Playtime

I have a younger neighbor with 3 children ages 5 and up. On Fridays she started meeting up with other moms and their kids to play an hour of soccer at a playground in town before the kids had to go to soccer practice.

I went last Friday and had a blast running with the kids and I even went to watch the kids do soccer drills after the 'free' play time.

I asked and was invited to come again this week. I'd pulled a muscle during the week but still wanted to go. I'd play to my ability.
There is something very inviting to be able to just go out and play. To me it was more like the games of kickball I'd played as a kid.

Last week we were the only people there. 4 adults and 6 kids. We laughed hard, played hard, and had a wonderful time.

This week something pretty neat happened. The original players were there. Another mom showed up.
Then a girl wandered in slowly and joined the game. Soon another boy stood off to the side and gazed at us on the field. He was asked to join in. From another direction another kid showed up, he joined in.

Two other kids took up places on the playground equipment and watched the adults against the kids and the chaos and laughter that ensued.
Someone in a vehicle stopped for a few minutes to watch also.

Playtime.
Just good ol' playtime. No electronic devices [I had to run to my car and grab my pocket camera so I could take this shot]. Just play.
Imagine that.
Kids and adults from 5 to 62 just playing.

Ramble Ramble ...

Spring is just around the corner. I am watching some purple house finches try to build a nest in a wreath I left on a hook on the porch. Rich wants me to take the wreath down, but I enjoy the morning visits by the finches and their song is quite beautiful.

I climbed the ladder and took a look. I guess they are just sitting there in the mornings and not building a nest. So I am going to leave the wreath until they move on or I feel like replacing the it with something else.

This morning I watched a dozen deer on the hill above the house. This is fairly new thing. I used to have cattle in that pasture and all summer I rotate pastures for the mules so I rarely see deer but I do often see their tracks.

This morning it snowed and the ground is white but it will melt.

Sunday I met up with another photographer and we hiked along the Kickapoo River in the KVR. We hiked the Wintergreen Trail and I had to laugh when the gent made a comment about him getting old. We'd just climbed down a bluff and I had pranced back up following a deer trail.
Yes I said pranced! I felt really good on Sunday!

Anyway this fellow, Brian, said he needed to catch his breath.

He and his buddies were talking about how they were getting to that age where they had to worry about things like heart attacks and such like. So I asked him what age is that? He said he was born in 1965. I burst out laughing. I didn't want to offend him, but I did then tell him that I was 9 years older. He just smiled and shrugged.

I learned a lot from Brian about infrared photography. He'd just been to a 'class' out in Utah for 9 days and was excited to share what he'd learned with another photographer.
The sky was perfect, blue, sunny, and dotted with clouds. Perfect for our IR cameras to pick up some IR wavelengths of light.

Brian had some incredible shots that he posted on Facebook that are in the colors of reflected light. Most of what I took became black and white shots.

My favorite shot of the day was this one I took with the non-converted camera with just a filter on it.
I see a face in the bluff...a Warrior! Do you?

Monday morning I felt the effects of all of the extra activities I'd done since playing soccer with kids on Friday afternoon. And when I say I played soccer, it wasn't just a little running here and there.
I literally played like a kid. Yes, I had to catch my breath a few times ... I even got tangled up with a 9 yr old and we tumbled and rolled on the slightly muddy field.
When I got to be goalie I actually prevented 4 goals.
Saturday was an all day sprint of finishing Sven's outdoor pen and moving all those heavy windows out of the corner of the shed.
Sunday was hiking in the morning with Charlie and then hiking in the afternoon with Brian along the river.

Monday morning came along. I felt stiff all over. My feet hurt, my hands hurt [osteo arthritis], my head hurt. And I found a tiny tick in my neck. Shame on me for not changing clothes after climbing around on the bluffs.
I literally took the day off.

I read a book, watched some videos about Infrared Photography, and did nothing but chores and laundry.

However on Sunday I did find Skunk Cabbage! So spring is coming even if it is snowing outside.

And I leave you with that.

My week begins today.
Lots to get done!

Dance with the Fairies

...ride a Unicorn
...touch Fireflies
...talk to the Moon

Oh I know that isn't how the quote goes... but it is that sort of feeling I wanted to portray with some recent photos I took on a birding hike.

I took some photos of Sandhill Cranes and Geese, along with a Heron flying over head.
I listened to the calls of the migrating birds as I walked down some trails.

And I couldn't help myself but try to see the world in a different way.

And so I did.

I found magic in my little pocket camera.

Meanwhile

On the farm...

Who thought I'd be doing this?
Hard enough to find the right tool for the job of taking the ice piks off from the skid steer tracks, especially when you haven't done this before and don't know what size tool you need.

I spent a good 40 minutes sorting through 'his' junk pile of tools to find the right size.
Good.
Job half way done...

Then I went indoors to do this...

another job I am not very well qualified for. I sort of burned the edges.

However I am very good at raking and cleaning up the yard....

I make tiny piles and burn a bit at dusk.

Then back to the Sven Pen to put in a gate and get everything set up for Sven's homecoming....

And then back to the inside of the shed. This pile of windows and screens has been here forever. This is 1/2 of the pile and it resides in the area where Sven is going to have his 'stall'.
I have no idea why my husband has kept all the windows from his folks' old house, our old house, and some other house. I found 3 different styles of windows.
As soon as I can pull the truck up to the shed the windows are making a one way trip to the dump.

This was wire from the old catch pen that was destroyed years ago when trees fell on it. Yesterday I removed all the old bent up pieces by cutting them with a bolt cutter and then raking all the dry grasses and weeds into a dirt area to deal with later.
I've wanted to do this job for a while.

It is back breaking work but I did it.

I have to finish up a few more things in Sven's out door pen too. But it is getting there.

I'm happy I joined CrossFit. Much of this work would have made me sore last year. This year my stamina and my strength are beyond my expectations.

My Infrared Fun with old files

Step one. Try an IR filter.
I did that for years and had good but frustrating results with it.

I also never quite understood what a channel swap or channel mixer was used for ... or how to use it.
I ended up with a nasty pink mess or a pretty nice black and white conversion.

This was a very long exposure with a 720nm filter attached to my Olympus camera lens. I do love how this turned out. Most of my other IR shots were flops.

I kept trying though. I wanted to have those cool odd colors that I'd seen before. I read tutorials and thought I had 'it'. No. I wasn't really very close.
Sometimes I was rewarded with this...

My only option was to ditch it and hope for something better.

Yet I wasn't going to give up.
 I switched the white balance to Fluorescent. And got purply pinky stuff.

But at least after some effort I could get this...

And my only choice was to convert it to black and white.
Again, not quite what I wanted.

I wanted false colors, odd colors. Colors that were different.

So I went back to the drawing board and started to learn about Channel Mixers and swapping blue and red. About how the green effects things. I began to dabble in adjusting the hues of colors.
No rhythm or reason for it. Just experimenting.

I picked up an old file that I considered a flop from 2017.

Well that was odd enough, but turned out a bit better in black and white than the odd colors. But I sort of liked the odd colors. This was a 3 step process. Going from Auto Color>Channel Mixer>Saturation and Hue adjustments. The color shot could have been a bit more normal, I suppose, but I was into seeing how far I could push the odd colors.

So I thought I'd try another one or two from 2017.
I won't show you the red shot but...

I like this edit a lot. In fact it would be one I'd keep.

But I can't leave well enough alone of course.

A bit of color swapping here, but I wasn't happy with it.
So...

Well why not? False colors!
What if I could see the world through different light wavelengths?

And then of course I had to convert it to Black and White because not everyone can handle liking false colors and seeing the world in colors that are not supposed to be.

With my little converted pocket Canon I am having a lot of fun.

Enough so I may eventually convert my Olympus to a full spectrum camera for Infrared work.

It may be wild or it may be tame.
It depends on my artistic type mood.

A bit of fun with Sven and Charlie

And so the first great adventure with Charlie and Sven happened today. I figured to start them hiking together early.
Sven will grow to a full sized Lamancha wether.

Charlie is full sized at 7" at the shoulder and 10 lbs.

Walking the...goat?

With the rapid warm up, things have turned to mush, the gravel roads are soup in places as is my driveway.
Patience will prevail and things will return to normal once the deep frost comes up and out of the ground.

Sven is such a hoot. My neighbors are still bottle feeding him and letting him out in the yard to play with the kids and go on little walks with him.
He'll come home in about two weeks.

Lauren and I decided to go for a walk on Thursday, we both took a break from our 'house' duties. I put Sven on a lead and off we went up the road. He is such a quick learner! I didn't put a collar on him but used what I call a slip. If he pulled and jerked the rope tightens a bit [no I would not let him choke himself]. As soon as he stops pulling it loosens.

It only took him about 100 yards to figure that out. He walked better than most dogs do on a lead!

We walked about two miles and enjoyed the fresh air. Basil and Sven and two ladies walking up the gravel road and enjoying the first day of Spring.

On the way back I wanted to see if Sven would follow me across some running water. He did, but mainly because Basil went first. We crossed again and he acted as if it were no big deal.
The arrow points to Basil's tail as she leaped over the water....

I can't wait to take him and Charlie on a walk together next. That may be a goal for this weekend.

The amount of yard work I need and want to do is almost overwhelming. Along with that I need to put up the fencing for the sunny side of Sven's new pen. My Kenosha Friends are going to help me with the goat stall inside the shed and the 'goat' doggy style door I want put in.
I have some old wooden spools to set out as well as some old broken plastic water tanks to use with planks to set up a play ground in his pen.

I intend to have Sven out on a tie out in the summer to clean up the nasty weedy spots in the yard. Goats are good for that.

So more goat walking is in the near future.
How about a trip down through our woods to the creek?

We visited with Rich's PCP for the VA this week. She noted the deep depression he had and suggested some more 'tests' for lung function and some therapy. I should have just told her to forget it. If you don't help the depression he won't care about the rest.

Though his latest set back was actually not a medical one.

All right. The sun will come up soon and I need to go for some feed and groceries!