;Today's Walk

Toad Stools

I know almost nothing about toadstools and mushrooms. I can't tell the different. I think all of these are toadstools. My understanding is that toadstools are poision as are some mushrooms. And a few mushrooms are eatable. When you can't tell which is which do what I do; just take photos of them. We have had quite a few different kinds in our lawn with all the moisture we have. Each seems to be different from the next. As most are small I end up taking photos of them looking down on them. The first photo shows the stems on these two and next pic is of the same two looking down on them. 

This one was still full of water from a recent rain. They come in all kinds of colors. Off white, rust red, orange and even black.

And some are ragged on the edges.

This one looked like a horseshoe crap, but the next day it looked like a plop of cow poop.

Butterflies

I have seen lots of butterflies this summer. Every time I go outside seems like I see at least one. They range in from a half inch so up to about 4 inches in size.  They seem to come in all colors. We have large ones that are mostly a rusty red color. There are a lot that are mostly black with like an iridescent blue or purple on the winds that are really pretty. There are small ones in almost white, to off white, to light green, to yellow, and orange. I have tried and tried to get photos of these flighty critters but they are very suspicious of anything that gets near them. About 3 feet is usually as close as I can get to those that are sitting still but most I see are on the fly. This little guy lit on a window shutter.

I got one of the same kind on the edge of the bird bath.

 The white spot in this photo is a small white butterfly.

Finally a butterfly that didn't fly away.

Oh, So Different

Since we have moved to Kentucky I find my days so different from what they were in New Mexico. A normal morning in New Mexico meant being woke up by bright sunlight about 6 am. In Kentucky I never see the morning sun until about 9 am or later. Before that it is usually foggy or if I am lucky just hazy. But that may be because we live so close to the Kentucky and Ohio Rivers. I hope it isn't that way everywhere in Kentucky 

This photo is off the road I live on in the early morning. You can barely see the trees. 

In New Mexico I would feed horses first thing in the mornings with a snack in late afternoon and a final feed at 9 pm. I, also, watered horses, and made sure my trees and plants were watered as well as the dogs, cats, wild birds, rabbits, coyotes and the local bull snake. Everything always needed water. 

New Mexico cholla cactus.

Tumbleweeds grow regardless if they have water or not. Then they blow around a pile up against anything that stops them like our wire fence. 

Only a few kinds of wild grass grow in the desert and don't last long. Large clumps of sage brush are everywhere. 

In Kentucky trees are everywhere as is grass and all kinds of green growth. This is the road I live on that was fog in the previous photo.

Another photo of the road that is almost a one lane road. 2 cars can pass on it if they are careful. This is a normal residential road here. They are narrow but paved unlike the sand, and caliche dirt road we had in New Mexico if you lived outside of a town. Powder dry most of the year. 

When I grew up if you said you were growing beans on your farm you meant pinto beans. Here in Kentucky you mean soy beans like the field of them next to my property. 

In New Mexico you never say a deer unless you were way up in the mountains. On the desert is was mostly rabbits, rock squirrels, birds, coyotes and sometimes a badger or prairie dog. Here in Kentucky the deer are everywhere. We see them in our yard and along our road and even in the middle of towns. There are also, raccoons, possums, skunks, and a birds. 

As much rain as we have here I still have to water the plants I have growing in containers once in a while. 

Evening on the desert usually brought bright sunsets. I am glad we have some nice sunsets here in Kentucky as well. The sunset photo above is New Mexico and the one below is Kentucky. 

Blending Days

It seems like one day blends into another day, which blends into another day, and the next day blends into another and then all days seem to be the same. And then I wonder where all the days went to.

Today

Today I was greeted by some of the sunflowers I grew in my small flower bed. 

There was some big, beautiful pumpkin blossoms.

 This afternoon I found another wild flower that I hadn't seen before. Small deep, purple, shaggy blossoms on tall stalks, about 3 feet tall.

The purple flowers were on the edge of the neighboring soy bean field.

I ended the day by taking my turn at mowing the grass. Hubby found my camera a took a few pics of me. 

Are We Winning?

The War of the Wasps is still on.We will win this war. (I hope.) I did take a few photos of the paper-like nests that the nasty creatures make. They like to nest under something that will protect them from wind and rain. They started out mostly in the old sheds on our property. As seen in these first two photos the nest is under the 2 x 4 wooden brace. There were some up higher but most were about 4 feet up. Just low enough they were hard to see unless you bent over. In the first photo you can actually see a wasp on the bottom of the nest. The nest is made our wasp saliva which hardens into a paper-like stuff according to what I read. They leave holes in the nest where the queen lays an egg that develops into a larvae that is feed by the adult worker wasps. After cleaning out these nests in the shed the wasps decided that the front porch would be the place to live. Right around the front door. They moved into every tiny crevice they could squash into. Behind the fake shutters they were starting to build a nest. Behind the porch light. And behind the door frame. I got stung while spraying the porch for them. Lee sprayed and sprayed and thought they were gone only to find one going behind the porch light again today. 

 These are the two sheds that the wasps were living in.

This shed is the first one we have finally finished in cleaning out. I wish I had taken a photo of it with all the stuff the previous owner left. It was so full you could not get into it. Boxes and boxes of the cheapest, and creepiest holiday decorations you can find at all the dollar stores. Then the mice had made there homes in the stuff. Boxes of old stereo equipment, old clothes, books (even
Bibles and she professed to be so religious). Some of it we refused to look into it looked and smelled so bad we just put it carefully in large plastic bags. And hoped the bags didn't break. All of it had to be pulled out and put our for the trash truck to take.

This photo is of the second shed that we have still been working on. Not as many mice here but a lot more wasps. There were stacks and stacks of old metal curtain rods. I can't find any kind of recycle place close by that takes metal, or any kind of recyclable stuff or I would have hauled the curtain rods to them. I didn't want to use them as they were rusted and yucky from being in there for who knows how many years. We did keep a snow shovel that we don't think we will ever need to use if last winter was any example. Found a fishing rod that might be usable if we ever decide to go fishing (I won't.) A couple of pipe wrenches, (so that's why the plumbing under the sinks is so crazy.) and a gas can and what we hope are spare tires for the ride-on lawn mower that she left. It was the only thing she left that was worth anything. That is after Lee bought some new parts and worked on it to get it working again. And no the mower was not in one of the sheds. It won't fit in one even after they are cleaned out. It sits on the carport.