Wednesday Whispers

Wednesday Whispers

Wednesday Whispers

The New Colt - Video

I shot this video of the new colt and his mama, CC, this morning. Both are doing well, and CC is being a great mom!

We Have a Baby!

Ok, well not a human baby! My neighbor's mare, CC, gave birth to a black colt last night. Here are some of the pics! I'm keeping this short as I'm excited about getting over to the barn this morning!

Wednesday Whispers

Wednesday Whispers

(Janis, this one's for you!)

Wednesday Whispers

Caterpillars

We have alot of scarlet milkweed growing in our yard. This particular plant is know for attracting monarch butterflies. It's very easy to grow and will spread like wild fire. Some people don't like it because it actually has an "ugly" stage. After the leaves are big and green and the little flowers have sprouted, the caterpillars move in and feed on the plants. They will devour every last leaf and bloom (if you look really closely at the pictures, you can actually see where the caterpillars have been taking bites of the leaves). That's when the ugly stage happens. The plant is left with no leaves or blooms...just long twig like branches. But what's really neat, especially for someone like me who has trouble growing stuff is that these plants will grown right back. A few weeks after the ugly stage starts, we snip the twig like branches down so that they are only a few inches long (we've had some grow to over 3 feet). The plants will come back again bigger and bushier than before. I'm not really sure what the "season" is for these plants because they seem to go through multiple cycles each year. While we haven't seen any yet this year, in past years we've actually seen the caterpillars form their cocoons on these plants and were able to watch the monarch butterflies emerge. I'll have to keep a close eye on them this year as it seems like we have more caterpillars than ever.

Wednesday Whispers

Wednesday Whispers

Wildlife

I think I've mentioned in a previous post that I love living in a rural area because of the variety of wildlife that makes its home here. After I pulled out of the driveway this morning, I noticed this wood stork over by the canal so I snapped a picture with my cell phone. There was a second one on the other side of the canal, but I didn't get it in the shot.

We've also had an abundance of snakes in the yard this year. They like hanging out in the landscaping we have around the pool. More than once I've been surprised by them when I've pushed the big leaves of the philodendron aside to pull weeds and found one curled up. Dave thinks its kind of funny...me not so much!!! Usually they are just black snakes which for the most part are harmless. I've also seen more rabbits this year then in all the past years combined. So far, we've only seen them at night, so I haven't been able to get any pictures. I just hope they stay away from the vegetables!

The picture of the hogs was snapped one day when I was going to have lunch with Dave. To me, the funniest thing about it wasn't that their was a family of hogs on the side of the road, but that its so normal, no one around me gave them a second look!

Where did the Weekend Go?

I can't believe this last weekend went by so fast! I had so many things on my to do list and wasn't able to get one of them crossed off. It wasn't for lack of trying, it was just that so many other things came up. Needless to say, Dave and I accomplished alot, just not the things I had planned.

We did manage to get the motorcycles out for a long ride on Sunday morning. The weather was so nice. We decided to go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. There happens to be one about 20 miles from the house...but that's not the one we went to. We rode to the one about 90 miles away! We took the scenic route there and I actually saw two bald eagles sitting atop an electrical pole. On the way home, we took I-95 to make the trip a little quicker.

I'm just amazed sometimes at how quickly the time passes. I often find myself on Mondays wishing for the weekend to get here as quickly as possible, and then I realize, I'm wishing my life away! I really need to stop doing that! Seems like we were just celebrating New Year's and now it's almost May!

Quick Post

Just a quick post for now as I it seems like I have a hundred different things going on! But that's a good think...keeping my hands busy keeps me from putting food in my mouth (I tend to eat out of boredom or lack of anything better to do)!

I accomplished the goals I had set for myself Thursday so I was happy for that. And Dara was happy I finally finished her bracelet! I am 9 days into forming my exercise habit and things are going well. I've worked out on 7 of those 9 days so that's something else I'm happy about.

Yesterday was busy!!! The local preserve, Grassy Waters Preserve held it's annual native plant and tree sale. The soil/dirt in our yard isn't the best (the builders never give you the good stuff when they build a house) and it seems we sometimes have a hard time growing anything but weeds! We decided trying some native plants might give us the help we need as the native stuff will be a little more tolerant of the sandy soil. The sale itself was a lot of fun because of the way they do it. The plants and trees are donated, so there is a limited supply, and the prices are pretty good. The sale started at 9:00am, and you could only browse prior to that. Well, at 9:00am, they yell "go" and everyone runs out and grabs what they can. Dave and I had pretty much decided what we wanted. He ran over and grabbed the trees (two royal palms, a red maple and a gumbo limbo) and I grabbed the plants (I couldn't even tell you the names but they all attract butterflies) and some grasses (dwarf faxahatchee...very, very low maintenance).

After that we headed to the airport to pick up a friend's car. They charge way too much in the airport lot, so we picked up the car and brought it back to the house, and will drop it back off in the lot the day she comes back in. Then to Harbor Freight Tools...Dave loves that place and I'm starting to grow fond of it myself. Dave picked up some small stuff, and I found a dapping/doming set which I can't wait to start experimenting with later today. All the pieces are really oily, so I have some clean up to do first. We picked up some lunch and went to Home Depot for a few other things. Once we got home, we moved on to planting most of the stuff we bought. Actually, Dave mowed the lawn and I started digging the holes. I was able to get all of the plants in, one of the red oleanders we picked up at Home Depot and 3 of the grasses. Then Dave saved me and dug the holes for the other 2 grasses. We had previously had some "fill dirt" brought in after the house was built to help with the slope around the house pad (in the area I live in there is a county code that requires your house to be built high enough above street level so that if it rained for 30 days and 30 nights the house wouldn't flood!) Needless to say a few of the loads we had brought in were horrible...like there was cement in them. Anyway, that's what we were digging through yesterday to try to get some of the stuff planted. I'm definitely feeling it in my upper body this morning.

And here I've started to ramble again when this was supposed to be a quick post. I'm off to tackle the hundred other things going on!

Now That's a Big Pecker...A Big Woodpecker!

We caught this guy sitting on the side of the truck just before sunset this evening. Not really sure what it was that drew him to the truck although it did appear he was admiring himself in the sideview mirrow. Or, maybe he thought he was looking at another woodpecker. He flitted around the side of the truck for a while. I think Dave may have scared him off while he was trying to get closer for a better picture.

What a Surprise!

Dave (my long time boyfriend...if I could get around to writing a profile you would know that!) and I finally got around to taking down some rather large pine trees in our backyard. They had been struck by lightning during the 2004 hurricane season and died and were definitely becoming a hazard (falling branches, etc). Dave found that we didn't even have to use the chainsaw...they were so dried out and rotted we were able to throw a rope around the upper branches and pull them down. Imagine our surprise when seconds after the first one hits the ground, with a rather loud thud, something flies out of it and into our shed! Whatever it was hit the inside wall of the shed, and then didn't move. We went over to examine the tree, which now lay in several pieces, and found an eggshell inside of it. We had no idea anything had made a nest in it otherwise we wouldn't have taken it down. We were kind of upset at first thinking it was the mother that had flown out, and that the tree hitting the ground had cracked the egg. Dave decided to go into the shed and investigate. At this point we had no idea what it even was...hawk, woodpecker, owl, duck. When he finally located it, he realized it wasn't the mother...it was the baby!!! It had apparently hatched some time ago and the remnants of the egg were still in the nest. By the way, it turned out to be an owl! We told our neighbor about it and she came over with a pet carrier, welding gloves and a net, none of which she needed probably because the little guy was still in shock. We were going to take it to a wildlife sanctuary, but my neighbor has some experience with caring and rehabing animals, both wild and domestic, so she is going to care for him. I'll be sure to post more updates and pictures in the next few weeks and months.

This is one of the reasons I live in a somewhat rural area...you gotta' love the wildlife. People think I'm crazy because I commute approximately 2 1/2 hours a day (140 miles roundtrip), but i love where I live and love my job.