Gfpacificbee’s Insights & photography
This blog is for my insights on life, the Bible, hiking adventures with my grandson and whatever is important to me
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John’s Cell Pic Sunday-2026.07.26
Photo Credit:©️2026 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
Location: Safari Wagon Ride; Lazy 5 Ranch; Mooresville, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Have a wonderful week ahead. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
I’m combining Debbie’s Six Word Saturday with XingfuMama’s Pull Up a Seat this week while continuing our Adventures at the Lazy 5 Ranch.
Before get into our adventures let me tell you that one of the reasons we went on our adventure was to give Coleman a special outing before his birthday (today’s his birthday). Coleman turned Seven (7). The first gallery of images show Coleman Pulling Up a Seat while waiting for the Wagon Ride.
This next gallery depicts Coleman feeding some of the Exotic Animals that came alongside the Wagon we were riding on during our Safari adventure around the Lazy 5 Ranch.
The last gallery illustrates Coleman feeding Giraffes during the Safari Wagon Ride plus showing a bit more of the Wagon.
Click on images to enlarge.
Debbie’s Six Word Saturday-2026.07.25
XingfuMama’s Pull Up a Seat #30-2026.07.25
Photo Credit:©️2026 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Cameras: Canon EOS Rebel T7 (2000D) with Canon EF-S55-250mm lens and Altura UV Filter attachment; Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Location: Lazy 5 Ranch; 15100 Mooresville Road; Mooresville, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Have a funtastic weekend. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
Welcome back to another Which Way Challenge (CWWC). I trust everyone has had a good week and able to spend some time to take a walk or hike in the vast outdoors. This week’s I’m allowing y’all to choose your own Which Ways for this week and next with the theme of CWWC: Any Which Way (Your Choice). The Which Way can be any path, sidewalk, trail, or road as long as the Which Way is clearly discernible. As always signs are always welcome.
For further information regarding the Which Way Challenge (CWWC) feel free to check out the home page here.
When I began preparing this post after last week’s went live I had thought of sharing a hiking adventure Coleman and I had two years ago in 2024. However, best laid plans do change occasionally as did mine for this week.
We had an incident with Coleman this week (I won’t go into details, but prays are appreciated). This is a special week for Coleman so his mom chose to take us on a special adventure up in Mooresville, North Carolina to the Lazy 5 Ranch.
I am sharing a few images of our adventures here with y’all.
Arriving at Lazy 5 Ranch …
The Lazy 5 Ranch is approximately an hour’s drive north of us in the City of Mooresville, North Carolina. It is privately owned and operated by Henry Hampton. It receives no federal or state funding. Henry Hampton has been raising exotic animals for over 50 years. He started out with the exotic animals at his own home and allowed school groups to visit viewing the animals from the opposite side of the fence.
In May of 1993, Mr. Hampton’s dream became a reality and The Lazy 5 Ranch officially opened. It opened with just five (5) staff people and only two (2) operating wagons. We chose to have a Wagon Ride with the driver commenting on the animals we were seeing instructing everyone to remain seated as long as the Wagon was moving. We could move around or stand to take pictures when the wagon was stopped.
The Lazy 5 Ranch has grown tremendously since its beginning with over 600 animals from six (6) continents. The animals can be viewed everyday all year long by horse drawn wagon or from your own personal vehicle while traveling along a 3 1/2 mile safari ride. As you can see, I have only shared a fraction of what we saw on our adventure visiting the Ranch.
Click on each image to enlarge.
Thank you to those who have participated and supported the Which Ways Challenge. I appreciate y’all sharing your Which Ways with us.
For an idea of other’s Which Ways from this past week’s challenge, be sure to click on the following links below.
Suzette’s For Deb’s CWWC Any Which Way Paved [in Black and White]
Geriatri’x’ Fotogallery’s Roads And Bridges
Marina’s Fence
Cath’s Which Way… {Monochrome Roads}
Dan’s Ain’t No Cure — SoCS
Dawn’s Which Way: Train Track in the Weeds
Marilyn’s My Way Or The Highway?
Dawn’s Around the Bend in BnW
Deb’s Which Way Challenge (CWWC)
Next week we’ll continue with the theme of CWWC: Any Which Way (Your Choice) [07.31.2026].
Photo Credit:©️2026 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Cameras: Canon EOS Rebel T7 (2000D) with Canon EF-S55/250mm lens and Altura UV Filter attachment; Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
Location: Lazy 5 Ranch; 15100 Mooresville Road; Mooresville, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Have an adventurous weekend. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
The whole family went on an adventurous outing on Monday (unusual for our family). Coleman’s mom and I discussed where we might could go Sunday evening and decided it would be an excellent idea for us all to go with her driving. Where did we decide to go?
We chose to go on a wagon ride at the Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville, North Carolina. Why did we decide to spend the day together and not just have Coleman and myself go somewhere together? This coming Saturday is Coleman’s birthday. He’ll be turning Seven (7) and we wanted to do something special for him when his mom and baby sister, Sophia, could join us.
Of course, I brought my camera along and not just my iPhone. An outing like this doesn’t happen often; I needed to capture the adventure so we could enjoy the memories.
Here is just one set of trios from our adventure …
As per the Lazy 5 Ranch’s Guidebook this beautiful set of Trios are Axis Deer (Cervus axis). The Axis Deer are also known as Chital Deer which means spotted in Hindustani. Interestingly, the Axis Deer retains its spots throughout its lifespan (approximately 22 years). They are available to be seen at the Lazy 5 Ranch year round.
Click on image to enlarge.
Carol’s Thursday Trios-2026.07.23
Photo Credit:©️2026 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T7 (2000D) with Canon EF-S55-250mm lens and Altura UV Filter attachment.
Location: Lazy 5 Ranch; 15100 Mooresville Road; Mooresville, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Get Outdoors. Take a Walk/Hike. Enjoy Nature’s Beauty. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
Note: I’ll be sharing more about our adventure at the Lazy 5 Ranch in future posts.
Looking back in time to 2017 …
To a trip to Riverbanks Zoo and Garden with my daughter and eldest granddaughter. We went in September of that year … it wasn’t hot then as it is now.
In the picture above you can see the Rings on the Lemur’s tail. It was a lovely day and I remember the fondness of togetherness we experienced.
Photo Credit:©️2017 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Apple iPhone 7 Plus
Location: Riverbanks Zoo and Garden; Columbia, South Carolina, USA
God Bless. Stay Cool. Stay Hydrated. Have a funtastic week. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
The Cave Bear is an extinct species which lived in Europe and Asia approximately 27,000 years ago. It is an early relative to many bears living in North America. Cave Bears are a type of ursine bear.
The Ursine group includes the brown, grizzly, Kodiak, polar, and black bears. All these bears originally lived in Europe and Asia before traveling across a land bridge during the Pliocene time period.
A Cave Bear’s weight possibly ranged from 880 to 2,200 pounds. The largest of these would be comparable in size to today’s polar bears.
The Cave Bear skeleton in The Schiele Museum of Natural History comes quite a distance from the Ural Mountains in Russia. If you ever get the opportunity to visit The Schiele Museum come and say hello to The Cave Bear … don’t worry he won’t bite you.
Click on image to enlarge.
Photo Credit:©️2026 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max Ultra Wide
Location: The Schiele Museum of Natural History and Planetarium; Gastonia, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Have a funtastic week. Thank you for sharing your time and thoughts. I appreciate y’all very much.
Click Image to Enlarge.
Photo Credit:©️2026 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
Location:The Schiele Museum of Natural History; Gastonia, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Have a funtastic week. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
On Saturday, Coleman and I were able to borrow my daughter’s car and go down to the Crandall Bowles Children’s Farm at Anne Springs Close Greenway in Fort Mill, South Carolina. It is an hour away from where we currently live, so it is a bit of a drive. Traffic was terrible. I very rarely drive in traffic (I don’t care for heavy traffic, I try to avoid it if at all possible).
Anyway, after we arrived and maneuvered around the Farm to the Alpaca section, we were delighted to discover the new Baby Alpacas born recently at the Greenway. There is One White, and One Brown Baby Alpaca.
Here are a few shots of the Baby Alpacas …
Click on each image to enlarge.
Debbie’s Six Word Saturday-12.13.2025
Photo Credit:©️ 2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Canon EOS 2000 D with Canon EF-S55-250mm lens and Altura UV Filter attachment.
Location: Crandall Bowles Children’s Farm; Greenway Stables and Farm Entrance; Anne Springs Close Greenway; Fort Mill, South Carolina, USA
God Bless. Get Outdoors. Enjoy Nature’s Beautiful Creations. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
Equus is a genus of mammals that includes Horses, Donkeys, Asses, and Zebras.
These Jackasses were introduced to us by our former landlord. He brought to a portion of his land adjacent to our rental property to raise with the assistance of his daughters.
A Jackass is an adult male donkey, females are called Jenny. Jacks or Jackasses (male donkeys) are often mated with female horses to produce mules. At one time the more common term for the donkey was Ass.
From the 18th century, donkey gradually replaced ass and jenny replaced she-ass, which is now considered archaic.
Click on each image to enlarge.
Photo Credit:©️2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Apple iPhone 13 Pro
Location: Lake Wylie, South Carolina, USA
God Bless. Take Care. Have a wonderful week. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
This week Elke from Pictures Imperfect Blog is the host for Monochrome Madness. She has selected a theme of Farm Animals for our Monochrome Photo Challenge.
“There’s nothing better than watching your cows enjoy the life you gave them.”
Falling Sun Ranch
Cows in the Crandall Bowles Children’s Farm at Anne Springs Close Greenway in Fort Mill, South Carolina. This is a wonderful place to visit with children of all ages.
“Pigs are not a symbol of dirt, laziness or clumsiness, but a mirror to view our relationship with nature.”
Yi-Fu Tuan
“Alpacas represent all that
~ National Alpaca Association
is good in this world.”
Young Alpacas in the Crandall Bowles Children’s Farm at Anne Springs Close Greenway in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
“To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that
~ Mahatma Gandhi
of a human being.”
tryst
“Most of us are here to make the world happier and better. Even the goats.”
Lisa Kaplin
“There’s something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.”
~ Winston Churchill
Horses in the pasture at Anne Springs Close Greenway in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
Click on each image to enlarge.
To learn more about Monochrome Madness check out Leanne’s Monochrome Madness page here.
Elke’s Monochrome Madness-Farm Animals
Photo Credit:©️2020-2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
God Bless. Have a fabulous week. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
My longtime friend had an unexpected and seemingly unusual visitor around her garbage cans the other night. A visitor she had not witnessed before in her neighbourhood, nor had any of her neighbours.
What was this unusual visitor you might ask? It was the creature pictured here known by many as the Javelina. In Arizona the Collared Peccaries are known by their Spanish name Javelina. What are Collared Peccaries or Javelinas? You might think they are some type of pig looking at their stout and pig-like bodies, but they are not pigs.
In fact, they are wild, pig-like mammals common in Arizona deserts, woodlands, and grasslands. Javelinas are known for their social behaviour and adaptation to urban environments. Even though they are primarily herbivores, feeding on prickly pear cactus, mesquite beans, and other desert plants, they will also eat insects and are known for raiding garbage cans for easy food access.
Javelinas have sharp teeth and can be aggressive if they feel threatened. It’s best to keep dogs (pets) away from areas that Javelinas might wander. They can be an enormous nuisance to homeowners due to their attraction to garbage and gardens. Make sure to never feed a Javelina. Javelinas are most active during the twilight hours, specifically between dusk and dawn.
Javelinas can be found in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, through Mexico and south all the way down to Argentina. Javelina live in desert washes, saguaro and palo verde forests, oak woodlands and grasslands. Houses that are close to washes will likely have javelina in the neighborhood and are a usual sighting in Tucson, Arizona. [My friend lives in Maricopa, Pinal County, Arizona which is located within the Sonoran Desert a short distance south of Phoenix.]
Photo Credit:©️2025 Beverly Boyce Graves … All Rights Reserved.
God Bless. Take Care. Have a wonderful week. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
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Gfpacificbee’s Insights & photography 