Mostly fields

There's no real unifying theme here; just some photos I've shot of stuff I love. 

Jonas likes to go for rides with me.  He's a good helper and will go anywhere.  At Brookton's Market he guards my truck, at Agway he makes sure I pick up the right dog treats and the bird food with the peanuts in it, at Pat's he works hard to move the horses around.  No matter where we go, he makes me feel like a good person.  That's the best reason to have dogs, they ignore all your faults.

I worked hard to hang a new axe head that I picked up.  It wasn't too rusty, but the edges were real chipped and dinged up, so I had to file them way back and then create a whole new edge.  I also plained edges onto the handle and rasped it for a better grip.

I'll love to have a real shop someday, but on this crisp late fall day it was pretty magical to work on the axe out by a big hot fire, surrounded by my dogs and listening to all the birds and the wind.

The axe, the sledge, and the rectifier.

Head finished, sanded, edged, and buffed.  Handle plained, roughed, coated in linseed and beeswax.  The bit is from c. 1930.

This is the corn field on the corner.

I went for a run, but had to pause to watch the percherons down the road for a bit.  Can you guess where the hunters are?

Pat and her son Aaron and I went for some rides this past Saturday.  It was opening day of gun season, so, as usual, it sounded like the Tet Offensive was under way, but we dressed in orange and stayed on Pat's property.  By the time we rode, around noon, the major fighting had died down anyway.  Rambo and I had a SUPER day.  He was following me around like a puppy.  I didn't have to hold his reins at all.  Once Pat and Aaron retired, Rambo and I went out to the corn field to look for turkeys and take pictures.

Also, I finished the main part of my brake drum forge.  Just need some cinder blocks to prop it up on.  I think I found an anvil, too, but need to finalize that.

This is a red tail hawk I watched for a while.

The puppies waited impatiently on Sunday for A. Sarah to get home and B. me to light the fire.  Eva is all wrapped up in her blanket, here.

This is where we get our bread from!

Headed this way

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Sarah and I had a lovely day today.  We spent the ENTIRE day either preparing to work in the garden or actually working in the garden... from sun up to sun down.  It was absolutely incredible.

This is a photo from the other day.  Last weekend or the weekend before, we all went for a hike on the FLT in the woods behind Bob and Jenn and Zhora's house.  I'm not sure what's going on here.  Is Zhora about to pounce?  Why am I making that face?

This is a series of pictures I took of the field at the top of my road after a great run last week.

Since the iPhone is my only camera right now, I'm learning to be clever with it.  By pointing it at different lighting, then quickly changing the focal point, one can achieve lots of different lighting effects.

Once in awhile I think about editing the pictures some, but then the choices and complexity just overwhelms me and I undo all my changes and call it good. 

Sarah's workmate and her boyfriend are vegetarians, but apparently that doesn't keep them from fishing for salmon.  I think I have that story right.  Anyway, we traded a jar of pickles for a fillet of salmon that I seared on our grill.  It was marinaded in the cajon sauce that we canned a couple months ago.... delicious.

This is my brand new Eureka Catskill two person A-Frame tent.  You can see an advertisement on page 9 of the May 28, 1980 edition of the Toledo Blade 

Got it set up and seam sealed.  Nope, didn't sleep in it this weekend.  Maybe next?  There are plenty of volunteers to stay in the "pup" tent with me.

We spent Saturday cleaning up the garden, planting garlic, and getting ready for the winter and the spring.  We had lots of help.  Note the dirty nose.

We weeded and raked and weeded and pulled and dug and weeded and turned over soil... and weeded.  We may have not done enough weeding this season.

Good lookin out, buddy.

We kept the fire burning to get rid of weeds and also to warm ourselves on the cold and blustery day.  Indy didn't mind, and the smell of burning pine kept us in the moment, knowing that we were spending our time well.

Sarah preping the garlic.  We planted 4 varieties, I think, including some of our more robust specimens from last year.  Cross your fingers, now and hope for a good crop.

I loved the way Indy was sitting, watching out for... who knows what, honestly.  She sat in this spot for a good long time.

Made a new suet feeder.

Battled the iron dragon.

Today we rode.

This shot would be better if Sarah and Murph were framed against the sky, but I can only do so much shooting from horseback.

I think I'll dink around with some of these photos and post an artsy selection in the next couple days.  See if I can make Sarah and Murph look like dangerous desperadoes.  Hope you're all having as much fun as we are.

a fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi