Stuck indoors

The winds were absolutely wicked and the snow is like concrete in places. I shot these turkeys out through the front door in the wide open summer pasture.

I was bored inside. I wanted to go hiking but Rich said he was feeling a bit off, so I stuck myself to inside the house.

I just purchased a Infrared converted digital camera that is a pocket camera. Look forward to some wildly creative shots after I get it!

Meanwhile I got out my Olympus which is on it's last legs and fitted the IR lens filter I had for it.
Now IR is really meant for warm sunny days, not cold winter days.

But I don't believe in rules...so I started to play.

Infrared shot of the sky out the back door...the green on the pines do reflect white..

Edit to black and white from the Infrared filtered shot.
The pine needs are white as well as the bark which reflects the heat.
Cool huh?

And then I decided to play around with Rich's old torn up gloves and a wrench thingy I found in the shed.

I like the white one better and I used a 'paint effect' on it too. PSP's Painter Essentials 6. A pretty easy program. I let the program paint the photo and then saved it. There can be a bit more to it, but I didn't work super hard on it.

Pink Whisperly Dreams.
I shot this with the infrared filter on too. Just experimenting with colors and different stuff.

Lastly the Nisse that was hand made for me with a mini bottle of wild grapvine curls.

The raw winds continued to blow outside on Monday and it just felt bitter. I kept busy indoors. Vacuum, dust, and balancing the books. I think for sure that balancing the books is the worst job ever.

Yesterday was appointments day. PT at the VA and other appointments which led to more appointments.

Well that is the way it goes sometimes right?
We came home to a slew of messages on the answering machine. One was from
the VA Fiduciary Field Examiner, she wanted to set up a meeting.

Well.
Now let me be clear. I am glad that the VA does protect its veterans that are incapable of handling their finances by their system. There is a potential for abuse. But it is a bit intimidating too.
I don't know anyone who has done this, but I am reading up on it.

I've been keeping spreadsheets on our expenses and handling our accounts for quite a while ... so ... well. I'm nervous.
Time to go do some more reading.

2 Days of Winds

Since I felt human again and could smell and taste again for the first time in over a week, I thought I'd take a few minutes and try and hide from the wind after I watered the stock tanks.

The cattle were sleeping comfortably on their fodder pile.
It seemed as if Houdini was trying to get WhoDunnit up from his nap.

Rich was taking his afternoon nap which I can usually count on like clockwork. Feed him a nice lunch and it is nap time. I could count on at least 2 hours of quiet time.

The skies were amazing so I thought I'd better see what I could accomplish.

I used my little point and shoot camera to sweep the Merry Meadow while I was waiting for the tank to fill. The clouds were racing across the sky and the winds were howling.

It looked like it could be an amazing afternoon.

So I found a spot out of the wind to sit on a log.

The north facing hillside has finally let go of all of the snow. The meadow grasses are green and because of the hard rains and the winds the ground is fairly stable and not the usual mush that we find this time of year.

The view to the east was pretty amazing also. The sky was rapidly changing.

These shots were taken within just a few minutes of each other. To the south were blue skies, to the east were these ragged clouds.

To the south east the blue was quickly disappearing.

After the snow/rain/wind squall came through, I went back out to do chores. There was Bart standing against a backdrop of blue skies and white clouds to the north west.

Bart seemed rather unconcerned about the strange weather. He stood quietly until I brought his hay to him.

I thought we'd have a magnificent sunset with all the wild weather coming in and the rapid conditions changing so I kept my camera ready.

Just before sunset, dark clouds swept in once again and we got sleet/hail/rain/snow mix with heavy gusts of winds.

And this morning I woke to clear skies, cold temperatures and wind gusts up to 50 mph. Looks like this roaring is going to continue today.