The farm animals are at their best in the morning. The chickens are noisy, the donkeys are goofy, the emus silly, and the goats clumsy. I love my mornings in the pastures feeding the animals. I offered to trade shifts with Michael the other day, but ...
Intruders
Lately the locals have been making pests of themselves on our property. I know this because I relocated my office temporarily to my upstairs bedroom until the downstairs air-conditioning is replaced next week. Being upstairs all day has ...
The night shift.
The routine animal chores take place twice daily at the Buck 'n Run Ranch. Scratch is tossed out for the chickens, the emus and goats are fed, and the donkeys get a carrot and their fly masks put on or taken off. I am a morning person so I take the ...
Lowell Ego lights
I have wanted a pair of Lowell Ego lights for tabletop photography since I first saw them. Frankly the price and the reviews scared me off. People described the assembly of the lights to be quite an ordeal, requiring the assistance of a second ...
The Chickens
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iPad in the pasture
I took my iPad out with me this morning when I went to feed the animals. They were all very cooperative with my picture taking, with the exception of mini donkey Diana. Imagine that. :-) I am pretty sure I heard her say "Get that thing outta' my ...
I’m a tweaker, man.
Please bear with me as I tweak my website. I love the Wordpress theme I am using now but, as always, I want to make it my own. You might notice I replaced the beige background with a chicken wire image. I was missing my chicken wire. I spent ...
What’s up with Isi?
I have done a bit of shuffling around of the chickens in recent days. The result is a very bare Icelandic/Layer coop. I decided to move the older girls to a private coop with a nice grassy, shady run to live out their days in peace, without being ...
Chickens in the House
It is a bit out of control. I have a yard full of chickens and a house full too. I promised Michael I was done decorating with chickens but a trip to World Market got the better of me. I found this cute reproduction egg sign and I had to have ...
Tucker’s Chicks
Having a dog around chickens has always been a worry for me, and reasonable I believe. When I adopted Tucker I knew I would have to be vigilant in keeping him away from the chickens. So far we have had no problems. The most recent hatch of olive ...
The bad, bad, baby!
My project broody hatched three chicks three weeks ago. Two disappeared without a trace. The third has been AWOL much of the time, but as of today, he is under my control! Thanks to my trusty net, he was captured, after being on the run ...
Weekend Wrap-Up
I spent a lot of time cooking and photographing food this weekend. I learned that French fries need to be photographed almost immediately as they come out of the fryer. If not, they start to wilt and look unappetizing. I managed to get a couple of ...
Getting Ready
The project and olive egger chicks are growing fast. I am ready to get them out of the brooders and into a coop. Last week I re-homed several young cockerels and emptied one of the small coops. It was a mess of course. Chickens are messy. Period. ...
Little green apples and other stuff
We had a glorious morning here at the Buck 'n Run. Michael mowed the grass yesterday, the sun was shining, it was 65 degrees. It was a perfect morning. I took my camera with me hoping to get some pictures of the baby chicks that hatched under my ...
Working it
Stuck between high school and college, granddaughter Emily has a lot of time on her hands. I occasionally take advantage of it and hire her to get stuff done around the house. I still had 8-10 boxes to unpack, a cluttered and dirty porch, and ...
Orthopedically Challenged Chicks (Update!)
My recent hatch of chicks have put me through the wringer. Last night when I checked on them before going to bed I found them standing in water! They had somehow managed to flip the paper towel up from the corner and into the waterer. All of the ...
Am I being punk’d?
I have been working on a top secret chicken project for almost a year. My F1's, or first generation chickens were looking good. Three weeks ago the pullets started laying and I was thrilled with the egg color! I took the ...
The Feed Shack
Bigger isn't always better. I say that because we had a big barn at the last house and we fretted over losing it when we moved here. Even though the barn was big, it seemed to always be a disorganized mess. I was concerned about where we would store ...
Food Photography Class Week Four
These are the photos I submitted for the last assignment in my Introduction to Food Photography class, followed by the critiques. I have signed up for another class, Food Photography for Bloggers, so I will be back posting my assignments for the next ...
Food Photography Class – Week Two
Today was the deadline to submit three photos for assignment two of my food photography class. Here was the task: Set up some simple still life images and shoot them from many different angles. When you think you have captured your subject every way ...