Photos & Video of Trees Down

These are trees by the river.








In the video, you can see that one is broken:

Praying Mantis - Little or Baby?

Elias found a very small praying mantis on our outside water faucet. It is not green like the other bigger ones we have seen (of which I have not been able to get any picture).

I took pictures of it on the faucet, on his hand and on his arm. These are some of the better ones. Some of them are very closeup.

Robber Fly Closeups!

OK...I am editing in here that I had to change the name of this post. I thought these were horseflies. They are not...they are robber flies!

I was outside the other day and heard this loud buzzing. These guys were the source. At the time, I did not know what they were, but I had my suspicions.

One was staying on the rail while the other one would look like it was trying to fly away. Then it would come to land, too. Next thing we knew, it was in the air again. I could not get pictures of it in the air, but I did get pictures of them linked together on the rail.












Then I captured them in a plastic bag.
At that point, they separated. I tried to take pictures of them in the bag, but the camera kept wanting to focus on the bag.

So, I have one fuzzy picture of the female.




For some reason, I was able to get it to focus on the male...once.

Stained Glass Window!

OK...here they are...pics of a beautiful stained glass window at our church. I so love the thought of Yeshua/Jesus holding the little children. It is a very comforting thought for the "little girl" inside of me!

This first one gives an idea of how it sits. The bluish green you see below it is the baptismal tank they have there. There is usually a huge bouquet of silk flowers, but I took it down to get the pictures!


These next two are closer up.

Excavating Glow in the Dark Shark Teeth!

Elias bought himself a kit for excavating two glow in the dark shark teeth. They were embedded in some of kind of plastery substance. He really enjoyed doing it.

The kit gave him what he needed to make two necklaces...one for him and one for Dave.

I took a short video of him while he was doing some of the scraping to try and release the teeth. This will be the first time I have uploaded a video here. Let's see how it goes!

Well, it seems to have worked! Woohoo! I had a longer one, but it kept bombing.




Here are a couple of pics of Dave's tooth on the necklace.

A Broken Dragonfly!

My son found a broken dragonfly. He held it up so I could take a picture of it. We are not able to get any of the living ones to stay still long enough for us to get any pictures. This is not exactly how I like to get pictures, but I figured something was better than nothing!

Here are some closeups...one of the "whole" thing





and two of the wings.

Motorcycle Flat!

Well, Dave got a flat on his way home from work on Friday. Thankfully, it was pretty close to home. His rear tire went flat. He had to sort of "power walk" it the rest of the way home.

He picked up a screw. Why there was a screw on the road, who knows? We have had van flats, too, from screws.

Over the weekend, he got the back tire off. His back brake had started to scrape a bit, too, so this provided an opportunity to look at that, too. It is way too early for his brake to be so worn, so we don't know what would make it wear so fast. The pads are pretty much gone and even the rotor may need to be replaced. We hope not.



His motorcycle is so low that Elias had to get big rocks to put under it to get it high enough to get the jack under it.










The front wheel is braced with rocks to keep the front tire from turning.




The poor guys were working in the sun. He did not think about moving it into the shade first! So, I took pity on them. While Dave went up to the RV for a minute, I had Elias help me rig something up to provide shade. Dave helped us finish it up when he came back down.

There was actually a bit of a breeze, but you couldn't appreciate it when in the direct sun.



He is taking the wheel into a local shop so that it can be balanced. The tire is not that worn, so we are hoping the bead was not damaged and that we can save it. We are also hoping that the rotor is OK. He is not so sure.

With gas prices, we are dependent upon his taking his bike to work. Yet, if we need a new tire and rotor, this is going to wipe us out. Actually, I don't know how much a rotor is. I am hoping we have enough to get another one, if it is needed. Any way you look at it, Yahweh God will provide.

Of course, right now, it would sure be nice if He provided for me to get MY bike fixed. I miss riding, plus the three of us can take two bikes cheaper than we can take the van anywhere. Besides, the bikes are a whole lot more FUN!!!

It also would not hurt to have a back up bike when things like this happen. Although, Dave on a Virago 535 looks a bit odd. He really needs a bigger bike than that!

Rocks & Fossils!

We have LOTS of fossils on our property. I don't have a lot of pictures, yet. Or I don't have them all sorted. However, here are a few of the interesting types of fossils we find.




We don't know what this one is. It reminds us of the tunnels carved out by some kind of worm.



This is a bunch of tiny shells and coral all pressed together.







This is a piece of coral.




We don't know what this is exactly, either.





We also have some nautiloids. I really need to get some pictures!

Grasshopper Up Close & Personal!

(MT & TW for survivors.)

I finally found a grasshopper the other day who would let me get closs enough to get some pictures! I cropped them down and blew them up for an "up close & personal" look.



He was resting away on a rock down by the creek.







Isn't this a face only a mother could love?? *smile*












This is a close up of the wing.






This is the hind leg.









This is the main body.






This is the front leg and foot.









This is the middle leg and foot.



















MT and TW for survivors.

Doe in the Park!

Elias and I got to go meet a fellow homeschooling family in a park by the river. We had a very enjoyable time. He got to play with the boys and I got to visit with Sara, the mom! It was SO nice to be able to do that.

While we were there, Sara noticed a doe across the road from the park. I was able to get a few pics of her before she disappeared. She spent quite some time grazing there. We were hoping she would not try to cross the road.

Sadly, there are a lot of deer who get hit on the road along the river.



Thankfully, she did eventually go back into the woods. I got to watch her turn and go back in, fading into the trees, as if she had never been there.


These are pictures of that doe.

Beautiful Blue Butterflies!

I love the colors of these butterflies. They are very striking with a radically different coloration on the underside.


A friend thought they might be "Painted Ladies", but a search on the net shows otherwise. In trying to identify this one, I believe it is the butterfly shown here:

http://www.carolinanature.com/butterflies/rsp.html

Official name: Limenitis arthemis astyanax

Pics of a Swallowtail Butterfly!

I love swallowtails. They are so beautiful. Although Dave says that there are just as many butterflies this year as last, so far, I don't think so. I hope that more come later in the season. I hope you enjoy these pictures.