Different day, but the same tree and no doubt the same bird.  The tree it’s in is one of the ponderosa that rings the foxes ‘play circle’.  That space just across the creek is proving to be a pretty interesting activity zone…

All summer long I’ve been watching these guys fly around the woods on our place, but only at dusk and always just fleeting glances.  Once I even saw a pair that were weaving their way through tree trunks and branches late one evening in near total silence.  But today was the first day I had a chance to capture a picture.

For the past several weeks I’ve noticed a collection of owl pellets at the base of one of the trees here.  These are not poops but (apparently) regurgitations of stuff they can’t or won’t digest.  Yesterday I was looking hard around the truck of this tree looking at these things when I looked up to see where in the tree the owl might have been when throwing this stuff up.  I was more than a little shocked to see him right up there looking back at me.  I didn’t have a camera with me at the time so when I was out there again today, camera in hand, I looked up and sure enough (s)he was right there in the same place.

I don’t know why but seeing it there just feels like Fall in the air.

Barn Owl

A set of photos for today.  Most of these were taken in the last week or two, but some from last Fall; most from here near the house, but some from the Great Smoky Mountains Nat. Park.

Yellow Leaves

Woods

Lake

Home from Boise

Water

So much is left uncaptured and exist now only as a moments that are past.  Here’s hoping all of you have Fall pictures in your mind’s eye that rival anything I’ve seen.

Morning Horses

This was the view greeting the dogs and me on our first morning walk-about just after sunrise.  Normally this would send the dogs into a frenzy – they love charging John’s horses across the fence, protecting territory and sending wave after wave of canine alarm up and down the woods.  The horses don’t care.  In fact they seem to enjoy it – they will often times crane their necks over the fence when the dogs quiet down.   Of course that just ups the level of excitement in the dogs all over again and this can go on for a long time.   But when we’re out there with them they mind their manners and occupy themselves otherwise by chasing sticks or peeing on trees and bushes.   Today the morning started on a quiet and relaxed footing.

I have a couple of days off and for the first time in a long time don’t have much planned.  Tomorrow night Denine and I start hanging drywall in the shop but there’s really not much I need to do before then.  I’ve spent the last week hanging the first few panels at the floor level but I could only go so far.  I’m using 12′ sheets of drywall and that stuff is really, really heavy.  I can only drag them around by myself with some difficulty and there’s no way I can lift them – not even two of us could do that.  So tomorrow I’ll pick up a drywall lift so we can do the ceiling and upper walls.  This is a great place to be in the project – it changes from ‘rough construction’ to ‘rooms’ in the space of a few hours.

The entries into the building are completed now.  There’s a standard door on one end but now there’s a deck – have I posted a picture of this before?  Can’t remember so here’s a new picture anyway.  With help from my dad who was visiting back in August:

West end deck

Then there’s the ramp up into the double doors on the north side – a ramp in case we ever need to park the four-wheeler inside…

Ramp into the shop

Today’s only task is to get the cat-door installed in one of the swinging doors pictured above.  Tipper is banished from the house and so will need a way to get in/out of the shop through the winter.  Right now I’m leaving the door open during the day,  putting him in at night and letting him out in the morning.  But a cat door will let him come and go as he pleases.

Other than the cat door my only tasks are to practice my mandolin, take a nap and then maybe repeat those steps again.

Cheers!

Just wanted to share a couple pics I snapped today of our resident covey of quail that has been hanging around the place all summer long.  I’ve watched these guys go from tiny little chicks scurrying behind two adults in the spring to the full size birds they are now.  There must be forty of them all hanging out together.  They run around on the ground when you crowd them in increasingly frantic jitters until at some point they just explode into flight.   They all have these little dangly things on top of their heads that wiggle when they walk.   I call them ‘cat attractors’ but so far they’ve avoided any run-ins with Tipper.

Catching a few early morning rays of sunlight

Quail Crossing

And although this has nothing to do with quail, a pic from a walk with the dogs a couple of days ago. The days have left summer behind and the colors are making their last splash before finally being done. It’s breezy and cool, sometimes cold and snow can’t be too far off.

Fall Color