New Toy for the trip ~ Or How to TRACK from anywhere…

First Stop Myrtle Beach, a brief PRE Vacation, HA HA

Hello out there!

Now for some TRACKS… tee hee

Way KEWL

See Spot, see Spot RUN SPOT Satellite Messenger and Personal Tracker… Hubby wanted this for his trips for Bear hunting and Fishing in areas that satellite Phones do not work. So I was the Official TESTER. IT WORKS whoooooooooooooooo hooooooooooooooooooo With Spot Satellite Messenger you can send a message for help or tell family members, friends or the emergency responders where to find you using GPS accuracy regardless of cellular coverage. Help is just a push button away! SPOT’s message and tracking functions enable users to send messages to friends, family or emergency responders, based upon varying levels of need and to visually track the location of the SPOT Satellite Messenger: "Alert 911" button dispatches emergency responders to an exact location Ask for "Help" button sends a request for help to friends and family "Check In" button lets your contacts know where you are and that you are okay So this is the Image from the Hotel from Cairo… Enjoy Google Earth Totally awesome

This weekend

Check out the classroom

Some time ago a Person donated these animals to WVU. The Long Horn was an aside as the story goes…still one awesome animal for sure.

Did you hear that? We are not forgotten…we continue to TEACH! Did you catch that odor? Ummmmmmmm wonder what it is, be back soon I am going to check it out.

UMM think it is dinner, let’s GO

Check my eyelashes, do they not look attractive?

DANG there is some dead bug on me ewwie!

Hold still I will Get it HONK HONK

My eyes are lovely don’t you agree?

ICK my tongue feels ODD…tastes like dirty socks yuk

Heyya It looks like my antlers are CLAPPING, Totally KEWL

MOOVING to be sure

Let’s see the dimensions for curtains should be about this wide

WINK WINK

I ROCK!

Wonderful information… I learned lots…and even felt good I knew lots! Always a good thing…

Learning is Wonderful.

So far all 4 session have been fabulous… people in their fields sharing their knowledge is SUPER! Topic this session was Wildlife Habitat Improvement William N. Grafton

He is the gentleman on the plaid shirt. Extension Specialist and Associate Professor

He was our Instructor. William N. Grafton, son of a West Virginia logger, was born in Fayette County, W.Va., November 20, 1938. He attended West Virginia University (WVU), earning a B.S. in forestry and wildlife management. After serving with the U.S. Army, he earned a M.S. in forest management at WVU.

Mr. Grafton then joined the WVU Extension Service as a forestry specialist in Beckley, W.Va.; later serving as director for an 11-county area in southern West Virginia. He worked closely with forest and wood industries, concentrating on forest fire prevention and helping produce “Time Is Running Out,” an award-winning film on fire prevention.

While in Beckley, he discovered the location in West Virginia of the endangered plant, “running buffalo clover.” He has become a recognized authority on the flora of West Virginia, especially in the New River Gorge area.

Throughout his Extension career, Mr. Grafton has given of his time to promote forest management education to all citizens in the state. He has been a major contributor to youth education in West Virginia, helping to organize the Youth Science Camp in Wyoming and Raleigh Counties. He has been an annual instructor at the Forest Industries Camp for high school students. Since his return to Morgantown as a wildlife specialist in the 1980s, he has worked extensively on deer herd management. He has worked with farmers, foresters and politicians, trying to find reasonable and sustainable recommendations on deer herd management in West Virginia.

Mr. Grafton has held leadership positions with the Society of American Foresters, and has been recognized by many organizations for his contributions to forest management in West Virginia. In 1993, he was enshrined as an honorary member of the West Virginia FFA. In 1994, he was honored with a faculty award by Gamma Sigma Delta, the Honors Society for Agriculture.

He has been an officer and leader in the Nature Conservancy, which promotes the protection of unique ecological sites. He has also been an officer and leader in the West Virginia Plant Society. For over 20 years, he has been a forest management instructor at the Conservation Education Camp for teachers in Webster County. He also provides information and organizational input for a similar camp held each summer at Blackwater Falls State Park.

"The bluebird carries the sky on his back." -Henry David Thoreau journal

We built bluebird houses

Sound Song a rich warbling whistle broken into short phrases: "Tu-wheet-tudu." Also a dry chatter. »listen to songs of this species

Almost Turkey Day

OR Turkey day is for the BIRDS? HA HA

~~

Slowly the SIMMER begins. YUP the excitement of having the kids home, smells wafting upwards. Checking the grocery list thrice…

~~

Turkey will go in the oven tonight. Tomorrow morning before the kids arrive, the wondrous smells that evokes memories in us all. I bet the smells will drive the PUPS BONKERS.

~~

WOW, come to think of it, this is Lily and Houses first Thanksgiving.

~~

Jazz is finally settling down to a life with a real family…wonder if she will sense the difference, the excitement? Dear George, our elder dog, will be content to lie in the middle of any room where food MIGHT drop to the floor, while pools of drool surround his paws.

Amidst all of this, my car is ill…SIGH! By noon I will know why THAT light is on as well as if my muffler has a hole in it. I will be STUCK at the mechanics place until the verdict is pronounced.

~~

The bummer about that is: people no longer are allowed to watch what they do to your car. Insurance, accidents etc have disallowed curious arm chair mechanics like I to learn. I do not like that! It’s not like I am going to open a shop of my own up! Geesh Louise!

~~

Memories of less hectic times, YA memories of childhood… Dad taking me with him, while he hung out with his buddies that were mechanics. Looking back it was probably a treat from his weekly routine… Ummmmmmm ya think I was bugging Mom so I had to go with DAD? Probably likely actually… Those were great times…I really was no problem, that I RECALL! I did learn more than I thought…

~~

So instead of being impatient this morning, I will TRY to sneak a look to see what they are doing to my car. As well as amending the grocery list. Let’s see, 1. Diet Coke 2. Root Beer 3. Snacks for the WVU Football game Saturday 4. Fresh flowers for the girls rooms 5. LIFE IS GOOD! AND YES dear daughters, the Pepperoni Rolls are freshly out of the oven awaiting your arrival. The Home Made Ice cream is forthcoming as well! LIFE IS GOOD!

What are you?

Happy Easter

~~

This Easter Morning we were greeted with a

New Bird ALERT at the feeders, grabbing the camera for a hasty picture or six…

Grab the Audubon Book…

Tohi à flancs roux (French)

Could you be a Towhee?

Go GOOGLE the information A warbler ~~~~ nope too big to be a warbler

A Grosbeak

The male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, boldly patterned in black, white, and rose, is easily identified. The drab, striped female, however, is more of a challenge, resembling a large sparrow or finch. A common bird of forests and second growth, the grosbeak's song is like that of the robin, only as sung by an opera singer, being mellower and more sweetly melodic.

~~~~~~~~

Nope the rust color was not enough for that one

Think we have a winner: The Eastern Towhee, Pipilo erythrophthalmus, is a large sparrow. The taxonomy of the towhees has been under debate in recent decades, and formerly this bird and the Spotted Towhee were considered a single species, the Rufous-sided Towhee.

Adults have rufous sides, a white belly and a long dark tail with white edges. The eyes are red, white for birds in the southeast. Males have a dark head, upper body and tail; these parts are brown in the female.

Their breeding habitat is brushy areas across eastern North America. They nest either low in bushes or on the ground under shrubs. Northern birds migrate to the southern United States.

There has been one record of this species as a vagrant to western Europe; a single bird in Great Britain in 1966.

These birds forage on the ground or in low vegetation. They mainly eat insects, acorns, seeds and berries.

The call is Drink your teeeee; the word "towhee" imitates this call.

Drink your teeeee?

Or?

Upon closer inspection do we have a

Rufous-sided Towhee - Pipilo erythrophthalmus YIKES or? Rose - breasted Grosbeak?

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sky Watch Friday ~ Hawk

This week Join here!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Enjoy the beautiful sky pictures of the other bloggers.

Silent Noon

~~~~~~~~

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882)

~~~~~~~~

YOUR hands lie open in the long, fresh grass,— The finger-points look through like rosy blooms: Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms ’Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass. All round our nest, far as the eye can pass, Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn hedge. ’Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass. Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky,— So this wing’d hour is dropped to us from above. Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower, This close-companioned inarticulate hour When twofold silence was the song of love

Look at @ 2 O'Clock and you will see a Red tailed Hawk…

Click on the picture to enlarge.

~~

Interesting Facts:

The raspy cry of the Red-tailed Hawk is typically used in movies to represent any

eagle or hawk anywhere in the world.

A Red-tailed Hawk can spot a mouse from a height of 100 feet.

Males and females perform a courtship ritual in which they dive and roll in the

sky. They will even lock talons and fall together a distance before splitting apart.

"a charm of goldfinches"

American Goldfinch

The American Goldfinch changes from winter plumage to breeding plumage by a complete molt of its body feathers. It is the only member of its family to have this second molt in the spring; all the other species have just one molt each year in the fall.

They are one of the latest nesting birds, starting in late June or early July, when most other songbirds are finishing with breeding. Their late timing may be related to the availability of suitable nesting materials and seeds for feeding young.

Brown-headed Cowbirds may lay an egg in a Goldfinch nest, but the hatchling will usually die because the seed-based diet that the parents provide cannot support it.

A group of goldfinches has many collective nouns, including "a 007 of goldfinches", "a charm of goldfinches", "a rush of goldfinches", "a treasury of goldfinches", and a "vein of goldfinches."

Carduelis tristis

RAFTER

There are NUTS in the woods

YUP and Lots of TURKEYS [Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo]

What a glorious day. We worked outside and are totally exhausted… All of 57 degrees, but the ground still is soooooooo wet Most people are familiar with the term "flock of pigeons" and even "gaggle of geese," but did you know that a group of turkeys is called a "rafter"? And baby turkeys are called poults. The wild turkey is one of the largest birds in North America. An adult male can grow up to 4 feet long from his beak to his tail. Wild turkeys live in open fields and woods and nest on the ground. Wild turkeys prefer to eat insects, grasses, nuts, and berries.

The "beard" that grows from the center of a wild turkey's breast is actually a group of modified feathers that look like hair. Beards are most commonly found on adult male turkeys (called gobblers), although females (called hens) will grow them occasionally. In spite of its large size and rather awkward appearance, the wild turkey is a powerful flier, reaching speeds of up to 55 mph over short distances. Turkeys will most often fly hard and fast up through the treetops, then set their wings and glide back to the ground.

Benjamin Franklin wanted wild turkeys to be our national symbol instead of the bald eagle. He felt that the stately, majestic qualities of the wild turkey would make it a fine symbol for the new country.

VIDEO

Happy March 1st, everyone!

Hi there tiz moi ;) with an announcement!

Drum roll please ~~~ In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb

Looking out from the NOOK it seemed as if we were in one of those Snow Globes. Beautiful fluffy snow… Breakfast of cereal was the only noise, crunch, crunch, and a slurp for my Sweetie as he sipped his tea. We just sat and looked for a bit.

QUACK

He was such a dear, but then he always is…;) he put op a shelf for me and fixed a wire on the Radio speaker, and concurred about placement of some more art work in the newly renovated Nook…

Time seemed to stand still ;)

Look beyond the branch for the Pun Intended :)

It is too wet and miserable to go out side and putter about, so we are enjoying a lazy Saturday afternoon…

Sigh ~~~ Life is GOOD!