Eyes to the Sky

The Discovery Space Shuttle lifted off Tuesday at 11:38 A.M. EDT and docked this morning with the International Space Station at 8:46 A.M. EDT ... Last night Hubby and I had the chance to watch the International Space Station streak across the sky from the Northwest to the Southeast over our property, pursued by Discovery almost a minute later. Oh, did I mention it could be seen with the naked eye? They both appeared like moving stars through the almost night light. The sun was glowing in the West from below the horizon and the moon was shining brightly from it's rising in the East. The weather crisp, the sky extremely clear. Tonight,about 20 minutes later than last night, I once again caught the Space Station/Shuttle making a pass over central Iowa. The moon in full phase, named the "Hunter's Moon" is making the landscape shine even now...Hope everyone gets a chance to stop to take a look ; see the big and little things that make our world special...

What Season is this?!

Yesterday, the morning started off cool and calm. Hubby jumped out of bed before sunrise to pull the voisin 3/5 out of the hangar. He wanted to head it up above the cool temps into the inversion layer, warm, smooth sailing. The voisin went higher than it has ever flown. Sunrise came shortly after he was air borne. Said he" wished he had remembered his camera." Needless to say he wished he would have extended his flight time by a half an hour, loves to soar... Caught some deer activity before the sun came up. Headed one in the direction of the pasture north of the house; cut a buck off from crossing our country road as I drove in the direction of the local blacktop. Was wishin' the light of day had been brighter so I could check out the statistics. We reached the pleasant temperature of 77 degrees, not what you might consider very good hunting weather. Had to open some windows to cool the house down, with the sun making good thermal heat and the oven working to bake that special treat for the weekend things got HOT. Watched for things considered out of the ordinary due to the calendar date. Bees still swarming out of the hallow in the tree. Monarch flitting by the window, Asian Beetles making their presence unmistakeably conspicuous, where's the Box Elder bugs?! Heard some gun shots in the vicinity . The youth and disabled individuals of Iowa were given two days to find their Pheasants for this year on October 20th and 21st. Can't say for sure that the activity was for that purpose, but I can positively confirm that someone was cultivating the art of using a shotgun. Before the sunset on this gorgeous day I was off into the timber to checkout the well worn deer paths. Didn't see anything but I did hear activity on the other side of the ravine, running away from me. Ah, the imagination, replaying what I saw in the back yard earlier in the week. Maybe, it was one of those guys....

Weather Changing

The weather is starting to change around here this afternoon. After a full week of clouds and gloom the sun is finding its way out from behind the solid cover.

The wind has been a factor since last night. We were at 20 mph this morning , moving on up to 35 mph this late afternoon. Forecast says we are going to see the decline back to 10 mph by 10:00 tonight.

Everybody that has been waiting for the break in the weather its on the way! Get out to those deer stands in the morning , find the right shot and bring that "Trophy Buck" back to the camp. ; )

Sparring Whitetail Bucks

This morning shortly after 7:00, I had the opportunity to observe one spike buck and a small 8 point working each other with antlers inter-locked. The skies were cloudy and the light of day was still barely visible. Opening the door to try to catch some pictures anyway. I was greeted with the sound of something making a heavy crackling noise across the leaves and twigs lying on the ground in the timber. I had gone to alert Hubby to the two bucks ,only to come back and find two more had entered the arena. They too were jousting, antlers inter-locked. What was more impressive is they also carried racks of impressive size. You should have seen the most dominate of the whole group(pictured in the middle above). Not only did he carry majestically a nice rack on top of his head but he was thick in body muscle. An awesome creature. I will have to clarify the antler formations in this region of central Iowa are relatively small compared to what you might find in the southeastern part of Iowa. At least that has been my experience so far. These guys will still be the center of some ones story very soon. Maybe, even mine ;) Hubby and I observed them between 5 - 10 minutes, had them all watching us from the back door,eye to eye contact. We did get some pictures that look much like trail cameras at a distance. Hoping I will get another chance to see them all today with enough light to get a great picture for "Show and Tell"...