Watery Wednesday

     Earlier this evening, I, having no plan of what to blog about next, was looking at other blogs to get ideas.  I saw some postings to this week's Watery Wednesday, so I thought, why not join in.  

     Due to age and having been shut up for decades in one of those awful magnetic albums, this photo is not very good anymore, but it does provide proof that I once visited an ocean.  It is the Pacific Ocean along the Oregon coast, to be exact.  I think that is the Yaquina Lighthouse in the background.  The occasion was our honeymoon trip, 35 years ago this coming summer.

     CLICK HERE to go to Watery Wednesday at Bluff Area Daily.  

  

Snowy Scene

     Here's another photo taken during my walk the day before yesterday.  Our farm is peeking over the hill there on the right.

      

     Our house isn't visible, but yesterday afternoon I was sitting in the living room there watching the 1979 version of the Hitchcock movie The Lady Vanishes.  It was being broadcast on the channel called "this".  I have the original 1938 version of the movie on DVD so I wanted to see what the newer one was like.  It was pretty much the same.  I like stories that take place on trains.  I rode a passenger train once when I was a kid.  I shouldn't say this, but when I was in the restroom on the train, I thought that when the toilet was flushed, the contents went down onto the train tracks. Forgive me, I was only eight years old.

School Bus

     Sometimes when I take a walk in the afternoon I end up sharing the road with the school bus.  That happened yesterday.  I wasn't planning to take a photo of the bus, but then decided to after it was down the road a ways.  I had to zoom in and that's why the picture has a hazy look.  

     I rode a similar school bus on this same road countless times many years ago, never dreaming I'd live along it someday.  My future husband lived right here on the farm where we live now, but I didn't meet him until high school as he attended his church's school through 8th grade.  I'd see his family's farm place as our bus drove by it each day, not having a clue who lived there.  Actually, it was then on the school bus that I first got acquainted with him in 9th grade.  And, come to think of it, the first time we held hands was while riding on a school bus after a class rollerskating party.  All together now, let's say, "Ain't that sweet!"

Barn Charm

     Here's a drive-by shot from early in December.  That was when we had our first snow and I was so happy to be able to get some seasonal-looking photos to use on the blog.  That's a coating of  new-fallen snow on the barn's roof to compete with its already white color.

 Thanks for stopping by!  

CLICK HERE to go to Bluff Area Daily, home of the weekly blog event known as Barn Charm.

Not Quite

     

     I had this drive-by photo from last week that intrigued me but was not quite Barn Charm material, plus the sky went all pixelated or whatever when I brightened the photo.  I then tried several Photoshop effects on it and ended up sort of liking this "paint daubs" one.  (There are several brushes to choose from in "paint daubs" and I used "wide sharp".)  

     I worked on this photo (if you can call it work) last evening after spending a rather unrestful Sunday.  My dear husband got the notion this weekend to install shelves in our old catch-all storeroom upstairs, which was a wonderful thing to do, of course, but it kept everyone hopping all day.  I think he wanted to get it done while our college son was still home and could help.  They went to Waterloo on Saturday to buy the shelving.  Then he sent me back to town yesterday afternoon to get more supplies so the job could get finished.  When you're a farmwife living a ways out in the country a trip to the big town means you'd better get some groceries, too.  You have to make traveling that far as worthwhile as possible.  So I had to grocery-shop yesterday, which I hadn't planned on and wasn't really in the mood for.  But, it turned out ok---I was able to also check out the various clearance items at SuperTarget.  I love doing that.  I've acquired lots of cool stuff that way over the years.
     Today I hope to start putting the new shelves to use.  The storeroom was full of precarious stacks of cardboard boxes and big plastic totes filled with everything under the sun and now they can be stored in a handier, safer, and more organized way on the new shelves.  The totes and boxes will be easy to get to instead of all stacked up one on top of the other.  More than once I've wrenched my back while moving heavy totes around trying to unearth the one on the bottom which contained some desperately-needed holiday decorations or clothes or toys or whatever.
     Believe me, you do not want to hear about the back problems I've had.  One time my lower back went out and the pain was worse than any I experienced during my four anesthetic-less childbirths.  Its rather a horror story.  Another time, I happily purchased a tool cabinet for my husband at a garage sale and then stupidly decided to help load the weighty thing into the pickup.  I couldn't straighten up for a month and had pain for several months after that.  Yes, when it comes to my back, I had to learn the hard way.  It has felt good now for quite a few years and that's because I'm careful about what I lift and how I lift.  (Lift with knees.)  Plus I have slept with a pillow under or between my knees for many years. (And, so has my husband.)  I highly recommend doing that.  Taking walks helps, too.  Also, I discovered that the following should be avoided:  twisting the lower back, sitting in a slouching position, bending over without bending the knees, and reaching up too far with the arms (just take the time to go get the stepstool).
     I think I've slipped into digressing.  I had never even heard of the word digress until I started reading blogs over six years ago.  It means to wander away from the original subject which is really easy to do while blogging.  Now I think I'm double digressing, so I really must end this post and go search for a photo to put on Barn Charm later today.
          

Yesterday

     Yesterday I spent some time catching up on blog-reading.  I'd fallen way behind again.  Along the way I was browsing through Hooked on Houses (its on my blog list over there in the sidebar).  I can't recall how I stumbled upon that website, but its kind of fun to look through the celebrity houses shown there.  Actually, ever since I was a kid I've loved looking at houses.  Back in grade school and junior high, I even drew houseplans, probably inspired by the ones I'd look at in the newspaper each week.  In 8th grade, I was absolutely thrilled one time when our math assignment was to draw up a houseplan!  I got an A+.
     One of the celebrity houses I looked at yesterday belonged to Daryl Hall of the singing duo Hall & Oates.  CLICK HERE to see the house, a restored Revolutionary War Era Colonial.  Also on that page is a link to a site called Live From Daryl's House which features music video-recorded at his home.  Check that out HERE if you are a fan of his music.  (Obviously, I must be one.)  Besides his own singing, he hosts many other singers there, too.
      

Old Farmall

     Here's another drive-by photo from our trip to town earlier in the week.  This old Farmall tractor is spending its retirement sitting on the edge of a field along a highway...

     I'm not sure if its a model F20 or not, but when I was a kid we had one.  It usually had a loader bucket attached to the front for moving snow or manure or rocks or whatever needed moving.  It started very noisily with a crank that was located at the front of the tractor.  I was scared of the loud start-up and would cover my ears with my hands if I was nearby.  That old tractor still resides on the farm where I grew up, but it hasn't run for many years.

     I'm sharing this with Weekly Top Shot  at The View From Right Here blog.  CLICK HERE to go there.

Cedars in the Scene

     Here's a couple shots taken on our drive to town the other day.  Both feature cedars, a tree I tend not to notice until wintertime when their dark russet color is more visible.

The photo above was taken looking away from the sun and the one below toward the sun, which explains the difference in sky color.

And, here's another one for good measure...

Skywatch

          For a very brief time this morning, the sun appeared to be literally pushing its way into view...

CLICK HERE to visit Skywatch Friday.

Bird Pair

     Late yesterday morning my husband and I went to town to get some tires repaired.  I was along mainly because we were in dire need of groceries, plus eating lunch out was offered, too.  Yeah!  Along the way we spied this pair of big birds who appeared to be engrossed in a conversation with each other...  

     I'm not sure what kind of birds they are.  Some sort of hawk, maybe.  Let me know if you recognize them. 

     As you can see, I'm turning over a new leaf for the new year by setting the text's margin to the left and writing in paragraphs indented five spaces like I learned in high school typing class many years ago.  I'm also going to change the blog's background color as soon as I set this blogpost to publish at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, which will actually be today by the time you read this.  I might change the color every month this year.  Right now I will try to figure out what color to use for January.  By tomorrow (today), "right now" will be yesterday afternoon, though.  Blogging about blogging can get confusing! 

     

First Photo of New Year

     Miss Kitty gets the honor of being in the first photo I took in 2013.  Here she is in her own quiet way demanding to be let into the house yesterday afternoon...

     Right now I'm thawing out from spending time outdoors in the near-zero temperatures.  Some yummy coffee I received for Christmas is helping me.  After feeding calves this morning I took a much-needed brisk walk to make up for my laziness of yesterday when I sat watching TV most of the day---the parade in the morning, travel shows in the afternoon, and a movie in the evening.  It was a DVD of Casablanca  which I had tossed into the shopping cart a couple weeks ago while frantically buying last-minute Christmas gifts.  I have the famous film on VHS, but those tapes don't always last, it seems.

     While watching it, I recalled that a few years ago I wrote a silly sequel to Casablanca  and put it on the blog.  CLICK HERE to read it.  

   

Happy New Year

No time to put a photo on the blog this morning.  I'm busy watching the Rose Parade.  It brings back memories of when I was a kid and we sat on the living room floor watching it in black and white.  Until my grandma got a color TV and then we went to her house on New Year's morning to watch the parade.  What fun to see the flower-bedecked floats in color!  (It was at her house, also, that I first saw The Wizard of Oz  on a color TV.  How amazing to see that colorful world over the rainbow!)

Otherwise, I never liked New Year's Day very much when I was a kid.  Mostly, it told me that Christmas vacation was about over and we'd soon have to go back to school.

Cold Moon

This morning the moon was still hanging around when I was out feeding the calves.  Every full moon of the year has a name, of course, and this one's is Cold Moon, though it wasn't full anymore by the time this photo was taken.

I hadn't even noticed the full moon a couple evenings ago, as I was busy preparing for the last of our holiday get-togethers.  Now its New Year's Eve Eve and the house is quiet.  Our married children have gone home, other daughter is at work, and college son just left for Memphis, Tennessee, to watch the Iowa State Cyclones play in the Liberty Bowl.  Thankfully, most of the last of the holiday treats went with him and his friends for en route snacking and then the tailgating party.
  

Winter Scene

Here's a shot taken earlier this week, on the same morning as the one in the previous post.  I was out for a walk, desperately searching for something to take photos of.  That's what us bloggers do.  I glanced at this scene and suddenly decided that I liked the combination of the clouds, the leafless trees, the corn stubble in the snow, and the fence.

    

Skywatch

A photo taken a few mornings ago...

Thanks for stopping by!

CLICK HERE to go to Skywatch Friday to see photos from around the world.

Snowflake Light

HoHoHo and all that!  I hope you survived Christmas.  Happy Second Christmas to you today if you observe that old tradition.  My husband's grandmother used to host a dinner on Second Christmas but since she is no longer here we just eat leftovers and don't give the day a name.

One of the gifts I received was this snowflake light which plugs into the computer's USB port.  It changes colors from red to green to blue to purple.  Pretty cool!

Moving the Snow

I took this photo yesterday morning as my husband was clearing our farmyard with the snowblower which is attached to a tractor.  Its fun to watch---I wish our grandchildren could have been here to see the tall geysers of snow shooting around.

We really were quite snowed in.  There were big drifts in the driveway and in front of the garage doors.  It didn't matter to me for I had no plans to go anywhere, but the snow needed to be moved so the milktruck could get here.

The past few days while appearing to be busy baking holiday treats, my true mission has been to listen to ALL of my Christmas music CDs.  Most years, I listen to only a favorite few of them.  I'm trying to remember when I bought my first CD of any sort.  I recall that for quite awhile I kept a vow to never give in to using those new-fangled things called compact discs.  I would be content with my record albums and cassette tapes, thank you very much.  But, then at some point, I gave in.  I must have happened upon a clearance sale or something.  That often convinces me to make a purchase.
  

Skywatch

Nothing too exciting, but I thought the blue and pink toned sky was pretty this morning...

Thanks for stopping by!

CLICK HERE to go to Skywatch Friday.

Blizzard

We have a blizzard going on today!  Unless this snowstorm is followed by a heat wave, we'll have a white Christmas---hooray!  Here's how the milkhouse windows looked this morning...

 And, next is a really boring photo, but that's what a blizzard looks like out in the open fields.  I was hoping to walk a sympathy card over to the neighbors (see yesterday's post), but probably won't do that today.

While feeding calves this morning I spied a cat hunkered down for refuge in a calf hut.  That doesn't happen too often.

As I type this, a strong wind continues to blow.  I don't think its actually snowing anymore, but visibilities are low due to lots of snow blowing around.  Thankfully, our college son is now home for Christmas break, so I don't have to worry about where he is in the dangerous weather.  The outdoor chores are done until late afternoon when its time to milk the cows and feed the calves again.  A good day to stay warm and safe in the house! 

Cheerless

This isn't a very cheery photo for this happy holiday season, but it fits my mood today...

Something is telling me, "Don't put that photo on", but I'm doing it anyway.  It was taken earlier this month on a foggy Sunday morning as I was walking to the mailbox to get the newspaper.  

My mood is a little dark because we just received news of the death of a former resident of our neighborhood along this road.  The deceased had lived a very long life, so I shouldn't be too sad, I know, but I am.  Mostly because it makes me wish my own grandparents were still alive.  I miss them and I miss being a child.  I don't really like being the older generation, not because I mind getting older, but because I don't like being the one that younger people look to for supposed perfection.  I'm not perfect and of course I know my grandparents were not perfect, either, but I didn't realize that when I was a child.  Realizations aren't that great sometimes.