Bonzai Attacks - January 11, 2007

Couldn't get this uploaded last night. Bonzai finally decided to play with the dogs - and when he did, he went on the offensive. The dogs have found him interesting and contented themselves (mostly) to watching his antics. Tonight they went nose to nose and Bonzai decided to use Chaco for a climbing post. She took it very well and actually encouraged him to play some more. I had to intervene before Bonzai got too rough.

Snow Angel - January 10, 2007

I'm having trouble with my internet service kicking me out fairly consistently, so need to catch up with my uploads. This little snow angel appeared underneath a bush in my yard. I assume it was made by branches blowing in the wind, but I don't know for sure. One of life's little mysteries.....

Snow Patterns - January 9, 2007

Despite 50 degree temperatures yesterday, some snow is still here. I love the patterns the wind creates in the snow. It looks like tiny little sand dunes. They are forecasting another significant storm this weekend. That will be four in four weeks.

Snowy Roads - January 8, 2007

I have to catch up. Our internet has been up and down - mostly down the last couple of days. It's been frustrating. I haven't figured out how to save as I go, so I've probably re-typed the main part of this entry five or six times. So this will be an abbreviated version.

This is our road after the blowing snow. It's a lot better than most around here. Some places have snowdrifts of ten feet or higher over even main roads. The ranchers east of here are using helicopters to drop bales of hay to their cattle (if they can find them) to help keep them alive. They are also very worried about them being able to find water. Cattle can lick the snow, but they need quantities of water to keep going. Our environment is actually very, very dry, so there is not much actual moisture in the snow. It's also calving time, so the cows need additional nutrition now to support their calves. All in all, it's a terrible situation for those ranchers, and means beef prices will probably go up.

Temperatures are supposed to increase today, so we should get some thawing before the next storm system comes in this weekend.

Snowy Walk - January 7, 2007

My husband and I took the dogs for a walk this afternoon to help keep us occupied while waiting for news from my son. We like to walk in an area very close to our home called "Oilwell Flats". I don't know the history of the name. There are no oilwells, and as you can see, the area is far from being flat. Bear likes to scout the area ahead while we walk and he takes off to one side and then the other, forging ahead and then running back to us. Chaco usually follows closely behind him. This is efficient for us old folks because they run 3 or 4 times as far as we walk and we all get good exercise.

Today, the road up to the top of the hill was closed because of the snow, so we walked. (Trudged in my case). The snow was drifted and deep in places and I am not in the best of shape - although that is certainly one of my New Year's resolutions - to lose weight and get into better shape. The dogs didn't mind at all. They love the snow and had a great time running around and plowing through even the deepest drifts.

Here Bear is popping through the trees on the slope above us, making sure we aren't hiding from him. He eventually snowplowed down the slope, with Chaco in hot pursuit.

We finally heard from the boy. He made it home just fine - said it is sunny and warm in Phoenix. He's unpacked and ready to turn in the trailer and start back to school tomorrow. It's probably just another adventure to him. I wonder if he realizes how very well he did to manage that trip through such adverse conditions.

I've always thought I believed that when raising children, it's best to give them roots and give them wings. It's what I've always tried to do. Giving them roots was easy. Allowing them to fly away and live their own lives - way more difficult than I ever believed. I guess I would (selfishly) much prefer they would, like Bear, range a little bit away and then come right back.

But I also know that wouldn't be the best thing for them. They have to do what they must, and go where they must to be able to realize their full potential.

A Grueling Day - January 6, 2007

It has been a day of tears. Their Christmas vacations are over. My oldest daughter and youngest son left this morning to go back to work and to school. Saying goodbye is always very hard for me, but especially so today because I know it will be several months before I see either of them again.

And then there is the weather. It snowed all day yesterday. According to the forecasts, it wasn't supposed to amount to much, but it dropped 4-5 inches of new snow, the temperature dropped to 5 degrees (F) and the roads around here are snowpacked and very icy. This is the first time my son has ever driven with a trailer. I know he's a good driver and I have all the confidence in the world in him, but I also know how rough it can be on icy roads. And so I worry.

They called from Penrose, a few miles from here (I'm so thankful for cell phones) and reported that the roads were clear. What a relief! However they called again from south of Pueblo and asked if I'd heard any reports, because the traffic on the interstate was stopped solid. We called and found out that there had been multiple traffic accidents ahead of them and cars were being let through one or two at a time. They have been held up at this point for over an hour and a half. I was very worried. Multiple accidents occur when people are driving too fast for conditions and it tells me the roads ahead are not good. And if the winds pick up, it will cause blizzard-like, white-out conditions. They still have to go over Raton Pass, and it is always better to go over the pass in the daylight. And daylight will be gone all too quickly.

My daughter calls to say they are moving again, but slowly. They have passed one of the accidents - semi trailer truck is rolled over. They pass a second one while we are talking - a car extremely crunched. My daughter says a news crew is there taking pictures. She suddenly does a little "ulp" and I say "what was that". She says "it's nothing", but I know they hit an icy spot and slid a little. I am glad they are past Walsenburg, but they still have a long way to go before they get to the Pass.

My daughter calls again. It is slow going. They are not yet to Trinidad, the wind is blowing, and it is starting to get dark. And they are getting tired. I have her talk to her Dad while I get on the computer and check the status of the roads. There is a high wind advisory for both Walsenburg and Trinidad. And they have closed the road from Walsenburg to Colorado City because of blowing snow and deteriorating road conditions. And the temperature is falling fast. I want them to stop wherever they can find shelter and wait it out. Who am I kidding, I want them to be here - safe in their beds and not out "there". Not in danger. Not my kids.

My son calls and talks to his Dad. They have stopped at a rest stop. He reports the roads are much better and the wind has died down. My daughter gets back on the phone and tells me that they can see the road again. It's not covered over with snow and ice and they're not just following tail-lights. They are going to try the Pass. I pray.

They call. They are over the Pass. They say the roads look clear on the New Mexico side. Of course I warn about black ice. And of course, they say "yes, Mom". I check the road reports for New Mexico for them. It looks like there will be few problems until they get to Santa Fe, but the storm has tracked south ahead of them. I don't see any reports of blowing snow along their route. They still have over 3 hours to go. As I'm backing out of the road reports, I see the update on the Colorado Roads. They have closed I-25 all the way from Colorado City to the state line, so they must have closed it right behind them.

After three and a half hours, I call them. They are close and the roads are o.k., but there is some blowing snow and they are going slow.

They have just called to say that they are at my daughter's house and safe. They are going to unload her stuff and go to bed. Tomorrow my son has to travel to Phoenix by himself. That is
usually an 8 to 9 hour drive and is usually the longest stint of the journey. The drive to Albuquerque is usually 5 1/2 to 6 hours, but today took nearly 12.

I will be happy when I hear he's safely back to school.

Chunky Monkey - January 5, 2007

This is my oldest daughter's cat, Chunky Monkey. He seems to like to pose for the camera - at least he does today. Chunky is a little over 2 years old and is another of our Humane Society rescues. Whenever my daughter comes home for a visit, she insists we visit the Humane Society. (Nearly all our pets are Humane Society rescues). She was home for Thanksgiving when we found Chunky. He was a tiny little creature who tried to squeeze through the bars of the cage to join us. She was immediately enchanted and wouldn't leave without him. He is no longer tiny, having long ago lived up to the Chunky portion of his name, but he is still an amiable creature. He enjoys pretending he's a retriever and will chase and return a ball as long as you care to throw it for him. Chunky would make a good therapy cat because he loves everyone.

He's the only cat I know who will spend a lot of time just staring into your eyes as if he can read your thoughts. Who knows. Maybe he can.

Bonzai - January 4, 2007

Sorry, I got hit with a bug that's going around and I didn't get this posted last night. I'm also behind on my comments, but I will be getting up and around a little better when this thing lets go of me.

Bonzai is the newest, tiniest member of our household. He was adopted from the Humane Society the day after Christmas and now rules. We were having a bit of a hard time naming him until his fearless nature and his belief that he can fly became apparent. I would love to get him to sit still and pose, but I think I have a long way to go before that happens. I'm not good at isolations, but am going to try to do more with this image. Any suggestions?

Scarf, Hat, and Gloves - January 3, 2007

A portrait of my son with the scarf, hat, and gloves his sister gave him for Christmas. I took this more as snapshot and wish I used another light to his right. The crop may be a bit close. Portraits are not my strongest area and I do want to get better in this area.

Sheep - January 2, 2007

This one is getting posted a little late today. This is Sheep. She started out to be a 4-H project some 10 years ago, but my daughter was so upset about selling her in the livestock sale, that we bought her back as a "buy-back". The plan at the time was to breed her and raise some lambs; however, that never happened. She has been the official weed-eater on our place for years and years. She grows amazing wool which we shear occasionally. Other than that, she is an old, old sheep with a tremendous ration of attitude. In this shot, she is complaining about not getting her hay soon enough to suit her. Actually, she complains about almost everything. In spite of that, I find her company comforting and I enjoy her little quirky behaviors.

I guess I've just grown accustomed to her face.

Working on Shelves - January 1, 2007

My husband is working on a beautiful set of shadowbox shelves he built for our oldest daughter as part of her Christmas present. She's been asking for shelves for a couple of years, but really had no way to get them from our house to her home in New Mexico. This year, however, my son is taking her home and is renting a trailer to haul some of his furniture to his new apartment in Arizona. It's all working out really well although our house will seem even emptier than usual when they leave. I've had a hard time adjusting to my son being gone and now that his furniture will be gone too, it will be even more difficult. I'll need to re-furnish his room for when he comes home again. It won't be the same, but nothing is really the same now anyway.

Woodworking is a hobby for my husband and he is really good at it (as he is with virtually everything he does). He also loves photography and is my partner and competition in that endeavor. (Right now his Free Study entry for DPChallenge is blowing mine out of the water.) :)

The Snow is Better On the Other Side of the Fence - December 31, 2006

My 6 month old puppy, Chaco, is exploring the universe (like all babies) with her mouth. She absolutely loves the snow. Our recent snowfall was a fairly heavy wet snow which left everything covered in white. Chaco made it her job to clear the fences and eat the snow in the process. She's fairly desperate for a job. Chaco's mother is a Great Pyrenese who runs with a herd as a livestock protection dog. Her father is a question mark. Her mother was bred to a Newfoundland. Chaco has the size and some characteristics of a Newfy/Pyr cross, but her color?? She almost looks like a giant red fox with drop ears. I suspect there was a fast-talking stranger in the mix somewhere.

This is the last post of 2006. I'm making plans for 2007 and will try to map out a theme for each month's efforts. I want to learn a lot of new techniques and to become more proficient in photoshop. I still feel like I'm fumbling around and have barely learned the basics.

Red Canyon Snowstorm

It snowed all day yesterday, giant clumpy snowflakes that looked like feathers falling out of the sky. Even though I'm officially on vacation, I had to go into one of the facilities to participate in a fact-finding meeting. The wind wasn't blowing but the snow was accumulating rapidly. I barely made it up the hill from Arrowhead to the main road out of the complex. When I got home the power started fritzing - going off periodically for a minute or longer. I shut down the computer so I wouldn't lose any pictures. We had ten or more outages during the evening, so I never did get to upload a posting yesterday.

Today, the snow continued, although the flakes were much smaller. We decided to go for a walk in Red Canyon Park, a couple of miles north of my home. The roads into the park had not been plowed, but my husband decided we could make it through anyway and we did, of course. Red Canyon is a beautiful place any time of year but especially in the snow. We have had a foot or so, so far, with more expected tonight. The clouds were hanging very low today, so it was one of those leaden skies, snowy days that was not too cold and windy - perfect for walking in the snow. I took a couple of hundred pictures, but will only post a couple here and some more on various stock sites.

Chaco and Bear - December 27, 2006

Took the dogs out for a run this afternoon. It was fairly warm. Storms will be coming in tonight and could drop a lot of snow. Ugh. I have to go to a meeting tomorrow. We'll manage.

Practice with the Tripod - December 26, 2006

I am home from work most of this week, and as a step in my "improving my photography" project, I decided to practice using the tripod. I was thrilled that I could make decent pictures at fairly long exposures. I even managed an entry into DPChallenge so am on my way to my goal of participating at least twice a week. My exposure on the first one was 1/6 second at f/1.8 and on the second one was 1 second at f8. ISO was 200 on both images. I can't decide which one I like better. I like the bokah on the first one, and the clarity on the 2nd. I also like that I can have these pictures of the ornament. I cast it and painted it ten years or so ago, and I'm always afraid it won't survive until the next Christmas. This entry is being posted a bit late as I am staying up waiting for my youngest son to get back home after a night out with the boys. He doesn't drink or anything like that, but I worry about other people on the road and just worry about him. I think it's a mom thing.

Starting Over

o.k., so I have this blog and I am starting over from last year. It won't take much to do better than last year - looks like I only managed to upload 2 images. This new languages thingy makes me crazy, but I'm going to try. My goal is to try to upload a photo a day most days and to also work on a weekly theme that will make me work outside my comfort zone.

Today is Christmas 2006 and I was privileged to have all four of my children home for a little over 24 hours. It's a riot when the kids are home and I hardly ever stop laughing because they are just so much fun. They have grown into wonderful adults and I love them so much I feel my heart will just burst when we are all together. They don't particularly like to have their pictures taken and they particularly don't like to pose for pictures, so it is a real challenge to get my "all of us together" pictures at these special times. Always there is one "special" picture which expresses their true feelings about the process.

01/06/06 - Pin

The first wrestling match after Christmas - Part II of the season. Tim is starting off well. He pinned this opponent and currently ranked 9th in the state. He was hoping for a higher ranking, but it's o.k. The team had its most difficult duals early on. The rest of the season before Regionals consists of fairly easy duals and harder tournaments - good preparation for the State tournament.

I'm nervous about the tournament tomorrow. My oldest son suffered a season (and career) ending injury his senior year at this tournament. My mind tells me that I should not expect the same thing to happen again, but my heart is just screaming. The primal motherbear need to protect constantly fights with the rational knowledge that I need to let him grow up. Usually the rational side wins, but I know that deep inside, I'm much better at giving my children roots than I am at giving them wings.

Thank goodness they have made their own wings.

Time of Change

I'm really rusty at this sort of thing. I'm hoping this new year will be one of growth. I know it will be one of change. My youngest child will be graduating from high school and leaving for college out of state, and for the first time in over 25 years, my husband and I will be home alone.

Like this soccer play, life's little surprises sometimes just smack you in the face. We've dealt with health issues this past year, the loss of a beloved family member, and major changes in our jobs. The new year, although destined to be a year of adjustment, also seems to be a year of hope and renewal.

School starts again tomorrow for my son, and with it, wrestling practice and the usual end of semester activities. He is currently ranked in the top 10 in the state for his weight class, and is working hard to increase his ranking. We will see what tomorrow brings.