Fall has arrived

Fall has arrived to my backyard. The leaves are falling, the berries have turned red, Zephyr is bouncing around the yard & K-9 is on his annual "find all the nuts the squirrels have buired" patrol. K-9 will be off medication in 3 weeks! We've had a full recovery, as far as we know, and he is feeling great.

The proof is in the video

So we bought the Twirl-a-Squirrel product last weekend. We were so bummed that we didn't get to see the squirrels twirled! But, I did see it and managed to catch it on a poor video. Just watch it a few times and you'll get a laugh out of it too. It works! They twirl around and then they are "spit" off. It acually just makes them dizzy. No more squirrels on this feeder and you can move it to the next feeder when they figure out that this feeder is "bad" news.

Day at Nebraska City

Nothing marks the arrival of Fall like going to Nebraska City. The sumac has turned, the apples are ripe and we had a wonderful time exploring. Everyone had their P&S camera today, including me. It was fun to have a different "tool" to use. It did quite a good job of closeups when there was enough light.

Don't trim me!

I was outside trimming back my butterfly bushes this afternoon when this guy poked his head up. I went inside and put the 500D on my 70-200 with my 25mm extension tube. It produces this "dreamy" background with a very narrow depth of field. This was at f8 ISO 800 with a cloudy sky.

Interesting birds

This bird has a serious case of nose hairs!

Reminded me of the tweety bird cartoon Dr Jekyl & Mr Hyde when tweety turned into that giant bird.

This bird reminded me of a dandelion in full bloom ready to blow away in the wind.

Handlebars anyone??

Here kitty, kitty

Pam really wanted to pet this cat......it was beautiful. 400mm

Butterflies

Here are some of my favorite butterfly pictures. There wasn't a lot of space to work with, so it would be good to go there first thing when the zoo opens up - and school is in session. These were taken with either my 70-200 with or without the 500D or Pam's 200mm lens.

What to wear to the Butterfly Pavillion

Pam and I went to the Omaha zoo yesterday. Half of the new butterfly pavillion was spectacular. The other half was a dud (insects in aquariums). This butterfly thought that Pam's shirt was lunch. It made for a comical photo shoot! Pam, the flower stand-in, had to hold very still for me to take my pictues!!!

Backyard Bug

I saw this guy on my window late last night and thought - gee that is a praying mantis! Today, I saw it fly into my backyard and land. Taken with my 70-200 + 25mm tube. He would look away as I was laying on my belly, then he'd look right at me.

Over and Under

60 mm macro

Deb's Dragonfly

I stopped by Deb's late this morning. On the way into her house, I noticed this giant dragonfly hanging on her russian sage. It was in the upper 60s and overcast. I didn't have my camera with me, but I drove home. When I got back it was still "sleeping" and didn't blink an eye as I enjoyed taking these photos. All were taken with my 60mm macro lens.

Rain Barrel Weekend Project

Here's what we did this weekend. We installed a rain barrel on our property. I have a collegue that has access to these barrels and decided to try one. Here is our location. As you can see, it is outside of our fenced in yard. This is wonderful! It gives me more room to plant things that need water! Notice the cinder blocks we used. They were 99 cents a piece. We picked through them and took the corner ones, so it created a really nice platform. We were all ready to glue it together, but it is really solid without doing anything.

Here's the intake and the overflow. Very simple if you are good with a dremel with the router attachment. You have to go very slow as the plastic is very thick.

A simple quarter turn valve.

Here you can see the barrel's location outside our yard. The extension hose is at a nice level to take advantage of the water pressure.

And guess what it rained today and I have a full rain barrel! I hope that I'll have many more of these Green Zebra's next year.

Aronia Berries or Viking Black Chokeberries

I have 4 of these bushes in my back yard. I planted them 10 years ago. This year, they decided that it was time to produce. Little did I know when I planted them that they are among the top berries in the world as far as health benefits!! They taste very, very tart raw, but should be ok when added to smoothies or processed. I've picked about 20 lbs so far. My freezer is getting full. Would any of you like a bag to try???? Just let me know.

I called the county extension agent today and had a fun time as she didn't know anything about this bush. She was very hesitant at first when I was describing the bush and by the end of our conversation, she thought that she needed one in her yard! I was trying to find out when to harvest these berries. Best she could come up with is "they are harvested between August & September". Well, that should be now. Come and get them!