It's A Great Day!!

Mr. Shoulder-to-the-Grindstone has taken the day to go hike a mountain, 

giving me a much needed gift of solitude.  

I definitely need my alone time. 

The first thing I did was get on the 4-wheeler, take a chair, and head down to the big pond.

 Trying to capture a couple of western pond turtles on film. 

Not the best picture, but I got them.

Western Pond Turtles 

As soon as they saw me, into the water they went.  

I waited about an hour but they didn't come back to shore.  

Mother's Day Self-Portrait: Waiting For Turtles

The sun was shining, red-winged blackbirds were singing. 

My little bit of heaven. 

That's a red-winged blackbird that just happened to fly into the pond picture.

Then, hark, what did I hear destroying my peaceful revelry?
The brazen trumpeting of the insidious, invasive, bullfrog.

Bad Baby-Turtle Eating Bullfrog

I am hoping that Fish and Wildlife or the Soil and Water Conservation District will be interested in helping to eradicate the bullfrogs in order to save turtle babies.

May your day be filled with sunshine and turtle sightings! 

No bullfrogs!

The Owyhee River!

Just back from floating the Owyhee River which is in 
Eastern-Almost-Idaho Oregon. 

Beautiful, steep canyons.  

Sometimes called the Grand Canyon of the West. 

Owyhee River Canyon-Where we saw big horn sheep grazing the hillside.

Owyhee River-The Green Dragon Canyon.

Owyhee River - Camping under an overhanging ledge.
The only night that it rained.

 These pictures don't begin to capture the beauty of the area. I only took a few pictures.  Didn't want to take pictures from the raft.  Dropping the camera overboard would not be good .  Lots of class three rapids, just enough for fun, but not too dangerous.  Lots of wildlife, lots of birds.

Rafting the Owyhee!  

I don't keep a "bucket list", but if I did, this would be on it.