Thinking again...

I was thinking ... again how I really need to get back at working with Eddie and Princess.

I was reading The Dancing Donkey today and it got me thinkin'.  I started with good intentions last May with Princess.  But I did stupidly put my finger in her mouth and that ended my good intentions ... for a while.
By then summer was in full swing and Princess was forgotten as preparations for Grandma & Grandpa Camp got under way.

She is a very gentle donkey and not much seems to bother her.

When we got her, it was a daring thing to do to try and pick up her hind legs.
But I worked with her and now she stands quietly and picks up her feet properly for the farrier.

I actually did saddle her and sit on her in the round pen last year with that aching owie finger.

We've even gone on hikes together and she seems willing enough just to follow me down the deer trails and stop to browse when I am trimming the riding trail.

My sister asked me once how on earth do you train a Donkey?  She has trained and had her horses trained for show.

I simply said.
It isn't hard, if you make it routine, they are good with that, donkeys love routine.

If you convince the donkey that to ride under saddle, cross streams, logs, and ride down a trail is their idea, then it is a piece of cake.

If I also take her down my riding trail a few times, I won't have to bother with guiding her.  She'll know the way out and know the way home.

This spring...this spring....oh please let me get this done this spring!

Mandelbulb IFS formulas DEcombinate & Reflectons

These wonderful reflective Mandelbulbs with their special shapes have eluded me forever!

Now I am trying one thing at a time and learning slowly how to 'make' scenes that I feel I almost have control of.

Like this one:

I added the dragon and in post edit.  But I wanted to have a 'gnarly' shape with a 'floor' and a wall with a door in it.

Mind you most pieces that are seen anywhere are not just made in a blink of an eye.  They are carefully rendered over and over with adjustments to shadows, lighting to give the illusion of depth.

With the new and crazy Mandelex formula, I created a scene that was just bizarre and a bit creepy.

It reminds me of a decaying castle.

This is my secret room.  A textured mandelbulb with a happy accident of Volumetric lighting.  Something I am still trying very hard to master.  I used hexigridifs as the first formula and the used DEcombulate when I added Menger4 and _AbsX.

I really like using the hexigridifs formula, it allows you to make all sorts of interesting 'floors'.

On this one that I call Leftovers, I used the hexigridifs for and DodecahedronIFS from the 3a column with fun results.

The second was with the same forumulas except I changed the IFS to a Column formula and added reflections.

Today I did a wild one and it took me a long time to get it right...it could probably use a bit more work, but here it is, 
Underwater Maze:

There are some fantastic tutorials at DeviantArt as well as many fun parameters that can be shared.

I'm trying now to develop the ability to mix certain formulas to 'create' a scene and not just a pretty mandelbulb.

The fun part about it is that formula mixing and moving can always bring a surprise in the form of delight or in the form of dismay because it just isn't working at all!

All of these posted here are originals from scratch made up by little ol' me.

Thank goodness!  It is sometimes too hard to recall where you sometimes get parameters.
I've started to include that artist's name in the file I save, it helps.
But credit should be given where credit it due.

Morris is Aging

Morris delights in snow, especially the light fluffy stuff.

Actually he loves taking hikes with me at any time he can.

However the older he gets the more I have to be careful about the kind of walks we take.

If the temperatures are near zero and the wind chill factor is below zero, I don't take him.

As much as I don't want to admit it, Morris is aging.  

By age 10 most Jacks Russells should be considered Seniors.  Morris will be 11 yrs old in July.  So he is a 'Senior'.

I see the gray face and I see him slowing down, but mention a hike...or grab the camera bag and he is jumping and going ... crazy, whining and spinning like a furry little top.

It sort of seems unfair that our dogs age so much faster than we do.  Look at that brown muzzle!

This shot was taken in January of 2012.

Oh the difference this year!

He is still quite playful and energetic.  He will toss his toys around the living room for a while and then go snuggle in his blanket on the couch or lay by the heater.

He is now content to lay next to me on the couch and be quiet while I read.

However, if he goes on a long hike in the cold [he runs and jumps and smells things as though he did as a youngster] he will stop every once in a while and asked to be carried.

I want to deny his aging.  I really do.  For nearly 11 years he has accompanied me on nearly every trip to the woods.

But we take one day at a time and enjoy every moment together.

And his loyalty to the grand children is endless.  Who could ask for a better little dog.
The books on Jack Russells say they are not good with children.
Harrumph.
Well Morris is.  He prefers children to adults I think.

He is rather content on these cold winter days to toss some toys and then go lay in a sun spot and enjoy himself.

Some Senior Jack Russels may get a bit cranky in their Senior Years due to those very same things that all elderly folks suffer from. Sore joints, stiffness, and so forth.

So far Morris has not been cranky.  Well unless you awaken him by sitting on a pile of blankets on the couch and find that you just sat on your Jack.

But I do notice now, if it is very cold and the creek is wide, he will put a paw on my leg and ask for a lift over the creek.

We had a great time on our last winter walk a few days ago.

When we got home he curled up on the couch and went right to some serious napping.

I know in my heart that eventually he will become a bit frail and too old to do the things we do together now.

But we are going to go ahead and live life as there is no tomorrow and enjoy each day together.

That is what this ~~ now old dog ~~ is teaching me.

You ROCK Morris!

Man made or natural shelters for equine?

I was asked by another blogger that I follow, "Do your critters have no shelter in the winter?"

To understand some of why my animals are able to stay outside during all seasons is to understand the lay of our land.

We are an extremely hilly landscape.  If a wind blows from any direction, our animals can simply go into an area or the woods to escape the winds and have them blocked.

They have constant temperate water available to them by means of heated stock tanks.

They have nearly a constant source of roughage to keep them warm.

Plus they have the freedom to run and play and move to keep their body temperatures regulated.

You can find our animals comfortably taking naps during the winter in the sunlight or in the middle of a storm.

Of course any of the animals who may be frail or ill will get brought into the unheated open on one end...shed that we have so we can monitor their health closely.

Believe me, I used to think how could they be warm?  Really?  I am cold, how can they not be cold?

Here is one of our mules after a particularly cold wicked day.  I put my hands up next to his skin and found it to be wonderfully warm and cozy.

He was not shivering, he was not cold.  

Anyway, what equine do need in cold weather is freedom of movement, wind blocks, or in our case deep ravines and forests...good forage and plenty of it.  
During the coldest parts of winter they have forage access 24 hrs a day.

I do not blanket them.  It messes up their ability to deal with cold weather and flattens their coats.  But that said, I have no problem with people who do blanket their horses or equine.  Horses with health issues do need the extra protection.

A well insulated animal in a healthy condition will get along nicely without being stalled or blanketed. A nice layer of snow laying across the animal's back also provides an nice layer of insulation.

Keep in mind these critters are of all ages.  In the photos above there are some 20+ ladies running with younger animals.  They were playing and warming their bodies up after a very cold night.

Or were they just having fun?

And lastly, one of our most insulated animals on the farm.  Easy to keep wonderfully entertaining, Lil' Richard.  This was his rear end after feeding him the other morning.

When the sun came out he rolled and discarded the snow on his back as the other animals did.

Let me say in conclusion that I know that my sister stalls and blankets her horses and turns them out in the indoor arena.  But she lives in an area where there is no natural wind blocks.  Plus she uses the blankets to keep the hair flat and for faster shed out as show season starts early.

So in answer to the question, do my critters have no shelter?  They have available shelter in the form of hills and woods.  After all, the horse has lived without man made shelter for many years.

I hope this helps!

For interesting reading try this article: Thermoregulation in horses in a cold time of year...

The snow storm that wasn't.

The forecasters said we'd get 3-6" of snow, or we'd get 8"+, depending on where the snow line went.  Near blizzard conditions could be expected...or maybe not...


We woke up to snowfall with winds blowing from the north east.  When we went outside to do chores I had to force the door open.  Snow had piled up against it.

We were able to hear the winds howl above us on the ridge.

When hubby walked up the driveway to go feed 'the girls' and Eddie in their winter paddock, he had to wade through some mild snow drifts.

Everyone had a blanket of snow on their backs and some were taking 'snow baths'.  

Eddie the donkey looked rather unconcerned about the whole snow situation. He and his pasture mates were able to avoid the wind, they had fresh temperate water and were getting fed good quality hay.

He awaited breakfast to be served along with the others.
It was just another day for him and his friends.

For Morris, it was a delight.  For some reason kids, adults, and animals seem to always enjoy a fresh snow fall.

Except of course if you have to drive in it, plow it, shovel it, or snow blow it.

Hubby even had a smile for me. 

Of course he has a skid steer which he uses to plow our steep driveway.  He complains about having to do it.

But secretly, I think he enjoys doing stuff with the skid steer more than any other chore he has to do.

The driveway is steep.  I think I measured a difference of 150 feet elevation change from the house to the mailbox once with the GPS.

That could explain why I sometimes get 'out of breath' walking up to get the mail.

The snow has already started today again and the weather service has called for heavy snow at times at the rate of one to two inches and hour.  

It is time to dust off the snow shoes and check the trail that Morris and I trimmed two weeks ago.

It will look drastically different, but I'll see if the 'marks' I left for guidance on the trees will help define where I should go.

It helps that this trail is often used by all of the forest animals also.

Perhaps I'll even find an antler shed sticking out of the fresh snow fall.

So we had a snow incident, but I wouldn't call it a storm.

2-5" are expected today.

Finally winter has come to our area!

In the 3D world, Mandelbulb 3D

I surely am not expert in this field, there are some fantastic artists that can be found at Mandelbulb.com, it is a great site for anyone wishing to read about the creation of fractals and there are even some great tutorials listed on the site.

Some of my works over this weekend has been how to figure out to 'make' a scene using an IFS formula and then a 3Da or 4Da formula to make it work.

This one above was sort of a happy accident.
To me it appears as coral under the sea.  I even love the grains of sand on the bottom!

Then I experimented with the hexigridIFS & DodecahedronIFS from the 3Da column and got this.

Well after that surprise I turned it on its side and tried another IFS formula called
ColumnsIFS ... I remained steady with the DodecahedronIFS and added reflections to see what might happen.

Again I was very satisfied!

I imagined that this would look like some nasty leftovers that one could find in their refrigerator!

So this morning I decided to try another idea.  I used hexigridifs, Menger4 so I could use the 4D rotations, _AbsX ~ not really sure that was a big help, and then decided to see if I could 'make' a room' and use volumetric light to light it up.

The Secret Room:

And by golly, I did!  I used a rock photo for the color map and placed the light with positional light.

To understand this idea of 'creating' a floor and walls, I've decided to add more formulas to see what I could get.

The trick is the lighting and Hal Tenny has a great tutorial on the use of Volumetric Lighting here:
Lighting Tutorial by Hal Tenny.

Learning to use this kind of lighting is not for the faint hearted.  I've really had a tough time doing it properly.

But using the IFS forumlas with DEcombinate have shown me how to go further into creating some interesting artwork.


Here is the parameters for the Secret Room, if you use them please experiment and change things up.

Mandelbulb3Dv18{
g.....w....o0...w....22...EysGGLFJ9yzyeWCQiRPY.E1ESS0Vz36y11za.h1N3xzorigu05NVzj
XNaNaNaNez1NaNaNaNK..RNaNaNaNavDlPkEEqECa/2........Y.Z90................4/2...wD
...Uz6....k7..../M.0/...........z....2E3......xstmBLuciD/..........G0dkpXm1....c
z.....kD12../..........wz.................................U0.....y1...sD...../..
.z1...kDdfExEw9eov1f8MW2NisvyY4k1nA7LkgDav0vVUyVUvPuqUrggiOpyIA.g9MS9VjDR6HPpQEl
fv12zcvops1xy0C8keIot7iDU.....Yo4.............sD46....sD.2G.....................
.............oAnAt1...sD....zw1.........................................9....k1.
.....Ksulz1.......kzmDBXg.kO.Q5......U5....G....m.c/6c3.kM.F....6/...22.....SFT0
...U.qFG9Cxb2zDX.02.ggfd2/6/p6lzHn69...KvspiH6.E6MLNJ5Ffvz9.a0ypVd5yz0.28.UZoZ2.
.2F.bU9F1.w.eCfYMj5zzC...........EU0.Uhj3/..fjrwdvgmz.WB3skNKgzj............2c..
.02E.............0...................2./8.kzzzD............8....................
/EU0.wzzz1...................................2CcN/UvNPcvCTVCNq0.yRiiz5n7Uk1f..XR
SzDC43CcN/UvNPcvvuIsUa3.ibhVi9oJV1OK.sSq4uSlT3CcN/UvNPcv6VKsUa3.ibhVinAQV1OK.sSq
4yTIt3CcN/UvNPcv..EsUa3feeWCNqmzIJ36wk8EwyLsUapz................................
E6...A..V2U.....I....o.....OZVrNmZ4N7NoI.IaQ..........................U1C....6U/
4M./...............tzEnAnAnAn2.EOaNaNaNaFznAnAnAnAngzcNaNaNaNavDAnAnAnAnwz1.....
...0./.......60k........S.A.......FE./......Ei3EnAnAnAnAXzHnAnAnAnArz...........
.....................A.....3....9....oINiRKNmF1.a/..............................
.......1Ak.1AkU/46...AnAnAnAnk.EOaNaNaNavz1BnAnAnAnzzMaNaNaNadyD........Uz1.....
................................................................................
................................1....E/...E.....T3YMnV3.p7bN.6bNU61.............
........................4MU/0...aNaNaNaN3.2...............................EhfkIJ
JJJpzIv8AJJJJJxD..........2........wz...........pi0HJJJJJz1.....................
............................................}
{Titel: hexgrid secret door ruins}

Enjoy playing in Mandelbulb 3D!

"Them Bones..."

All my life I've been fascinated by bones.  Oh not a sick weird, strange, fascination, but a curious fascination.

I live in a very wooded area and nature has its cycle.  A deer is killed by coyotes and a skull and some scattered bones are left to find.

I sometimes pick up the skull and bring it home.  Finding sheds is a huge 'sport' of sorts around here too.  Many folks I know hunt antler 'sheds' and sell the antlers.
I collect them.

I wasn't sure for a long time what I was going to do with my pile of magnificent sheds and skulls.  I just piled them next to the out house and took the nicer looking ones and put them on the side of the building.

Then I started to think of things I could 'do' with the skulls.  I started with small raccoon skulls I'd found over the years.  They were in pretty good shape and not too difficult to handle.  Easy to wash and since they were old, all I had to clean up was mostly collected old leaves and dirt in them.

The first one's I did were around Christmas time.  As experiments, I thought they came out pretty cool.

In fact I showed one to my mom who is nearly 81 and she loved it.  I asked her if she wanted it and she immediately put it on a shelf for display.

I painted a black one with gold highlights for my youngest son and put gold 'gems' on it.  He thought it was awesome.

I moved on to one of my rather decrepit deer skulls that I'd found laying in the woods.  The mice had been at it quite heavily and at the time I thought it wasn't worth bringing home.

But now?

Well I think it turned out pretty neat for such a beat up thing.

Then I took a rather nice one that I had and painted the skull white after sealing the cracks with glue and gluing the teeth back in that were loose.

I didn't have the heart to do anything else but preserve this skull as it must have belonged to a magnificent young buck.

After dealing with white as a base for the skulls, I wondered what it would be like to have one look primitive or more natural...or even antique.

So I stained and old doe skull rubbing the stain in and wiping it off until I got the effect I desired.

This is probably in some ways my favorite after I painted the 'line' drawing of a deer on it.

I did some reading up on what to do with weathered antlers and came up with my own idea.

This was a broken up antler with the ends broken off.  It was scarred and chewed. So I used the same method as before to add a bit of wood like stain to it.  I liked it because it brings out the weathering and the cracks in the antler.

I didn't want to fill the cracks with wood putty and try and reconstruct the antler, I wanted it as I found it.  Cracked and imperfect as mother nature made it.

I intend on finishing a couple of more of these wayward antlers and mounting them on a board with the tines up.  They will adorn the space above the new windows and hold white lights [you know, the Christmas kind].  Or they will become hangers, or curtain holders.

I may even take my group of antlers and construct a lamp base out of it.  

And then there is my prize possession.  A complete coyote skull.  I just preserved it in its natural bone color.

I have another very old skull that is full of lichen and moss.  The skull is badly damaged and the old oddly shaped antlers have been chewed on.  But it looks like it will be a nice challenge.

And it is shed hunting season again.  The bucks start to drop their antlers about now and it just gives me another reason to walk trails and look for more odd things.

Who knows?
Maybe I'll find some cool bones.