Great Blue

I took this one Monday morning, just after some rainshowers had passed through. He (or she) is a Great Blue Heron. A better name would be Great Big Blue, if you asked me, but of course, no one did. We were heading for the river and disturbed his fishing. He left the slough and flew across the gravel road in front of us, and up to this perch. These guys are camera shy, and usually fly too far off for the digital before they light. Must have been some good fishing going on for him to only go this far. Great Blue's can get up to 54 inches tall with a wingspan of just over 6 1/2 feet. Looks to me like this one has maxed out. Luckily, he did not take wing as we backed up a bit, so I could get him silhouetted against the brooding sky. Once again I was presented with a perfect opportunity to use a natural frame. Makes it look like I know what I'm doin, don't it? Here is the entire photo. If you look closely at the large tree trunk on the right, you can see the high water mark from the spring rise on the Ohio.This is my favorite lake on the game reserve, Castor Lake. Don't ask me why such a beautiful spot shares the name of a nasty medicine.

My Green Thumb--NOT

Aren’t these blooms gorgeous? I could lie and say they are the result of time spent down on my knees and up to my elbows in the “good earth”. But that’s exactly what I’d be doing is lieing. I had absolutely nothing to do with this bit of nature’s beauty. Any guesses as to their identity? Ok, I’ll give ya a hint. Look up, not down, to find their origin. They are the blooms of the Catalpa tree. It has other names; Catawba, Indian Bean, and Cigar Tree. There are 6 of these beautiful trees in my front yard, one on the side and one out back. The blooms have a light fragrance that is filling my front yard right now. As they age, the blooms shower down like gargantuan snowflakes. They cover the roof of my vehicle, Deja, and when I drive off, they blow from the roof a couple at a time, leaving a trail like I’m in a parade, lol. Here is a shot showing last year’s beans, cigars or seed-pods, pick your favorite name.



And here is a longer range pic of just one of these huge, shade giving beauties. You can just imagine how white my yard will soon become.



The leaves are broad and dense. They keep the front yard well shaded even from the brutal full summer sun. They also have one added benefit. Sphinx moths are partial to these trees as a location for their cocoons. The emerging caterpillars are called “catalpa worms” hereabouts, and are prized as bait. Not that I’m waitin on them to make an appearance, or anything like that. At the moment, I’m just enjoyin the show.

My Kinda Afternoon

Couldn’t ask for much better. Temperature was 81 when we loaded up the fishin poles, fishin chair, and plenty of worms in my new “baby”, Deja Blue. Deja is a 1993 Chevy Silverado Suburban with 4 wheel drive. Her previous owner babied her and it shows. Here is a pic of Deja at our destination. You can see the sand and the huge, old trees that grow right to the edge of the bluff. We turned the back speakers around, left the back doors open, and chose X-Country (Cross Country) for ambience. It wasn’t loud, sound carries real good around all that water.



The Ohio river is up just now. Not floodin anything, but at the top of her banks. Just right for catfishin from the bank. We unloaded the fishin chair, worms, and poles, and we had it made in the shade, literally. The fish were bitin, and we had river traffic to fill in the little lulls between fish. This is the first boat to pass by. I didn’t even get outta the chair to take this one, just turned my head to the right, and let the overhanging branches frame it.



This next one I took because I wanted to include my faithful Ocean City rod. I believe I got it in ’91, and it is well used. After I got home and looked at the pic, it almost appears that I have hooked the boat itself, lol.



And finally, the end result of some soul restoration, the catch of the day. Well, really only about 3 hours. Think I’m gonna get up early in the mornin and go again. Offer them a breakfast buffet. And it won’t be 90 degrees then. Sometimes it is good to live by the river.

(Un)Holy Shit!

My nose detected the smell as fast as my ears heard the rumbling in the field beside the house. It was about 6:30 in the a.m. What a way to start the day. Gone are the days of smelling that good ole country smell of cow manure spread on the fields as fertilizer. Now they spread chicken shit from those warehouse type chicken production facilities, where thousands of chickens never set foot outdoors. They live in their own shit, and have unaturally large breasts and accelerated growth rates. Not only does the owner of the chicken operation make money from the chickens, they now sell the shit to be spread on other farmer's fields. Stink does not describe it. The fellow driving the spreader is a friend of mine. He waved when he made a close pass and saw me taking pics of his dirty deed. Look at the noxious cloud the spreader is producing. Any way ya slice it, it's a buncha shit.

Civic Duty Day

Somebody find me!

Here is an aerial photo of the location of my newest hidden geocache. I hid it on May 5th. Any ideas why it has yet to be found??? Click on the photo to enlarge it. My cache is on the left, "Are You Up To It?". Apparently no one is yet. Or else the friggin price of gas is slowin folks down. Think I will place another one right on the riverbank, so geofolks can pick up two finds at least for all the liquid gold it takes to get out here to the boonies. That is the Ohio River wrapping around our county, in case you're wonderin.

Spring