This is the sunrise out my office window this morning. You know the drill, I wasn’t up to see it personally but my Raspberry Pi was.
The sun is moving into the southern sky as fall approaches. There is a very pronounced Coriolis effect going on in the clouds while the fog moves around this very dewey morning.
I was up early working with an arborist to try to figure out if we could save three ash trees that are being consumed by ash borer bugs brought in from China. I learned this morning that 90% of all of the ash trees in Virginia are dead or dying.
One of our trees is gone. His suggesting for the others is to enjoy them while they are around and plant something else in their spot.
We got up when we wanted to this morning. I left the blinds closed so that Gloria could get some sleep thinking that her poison ivy was probably sapping her strength. When she got up I asked her how things were going and she just seemed miserable with the ivy outbreak. So today we will visit urgent care to get her some relief.
We left Mountain View (not to be confused with Mountain Home as I so often do) around 11 am. We then bee-line it to Conway where there is an urgent care place that can see her.
Urgent care isn’t so urgent. They keep certain hours and it’s a bit of a “snails pace” on the inside. But we did get in and she got a shot that seems to be helping her. And some meds too. None of it she likes to take but in this case it’s probably best. Some people really have a rough time with the plant and she is definitely one of those people. I think we waited a couple of hours but once she got in it was pretty quick. She wanted to leave before they saw her … but we didn’t budge.
Thankfully, she got the help she needed.
The goal in Little Rock for me was to stop by and see my old high school friend, James, who is selling his dad’s 1940’s Piper Cub Sport and then visit another Virginia friend of mine who is living in Little Rock some these days.
After getting done with urgent care we were running late in the day and headed out to North Little Rock to look at the Piper Cub and have a very short visit with James at the NLR airport.
1940’s Piper Cub Sport
There’s so much to like about this little bird and so much to think about in the coming weeks. I’m in quite a tough spot on this one.
After leaving NLR we had to motor on to Texas where we would spend the night in Denison, Texas. We wanted to spend the night on Lake Texoma but couldn’t work that out on the drive there. We wouldn’t get into Denison until after midnight. But it was a long but pleasant drive into the Arkansas countryside and on into Oklahoma and Texas.
Right up until we get near Texas when the skies opened up and it rained like mad. After checking the weather ahead we learned there was no tornado or thunderstorm warnings, just rain. So we pressed on. But, man, did it rain! We had to slow down to 35 mph for part of that just to keep moving. It was pitch black, of course, making it even more difficult to see. But we made it with some persistence no more worse for wear. Just a little tired.
Gloria is doing much better now. I think the medications are starting to do their thing but her skin is still very upset and probably will be for days to come.
Every sunset around here is nice. This time of the year they are always very pleasant. Generally the wind is calm and all of the animals are either getting ready to sleep or getting ready to stay up all night. I’m somewhere in between.
Sunset July 10, 2017
Generally every day I can I go out with Mongrel to watch the day turn into dusk. This day it was quiet. The temperature was cool in humid air. There was all kind of activity in the fields.
Intricate bird nest July 10, 2017
The parents of this nest have been very busy lately. They are working on a brood of 4-5 chicks up there. They seem to be relatively smart to build a nest up under a roof on the gazebo where we only frequent once a day. The only down side may be the day the fledglings try to fly. Hopefully Mongrel is distracted in another location that day.
Our newest member of the family: Female red shoulder hawk.
She’s a noisy thing. Flying all around the property screeching as if asking for permission to be out of the nest.
We noticed it’s parent building a nest high in one of the tall trees in the background back in the spring. In the past week her downy feathers on her underside have turned into more stiff feathers. She’s still very noisy which I don’t think is going to change much in the coming weeks.
It’s been fun watching her in the binoculars. She’s quite the hunter. I’ve seen her with my own eyes catch a rabbit with the aid of both of her parents. If you look closely at her talons you will notice there is blood of some small critter there. Hopefully it’s not from one of our cats!
She moves from tower to pole in what appears to be her new favorite vantage point. We are harvesting the hay today which appears to be giving her unique opportunity to see what might be on the ground.
It’s best not to make any sudden moves if you are a small furry critter. As evidenced by this video.
It’s best to be a fairly large mammal with her around. A “furry mammal” as Helen told me when she was little.
She is a very active hunter and fun to watch do her thing.
Today I worked a bit with Gloria in the garden where I found this very large and spicy radish. She tells me I’m the only person she knows that likes radishes. She never met my grandmother!
I remember spending summers with my grandmother where part of that day was in various parts of the garden. Sometimes it was strawberries. Sometimes watermelon. Sometime cantaloupe.
Then I’d go about my day with my .22 rifle and a box of shells on my own for the day.
Things have changed since then and I miss those days.
