Tuesday, June 18, 2013

WE DIDN’T EVEN BOTHER GETTING OUT OF THE JEEP

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Due to health concerns more than anything else since we’ve been home from the southwest we haven’t actively been looking for or even thinking much about houses or properties for sale in our area.  However Kelly did happen to spot one on-line Monday about an hour’s drive northeast of us.  Had a look on Google Earth & it seemed like it was privately located with lots of natural forest nearby.  More with a desire to just get out & go somewhere for a change this morning we hopped in the Jeep about 9 & headed out to have a look see.  Pheebs too.

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PURPLE MARTINS

We knew the area this ‘For Sale’ house was located in was out of our area of interest but it was just nice to get out for a drive in the countryside anyway.  Found the house & property just south of Belmore Ontario.  We didn’t even bother getting out of the Jeep.  Neighbors on both sides, on a highway, & hardly a forest in site.  Worse yet, it backed on to a seasonal campground.  We just made a U-turn & headed home.  The trip soaked up about 2 & a half hours for us & we were fine with that.  We were just happy to be out & about on a sunny Tuesday morning.

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RIVER STOP ON OUR WAY HOME TODAY

George from OUR AWESOME TRAVELS was a bit confused when I made reference about my preference for lots of green foliage around our house here in Bayfield.  Having complained many times about not not being able to see the night sky here at our digs in Bayfield I should explain it is not our planted foliage around the house which blocks out the starry night sky, it is the tall Pine trees that block out the night sky.  And the Pine trees were here long before we were. 

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GOT ANOTHER WINDMILL FOR YA MIKE & HOPE YOUR DOING OK >>>

At our house in Congress we have a much bigger piece of property & there are really no tall trees to block the night sky.  If we were living there full time & we were there to do all the watering in the summertime we would for sure have already planted us a mass of green foliage around our outside perimeter.  Neighbor’s houses there are not visible in front or behind us but both neighbors are visible on either side of us.  That is why I planted over a hundred tall growing Cacti along the fence lines before we left.  Want to build up a thick green belt.  Of course with the 90 - 100 degree temps going on down there these days I suspect all those Cacti are probably long dead by now anyway.  Even Cacti like a bit of water.  For me the perfect place to have a house would look a lot like many of the places we have boondocked over the years.  Slightly elevated with sweeping vistas all around, clear skies from horizon to horizon.  Nice stand of trees close by for shade & lots of low profile greenery.

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HEY BUTTON IT UP OUT THERE YOU GUYS, I’M SITTING ON SOME EGGS OVER HERE!!

Gay & Joe from GOOD-TIMES-ROLLIN asked about keeping a camera clean.  Tough one when one lives in dusty areas like the South-West.  Keep in mind I’m talking about DSLR’s here. (Digital Single Lens Reflex)  Dust on a lens is not big deal & can easily be dealt with using a soft haired blower brush.  Dust inside the camera is another story.  Dust on the mirror is the lesser of two interior problems.  In the 35mm days it was relatively easy to take the lens off the camera, invert it & gently brush the mirror with a few light puffs of air to clean it.  Problem with doing that now in the digital age is these minute dust particles on the mirror can easily be dislodged & then find their way in behind the mirror & settle on the sensors.  That is the problem I have with my Nikon D40.  I made the mistake a few years back of flipping my mirror up out of the way thinking I could simply blow the dust off the sensors.  HUGE MISTAKE!!  And I made the same mistake twice by doing it a second time in hopes of correcting the first time.  I only made the problem much worse.  If I take a blank picture of the sky with my D40 it looks like somebody backed up a gravel truck & emptied the whole load inside my camera.  I have to retouch just about every photo I take with that camera now & if it was not for Picasa’s ‘Re-touch’ tool I would not be able to use my D40 for most of those telephoto shots you see.  Now, having said all that I know there is a kit you can buy for cleaning DSLR sensors.  I looked at it on-line, read the instructions & decided, with my pathetic mechanical track record & lack of patience it was not something for me.  I could send my camera back to Nikon & have the sensor professionally cleaned but it’s hugely expensive.  I would sooner put that kind of money towards a newer refurbished Nikon D-3100 body.  There are lots of sites on the internet to explain & help with ideas for cleaning DSLR sensors.  This is just one of them……….CLEANING YOUR DSLR SENSOR.DSC_9875

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GROANER’S CORNER:((   Two campers are walking through the woods when a huge brown bear suddenly appears in the clearing about 50 feet in front of them. The bear sees the campers and begins to head toward them. The first guys drops his backpack, digs out a pair of sneakers, and frantically begins to put them on. The second guys says, "What are you doing? Sneakers won’t help you outrun that bear." "I don't need to outrun the bear," the first guy says. "I just need to outrun you."

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- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

9 comments:

  1. Pheebs takes the best pictures! Love that include those.

    Glad the three of you were able to get out for a ride together.

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  2. Lovely Windmill!!! I thank You!!

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  3. Bird pics are lovely. Thanks for the camera cleaning tips

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  4. I think no matter where in the world you live there is a trade-off. And if you are in an area of high growing tree, you get all the benefits that trees provide at the expense of having open vistas. I'll take the trees any day, although I'd love to see a clear sky full of stars once in a while.

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  5. Ok I get confused (must be an age thingy) Arizina you will not have any huge pine trees or any huge trees for that matter. but you do want privacy from your neighbors, Gotcha now.
    Thanks for clearing that up.
    Keep on looking that perfect place will evolve someday!

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  6. I am sooo jealous of your Purple Martins..Dennis built a 20 room condo for them and the Starlings have moved in...for the 3rd year...GRRRRR!

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  7. I've got the Nikon D3100 and just love it. Automatic sensor cleaning setting comes with it. :-)

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  8. My Dad was fanatical about cleaning his purple martin condos and taking them down in the winter, putting the boxes up in spring. He hated it when the starlings would claim squatters rights to the condo.

    Any word on Kelly's diagnosis???

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  9. Thank you Al...I appreciate your thoughts and response. I will be checking out the site you added.

    So glad you 3 had a nice ride. That Pheebs is so darn cute! What a beautiful stop at the river walk.

    Hugs to Pheebs from the Taylor clan.



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