Train of Blades

Tonight we had football practice at 6pm and the field is right next a train tracks. During a normal practice a train will go by a couple times. But tonight we got quite a surprise, a train load of windmill blades were going by. 

There were well over a hundred blades, and nothing but blades, on this train. They were heading to Garden City, KS to a windmill staging area. 

Those blades aren't small are they? Even though I've been around a lot of these blades the size never seems to amaze me! 

The Cow Game Road Trip!

A friend passed on this game to me that we played the whole road trip to Indiana and back. I can't believe how long it kept us all occupied and boy was it fun!  

The Cow-Culator. Divide the people in your car into two teams; left and right. Decide when your game will end (miles/hours). 

Count the cows you see on your side of the car. 

That means if you pass a field of cows (or a feed lot!) count fast! Each cow is worth one point. 

If you pass a cemetary on your side of the car, the opposing team has to yell "Your cows are buried!" and you lose all your points. To prevent this your team, the one with the cemetery on their side of the car should yell "Cemetery!" first to keep all their points. 

Windmills and white horses are worth 50 points each. 

And a peg legged man is worth 500 points! 

We had so much fun with this game, especially through Kansas which is of course filled with cows and windmills. The game got really fun when we tried to distract the other team so they didn't see the cows. Or when we started arguing about just what constitutes as a cow? Does it have to be real or can in be a photo on a billboard? What about a peg legged man? Can we count the one on the movie playing in the back seat? (How to Train Your Dragon, Peter Pan, what others?) And just how much white has to be on a horse to make it a "white horse"? DR, who drove almost the whole way, was REALLY competitive! He saw every stinking cemetery and I lost every time! I think there came a point when DR and I were playing and the kids weren't! This was the best car game I've ever played. 

Photo Thursday - My Drive Through the Country...and the Attack of The Barn Owls!

Over the weekend I took off for a little drive through the country.

DR and I have been stumbling across all kinds of old windmills and farmsteads out here.

There is one location I know of where I can stop in the middle of the road and see three old windmills in the distance. There aren't many of these guys left in other parts of the country but they are bountiful here.

I came across this little old shack in the middle of no where and didn't think anyone would mind if I took a few pictures.

I wonder how old that house and windmill is?

I admired the roughness of it and began walking around quickly snapping photos.

Here's a view of a windmill you don't often see.

The windmill was less than an arm span from the building so that made me think it wasn't a house. Who'd want a squeaky windmill right out their front door? Or maybe it was and the windmill was added later. Or maybe it was built that way on purpose because some farmer didn't want to travel too far to work on his windmill.  

 

The building was abandoned and in disrepair. I wonder if it had been a house at one time or if it had been built with a different purpose? I didn't go inside the building of course but there were plenty of open windows that I could shoot through. I was really enjoying myself, finding all the wonderful photo opportunities when I suddenly heard some loud rustling up above and to my right.

I stepped back quickly. I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to unidentified sounds!

Holy smoke! A huge bird flew out of the doorway from the attic and scared the bejeezus out of me!!!!

And then there was a second one!!!

 

It was a pair of barn owls!  These two photos were all I managed to get of them. I did manage to get a glimpse of their faces and they were gorgeous!

They flew off in different directions. From what I've read on them I assume they were a pair nesting in the old barn. I've read barn owls will use the same nesting site over and over again. Now that I know where they are I'm going to return sometime and maybe I'll get a better shot.

borrowed from Internet

Aren't they beautiful? I just love the shape of their faces.

Wish me luck and maybe I'll have some better photos soon! 

Mural...in progress

I told myself I wasn't going to do a mural.

Almost every house we've lived in I've painted a mural....

....then I moved away from it.

But I have this bathroom wall that was just screaming....

"PAINT ME!!!"

So after 2 or 3 different sketches,

I've silenced the screaming wall and started to paint.

A windmill, a barn, some prairie grass and a pheasant in flight....all in black. Like a giant pencil drawing.  

It's a small bathroom and too much color would go crazy in there, that's why I'm sticking with black.

And cuz, you know, black is classic.

Hi, I'm Johnny Cash.

ahem...back to the mural...

Some clouds and another small pheasant will be by the sink. There are a few other small spots in the bathroom where there will be small paintings too but the windmill wall will be the biggest.

A work in progress. So far so good with only two obstacles to overcome.

1. Yahoo.

There's only so much work I can get done

with an almost 2 yr. old running around.

2. COLD!

This bathroom is in the basement and dang,

can it get cold down there!

So armed with a Pooh Bear video and wool socks

I'm hoping to get the mural done before March!

Updates to come :)

Kansas Sunrise...with windmills.

Over the weekend I was able to sneak out for an hour or so around sunrise and catch some beautiful Kansas scenery. Enjoy!

A rather horrendous drawing....

I've been working on this drawing for the last couple weeks on and off as I worked the Milo Pastel.

All I can say is this drawing is horrendous...but, I'm not going to censor my progress for you all. If I'm going to draw again I'm going to share the successes as well as the failures because I can learn from them both.

I love the sky here but the windmills weren't planned. I had originally planned on putting a lone tree where the largest windmill is. Long story short; it didn't work and I had to disguise some mistakes....hence the ugly black windmills. There isn't anything else I can do to this drawing but start again. The thing about pastels is you can only work so many layers before the paper won't accept anymore and the surface gets slick. Well, at least on this paper. I'm sure some higher quality stuff would be more forgiving of my mistakes.

Any hoo, chalk this one up to a learning experience and then forget about it and move on.

Photo of the Day - Old and New

Photo Thursday - Clouds

Although I'm working at improving my photography skills and I am learning and seeing improvement, I am finding myself having a lot of trouble when it comes to shooting landscapes. Maybe it's because I find it hard to focus on one particular focal point rather than trying to capture all the colors and textures that overwhelm my eye. Or maybe I'm having trouble because I don't have a camera that will focus as far in the distance as I want it to. Or maybe I just need to keep playing and figure out my camera a bit more. 

Anyway, I'm still shooting away. Last month when a bunch of pretty storm systems came through the area there were some beautiful cloud formations. I tried to shoot some and share them with you. I don't think any of these show the full effect of just how magnificent the sky looked on those days.