An evening walk with Michael...

I had planned on going for a short bike ride (tired of sitting here) when Michael spoke up and said he'd go for a walk with me. So a walk was the plan...I had to laugh, when I opened the door to go out Michael had the Red Flyer wagon. Said he was going to take it just in case I couldn't make it back. He's so sweet, but I explained to him there is no way he could pull me back to the house and that I would be fine...

Before we left Michael decided to feed Julie, he's such a big help!

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I had the Canon with the 50mm lens (to lazy to changes lens, as this is the lens I had on the camera last night for the glow in the dark chalk) and decided to see what I could come up with on our walk...Above Lydia sighting in on her prey!
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Attack!! (Poor KitCat, he didn't have a clue)
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Hisss...spppt!
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Grrrrrr....(Tag your it!)
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Uncle! I said Uncle!!
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And sweet Lydia gives in and acts like an angel, Ha!
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It's a "Where's Waldo Photo"...do you see what I see?
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Grass is coming up in the lowlands
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My friend, John, has been playing with Black and White photos so I thought I'd give it a try. The 50mm lens is not one of my favorites but I was trying. It's not that it isn't a good lens, it is, I just don't know how to use it properly, lol...practice makes perfect? Each lens has it's little quirks. Above is one of my favorite Black & White photos from the day.
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Michael exploring, he loves this spot with the huge grape vines! (I like this in Black & White, but think maybe a little more contrast?)
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Walking...He left me, as I had to stop, and continued up the driveway without me!
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One of my favorite photos from the day! Blue sky, fluffy white clouds and green trees!
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Almost home...

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Ahhh there's blue sky and fluffy white clouds again. Michael and I were enjoying the gorgeous weather, tomorrow another cold-front comes in, ekk...
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Checking out some rocks! He wanted to go to the water tank/pond but I just couldn't walk that far, poor little bugger. He's just not use to Momma not being able to go, go, go...
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We saw an American Kestrel (sparrow hawk) attack some doves. The Kestrel missed, Michael enjoyed checking out the doves as they flew for cover. I love that he's using my binoculars, he can finally hold them up...My boys growing up!
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Running for home...I'm envious, wish I could run for home :o)

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We had a great walk and I'm glad Michael decided to come with me!

Glowing in the dark...

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Today I let Michael get some Glow in the Dark sidewalk chalk. We had to mix it up and pour it in molds until dry. The directions said 25 minutes to dry but it was more like 2 hours. Tonight we only did green and yellow and the green was really cool. I wasn't going to take photos as we were out in the dark but I grabbed the camera, the 50mm lens and set the ISO at 6400 and captured the photos above...a bit blurry but you get the idea, we had fun! Michael and I were laughing as you could tell we wiped our chalk covered hands on our clothes...we had glowing green shirts and shorts, spooky!!

A visit from the farrier...

You ask who? For those of you that aren't familiar with ranching/farming a farrier is a hoof trimmer and horse shoer...

Julie had a problem...a cracked hoof! Not good and this one was pretty bad. She has her hooves regularly trimmed every 6 to 8 weeks but the drought has taken it's toll and even with regular trims things still happen. Since Julie is retired she hasn't worn shoes in over 6 years.

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This is the farrier...Hi Ray! He's also my friend! When I moved to Texas 12+ years ago I had a really hard time finding a farrier. Not all of them are good, not all of them know how to trim and shoe a standardbred's hooves...she's not a cow pony. She needed barium on her shoes to keep her from slipping on the pavement and a lot of farriers have no clue regarding barium. Julie was a harness horse, I used her to pull carriages, carts and buggy's. I finally found Ray and he knew exactly how to shoe Julie and Julie liked him...He's been doing her hooves ever since. Ray is a good Old boy and a great story teller...Oh the stories he tells, I love it!

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She likes to check up on Ray here and there and make sure he's doing a good job!
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Ray decided because of the cracked hoof, shoes were needed! Here he is putting the nails in...and no they don't hurt.
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It's not an easy job and I'm so thankful we have Ray to do it! I used to be able to trim but I would never attempt to shoe, that I leave to the experts! One reason why I haven't gotten any more horses is Ray is getting crippled up. It happens to the best of us. He won't be doing horses forever and I don't want another farrier, sigh! Ray can handle Julie cause she's a good old girl and absolutely loves having her hooves done and behaves but a younger horse might not be so good and I don't want Ray getting hurt. When I find another farrier that can do just as good a job as Ray then I might think of getting myself a riding horse, I sure miss my riding horses and riding. Ray has a younger farrier in mind for us and is waiting to see if this youngster works out.
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Crimping the nails...When the nails are put in they come out through the front of the hoof. They are nipped off and then crimped down to hold the shoe to the hoof.
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All done...

she'll have them re-set in 6 weeks and we'll have to keep them on for 6 to 8 months until the crack grows out...

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It dawned on me today when Ray arrived I didn't really have any photos of him. Normally I'm too busy visiting to take photos. (Ray was diagnosed with cancer last year, he is doing chemo treatments and the outlook is good! Thank God!) So today when I walked out the door I grabbed the Sony point and shoot camera and decided it was time to have a photo session with my farrier and friend...Ray is photogenic and I loved that he just completely ignored me why I took photos! Next time I'm bringing out the Big Camera!

An email from my Mother....

I love my Mom, she's too funny!!

2011 a Year in Review

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It is so very hard for me to pick one photo per month to do a year in review template, very difficult. But I did it and used a great template/Quick page by Sue Cummings. I tried to pick a photo that would mean the most to all of us and mainly Michael as I do my scrapbooking for him. We have been so blessed this past year and it was so much fun spending time with family and friends and making new friends too. It was a great year!

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Neat Idea...

Every morning I get up early. This morning I was up at 4:30am. I like to get on my computer, read my emails, check out facebook and then I love to go and read the blogs I have saved on google's blog reader. This morning I found an interesting blog regarding mobile/smart phone photos. (I cleared the blog post where I read the article and I don't remember who's blog it was or I'd share it with you, oops!) but I found these really cool templates by Gina Miller over at the Lily pad...

Fred is always sending me photos from his Blackberry. Sometimes the photos are decent and I can scrap them on a 12x12 layout or share them here on the blog but often times they aren't very good photos. They are too small or not very clear. I save the photos and I love getting photos from him as he knows I love nature and the photos he normally sends are critters, snakes, spiders, bobcats, antelope, birds, birds of prey, etc...Plus there are times I take photos with my cellphone and they suck! But I still keep them, just never really knew what to do with them or how to record and print them out. The templates Gina made are perfect. I can put the photo on here and list the who, what, when and why. Save it and I'm thinking I can print them out, they'll be small, and then make up a book of these and call it the mobile photo book. Or I could put more than one on a 12x12 page and print it out to go in the scrapbook...

I totally love these templates so many possibilities...below is my first one I did this morning with a photo Fred sent me yesterday!

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I love it because there is an area to write about the photo and the stories Fred tells me have to be included as sometimes they are too funny! If you'd like to go check these templates out here is the link.

http://www.the-lilypad.com/store/product.php?productid=5719&cat=0&page=2

Enjoy your day!

Happy 2012!!

May y'all have a Blessed, Happy, Healthy New Year!!