Drawing elephants...

Not sure why, but I've found myself suddenly interested in elephants.  This may have some to do with my recent discovery of the Elephant Listening Project (click on this link to learn what the ELP is all about).

And then drawing elephants caught my attention.  So while looking for images of elephants to inspire some new drawings...I came across a most fascinating story of an elephant named Motala and the world's first elephant hospital.

I was inspired to make a little sketch of Motala.  Might even one day create a painting or two or a larger drawing (as this ones just a few inches wide).

Click here to watch the Documentary "The Eyes of Thailand"
(62 minute film - "The Eyes of Thailand" is the inspirational and powerful story of one woman’s quest to help two elephant landmine survivors—Motala and Baby Mosha—walk on their own four legs.)

In brief, Motala, an elephant landmine survivor, stepped on a landmine near the Burmese border in 1999.  But thanks to the efforts of Soraida Salwala and her work creating the world's first elephant hospital, Motala now wears a prosthetic and is doing well some 17 years later.

click here to read Motala's story

click here to learn more about the world's first elephant hospital

click here for images and info about Motala from ABCnews

click here to donate to "Friends of the Asian Elephant" and support their efforts 

click here to learn more about Soraida Salwala and why she is helping the elephants

It's stories like these that inspire me to reach for things that have substance/meaning, to engage in our surroundings, to pay attention to those who are making a difference...(even if it may seem trivial to some to help elephants).  These things serve as a reminder that trivial crap like social media, television programming, and countless other time wasters are just that...time wasters.  We all can make a difference if we will just pay attention.

Thank you Soraida Salwala for your passion and caring for injured elephants and to your whole hospital team!

Palomini? Yes please!

I was wandering through the merchant area during the 2016 Delta chicken festival a few weeks ago...and this caught my eye!!!

The Palomini Travel Trailer by Palamino!!

Oh my...what a beauty.  Not too big, not too small.  Perfect for the many future adventuring ideas I have in mind.

This particular Palomoni is owned by the Toledo Blade newspaper and their marketing folks use it when they travel around to various fairs and festivals to peddle subscriptions to the newspaper. This sounds fun and all...but if I had one of these gems...I'd surely take it on a US wide travel tour.

So this being said...if you have one of these beauties parked and lonely somewhere...and you're looking to donate it to a good cause?  Uh, pick me!

Well...this is a first.

Who knew that there are salamanders in Northwest Ohio? Yeah, me either.  Until just the other day...after some pretty heavy rains, I went outside to refresh the ice supply in our "chicken eggs for sale" cooler.

Since water from the ice collects inside the bottom of the cooler, I dump it out...and have found some pretty interesting things hiding under the cooler when I pick it up to dump it.  Toads and frogs mostly...until this little dude showed up.

The photo above is what was hanging out under the cooler.  A salamander, just chillin. (pun intended)
After some research...it seems to match the description of a "blue-spotted salamander."

According to ohioamphibians.com the blue-spotted salamander is listed as endangered by the Ohio Division of Wildlife. However, according to wikipedia the blue-spotted salamander is listed as "least concern."  Maybe this means that as far as the state of Ohio goes...the blue-spot is endangered but not in other states?
Regardless...it's fun to say...hey, I saw an endangered salamander in my yard the other day!  COOL!

I've seen a lot of pretty cool wildlife in this here region of Ohio...but this one's a first for me.  A blue-spotted salamander.  Who knew?

Well, I'm off to find more adventures...until next time...always more to come!

Railroad humor

While standing near Ashland Rail Yard in Chicago, IL this train was rolling by and the humor of what was spray painted on the center (red K LINEs)  railcar made me laugh out loud.

Look closely at the yellow part under the red containers.

Trail buddies.

I don't hike alone much these days because I almost always have my trail buddies along with.

It's so difficult for me to stay indoors during the summer...and the dogs feel the same way mostly.

Here we are enjoying a local trail. Reese is the one in the lead here...Dodi close behind. 

Things I can say about Ohio trails is never a poisonous snake, never a black bear...maybe the occasional squirrel or ground hog....but no less number of ticks than in Tennessee. (I keep meaning to get the dogs t-shirts that say "tick-magnets" on them.)

Oh and this is a section of the Wabash-Cannonball Rail-to-trail North Fork.





Happy Summer trails!!

Fulton County humor

While driving home one day....Chris noticed this sign in someone's yard.  She told me about it and sometime shortly thereafter we took this photo.

Gotta love some Fulton County Ohio!

bucket list...

Bowling?  Yep. 

We're making every effort to do things this summer that are fun, not real pricey, fairly easy to do and close by.

This was actually Isaac's idea...bowling....as it's so hard for me to stay indoors when the weather is fab fabness outside.  But we went anyway.

Isaac (Chris' 13 yr old) grabbed a friend and off we went one day last week to give-a-go at bowling.  Me, Chris, Isaac and Juan.

After we gathered up all the necessary bowling accouterments (ie, bowling shoes and bowling ball) and after receiving a tutorial on how to set the scoring machine (very uncomplicated in a complicated way), the emotions of trying to roll a heavy ball down a slick, waxed, wooden alley with aluminum gutters on both sides (which I think have magnets in them that suck in bowling balls) while attempting to knock down ten pins...is no where NEAR as easy as it looks.

It took us all some finagling...a little bit of trial-and-error...some luck...and some good ole crap shoot...before we got the hang of it.

I made an audible explosion sound complete with hand-motions nearly every time Chris bowled because her pins seemed to go careening like they just got hit by a truck.  Made me smile.

Technique is everything in bowling.  And no doubt...100% mental.

Needless to say, we all had a lot of fun.  And will likely try it again sometime soon.

Group activities...definitely something to write home about.