Osprey in Oregon

This post is in honor of my Mother in Law that passed away this morning.  Theresa's mom, Wynnie, was a great lady that I had the honor of knowing and loving.  We had many great family times together and I for one, will miss the fun and laughter that we shared.  You're in a better place now Wynnie.  Fly with the birds!!

On a recent fishing trip to Elkton Oregon we had the opportunity to see a lot of Osprey in action.  I took a few pictures and luckily some of my fishing partners had better quality cameras than mine.  It's amazing what the camera catches that the human eye does not.  Some of the dives that you will see below happened so quickly that I couldn't see what REALLY happened.

I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed watching these skilled divers in person.  Feel free to copy any of these pictures if you like them.  I can also send you hi-resolution images if you want them.  Just send me a note if you're interested.
 

 This bird was hovering overhead while we were fishing the Umqua river that runs through Elkton Oregon.  The Osprey has about a 5 to 6 foot wingspan and weighs about 4lbs. Osprey live and thrive all over the world.





This bird just snatched a good small mouth bass for lunch.  Oh well, that's how the food chain works.

 

Here's another bird just coming out of the water with a fish.  Yes, I have to admit that we "fed" these birds fish.  They were watching us closely from the tree tops and when we threw back a wounded fish, they were ready to dive-bomb for lunch.



Same bird as above just as she hit the water.  Notice how she has her wings folded up and out of the water?  The Osprey is also known as a Seahawk.




From swimming to flying in a matter of seconds.



Diving deep to grab a fish.  What a beautiful bird!!



Same bird coming out of the water with a fish



And finally fully out of the water!   These birds are amazing!

Well, I hope you enjoyed these pictures as much as I have.  Nature never ceases to grab my attention and I always crave more.  In a few days I'll post some pictures from the fishing trip.  The fishing was almost as good as the "show" that mother nature put on.  I thank God for such a wonderful world! 

We'll miss you Wynn!!  

Bad Moon a Risin'

This is a pretty random post.  Usually I try to stick with one topic but I'm going to be all over the place on this one.  I hope you find something interesting in this mess.

As some of you know "Bad Moon a Risin" by CCR is one of my favorite songs to play on the guitar.  Well, here's the story behind the headline:

Last Saturday night we went out on the lake with some friends to see a sunset as well as a full moon. As expected, the sunset was a typical beautiful sunset on Lake Murray.  According to scientists, not me, we were also about to witness the brightest moon of the year......a Super Moon. 

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Well, super it was!  This picture (Thanks Leslie, I stole it from your facebook page) doesn't do the moon justice.  It was extremely bright and it lit up the lake.  After hanging out on the lake until about 9pm, and noticing lightning in the distance, It was time to drop our friends off at their docks.  As we were about to head for home, away from the coming storm we heard a stranded boater honking his horn.  We couldn't leave this boater and his family stranded in a lightning storm, so we tied his boat up to ours and began to haul him to a marina.  About halfway to the marina, all hell broke loose.  Lightning everywhere, wind and pouring rain. Important note: Pontoon boats don't go very fast and they really go slow when towing another boat. The temps dropped and we were getting REALLY cold.  Thank God for Jim, who actually knew the general area where we were going and for Leslie who had a GPS on her phone that helped us navigate in the dark. (the bright moon was long gone at this point). Luckily we got the stranded boaters to the marina and the story ended on a good note.

Speaking of our good friends Jim and Leslie.....here they are visiting with Nick about 10 days before he left for Afghanistan

Big sister, little brother, kinda. Wish Tina and Megan could have been here!

And of course, proud mamma!

Speaking of proud mamma, this is a picture from yesterday morning.  I got mad at Theresa and told her to swim home!  Just kidding! Theresa is training for a mini triathalon.  I am very proud of her efforts to run, bike and swim.  I will be the official photographer during the actual event.    ......future blog material, I'm sure!

This is another picture from yesterday morning.  The floor of the back deck needed a new coat of sealant.  The Olympic stain that I used before just wasn't doing the job.  I washed the deck the night before (moved the couch and chairs into the back yard....."you know you're a redneck if you have a couch in your back yard")

The steps on the left have one coat of the new stain.  The boards on the right are what the old stain looked like after 1 year. Faded, dry and cracking.   I will add Olympic stain to the list of products I don't endorse.

I took this picture about 20 minutes ago. The deck is now stained and sealed.  It came out a bit on the redish side, but the boards themselves have a red tint and the stain had a red tint.  So guess what.....the deck looks red!

Anyway, the South Carolina sun will have that red faded into pink in no time.

Here's another angle on the deck.  It's not so red from this viewpoint.  The white tape is across the entry to keep my wonderful black lab, HUNTER, from getting paw prints all over the freshly finished deck.  He's afraid of white flags and believe it or not, this little trick worked!  .....so far.

Well friends, that's it for now. 

As I mentioned on my last post, I will begin to share some political thoughts on this and future blogs.  For today, I'm about blogged out so I will keep it simple.  My new slogan is this; OMG! = Obama Must Go!

  Feel free to share that thought with anyone.  Please.

Good News. Bad News

Below is a brief update on the bird nest in my garage:

The eggs have hatched and there are hungry little birds in our garage.

It's a miracle that Hunter has not climbed the walls to knock this nest down.  He goes CRAZY when a bird gets stuck in our garage.

I had to get on a ladder to shoot these photos.  This is about as good a shot as I could get without disturbing the nest. 

This is the female that laid the eggs.  She is watching me take pictures of her little ones.  I think it's safe to say that she does not like me.  So the good news is that all 5 eggs have hatched.  The bad news is that when I walked by the nest tonight, 2 of the young ones had been kicked out of the nest.  It was cold last night and I assume they died in the nest and the adult female pushed them out.  Let's hope the other 3 make it....

HEADS UP to all.  I have never been one to talk much publicly about my political viewpoints.  I think I have finally come to the realization that if  you and I don't start getting more involved and more vocal about our political views, we will never get back on the track that lead our country to greatness.  So, in future blogs I will begin to post a few comments that I hope you will like, or at least consider as we head into a critical election period.  I promise not to get on a soap box or ramble on.  Just basic stuff, short and sweet.  just sayin'........ 

I hope I don't lose all 3 of my loyal followers for this.  LOL!

CLOSE 2 PROJECTS!

I am posting these two pics just so you know that I CAN actually complete a project from time to time.  Rarely do I finish as fast as "some" people would like me to, but I DO finish. 

 This is the upstairs bunk room.  Carpet was installed about a month ago. slowly buying furniture and wall decorations for this room.  So, although the major work is done, still heed to get some things to hang on the walls to finish it off.  4 beds waiting for visitors! 

This is where the "Bradford Bird" used to be. It's also the site where some serious stump grinding took place.  Planted 3 Holly trees in this spot that will eventually provide some shade and privacy.  Some flowers for the deer to eat later this spring.

So that's it, a short post to wrap up some unfinished business! More on Nick's visit and other random things later today. 

It's been a while.....

Well howdy gang!  It's been a while since I've lured you here to read my stuff.  This first story is really a continuation of an earlier blog.  You might remember the Bradford pear that I cut down and the nice lawn sculpture that I created with my chainsaw.  If not, you may want to scroll back a month or two. Well, this is part 2 of that story; the eventual clean up of the Bradford stump. 

So, My blogging is a bit rusty and my humor might not be up to snuff, so grab a beverage, sit back and prepare to be underwhelmed.

 This is the stump.  Like most stumps it is DEAD.  I poured gasoline on it a couple months ago to REALLY kill it down to the roots.  I didn't want any saplings shooting up through the eventual landscaping.

Like most stumps, this stump had roots.  Long roots that were more like underground branches.  This is just one of the long roots I had to cut out.

Are you feeling like you're getting a grade school lesson on rootology?  Hang in there.  It gets better, just not a lot better.

This is the same root above, partially exposed.  As you can see these aren't your typical little sissy roots.  These are studly ROOTS.  And they grew from all sides of that stump.  Many Manly Roots.

This little gem is a Bluebird Stump Grinder.  This puppy is heavy, noisy and ugly.  But it does a nice job on stumps.  Because I am already deaf in one ear, I decided that my shooting ear muffs might be a wise choice to protect the good ear.....After 53 years I've gained some sense.....

This is the business end of the Bluebird above.  It has multiple "teeth" like the ones shown.  They don't look too aggressive, but when they are spinning 187 miles per hour, they can tear up some junk.

This is me getting a load of dirt to fill the gigantic hole that was left when the stump and roots disappeared.  I have since filled the hole, leveled it off and prepared it for planting.  I will finish this story in a couple weeks when I finish the job.  Glad I got this part done before the heat sets in.

As is customary, I have to end the blog with a random note.

Took these pics tonight in our garage.  Seems like our ladder is an excellent spot to build a nest.

A Carolina Wren built this thing and I just can't find the nerve to move it out of the garage.  You can see she used all types of twigs, pine straw, moss and leaves to make her home.

The first time I checked there was 1 egg in the nest.  Last night there were 3. Tonight there were 4.  I am hoping to get a picture of Mama Wren one of these days and eventually have shots of my grandbirds.  I will share them when I get them.  update.....now there are 5 eggs.

This is a Carolina Wren! The little bugger is cute! ....and fast!!

A Little Winter Work.....Update #2

I spent most of today working on the guest room or wandering around Lowe's buying lumber and materials for this project.  Since it was cool and rainy all day today.....I didn't mind.  Fishing is HOT on Lake Murray and I WILL be on the lake if and when the weather breaks.  I need to wrap this project up soon!

All the trim, doors and windows are now painted the same shade of white.

Do you like the carpet?  I hope not because it's about to be HISTORY!  The boys show up on Monday to take measurements.

I replaced all of the electric outlets with new white outlets and cover plates.  I think it makes sense since all the trim is white.  Don't worry, I only got sh sh sh sh sh shocked twice while changing them.  Felt kinda good actually.  JK!  

After the window trim dried, I hung the blinds.  Shortly afterwards, Theresa rehung them the RIGHT way.  I'm not much of a blind guy.  Don't think I want to be either.  I am kind of a deaf guy though.  Really!

Now that all the painting is done, it's time to start on phase 2.  We are building two new twin beds and doing a little rework to the original two (above example)  As I was paying for the lumber and materials I said to myself, "Self, wouldn't it make more sense just to go buy 4 beds at Walmart?"  At that exact moment I felt sort of Forrest Gumpish.......kinda dumb but kinda smart too.

One last update: Randy-1, Squirrels-0  My bird feeders are a little safer today!

A Little Winter Work....update

A quick update on the spare bedroom remodel.  Although it may not look like much, I've been working on a lot of little things.  Take a look below.

I added this baseboad over the weekend.  When I ripped out the old shelving unit, there was no, none, zero baseboad behind it.  So  I had to add some along this wall, as well as the adjacent wall.  Theresa wanted to know if I could do this without any seams.  Ummmm, unless they make baseboard in 18' lengths,......I think NOT.  But, especially for you (a potential guest), I've tried to make the seams as bearable as possible. 

I also added this moulding where the walls meet the ceiling.  The jokers that built this place didn't create a very straight line where the two meet.  So, to clean up the look, we added a simple piece of trim.  Again, WITH seams. I don't think seams can wake you up at night.......you'll be fine. 

 Not sure why I included this picture.  The outside temps have been fairly warm and I have been able to work with the windows open.  Also, this is your fire escape should someone set the lower part of the house on fire......which is a possibility with all the candles Theresa like to burn.  I will train you on how to use the rope ladder when you arrive. 

So as you might have guessed we are going to paint the room blue.  Makes sense for a "lake themed" room, doesn't it?  Well, now is your chance to vote.  Since you will probably be spending more time in this room than I will, you need to speak now or forever hold your anchor.  Otherwise, BLUE is the color.
We are keeping the white trim no matter WHAT you say.  Ha! Ha!

Hope all of you are well.  I'll post again once we've made a bit more progress.