Agrostology

The study of grasses.

I won't become an expert at studying grasses, but I am learning quite a bit about something I've taken for granted all along.

Grass.

Well, it is more than that. To a farmer, what grows in his/her pastures is important to know. Do they have good forage? 

The photo below is of my ridgetop neighbor's oats. She is 85 [yes! she farms at 85 after having 4 heart valves replaced last year! She moves a bit slow while getting into her big red tractors, but she still farms!]

I've always adored her yearly plantings of oats. 

Oats can be so photographic!

How about Timothy Grass?

I've seen it, I know it is in our hay and I walk through it on the roadside. 

BUT

I never thought to look at it closely or 

take its portrait.

The photos below show Timothy Grass showing off its Spikelets.

Cool word. Spikelets.

It is the flowering parts of the grasses.

This one below has a Stink Bug on it!

A few days later in a different light [early morning].

What about them cool Spikelets??

While checking out the grasses, of course I came across clover. It is a legume and not a grass. Well now, that is another difference I'm learning about the world I walk about in.

White clover.

Purple clover!

Next up? Another legume. This I found in another neighbor's field. I always just made an assumption that IF it is green and grows and animals eat it ---> it must be grass.

Boy, I could learn a few things.

Alfalfa.

However, I do know that this also has beautiful tiny blossoms so I'll make it a point to keep walking up to this field every day to try and catch a photo of that.

This is another good forage crop for hay.

And that ends my knowledge list of grasses right now. 

I do know that come winter, I will look through these photos with fond memories and curiosity. They will remind me of how beautiful and green summer is. 

And how stunning something as simple as 'grass' or 'legumes' are.

I never realized how difficult grasses can be to photograph. 

I may never be a true Agrostologist, but I am having so much fun learning about something new.

More Killer Bike Adventures by Siera

I cannot believe it!

Val came walking with a Wild Killer Bicycle! You could see it was wild, it hadn't been groomed in ages!

I tried to warn her by snorting and spinning in our pasture about the dangers of spokes and wheels. But she paid no mind and left it in the grass on the opposite side of the fence. 

Sunshine concurred with me. She trotted away shaking her head but stopped a safe distance away.

"Do you suppose it will eat all of our hay?" She asked. She stared over at the bike and gave it the evil stink eye.

Oh NO! I hadn't thought of that! What if Bicycles EAT hay? Or sweet feed? Or gasp...can crawl under hot wires and and steal our food?

This called for immediate action.

I slowly crept forward and around the pen to come from the Bicycle's backside. Maybe it couldn't see from the back? I inched forward bobbing my head up and down.

I lurched forward and grabbed a mouthful of hay and then spun away ready to kick.

Sunshine followed suit, but she backed away. I suppose that was a smarter thing to do.

The Bicycle didn't move all day. It just lurked and lurked.

Later in the day Val walked over and kicked it. It fell over and we were quite impressed.

"Did you see that?" asked Sunshine, "She is so brave! She can handle that wild thing! Wow."

I was not impressed because later I came by that section of fence and it was back up and it had moved!

My immediate concern was that a Regurgitating Baby Stroller would join it when we weren't looking. 

 

Snow Day!

I'm way behind on 'stuff' but there isn't a whole lot going on around here. 
 

There is Charlie who adores snow and cold. You would not think so with his short legs! He literally snow swims and bounds through the snow. He has more issues with heat than he has with cold it seems.

I have to remind myself that he has a very thick hound dog coat that is moisture resistant.

Below is Siera taking a snooze in the snow. 

At feeding time, they all got squirrely and ran around while I pulled the hay sled through the snow to the feeders.

And then there is the Fearless redheads. They follow the sled and nibble out of it while the ding bat bays run like the sled will eat them.

Sundance~~ I'll just take it from the sled thank you very much!

Charlie, Bear, and I go on a little snowshoe trip to the valley.

An 'outtake' from an idea I had...

The day after the big/little snow. It was below zero.

But that was the day of mighty winds and a trip with a friend to hike along the Kickapoo River and search for ice.

Did I say how much I loved winter? 

Yeah. 

I do.

Mule Attitude

So the big snow is occurring. I don't think it is going to be a 5 to 10 inch snowfall here, however ... the 'event' is not supposed to end until this evening.

I added bedding and hay to Sven's indoor pen. I considered shutting the door to his pen but the other day when I did have it closed he 'locked' himself out. He has access to a rather large area outside and spends most sunny days observing his Kingdom from a mound.

Here Charlie is checking for yummy goat poo.

I loaded a huge hay net for Mica and Sunshine to put in the large stall I built.

Suffice to say that Mica turned into an evil beast when I put her in the stall and put Sunshine in with her for company. She kicked at Sunshine and shoved her around.
I think a few factors entered into this. Mica has a paddock next to the shed and I separated her about a month ago from the others. She has Sven on one side of her and Little Richard on the other. I've been giving her a bit of sweet feed twice a day.
One: Mica wasn't in Sunshine's herd anymore.
Two: Mica preferred Little Richard and Sven to Sunshine's company
Three: Sweet Feed has helped her maintain her weight but has not helped her attitude.

Hmm. I may have to start thinking about using some beet pulp.

Anyway, I got them calmed down and dumped the hay out of the net and separated it into the far corners of the large stall.
Meanwhile, the storm did rage on outside with high winds and blowing snow.

The other mules huddled around their piles of snow and then disappeared into the woods to get out of the stinging winds and snow.

Morning:

Sundance says good morning!

Fred. No good morning.

Get my breakfast!

Fred is 33 yrs old.

Siera and 15

These two are nearly inseparable.

The Breakfast Club

This morning it was obvious that Mica feuded with Sunshine all night. Sunshine was dry as a bone and calm. Mica was sweaty and high strung. I had to tie Mica up in order to take Sunshine back out to the pasture.

Sunshine met up with her herd mates, and walked calmly into the bigger pasture and took a snow bath.

I brushed Mica and fluffed her coat. I walked her quite a bit in the shed to cool her off and at times she wanted nothing to do with me. Once I put her out in her paddock she went and stood by where she gets her morning sweet feed and paced the hot wire.
I ignored her and put out hay.

I'm happy to report that she is back to her peaceful self. I'm guessing the old saying that sometimes when you try to be super nice to a mule, it backfires on you.

IR Photography ~ No you shouldn't do that!

Well I decided to read instructions and try out some IR photography again.

IR is for bright sunny days with lots of blue skies and green leaves.

The colors are really quite different when using an Infrared Filter.

The above shot is from last summer on a hot day. The leaves are white, the blue sky is dark and the clouds are bright.
Heat reflection is what changes to white.

However I like to use the filter on items that aren't typical for IR photography.

Like animals.

A Gaggle of mules resting near the water tank. The exposure was 1/4 second at 1000 ISO with an IR filter on it.

Mica resting up near the equipment/training shed.

On these two shots, I let the pinkish colors come through. However, IR photography makes for fantastic black and white shots.

However the shutter speed is much slower so it isn't that great for shooting live subjects.
But I had to try.

Below.
WhoDunnit resting in the sun.

And then as it is meant to be used on a landscape.

The greens are white, anything that is warmed by the sun reflects a white color.

And there are always the long exposures that allow for interesting effects like this shot at Jersey Valley last fall. The sun lit up a small section of trees and the reflections were awesome.

But what the heck, if you don't experiment, you don't find new avenues of expression.