nicole and Jim's photos remind me of this weekend when I was cutting up some trees that had been cut down be the power company. In one segment of the log when I starting cutting it, thousands of big black carpenter ants came swarming out. Including many jumbo-sized winged ones that probably wanted to start a new colony by eating my house. Perhaps unwisely I used gasoline on the hollow center of the log and lit it. Nicole do you know what type of ants those are? And how big were they? I have a picture of leaf cutting ants in Costa Rica, but not a very good one.

Uuuuuhhhhhh...noooooooooooooo. Let me explain. That's a female ewe and a male ram wears a box around it's neck with colored crayon/chalk in it. When he mounts a female the chalk leaves it's mark. That's how the herdsman estimates who might be pregnant, when to expect the lamb....etc. Here is a link that might be useful: Chalk box This post was edited by nicole__ on Fri, Aug 1, 14 at 23:14

Jim, here is S.W. Pa, there is a nearby state park, Jennings Environmental Education Center, that has a 20 acre prairie devoted to the Blazing Star a wild flower. It is accompanied by Golden Rod and the endangered Massasauga Rattlesnake. No, you can't walk through the prairie just around it. It is magnificent in late July/August with the colors of the two wildflowers together.

This red squirrel has been entertaining us daily for weeks in his efforts to get to the feeders. First he goes up the pole....no good. Then he goes into the shrub on the left...no go, so then he tries the shrub on the right, nope again. So he tries the maple tree behind. That doesn't work either. So it's back to the drawing board. Sooner or later he is going to succeed.