Archive for the ‘Images Captured’ Category
Legacy Captured
Looking toward the fall sunshine when I captured this image of Legacy led to a great combination of light-streak and shadow. It’s as if his inherent horse wisdom is beaming out into the world from his eye. I’m particularly fond of the motion captured in his reaching leg, mid-step, and flow of mane and tail. Alternately, the bold shadow is able to make a strong statement, yet also works in a sublime way to offset him being the center of attention.
It is a great representation of our herd leader.
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Planting Seeds
I put in an extra-long day yesterday, planting grass in addition to the normal daily chores of caring for our animals. Getting grass seed planted in the new drainage swale took almost the entire day. It was a day when I really wished I wasn’t working alone. Back and forth I walked, so many times, to get hoses strung together to reach the full length of the swale and then to turn the water on and off. The distance I seeded is almost 2 football fields long.
Just getting the full length watered down took over an hour. I did have a little “help” with getting it wet before seeding. I let Delilah chase the spray and run around in the dirt to stir it up a bit. From now on, I will need to restrain her somewhere when I want to water. With the seed down, I don’t want her tearing it all up when she chases after that irresistible spray.
I purchases a seed mixture from our local feed mill that has oats in it and is supposed to germinate within three days. That’s about all the growing time we have left this year. This is one occasion when I will be fine with a warm week or two in October.
The concern is, if I don’t get something to take root and help hold the soil in place, the water that will flow down this path in the spring could create a huge washout. I’ll deal with that if I have to. It’s just nice to have this improved definition for drainage finally in place.
upstream
downstream
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Edge Straightening
Fall has arrived! That means it’s time for everything apple and pumpkin.
It may not be my officially assigned duty, but it is the moral thing to do. Cyndie baked apple crisp yesterday, and I instantly took it upon myself to do everything in my power to make sure the edges remain straight. With utmost diligence, I keep watch over the pan, taking action when necessary to assure the remaining edges, whenever a portion has been served, will always be straight and true.
It is a grueling responsibility, but for all the effort she put into creating such a work of art, it’s a way of showing my greatest respect for her craft.
I’m pretty sure the recipe she uses involves one and a half shovels of brown sugar, a pail of butter, a can of oatmeal, lots of cinnamon, and a couple of apples added to taste. It works.
Her recipe doesn’t make it any easier to keep the edges straight, but it does make the process of doing so somewhat less onerous.
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Big Surprise
During the afternoon on Wednesday, when the gales of “Sept-ober” were blowing, I heard a crash while I was out scooping manure in the arena. It sounded to me like something very large had tipped over in the barn. However, I couldn’t think of anything in the barn that would have made that sound. I began to question my perception and wondered if something could have fallen up in the shop garage.
As I walked back toward the barn I had the thought that I probably shouldn’t leave the doors wide open on such windy days. I like getting fresh air moving in there, but the place sure is a dust factory as a result. I couldn’t see anything amiss, so I wandered over to the garage for a look. Nothing out of place there, either. It didn’t make sense.
Something about the sound brought to mind metal shelves, or the metal roof and sides of the barn and garage. With no evidence available to match what I heard, I promptly forgot about it.
Yesterday was a completely different day, with a stillness that exuded peace and tranquility. I walked the horses, one-at-a-time, over to the north pasture for a couple of hours after my lunch. They were exceptionally well-behaved. While they alternately grazed and raced around, I busied myself in the vicinity by trimming the scrub growth that looks decades old along our north property border.
Can you see Hunter positioned alone, away from the other three?
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The wild plum trees are producing a bumper crop this year.
I don’t remember this much fruit last year. Heck, we didn’t even figure out they were actually plums until a few weeks ago. Now we are all excited for having trees producing fruit we can use.
Well, more trees, that is. We do also have a rather tall apple tree that looks like it grew wild in the woods between the back yard and the barn. It dropped a lot of fruit last year. This year’s crop looks to be a bit more subdued.
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The horses were cute when I got them back into the paddock. All four of them settled into a late-afternoon nap after all the excitement of the new grazing pasture. It was so calm and quiet that the few isolated bird calls came across as being extraordinarily loud.
I sat down on the arena grass, which in no time led to laying down, and just watched them looking so peaceful. Then I realized one reason it was so tranquil. I still had Delilah confined in her kennel.
I hiked up to let her out and started tossing balls for her to chase. She was thrilled to have the attention, and was being as playful as ever. I walked down the hill to get one of the balls she had dropped and that’s when I discovered a BIG surprise.
I know what the crash was that I heard on Wednesday afternoon, and it wasn’t anything metal.
We lost a huge limb off a big old maple tree.
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Sky View
It’s a new month, and I am at a loss for words. Here is a view of the dawning of a new day, with the breaking sun at my back. Happy September, 2014!
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A Fogbow
Before the heavy humidity broke yesterday, we had an extremely foggy morning. I was walking with Delilah after feeding the horses, and as the sun broke the horizon and burned its way through the fog, I spotted the distinctive arc of a rainbow. But it wasn’t a rainbow. It was a fogbow.
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Eventually, the dew point dropped and a glorious breeze picked up, making it a fabulous afternoon to be out working. The morning was another story. It was too wet to mow, so I started the day with a chainsaw. I headed down to the south trail that needs to be widened. Also, there was still one tree laying across the trail along our western border. After tackling those areas, I moved along to a string of box elder trees that need to be removed for installation of the new fence around the grazing pasture. The work had my t-shirt and pants totally soaked with sweat by the time I stopped to head in for lunch.
When I came out again after eating, it was like a whole new day. It made the mowing chore downright pleasant. By the time I finished, my shirt was completely dry. After a long day, during which I had confined Delilah to her kennel, we headed to the house for dinner and I happily turned off the air conditioning so I could open up the windows to the fresh summer air.
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Relative Something 