Take A Hike!

There is an App that can be used with cell phones called MapMyHike. I had been using my Etrex Garmin GPS for years, but it seems to have issues now, so I thought I'd try this out.

I thought this graph was pretty interesting. It shows that I kept a fairly good pace even with the elevation changes. I know that since May I have increased my power and strength for hill hiking. I surprised myself last weekend when hiking the KVR. It was rather flat and I covered ground in 12 minute miles or less depending on when I stopped for taking photos or re-routing along the river.

My hands may ache and feel horrid, but my legs are strong and can carry me along. Some of this route was similar to what I can ride Sunshine, Mica, or Siera on. However the majority of this hike was on deer trails and not groomed trails.
It involved 'creek leaping' as well as ducking and hopping over dead falls.

I love to chose to go along the creek first anyway. I've even tossed out some flat rocks to assist with the creek crossings.
I went past the Ice Wall to see if there was any ice forming. This area is wet with a lot of water seepage so the ice is forming.

Last year....
in January...

The temperatures will be dropping drastically through the weekend and since I have some avid hikers coming to visit, I thought I'd check out the route we like to take together.

These are the trails I take. There is an old logging road that is a bit wider but nothing is groomed so it is always rough going. I am not complaining as this has been my backyard hiking for the past 20 some years.

I wanted to see if the 'Ice Cave' had any ice on it yet. The ice formation on these rocks are dependent on moisture from the ridge. There hasn't been enough rain or snow melt to create any formations here.
The raccoon have taken over the 'cave' area. I could smell the scat from above it.

As I entered the cropland area I saw this mud-grass bird nest full of cracked corn and berries. I wondered if some field mice didn't use this as a storage bin.

Then it was back out onto the cropland. I hiked through the corn stubble and cut across to our property line.

I hustled down the steep hillside to the creek. I checked my time and I wasn't far off schedule. I'd told Rich that I'd take about an hour and a half. I had 20 minutes to spare.

I marched an slid down the hillside and back to the creek. I grabbed the knotted rope we call "the elevator" and used it for balance while climbing up the steep bank.

The arrow points to the rope I use to go up the bank.

View from the top of the bank into the creek.

I made it home with two minutes to spare.

I grabbed some dry clothes [I'd sweat through my shirt and sweatshirt] and helped Rich finish the stock tanks.

How did I feel afterward? I thought I'd ache all over.
I did not.
I thought I'd feel it today.
I do not.

However, I did sleep like a baby last night. 8 full hours of sound sleep. After 9 years of odd shift work and no sleep pattern, I am finally feeling a bit more normal. I feel like leaving that job gave me back years of life.

I'm already plotting my next hike.

Farm Life

The past few mornings and nights I have run outside in pj's and slippers to 'grab' shots of the sunrise or sunset.
The colors have been absolutely brilliant.

I also went on an short excursion to find some dried weeds in the valley. Of course I got sidetracked by the "Ice Fingers" clinging to the grass on the banks of the creek.

I'm trying to scout out the best trails to take some friends on.  We will be doing a New Year's Eve Night Hike.
Hoping to make it an annual event!

The Kenosha Gang left me some 'tack' markers. I'm going to work on one of the more difficult trails to follow ... in the day... or in the night and clean it up a bit. I will use the tack markers that reflect light.

That should help.

I collected the items I needed and spent a few minutes sitting by the creek admiring Mother Nature's ice sculptures.

Same Ice Fingers, different angle.

Sometimes I have to place the camera in the creek itself.

For whatever reason...I think I could spend the whole day just hunting for these little fingers of ice on the grass.
So many beautiful possibilities.

Again. This is the same little formation of ice. Just another angle.

I didn't have much time, I had to get back to start chores and supper.
And wouldn't you know it!
I put the bouquet I'd picked down for a moment while I picked some burrs out of my scarf...and left them there!
[A good reason, I believe to go back today???]

So I went up the steep trail to the Merry Meadow.

Out came the pink fugly camera.
My photo group was doing Silhouettes for our weekly theme.

The sun was so low in the sky. I couldn't resist.

Not a pure shot by any means. But I like it. It depicts a winter version of a scrub apple tree.

I made it home in time to do chores.

I make it a point to visit with each of the mules and 15 [our horse] every day.
The Redheaded sisters took advantage of the last rain and covered themselves in mud. I let them be covered like this as it adds a layer to their already very thick winter coats. I will groom them for riding later. Any grooming is always a love fest on our place.

Last but not least.

Stella. Our youngest Dexter heifer. She is such a doll. However she is on the bottom of the 'totem' pole in the girl's herd.
But she is also the most tame and friendly heifer we have.

For whatever reason, she loves to pull on my gloves.

Dixie reminded me that Gun Deer Season is over and she would love to help me mark trails.
Hmm.
Morris reminded me that he likes very short walks in the cold and prefers more than one blanket to burrow into on the couch.

And...
so begins another day!

Dixie Saves the Day

It was cold, misty, and foggy. I still had a bunch of milkweed pods I wanted to get and I knew there were some I could find in the soybean field between the contour strips nearby.
It was only a 15 to 20 minute hike.

I decided to take Dixie the hound dog since she would end up being confined during the 9 day deer gun season. It had been a while since I'd taken her off the farm for a walk. A long time!
How would she do? Would she behave on a leash?

I clipped an old lead rope to her collar. She pulled a little bit at first and then settled into almost a perfect heel. I was so pleased that she remembered her manners.

Off we went. Dixie trotted alongside me swinging her head back and forth as her nose worked the air. As a hound, I'm sure she was investigating the 'air' off the farm. Since we were on a field road, I let her off leash. She promptly ran like a puppy in large circles stopping to smell the aromas that lingered in the damp air.
She didn't mind the misty fog at all.
I found the milkweed pods and began to clip them to length.

Dixie ran up and smelled what I was doing and then ran back out onto the picked soybean field.
I whistled and waved to her. She ran up to me.
"Dixie, sit!"
Dixie stared at me and trotted around me.
"Dixie! Sit!" I made a motion and tapped her hindquarters with my hand.
She instantly sat and looked up at me. I reached down and loved her up. She groaned.
I decided to follow the snow mobile trail down into the valley. I could always go up the creek to the trail that led back home.
It was the long way, but what the heck, I had Dixie with me and having company in the Wild Woods is a nice thing.

It is fun to have her along. She is exuberant in all she does.

We hiked the trail down into the valley.
Dixie would run ahead and then race back to me.

I thought we might get into some trouble when 3 nice doe bounded across the trail in front of her. She stopped and whined and looked after the deer. I whistled and yelled out "NO!" Dogs who chase deer are frowned upon in our area, especially only a few days before gun season.

She wanted to hunt and chase, that is her nature. But she wasn't sure. I squatted down and whistled again.
Dixie charged like a bullet. She ran up to me and past me. Then touched me and let me love her up.
Off she went again to lead the way and let her nose do some investigating.

We explored the damage done by the spring flash floods to the snow mobile crossing. The culvert had been washed away and repeated hard rains had made the creek cut in at least 6 feet below the crossing. The gap had widened considerably. I don't think the owners of the land even knew this was washed away. I guess they'd get a surprise come Saturday morning when they drove their trucks or 4 wheelers in. No access to the rest of the land by vehicle any more.

Upstream the creek spreads out but it is more like a swamp. A person can walk through it and I've ridden with Ariel and the mules through it, but a 4 wheeler or road vehicle is not going to get through the deep sucking mud.

Dixie and I went upstream. Just before we got to the Willows, 4 bucks crashed up out of the brambles and headed up the steep valley hill. Dixie ran to follow but crashed into the thick briers and brambles. My whistle stopped her.
She came back.
I put her on the lead rope.
"Oh Dixie," I said petting her. She wagged her whole body. "Now I'm going to put you on a tight rope. I don't think you'll be able to contain yourself if we pop up more deer!"

We came to a creek crossing. I didn't want to get my feet any wetter than they were, so I jumped. Dixie jumped with me. I was grateful that the big lug hadn't taken that moment to knock into me while on the lead rope.

I took a reroute along a deer trail to keep from walking in the creek. I reached into my coveralls pocket for the pink camera that I normally carry and it wasn't there. My first thought was. Good! I lost it! I can finally replace it!
My next thought was, Dang I had some fun shots of Dixie on it!

I set the bouquet of milkweed pods down and turned Dixie and I around. We had to go find the camera. I probably lost it in the big leap over the creek.
I wonder if it landed in the creek? I'd dropped it years ago in nearly the same place.

I started back the same way I came. Dixie now seemed to have a purpose. I let her lead me as she seemed intent on smelling her way back. She did retrace our steps and when we got to the spot I'd jumped the creek? She bore down and tried to pick something up ...

I plucked the pink camera out of the muck and zipped it into my pocket.
I loved Dixie up and let her off lead.

Time to head home.

Okay. Dixie never really 'saved the day'. But she was fun to have along. She was obedient and fun. I really needed to take her hiking more often. Especially since Morris can't really go anymore.

I wonder how she'd do with our friend's dog Scout?

Well, that remains to be seen.
Dixie is as always, a fine and wonderful dog. She simply IS. And that is good for me.
And that camera? It still works just fine.
Sigh. It is 8 yrs old and I'd really like one a bit better...

Dixie and I hiking together. Caught on our Trail Cam.

The old Pink Fugly Camera

Reflections in the small pond area

I stuck the old pink ugly camera in my pocket and fully intended not to use it.

However, it actually was more useful then my Nikon camera.

I thought this looked like claw marks

 Ice reflections

Sunset sky, taken while petting the red headed mule sisters.

After being dropped into the creek once by me in 2009, left in the woods, dropped into a drinking fountain once by the grand kids, and totally abused and mistreated for the past 8 yrs, this camera has outlasted all of my my more pricier pocket cameras and it isn't a freeze proof, water proof camera.

I paid all of $50 for it and it just keeps on snapping.

I wonder sometimes why I don't just leave the 'good' camera at home and take this like I used to!

Let it snow

The weather people predicted a significant snow fall for us starting at midnight on Sunday. Indeed it did snow!

Since this was the first real snowfall of the season, I was excited to take that first snowfall hike.

I grabbed my camera backpack, a plastic bag, some paper towels, and my gun belt. Morris started running circles around me in the house. I hadn't taken him the day before and he wasn't letting me out of the house without him again.

I decided that since the snow was so wet and heavy I'd best take my little pink pocket camera. The Pink Fugly camera that never dies. I stuffed it in my pocket and Morris beat me to the door.

At the top of the lane we stopped to check on the Dexter's water tank. It was full. Beauty and Buster came up to the fence line to stare at us. The other Dexters were laying on their old pile of hay chewing their cud. 

Morris ran ahead leaping and going from one place to another acting as if he were a puppy instead of a nearly 13 year old dog.  I think he loves the snow as much as I do.

We got to the creek and then hiked to the place I'd stacked some rocks on the day before.

I took a photo and we explored some more. I wasn't that surprised that there weren't many new animals tracks in the snow. They wouldn't be out until after the storm had ended.

The snow was coming down so hard I had to be careful with my Olympus OMD E5. The camera is one of the first mirrorless cameras made by Olympus and it is supposed to be weather resistant. However, I wasn't sure how far I wanted to push that.

It still got fairly wet, but I had a cloth to wipe it off after using it each time.

I managed to get a few shots of the fresh snow falling before I decided to put it away safely in the backpack.

The pink camera then took over.

Before we left the creek, Morris and I climbed an old Basswood tree that lays across the creek. The view is more interesting from 10 feet above the ground.

The fresh snow made the climb more interesting. Morris is better suited to climbing in slippery conditions than I am.

Both Morris and I were soaking wet by the time we made it home. The snow was still coming down fairly hard.

I had a text on my phone asking me if I wanted to try out the cross country skis.

Of course! And off I went again after I dried my coveralls in the dryer.

Morris curled up on the couch and didn't flick an ear when I got ready. He probably was enjoying the fact that I'd covered him up with a sweatshirt that was nice and warm that was fresh out of the dryer.

We sure did enjoy the skiing. We had to quit due to the fact that the temperatures crawled up a bit and our skis kept 'clumping' up with snow.

I probably shouldn't have been so excited about the snow. My husband acted as if he was horrified at it.

However funny thing...

He was not horrified at being able to use his 'upgraded' skid steer with a cabin and a heater and a ... new/used plow that hooked up to his hydraulics.

He managed to make sure that it was right at chore time. Sigh. 

I guess we both enjoyed our first snow day!

Thoughts on Photography

I used to claim to be a purist.  But that was when I faithfully took film shots and left it up to the lab to do my printing.

Along came the digital camera and I was not not not going to go there.
But in the end I gave in and got a little point and shoot digital Olympus Stylus camera. And the digital age took me by storm.

And then I acquired my first Photoshop program to learn with.  Photoshop 7.0.
I enjoyed working with the program and becoming creative with it.

But I still wanted basically to remain true to the photo.


Now you can get Adobe Lightroom $9.99 for per month.

Adobe CC their slogan...Take It/Make It. Software for rent.
The slogan they have bothers me a bit.

Take It/Make It.
I think it gives the wrong message to budding photographers.


To me it says, take the photo, 'rent' our software and we can teach you how to make a great photo.
But is it a new normal for photography?
Granted you do need software to make .RAW files into .jpegs or other useful files.  


I also don't buy into the fact that you cannot take good photos unless you have the Industry Standard Photo Editing Software or the most expensive lenses and most expensive cameras.
However I suffer camera envy and lens envy with the best of them.

Whatever happened to learning to use a camera and exploring its capabilities first?  The internet it full of online photography classes.

How to edit your photos into a masterpiece!
Learn Photography, a Tutorial!


I will also say that yes, I do use editing software.  But I go for 'the shot' and try to make it as correct as possible first and not afterwards.

I take it and then may have to touch it up.

 Original

Edited to take out the noise from the long exposure on the moving water in this shot.

ISO 200

f/20

60 second exposure

Olympus E-420

ND filter

I most certainly didn't need that long of an exposure and could have done with a slower one, but the ND filter was a 10 stop filter. Very dark.  I could have gone with a lighter one, but the sun was so bright and I enjoy seeing how far I can push exposures.

The shot itself is not one to write home about.  I was trying to get the rocks and the ice crystal clear and allow the  water to be ultra smooth.  Instead I 'sort of' got it. 

I assume if I spent enough time working on this shot, I could enhance the ice and the rocks.  But this shot doesn't shout at me as being that great. 
So I passed on spending hours in a software program making a great photo.  
I plainly missed hitting the mark on this shot. 
More than likely if I'd not gone with such a long exposure I would have gotten something much nicer.


Here is another shot I took with a Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd S1413 pink point and shoot camera. I was walking along the snowmobile trail and pulled the camera out of my breast pocket and choose Landscape as the setting.

No editing other than the water mark.

Then I did take it to CorelPaintShopProX7 and used Topaz BW Effects 2 to get this.

ISO 100

f 7.2

1/1166 seconds

No filters

You guessed it, I am guilty of 'making' a dramatic black and white shot from a color shot.

The difference here is that I knew the capabilities of Topaz BW Effects and as I looked at the scene in front of me, I thought of how it would be composed in black and white.

I didn't just shoot a random shot.  I knew how the clouds would add drama against the blue sky when I shot it.  

I knew from old school film that in black and white photography the red filter would whiten the clouds and darken the blue sky.

And simply, I really liked the composition of the shot.
Of all the shots I took that day hiking in and out of the valley, this is the one I think was my best.

This was my the second shot I took in a portrait view to catch more of the sky, but I like the first one better.

Then there was the neat ice formations.

Unedited

Edited to show details and cropped

It is a pretty shot and one of interest to me because of the delicate frost forming. But not stunning or electrifying.  

And lastly just something for fun.

I spent a lot of time last week crouching and kneeling on the snow and ice.

Did I mention I love photography in the winter?