Wisconsin Bound

Crescent Lake

2010-07-05T08:18:00.000-07:00

This is the first lake I went swimming in since I've been living here in Wisconsin. I've been here for over a year now; and while there are tons of lakes all around, I just hadn't really thought about swimming much. Well now that I know how nice these lakes are (well there are some that would be too weedy to swim in) but I'll be going out again soon. Not far from us is another lake (Sunset) that is another perfectly clean and clear lake to swim in.

On Vacation - A day at the zoo...

2010-06-10T21:11:00.000-07:00

Clayton's mom and Pat are here visiting and I am on Vacation while they are here. It's so nice to have time off and to explore Wisconsin even more. We went to the Marshfield Zoo today, which is only an hours drive away, and it was a beautiful day and I was so surprised to see such great animals at this zoo. The bear, well Miss Grizz did not seem so happy, she needs a new place to stay, and they are trying to raise enough money to get her a new 'dig'; she looked really old and when she walked it kind of just broke your heart, I did manage to get some 'happy' looking pictures of her, but I almost got tears in my eyes watching her. Most of the others seems pretty happy, well as happy as an animal can be being behind fences and in a small confined area. The Eagles made my day! finally I got up close and personal with a bald eagle, WOW; they prairie dogs were a hoot! Loved them and the Wood Duck oh so colorful was a very pleasant surprise. So here are a few pictures with a link to a slide show of the rest of the best....enjoy.

Click here for a slide show of the Best Shots of the day

The Deck is Done

2010-06-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

Now all we have to do is decide on a railing system and add stairs. But in the meantime, we've been enjoying it out there. Since these pictures, I've cleaned up the court and deck of all leaves and small branches from our last storm which passed. They both clean up quickly with the leaf blower. We have played several games of Boccie Ball and well it's nice to finally get some relaxing done. All that hard work paid off; it was totally worth it. These pictures also have the chairs we bought and stained, they look pretty colorful out there in the vast green surroundings.

The chairs above have RESERVED for signs on them.

Clayton's mom and Pat are coming for a visit and we wanted

them to see what is waiting here for them when they arrive.

MOTHRA

2010-05-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

Tonight I saw this guy fluttering on the sliding glass door. It was 9PM and dark and the auto focus did not work and manual was hard, I just kept slightly turning it and hoping it was in focus. Several of them were.

I googled this description of a reddish moth with blue and black spots on the wing, couldn't tell what species for sure but it is some sort of Silk Moth, I think.

His wing span is like 3-4 inches and I was literally right on top of him. Very cool

End of second weekend - the Deck is progressing

2010-05-24T06:53:00.000-07:00

I didn't take any photo's on Saturday. Something sad happened though on that day. We had left our garage door open, and there is a nice clear window on one of the walls. Well, when we were done with working and putting stuff away, I found a dead hummingbird right under the window on the work bench. What a very sad way to die...I felt so bad......

Here is our deck progress from over the weekend, Sunday we got off to a slow start due to some other stuff we did in the morning, didn't even start till about 1PM. By late afternoon I was wishing I was ice fishing again instead of deck building. It was pretty humid and I got a little too hot. Clayton kept at it for an hour or so longer after I left him and went in and cooled off and took a short nap.....

back lit leaves

2010-05-19T18:23:00.000-07:00

The sun was setting to the left top corner of this picture; it looked so pretty from the window, I had to take a picture. But then I had to play with filters; the leaves are not really yellow that is just the light filtering through and back lighting them....

Day 3 - more deck building progress

2010-05-17T16:17:00.000-07:00

Well day three felt like we slowed down a bit, lifting all that wood, moving it from point A (top of driveway) down to point B (Deck area) and hammering, sawing, cutting, drilling, measuring, leveling, holding, thinking, re-thinking and pulling all those little trees and bushes and weeds takes alot of energy. We didn't exactly make it to where we wanted to be, but we got close. We still need to block around the tree and block the first row joist boards.

Something interesting happened after we stopped working while we took a rest in the gazebo before putting everything away. During the day, we had yet another run to Lowe's (you never have everything you need, no matter how much you prepare) well I decided to buy a fuchsia plant they had them there in a 10 inch pot for only $10. A great price from all the other garden stores I'd seen, I've seen them as high as $30 for a 12 inch pot. But going back to sitting and resting in our gazebo, I had put that fuchsia on a pillar stand in the area where I prepared for planting and while we were sitting there two hummingbirds came to the flowers and started feeding out of them. I was so happy they found it so fast. But here is the great part to the story, all the sudden a hummingbird came flying straight into the screen of the side of the gazebo. It got stuck and fluttered three times trying to get out. I thought his toes nails had gotten stuck in the screen, but Clayton was sitting closer and it was actually his beak that got stuck in the screen; poor little guy, I was just about ready to get up and help release him when he finally got out on his own. Of course he did not appear to be hurt, much softer to fly into a screen than into a window like alot of birds do here. But it certainly was an interesting thing to witness!

This picture above shows the area I pulled all the trees, bushes and weeds from, only leaving a few tiny pines, and some wild flowers and you can't see them, but I even left a few small (tiny even) oak trees.

Deck Progress - Day 2

2010-05-15T17:55:00.000-07:00

We got quite a bit done today, considering we had to stop and make two Lowe's runs to get stuff we needed and didn't have. Well one trip was first thing in the morning before we started, but Oh and on the way to Lowe's the second trip, we saw a Black Bear! So cool to see it. It was not far from the road, and I did have my camera, but only had my 55MM lens. So here is a picture of it but it's not very close.

Then here is our deck progress for the day and it was a perfect day today; Not windy and the temp just about 70. The size of this deck is approximately 35 feet by just under 15 feet wide. We sort of went a bit big, but it really has to be big since the boccie ball court is so long. We are happy with our progress, however i was hoping to get a little further, but we are still on track for finishing the under structure by tomorrow. Maybe if we are lucky we will even get a few deck boards down.

Then I got sidetracked for a moment and saw this spider, Clayton needed me too, but I made him wait. I just had to get a picture of this thing. I have no idea what kind of spider this is, but I sure am glad I didn't see him on me, I would have freaked. Look how scary he can make himself when he feels threatened. With a Butt like that; I will most definitely only get as close as this to take a picture.

the Deck Project has begun

2010-05-15T07:12:00.000-07:00

Today, Friday May 14, we started building our deck next to our boccie ball court. And here are the pictures to show our progress so far. Tonight I'll probably post again of our progess from day two.

These last three however are from last weekend when we dug the dirt up and tossed in some peat moss to make a little flower garden bed. I'm not sure what will end up here yet, but I'm sure soon I will think of something; and if Idon't then I think it will just plant a hodgepodge of plants just to get some color here. Then there is the area to the right that still needs attention...but it's coming along and my goal is to keep is as low maintenance as possible.

My Bleeding Heart and Snow

2010-05-07T20:09:00.000-07:00

This morning when I went out with Sparky for our walk I noticed our neighbors flowers, one of them was this bleeding hearts plant and I thought to myself, I have to go back later and take a picture. These flowers are so pretty, so perfectly shaped like a heart, and it really looks like it's bleeding and dripping. So incredible! Then this evening shortly after 7PM it started to snow. It had been raining all day and well if this snow keeps up all night long we may have a foot of snow on the ground in the morning. Stay tuned for mornings outcome.

While I was out taking these photo's Clayton was in the kitchen making us dinner, yummy Chile. It was delicious. Then I helped get a fire started, we haven't had a fire in like two months and just thought well hey, it's snowing so we should start a fire....sounded so nice...so we did. And I enjoyed it while I ate my yummy chili and sipped some wonderful wine.

Then just shortly after 9PM, I decided to see how much snow had fallen. Well so far it looks like 2-3 inches. I keep thinking that if it continues at this rate, we will be snowed in tomorrow morning. We will have to dig out the snow blower; it will be just like that morning in December (I think Dec 9th when we had the blizzard and it dumped just over a foot). Well we'll see....I'll update in the morning. Maybe take another progress picture though before heading to bed....wow, this is great. It's Friday night, don't have to work tomorrow and I may have the chance to build my first snowman in Wisconsin in May. How great is that. On the down side, it is a heavy snow, trees are being weighted down and branches are breaking. There could be a lot of damage in the morning as well. While I took these pictures that follow I heard branches breaking.......

Thunder and Lightening and the RainBow Which Came After

2010-05-04T19:30:00.000-07:00

This evening we had a really exciting storm blow in and out with an hour. I went outside to stand it the rain and watched up in the sky as the lightening flashed all over. The thunder was loud and rolled on and on as more flashes lite the sky; the thunder still rolled. I just love that! So soon after it passed the sun peaked. I thought it would be a perfect time to go see if there were any rainbows. There was one very large rainbow which was disconnected and all that was visible was the very left side and the very right side. Below are two pictures, one of each side. While not taken at the same spot in the road, they were taking a mile or so apart. Had it been connected....WOW that would have been incredible! I'm now looking foward to the next strom.

An Otter Popped Up!

2010-04-21T02:03:00.000-07:00

What a surprise it was to see this little guy come along. I had been driving along a nice little road which followed the lakes shore. As I drove past I couldn’t help notice the reflection of the birch trees in the still mirror like water in a small opening through a field. So I parked the car and walked through the grassy field to the shores edge. I only had zoom lens and didn't have a wide angel, but I decided to take four pictures of the scene and would later stitch them together. (Noting to myself to go back with my wide angle lens cuz it really is quite pretty) While I was there I was also looking around for wild life, and at first I didn't notice anything, not even birds, no duck, geese nada. Then all the sudden I looked up, and saw the cardinal in the tree above me. He hopped about on the braches as he checked me out, and then flew across the water to the little island right across from me. Then I noticed the female; they landed on a fallen log and looked so pretty together. Just a bit too far for a photo though. I stood there and just watched...I slowly started to notice a few other birds flying around but nothing that came close enough to capture. It was right as I was getting ready to go that I saw it. I saw a head moving through the water, at first I thought it was a beaver, it was a ways away, but was coming in my direction and swimming along the shores edge. I squatted to get low to the water and waited. He didn't see me, until the moment I took the picture. He heard my camera as I snapped the photo. I took him by surprise too. He stopped right there in front of me and popped his head up to look at me more closely, then sort of circled around and went on his way....soon after, so did I.

If Only . . . . .

2010-04-17T10:16:00.001-07:00

If only that tree was not in the way! If only the bird spotted a fish on my side of the tree...If only I could catch fish this easily...If only I had brought my tripod...If only I had set my shutter speed faster....If only I could eat fish whole...ok well not really but man this could have been a nice series if only he was fishing the other direction. Darn Tree. This is by the way my very first image where I bird catches a fish; when I was panning him as he flew off the tree branch he was sitting on, I really thought he was going to go up; I was hoping to get a nice shot of him in flight...but to my delight, I got to see him hunting for his breakfast then got to watch as he swallowed it whole. Previous shots I captured him throwing something yellow up; liquid type stuff...sort of gross but interesting non the less...

But at least nothing was in the way of this Red Winged Black Bird as he flew towards me to land in the tree behind me.

Pileated Woodpecker

2010-04-12T19:20:00.000-07:00

I just shot this pileated woodpecker; I was making lunch and then wandered over to the window and saw him. Ran like a bolt of lightning to get my camera, changes lenses and then snuck out the back door and around the side of the deck. Man I keep thinking wish I had my new lens; I hope I see him again. This sized woodpecker and this varietal is not as commonly seen as the others…. My new lens should arrive on or before Friday; I'm hopeful that there will be a noticeable difference in my images. There better be.

I just ordered a new "L" series lens, 70-200 f2.8 IS II USB, if it is all they say it is, I'll be posting a review rating it a 5 star as well :-) I can't wait to get it. I also ordered a 2x teleconverter. Oh My....

This is Buddy

2010-04-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

I have never seen a horse roll and scratch its back before; it was just like a dog would do, even the shake afterwards. He rolled back and forth several times, Sparky just did the same thing while I'm writting this message. Too cute! Buddy struted his stuff before he took a roll in the hay and dirt. Gotta just love this guys tail!!!

First Images of Blue Birds

2010-04-10T15:12:00.000-07:00

It's been over a year since I've lived here; I've seem many, but never around the house usually it's just been glimpses of them as I'm driving by fields or walking the dog. This morning I decided to go over to Lake Emily, a nearby lake, and see what bird activity was going on. The first birds I saw were Robins, they were busy hopping around a grassy picnic area plucking worms out of the earth. Even got a picture of that with worm in beak. Then I saw several geese in the lake slowly paddling along and honking occasionally.

Then I started to walk a path that follows the lakes edge over to the beach area. Well, I saw blue and stopped in my tracks. I couldn't believe it, didn't even think I'd see them there so this was a very nice surprise. I quickly aimed the camera and took a few pictures, but I was so far away I knew they weren't going to be very good; I spotted a rock under a tree near the fallen branches they were perched on while they spotted their insect prey. And of course I scared them all off. Well I waited, and waiting, my butt got sore sitting on the rock it was pointy not flat, my knees got sore too in the squatted position and my foot even fell asleep waiting. I argued with myself wanting to move on, but the other part of me said no, just wait a few minutes longer and they'll be back. So I did, and so did they. Unfortunately they didn't come as close as I had hoped, but I was still excited about getting to see them as close as I did. I really had to crop into the original picture to get these compositions.

And after I was done there, I decided to keep on walking, I saw some other birds I'm not sure what they are called, like the one below, and I saw several red winged black birds, woodpeckers, chickadees, crows and then I spotted the Sand Hill Crane. The sun coming through the wing was a nice surpise, I did make this a little more dramatic by using the flashlight lighting effect which darkens the edges and brightens the bird. (same thing is on the middle blue bird)

Beer Bottle Label

2010-04-08T06:44:00.000-07:00

On Easter Day we had a beer and wine making party with two other couples; it was a great day in all with a BBQ braut lunch and a very good Ham dinner with all the fixings. But the main event of the day was brewing three batches of beer and two batches of wine. The wine this time was a first; but if it turns out well; there will be more of that in the future; as it was quick and easy and much cheaper than buying from the store. Update on the wine in about a month or so.

I created a beer bottle label last night; sent it off to the brew masters to get their opinions and see if it will be one to use. Here it is:

Booming Prairie Chickens

2010-04-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

I had an unexpected surprise and opportunity on Easter Morning! It was something I had on my list of things to do in April. I got an invitation to go to Buena Vista Grasslands to see the Prairie Chickens Boom. This booming is created by sucking air into the two orange sacks on either side of their neck. This mating ritual and the booming sound and other sqacks they let out attract the females and then the males fight and defend their territory. Females choose the most impressive male during this time to mate with. We saw only 7 birds; they were all male. I might try to go back in another week or two and see if I'm lucky enough to see the actual mating take place.

We had to stay inside blinds the entire time. We woke up about 3:30 and left on our way at 4AM. Got there and with flashlights and forehead lights we walked about 1/2 mile in the dark to the blink area. It wasn't really that dark as we had clear sky and most of the moon shining down. One of the guys who I went with is a very serious and professional photographer and had made a motion detecting camera and brought his own blind so his 8 to 10 inch lens could fit through an opening. He had a 500MM lens with a tele-converter on. I was impressed but when I picked up his tripod with camera on it; the weight would kill me; it was very heavy, and the desire to have one quickly went away. Don't get me wrong, I still want a new and more powerful zoom lens, just not that big. Might settle for the 400MM or even 300 with t tele-converter.

So here are a few of my best shots...These were taken just as the sun was rising. I did take a video with my camera's as well, but I'm not sure how to reduce the file size and get that posted. I'll play and see if I can get it up here soon.

Birds in Flight

2010-04-02T14:42:00.001-07:00

This morning I went back out to where I had saw the two cranes yesterday, but as I had guessed they were not still there. So, I went to another nearby lake called Collins Lake and on the way over there I came across this wetland area (fist picture below note: the cranes in this picture are cut and paste out of the third picture below. I just felt it needed birds). Birds and frogs were singing like crazy; all the red winged blackbirds were everywhere but off in a distance; I could hear so many of them but only saw a few. Then I continued down the road and arrived at the lake. Just as soon as I got there, the two Sand Hill Cranes flew over my head. I had time to snap three pictures (one of which is the third image below), then the geese on the other side of the lake started honking; funny how you always hear them first. I quickly zoomed in and panned them as they flew then all the sudden both of them like rolled back showing their bellies.

The bird in flight that I missed this morning was a very large looking Eagle, I pulled over on the side of the road just as he turned to circle and headed off into the distance. Hopefully I'll have other opportunities to capture the Eagles around here.

Shall We Dance - Crane Magic

2010-04-01T17:43:00.000-07:00

I had a very exciting morning today! I saw these two sand hill cranes and passed them on the way home this morning, thought to myself; 'turn around ... go back ... the lighting is perfect' so I did. I changed my lens to the medium lens I brought as I thought to myself, ‘why didn’t you bring your zoom lens, darn you’ then pulled up slowly and parked on the side of the road.

Four of us went out this morning, we met at 7:30am just a few miles away about 10 minutes from the house. We took pictures of two barns before work this morning, and I also took pictures of this little swinging bench seat built and secured in an arbor. I had seen that there last time I drove past and wanted to see if Clayton would be able to build us one. Then on the way home this is what I saw. The barns were nothing compared to these, that is for sure!

Laurie and I had just been discussing my video capability in my camera; I could just kick myself in the butt right now. Because I just got so excited about seeing the way this guy was jumping up and down and he did this repeatedly even, and I didn’t video tape it!!!!!

I've concluded, after several other people mentioning this, that this would be what they call the ritual mating dance of the Sand Hill Crane!
.
Beautiful; it was just incredibly beautiful to watch. I've posted a slide show as well if anyone wants to see 45 pictures flash by and watch as he dances away; you can almost hear the music play while you watch .... This first image make me feel like he's singing an Opera

Still want to see more? ok, click here to see the slideshow of about half of what I took

Enjoy!

Landscaping begins

2010-03-28T17:21:00.000-07:00

Yes we are still working on the Boccie Ball court area and even built a very cool score board. Clayton built it last weekend the colored balls are wooden beads and you just slide them across the bar they are on. It works great! And adds a bit a color out there.

The second picture is the beginning of our landscaping around the gazebo area. I photoshopped the benches and plants in so it looks more colorful and you can imagine another seating area other than inside the gazebo itself. (we need to buy some patio and gazebo furniture soon) All those rocks came from the property. Clayton went out with the ATV and trailer and hauled them all over. I'll be planting a lot of impatiens on either side of the gazebo door and in pots around like I have them here. I will also put some daffodils around all the rocks too outside the walkways. And then some hasta's up against the court walls. It's really going to be a nice place to unwind, or read or nap once we are done.

We've got something else planned for out here as well, (besides a deck on the other side of the court, that is in outline stages right now......but the other idea we have will be a surprise for later blogs.

We got sore working today, we just got out of the Jacuzzi tub; man that always makes us feel better.

Butterflies have tongues...

2010-03-24T16:20:00.000-07:00

Today I was looking out the window and saw the first butterfly of the season. So I ran with my camera and took it's picture. Then when I opened it in photoshop and zoomed in, I noticed something, it was a tongue! I search the Internet to see what came up and yes indeed, Butterflies do have tongues. It is very interesting and something most people would never see unless magnified or zoomed in. This butterfly seemed to be trying to drink off the blade of grass, however I am not sure how much moisture was there as snow has been melted and no rain for at least two weeks...maybe I should get the hose out and water my brown lawn.....

Did you know...
...that butterflies don't have mouths that allow them to bite or chew?
They, along with most moths have a long straw like structure called a proboscis which they use to drink nectar and juices. When not in use, the proboscis remains coiled like a garden hose.
Some moths, like the Luna moth don't have a proboscis. Their adult lifespan is very short, and they do not eat. They simply seek a mate, reproduce, then die.
The Asian Vampire moth pierces the skin with its strong, sharp proboscis and drinks the blood of animals.

Did you know...
...that butterflies taste with their feet?
Their taste sensors are located in the feet, and by standing on their food, they can taste it!
All butterflies have six legs and feet. In some species such as the monarch, the front pair of legs remains tucked up under the body most of the time, and are difficult to see.

Want to learn more: http://www.milkweedcafe.com/fascfacts.html

Impressions of Nomads....in.....Wisconsin

2010-03-21T18:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, so here is one of my barn images...transformed into a Bedouin tent-ish type image. I am not sure what possessed me to do this, but I think it was the fact that the snow looked more like sand to me and then it went on from there. Anyhow, I sort of like my transformation...Clayton likes the origainl image better...which is below.

Spring Fever - Garden Grow Light Apparatus

2010-03-13T14:45:00.000-08:00

First project of the year has been built. Several weeks ago we had bought several seed starting green houses, and I had bought a box of a gazillion impatiens seeds. So today Clayton built the Grow Light Apparatus to hang the light on and the shelf the containers. We have it set up down in the basement in my workout room, maybe I'll use the exercise bike more now that I have some plants to look at :-) It was a nice quick easy project and I sort of even like it enough to move it outside after it warms up enough, I can keep potted plants on it and hang a few on it. Clayton got several vegetable seeds, which he will start soon. Mine will all be impatiens flowers!

Notice how nice it fits inside the window, and doesn't really hide the view outside. Look hardly any more snow...well at least on this view. Still got couple more weeks of snow melt before all ground if visible.

Bottling Beer - Red Ale

2010-03-06T16:31:00.000-08:00

It's been two weeks since we brewed the wort; and so today; we bottled it. With 5 gallons of beer, you get 2 cases of beer. In the pictures here, we used a box of 20 ounce bottles so that is why it looks like only a case in a half. We tasted it again, and it's pretty darn good. It will be interesting to notice the difference being cold and carbonated makes them. We will have to wait now for two weeks before we can pop one open to find out.

Our other batch, which was an Octoberfest is still fermenting; that has about two more weeks to ferment though, so we will bottle those while popping open the Red Ale to taste. Now I get to start the creation of our own personalized beer bottle labels.......Cheers!

In case your wondering why I did these in Black and White; I did it mainly because the fluorescent lights made a really bad yellowish orange cast on them and I didn't like that and I couldn't correct it to my liking. Also well I like the first picture where the beer coming down the tube is in color, while everything else is not.

daffodils in Wisconsin? I don't think so

2010-03-02T06:49:00.000-08:00

Not Yet anyhow! I received a couple pictures of the front yard where I used to live in San Jose, California; and then I took one this morning of our front yard in Wisconson. Well makes me wish I had planted 100's of daffodils last year so I had something to look forward to once the snow melts. But I did not. Maybe this year I'll plant some...the snow will be melted soon and then yard work will be plentyful.

Brew'n Beer

2010-02-20T13:23:00.000-08:00

Clayton has decided to make some beer! He finally got to buy a turkey fryer; not to fry a turkey but to boil his Wort! Pretty much this is the process.

1. bring 5 gallons of water to a boil

2. let cool to 155-175 degrees

3. put grain in cheese-cloth bag

4. put bag in hot water and let steep for 30 minutes making sure temp stays above 155

5. add two bags of malt extract

6. bring to boil; keeping an eye out for hot-break (which is the point where the malt starts to subside it's boiling over stage)

7. once you're reach the hot-break stage, then add first bag of hops; boil for 40 min's

8. add second bag of hops; boil for another 20 mins

9. let cool to 70 degrees

10.pour into fermenter

11. take sample for hydrometer reading

12. do not return sample to the fermenter, instead

13. give it a taste :-)

14. add yeast

15. let ferment for 2 weeks

16. bottle and let set for 2 more weeks

17. pop cap off bottle

18. cheers or

19. salute then

20. DRINK BEER

He thinks it's going to be good!

Keeping up with the two's theme....

2010-02-19T18:40:00.000-08:00

'Double your pleasure; double your fun...'

Slogan stole from Wrigleys Gum...

What's interesting about this photo is both horses

are standing exactly opposite of each other.

I was out taking photo's of barns again today,

and these nice looking horses were just wondering what I was doing.

The barns I took were to the left of them.

I've been out sick for an entire week, and starting yesterday

I have just started feeling better again. Darn Colds are getting worse each time.

ice fishing again.....for eagles? No Perch!

2010-02-10T18:40:00.000-08:00

OK, so we went ice fishing again last weekend, I caught two perch, and shot two eagles soaring! I also really wished I brought my zoom lens, but I didn't so this is the best I could get. Clayton caught a cold. There is talk about ice fishing again towards the end of Feb, Well I'm bringing my zoom lens. I found out there are two sets of eagles on the lake and I'm bound to 'catch' a fabulous shot of them...and more perch as well.

Then today, as the deer keep coming around. This is the closest they have been to the house, literally right outside our window. Unfortunately shot into the sun through a dirty window, but have to love the shadow.....

Corn brings Deer

2010-02-04T18:24:00.000-08:00

Most every week while walking the dog I see many deer, but normally not around the house. They used to come around closer to our house more often but since a month or so ago they've been coming around less and less. SO! I decided why not give them some food! Is this a bad thing? I'm not sure yet. Will we be more likely to hit a deer in our car if more are around? I'm not sure yet. Will it attract more Squirrels? YEESSSSSS I can tell you that is true for sure. I think we'll be starting to use my new BB Gun. Is that mean? Yes! Will I even have the guts to aim and pull the trigger...most likely not. OK, so I have to ask would any of you shoot and kill a squirrel to protect your deer food AND bird seed? Our squirrel population has doubled possibly tripled in the last week, but then again so has the deer population. I'm in a quandary.....

The picture above was taken this evening right as it was started to get dark. There are five deer in that shot, four at the feeder and the fifth is in the back left corner between the trees. The image below was yesterday; pretty much around lunch time. I was surprised to see them out in the middle of the day.

I know one thing for sure; this weekend I plan on cutting down some of those berry bushes that are in my View of the Cute little Deer! Then maybe when a buck comes around I'll have a full open shot to shoot a picture that is....

Happy Dirty Cows

2010-01-22T20:43:00.000-08:00

I'm involved now with a group of photographers who are going out and photographing all the barns in Portage County. I only agreed to do this because I love taking pictures of almost anything. And Hey I like a nice looking barn just as well. I mean I've already taken a few just while out and about since I've been here. However since I've started I've been talking with a few other people also involved who know just a little bit more about barns, styles, histories, how they were made, differences in the ones built 100 - 150 years ago to 50 years ago...etc. WOW I never knew there are so many interesting features. I'll share some of the differences in features as I learn more, but today I just wanted to post a couple that I like and this one just so happens to have cows in front. The last two are actually built on stone boulders as their foundation.

TIP UP - - - We Caught Fish!!!

2010-01-18T17:42:00.000-08:00

We all caught fish. There was six of us total. They had all the supplies we needed, we didn't have to bring anything and man what fun it was. We didn't use poles, we had twelve tip up’s didn't know what they were or that they existed till Saturday. When the flag stands up; it means you got a fish on the line. We went to two lakes, first lake we fished for Northern Pike. Only kept one, it was caught by the first couple who had gotten up early and set up everything for us. It was 25 inches. We all caught at least two or more, but the Northern Pikes if they weren't 25 inches or more we put them back down the hole. Clayton caught one 24 inches and he was put back.

Then we went and had lunch; pizza at a bar on the second lake what a beautiful view at the window there. We all had very good Bloody Mary's as well. Walleye is what we fished for at the second lake and they don’t usually bite till the sun starts setting….so from before 3 to after 4 we didn’t catch fish…but rather watched the others as they played football to help keep warm and pass time. It got windy at the second lake, with the wind it felt much colder, but most of us stayed warm enough. Clayton got the coldest, but in the black Ice Cube (tent) they had a propane heater, and chairs in there warmed you up rather quickly.

Then after the sun set, we fished till we could barely see and that is when we starting really catching them, but then soon after headed to the hotel. Changed relaxed for 1 hour and then went to Dinner with Mark and Donna. After dinner we went to a casino and played till midnight. I only spent 20 bucks! Found two machines right next to each other which let me play all evening long on a $20 dollar bill. Clayton played 21 all night, lost about $20 or so.

Sunday morning we went to breakfast; then to an antique auction. We only stayed for 2 hours; one hour to look over everything; then the first hour of them doing to auctioning. Amazing how much money people will spend for things I’d think about tossing in the garbage or giving away. But it was fun and interesting. We didn’t bid on anything.

Then we stopped by a Camille’s Sidewalk Café, I haven't been to one of those since we moved here, almost a year. Boy I have missed that place. It’s about 40 mins away from Stevens Point, and near where Donna lives so we’ll be back I’m sure. We left that weekend with two walleye in a cooler filled with snow. Sunday evening, we watched three video's on you tube on how to fillet walleye and Clayton did a pretty darn good job at it. We marinaded them for 30 min's in a Greek Dressing/Marinade; then he broiled them! Darn Tootin Good I have to say....we some really good mashed potatoes we had a wonderful meal. I want to go catch more....

The morning we drove up North to the Lakes the trees full really frosty and all white; I haven't seen that here yet, and I tried to capture it on camera by snapping out the window while driving.

With the ice auger, you have to drill the holes....

then you bait and set the Tip Up

Then you wait for the flag to pop up! and run over to it; usually all six of us ran to get a better view of what was being pulled up. First you watch the spinner...if it's spinning the fish is swimming....Pulling the tip up out carefully and then you grab the string, jerk it to set the hook

and start pulling up the string by hand till you pull the fish up the hole

This is the one that measured 24 inches...it went back down the hole.

but not until I had taken a proud photo; these first fish images are of Northern Pike

Then I had caught one too, by first one was really small, this second was a nice size but not big enough to keep so this one went back too.

First Walleye Caught now at second lake

It was a bit colder here; much more wind and that makes it so much colder.

Temp was about 33-34 degrees and sunny all day; if it had not been so windy it would have been almost warm out.

Second lake we took two vehicles out on the ice; but after unpacking and setting up the holes and tip ups decided it might be better to move them back up on land.

Going Ice Fishing

2010-01-14T10:33:00.001-08:00

I'm excited, we have an opportunity to actually catch a fish (hopefully several) this weekend. Wish us luck and come Sunday evening I hope to have lots of fun images to share with lots of fish stung on a string, or at least one edible sized fish we can be proud of. Or a great story of the one that got away! or something!!!

The Day After, the 'Blue Moon'

2010-01-01T21:46:00.000-08:00

Hi Leenie, I finally got a clear sky and the opportunity to try out your settings. The ones you posted on November 11, 2009 with instructions on how to shoot the full moon! Well I almost used your exact setting, but I had to tweak them ever so slightly to get this shot. Seems it is almost sitting in the same position as when you shot yours. Anyhow, I wanted to thank you for posting that blog as i found it most useful.

My settings were: f/5.6, ISO - 100 at 1/500th of a sec. focal length 300MM

This image is of course cropped into and adjusted even more in photoshop to pick up a little more detail (I darkened it a bit more)

Twenty Ten -- OR --

2010-01-01T17:00:00.000-08:00

How will you say it now?

Two Thousound Ten?

Twenty Ten?

Huh! I have not yet decided ....

While in California - The Ocean

2009-12-30T08:30:00.000-08:00

During my trip back to California, I managed to get one good day in of visiting with my best friend and her son Ian. She lives near Santa Cruz, which is a beach town and where we spent a lot of our summers on weekends while growing up as kids. The day I went to see her, it rained most of the day. However right after we had lunch! and OMG was it good, Strawberry Crapes YUM! we noticed a clearing in the clouds and the rain stopped. Well I mentioned going to the Beach to Ian and it was all over. He had his mind set that that's were we were going to go. For the 15 min's it took us to get to the beach, all he kept saying was 'beach.....beach..............beach......"

Well after we got to West Cliff Drive, we quickly found a parking spot and headed down to one of the beaches that do allow dogs. And then I took some pictures. I had also took a few pictures from inside their home while he was looking out the window covered in rain drops. Here are just a few.

Snowflakes are AMAZING

2009-12-27T10:54:00.000-08:00

I can't believe how intricate and detailed a snowflake is. I am not sure why I got a bug up my butt to photograph snowflakes, but I did. And now I feel addicted. I want it to be colder out and snow some more, so I can go take more! This mornings conditions were perfect at 10 degrees and still air. After the first set of pictures that I took (those which were best shown here) I went out again to see if I could get even better shots. Well it had warmed up to 20 degrees and the sun started to peak. And with that came a bit of melting of the crystalline formations.

Belated - the Morning After the Blizzard

2009-12-22T06:44:00.001-08:00

So I'm finally posting those pictures; of the foot of snow we got two weeks ago.

Clayton had to work for about an hour before he could get himself out of the driveway and our road up to the County Road at the top of the hill by the stop sign. (you'll see the stop sign in the pictures) That road up past the stop sign was plowed, but our road was not. I worked too; I did the harder work, I shoveled the path way in the front then the back deck most of it and then the end of the driveway after the snowplow when down our road several times. The Snowplow was 30 minutes later after Clayton left. I think he likes his new snow blower though. Man what killed me was removing the stuff the snowplow put in our driveway! Next time I will use the snow blower for what the snowplow pushes in. I actually got heat exhaustion...no kidding! sicker than a dog all afternoon after that. I got so excited about my first snow shoveling day I went overboard. Who would of thought!

Blizzard Came - I went to California

2009-12-15T07:30:00.000-08:00

Just and update! I didn't get a chance to post pictures, but I sure have some to put up here. I am now in California, here for a week of work! I call it Hell Week as the proposal that I am working on is the most stressful one of all in all my five years of working there. So along with that comes not enough time in the day to keep up on the fun stuff in my life; like posting pictures and taking new ones. Check back at the end of the weekend, and hopefully Sunday I'll get some pictures of the snow up. Along with the snow pictures I'll have some of the weekend here in California, I went to the beach while visiting my best friend and her son. It had been raining all day on Saturday, but cleared and stopped raining just long enough for us to go down and enjoy the beach and get some fresh sea air and play with Ian who is just over 2 years old and LOVES the beach.

A Blizzard is coming....

2009-12-08T20:17:00.000-08:00

Ok so today it snowed mostly all day and we have a good 2 inches right now, the grass blades in the lawns have been buried and there is nothing now but a nice white blanket of snow. Clayton went out on his lunch hour and bought a snow blower today at work, so he can blow himself out of the driveway tomorrow morning to get back to work. Not sure how he thinks he'll be able to drive through the snow on the roads around here, they don't get plowed till like 11AM. We are expecting to get 6-10 more inches of snow, with high winds and 40-45 mile an hour winds tomorrow afternoon. Whooo Hooo, can't wait till morning to see what it looks like out side. I'll post pictures in the morning if I can see anything but a snowy blurr. I'm a little excited; it's our first Blizzard together.

Zoom Effect - First Attempt

2009-12-05T10:28:00.000-08:00

Learned something new; and tried an experiment last night. It's called the 'Zoom Effect' done with the camera while taking the picture. Here are my first attempts. I'll will do this more and when I come up with something really awesome I'll post again. But all I did was set camera on tripod and used the self timer setting then once the exposure started I zoomed in or out and this is the effect. Zoom on!
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First image is our Gazebo with icecycle lighting;

the second is of course our christmas tree.

It's SNOWING ..... Finally

2009-12-04T14:55:00.000-08:00

Well it's finally starting to snow, not too much for the first of it, then this weekend I don't think we'll get more, but it's not supposed to warm up much past low 30's so I'm sure it will be sticking.

I took two pictures close to the same location from the snow fall we had in October to compare with the snowfall now and the difference in leaves in trees! It’s going to be a winter wonderland soon.

December 4th, 2009 Above

October 12, 2009 Below

Pictures above, Notice it’s 10 degrees colder now. Was 30’s in Oct. now it’s 20’s. Not expected to really go above freezing but by Saturday morning is will have stopped. However if there is alot more snow when I wake up I'm sure I'll post a new picture. Right now as I type this it's about 17 degrees.

December 4th, 2009 Above

October 12, 2009 Below

Oh and that little tree next to the rock in the front came with the house, and we have white lights on it; it's fake!

Also here is a picture of Sparky he loves to sit in the window and look out all day. (untill I make him look at me)

Got Tree; Where's the Snow

2009-11-30T16:31:00.000-08:00

before we decorated

OK, so it's not even December yet; and we are all ready for Christmas. We got outside lights up and lighted ice cycles all around our gazebo (that looks so cool) and also have lights all the way down the edge of our deck and yesterday we cut out tree down. It's about 10 feet tall, the biggest tree we've ever had. We've never had vaulted ceilings before. And we decorated it last night and have been enjoying all evening. Now all we need is presents under the tree and some snow on the ground. This is going to be my first white Christmas. I think snow is lurking around the corner and before I know the ground will become white for the rest of the season. Oh Boy!

and after

Thanksgiving Day Survivors

2009-11-29T19:34:00.000-08:00

You may or may not know this but today was the last day of ‘Gun’ hunting season for Deer. Anyhow sadly to say the booms have been plenty around here, especially on Thanksgiving day morning. (makes me wonder just how many were killed) While out walking Sparky that morning, I actually saw three hunters in their blinds and walking along a field wearing bright orange, it’s hard to miss them. However, I’ve been keeping an eye out for the three baby deer and Mom, that hung around all summer long. This morning I saw them just a few more hours to survive the guns; I'm pretty sure I saw four; I know for sure I saw three so happy to see. Well on Thanksgiving day morning they were all seeking safety in our 10 acres (I think this 10 acre lot is the safest place for them to be) Even though they are not bucks, hunters are still allowed to shoot doe. I took a picture of this little one and then scouted around and saw two others laying nearby and then another one nibbling on the remaining leaves on the sticks (which used to be our berry bushes) it really amazed me that they were just laying pretty much out in the open during the day, they stayed here All day long, or at least morning till early afternoon. Seems like there are still plenty of deer around even though I've seen plenty dead and bloody hooked to the backs of trucks, SUV's and in trailers, but I’m hoping my four deer survive. I might have to start feeding them once the snow covers up all their remaining food. I’m such a softy. I feel so bad when they get shot, then feel bad again when food is sparse and they cannot find enough to eat. Catch 22; but they sure are fun and so cute to watch.

Bonfire Goddess

2009-11-29T09:08:00.000-08:00

It was the perfect evening! Calm winds, clear and starry sky, great people, yummy food, some wonderful wine and beer and a very hot and bright bonfire! This silhouette is of the hostess of the party. This morning, it was snowing; pretty amazing how the night before was so clear. I went for a walk without my gloves this morning, called Janie and she said she found one of them, but we both think the other glove was lost in the fire...Now it's time to go get our Christmas Tree
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WeekWord - FEAST

2009-11-27T08:41:00.001-08:00

This is a 'bits and pieces' type of photo of our Thanksgiving day Feast which we enjoyed very much yesterday. Even though the green bean salad blew up in the BBQ shattering glass particles all over the Yams, we still had enough food to enjoy. We also had two turkeys, one which was cooked traditionally the other well you'll see below.

For the other weekword posts, please visit Lennie's site here

Sundays Sunset

2009-11-23T06:40:00.000-08:00

Well another Sunday Sunset attempt was made, this one turned out better than my first, This was created using the HDR technique. (three images taken under, normal and overexposed sandwiched together so you get the most detail in highlights and shadows) I was hoping for more color in all the clouds around, but didn't happen, maybe next time. I will keep a look out for other sunset opportunities where the colors just fill the entire sky. I've seen it a couple times, so I know it can happen...I will persevere

Skunked Again....

2009-11-22T11:32:00.001-08:00

We went fishing this morning and didn't get a bite. Actually Clayton fished, I walked the dog and took some pictures. Luckily I managed to get a few nice photos despite the gray overcast sky and a few sprinkles.

The image above is a picture of rocks and their reflection in the water, only it's turned on it's side. I like to take reflection pictures and turn them on their sides because you always see faces or creatures or something different. The eyes on this is actually a leaf which I colorized.

I started with the image above, took the shape tool in photoshop to create the fish and I liked it, but then took a break and ate lunch. While eating lunch I kept on thinking of something different, taking a colorful real looking fish and using that instead. So when I got done eating my lunch I created the one below. Since the fish already had a light source on the back side, I decided to also add a light source to the image, to make it look a little more real. In adding the fish I think I did a pretty good job of making this image look as if it's taken underwater and with the light source looking up into the sun.

Love the silhouette above, makes it look like the picture taken below was right after he walked through the tunnel. But it wasn't.

Three Gun Shots Woke me up....

2009-11-22T03:48:00.001-08:00

Yesterday morning, I woke up to the sound of three gun shots. Sadness came rolling across me like a wave, then I sat up in bed and looked out the window. It was so foggy, you could barely see a thing. I thought well maybe they will have a chance, at least for a little while. But, the fog didn't last long as it was lifting I decided to take Sparky for a short walk. It was actually shorter than I had anticipated as just as soon as we turned the corner, we heard two more gun shots. And they were really close by and very loud coming from just across the field from the road we were on. I thought, should we risk it and keep going? but just as quickly as I had that thought, Sparky immediately turned and pretty much ran right back to the house with tail tucked down between his hind legs. We heard several more shots that morning, but most were more at a distance, even still the sadness kept edging up to my heart.

Later that morning we went out shopping for the day, as we drove down the road, there were cars parked along all the fields here and there, some there was only one car, some other fields had three or four. I kept wondering how many are going to survive. Driving away still can't help feeling sad about it. A big SUV drove past us in the opposite lane, there was some sort of a lift in the back, two front legs were sticking out to the middle of the road past the back end of the truck. I did not turn my head to look closer, I just looked the other way....

Shopping took my mind off it all afternoon that was nice, but just as soon as we drove back home, most of the cars were still parked in the fields....it was time for Sparky's evening walk. I decided NOT to go in our neck of the woods for fear of getting shot our selves, so I took him to the town of Amherst a few miles away and we walked around the town, down along a river, and then back through a cemetery. Are you allowed to walk dogs in a cemetery? I kept him on the road letting him sniff only the edges of the grass and some of the bushes, I didn't let him pee on anyones headstone and he had already went No. 2 twice before we got there so I thought why not. He didn't act scared so I didn't get spooked as it was started to turn to dusk. Still off in the distance I could hear a gun shot or two or three going off......

It's going to be a long two weeks. I heard the DNR extended the hunting season an extra week. I do understand the need to keep the population under control and sort of (but not really) understand the need to fulfil a certain hunter gatherer instinct; but even still I just don't understand at all how someone could point their gun at these faces and press the trigger.

These cute little guys were born this Year and are much larger now, there were actually three of them, and the family still comes to the water hole and drinks .... till yesterday anyways, and hopefully I'll see them again after this two week hunting season is over......

Beautiful Sunrise This Morning

2009-11-13T06:55:00.000-08:00

We woke up early this morning because Clayton needed to be at work by 7AM, so as he was driving into work he noticed how colorful the sunrise was going to be and gave me a ring. Told me where he was (just down the road) and started to describe all the colors he was seeing. I wasn't super eager to drag myself out the door, but I'm so glad I did! As usual I got really excited and perked right up as I drove to these two locations and snapped away. Happy Friday the 13th!
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Sunday Sunset

2009-11-08T16:15:00.000-08:00

This last week our sunsets have been stunning! I've always been out walking the dog (without a camera) just enjoying it as we walked. Well tonight I thought we might have another stunning setting sun. So I took Sparky along and we drove to a nearby park with a nice trail (The Tomorrow River Trail). I took one picture! I was not crazy about the colors of the sunset; it was non interesting and the sky just didn't do anything for me. I took this one picture and that is all, didn't bracket or anything, usually I do and probably should have for this one.

I didn't like my image at all. This image below is the original then the following images are renderings from the same first image. I had fun playing with the picture and making some interesting abstract art out of it. I should spend more time creating abstracts when i don't like my pictures at least I'd have something I could enjoy and who knows maybe some day a masterpiece will be produced! well ya never know....

These last two are the same image; only the top one is the upper right hand corner of the lower one cropped. I like the cropped one better, but thought the entire spiral was interesting too so I kept it in the series.

Having Bird Withdrawals

2009-11-07T16:18:00.000-08:00

I haven't really taken any new bird photo's in quite some time and I was thinking what better place to go than George Mead Wildlife Area to go capture some. Well, we didn't see any, well some finches and some black birds, we did see one bird who quickly disappeared in the grass; I think it might have been a duck or a coot.

But the one thing we did see along the way there, was the ONE picture that would have been printed for my wall for sure. It was a Blue Heron on the edge of a perfectly glassy water way standing tall with the most perfect reflection of itself in the water you'd ever see. I wish I would have made Clayton stop, but we passed it too fast and there were cars behind us. Then when we returned he was not there. I fell pretty disappointed to have missed out on that shot, as it is still perfectly visible in my mind and I just wish I could share it with others.

I did manage to take a few other pictures, so here are a few pictures of the George Mead Wildlife Area without birds....

Lily Pads on a Grassy Lake Shore

2009-11-06T10:19:00.000-08:00

This picture was taken at the Chain of Lakes. While my mom was out on vacation in October, we took a paddle boat tour around 7 or 8 of all the lakes in the area. I've cropped this down and also applied a artistic filter on it using Photoshop. I'm hoping to have a chance to get some new photos taken this weekend. I'm so glad it's Friday!!

WeekWord - Transportation

2009-10-30T06:31:00.001-07:00

One day I took a plane as my choice of transportation to get to Wisconsin.

The views were incredible and I as usual went snap happy with my camera out the window. Not realizing when I took this picture that there was another plane in sight.

Not only am I choosing the plane as my weekword interpretation; it is also coupled with the clouds, as they float effortlessly and transport themselves along moving from one place in the sky to another until they just disappear....

Clouds
to find the origin,

trace back the manifestations.

Tao

Between being and non-being

barely there

these sails of water, ice, air -

Indifferent drifters,

wandering high on freedom

of the homeless

Restlessly swithering

like ghosts, slithering through substance

in puffs and wisps

Lending an enchanting or ominous air

luminous or casting shadows,

ambivalent filters of reality

Bequeathing wreaths, or

modesty veils to great natural beauties

like mountain peaks

Sometimes simply hanging there

airborne abstract art

in open air

Suspended animation

continually contorting:

great sky whales, now, horse drawn carriages

unpinpointable thought forms,

punctuating the endless sentence of the sky.

This poem was written by: Yahia Lababidi

This weeks weekword is hosted at Leenie's site;

check her sight out to see more!

Rib Mountain and a Cranberry Tour - Color Galore

2009-10-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I was not able to narrow the pictures down enough to post all on this blog. So I'm posting one each for these two locations and am including a link to a slide show which has 'the best of' of each trip.

Rib Mountain is one of (if not the highest) mountain in Wausau, Wisconsin. Not even 2000 feet (1,924 to be exact) hahaha some mountain, but a mountain non the less. They say this location is a billion-year-old hill which is one of the oldest geological formations on earth. It is also one of the best places around Central Wisconsin to go see fall colors. Even though our day was with overcast skies the pictures really give an idea of the masses of trees around the area and all the color variations that come with Autumn in Wisconsin. The hiking here was incredible and we all enjoyed it very much.

Click here or on the picture below for the slide show of more of our day

One of our other favorite days was the day after our first snow fall when we went to Glacial Lake Cranberry to do a cranberry tour. It was incredible and we got to go to two different cranberry bogs owners property. We first went to see them in action, haresting at Potter and Son's. This was a true treat to see, as they had two men pushing or coralling the berry up into a loader and dumbing them into a truck. Then in another bog over they had four men riding beater machines, which knocked the berries loose from the plants hidden below the water. Apparently these beater machines are a dying breed as with new technology a new method will soon take it's place. Most of the vines in these blogs were over 40 years old. You will notice two close up shots of only cranberries, one of them you will see alot of white berries. These will most likely become one of my favorite juices Cran-Apple Juice.

Now over at Glacial Lake Cranberries, their crop of berries were almost all red in color and these will be the variety that goes to the markets and sold as Fresh Cranberries. You will also notice in the picture how many berry there were floating on the top of the blog; it's an incredible crop this year for them and they almost lost it due to the freezing temperatures and snow. They had to submerge all their plants with water to protect them from freezing.

We bought 10 pounds and today Clayton is making Cranberry Apple Preserves. The house smells wonderful as he didn't stop there he is now making Apple Butter.

Click here (or the picture) for the slideshow of the rest of these great photo's

OK and how could I not post our frist snow of the season; taken Monday October 12th, 2009. This is our back deck/yard.

took too many pictures

2009-10-20T19:59:00.000-07:00

I did it, I went snap happy and took way to many pictures. Now I am overwhelmed and can't decide on which ones to post. The fall colors were incredible. (yes were, they are all blaazae now) My mom came to visit for a week. We went so many places. I've got so much to post. I just don't know where to begin....

We went hiking at Rib Mountain

We went to the EAA Aire Venture Museum in Oshkosh

We went hiking at the Dells of Eau Claire

We took a boat tour at the Chain O'Lakes

We went on a Glacial Lake Cranberry tour - OH MY GOD wait till you see the pictures but just SO many

We went shopping the first day it SNOWED in October...we got an Inch of snow on October 12

We also went to Sandhill Wildlife Area and watched as the Sandhill Cranes came in for the night. (no good pictures though, they were flying and landing just a little too far away for any good shots) but you don't know how excited it was to hear all their calls. So prehistoric sounding they are...I didn't want to leave. they were literally just coming over the horizon by the dozens, hundreds...maybe even thousands

.......................sigh..................

I See Color Everywhere I Look

2009-10-06T09:05:00.000-07:00

These were taken on a friends property Saturday Oct 3rd.

A group of us went for a hike in the woods while another group went touring the Artists Studios (Clayton and I did that the following day) The hike in the woods was nice, all the trees were identified, many types of Oaks, Pines, Maples, Birch etc....

I've been here before; a few postings ago September 12 I was there as well. This is Lake Joanis again in Stevens Point; also knows as Schmeeckle Reserve; No Mosquito's there this time...temps are getting cooler and they have almost gone away for the rest of the year.

Thought I'd go again to see how the progress of colors was coming along. I may have to go one more time....still lots of shades of green...

These two pictures below are on the Ice Age Trail. The trail head that starts right off County Road Z (between Krogwold and Z) The picture below is taken just over the bridge in the grove of trees there...right next to the one highlighted in the sun....

This was taken off the road along Krogwold Road

There were Turkeys in the field, but they ran into the trees when they saw me

Scenic Fall Colors - Central Wisconsin

2009-09-28T06:12:00.000-07:00

Door County - Birthday Weekend Away

2009-09-27T15:06:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was both our birthdays, so we decided to make a weekend out of it and go to Door County. It was a perfect weekend, accept for one thing...the colors had not started changing yet....but even still we had a wonderful time. Here are just a few things that happened along the way. We watched this man reel in the largest Fish I've even seen from someone fishing from the shore, we went to a wine festival, had lunch in Algoma. I love that town, we did some wine tasting and found out that the apple wine really isn't too bad; but at Throwing Stones Winery where they buy their grapes from California they had the best wine. Clayton got pulled over for speeding, and was so lucky to get off with only a warning...We ate dinner and stayed the night in Sister Bay. The next day, we took a ferry (truck and all) that was the coolest thing since....I've never been on a ferry before that took vehicles. There we went to an ostrich farm and saw other animals too; the camel I swear blew up his big fat tongue at us as if it was a bubble. It was the funniest looking thing. We drove around the island and went to an art and nature store. I saw the inside of a bee hive there...We only stayed a few hours, then it was time to head back home as we had to pick up our dog by 6PM; we had left him in a kennel. We had a nice lunch on the way back and then got stuck in Packer Fan Traffic. We arrived 5 min's late to pick up the dog. She said he did very well. He came home with laryngitis and his bark was horse for 4-5 days after...poor pup. And here are a few of the pictures I took along the way...

Artrageous Weekend - Wausau Style

2009-09-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

Today was a perfect day. We started by putting Sparky in a Kennel for the day; his first time ever in a kennel, and he did very well. He got to play and socialize with other dogs while Clayton and I got to spend the day at a wonderful and very large art show. This art show was held in three different area's in the City of Wausau; the first was called Art in the Park in Marathon Park, the second was Festival of Arts held in downtown Wausau and the third was Birds in Art presented at Woodson Art Museum. They offered a free shuttle service as well going back and forth between the three festival area's. Well in viewing all these artist's work, I got a little inspired and came up with some artsy pieces myself from the day....

in Marathon Park, they held a butterfly release event, in which you paid 1$ to receive a butterfly to release in a group (there was about 100 people releasing 100 butterflies) While my picture didn't show the butterflies very well, I helped by making them a little more visible...as they were so small in my photo. I felt really bad at first when they started handing out all the butterflies in small paper envelopment, the butterflies had wings together and could not move (who knows how long they were in this confined condition before being released. It did bring a smile to everyones face once they were all released. Andthinking about it, the butterflies could have done damage to their wings if there were held in more open bags or boxes, at least the envelope kept them from damaging their wings....well take a look, Oh and since I was more interesting in taking pictures rather than releasing the butterfly itself, Clayton gave my butterfly to a boy who didn't get one as they oversold and that little boy was sooooo happy!

Hiking...at Schmeeckle Reserve

2009-09-12T18:02:00.000-07:00

In Steven's Point there is a small park that is also a preserved wilderness area called Schmeeckle Reserve.
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This information was taken from the University's website "Schmeeckle Reserve is an interface between the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and the central Wisconsin community. The 275-acre natural area makes up 2/3 of the University campus. The Reserve was created to protect and restore native ecological communities, serve as an outdoor classroom for students and teachers, and provide recreational opportunities to all visitors."
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The Green Circle Trail also goes through this area. I went for one reason, and that was to scout out the fall colors and see how much color there really was. This hike, .5 miles to the Lake (Lake Joanis) then 1 mile around the lake, then the .5 back plus a few side trips to cat-tails and a Mirror Loop...was just perfect as it was swarming with mosquitos's. I had to splash some repellant on...seems your fine as long as you keep moving and moving fast, they don't bother you, but stop for one moment to set up for a picture and ACK they are all over your face and between face and camera...not the most pleasant picture taking location, but sort of worth it, as it's quite beautiful there...
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ummmmm, I have a feeling that from now till the last leaf falls my posts will most likely contain fall colors in one way or another :-)

Labor Day Weekend - Part 3 - Jazz Festival on the River Front

2009-09-10T06:36:00.000-07:00

...and so the other fun thing we did over the weekend was attend the Jazz Festival along the beautiful Wisconsin River at Pfiffner Park, Stevens Point, Wisconsin. This park is very nice and there is a walkway that runs along the river, but I don't think it goes very far. This park allows dogs! Which was great news to us and so we brought Sparky along too so he had a change to see more people and other dogs as we all enjoyed the music.

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Here are some of the pictures I took during the show....We got there just before sunset, and so once the sun started going down I left my chair and went to the rivers edge...Enjoy

This first group we listened to was very good, their name is Ziji; and they played Brazilian - contemporary style.

The second band above was called: Tom Gullion Quintet - they were not quite our style and so we left shortly after they started...but all in all; the evening was beautiful....

Labor Day Weekend - Part 2 Rosholt County Fair

2009-09-08T19:06:00.000-07:00

My first small time county fair! what an experience; and how fascinating it was to see a rooster crow close up and personal. (yep I've never witnessed that before in my life) I've heard them from a far, but never seen one up close. We watched a dog show, saw pigs, goats, cows, very large cows even, saw all types and colored bunny rabbits and birds, roosters, chickens, geese, and one species I forgot to look at the type on, I actually photographed from behind their cage. Oh and there was dancing...sort of felt good and brought a tear to my eye at all these dancers spinning around in circles and not crashing into each other. I'm not a dancer, it's just amazing to see....

The dog show we watched first.

Then we went into the barns, well it was sad to me to see the pigs; just laying there with flies all over them (ok well this one just so happens to be standing) and getting their noses full of cornmeal while trying to eat it out of those bowls...

thought the little curly pig tail was cute though...
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The goats were in the same barn as the pigs and they were so adorable!

Then we hit the cow barn...felt sorry for these guys too as they were all tied up and could hardly move; thinking most would be heading on down to the Peoples Meat Locker soon after the fair was over....

This cow above was massive! Tried showing the size by having Clayton standing next to it, but seemed larger still in real life.

Then we went into the bird and bunny barn....Roosters of all colors and shapes and such different facial features...didn't know there were so many types....

and little baby blues above

Below I was so busy focusing on the bird to the left, that I barely even saw the bird on the right. Hiding under the fanning tail of the other...I refocused and took another shot of the one playing hide and go seek....so pretty and these are the ones I didn't see the name of. What type of bird do you think they are?

These folks dancing looked like they were having so much fun; and I didn't even see any toes get stomped!

On the way home we stopped along side the road and took these two shots; The image above is of the first colored trees of the season; first in that the entire trees were mostly fully colored and the image below is of a long horned steer, sitting on his farm right next to the road....

Labor Day Weekend - Part 1 Gazebo's Looking Good

2009-09-08T18:16:00.000-07:00

Over Labor Day weekend, we had hoped to get the gazebo project complete. But that did not happen. But we got it almost complete. We got all the trim and screens and door and FIRST roof on and shingled. We still have a second tier to add to the roof, but rain is coming; starting tomorrow and we were so glad to get the first roof done and shingled.

Clayton ended up tweaking his knee a little bit on Saturday and so on Sunday we took a day off to let it rest and get better for Monday when he would be up and down the ladder and on his knees crawling over the entire roof hamming shingles. Which actually turned out to be a good thing for both of us; because we got to go the the county fair and then to a Jazz festival on the river front...those postings will be coming soon....

I have to admit --- I was a nervous wreck the entire time while he was up on that roof. I just didn't believe it would hold his weight but in the end, it seemed to just fine.

This picture below is a panoramic with two pictures stitched together. I wanted to show the distance from the house and the length of the boccie ball court and what the view from inside the gazebo looked like.

Scenic Sunday

2009-08-31T07:03:00.000-07:00

This picture below, is taken at the end of the road that I live on; just a few miles down; Today was the first day I explored that area. There is also a trail head, part of the Ice Age Hiking Trail. A friend and I hiked it and turns out it's quite hilly. We got a good workout in none the less and enjoyed the scenery along the way. Towards the end of the hike, we ran across a lake which is also below. The Field and Sky picture I did in HDR, then applied an artistic filter (water color) to in photoshop.

This Barn shot is a few miles away from where I live as well. Friday and Saturday we had a pretty big rain storm roll through and the sunflowers sort of took a beating, but overall the picture even with battered sunflowers turn out nicely. This picture I also did in HDR and applied a Dry Brush filter to in photoshop.

Fe Fi Fo Fum

2009-08-29T13:53:00.000-07:00

I Smell Fungus Under My Thumb

while out walking the dog the other day, I happened to notice these two very large mushrooms. And so, I walked the dog back to the house, dropped him off, grabbed my camera, walked back there, got down on my knees with camera in hand and saw this little gnome guarding them with his life.

Gazebo progress and it's lookin good....

2009-08-25T18:35:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we got a lot done on the gazebo. So far it's been going up pretty easily. We only had to make one little adjustment (not called for in the instructions) and will soon find out if that messed anything up for the roof installation. Keep fingers crossed! it all works out when we get the roof parts up.

First bug to fly into the gazebo and entertain us; but i have no idea what this bug is? if anyone knows, please let me know, cuz he looks like he can be dangerous if that is a stinger at his tail end. He has a very interesting sound when he fly's and his butt area is red and that freaky stinger thing or what ever that is is quite scary. He landed on the back of my chair, but before that he was crawling and flying around the rest of the inside of the gazebo.

And we are so happy so far with the progress....

Erector Set - Gazebo Style

2009-08-18T06:57:00.000-07:00

Our Gazebo arrived last weekend, and last night we decided to start putting the base together. This this coming weekend we can get the spot where it will go all leveled up and hopefully start putting the rest of the pieces together. Now you'd think this would be a relatively easy project. Well most of our projects that is what we think in the beginning, so we'll see what this one brings as the building of it transpires....I made a little piece of art out of the center of the gazebo base, and we really didn't get much done this first day; Clayton got called at work to fix a problem and well it was about midnight when he was done.....So tonight we'll see how the rest of these pieces fit for the base

The gazebo was shipped as a set fully cut and ready to assemble. All the holes are predrilled and the main part of the gazebo is made of Cedar and well our garage smells wonderful right now.

New Hope Pines

2009-08-11T07:16:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned on Saturday's Post, we headed to New Hope Pines on Sunday. We found it this time without any trouble and hiked around the little lake / pond / swamp their, hard to know what that is called. This picture of the trees below Is two pictures stitched together, I printed it out and it's rather beautiful...it measures 12 by 26 in my printed version. There was just enough of a mist or fog to add that peaceful feeling when viewed.

This Description is taken from the website of the WDNR (Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources:

"New Hope Pines features one of the largest and least disturbed northern dry-mesic forests remaining in central Wisconsin and is reminiscent of the vast "pineries" found in this region prior to settlement. A forest of red oak, white oak, and red maple stands beneath the canopy of white and red pines. Though the stand is relatively "young" with only scattered old growth, the dominant white pines are more than 100 feet high and up to two feet in diameter. Shrubs include American hazelnut, northern bush honeysuckle and round-leaved dogwood. Common groundlayer species include bracken fern, wild sarsaparilla, American starflower, large-flowered trillium, Canada mayflower, partridgeberry, and big-leaved aster. The site lies on steep, irregular topography in ground moraine - a legacy of the last glacier. Two small kettle depressions contain sedge meadow and emergent aquatic species in wet years. Resident wildlife includes common raven, pileated woodpecker, and porcupine. New Hope Pines is owned by the DNR and was designated a State Natural Area in 1983."

While we were hiking up one side of the lake, we heard this really loud and unusual sound. There was a tree that fell, and wouldn't you know that tree fell right in the middle of the path. Not blocking it or anything, but still just image if we had been right there at that exact spot that it fell. if we were about 15 minutes earlier we might have been stuck under a tree :-)

Interesting enough, we did not see or hear one single animal or bird.

Fall colors are already starting; seems a little early to me, not supposed to happen till October. But there are only a few stray colored leaves; I just saw this one and thought how pretty, can't wait till all the trees start turning. It's going to be incredible to see.

Above is a Bears Head Tooth Mushroom; never seen one of these before
and below is the picture of the tree we heardfall.

lightning strikes

2009-08-09T12:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon we had an incredible lightning storm complemented with lots of roaring thunder. Well since it was during the day for once, actually late afternoon, I decided to get out from under the trees and go chase the storm. How exciting lightning is...those brilliant flashes and the burst of deep roaring thunder just enliven me. I was thrilled when I came home and found that I actually captured a few strikes, but this one here was my most favorite and so it is posted....along with one of my favorite missed shots but the sky is fantastic looking....

Minister Lake

2009-08-08T14:01:00.000-07:00

Clayton, Sparky and I went for a short little hike this morning. We originally headed out looking for New Hope Pines, where we will be going next weekend for an event with a few local groups, but we were not able to find it. So we just decided to follow a trail we saw that went to Minister Lake. This lake is only a few miles away from the house, which is nice not to have to drive so far; but the hiking trails really don't seem to go very far.

The lake is more like a pond or more of a swamp; it's full of grasses and lily pads, none were really in bloom. Now that would be something to see when those are all in bloom.

We thought for sure there would have been a ton of mosquito's out around this lake, but there really wasn't many. I killed one on the back of Clayton's shirt, I didn't see any land on me (might be because I used some repellent though) this morning while it was still relatively cool out, it was a bit humid and we worked up a bit of a sticky sweat.

There is actually a beaver dam here at the lake, or we think it was, to me it looked more like a pile of small branches and logs, but it was on the waters edge and there was evidence of some beavers with several gnawed off trees. I should have taken a picture of those, but I didn't.

When we got back, I had to do a search on the Internet to see if I could find out how to get to that New Hope Pines area, I know where to go, it must be a very small parking lot, we apparently passed it twice but didn't see it. It must not have signs, but from the map I found it should be almost exactly one mile off of County Road Z and we should find it tomorrow. When we do, I'll write more on that location...hopefully tomorrow :-)

Attempting Macro Photography without a macro lens

2009-08-04T19:42:00.000-07:00

OK, so I've got this thing about wanting to take pictures of insects. Since I'm surrounded by probably millions of them, thought they'd make a great subject and in the meantime maybe I'd learn something about them. Well my attempts till now have been very unsatisfying, but at the same time very motivational. I'm going to rent the macro lens I want to buy since it's back ordered or out of stock everywhere to see how it compares to what I'm able to produce now...so I'll be posting other macro shots soon when I get the rental so we can compare. In researching Marco photography, I'm thinking I may also need to purchase additional items, such as Macro flashes and even magnifying filters...we'll see what I end up with...for now, thinking just the lens will do.

Here is a bug that is freaking me out, and I have no idea what it is, but it looks pretty scary. Also this wasp is eating a spider or some other little bug maybe another one of these freaky things. It's super small too, wish I could have some type of measurement so it's true size could be correctly imagined.

I attempted to photograph several different insects this evening, but these two turned out the best....a bit challenging but fun at the same time....In viewing others work on the internet, there are some fantastic images created using Macro Lenses and hopefully I too, someday soon, will be able to capture some that way.

Humming Bird Frenzy

2009-08-02T18:44:00.001-07:00

The humming birds were going nuts today, I think it was mom's and babies being very territorial. They were really aggressive and I could even hear them hitting each other. I swear one of them speared another with her beak...she had feathers (two of them) stuck to her beak after one major attach. I also have a feeling my humming bird feeder in the front yard is dry....hence the fight for the sweet nectar begins....while most of these pictures do not show that they were fighting over the feeder, know that they were. All of these pictures (accept for the flower shots) where taken when the birds were inches away from the feeder. I have to admit, I even have a couplepictures here where I 'cut' the feeder out of the picture as it was in the middle of the two birds and pasted the bird in and fixed the seam with photoshop so they look much closer together than they were. I'll note which photo's as I post....I darkened the back ground on all of these so the birds pop...

In the picture below, the feeder was just to the left...the two birds were both on the right side of the feeder the one on top is actually above the feeder and just to the right of it..

This one, the feeder is to the right edge, I cropped the feeder out....

This is another one where I cut the feeder out between the two birds so they look like they are aright in front of each other.

and this one too...

This one is GREAT, I love the UPSIDE down bird (bottom left) Incredible...

OK, this is awesome too! I got the birds pee as it's falling....WOW

This flower is in a pot, right below where the feeder is hanging on the deck rail.

What came first?

2009-07-29T20:23:00.001-07:00

The Chipmonk or the Egg?

Photoshopping Sand Hill Cranes

2009-07-26T15:35:00.000-07:00

Down the road from where I live there are lots of corn fields and lots of Sand Hill Cranes. Clayton even sometimes calls me on his way to work to tell me where they are and how close to the road they are and how pretty their heads look. But I've never said, 'Really I better get my camera and drive over there and take some pictures" But this morning, on my way back from taking more pictures of baby cows (you can watch a slide show if you'd like here) I saw them in the field. I had already driven past and thought to myself, why not, go back and see if you can take a picture before they walk too much further away from the road. While I didn't have my 300 MM zoom lens with me, I was stuck with my 135MM and was not too happy with the results of my capture. So I decided to make my own image. I used three different pictures and cloned the edges together, I used the eye ball of the middle one, and copied it to the bird on the left and I enhanced the birds eye on the right as well. SO the moral of the story is...if you can't take the picture you wanted to take, then make one yourself in photoshop :-)

The image above is the one I created...

The image below is one of the three images I used to create it...

Currant Jelly - our first attempt at making jelly

2009-07-26T12:06:00.000-07:00

I've never made jams or jelly's before and either has Clayton. Well Yesterday we did (well He did most of it) You should have seen him pick these berries. Our neighbors were nice enough to tell us we could stop by and pick all we wanted of their Red Currant berries. They don't like them and would have just gone to the birds...so we thought why not! Well we each had our buckets and I swear he picked two or three times as much as me and he didn't want to stop either. He said "When I was growing up and picking berries on my Grandma's farm, I was told never to come back without a full bucket of berries" and well I think that's stuck in his head.

So we got enough for one batch of jelly and had some extra which we saved for juice. Clayton had just bought this really neat apparatus which seeds and juices and dices and or chucks all sorts of stuff, I think it even does pasta sauce...and he was dying to use it. And this is how we used it....

Here are the berries we picked...

and here is Clayon having fun with his new apparatus (juicer, de-seeder etc.)

and see how it juices so easily

and spits out all the stems, seeds and leaves....

Here is the bowl of juice it made (this is not all of it there was more)

and this is the juice being cooked...just starting to boil...

and here are the first set of jars, it made more than it said...
hummmmm like 4 extra jars....

the recipe we followed said it would only make nine jars...well it made 12 (would have made 13 or 14) but we only bought twelve jars....

makes me worry...just a little....that we did something wrong...and it wont set correctly.

I'm really hoping not, because when we tasted this; OMG it was so good...

We have already decided that if it does not set properly we are using it as syrup for our mickey mouse waffles we have them all the time. Yes Clayton's first waffle maker is shaped as mickey mouses head...cute huh?

the american redstart .... another new bird

2009-07-16T20:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, while this bird has been around here for some time, this is the first time I actually had my camera out and took a few pictures of it. Looking up on the Internet, I'd concluded that this bird is the American Redstart; "A boldly patterned warbler of second growth woods, the American Redstart frequently flashes its orange and black wings and tail to flush insect prey from foliage" which is what he did this afternoon while I was out and ready with camera in hand.

It's a Bugs Life

2009-07-16T16:05:00.001-07:00

Ok, this picture really makes me want to get a macro lens! I literally could not see this bug till I zoomed into the picture I took. He's kinda cute dont'cha think? Just imagine how much more detail there would be if I had a really good Macro lens!

Flowers in the yard...and First Berry Pick

2009-07-15T17:38:00.000-07:00

This evening I took a walk in the yard and found a couple nice flowers and picked some berries; I ate them along the way, but this is what I brought home for dessert tonight. Maybe over some ice-cream........maybe.......they are pretty good by themselves.
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The image above has been altered in photoshop. I used an overlay of another image for texture then turned the opacity way down so you could almost see through it, but then played with the hue and saturation till I liked it. I probably couldn't repeat it if I tried as I didn't save the PSD file...silly me! but the fun of playing in Photoshop is just that...playing till you see something you like.

The image below is the original, however it's cropped from the original full capture.

Hasta's will be blooming soon

2009-07-14T16:25:00.000-07:00

I've never had a Hasta before, never even heard of one, but here at the new house, I've got hundreds of them. It seems. Hundreds of stems with lots of budding flowers at least. Really though I might have close to 100 plants and they are all the same type. I've learned since coming here that there are a wide variety of Hasta all different colored foliage and I'd image different flowers too.

So they have all popped up stems and they all have budding blooms just waiting to open. This is a picture of one that is the furthest along. I'm wondering if my humming birds will come to these, as they look like they will be a flower they'd like.

I did a texture overlay on this image and tweaked the coloring and opacity a bit of the textured image (not the flower itself) and thought it turned out not too bad. Stay tuned for more as soon as they are opened fully I will take more.

Cardinal Father feeding his baby....

2009-07-12T14:06:00.000-07:00

This is the cutest thing ever...I have seen two babies so far, they were in different spots I think it would be incredible to have them all together for a family portrait, so I'll keep my eye out for them all. I haven't seen the mother today, she may be with other babies or just out of sight. At first I had thought this was the female, but then soon realized it was just a baby. They shake and quiver the little bodies when he come with some seed. They make a very distinctive little cry too, so I know when they are close by. This happened during our lunch today...I almost burnt my grilled cheese, had to postpone eating too, but worth it...to get these...

Mouse Trap

2009-07-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

You want to laugh at something, try to visualize me setting a mouse trap! And it snapping and peanut butter flying all over, not just once, but over and over again, I for the life of me could not get the darn things to stay set. I even got my pinky finger caught; got a blood blister. Then I went down to the basement; I did this not because I’ve seen evidence of mice dropping but because I swore the other day I heard them scurrying in the ceiling while I was in the basement….so thought maybe it was mice. We will see. So I got up on a chair and slide the darn things up in the opening to where the finished basement ceiling is…and one of them snapped as I put it up and I jerked so much the other one went off in my other hand, yeah peanut butter went flying again. So then I set the one, the other one I couldn’t reach anymore and then freaked out at the thought of this large massive huge rat approaching the trap….Sparky had been outside, but then I realized it was Sparkys paw nails tapping on the floor above as he walked across the floor. I swear it was a rat; not a mouse from the sound of it. so who knows what I really heard if we don’t have mice, then I might have been birds…I’ll let you know if I catch one…I caught one!

Project Bochie Ball....More....Sunday

2009-07-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

Our third day into the project, we managed to get the main top part of the frame done; level and somewhat almost perfectly square. To two Virgo's who have perfectionist tendencies, we decided to live with what we came out with...which really wasn't that far off...we did manage to get it perfectly level. Thanks to the 100 foot water level we used (that is the green hose looking thing in the middle of the court you will see in the pictures). At first when we realized that the level of the court was over 3 feet different from the front to the back I thought for sure the water level was lying, but hey water doesn't lie! Water levels to absolute level; no matter how level you think your ground is by sight don't trust what you see...use a water level first before starting any project that is going to require leveling....the water level tells the truth. Whether you want to see it or not.

Project Bochie Ball continues....

2009-07-06T19:13:00.000-07:00

So Saturday we slowed down, way down. We had trouble, we had trumpet, we had frustration, we had a decision to make...to keep going or to reconsider entirely. In the end we both decided to keep going. Even though we will more than likely need TWO more 20 TON Truck loads of decomposed granite delivered...that is 40 ton's more to shovel. OR if 1 ton equals 2,000 pounds then we have 80,000 more pounds of rock to move, before our court can be played on.

Saturday progressed very slowly; I for one was not feeling super energetic, still feeling a little beat from Friday shoveling the first pile of decomposed granite. Our planning skills were not to par, but we managed to overcome our lack of planning and just went with the flow and dealt with the frustrations of a bochie ball court that was not coming out square or even or straight. We sat and we thought, I sat and rested more...sat and thought what are we doing...why aren't these posts lining up, why didn't our holes we dug with the auger line up...why isn't this first section square..why...why...cry....why?

Creating an in line squared and level bochie ball court is not easy...but it is doable! Here are the pictures from Saturday....

ok, so we did rent an auger, but when Clayton returned it he bought a post hole digger;

we/he had to basically redig every hole...

The photo above is as far as we got by lunch time...

The photo below....late afternoon....

and by end of day....

shoveling 20 tons of crushed granite...by hand

2009-07-03T19:02:00.000-07:00

Clayton got this idea about a bochic ball court in our front yard and hasn't stopped talking about it since we moved here. We will also put a gazebo up and maybe a deck around the back end. It will be so nice when it is finished...but how long will it take to be finished is the question....

First off, we really thought the outline of the court was not that off level. Well looks can be so deceiving! I mean real deceiving. This morning we brought out the water level and realized the back end was about 3 feet lower than the front end. We didn't expect that at all, we thought maybe a foot off, but not 3 feet. (maybe even more haven't measured) We had over 20 tons of decomposed granite delivered. In hindsight the truck driver should have poured directly into our court and moved up slowly as he poured...would have saved us so much work in moving it.

So it took us ALL day to move 18-19 tons of rock! Shovel by Shovel, Wheel Barrel by Wheel Barrel. (21.68 tons were delivered that is a full truck load)

The funny thing is; it really doesn't look like we did much work at all. When you see these pictures, it just doesn't seem like it would take ALL day to move from the spot it was dumped to the location in the court. Our goal was to get the court leveled today, well we pooped out before we got it all moved over and also decided we'll need to put up the retaining walls and court borders before we can finish leveling and packing the rock inside the court. That happens tomorrow....

The outline of the court; now doesn't this look pretty level?

You can barely see it in the photo but it's outlined in yellow string...

This was a huge looking truck;

that little pile sure doens't like like 21.68 Tons of Rock does it?

The Pile; looked so small at first,

but then by the end of the day seemed to be never ending...

I'm just so happy it's shaddy in this location

look how far down our pile went, but look how little it seems there is in the court

At times however we really did feel like we were making a dent

but by the end of the day...sure didn't seem like much

Cranberry Fields in Bloom

2009-06-30T06:59:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was the Cranberry Festival in Wisconsin Rapids. They advertised several days of actives and tours of the cranberry fields in bloom and I was all excited imaging how beautiful they must look.

We ended up taking a drive out there, but did not make it to any of the activities, we drove the 29 mile bike route through the country and fields of cranberry. When we finally got out of the car to look at them closer I have to admit, I was just a little disappointed. I had imagined them being much more bigger blooms and much more colorful field; as it was you could barely see the blooms. However, I got super excited when I saw the double winged dragonfly right next to the field we stopped at. Seems most of these cranberry fields have water canal surrounding them....they were full of dragonflies, lily pads some were even in bloom, Sand Hill Cranes and even Blue Heroins. Here are just a few pictures along the way....
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This last picture, as you might notice, is not a cranberry field,

I just thought it made a nice landscape image.

Since I thought I killed the Raccoon

2009-06-23T06:48:00.000-07:00

I was actually happy when my dog went baazerk yesterday afternoon as the Raccoon came to the deck to get some birdseed. It was so early too, full sunshine and all. Well, I ended up scaring the little guy off just to calm the dog down, but did notice that he looked a little ratty and thin. I had put ant bait traps out the other week and soon after noticed three of them missing, one had bite marks or claw marks on it and the plastic was broken and the bait was half eaten and was just laying on top of the deck railing, so I know it wasn't the dog. The other two just plain were gone. I have no idea of who or what carried those two off. Since that time I hadn't seen or heard anything to do with the Raccoon and so I concluded that he died from eating the ant bait.

Well He's Back...maybe he got sick and decided not to come back around for a while, but I felt so sorry for him that when he came back later in the evening, when it was just getting dark, I let him stay and eat. And eat he did for over an hour, notice the feeder is full, this morning when I went out, it was empty down to the last flower. Sparky was actually pre-occupied with a stuffed bone and did not even notice him out there. I probably make more problems by doing this, but he really is cute look at this little face as he took a break from eating the sunflower seeds and came to drink some water...then went right back to the seeds.

Ten Acres of Blackberries ripening up soon....

2009-06-21T14:17:00.000-07:00

They literally are everywhere throughout the property and I'm sure the birds will get most of them, but I'm really hoping that I can be motivated enough to make some jam (I'll have to make it seedless style as I don't like jam with seeds) I've never made jam before, so will be interesting and will have to go buy all the tools I'll need, and I might even bake a berry cobbler. I am almost positive this is a Blackberry, and I'm pretty sure we have some Raspberries too.

The berry above is what I think are the blackberries;

we have way more of these around; they are everywhere

The berry below is what I think are raspberries;

these are only in a few spots here and there.

I'll find out soon if I'm right on my guessing the type of berry!

And as usual while I was out taking pictures of the berries, I saw this flower

then I saw this beetle. The neon color really caught my eye...

I also saw a frog that I almost stepped on; a pretty nice sized mushroom, a round fuzzy thing attached to a tree limb, two beetles with the longest feelers I've ever seen mating and I also saw a few other things, but it is muggy and buggy today, the flies, mosquitoes and bees or whatever buzzes you right around your ears were really bugging me.

Scarlet Tanager came back........AND..... not one, not two, but three Baby Deers...

2009-06-20T10:51:00.001-07:00

This morning was a little exciting, not only because of this; seeing the Scarlet Tanager again, but because I thought we only had one baby deer, but there really are three. I was just watching from inside the house, as the few times I'd gone out on the deck I scared the mom deer away and along with her went the baby, so this time we watched from inside the house. The deer were in our 'mud puddle' or their water hole drinking as it's pretty warm out today. Then all the sudden I see that there is a second baby, then a third. The were so cute, they were running in and out of the water, chasing each other up the hill and then ran back down into the water again. We watched for several minutes before I couldn't stand not taking a picture any longer. I had to get the camera and sneak out as quite as possible, the opportunity was too good to pass up. And as usual, once I got out there I think the mom sensed me and left, and I didn't see the baby's any more. But a moment later, I did. There were only the two babies, the third must have gone up the hill with mom, and then they made their way back down to the mud puddle to play and I snapped away...

It was during this time I noticed the RED of the scarlet tanager land on the tree above. Quickly I changed my focus and while I didn't get the shots I had hoped for, you know perfectly focused and lighting just right, I did manage to get this which is a little grainy and a touch out of focus but still ok I think to post.

Critters and Buggies

2009-06-14T18:48:00.000-07:00

Today started with me going out to photograph a plant that I don't know the name of. It had little tiny flowers (not opened yet) that dangle from the leave above it. It's hidden really, but anyways, that is not what I'm posting, I just started with that picture and seems that lead to another and another and another, but of different critters and bugs I saw today.

Before we got the railroad ties moved from the front to the back yard, I was playing ball with Sparky. I went out to the yard to pick up his tennis ball and found that there was a slug on it. I thought, wow a slug, wouldn't that be interesting to photograph. So I did....

Then we moved the railroad ties, and Clayton saw this caterpillar on the fence and commented about how colorful it was with the blue spots and the orange...well we'd just moved two of the railroad ties and I needed to rest...so I rested by running in and grabbing the camera to take its picture.

Then while we were digging the dirt for our garden bin, Clayton noticed this inch worm. He was sort of spazzing out and the top part of his entire body would lift off the leaf and swing far to the right then back to the left...it did that several times, but I liked this shot of him straight on...

Then this moth I think it is, seems a little fuzzy for a butterfly, well it landed and just stayed the entire time we dug...so I had to take it's picture too...interesting look with the thin brown stripe going through the wing.

So after we finished with digging the dirt, Clayton went to the store to buy the pete-moss and the veggies to plant. While he went shopping, I went back out for another little nature walk and came across a few other critters....This spider below, name unknown and hopefully not poisonous or deadly, because they are everywhere, was just sitting here on the leave. To the right of this one was two others and we've seen them everywhere, accept for in the house...so far that is.

Then I saw a little red spot on a green leave, and at a closer look turned out to be this little cute lady bug, at least i think it's a lady bug and not some other type of ladybug looking beetle. This guys head is so amazing, seems a little different than what I'd think a lady bug head would look like, and his eyes, this little bugs got the buggiest of eyes...and they are slightly blue or a light grey...so pretty....but I also think we get infested with these guys...

And then there is this fly...a fly? I'm sure it's a type of fly, just don't know what kind, but these guys are everywhere. They love the dirt too when freshly dug up. This one had the most beautiful red eyes I've ever seen...hahahah

And then there is the picture I didn't get; of a double winged dragon fly...I hope I am able to caputre that one another day, it didn't stay landed long enough for me to take it's picture or to see it super clearly, but from what I did see of it got me really wanting badly to capture its picture. The obession of the need to photograph the double winged dragon fly has taken over me....to be continued.

Operation Gnome - - - The garden has been planted

2009-06-14T18:20:00.000-07:00

Clayton has been talking about starting a garden now for two months, and today, we finally got it started and planted. We used railroad ties for the frame, (these are heavy and moving just the three we used just about killed me) we decided it would be better to built up rather than dig down to plant the goods. We dug a few weekends ago to plant some flowers and well I think we dug up more rocks than we did plant flowers.

We ended up digging up some of the earth on the top side of the property and it took two trailer load full worth of dirt to fill in the frame. (see the trailer to the right of Clayton in the background in the picture above) Our dirt is rather sandy, and so we also got two large bags of pete-moss and added that to the dirt we dug up to add additional nutrients.

The garden since it is a little late in season only includes the following veggies: Four different types of tomatoes, three different types of bell peppers, one is a black bell pepper and the inside is supposed to be red; this one will be interesting to see and taste. We also got brussels sprouts and one basil plant. We did want a few other varieties, but since it's late, they were out of the others we wanted. That filled the bed up. We watered; now we wait.

I hope raccoons don't eat garden plants, and I also hope Sparky doesn't dig, pee or poop in there either.

I asked Clayton what he wanted to call his Garden and he said, "Operation Gnome" you know what that means...time to go shopping for some garden gnomes to have something watching over it.....

Iverson Park - a walk in the midst of unspoiled beauty

2009-06-08T06:21:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning we heading out with our dog for a nice walk at Iverson Park. I didn't know about this park until Saturday when we drove past it on our way back from the grocery store. I saw a glimse of this bridge and river from the road as we drove past, the picture above and below is what made me really want to go there. So I did a search on-line and found out that they actually allow dogs! I was excited as I started to think most places around here did not want dogs around. The last two lakes we went fishing at specifically say No Dogs allowed. While there I learned that they also rent canoes and you can take a four hour trip down the river and then have the company pick you up down river and bring you back. That will be something we do for sure before too long I hope or in the fall. They say the river will go down quite a bit during the summer and that Spring and Fall would be the best time to go. I'm thinking Fall...I'm thinking fall colored leaves will be incredible to see.

There is also a pretty nice sized pond that this trail goes around (pretty sure it's part of McDill Pond), and I'll be going back when the weather is nicer for some better birding opportunities. I only saw Red Winged Black Birds, a few ducks and some other identified bird that landed on the cat tails pretty much the same way the Black Birds do. (so I just did an Internet search for Female Red Winged Black Birds and guess what? That unnamed bird I just mentioned is the Female version of the Red Winged Black Bird; wow what a complete difference in the way they look compared to the male) Oh and some type of bird that swoops down and skims the water for little insects and fans it's tail out while doing do. Looked to have a white strip at the end of the tail...not sure what that species is...Will try for a picture of that next time....

And then there was NONE - - - Day 7

2009-06-06T18:12:00.000-07:00

I have a feeling the Raccoon got them...if it was the raccoon, then he's not such a cute raccoon after all...The nest is empty and I am very sad..........That's all I have to say about that........

Sparky's Coon Hunting....

2009-06-05T18:05:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back (May 12th to be exact) I talked about getting a bigger bird feeder and attached it to the post of our deck out back. Shortly after that, Sparky started hearing something at night and would bark up a storm and would literally slam himself into the sliding glass door to get out. I had a feeling what it was, what other types of critters come out after dark....and so I did not let him out. I'm afraid of what might happen if Sparky got cornered by it. The last few weeks I've had several sleepless nights, as Sparky would go running and barking down from the bedroom and into living room wanting to so badly get out and after what was lurking in the night on the deck. It got so bad that I actually started putting his leash on at night and would strap the leash to my arm, so he wouldn't be able to cause all the ruckus and I was able to control him enough to get him back to sleep quickly....Yes even I heard the little pitter patter of the critter feet running across the deck after midnight.

So last night Sparky acted up again while we were watching TV, he went crazy and moaned and whined and shook, he did it all. He wanted out so bad he could hardly stand it. So I decided to put his leash on and put him in a down stay in my reclining chair which is positioned where he cannot see out the sliding glass door. I on the other hand sat on the floor in front of the window and waited...watching and waiting till I saw it for sure! It is a Raccoon! The cutest darn thing you've even seen. Sparky was being a good boy and stayed where I had put him so the raccoon decided I was not a threat and climbed up the post to my feeder.

Well I've been battling with the squirrels too since I put that feeder up, and so I only put a days worth of bird seed in it and I knew there wasn't that much left...so I let the raccoon scoop what he could get and eat away till there was none.....

OK, so this evening, it's not even dark outside, the sun was barely even starting to set, and I'm looking out the front window. I'm known to see animals all the time usually while we are hiking that actually turn out to be stumps or rocks in the end. So I said to Clayton, have you ever noticed on that tree at the end of the nub it sort of looks like a Raccoon. He replied, yeah I've noticed that too. I kept looking and I swore it was the tree, but something made me grab the binoculars and look a bit more closely. Oh my god! it was the raccoon, not just an design in the tree that looked like one. I grabbed my camera and stepped out the front door and snapped away. Check this series of shots out! We've got ourselves a little raccoon living in our tree. I've also decided to start taking in the bird feeders now; as we don't really want to encourage a yummy smorgasbord for this guy on a nightly basis.

and then there was ONE - - - Day 6

2009-06-05T17:51:00.001-07:00

I was very sad to see that this morning there was only one baby left. It grew a lot too, that nest definitely was not big enough for four babies let alone two. The black marking I mentioned in Day 5 are much more distinct now, and he popped up high enough to see almost to his wing tips. I believe over the weekend he should start getting some pin feathers. I hope at least, as this little naked baby needs some warmth. It's supposed to rain all weekend.....

Day 5

2009-06-05T06:22:00.000-07:00

They didn't seem to have changed much since day 4; but I keeping wishing I could see more of their bodies. Their bodies have stripes of dark area's where I would think the feathers will start coming in at. One thing I did notice today was their their beaks are starting to look like a birds beak now. I think they are getting harder and there is a little tiny nostril hole of some sort showing now.

What Ugly Babies - - - Day 4

2009-06-04T06:44:00.000-07:00

I'm posting a day behind again, so these were taking June 3rd, and as they are getting bigger, they are not getting any prettier. I think they are sort of ugly, but in a cute sort of way. The longer I look at them the less they look like birds. They look like some kind of alien creatures to me. Their eyes are open now, they were sort of open on Day 3 too, but today I could tell that both of them had eyes opened.

The Mom continues to clean up the nest, she eat little feathers and I'm sure all their discarded ingestion's, this one picture below when you see it you can almost hear the baby screaming as if the mom is squishing it to death. There was another time I saw her sitting on the nest, and the little baby's head sort of peaked out; it was as if the baby was playing peek-a-boo.

Also Dad brought a large beak full of worms and such and shared with the mom; after that swamping of food, they both stayed and fed each of the babies.

The Two Survivors - - - Day 3

2009-06-03T06:05:00.000-07:00

I didn't get these posted yesterday, but these were taking June 2, 2009. A sad day to find that only two are going to make it. Not too sure why or what happened to the other two, but I notice the day before that one of them looked to be much smaller than the other three. I was anticipating one less, but not two. The strange thing is that I could swear, I saw the dad pull one of the dead ones out of the nest and fly away with it. Coincidence that I just so happened to be glued to my tripod and camera at that same exact moment? Maybe, but the pictures of that series were not quite clear enough to tell for sure, but that is my guess.

Robin Babies - - - Day 2

2009-06-01T19:50:00.000-07:00

The second day was a good day. We still have all four babies. I kind of wonder if they will all make it; as once they start getting bigger that nest is going to get real small. I saw a variety of food today being shoved down throats of the babies. Worms all kinds and colors, wasps and flies to name a few I recognized. It really is interesting to me how much these babies can eat. I mean they feed them continuously all day long till it gets dark, and they just shove whole huge chucks of bugs and insects down....

One of the things I saw today was that the Dad would fly in with the food in his beak and hand off to the Mom's beak, then the mom would feed. Then there was this time where both fed the babies at the same time.

It really is amazing how the mom just cleans up too. She pokes her head down to the bottom of the nest cleaning up after them I image. Babies do poop right but there is no poop to be seen on the sides of the nest or anywhere for that matter....well lets see if that holds true in a few more days.

The Dad got into a fight today. Made me wonder who was threatening them. I could not make out what type of bird it was, but I heard them fight.

The Baby Robins Have Arrived - - - Day 1

2009-05-31T15:44:00.000-07:00

It's been exactly ten days since I posted...gonna have babies soon. I'm not positive they were born today, there is a slight chance they came yesterday, but I was not home to notice. However, today there are four new happy and hungry baby Robins in my tree. It is interesting to watch as the mom and dad take turns feeding them. The mom is the only one that will sit on them, but the dad comes with some tasty looking treats that is for sure. This series of posts will be fun. I am going to attempt to post a new pictures each day until they leave the nest. And for as many pictures as I took today, I've narrowed them down to just six...so enjoy...they are too cute in a strange bird way!

Meet our dad...Mr. Robin

He brings such green yummy worms for us...

Look at this ones eyes...they are popping right out of its head

Meet our Mom...Mrs. Robin

Mom brings the juicy worms

If you look carefully in this one you will see the four beaks

Mom shoves them way down deep in their throat

Look at the peach fuzz illuminated by the light....