Early Apples

The Yellow Transparent apple tree at our barn is starting to drop apples and the neighborhood deer are more than willing to remove the apples. These early apples make great pies and applesauce but are soon gone when they start to drop. The local deer hang very close to this tree waiting for apples to drop and sometimes won't leave while I mow the lawn.

Beets

Back in the spring, when I planted our garden, I may have over-planted some vegetables. I didn't realize that come harvest time Mary would be recovering from a knee replacement surgery and due to shoulder surgery I would have my dominate arm restrained in a sling. Today's harvest time challenge was processing beets.

Mary and I managed to collect more than two 5-gallon buckets of beets from the garden (there's still more in the garden). After cooking and cleaning we were ready to slice and package the beets for freezing.



Clean-up time. 32 pounds of sliced beets ready for freezing.

Eating Pond Scum

After weeks of hot weather our pond has developed a layer of green algae forming on the surface of the stagnant water. During my evening wildlife drive I noticed ripples/waves on the surface of the pond without any air movement. I discovered the ripples were caused by hundreds of small bullheads lined up and eating the pond scum.

Honeybees

The honeybees were busy working on the blooming goldenrod as I mowed the field today. The honeybees probably didn't like me mowing this goldenrod but there's still acres of goldenrod that didn't get mowed.

Apples & Hornets

I was mowing one of my overgrown fields (one of the few things I can do with one arm in a sling) when I noticed this apple tree that was loaded with small bright red apples. Time to check out the apples.



After getting close enough to get some apples I noticed this hornet's nest hiding in the branches of the tree.



These are very aggressive Bald-faced hornets and they weren't too happy with my mowing around their tree. Several of the hornets stood guard at the entrance and after being buzzed a few times I got their message and drove off without getting stung.

Red Fox

A neighborhood red fox continues to stop by and check on me.

Young Skunk

I haven't been wandering in the woods too much due to my shoulder surgery but the wildlife is coming to me. I found this young skunk looking for breakfast in our back lawn.



Skunks are one of my favorite animals to photograph and I was able to get within 6 feet of this guy.



After following this skunk as it hunted for its breakfast I could sense the skunk wanted to be alone.



The skunk started to be more defensive and started to charge at me. Time to back off before the skunk gets pissed off and I get pissed on.

Fox Checking on Me

I was in my "Man Cave" last night, relaxing with a bottle of Angry Orchard, when the neighborhood red fox stopped by to check on me.

I'm Being Watched

Several times this summer I've had a red fox scoot by the sliding door of our rec room (Man Cave). I placed a game camera outside the door to see how often the fox would visit. If you look closely at the bottom right of this photo you'll see the nose and ear of the fox as it watched me.



Due to my recent shoulder surgery I've been sleeping on the rec room couch. This photo of the fox looking in was taken while I was sleeping on the couch.



The fox left a calling card outside the door so I would know he was there.



Not only do we have a fox watching through the window, we have a deer that visits. This deer has been spending hot days this summer under our small deck which is 20 feet from the door.



I hope the deer isn't making plans on how to open the door.

Rainbow After The Storm

Tropical Storm Isaias raced up the east coast today with lots of wind and rain. We were at the western edge of the storm and only got about 1.25 inches of rain and light wind. As I did my evening wildlife drive I was presented with this bright rainbow on the hill top of our cabin property.



I found these deer feeding with a rainbow in the background.



The southern end of the rainbow was a double rainbow.

Motorcycle Visit

We got a surprise visit from some people with a cool motorcycle with sidecar. We had met the people a couple of weeks ago and they were taking advantage of the nice weather to cruise around on their Ural motorcycle.



This Ural motorcycle is a modern reproduction of a classic World War 2 Russian IMZ-Ural motorcycle with sidecar.