Gone to the dogs...and whatnot

 Well, sort of.

My neighbors on the top of the hill had a family vacation planned a while ago. They felt hesitant to ask me to care for their dogs while they were gone.

I've done this for them for the past few years. Their dogs are friendly, fun, and really quite easy to get along with. I enjoy my time taking them for a walk in the mornings and the afternoons. I don't mind feeding them and spending some time with them.

This is Tiyo. They adopted him in Africa and he is a mixed breed Baesenji which is a barkless dog. He does squeak when he is really excited.

Because of his thin coat, he loves hot summers, but doesn't care too much for rainy days or cold weather. 

However, he is a thoughtful dog who is pretty reserved but friendly once he gets to know you. He and I are pretty good pals.

He squeaks when he sees me.

Rupert is the classical mixed breed dog that is impossibly happy and exuberant all of the time. He literally bounces all of the time.

I did catch a shot of him being still. He seems to suffer from quite a few allergies, but that never seems to get him down. He just goes with the flow.

The gals are still grazing in their 'winter' pasture, but have started to eat a bit of hay. Apparently weeds are tastier in the fall?

This is the view of our place from my neighbor's woods at the end of their 5 acres. You can see their fence line in the shot below. We can't see each other's houses which makes it feel pretty isolated. Any other neighbors are at least 1/2 mile away.

The Whatnot...

Well, a friend of mine whose husband was also my husband's nurse is having their son's wedding at their farm on Saturday. I volunteered donate pumpkins from my pumpkin patch as well as help clean up the gardens. 

I actually had quite a bit of fun working at their place on Thursday.

I volunteered to come back on Friday and Saturday to help with setting things up for the wedding and my friend asked me to please bring my camera. Wink-wink.

I assume the groom and bride have a photographer so I would just be the one to get behind the scene candid shots as long as I am not interfering with a paid photographer.

My Grandson, Dennis, is coming in sometime Friday afternoon so we'll have some time together. 

Saturday morning Dennis is going fishing with Rich's fishing pal, Steve at 6am. I don't know how long they will be fishing, but I can always give Dennis the location I'm at and he can join me [after he does chores!].

I am absolutely thrilled to be helping my friends with such an important day in their lives and their son's life.

I texted my grandson and told him to bring a nice set of clothes as he may end up attending a wedding Saturday evening.

My Whatnot's can sure get interesting!

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.