Give me the dirt! And add some spit....

This is a satellite photo of one of our earth's excavating holes:



Well, not exactly a satellite photo, but I did use my macro lens for the shot. It is excavation at it's finest, but it's not from big equipment the size of apartment buildings. It's from these two yellow jackets.





They were so busy ballin up this dirt to haul off and build their nests.





At first they'd dart around testin the softness of the dirt. Then they'd decide on a good spot and hunker down to start diggin.





As they dug up the dirt they would coat the ball in saliva. You can see the ball start to form.



Now he's added the saliva and it looks all slick and smooth:



When they had enough mud, they would stand on their forelegs with their ass-end in the air, packin the ball of mud tightly, before they lifted of into the air. I didn't get a good picture of that because they were so stinkin fast once they decided they had enough mud.



Not to sound like a nature-environmental-tree-huggin-birkenstock-wearin-don't-believe-in-washing-my-body-type of freak, but it was pretty neat to watch these two. Wherever they took the mud didn't take long because in about 45 seconds, they were back. Come to think of it.....maybe there were a whole bunch of them and I just didn't know. They were all wearin those same yellow jackets with no name tags.

Grass-I love it!

I mean the green grass, now. The stuff that grows in your yard and makes up what's known as your lawn! I love it when it's fresh cut and manicured. I love the smell of it and the feelin you get when it's all trimmed up.









We've got an area up front, the buffalo waller, that E has seeded. It's comin along pretty good considering the dogs and foot traffic. Wyatt and I poked a bunch of sticks along the edges of the 'baby grass' (as Wy, the trail boss, likes to call it).

You can see them here, in front of Prix, the ever-watchful, hopeful farm dog. The sticks do a good job of keepin humans off the 'baby grass' but not so much the dogs. We have some areas of 'baby grass' that are small. We haven't put sticks around them. Wy is very mindful of those areas too and always walks around them. He's also very good at reminding people to not walk on the 'baby grass'. I'm tellin ya, the trail boss knows how to boss!

Thursday Morning Calm

This morning I had visitors with my cup of coffee. It was the good kinda visitors bein that early and all in the mornin. I only wish Wy would've woke up early to be out there with us. I know that I've been wantin him to go back to his old schedule of sleepin in but this mornin was different. It was a pair of ducks from down at the creek. They've been nesting in our neighbors yard and I guess they decided they needed an early mornin stroll through everyone else's yards to scroung up some grub.







There they go. Thanks for sharin the mornin with me. It was the calm before the storm for the three of us. Quite literally for them.

Hope your morning chow was as good as my cup of joe!

Guns, Doves and Daffodils

Friday, March 20, 2009

Well, like I've mentioned before, which is pretty darn obvious, we are an outdoors family. Grass, mud, tree buds, sticks-all have made permanent residency in our house. Oh, not that I really really WANT them there but it happens and I'm okay with that. Last week we had a 4 ft long branch on the blanket that covers the piano keys. After a couple days I finally tossed it outside. It made it's way back in within HOURS! I don't really understand. No one played with it the whole time it was on the piano and then, like it has legs of its own, it shows back up in the house almost immediately. And I never know who the culprit is: Buster, our lab, or Wyatt.
Monday was a gorgeous day! I called up my friend who lives about 40 min. out of town and within an hour the boys, rifles, dogs and I were packed up and headed out to Kendra's place (http://kendras-bliss.blogspot.com/). We ate our packed lunch and was outside the entire afternoon. We all got some good sun. We set up cans and bottles on the treeline and spent an hour puttin holes in them with my Ruger bolt action .22 and Wyatt's inheritted Henry lever-action .22.

Kendra taught Riverlyn all about a rifle and how to shoot. Riverlyn did great! She shot the Ruger 3 times. JD was unphased by the shots and Wy, for some reason, didn't like it. I think he's used to the fuse being lit on a firework and giving him the second or two to get ready for the blast. I tried letting him know it was gonna 'boom' just before we shot but that still didn't work.
On Tuesday, at lunch, Wyatt kept sayin he heard an owl. I told him it was a dove. Then he kept sayin, 'see? see? there's the dove mama!" I looked outside and sure enough, there she was. After a minute of callin to her, her mate sailed in and took his rightful place beside. We took a couple pictures and had fun watching them.


We've also been watchin cardinals out front:

And tryin to keep this guy away:

Wyatt's been very busy in the yard doin what 2 yr olds do best: shootin his 'guns' and playin in the dirt.

JD has been very entertained by Wyatt. He's been playin on the blanket and spending time in the jumper and walker when we're outside. We've taken the boys and the dogs on walks down to the creek a lot lately. As soon as JD sees the wagon his legs start kickin and he starts yelling.

My flowers are poppin up all over and I'm really glad because the seeds in my indoor flats are just comin up and it's too risky to plant them outside yet.

One Black Widow Down

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

I don't know if she's THE one, but she's at least one down. I was going thru the backyard just 15 min. ago and saw the bag to the lawn mower beside the gate. It had a pool of water in it so I decided to flip it over. Uh! I've got the heebie geebies, or the creepy crawlies, or whatever you want to call it now. There she was. Long spindly legs. Shiny black bulging body. Bright red hourglass. AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! I just had to get that out. Sorry. After I sprayed her I ran in to get a glass jar. And yes, I used a stick to get her into it. But then I had to open the jar to get some good pics otherwise they would be really really blurry thru the glass. Just as I got the last picture she started to get a second wind on her last life and she...she...uhm...started squiggling around. Lucky for me the glass must be hard to climb up because I got the lid .. she got off her back and onto her legs. She's paying for that one! I closed the lid TIGHT!! Just look at her!

She's...she's...uh...anyone else feel like something's crawling on them? I wanted to make sure I got her red hourglass lest anyone think I was lying about what a monumentous and grand day this is.

Dang! It's not real clear. But it's there. And now she's resting, dying a slow, painful, agonizing death in an airtight jar on my kitchen widow, I mean window, sill. I hope she dies a thousand deaths over and has NEVER had babies! I'm declaring war if she has! Good God I hope she hasn't!

One more, just for the heck of it......

Okay, I'm D-O-N-E!!!!

Ready Or Not Fall Is Comin

Sep 3, 2008

Ready or not fall is coming but I'M. NOT. READY!!!! I thought I was a week ago but only for the reason that I love excuses to bake more and decorate the house and hole up with a good book. But I'm not ready. I enjoy the heat and the sun and the ability to be outside and not freeze. I love the water. I miss the water.

I think I'm fighting the thought of it turning cooler and cold because we haven't been able to camp at all this year. I've taken the boys to the lake only twice!! Hopefully it will still be really warm this month. The last couple of years it has been really warm into the first 2 weeks of October! Just 2 and 3 Octobers ago I was wakeboarding in the beginning of the month! I want that for this year! With this cool weather I've been thinking of chili and ham and beans and homemade bread. Today I turned off the AC and opened up the windows to air the house out. I have to shut them all before E comes home so his allergies don't get any worse than they already are. I did think about clearing out some flower beds but decided to cut my herbs and throw them in the dehydrator instead. It's weird how the coolness changes your plans for the day. I took down all the glass oil lamps and the glass shades on the fans and washed them. What does that have to do with fall and winter coming? I have no idea but I do it every time it starts to cool down. I want to wash the curtains and clean out dresser drawers. And I want to see if any of the my winter clothes are going to fit me soon. The jeans E told me to buy are comfortable now so that's a plus!! And the boys have slept solid the whole afternoon with the fresh air. Oh wait, Wyatt is yelling "MAMA! MAMA!' but he did sleep 3 1/2 hours!

Last night he grabbed the cooler E uses for his lunch and headed for the door. When E asked him where he was going Wyatt said 'goin to work. bye bye!'

Last week I caught him trying to be a help. I think it would've only resulted in T-R-O-U-B-L-E!!


Good Lord! What's in store for us?

Spare Time

Date: Aug 15, 2008

So in my spare time, of which I have so much I don't know what to do with and I'm going crazy from the boredom of taking care of our own to boys, two other boys, the laundry, the dogs, the pool, the floors, the toys and numerous other things, I take pictures of Humming Birds in my front yard. I sit out there when I've hours to do nothing in the afternoon and watch. Yesterday I saw a Humming bird drink nectar from one of my impatiens. (Yes, the same kind of flower that gets mashed by alcohol- laden feet) Then he flew over to the sparkly things on my 4th of July wreath (yes, I know it's August) which was not 4 ft in front of me! That got me thinkin. I could stir up some nectar and clean out my feeder and have a ton of these birds to watch! Wyatt would LOVE it! So that's what I did. I made some nectar, added red food coloring to be more attractive to the little hummers and WA-LAH! I was sitting out there an hour or so later and two different birds came to drink. And if you're wondering how I know it was two different ones, size does matter. I've actually had 3 come to feed. Two adults and one very small bird. Today I walked out the door and the small one was drinking. I grabbed my phone and turned on the camera, sitting under the feeder to get a picture. It only took 15 minutes before this little one came back

While I was waiting a worm slid across my toe and scared the crap outta me! It was only a worm but it wasn't in the right place or at the right time. The picture sucks but I don't have time or the concentration to fix it. There's a kid in the room whining but his mom would NOT be happy with me if I got him out of bed now.