New tractor

And here he is, master of his domain, about to take the maiden voyage on the new tractor. Damn thing is loud, he should wear earplugs when he's mowing. He's got gorgeous weather today so he'll play with it and figure out how low he needs to set the deck to cut the grass without digging up the dirt. This is the Limited Edition model of this particular tractor. Near as I can tell, that means it's painted a goddawful shade of gold and has a cupholder for your can of Bud.

Not to anthropomorphize too much, but here is the sad old tractor, alone in the back yard, waiting to go to tractor heaven (aka the town dump). It was a good beast, having mowed and tilled for thirty-two years. RIP, old tractor.

The Air We Breathe

It's not how many breaths you take, but how many moments leave you breathless, and this moment is one of them.

Geez, did I kill the blog already? Was Scrotum Scrub too much?

This week's news from Hanover: Dad bought a new tractor. Sears is delivering it sometime this morning, and as expected he is on pins and needles waiting. He'd never admit that, of course, but he's like a geek with the latest tech toy - except the tractor will last longer.

I'm still trying to identify Logan's photos. I think the creature will turn out to be some type of starfish, though I haven't been able to confirm that yet. I'll keep working on it. Meanwhile, have a look at the photo of the Brittle Star on this page.

Scrotum Scrub

Need I explain? Didn't think so.

I'm still playing around with the settings, thought I'd try centering an image this time.

Biotic vs. Abiotic Science Project

 

So here we have turtle bones in an area of red mangroves at full moon low tide. My son was thrilled at the find for his environmental site project. He assumes the turtle (green or loggerhead) got caught up in the 7 to 9 foot water surge of Hurricane Wilma last October and came to rest here in the mangroves on the Gulf side of the Keys in shallow waters. The six months following the hurricane provided time for the crabs, birds, raccoons and insects to take over. New life abounds and recovery underway here. I know my artist sister would love to get her hands on these bones! He has great field notes on his site and I am enjoying the walks in and around the waters edge as well as inland in the hardwood hammocks.

Here we are in all our, ahem, glory. The core group is in the center and the inlaws/outlaws are all around us. I am the oldest and am in the white skeleton shirt. I am hoping #2, the pretty girl in the blue shirt four folks to my left (your right) will be joining me in this brief adventure. In fact, she is whom we have to thank for the email address name we will use, as she is the user of both names.

I'm trying hard to pad out this post just to see how the text wrap will work. So far, so good.

Testing, testing

So I've finally decided to start a blog and this won't be it, but it's a trial run and we'll see how it goes.

Now I'm off to watch Cash Cab on the Discovery Channel for an hour. Ben Bailey rules.