Dry front yard

Wow, look at that lush yard. This is what a drought looks like. I've been unable to properly water my lawn as i have some plumbing problems i still need fixed, and as of a few days ago there is a ban on watering your lawn. The city well has dropped to very low levels, and we have had almost no rain this summer. There were two thunderstorms yesterday, lots of thunder and lightning, but the heavy rain seems to have missed here a bit. I don't know how close to a record this is, but it's pretty bad. All the big rains have gone too far north or south of here to help much.

Training camp

Here is a picture of the field the Kansas City Chiefs practice on. A couple things to note, look at how green the grass is on the field compared to closer to the camera. We have been having a severe drought and i see them watering a lot this summer. Almost all the rain that has come by has just missed us or dropped almost nothing that would even make a dent. The other point is that this training camp is featured on a show on HBO called Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Kansas City Chiefs. I'm not much one for watching football, more playing it really, but it has been interesting to see this small town on a show like that, it looks quite nicer for one. ;) There are no people on the field when i took this, i haven't timed it right to be there when anything is going on, but i get antsy around big crowds in heat like this too.

Spider in the web

This is the spider in the corner of it's web, kind of hard to see, but that is the best i could get without disturbing it. This is the spider that molted from the other picture, but i'm not sure what kind of spider it it. I do think it's one that can bite and not be too pleasant, so i gave it plenty of room.

Spider molt

This is the shed skin from a spider that I just noticed living near a window of mine, outside not inside. I just found it so interesting looking i had to get a picture of it and share. The spider itself is living in a corner of a rather large web, several feet across at least, and is really hard to get a picture of where he is, but i will try.

Ant

This is an ant that i saw crawling on my computer the other day. I'm not sure what type of ant that is, but i don't see many of them around here, it's mostly the smaller red ones. I find it funny now that my first thought when seeing bugs is to run for my camera and macro lens so i can get pictures of them instead of wanting to get rid of it. I had a cricket in my kitchen the other night, and it took me about an hour to find him, and then catch him so i could take him outside. Not that my house is bug infested, in case that is what you are thinking. ;)

more hot and dry

This is a picture of one of the hosta flowers, and how i feel when i have to go out in the heat. The leaves are doing pretty good, but some are getting burned. The grass is doing the worst, but not being able to water it is a problem, the funny part is that the dandelion greens are doing fine, so there is that at least. ;)

very hot and dry

It's been very hot and dry lately, my lawn is turning brown really fast, partly because i have plumbing problems and can't water it. Also because it's been over 90 and sometimes over 100 with the heat index, the little rain we have had isn't nearly enough to keep lawns green. So this is kind of a surprise to me. This is part of the huge pumpkin plant that i was growing in the peat pots. Most of the others seem to have been pillaged by various wild animals, but not this one. The plant stretches for a good six feet or more, with several flowers. It's also the most green plant in my yard. Since i haven't been able to really water it, i'm curious as to why it's so green and big, where is it getting water from? Are it's roots that deep? I don't know a whole lot about plants, if you can't tell. ;)

Zack Bunny

This is one of my bunnies, Zack, laying in front of the air vent. I took this with an antique Spartaflex camera i got at an antique store for around $10. It uses 120 film, which i had to send by mail to get developed, as i'm not brave enough yet to try to develop my own film. This is one of the better pictures that turned out, as i'm not quite used to film yet, i'm more a digital person, i just wanted to share this cute picture of Zack.
I will be trying to get pictures around town with this too, but to make sure it all worked i started out with pictures around the house.

River Falls Days Parade, Marching Band Part 3

This is another marching band in the parade, i forget which school it was, but i like the expressions of these kids. I missed posting yesterday, for a very silly reason, i was reading the new Harry Potter and couldn't put it down. When i got done i hadn't realized how many hours had passed.

River Falls Days Parade, Marching Band Part 2

This is from the same group as the last one, but i hadn't noticed how much i like this one and am amused by "The Herd" on his uniform. I'm not sure why it says that, is that the team name? I have no idea.

River Falls Days Parade, Marching Band

This is one of the marching bands that walked in the parade. They always look so somber after seeing the ones in the rain from a few years ago smiling and having fun. This year the weather was perfect, in the 70's with a nice breeze, and the rain waited until late in the evening. I want to point out i like the pictures of marching bands like this, where everyone is looking the same and in a pattern for some reason. I'm not sure why, but they are usually my favorites of parades.

River Falls Days Parade, Odd costume

I just had to get a picture of this guy. He was dressed as a giant Tylenol. It was just so odd and funny to me that i had to get a picture of him. Sadly this was the best one, not many of him turned out very good.

River Falls Days Parade, Cheesehead

Here you can see the elusive Wisconsin Cheesehead. I used to see these hats shaped like a big piece of cheese more when i lived down by LaCrosse, but haven't seen them much up here for some reason. Wisconsin is known as "the dairy state", there are a lot of milk and cheese producers in the state, not sure if it has the most or not, but there are a lot. You see more people wearing the hats at sporting events where the Green Bay Packers football team (American Football) plays.

River Falls Days Parade, Zor Funster

Back to the parade pictures. This is one of the Zor Funsters going around in the little carts they ride. I've seen Zor Funsters at parades for a long time, but i really don't know how to explain what they are. It's like how you see something a lot, and never think about how to explain it to someone who has never seen one. On a related note, this year got me wondering about parade saftey. Several parades no longer allow the participants to toss candy into the crowds, this parade had kids running out and trying to get the candy. I know some kids have gotten hurt at some parades before, not sure about here yet, but i saw some kids get out in the road far before the parents grabbed them back. I also saw older high school kids basically grabbing candy from the very young kids, which also bothered me.