Cowtown

I thought I'd post some shots from my photography trip last weekend to the Old Cowtown museum in Wichita. The first one is the view looking down the main street of Cowtown.

A checkerboard set up inside the General Store.

This doctor's office sure makes me appreciate modern medicine!

I really don't know what Life Pills are, but I think I might need some of them.

Blowin' in the wind

I've always been curious about the wind farm near Beaumont, so when I went to Wichita last weekend I drove down there for a closer look. For some reason I am fascinated by those huge windmills. The closer I got to them, the more excited I got. I know. I'm wierd. But there really is something about them. They are mesmerizing. I could watch them for hours. Their motion is so fluid and graceful, like giant synchronized swimmers.

The Next Chuck Norris??

Maybe. This is my friend Debbie's son Trevor. He's really got some moves! I don't know what you call any of them, but they look good!

He was really excited to get his pictures taken and I had a blast shooting them.

Kinda cute, isn't he??

Fishin' on the farm

I didn't take these, but they were too good not to post. Jake and his friend Ryan took a few shots after their big fishing adventure in our pond. Which followed their big shopping adventure at St. Vinny's. Notice the nice 80's style jackets they're wearing, and Jake's 'Go Hog Wild for School Lunch' t-shirt? Fun times!

Henson's Mill

Earlier this month I posted a photo of a painting of the old Henson's Mill in Chetopa. Well, I finally shot a few pictures of it as it looks today. The building looks like it is still in pretty good shape, and the current owners have been doing some work on it I think. It's still a pretty neat old building, even though it has changed a bit since the early 50's (?) when the original was done. I didn't get the surroundings in this photo, but obviously they have changed too. No more dirt streets for sure.

One man's junk.....

is my latest photo prop.......

Mike is in the process of clearing the debris from our barn fire, including an old shed that will be torn or burned down. Jake and some friends cleaned it out today, and this old suitcase was one of the 'treasures' inside. Naturally I had to rescue it.

This little tin was buried among a bunch of fruit jars and various other old containers. I'd never heard of Benne Bits, so I googled it and discovered that benne is actually sesame. According to the Byrd Cookie Company website: "Filled with a flavorful blend of aged cheddar, spices and toasted benne seeds, our crunchy Benne Bits have been a family favorite for generations" and they are still for sale. They sound yummy to me!

Edna

I took a little walk around the big city today and got a few shots of some local landmarks.

How I kill time

while waiting for the horses' water tanks to fill up. It takes about an hour to get all the watering done, and I don't do well with just standing around, being bored. When the weather is nice sometimes I take my camera for entertainment. I was playing around with different camera settings to see what the results would be. These are SOOC (straight out of camera), no editing, no photoshopping. Except for the last one - which had just a tiny bit of touching up. hee hee.

First, I captured this beautiful sunset. I took several shots of it, and discovered that I got much more color with a faster shutter speed. I thought it would be the opposite. So I learned something.

Then I took a bunch of shots of the moon. It was kind of neat to be able to shoot the sunset and the moon rising at the same time.


Jake came along in the meantime and took the one that I posted yesterday of Sadie and me. After he left I was REALLY bored, so I attempted a self-portrait. It's kind of hard to get a good shot when you are holding the camera at arm's length while a horse is trying to hug you.

Isn't farm life exciting??

Sadie & Me

This is Sadie, one of our colts that was born last spring. She is my favorite colt, and I am her favorite human. She follows me around like a puppy. If she isn't getting the attention she thinks she needs, this is what she does...comes up behind me and lays her head over my shoulder. She will not be ignored. She wants to be scratched and talked to and hugged.
Jake took the picture for me, grubby old chore coat and all. It is obviously not one of my best, but Mom keeps telling me there aren't enough pictures of me because I'm always behind the camera. So this one is for you Mom. I'd much rather be the photographer than the photographee though.

What I love about cats....

You never know where you'll find them.

She is actually on top of my kitchen cabinets. That is the ceiling you see behind her head. Sometimes she must go to great lengths to get out of the reach of Gus the Wonderdog. Yesterday morning she got up on the shelf in my closet and walked a little too close to the edge. The whole thing came crashing down, right along with her. And of course she just strolled away as if nothing had happened.

Icy Images

Here are a few more from the icy weather we had last week. They were all shot from my back yard. It was really cold so I didn't venture out very far, or stay out very long.

Thankfully the beautiful sunshine has been shining all this week.

All have been converted to black and white using Jenn H's Creamy BnW Action. Thanks Jenn!

The first one is a view to the southeast across the pond. It looks so desolate.

Reminders of home

The theme for the weekly photography challenge on www.twopeasinabucket this week is Home Sweet Home. This is my photo of a painting of Henson's Mill in Chetopa. It reminds me of home for two reasons: first, because this painting was in our house all through my childhood. It was done by an army buddy of Dad's, painted from a photograph of the mill. Also because the mill is such a local landmark. And yes, it's still there. Not operational of course. It hasn't been in years. But it is still standing, and in decent shape. One of these days I need to get in there and take a picture of it before it is gone.

The only good thing about winter...

....pretty pictures.

Just a couple of the pics I took last week on our snow/ice day.

I hope these little birdies have gone south for the winter, cause their nest is frosty! I really wanted to climb up on something to get a better angle, but I didn't think that would be in my best interest. Mostly I was afraid I'd fall and break my camera!

Fortunately this storm didn't bring much ice and snow. It mostly came down in a fine, foggy mist. When I went out with my camera, it was still cloudy, and everything was covered in a white film, giving it kind of an eerie, dreamy look.

My, what big ears you have!

This is Chief. He is a Mammoth Jack. Otherwise known as a big donkey. He doesn't look that big, but he is actually a lot bigger than the average donkey. When he breeds to our draft mares, the babies will be draft mules. We are expecting a few of them early next summer. They should be very interesting little babies!