot, half of them were standing up and the picture was gone.

Duck blind

Still working on photographing the Wood Ducks. I've built this blind (near the BOD for those familiar with the area). I can walk up to this from the trail without the ducks seeing me. At first I was trying to photograph over it but that exposed too much and they'd fly away. So I reworked it with a hole to shoot through. I was able to observe them for 5-10 minutes once but did not have the camera with me. So far, not successful! Either no ducks there or they were in an area I can't photograph from here.

From the ducks side it looks like this. Very well concealed!

Supplement to my last post

Here's one of my pictures of one of the Wood Ducks in our pond. There were still some twigs, leaves, etc. that messed up the foreground but the dozen or so of these flew away after this shot. Now I guess I need to go back with a short tripod and a cover to keep me out of sight until I can get a good picture.

A new entry on the Wildernest Property Bird List

It's been awhile since we got to make a new entry on the Wildernest Property Bird List. There are 53 species on the list now and it's very infrequent that we see a bird that we haven't seen before. There have been some ducks on the pond recently but they always see us before we see them and they are gone in a flash. The times I do try to sneak up on them - either I fail or there's been nothing there. This morning I was finally successful and for a minute or two got to observe a small flock of about a dozen birds. At first I thought the males were Mallards (didn't have my glasses on) but then saw the distinctive way the head feathers sweep to the rear - Wood Ducks! Pretty exciting! Then Shadow came bounding up and they all flew away. I wish that was my picture above but it came from the internet. (Yesterday we saw the first Cedar Waxwings and Goldfinch of the season on the birdbath along with 6-8 beautiful Bluebirds - a pretty sight!)

25 Years has changed a lot -

We were doing some closet cleaning yesterday and ended up digging through some old photos. This one was taken in 1984 or 1985 after a fire burned most of the property here. In the trees in the upper center you can see what was the mobile home then. I've studied the picture carefully trying to determine where it was taken and, from the location of the creek and walking the property to determine the angle, have come to the conclusion that I must have been standing very close to where the Treehouse is now - probably a bit more to the east towards the chapel. The trees along the bank of the creek on the right side of the picture are where the east bridge is now.

Sky Bridge and Zipline

The new addition to the Treehouse is actually a second platform about 8X10 attached to the Treehouse by a 30 foot elevated walkway that we're calling the Sky Bridge. It's not yet finished in this picture - more hand rail work to be done.

In other Zipline news - Glynda finally rode it - leaving only one family holdout - that being Beverly!! Jorge also rode it becoming the oldest person, at 78, to do so. Xander is the youngest and I believe that he was a year, 2 months, and 2 weeks old when he did it (Justin will have to confirm) and that still leaves an opening for James to beat it with Harper! I'm sure that Daniel has the record for most rides and that gives the Reyes family a sweep!

A clue!

Ref my post from last Wednesday - this is a clue!

Good news, bad news

My tractor repair guy just got back into town from a hunting trip and I stopped by to get an estimate on the repair of my lawn mower that won't start right now. If the problem is what he thinks it is, it'll cost me about $250. That's the bad news.

The good news is that I saw in my daily email reminder from Chase bank that there had been a deposit into my checking account. It was the $250 from the Seniors Protection Act of 2010. That's the good news.

As they say - easy come . . . .

Of course I still need to buy that $400 tire for the big tractor:(

Thanksgiving Day watch

So, this time of year we're usually working on the longer term things to get ready for the big gathering on Turkey day. Last year, since Deanna and Cody were not planning on coming, they were in charge of the weather and they did great! This year, the ten day forecast says we need help again! It suppose to be about 70 degrees BUT there's a 70% chance of showers forecasted now. We'll just have to keep watch and see what happens as they day grows closer.


Meanwhile, something else is happening. We were sitting in the Treehouse on Monday (me, Glynda, Alex, and Daniel) enjoying coffee and hot chocolate, enjoying the futon we just moved in and enjoying the morning very much. It was a perfect time for the mind to start wandering - and that's why something is happening now. I can't tell you what it is but here are a couple pictures. There's a trailer behind Alex's pick-up.



It's pretty cool!!! See you Thanksgiving Day!!