Turkeys

I looked out our front window this morning while drinking my coffee and saw we had guests in our lawn. (Q) Why did the turkeys cross the road? (A) They were looking for breakfast!

Nothing in the front yard, maybe the greener grass in the back yard will be better.

Fall Colors

The green leaves of summer are taking on their fall colors. I flew my drone over our neighborhood to capture some of the colors before the leaves are gone. (Click on photos to enlarge and see more detail)

The leaves around our house.

Miner's pond at the top of the hill.

The pond at our cabin property.

The view from our cabin property toward our barn.

The view from above our cabin looking into the valley and town of Rome.

Another view of the hill top pond. Our barn is on the left edge of the photo.

Yellow Jacket Nest

There's a lesson here, look up more often. We don't know how long the Yellow Jackets have been building this nest, but it was located only a couple of feet from the door to our house basement.

We were lucky this time, since bees go out of their way to find and sting Mary.

Chinese Mantis

We had a guest waiting at our doorstep today when we returned home from some errands. This Chinese mantis was standing in our door frame waiting for us.

I normally find insects like this one hiding in the vegetation.

While the Chinese mantis is one of the largest members of the mantis family it is very friendly.

Fox in the Grass

I was at our barn this afternoon preparing to do some garden clean-up when I saw a young red fox walk into the field below the garden and bed down in the grass.

The fox bedded down about 70 yards away and I decided to see how close I could get for a photo.

The sound of the brisk wind blowing through the grass may have concealed my approach and I was able to get within 15 feet of the young fox.

It was a quick getaway by the young fox once I was detected.

What Big Eyes You Have! (All 8 of Them)

I was checking some of my game cameras today and found this Fishing spider behind one of the cameras.

Spiders have 8 eyes and the arrangement of the eyes can help identify the type of spider.

Bees are Buzzing

As most of the summer wildflowers fade away, the bees are busy with the remaining wildflowers as fall approaches.

Metallic Green Sweat Bee (Agapostemon texanus) on a New England Aster

Honeybee on Goldenrod

Bumblebee on a New England Aster

Blue Damselfly

The temperature in the neighborhood dropped to the mid-30's overnight. The sudden colder weather caused many insects to slow down, which allowed me to photograph this Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) as it tried to warm in the morning sun.

Late Summer Wildflowers

As the end of Summer draws near it's time to enjoy some of these flowers before they are gone.

Chicory; This striking blue wildflower is a common roadside weed that is a favorite food of deer.

New England Aster; This showy wildflower, blooming through October, is an important late-season food source for pollinators.

Teasel; This invasive wildflower is common along roadsides and is a favorite source of nectar for bees and butterflies. Its seeds are an important winter food resource for some birds.

White Turtlehead; This flower derives its name from resembling the head of a turtle when viewed from the side. It is also the host plant for the Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly.

Tall Coreopsis; This wildflower likes sunny sites with moist soil. It forms showy colonies of plants along water sources.

Some of the Tall Coreopsis growing at our pond.

Grasshopper

During my clean-up of garden vegetation I found this Differential grasshopper (Melanoplus differentialis) that was willing to pose for a photo.

Garden Cleanup

The cooler weather of fall is approaching and it's time to start cleaning up the garden.

Back in the spring I planted lots of my old butternut squash seeds with the hope that a couple plants would come up. They came up and took over one end of the garden.

One of our neighbors came with their granddaughter to pick some tomatoes. We've completed our tomato canning and there are still more tomatoes coming. Neighbors and friend are welcome to help themselves to the extra tomatoes.

Here again, I planted a lot of old pumpkin seeds and they took over the other end of the garden.

Bear Cubs

I hadn't checked my game cameras at the West Hill property since Spring turkey season until this weekend. The one camera had over 2,800 photos and among them was photos from this Spring of a mother black bear with 3 cubs.

Baby Mice

I was doing some clean-up in our garden when I uncovered a nest of baby mice. These little guys still had their eyes closed



At birth mice are hairless, pink skinned and born with their eyes closed. These mice are about a week old since they are starting to develop hair but still have their eyes closed. Their eyes will open about 12 to 14 days after birth.

Spaghetti Sauce

The tomatoes in our garden are preparing for their annual crimson onslaught. Time to can some of these tomatoes.



Preparing the tomatoes for spaghetti sauce.



To reduce the mess in the kitchen we cook the spaghetti sauce on a propane burner in our garage.



Each batch of spaghetti sauce is about 15 quarts and takes about 3 hours to cook.



We made 3 batches of spaghetti sauce over multiple days and canned a total of 44½ quarts of sauce.