pictures that were never posted

These are pictures that were never posted onto the blog. Not because there's anything wrong with them, but simply because I was too lazy (or just forgot) to post them. Most are from this fall.

Below, an eel poking its head out of a glass sculpture at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. We visited the aquarium last September.

Me in front of jellyfish

Wolf eel

A flurry of fast moving fish (say that 5 times fast)

People looking at the fish (or fish looking at the people)

Us at the Wolf Eel Cafe

Puffin

Me interacting with the sea otter. Wherever I moved my head, he followed. Clearly these are very intelligent animals.

Umpqua River Lighthouse

These are pictures from inside the top of the lighthouse.

This is the extremely powerful light fixture that illuminates the lighthouse.

A dead jellyfish washed up on the beach

Back on the ranch.

My friends

A western fence lizard ( aka a blue belly) and, in front of his nose, a western fence lizard's skin (probably his). When I took the picture, I didn't see the skin.

A Banded Alder Borer(zebra bug)

a dragonfly

A creepy spider

praying mantis. Here is a cool mantis video(but you have to watch to the end)

a Crawdad

In the Umpqua River we found some kind of wheel, possibly a paddleboat wheel or it was part of some farm equipment, which would make sense because we're on a farm. and way back when there was a sawmill on the property

January photos

A spider web
A work of art
A deadly weapon

This is an immature hawk, one of several photos we got by placing our remote camera near a deer carcass.

raccoon

A gray fox

A bald eagle

Me in the "locket tree"

The Biggest Madrone Tree in Oregon?

Pacific madrone. This madrone tree, which is on our land, is bigger around than the largest registered pacific madrone tree in Oregon and is almost the size of the greatest madrone tree known to science. Grandpa Gene knew about it but didn't tell many people about it for some reason. Its dimensions are approximately 313.5" around the trunk below the fork and its branches extend as wide as 105 feet. We were unable to measure the height, but you can see it's pretty tall.

The big madrone
Hundreds of years old
Much history has unfolded
Since its birth

A dead madrone branch

A mushroom
Like a white pearl
In the green wood

Many fungi
Often ridiculed
Just for how they look
Without them
The forest would fail

A pretty little conifer

A dead deer
(That is really creepy.)
A grizzly bear
He looks like a dog
Could bears be domesticated?

I got an up close encounter with these brown bears at the Wildlife Safari homeschool class.

@#*&!
He was too small to keep
But he looked so delicious

Newt

Banana slug