Social Butterfly!

 Somehow this week, I became a Social Butterfly.

A few weeks ago, an old acquaintance of mine texted and asked if we could meet for supper in Mid March. She was one of my 4H students from years ago. I think we met when she moved into the area and I rode my horse past her house.

I stopped to say hello and she went nutso over my horse. She joined 4H and I worked with her in the Horseless Horse Program. We worked with my grade gelding as my mare was still pretty green. She was in High School and a great student. She went on to place in the upper 10 slots at State for Horseless Horse walk trot. A lot of other folks helped us do fancy things like doing the mane and tail and they provided her with a show saddle.

We've remained friends through the years. Now her older daughter is in her first year of college, the youngest will be 15 soon. They live near Racine so we don't get to see each other a lot.

We met for supper in Spring Green as that was about half way for the both of us. She was doing a travelling set up for the company she works for and ended up in Baraboo, WI. 

We spent a couple of hours at Culvers getting caught up on each others' lives. It was great to have just myself and her at the table without her kids or hubby interrupting. 

There we are. Not a great shot of us but who cares? We did the math and ... geeze, we've been friends for over 30 years! Yikes!

Hint. I'm not the blonde one. I'm the one in the old sweatshirt and baseball cap.

I drove home in the dark. Hmmm. Now a year ago, I wouldn't have done that at all. BUT!
I could see! I could see even with normal headlights. Things were clear as a bell unless someone with those new fancy LED headlights had their brights on and didn't dim them. I had no visual problems.

Wow. I was so happy and stunned at the same time. I turned up the volume on my Pandora Station and enjoyed the drive. This will be another positive I can report to my eye doctor next week when I see him.

Tuesday evening I did CrossFit, Wednesday I hiked at KVR in the morning and went out to meet my pal in the evening. This morning, I was at another great CrossFit workout and got my errands done before the rains started.

Friday my ex neighbor Teri is going to pick me up and we are going to dinner together! 

Whew!

Charlie leading the way
on Wintergreen Trail
[photo taken in IRChrome]

Ice Falls melting on
Wintergreen Trail
[IRChrome]

March may be kind of mucky, snowy, rainy, and icky. But this week I'm enjoying it. 

Soulmates

The horse that started it all. Her name was Cheyanne and I purchased her for about $400 green broke. I was green broke too. She taught me so much about equine. She was super sensitive to human attitudes. 
Her awareness of her rider's mental state was hypersensitive.

She did a stint in 4 H with Horseless Horse riders and went to state with a rider. 

Unfortunately that atmosphere was not her forte. She did well but stressed out so badly especially when her rider came out of the arena and started to slap Chey because she didn't get first place. 
The rider blamed Cheyanne. Interestingly enough the rider's mother came up to me and complained that I should have made them do better and they would win next year.

I asked the rider to dismount and told mom that her daughter would never touch my horse again.

I ended up moving from the Kenosha area out to the western part of the state. 

I started riding mules and Cheyanne was bred to our Jack. Her first daughter, Sunshine has that floating trot that Chey had. Cheyanne was 1/2 Arab and 1/2 Quarter horse. We never were quite sure which breed would show up while riding her. If we had really tough trails, she would be calm. If it was boring, she would look for monsters. That was Chey.

Rich purchased a big tall lanky mule for me in Missouri out of our Jack. His name was Badger. If ever I had a soulmate in equine form, Badger was it.

I had to finish 'training' him and by doing that, I learned so much more about mules and their loyalties. We showed in Western Pleasure, played at Gymkhana, and explored wild woods nearly every day together.

The man who 'started' Badger under saddle said he was worthless and no good. He didn't have heart and sulled out all of the time. 

Badger was 15 hands and thought he was tiny. For the rest of his life he did not tolerate big male people. 

He even tried Endurance Riding with me. We never won anything, but we always passed vet checks with a great score card.

He adored little people.

We lost Badger in 2012 and I struggled to find another soul mate. 

Sunshine is Badger's half sister out of Cheyanne without the Cheyanne attitude. We also had Siera a Peruvian Paso mule with an amazing attitude. 

Sunshine is steady. She has had her moments, but has turned into one of the best wild wood mounts I've ever had. She is small enough to go morel hunting with, easy on and off, and confident in solo riding.

Siera is an amazing ride. On the flat she can gait out like nothing I've ever ridden. She is calm when she has company and a bit nervous solo. She rarely gets bothered if her rider doesn't understand what they are doing. She just stops what she is doing and waits.
Best thing of all, when she is frightened she just stands there. Siera is the ultimate in lazy.

At first I thought Siera would be my next pure mule soulmate. 

The more I interact with my mules, the more I have discovered that Sunshine, that little red mule that everyone laughed at...has become my little darling. 

Every day at chore time. She comes and stands before me and waits for me. She is kind and attentively listens to my daily troubles and offers only her friendship.

She never runs away from me when I have a halter.

She is like her half brother. True through and through. 

My beautiful redhead.

There I go ... Memory Lane. Mules, horses, life, and love.

I can't wait to go riding again!

I may have take Siera or Sunshine out when the weather warms up and do some snow play.

Have a great day.

Gearing up for the Fair

I've narrowed down the final photos I'm going to exhibit.

It took a lot more time and effort than I thought it would.

One of the hardest categories I had to deal with was "Nature".
According to Photographic Society of America Nature is:
Images used in Nature Photography competitions may be divided in two classes: Nature and Wildlife. Images entered in Nature sections meeting the Nature Photography Definition above can have landscapes, geologic formations, weather phenomena, and extant organisms as the primary subject matter. This includes images taken with the subjects in controlled conditions, such as zoos, game farms, botanical gardens, aquariums and any enclosure where the subjects are totally dependent on man for food.

Well okay, then I had to re-think my idea. I wasn't sure exactly what I was looking for, but my Nature submission was finally narrowed down to this:

Good old coral fungi and a slug!

I'm still struggling with the 'Winter Scene'.
I thought about the snow scene of our farm but then got sidetracked into other winter scenes.
I admit, winter is my favorite time of year to do photography.
And... I take so many shots in the woods and on trails that I hike ...it is hard to chose.
The pasture after our freak April snow storm.

The creek after week of ice and cold, then a melt.
Hubby likes this shot because of the cool ice and the water.

Then another favorite of mine the melt down in January.

But the winner may be this one. Taken at Parfrey's Glen on an ice hike with my friends.

Well, winner for me that is. I spread the photos out on the table and stand back as a judge may do and then just let my eyes roam over the shots.

Which one grabs the eye?

Hard to say. And then again, each judge has their own likes and dislikes. Are my 'scenes' not wide enough? Are they too focused? Do they want more color?

Oh boy, you'd think I was obsessing about this and you are right.

My domestic animal shot for black and white.

And the one I chose for Landscape.

I feel this does justice to the wide open landscape definition and it really is a true photo of our area. Perhaps not enough wow in the color, but that is okay.

My color reflection shot is hands down one of my favorite photos from Jersey Valley last year.
However, due to the recent floods, Jersey Valley may once again be gone. I don't know if there will be money to replace the wing dam that broke.

Enough obsessing.
I'm going to visit with some 4H kids who do photos each year to see how to properly exhibit the photos on Tag Board.

I am entertaining becoming a 4H leader again.

But that is another story all together!

I'm going out and enjoy this thing called sunshine outside.

Where is the summer going to?

The Hopi Squash are getting ripe, the cosmos are getting ready to explod into colors in the garden. All is so beautiful.

The sun is moving towards the south as the earth tilts, racing towards fall.

Our nights are actually pretty cold for this time of hear. We were in the 40's this morning. It has made the bees sleepy and lazy. Better to photograph them though as they are madly buzzing about.

On our way to go fishing at Blackhawk Park on Wednesday we saw trees that were turning. What a surprise! I don't know if they were damaged trees, sick trees, or just as Rich said. "They are turning because it is time!"

We fished at Blackhawk and enjoyed a few hours of peace and tranquility. The fish weren't really biting and the 3 small ones Rich caught were tossed back into the water.

I couldn't help myself with the bright glaring sunlight. Perfect for Infrared photos and not so great for regular shots.

Thursday was another whirlwind day. Off we went to the Madison VA to do Speech Therapy. Towards evening, I had promised to go visit a 4H family and walk around and inspire the kids to take their photos for the upcoming fair.

To say the least, we had fun!
Their farm is on a high ridge top with amazing views.

School starts soon and some of the grand kids are coming for another visit.

This weekend will be a whirlwind of activities. My K-town friends are coming to visit. We'll be target practicing with our bows, doing some hiking, and of course seeking beautiful places to photograph.
On Monday Ariel and Dennis will arrive to spend the last week of August with us.

I am looking forward to the fall season.

And more visits to the farm on the ridge....

Fun in Photography

Yesterday was an adventure in photography.

About a month ago, I sent my Nikon D40 to a 'good' home.  I had found a family that had both a mom and children that had a photography 'itch' and wanted to learn with something a bit more challenging than a Smart Phone or a point and shoot.

The oldest girl had saved up her own money to purchase a small Canon pocket camera to take photos for 4H last year.  

We finally arranged a time that we could all get together and take a 'farm hike' and explore photography together.  I brought some of my older cameras and we headed out.  The youngest got my nearly indestructible Fujifilm point and shoot.

Everyone enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine.  Each of the kids saw and photographed the world differently. 

It was fun to watch them explore the world through the camera lens.

Of course I brought my little toys to help them figure out how to do macro shots of very small items.  They have invited me back for when they hunt morel mushrooms and to help them identify wild flowers in the forest.

The kids told me about the categories they could enter in 4H, so we talked about different kinds of shots they would like to do.
Mom casually mentioned that they could really use a good 4H leader in their group.  I raised my eyebrows.

I haven't been involved in 4H for over 20 years.  

Hmmm.

I always love visiting their farm - my hubby buys hay from them and sometimes I go with and enjoy the views from their incredible ridgetop farm.

Mom said that we'll have to do this again.  I agreed.  All of the kids caught the 'Shutter-Bug'.  

We talked about sunrises and sunsets on the farm also.  I can only imagine how spectacular some sunrises are.  
Their farm sits above the Mississippi and has valleys on each side of it.
On many mornings, they look down on mist covered valleys as the sun comes over the horizon. 

I know I will look forward to our next Photo-walk and adventure.

I can only say that spending hours with enthusiastic young people really made my heart sing with joy yesterday.

I'm looking forward to doing it again.