Donkeys!

I've mentioned that the area around here is rural. There are lots of fields with agricultural things growing, like canola, watermelons, or hay; and lots of animals like cows, sheep, horses, and donkeys. I've even taken photos of a buffalo herd, and several emus.

The donkeys are soooo cute when they are born and so little. I've been dying to get a picture of them for over a year now but have missed it every time. The owner rotates his animals, and sometimes the cows are in the front pasture, and sometimes the donkeys. Sometimes there are no animals in that pasture. Another problem is that it's on a straight-away in a 55mph zone and there is no shoulder to stop. Thirdly, it's on a curve. Stopping or slowing in that spot is dangerous. Last, when the donkeys HAVE been out, I haven't remembered to prepare my camera in time!

Well this week I saw the donkeys and the babies. I drove home later that day with camera prepared and there were no animals grazing at all. Drat, they're in the back pasture! Same with the next morning. The third day there was too much traffic behind me. The fourth day it was too dark and rainy. Today though, was clear, sunny, and coming home is a slightly better angle to shoot because it's less of a curve. There was one car behind me so I slowed down and he soon passed. No other cars were in sight on either direction and the grass along the side where there is NO asphalt shoulder had been mowed so I could see where it was level to pull over a bit. I'd already opened my car window and turned the camera on.

These photos aren't optimal of course, because I was in a traffic zone pointing the camera out a half downed window with no time to set up the shot, but they came out OK anyway.

I don't know why I felt so compelled to get a picture of the donkeys. Maybe it's because they were one animal in my immediate area I didn't have a picture of yet. Or maybe the babies are just so cute. I don't know but here they are for whatever reason!

This is the field I pass by that occasionally has the donkeys in it.

Here is a brown donkey lookin' fine. I'm still in the same spot but used my Nikon's excellent zoom

Here's a mama and her two babies. She's giving me the hairy eyeball...

I cropped these even closer.

But I'm still this far away. Nikon Coolpix with 30X zoom rocks!

The Nikon sets up the photo fast, too. I didn't have to idle by the side of the road long. No vehicular crashes happened in the taking of these photos. ;)

So I finally got photos of the donkeys. Now it's on to birds again!

Pax, the ridiculously named winter ice storm

Well the ridiculously named snowstorm Pax (means peace) is here. The weather men have been predicting it for days and it is living up to its hype. Cold, wind, snow, sleet, and ice. We've got it all here in GA and to prove it many thousands are without power. I got up early and took a hot shower right away and made coffee. Phew, at least I got that in before the power went out. Next in line for important duties was to post the blog entry for The End Time, and while I was at it I wrote a second one. Phew.

It wasn't long before the temps tumbled and the ticking of ice against the glass appeared. If there were 8 tiny reindeer I'd have jumped aboard and headed for Key West. I thought I left the more severe weather behind me in Maine when I moved here, but that was not to be, at least today. Ah well, we have had mild winters for the last 7 years so I can't really complain.

They say that the worst of the storm is on its way. Over 100,000 Georgians are without power as I write this, and the numbers are rising fast. So when they say the worst is yet to come for the Athens area, I believe it. I have lived through enough ice storms to have developed a healthy hate respect for them.

I've filled my sun shower, drawn water into three jugs totaling I'd estimate about 10 gallons, made food, gotten cat food and litter, batteries for the weather emergency radio, have a hurricane lantern and oil plus candles. I'm physically ready but not emotionally. I dread the tree limbs over the house and the pops and smashes through the night that indicate falling limbs and trees. I dread the ice and the cold...and the worry about pipes freezing. It is 27 degrees but the real feel is 10. I am sure the aging pipes feel every degree of that cold.

But on the plus side, there is no school, I have books, and craft projects I can do, power for now, food, cats to entertain me, and close neighbors. All is well and though Pax is ineptly named, I do fee a peace. I won't say Pax be with you, because it is predicted to barrel its way up the eastern coast of the US, but I hope  you're prepared and do feel a peace - that spring is almost here.

Frost a-coming

I know I am going to regret this...but I was supposed to get a haircut two weeks ago, and I didn't because I was sick. As I recovered I consoled myself with the notion that there was always Winter Break. I decided I'd go on Friday or Saturday. Ahem, that's yesterday or today.

Of course my hair resorted to looking the best ever the last two days. It is all white, and it is positively glowing, curly and soft. I know that I know that I will lament the fact that I am passing over the chance to tame it until at least Tuesday...but it is very cold and very windy out right now, and I just don't feel like moving from the comfy gas fire and the quietude of the apartment.

There. Now that I have written this, my hair will, I am sure, collapse into a straggly mess and I will look like Gorgon Medusa again.

The temps tonight are supposed to plummet. (I can never hear the word plummet without thinking of Monty Python's flying plummeting sheep.)

Combined with the whipping winds, the wind chill temps will go down to single digits. Brrr. And to think that just yesterday I was wandering around the yard in my socks, picking wildflowers. But that is Georgia for you and that is why I love it.

On the upside, maybe I'll get some new frost pictures. Here are two from 2008:

Library expansion

Our public library has concluded a one year, nearly 3M dollar expansion. It adds 7500 square feet to the library. It adds classrooms, a geneaology research center, light, and bathrooms. It is gorgeous.

The library has been open all the while the expansion has been going on, and as I've swapped out library books every two weeks I looked at the addition's progress. But today was the ribbon cutting and official opening. I decided to go, but first to quickly hustle on down to the Comer Farmer's Market first and buy a couple of plants for my container garden I will set up on Monday.

Comer Farmer's Market picture

After that I though I'd mosey down to the library to take part in the ribbon cutting. I deliberately skipped the speeches and got there at about 10:40 just as they were finished. I walked all through the library and I have to say it is gorgeous.

The picture is a bookmark given out at the ceremony. All the facts of the expansion are on the back of the bookmark. I was busting with pride. I am so thankful that our county has men and women running it who plan ahead, and prepare for facilities upgrades like this. One of the Librarians at the ribbon cutting told me later that they said in the speech that we are just about the only county to have had a surplus. That is quite something in this economy. The expansion was paid for by a 1.5M grant from the State of Georgia, and $600,000 in SPLOST money. Wikipedia explains SPLOST better than I could:

"In the U.S. state of Georgia, a special-purpose local-option sales tax (SPLOST) can be levied by any county, for the purpose of funding the building and maintenance of parks, schools, roads, and other public facilities. Georgia's state sales tax is currently 4% (groceries and prescription drugs exempted), with the counties allowed to add up to 2% more for SPLOST. A SPLOST is passed by a county commission, usually with the agreement of its city councils, and voted up or down by residents in a referendum, usually during the next scheduled election. A SPLOST only lasts five years..."

I like that SPLOST is limited in duration, fiscally dedicated to a particular plan, and is enacted by all the governing bodies, including the People.

The rest of the money was from grants, Athens Regional Library system, Friends of the Library, the Library Trustees and the estate of respected Jere Ayers. Way to go Madison County! I'm proud of you!

It was a peaceful drive. I go up Route 98 without turning, about 8 miles. Along the way I pass this:

And when I come home I see this:

The tiger lilies are fading now but even as they fade the bush looks like it's aflame. So pretty. All in all a great Saturday morning.

Snow day 2011

The ever-popular photo of the piled-up snow on my bird feeder

Looks like roughly five inches!

Weighed down branches at the START of the storm, before the ice, is not a good thing

Looking south toward Comer from my front yard

Looking north at neighbor's house

Snow-berries!

The middle of the yard, almost 6 inches

Hunkered down squirrel probably wondering "what is going on???"

Looking north toward Danielsville from my front yard. The red neon sign is the school's. Needless to say, no school today!

Christmas Day snowstorm 2010

Atlanta Georgia and environs received measurable snow for the first time in 128 years. Our area, 90 miles NE from Atlanta, received several inches as well. It began on Christmas afternoon and continued overnight to noon today. It is still going a good bit even now at noon on the 26th. Here are some photos from my yard:

Christmas night snow

Hay! What's going on?

Where's Waldo?

This snow is for the birds!

Cold feet

This in Georgia...reminds me of...

THIS!!!!!!!! North Yarmouth Maine

Rural loveliness on the way to a friend's house

I went over to visit a friend in an area I rarely travel but always love it when I do. It's in a REALLY rural area and it's so beautiful. That day was rainy and overcast, and despite the attractiveness of the rolling hills, well-maintained fences, and animals trotting about, I ended up taking two photos of rural-ness that are typically considered not as attractive. But they are to me.

Another friend's backyard!

I had a nice visit with a friend yesterday. We ate lunch, a grilled cheese with potato salad and juice and tea. It was a hot day but the inside was cool, and we chatted and laughed. I got there just a few minutes before she arrived and contented myself with taking a few photos of the backyard while I waited.

There's a Corvette Stingray under the shelter out back. The license plate motto says "I'd rather be flying." LOL!

The odometer's measuring how fast the weeds are growing. Speedy weeds!

Former glory

Shadows and light

Shiny drums

Lucky door

The storm that was here today and gone tomorrow

We had a pretty good snow storm last Friday. It closed schools and businesses, and dropped about 6 inches atop Georgians who are definitely not used to it but loved seeing the white stuff nonetheless. Not me. I'm from Maine and I have had enough of the vile fluffies. But the great thing about Georgia is, one day the snow was here:

And the next it was gone! So when the ground firmed up and the weather moderated by the following Friday, I took a springtime stroll around the lawn to see what and where the signs of the season may be. Look! There's one now! A tiny flower peeking out from behind the brown blades of grass:

 

Maybe the hawks spied it too.

A pecan that the squirrels missed, camouflaged there with the leaves and twigs.

  

Ouch.

  

Uh-oh, better paint the house. It's chipping.

  

A brown spot in the grass? Note, get grass seed.

 

Holy Solenopsis invicta, Batman! That's no bare spot! It's a fire ant farm!

First robin, looking pretty satisfied with himself, if you ask me!

Decorative rocks by my front door. Soon they will be covered with pots growing morning glories and lavender.

Happy Spring from Georgia!

Traffic, Comer style

I work at a school so I have school hours, from about 7:30 to 3. This suits me, I have the rest of the day to do my own thing, while it's light out, and a break between school and teaching at church Wednesday nights. Occasionally I get caught in the big traffic jam at Comer Elementary. Leaving Danielsville Elementary school at 3, if I ride back down Rt 98 at just the right time, I get tangled up in the bus and parent traffic leaving that school. I live across the street. There really is so much traffic leaving the school and the road is such a major road in the county, that it does require a flashing '25 mph' signal for the half hour in the morning when buses arrive and at the end of the school day when buses leave. It also requires a policeman to direct traffic, which also suits me. I like having the law outside my house two times a day, with all the burglaries happening.

So yesterday was one of those days when I got caught n the traffic in front of the school before it dispersed. I laugh, because the 'traffic' usually doesn't usually back up for too many car lengths, and the policeman is skilled and keeps things moving along evenly. However something was different yesterday and I did sit there in one spot for about 10 minutes. After a while I picked up my camera, rolled down the window and started shooting. There are many rural scenes all around and within camera-shot, without a zoom, even, lol. I laughed at the irony of idling in traffic in front of the American iconic white picket fence, cows, and birdhouses. 

What I saw on my walk today