His First Digital Art!

This weekend I put a shortcut on my five year old sons desktop for the Windows Paint program. This is what he created. It's a three story house with a blue roof and stairs.

Each room has a light on the ceiling. I see a few doors with doorknobs plus a sun and cloud outside. Not really sure what some of the other things are.

I think he was just trying out different parts of the program in the beginning. Then quickly figured out what icons do what, and drew a house.

I knew he had been doing some of the drawing activities on

PBS Kids.com and NickJr.com for a while now, but I didn't know how much he had learned about creating digital art in the process.

Just goes to show you how fast they pick up technology. It took me forever to figure out how to do the simplest things with a graphics program! I think I'll give him a Word shortcut next. Who knows, maybe he'll surprise me with an essay?

Florida Snakes

While in the garden today we had an impromptu lesson on snakes when I spotted this guy poking his head out of a hole.

Though it's hard to tell with only this much of him showing, I believe this is an Eastern Rat Snake. He is a non-venomous snake and seems to have a burrow under the mulch.
If anyone knows for sure, please let me know.

We also came across a small Ring-necked Snake, who was kind of cute. Also harmless. I was not fast enough with the camera to get a photo of him, he was gone in a blink.

Of course we had to go to the computer and have a discussion of venomous snakes in Florida. Lucky for us, there are only six snakes in Florida that are harmful to people.

The only one I have ever come across, is the small but deadly Coral Snake. Unfortunately as a vet tech, I saw quite a few pet deaths due to this snake. Most pets will die, even with treatment.

Crawfish Escape

A little Friday photo fun.

This is a shot I took at a crawfish boil we went to last weekend.

A few of the live ones were trying to escape across the grass.

This guy was really angry about the whole event!

Can't say I blame him.

Building A Birdhouse

My son was given this birdhouse kit by a friend some time ago and we decided to build it last week. I wanted to wait until he could do most of it himself. I had to help with the screws but he managed the nails alone.

He was very proud of his color choices, but he didn't like that the Home Depot words still could be seen through the paint. So he put a bird sticker over it when it was dry (Sorry, Home Depot).

I thought that was a clever way to solve a design problem!

The birdhouse is made to hang on the outside of a window with suction cups. The back is plexiglas so you can see the bird as it's nesting. I told my son that I don't think that will work in our house. No normal bird will want to see this staring back at him while he's in his house!

Earthlings And Moonmen

After my robot building adventures, I received a request from a publisher to take a look at a comic book about aliens and earthlings. The book: The Lunar Antics "Boy I'd Hate To Be Made Out Of That Stuff ", contains both color and black and white comic strip stories.

The stories are written from the aliens point of view and pokes fun at our human antics. The aliens are visitors from the moon and quickly begin to share their eye-opening observations with the earthlings.

Children and adults will find these family friendly stories fun and entertaining.
The illustrations are similar to a 1950's or so newspaper style comic strip and that just adds to the charm. This a full size (8 1/2 by 11) book of 142 pages of comic strips and is sure to be a conversation starter in any home!

If you want to see a preview, go over to the website and you can download a book excerpt for free to have a look for yourself. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised, I was!
* A copy of this book was provided for my review.

They're All Legs!

I can't believe how fast they have grown! The Sandhill Crane babies have doubled in size since my March 23rd post. They are always very busy pecking away at the ground for food, and the ground seems to be getting farther and farther away.

They have changed color a bit too. Their feathers are not as golden brown as they were. More of a tan color now.

This is right next to a golf course and there were plenty of golfers and golf carts around, but the cranes hardly seem to notice. We don't even get out of my car for these photos because I don't want the babies to run. I just shoot from an open window.

We have gotten very close to the adults in the neighborhood but that was without babies around.

For now we will stay in the car just in case mama bird decides to protect her young and charge.

That beak looks like a lethal weapon to me.

When The Wind Blows

First time kite flying!

Happy Easter

Just wanted to hop in a wish everyone a Happy Easter!
We will be on the road quite a bit with pet sitting rounds.
Looks like there will be some beautiful South Florida spring weather this weekend, so that will be nice. It's no fun walking dogs in the rain!