Sooo Spooky!!

One of the many ghouls and goblins that suited up for Halloween this year to raid the neighborhoods in search of sugary treats---or tricks. Can anyone guess who this is? No looking at the feet!!!

Putting Sol to Bed in the High Plains

The sun sets over the valleys of central Nevada as yours truly travels to Sin City to catch a plane east to celebrate the littlest princess's Sweet Sixteen.

Comet Hartley 2

A long exposure setting (Starry Night 30sec) allowed not only comet Hartley 2, but also a nearly invisible to the naked eye trailer to be visible in the photo.  Somewhere in the constellation Cassiopeia, located near the center of the photo, the comet is slowly tracking toward a rendezvous with NASA probe Deep Impact/EPOXI on November 4th.

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Cactii Camouflage

The previously mentioned excursion also produced a small cactii species with very long spikes and a coloration very similar to its surroundings.  Once I recognized the camouflage, these little prickly plants were very numerous--and left alone by any indigenous animals.

Painted Rock

As the elevations get a bit higher and a tad more moisture becomes available, the rocks begin blossoming with different plant/fungus growths.  This quartz-veined example is typical of the area traveled during a recent hike.

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Pine Nuts-a Euell Gibbons Special

Growing up with mostly sand pine trees in Florida and then seeing Mr. Gibbons talk about eating parts of the pine cone I thought he was a bit "out there" Actually, at the time, I thought he was quite a bit out there.

The pines in the valley in central Nevada offer pine nuts and I now understand where Euell was coming from. The cones are very sappy and have fairly large seeds with none of the "wings" that I am use to seeing.

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Early Snow in Western Tennessee!!!

Must be getting near the holidays as several homes in the neighborhood have sported that "freshly rolled" looked over the past week. The activity tends to be a fairly traditional part of the local teenage culture and focuses typically on teachers and ex-boy/girlfriends. The photo shows a rather well planned and executed "rolling" that sports paper strips in simulated snow drifts. Charmin is so old school :)

Remote Habitat

Literally miles from the closest community and 200 miles to a Wal-mart, a BLM employee has posted a sign to tell all the prospective visitors about bats.

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Fall Colors

While not the vivid riot of colors their eastern cousins display, the deciduous trees of the high country typically show off their final seasonal foilage in bright yellows.

"Born On Date" is a Very Good Year

While yours truly was figuring out life as a newborn, BLM surveyors were marking their territory here in Smoky Valley. Have no clue to what the stampings mean but I'd say it lets a follower know where the next marker is.....

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Late Bloomer

Planted many, many months ago from seed, this first bloom from a pot full of marigold plants is letting everyone know that the season in western Tennessee isn't quite over yet.

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Poor Departed Brother Dave....

....He chased a bear into a "cave"---or so goes one of the tombstones outside of the Haunted Mansion. Not this Dave though :)

The old mine was recently blocked off with an "excluder" which allows bats through but not people.  I did get startled by the largest bat I've ever seen outside of a zoo or museum.

"Mr. Bat" was camped out in the timbers by the entrance but dropped down and flapped through the excluder into the back of the tunnel.  Could have actually counted wings flaps with this one, definitely did not flit around.

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Morning Surprise

While it rained on and off most of the night in the valley, it was a precipitation of a different type a bit higher. Most of the white stuff was gone by day's end but it will be back soon I'm sure. 12x optical does wonders :)

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Welcome to Wintry Precipitation

Hail has been starting to drop in the past few weeks, usually not much and small enough that it almost disappears as it hits the ground. This storm had enough moisture that the accumulated hail was rubbing Mini's tummy on the way home one evening.

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First Date

The littlest Princess is sporting the casual look for the penultimate first date. Time spares no one, much less parents :)

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Running out of Gas

Here is where the motor on my bike gave out.....had to hoof it the rest of the way. And for those of you that are wondering why I didn't pull a Lance Armstrong imitation, here is the grade---a tad on the steep side.....

Lots of rocks!

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A Different Point of View

Biked up into the mountains (ok, I left the bike down the hill a bit) and looked at some of the old workings from the last century. View from here (6,552') shows Hadley (5,768') with the mine on the other side of the valley. Distance to Hadley is 2.9 miles the way the ravens fly or 3.9 miles the way I bike---the edge of the mine is 5.27 miles. It was an easy bike back :)

Midget Rugby

The youngest groups in the youth soccer are about the same everywhere....just a mass of 3 foot players following of the ball up and down the field until the parents can't take it anymore :)

The goalies suffer about the same too...............

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