It’s been another busy week, and I’ve had to concentrate on work stuff almost 24/7 (except for a few hours sleep here and there). Because of that, I haven’t had much time to post on most of my more “personal” blogs.

So to catch up, here’s a few pictures from the past week. This first one is from last Saturday, when The Farmer was busy working on the peafowl pen. The chicken wire on top was getting old, and something tore big holes in it. I think that “something” was probably raccoons. They like to eat the dog food. In fact, I pretty much know to start looking for holes when I go to check the peafowl’s bowl of dogfood and every morning it’s totally empty. They don’t eat that much on their own!

You can see some of the big holes.  Obviously, The Farmer is standing in one. :-)  He decided instead of putting more wire there, he’d make a wood roof.  That will give the peafowl a little more shelter in that area, then they have the aviary to go into for lots of sunlight and fresh air.

Some of the peafowl like to search for even more sunshine, and run through the grass with nothing but their feathers on.  Then they tantalize their mother by standing just outside the aviary.

This, of course, puts the mother peahen in a fowl temper, since she can’t reach them to peck them into good behavior.  She clucks at them, and paces up and down on the other side, and they just continue to merrily run all around on the outside.  Some day they will get a rude shock when they can no longer fit through those 4-inch holes in the bottom wire panels of the aviary.

Toby and I continue to take a morning walk in the bottom pasture. Most of the time it’s a fairly short time, just walking once around all the trails. But there’s usually something interesting to see.

I’m not sure what kind of bug this is, but it was enjoying getting a drink from the dew on the weed.

Yesterday morning while walking in the pasture, I was thinking about writing on this blog and that I’d mention all the hummingbirds seem to have left, when I almost ran smack dab into one!  The little hummer was enjoying some nectar from jewel weeds (Impatiens capensis).  I don’t know which one of us was more surprised, but it didn’t stick around long enough for me to take a picture. (They rarely do!)

Then this morning when I was coming up on the front porch, there was another hummer checking out some of the wire bugs I have hanging along the top edge.  That one didn’t stay around long enough for a picture either.  I don’t think these are the regulars, but hummers on their way to points further south.

We’ve been enjoying some excellent weather this week with cool nights (down in the 50’s), and warmer days (up in the 80’s).  I love this kind of weather!  In the mornings, the llamas and Neffie (our Maremma LGD) like to stretch out in sun on the shorter grass in the main pasture. The Farmer keeps it mowed down so I don’t have to wade through wet weeds to get to the well house in the mornings (Thank You Farmer!). 

Keira was stretched out too, but every time I’d try to get close enough to take a picture, she’d sit up. I guess it must feel good to soak up the sunshine on a cool morning. 

While they’re soaking up the sunshine, the guineas are foraging for seeds and bugs. I think as they get older they get stupider. I say this because as you can see here….

… the half-grown keets still have enough sense to just fly up and go over a fence. The adults, however, run up and down the fence looking for a way through. It’s only about 4-foot tall, mind you, and these birds can fly to the tops of some very tall trees around here! They just seem to forget what phenomenal fliers they are when confronted with fences.

The chickens seem to use their brains a little more, and they like to do things with a little more flair. We still have one chicken sitting on eggs in her bright purple bucket. We knew there was also one of the hens sitting on a nest under The Farmer’s work shed.  She came out this week with four little chicks.

She’s taking them out to forage around today, so it won’t be long until they’re running around all over the place too!

I’ve always got a bunch of pictures and it’s hard to choose just a few, but I reckon that’s pretty much the highlights for this week.

Like I said, it’s been another busy week on the farm!

5 Comments »

The best cruising was the time spent in Glacier Bay. Did you know Glacier Bay is a national park? Further, it is a World Heritage Site, “the principal recognition given to natural and cultural areas of universal significance.” The only way to reach it is by boat or plane.

When a cruise ship enters Glacier Bay they take on at least one Park Ranger, who gives a running commentary on what there is to see.

Obviously, there are glaciers. Since these touch water, they are all “Tidewater Glaciers.” The park includes around 12 that calve into the bay. That was the downside to our time in Glacier Bay; we didn’t see any glaciers calve.

I got lots of pictures of glaciers.  Lots of water and ice and wildlife.  It’s hard to convey the real beauty of the place and how awesome such big glaciers are with these little bitty pictures.

Clicking on the picture above opens the slideshow.  Take a look at the captions on the thumbnails before enlarging them.  For some reason the captions didn’t carry over.

Have I mentioned I’d love to go back?

No Comments »

Yesterday morning when I first came to consciousness, the first thing that made an impression was all the barking. Lots of barking. LOUD barking. Continual barking. So my first waking thought was, “What in the world is that crazy dog barking at?”

There was no thunder. He’s a great fan of barking at thunder. It’s his number one reason for barking. He jumps way up and seems to think if he can just jump high enough and bark loud enough, some day he’s going to catch that thunder.

Have I mentioned we have a tendency more for the weird than the wonderful around here?

Anyway, once I got myself moving, I went outside to see what was prompting all the barking. There were no cats. No squirrels. No stray dogs. No stray people. There was nothing I could see out of the ordinary except… trash.

Yes, the neighbors who hardly ever show up – you remember them, they’re the ones with this sign on their door -

- these neighbors had been home and put some trash by the side of the road for pick-up yesterday morning.  Now hopefully they’re more skilled at remodeling than they are at spelling.  They must have been working on a bathroom as there were several empty boxes from a fan, a bathroom vanity, and other stuff setting by their mailbox, along with a big trash can.

It was something new, something different, something strange.  And whatever it was, Toby didn’t think it should be there.

However, he’s prone to trash talk-barking from afar, and not so keen on getting up close and in-your-face personal.  When The Farmer took our trash out to the road, Toby and I went along. 

He wasn’t too thrilled at the idea of getting up close to that strange stuff.  Nope, he didn’t want anything to do with it, but I finally coaxed him up close enough to see it wasn’t moving.  He decided to give it a sniff.

He was very cautious checking out these unexpected things by the road.  After sniffing over all the boxes, he gave the garbage can a once over too.

He decided perhaps these items weren’t going to attack anyone after all.

Our other “dog”, Spot, remained unconvinced, arching his back and bushing his tail at the menacing pile of trash.  He didn’t care for its sudden appearance either.

When all was said and done, Toby gave up his trash talk-barking and expressed his opinion in a different manner. He walked right up to the bushes beside the trash, and…

Please to excuse the blurry photo. By this time I was laughing so hard I couldn’t hold the camera still.  I’m thinking the neighbors should be thankful there wasn’t a puddle by and on their trash can.  They’ll never know how much commotion their suddenly appearing pile of trash caused.

But if they put some more out by the road next week, I hope Toby remembers it’s safe and doesn’t wake me up with more of that trash talk-barking!

5 Comments »

This was Day 5 of my 2007 Alaska Adventure.  We stopped in Skagway, and took a train trip to the top of White Pass on a narrow gauge railway, “The Railway Built of Gold.”

It was a thrilling ride. You can’t really relate to just how steep the railway is until you’re riding along and looking waaaaayyyyyyy down. A 10’ roadbed doesn’t seem very wide when a fall would be so far!

I took a lot of pictures. The good news is the ones on the way up to White Pass turned out pretty well. The bad news is the ones I took from White Pass back down to Skagway were messed up, and every file read “Error”. That’s the first time I’ve had that happen in all the years I’ve been using digital cameras. And it’s the last time I buy a memory card from some unknown on eBay!

Oh well! If I’d known, I wouldn’t have stayed out on that little platform outside the car freezing my fingers and other parts of my anatomy. I’d have sat in the much warmer coach car and just watched the sights go by.

It’s another trip I’d do again in a heartbeat.

4 Comments »

Going to Alaska was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. Seeing whales in their natural environment was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. September 18th, 2007 found me fulfilling both dreams.  Combining the two made a day I’d repeat in a heartbeat if ever given the chance.

This was the first shore excursion Dad and I took.  And we got right back on the water!  I think we both agreed it was one of the best excursions of the trip.

Not surprisingly, I took more pictures on this day than at any other time. There were whales and seals and eagles and beautiful scenery just about everywhere you looked. It was almost a surreal experience; I just couldn’t believe I was really seeing all those things at last!

I picked out 45 of the pictures to make this slide show - too many Kodak moments to choose between!  If you’ve ever been to Alaska, you know how beautful it can be.

As always, click on the picture above, and it will open a new page with the slides index page. The first picture is at the top left. There are 3 pages of slides, so don’t forget to move to the next one after you get to the last slide on a page.

Most of the pictures were taken in the Auke Bay area, north of Juneau, Alaska.  There’s a limit on the number of characters I could put on the captions, so I couldn’t get too wordy.  The pictures will just have to speak for themselves!

Also, though the little camera I was using doesn’t take the best videos, here’s one I took of the Stellar Seals, just to give you an idea of all the NOISE they were making.

It’s an area rich in wildlife. And boy, I’d love to see it again!

No Comments »

No, this bucket of chicken isn’t Colonel Sanders KFC.

It’s not any kind of processed chicken at all!  This one is still completely in the natural state…

Now, her choice of a nesting site isn’t exactly all natural. I mean, she’s a pretty trendy chick here to be choosing a bright purple bucket for her pad!

Just gives a “bucket of chicken” a whole new meaning, doesn’t it?

6 Comments »

I have two days worth of pictures here.  We were mostly just cruising the first couple of days.  A pretty smart idea actually, because I suspect most people were tired from all the hurry and bustle of just getting to Seattle and boarding ship.

These pictures are September 17th & 18th, as we were crusing the Inside Passage, headed towared Juneau.Day 3 we spent cruising the Inside Passage, and on Day 4 we made it to Juneau, Alaska. As in previous entries, just click on the picture above, and it will open a new page with the slide show.

I would soooo love to see Alaska again!

No Comments »