Sugar Glider Update

 Yes, we're still the same, crazy glider people that we've always been. I'm no where near as active in the community as I used to be, but I'm still a member of the Facebook groups for when I want to start selling cage sets again. I think I posted about the gliders we've lost in previous post. If not, I'm not getting into right now, no offense. 

We've been trying to combine the cages so that we have less to have to clean. Since everyone is neutered now, there's no reason not to. We have 3 brand new DCNs out in the garage that need to be used. The goal was to get down to two colonies, but I'm thinking it's gonna be one colony and two other gages. Either way, the top and bottom double doors open up completely to allow for super easy cleaning. As of right now we have 4 HQ cages and 1 DCN and it's a bitch to clean them all.

With everything that's been going on in the past year, I really feel like we've neglected the gliders. We don't get to carry them around in bonding pouches or do tent time like we used to. I'm gonna be honest, the majority of it is our laziness to do so. Neal has been in and out of the vet a half dozen times this year, which makes introducing him and Declan to any other cage nearly impossible. 

Hopefully things start to level out and our intros go according to plan. Here are a few random shots of a few of the gliders from the past several months. Enjoy!

Chunky little Tyler, our beautiful mosaic sugar glider.

This is Loras, Tyler's son. Another gorgeous mosaic sugar glider.

More Tyler cuteness.

Loras has a lot of sass.

Charli enjoying some corn. She's a beautiful black beauty mosaic sugar glider.

Tyler wondering why she's eating all the corn.

Still going at the corn.

This was another day and another lens.

I wish it was brighter in the room so that I could get pics like this of all the gliders. Their cage is right next to the window.

Charli enjoying the view.

And the corn...

Still going strong.

Our beautiful standard sugar glider boy, Theon. He was the last boy Norman and Ginny had.

He was freaked out for some reason.

Here's chubby little Ginny, our cremeino mosaic sugar glider.

She's a beauty.

Summer Gardening (2020 Edition)

 So for the first time in literally YEARS we decided to put out a garden. Not just a few tomato plants here and there, I'm talking a small, community sized garden. I think I may have mentioned in an earlier post what all we put out, but in case you didn't see or read that post, I'll give you a refresher.

In the upper garden - yes, we had two - we planted tomatoes, peppers, radishes, onions, lettuce, dill, green beans, corn that the wildlife consumed and some very, very pathetic micro carrots. Let me just say that our soil is FAR too rocky for growing any type of carrot. In the lower garden next to the chicken coop we planted zucchini (yellow and green), cucumbers, acorn squash, butternut squash, yellow squash, more green beans, broccoli that failed, cabbage that failed, watermelons that were eaten by raccoons and some tiny little potatoes.

Needless to say that we spent a vast majority of the summer weeding and watering. I don't think it rained 10 days throughout the entire summer, so the garden had to be watered every single day.

We decided to try canning last year as well and ended up pickling a lot of cucumbers, canning tomatoes and even pickling zucchini. Let me tell ya, if you've never tried pickled zucchini, you are missing out, my friend. I think we picked more of those than anything! We had so, so many zucchini... like an obscene amount. I don't know how many dozens we cut up and froze and gave away, plus the amount that we pickled.

We're planning on putting out another garden this year and we'll have far less zucchini plants. I'm hoping to introduce some new produce to this years lineup. Like lemon cucumbers, okra for pickling and some different varieties of lettuce. 

I think I may have shared some gardening photos in some of my previous posts, but I tried to save them all for this one. Hope you enjoy!

Baby garden plants. This is young zucchini and tomatoes.

Our upper garden, equipped with tomato stakes.

One of our amazing basil plants that got HUGE. Didn't use it once. *eye roll*

The thyme that also got huge. I was hoping LaVaughn would make some parmesan thyme crackers, but alas, she did not.

More pretty basil.

Potato sprouts.

More pretty potato prouts.

Even more potato sprouts.

This is the lower garden where we had all out (mainly) vining plants. You can also see our flock in the background rummaging for bugs.

Onion plants.

Radish plants.

Some garden lettuce.

Baby tomatoes starting to grow.

Some of our cherry tomatoes.

Pickling cucumbers!

This was the first batch we tried pickling. We used our own spices which was a big fail. Mrs. Wages pickling pouches all the way!

This picture of pickled cucumbers and spices is probably my fave. I love the way pickling jars look.

And lastly, a jalapeno on a vine.

Ozark (Taum Sauk) Trail

 Back in early 2019 - Easter Day, to be exact - LaVaughn and I decided to go on a little Easter hike. Neither of us have really ever gone on hikes before, just mainly stumbled through random parts of our local woods. This was the first time we stepped foot on an actual walking trail and I have to say, it was quite fun.

We didn't go the entire 12 miles of the trail, obviously, we only went about a half mile because we did have Easter dinner to go to that evening. We were both so infatuated with the idea of going on trails that we even starting planning to go on more in the future. I found us these neat little (cheap) bags to take with us. Mainly just something to keep water, energy nuggets and a few medical supplies and insect repellants in. 

After our bags arrived, a few weeks passed and neither of us ever mentioned going hiking again. We talked about it and laughed at ourselves for getting hiking bags and then just letting them collect dust. They were only like $4.50 each, so it isn't like we wasted a lot of money or anything. Since I was lucky enough to be able to get an additional camera, LaVaughn now uses the older one. Well she used it like once, but I was showing her how to use manual mode and she caught on really quickly. 

We're both wanting to start driving around and taking pics this spring and since there are so many state parks and trails around us, there's really no excuse not to go on them. 

So here are a few pictures from that famed day that we considered ourselves hikers, albeit short lived, but hikers all the same. Hope you enjoy.

Trail Map. We were at the Ozark Trail Head to the Taum Sauk State Park.

Ozark Trail.

Some pretty purple wild flowers.

More purple flowers on a branch.

Tree line.

It was a bit early this day, so things are a bit washed out.

Cute little bridge over a stream.

Ozark Trail signs on the trees.

Some type of pretty mossy looking grass at the base of a tree.

Through My Lens: Part Five (Fall Edition)

 I believe this will be the last installment of my my "Through My Lens" series. I think the rest of the photos that I have to share will have a dedicated title. Cause there will be quite a few throwback posts; like hikes, the 4th, Christmas, gardening and so on.

These following few photos are the last set taken with my 85mm. They were all taken late last year in and around October, so they all have a fall vibe to them. Which is why I added that in the title of this post. This past fall/holiday season was a busy one. Since I travel every week for work now, that takes up a good portion of the days leading up to and following the days that I actually work on, so my weeks have been fairly busy. That's why I don't have too many photos to share from the fall/winter seasons. Not to mention, it seems like every day that I'm not doing anything it's 30 degrees and too cold to be outside taking pictures. 

I guess I'm going to stop there. Hope you enjoy.

Can't have fall photos without purple mums.

And yellow mums.

And crisp fall leaves. Or dead leaves, I guess.

Tiny little golden-hour bugs. Pretty good catch with the 85mm Nikkor lens.

Dead weeds with amazing bokeh from the 85mm.

More fall leaves from our leather tree.

Awesome bokeh effect with some chicken wire.

I don't know what this yellow fuzzy weed is, but I think the 85mm Nikkor lens gives it an amazing and creamy bokeh.

Another one of the yellow weed for good measure.