Muskrat - 11/52

This is a muskrat that Jason rescued from our friend's swimming pool last Sunday. He apparently thought he was going to get a drink and maybe find a new home, then abruptly realized once he was in, he couldn't get back out!

Molly - 10/52

While helping to take care of a friend's dog over the weekend, I managed to get a quick shot with my phone to send to "Momma" who was away.  This pretty girl is Molly, a beautiful Australian Cattle Dog mix who is as sweet as she is gorgeous!

Hot Tubbin' & Snow - 9/52

Saturday I had five girlfriends over for a "big girl slumber party". We had a fantastic time - we ate good food, played some Wii dance, had a craft session in the craft loft and spent the majority of the evening soaking and chit-chatting in the hot tub.  This is the view from the hot tub in the daylight. I can't wait until the leaves on the trees start coming back.

After our 70 degree day on Friday, this is what we woke up to this morning - boo!  Pretty, but BOO!  But tomorrow is supposed to be in the 60's so that's ok.

Goldie the Betta - 8/52

Over the weekend Goldie the Betta fish ( named by my 6 year old niece ) got a house upgrade from a gallon and a half vase to a lighted, Fluval Chi 5 gallon tank. With the extra space I decided to get him some guppie friends.  So far he's not being aggressive towards them, but he was chasing them around before they got a chance to settle so he's currently in "time-out" until the guppies get their bearings. I also got a couple of ghost shrimp to see if he will be ok with shrimp - my last betta, Poe, was fine with them, but Jason's betta, Adolf, hunted them down and killed them.  If he plays nice with them I will get some red fresh-water shrimp.  These guys are just the guinea pigs of the tank ( sorry guys )!

This picture is before the guppies were added, but I'll post an update of them all once we see if they will swim in harmony.  In the photo, Goldie is the blue blob hanging out in the bottom right corner.

75 Gallon Saltwater Tank - 7/52

The new saltwater tank is coming along quite nicely!  Jason added in some new rock over the weekend that helped fill it up nicely and gives lots of new nooks and shelves for more corals. We have missed having the saltwater tank and are both happy to have one again. It's fun to sit and look for all the critters that hide in the rock - some we see on a daily basis, others only show themselves here and there.  This isn't a very good photo, but it's the only photo I managed to take, thus it's my project photo for last week.  I'll try to do better this week.  ;)

Snowy Morning - 6/52

Another Kentucky snowy morning, barely. It was gone an hour later.  We've had very little snow this year and most of our days have been in the 50's.  I'm not complaining a bit!

Giant Dawg Says Whaaaaa? - 5/52

This is his "Is it time for dinner yet? Is it? Is it?" face. 

New Duck Hut, P90X and Photo Project Fails

Back in December I had posted how our 5 Muscovy Ducks were one by one flying the coop and not returning very often.  As of Christmas, we haven't seen any of the original five ducks back at the pond, though we have seen some suspiciously familiar looking ducks flying about the surrounding areas of our house. So they either disappeared or found them a winter time-share somewhere.  It will be interesting to see if they return this spring.

In the meantime, a friend that works at Metro Animal Services in Louisville asked if we were interested in taking in 6 ducks that they had confiscated.  Two of them are Muscovy ducks and we're not yet sure what the other four are.  We decided we'd go ahead and take them and kept them in a small, make-shift dog pen in the garage for a few weeks. Last weekend we built them a larger temporary shelter on the side of the shed within the fenced area of the yard where they will stay until the spring thaw and until we can get them a more permanent duck house built out by the pond.  Once moved to their permanent house they will be let out to wonder free during the day and put up in the pen at night to eat and keep them safe from predators (mainly foxes, coyotes and raccoons out in this area).  This is their temporary home for now:



The dogs have adjusted well since Hardy's passing and Poe the Betta fish also left us after a three year life-span, which is surprising for a fish. So we're left right now with just 3 dogs and the 6 ducks.

Last month I began my P90X exercise program and I'm loving it!  I'm on day 28 and have already dropped at least one pants size.  I'm doing it right and took photos and measurements the first day, to be repeated every 30 days, so Sunday is the first measurement day since I started.   I'm excited to see what the measurement results are this quickly and look forward to the next 60 days.  Hopefully by the time I'm ready for round 2 Jason will be able to join me (he's currently still in physical therapy and healing from an ankle break and tendon surgery).  If I'm brave enough I'll post the increment photos and measurements at the end of my first 90 days.  We'll see.  ;)

And with Jason's injury taking up a lot of my time of doing extra things around the house (though it's much better now!) and my hour and a half work-outs 6 days a week, I've once again flunked my photography project of 52 Weeks of Animals.  I made it to week 23 before two weeks went by and I realized I didn't get any animal photos in those two weeks.  Ooops!  But just for fun, you can see the 23 Weeks of Animals I managed to tackle.  Better luck next time, I guess!

Birding in January - 23/52

Juvenile White Crowned Sparrow

Northern Cardinal

Adult White Crowned Sparrow

Birdies - 19/52

Now that snow is covering the ground the bird feeders in the yard have become very popular.  At one point we had about 30 mourning doves on the ground picking up the seeds that the cardinals, blue jays, chickadees and titmouse scattered off of the feeder.

Dove Buffet:

Pretty boy:

Silly Ducks - 16/52

Go Go Duckzilla!

Flipping me the feather?

Wait for meeeee!

The ducks crack me up.  They dive, they flap across the water at insane speeds and the little brown girl, my favorite of the bunch, is a food fiend!  This last photo is of her running up the hill because she knew I had food up there for her.  They are very entertaining!

Comfy Giant Dawg - 14/52

Buddy snuck up on the couch during our Halloween party and someone covered him up.  He was quite comfy and stayed there for quite some time.  It was also after he swiped a chunk out of the cake on the counter too so maybe his tummy wasn't feeling so hot!

Red Finch - 13/52

Poe - 12/52

It's been a while since I've featured Poe, my betta fish (aka Siamese fighting fish).  He's a couple of years old now and still swimming laps around is bowl.  He started out more of a blue and red color, but as he gets older he's become almost a solid red.

I have some "me" updates as well, but will put those in a separate post later this morning.

Sleepy Lois - 11/52

Right before I went to bed Sunday night I realized I hadn't gotten my animal photo for the week. Since Lois Lane was the only one still up with me, she got to be the lucky subject. She's funny and often lays with her arm propped up on the arm rest.

Buckeye Butterfly - 9/52

I went walking through our woods today in search of some type of critter for my 52 Weeks of Animals project.  I had about given up when I saw this Buckeye Butterfly flittering around near the pond.

Praying Mantis - 8/52

This girl was hanging out on the fence and posed quite nicely for me!

Finchy - 7/52

The finch feeders are a big hit at the new place.  We have two of them and have to fill them up daily.  These guys eat us out of house and home.  They occasionally share with the chickadees and the tit-mouses, but most often it's overrun by the finches - gold and brown and red.

Ruby Throated Hummingbird - 5/52

Another Ruby Throated Hummingbird - the finches and chickadees weren't cooperating!

Scavenger - 3/52

I noticed this turkey vulture sitting on the fence the other day while I was eating my lunch.  He, apparently, was looking for lunch, too.  We have a fly trap in one of the trees near where he was sitting that stinks to high heaven of rotting flesh ( to attract the flies ) and we're betting he smelled that thinking he hit the jackpot on a yummy meal.