Friends Share A Log

Who says that the animal kingdom doesn't have friends withing their world. We've all seen stories of animals that team up with unlikely species. Just the last couple of days, a Great Pyrenees sat along the side of the road keeping watch over another dog that had been hit by a car and had died. And, the story about the blind donkey being befriended by a goat that walked the donkey to the pasture every day. Then, at the end of the day walk the blind donkey back to the barn for the night.

Today, it was interesting to spot two turtles on a log--one on each end--with several mallard ducks within inches of the turtle. In fact, the turtle stretched out his hind leg, The turtle was either staking his claim on the spot or just so at peace with the ducks so close it didn't matter if he leg-invaded some territory of the duck. It was an interesting observation to see how this friendship played out. Good. As it turned out.

See the turtle on the right end of the log? Then look at the turtle's hind leg and duck's web foot in proximity.

Delightful Day

North Texas was handed the most amazing fall day that I can remember for at least 10 years past today. It started out at 46 and headed up to the 60s,capping out at 67-degrees F. with winds light 6-14 mph from the east and northeast. It was mostly sunny late morning to late afternoon. Yesterday was sweater day and today was sweater day. While there was a light jacket in the car, it wasn't needed.
In fact, it was so perfect, focusing on my camera setting was not only a pleasant task, it was even fun. Somehow, my preset setting got out of whack and the past week or so has been making the adjustments needed to bring the focus back to where it needs to be. It's still off a bit, but not as bad as it was and hopefully,  it won't have to go in for repairs.

In the meanwhile, even with the focal points off a bit, some pretty neat pictures are still usable.They just can not be used for some applications where fine tuning is not only needed, but expected. So, we will see how things turn out. Making some progress is far better than sitting along side the road waiting for the road service type if you will make the association in that context..
Enjoy some old barns south a few miles. In one of the shots, you can see the Bank of America building top in the background. If you can still see downtown, it's still urban, folks!! Although, this is about as far south as one can get before it really becomes farmland and rural.

One of the buildings had the old asphalt shingle siding under the planks. Those shingles were popular in the 40s. 

This might have been an old equipment barn for tractors and plows, although I don't know that.

Look at the power poles. To the left you can see the top of Bank of Americas top 20 floors or so.The other 50 are below the horizon!

Blue Bell Is Back

Many years ago I tasted ice cream from the Franklin Dairy Stores.  Their brand was my favorite for many years. Then, I went East and tasted ice cream from the Friendly's chain in Boston . They had a double chocolate that was like fire works to the palate. When they expanded West, it caused me to defect from Franklin's and eating Friendly's for many more years became normal.  Then Braum's  became the taste bud's choice in Texas. My first trip to Braum's this year was in early March. Double dip of chocolate in a waffle cone was the standard fare. But the take- home choice was found at Kroger's. Their Death by Chocolate would jump into my cart every time I pushed the cart down the freezer section isle. So when the scandal at Blue Bell turned Texans upside down not knowing what they were going to do with no Blue Bell during the summer there was a report about what made ice cream really good in the first place. At Walmart, their SAM'S label sold at Walmart is made with all the natural ingrediants and I discovered it tasted just like the old Franklin's Ice Cream and Friendly's. Rich, creamy, and just plain old-fashioned to the 'T'.

When I finished shooting fall scenes that some of my web designers like to use when they do web pages, I headed to Kroger's to get a couple of fill-in items. As I went past the freezer's,  people were lined up putting Blue Bell in their carts--and then going back to get a second half-gallon and some ever got three!! All I could do was to chuckle. I'm so ice-creamed out right now!

While people were having Blue Bell withdrawals this summer, I was content with Braum's and Kroger's Select Death by Chocolate or Sam's French Vanilla (which to me taste just like taking the crank off the cylinder and pulling out the blades so you could scoop that first big spoonful of home made ice cream.

Here's a few shots from this afternoon.

While this is most likely one of the old buzzards at the lake, it has some tell-tale signs of being a juvenile bald eagle with the white feathers beginning to show on the head, the wings and tail.

seed pods and leaves changing made for a nice contrast

That look of leather on this solo leaf  is just plain pretty.

07Nov2015: edit to correct a typo and misspell.

Happy Halloween Y'ALL

BOO!

First Soggy Month Since May

Well, as so many know, it rained again. The official total at DFW International for a 24-hour period from 06:53 on October 30 to 06:53 on October 31 (today) was 2.24 inches of rain. Add that to the 7.67 total fell just a few days ago and the soggy total tallies up to 9.91 inches.

Needless to say, Dallas only received a little less than half the amount of  the near 20-inch totals Austin area received. That's why their Round Rock is round--all that water keeps swirling around grinding that old rock down and down until it's round. Of course, that's why Austin is weird and keeps getting more weird.

Rain, glorious rain.

Leave It To A Retired Fireman

There are a lot of pecan trees in Dallas City Parks. Irving has their share of them too! In fact, it's hard not to find a pecan tree on public property in Texas, let alone private land. The point being, yesterday a retired fireman with his dog, allowed me to take a picture of a very neat gadget he was using to pick up pecans.

Over the years about this time you can see people with bags stooping over and picking up pecans. Back breaking work, no? Well, this contraption saves all that and is actually a neat invention.  Keep in mind that I only discovered this invention yesterday, today I saw two more people picking up pecans with home made gadgets. Until yesterday, seeing people use tools to pick up pecans had never been witnessed before.  One was as simple as a Campbell soup can on the end of a broom stick. Of course, you never see things like that until you discover something neat. Then you find out that there are all kinds of home-made contraptions. Some, of equal ability. Some,not so equal.

The way it works: You roll it across the ground. The wires seperate when they hit a pecan shell. The pecan drops into the wire and then returns back in its normal shape. To emply, seperate two wires with your fingers and shake into the bucket. Dang. Why didn't think of that?

What separates this neat invention from the others home-made or not, is the fact that you net only pecans. No leaves, no sticks, no rocks, The fireman had a 5-gallon painter's can nearly half full when he showed me how the contraption worked.

North Texas Begins To See Fall Colors-- Only On A Faster Track Now.

Fall colors have started to appear in North Texas as they usually do around the first of November. It seems that this year,  however, they are on a fast track to change rather than the slow change usually seen.