Buttercups

Hard to describe the extent to which the buttercups have taken over my fields. Wow. Nothing but yellow as far as you can see --- or at least until the mower starts mowing. And even after mowing, it appears the buttercups start coming back within hours. They are beautiful (and very hardy) weeds for sure.

Spring has Sprung

Flowers flowers everywhere. The weather hasn't decided to stay completely warm yet, but signs of Spring are all over. The fields got mowed last weekend --- and there are many more weeks of that ahead. Here's hoping we can stay slightly ahead of the weeds. :-) According to the dogs, there are some great new smells in the yard too.

Gates and Fences

I seem to have strayed from the original plan for Sarah's Farm Report recently, with pictures of almost everything else but farm improvement. Oops. I will probably continue to do that, but I don't want to forget the original plan either. Slowly (ever so slowly) I have been making progress on a very long list of projects around here, so I want to report on that progress --- and motivate myself toward more. Above are pictures of new gates (two of them), a re-picketed gate and a fancy picketed enclosure for my trash cans. The gates have made life much easier, since I don't scamper over fences as well as I did in the past. :-) And the trash enclosure will be appreciated by my neighbors I'm sure.

Post-It Notes

Stick Around

(the photo that won 1st place)

One of my favorite web sites is http://www.dpchallenge.com/ and I have been entering their photo challenges for about a year now (http://bit.ly/k9logicdpc). The challenges certainly motivate me to take pictures regularly and are a great way to get feedback on my photography --- and give feedback to others. There are some amazing photographers on this website from all over the world, and I am both impressed and inspired by their work. A highlight of my year was winning second place in the "post-it note" photo contest in February. See above for that photograph, some outtakes, and a wide angle shot that shows you how simple the setup was. There is a new post-it note puzzle now too (see right column). Enjoy. :-)

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Update: The winner in the photo contest above was eliminated --- so I actually ended up with first place (!!) in the competition. Very exciting indeed.

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Puzzles!!

Look look --- a new feature in the column to the right! I intend to add jigsaw puzzles (generated by Jigzone) using my farm pictures and/or other images that look like they might be fun to pull apart and put back together. Enjoy. And let me know if you have any trouble with this feature.

Springing Forward

Wow. Almost 10 inches of snow and icicles --- and then one week later, the daffodils have arrived. Very odd. It was close to 80 degrees today and gorgeous.

More Snow Pix

The snow was amazing and it was fun watching it all melt very quickly over a two day period. The icicles all along the roofline were quite dramatic (see above) and also quite noisy as they thawed and fell to the ground.

Snow Snow Snow

Daisy

Dusk

Looking West

. Looking South

Crosby --- age 14 (!) on 3/5/09

Flake

Happy Birds

(thank you to J/L/C/J for the gazebo)

Thor --- age 11

Flake and Daisy

Crosby

Crosby

Pilot

Flake

Thor

Gadget

Wow. March came in like a lion and we got almost 10 inches of snow in Varina yesterday and today. Farm was beautiful. The dogs were ecstatic and are sleeping VERY well tonight. And we still have power too. Hooray.