Questionable Sanity.

Three to four inches of snow plus windy gusts of up to 30 miles an hours....Sounds like a perfect day for photography. Today "D" and I ventured to Olney and see if we could see the nesting eagles in the area.

When we arrived to the area we observed one of the pair flying over the water and settling down in a field about 150 to 200 yards away from the road. We decided to try to sneak into the nest area a wait on him. Apparently Mr. Eagle didn't get the message for the meeting because after setting in the wind and weather for almost 2 hours without a sighting we decided to leave. We got about half way in our half mile walk back to the Jeep when we saw Mr. Eagle do a cursory fly by of the nest area. Lets just say the Mr. Eagle wasn't the only one cursEry.

Greater white fronted geese

We decided to get lunch and move on to Mt. Carmel and try our luck there. When we arrived both eagles were setting on their favorite branch and just about the time I stopped they both jumped up and flew to the West. They circled and dove and inverted under each other in the air in what I think might be courting and mating behavior as it is just about time for egg laying. They both looked like they were having fun. After they disappeared into the blue, we wondered on back into the back area of the property and viewing station. We didn't notice a lot of activity and pondered if the wildlife might have been smarter that us and stayed in because of the nasty weather. Just before we left we went back to the nest area and had both adult bald eagles setting on their favorite limb and had three immatures fly by the area. The eagle sighting count on the day was six and I think this is the most individuals I have seen before in a single day. Over all it was nice to be out and get to spend time in nature.

Hooded Merganser

The day was overcast, the lighting was crappy and the weather was bad but probably the best time of the whole day was setting on a snow covered tree trunk and talking and sharing stories with "D".

Hope everyone had a great Saturday.

Eagle Video.

This video was edited from about 40minutes worth of footage. Not too exciting but wouldn't you know 3 minutes after I quit videoing they flew away into the blue.

Weekend Pictures

Last week I was looking over ebay and since I had some Xmas money that was burning a hole in my pocket I decided to get a new lens for my Canon SLR. The lens I got was a Canon EF 70-300mm 4/5.7 IS usm. I researched this lens and it seems to be highly praised in the non professional photography world. It is just a step down from an L lens and since I dont have 1200 to 10000 dollars to pay for those kinds of lenses this will have to do. My friend "D" and I has been going out looking for eagles the last few weekends and we thought we would make a trip to Mt. Carmel to see if we might chance upon the eagles which has made the area their home for the last several years. Upon arriving to the area we meet a elderly couple watching with binoculars from their truck and another gentleman that was watching from a car. We moved upto the area as to not crowd the people already there and started to set up. We noticed the gentleman from the car started to get his photography equipment out and I think you could have knocked "D" and I over with an eagle feather. I thought I would never see one in real life but what he had was a Canon 800mm L lens. We are talking a 11-$12,000 lens. Of course we gathered around the young man and drooled over the images on his lcd screen. Wow! Blad eagles have feathers....AMAZING! I thought they were just covered in blurr. Hmmmm. Anyway we enjoyed talking with a fellow wildlife photographer and had a rather productive day with 3 mature eagles sightings and photos on the board. Here are a few of the picks.

Video from Samsung SC-MX20 w 36X optical zoom.

Hello Stranger...

Today "D" and I got a late start on the day and with the crappy lighting due to the second weekend in a row with overcast clouds, we stayed local. We started driving around the back roads in an area he has chanced upon eagles before. We were able to see a few hawks and other wildlife. We drove up to a road that runs parallel with the Wabash river and with all the ditches and creeks running full, we were wondering if the road might be washed out due to the recent rain and snow melt. Before long the car came to a sudden stop and I heard "D" say "There he is!" I think we were both amazed and excited that we just happened upon an adult bald eagle that we really wasn't expecting to see. I jumped out and snapped a few pics but with the crappy lighting, I didn't have my 2X on the camera. After snapping a few shots with the 300mm, I decide to try to get the 2X attached when the stranger hopped off the branch and flew away into the distance. I am just glad we got to see another bald eagle even though the encounter was brief.

Apple is iPain in the Arse.

I purchased an ipod touch 16G 2 gen for Needles a couple of months back. It was to be a Xmas present for Needles and we waited until Dec. 23 rd to open the item. Upon opening the iPod and syncing it with Needles computer it seemed fine for about 15 sec. or so and then the dreaded white screen of death. I called Apple and the young man told me how to reset the iPod by pressing the button on the top left of the ipod and the bottom button and hold for 10 sec. After I did this the screen bounced back with the Apple logo. I hung up with the Apple phone support person and just as I did the screen went white again. I tried to reset the iPod several times and when that didn't help I called Apple again. After being on the phone with another person for 15 to 20 minutes we did the restore on the iTunes program. After starting the restore I was told to call back if this didn't resolve the problem. The restore took about 20 minutes or so I checked the iPod and while restoring the screen started to flicker. I called Apple for a third time and talked with a lady who instructed me to remove all Apple programs from the computer, reinstall all Apple programs to the computer and then do yet another restore in iTunes and the final result was that the computer couldn't detect the iPod. All in all I was on the phone with Apple for around 3 hours. After this I was on hold for another 10 minutes until I got to talk with a supervisor which told me to email a couple of diagnostic files from the computer to him. After this was done I was told since it was the holiday that it would be next Wed. before I heard anything back from their TECH dept. It turned out to be about 10 days later that I finally got a call from the supervisor. He shipped a box to me so that I could send the Ipod back to Apple. I received the box on the 6th and shipped it back the next day. We got an email that the item was replaced and was sent back to us. The problem now was that when they shipped it back they sent it Direct Signature. This means that someone has to be here to sign. No print out a signature page form the website and sign it so that they can leave it at the door. FedEx would deliver 3 times and then the package would go back to Apple. They tried to deliver it last Thursday. No one was home to sign. They tried again Friday and still we were working and not going to take a day off to sign for a package. Today Needles was able to stay home for MLK day and she was finally able to sign for the package on the 3rd attempt. I already made up my mind that if this didn't get delivered today due to some screw up and it went back to Apple then I was going to demand my money back. I am glad Needles now has her Ipod but I a feed up with Apple and the way they take care of their customers. This will be the last Apple product I purchase.

Goodbye Old Friend.

Sam 1993-2010

This is Sam. She has been a faithful companion to my friend "D" for 17 years. Sam passed away today and I am glad to be one of the privileged to have known her and have her in my life the brief moments that I could. She was sometimes crabby but mostly very sweet and loving. You could tell she loved her owners arms wrapped around her and the spot on the stove over the pilot light. She left behind 3 younger siblings Lilly, Simon and Reggie. My heart is hurting for my friend "D" and it is always hard to see the hurt, pain and feeling of loss when things like this happen. They say time heals all wounds.....Right now it doesn't feel like it. Goodbye sweety you will be missed.

Immature Bald Eagle Spotted

Look what I spotted while driving around in the country 1 mile West of Sumner, IL.

Here is a reference image of a known immature bald eagle to compare.

New OH TEN Pichers!

Juvenile Eagle in flight (3year old) White head but dark tail feathers.
Red Tail Hawk in flight.

Red Tail perched.

Doves.

Today was a balmy 12 degrees when I got up. My friend "D" and I had plans to make a trip to Mt. Carmel to see if we could get a few pics. When we arrived the temp had topped out at 20. It was nice to be able to get out and snap a few shots again. Until next time.

Youtube button

Happy New Years OH TEN!

Earthquake wine for New Years.

We are finally back home after being gone what seemed like weeks. I think over the last 6 weeks we haven't been home much. Three weekends in a row at Needles Mom's, first deer season then Thanksgiving and then second deer season, then a visit from my Parents for about a week and then Christmas Eve & Christmas at Needles Mom's followed by a trip to Kentucky then another visit to Needles Mom's for late antlerless deer season. I am glad to be home. I was successful in the late antlerless season for more details visit the hunting blog. I think we are going to try to relax and enjoy the last couple of days before we both have to go back to work.

Above is a picture of wine we had for New Years. It is called Earthquake wine because when it was being fermented it was shaken by the April 18th 2007 5.2 magnitude earthquake. This winery is within 10 miles north of the epicenter of this quake. Hence the name.

Kentucky Trip

Needles @ Enchanted Yarn & Fiber in Russellville, Kentucky.

Christmas is over for another year.

Christmas has come and gone. This year I got to spend time with both side of the family. We spent the week leading up to Xmas with my parents and then Thursday night we headed to Needles Mom's to spend Christmas eve night so that Needles could help her Mom with the turkey dinner. Everything was very good. Turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy and homemade rolls. For dessert we had squash and pecan pie with ice cream. Mmmmmm. I mostly got cash or gift cards this year. I did win 20$ on a instant lotto scratch off card. That was nice. The next several days are going to be busy. We are heading down to see my parents in Kentucky on Monday. Wednesday we are coming back and then going to Needles Moms again for New Years and the late antlerless deer season which is looking like it is going to be extremely cold. I hope my new UA thermal underwear does a good job. I hope everyone had a great Xmas.

Xmas 2009

Merry Christmas in psychedelic splendor.

Christmas times a coming.

This weekend has been a little work, a little play and some relaxation. Friday after work I helped a friend move a lot of his bigger items into a truck in preparation for his upcoming move. Saturday I awoke with sore muscles and the need to finish up our Xmas shopping. We ventured to the big city to Rural King where they were having a tax free weekend sale. I managed to pick up a Xmas gift for me from Needles. Also we finished up shopping for her uncles and my Dad. After shopping we had breakfast at Denny's and ate way too much. We skipped lunch and just waited until my work Xmas party to eat supper. Today has been filled with sleeping in and relaxation on the couch. I think as far as shopping we are finished for Xmas. We are almost half way through December and it still doesn't feel like Xmas.

I needed this.

This weekend Needles and I had plans to head South to the promise land. Since I had to work late Friday and Needles was working on her 50 page paper and we have been run ragged over the last few weeks, we decided to postpone our trip and relax this weekend. This morning my friend "D" and I decided to go to our favorite photography place and snap a few hundred pics. It had been a long tme since I had been able to go and I was ready to have fun and relax. Here is a few of the pics that made the cut for displaying. Hope you enjoy them.

Mallard
Leaf

Barred Owl
Northern Harrier Hawk
Bald Eagle on Nest
Mallard Ducks
A lot of Mallards
Sandhill Cranes
Young Redtail
A bunch of deer
Three bucks

Deer Season 2009.

This deer season was filled with ultimate excitement followed by ulitmate dissapointment. If you want to know more visit my hunting blog. Ramblins Hunting Lodge.

Back from the weekend.

We went to Owensboro for the weekend. We arrived at our destination around 5:30pm Friday evening. When we arrived our hosts had beef and vegetables from the crock pot. Mmmmm. Then we had to make a late run to Coldstone Creamery. We got back to Cynical and Ragged's place and before long we were yawning and looking for a place to curl up for the night. The next morning we were treated by Cynical's parents to B'fast at Sho e (Shoney's) but the lights were out in the n,y and s. It was good but probably not good for us. After that the ladies parted from us and headed to their planned outing which I am sure Needles will post about. Cynical and I made a run to Sam's then Walmart. When we got back I did a little Xmas shopping online for Needles and then we just relaxed on the couch until the ladies came back to pick us up for another run to Walmart and then Target. After we returned our hists ordered Domino's pizza and we had brownies warm from the oven for dessert. We stayed up late watching the movie UP and then it was time to go to bed. This morning we got up to cinnamon rolls fresh fruit and "organic" yogurt and juice. For lunch we stopped by Panera Bread and when we got back it was time for us to head back home. We had lots of fun and even more to eat. Its always fun to visit with Ragged and Cynical and we thank them for their hospitality. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

More Pumpkins Exploding!

Halloween 2009 video.

This is a short video of the front yard on Halloween night. We started putting this out about 10am and by 3pm we were finished. Trick or Treating was disappointing this year in our area with a final tally of 53. Trick or treating started this year at 5pm which was still daylight and lasted until 7 pm. We usually have it 6pm to 8pm. For our first hour we had a total of 2 trick or traters with the rest of them coming in the last hour. Our final vistor was a little after 7pm. We started packing up and by 9pm it was all back in the garage. I sat on the couch a dozed off a time or two before finally calling it a night and going to bed a little before 10pm. Today we went out to "G" house and picked up the rest of the airblown and blow mold items. They are also tucked away in the garage for another year. Next up deer season...I can't wait.

Fright Night Pics.

A few day light pics to start off.

The dark side.

A pretty sad turn out in our area of the neighborhood. I guess I shouldnt be suprised since there were only 3 houses within sight tha turned their porche light on to give out candy. I think our final count was 53. SAD.

Happy Halloween!

Enjoy.

Not so smooth CSF.

Last weekend we had our 5th and thank heavens last Cache Slash Fest. I thought other than the inconsiderate person down the street wanting to drive a dually tractor down the street with people parked on both sides of the road was bad enough but NO! I get to work this morning to final out that there were other issues from the event. We found out that "G's" neighbor next door to the event had his mailbox ran over. I guess it wasn't too bad as it just got scratched bent and pulled off the post. I bet the person who did this has a nice souvenir from the event. Also one of our attendees which we knew was already a pain in the butt was not so much a pain to us but to one of the few companies that did contribute to the event. Apparently this person thought that it took too long to get service and decided to take it upon herself to use profanity and answer the businesses phone and hang up on the manager of the business. Yep... Just what I needed to seal the coffin on this event. This will be that last geocaching event I will ever be associated with. Thank you for letting me vent.

Onward to a better subject. "D" and I went down to Mt. Carmel Sunday evening and spent a couple of hours looking for eagles and making the most of the light before the sun went down behind the trees. These are a few of the pics I got. Not the most productive day but any day out in the woods is a good day.

Busy Weekend.

Friday night our guests arrived to visit and attend our yearly event. Cynical and Ragged arrived and we enjoyed Needles spaghetti with home made meatballs for supper. After that Rudy, Brando and youngens arrived at the house for a visit. We sat and visited and talked about what was going on in each others lives. Before long it was time for the youngens to go home and get to bed and not too long after that we were ready to get rested up for the long day we had planned ahead of us. This weekend we had our Final Cache Slash Fest Event. This was the 5th one and it was time to call it quits with all the work, expense and effort put into this thing, it was getting kinda stressful for all involved. This year we started off the event with registration then after most of the attendees arrived we had the geocaching coordinated for the event caches delivered in a unique way. By ultralite. The plan was for the ultralite to make a pass and then turn for a second pass to drop the coordinates. The coordinated by the way were small slips of paper wrapped around a Tootsie roll then wrapped with tin foil. Since the weather was iffy from the get go and the drop was cancelled the day before due to weather conditions the drop plans had to altered a bit with the drop being on the first pass. If you would like to see video of the drop watch it below.

After the geocachers had their coordinates they were on their way to get the event caches. We had a few stragglers who showed up late that received their coordinates by just getting them from registration. While parking was a bit of a issue with the wet weather we had been having the attendees had to park on the side of the road, where in the past we had them park in the yards. About an hour or so after the cachers left to find the caches we had a very inconsiderate person want to drive their John Deere tractor with not the usual 2 tires on the back. It had 4 tires so that they took up the whole road want to drive down the street we were having the event at. This person parked the tractor in the middle of the road blocking traffic both ways for about 10 minutes until I started walking to the area to find out what was going on. It seems this inconsiderate idiot that could see the road was blocked to wide load traffic, wide load being his fat head, decided to drive the tractor this way only to make a spectacle of himself. The person called to sheriffs office to have the vehicles parked on the side of the road towed away. I told the person that their were other roads to drive to get around the blockage but he would have any of it. He decided to block the road for almost 30 minutes while we waited for the sheriff. After I guess he thought was too long to wait he decided to turn around and while doing so killed the tractor to our amusement. He finally got the tractor turned around and went the way he should have in the first place. After he left we got the vehicle moved just in time for the sheriff to drive by slowly and just kept on going. After the attendees got back we all had a good chuckle at this persons expense. If you would like to do some seasonal TPing I know just the place for you. After the drama was over it was time for games, prizes and food. Before long it was getting dark and cold an most of the attendees were starting to leave. We managed to get out of there a little after 8pm. I hope everyone had a good time and we had plenty of food left over to have a whole other event. I am glad that it is over. Sunday morning we awoke a little weary for the previous days activity. Needles made breakfast with her sweet and spicy beacon. Yum. After breakfast our guests Ragged & Cynical sat with us in the living room a talked about life and its ups and downs and the up coming holidays and the stress in which that can bring with it. Before long it was time for our guests to go home as much as we tried to get them to stay another night or two or three, they thought they needed to get back to things like fuzzy roommates and work. Oh well we tried and I am comforted in the idea of seeing them again in a few short weeks. This afternoon my friend "D" and I went to Mt. C to do some photography. I was looking at my previous pictures and I hadnt been down there for over a month. I got a few pics I will share later. I am too tired. Have a good week everyone.

Rough start to a nice relaxing weekend.

Friday after a nice end note at work I went home and finished packing for our weekend trip. When I got home Needles and Jenny from the Blog was awaiting my arrival and the start of our weekend plans. We loaded up the car and headed South and with ever mile we traveled my stress and worries seemed to slip away. This lasted all of about an hour when we got about half way to our destination and the car decided to make a noise. After a little weaving and a couple of quick brake lock ups to aid in diagnosing the problem, I decided we needed to return home as I wasn't sure what was going on. When I got on a nice straight stretch of road I opened up the throttle and the noise chattered and clunked at first but seemed to become less frequent and then go away completely. So what I have learned is Broken Car + 100 miles per hour = Fixed Car. There is no denying my logic. We were only 10 miles from the house on our return trip when the car seemed to be fixed. When we got home I looked over the car and couldn't seem to figure out what had caused the issue. We then blamed it on rocks as Needles had an issue with this just a few days before. After all this and the ladies took some ginger root, my weaving at 70 Mph didn't set well with their stomachs, we decided to resume our trip but in the Jeep instead. We were on our way, two hours later than planned but non the less heading in the direction of our weekend destination. When we were driving through a little town I noticed an car pulling out from the left. I thought she will stop.... Nope she kept coming and I had not time to stop so I had to swerve over onto the shoulder to get around the little old lady that just pulled out in front of us with out a second glance. This seemed to be strike TWO in our list of things to make us stay home this weekend. As the near death experience started to fade from being branded into our brain just a few moments ago, things started to smooth out....That is until we hit the road construction on 164. After running a stop light since I was setting in the middle of an intersection we took a detour that at first got us lost and then later we were able to see where we needed to be but not how to get there. We crossed over 164 twice before we finally found our way to the road we needed to be on. I guess this was strike THREE I think because I lost track of the signs to go back home and just crawl in bed and pull the covers over my head. We arrived in O'town two and a half hours later than we planed and late for the planed chili supper. I was just glad we arrived safely and that we could finally start our weekend of de stressing. Saturday morning we walked up to the local Library to a book sale. Unfortunately the book sale was unproductive in the way of newly acquired used books. After that we went to the Shogun so that Jenny could enjoy the show, environment and food. After we had stuffed our belly's, it was time for Halloween shopping. We ventured to three Halloween stores and I picked up a few items. We returned home for some porch setting, knitting for the ladies and a nap for me. When I awoke my cousin "J" was there so I got to visited with her and her daughter "M". We had missed them Friday night due to our delayed plans so I was glad to get another chance to visit with them. After they returned home we had chili dogs for Supper with a Cold Stone Creamery for dessert. We sat outside at the Creamery since there wasn't enough seating inside and froze while we ate the delicious ice cream . It was sooooo worth it. Needles and I got the Mud Pie Mojo, coffee flavored ice cream hand mixed with Oreo style chocolate cookie and peanut butter, Mmmmmm. Before long the eyes were getting heavy so it was time for bed. I layed in bed for about an hour until I finally had to get up. Too many things was running through my head to sleep so I stayed up playing with Cynical's Itouch. I think I might just have to order one soon. Today we had a great breakfast and did some porch setting until we decided it was too cold and returned into the house. For lunch we had salad, baked potato and grilled pork chop. Just after lunch Cyncial's Mom and Dad visited and before long it was time to head back North. We had a great time but it went too quick. Thanks Cynical and Ragged for having us.