About this and that...

Fred gets a bath and immediately does what any self respecting mule will do.
Roll in the closest dirt pile to replenish the dirt.

Here are some of the projects I've been working on. I used an old milker to plant some petunias in.

This is part of the East Garden just before I put the milker in. I needed to make a straight edge to mow a bit easier. I used landscape fabric and planted some petunias and marigolds...then added the black mulch.
I need much much mulch!

View after the mulch job. Be warned, this garden goes through many phases of re-arranging as the summer goes on. The bricks are there in place until I get some nice rocks to replace them with...

Hubby brought loads of black dirt for around the house. The ground settled after the remodel.

So I used a rake and a shovel to move the dirt to where I wanted it.

It took another day or so to get some plants transplanted around in the dirt. I don't like landscape fabric as a rule. I just crowd out weeds if I can with plants.
We will see how that works! Not too sure!

Then I found another new project. Another old chair found in the red shed.
I started this weekend with painting it. I'm not exactly sure how it will turn out.
It will be a porch chair or a chair for inside when we have company.
Last year I made the Happy Chair.

Perhaps I can make another chair ... Naughty Chair?
Lazy Chair? Thoughtful Chair?

Photo of the Happy Chair I worked on from last summer....

Here is a sample of what I've been doing.
Before....

 After...
It need improvements all around, but I like perennials. These all have come from other areas of the yard where I 'stored' them while I was waiting for the remodel to be done and the ground to 'settle'.

And speaking of gardens.
I am just about ready to start the vegetable garden.

Last but not least!
Tadah! We had too many cattle for me to take care of and last year Rich decided we should sell 6 head and keep two for eating. Another few could stay as our forest gleaners.
Rich kept putting it off and off. Part of the stroke issues is an inability to get certain decisions made.
I hooked up with a farmer friend and he arranged it.
We moved the cattle Wednesday afternoon to a small fenced in paddock with metal 'catch pen' gates.

The farm friend showed up as well as the trucker and we loaded up the little Dexters and sent them on their way.

The others tiny group is busy working at mowing and keeping the weeds under control.

And now I think I've caught up on farm work for a bit.

Have a wonderful weekend. I have company arriving tonight to prep for.....

Whirlwind Activity

I like dawn. I like it even better with a pal. In this case my pal was not just a mule or one Charlie.

I took Ariel on her first 'rough' ride in the woods. This photo was after she and Siera did a mule slide into the creek. A big deal for Siera as she is pretty sure she doesn't want to do it and a big deal for Ariel who had to convince her it was okay.

Everyone survived and Ariel got to test out her 'muleman ship'. Ariel didn't seem convinced that she did fine. I was on Sunshine who is rather ho hum about mud, muck, and sliding into streams. Siera is sure it is mule-eating mud. She will do it though.

We rode two early mornings and what can I say? It is fantastic to have a riding partner. We beat the heat, got wet from dew laced leaves and got to see the fog coming off the creek into the warm air. The trails we followed were deep in the woods and along the creek. We simply followed the 4 Wheeler's trails. [Apparently they are not allowed in there!]

I rode Mica the second morning. We took the 'tough' trail out to the valley bottom and then used an old logging trail to head back home.

On a nice open trail like this Siera is the dream ride. Mica gets bored and seems to walk in her sleep.
No matter, we made two early morning rides and enjoyed them.

When I got back, I asked Dennis if he'd like to ride and brush up on his skills. He said yes. I gave him a boost to get on Siera and let him ride in the yard area.

The kids are pretty darned good riders on well behaved mules of course. I wish I had a buddy that would come ride with me often.

Morris always used to run alongside Badger and I. Later after Badger passed over the rainbow bridge, Morris would come with Siera and I. He even rode with me on Opal.

We'd had a very busy weekend. Stepdaughter's husband had wanted some wood to cut and load so he was busy during the blistering heat on Saturday. We grilled hot dogs and had a nice supper in the air conditioned house.

And...
of course Charlie makes for sweet moments. MIL thought he was so darned cute and Rich held him for her to pet.
And...
then there was this other Charlie Moment with Angel, the beagle. They grew rather fond of each other.

I've been working my fingers to the bone on the little gardens I have around the house. So much great dirt to work with! I'll catch up on that later.

Our farm friend stopped by, and yesterday I had to move the Dexters we are shipping to auction. We just can't afford to feed them and take care of them as they deserve. I kept the 'good' ones as forest foragers and they are just the right number of cattle to help keep the pastures in order.
More on that later too.

This morning I will see them off. Yesterday was an all day extravaganza of me pounding posts with a heavy post pounder, stringing electric lines and testing them.
The effort was worth it even if my hands hurt like the dickens this morning along with my arthritic sternum. The cattle are ready.

As soon as they are loaded and up the drive, it looks like I have MIL duties to tend to.

Tomorrow my Kenosha Gang will be arriving for the weekend. Charlie can get over his doldrums, I can wish that my house were clean after such a whirlwind weekend with the in laws and grands...however.
So much to do and it is delightful outside.

The locust trees are in blossom and the air around the house smells delightful.

And that is that....
Until I catch up on my garden stuff, yard stuff, ... and ... well, you get the idea!

Weddings

Well the big day arrived. Daryl and I left the house at 6:30 AM and grabbed some KwikTrip breakfast. We knew we were in for a long day.
We'd discussed strategies for shooting the wedding.

We'd gone over the list of 'must have shots' by the bride the night before. We both had our lists.
We went over indoor strategy and out door bright sunlight shooting...it was going to be a challenge for sure. A wedding photographer's nightmare can be bright sunlight and deep shadows on faces.

Daryl likes shooting landscapes and water. Well we both love 'water' shots and macros of anything we can find to 'shoot'. Bugs and spiders or fungi and flowers. It is a fascinating world of little things out there.

But this day was going to be his first time at a wedding.  During our ride we sort of talked about things and tried to envision obstacles we'd run into. It was nice to have someone to bounce ideas off from.

I have a love/hate relationship with wedding photography. I love it while I am doing it and obsess about the photos I'm taking and worry about it so much that I really sort of hate it.


Because if you have ever been involved in a wedding you know that nothing really goes as planned. And if you try to follow a rigid list you will end up tied in knots.

Fun things do happen. We had come early so that Daryl could meet the family and they could get comfortable around him.
I've known the father of the bride for 9 years. We worked together until about 5 weeks ago.

We started with all of the shots we could of the Venue and the bride getting ready.  We had some fun with the children that were going to be in the wedding party.

Daryl was so patient and good with the kids. 
There was the moment when the bride got upset over something and I followed her outside. 
We talked and I reminded her that this day was hers, that she and her husband to be were the main focal point of the day.
That no one would recall what someone else in the wedding party may or may not do.

In the end, those who came to the wedding ceremony would only recall one thing. How beautiful she looked walking down the isle to meet the groom.

I knew that once the wedding ceremony started that the best laid plans would fly out the window and it was going to be a 'shoot' hard, shoot fast, shoot like crazy. Run around in the heat and dodge people to get that shot.

Duck and weave. 
Wedding photographers have the hardest jobs. They dodge well wishers and cell phone photographers as well as anyone else with a camera.

I once did a wedding where I turned the camera on the audience.
There were about 7 people milling through the audience with long lenses and various types of DSLR's. 

A word about having a second photographer. This is a godsend. I choose Daryl because he is from a different generation [nice way of saying that he is young enough to be one of my own kids..and that I am an old codger...] and he has a different perspective on things than I do.

He comes up with unique ideas that I would not have thought of.

Daryl stacked two long folding tables together and then took all the table clothes we could find and we made a make shift 'studio' for the shots of the dresses and the rings.
The following is a merged shot of the veil and the rings...both of these shots also done by my partner.

I should have moved the tables when I took a shot of the bride and used the table clothes for an appropriate back round...however. Best laid plans and all of that...

The room was busy and everyone was rushing around. I grabbed some more shots.
However...

She was pleased with the edited version.

I had told Daryl that he would most likely get done with the wedding and decide he would never ever do another one. And then after he had forgotten the pressures of the day and how tired we were at the end of it all, well he may think about doing it again.


And of course we couldn't help ourselves but include something fun.

Did everything go perfect? Oh gosh I don't know. I do know that I enjoyed every second of the hours we put in. I had a great partner. That made all of the difference in the world.

Would we do it again? Oh yes, I think so.