How big is shadow-hawk?
Dave's Progress Thread - Year II
Dave you have talent. You should work on developing your talent.
Thanks @xsuebeex I would have to check, can’t recall right off hand. But I always felt it helps to work on a larger scale for working the details.
Thanks @daddyoh I’ve always enjoyed artwork, but back in my day it was more limited opposed to all the outlets available today. It was either air-brushing murals on vehicles, or simply traditional painting or commercial art for storefronts, signage, etc. Today you have loads of stuff where artwork is incorporated in like movies, video games, etc. So I’ve always done art just as a hobby, not really having much of an outlet for the type of art I’ve always enjoyed. … Two of my main influences back in my early days were Frank Frazzetta and Boris Vallejo, so I was always into mythology, fantasy type art, or creature or critter designs. (Which I’ve always enjoyed) But I’ve also always enjoyed doing simply landscapes & creating environments, similarly to what you see from Bob Ross. - I can get lost in either, but love drawing from imagination no matter the subject manner.
Thanks @Elle79 Appreciate it. … Hopefully you will be sharing with us some more photos of your new home.
Oh, and just to show that you were only seeing the ‘cleaner’ side, here’s the other half of my desk and all the junk I still have to go through on my other section.
Well after eating some of the last batch, we gave the rest away to some friends and family, only to go back out this morning and picked more. They are definitely starting to spike. But they often get a little bigger than some like, but swear this seems to happen over night. Actually pulled the first Cucumber too, and I even pulled two large Zucchini for Boats tomorrow? … But the Yellow Squash on the other side of the garden are now producing as well, so this could be fun keeping up with it.
These are also much bigger now, but look quite healthy, thankfully…
Worked out in the yard again all day, and wanted to mention I met some new friends too. … Apparently, Blue (the large Blue-Tailed Skink) has some friends over at the shed. - Found a little guy half his size, but then about a minute later, I thought I might know just why… A large Red headed Skink, but then I recalled that Blue-Tails also will do this during mating? So It might have been Blue all along? Now I don’t know? I actually thought it might have been a female, but not sure if they are different then the Males? Or maybe the little one, was the female? Don’t know, but didn’t have my camera ready for those quick little suckers.
Once again Dave’s yard has sent me googleing…
The blue-tailed skink in your area is also called a five-stripe skink, which is appropriate since only the juviniles have blue tails. Sometimes adult males have a red head. So looks like the little guy has gone thru puberty! I also learned that moms take good care of their eggs and regulate the humidity of the nest. By peeing on them if it gets to dry. Males are territorial, but allow females and juviniles to stay.
Thanks for the nature lesson Dave!
Yep, those indeed are the one and same. They are pretty cool to have around, and they are fun to watch when they’re in their munchie-mood, chasing down bugs. But they are very quick and like their privacy as well, so most times just hide or run to very tiny cracks to stay safe. They will also throw their tail off, which continues to wiggle, so they can get away from predators, but their tails grow back quite quickly, so it’s quite efficient for this plight. Though I still feel bad for them when they do it.
I really like all the wildlife/creatures nature brings, but there are only two critters that have baffled me since moving in here 12+ years ago. They were the two very large hard-shelled beetles I found in my basement while I was cleaning up & clearing out some old stuff that none of the original owners wanted. (I really wish I had taken some photos of them, but to this day, have no idea where they came from?) … They were both nearly 3" long, and quite wide. One looked more like a Rhinoceros Beetle, like this guy pictured here, but about half this size of this freakin’ monster…
The other was just as big, but didn’t have the very large horns, and I think it looked a lot like this Hercules Beetle. But I remember it being quite colorful, with beautiful Green & Yellow spots…
After just releasing them behind the house, I did some research later and could not find where MD had any beetles such as this, and I soon started thinking they could have been someone’s pets at one time? (You can purchase beetles such as this from some Pet Stores) … But neither seem to be indigenous to this region and I may have inadvertently sent them to their deaths? … It’s something that’s kind of bothered me ever since, basically not doing my homework before just setting them free outside, thinking I was doing something right. … I actually like to let critters stay out in nature, though growing up I have indeed collected some critters and kept them as pets in aquariums, but know they are happier outdoors.
Either that or started an ivasive species! Science fiction tells us that they can breed with similar local speicies even if their sizes and genetics are totally incompatible.
True indeed… The other side to that coin that shouldn’t be flipped. But I’m sure some folks who may have also owned one of these, has accidentally had theirs get loose at some point. Since I’ve always enjoyed having animals or critters for pets, I would occasionally get calls from friends while growing up, saying they found something I might be interested in, and it’s actually how I ended up with another friends Mink when they moved away. I already had two Ferrets at the time and a friend called me asking if I had lost one. (It was in the hallway of his apartment building, and I later found out it was my buddy Joey’s pet that had gotten out 6 weeks before when they were moving. I don’t know how it traveled so far, not getting hit by a car or something, but where I collected him from, was about 6 miles from where it got loose. Ended up keeping him, since they had moved so far away, but did let him know it was found and that I had him. He said it was cool, and he was glad we had found each other.
Yeah, always good to know you may have started an Invasion of a species that one day might plague the world and possibly start the end of times…
For any who might be familiar with those little, brown ‘Clickers’ we used to play with growing up. We also have loads of them and the larger, Eyed Click Beetles here. One I was playing with just the other day. They are funny since they play dead until you hold them by the body, whereas they then start clicking their head to help get away from predators, which usually allows them to also flip over when they might be on their backs. … But this guy would not stop playing dead, (he was committed) when I was simply trying to put in on the tree so he’d be safe while I worked. They are pretty neat, but it took me a few minutes to finally stop playing the dead-role, and grab hold of the tree. I was just trying to get some yard work done and didn’t want to hurt him. But took some pics because he was acting so funny. Even when I put him on his back, he wouldn’t click, but stayed with his playing dead. This is actually one of the largest hard shelled beetles in this area that I could find while researching those giants I mentioned.
This one was an inch in a half in length, but believe they get around 2" if I’m not mistaken?
Week 54: Shows a -2.5 lbs. for this week, which is always good. But similarly as I’ve read by many others here recently, seems I’m just bouncing around within the same couple pounds. So a + and - here and there, but seems no real progress overall lately? - Again, doesn’t bother me in the slightest, but it is quite strange how this all works. … I’ve been spending a lot of time out in the garden & it’s been nice to be able to keep up on it so far, weeds wise, and not have work intervene, as sometimes happens.
As mentioned before, I don’t have a goal weight or anything, but am simply enjoying this WOE/WOL & letting things that happen, just happen. But it does boggle the mind sometimes, how this all works.
You and me both, Dave. Seems like we have had similar journeys - I started at 320 as well, and seem hung up here in the mid 220s right with you.
I am making progress overall, but it has definitely slowed down. However, I am doing the right things, eating healthy foods, and feeling fine, so I am just observing the process to see how it goes.
It’s the @juice curse - I can’t break the 100 kilo level. It’s what I deserve for teasing him about catching up to him. We are now quantumly entangled.
Yep, I agree and it’s how I’m seeing it too. Maybe it’s just a point where the body just says ‘hold up, let me just take a breather for a moment to register all this before we move on?’ Because like you say, I’m doing all the same things, and I can honestly say I have no hangups about reaching that 100 lb. goal, but it is odd. … And yep, I’ve definitely seen your many ‘pokings’ of Juice numerous times. Maybe he did put the whammy on ya. Not sure what the fix for that might be though?
I figure I need to push on and break through the barrier. That may drag him across the line with me.
Well, as I mentioned in another thread, V took a bad fall this morning which turned me around from heading to work, and I came back home and stayed with her for the day. She got banged up some, but pretty much slept most the day and is simply sore at this point. … I was actually hoping that since I was home, the weather would get better and I might have a chance to get into the garden after some sun.
Though the Sun came out in the afternoon, not an hour or so later it let loose and poured for a while. - So when my Son got home, I couldn’t wait any longer & just had to become a Mud-Puppy. So I waded into the mud, barefoot, to collect at least the biggest stuff. And to try and limit having to walk all through everything, I simply made as few steps as possible, tossing the collected goods to my Son who stood on the outside. … I’ve been trying to collect stuff before it gets too huge, but rains have been keeping the garden quite muddy. I have what seemed to be an inch and a half of mud caked on my feet, which I had to scrape off and hose down, but at least I got some of it done. (Sucks is that I’ve been keeping up on the weeding, so the good news is the Garden is still weed free… Bad news is, it’s weed free. Which means no root stabilization and extremely soft soils.) I also saw loads of Cucumbers, but with limiting my steps, only pulled a few off the one edge, but from what I’m seeing, I might get another bumper crop from them. (Had this happen a couple years back and couldn’t believe just how many we got that year.)
Some of the Yellow Squash was already near a foot long, and though still quite edible of course, their skins do start to get quite thick & hard. So I’m tryin to collect them like the others around 8 or 9 inches.
You guys have the rain. We had 107 here today. Killed the baby hollyhock. We have two more days of this. Very weird for June in SoCal.