Thursday, May 19, 2011

19 May, 2011 -- Getting ready to fly

Testing new engine
Testing new wings.
When I checked on the baby bluebirds, a couple of them "flew" out of the box. One baby was able to fly a few yards, but I caught up and put it back. The second one wasn't as ready to fly; made it to the ground and ran. For now they are safe back in their nest box. Tomorrow might be a different story.

Monday, May 16, 2011

16 May, 2011 -- Critters in the long grass




Took him out of the grass to take a portrait,
but he wouldn't open up.


Cell phone shot.

Friday, May 6, 2011

6 May, 2011 -- Coming home

Is that Dad? Coming home from Missouri? Yahoo!

Iowa corn fields are getting planted. By July, you won't be able to see the horizon!
Hey, Dad! Welcome home!
LAD helps unload the plane.
Then... joyriding! Yee-haw!
Faster, Dad!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

25 April, 2011 -- Toad strangler continues

Another lightning storm... and more rain... of the 10.5 inches so far in April, 8.5 of it has come in the last 5 days. There are benefits to living on top of the hill.


Frogs love it. Randy caught hail with his cell phone camera a few days ago. I was in Jeff City then, helping Cam become 11. That's his best bud Jack. I tried to make off with his new math book, but had to give it back.

Cam's b-day bunch.
This is a pie...
I mean, it's a cake, but it's a, uh, pi cake.
For those of you not pi-inclined, it's a math thing. Sam made it... uh, Samantha. Sorry.
We all went for a benefit CF walk for Izzy, she's 3. That's Grams Monica, Ralph, Gramps Roger with Izzy, Dev and Samantha.
After the walk, we retraced the path and found a geocache, over the river and through the woods, quick before the poison ivy gets any taller!!!

Yeah, Samantha's a student driver, and Dad's got that "deer-in-the-headlights" look.

Speaking of "through the woods", Ben and Randy and I dove into it today, collected a mess of morel shrooms for Ben's supper. I don't know how many chicks and tiggers we collected, but the blackberry bushes collected some flesh... it's spring, folks, and the going' ain't easy down thar in the brambles.


Amaryllis in bloom, has 4 of these on a single 3 foot long stem in a little bittie pot... it toppled over today, had to tie it up. Supposed to bloom at Christmas time. Things don't always happen on time around here!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

19 April, 2011 -- Before the storm

Before the storm, I went for a walk around the pond.
Kermit eyed me, splashed away. It was quiet. Then the wind came up.

Incoming cold front.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

17 April, 2011 -- Chomp chomp chomp

Looks like some nightmare chomper bug coming for us!
Landed on the runway,
made some hasty repairs, then...
lifted off and came right at the house... dragonfly chomp chomp CHOMP
Hmmm, crunchy on
the outside, soft in the middle...
We didn't look tasty enough,
so it just chomp chomp chomp went away chomp chomp chomp.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

7 April, 2011 -- So quiet... so loud!

Atlantic coast, Fort Pierce, Florida... so quiet, and so many shells.


The air show at Sun & Fun, Lakeland, Florida.
SO LOUD!
Warbirds
Sean Tucker
The Navy Blue Angels.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Sunday, March 27, 2011

26 March, 2011 -- Spring! ... or not

It's supposed to be spring...
by daylight,
or by streetlight.
It didn't look like spring in Jeff City today!