Financially troubled Hawker Beechcraft filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday, saying it would emerge from the financial restructuring "a stronger company."
The struggling plane maker filed the pre-arranged restructuring agreement with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York.

Beech has been a Wichita staple for over fifty years. Many Wichitians or their family members have worked there at one time or another.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/05/03/2321096/hawker-beechcraft-files-chapter.html#storylink=cpy

Lately there has been so much going on in my life that it has been difficult to slow down long enough to take pictures. But the baby bunnies were here and I just couldn't resist taking their cute little pictures.

You can tell how small the first one is by the dove standing next to him. The last bunny was earlier this Spring - he is probably grown now.

Thanks for looking at my photos.

This pictures were all taken over a week ago - since then we had a hail storm and the hail was up to golf ball size so everything was battered and broken. I took these pictures the evening before the storm.

It began raining here on Sunday morning or maybe it was last Saturday night. It didn't stop until Friday so I was beginning to feel like Noah when he made the Ark. Needless to say I was soo happy when the sun began to shine this morning. Amazing what a little sunshine will do for both the yard and the mind.

Thanks for looking at my pictures.

This was a week of seeing new babies and fresh flowers. Buds are opening and babies are starting to run around the yard. I had a difficult time catching the baby squirrel's picture - he was a quick one.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy them.

It's been a busy week so I wasn't able to get any pictures taken until this evening. Luckily many birds were out in my yard eating so I was able to catch them coming and going. Thanks for looking at them.

Leap Day in Wichita was nothing out of the ordinary as far as sunsets and sunrises. On the first photo (sunrise) I moved my camera over a bit from the sun for part of the pictures I took. Otherwise I would have only had branches and wires.

I can't really see the actual sun set or sun rise from my house very well because of all of the trees. But being in Kansas I'll take the trees rather then dry ground.

Thanks for looking at my photos.

My little birds think Spring has arrived already. The red finches have had babies and the others are chasing each other and that is a sure sign of Spring. Thanks for looking at my pictures.

It seems like the birds are beginning to gather in my yard and are making their nests. They also appear to be chasing each other and eating a whole lot. That can mean only one thing...Spring is near. Thanks for looking at my pictures.

This is my submission for the Photography Group Challenge for February - an abstract. I thought the end result of my changes were interesting and part of the onion looks like it has eyes in it to me.

Here are a few photos I have taken during the past month. The cardinal was putting on a show for me one day. Thanks for looking at them.

ROME — In the chaotic evacuation of the Costa Concordia, passengers and crew abandoned almost everything on board the cruise ship: jewels, cash, champagne, antiques, 19th century Bohemian crystal glassware, thousands of art objects including 300-year-old woodblock prints by a Japanese master.

In other words, a veritable treasure now lies beneath the pristine Italian waters where the luxury liner ran aground last month.

According to this article the Coast Guard expects treasure hunters to wait until everyone has cleared away from the ship. Then treasure hunting divers will try to take the jewelry, art, and other valuables from the ship.

This week the birds and squirrels were really putting on a show. So I was able to get quite a few pictures of them all. In this article I decided to make it all about the squirrel. Hope you enjoy my photos.

I'll post my cardinal photos later on. Thanks for looking. I appreciate it.

"As entertainment, this half-hour show is fine. As a tutorial for homebuying, however, it's very misleading."

After reading this article and seeing what the shows producers said about how they are made I am disgusted that I even watch it thinking the people are even looking for a house.

Darn it and I liked this show too.

These are a few of the pictures I took this past week. We had our first snow of the year and the second of the Season. But it didn't last long at all. Still it was nice to see it - for awhile it looked like a blizzard.

Then Stocky the Squirrel had to do some tricks in the trees - jumping from one to the other and back again. And last the birds were up to their usual antics.

Thanks for looking at my photos. I appreciate it.

These are my favorite 2011 photos that I have taken. I hope you enjoy seeing them again.

I didn't get too many pictures this week - it was a busy one after the holidays and all. But I did manage to capture a few birds in my photos. I hope you enjoy them.

The week before Christmas I went down a few blocks to a private lake in Wichita where the bald eagles have lived for the past couple of Winters. They evidently weren't home but I thought their nest was impressive anyway.

By the lake there were some murals that students from a local high school painted so I decided that would be a good picture for a change of pace.

Then of course I had to take some bird pictures in my yard. It had been cold and not many birds were out but I did manage to catch the sparrow.

Thanks for looking.....

Note: I had all the pictures on NV and everything done - then lost it all and that's why the pictures are backwards.

Since it is Christmas Eve I thought I would put some different pictures of my yard on here to show where the pictures are taken. I also used different camera settings to get some of the odd shots. Thanks for looking.

I've renamed my squirrel - he is no longer a Rocky but is now Stocky from being in my feeder so much. These photos are all birds in my yard that I've been able to photograph this week. Thanks for looking at my pictures.

This week was about the same as the past few weeks as far as my pictures go - in the Winter nothing changes much except the temperature. This was a cold week here - it got down to about 15 or a little lower and we had a little snow and ice combination. Yuck I'm ready for Spring already.

This is my entry for the Newsvine Photographers Food Challenge. This was a gift from my sister. She said she bought it and that the head is a candy kiss, the body is a chocolate covered cherry, the tail is the stem of the cherry and the bottom is a half of an Oreo cookie. The ears are pecan slices and one broke. Oh well.

I thought it was very clever and such a cute little idea.

Another week of seeing the birds and other critters in the backyard. I can't seem to get a good photo of the cardinal, yet.

Here are a few pictures I took the day before Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoy the birds, bunnies and squirrels as much as I do.

More photos from the back of the homestead here. These were taken last week so any greenery is now gone.