Bugs, flowers, osage, compost

Osage that I planted. It's maybe 10' tall- but sprouting like mad this year. Check the thorns- Biblical


Florida weave tomatoes- just added compost

There was talk about compost piles. Here's my simple method- take a length of green wire garden fence, turn it in a circle, connect the ends, fill it up. When you want to turn it, unhook the fence, move it a couple feet, and fork the pile back in. When you uinwrap it you get a big compost puck that stays together. I don't bother turning- I use it half finished (to upset people that say you shouldn't). I just strip off the top and sides and throw them back in to cook along with obvious chicken bones etc.

If it once lived- I compost it.


To connect the ends, I don't leave wire tags. I used to, but kept getting scratched, so I just jam a stick in there between wires.

The pics are awesome on my IPAD!

Thanks. I need a better screen for tweaking brightness/color

that's what I use for compost pile - 25 feet
so 2 bins from a fifty foot roll

they can dry out though, so I try to have the sides higher than the middle so rain water collects

I have concrete blocks and pallets, too


only thing I don't put in is wild onions and sorrel

I can understand why! All the fats, meats, cheese they say not to compost is really no problem if you have a serious hot cycle going. I've composted whole woodchucks, squirrels, and remains after butchering a small deer.

Great pics, AP! My fave is the dragonfly, great angle and great detail.

Thanks Scotty- I like seeing the hairs on its legs.

Since I was having too much macro fun, I thought I'd play with the crazy zoom too. I should play with settings and use a tripod next time. I was getting eaten alive tonight taking these outside in my skivvies.

I bet half the board could identify that tree type in the first shot!

Better resolution: more bug bites

WHITE OAK! Great shots of the moon too! (No I ain't talking about the one in your skivvies either)!

I think it's actually a red oak, but I lost resolution on the tips of the leaves making them look rounded

Yeah that may have done it. Sure looks like a white oak to me though!

"It is at night, especially when the moon is gibbous and waning, that I see the thing."
HP Lovecraft

@ the 3:00 position you can just see the sunlight glinting off the top of the Alien Moondome, normally not very visible from Earth. You must be using large format film to take such big pictures

Delta- I had my head under that hood thing for a full 2 minutes to get that exposure.

Love the pics. Thanks for sharing.

Love the moon shots

If I am seeing this clearly enough, this is a soldier fly. They are excellent wasp mimics. You can tell it's not a wasp or bee because the second pair of wings is reduced in flies, so you really only see one pair of wings.

Great shots!

I would post some pictures of some moon shots of my own, but I don't want to get kicked out of the group!

That big? Hmmmm, I'll have to remember that.

I'm running out of freezer space and the dump has cameras now.

Whuzza.. huh whuh?

Adios...What camera are you shooting with (I am sure this is posted somewhere, but I must have missed it))?? Awesome closeups and distant shots. Thanks for sharing!