My computer is still up and running, but I'm still being bad about posting on my blog. I have been spending most of my online time on Facebook lately.
I took these shots of hummingbirds a couple of evenings ago on my front porch. They are getting a little more accustomed to me. The evening before, I was out back using the garden hose and a little female was just buzzing around the water coming from the hose.

I get a lot of shots of the hummers up in my trees now. I think it's so cute when they start chasing each other around and hear their little squeaks, although, I'm pretty sure I've already mentioned that.

According to the internet, this is a Cecropia Silkworm. I found it crawling up my Maple tree in the back yard. I hope it has a chance to change into the moth before a bird gets it. The moths are beautiful!

This Palomino lives over in Montpelier, along the Salamonie River. He came running over to the fence as soon as I got out of my car to take the picture. I just wish I had enough sense to carry apples for the horses I take pictures of.

These three geese were up on a hill, near a retention pond in Montpelier. I've taken tons of pictures of geese, but thought this was a good one.

This little girl was having a noggin scratch in my cherry tree.

Momma and baby. The robins seem to be the only juvenile birds I see around here.

this is a different baby, slightly younger than the previous one. Note the length of the tails.

Crazy little squirrel in the back yard.

Same squirrel, doing acrobatics after coming down out of the tree.

This shot may look vaguely familiar. I posted a picture very similar to this back in January. It is the same farm, just taken last week.

I took my grandson, Cody, to the park in Montpelier last week. Firemen's River Park. This adorable little kitty was wandering around and came over to me. She was so sweet, but terribly skinny. She just stayed around me and decided to use my over-sized purse/camera bag for shade. I used the graphic pen filter for this effect.

This isn't really a waterfall. It's coming from a pipe running under the road from the gravel quarry. It doesn't run all the time, but I thought it made a good shot, once I cropped the pipe out of the picture.

This is Cody. He will be 4 on August 27th. He had a good time while he was at the park. He had a couple little girls there to play with.

This is Starbucks. If you remember back to April or May, I had the series of pictures of the two horses aggravating each other. This is the one that was inside the round-pen, getting her butt bitten by Buck, the male Paint horse.

Well, some good news. I had a job interview yesterday (Monday). They liked me, so I will be called back for a second interview, probably on Friday. It is a receptionist position. The company is called 1 Industries. They sell janitorial supplies and equipment. Keep your fingers crossed and throw in a prayer or two or three! I hope I get it. The state is jerking me around about giving me my July food stamps. I can't wait till they lose their jobs and have to depend on government handouts, then they will see what it's like, having to wait.

Okay, I believe I'm going to get ready for a shower then bed. This will be early for me! I haven't been getting to bed till around 3:00 a.m. lately and not up till lunch time. I guess that's what depression does to a person. Last night, I got to bed at 3 and up at 9:30. I guess the prospect of a new job is kind of bringing me out of my depression. Check me out of Facebook. The link is on my sidebar. I do post some of the same pictures, but also some different ones. I posted pictures last night of my Kindergarten and first grade classes. Too funny. They are tagged so you can tell which goober is me!

Take care and have a great rest of the week.

Love Ya

Lisa

Don't Ya Think It's About Time?!

I finally got my computer back last week, but I just haven't felt like working on my blog. Instead, I've been playing on Facebook and working on pictures. The past couple of weeks I've felt really depressed, not because Chuck left, but because I still don't have a job, and don't know if and when I will. My divorce should be final soon. It has already been filed and it was uncontested, so as long as the court doesn't screw around, it should be done soon! I'm actually relieved that it's over. His excessive drinking really took me down right along with him. My entire family is glad he's gone, including Michael.

These two pics of the Lilly is in my flower bed out back. Not sure what kind of Lilly it is. I've never seen one this color. Anybody know what it is called?

This is BB. She is one of Lori's horses. I've been out to her house a lot lately, taking pics of the horses. She has a new colt named Herbie (Herbert's Final Wonder). I will have to sort through and find a really good picture of him and post on the next post.

This is Cat. She is also one of Lori's horses. If I'm not mistaken, she is BB's mother. Lori, correct me if I'm wrong on this!

This is a project I worked on a couple of days ago. My Aunt Pat gave me the old window about 3 months or so ago, then my computer was down for so long, so I couldn't print any of the pictures that I wanted to use. The top left is the old WWII German prisoner work farm, the round barn is in Jay County on State Road 1, just south of State Road 26, middle left, I am told, is part of the Purdue farm, in Upland(Grant County), middle right is nestled in the middle of a woods on County Road 200 North, just a little more than 3 miles East, bottom left is on County Road 100 West about 2 1/2 miles south and the last is County Road 200 South a couple miles East. The window has all the original glass, except for the bottom right pane. I had to use a glass from a picture frame. I hope to be able to get more of these windows to do more of these projects. I do have a larger one in the garage that is for a storm door, with 8 or 10 panes, but an odd size glass and 2 of those panes are broken.

I got this shot of a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird this evening after dinner. I was just sitting in a lawn chair in the back yard and being very still.

This is a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird that I took earlier today. She is all fluffed up because I just caught her as she was ruffling her feathers. She is sitting in my cherry tree. I love watching these little guys!

This is a juvenile robin that I got early this afternoon, also sitting in my cherry tree. Mama wasn't too far away. She kept watching me, but I think she knew I wasn't going to hurt her baby.

This is just a back shot of the same baby.

I don't know the people that this dog belongs to. I was over in Montpelier, at the cemetery, cleaning up the grave of my best friend's son. There are so many mementos and flowers around the monument that the caretaker can't mow around it, so I moved everything, used the weed eater and raked then put everything back as much as where it was as possible. The dog lives directly across the road from the grave and as I was getting ready to leave, he had to come and check me out. I believe he's an Australian Sheppard. He's a beautiful dog!

Okay, I still don't have enough sense to go to bed at a decent time, but I'm going to get off here now and go take a shower and go to bed!

I'll start visiting tomorrow.

TTYL

Love Ya

Lisa

Still Down

Well, my computer is still down. I took it to the repair shop. The mother board and processer are bad and I don't have $300 to have it fixed. I didn't lose any of my pictures, thank goodness. My older son, Ryan has an extra computer that his mother-in-law is currently using. When she gets her new one, he will get that one back for me, put my hard drive in it, as well as the one already in it, and let me have that one. I am still using Lori's computer at the time.

Well, a lot has happened since I have been without my computer. The worst of it being that my husband has left me! He moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee two weeks ago. He has left me with no job and very little money. I really wish I could start selling my photography to earn a little bit of money. Jobs around here are scarce. I have put in applications and resumes in several places, but no calls so far. The bad thing is, we had several projects started on the house. We had wallpaper peeled off the walls in the spare bedroom and master bathroom, but never got them painted. The guest bath needs to have the paper peeled and painted as well. There is no insulation in the attic. Two months in a row, my gas bill was just short of $500 per month! No way I can afford that. We were only able to afford it this time because of the money I got when my mother passed away, but all that is gone bacause we had to pay off all our credit cards so I could take over the house. It couldn't be put into my name till I got my credit straightened out.

I don't have any idea what I'm going to do.

This is a model plane that people were flying around out at the high school parking lot on Sunday. I went out there on my way home from putting my garden out at Lyle's. Ryan, Melissa and Cody were out ther flying a kite, that is, while the breeze would cooperate! Cody was riding his tricycle around in the parking lot while mommy and daddy flew the kite.

The gosling and duck pics were from a farm out on Willman Road, not too far from where Lori lives. I was just bored one day and started driving around.

The lonliness is really starting to get to me. Especially if I am watching TV and there is an intimate scene on there. Just watching them kiss gets me depressed! Oh well, just something I have to get used to, I guess.

Gonna get off here for now. Hopefully, I will have a computer next week. Keep your fingers crossed!!!!

Love Ya

Lisa

I Give Up!!!!

You'll never believe this. My computer crashed on me Saturday morning and I lost everything! Including about 3000 pictures! I am using one of Lori's computers to write this.

Last night, I had a little visitor. A juvenile Ruby-throated Hummingbird. She stayed perched on my feeder for a couple of hours, even when I went out there to take pics of her. She never took off the entire time I was out there. I even used my pathetic cell phone camera from less than a foot away from her and she never took off. She was terribly cold, as it was only in the mid 40's at the time, with expected low of 39. I took just over 100 pics of her. I can't wait till I can either get my computer fixed or get a new one so I can get the pics up for you. My next-door neighbor is a police officer and I told him what happened. He told me that he would probably be able to recover my lost files for me, so keep your fingers crossed!

The pics above are as-is. I haven't done anything to them. I took them yesterday. The first one is a Tree Swallow and the other is my little visitor from last night.

Gonna get off her for now.

TTYL

Love Ya

Lisa

There's More Critters Out And About!

Hello everybody. Has everybody had weather as crazy as ours? I am sick to death of the rain. We always get it all in the spring, but never in the summer when we really need it for the crops. The fields are all flooded now, some even high enough that the water is crossing the roads in some places.
Remember that mama Robin from two posts ago? This picture is mama and one of her babies, sitting on our bird bath yesterday morning. The baby is just so adorable! I know that there was at least one other baby, but not sure where it was.
If anybody knows what this funny looking bird is, please let me know. It has long legs. The body appeared to be about the size of a grackle or a pigeon. I've never seen one before, whatever it is!
These two ducks are Mergansers, but I'm not sure which sub-species. Possibly Common or Hooded, from looking at my book, according to their territory. Both of these pictures are of flooded fields, not ponds!
This picture of a male Mallard was taken at the same time I took the pics of the Mergansers. I played with the shadows on this, the same as I did with a previous Mallard in flight in the April 7th post.
This is the same male and a female Mallard. Again, I played with the shadows.
The past few days, I've been going out to Lyle's to take care of his critters while he is down south visiting. I'm pretty sure he went to West Virginia to see his son. There is one dog, one Cockatiel, about a dozen cats(outside) and four pea fowl, one of which is the hen and the other three are males. The picture above is the oldest male's tail. I used the "fluorescent chalk" filter to get the effect.
This is the same peacock with his tail fanned. His name is Peapot!
And this is Peapot trying to figure out what in the world I'm doing! None of them are tame. We can get closer now than we used to be able to.
This is one of the many Grackles that come around here to eat. Between them and the Starlings, I don't know which are the bigger pigs! Again, I played with the shadows on Photoshop for the effect. After leaving Lyle's yesterday, I went taking more pictures, in the rain, no less! I was having a heck of a time. Taking pictures of a Killdeer that just doesn't want to cooperate is a riot! The Killdeer is part of the Plover family. They lay their eggs around gravel and their eggs look kind of like little rocks, according to my Aunt Pat. She gets these birds around her farm all the time and she finds their "nests" in her driveway. I couldn't get a clear enough shot of any, so I gave up for the day. I also can't seem to get close enough to the Horned Lark to get a decent shot. I chased one of them around for a short while too! They won!
I'm going to get off here for now. I hope everybody has a great weekend. I hope it stops raining!!!
TTYL
Love Ya
Lisa

Some Seriously Screwy Weather!

I can't seem to be able to get myself motivated enough to post more often! Not sure why, cause Lord knows, I don't do anything else around here! LOL
Glenna and Tim were home last week. They flew in from Anchorage on Easter Sunday and stayed with another classmate that lives near Indianapolis that night. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, Glenna stayed with me. She wasn't feeling well most of the time that they were here. On Friday night, Glenna, Tim, Chuck and I went out to eat in Decatur, Indiana. A restaurant called The Back 40 Junction. Glenna has been there several times, but it was a first for Chuck & I. It's located in an old train station and is set up as a buffet-only place. Friday is all you can eat crab legs. That's all it took to get Chuck there! I'm not much for crab, so I had shrimp, my favorite seafood. It was really good! The picture above is me(left) and Glenna.
This is a round barn on State Road1 in Jay County, Indiana. I had to take a slight detour last week to go to Portland to Walmart to get my new glasses. I'm really feeling old now because my new glasses have bifocals! The only part that is hard to get used to is, strangely enough, when I'm eating. When I look at my plate, I have to go back and forth looking between my bifocals and the regular part of the lens.
This old barn is over in Berne. I drive over there every once in a while taking pictures of the Amish farms and buggies. I think the filter I used on this barn is High Pass.
This old wagon was in a yard of one of the Amish farms. I would love to spend a day at an Amish household just observing their ways, and taking pictures of the homes, implements and different things that they use. When I was there last week taking these pictures, I passed two teen aged Amish boys rollerblading to and from town. Quite odd watching that. I was going down the country roads shooting the farms and such, and I got behind a buggy going quite slow. There was a farm where three or four Amish boys were out playing ball. I was just barely moving because I didn't want to pass the buggy and spook the horse. My camera is always in my hand, ready to shoot whatever catches my fancy. The boys started waving at me and motioning like they wanted me to stop. I did and rolled my passenger side window down. I asked one of them if he minded if I took his picture. He said no, so just as I got ready to focus, the mother walked out onto the porch and the boys hollered "DON'T", so I didn't get my picture. Even if I would have gotten the picture, I wouldn't have done anything with it except keep it for my own personal collection. I know that they don't like having their pictures taken. Some don't mind it. When I rode over with Lori a couple of weeks ago, we stopped on the side of the road and an Amish family was coming toward us. A man and woman, holding a baby in the front, and three young children in the back. Lori shot a picture of the children and as she did, the mother was looking backward, looking straight at Lori and smiling.
This is the head of the Civil War monument in the courthouse square here in town. I used the reticulation filter to get this effect.
This is the clock tower of our courthouse. The setting sun was hitting it.
This is the same monument as the head shot above. The main focus was on the rising moon.
This is just a robin in the back yard, sitting on my next-door neighbor's fence.
Believe it or not, this is a sunset. I've been playing with Photoshop quite a bit. I finally had to buy the version that I had the trial version of. I loved it. This was the "twirl" filter. I bought Photoshop Elements 7. To me, Elements is so much more user friendly than regular Photoshop.
This is one of the Amish farms in Berne. I just played around with the shadows to get this effect, the same as I did on the Mallard duck on a previous post. I took this on our way home from Decatur Friday night. I couldn't believe the picture came out as clear as it did, because Chuck was driving and I was taking the picture as we were flying down the highway at 55 MPH!
I'm really getting tired of this weather. It just won't make up it's mind. Saturday, I was wearing shorts and it was beautiful out. Since then, it has gotten progressively colder and rainy and they are calling for snow showers tomorrow(Tuesday) then in the 80's this weekend! It's no wonder my allergies are going crazy!
Chuck is still doing well. He still hasn't had a drink, thank goodness! He has been doing a lot of work around the house. Last weekend, he installed a new kitchen ceiling light. Before, all we had in the kitchen was a small hanging lamp in one corner and small fluorescent lights above the sink and under the cabinet. Then he ripped the carpet and old ceramic tile from the master bathroom floor and put lenolium down instead. He has been landscaping the yard as well. We still need to do the guest bathroom floor the same as the master. I don't know why people put carpeting in a bathroom. It just soaks up water from getting out of the tub or shower and steam and eventually will cause mold to grow. He also had to fix or replace the faucets in the bathroom sinks and shower/tub. They were all leaking pretty badly.
Time to get off here and take my happy hiney to bed! I still don't have enough sense to go to bed at a decent time!
TTYL
Love Ya
Lisa

A Follow-up From A Screwed Up Week!

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, although it sometimes seems like it because I keep disappearing from blogland for long periods at a time. A couple of readers know why I wasn't on last week because I e-mailed you. So far, everything is much better. Chuck quit drinking and knows that the next beer he touches, he's out of here! Most people think I'm crazy to take him back, but I love him and want this marriage to work. I'm not in this marriage to make other people happy.
The picture above is going into a little town in Jay County, east of Blackford County. My husband got the biggest kick out of it the first time we drove to Indiana from Florida. Our last name is the name of a small Indiana town. Even when I stop at the convenience store there, they get a laugh out of it being our last name.
This is our neighbor's house behind us. I saw this momma Robin flying up to her nest on Saturday. I got as close as I could without scaring her off her eggs. I felt so sorry for her Sunday because it just poured rain all day and was quite chilly.
Still not a very good picture of a Blue Heron, but it's a little better that previous. This was much closer to home than where I was going before. I'm going to keep trying!
Lori and I went to Berne again Friday March 27. She goes there to buy grain for the horses. Much better prices there. On our way home, only about a minute from my house, we was this odd, funnel-shaped cloud ahead of us. I took this one after I got home and put my stuff in the house. It was just drifting northward. It looks like a tornado, but it wasn't(as far as I know) LOL
We saw a lot more Amish out and about that day.
An Amishman out plowing his field. I think he must have been a teenager, because he didn't have a beard.
On our way to Berne, we turned off on one of the side roads to hopefully get a scenic route to photograph. There was an old junkyard on the road we turned onto.
These buzzards were sitting on the roof of an old tool shed just before we got to the junkyard. Somehow, we went WAY out of the way. Neither one of us is any good at navigation if we've never been on those roads before. We ended up in Warren, which was the opposite direction from the way we originally turned. I got the brilliant idea to turn left on Jeff Road, because I wanted to see Five Points Schoolhouse and an old steel bridge near it. We were already past there when we made the turn. Oh well, we saw a lot of neat things, and now that we know where we went wrong, we'll go back on purpose to get more pictures. I finally found Five Points day before yesterday.
I am going to get off here and try to get some sleep. Everybody have a great week.
Love Ya
Lisa