Sunday Stills

Black and White? Did someone say Black and White?

Our Sunday Stills Challenge this week was to pick out two subjects from the past, then shoot them (or convert) in black and white. Having a fondness for black and white, this was pretty easy.

My first former challenge chosen is religion.
Marbletown Angels.
Sounds like a heavenly baseball team, doesn't it?

Both of these photos were shot at Bayview Cemetery. The second photo stands above the Bland grave site. The age old rumor was (and is) that her eyes glow at night. I dare you to sneak in and find out...



My second choice in topic is Barns. Hey...what else? They're perfect for black and white.

Lovely old barn in Oregon along 395 between Pendleton and John Day.
I wish I could recall the name of the town...although there truly was no town. An abandoned old home on one side of the road, this old barn on the other.

No black and white barn post would be complete without my grandparent's old dairy barn.

Hope y'all have a beautiful, color filled Mother's Day!

Muck Update

Scraping out the muck...

Muck, muck, muck. It's everywhere! Sheets upon sheets of rain coming down. Virtual waterfalls from the heavens. And my horses stuck out under a tree.

The neighbor finally made it down. The muck was scraped up. Fence posts were snapped in half. New gates were put up. Gravel was moved. More gravel delivered...and another trip over today for the neighbor and his tractor.

Tractor? This thing is HUGE! Heavy equipment, not just your run of the mill tractor. But let me tell you, that muck was scooped up in record time. Trouble was, my gates were too narrow and the paddock barely large enough to contain it. As he tried turning around, he bumped the new post in my barn addition! Easily could have snapped it in half if it hadn't been for City Boy hollering for him to stop. We had no idea his tractor was so big. We thought in terms of little farm tractors...silly us!

Anyway, today the remainder of the gravel will be in place, the panels set up to divide the paddock into runs, and the horses will have their own bedrooms. Which will mean no more hooves churning up the pasture during the soggy months to come. I sure hope the gravel holds up in the barn and paddock!

I think I have tractor envy!

Thanks for the feedback on the rescue. Yes, MiKaela, a website is certainly among the list things needed. I registered a name the other day and have been working on putting a few pages together. Y'all wanna see it? Remember, very baby stage at the moment. Lots of blank pages, but hopefully it gives you an idea. Please let me know what you think...and be honest!

Wild Horse Rehabilitation and Rescue

Desperate Horsewife
Wild Horse Calendars now available!
http://www.cafepress.com/mustangfever/3572746

So close to done!

Sunny and Bessie

I'm just downright itchy to climb back on my horse. Reading through the Mustang Makeover blogs just about does me in. Goal for this week is to get the round pen up so I have a safe place to get on again.

The stalls are nearly complete in the barn. A divider needs to go up in the new addition, followed by dividers in the paddock to create individual runs. Each run will then open up into the pasture so that Darling and I can either turn horses out as a group or individually.

We've also got a load of gravel here for the paddock (soon to be runs) for footing. No more three inches of wet clay during the winter, hooray! The rocks will help the horses keep their feet worn down, plus make it so much easier to clean. Even during the summer months, the paddock has been difficult. During dry weather, it's fine and dandy, but a day of rain just melts the manure right into that top layer of clay, which has become a slick quarter inch mess all on it's own. I'm looking forward to things being just a little drier. Of course, it'll be next year before footing can be put into the round pen to make it usable during the winter months, but it's a start.

In the meantime, Sunny is hanging out at the gate. I wonder if she's waiting to go somewhere? I can only hope she's been enjoying our walks over to the pasture where she's been able to spend a little time grazing. There's a slight change in her attitude, a bit of relaxation in the past week. It's been nice to see that. Hopefully we'll have a few more weeks of sunshine after the round pen is up and I can get a good jump into training prior to the winter wet.

Desperate Horsewife Wild Horse Calendars now available! http://www.cafepress.com/mustangfever/3572746