Michael's Halloween costume...

It took most of the day Thursday but I did it, made my son a tank for a costume. I decided no to the transformer starscream and asked him if he'd like a tank. This wasn't quiet what he was thinking but he likes the turret for a headpiece, he's blown me up several times, lol...

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Target Lock on, bye-bye Mom!
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I wanted something he could walk in while trick or treating and I think this will work. His headpiece now has a ribbon on it, to tie it around his chin, and after running around the house in his costume everything has stayed in place, yay!

Trip to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge

Michael had Monday off from school and I decided we needed to run over to the refuge as we hadn't been in awhile. My friend, John, warned us the mosquitoes were going to be bad. They are bad here at the house so I kind of knew to take the bug repellent, they weren't just bad they were swarming BIG time!! The truck was covered when we stopped at the front office to sign in so we sprayed ourselves even before we stepped out of the truck! Imagine having thousands of soft BB's hitting you, it was awful...anywhere where there wasn't spray they got you! Imagine trying to take photos, ugh! But I did manage a few...

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I stopped the truck at the Rail trail and jumped out to see if there was anything interesting in the canal there...I spotted this approx. 10ft alligator. Michael had already had enough of the mosquitoes so he stayed in the truck, I went back and got him so he could see the Huge alligator. We were both awed at his size and how close he was to the small bridge going over the canal. He was hidden fairly well too...

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The reeds/grass were tall, over 6ft and made seeing anything difficult.
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A closer look at the gator...
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Love this grass, not sure what it is but I love the seed head and it's soft feathery appearance.
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He's not dancing...
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He's swatting at the mosquito's and running for the truck, ekk!! Hurry Mom, Hurry!! Taking photos was going to be difficult.
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We then headed down to the fishing pier across from the picnic area. I knew we might be able to enjoy checking out the bay waters from the end of the pier without being swarmed by mosquitoes, there was a slight breeze out there and it helps to keep the mosquitoes at bay!
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There were lots of gorgeous wildflowers. These (I think) are called Bachelors Button and are not a native to Texas but escaped to the wild.
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My little bird-watcher, I love him! We had thought we saw a alligator floating off the beach on our drive to the pier but whatever it was we couldn't see it from the pier. We did see quite a few birds and Michael was prepared with the binoculars in hand.
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We noticed a lot of Jelly fish up near the shore, this one was one of the larger ones we spotted. Michael insisted on walking down to the shore and I told him if we walk through the grass the mosquitoes will swarm us but he didn't care, ugh!
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Looking towards Dagger point, it was approx. 8:30am at the time.
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Off on an adventure...
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The wildflowers were amazing and I sure wish the mosquitoes hadn't been so bad so I could have slowed down and took out the Macro lens.
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Looking back towards the rail trail...
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Love the designs of the Oak trees, they are shaped strangely due to the winds coming off the bay...
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Deep in thought studying the water below...
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A jellyfish propelling itself in closer to shore, we enjoyed watching it for awhile! There were lots of raccoon and bird tracks in the water too.
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A member of the Aster family and very pretty!
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Wildflowers with love bugs attached!
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A Turkey vulture sunning and drying off his wings.

We drove 70 miles and probably spent 30 minutes at the refuge. The mosquitoes were not worth fighting and the refuge had a lot of construction and closed trails. We love the refuge and understand it probably has been effected by the governments budgets cuts as it just isn't what it use to be, hopefully that will change in the future. I will still buy my yearly pass and try when I can to support the refuge it's a great place to see coastal nature at it's best.

Life on the Coastal Plains...

Monday Michael and I were over near Austwell, Texas and I took these photos...

I grew up on a Dairy farm in Michigan and I remember the farm fields there, they were small and compared to the field above, they were very small. Driving a tractor all day to me is very boring I can not even imagine fitting these fields up, it's like they go on for miles! I do know that the tractors now a days have GPS and some of the new ones even have an auto-pilot that is set to the GPS to keep the farrows straight, too cool. Sometimes you gotta love technology!

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I have a fascination for old homes, especially abandoned homes. When this home was new someone was tickled and I can just feel their excitement of moving into a brand new home. I'd love to hear the stories of the home being built and see the photos. Now it's boarded up and all alone, what happened? Where are the people? Could it not have been fixed up? Oh the stories this home could tell....

Just a few things...

I thought were cute, interesting or funny....

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Gotta love Maxine!

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Makes sense to me!
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I had this photo stashed on my computer...This is the house we'd like to build! Will it happen? Someday it will, we have faith! In the mean time we are thinking a pole-barn sounds good, lol.
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This is a transformer called Starscream. This is what Michael wants to be for Halloween!

Here is a transformer costume I found on the web, cool...Will Michael have one made for him, doubtful but we've searched and come up with another idea he liked and you'll just have to wait until next weekend for the unveiling of it. That is if I get it made!
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I want to get this poster for Michael's room, we think it's pretty cool!
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A friend posted this and I liked it!

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Hope y'all had a great weekend, we did. Our project, that we've been working on for a couple of months is almost done. I've got to do a few things to it this week and we should be able to finish it next weekend, yay! Can't wait to show it to y'all!