Project: One photo a day (but not necessarily every day)

[open roader]

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[rwsaunders]

Last count, we've had a dozen or so of these Monarch caterpillars feasting on the milkweed...pretty cool.

[bcm119]

[j44ke]

Last count, we've had a dozen or so of these Monarch caterpillars feasting on the milkweed...pretty cool.

Strangely monarch caterpillars remind me of Yorkshire terriers. Think it is the antennae.

[rwsaunders]

His/her Mum...

[bigbill]

I played around with filters on this one. This is my wife flyfishing in Yellowstone last week. I think it is somewhat Monet-like.

[j44ke]

Nice. Wives seem to have a way of making any photo a Monet.

I'd like to think husbands make any photo a Winslow Homer, but it is probably a bit more Norman Rockwell.

[72gmc]

I'd like to think husbands make any photo a Winslow Homer, but it is probably a bit more Norman Rockwell.

Or Don Martin

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[j44ke]

Rain finally. Frogs found it a bit chilly. Asked for towels.

[Tom]

Yeah, this was a good day. Hard rain at noon, hard rain at five. It's been months.

I love the August night sounds. If I can't sleep I go sit outside.

[bigbill]

Nice. Wives seem to have a way of making any photo a Monet.

I'd like to think husbands make any photo a Winslow Homer, but it is probably a bit more Norman Rockwell.

My wife is an artist, and actually makes a living with her art, so the bar is pretty high when I take photos. At 6'3", she's easy to photograph and makes for some dramatic shots.

[rwsaunders]

[j44ke]

She's helping out with the beetles that have been eating our (very few) native viburnums.

[bigbill]

My wife took this shot of me yesterday afternoon on the Medicine Lodge Creek near Hyattville, WY.

[Mabouya]

She's helping out with the beetles that have been eating our (very few) native viburnums.

I wish all the spiders I have would catch the ticks. The path I take to go refill the bird feeders is a bit overgrown, so twice I walk through a section that's maybe 4 yards long with weeds brushing against my pant legs. Before I go back in I remove the pants then go upstairs and lay them out on the washer and dryer that are side-by-side. I'll typically find around 7-9 tiny ticks (~1mm diameter bodies) crawling around on the pants. I use some masking tape to collect them all, then fold it over and squish them to put them out of their misery. (as much as I dislike them, I also don't like the idea of them being stuck to the tape and slowly dying)

It's been quite some time since the ticks have been this bad. It's partly my fault for letting the weeds grow, but now I hesitate to take them down, because unless I cover myself with body armor, by the time I get done I'd be covered with the blood-sucking critters.

[j44ke]

I wish all the spiders I have would catch the ticks. The path I take to go refill the bird feeders is a bit overgrown, so twice I walk through a section that's maybe 4 yards long with weeds brushing against my pant legs. Before I go back in I remove the pants then go upstairs and lay them out on the washer and dryer that are side-by-side. I'll typically find around 7-9 tiny ticks (~1mm diameter bodies) crawling around on the pants. I use some masking tape to collect them all, then fold it over and squish them to put them out of their misery. (as much as I dislike them, I also don't like the idea of them being stuck to the tape and slowly dying)

It's been quite some time since the ticks have been this bad. It's partly my fault for letting the weeds grow, but now I hesitate to take them down, because unless I cover myself with body armor, by the time I get done I'd be covered with the blood-sucking critters.

Due to the dry year, ticks have been hatching as nymphs but not making it to adults. I don't understand the difference but seems like everyone has commented on lots of tiny ticks this year. Do more tick eggs hatch in the dry year or ... ? One of the local tick scientists said that the best indicator of a bad tick year is acorn production. If there is a mast year for acorns, then the following year will be a big chipmunk year and the year after that will be a big tick year. We've now reduced the barberry bush on our property by over 80% which should reduce white-footed mouse population over-wintering. We still have some but not the thickets we used to have. That seems to have improved things, though I'm not sure if the mouse population is lower or not. Dry years, at least, are supposedly bad for young mice. One of our friends here saves all her dryer lint and then soaks it in permethrin and stuffs toilet paper tubes with the poisonous fuzz and sets them around her yard. Mice find and line their nests with it (she's found the nests,) and that should kill most ticks. But you can also just spray the path to knock back the ticks. Our landscapers operate on the principle that every path has to be at least 2' wide and 4' is more desirable. Goat-width foot paths are nice, but: ticks. Their tool set is a string trimmer and leaf blower. Cut back the path area with the trimmer head on the ground to get the closest buzz-cut of the path's vegetation, then walk up and down the path with the leaf-blower and clean off the litter and some topsoil. Eventually the path starts to stay clear longer as you interrupt the germination layer of the soil. You're basically repeating what deer do but with machines. Also you can take off your pants when you get inside and shove them in the dryer. Give them 10 minutes on hot, and that will stun the ticks and collect them in the lint filter. Better not to squish ticks as you don't want their innards getting on your hands or anything. Keep a kill jar of alcohol or formaldehyde and drop them - or the tape with them stuck to it - in there. Also rubber boots are the best anti-tick footwear in taller grass. I don't know if they don't like rubber or they can't grip it but big improvement.

[j44ke]

Beach crowd at the local spa. Getting fat on insect crudité.

[rwsaunders]

^ that’s pretty cool Jorn…I wonder what they’re saying to each other?

[j44ke]

^ that’s pretty cool Jorn…I wonder what they’re saying to each other?

Probably something like "move over" or "when's lunch?" For the space available, they seem to like to sit in a big jumble. And they definitely have the rebound angles off the glass worked out for catching snacks.

[j44ke]

Local (click image for video)