Heading our way

I just found these photos the other day...I have posted a different picture of the barn before and I think I have posted a photo similar to the others. Even though I don't really like being cold, I am excited cause snow is supposed to be heading our way. That does not guarantee we will get any, but I can hope. I love snow pictures...it is hard to mess up a snow scene. Snow covers a multitude of things.

As for today, we didn't get home till around 7:00 tonight...and we plan to go back tomorrow. I wish we could have got more done today, but we did go and Roger and Jeremy got measurements done, got the list made and we went and got the things needed. They did mess around with the electrical outlets. Not sure of the correct terms...but you have to have an adaptor to use a 3-prong plug so they want to put in the right ones and connect the ground wire.

If Sarah had not been so tired I would have liked for her to download some of the pictures of Otto off their camera and send them to me. He is so much fun...and he just adores Jeremy. Tries to keep up with Jeremy's every move. And she had some of him laying with her and some of him laying with Jeremy on the couch. They don't generally let him up there, but at times he can give them a look that 'guilts' them into letting him up. And he acts as if he is their baby.

It is getting late, and I am so tired I cannot think straight. I owe emails to friends and need to make out bills, but you know what? I don't think either one is going to get done tonight.

Busy

We are helping our younger daughter redo the room for the baby so I don't have a lot of time. On top of that, Roger went to hook the trailer to the truck and found that our radio/CD player had been stolen. So, we filed a police report. We are probably lucky that that is all they got. Just in our little surrounding community, there has been a rash of theft.

I don't buy into that it is poor people/bad economy bit at all. It is thieves and nothing but thieves. We grew up about as poor as you can be but we never thought about stealing for a living. People work harder at that kind of stuff than they would if they just got out and got a job.

We (a nephew and I) caught someone in our neighbor's garden once when I was a teen, and I was too young and stupid to look around before I let him go. He said he just had to use the bathroom. After he left I found boxes where stuff was gathered out in the garden. He could do that and at the same time have one of those big 16 oz beers in his hands...if you can buy beer you can buy food. If it comes to that, I don't know of a soul that I grew up around, if you wanted a mess of beans, corn etc from the garden, they would have given you one. All you had to do was ask.

A little strange

As we were coming home from Willow Slough, we were passing the power plant that sets on the Wabash River. On the other side of the highway is another smaller power plant that only runs at peak times from my understanding. It stays lit up even if only running with a skeleton crew. It was about 7:00 p.m. and almost totally dark but it is well lit. I thought to myself I would see what a picture would look like from there.

I knew it would be blurred but I thought it would be interesting all the same...I had the lens wide open I am sure...I looked at the info on the picture to get that the shutter speed was 1/5 second. Keep in mind that we were probably going 60 or 65 mph down the road.

I kind of like the image...I keep meaning to do more of this type of stuff but don't think about it till it is the only option. I happened to run across some pictures in my slides a bit back that reminded me that sometimes photos like this can be kind of fun.

Sepia scenes

I have been visiting some of the participants of Sepia Scenes for a while now, and being that I am too tired to even think tonight, I thought I might take a chance and join.

I really don't know why I haven't joined before now. Every so often I go through changing my photos to sepia as well as B&W just to see what they look like.

If you want to see more photos, or to join with your own Sepia Scenes, go see Mary/the teach at Sepia Scenes.

Willow Slough Fish and Wildlife area

We went to Willow Slough just to see what it was like...we didn't really read anything about it. I have since found out that it is 9,956 acres of land which includes 1,800 acres of water.
I think I told earlier that the guys from the DNR that worked there said most of the water was about knee deep.
I am not sure how many duck hunters were on the water...I think we could see about 4 floating duck blinds. I have to admit that I didn't realize what they were at first. The first one I noticed honestly looked about like a beaver's house.
Then I saw the big ones and realized what they were. Why I didn't take a picture of one of them is more than I know.
Camping is allowed there, and there was lots of places to just fish from the bank. But I have a feeling the entire place is covered with moss in the warmer months. Hunting is allowed for most things if I remember correctly; you do have to sign in. One area is reserved for dog training. And there is a shooting range which is run on a first come first served basis.

I am anxious to go back there in the spring...cannot imagine all the bugs and stuff we would see. But I had fun Saturday...I kind of like seeing the place bare.

Silken beauty

I'm sorry folks, but I could not resist posting these of the milkweed. These are fresh--from this year's crop.
They were taken at Willow Slough. I definitely want to go back there some time in the future.
After these I have just a few more to show from there, and none of them spectacular, but hopefully I will have time to write a little bit about the place.
Right now I am having trouble finding the time to post or visit my regular blogs.

I think I might have created a monster...the little girl from next door has always loved going down in our basement with me. I have my sewing machines set up all the time, and she always gets up to one and pretends to sew.

So the other night, I just set down with her and let her play while keeping an eye on her...I don't want her sewing her finger. She had been here quite a while, and her mom called so I sent her home. IN just a little few minutes, she was back over here saying she could stay an hour. I told her well, not an hour, cause the Colts game was coming on. Still, we were down there for a while after it started.

Besides that it is a night before school night and she needs to be home and getting settled down. Then last night here she came and she looks at me with this gleam in her eyes, and says 'You're probably going to get mad or aggravated--I forget her exact word, but she wanted to go down and sew. So soon as I finished we went down there and played.

My question is, how much do I just let her play and how much do I really try to get her to do things right? Right now, I try to teach her for a little bit, then I just let her play. And by teaching it is things like teaching her what the pressure foot is, how to put it down, and I am trying to teach her to sew a straight seam but not having a lot of luck with that. But then we have only began.

So this is part of why I have been MIA; and right now we are getting ready to go do some shopping for stuff for Thanksgiving. Plus stuff I am out of.

From Willow Slough

Remember the guy on top of the windmill yesterday? Well, these pictures were from that same day, so they give an idea of how cold it was. These are of Willow Slough, but I guess I should include that the DNR guy there said that for the most part it is knee deep. So, it will freeze sooner than a deeper lake.

Day trip..

Yesterday we decided to go on a little excursion to the north of us. We were headed to this Willow Slough Fish and Wildlife area which is about 100 miles north of us. Just a little while before we got there, this is what we began to see.
To the east of the road we were traveling on, we began to see windmills that were being installed. I honestly think that saying there was 200 of them is a very conservative guess. It was a dark and cloudy day, and visibility was not that good. But they were as far as the eye could see. Just in one little area, Roger counted 40. And those were just the ones that were close to us. There were many, many more--all the way to the horizon.
I took a variety of shots, but never seemed to be able to capture in the photos what we were feeling seeing them. I was hoping to give a feeling of how big they were by shooting this semi beside the one above.
To the west of the road were windmills already in operation...notice they are all facing the same way. Again, too numerous to begin to count. We almost felt like we were in the middle of a sci-fi movie. It was an other worldly feeling.
I just have to show this photo...I almost missed the guy working up there and was barely able to capture him...going 60 mph down the highway on a dark and dreary day is not the key to to spot on focused pictures.
This photo doesn't show how cold it was...but at least the wind wasn't howling as it sometimes does. I would have went to see these alone, and can't wait to go back on a less dark and dreary day.

This could be my husband....

Camera Critters

It is time for camera critters again...I can't believe I remembered. So far, so good. Tomorrow I have to try to remember to go sign up when Misty opens the link page.
The first shots are of some of the geese that was at Dobb's Nature Center in It was already evening and overcast part of the time. I really do wonder how birdsTerre Haute a few days ago.
stay warm in he winter, especially the wading and swimming birds.
These all seem to be in good health...it is against park rules to feed them. I am assuming because most people would feed only bread, and any kind of bread at that and that would not be nutritional for them.


Yesterday morn, I started to brush my teeth. I didn't have the light on in the bathroom, but had the door open and was just going to brush my teeth from the light coming in through the door. There was this 'stuff' which I thought was tiny bits of hair all over the sink.

I immediately thought 'well, I have not trimmed my bangs followed by the thought maybe Roger trimmed his beard. But his beard is white so even though I have not technically been declared insane I reverted back to my bangs...but I just had my hair trimmed. So reassured that it was not my hair and still half asleep, I tried to rinse it on down the drain..it didn't go. I just thought I would clean it up later.

Well, later, when I was a little more awake, I remembered I had seen Bubbie asleep in the sink, and it was his dirty little foot prints in there. I haven't seen him curled up in the sink in quite a while so I don't know what thoughts went through his head to want to sleep in there.

Oh, and now that it is cold, he and the other cats still want to go outside...they just want back inside quicker. With the inside doors closed, he is the only one that hasn't devised a way to really get our attention to let him in...Mama Cat scratches on the storm door loud enough for us to hear, while Puss Puss and Cougar gets the screen.

When I realize Bubbie is out, I will start checking on him, and even calling for him. But I think I have discovered the right way to bring him home. I have happened to turn Shelby, our dog, out two or three times when I have been waiting for Bubbie to come in. Well, when she is ready to come home she always gives a couple little barks. (Her little barks are still quite loud.) If I wait just a couple minutes after Shelby barks, Bubbie is usually there and through the door before she is.

So this is my post for camera critters. If you want to join, click on the badge at the top of today's post.

An award

This is another one scanned in from a 35 mm slide...taken in January of 1997. I take pictures of milkweed pods almost every year....and I still love to see them float through the air just like I a kid.
Now, for something fun.....
Earlier this week, The Tile Lady at A Colorful World gave me a Hot Blog Award.
I want to take time to thank her for this. I know I don't act much like it, but they do make me feel good;-)

I really, really enjoy blogging and love getting comments and awards. And I love it when I find blogs that I go back to over and over. I thought I would take the time this time to give this award to some blogs that I about have to be dead to not visit at least once a day...and they are in no particular order, well, maybe alphabetical order if I don't miss one on the first trip through my list.

1. Mrs. Hays at Bluff Area Daily Photo
2. The EG Tour Guide at East Gwillimbury WOW!
3. Mary at Faith, Fabric and Photos
4. Dot at Strolling Through Georgia and sometimes Alabama
5. Carletta at Round the Bend

From a 35 mm slide

This is from a slide taken in February of 1995...I removed the color in photo shop as well as altering the shading after that. But you know what--I can't remember what I did to alter it. I have went and made another copy of the original and tried all kinds of variations and cannot duplicate the image here.

Anyway, this is the Mansfield Roller Mill located at Mansfield, Indiana. It is now ah historic site and is now white. In 1995 it was donated to the Indiana Dept. of Natural Resources.

Don't ya just want to travel down this road?

I came across this the other night and thought it just looked so inviting...makes me wish I had time to go back and retrace some of our rambling around.
I had forgotten about this one...looks like some lives in it...I first thought they lived in the upstairs, but then looking at it the other night I wondered about what the bottom was used for. Either way, I would love having the upstairs for a home.

A little this and that

This morn it snowed and sleeted for just a little while. I actually was beginning to think we might get a good dusting, when it quit. Then my daughter wanted to know if I wanted to run to Walmart with her...we took a little detour on the way there and back. And after we got back, Roger and I went back out to the 'detour.' By detour, I mean the strip pit area where several of my photos have come from this past few months.
I did not get the images I wanted either time..not good images. So will go back and try another day. But I did get these. I feel like this vulture is looking over his shoulder say, "Hey, you want to come over to my place?" I don't know why, but that is the first thing I think when I look at it.
Anyway, I would estimate that 95% or more of the trees in this area are bare...just one with color every now and then. When we were over in Paris, going down a street where there was no place to park, there was one tree that was almost a red as brilliant as the barn in the last picture.
At the local strip pit, most of the moss was gone, but there were still these lily pads. When I first got close, there were lots of bubbles coming to the top..we wondered was a turtle down below or what.
As for this barn, it really is this color red. I did not alter this picture anyway. It is a color red that will about knock your eyes out in real life. And notice the mower in the foreground...when I was a kid we had one of these that was for horses.

Mushrooms...

The above is not the greatest image, and for that matter neither is either one below. The ones below are actually two different images...one taken with flash and the other without. I am not sure which I liked the best.

The other day, Don posted a picture of mushrooms on his blog and it reminded me that I had taken these.
So, being that I am running late and didn't have anything on my mind to publish, I thought I would show these. And at the same time, if you are like me and enjoy good photography, I would suggest Don's Slackwater. I just a few days ago finished going through all his photographs. They are wonderful. I will probably go back from time to time just to look at them again...I wish I had kept a list of my favorites.

A different train of thought....

I was wondering around in blogland one day and came across someone's photo of their Alaska books...so it got me to thinking. I have a stash of books about the north country; at least that is what I call it. I am not sure when I developed this obsession. I really am not. I cannot remember if it started with Tisha by Robert Specht as told by Anne Hobbs. (By the way, it is a true story.) I know it was one of the first books I ever read about Alaska...
Or it might have started with an old movie I caught on television called O Rugged Land of Gold. The next time I was at the library, I did a search and they had the book....again a true story, written by Martha Martin. Whichever started my obsession, it is one I really enjoy. I have not read all of the Robert W. Service poems--at least not at one sitting. I tend to pick them up and read a poem or two when I am in the mood. Also not read at one sitting, but I pick up and read bits and pieces in the Biographies of the Alaska/Yukon. And I have not read Innocent in Alaska...not sure why. I do keep forgetting I have it. It will do for some winter reading.
But I have read all the others, most of which are nonfiction...and several of them I have read numerous times. And will probably read a few more times in my lifetime.

Then there is probably my favorite poem of all time...it is long, but I ask you to please read it through. I was browsing in the bookstore one time and picked up a book of poetry...I was looking for another poem and happened to come across The Spell of the Yukon by Robert W. Service...I had tears come to my eyes by the time I read it through...I thought it so beautiful. I cannot pick a favorite verse, but oh the last one just grabs my heart so. So I hope you read it and enjoy it just a tiny bit...

The Spell of the Yukon

Robert W. Service
1874--1958
I wanted the gold, and I sought it;
I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
Was it famine or scurvy, I fought it;
I hurled my youth into a grave.
I wanted the gold, and I got it --
Came out with a fortune last fall, --
Yet somehow life's not what I thought it,
And somehow the gold isn't all.

No! There's the land. (Have you seen it?)
It's the cussedest land that I know,
From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it
To the deep, deathlike valleys below.
Some say God was tired when He made it;
Some say it's a fine land to shun;
Maybe; but there's some as would trade it
For no land on earth -- and I'm one.

You come to get rich (damned good reason);
You feel like an exile at first;
You hate it like hell for a season,
And then you are worse than the worst.
It grips you like some kinds of sinning;
It twists you from foe to a friend;
It seems it's been since the beginning;
It seems it will be to the end.

I've stood in some mighty-mouthed hollow
That's plumb-full of hush to the brim;
I've watched the big, husky sun wallow
In crimson and gold, and grow dim,
Till the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming,
And the stars tumbled out, neck and crop;
And I've thought that I surely was dreaming,
With the peace o' the world piled on top.

The summer -- no sweeter was ever;
The sunshiny woods all athrill;
The grayling aleap in the river,
The bighorn asleep on the hill.
The strong life that never knows harness;
The wilds where the caribou call;
The freshness, the freedom, the farness --
O God! how I'm stuck on it all.

The winter! the brightness that blinds you,
The white land locked tight as a drum,
The cold fear that follows and finds you,
The silence that bludgeons you dumb.
The snows that are older than history,
The woods where the weird shadows slant;
The stillness, the moonlight, the mystery,
I've bade 'em good-by -- but I can't.

There's a land where the mountains are nameless,
And the rivers all run God knows where;
There are lives that are erring and aimless,
And deaths that just hang by a hair;
There are hardships that nobody reckons;
There are valleys unpeopled and still;
There's a land -- oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back -- and I will.

They're making my money diminish;
I'm sick of the taste of champagne.
Thank God! when I'm skinned to a finish
I'll pike to the Yukon again.
I'll fight -- and you bet it's no sham-fight;
It's hell! -- but I've been there before;
And it's better than this by a damsite --
So me for the Yukon once more.

There's gold, and it's haunting and haunting;
It's luring me on as of old;
Yet it isn't the gold that I'm wanting
So much as just finding the gold.

It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder,
It's the forests where silence has lease;
It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It's the stillness that fills me with peace.

Another day with a second post....

Just realized earlier that this is actually the first post for today...don't ask me how I got so mixed up. Yesterday was not such a good day...had a BAD headache all day...and sore from something else.
I posted these at one time on my other blog. They were taken long before I had a digital camera.
These are scans from slides which was developed in October of 1994. This was just a single old tree along the side of a country road. I could not believe my eyes when I spotted these babies up there.

I think this last baby is just soooo cute.