Walking Streak Activities

Rise and shine peeps -

Heading out for my daily walk -

Not stupid at all. Truth be told, I very much look forward to it each morning!

As a matter of fact, today marks the 83 day in a row that I’ve got my walk in; 13 weeks and counting -

 

Even got my walks in when visiting my granddaughter in Chicago last week!

Avoidance

Pop Corn, It's Been SO Hot

Guessing it won’t be long now before this field corn 🌽 is harvested -

The lack of rain certainly has contributed to this corn drying out faster. It’s dry as a bone and the plants themselves are super brittle.

Where’d the summer go?!

Find The Critter

Can you find the critter in the below pic -

Oh The Places You’ll Go

And I’m off -

Oh, but wait, as they say, don’t count your chickens before they hatch…

Captain just announced approximate takeoff time is 8:59, UGH!

The delay is one thing and frustrating but to add insult to injury, they were boarding us as the delay was announced, so we’re all now stuck seated in the plane, on the runway.

Well, at least the seat beside me is empty, so that’s a plus…

A Day In The Life Of A Mad Scientist

So, I’ve been noticing these grubs crawling on the walking trail the last several weeks. I believe these are Green June bug grubs, as they crawl upside down, I kid you not! There’s not a whole lot but enough that it’s peaked my interest, also it’s something I’ve never seen before.

These dudes live in the dirt, so not sure why they’re coming up and out and crawling on the hot pavement, it’s odd to me -

I’m also seeing oodles of these, what look like sifted dirt mounds in the grass along side the walking trail. Turns out these are fire ant 🐜 mounds, yikes 😬 and ouch 🤕 if you get into them -

Using a stick, I poked some holes in and around a couple of these mounds and boy-o-boy they came alive!

I also performed a teeny, what some might view as a, sadistic experiment today 😬

Click the YouTube link below to see what happens when you disturb a fire ant nest and then introduce a grub into the  melee -

Fire Ant and Grub Experiment 

It’s a tad violent!

And a bit of a waste of a tasty morsel, yum 😋! Think I’ll see if I can find a couple, then head on over to the Nolichucky for bit of fishing, upon my return from Chicago. I’m guessing they would make terrific bait!

What A Lovely Start

What a beautiful morning for a walk!

Slowing It Down

Friday afternoons are meant for porch sitting and just “hanging” around -

Breaking in new coozies -

And some delicious pizza 🍕 -

#Blessed

A Beauty

Final got some much needed rain yesterday afternoon, although not enough but every little bit helps.

What followed the rain was this awesome rainbow -

Mild Or Harsh

Could this be a sign of things to come?!

The oak trees are loaded with acorns this years, oodles of them, see the pic I took the other day -

According to popular weather folklore, a heavy crop of falling brown acorns in the autumn 🍂 predict a harsh, cold and snowy winter…

Or

Is this simply a “mast year” - a natural cycle where large groups of oak trees drop an unusually massive and coordinated crop of acorns, which happens every 2 to 10 years.

Ask me in the spring of 2027 and I’ll let you know what it means 😉

Udderly Confused

Is this what the question means when asked, “if the carpet matches the drapes”?!

Asking for a friend.

Deer Dynamic Duos

“Sorry folks parks closed, the moose out front should have told you”

This mother and her youngster combination tried to bully me and keep me from passing.  They had the walking trail blocked and it looked like they were prepared for a game of chicken! However, they underestimated who they were trying to intimidate and bounced off into the overgrowth as I neared. Pfft, talk about chickens…

There was another mother and youngster pair not far from the two above who we’re frolicking in the soybean field as they worked up the courage to cross the walking path and off in the direction of Moon creek. Perhaps, they were parched and needing some fresh crisp water.

Click the link below to be taken to a short YouTube video of the duo high stepping through the crops-

A Frolicking They Go

I think I’m getting better at this video thing 😉

Perfect Camouflage

Yesterday, as I was trying to take some pics of this striking looking double-banded scoliid wasp -

I had to move around the yellow ironweed plant in an attempt to get a good pic. That’s when I realized I wasn’t alone and the only one eyeing this wasp!

Look closely, what else do you see in the picture below -

Here’s another angle that may help. See it -

Yuppers, that’s a Carolina mantis completely upside down (in pic above) just patiently waiting for the right opportunity to strike, whether this wasp or some other unsuspecting insect -

I prefer the Carolina mantis over the Chinese mantis, just saying.

Blow This!

To the conductor of the 3:30AM train that just roared by, I hope you get the foreskin of your willy stuck in the zipper of your trousers!!

“How’d you get the beans above the frank?!” - from the 1998 comedy There’s Something About Mary

Was it really necessary, at that time of night, to lay on the whistle like you did, twice?!

Not only did you blow that darn thing SO flipp’n long to wake up the dead but you also woke up every sleeping dog in the area who are now barking incessantly, GRR

The Great Footwear Debate

How so you get dressed and in what order do you put your socks and shoes on? Are you a sock-sock, shoe-shoe or a sock-shoe, sock-shoe person?

I have a bit of OCD myself, so I’m with Archie on this one! Socks first, then shoes. 

Click this link to be taken to Instagram to see what I’m referring to - Sock-sock, shoe-shoe

Do you agree with Archie Bunker or Michael Stivic, aka Meathead?!

Suppose this sock-sock, shoe-shoe conundrum is akin to the debate on what the proper way is to hang a roll of toilet paper…

A Secretive Bird For Sure

I was finally able to take a picture of this Green Heron -

I see this dude quite often, usually in the mornings, down around the pond but it very skittish and takes off  when I stop to try and try to take a photo. However, I was successful this morning!

There are some pretty cool ducks in the pond too; well actually they’re typically roosting on branches overhanging the pond and talk about skittish, geesh (not geese)! They take flight immediately as I approach and start “quacking” as they go, which isn’t very far all things considered. Usually to the far side of the pond and into the overgrowth.

They’re smaller brownish colored and look to be very agile. I’ve not been able to get a good look at them, so I’m unable to identify but it’s just a matter of time. I’ll get a pic eventually.

Here’s a better picture I took this AM -

Hmm, Le Me Think About This…

What’s That Rustling

The field corn 🌽 that abuts the trail I’ve been walking the last several months is getting closer to harvest time.

As you can see it’s turning yellow and golden, and drying up quite nicely.

It’s SO peaceful walking along this area in general but especially when the wind is blowing and you can hear the rustling of the dried up stalks!

I’m hopeful to be able to catch the harvesting in action but unfortunately, that is also an indication that fall is not too far off.

Free Lil Willy

I was not delivering a vital life-saving organ in that thar cooler, nope -

Oh wait, what’s that a flipp’n and a flopp’n at the bottom of said cooler you might ask -

Well, that my friends is Lil Willy!

A perdy koi fish who was forced out of, and deported from, the only koi pond its ever known, alas.

Fear not, for Lil Willy hath been re-homed, with a subtle “splash” I might add, to a spacious family owned pond in Limestone -

Finger’s crossed that we get some much needed rain before the pond starts looking like the inside of that cooler! 

Although, there are some threats in and around the pond, e.g. herons, egrets and water snakes to name a few, I’m hopeful that Lil Willy will do just fine and become the ponds BIG fish!

Find The Critter

Can you find the critter in the first picture below -

Or maybe this is a little easier -

There she is, a beautiful Chinese mantis -

I can’t believe you were unable to spot her in the first pic! I had NO issue seeing her in that field of soybeans this morning. Easy pesy really…

Gobble Gobble

Here’s something I used to see all the time back in Massachusetts, wild turkeys. I would see them quite often when out running errands.

There was a large group that I would see regularly passing through my yard. The Tom’s always showing off by strutting and puffing themselves up, often times in the middle of the street, stopping traffic.

However, here in East Tennessee, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen these critters since my arrival back in December, and the times I have seen them they were so cautious and allusive they’ve been hard to get pictures of. 

Similar to the Canadian geese I blogged about prior, both these critters seem more “wild” in these parts. Perhaps, here they’ve not yet had to give in to the development, encroachment and building that’s taking place back home. However, that development is making its way south, so we’ll see how long these birds stay “wild”

Not the best picture below but it helps to make my point above -

Field Of Rolled Hay

TGIF Y’all!

Luv the smell of a fresh cut hay field -

I’ll never get tired of views like this!

The Grasshopper Teacher

Yesterday, I followed a brown flying grasshopper, along the section of the walking trail pictured below, for I’d guess about a quarter mile.

That darn thing would fly ahead some 15’-20’ then land on the paved trail each and every time! I lost track of the count after 24 take offs and landings, I kid you not!

With the soybean field to one side of the trail and overgrowth on the other, that darn thing just kept moving forward refusing to land anywhere else but the trail. It didn’t have the smarts or desire to fly in the other direction, behind where we just came from, nope. Instead it kept moving forward and I’m guessing expended all its energy doing so -

As Martin Luther King Jr. once said -

“If you can't fly, then run; if you can't run, then walk; if you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward”