ATVing and a Real Mid-Western Thunderstorm!!! How Exciting!!!!

We bought ourselves an ATV for our 5 Year Anniversary and for play and hauling fallen trees to cut up as fire wood. We took yesterday off from work to make a three day weekend and celebrate. We spent all day breaking in trails throughout the property and hacking away the berry bushes that were in the way. Along the way we found wild flowers blooming, little tiny purple/blue with yellow and green centers. You'll see a picture of it in the slide show. We had so much fun. The ATV we got is a 2008 Honda, Rancher. It's a 4 X 4 too. Clayton is just like a little kid again when he's driving this thing, spinning out in corners spitting up dirt and loosing the basket off the back...hahaha that is funny! I took a series of shots of him coming up the trail and at first you will see the basket is on the back just fine, then slowly you see it start to get loose, my flannel falls out then the basket is dangling off the back. Starting from image 5056 to 5064 when you see that file number show up watch the basket along the way. Too funny! Click Here to a link to the slide show to see us both in action. Oh and by the way, the Alpha Beta basket is on there to haul his chain saw in :-)


It was a beautiful day, started with Thunder and Lightening and Rain, then turned into a gorgeous sunny 81 degree day. I have not experienced Thunder and Lightening like this before. The show in the morning was one thing, but what happened in the middle of the night was a totally different show. About three hours of intense bright flashing lights, I even saw some of the bolts they lit up the entire sky and in turn lit up the entire living room, the loft and the master bath, and then the roaring thunder...it was so incredible, I can't wait for the next one. Sparky didn't like it too much though, but after two hours of shaking I think he finally passed out from exhaustion and went to sleep.


I woke Clayton up, he was sleeping through it all, and I kept on saying...is this normal, I mean the lightening was happening every 2-3 seconds non stop? His reply was this is mild compared to some mid west thunder storms, he said when they get bad is when the thunder Cracks and Booms so loud your house shakes.

Squirrel's eating my bird food

Well I seem to have attracked several squirrels by feeding the birds, I've seen a gray one and a black one and then this morning I saw this reddish and gray one. I thought he was pretty and kind of cute, it has just started to rain and he's holding his tail over his body to keep from being rained on; and the colors were pretty too. While I don't really want them coming around all the time and eating my birds food, I do want to see one of those Flying Squirrels...I hear they are out here, just haven't seen one take off and fly yet LOL

It's April 21st and.....

It is snowing......

Sweet Butterfly

For the last week, I've been seeing this butterfly fluttering around the house, last week when I saw it for the first time (OK maybe not this exact one) but one that looked like this one, I thought to myself....Spring is in the air..... I've seen two other types of butterflies as well. This one the colors are just incredible. The lighting was hitting it just right...

While none of our trees have leaves sprouting out yet...they are getting really close to blooming.

Happy Easter said my new friend the Red Cardinal

Hello Everyone, I'm so excited! This weekend was the first time I saw a cardinal in our yard. Saturday was the first time we saw him, then today he came 4 times (or at least I saw him four times). I was ready for him the 4th time and got some very nice shots. While he did not come down to the deck rail and eat food, he did hang out on the branches of the closest trees to the deck. I spent about 1 hour waiting for him! I've also posted a few others in my website gallery which you can view if you click here.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, as I surely did....

Lunch Time Capture - Downy Woodpecker

It was such a nice day out today, that I decided to sit out on the deck for about 20 minutes during my lunch break to take a million or so pictures of these woodpeckers; or so it seemed I took that many. Well in my quick research on the internet I have concluded that this is a Downy Woodpecker. He was out pecking away with this other one just like him but without the red on its head, so I think they are a couple :-) they were so cute and even chased each other around the truck of the trees.....

Here is the female:

After the snow...

So after the snow stopped this morning, I headed out in the back to take a closer look at things. I decided to do a little macro photography but ended up doing a few regulars shots as well right in our own back yard. Click here to see more....

Red Bellied Woodpecker

We woke up to snow this morning, not too much at all but sure enough to enjoy watching as it falls. While we sat in our chairs eating our Mickey Mouse shaped waffles and watched the snow fall out our windows, Clayton looked behind him and saw this wood pecker and made a comment to me about how pretty he was. So I jumped out of my chair and opened the sliding glass door just a few inches and snapped several shots of this little guy as his moved up the tree, from what I can tell this species is a Red Bellied Woodpecker.



We have seen three different types of wood peckers this one being the largest of them all.