Archive for the ‘Images Captured’ Category
Idea Realized
Carrying on with yesterday’s theme of ‘before and after,’ this time I compare my design concept with the actual end result. Last night, I searched out the images I created back in February to mock-up what our idea for a hay shed and new driveway loop might look like. I see now that I didn’t put enough attention toward getting the scale correct.
If you were following along back then, you may recall that my first mockup attempt had the shed at the wrong angle. You can see that one on the right.
When I realized that mistake, I took a second shot at it, rotating the shed, bringing the size up a bit, and then adding some fence. In the end, we didn’t use the two-tone wall that the barn has, but we were able to match the colors close enough so that the two buildings look like they belong together. Unfortunately, the seasons don’t match in these two views, but otherwise, I think you can see that we came pretty close to achieving our vision for the hay shed and driveway loop.
Stay tuned to see the realization of some of our other visions in the days ahead…
Before After
I searched my archives for an image of what the area behind the barn looked like last fall when we arrived here. Do you remember when I discovered the eagle statue that had been hidden beneath brambles? That was right on the corner of the barn. Actually, it was the excavator who pointed out the eagle to me, when he was surveying the area for the project we had in mind.
The new access has turned out very much like we hoped and imagined. Success!
That pine tree in the “Before” image on the left is now back in our brush pile to be burned. We had thought about trying to save it and relocate it, but then the 18″ snowstorm we were smacked by on May 2nd tipped it over and broke the roots. That was the only “keeper” tree sacrificed for this project, and the storm made the decision for us. I cut out a bunch of sumac and trimmed up that butternut tree quite a bit. Of course, the different seasons make the images a less than exact comparison, but you get the gist of it here.
Before
After
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Here is a shot from the day we were working on clearing the brush out in preparation for the arrival of the excavator:
Grass Babies
A new crop of grass has sprouted on the bank where Cyndie was battling Delilah to get her off the new seed. We have been blessed with some rain in the last few days, which is a big sigh of relief, but far from enough water to end the stress our trees are suffering for the second year in a row. The grass seed is able to drink it up because it is so close to the surface. It is really nice to be growing something other than weeds around here for a change.
Speaking of babies, twenty-five years ago today, our youngest was born on the day of our 7th wedding anniversary. September 19th is a special day for us. Thirty-two years ago, the number had no particular significance beyond being the Saturday far enough in September to hopefully have some fall color, yet early enough to hold a fair chance of being pleasant weather for an outdoor ceremony. It was both. In 1988, our day became doubly special with the arrival of our son, Julian.
Happy Birthday, Julo, our other jwh!
Deflating Balloon
You just never know what you might discover when you step outside your door. After dinner, we headed out to tend to a few last things before the sunlight disappeared completely. I had just moved my car down to the shop garage to load up a batch of cardboard to be recycled, when I noticed a surprising sight on our horizon. A fully inflated hot-air balloon was one field away, just beyond the tree line. It was surprising, because we hadn’t noticed anything at all, and then suddenly, BAM!, there it was, in all its colorful glory. It seemed as though it was on the ground, but not having seen it coming or going, I couldn’t tell for sure what was going to happen next.
I didn’t have time to even get my camera pointed when it became obvious that it was being deflated. I took this shot as fast as I could, catching but a hint of the shrinking balloon, and a pair of moons in the fading light.
Pet Pics
Maybe I am compensating in advance of getting horses, (because I expect to be taking a lot of pictures of horses in the near future) but I found myself taking a fair number of pictures of the dog and cats this past weekend.
It is not uncommon to find the cats napping on our bed in the afternoon. Most of the time, they pick their heads up when we enter the room, but every once in a while, they are so zonked out they fail to stir, even if we are being noisy. That happened Saturday, and I was in and out of the room several times when I decided to grab the camera and capture Mozyr with his paws all curled up. On the second image, he managed to open one eye to see what was going on.
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Delilah was being a fun playmate and playing tug-of-war with me. I prefer chasing her when she plays keep-away, because she always gets me laughing, but she often morphs that game into tug-of-war by finally running right at me and getting me to grab whatever she has clutched in her jaws.
We continue to exercise her to condition her to come when called. For the most part, she appears to be responding well. That doesn’t preclude her from still wandering into the neighbor’s field if we lose track of her for too long. It makes doing chores a little more complicated, because when she is off-leash, we need to pay almost constant attention to what she is doing.
She tried to be all innocent, on one occasion when she took a long time to return, but her feet smelled so bad from the manure that had been spread on the field, it was a dead giveaway as to where she had been. That earned her one of several baths she ended up getting over the weekend. I captured a shot of her in the sun, revealing some of the wave her coat gets when wet.
Soil Sample
There are some places on our property where we have some really nice black dirt for top soil, but this isn’t one of them. This spot, on top of the ridge of our front field, is beneath a gate in the fence that was just completed. To connect the electric fence across the opening where there is a gate, they dig a trench and bury a wire. I was looking down at the filled-in trench and captured this shot to show the clay of our soil.
Fruit Trail
Here is a shot of the trail that passes beneath our apple tree. I don’t know what kind of apple tree it is, but it is very tall, surrounded by other trees, and has been dropping its fruit for weeks. I have yet to find an apple that doesn’t have a bad spot or worm in it. The fruit that is left on the tree is now pretty large, but it is up so high, we can’t reach to pick any.
Relative Something 