Category: #gfpacificbee

Monday Window – 2026 August 03

Kitty by a Window  – 
2 – AI creation by PR
Reminiscing of
Childhood Windows

Sometime when I open Google Photos it displays memories that it thinks I would be interested in seeing. That was the case this past weekend when it wanted me to see the black and white image shown in the second photograph.

Colorized version of a 1960’s photo

In seeing this photo it reminded me of my parents anniversary, they would have been married for seventy-five (75) years on Friday if they’d still been alive. They were married forty-five (45) years when my dad passed in 1996. My mom is also gone now and only memories remain alive.

Original image
uploaded to files via
Wolverine Digital Converter

This is the first house I can remember living in even though it wasn’t the first house my family called home. We moved into this house about 1961. The front window you see would have been the window in my parent’s bedroom. The bedrooms were all on the right side of the house. Mine was in the middle between their’s and my brother’s bedroom.

I lived in this house during my entire childhood elementary school days (Kindergarten through Sixth Grade). It holds so many memories, to many to share. When we walked past the windows behind my mom and dad we’d enter the living room. To me in was a large area we gathered to watch programs on our black and white console television. The kitchen and dining rooms were to the left of the entrance with a door in between that led to the garage. We always sat at the dining table as a family for our meals.

Even the windows of an ordinary house can bring fond memories of happy times of love, laughter, and togetherness.

Monday Window-2026.08.03

God Bless. Stay Cool. Have a wonderful week. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.

 Weekly Prompts Colour Challenge/Monday Portrait — A BROWN Nilgai

Weekly Prompts Colour Challenge -Brown
by Sue W & Gerry C

We had a really fantastic time the other week when the family visited the Lazy 5 Ranch. With over 700 exotic animals there were plenty to capture. I in no way captured them all with my camera (not that I didn’t try), but there were too many to adequately capture while riding on the guided Wagon Safari ride.

With this week’s Weekly Prompts Colour Challenge colour theme being Brown, I decided I would combine it with the Monday Portrait challenge and show y’all one of the many Brown exotic animals which reside at the Lazy 5 Ranch. Which exotic animal is featured here today? … The exotic animals featured in this post are Nilgai.

Nilgai
Monday Portrait
Weekly Prompts Colour Challenge-Brown

The Nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus), also called Blueback, is the largest antelope in its native land of India. The name Nilgai comes from the Hindustani word nil, which means blue referring to the slate blue (blue-gray coloration of the adult male Nilgai and the Persian word gaw, which means cow. The females and juveniles are orange to a tawny Brown in their coloration. These shown here are female Nilgai.

It is a large horse-like antelope with sloping back which is found in grasslands and scrublands. Nilgai are herbivores that primarily eat grass, but also browse on leaves and fruits.

They are known for their shy nature and keen senses. Hindus regard the Nilgai as a close relative of the sacred cow. In an era of endangered species, an animal that is protected by religious is considered lucky.

Nilgai cows and calves tend to live in small herds while males live alone except during rut (their mating season). All males have short smooth horns and occasionally females grow horns. Females commonly give birth to two (2) offspring. When being chased a Nilgai can run up to twenty-nine (29) miles per hour (mph).

Click on images to enlarge.

Monday Portrait-2026.08.03

Weekly Prompts Colour Challenge-Brown

Photo Credit:©️2026 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved. 

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T7 (2000D) with Canon EF-S55-250mm lens and Altura IV Filter attachment.

Location: Lazy 5 Ranch; Mooresville , North 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.

Macro Monday – 2026 August 03

Swamp Water

Buffalo

The Swamp Water Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is also referred to as Asian Water Buffalo. It is the second largest member of the bovid family. It has great strength and high fat milk content which has led to its domestication throughout the world. These buffalo spend most of the day submerged, sometimes up to their nostrils, in the water of rivers or swamps. Did you know there is a reason for this? It serves two (2) major purposes.

  1. ) These Buffalo do NOT possess adequate sweat glands to keep themselves cool through sweat evaporation along, so remaining submersible allows them to regulate their temperature in the hot , humid Southeast Asia climate.
  2. ) The water protects the buffalo from all manners of biting insects that also inhabit the jungle. Their hooves developed as widely splayed in order to prevent them from sinking into the thick mud of swamps and river bottoms.
Swamp Buffalo
Lazy 5 Ranch

Water Buffalo eat grass, herbs shrubs, tree bark and other available greens. They are exclusively herbivores. At the Lazy 5 Ranch, as well as similar facilities, the Swamp Water Buffalos are fed free-choice, low-protein, high-fiber forage. They also rely heavily on coastal Bermuda grass, orchard grass, or Timothy hay. They provide freshly cut pasture grasses, sorghum, or maize fodder to simulate natural grazing. One other thing they do to guarantee they receive complete nutrition, the supplement the roughage with scientifically formulated pellets from exotic animal feed manufacturers like Mazuri Exotic Animal Nutrition or Zeigler Feed Manufacturing. 

The visitors to the Ranch who desire to feed their swamp exotic animals during their tour are given buckets of compressed fiber pellets. The Swamp Buffalos love treats and will come up to the Wagons during a Safari tour to beg for handouts from the “treat” buckets. That is exactly what this particular Swamp Water Buffalo is doing, begging my daughter for treats from the feed bucket near her.

Click on image to enlarge. 

Macro Monday (MM)

Photo Credit:©️2026 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved. 

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T7 (2000D) with Canon EF-S55-250 mm lens and Altura UV Filter attachment. 

Location: Lazy 5 Ranch; Mooresville, North Carolina, USA  

God Bless. Take time to enjoy nature. Have a funtastic week. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.

Silent Sunday: 2026 August 2nd

Hi there. Got Anything for me?

Fallow Deer

Click on image to enlarge.

Silent Sunday-2026.08.02

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; Mooresville, North Carolina, USA

God Bless. Take time to enjoy the flowers. Get Outdoors and commune with nature. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.

Hey Y’all, Wait Up … I’m Coming

Red Sindhi

Coleman and I found the Wagon Ride at the Lazy 5 Ranch to be very interesting and I’d say educational. Coleman enjoyed seeing the many different types of exotic animals including the Red Sindhi cow which followed the Wagon for quite a ways as if it wanted to have an exciting adventure as well.

Red Sindhi

Red Sindhi belong to the heat-tolerant Bos indicus (Zebu) lineage. It is a specialized dairy breed originating from Pakistan.

Bos Indicus

The Red Sindhi yield substantial volumes of milk (averaging 4.5%-5% fat) even under extreme heat and stress (like we’ve been experiencing) and low quality forage. At the Ranch they are well fed and maintained.

Zebu aka Red Sindhi belong

The Red Sindhi are compact, smaller and rounder in comparison to the Red Brahma. The hump is well developed in bulls, but much smaller in cows.

Red Sindhi female

Its colouring is a Deep Red, ranging from yellowish-brown to dark brown; males are typically darker than females especially on the head, feet, and tail. 

These images were all taken while looking out the back of the Wagon; noticing the Red Sindhi and other animals following behind and eventually alongside the Wagon. They really were delighted when the Wagon stopped off and on during the Safari ride. They knew whenever the Wagon stopped they could get feed from the Lazy 5 Ranch guests.

Click on each image to enlarge.

Debbie’s Six Word Saturday-2026.08.01

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.

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.

Thursday Trios: (Oops on Saturday) 2026.08.01

Here Little Piggies

While traveling on the wagon Ride around the Lazy 5 Ranch we spotted Vietnamese Pot-bellied pigs in groups of three. Imagine that, how nice of them to group themselves as trios for my photographic adventures.

The Vietnamese Pot-bellied Pigs (Sus scrofa domestica) at the Lazy 5 Ranch were originally from the jungles of China and Vietnam. They were introduced into the United States as pets around 1985. Their backbone is bent like a saddle, which causes the abdomen to nearly drag on the ground. It is due to this effect why they received the pot-bellied name. At birth piglets normally weigh approximately one (1) pound (lb). They grow to a height of 10-12 inches (in) and a weight of about 125 pounds (lbs).

Vietnamese Pot-bellied Pigs
Thursday Trios

Pot-Bellied Pigs are intelligent and can be taught to do simple tricks and to walk around on a leash. However, at the Lazy 5 Ranch they are free to roam around the pastures, pathways and around the many, many other exotic animals at the ranch. At the Ranch they are not taught any tricks, they do enjoy the feed. While on the Wagon ride you are allowed to feed the animals roaming about, some even approach alongside the Wagon begging for handouts (they know the visitors have feed buckets which they’ll gladly make disappear).

Click on each image to enlarge. 

Carol’s Thursday Trios-2026.08.01

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; 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.