Melissa not dusting

more Cannonsburg

melissakoski — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:17:49 +0000

The snowy trail and a stream

feather

love wood

moss and lichen, a colorful dynamic duo

Cannonsburg State Game Area

melissakoski — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:33:33 +0000

A Bald Eagle. I really wished I had a bigger lens today. It's worth clicking to enlarge the picture.

It was too sunny and warm to stay indoors this afternoon. The sun was shining on my way out to Cannonsburg State Game Area, but then the light stayed pretty crappy throughout the afternoon. The sun was back out in full force for the ride home…maybe next time the timing will be perfect.

Cannonsburg State Game Area

Lichen on bark. I used to do lawn maintenance at the cemetery and my string trimmer would burned lichen from the edges of the trees. It smelled like fabric softener.

missing chunks of face and face licking

melissakoski — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:12:05 +0000

This one-footed chickadee was born last summer. It flapped around wildly when it’d try to land on a branch. I noticed the chickadee was missing a foot after checking out the pictures of all the wild landings.

Here it is, months later, mastering using its leg for balance…the chunk-o-face missing in front of the eye doesn’t say life is all rainbows, unicorns, and glitter though.

Missing a chunk of face and one foot can't stop this power house. Seeing my favorite one-footed chickadee makes me completely grateful for the mild winter we've enjoyed.

a sibling chickadee with two feet

If you ever need a good face licking this is your girl!

too busy for aspirin holding

melissakoski — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:59:19 +0000

This week some idiot politicians were chatting up birth control. Foster Friess, the main donor to a super PAC aligned with Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, made the most ridiculous comments suggesting Bayer Aspirin as a contraception method…that women could just keep an aspirin between their knees (their legs closed) and that would solve all this birth control nonsense.

beautiful Friday morning

Today could have been the most unproductive and wonderful day ever. This Canada Goose is sliding across the ice. It was a good sliding day.

It was sunny in the morning and snowed late afternoon.

All this action made us too busy to hold aspirin between our knees. Look how busy we were just making dinner…not a closed knee in sight. Click for evidence.

the hang out

melissakoski — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 03:33:19 +0000

I was surprised to see so many animals this morning since temperatures are crazy warm. Warm rain in February is ridiculous.

Things look serene around here, but that’s rarely the case. The background noise in these pics are the sounds of constant large aircrafts carrying presidential hopefuls, my eldest tap dancing to blaring music and the youngest yelling she was tangled in her shirt.

a deer and turkey

love- take 2

melissakoski — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:50:34 +0000

I sure run into a lot of censoring for a middle-aged American. And by the way, I’m not going to be apologetic about my collection of animal porn no matter what amount of censoring I endure…especially on Valentine’s Day.

Giant Swallow Tails chasing pursuing each other for a few hours.

Click below for red lady bug sex and red ant voyeurs

loves to all

http://www.facebook.com/v/104562181350

The deck

melissakoski — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:32:21 +0000

My cocktail date turned into a sleepover away from Stan, so we didn’t get an opportunity to jump off the deck onto a deer’s back. When Jon and Stan were in kindergarten together Jon’s mom told him he was no longer allowed to hang out with Stan. No one listened thank goodness.

Stan and I with no broken bones...no one jumped off the deck

A male Eastern Bluebird. I put sumac branches in pots on the deck to get around the "no food on the deck" rule.

A female Northern Cardinal and a Dark-eyed Junco.

dangerous situation

melissakoski — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:39:35 +0000

There’s a dangerous situation brewing.

My friend Stan, let’s jump off the deck onto a deer, is headed into town.

It snowed over 6 inches here yesterday providing a perfect snow pack to pad our jumps.

It’s about 5°F. The deer come in and feed all evening when it’s this cold. I have plenty of food.

I have a late afternoon cocktail date.

Stay tuned……

A young male Northern Cardinal

Shine on, it’s Friday!

melissakoski — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:30:34 +0000

the sunrise shining through Queen Anne's Lace

The full Snow Moon

melissakoski — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:31:23 +0000

moon:
noun
1. the earth’s natural satellite, orbiting the earth

verb
2. to sentimentalize or remember nostalgically: They spent the day mooning about their lost love.

I watched the moon set during the frantic get-ready-for-school-routine in the morning. Then I mooned about all day. Then I watched the moon rise in the evening. The slideshow is of the evening’s moonrise.

Click to view slideshow.

The bachelor group of deer was around this morning for the first time since early fall.

The two young males were with a smaller deer. Sadly, the large buck wasn’t with the gang.

I’m pretty sure the large buck was shot, but AM hoping deer bachelor groups break up just like people.
I don’t care if someone killed the deer if they eat it, but I really wanted to find its shed before a final physical farewell…definitely mooning material. (:

I’ve walked behind this deer for years hoping to snatch up his horns. I always come out of the woods with a ton of raccoon pictures… I’ll never beat the raccoons at grabbing horn treasures.

I'm a raccoon and I love to eat deer horns.

Superbowl Sunday pictures

melissakoski — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:12:21 +0000

dam ducks

The Sixth Street Dam in Grand Rapids, Mich.

fishing downtown

a win on Super Bowl Sunday

pole dancers

melissakoski — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:15:20 +0000

If you love fishing click here! If you think fish stink click here!

melissakoski — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:34:06 +0000

This afternoon’s treasure…..

He had an old school woven lawn chair, but I never saw him use it. I wanted to steal it for a second, but liked him too much to take it.

Every time he casted he’d steady himself on the wood rail.

I could relax and take his picture (without feeling too too creepy) knowing that one of the big benefits and beauties of fishing is that, when you’re fishing, you’re just fishing.

Just click the photo if you’d like to enlarge

On February 18th and 19th Michigan offers a free fishing weekend. I’d link Michigan’s DNR website with the info., but you’re better off googling michigan free fish weekend. They really could stand to send a few scouts out into Michigan’s woods and trails and seek out a few of those creative types to help them with their website. In their defense funds are short all around, so please don’t hold it against them. (:

thanks for the good time

melissakoski — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:15:44 +0000

The music is Stephen Still’s and I hope you turn it up or have headphones. These photos are from the past few days.

If you can’t view the video it’s b/c of stupid copyright infringement on the song I BOUGHT. bastards…

You do not have sufficient freedom levels to view this video.

we all see the same moon

melissakoski — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:27:37 +0000

A Blue Jay and a Northern Flicker. Who has the best outfit?

A male Eastern Bluebird.

pushing off with a toe on the right foot....

The sun came out in the afternoon and luckily enough, we had obligations on a perfectly lovely road.

A White-breasted Nuthatch, face down.

See the worm headed toward the fence??

Check out this earth worm warrior! This androgynous piece of fabulousness was trekking through five inches of snow for at least 36 hours...since Sunday morning during our quick clipper system.

This worm radiated cold. I thought my pointer finger hurt after taking pictures in low temps. This worm felt so cold.

So lovely. There's always so much maintenance with a farm. I think spring and early summer gatherings should revolve around patching and painting for your favorite local farmer.

We all see the same moon.