Russ loaned me a Sony Cyber Shot digital camera while we were dating. That was my introduction to digital photography. I wore that camera out! It was so much fun.Christmas 2005 he presented me with this Nikon D50. I still enjoy that camera and have shared many photos with this group taken with it. I have upgraded to the D7000 but still use the D50 on a regular basis.
I had planned to do a photo at 12 noon today but was still in town so my photo is just a sample of what today is like in the Texas Panhandle.
Blue Skies2:32 PM & 62 degrees Fahrenheit Humidity 16% Dew Point 16 Pressure: 30.08 Highest wind today so far: 30 mphWinds out of the West South West Gusting up to 20 miles per hour
Photo taken: 1:50 PM central time zone 12/12/2012 Rockin' Heart Ranch
Photo taken this morning, December 2, 2012 as the Scaled Quail aka Blues make a made rush across the yard for their morning grain. Photo taken from inside the house looking through the storm door. 54 were counted and still more were coming when a car went down the road & spooked them.
Not real sure where home will be but here is where I am doing some test sites. Let me know where you are. http://muzenews.ning.com/profile/LyndaHarris most of my things are set to friends only but a few open if anyone would like to take a look at Muzenews. It's a brand new still in the works site. High hopes for this one. https://www.facebook.com/lynda.harris.92?ref=tn_tnmn is my Facebook site. Mainly for friends that I know, relatives and friends through our activities but since making lists, I can separate who all these folks are. So now I have a list just for Multiply friends. If you ask me to be a friend, be sure and say it's _____ from Multiply. http://mrsrh.blogspot.com/ is currently open but will be closed to readers only this week. Blog Spot does not offer post by post privacy choices. I will need email addresses if you wish to be a reader. http://littlejoesrockinheartranchhappenings.blogspot.com/ is my Little Joe stories. Readers only. http://rockingheartranchpictureperfect.blogspot.com/ is for my Picture Perfect entries. All my PP entries are on this site and it is open. http://lyndasrockingheartranchimagesandwords.blogspot.com/ is for my Images and Words entries. All my I&W's are on this site. http://mrsrh.xanga.com/ Most of my more recent things are here. Have archived some of the older Multiply things too. Privacy is determined by each entry instead of the whole site which I like. I have kept open these sites but not using them except to keep up with some who are there and/or just testing the sites: ..... http://www.blogster.com/rockinheart ..... http://civatar.com/mrsrh I think this site is still in the works, have not deleted my account yet, still waiting to see how it turns out. http://mrsrh8.wordpress.com I will keep this site but probably will not use it to post. Some organizations, friends, and others are there. I find it more difficult to even find my things but have not had time to explore that much. http://www.ipernity.com/home/rockinheartranch have not deleted this site yet. My favorite is still here on Multiply! I will miss this site so much. So until we meet again --- Happy Trails to You. Let me know where you are --
Dressage is considered the highest form of horse training. Yesterday I was able to audit a dressage clinic and was given permission to take photos. The instructor (from Florida) is a high level instructor and this photo was taken during her demonstration performance. It was beautiful to watch.
Colt, Russ' 9 year old palomino that he has owned since Colt was weaned from his dam is scared of the stuffed plastic black and white calf that is hung on cables. It is remote controlled to go back and forth to teach a horse how to rate and work a cow without having the expense of buying and taking care of cattle. The nick name for this calf is Colt's Monster. Russ is working with Colt with the goal for Colt to over come his fear of the monster. In this photo Colt is at liberty in a 54 foot round pen but is following behind Russ --- using Russ as a shield from the monster but yet trusting Russ enough to stay with him. So trust and the bond between Russ and Colt is the hidden treasure in this photo that was taken Saturday November 3, 2012.
This is the last Images and Words to be done on Multiply from the group. I will continue to post here until the end for Images and Words. I don't have the privacy figured out on Blog Spot yet. When I tried to share it told me that since I wasn't a Google+ member, I couldn't share. So for now I will stay here. The same for the I&W Flickr album. Is the Flickr album set to just I&W members or is it open to the whole world?
The challenge this week is to take one of our photos and turn it into something that looks like a painting. I used Adobe Photoelements 10 to turn the photo into a colored pencil effect, then on parchment and then framed. 4 different processes from editing to saving.
Photo taken yesterday afternoon at the Ranch Cowgirls Rodeo Association ranch rodeo that was held near where I live. This is a friend that was on one of the teams. Edited in Adobe Photoshop Elements 10. Camera: Nikon D7000 on sport scene mode
Enough tears have fallen to fill the Powder River through Kaycee, Wyoming where Chris LeDoux called home. He died of a rare form of cancer in March of 2005. During his all-too-short 56 years of life, LeDoux was indeed a rare breed. Beloved by the rodeo world, LeDoux’s music captured the spirit of the sport - and of the American West - as few will ever likely match. The young Chris put pen to paper often. Poem after poem reflected his love of rodeo and of a young girl, Peggy, who would become his wife and bear him five children. His sense of humor and self-deprecating manner were constants even in the most painful of times. Besides writing words to become songs, Chris liked to sketch cartoons ala Charlie Russell and “Ole Chuck” would have been honored to ride alongside LeDoux. Many heroes don’t quite live up to their reputations. This Wyoming, and rodeo, hero outshined them all. A practical joke player extraordinaire, who would not intentionally hurt even the squirrels on the golf course, Chris will forever be thought of with a certain amount of reverence in these parts. There is a hole in Wyoming’s heart.
He was world champion professional bareback rider in 1976. When speaking about that accomplishment LeDoux chuckled recalling his bounty. “I won a saddle and a buckle and I got a hat and a pair of boots – and a little bit of money. The money’s gone. The boots are worn out. The hat’s gone – someone bit a big chunk out of it at Fort Worth that next winter. I still have the saddle and the buckle. But that championship gave me credibility in the music that I’m doing and helped tremendously,” LeDoux believed. His stage act came to represent a rodeo complete with mechanical bull, pyrotechnics, and pulsating energy that kept standing-room-only crowds on their feet for two hours – always howling for more. The moment the net fell and the first strains of “Copenhagen” rang out is one all Chris LeDoux fans cherished. Flinging tins was a sport in itself. It was a way to show love too, sort of like resting a bunch of roses at Barbara Streisand’s feet. Forgive the comparison but it is just the kind of image that would make Chris smile and say, “Yeah.”
His interest in rodeo stemmed from a childhood in Texas surrounded by friends and neighbors for whom rodeo was a way of life. LeDoux decided to give it a try, won a buckle, and was “bitten by the bug.” The family moved to Wyoming where rodeo continued to peak his interest. Before he gave much thought to girls or hot cars, Chris LeDoux dreamt of becoming a rodeo champ. He wrote his classic tune “Bareback Jack” while a student at Casper College. His mom had bought a guitar for Chris at Jay’s Music Store in Cheyenne a few years earlier. He first strummed and sang along to Marty Robbins “Big Iron.” He had many rodeo stars to gaze upon while living in Cheyenne and musicians then started to gain his attention. Favorites included Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Charlie Daniels. “I started listening to country music and loved it. I wanted to be able to play the guitar and sing some of those songs,” LeDoux remembered.
Football competed for some of his extracurricular time while at Central High School in Cheyenne but it was always Cheyenne Frontier Days that gave him “Gold Buckle Dreams.” His bareback riding skills rose measurably as fellow contestants offered pointers. Soon Chris LeDoux was among the top riders. He could have chosen many different paths during that period in the late 1960s and 70s but decided a wife and family – settling in rural Wyoming – was the best course for his life. A successful rodeo career was overtaken by music. Hundreds of songs about the West, cowboy and rodeo life, and love ensued. It was Garth Brooks who kicked things up several notches by singing the line “Worn out tapes of Chris LeDoux” in Brooks’ 1989 hit “Much Too Young (to Feel This Damn Old).” Almost immediately millions more fans of Chris launched a career that brought recognition and a degree of fame well outside the rodeo world.
Writing songs became more work than fun and Chris would come to depend on others for many of his recordings during the latter part of his long musical journey. “Writing to me is like sitting in a room by yourself all day pulling one hair out a time. I did enough of that. I’m ready to enjoy other things - be outside,” he said. He would get back home to the Kaycee ranch often and when there fix fence and do ranch chores his father-in-law saved for him. “I’m usually home calving time,” LeDoux recalled. “I kind of wish I was out on the road then.”
Another passion entered LeDoux’s life in the latter half of the 1990s. Golf. That surprised the cowboy musician. “I hate to admit it. I cussed the game for years. But it’s addicting. I don’t understand it. Maybe it’s just the nice little parks you get to walk through.”
Aren’t we glad he walked through our lives? More like leaped, and sang, and helped teach us to believe there is a lot of good out there we can do for others while at the same time enriching our own souls beyond measure.
Chris LeDoux’s band, Western Underground, carries on in his honor. Guitar player, and road manager, Mark Sissel stood by Chris’s side for 16 years. “It was like getting up every morning and walking down the road with John Wayne. The only difference was there was no on-screen/off-screen. Chris was the same every day – an extraordinary person; an exceptional man,” Sissel told the crowd at the first annual Tribute to Chris LeDoux in Casper, Wyo. last fall. The opening stanza in Sissel’s song dedicated to LeDoux just about says it all:
I loaded up my ’64 Fairlane. Aimed it at the western sky. I’ve had enough concrete and freeway. I’m leaving it all behind. I’m looking for the King of Wyoming. The last of a dying breed. Legend runs from Cheyenne to Cody. About the King of Wyoming.
He’s left us way too soon but his spirit remains alive and shining. “He was true to his word. He was real. He cared so much about other people,” reflects pro rodeo medic Linda Holtzinger. She is typical of loyal LeDoux fans spread across the globe. Holtzinger looks to the sky every night stars are visible. The first one she sees will forever by lit by Chris LeDoux’s smiling face, his cowboy heart, and his voice echoing the soft opening lines of “Look at You Girl.”
Look at you girl. Standing here beside me. Starlight in your hair. Looking like a dream I dreamed somewhere. And look at me girl. You’ve got me acting like a lover in an Old-time picture show. And how I got the part, I just don’t know.
Chris LeDoux grew into the part naturally. The role we of his gender all aspire to become. That of a good man.
Wildcat Kelly, lookin' mighty pale, Was standing by the sheriff's side; And when that sheriff said "I'm sending you to jail," Wildcat raised his head and cried:
Oh, give me land, lots of land Under starry skies above, Don't fence me in. Let me ride through the wild open Country that I love, Don't fence me in. Let me be by myself in the evening breeze- Listen to the murmer of the cottonwood trees, Send me off forever, but I ask you please, Don't fence me in. Just turn me loose, Let me straddle my old saddle Underneath the western sky. On my cayuse, Let me wander over yonder Till I see the mountains rise. I want to ride to the ridge Where the west commences, Gaze at the moon till I lose my senses, Can't look at hobbles and I can't stand fences, Don't fence me in.
Wildcat Kelly, back again in town, Was sitting by his sweetheart's side, And when his sweetheart said: "Come on, let's settle down," Wildcat raised his head and cried:
Oh, give me land, lots of land Under starry skies above, Don't fence me in. Let me ride through the wild open Country that I love, Don't fence me in.
Photo taken June 29, 2012 while Russ and I were riding in the mountains of New Mexico not far from the Colorado State Line. Just pretend you are in this photo and that is Roy Rogers on Trigger singing "Don't Fence Me".
A Young American Kestrel America's Smallest Falcon One of two young That are being raised under one of our sheds This young man was sure voicing his Call of the Wild and telling us to back off
Did you find the black swallowtail butterfly larvae aka caterpillars?
from wikipedia.org
The black swallowtail has a wingspan of 8 to 11 cm (3.1 to 4.3 in). The upper surface of the wings is mostly black. On the inner edge of the hindwing is a black spot centered in larger orange spot. A male of this species has a yellow band near edge of wings; a female has row of yellow spots. The hindwing of the female has an iridescent blue band.
After mating, small, yellow eggs are laid, typically on plants from the carrot family, Apiaceae, including dill, fennel, Queen Anne's lace, parsley, and golden alexanders. They are also found eating rue and bishop's weed. First instarlarvae grow to about 1.5 cm (0.59 in) long and resemble bird droppings. They are dark black with a white band in the middle and have spikes, with a light brown-orange ring at the base of each of the spikes in the dark region (spikes are white on the white band). Later instars grow to about 5 cm (2.0 in) and are green and black banded with yellow spots around every second black band. They have short, black spikes around some of the black bands, although these tend to disappear as the larva nears pupation.
Caterpillar and chrysalis
The black swallowtail caterpillar has an orange "forked gland", called the osmeterium. When in danger, the osmeterium, which looks like a snake's tongue, everts and releases a foul smell to repel predators.
Black swallowtail chrysalis
The pupae may be green or brown, but not depending on surroundings or the background on which they have pupated. The color of the chrysalis is determined by a local genetic balance that ensures the majority of pupae will blend in.[2]
I recently did this for a fun blog and couldn't resist repeating it. I had a knee scope Jan. 25th and still not fully recuperated. Sure needing that good saddle time.
I am from the great state of Texas But how does one photo represent that? So went out of the box because where I really came from is: A Strong Family Foundation (and all these photos were taken in Texas)
Collage was made from photos that I scanned a couple of years ago from my folks photo albums. I am kin to everyone in these photos. Several generations from both my Dad's and my Mom's family. If I counted right, I am in 7 of these photos. To see where others come from: Images & Words ~ # 149 - Where I come from
When the sun is shining When the wind is not blowing too hard When it's not too hot nor too cold To enjoy the beautiful outdoors From the back of a horse
I decided to do a collage about my favorite season - Summer. All the photos were taken on our place the Rockin' Heart Ranch in the Texas Panhandle except one trail riding with friends not too far from us and the rodeo photo. Collage was made using Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 and then framed in Picnic.com
On the Outside Looking Inside But Seeing the Street Life
Trinidad, Colorado Sister-In-Law's Art Show *~*~*
From our host:
Hi Friends,
Mia here, having the honor of hosting this fine weekend!
For a theme this time we are going to post a Candid/Street-Life.
Each week we will post an original photo with words on it. The idea behind this group is to expand our minds through our photography.Photos must be your own, but the words can be someone else's as long as credit is given after the words. Your post can either be serious, or if you'd like comical, but never obscene .Posts can either have one word on them,quotes, or full poems ... Your choice.All posts are to be done on your own site in a blog form with a link back to it being left here. See the example below in the blog titled Test Run.New topics will be posted on Sundays.Posts can be made through Saturday.One post per person only please.
Picnic.com is closing so I thought I would have a little light hearted fun with this topic. It's a terrible day out, wind blowing a gale and low visibility from the dust. Wednesday I am scheduled for a knee scope plus my Dad's condition is still not good. Just thought I needed to laugh today.
Now it's the 22nd Day of December and so much to doAnd Lynda & Big Sister DiamondAre Nowhere to be Found!Those Sissies are Letting Old Man WinterKeep Them Bundled & Warm in Their Abodes!Just Because the Weather has been Nasty & BadThat's No Excuse, For Santa is Coming to the Ranch I Got a Message on Facebook from the Man Himself.Remember I now have my own computer from Cat Man DuSanta had read on Multiply about my fan club and adventures. And was wondering if I'd like to help ole Santa out? Said Rudolph wasn't Feeling quite up to the whole trip I jumped, I squealed, & I nickered with Joy. And then I realized there was so much work to be doneThe Ranch decorations were still packed away in the barn! So Santa could easily find his way to the Ranch.Out came the basket of decorations and lightsAnd a busy horse I became. For on Christmas Eve, Santa will fly to the Ranch and a quick stop he will make Rudolph will give me a lesson on flying that sleigh way up highWhile he takes a rest in my stall so warm. My request for the night would be simple indeed.I wanted to pull that sleigh out in the leadTo make the rounds of each fan club members' house.Especially those two who visited me this fall.So Ambria and Brice (& your sister too)If you hear those hooves up on your roofJust remember I'll be with old Santa come Christmas Eve night And if you wish along with Santa treats Leave a little something for the reindeer and ME Cause you sure know how I like them treats.Go to bed early and sleep tightAnd don't get up until the early morning light After the visits to all the members housesWe'll return to the ranch, for Rudolph to finish the rounds.
~*~*~*~
Merry ChristmasTo Alland aProsperous New Year from Little Joe and the whole Rockin' Heart Ranch crew (Russ, Lynda, Jake, Colt, Doc, Diamond, & April) ********************************
If you would like to read all about the adventures of the Rockin' Heart Ranch Reporter, Little Joe. Just click on Little Joe Blogs on my home page. I'm gradually getting things tagged so all may not be listed yet.
When I first saw this topic, I thought a "piece of cake", this one will be so easy but soon discovered the opposite. I mentally went through my picture files of family and friends, etc. but kept coming back to this photo that I did for a special project, I think around July 4th but not sure. To me this sums up a lot of things to be listed under the topic of gratitude: Church, a free country, family, friends and a good life. What more could one ask?
Remember the good times Forget and/or forgive the bad But most of all: Make the best of the present.
Note: I didn't take this photo, my Dad did. I scanned and edited. The words are mine. I'm on the left, two brothers in the center and our Uncle on the end. We sure had great times with our Christmas presents that year. Lots of "Cowboys & Indians" plus roll playing Roy Rogers & Dale Evans. Time sure does fly. I was in the 4th grade that year. And yes, I still have my double gun & holster set. Even have one partially used roll of caps. They are on the cornice above the office window. Excellent shape considering all the use and age.
Since I already posted my fun Halloween blog with Little Joe: http://mrsrh.multiply.com/journal/item/633 I decided to go with the tarantula photo used in the blog before removing the background. Tarantulas are not scary to me but I know some folks who are terrified of spiders of any type, more so than poisonous snakes. Photo is the underside, taken from inside the house through the kitchen window. Other photos of this creature: http://mrsrh.multiply.com/photos/album/519/tarantula_visits_againandhttp://mrsrh.multiply.com/photos/album/516/Todays_Visitor all located in my photo albums that can be accessed from home page if these links don't work or you can copy and paste.
"Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, It wafts across the electrified borders." Ronald Reagan ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* I found the quote on line but had to find out what waft meant. My vocabulary is not very large. Very Texas and country and yes folks say I do have an accent. The brick is our house and the wire is from my home place and is quite old. Have two large wreaths made from it.
