Another Ruby Throated Hummingbird - the finches and chickadees weren't cooperating!
This is an older photo from a vacation to Holden Beach, North Carolina in the summer of 2007. Portia and Celeste decided to try out their mad skillz at wave riding in the blow up canoe. I got this shot right before they were both dumped into the ocean.
I'm using this photo for my entry for the "I Heart Faces - Beach Fun" contest. Check out the I Heart Faces site for other great entries!
When we first moved into the new house we noticed a little hummingbird occasionally coming by to sample the flowers in the front flower bed. Jason promptly made his tasty vanilla flavored hummingbird food and now we're up to six hummingbirds all fighting for the feeder, all day, every day. Earlier this week I was out on the front porch and decided to see if I could get some decent photos of them. Being hand held they didn't turn out too bad, though next time I want to tripod the camera and use off camera flash, rather than the speedlight in the hotshoe.
These photos were taken with a Nikon D80; 18 - 200mm VR Nikon lens; SB600 speedlight on the camera hotshoe.
This is my niece on her first beach trip. She is now 5 years old, but this has always been one of my favorite photos of her. Love how she's raising her "shades" to peek at me.
This week's I Heart Faces category is "Got To Wear Shades" and I felt this quite appropriate! To see other great entries visit iheartfaces.com!
I noticed this turkey vulture sitting on the fence the other day while I was eating my lunch. He, apparently, was looking for lunch, too. We have a fly trap in one of the trees near where he was sitting that stinks to high heaven of rotting flesh ( to attract the flies ) and we're betting he smelled that thinking he hit the jackpot on a yummy meal.
Friday we brought home four of the cutest baby ducklings! We have set up a temporary enclosed area in the pond where they can be on land, in the dog igloo that is their shelter, or in the water, until they learn where their new feeding spot and shelter is. We should be able to let them out of the pen in a few more days. They are so cute and fuzzy and soft! They have tiny little wings that they flap around as much as they can. They are Muscovy ducks, but we don't yet know what the female to male ratio is.
More photos:
Over the weekend I decided to start up a new photography project. Project 365 is a little much for me, so I decided to do a themed Project 52 focusing on only animals, since they are my favorite subject anyway. Two years ago I did a general Project 52 with no theme and successfully finished it, so hopefully I'll be successful with this one as well.
I'm kicking off the project with a photo of Big Worm I snagged the other day while he was cat napping on the porch.
Finally - we're starting to settle into the new house. We finished up work on the old house this week and the renters move in on Monday. I'll be so glad not to see that place for a while. The dog fence posts are being installed today and will continue on Monday and possibly Tuesday. Hopefully by end of day Tuesday we will have a completed fence for these dogs. They need their running room and ability to free roam! They are getting a little more than an acre all to themselves with plenty of trees and open areas. They are going to love it!
We managed to capture Big Worm about a week after we actually moved. He's elusive and we had to go to the house at 10:30 one night in order to get him. By that time he was pretty hungry so I was able to coax him into eating some canned food inside his carrier. He was pretty leery but hunger won out and I was able to shove him in the cat carrier and close the door before he was able to remove one of my appendages. He was not happy at all. Once we got him to the new house, after much ruckus and mewling in the truck, we let him out of the carrier and he took off. We didn't see him for three days. Finally I found his hiding spot under the back porch. Jason fed him some tuna laced with dewormer and we Frontlined him for fleas and since then he's been hanging with us on the porch in the evenings. As you can see, he was not a happy camper at first, but he's coming around.
We're loving all the wildlife that we've been seeing. We have a resident pair of humming birds that we see on a daily basis. Lots of rabbits, frogs and dragonflies. Unfortunately also a lot of houseflies that are driving us nuts. We've seen a few deer and woke up one morning to 3 wild turkey strutting around the yard. Now that things have settled down I'll be trying to get some photos of some of the creatures we see. Here is a Waved Sphinx Moth that spent an entire night and day on our screen door.
Hopefully I'll get back to my regular postings again and I plan to start Project 52 up soon as well. Happy Friday!
It's been an eventful weekend ( well the whole past month has been ), but we're finally here! With the gracious help of lots of friends we made quick work of the move. We only had two furniture casualties - one bookshelf lost to I-71 and one end table glass insert got shattered - all in all, not to shabby!
I've gotten all the major unpacking done - all that is left is little stuff that I don't really know what to do with yet and my entire craft room, which will likely be a winter project. The office is still partially in a shambles, but we're up and running, which is the important part.
The dogs are loving the new place already, even though they can't free roam the yard yet. We're getting a fence estimate this week to at least get an area for the four beasts to romp in until we get around to fencing the majority of the 11 acres. For now we have two 20 foot screw in the ground leads for Buddy and Hardy. Blue and Lois stick close so we don't worry about them so much. Here's Buddy lounging at the end of his lead:
Lots more photos will be coming as soon as I get all settled and have time and energy to get outside. And inside photos are coming as soon as the place no longer looks like it was run over by a Tasmanian devil.
A week from tomorrow this will officially be Home Sweet Home!
( Photos by K. Kemble )
All photos are here.
We're pretty much all packed and ready to go. The only things left unpacked are things still in use. We were able to go ahead and take several loads over to the new house and store them in the large shed until moving day. The sellers have to be out by 10pm next Friday, but we're hoping they are out before then. It all depends on how long it takes them to get moved into their new house. We're just anxious to get settled and hoping for a few extra days to get the old house in better shape for renting without being rushed during moving weekend.
Once we get moved and settled a bit I'll post updated photos with our furnishings and arrangements. It's going to be a busy week but I took a week off to get all unpacked and settled in the new place. Internet may also be hit or miss during that time, depending on how long it takes to get the new connections set up at the new house.
Lots more photos coming soon! Hopefully lots of wildlife too. With 11 acres I'm bound to get lots of deer, turkey and bird photos in the near future! :)
