Happy Birthday Andy

The projections for today resembles the day my middle son was born thirty-four years ago. It was very cold and we had freezing rain which made the streets slick. This was the day our second child was to be delivered by cesarean birth. I skidded across town to deliver our two year old son to Grandma's house and then headed for the hospital. The operation was scheduled for the morning, but the weather had created a few problems. A major water main break in Bloomington delayed the surgery for a short time. My wife had already been prepped and now was laying in bed awaiting the blessed event. She had come in the previous night which was standard back in 1972,but not today.

While my memory often fails, I seem to recall someone saying something to the effect, "There's a water main break in Bloomington, so don't wash your hands". That was the last thing we heard as they then ushered her into the OR and another healthy baby boy was born into our family. Every year my wife likes to tell Andy about the day he was born and the activities that took place that day.

The picture below is from our Normal Back Yard and was taken a year or two ago, but if the weather predictions hold out, this could be what it looks like tonight or tomorrow.

Back to Normal

We had a splendid trip to Georgia! The weather was great with only a slight mist for a brief period in Southern Indiana as we returned Tuesday. Monday we stopped in Murfeesboro, Tennessee to view the Stone River National Battlefield, a Civil War Battleground where nearly 24,000 men lost their life in less than a week! Now we have seen two Civil War battle fields and my wife says that any others would look the same so no more. The history presented is both revealing and interesting.

We traveled back up the Pennyrile Parkway in Kentucky just to see what the sights looked like during daylight. Even as we near Winter the browns and sparse greens were pleasant to view. We were going to stay in Evansville, Indiana, but the traffic was heavy and finding the entrance to a motel was frustrating especially in the dark. We drove on north to I-64 and Indiana Route 41 and found a place to stay. Right across the road was a Stoll's Amish buffet restaurant where the food was good and the price very reasonable! The normal price for the evening meal was $8.50 plus tax and we got a senior discount of 10%.

Tuesday we continued our trip taking Indiana Route 41 North by Vincennes and through Terre Haute before switching to Indiana Route 63. Traffic was sparse and plenty of Walmart's and Dollar Stores to stop and shop. Made it home about 4:00 PM and was plenty tired.

Here are a few pictures: The Georgia Peach and a few birds pictures from Georgia.

Southern Comfort

Weather is great, shirtsleeve during the day with a nip at night. No not the Southern Comfort you might be thinking of but the real down home South. I have been impressed by the people I meet in the stores. Granted my shopping has been very limited since this is the shopping rush season, but I went to Best Buy with my son and the sales assistant was more helpful than those I have had in the past. Later I went to a Publix Grocery store and the bakery guy made a point to greet me as I rushed by him. This type of warm welcome started in Tennessee and more often than not has been the rule rather than the exception since we landed here in the South.

Not saying that we have not met a few jerks along the way, but only a few as compared to home.

No really new bird sighting, but have seen a Carolina Wren up close an personal as well as the Blacked Caped Chickadee and the White Crowned sparrow. The rest of the birds appear to be in hiding, but their melodious voices make for nice early morning arising and quiet sunsets.

The Georgia Peach has been a delight and we are trying to spoil her alot so that when we leave she will miss us.

Decided to leave on Monday and miss the mad dash home of after Thanksgiving traffic. Just the old folks should be on the road, but then most people my age are retired, so I guess that includes me and the wife.

Tis Beautiful in Georgia

The driving was good and the traffic was pretty good for a holiday season. Would be good if I were to right down my directions. Traveling south on I-57 came upon I-64, was listening to radio and took wrong turn. Was suppose to go to I-24 and not I-64, well added a few miles to drive but went through Southern Illinois to Evansville, Indiana then south on the US 41/Kentucky Pennyrile to I-24 and landed in Lavernge, Tn for the night.

Took off Wednesday about 9 am for Georgia and made it safely. I am not a rock music fan but we did stop in Woodstock, Ga and had fried chicken at Bojangles. Chicken was good! It was a might too seasoned for the wife.

Waiting for the Georgia Peach to get home from School?

Saw plenty of Hawks flying overhead as we drove down I-57 yesterday and then I-24 and I-75 today.

Wishing everyone a happy Thanks Giving!

Dan

Going to see the Georgia Peach

Today is a bright and sunny day and mom and I will head south to see our granddaughter in Georgia, thus the Georgia Peach. I was just thinking about our oldest son and his activities while he was about the age of our granddaughter. I don't know if he will be paid back for all his antics but I am guessing he will. Our neighbors well remember the time our son climbed their TV Tower, about 25 feet in the air, maybe he was three at the time. Then he wanted to help the neighbor paint a doll house or shed in the backyard so he picked up a brush and found some tar and began to paint. Fortunately for the neighbors the other two sons were not quite as active, at least in their yard. The two older sons did love to play cowboy and Indians and of course as on TV you had to knock the window out before you could shoot. So they did!

The good looking future daughter-in-law will be minding the store while we are gone taking care of the dog and cat. When Spook the cat joined our family she was just a kitten dropped on us by our middle son who was taking off for Iraq. We were not certain what Ninja our dog, also dropped into our life by our oldest son, would do to the cat. Well the first three days the dog stayed away from the cat not knowing what was happening. Then the dog decided that since she had never had pups she would adopt the cat and thus the end of the story. The cat and dog play together and the dog always greets the cat with a lick on the head.

Our birds are all wild and outdoors with the squirrels so nature will take care of them while we are gone. Weather reports sound very warm an pleasant for here.

Jugs a plenty

Earlier I talked about my son's creative use of old milk jugs to solve the problem of squirrels getting into the bird feeder. Here is a picture of one of the pesky squirrels perplexed by the milk jugs and the full box of seeds above them. I was hoping to find another picture showing the entire bird feeder but could not readily find one, maybe next time.













Here are a few more pictures of visitors to our Normal Back yard. Let's see if you can identify these feathery creatures? The last two pictures are from my future daughter-in-law's visit to California last week where she found this Smiling Dog which she couldn't resist taking his picture. While there she attended the final Dancing With the Stars Show and got her picture taken with Harry Hamlin.

Saturday

Today was a busy bowling day. One of my favorite activities is bowling and today I got to go to El Paso Illinois and bowl at a small bowling alley with 4 lanes. It was a lot of fun and I did bowl above my average which made me happy.

On my way up I saw a neat hawl sitting on top of a telephone pole. What a beatiful photo that would have been had I only taken my camera. On my way back home,just at dusk I noticed three deer in a soybean field that my wife and I usually find several deer. This photo was taken earlier this year but it will give you an example of some of the deer located near Comlara Park and Hudson, Illinois

Day Two and 1/2

Thanks to everyone from the Central Illinois Birding Forum for identifying my Northern Flicker! I have added several pictures of birds mostly taken from our backyard. As you can see I am not too good at identifying and only learning to use the camera, but loving it.

The fox and its cubs left shortly after I got pictures and haven't seen them since, maybe next spring they will come back. The greased pole only worked for a while, but it did provide entertainment as the slow learners would climb half way up and stop only to slide back to the ground. This summer we had corn stalks growing everywhere, wife loved it as she then had decorations for fall.

Day Two

I have posted a new picture of what I now know to be a Northern Flicker. This was a difficult for me but those who know Birding had an easy time identifying. None of the pictures I found on the web looked anything like this beautiful bird, but of course I was looking for a Thrush like bird and not a Woodpecker. Thanks to all The CIBF members for pointing out my error. Since the bird bath is about 35 feet from where I sit in the family room my old eyes do not always see as well as the optical zoom of my camera, and the memory of a digital pictures certainly is better than my memory. I have heard that it isn't memory failure but rather that the old hard drive (brain) has stored so much over the years that it just takes a lot longer to locate.

Below is another example of aiming the camera and finding a surprise when viewing the picture on my computer. We were at Comlara Park northwest of Hudson Illinois this summer and I was trying to get a picture of a Great Egret near a log. I saw the bump on the log but did not realize at the time that the bump was actually a large turtle!

Thanks to my friend George I now realize that I need to resize my photos so that the Blog mechanics can import my pictures. Thanks George!

First Day

Last winter my interests in feeding wild birds peaked. So off to Wild Birds Unlimited and other stores carrying seed and feeders I went. A first only a smattering of birds arrived in our back yard to feast on the feed, but oh wow did the squirrels find the food! Every attempt to keep the squirrels away from the bird feeders was failing until my youngest son pulled the pole holding the bird feeder out of the ground and placed five plastic milk jugs one on top of another with the spout end down and reinserted the pole into the ground. Then the squirrels were confounded.

Since we had at least nine squirrels we found ways to amuse ourselves by installing a squirrel feeder that rotates like a windmill with four ears of corn helping to cause the wheel to turn. Latter we added a bungee cord with two ears of corn attached and raised just high enough that the squirrels had to jump to pull the ears down to feed. Well, at least we thought that is what they would do. However, we have one squirrel that was ingenious and decided that getting on top of the fence and pulling the bungee cord up would also pull the cord up and allow it to rest on the fence rail and be eaten at leisure.

As we added another bird feeder onto a pole and the squirrels took to climbing that pole. My wife decided to try greasing the pole and had numerous laughs as the squirrels would get about half way up the poll and then slowing slide back to the ground. Of course, the really smart squirrel just took a running start and didn't pause on his way up like the others and he was soon into the bird food. That is when we let the dog out to do her duties, and of course she was easily distracted by the squirrel.

The next problem we faced was trying to identify the birds. We purchased a book and that was very helpful, but remembering what bird looked like was a real challenge. Out came the digital camera but the zoom was digital and not optical and the pictures were almost as bad as our memory. As Spring came we noticed a fox or two in the neighbors back yard. At the time the house next door was empty and so there was not much action in their back yard to disturb the foxes. One evening my wife thought she saw a few little foxes but they quickly vanished. So a few days later I started to leave for work but took a glance at the neighbors back yard and much to my surprise heard a growl and yip as the mother fox headed away from me back toward the creek which runs behind our property. I retrieved my camera and was able to get a quick pictures of the fox before she headed to the creek. I then decided to wait a few minutes and sure enough a little head popped out from a hole which led under our garage. I took a couple of pictures and then out popped another head. A few more pictures and then a third head but the camera memory chip was not in the camera and no more pictures as the internal memory was full.

These events convinced me to get a new camera that had a good optical zoom and after a little research I decided upon my new camera with 12 optimal zoom. Other than the foxes and a still undetermined species shot in Yellow Stone National Park the pictures that will be displayed on this blog are from the new camera.