Welcome 2019

Happy New Year!

We had a simple family dinner and then all retired to our own lives and ended the year on a high note all together!  Here's to a great year for all. 

Cheers! 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

2018 is almost History...

Well another year has come and basically gone...I have mixed emos of this year...I do have some fond memories from it, tons of small moments of awesome-ness...and then there is the big picture...it was rather bleak...sorry to be a realist but that is who I am. It's rare that I'm down and out but I have been down this year for sure.  So many things just went the opposite of plans.  Some good comes from that as now my Mom will be returning home since Rocky Mountain High living does not agree with her respiratory issues!  Isn't she gorgeous? My Sis took this photo and I embellished it My mom has always been a beautiful woman...inside and out. If only I could be more like her.....still having Mom in my life is the best part of this year. 

Highlights of the year was the travel I did early in spring to TX I almost feel as if I had to pick another state to live in....it would be TX...just for the landscape and the birds alone, it is such a diverse environment...but then there is the politics of TX...*sigh*

                                                        Davis Mtn SP TX Hill Country

                                                           Sea Rim SP Gulf Coast

and New Mexico

                                                    Organ Mtn rec Area Southern High Desert

and AZ, meeting friend Jo, 

                                                      Salt River Canyon north of Globe, AZ

                                                   Madera Canyon Sunrise Green Valley AZ

and then on to spend time with the family in CO. 

                                                             McInnis Canyon Western CO

 We made the decision to bring Mom home, then somehow plans got twisted and we forgot what the whole point of the exercise was,,,,but now we'll soon be back on track.   I had every intention of making it to 500 birds this year and I know I could have done it, if not for the rug being yanked.  

I sure had a great spring, and then the slow trip back home, along Poudre de Lac River 

and the awesome views and birds of the Colorado Rockies...

GOOD stuff!

Sandhill Cranes With Chicks 

Wild Horses Sand Wash Basin

Strom on the Mesa

Canada Jay Grand Mesa 

Burrowing Owl  

Rifle  Mountain Park Fish Hatchery

Rifle Falls

There is no end to the beauty out there..

I did have a few highlights back here at home I nabbed up the Swallow Tailed Kite...

And the White Cheeked Pintail 

.then the summer and fall brought hard times to me and the family we lost one...And Grief was the way I ended the year...

John we miss you so....

So in closing

I added 32 new birds to my life list, and it was so much fun just looking for them!! I hope 2019 will bring more peace into my life, and my family's life...it's not there yet but I think progress is slow but coming.  The political trend in this country has left a sour feeling inside me and that has affected my view of the people who live in this country.  I think the majority of them are good people who care about each other and our World...then there is those others....

I honestly hope for a better year in 2019!  

It is my wish that all of you have a wonderful New Year full of
Peace, Goodwill,  and Hope!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

All Natural...

I'm now a reluctant Flickr pro account owner, but it didn't go smoothly, I will say their customer service was immediately there to help me when I accidentally purchased pro on the Brand "NEW" account I had made just to host my blog photos, and not the one that holds the 20,000+ collection of photos! They refunded me right away, and I got it straight. 

Been having some naturally occurring issues  lately here on the homestead...and I'll share it.   These are some Leyland Cypress trees my mom and I planted about 8 yrs ago.  They grew really well...

We planted them between our homes to give privacy even when it's your mom you want some privacy and vice versa...they are filling in very well, the good thing about these trees is they don't lose needles, they stay green year round, and the provide cover for birds.  They grow really fast too!

Leyland Cypress 

But the ones we put up by her driveway have not fared too well at all check this out...These have been mutilated again and again... 

                                             video clip

We planted the driveway trees at the same time.  Here is a new Holly I planted about one year ago it has tripled in size and is doing well...the deer never bother the Holly, and they don't seem to bother the little Eastern Red  Cedars much either..

Holly

eastern red cedars

As you can see from these photos its foggy, rainy, and gloomy this weekend...can't get outside much so I'm inside editing video I shot over the past couple weeks...I put this clip together...hope you will enjoy watching it.  These clips were shot through my windows of the pasture it's a playground!

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Did it!

I think I need to update.  I'm not traveling right now so I'm busy doing all sorts of chores and going about every day life here on my homestead.  It's time to do a little decorating so I jumped right in..

Hung a wreath on the porch door...this is the one I've been using the past 4 or so years I still like it...

My Thanksgiving was quiet for the most part, just myself and my son...And the dogs of course...their stockings are up ready for The Dog Whisperer to visit...

Of course I hung them with great care! We had a nice fire that day...

it was pretty chilly so...they snuggled into their beds 

Awww the good life...

Then a day or two after I tackled the tough job of decorating the tree! This year Im keeping it so simple...it took less then 20 minutes to do...lol  but I think it makes a statement.

...even artificial ones!

Then rain and rain and rain...
Seemed it would never stop
finally it did.
I'm still cutting up lots of wood to burn

Then as part of my volunteering I put this small church cemetery on Find A Grave, there is 136 souls here and maybe more in unmarked graves.  I don't like unmarked graves...a forgotten soul and forgotten history.  

not the original church since the oldest grave was from 1908, so I imagine many remodels over the years

And I'm still working on getting a photo posted for each memorial.  It is a lot of work, but I think it is an important thing to preserve.  There are literally thousands of small churches spread all around our county and the surrounding counties...I could do a new one every single day if I so desired! Check out this homemade stone, it does not contain all the info I'd like such as dates of birth and death, or the entire name but it is better than nothing!

Rev D Brown

This is a small but old congregation. 110 yrs! There is so much to be learned from the past. Here and maybe elsewhere most churches are still segregated.  This is an African American Baptist Church.  My sis and I have worked hard on making sure the AA churches are placed on Find a Grave, as it is a great resource to research family history.  Certain sectors of the population have been over looked in recorded history so we are doing our part to get that info out there.  Since Find a Grave is now part of Ancestry.com it reaches more people...I do however like the old site better than the new one they released this year.

I have no bird photos? HOW did that happen?  How about some crows making lots of noise...check this out..

               

                                                                                  

 I always take my decorations down the day after Christmas, so I will enjoy these for a couple weeks then back into the boxes they go!

            

                       

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Thankful things...

I'm still sorting out where I will post photos in order for the blog to continue..and I think this could work.  Since I like Flickr and really would like to continue to use it...but just don't want to pay for it...For the Future I created a new account.  So between that and Google I think it will work. I don't know if I created 20 accounts if I could move my 20K photos..lol

If I sign up for the pro for a year, then make 18 more accounts each can have 1,000 free...lol

So I did sign up for a second account under my gmail email address. So at least I have that part figured out. 

Yes Im a tree Hugger!

I will however keep the second account private as I don't want to be worried about spam comments etc.  So if you click on a photo it will probably tell you "you don't have permission to see this image." Here's me hugging my big tree.  I just finished up a big You Tube project.  I decided to make one highlighting some of the things I love and am thankful to have in my life...right here on my little piece of the world.  So if you're a subscriber to my You Tube you can see it and if not WHY NOT? LoL no strings attached.  I actually like You Tube cause I can put my videos and photos in and there is no storage limit...I've made some videos highlighting some of my favorite trips and I'd like to do one on every place I've visited.  It brings life into the static of blogging.  I do need a new editor Im using Windows Movie Maker it is obsolete...that is why my video's have the black bars even if I shoot in 16:9 format my WMM won't save it in that format so I'm currently looking for a work around, and I may have found one for future use. 

I thought Google Photos would work but then a friend told me the photos were not showing on the last post so I had to rework that blog post and hopefully they are now visible...
My wintering birds have arrived..and it's good to have something normal and expected happen.  The numbers of my visitors is down so far.  The Dogwood tree in the front yard has become the hip happening place to be in my yard.  There is three of them and all have berries but one is loaded with berries this year.  A Northern Mockingbird has been defending this tree since the end of September.

But yesterday he really had a challenge...a flock of about 40 American Robins came in and they attacked his tree, then came Eastern Bluebirds, Yellow Shafted Northern Flickers, Red Bellied, and Downy Woodpeckers and even one Pileated flushed when I went out into the yard.  He had to drive away Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Northern Cardinal, and all those Robins! I tired to get a few shots via the window.  I saw some Junco on the ground underneath, and the American Goldfinch grabbed one or two berries.  They must be very sweet to eat. 

A. Robin

N. Flicker

More Robins...

E. Bluebird

So this was good!!  Unfortunately for the Northern Mockingbird, the tree was stripped of all berries, a few on the ground is all he has now.  I hope he finds the suet in the feeders. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

The Meaning of Life.

I have something new..and free...there is a lot to be said about being frugal! Well here it is, what do you think??
<----------

"Never look a gift horse in the mouth."


Casey for scale. 

Not impressed? LoL...well you might be if you need to split wood! This chopping block is helping to save my back and represents hope and intentions.

Found this out: the deal with Google is unlimited photo storage but they reduce the pixels (quality) to 16.  So instead of adding more content to Flickr I'll use Google for now! It is a slow upload I don't see me being able to move 16 tons (and what do you get) of photos over there.  However it is very simple to use.  So the quality is going downhill...my camera refuses to give me crisp focus, and now even that is reduced.  *sigh* so be it. 

...my heart is just not in it right now...it seems so trivial.  

American Beauty getting ready to shed this year.

Sadly my Mom and my Sis are gone.  Drove away just like that. Gut wrenching. I struggle in between the life of my parent and the  life of my son.  The 60 or so years between them is the span I currently occupy...been where one is now, and on my way to where the other is.  Three generations all struggling with different, but somehow related, challenges of life due to...
                                         Age, Time, and Place.

My father transplanted his wife and three daughters from Tennessee to South Carolina back in 1960. By the first of the year I'll be the only one of us still here. It's like an encyclopedia of memories ripped out of a lifetime. Women moved to foreign lands by men. I am standing firm I will not be moved, not permanently. I will make my stand where I call home. 

Casey is slowing down but still full of inquisitiveness 

I'm between both ends of the spectrum...one life nearing it's terminus, and one suffering from a bout of "early onset midlife crisis". My mom and my son.
"Youth is wasted on the young."  In the  middle I'm struggling... "life is like a box of chocolates."  "No one gets out alive." I have no perfect answers...I watch both and I have nothing to add..I observe in stunned silence  my feelings are, glad I'm not <-- there anymore and glad I'm not --> there yet.  What can I say?  "If I'd known then what I know now?"

Maybe that is the quote for me to take with me on my journey to --> there.


Downy Woodpecker thinking, observing, pondering his life...

I remarked to my son about the recently cut forest just down the road. Mature trees, there today gone tomorrow...just like that, as it had been clear cut when I returned from CO this past summer.  "I won't see that forest mature again in my lifetime." All the beautiful gold of the Hickory, the reds of the Dogwood, the surly orange of the Maples, the yellow of the Tulip Popular, and the many tones of brown of Oaks, NOT here this fall.  If only I had known last fall I'd have appreciated those colors so much more..the last time I would see those trees in brilliance. 

He seemed surprised and shocked when I said that. Neither will my Mom see it.  I read something she wrote long ago, I just came across it the other day.
She looks out her window and speaks to the trees and leaves she witnesses that sparkle on them, "You sing to me and it is beautiful."  She wrote that in a time of loneliness she was experiencing. I felt like a snoop when I found it and read it.  Her words so confidential and beautiful, then again maybe I needed to hear that NOW.

 If my son is lucky maybe one day will walk down this old dirt road again...maybe his son will be by his side and they will see a forest in brilliant fall display and he will recall that day. He will be the age I am now.  If he does I hope he remembers it fondly...I can't say. I can say this...
"Nothing is forever."  He will have to see it for both of us, he will hear it sing. 

Female Northern Cardinal observing, wondering, thinking, what's next...

I launched just fine, but he is not me, what worked for me will not work for him...so what I learned is pretty useless to him...on the other end of that fire-stick burning is my mom who requires around the clock guardianship she's still independent enough to be a danger to self....she remains defiant.  

Both struggle for independence, and the secret to life. Both falling short as we all do. 

Casey often stands with his head outside and his body inside. Living in between two worlds?

"If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain."

                          Muhammad is on the way to the mountain.

                                                                                                  

                                      "Are we there yet?"

 

                   

Casey observes...everything is harder for him these days he has to hold his back legs together much of the time to support himself, he wobbles and he sometimes falls over, he is pretty much deaf and he is very short sighted... he likes to sit up here and think...I'm glad I have been able to spend time with this sweet thinker.  I sure wish he could talk. I'd ask him, "what are we supposed to be doing with our time on this Planet?"  He observes life around him I observe him as he observes life around him.

I think he would answer, "just do your best and move on." 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.