Hiking in Tuskegee

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Mary and I took Edgar for a short hike in Tuskegee National Forest Yesterday, it was nice to get in the woods for a bit.

New Photos

I shot a few more photos to test out the new camera yesterday. This one was lit with the on-camera flash.
Edgar and Mary relaxing after a long day of gardening and digging in the yard.
Setup a Sunpack 120J on barebulb to light this one. The camera performs best at low ISO settings for sure.

New Camera, Nasty Veggies

I got a new camera(thanks Mary!) for our upcoming trip to Italy. It's a Canon G9, I've been eying them for a while.
This is the first photo I've taken with it, not counting a couple photos of Edgar's nose last night. The plants are broccoli growing in our garden. I titled the post "nasty veggies" because I really don't like the taste of broccoli at all. But it's damn good for you, so I eat it anyway.
So far the camera seems to work rather well, I will put it to a bigger test in days to come.

Project Complete

I have finished and installed our new wine cabinet now. Well, sorta. I am going to hae to remove it and sand down the bottom a bit because it's a tight fit and doesn't line up just right. I still need to glue the copper backsplash on the side also, it's just sitting there in the photo. On the other side we are glueing wine corks until it is covered. I had saved two big fat bags of them over the past several years, but they seem to have bee lost in moving. The ones mounted on teh cabinet are ones Mary had saved in the past couple years. At current rate this side ofthe cabinet will be complete in 5 more years.

Lunar Eclipse

Got an eclipse last night.

Sk8tin!

I got to go skating last night. Didn't get there until 6:30 but stayed for a couple hours and managed to ride 3 different boards and take photos. I have not been skating much at all lately due to weather, work, house stuff and a cold. It was really good to ride again.

Another Reason To Love Alabama

It's November 4th and we are still picking veggies from our garden, these were harvested last night. The soil here is so fertile! We kind of got burned out on tomatoes and have really neglected the garden, but it's still producing jalapeño and cayenne peppers, sweet red bell peppers, tomatoes cucumbers and watermelons. We are expecting very cold weather this week so I will probably pick the last watermelon tonight and dig up the sweet potatoes at some point during the week. The okra and eggplant quit a few weeks ago. Our jalapeños are really tasty when vine ripened red, not as hot as normal as they are a milder variety, which means you can use more of them an get great flavor when cooking. I've mostly used them for huevos rancheros mix with soyrizo(veggie chorizo), and some great enchiladas and burritos.

New Infrared photos

The barn across the street from the our house.
Mary harvesting basil, the stuff grew like mad this year.

FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!

Last night was one of the more fun nights on our property so far. I've been missing the pool as it's gotten too cold, but now as the weather starts to cool off we can start building fires out back. Last night wasn't really that cold, but it was still great fun. We drank beer popped jiffy pop over some coals. Soon the leaves will turn and camping season will be upon us.

The Alabama State Fair!

A couple weeks ago Mary and I went on our annual Alabama State Fair date. It was as fun as ever, we rode the ferris wheel and did all the usual, and I even decided to forego my diet for a polish sausage. I had fun looking at our old photos on the blog from 2004, and 2005 also, and last year we posted a little video.

Good News for Turtle Guy!

Update on yesterdays Post: Mary has found a place where we can take our new friend after he is healed. It is a preserve in Midland, Alabama where he can live in the wild in a protected area with a bunch of other Gopher tortoises. I am very happy to know that he will be able to exist in a natural habitat and have his freedom, and other tortoises like him. This is great news.

Our New Friend

We have adopted a Gopher Tortoise. Someone dropped him off at the vet school and he is now residing at our place. His shell was painted orange, probably by some stupid frat boy football fan. At the moment we don't know if we will keep him or release him, but either way it will probably be spring before we can release him. He is rather ill and is getting anti-biotics until he gets better, and the orange shell would make him visible to predators. We have yet to name him, but I like "Locha" which is Creek for turtle and Mary likes Richard. More coming later on his condition.

The Guardian of the Garden

I found this tonight when I was picking a watermelon. She was under it. I went to the barn to get something to catch her and put her in, and when I did I saw the biggest Wolf Spider to date also, it was huge. We have had a lot of creepy crawlys lately, there are two very large garden spiders of different varieties behind the barn, and I saw a little rat snake a couple nights ago out there also.

The Shop is coming along

My shop is still a project in the making, but it's much improved. The photo is a panoramic that shows it all the way around, on the table to the far right I have some boards I'm working on, my bike tools are to the left of that, woodworking tools(bandsaw, etc.) to the right, and old skateboards on the left. The boxes are full of crap I need to put somewhere. I am going to build a new countertop after I finish the sink in the house and Mary drives me to Home Depot for plywood.

Snake!

Mary and I rode bikes yesterday. We went 20 miles down our road and back, and right at 1/4 mile from our driveway as I turned to look back at her, then turned around again I ran over a huge dead rattlesnake. I looked down in just enough time to pick up my front wheel a bit:

Old School Session Montgomery, 08-09-07

Had to work a little while on Saturday, but went skating at Montgomery's park afterwards.
Me:
Tim :
Joey:

Old School Night Montgomery

There are a few older guys skating at the Montgomery park now. This was old school night last Thursday.

My Cute Little Buddy in the Barn

This little guy has had a big web in the back of my barn for a couple weeks now. I have not been cutting the grass where he anchors his web, because as you can see he eats the pesky bugs. Our backyard is an entomologist dreamland, we have so many different varieties of spiders and other bugs it's amazing.