Relative Something

*this* John W. Hays' take on things and experiences

Posts Tagged ‘Big Stone Sculpture Garden

Distorted Perspective

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If it wasn’t so indescribable and unrecognizable, this would have been a candidate for my image-guessing game.

What the heck is that? It’s not The Bean (Cloud Gate) in Chicago but it could be a close cousin located at the Big Stone Sculpture Garden.

I like how the zoomed-in square photo has a hint of a snow-globe vibe. I don’t know that the sculpture is recognizable from that close view, except maybe to someone who just visited the site in the last few days. Even then, I’m not sure what the official description is for this wavy-shaped, mirrored blob that would appropriately identify it.

It made for a good blog post subject though. Entertainment for the eyes.

Not to mention it served me well since I didn’t take any pictures of the horses getting their hooves trimmed yesterday. It was not an easy day for the farrier, Heather, because the horses –more specifically, the chestnuts, Mia, and Light– were more skittish than usual and were not cooperative at all about standing on three legs for any span of time.

Their equine “pedicure” was somewhat truncated. Functionally sound, but cosmetically rough looking.

The other thing I didn’t take a picture of was my solution for getting the zero-turn tractor tipped up so I could clean out the bottom of the mower deck. After surfing through images of ramps for lifting cars that I was considering buying to lift the tractor, I thought up a way to do it with material I already had on hand.

There was an old deck board on the floor in the shop garage that I cut in two and propped up on the loader bucket of the diesel tractor parked right there. I screwed a couple of scrap chunks of 2×4 on each board to lock them in position on the bucket. It resulted in enough angle that I can lay beneath it and have reasonable access to the entirety of the 42-inch deck.

It also gave me a good view of the poor condition of the mower blades. I’m afraid the amount of rocks and sticks I hit this year while learning to steer with two levers has shortened the life of the blades considerably. I don’t feel bad about it. I knew what I’d gotten myself into and consider it a cost for not getting the driveway shoulders finished yet.

I hope to remedy that before fall is over, but maybe I’m revealing a bit of my own distorted perspective about the possibility. The landscaper we are waiting on does not have a strong track record of showing up in a timely fashion, or sometimes, responding to us at all.

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Written by johnwhays

August 22, 2023 at 6:00 am

Sculpture Garden

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How many of you know where we went yesterday from seeing this picture?

I’ve written about Big Stone Sculpture Garden twice before because my bicycling friends and I have stopped there when riding the Dakota Rail Regional Trail in the last two years.

This time, Mike, Barb, Cyndie, and I played the 14-hole mini-golf course.

There were a LOT of people playing and we did as much waiting as putting but there are endless artistic endeavors to see and explore to occupy the time.

When the golfing was done, we walked the grounds and I traveled farther and saw more fascinating creations than on any of my previous visits. I’ll share a very select few…

Apparently, pigs can ___…

There were many horse sculptures but the mechanical parts of this one make it unique.

“I am a lone rhinoceros, there ain’t one hell of a lots of us, left in this world…” Adrian Belew (1982). I had to ask Cyndie what they were looking at. She said the artist’s name was back there.

Taking advantage of an opportunity to get off their feet for a moment.

A two-headed beast! Beasts? It’s always hard to pass up a selfie in a distorting reflective surface.

Back at Barb and Mike’s, we enjoyed lunch on the deck before Cyndie and I needed to get home to take care of feeding dog and horses. I did end up driving and stayed awake almost the whole way.

We had a first-rate stay-cation overnight with our friends. Our happiness meter is measuring right near its peak.

Now it’s back to manure management and this afternoon, a visit from the farrier is scheduled. I sure hope there will be a breeze to cool things a little and, more importantly, keep the number of flies harassing the horses to a minimum. They don’t tend to stand patiently when flies are bothering them.

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Written by johnwhays

August 21, 2023 at 6:00 am