This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Things That Happened
Jun
11
2026
Here is a random assortment of photos from recent weeks, mostly wildlife but not all.
First up, many people are saying this year is a bad year for ticks. I would rephrase it to say it is a bad year for people, due to ticks. For the ticks themselves, this is a good year.
Either way, we normally find a few ticks per year, and they’ve always been dog ticks, which I find is a relief because they are listed as transmitting neither Lyme disease not Alpha Gal.
On a side note, I wonder if an alpha male gets Alpha Gal syndrome do they cancel out?
Back on topic, I usually can feel them crawling on me and pluck them off before anything happens. Somehow this one ended up on my leg during the night, as I woke up to a severe itch on my leg. It was not a typical itchy feeling, something a little more substantial, and that caused me to look at what was causing that.
The burny itchy feeling was caused by the tick’s bite, which is a good sign because that means I can’t get bitten without noticing it, so I’ll be able to remove any ticks before the 24-hour window expires. And when I pulled the tick off, I saw it was not a dog tick. I got my first deer tick.
Any ticks I find, I stick them to tape, then fold the tape over and press it so the tick is really stuck, then throw it away. I don’t care what tape – Scotch, painter, duct, etc. In this case the closest thing at hand was blue painters tape so that’s what the background is.
Next up, Some Wife decided the bathroom needed a refresh, so she found a sink/vanity on Facebook marketplace that she liked and we picked it up. For the few days that we had it but I hadn’t pulled out the old sink yet, it was sitting outside. It was in a sheltered area so it didn’t get rained on, but it was not otherwise protected from anything.
I saw this frog was appreciating the coolness of the porcelain and decided to hang out on the sink for a while.
Next up, bagel day! We do not have a pet in our house, but we have the next closest thing, which is sourdough starter. Gotta feed and water it regularly. Some Wife ends up baking something sourdough-ish about once a week. Usually it’s a loaf of bread – sometimes plain, sometimes chocolate-chip, sometimes feta-dill, sometimes cheddar-bacon. But this particular week we did not bake bread loaves, we made bagels. Here it is near the end of the boiling process.
Last up, a lone wild turkey. We get wild turkeys around our yard. It’s always fun hearing them. Them, and the cranes. Or herons. I can’t tell cranes and herons apart but I know what the ones we get sound like.
The wild turkeys are in flocks, sometimes 5, sometimes 12, or any similar number. But occasionally there will be a lone turkey wandering by himself. The first few times we saw a lone turkey we thought he was lost, like he got separated from his flock and was looking for them. But knowing how some flocks/packs work, now I wonder if he’s an adolescent male who broke off on purpose to start his own flock.
I was working in the kitchen and heard a noise at our patio door. Birds do occasionally fly into our patio door so I thought it was that again. After the second time, I went to see what was going on, and I saw the lone turkey, pecking at our window. He saw me and started wandering away, but I was able to get this picture of him.
I was thinking, “Don’t you want to lean way over and check on the grill?” But no, he wandered away unharmed.
So Aaron extended his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.
Exodus 8:6
