I Heart Faces Pets - Let Go of My Badger!

Lois Lane got a stuffless badger for Christmas and instantly went into a game of tug-of-war!  She loves her stuffies. :)

Luna Moth

Another cool find this spring - a Luna Moth!  It appears to be a male and was hiding out in my umbrella that was drying out on the front porch.  Since they don't fly during the day I set him up in one of the hanging flower baskets until dusk, when he then moved to the porch light and then took his leave during the night.  I've never seen one so vibrant before!  

I'm so enjoying watching the new flowers bloom that we never got to see here last year due to moving in mid-July.  And to top it off we have a rabbit living under the back porch and a momma mallard duck sitting on eggs in the dog igloo that is on the floating duck dock on the pond.  So that means baby duckies soon!   It's been a little piece of heaven for both me and Jason. I'm just happy this year we get to enjoy the full summer here rather than moving and unpacking and cleaning up the old house to prep for rentals.  

My surgery is schedule for Thursday morning so I'll likely not have many photos for a while.  But will try to do a recovery update here, if nothing else out of sheer boredom.  ;)  I'm taking a few days totally off work to recover where I intend to do some reading and movie watching so I can get back at it early next week.  Hoping it's just a small dent in the road and I can be back to normal soon and start my P90X back, at least by early fall.  I've been off of the program since my exercise restrictions after my biopsy and didn't see the point in picking it back up until I can do it right, but I do miss it.  So far, so good though, I'm still fitting in my smaller clothes!  :)

Spring is in the Air!

Ahh spring is in the air!  In the last week I've actually been enticed enough to pick up the camera and snap some shots (see below). We had our first good thunderstorm of the year today and the grass is more green than brown again. Jason has been prepping the mower for his 6 acre mowing sprees and the garden is partially tilled.  This is, by far, my favorite time of the year.  New life, fresh smells and porch dwelling becomes the norm over tv watching - bliss!  I even sat on the back porch swing for a couple of hours yesterday reading and got quite a nice sunburn on my arms and face.  And finished a book too - on a windy day in broad day light - have I mentioned how much the Kindle rules?!

To regress a bit, at the end of February, one month after my 35th birthday, I had a routine mammogram.  The results landed me back in the Women's Diagnostic Center to do maginifactions due to microcalcifications that were found.  The next day led me to a breast biopsy.  And then the next day led me to a diagnosis of breast cancer. What?!  Yeah, that was exactly my reaction.  Fast forward two weeks later after an MRI and meeting with my surgeon and it was confirmed. Though I'm very lucky.  Diagnosis of DCIS grade 3 at a size of 3.1cm, which basically means non-invasive and caught at one of the earliest stages possible, much to my relief.  So I'm scheduled for a lumpectomy and sentinal node biopsy on April 14th, out-patient sugery, with 33 days of radiation and 5 years on Tamoxifin as a preventative.  All in all, not bad for what it is.  At this point I'm just waiting for the surgery to be done and recovery to begin.

In the meantime, I'm embracing spring!  We're making our summer plans, deciding what we are going to do with the yard, expanding the back deck and looking forward to our first spring and full summer at the new homestead, which we so love!  We see so much wildlife here it's awesome. And the peace and quite, compared to neighborhood living, is rockin'!

Speaking of wildlife and our awesome new homestead, here are a few photos to get a peak into our world.  :)

Tis a 'Possum, I Tell You!

Yesterday we were sitting on the back porch having some beverages with friends and enjoying the warm weather when we saw an opossum walking down to the pond to have a drink. I have never seen an opossum during broad daylight (aside from those squished in the road) so it was quite a treat!  He eventually made his way around the pond closer to us.  Since the ducks have been laying eggs daily (and not bothering to sit on them), Jason got a few and tossed them in his direction. He managed to find one (they don't see so well) and snatched it up and ate it.  Then he made his way around the rest of the pond. As he did this I grabbed my 80 - 400mm wildlife lens and got as close as I could to him.  Him, being mostly blind, didn't see me, but he did hear me and smell me, however he didn't seem bothered by my presence. I got within about 20 feet of him and whistled at him, causing him to look up and allowing me to get a great shot! Usually the adults I don't find very appealing, but he was a handsome little devil!

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

My Fur Kids - 22/52

Our friend Jenn of The Artist's Eyes is a fantastic artist. We asked her to paint portraits of all of our pups, past and present, and she did a fantastic job!  She perfectly captured each dog's personality! She had painted Rudy's portrait for us last year and completed the rest of the crew for us recently. Jenn makes all of her art ECO friendly (environmentally friendly), which is always a plus!  Check out her site and portfolios - she does more than just painting!

I framed all of the portraits in matching frames and hung them on the large wall so that they are the focal point when entering the house (or sitting anywhere in the living room, dining room and kitchen for that matter).

Here is a picture of the portraits after they were hung.  They are hung in order of when we got each dog.  Hardy and Rudy, the first two, are no longer with us.  I am hanging their tags on the corner of those portraits with ribbon in honor of them. I have Hardy's tag up there now, but have not yet located Rudy's tag since we moved, but I will!  Blue, Lois Lane and Buddy (aka Giant Dawg) are the others three pups.