First Cloned Cat - they named it "Cc:" even though it doesn't look exactly like its 'mother' (although I suppose it IS a 'carbon'-based life form - LOL).
posted:2:08 PM | link |

A bit of fun with color manipulation today:

But enough about cows and fires - LOL - here's a couple more photos. The yellow mums were in a grocery store floral section and the pine tree was a small one near our windmill.

Speaking of exploding trees... *grin* For the past few days we've been smelling smoke on the wind. That's not SO unusual as a lot of people around here use their fireplaces, but it was a bit strong. This morning, John tracked the smoke down to an intensely smoldering log up on the hill behind the barn. (A few weeks ago, tom had been visiting and had knocked down a few huge old dead branches near that very spot, although I don't think it's necessarily related, just interesting.)

There were actually two logs - one John managed to almost totally smother by shoveling dirt on top. The other one - well, after I got dressed, I met him out there. It was smoldering and smoking and flaming in spots - just by itself - must have spontaneously combusted. There was a bunch of ash where 2/3 of the rest of the log had apparently ALREADY burned up. None of the sage around it appears to have been affected even though it was within a few inches of the log itself.

So John and I shoveled dirt and poured about five gallons of water over and around the log and we seem to have put a dent in the heat content - it was still smoldering, but seems to be on its way out now. We're both pretty sure it's not any danger of starting a huge brush fire (after all, it's obviously already been burning for more than three days, and we've had a lot of fog and generally moist air the last few days), but it's still a little disconcerting to have that going so close to us - it's less than 1/4 mile from our house. We're going to leave our landlord and the rancher that owns the barn notes because we can't get a hold of them by phone at the moment. Yesterday it was cows, today, fire. LOL. [throws hands in air and shrugs]
posted:12:59 PM | link |

This morning, while I was making French Toast, I happened to look out the window. "John, there are cows in the yard!" Truly, this is not NEW (those who have been following this blog for a while know we live in ranch country), but it hasn't happened in a long while. Looked like a hungry, recently-mother cow got overzealous while grazing at the base of the fence and pushed through some of the boards - our side pasture has some nice untouched grass in it that can be very tempting. So John and I dashed outside with broom, hammer and nails, chased the two cows out (the rest of the herd seemed to be waiting outside the fence to see if the first two were really going to get away with it), and renailed the fence boards back in place.

The side pasture was meant to keep horses IN, not cows OUT as much, so the boards are on the INSIDE of the fence, which makes it rather easy for a cow to just pop the boards off in weakened areas. John's out there now, nailing some other boards to the OUTSIDE of the fence, to reinforce it.

Just another typical day out here in cow land. On a positive note ("... we knocked over the SunSphere!" - Simpsons reference), there are two brand new white calves in the herd which are very cute. And which we pretend are some kind of personally relevant prophecy similar to the white buffalo calf - LOL. (And on another positive note, it wasn't Barney the Angus bull, who's a lot bigger and doesn't like being told he has to leave an abundant buffet when he's hungry.) Oh, and the French Toast was delicious. *grin*
posted:10:44 AM | link |

I took some terrific reflection photos while walking around a fantastic local, independently owned, gourmet cooking store, Dorothy McNett's Place. (They also have a really FAST web site where you can order anything they have - highly recommended!) Anyway - here are four of the shots that I submitted to the Mirror Project: #1, #2, #3, #4
posted:9:03 AM | link |

Taking a 'step to the left' today to put up a few photos of our dogs instead of the usual fare. They were surprisingly cooperative with standing still long enough and looking in the right direction when I wanted them too - go figure.

John and I went 'into town' last night for dinner and a movie - the Fellowship of the Ring was playing for $2 at the local independently owned movie house so we couldn't NOT go - again - LOL. After dinner but before the movie we strolled down the main drag and I was shocked to find this bit of architectural design on one of the otherwise basic/plain buildings around here - on the larger image you can better see the knight lancing the dragon - very cool! It's the kind of thing you can walk right by a thousand times and never notice because you're so busy looking at the stuff in the windows.
posted:9:36 AM | link |

To all the people who think they are 'adults' and 'too old' to eat Campbell's Chicken 'n Stars soup, I say, stop buying into all the hype and go eat some paste! *grin*
posted:5:05 PM | link |