And the fight is on!

We spent the yesterday day with Sarah and Lorelei, and got to see Jeremy when he came home from work. This is Lorelei and I, taken late with a cell phone....she loves sleeping on me like this. We almost took a nap together earlier in the day... I was so worn out when we came home that I barely got on the computer. And I just couldn't even make a decision about what to post on here, so didn't do anything.

Please enlarge these for better viewing!

Today we did a little bit of yard work, and had leftover for our evening meal. I got to checking prices of water softeners and dishwashers on here....while trying to keep an eye on the sun. When I thought it late enough, we headed out to the strip pits. On the way we saw deer and turkey, no place to pull over to take any photos. But we no more than got started at the strip pits when I spotted these two ring-necked pheasants.
These are for sure not the most in-focus shots, yet they are better than I hoped for. I was sooo excited at getting to witness this. It is a miracle I got anything at all.
I have never witnessed a fight before.....
and so consider myself blessed to finally see it for myself.
These are in the sequence they were shot...I did get a couple more but they are not good, and by then they noticed me. They took off shortly after this shot. We did see one more pheasant before we came home but it was too late, and I couldn't get close enough anyway.

Other than these, we saw several beaver, all in the water....had one hit the water with his tail when he seen me. At the other strip pit we used to fish at, I seen them regularly, but that has probably been at least 10 years ago.

And we saw lots and lots of deer there! None are very good shots but will try to post one or two in the coming days. Only seen one owl and one Northern Harrier, both very late and both were flying. So no shots at all of them.

If I were participating....

If I were participating in Sky Watch Friday, these are the photos I would use.
I have been busy with other things, and will be gone tomorrow, so I won't have time to visit others....so just going to post for my regular visitors.
These were taken the other evening on our way home from our little drive.

I have been busy but not accomplishing much. I do have the little quilt for Lorelei almost finished. But it should have been finished long ago--it is small. It really hasn't taken a lot of time once I started working on it. I have just a tiny bit more quilting to do, but am putting the binding on before I finish it. I don't think I have ever put the binding on before something is completely quilted...but there is a first time for everything.

It sure has been fun to sew a little bit...I have plans for more things I want to sew. I just hope I can get some uninterrupted time to work on the projects. I used to come home from work and sew just for a few minutes and I would accomplish a lot over time...now, it seems like if I get distracted, I get out of the mood to do anything.

And Mama Squirrel has been visiting quite a bit....I almost got a picture of her looking through the back storm door with Bubbie on the inside watching her. Soon as she sees me she gets active and heads to the fence post or picnic table....however, I can't get out the door that quick with all the cats, and she was back and met me on the steps one time. She ran around and around my feet on the way to the picnic table. I keep expecting her to get brave one of these days and climb up my pant legs.

I really think she might have babies, but I don't know which of our neighbor's trees they are in. I sort of thought it was early, but she was fairly 'big' and all of a sudden she is back skinny and well, there are other signs.

The cats have sure complicated things with her....I will think I have them all in the house, and suddenly she will take off. If I look around, I will spot one of them. And Puss Puss chased her up the tree the other day...from our yard over into our neighbors yard. Mama Squirrel ran up the tree, then came back down like she was going to run back to me.

I grabbed a chair and climbed on it and hopped over the fence to grab the cat, walked around the fence to the front, and threw her in the house through the front door, and about the time I got back around back, here came Mama Squirrel to meet me. She is just so hungry...really eats a lot.

I have heard or read somewhere that spring time is a hard time of year for animals. There isn't much left, plus a lot of people stop putting out food cause they think it is spring and that it will be easier for the animals. Not sure if this is completely true....but it does sound likely. Especially for the animals that needs seed/fruits.

Well, it is 2:02 according to my watch...I won't be on here much tomorrow....going to go see Lorelei. I will try to catch up with everyone tomorrow night.

Handsome!

Please enlarge for better viewing.

In our rambling yesterday, we were going right slow along the road when I spotted this rooster and another one in a fenced-in area of someone's yard. I couldn't resist a shot of him. Isn't he the handsome one? I don't know what it is, but I like chickens, and think roosters are just so handsome. Not cute, but handsome or beautiful. And colorful! Black, white, red, orange, etc or a combination. One I seen at the fair was this deep, deep auburn red.

They also bring back good memories. When Roger and I moved to Tennessee when we were young, my best friend/sister-in-law's dad gave us our own chickens. We kept them in a pen for a while, then let them have the run of the place. We always slept a little late on the weekends, and there was always this one little white hen that would go strolling by our bedroom window singing. I have no other word for it.

Also at the little place we rented, there were these little snakes about a foot long....one chicken would catch one and then all the other chickens would try to catch that chicken because they wanted to kill the snake. Roger thought it hilarious. There would go the chicken with the snake and a whole line of other chickens chasing her.

Of course, the thing we still laugh about is the rooster. One time Roger and one of my brothers were out in the front yard after work one evening practicing with their bows and arrows. Not sure how to explain it, but our little house set right against a big ridge...hill, or some might even call it a mountain. So they had bales of hay to have their target on, but if the arrow went through the bales of hay, there was the hillside right there to catch it.

Well, up the side of it were some younger trees...I cannot remember what kind. But they were not huge...and after we let the chickens run free, they started roosting in those trees. Well, while Roger and Robert were shooting their bows and arrows, the chickens were trying to get situated in the trees. It was that time of day where it is just a few minutes before dark takes over.

I didn't see this, nor hear the beginnings of it, but I heard the end Cock-a Doodle-Doooo and I heard Roger and Robert laughing so ran outside to see what was going on. The hens had all settled in those trees, and the rooster was trying to get situated and Roger said you could hear him flopping all around up there and disturbing the others, making them squawk. And in a second or two, he came falling out of the tree, rolled down the hill, and jumped up and crowed!

Roger still laughs about this, and it is funnier still to hear and see him tell it. I told Neal about it one night and he said he woke up that night after going to bed and started laughing about it. i am sitting here smiling just remembering it...and if Roger came and went through his routine about it, I would be laughing out loud.