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I miss you!

Duck, duck, goose!

This past weekend, we spent some time at the park.... watching the ducks and geese...
...watching us...

....letting the cares of the week roll off our backs.... like glistening drops of water.

It was refreshing.  And we all need some refreshing now and again.

This pair were pretty fearless.... I think they thought we owed them something for letting us get so close to them.

I just missed the goose biting (nibbling) on his fingers!  He jumped.... and then laughed.

A beautiful male wood duck.  Aren't they brilliant?

Ubiquitous mallards....but beautiful just the same.

And lots and lots of Canada geese.... and lots and lots of fertilizer.

I hope you had a splendid weekend!

{linking up to Mosaic Monday at Mary's today -- a little late!}

Meet Blackie

It's that time of year again.... when our little farm starts to grow... adding feet by the four.

(four feet.... that is)

This is our newest addition... Blackie (aka Black Stallion, Laddy III, and Black Beauty)

Blackie is a ewe lamb, Suffolk and Dorper cross. She is Wyatt's show lamb for the Fair come fall.

Much to Wyatt's consternation, I would not allow him to name the little lady "Black Stallion".

Sorry.  Some things just aren't proper.... and Blackie is not a male or a horse (at least last time I checked).

Blackie had just arrived, and was headed out to the barn to meet her new roommate -- Reid's calf -- you'll meet her next.

Run, Blackie, Run!

Wait!!!!  Should I go with them.... or stay with her?

(the crazy lady with the big black camera)
Maybe the camera is my Momma?

Go?

Stay?

Goooooooo!!!!!

Ahhh...... sweet, warm milk.

(in a Coca-Cola bottle)

Welcome little Lady.... and no worries about the market at the end of the Fair.

You'll get to go back to your previous home and become a Momma!

First robins

They flew in this morning and perched in the bare branches.

They ruffled their feathers and looked at each other and said, "What the heck were we thinking?"

But they're here!  Can we have spring now?
(and that would be First robins, not "Frist"!)

Love that Shot

I know I've posted this photo before.....but I love it.

To me it speaks of the tenderhearted girl that loves to kiss her pets...

... it speaks of the complete trust that can exist between an animal and human...

... it speaks of beauty, love, and companionship....

...and the heartache that comes with owning farm animals.

That is why I selected this photo to enter into Love that Shot contest.

Here's where I talk about how I took the photo and processed it:

Nona and Laddy were standing just inside the barn with the soft light from outside streaming in.

I shot the photo with my 24-70 f/2.8 lens at ISO 1250, f/4.0, 1/100sec.

I slightly adjusted exposure, contrast, blacks, and sharpening in Lightroom and then exported the photo to PSE7 where I ran Florabella Morning Glory excluding the lighten and soft center light layers.  Then I added a texture from Kelsey Anderson, soft light at about 55% opacity, selecting the area of Nona's face with the lasso and changing the texture in this area to Gaussian blur.  Resized for web and added my brand. Done.

Gleaning

We took Herman for a stroll through the freshly combined garbanzo field...

....along the way we stopped to glean the garbs that had fallen from the vines.

Some of the garbs were soft and sweet, some were tooth cracking hard.

Herman thought he had gone to goat heaven....
but he didn't get to glean from the large pile of garbs we found discarded in the field...
because he might have really gone to goat heaven from a massive bellyache.

Headed home from gleaning.

Heaven on earth.

Duck, Duck, no Goose

You thought I was kidding about duck-poo patrol.... Ha!
For the first 3 days, the ducklings lived in our down-stairs bathroom....inside a large crate (not the one above).
They had to have their bedding changed....frequently (why do ducks poop SO much???)
And they had frequent little baths in a bedpan brought home from one of the 4's births.
It was so pleasant to hear their little chirpings and watch their frenzy for food and water.

But it was time.... they had to graduate from the house.... to the chicken coop.

So here they are....waddling out to the barn.
(Ducklings, at least our ducklings, are so different from chicks...they follow you everywhere, chirp, chirp, chirping.)
Later in the morning, when I went to check on them and let the chickens out, the ducklings were exploring the chicken yard... and the chickens were totally ignoring them.

But about and hour or so later, I heard through the open window... chirp, chirp, chirp....
they had found their way back to the house and were bathing most boisterously in the dog water.
They spent the rest of the day up in the yard, and waddled back out to the hen house when evening chores were done.

Needless-to-say, we love our ducklings.... they are so much fun...
and I, for one, have learned a lot about duck behavior and personalities.
Maybe it is just a fluke, but we have the sweetest ducklings....

Now if I can just keep Nona from carrying the ducklings around by their necks....
I have moved on from duck poo patrol to duck abuse patrol...

Little Shepherds and Cow Pokes at the Fair

We're done at the Fair.... and 14.2 million loads of laundry later.... I am finally able to make some sense of all the photos I took. I'll try not to bore you too much.... but I'm sure you'll see many more photos of the Fair as the week progresses. All of our entries got blue ribbons, one of my photos got a "Best of Class" ribbon, and one dozen of our eggs got "Reserve Grand Champion".
Woo hoo!!!
Another year, another fair.... so glad to be done.
Here are a few photos of the boys showing their animals.

Wyatt with pre-show jitters....this was his second year at Daddy's Little Shepherd.

Ladd-i-"Tude" as we have come to call him, behaved himself pretty well, even though he was the only white-faced lamb in the bunch.

Everyone gets a fancy ribbon...and each one of them feels special.
Laddy tried to eat his ribbon.

Here's Reid, just entering the show ring. This was his fourth year showing a calf.
We've come a l-o-n-g way, baby.
He has one more year in the Cow Pokes before he can do 4-H.

Reid spent some time watching the 4-H and FFA entries show their calves earlier in the day.
He picked up a lot of showing "How to's" this way
(Even though Randy and I may know a fair bit about animals...we know very little about showing.... it's quite funny actually.)

Reid did a great job showing, and was very pleased to be asked back for the championship round.
(which he didn't win, but proceeded to tell everyone that the judge had a real hard time picking the winner...hehe)

And this is how we all feel at the end of a very long, and very stressful day.
Right there with ya, Nona.

And somehow... we came home with a few extra things.... can you I.D. them for me?
These I found in the laundry....

...and these I found swimming around in the back yard.
Geezloueeezzzzz.

{linking up to Mosaic Monday at Mary's Little Red House}

Fairly Certain

I'm fairly certain that these two boys are enjoying the Fair right now...

...after getting ready for showing later this afternoon (of course!).

While these two are enjoying some time together without big brothers to boss them around...

I find the changing dynamics between the 4 reds when some are home and some are not, is very intriguing. It brings out different sides of each of the 4.
Like here for instance, Walter is so carefully "reading" to Nona.... and she is enjoying it.... for awhile
...then her eyes glaze over and it's time to wrestle.
I have so enjoyed having just the two of them home certain days of the week.



(Hooorah! I just figured out how to do this template in Lightroom! It's a printing template, but it can also be written to a jpeg file.)

Now we're off to the fair ourselves! I hope the rain stops....or we will be fairly wet.

Molly and Charlie

Molly has been home (back from Abu Dhabi) for 6 weeks now...... and sadly, her time in the states is coming to a close. We have enjoyed her visits and will miss her when she leaves (for too long....)
The first time she visited back in July, I asked her if I could take some photos of her and her horse, {Charlie}.

Here is Charlie munching away.... yummy grass and button weed.

Can you tell that Molly primarily rides bareback now?

By the time we got around and out the door to where her horse is boarded, it was getting quite dark.....too dark for me to use my zoom lens very well, so I switched to my 50mm. Some of the photos turned out OK, but many (too many) were ruined from motion blur.
Live. and. Learn.
Next time I will not be so afraid to bump up the ISO.... because photos with noise can be fixed ..... but photos with motion blur are UNfixable. sad.
(Most of these photos were ISO 320 and I could probably have easily gone to ISO 800 without too much noise.....lesson learned)

I love this photo.... it shows the sweet bond they share.

The boys loved riding..... Nona wouldn't get very close at all and wouldn't dream of riding....give her time.

What a cheesy grin

You're a good horse, Charlie.
You can hardly tell that just over a year ago, Charlie was severely injured in a freak accident with a harrow. His legs were so torn up and his hoof was punctured from the sole out through the top of the hoof. It was a terrible mess, and I am still amazed that he healed so well.

Thanks Molly, for humoring me.
We will miss you.