Uffdah

I was hoping to keep it simple this week... Hmmm.

Monday was hubby's annual wellness checkup and nothing has really changed from last year. His legs are swelling up so she had some hints for him to help him with that. Time was of the essence for the appointment as the highway department was getting ready to close a bridge because the Kickapoo River was rising rapidly.

Monday afternoon we got a visit from the Oxygen folks.

We received a portable oxygen concentrator which should give Rich more mobility. It is easier to carry a satchel type item than to drag around a tank. The VA Home Oxygen lady was a great educator. Much better than the person they had previously.

This afternoon, I'm getting a visit from a fellow named Dunnum. He runs a company that does tree trimming, brush hogging, landscaping, cleaning up old junk piles,...delivering hay...

well.... 
you name it, and his folks will do it apparently.

I'm looking to have some trees taken down and two pastures brush hogged along with some other clean up if the prices are right. IF I like his work, I'm gong to have him come twice a summer to brush hog down the weeds in my main pastures. It would save me so much time, frustration, and sweat!

The weather hasn't been conducive for activities outside for even healthy folks. I can get chores done easily, but I am wringing wet by the time I get inside. If I have to do anything for a length of time, I have to wear a gnat net over my hat.

By Wednesday the heat and humidity will come down enough for hubby to enjoy getting on his zero turn and do some mowing.

In other news, our gym now offers a class called Legends. It is for those over 50. The workouts are more personalized and less intense. I love the folks I am working out with. We have a range of ages and abilities. Plus, it is great to meet new people. [most of the folks are wayyy over the 50+ mark!]

One of the ladies just finished up her chemo and radiation, and is gently easing back into fitness and mobility. I have to hand it to her. She makes me feel as if anything is possible. 
We do the same workouts as the regular classes, but with more adjustments. I switched to this class because the scheduling works out much better for me.

I can monitor Rich's morning routine and go to class while he naps.

I still do a regular class once a week so I get 3 days in. It is a win win for me right now. Come winter, I may just stick with the smaller class for us older folks. I think none of us would come when we are sick? Fingers crossed.

Below:
Hummingbird Moth 

on Bee Balm.

Below:

Little Richard

doing yard work on

the hillside.

 If this Dunnum fella is easy to work with. I'll take some shots of what needs to get done so I can have some before and after shots for comparison. 

So many things have been let go since my husband's cancer and stroke that I feel I need to make an effort to get things back on track.

Wish me luck!

Happy September !!

Here is a photo of one of the fields I walk to on the ridge in the evenings. It has been full of deer the last few weeks, they were grazing on the oats and then moving onto eating the corn plants.

This field should have produced two or three times the number of round bales shown here. Our county is now in severe drought and as of Friday with temperatures rising and the humidity dropping to 25%, we are also in a Fire Watch.

Yesterday I mowed some green patches of grass that are near the porch. The grass did grow there because I've watered my flowers that surround the porch.

We've had lows in the 40's this week and some nice temperatures. Come this holiday weekend we will be back up to nearly 100. The DNR is saying that we will be in critical fire danger starting today. Campfires will be considered a no-no.

The good part about it being so dry? Maybe it won't feel SO hot? The bad part? Well, we really really DO need rain!

I'm nearly ready to quit watering my flowers and let nature take its course and gather seeds for next year.

Yesterday afternoon I took some time to just sit on the porch and watch the world drift by. Of course I nodded off while sitting up and then got an idea to try some ...

Stop Motion

Another Flickr fellow had done a super short stop motion with one of his characters and it was pretty impressive. I decided to try it also. 

I wasn't going in for the 24 frames per second or higher as that takes a TON of time. I thought I'd try something simple while seated on the porch.

So this is 11 seconds of fun that took 40 photos to create. I won't do this as anything other than a fun little hobby. It takes too much time and effort to do a really smooth Stop Motion animation.

IT is hard! The last time I tried this was with my kids and their Legos, a dinosaur, a rubber rat, and a soda can.

We used a hand me down video camera that took stop motion stills that was on a VCR tape!

Dennis and Ariel plan to visit us on Sunday, they will drive up for the day and then go back home as Dennis is scheduled to work on Labor Day. That will be nice. I know Dennis wanted to ride the mules, but with temps near 100, it won't be happening.

Our weekend will be quiet and fairly usual. We don't do Holidays around here.

Hot! Oh Hot oh and other farm stuff.

July 2023 has been one of the most unusual months in recent memory. Rarely did we have a beautiful sky in the mornings. The sunrises were orange or brown and once even a frightful red [without the rains!].

It makes me wonder how the wildfires and smoke are effecting

wonderful creatures like the Monarch Caterpillar..

 or my neighbor's crops... 
the drought, smoke, and hot days, cold nights??

What sort of strange times do we live in? 
Rhetorical Question.

Moving on.

Yesterday I spent some time with the fellow who came out to tune up our skid steer. It was having an issue. 

Caveat, I do dislike machinery. I don't like operating machinery -- farm machinery. Period. He replaced three thingies that make the lights, blower, and starter run properly. Fuses. That's what they were. He admired our nice skid steer. I did mention that I would be happy with one of the first ones we ever had. It was simple with no electronic fusies to fuss with. He offered to trade me for his older little one.

I learned a few things from him and he showed me how to check hydraulic fluid and other stuffs. He explained it nicely so that my eyes and brain didn't explode, shut down, nor did my eyes glaze over.

The gent that we have purchased large square bales called me back this morning. I said "Hey Darryl, bet you can't figure out what I called for!"

"Oh," he said, "I'm sure it was to talk about the weather or perhaps good books to read?"

He always jokes with me.

He'd been waiting for me to contact him. I gave him an estimate of the amount of hay I'd need to carry me through next year. 

I pared it down from last year. We've lost Fred and Mica won't make it through this winter. She is the grey mule we have. 

Her COPD/heart situation has been depleting her strength and condition. It would be cruel to let her hang on into the cold. 

Today she wouldn't even trot up to the next pasture rotation. She literally walked slow while struggling to take breaths. It would be cruel to keep letting her suffer like this. 

Anyway, Darryl said he'd make sure we get what we needed. I have it delivered all at once and stack it in the machine shed. I pay him on the spot.

He said he was turning down a lot of requests and was taking care of his regular customers first.

I get it. We are grateful that we've been faithful customers of his for the last 10 years.

Rain. It would be good to get some.

We mowed some of the yard yesterday. This morning I cleaned all the stock tanks and put out fresh cool water for everyone.

I even got out of making supper tonight! Ms. Olive invited us up to her place for homemade pizza.

Stay cool if you can.

Around the house

I am happy that I decided to purchase fresh veggies at the local Farmer's Market and some of the local folks who raise produce this year.

Old Garden:

I have a bit more time on my hands which means I can spend more time making my flower gardens look a bit more tidy. 

As this new heat wave bears down on us, I am finding things to do on the porch outside. It stays fairly nice in the shade and generally there is a nice breeze that flows through. 

This old table was given to me a few years ago. It is in a sad state of disrepair so I cut pieces of wood and did what I could to stabilize it enough as I figure out what I am going to do with it. It sat under the pine trees for a couple of years with pots of begonias on it.

The table should be tossed. But I figure if I can brace it up enough and cut down the legs [or not], I could use it as a coffee/craft table on the porch. [What I wouldn't do for a nice gate leg table!]

The project table is on the porch along with paints. I spray painted a coffee can and a Gatorade bottle for Porch Vases. Maybe it is tacky too, but I like flowers on the porch as well as in the house. I don't like broken glass!

I've always loved the idea of a Fairy Garden. I am constantly moving little things around so that I can be amused at what I have put together.

I love this little Zen Dragon. 

I move him/her around quite often. 

Morning light on a 'Fairy Garden' made 
out of an old pie dish.
It sits on a rickety old chair I
gussied up.

My pallet garden is doing as expected. The tomatoes are doing great and I've used old fence posts and twine to stabilize the plants. I know, tacky, but it was on hand and easier than trying to use a cage. 

The plants that are coming up in the slats are doing fair too. They are coming along a bit slower than those flowers on the east side of the house. The west side has good sun but good afternoon shade too from the locust trees. I think with the heat wave, those plants will do better than the ones exposed to the sun and wind all day.

Other surprises in my garden.
There are the gargoyles who resided in the Forest Garden last year. Right now they are in the growing flower garden. They look happy there! 
Last year the raccoon kept knocking over the gargoyles! This poor fella had his wings chipped.

This fellow sits on another stump and is the Welcome Gargoyle. [Yeah, I like dragons and gargoyles and I am weird.]

This is the porch in the morning. Many of my plants are in old Maple Syrup buckets that Rich's Grandfather used. It is handy to grab the buckets and move them around. 

More Fairy/Dragon/Gardens. I keep changing things up as it suits me. 

Things are going to be hot and muggly. I hope all my friends and their animals do well for the next few days.

I let my mules out to the forest where they can get down into the creek area. I walked there this morning and it was definitely about 10 degrees cooler than in the meadow!

Stay cool!

Garden & Photoart

First the boring news. Part of our old garden got tilled and I nearly burned my nekked feet trying to plant corn and a few other veggies. It is dusty and dry with no rain in sight. 

It is a small garden and getting up to water it predawn is not a bad chore. I'm going to buy my other fresh veggies at the Farmer's Market in town and privately from a woman that does vegetables as a business.

With the extreme heat, I needed a place to cool off. So Bear had me take out the kiddy pool.

Charlie hates the pool. I've sat in it to cool off and it makes a good place to stick bare feet after scalding them in the hot dirt.

Okay. PhotoArt. Artsy fartsy. I saw an ad on FB that had the photographer willing to 'teach' any person 'How to take artistic flower photos and get that dreamy effect'. He was also selling something called Overlays. This would be a layer to put 'over' a photo and 'create' the dreamy effect.

The Overlays were pretty pricey but really sort of neat. The 'course' was all about Creative Suite and how you could use overlays to 'create' better photos. It was expensive. [Wait...Create Better Photos? Don't you have to start out with a good one first????]

I am one of those that tries to figure things out myself. 

I went all out with a free paint program and a water color overlay I nabbed from the internet. It was not the effect I was looking for but I liked it enough to keep it. It is a geranium on my porch.

Next? Verbena in a pot with lavender behind it.

No overlays though. I used levels and curves in Corel PSP to bring the photo to emulate High Key. I added a layer and used a motion blur and used the layer setting to Screen. I erased or removed parts of the light colored layer to reveal just a few flowers.

I added a white vignette around the photo and I was done.

So I thought about overlays. Here is a sample of an overlay. 

Most of the overlays being offered in 'bundles' are bokeh, stars, clouds, rain, snow, and what not.

So I 'made' a couple in my old PS program.

So why on earth would you use an overlay?

I used the green one here just for kicks to see what would happen. I wanted it so subtle that I didn't want it obvious. I'm experimenting to see if I can really do something neat and cool.

I used the purple overlay here in PS to brighten this shot, it was pretty neat.

Here is an overlay that was another photo that was blurred. Interesting how it changes the 'look' of the shot.

My final choice was to go with the purple overlay.

Now the ones you can buy are totally cool. You can add soap bubbles, stars, and soft clouds. I like to dabble in the artsy fartsy stuff once in a while.

Still, I wasn't 'making' the Art that I saw in the ad [no I just stared at it and scrolled on by]. But maybe I should take an artsy class just once to see. I don't know how to tell if it is a scam or for real.

[I have taken two classes. Fine Art Black & White and Still Life. Both were good learning experiences.]

One of my old art edits:

I made this one into a greeting card.

Last is my purple overlay/soft contrast effect for a Still Life shot from our horribly hot HOT day.

My super cool hat along with my flowers set on that ugly trunk I wanted to get rid of. 

Original:

Edit:

I'm curious about learning new methods, but extra edit time isn't always what I want to do.

So I don't always do Artsy stuff. But I like to challenge myself to always learn something. 

After all, I did read tuts and watch vids to learn how to do OOB years ago and that really WAS fun! I'm not sure I have the patience for that intense editing anymore.

Eddie in Out of Bounds:

I'm not sure where I will go next with PhotoArt. But I will keep trying new things. I don't want this old brain to go stagnent.

Sundance in Training...

I know this has been a long drawn out effort for training a mule. Sundance is 10 yrs old now. So many things have interfered with getting her under saddle that the last 5 years have flown by.

She was supposed to be a project for Rich. I didn't want to train another mule. I'd worked with Badger as my very first full blown project in 1998. Sunshine in 2002 and Siera in 2006.

Anyway. Cancer, stroke, and other health issues took away Rich's desire to work with Sundance. I thought she was too wild and crazy at first to work with. However since she is here, I decided that she should be useful. So last year I started working with her. She made great progress and then...winter happened. The round pen got filled with large square bales for the winter and the training there stopped. I had good intentions of all sorts of work with her...but didn't.

Now we start up again. And the intense human contact has made an impression on all of the mules.

The red headed sisters always come to the gate and stare at me when they see me outside. Sunshine is the older of the two and has years of riding under her girth.
Sundance evidently loves the challenge and work. She will spot me anywhere and find me.

Even in the forest she hears my footsteps and comes on the gallop. She reminds me in a way of her half brother Badger. Her sister Sunshine is very similar. I've been blessed with some very fine mules in my life. Sundance may be one of those special ones and I may not have known it.

Here she is at the gate with her sister. Demanding to be noticed.

I made her wait though until I was ready.

In the round pen I just decided to start treating her like any mule I'd take riding.
No ground work first.
Brushing and picking the feet.

Blanket and saddle. This is the second time she has had a saddle on. She twitched her body when I brought it out but then stood still as I put it on her.
Bridle.
She really is not sure about having a snaffle bit in her mouth and kept inching backwards.
I did not have her tied, she was at Liberty and could have chosen to bolt away. However I stood quietly and spoke to her, explaining how I felt she needed to trust me on this.

She took the bit and let me adjust the straps. The bit and bridle really bugged the crap out of her. So I added a few jugs with rocks to her saddle and asked her to trot around me.
She shook her head and bunny hopped in protest. She went faster, slower, faster, then stopped and became a mule statue.

I put the crinkly dog food bag on her next and she listened to it as she walked around and then stood quietly again.

I attached reins and we worked on feeling the bit on one side and another and giving to the bit. It only took a few minutes for her to figure this out. I stopped as soon as she responded.
I then put a foot in her stirrup and laid across her, first on one side, then another.

A huge thunderstorm started moving in so I decided to end our session. I unsaddles her and did it as if she were a seasoned mule. She just stood quietly.

I'm looking forward to another session hopefully today.
One thing I have going for me, is that I am not like a paid trainer. I don't have a time limit on her work. I don't have to produce results in 30 days. I can take my time and do it how I like.

I will be moving the herd back to the forest so they have lots of shade as the weather is turning very hot and humid.

I'm pleased with Sundance's progress. They say you need to train them very young. I'm thinking that Sundance is more like her sister and half brother Badger. They needed time for their mature brains to kick in and accept things.
This work would not have gone well when Sundance was two or even five years old.

I guess things happen for a reason.

Here and There

I've been wandering again. To find the elusive yellow raspberries.
Mission accomplished.

Of course I had to do it on the hottest most humid day we've had so far.

I found some St. John's Wort.

Everyone is in a huge scare over the wild parsnip. If you mess with it and get juices on you while they are flowering, you will get burned and blistered.

However I walked carefully through a field full of them. Walk carefully. Don't wear shorts and be very cautious.

In order to find the yellow wild raspberries, I had to get through them.

It was a delight to find them and eat them.
I didn't bring a pickin' bucket.

I just enjoyed the taste.
However, I wonder why I always decide to pick the hottest days to do these wanderings?

At least I was able to cool off in the creek on the way home.

After splashing myself with cool water, I sat on a rock and just enjoyed the forest sounds.