Daily Photo - Jack O Lantern 2

I like this one quite a bit, but next year I have to just buy a bunch of them and plan out what I want to do better. I also need to find a candle that won't burn out after only 3 pics.

Daily Photo - Jack O Lantern 1

I made two this year. This one was made before I fell ill, so now that I could photograph it the inside is full of mold. The other will be up tomorrow.

Daily Photo - I Need Winter to Come

And freeze all the leaves...

Daily Photo - More Leaves

Ugh. I just spent the last 3 days in bed or on the couch dizzy with a headache and fever, hence no daily photos. Sorry. Here's my new favorite leaf to make up for it. I only have a slight headache now so hopefully the worst is over.

Daily Photo - Leopard Gecko

Spike likes his new cage a little too much. I almost never see him.

Daily Photo - Cave Again

My other creation with expanding foam. Last post is here. I had the same grout problem and am now layering it with paint. I'll be coating that in polycrylic, then spreading sand on the parts that are supposed to be rock to provide some grip and cut the awful shine. I've found the idea of using epoxy resin to coat instead of the polycrylic, but it has an awful shine as well. I think I just need to be more liberal with my sand application.

Daily Photo - Fake Tree 2

It looks better than the yellow torpedo I started with. It needs a few more spots covered with paint and a bunch more layers of polycrylic. At least it vaguely says tree now rather than whatever it was before. I already have tons of improvements I could do on another attempt. Step one only use Styrofoam, no expanding foam. The grout slides off the expanding foam, and paint does a bit as well, making it harder to cover.

Daily Photo - Leaf Veins Again

I only took 90 pics of leaves today... Tomorrow it will be reptile cages I promise.

Daily Photo - Leaf

As soon as I run out of leaves no one will have to look at them anymore. I expect that won't happen until November.

Daily Photo - Spider

This guy is lurking around the compost bin. It looks tough, but it is barely 1/2" long.

So Far So Good

A completely unrelated image.

I bought a graphics card to solve my computer's screen flickering issue. While I expect the motherboard may still have issues it isn't as visible now. Installing the graphics card led to vacuuming out the box as there was an enormous amount of dog fur and dust in there. It had actually coated the cooling fins on the processor. Since then the computer has been running much better, no file issues and the screen has stopped flickering. Maybe it was just the massive amount of dust. I had to vacuum out all the air intakes which had clogged as well. The computer had 3 fans in it, and the graphics card came with its own, aside from is sounding a little like a jet engine when I start it up I'm liking the new card. Too bad replacing the graphics card didn't give me a bigger monitor. And since it isn't broken I can't convince myself that I need to replace it with a small HDTV either.

Daily Photo - Clouds

Clouds from Moose Hill Farm this morning.

Daily Photo - Leaf

I can't get through a walk without hauling pretty leaves home.

Foggy Broadmoor

I woke up early this morning. Then I shut off the alarm. Then I woke again still fairly early. I've been trying to go out at dawn, but I keep worrying about the traffic since dawn is currently around 7, so psych myself out and go back to bed. My goal was to get out of the house by 8 AM. I managed that but had to go back for my tripod. I picked Broadmoor as my destination as I could get there on back roads. Halfway there I crossed the Charles River and drove through some lovely banks of fog. Thankfully the fog persisted all the way to Broadmoor. There are plenty of tiny spider webs. Some of the trees are changing colors. Even the reflections were nice. Grass in sunlight. More leaf veins. This would be the lowpoint of my hike. In the wildlife meadow a strange bug landed on my hand. Since it looked like a tick on first glance I shook my hand and whacked it against things. Ticks bring out my irrationality. I got it off my hand, but it started crawling on my shirt. I saw it only had 6 legs so couldn't be a tick, but it certainly looked like one. A little reaseach when I got home led to a Deer Louse Fly or relative. I didn't find out if they bite, but they do have nice hooks on all their feet, which explains why I had so much trouble getting rid of it.

Daily Photo - Another Pigeon

This one was underneath the bridge, Boston Public Garden.

Daily Photo - Ducks

First what I think is a normal female mallard.

And second one with something funky in its background. Might be a hybrid, might just be a leucistic mallard. Both were in the pond in the Boston Public Garden.

Daily Photo - Pigeon

Mom ran in the 10K in Boston yesterday, so I got to stalk the Boston Common pigeons again, while hauling two backpacks.

Daily Photo - Morning Glory

Yes, it really is that mottled color. I expect the cold night temperatures are causing it.

Crested Gecko Babies

No more reptile shows for me... I went to the Massachusetts Reptile Expo this morning. These guys were $25 each, and are quite tiny. The top one is likely to be a harley with maybe some pinstriping and the bottom one was labeled red flame / harley. They should be gorgeous when full grown. By that point I'll also know if I ended up with males or not. The cheap price includes the fact they are un-sexable at this size.

Daily Photo - Leaf Veins

I really do like close ups.

Daily Photo - Cat Toes

Abby's foot on the side of the gecko cage.

Daily Photo - Clouds Again

More Juicy

Daily Photo - Clouds

To make up for the pouring rain all day. And random update: Juicy took a thawed mouse with no qualms yesterday, so hopefully it should be easy to get her up to a suitable weight.

Random Comparison Pic

This is Bruce in his 3 foot cage (he is getting a 4 foot one as soon as I finish it, his driftwood is also missing so the cage looks bare.) He is much thicker than Juicy.

Daily Photo - I installed a dishwasher

Let's hope the water input doesn't leak. It wasn't very hard to install, only took 1 trip to HD and 4 or so hours of my time.

Daily Photo - Guinea Fowl

I went apple picking yesterday and they had loose guinea fowl, I assume as bug control, all over the orchard.

Juicy

I did go outside yesterday, but that post will take a few more minutes.

This is Juicy. Today was my last day at a painful foray into pet shop working again. On Saturday someone dumped off their ball python, filthy cage and all. It got labeled as for adoption and the store turned on its heat, that's it. Three days later it was still in a filthy cage. I asked a manager right after I punched out what the adoption fee would be. (Mind you the store has done nothing for this snake.) A $5 donation later I have a new critter.

Juicy's old hide, which she didn't fit in and was on the cold side of the cage.

It didn't even look that bad from far away.

The person dumping it said she was named Juicy was 5 years old and he fed it one live mouse every two weeks. The cage had caked in feces and little bits of old shed skin on all the decor. (If he did feed the snake every two weeks, it would have pooped about every two weeks, so my guess is it's been at least 6 months since this cage was cleaned.) The only good thing was they did keep the cypress mulch bedding dry. If it had been damp this snake would likely have horrible infections. Today I even noticed they had repaired a decoration with duct tape. When I took it out I thought it was really skinny. The manager on duty didn't think so. I think they are too used to the skinny non-eating babies the store gets in. My mother, who's experience with snakes is limited to my one ball python, instantly commented it looked really skinny. When you pick it up you can feel a ridge along its backbone, were there should be more muscle. Juicy's new cage. Don't mind the oatmeal can hide. None of her old hides fit her at all so I had to improvise. I didn't have any extras for a snake this big. She came with a 30" tank and is easily 36" long. She'll be staying in my living room for at least the next 30 days. It doesn't look like she picked up anything too horrible from living in filth, but I want to be extra sure. All her decor will be bleached and kept as a backup until I think she's clean.

Daily Photo - Arrow

I again promise to go outside tomorrow...