Here's to hoping our loved one's had a great Thanksgiving:

The boy's were playing Parcheesi on the front porch today they spotted this rainbow:

It's a double, if you look closely you will see:

I didn't come right away

which is usually a mistake,

but it held out long enough to

play around with some camera settings.

Remember:

Things may not always be the way you want them to be,

or perfect...

 But they can come this close!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The sunrise on this beautiful Thanksgiving morning!!

The babies are doing great...

no more hand feeding, yay!

Waiting patiently...

Dylan and the worker digging a trench for the sprinkler system...

He really worked hard, and did way more than he was asked to do!

(Honestly, I think he was enjoying himself??)

I hate posing for pics, but Dylan refused!

(As you can see, he wouldn't cooperate but offered to take the pic himself.)

Anyhow, behind me is his sugarcane growing beautifully!

Happy Thanksgiving

We miss you very much!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Lucy, clean your room!

Well, if you have a 2.5 minutes to spare,

this video probably wont kill you...

My silly bird!

(PS I already know that nobody thinks she's as cute as I do!)



Update on the babies!

Well...

They're supposed to stay with their mommy for nearly 6 months!

I hope to be able to take care of them and set them free (someday)...?

Monkeys Visit Again!

I know, another monkey picture!

I can't help it,

they're cute!

More Creatures!

The Electric Caterpillar

It's a jungle out there!

The Grey Four-eyed Opossum

Billy was trying to knock down a dead tree

and momma fell out and ran off

leaving these two behind.

(They're actually cuter than they look!)

Offshore Fishing Tournament, Boca Chica Panama

The Offshore Fishing Tournament,
Boca Chica, Panama

The boys had a great time!

They went out with Bruce, the owner of Gone Fishing Panama.

Billy decided he wasn't ready to enter the Pan Blanco this year.

Maybe next year after he's got all his tackle unpacked and organized.

Day 1 was a bust...

There was a boat broke down and needed a tow in.

Day 2 on the other hand was great!

My son is a Hodges, of course he won 1st place in the chidren's category!

32.8lb Tuna!

Way to go kid-o!

Billy got 4th place with a 24.2lb Tuna!

And here's a few other pics.

Miscellaneous...

Our employee brought us a black pepper plant.

When picked, seperate from stem and boil, then dry.

For white pepper, skip the boil.

The Roseate Spoonbill was back!

Vine Snake

The boys found a Vine Snake the other day.

After we took some pictures, we let it go in a tree...

by the hummingbird feeders,

oops!

If you look at the center picture you'll see one checking him out.

Popcorn??

That's how popcorn gets between the couch cushions!

I knew it was growing legs!!

Billy found this bug the other day, he finds everything!

It was hard to get a decent pic of this little guy,

he actually popped...like popcorn!

It was like something out of a Piers Anthony book!

Odd!

Very odd.

Ha ha!

Just having fun.

Dylan was having fun at Pepe's expense...

(The stand he's on is something Dylan made to put fruit out for the birds)

I happened to have the camera and Dylan wanted me to take a pic...

I didn't do that to his eyes, however I thought the fangs would help tell the story from Pepe's perspective!

(Poor dog!)

Happy Birthday Landen!

OK, who has the cutest nephew in the world?

I DO!

!

Happy 3rd birthday little rock star!

Your Auntie Tracy loves you and misses you bunches!

Letter From the Editor

Hello Friends and Family!

It seems I don't get to talk to most of you too often, so I thought I'd drop a few lines to catch you up.

Well, we haven't been getting much done around here for the past week due to the rains! Don't get me wrong, I've stayed busy as usual! However, exterior house painting was out of the question. As you can see in the picture above, I started an indoor painting project...in my laundry room. (I didn't want to try out my artistic abilities in a more obvious place.) Anyway, the rain has stopped for the first time in about 5 days and it's time to get back to business!

Halloween has passed, mostly unnoticed. The place we've gone to for the past couple of Halloween's was too busy to have a party this year, but I did buy Dylan a ton of candy and made him dress up in order to receive it. I personally thought he could have put out more of an effort:

He's enjoying a break from Spanish lessons at the moment. With the holidays approaching, I suppose the teacher decided to take a break. He's been spending quite a bit of time with his buddy Jared:

Dylan was bit by his snake the other day, not because it's aggressive though, it just acted out in surprise:


Ouch!



The boys went fishing last week and had a great time! I stayed behind to get some work done on the house,(have some time alone!) but didn't accomplish didly! I did START to paint, but after about 3 strokes the monkeys came by and I decided, hey, I deserve a break too. The boys were fishing and having fun, why shouldn't I spend the day how I please? So, that's what I did...I played with my camera, ALL DAY! You'll see some of the pics in the 16 posts below! Enjoy!



Flying Monkeys!!

This was a great day for me!

The boys were out fishing
and I was home preparing to paint when I heard the chatter of...
FLYING MONKEYS??
I grabbed my camera and ran!
It was high tide so instead of coming down from the trees
to walk across, they took a flying leap!
(Look at that poor guy, with his eyes closed it looks like he's saying a prayer!)
I don't know how many crossed before I arrived, but I caught 5 on film.
There were at least 2 more to cross, however the others chiding for them
was obviously not encouraging enough to convince them to take the plunge while I was waiting!
(I had to tend to my crazy dogs barking on another part of the property.
I'll touch on that in another post...)

Anyhow...


 

This guy was waiting on the others

and obviously annoyed at me
knowing I had the troop nervous.

Monkey Facts:
Adults reach a length of between 13.2" and 17.8", excluding tail, and a weight of up to 8.6 lb. The tail is longer than the body, at up to 21.7" in length. Males are about 27% larger than females. The brain of a White-faced Capuchin is about 2.79 oz, which is larger than that of several larger monkey species, such as the Mantled Howler.

Flying dogs?!?!

There was a farmer who had a dog,

and Bingo was his name-o.

He climbed a tree to impress me,

and fell down on his ***-o(h).

Interrupting my aforementioned photo session with the monkeys,

I found the dogs climbing this tree after...?

Honestly, I was getting such a kick out of Bingo

that I spent more time taking pictures of him

than looking for, whatever!

(More times than not "whatever" has their attention eludes me anyhow!)

He was ripping apart this palm tree that has SERIOUS thorns

like it was nothing!

When he fell out of the tree and I caught it on film

I nearly fell down laughing...

Does that make me a bad person?

(It took me a few seconds to gain composure... Please forgive me Lord.)

Well, as you can see,
he got absolutely filthy

and wore himself out.
Don't worry, it wasn't a consussion!



Hummingbird Heaven!

I know, more Hummingbirds?

I just can't resist!

 

Fishing Trip

White Sea Bass

Snapper

Grouper

Looks like they had as much fun fishing as I did  at home "catching" cool photos!

Our Kayak Trip

 I went with Dylan the other day for my first kayak trip from the property!

It was great!

I've been looking forward to exploring the waters bordering the island,

but we haven't built a ramp yet so it makes what should by a fun time a lot like work!

I can't wait to do it again!

Pepe La Pew rode with Dylan and only fell out once.

My passenger was my camera and all I could think as I watched him swim is that I could buy at least 10 Chihuahuas for the price of my camera...

(I know, I'm going to Hell)

Dylan climbed out of his kayak onto a mangrove stand to collect an orchid,

good thing he can swim!

Anyhow, click the read more link to see some more pics...

Lucy is in time out!

As you can see she entertains herself well and it's a good thing!

She chewed my earring until the diamond fell out.

"Lucy in the sky with diamonds..."

Corn field on my property?

I knew it had been planted but I don't make it out to this area of the property often.

Obviously!

Looks great huh? Too bad the soil in Panama grows the worst corn ever!

And what a shame, I love corn!

I guess it's a good thing the bunny isn't as picky as I am,

because as you can see, she has a bunch of corn to eat!

A new, Guess What This Is!

Some kind of (cute) seedpod!

The Roseate Spoonbill

The Roseate Spoonbill

I'm still working on taking great pictures.

There is SO much to learn.

I just happened to have the correct lens on for the shot,

but my other settings needed tweaked a bit!

There's only so much time to capture a bird in flight though!

Oh well, I'll just keep practicing.

Dylan's Latest Project

This is a little something that Dylan has been working on,

a "bird blind."

Yes Mom, he hides from them before he shoots them...boys!

Hibiscus

I LOVE HIBISCUS!

I haven't had much luck growing them in Panama.

I have 4 at the moment and they're lucky to be surviving!

You see, evidently the leaf cutters love them as much as I.

I can't tell you how many times they've had to recover

from being completely stripped clean over night!

(This is why I've only planted a few)

Bill has been working on ridding our property of the ants,
but it's quite a battle.
Hopefully they'll let up some in the dry season.

By the way, it's not the Hibiscus he's worried about...

The ants have a varied palate and especially love the many things he's planted,

like the Papaya I don't know if ever will recover!

Flowers In Bloom

Purple flower: Orchid

Red/Orange flower: Heliconia

Dark Pink flowers: Cosmos

Pink, not quite open flower: Ginger

Green, not quite open flower: Vanilla Orchid