Monday 4th August 2008

I have again been very remiss in my blog posts, this, I think, is the longest period I have gone without posting anything.

So much has happened since my last post, The Welsh Pony Show went very well, the weather was good to us and I think Lisa had a good time, she is nearly as bad as me when it comes to how many frames she shot, but she also helped out with the downloading and the customers. They were long days, both days finished up at about 8pm and 7pm respectively. We only had one lunch break on the Saturday and no breaks on Sunday.

I have been messing around with Wiggle most days, putting a bridle on her and walking her around the turn out area bareback, and yesterday I actually took her for a walk down the drive, also bareback!! She was so good. We were only walking so there is no telling what she will do if I ask for a trot, but I am not as young as I used to be when riding without a saddle was the norm, so I am not goiing to find out and wind up hurting myself. She loves the attention
I have a 2 day Pinto show this weekend which Lisa is helping me with again. This show has a special bonus in that two of our horses Dream and Blaze will be in the halter classes at this show. I am looking forward to seeing them, they have both apparantly filled out and grown like weeds.
We have been dodging most of the rain over the past few weeks and the temps have been fluctuating between the 80s and 90s but we had a nice downpour this afternoon (only one tenth of an inch) but we will take it. The grass in the pasture needs it.

The fillies down the road are doing well but all the horses have been battling those big black horse flies we get every year at this time. The fly in swarms and bit like crazy, they are about an inch long and target the area just above the tail on the horse's butt where they have the most trouble getting their tails and mouths to and drive them nuts. I found Cayenne yesterday with a whole bunch on her butt and the poor little thing going frantically around trying to get them off but once there is blood there it atttracts more. So I played fly swatter for a while until they had calmed down a bit. These flies are tough, you have to make sure you have squashed them or they will just get up and fly away again.

Today's pictures are of a house near Lisa's that she calls The Munster House. They always have lovely flowers and the house is brick with metal railings around the garden and porch, and the storm that was blowing in taken with the old railway station in the foreground. I didnt have a clear shot because of all the buildings and trees to show you how dramatic the sky was, but it turned pitch black in seconds and had this line between the two types of clouds, difficult to describe. By the time I had got home it was raining and the dramatic look had gone. The other two are of the peacock feathers that Lisa got for me from her mother's male peacock when they fell out. I took these two before the Welsh Show but havent had a chance to edit them until now.

Well that's about it for now. I have resigned myself to the fact that I am never going to catch up on everything I want to do. The corn is tassling at the moment and I am suffering with all the pollen flying around!

Hope you enjoy the pictures. (((Hugs))))

Lori

Off To A Farm Shoot

One of my regular clients has stacks of horses like we do and is trying to get some sold so decided that she needed to get me over to her place to get pictures of 10 (I think it was 10 I lost count) horses, from yearlings to older mares and their stud. These two pics were of one of their two year old geldings who is for sale.

I just finished as a huge storm started blowing up and drove home with it on my tail all the way home. I had been here 15 minutes when it hit us. We got half an inch but there was a lot of severe wind again.

Today was just a day where nothing worked out the way it was supposed to be and now here I sit and it is going on 11pm and I need to go to bed.

Hope you all had a good weekend ((((Hugs)))))

Lori

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Another Hot day

This darned squirrel has been avoiding me and I am determined to get a decent picture of it that I can use for something so I try to carry my camera everywhere now. I was hoping to see some black squirrels around town, there are normally stacks in the gardens but today I only fleetingly saw 2 so no joy.

I did the shopping and after putting the groceries in the van looked across the street at some of the old buildings that are still standing in the square around our courthouse. Some of these buildings are being torn down now so I decided that I better get some pictures of what is left while I can. Unfortunately I didnt have my wide angle lens so managed a tight crop on an interesting fire escape on one and another building down the road which used to be the jailhouse, and was built in 1879 which I had to crop the back off of because there were cars parked there.


I will definitely be going back with my wide angle at a better time of day so I can get better shots of these old treasures.

We had an intense storm late this evening, I was worried about tornados, the clouds were like an encroaching wall of pitch black and the wind was gusting so hard that it blew our old refrigerator which is standing on the deck outside (and is not on wheels I might add) about 6 feet along the deck!!!! It didnt last long but it watered my new pasture nicely, we are seeing more of the oats coming through now, just waiting on the grass seed which is much finer and will take longer to see.

It was gone as fast as it came but I got drenched in the process and had flying missiles all over the show, barrel lids and anything small enough to get blown by the wind went skating off down the driveway and I had to go back and retrieve them LOL.

Well that's about it for the day. We reached 90 degrees F again, this weather is weird! ((((Hugs)))) and have a nice weekend everyone. CG (Julie) thanks for your continued visits, you are always on my mind.

Lori
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Behind Again

Today's pictures are two of the very few I have shot recently, the Dove was outside the bathroom window and I only got this one shot off, late evening, and the kitten was in the bushes with its momma a little distance away while I was getting some scrap dumped at the junk yard yesterday.

Once again I have got seriously behind on my blog and regret my lack of motivation every day after the day is over and there is nothing I can do about it!!! Part of the process I suppose.

We managed to dodge the storm from my last post, the tornados came pretty close but because it was cooler and later in the night by the time the storm got to us we didnt get hit hard and had just under an inch of rain which was fabulous for my new pasture that I had just tilled and planted.

We had another round of storms yesterday, also very severe with tornados etc, Indianapolis has been hit hard in these last two, and lots of wind but only 8 tenths of an inch when I got up this morning, so once again we were spared the ferocity but had enough to benefit my pasture again.

I have hardly picked my camera up in weeks, we have gone to temps in the 80s and up to 90 again in a few short weeks, spring and fall dont last long here LOL. Either too hot or too cold.

Hay seems to be better this year, my guy hasnt done his first cutting of alfalfa yet, if it remains clear he will probably do that next week. I am waiting to hear what he is going to charge this year because his number of bales should be up over the crop last year which was less than half his normal crop, but then diesel has climbed to over $5.40 a gallon so it may keep the hay prices up there.

I have had a squirrel tormenting me, giving me perfect photo opportunities within range of my lens whenever I dont have my camera and being absent when I do!!!!! Strawberry Lane I was driving down the road the other day and there were two Canadian Geese waddling along next to a pond with their two little goslings. I thought of you immediately, and yes, again I didnt have my camera!!!! I will try to capture a picture of them if I see them again as they tend to hang around this area and probably will be there as long as their youngsters can't fly. I just dont want to upset them by intruding into their space.

Nothing much else happening around here, getting chores around the property done slowly but surely which makes Larry happy because he likes things neat and I let it turn into a forest outside. I would rather have my horses eating the lawn than cut it down LOL but then they would rip the soil all up and there would be hoof prints everywhere.

Hope everyone is safe and happy I always think of you all whenever I watch the weather and see that it is bad in your areas. ((((Hugs)))))

Lori