Golden Days

I'm dying to know what is living in here. 

You know me. 

The days have been golden.  

There are some down sides to that. 

Wild onion is up, and I think there is nothing better than smelling it as 

you cut the first grass of the season. 

While Chris was here, we walked the dogs at Angel Falls.  The Water Baby LOVES to 

go in the creek. 

Note where the water is in that picture, taken ten days ago. 

By yesterday, the stream had narrowed significantly, we need 

rain badly here. 

I bought a 20 foot lead for Lil, so she can go way out in the creek.  She was hot in this picture, it was 77 out. 

This is the drainage basin at Basehor City Park, running down to the creek.  The rock bottom was showing through at the end of last week. 

Last night was a night of wild storms here, including tornados which touched down on the 

Missouri side of the metro, doing great damage. 

The basin had water in it this morning, I was glad to see that.  The birds use it daily. 

Someone was sunning himself on the walk way.  I'm so glad I saw him, 

he was very sluggish and did not even move when I touched him. 

Too cold for little snakes today! 

This is a barn two miles from where I live.  This barn and the one next to it 

were over 100 years old.  The storm last night got it. 

Look at that 100 year old wood! 

The chickens at the ag came through the storm well, except the plastic on their 

door and windows blew away.  So much for my stapling extra yesterday. 

See these thirteen eggs? 

They came out of only 3 of these slots in the nest box.  

Chickens crack me up. 

Except for trash cans blown all over... there was thankfully no damage to the old buildings. 

And everyone was happy. 

This little group of mallards was on the pasture pond as we went to the park.  

It is so shallow, I don't think geese can land there now.  

I stayed one second too long, taking four pictures. 

The rule for nature photography is DO NO HARM and don't disturb the birds/animals. 

My bad. 

And I really mean my bad, I hate disturbing them. 

Lilly will be twelve this summer.  The drool worries me, she does it as we walk. 

Totally gratuitous picture of the best Bostie in the world! 

Catching Up at the End of the Month

I am trying to type this as I listen to the Oscar's Red Carpet. 

You know you are old when you only recognize about a third of the 

people walking. 

Honestly, who ARE all these people? 

I told you I was going to start posting more often, 

but instead, I have posted less in the last two weeks.  I am sorry for that, I truly enjoy posting, but I am also struggling with the things that have to be accomplished after losing 

Keith.  Some are not pleasant, and that's all I'll say. 

I have had a few chances to take pictures. 

Oddly, I have two cameras over at the Ag, but am not getting much on them. 

I don't know if I have simply forgotten how to run the darn things, or what! 

I'll sit down tomorrow when I am there, and see if I can figure it out. 

I'm no longer putting all the pictures willy-nilly into the computer, I 

actually sit and look at them on the card, before I import.  Saves a LOT of 

space on the hard drive.  This raccoon was in the woods. 

Yep, I'm still going daily to take care of my friends at the Ag. 

I was absolutely blessed on Thursday, because Lee, who will be leaving 

the Ag at the end of this week, and my grandson, Chris, cleaned the 

entire henhouse for me!  Woo hoo!

Then they bedded the whole thing down with wonderful sweet-smelling fresh straw.  

I am still wearing my splint on my broken wrist, and see the doctor on 

Wednesday of NEXT week to make sure it has healed.  I still go to 

therapy, too, for another week. 

Gosh, I love birds, and I really love crows! 

I'm always glad when I get a good look at one! 

This red-winged blackbird was on the back deck this morning.  I know spring is coming, when the red-wings come back. 

I have taken the suet hanger off the deck, the starlings... ugh.   A mess! 

I am slowing down the feeding, it makes such a mess. 

We walked the dogs at Angel Falls on Thursday afternoon. 

Our temperatures veered from 80 to 39 in two days. 

These happy, golden moments.  

Jaxton's third grade class had their spring program on Thursday night.  It was a patriotic program, and one of his classmates designed the "Of Thee I Sing" tee shirts that the kids wore. 

They closed with "Taps"... sung... and grandma couldn't help it, I cried through the whole thing. 

I went to church Saturday afternoon, since I took Chris home to Garnett on Friday. 
I came across these two red-shouldered hawks... one could have been last year's chick. 
I had the smaller Canon camera with me, got out of the car, and gave it a shot. 
I should explain... I can't really SEE through the site of this camera, I have to 
guess, usually.  I was stunned that the pictures came out well. 

I looked for them again today, but did not see them. 

You can see the red belly on this red-bellied woodpecker on the deck, though. 

And this little guy with his nut. 

I'm watching this every few days now, to see when this year's 
clutch will be laid. 

I will TRY to post more often... life keeps intervening. 

So Wild

The parks where we walk require the dogs to be on leashes.

Today, we drove to Basehor the long way, seeing this on

the way-

When we , there, I noticed two other vehicles.

One belonged to a man I see walking there almost every day. 

While we do not visit, we nod to each other as we pass. 

I parked near him, leashed the dogs, and put on my jacket. 

He was standing by his car, watching someone at the back of the park, where I could 

see several people moving around.

As I started to leave the car with the dogs leashed, he came over and stopped 

me. 

He warned me that he had been walking, and one of the dogs that two 

ladies had was not leashed, and it had approached him and scared him.  The leashed dog 

was very aggressive.  He reminded the ladies that the dogs were supposed to be leashed, and they ignored him.  I told him I did not want a dog to approach mine (it is my biggest fear while walking)...and I decided to load the bewildered dogs back into the car and go to Lansing. He had been waiting to see if a policeman drove by the park (as they do regularly) but none had come, so he left, as well. 

We went to Angel Falls, where we walked alone in the beautiful weather.

As soon as I took this picture, the little dingleberry began to run around and jump, he was all wound up when he dipped his foot in the water. 

It was gorgeous down by the creek.

Lilly walked a long way in the water.  There is a lot of moss in it right now.

The falls are still running strong.

We walked a whole mile, slowly.  Lilly is on meds now, and tho we watlked slowly, we made it,

What did we see on the way back back but two black labs loose in the 

corn field alongside the trail.  I saw a man following them, but more importantly, he saw us.

We hustled along to the car.

Look what we saw on the way back!

Breeding season!

This was just around the corner from our house.

He went back the other way.

Day five on the laptop...I can see to crop so much better on the desktop, so I am 

praying I get a call to pick it up tomorrow. 

I can't remember how I selected all the other night, so we are going to have to 

cope with the small type tonight, my apologies! 

Back Out in the Sun

We decided to go to Angel Falls today, because we had not been there 

since it had rained and snowed. 

It was so shady when we got there, but I do have a little video taken 

with the small camera so you can hear the rush of the water. 

Here it is on the other side, rushing on it's way north, believe it or not. 

I am going to see if I can find out where this creek originates. 

It has a lot of water in it for January. 

We ran into another dog-walker, and Lilly, for the first time, did not go into a paroxysom of 

barking.  We made a wide berth when we saw them, they were coming out and we were going in... but 

on the way back, we came dead on.  The gentleman walked his boxer off the path, and waited for us to go by, but there was no barking and pulling by Lill.  That is the main thing that keeps us from Angel Falls.  

Jester does not look thrilled, but they were glad to be out. 

More importantly, they were glad to be with us. 

The walking is so good for all of us. 

Someday I may realize how to position people for light in the picture. 

I guess we wore Jes out. 

This is a short video taken with the small camera at Angel Falls today... 

turn it up so you can hear the water rushing!  

It looks a little dull at the first, but it sharpens. 

Thanksgiving Week, Day Three

I think the deer are using this tail at Angel Falls. 

We always look, hoping to see one (we have seen ONE). 

The ground had dried out enough that we went on down to the creekside. 

The creek itself is remarkably clear. 

And someone was eager to get right in it, but I had her on the short lead.  I wish I would have switched leads... because... 

Someone else was super-excited and hopping all around.  The side to his right drops off to a much deeper hole... like, really deep.  

It's not very big. 

There we are, looking towards the bridge.  The parks department has closed off access from 

just at the bridge with deadfall, as you see. 

Pretty soon, we began to head back... we had already walked 3/4 of a mile at that point.  The full trail is a mile, which we did. 

The rocky outcrop by the stream has convenient "steps". 

I took a much different route home, and came across these wonderful old barns.  That's a wooden silo on the right! 

I went by Little Stranger Church, where I attended the Pie Social in June. 

I was surprised to see that there appeared to be damage from storms during the summer. 

There was a Soup Social there at the beginning of the month that I intended to attend, but that night, something else came up. 

This is a very typical Leavenworth County scene, and you see that our weather fell today. 

There is still a Jersey Dairy in our county, aren't they beautiful cows? 

One more day!