Who is ready for some lovely fungi pictures?
I love that cinnabar! I really love any of the red fungi that emerge around here, like the wolf's slime and emetic russula. My ultimate favorite is a scarlet cup, but this cinnabar really caught my eye. So brilliant!
Violet-gray bolete (Tylopilus plumbeoviolaceus)
This bolete (hard to tell for certain of the species) was hindered by tree roots. You just don't know how you're going to enter life.
My heart never fails to fill with joy whenever I lag behind because something catches my eyes, then I see my babies all walking together like this. :-)
I was journaling and then lying back to enjoy some sun when I realized the youngest three had stripped down to total nudity and were playing in the mud (that they made with the water hose). Studying what was in the mud and covering themselves with it kept them entertained for quite some time. The best part was when the myriad of butterflies showed up.
The oldest three stayed with my parents for a few days. I think it was around the fourth of July, as they shot fireworks there. We didn't even do it here this year! They went to see Blanchard Caverns.
I got a flat tire, and here my sweet boy is changing it for me. He's very good at changing tires now, but this time he forgot to loosen the nuts before jacking up the vehicle, but he quickly realized his error.
I love discovering fossil imprints in the rocks when we go to the creek.
The kids had a lot of fun playing and swimming, meanwhile Jesus was walking on the water. Haha! Nathan shouted to me, "I can see why they made a big deal out of it; it's harder than it looks!"
This place isn't far from our house. We had driven to Bashan Hill, a community of SDA Davidians for whom Nathan has done a lot of HVAC work, for Nathan to give some bids on some projects, and we stopped down a side gravel road for Elizabeth to pee, and I had to take a picture. :-)
William had been outside, and he was walking near the tall grass and weeds at the edge of the yard when he heard a rattle and then saw a timber rattlesnake glaring at him. It gave him quite a fright! He asked for his .22 and went back out and shot it. (If they're in the yard or close to it, we normally kill; otherwise we normally leave them alone.)
Crotalus horridus
He shot it two or three times to be sure. LOL
He skinned it, but he wasn't happy that he'd messed up the skin by the one shot that went through its body. I was personally impressed at his skinning job and encouraged him to go through with tanning it.
See, doesn't it look good? He was sorely disappointed, though, with the hole, so he ended up not making anything with it. At least we know his skinning skills are excellent.
Here's Olivia getting on the bus for her first day at public school, which she requested, and to which we finally agreed. It looks like she's got an 80s hairstyle going. I'll be glad when those bangs grow out all the way. She refused to wear any head band or anything (thankfully that's since changed).
With money William had saved up, combined with birthday money we and others gave him, he bought parts to build his own desktop computer (he still has the laptop he bought last year). He built it all himself. He has over 100 subscribers on his YT channel that he started a little over a year ago. He mainly posts Minecraft-related videos. He also constructs packs for the game and makes them available for others to download.
If I remember correctly, his best friend Jacob made the graphic that is featured here as William's desktop background (his name Aptenodytes is a bit cut off), but William has since learned how to make his own graphics (always something I had wished I'd known how to do!). He also does some sort of coding, but I'm not sure what. Some of the terms he uses when he's talking about what he does, I am not familiar with, and so I do not understand what he's doing. I just repeatedly tell him to not do anything illegal. (He talks about hacking, etc., and sometimes it's just a different meaning of that word in gaming, and other times it sounds like he's doing something questionable, so I am constantly on him to not do anything foolish.)
Here he is about to engage in whatever. He sports this headset he bought, and he Skypes with his friends (mostly Jacob), even during game play. They'll talk to each other as they play together.
Here's the inside of William's computer. He's since talked about saving up for an even better graphics card, etc. He's taken this thing apart a few times, doing various things to it. Two nights ago he informed me that he's got an issue he can't sort out. He thinks he may have messed up something the last time he overclocked it. Good grief, I can't help him out there! He has definitely far surpassed me in computer knowledge.
Some of my origins on my Word of the Day are more interesting to me than others. This was one of those that I really liked. Etymologies are so fun!
Nathan went out to hunt with his bow just two or three times before he killed a deer. It was easy the day he went, too, because he was only gone for a few minutes when he came back inside. I thought he had just forgotten something. Imagine my surprise when he said he'd killed a deer! He had walked down the road, and the deer was in the road. He couldn't find his arrow, but Trusten happened to see it a few days later when we were taking a walk. This picture features our first deer steak meal of the season, with mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and salad.
On this particular day, there were all sorts of invertebrate creatures to observe by just stepping out onto our front porch! Trusten spotted these different caterpillars. The peculiar one pictured above is a hag moth larva (some call them monkey slugs, but I don't). Phobetron pithecium is the Latin genus and species. Some of you may recall that I stumbled upon one on the front porch last year, and I'd never seen one in my life. It took me some studying it closely to even determine it was a caterpillar.
This lovely orb weaver was unwrapping a grasshopper. I took video. The youngest three kids all were excitedly talking at the same time, lol.
The hag moth caterpillar that I pictured above is a stinging caterpillar that inflicts much pain. This one here is a crown caterpillar (Isa textula), and it's also known to inflict a very painful sting. We do not want to know personally. ;-)
I loved this smaller version of the hag moth larva. They remind me so much of sea stars! I remember when I saw the one last year, I wondered whether there really was an echinoderm of some sort living amongst us!
The youngest three made a tent, and they intended on sleeping in there one night. First Elizabeth decided she wasn't going to, then I think Trust and Liv decided they weren't, either! I guess it's one thing to play in a tent, quite another to get a good night's sleep. I remember expressing concern that it might not be a good idea. I guess when they thought more deeply on it, they decided the same.
William here was actually cutting up one of the two bags we'd had left of deer, labeled "jerky," from last year. He was intent on cutting it up and making some jerky. Good grief, though, he made it waaaay to salty and spicy! He wanted to do it his own way, though, and he learned, I think.
Olivia, here, was holding is a white flannel moth (Norape ovina), and its larva is also a stinging caterpillar, but we didn't see any of those.
Ok.
Until next time...
