Images

Been wanting to run by this gorgeous church for awhile and managed a drive by with my cell-cam. Awesome graveyard where the vast majority of the stones have cross on top. I look forward to going back for a better view.

Illinois has 27 million acres of farmland. Just to put that into perspective, the entire state is just 37,064,960 acres. That means 73% of Illinois is agriculture. Of that 27 million, 24 million acres is tillable, 824,000 acres is pasture for livestock, and 1.4 million acres is national forest, primarily Shawnee National Forest located in the south portion of the state. Those 27 million acres of rich farmland are comprised of 79,000 farms, 96% of which are Illinois family owned and operated. Nationwide agricultural ranking for Illinois agriculture #1 soybean production#1 pumpkin production#2 corn production#3 farmers markets#3 ethanol production#4 pork production#4 bio-diesel production

Had the pleasure of watching a falcon hunt for a meal today. He gave about a 35 minute show before he dropped on something small in the field at a distance too far from my lens. The red tailed hawk at the end hit the trees as soon as I was in sight. Enjoy! I did.

Russian fisherman “Roman Fedortsov” has been working the sea for nearly 22 years. He has been documenting images of strange and terrifying deep-sea creatures being pulled from his nets. Wow! https://www.instagram.com/p/mj8jxspJF8/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=bfccef75-a6aa-4378-a8b0-c8dfc52564e5 https://www.instagram.com/p/mzbFMTJJAr/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=3caceded-819a-4beb-94b6-55ff5c5c7f81 https://www.instagram.com/p/BN7FmyEAkFA/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=bfa508c2-129c-456e-af9d-09954c2a0be7 https://www.instagram.com/p/BPNTPgRgZMB/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=eb4f6e52-dad2-4b72-b7b5-30a898f029ae https://www.instagram.com/p/BQY_ui4A7C9/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=b900a46a-7423-4523-bc21-39218485b0e0 https://www.instagram.com/p/BOMCQshAj9Y/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=e8ef9ede-0e1d-415e-a605-14929b21068d https://www.instagram.com/p/BNcNoFkgyuu/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=e95744ea-552e-466d-9daa-bcaeb1b15f61 https://www.instagram.com/p/BLqxnHggCA0/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=931408b2-0672-4684-ada5-f3001b4badf6 https://www.instagram.com/p/qkQ2xWJJPo/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=98fae2c7-6eb1-4bcc-8349-164c3e693172 https://www.instagram.com/p/zAWi9wpJLa/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=405f91b3-5f4d-44a3-b983-d89fb7be4118 https://www.instagram.com/p/BGIx-iSpJH1/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=da8159d0-7470-4371-b5c8-d9b9329fb5e6 https://www.instagram.com/p/BFddwWspJEP/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=a51c23e6-9ba8-44e4-a9dc-4876c9b80351 https://www.instagram.com/p/BFLBrJnJJFX/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=1feab66f-5b48-410d-9e28-73a6aff6da12 https://www.instagram.com/p/BFFZaTgpJKi/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=c65336c0-7712-44ab-972e-f8fb6f513d3d https://www.instagram.com/p/BEyPoxsJJOx/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=9b76e709-1516-4e91-abbf-99f2ebb0c3ac

Feeders were packed yesterday. Snow seems to bring them all to the window.

Deer have been out in mass for the last week or so. Here’s a few (and a hawk and a turkey) from today during a ride with mom. It’s our first cruise since her heart attack last month. Click any image to enlarge.

Took a drive out to one of my favorite spots and stopped to walked the dog. I didn’t even see the bird in the tree until the dog and I had gotten back into the vehicle and I had turned around to drive away. I have heard the owls at the cemetery since I was a kid and have seen one fly there on occasion but I have never had one sit still as a church mouse as me and a dog walked nearby and then remain to allow me to photograph it for several minutes. It might have had something to do with a large, nearby, woodpile. I am guessing supper was there. It never…

Growing up in the Ville there were just a handful of houses we knew to check out for the big displays. Back then there were a dozen or so that went all out. George Miles was the owner of one of those places. We started watching his place just before Thanksgiving every year in anticipation of the display we knew would be the best in town. His love of lights and the season caught on. Here’s a really awesome video done with a drone by Sean K. https://youtu.be/4J5z1rF62KA I only made it down one street tonight but here are the results. I’ll add more images if I can get through town for more.

While Musk continues censorship house cleaning at Twitter and touts an 80% free speech rate on his platform, censorship is alive and well at Facebook. To illustrate how ridiculous it has become I’ll use my latest “fact checked” post. The image is mine (shot 11/26/22) and never before posted to anywhere online. The verbiage on the image is a quote that I see all too often, and in my personal experience, a true statement. The words are often tagged as a quote from Teddy Roosevelt but in my due diligence I discovered that it cannot be confirmed that Roosevelt actually made the statement. So, I left that part off. The above image is exactly as it…

I shoot a lot at a distance, and while my 300 mm does a decent job, it comes off soft. Dove off the cliff and snapped up a new lens, 600 mm, and I am over the moon happy with it. It will make stalking the deer easier and I cannot wait to use it at a horse show.

Everything about the midterms have been crazy so why not add a little natural lunacy to the mix. I shot the attached images of the moon at 5:24 p.m. on Nov. 5, 2022. The fullness of it caught my attention. I hadn’t realized the next full moon is on election day, and if that isn’t enough, it will be a full lunar eclipse. November 8: Total Lunar Eclipse | The full moon Tues. Nov. 8, 2022, at 6:02 a.m. EST (note the change from EDT to EST). The Moon will be close enough to opposite the Earth from the Sun that it will pass through the Earth’s shadow creating a total lunar eclipse. The Moon will…

One of my favorite restaurants (Route 4 Restaurant) dropped a social media post earlier in the day that caught my attention. It wasn’t to announce another one of their tasty specials but to bring attention to a local artist working on, showing, and selling his art outside the eatery. I had to check that out. Not a lot of artwork floating about the area and certainly no an artesian at work, on display. I rolled up to a simple displace of some really nice work. Whimsical, natural looking characters full of detail with those extra touches making the craftsmanship really pop. ((If Santa is reading… I love the gnome)) Works start at around $80 going up…

Pyramid State Park is one of Southern Illinois’ hidden gems. I visited the park over the weekend and wasn’t able to cover a fraction of the place in the couple of hours I was there. I did, however, manage to get a few good shots of the beautiful blue skies and fall colors reflecting on the lakes as well as the giant cottonwoods, sycamores, and box elders reaching for the sky. There was of, of course, a critter or two along the way. Park models for the day: Armadillos. (See pics below.) Here’s a little about the park: When Pyramid Coal Company closed in 1959 the 954 acre piece of land ended up in the hands…

Make your next garden project a wildflower garden. These gardens have many benefits and are more important than ever due to the decline in pollenating insects. Getting these types of gardens started can be expensive when you are buying seeds but it really doesn’t have to cost you an arm and leg because your don’t have to buy seeds. The best way to get seeds for your wildflower garden is to gather them yourself. I’m not even kidding. Next year’s garden means you have to start work in the fall by gathering seeds, cuttings, and tubers. Get in the car and head out into the countryside and hit the first gravel road you see. Just take…

Just sharing the views of one of my country cruises with my best pal, Lisa.

Came around the corner in the middle of nowhere and what do I see? Motocross. Fun to watch and I got the impression he (?) didn’t mind our watching. Tell me what kid (or adult) wouldn’t have a blast with this track in the back yard?

Botanical name: Chlorophytum comosumNative to South Africa (Zone 9-11) These easy-to-keep houseplants are beautiful and a little rare as they are not as easily found as their more common cousin, the variegated spider plant With long, slender, solid colored leaves, they are gorgeous in a hanging pot, on a desktop, or on a pedestal. Spider plants make a great household plant as they require low-indirect light, are very drought tolerant, require minimal feralization, and are fast growers. I allow mine to dry out between watering, only fertilize a couple of times over the winter, and keep them out of drafts. They will even do well in a northern window. Bonus for the spider plant is that…