Hydrangea in the fall........

The hydrangea continues to be a showy plant in the fall.  I really hadn't noticed it but while I was out and about looking at all the red colored leaves I saw this great yellow and green pattern.

The brown colors of the blooms are also very nice to see against the green leaves.  We were very cold last night, below freezing, and it isn't going to warm up much today.

A grain wagon sits abandoned without it's wheels.  I don't know the story as to why this is not on it's wheel base but there must have been a reason. There are two different wheel setups out there on the farm but both are without a rack or wagon bin.

It sits next to the barn door and the trees have grown up in front of the barn's two north doors.  No entrance or exit will be taking place until some serious tree trimming takes place.  There are other doors that are open on the south end so one can enter the barn.

I am a shop teacher today and it is cold out here.  It takes time to get the heat from the large shop repair area into the classroom.  One has to put a fan in the door and circulate the cold air and hot air until the room is warm.

It seems to be a bad start of a Monday for me but things will get better.  I have a good class right now and the rest of the day should be pretty mild.  The students are given study hall when they have woodworking to do as the teacher wants to be here for their construction work.

I return to the farm one last time today after school as to help ready the place for final inspection from the city.  We needed to clean up some things so they would meet safety codes even though it is a farm and not directly in a housing area. The farm does sit in the city as they captured the whole area many years ago to call it their own. There is another farm to the south of us and farm land to the west of us also.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Monday.

Sunday's late posting......

A photo taken down on the farm looking toward a main four lane highway.

Thanks for checking  in on my blog.  I will catch up tomorrow with more words and more pictures than today's showing.

Fall color.......seeing red.

The red maple is giving me a great show this year.  It sometimes doesn't but this year it is the best show of all of my trees.

This burning bush, one of three, is starting to take on a new brighter look.

Thanks for stopping by at my today's post.  Friday is here and Saturday is coming.  Everyone take care and have a good weekend.

High School Social Studies.  US History, American Government, 7th grade reading.

Cactus sprout......

I helped my neighbor move her tall cactus plant back into the house for the winter. Needless to say but  I did have running blood wounds before the job was done.  I took a sprout that had broken off on the moving journey.

  It was heavy and I had to use a carrier to bring it up a set of stairs.  The pathway to it's final display area was a challenge as her house is small and the walkways are less than a foot wide.  We had to move furniture to get through the areas of three rooms before it landed at it's winter home.

Collections are like stray cats, things come around, you feed them and before too long you have a litter.  In this case, as I went through burn piles on the farm I found white milk glass items.  I know they are commercial product containers to the most part but they do have an individual good design in a quality material.  The vase I pulled from the cupboard of the house on the farm.  I was going to tell you I don't collect these, but I know you do know better just by looking at the photo.

My wife actually has a collection of milk glass of her mother's that she received years ago when she and her brother divided the box full of items. I have a couple more items now that were not around when this photo was taken.

I helped my neighbor pull up her zinnia's last week and she laid out her geranium plants that she was tossing in the dump.   She said to take what I wanted and don't scolled her for throwing them away. I have a white one and a pink one now to nurture through the winter to take out in the spring.

I am subbing for a couple of people today.  I came in and they said they had nothing, just go to the library.  Within a half hour I took the music instructors classes as he is headed to a meeting and the middle school English teacher is heading home this pm.  I took out the kitchen window air conditioner last night and I have to keep reminding myself that I am not having a heart attack.  Those chest muscles are the ones you only use for removing heavy objects from windows and the pain will subside in a couple of days.

I have to go for now, as I find that I have to sneak my blogging in when I can.  Thanks for stopping by at my post and Friday is coming.

Glass in the past !!!

I have seen these at antique stores and mall shows where they were attached to the older type of bird cages.  Seed is all that could be fed from it.  I can't see how water could be placed into it when it has to be turned to go between the wires of the cage. It is cast in glass and is so fancy compared to the plastic bird feeders used on cages today.

This is a glass globe of a gas light used in an old house of the my wife's family home. It would have hung down off of a metal fixture or bracket.  The home eventually was switched to electricity and I found this in the attic.

The etching on the glass interests me and I don't really know how it is done.  I know stencils and sandblasting works on glass to get a cut glass look with out manually having to grind in the design.  I think a large candle sitting on a glass dish with this as globe will make a great decoration. I don't really like to burn any candles in our house but at a special meal it would work.

I am a floater today as a sub and will be doing office work and teaching high school math in the afternoon.

Thanks for stopping by and stay warm.

Broken...... but a beauty.

I have a new glass toy candy container.  It has had some damage but I still like it.  I have a collection and sometimes these things just show up.  Another view of the train is on my Photo a Day blog.

The phone and the car were my mom's candy toys.  The bottom one came from the house of my wife's Aunt Irene.  The phone is missing it's wooden receiver that was attached to the wire holder.

Other things that I will be adding to my toy collection is the tin bank and the two wooden pins.  The slot hits right on Europe for some reason.  They could have placed the slot at a different location but I am sure the factory line worker didn't care where the slot was placed.

This homemade checkerboard also is an oldie with the hand painted or inked squares.  There is a line or ledge where the two top boards meet that will prevent the sliding of checkers smoothly across the middle of the board. I guess I need to keep my eyes open for some antique checkers.  I have a couple but not a complete set.  It will get a good cleaning which should make the wood have a richer color.

I was  an office helper yesterday and have taken on a job to help the administration to update their school website.  The secretaries are trained to do it but the time it requires is too much for their workload.  In reality everyone who could work on it really are avoiding it as it takes too much time with the busy things going on in a school office. They will still put on quick school closing messages and things like that but I have been asked to update and clean up some of the site's problems.  I will have to use my blogging skills and plus in order to get that job done,  I will need some side training from whomever  that will share the information I need to get the job done.

I did teach one class of freshman science yesterday and today I won't know until I arrive at school what I will be doing.  Thanks for stopping by and checking out my posting.

A busy Monday........

A one photo day with a one white dog and a checker board in the background.  I hope you have a good day.  The dog does need a haircut but I am busy.

Thanks for checking in on my post.

Archived photo day........

A lioness taking it easy at the Des Moines Zoo.  It was warm and the rock was cooling to lay against.

Barney rest in the yard at the fence, waiting to see if any of the many cats of the neighbor's will walk by for him to scare with his bark.

A sweet dog at the dog show we attended a few years back at the fair grounds.  He was feeling sheltered from all of the activities and noise of a dog show while waiting in line with his owner.

Two horses were resting while being tied to a tree in Osceola, Iowa.  They had been pulling a Amish carriage through the town and had arrived at their destination and were now resting.

Have a great day.  Thanks for stopping by at my blog spot.

Blue Thursday......

An archived photo that I had not posted.  It sat in picaswa for a long time and I will share it today.  I am a tech person today, installing programs on computers and this pm I will teach a little middle school math.  Working down on the farm after school and it is going to be so cold.

Thanks for stopping by and stay warm.

A correction sort of, maybe.....

I was continually taking shots of my tomatoes and something like a light bulb turned on in my little brain.  I have been calling all of my tomatoes Roma tomatoes.  When I started my own plants I planted two smaller varieties.  One variety was leftover Roma seeds that I planted, but I do now remember that I had a heritage small tomato from Seed Savers that was in the shape of a pear.

You can see in some of these tomatoes that they are pear shaped and some are Roma's.

Either way they taste very good and I am still eating them for lunch everyday at school.  They seem to ripen on the counter quite well and they are going to last for a few weeks longer.

I am headed to the farm again today after school to cut down a few more smaller trees. I plan to bring some of the wood back home to use in the fireplace.  It will need to dry out a lot but the smaller stuff may burn anyway.

I am an aid today for a number of special education students.  I get to visit some of the rooms that I had subbed in before to see how the regular teacher does their job.

Thanks for stopping by..........

Buds to bloom.....

An interesting look of some buds that may make it through the freeze.  Mums are tough and I may throw an old towel over them to get them through one bad night.

I hate getting older and having to make myself do stuff.  I kept putting this off but late Sunday evening I went out with this crockery bowl and some scissors and collected seed. I will try to bag them by colors.  This photo shows the beginning of the cutting and I took many more photos of bowls of flowers while I kept filling the bowl .

 

Yes I am milking the petunia shots for all they are worth.  It's just that they are the last of what is living and I have to keep shooting the good compositions.  I had to water these plants that are in a pot as they were really dry.  

I am studying with students the history of the Buddhism religion today.  It is interesting to see where these religions start. World History, American History, and other related subjects I will visit today. 

Thanks for stopping by......

Pull yourself together........

I have an old decorative planter that consists of a donkey pulling a wagon.  It is an oldie and got broken while in storage in the basement.  I think a cat rubbed against it and knocked it to the concrete floor.  I planted the other oxalis into it yesterday and I will glue the parts back on later.  I didn't want to wait for the glue to dry and then dig the plant.

While cutting flower heads for seed I found these two guys down at the bottom of the growth.  They are genetically not the same as the rest as they were originally brown and single petaled.  I will separate them so that I can plant them again in the spring in a special spot.

Minnesota birch tree that will drop the rest of the leaves by the end of the week.  I need to mow leaves already even tough my trees are not complete bare.

Vocal music and pe substitute today.  I start off with a study hall so it is going fine so far.

Thanks for stopping by.......

Soon to freeze.......

A freeze is coming Tuesday or Wednesday night so I will be scampering the next few days to bring the last of things into the house.  We can still have a warmer fall but it does like to dip down every once in a while during that time.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy this Sunday day.

Saturday......

The very last bud to open hesitantly in our weather, but as it does it does take on a better form.

This is a small rose but it has proven to be my best bloomer.

The hostas are doing a better job of having diverse colors than most of my other plants. I really am going to miss summer and fall.

I have some work to do outside yet and hope I can do some of it the next few days.  I want to trim back a viburnum bush that is overgrown and I need to trim back the field lilies and bring in the two potted agapanthus down into the basement.  I have a 50 gallon tank in the basement that needs to be cleaned out so that I can bring in the pond fish before it is too cold for me to capture them.  Leaves are mowed at my house but that will be in November as my silver maples are not through dropping them until then. I have one last oxalis to dig and bring in and I don't want to lose it.  My bird feeders are still in position and I want to cut back the one forsythia next to the garden gate.  The bush keeps the iris from blooming in the spring when it gets too big.  I have furniture to be moved in but I usually wait for a stormy snowing day to do that of course.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Friday's Posting......

I went out and picked some more roma tomatoes.  We will have tacos for supper.  There are still a few green ones out there on the vine and I will pick them if there is a frost danger.  I would rather they ripen out there.  The squash vines are all gone now except for one last strand that has the little squash on the end of  it.

We had a small rain and the zinnia's came back to life for a little while longer.  I was going to mow them down this week but I have been at school all week instead.  The weather was warm yesterday again and it seemed like one of our better fall days.  We are cooling down nights now and the furnace turns on in the morning for a  while but it warms up by noon.

I am a middle school science teacher today.  A large group of the students from middle school and high school are going to spend the day planting trees in town.  They have hundreds of them to plant so it will be nice to have that done.  I will have the leftover students all day.

I have been asked to be a full time sub now and I will just go each day. I will find out what they want me to do for the day when I arrive in the mornngs.  The person was getting tired of calling me each day and this way I do now know what day I will be working, every day.   I will get vacations with special testing days and holiday breaks and other days off so I am going to be ok with it for now.  I figure I can make it for the next eight months and then I can decided if I ever want to do it again next fall.

Thanks for stopping by and have a good weekend.

Birds that I have known.........

Seagull of North Shore of Minnesota

Hen at the Des Moines Zoo

Peacock at the Des Moines Zoo

Parrot at the Des Moines zoo

Hy household, Jack Sparrow

Kennedy Airport, New York

It is a theme day of archived photos. I am a Special Education teacher today and will be on call to help all needs that come before me.  I thought I would share some old photo of birds that I have captured in the past.  It is Thursday and Friday is coming.

Thanks for stopping by...........

Wishing to go back outiside.....

I dug the oxalis last weekend and it already is leaning toward the light.  I enjoy it in this window all winter but maybe I will have to move it to the larger dining room window.  I have another smaller start of this to dig and bring inside and maybe it can be set here instead.

The hostas are all in the decline stage.  Some are totally wilted and turned yellow.  I transplanted a larger hosta this early summer and divided it into many new plants, so I should have some more mature specimens next year to enjoy scattered all over the back yard.

 

It might be music to some one person's ears but it sure wasn't to mine.  When I was in the band room all day I was entertained with the kids coming in to do lessons.  I could not give them a lesson but I did demand that they practice.  They don't want to practice much and they think it isn't necessary.  

The toughest ones to listen to are the drummers who don't have music to play with as they beat the drum.  I know they are suppose to learn the beat and lead others but these guys needed to follow along for a while.  .  I think if they were playing with music that they could learn tempo a whole lot faster.  The sixth graders vary in skill and I did complement one guy who was more aggressive as he played and seemed to know rhythm. 

I remember the story of my oldest son who played first trumpet in the High School Jazz Band.  They competed often and played the same three songs while attending the different events. I could hear those three songs in my mind in my sleep.  The drummer that played with his senior year was just the nicest guy and was a good drummer, but Andy our son, said he found that the drummer was always following him instead of the other way around.  Not being able to play anything I never noticed it until he pointed it out to us.

It was a long day in the band room yesterday.  I had three different large groups come in and then I had little elves, come in throughout the day, each with different skills.  The girls with clarinets doing Christmas music were pretty good.  I told my wife that I had become somewhat bored being someone else yesterday though.  It can make a person wish to go back to middle school math.  Not!!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Wednesday.

No migration.......

My wife did a little research about this year's migration of the monarch butterfly and she found that they missed us by many hundreds of miles. For some reason the took a route that was west of the flooded Missouri River this year. The temperatures and weather apparently effects the movement of the group of butterflies as they travel south to Mexico.

We did have a dozen or so yesterday out on the zinnia flowers.  It was, I suppose, what one would call a minor migration.  They were headed south but they were a small bunch and really are late by three weeks or more.  Maybe next year they will decide to come through Iowa again as they have so many years.

My wife took this wonderful shot a month ago when we had just a few hanging around for the summer.

The red leaves are always my favorite on the maple trees.  I am not looking forward to them being gone as I really don't think I am ready for winter.

Thanks for stopping by and take care.