The Picture Thread XII-- Dozen It Look Nice?

[Lupine]

^
I was thinking more of a Death on the Nile thing going.

[RJDiogenes]

Yeah, definitely a Roaring 20s vibe. Panama hats were favored by international adventurers. Pretty cool.

[Elara]

I went for a walk around the pasture last week. I want to keep an eye on the only Jack-in-the-Pulpit we have. It got broken off the last few years, so I drug some tree branches over to it and surrounded it to keep, I assume, Cayli from walking into it (I found trip marks, so assume blind horse stumbling and crushing it). Anyway, I'm walking along, happen to look down the hill, and I see something white sticking up from the ground. Antler. I walk over and pick it up, it's a 4 pointer (with a little chew spot). In my head, I think, well it'd be funny if it's mate was just a few feet away... I look to my left, and there is another, about 30 feet away. Another 4 pointer, but they aren't a set (it is however, heavily chewed down), it's from an older buck. Dang! Now though, I am actively looking for antlers as I walk around. It was too early for the Jack-in-the-Pulpit to be up, but the branches were still in place, so I was happy. I continued on, looking all over the ground. Until I saw this (note, it's not the antler sticking into the left side of the photo. That one is in my hand. ):

Well, now I realize need to look off the ground, too. I finish looking as far as I planned, and then take the deer path back (The deer path is beside the aluminum stick leaning against the tree.). On the second hill, the path sort of spreads out and just disappears, so I decide to turn west and go up the third hill, then over to the next hill which takes me to an old fence line that is still up. A glance, as I'm looking around, and something catches my eye:

Since it was also in a scrub tree, it is a good possibility it's the mate to the other (pedicle seal depth and shape, match), but the antlers are shaped differently. Different shape however, can be explained by the obvious break it had while forming. Breaks can completely change the growth of an antler, as can injuries to their bodies and legs. Still, can't be positive.

Here are the 4 I found:

The pair on the right were the two I found in the scrub trees and possibly an actual pair.

My son, a few days earlier, found a spike antler pulled down into a hole, but no chew marks, so whatever did it, didn't start chewing on it, yet. Since I found a spike when he found a pair of 5 pointers, I am now two antlers in the lead. Of course, his have better color, since he found his a month earlier in that year (less bleaching), better shape, 100% match, and they equal 10 points...he is ahead.

[RJDiogenes]

Those are cool. Of course, I just like the idea of wandering over the hills and down the trails. You've got a lot of area to roam.

[scottydog]

Some Ireland pics, lifted from Facebook, so who knows how long the images will last.....

This first one is a dolmen on the burrens. These are tombs built 5,000 years ago. The rocky landscape in central Ireland looks like something out of a sci-fi movie.



Here's a view of the Ring of Kerry. It looks beautiful and sunny and warm, but let me tell you -- it was freezing cold with a steady 30mph wind.



Here are a couple of indigenous wild Irish goats!



Here I am at the highly intact remains of a fort built over a thousand years ago.

[Lupine]

It is a pretty landscape.

[RJDiogenes]

This first one is a dolmen on the burrens. These are tombs built 5,000 years ago. The rocky landscape in central Ireland looks like something out of a sci-fi movie.

That's fantastic. It's about as old as Stonehenge.

Here's a view of the Ring of Kerry. It looks beautiful and sunny and warm, but let me tell you -- it was freezing cold with a steady 30mph wind.

There's no such thing as warmth in the North Atlantic.

Here are a couple of indigenous wild Irish goats!

I don't like the way that one on the left is looking at me.

Here I am at the highly intact remains of a fort built over a thousand years ago.

Trouble at ten oclock!

[scottydog]

It is a pretty landscape.

Ireland is beautiful in many varied ways. This caught me by surprise.

That's fantastic. It's about as old as Stonehenge.

Indeed. Are there relics in North America made by people of that same era?

[RJDiogenes]

I think there are some burial mounds of comparable age in North America, but offhand I don't know of any more complex structures. There are artifacts dated back to 20,000 years, and possibly more, but it's stuff like knives and arrowheads, not buildings. North Americans were mostly nomadic.

[scottydog]

In Ireland, we were struck by the myriad ruins that are scattered throughout the country. They are the remains of forts, tombs, and castles. Our bus driver said that the law forbids people from removing them, but they're just sitting there everywhere, unprotected. Here's an example -- the remains of this fort were on the coastline and privately owned in someone's backyard. We stopped by to take a look, and some woman walked by to tell us it was bombed out by the Brits centuries ago.




There are even random ruins strewn all over the golf courses that we played. Here is once such ruin. Sometimes our caddies would tell us what it was, sometimes they had no idea.

[Lupine]

Neat and eerie at the same time there.