365 5 - 25 May

Wow,
It has been awhile.  I had some problems signing into my blog, but I think I have all the bugs worked out, so now to catch-up. Some days I had no pictures & some days I had a bunch which made up for the no day pictures.

Monday 6 May, 2013

This Baltimore Oriole like the humming bird feeder better than the Oriole feeder.

Monday 6 May, 2013

My striped tulips are starting to open up!

Tuesday & Wednesday 7 -8 May, 2013

no pics

Thursday 9 May, 2013

Hubby went mushroom hunting & this is what he found.  I don't like them so he is getting them all to himself (I thought).  He ended up cleaning them & freezing them for when our boys are home in two weeks to share with them.

Friday 10 May, 2013

An early Mother's Day surprise.  My youngest son Josh had Tiger Lilies delivered to me today for Mother's Day.  They come closed up & start to open up in a couple of hours.  Here is what they looked like when I took them out of the box.

This is one of the white lilies opening up

This is one of the orange lilies opening up

Saturday 11 May, 2013

This evening we went to see your niece Ali in her ice skating show.  She has been skating for a year and a half & this was her 2nd Spring show.  She was in 3 different numbers.

Sunday 12 May, 2013

Happy Mother's Day!!!!  I received two new Precious Moments figurines. I collect Precious Moments & each one I own has a special meaning to me and/or my family.

This one is from my husband. The title is "It's a Jolly Holiday With You"

Special Meaning - One, I love Disney; Two, represent the first Broadway musical we went to together, Mary Poppins; Three, the title says it all, our 24 1/2 years together has had its ups & downs, but it has been "A Jolly Holiday" together.

This one is from both my boys. The title is "Put a Little Bounce in Your Step"

Special Meaning - One, Tigger is my favorite Pooh character; Two, the baseball glove represents my boys playing baseball & the years I had to help coach.

Monday 13 May, 2013

The yellow Tiger Lilies are starting to open up!

Tuesday 14 May, 2013

My husband had today off (not normal) & I had to work.  He was helping his dad get the corn in & I wanted pictures to send to my friends in Africa (they were curious on how we plant our corn).  So my hubby was so sweet & took different pictures of the different stages of him planting. This pic is of him half way done planing, showing how they have a marker out to make where to start the next set of rows, plus you can see the rows the planter has made.

Wednesday - Friday 15-17 May, 2013

no pics.

Saturday 18 May, 2013

Graduations have started in our area & we had 3 graduation parties to go to today.

This was at the 2nd one, our neighbors down the street.  My husband Stephen is on the left & our neighbor Dennis Burrows on the right.  Stephen & Dennis have been friends since they were 3 or 4, went through Kindergarten - 12th grade together (same class, small school) grew up on farms next to each other until they were 16, & then ended up being neighbors (we didn't know Dennis lived down the street until we bought our house & moved in) for the past 21 1/2 years.  Dennis' son, Ryan, is graduating tomorrow.

Sunday 19 May, 2013

Today we had the blessing of going to hear our oldest son preach.  He is the youth pastor at Excelsior Spring Baptist.

Monday 20 May, 2013

Both boys are home together for a couple of days.  I had to work, so they had fun with my camera.  Josh is a shutter bug like me & loves playing with my new camera.

Momma sparrow feeding her babies

Tuesday 21 May, 2013

Wood's turn to play with the camera.  Fuzzy is so bored with this photo shoot

Wednesday 22 May, 2013

Wood had to go back to his place.  He has youth tonight.  Josh had more fun with my camera.

Thursday 23 May, 2013

Yesterday was my last day of subbing, school is done for the year.  So this morning Josh & I went on a nature photo shoot.  I let him use my good camera & used his nice camera.  Here are some of the shots I got.

Josh looking for birds to shoot in the woods on our farm. 

Working hard to get some unique but interesting nature shots.

Barbed wire that has been collected from old fence on our farm & stored here. 

Bee working hard. 

On our way home, we saw this family of Canada Geese walking across an old corn field headed to a lagoon.  They saw us stop & get out to get their picture.  The quickly picked up the pace to get to the safety of the water.

The family disappeared down the bank & into some reeds.  As we got closer we found them.  The parent you see is this pic is laying his/her head down on the water to hide from us.  The babies are getting a lesson in hiding from danger.

As I zoomed out I found the other parent guarding the back door of the family.  We kept our distance, so we would upset the family. If we had gotten closer, we are guessing the parent in the back would have flown to drawn attention from the family, hoping we would follow.  

Orange fungus on a log.  Though it was interesting looking. 

Red Wing Black Bird.

Friday - Saturday 24-25 May, 2013
no pics, took too many on Thursday (ha, ha)

Well, I'm caught up again.  I always fill I have made a major accomplishment when I play catch up.
Hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day.  Thank you to all who made the ultimate sacrifice & gave their life for my & our country's freedom.
God Bless.

365 28 Apr - 4 May

Hi,
This week was all about nature, birds & snow.  Yes!!! SNOW!!! On May 2nd & 3rd.  We ended up with 3 inches of snow.  The blessing of the snow was that it made the Baltimore Orioles & Red Breasted Grosbeaks come down from the top of the trees looking for food.  Here is my week,

Sunday 28 April, 2013

 It was finally sunny enough for my tulips to open. YEAH!!!!

Monday 29 April 2013

 I finally had time to refill all the bird feeders, and a good thing because they new what was coming this week & we had a major feeding frenzy going on in our backyard.  This little downy woodpecker was a constant visitor.

Tuesday 30 April, 2013

 I put out two new squirrel feeders hoping it would keep them away from the bird feeders.  This squirrel was guarding one of the squirrel feeders (below him, can't see it) from other squirrels.

Wednesday 1 May, 2013

No Pic

Thursday 2 May, 2013

This was the day for pictures & making history.  The first two pics are from the morning.  I caught this squirrel trying to get to my bird feeders.  You can just see him saying "Who me, stealing food?"

New Bird!!!!!!  First time I have seen this bird at the feeders, it is a White Crowned Sparrow.

Then the storm hit - this was taken about 3:30pm.

This was taken an hour later.  We ended up with 3 inches of SNOW!!!!  Some towns near us only got an inch & some got up to 8 inches. CRAZY!!!!!  We made history as having snow in May has only happened 4 times in recorded history for Missouri, now 5.

Friday 3 May, 2013

 The bird in front is an immature male, Rose-breasted Grosbeak.  First time I have seen an immature male.

 

 This is what he will look like when he matures.  We haven't had a Rose-breasted Grosbeak at our feeders in two years.  Nice to see them again.

Saturday 4 May, 2013

While I was out garage sale shopping with my in-laws, my husband was so nice to take some pictures of Baltimore Orioles that came to eat.  It has been two years since we have seen these birds at the feeders too.

Well that is my week.  Hope this next one has as many nice pics.  I'm subbing a kindergarten class from now until 23 May when school gets out.  The teacher went on maternity leave & should be having her little girl on Monday.  The kindergarten teacher is my husband's 3rd cousin's once removed wife, so a new family member will soon be here

365 Pictures 14-27 April

Hello all,
Well it has been a busy two weeks.  I started out well taking pictures, then I broke my good camera (UGH!!!).  I was very upset, but it turned out good because I wanted to upgrade was just waiting until 6 months down the road.
We were able to fix our sewer problem, so I guess the Lord doesn't want us moving yet, which is fine because we were hoping not to have the expense of buying a new house & moving for another two years.  So here are my two weeks.

Sunday 14 April, 2013

 Starting out with one from the trail cam - this buck should have shed his antlers a couple months ago.  All the bucks have new ones growing, which means he has done some type of damage to his antlers where they grow.

Monday 15 April, 2013

New recipe - will post it at my cooking blog http://goodcooking-semperfi.blogspot.com/  

Crockpot Lasagne.  Got the recipe off Facebook.

Before cooking - suppose to have mozzarella & Parmesan cheese on top, but I didn't have any mozzarella, so used extra Parmesan

After cooking - this was wonderful & so easy to make.

Tuesday 16 April, 2013

 YEAH they are fixing our sewer problem!!! Short story - had to seal off old line & put in a new one, but at least that nasty stuff won't be coming back into the house.

Wednesday 17 April, 2013

Last regular night of Awana - going to miss working with these kids, but the summer break is nice.  This was the night I broke my good camera :-(

Thursday 18 April, 2013

 

I picked this one from the deer cam because it had a turkey, raccoon & deer in it.

Friday 19 April, 2013

 This is where I spent my day (using my Africa camera for pics).  Miracle Hills Ranch - Christian Retreat.  The owners where away on vacation & their daughter who runs the ranch was on a school field trip with her daughter.  I was asked to hang out in the office & answer the phone from 9am - 3pm.  They had some secretary work for me to do, but that didn't take all day, so I was allowed to bring some of my own stuff to do.  Very relaxing day, the phone only rang twice.

Saturday 20 April, 2013

Turkey hunting season started this past Monday.  This is the first time we could go hunting this week.  We were up at 0500 & the temps were 29F.  We put on three layers of clothes & brave the cold weather to get nothing.  We heard turkeys to the west & east of us, but none of them would come in.  I did get some great pics which I will share later in the week.

 

My hunting buddy - my hubby

 Me with my 3 layers of clothes, I can't believe how cold it is for April!!!!

Sunday 21 April, 2013

This evening was our high school senior graduation reception.  Our Women on Mission group (which I'm chairman of) is in charge of the reception & decorations.  We had a nice time.  This is our pastor's daughter, who enjoy the strawberry punch very much, as you can tell by her punch mustache.

Monday 22 April, 2013

 A regular part of my mornings this week - sunrise over the Wal-mart parking lot.

I am subbing Kindergarten all week, so this is how my mornings start out.  My husband & I carpool.  He has to be at Wal-mart by 7:00am & I have to be at the school by 7:30am, so I drop him off.  I get done around 3:30pm & he is done by 4:00pm, so I of course I do the picking up.  Works out great, saves gas, & some time together.

 

Tuesday 23 April, 2013

 I had a lot of pictures I took from this Saturday waiting for the turkeys to come in.

This is a blue teal duck swimming on the pond near where we sat.  He was migrating through, stopping for some bug breakfast.  Blue teals migrate Venezuela to Canada.

Wednesday 24 April, 2013

Awana award night - I asked a lady to take pictures for me with my small camera.  I forgot I left the setting on Sunrise/Sunset so the pics didn't turn out the best.  Here is the Spark group I have the blessing of working with, missing about 5 kids.

Thursday 25 April, 2013

Another pictures from Saturday - this is a wild bee hive on our neighbors farm across from our driveway to our farm.

Friday 26 April, 2013

One more from Saturday -

 This Blue Jay was having a fit because a squirrel was eating at the feeder & he/she wanted to be sure we knew.

Saturday 27 April, 2013

My new camera came in last night!!!!!  We went out turkey hunting again.  My last chance for Spring Turkey season.  Woke up at 0445 it was 49F out 10 degrees up from last week, out to the blind by 0505, nice size Tom walked by use at 0525 out of shooting range - grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.  Oh well, I was able to play with my new camera & got some nice pics instead.

 

As we were leaving, we heard these to Canada geese coming off the pond, so I got my camera out & got several shot as they flew by.

 

American Gold Finch landing on the feeder, my backyard

 

Another American Gold Finch waiting his turn to eat.  I love how this camera picked up the dew drops on the grass.

Well that is two weeks caught up.  I hope everyone had a great week & starting to enjoy the Spring weather.  God Bless, see ya next week.