Posts Tagged ‘images’
As Planned
photo by Elysa Hays
With rain threatening for most of the morning, we stuck to our plan and started the day focusing on the landscape pond. We rearranged a lot of rocks, placed the pump, built a waterfall, and then stacked stones around the plastic tubes to make them less conspicuous.
Cyndie had purchased supplies to help keep the water clear, and set about tending to that. Elysa served as my consultant, giving me feedback on how my placement of stones looked from afar. Elysa also took a turn at capturing photos, and pruning dead growth from the few perennials growing out of the water.
Since we are experiencing problematic wetness around the property this spring, it feels nice to finally embrace water for once, as opposed to frowning over it, longing to see it gone. Cyndie wrapped the water line and power cord from the pump with some vine leaves, and after topping off the overall level with a bit of fresh water from the hose, we declared the pond complete and ready for the season.
We are lucky to have had the help of Elysa and Anne all weekend on the variety of things we chose to do. We didn’t make it to the work weekend up at the lake place, but having them here made it feel like a special weekend, and their efforts provided great gains and priceless company on the first Memorial “work-weekend” at Wintervale.
Many Paths
Today, we fly home. Cyndie has graduated from the Eponaquest apprenticeship program. It is the realization of a dream. We are tired, but it is a good tired.
There are many paths from which to choose, and there are many who are traveling similar paths to ours. We are thrilled to have connected with some very special new friends through this experience, and are looking forward to what is in store for us all on the paths ahead.
New Skills
Having a wonderful time in the sunshine of southern Arizona, practicing new skills of awareness, and seeing the way horses respond to my communications. For the first time in my life, I was alone inside a round pen with an untethered horse. I enjoyed successful interactions in two different exercises, with two different horses.
It is also a pleasure to meet the other apprentices that Cyndie has been involved with, and be immersed among of group of people who all share a similar interest and belief in the value of this program.
Arizona is beautiful, and, …no surprise, hot, dry, and dusty. It is funny to see scrubby trees and cactus everywhere, but at the little villa of rental units where we are staying, they are trying to keep some palm trees alive.
Project Interrupted
Happy Mother’s Day, all you moms out there! 
Yesterday, the crew showed up to begin the process of framing the hay shed. They didn’t get very far. Guess what. It’s too wet. Imagine that. At least they accomplished the first critical step of stringing up the exact square dimension of the future structure. After that, they drilled one hole with the skid loader, and quickly discovered they would not be able to set the posts yet.
The dirt that came out of the hole was a sloppy muck that plopped to the ground like a wet cow pie. Then the hole filled with about 2-feet of water,
the sides of the hole collapsing, as water ran in. If you look closely at the second image, you will see the muck in mid-air, dropping from the drill on the skid loader.
Progress is stalled, once again. But, not for lack of trying. At this point, all we can do is wait for nature to take its course. Luckily, it was a windy day, which does wonders for drying things.
Too bad it was offset by a May 11 snow shower. We need wind and sun, not wind and snow.
I busied myself with getting a fire started in the brush pile nearest the barn. We haven’t been giving this pile as much attention as the other one, partly because it has so much dirt on the pile. It also has a much larger collection of branches, most of them still too green to burn easily.
To get them to ignite, we have to feed a lot of dry wood to the pile, so I made multiple trips up the hill toward the house, to pull out dead branches that are stacked throughout the woods across from the house and shop garage.
It isn’t the type of walking exercise that I am supposed to be doing, especially when I am trying to lift too heavy a batch of branches, but I hope it counts for something, because it totally exhausted me. I decided to end my work before something gave out on my body and forced me to be done.
We’ll see if I quit in time to save energy for today. Over half of that brush pile remains, and I have plenty of trips to make if I’m going to reduce it a noticeable amount by the end of the day.
Too Much
When there is no snow on the ground, a whole lot of work becomes available, all at the same time. It is a mental challenge to figure out where to start, and what to do next. It is a physical challenge to do it all. There is too much to do, but that doesn’t stop us, and we are loving it.
We ran into one hitch, though, yesterday. The snow may be gone, but the water isn’t. The ground here is like a saturated sponge. Our plans for the day changed early, when our fence contractor arrived to see the area we had hoped to work, was still too wet. However, it turned out really sweet for us. Since they couldn’t do any work on our property, they were headed to buy maple syrup from a local farm, and they offered to pick up some for us.
On their way back, they stopped in the road at the end of our driveway, and I walked down to collect our prize: Two quarts of pure maple syrup in unmarked Ball Jars. What a treat.
Then, it was back to work. We did some burning at both of our brush piles, then Cyndie worked on cleaning the barn, while I mixed up some concrete and put in a base for a removable umbrella style clothesline. I greased the tractor, and put in another shift on the burning brush pile.
At every turn, there is something additional that deserves attention. We have definitely neglected some organizational tasks, as we haven’t yet figured out where our preferred places are to store some of the common use tools. We want some things near the house, in the garage, and others belong in the shop garage, or the barn. We know full-well that wherever we leave a rake or shovel, we’ll inevitably need it next, in one of the other locations.
Ultimately, I’m hoping we don’t just end up getting three of everything. That just seems excessive, like a bit too much, to me.
Looks like a great conflagration
…but it’s just a drop in the bucket.
Couple Images
Due to circumstances related more to our day-jobs than the weather, we stayed overnight in the Twin Cities last night. That gave us a chance to join Cyndie’s parents (who have returned from wintering in Florida), and also, her brother, and his wife and daughter, for dinner. It was a treat to see them, and worked well to save me the commute, but it does put a wrinkle in my usual routine.
I had hoped to post a picture of the amazing snow-scape from yesterday morning, showing the results of our overnight storm that dumped almost a foot of cement-like snow. I didn’t have time to process one, so I will resort to sharing a couple of recent images from my files.
A few days ago, I posted a picture of me napping with Mozyr, and described how differently his sister behaves, when it comes to close personal attention. I think it was the day after I wrote that, when Pequenita showed up on my chest, and my camera was within reach. While keeping one hand on her neck, giving her a soothing scratch, I snapped this shot with my other hand. Here, you have visual evidence of what I was attempting to describe.
It is interesting that this behavior can sometimes become burdensome, and aggravate us, but after a night of being away from her, and seeing this image again, I am noticing pangs of missing her little intrusions on my personal space. She is obviously creating a bond.
The next image is a fascinating collection of shapes that evolved in the snow that was melting on our lawn, …before the latest winter storm buried it again.
It is a little like looking at the amazing variety of possibilities that materialize in the clouds when sky watching. How many different things do you see?
Plowed Slush
Every once in a while, I end up with a picture I really like, which I figure will probably work as a “Words on Images” piece, but later, when I get it opened up on my screen, I can’t bring myself to interrupt the image with text. This is one of those images.
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I think the close-up shot looks a bit like the super-magnified images created by electron microscopes.
Relative Something 