Our Pack

What -10 F looks like mid morning after the girls have had their breakfast. They take turns taking naps sheltered from the wind and in the full glory of the sun.

Not great shots since I shot them through the doorway...but 15 [her name] is doing the dragon breath thing. Of course the two red headed sisters snooze together. One mule always stands guard and alert while the rest sleep.

They are not cold. They have extremely thick and heavy winter coats which are a total pain starting in March through June with all the shedding they do.  But when one sticks their hands into their fur, they find the skin underneath warm and toasty.

Heated water [pricey, but worth it] lots of hay, and places to get out of the winds are how these girls rock. 

Charlie has taken this weather well also. His out door visits are quick unless we are doing chores, then he is on the hunt for voles or mice. When he needs to warm up, he sits on his rug on the porch in the sun and observes until it is time to go in. If one is curious, he has a thick hound dog/Pekinese coat. It is hard to describe. It is thick and water repellent which I imagine keeps him pretty warm. 

If he wears a coat in any sort of snow over 3 inches, he scoops the snow right through the neck of the coat and ends up filling his jacket with icy snow. 

He does love winter as much as I do. He believes he is a snow plow...

However, with the negative temps, he does spend less time outdoors. Why not? We all do!

I did spend a good part of the morning on the phone yesterday making arrangements for different pieces of business I still need to get done. 

I also began to feel better, I coughed a lot in the morning [masked] but by afternoon I no longer had a cough. I wasn't tired anymore and I was more fidgety than anything else. Fidgety must mean better, right?

As I said I would yesterday, I put seed in the feeder and watched some birds and read some poetry.

Then I got a message through Messenger. "Hey, have you got time to meet me at the Co-op for a cup of coffee or soup tomorrow?"
Indeed I did as I had to go to town on Wednesday to return library books or they'd be overdue. And I had to sign paperwork for my change in Property/Auto/Farm insurance.

I said "How about 10?"

I wore my mask for my errands and into the Co-op. I sat down in the common area and sipped some delicious coffee. In the door came two of the ladies I work out with in our Legends Class. These two gals and I are about the same age and have taken to each other. We don't exactly fit with the younger gym crowd [though we are always welcome], but we have hit on something special in our more Mature Class.

We had coffee and talked about stuff. Not important stuff. Just Stuff Stuff. Grandkids, barns, farms, gardening, food, food I cannot make, our fun at the gym, and ... "let's do this again". The place is convenient for a quick meet up after the gym class and a cup of soup or coffee.

Not to knock the younger gals we workout with, but sometimes they are all about how much they lift, what competition they want to do, what tights to buy, or...what are the coolest shoes.

We Legends are about Stuff. You know. Stuff that is just good to know. Life Stuff. Because dang it, we've been living life a damned long time.

Everyone needs a 'Wolf Pack' [my words]. I think I may have found mine. So this week may have been quite awful in a few ways, but it is working out to be something quite wonderful. 

Sometimes things just happen, don't they?

Yucksville ~ I lied

Yesterday was better! Yippee! Today? Not so, let's add a deep chesty cough to the mix. I feel like a surgeon walking around the house with a mask and making him and myself wash our hands every time we walk through the house. 
I woke up to.....

~~~~~   - 17 F just before it dropped to -20 F [-28 C]. There is no wind right here in front of the house and this will be were the equine ladies gather when the sun peaks over the tree tops.

Even Charlie thought it was a bit cold. He asked to borrow my over the glasses goggles to go out to do his business.

Now that the weather report is out of the way [cold, bitter cold], I can move on. 

I was supposed to go in today and sign some paperwork for my insurance. I'm going to call in and do it tomorrow. I got sick of the company I've done business with only one claim in 30 years of raising prices and never saying a thing. The first owner -- now retired -- would call us and explain what was going on and how he could try and find better coverage for us. 

This service hasn't continued with his son. So last week I walked into a local agency and sat down with my paperwork. The end result was a $700 savings overall with the same coverage. Yes, they will raise prices I'm sure but I know I can stop in their office and speak directly to them. I'm not dealing with a no face no personality person. 

Yippee me. The cold is brutal enough to delay schools, shut down some schools, and convince me that making a drive to town that I postpone until tomorrow is smart.

I woke up to the news that Musk is now delving into Social Security. 72.5 million people's lives can be affected by someone who doesn't even understand how SS works. Especially if they don't understand the language of COBOL.

I wonder how the unemployment figures are going to look next month for all of the firings that have gone on. I wonder how many more planes are going to crash. I wonder how the price of eggs are doing. I wonder who will be picking produce. I wonder how many elderly are having their heat cut off. I wonder how much more we can take.

I don't think I'm supposed to talk about this sort of thing on my blog. You know with those goons running things, I feel like every word I say or type is being watched. Maybe. Maybe not. Is it 1984 yet?

 *****************

So enough of that. I'm sick. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired and I am whiney. 
It's warmed up to -14, so I'll put on my gear and head out. Thankfully, the chores are not so hard.

I'm going to eat Chicken noodle soup and watch the birds at the feeder.

I can't think of anything great...so

Starting Thursday, I knew I was coming down with 'something'. My throat felt raw and hateful. I didn't have a temperature. So I wondered was it part of the jaw that hurt the day before?

Nope this was going to be some sort of cold.

After chores, I decided I wasn't going to let my throat keep me from at least going out to see the beautiful snowfall. We hadn't had any so far this year. We had a snowfall in December and that was gone by Christmas.

Besides, the cold air felt really good and I had plenty of energy. I wasn't going to waste a beautiful snow event just because I was getting a cold. 

[Funny but true story...when my sister and I were running distance road races and competing, we'd sometimes, get a cold. We decided to practice through our colds anyway. We were convinced that we'd beat our colds by running in the cold. You know, it sort of worked. Or maybe we were just young and invincible!]

The last time I had a serious cold was in 2009. I recall I had a fever of 101 and called into work and they said I couldn't call off. Even with a physician's note and a fever when I went the next day, I got lectured and given 'points' off and a 'warning'. Anyway that was long ago and I am rambling....

First I took care of the ladies who were having such a blast giving themselves snow baths and chasing each other around.

Here, my charming red heads telling me to hurry up with their sled full of hay.

With all the chores done and hubby taking a nap, I grabbed my two weather resistant cameras and took off to see the creek and swap out the trail cam SD card.

The trail down to the creek was getting snow filled and deep. I got down to the creek and noted that most of it was frozen with no water showing anywhere.

I went to find the areas where the water still flowed from the warm springs.

I was rather happy to find little bits of open water. It creates a beautiful magical scene with snow.

If you can find a spot that reflects the trees above, I consider that a bonus. The snow simplifies what is in the photo. The grasses are covered...

and the rocks get snow caps...

I got to this point and figured I'd better head back home, I'd told hubby that I was just going to the creek. I didn't tell him I'd get sidetracked by water, rocks, and reflections.

This is the same area that I found Bluebirds in earlier this winter. Three years ago I found Robins in the same area. Another time I saw so many of one type of bird here I was enthralled. I guess that is when I decided to try and find the names of birds.

So I stood for a few minutes and then heard a light tapping noise right above me.

Hello Chickadee! It then flew down in front of me.

...and then posed for me after getting a drink of water from the creek. 

Oh I was so tickled! And I took it as a sign to head home on a great note. The snow was still coming down. Below is my 'trail' along the creek. Whoops. I got too far out on the thin ice and broke through.

I do love my Muck Boots. I didn't get wet.

I was so happy at seeing the Chickadee that I called it a day. 

I got home, took off my coveralls, made lunch for hubby and went upstairs to sleep until evening chore time.

By then I was beyond miserable.

You know. When you think you are dead and maybe wish you were dead because it is so miserable?

Today I am coming out of it. I actually nearly feel human again.

I may even be able to take off my mask soon!

 

Can't get a break!

 Well, I really did when taking my Ru into the dealer for struts and a ball joint. The price was quoted at nearly $2,800. But buying a new car wasn't something I was considering, since basically nothing was wrong with the one I have.

After all, we don't know what is going to happen with the economy or with things like social security or Medicare. Cheaper to fix the well running car than gamble on the immediate future.

Charlie once more took over the dealership. All the Salesforce and staff stopped to say hello.

I got to meet many customers who had to pet him and tell me about their pets. I saw tons of photos of their favorite animals.

One salesman asked to take Charlie for a little walk around the show floor. He took Charlie into an office and...as soon as I was out of his sight for about a minute, Charlie began to howl!

Nope. He is friendly and adorable, but apparently a Mama's doggy.

When the service manager came to hand me my bill he explained that the extended warranty we bought 6 years ago had covered everything. 

WOW!

Since my visit to the ER last week, I have been tracking my BP. My doctor always complains that its a bit high. She agrees that its white coat syndrome.

So since I have to see her next week, I am using a BP cuff that records the readings. My BP has actually been dropping since last week. 

Yesterday I felt like I was getting a cold. This morning I felt awful. Woserthanawful.

Anyway. Imagine my surprise at having a morning BP of 88/66. Yeah. Me too.

I'm going to start pointing at the side effects of Prolia. [The Prolia flier says that it compromises your immune system and to Avoid people with colds...errrr, um...jeeze. Can I just go sit in a box for the rest of my life???]

Let's add the random severe attacks of pain in different parts of my body that come and go. A big toe one day that felt broken. Then was fine the next day. Ankles that feel sprained for a day. This morning, I had a hard time walking without a limp.  My left knee and calf hurt too much to walk.

A jaw that hurts too badly to eat. Then nothing the next day. 

Fatigue and frustration. It's a Whack a Mole Game with a guess at where pain will show up next. Amazingly enough, the intense pain will last up to a few hours or a few days and then disappear. Bone pain, muscle pain, headache pain. Things I normally do. not. have. 

Yet I am still dragging my body out to do chores and when I can, hike with Charlie for shorter distances.

If this medication keeps me from being active, what quality of life is there?

Oh and the last I can't get a break???

The magnificent head cold put me to bed for most of the day. I'm glad I had prepped things like homemade soup ahead of time. ...and purchased some easy to make meals for times like this.

But we are getting a snowstorm! So at least that is beautiful to watch, and I hope to drag my butt out in the fresh air to enjoy the falling stuff.

I actually feel better, but really enjoy wearing a mask [wink wink]. If I can get outside and get fresh air, I will feel much better.

Sunday night we are to go back into a very deep freeze of -17 F so I have some prep to do before that happens no matter how I feel.

A little bit of snow...

Before our light snow+++

A look at the old trail that heads down towards our creek and valley. Dusty and brown.

Out on the edge of a field, I found a lone milkweed pod that still had some seeds on it. This plant was about 3 feet from the forest and probably protected from the winter winds.
 

We got snow. Not much. Not even enough to have the town plows hit the gravel roads. But still, it is moisture and hopefully it will eventually melt into the ground.

A little bit of snow does change the looks of things and these barberries stood out with their bright red berries in the forest. I stayed as much as possible in the forest because getting out where the wind was blowing was very cold.

This next shot is probably only interesting to me. It is of an old oak stump cut down when this area was logged 28 years ago. Probably not interesting to others though. It's texture with snow on it created something interesting to my eye. Too bad we couldn't see it in 3D.

It snowed a bit on and off for the rest of the afternoon and evening so I went out this morning to the summer pasture to get to some shots of the sparkly snow and some shadows. We only received perhaps an inch and a half in total, but it was a nice change from the browns of the day before.

The trail at the top of the hill was much prettier. Plus there were no tracks yet from the critters other than a lone coyote.

The summer pasture did have some pretty spots. I tried so hard to get the snow 'diamonds'. Dad used to call the snow sparkles 'diamonds'. They were there, but so tiny!

The sun was SO bright it hurt my eyes! I had to squint. The temperature was 3 F [-16C]. The sun was shining and I was out of the wind so I did feel just fine.

I think the hardest thing to do with such bright white snow is try to get the exposure spot on. But this was just a little wander around the summer pasture and how it looked with a little bit of fresh snow on it.

In places where the wind had blown, the grasses showed through the snow quiet well.

The shadows of the plants and the textures of the snow were so fascinating.

Of course, Mini Me and Charlie had to check it out too.

According to NOAA [which I hope is not de-funded], we are to get up to 5 inches of snow Friday afternoon and night!

Temperatures will be super frigid come Sunday night.

...oh... parting shot through a window with a screen on it...

The Redheaded Sisters snoozing this morning with their snow blankets on.

Plans for Valentine's Day? None here. Every day is full of ❤️ in our house.

Just make it up as I go...

With the news that is overwhelming and concerning each day, I do try to find something...anything to take my mind off from it and also ease my whirling brain from both the news and the difficulty of being a Caregiver.

I was stuck inside [during that last cold spell] so I decided to do something interesting 3D printed character I acquired. It has no face, no name, but has the number 13 on its chest. It is a color I would never have chosen, but there it is. 

Pink.

Pink must have a story behind her. She is a she, correct? She came with a faithful robot dog. Everyone needs a faithful sidekick, right? So I call them Pink and Pip. I don't know why but just because I felt like it.

They live somewhere in the future I suppose in a warehouse. 

She dreams of a beautiful place a dreamy place. The sort of place her handlers have talked about in the distant past. Beauty, flowers, tranquility.

Pink and Pip play fetch on their down time as Pink explains about this wonderful world she has never seen but has only heard about.

Pip rejoices with her master and plays fetch. They talk about dreams and possibilities. Why is it that their handlers are the only ones allowed to have dreams?

Robots don't really sleep. But they do have down time. One night...Pip pulls Pink out of her downtime. Pip squeaks and squawks.  

This is no imaginary dream. She awakens to ...

to what? She is not programmed for this.

She goes outside to stare at the unbelievable...

What would happen next? I got stuck here for a long time. Actually for a few weeks. I didn't know what Pink should do.

And I left her in a desperate situation... like a cliff hanger on a mystery show...

But then I recalled my MiniBots from last year. I used them for a while and then gave them a storyline with Donder regarding the fact that they found Worm Holes and Rips in the Fabric of Time to travel through.

Maybe ... maybe Pink should find the MiniBots to help transport her away from this awful future world?

All of the above photos were set up indoors using a digital backgrounds. I made the backgrounds using Deep Dream Generator. I simply create a scene I can imagine [which takes many tries] and then either use my laptop for the background as I do for smaller things, or the old smart TV for the larger items. 

It is like making a movie as you have to build 'a set' for the characters that work. It is like producing a Hollywood scene and is quite fun.

I have learned so much from a site called Toy Photographers. I often go back and read their articles. The tips and tricks are fun to experiment with and I think it helps my regular photography also.

Anyway. If my attention remains focused, I'll see if I can figure out Pink and Pip's next steps.

Stopping for a moment

 ...to just relax and think of other things...

I went back to last summer and browsed through photos I took but did nothing with...

for today, I just want to share to peaceful tranquility...

and moments...

this taken in July while sitting on a rock in our creek...

in this place there is no cell service. No one can bother me other than insects and perhaps bird calls. I can listen to the breezes above as they rustle tree leaves.

I may try it this week, although, I would be wearing winter coveralls or something similar to a snow suit. I can just sit on the old cottonwood tree's huge roots.... and settle in and just be...for a while.

Like it or hate it...I'm having a blast.

I'm not very good at making my figures fly through the air but I thought I'd try a leap.

The easiest way to do this, is put a small piece of wire up their bum and position it so it isn't too obvious. Then take it out in post process. You can actually see it a bit in the upper shot, but it looks so close to the grass I decided just to get rid of the obvious bit.

I am however one of those that are always curious no matter what. I recently got a great deal on something called a Lensbaby. This is considered an 'Art' Lens. These lenses have always fascinated me and I've always wanted to try one. I went with a used Sol 22. It is tiny and it can be a real pain or really cool.

It is a manual focus lens with only an f3.5 aperture. In short, it demands your attention when using it. Many photographers don't see the point of this kind of lens and then there are those who absolutely are wild fans of them. Many say ... well I can just do this post process!

But what it you don't have to do any fancy work? What if it is enough to challenge yourself and try something out of the norm?

All I did here was crop the photo just a bit. The orangish color is from the Ulanzi lights I used to help set the mood to a color to highlight the feeling of rusty junk behind Wall-E and Eve.

I picked these 2 up at a Dollar Store over a year ago and couldn't for the life of me figure out what I wanted to do with them until I felt like experimenting with the Sol 22.

The lens let me make Wall-E the focus of the subject matter with his sad looking face. Eve is obviously there and comforting Wall-E. She is part of the 'story' yet not the main focus.  Anyway, that is how I see it.

This next shot is of Donder. He is a Luggan and I really am not sure what his back story, but he comes labeled as a Luggan from 'Acid Rain'. Apparently in the future, the world as we know it is washed away and destroyed by Acid Rain. There are a lot of figures created around this story.  Donder was interesting and bizarre enough to catch my attention.

In my story... Donder hooks up with the MiniBots to create or find a way to get out of horrors of the world that has gone nuts. 
He and the MiniBots find worm holes and rips in time to transport themselves and anyone else who is willing to pay to leave.

Of course worm holes and rips in time aren't things you can predict....but Donder doesn't really care.

I thought I'd use the Sol 22 with Donder and try something out of this world for lighting. The Lensbaby would focus on Donder and the rest would ... well you can see...

I had a crazy idea of using bubble wrap with mini lights taped to it as a background.

The result was so amazing, that I had to use it in a few more scenarios.

Here is my favorite shot of the experiment.

I used side lights of a yellowish glow to highlight Ailie.

Ailie and Rabbit at the Worm Hole... [not shot with the Lensbaby lens]

One thing led to another and now I'm taking this mini lens with me to figure it out. Manual focus can be hard as well as composing with this lens. In fact there are a LOT of times I wouldn't use it, but it is great for slowing down my thinking process and making me more aware of compositions while using it.

Last but not least. A landscape shot with it.

I didn't like it at first. But it does give me a feeling of huge expanse of the ridge I visit often.

I am embracing this new challenge. Quite fun.