A Nice Break from the Routine

I had a nice little pat on the back this week. I am a reader of Pioneer Woman the last few years (since her first SXSW recognition)and thoroughly enjoy her site. If you aren't familiar with her, google her and you will read quite an incredible success story in the blogging world. Anyway, she has a pretty good photography section to her blog and periodically runs assignments/contests. PW is infamous in the blogging community for her contests across all of her web site, she is very generous. I have entered a few pictures over the last year in her photography assignments, but this one hit home for me. The assignment was dog pictures. Well since my animals are my main models, you bet I had a few I could enter for that. I entered 4 pictures and she chose this one as one of her final 10 (out of approximately 10,000 entries). I feel a little special right now.. and very much inspired. It's amazing what a little positive recognition does ones soul. And for those who are interested in the technical aspects: shot with a Nikon D300, 70-200 2.8. I shot this the first week I had this camera and the second week I had the lens. I believe I was wide open and probably at 1/1500 at ISO 200-400 (my standard outside although I may have been on auto ISO at the time since the camera was new) I loved my D50 but the focusing system on the D300 is excellent for action of my calibre and for driving the 70-200 and I knew I wanted to be able to capture more pictures like this, hence the move up in equipment.

But there is sort of a downside to this story.. I don't have my raw file of the above shot. In fact, I had to download the picture off of my smugmug account, as I didn't even have the jpg. In December I made a major boo boo and blew away (like the alliteration?) my external hard drive with all of my photos on it. I have a general backup here in Florida, but it didn't contain this shot (I lost most everything I had shot last summer)and I am keeping my fingers crossed that I backed up the photography external to another general external that is at the cabin. I remember distinctly backing up before we came down, but I am thinking I was backing up from my hard drive rather than my photography external.. so I am bummed.. in a bittersweet kind of way. I also blew away the photos in the previous post of the dogs in the snow last spring.. and only have the web sized photos of those too. Not a good year - but I have learned my lesson and now have good a good backup procedure in place so I hopefully won't ever be in that position again.. makes me so mad at myself. But hey! Watchya gonna do? I know that I would never be able to enter any picture in any professional contest (if I ever choose to) without having the raw file to back me up.. Anyway - it was fun to be a small part of PW's site and see the comments from her readers. It has inspired me to keep on keeping on!

I confess... I am totally having an affair

..with our "new" puppy, Rosie. Well we have had her a year, and I am amazed how much I am in love with her. I don't know if you have ever heard the saying "What's time to a dog" - meaning they greet you with the exact same enthusiasm if you've been gone an hour, a day, a week... you get the picture. Well to paraphrase that saying, I am so in love with that dog, it happened very quickly and it's as if I have loved her for years and years. But I was that way with Mattie, and with Tucker. Some animals reach into your soul so quickly (if you let them and they want to) in a way, it alters time. You can't imagine your life without them.

After Lass passed, we weren't sure about another dog. We didn't know if Mattie would accept another dog. We considered a (older) rescue, but since we just came off a 10 year situation, we didn't want to subject ourselves or Mattie to that again. If we were to get another dog, we figured it would be a puppy and it would be the best opportunity for Mattie to be accepting of another dog.I love the aussie temperament and kept my eyes open locally but nothing jumped at us.I also watched aussie rescue (in Florida and Georgia) for 6 months for a puppy. I knew I wanted a dog that I could do agility with but also hopefully do some therapy work with. Aussies aren't like Golden Retriever's, a friendly outgoing dog to strangers. And we live in the country most of the time which means a fair amount of isolation. We came across a breeder of aussies who did a lot of therapy work with some of her dogs and her dogs seemed ideal. We fell in love over the internet..


Rosie comes with papers.. but what she also comes with is a history..at this moment in time, we wanted a (false?) sense of security in this dog. 10 years of living in a powder keg will do that to you.











Mat loves this pup as if it is her own. I am in love. In my dog hall of fame I count Tucker, Mattie and now Rosebud. We are excited for the future.

Is Mat suffering from depression?

Cap'n Steve has been home a week and Mat has not been herself for the last 5 days. She is off her food and hardly drinking water. She is known to be quite the Euell Gibbons of our animals. (Thank goodness not a pooh eater)We figured she ate a "bad mushroom" or some such.. but this is starting to seem more than a bug. I have taken her to the vet, she checks out fine (blood work et all)but she is still off. She is mopey, not very food motivated even when there is chicken or hamburger involved. She is losing weight. This sounds/looks/feels like depression to me.

Mat has never been the only dog. And even though she and Lass had their issues, they each seemed relaxed with the other as long as there was a crate separating them. The cats are all trying to love up on her.. and she just sort of lays there, uninterested.. Moe even tries to get in her dinner bowl while she is eating and she could care less.. When Tucker, numero uno corgi died (3 years ago at age 16), Queen Kiki, our cat, exhibited what we think was depression. She loved Tuck and they would play together..She was "off" for a couple of weeks.

We figure Mat now realizes that Steve is back and Lass isn't - this is not your normal "week apart vacation" that we do once or twice a year with the dogs. I feel for her. She looks and seems very sad. I know how she feels.

A Shaved Leg for the Summer Season

Mat is doing very well after her surgery. We only had to help her with the steps 2 times, then she was maneuvering them as she did before the surgery. In fact - she is pretty much using the leg exactly as she did before surgery. Hopefully as she gets better over the next couple of months she will be putting more and more of her weight on it. At least that's the plan.. We need to be careful these next several weeks as she starts to feel better on it. She must not run or trot on that leg..I can see her getting better each day and she is starting to want to trot up to the bunnies in the yard so I guess I better get the leash out....
Speaking of bunnies. It's like Watership Down around here. Not that the bunnies need to leave - but we have many more this year... probably because Cali, our neighbors outdoor cat died last summer, so there has been no major predator. We have had several tiny guys take up residence in our front shrubs, crepe myrtles and day lillies. I just can't seem to get a good picture of the little guys... Anyway, it has been a fun season with so many ducklings and bunnies.. now I might not be saying that next year if we decide to do a garden. I may be cursing those wascally wabbits... but for now, they are welcomed and seem to know it. One day I hope to get a picture of the rabbits, squirrels and ducks together all having a nibble on the cracked corn we leave out for the ducks...it's a sweet scene...

A Love Affair From the Beginning

Many of you know Mattie, one of the two remaining dogs that seems to tether Cap'n Steve and myself to home. Now she doesn't do that by any conscious effort on her part, we seem to make that decision on our own. But she is THE dog... She is MY dog.. She is THE Mattie.. an 11 yo Australian Shepherd that is huge, at least as female Aussies go. She is the apple of my eye, the "chosen child", the bossiest dog, the loyal companion, my love. She is fodder for the camera and my eternal practice of depth of field..since I have no small children to practice with, she suffices and is willing to do so, thanks in no small part to several obedience classes! She is smart, and unfortunate for her, and me, she was the first dog I ever really trained. We did obedience and agility and she was a quick study at both. She loved the frisbee and tennis ball and still does, but a torn ACL 2 years ago has put an end to those days. When I first laid eyes on the cabin, my first thought was not of our desires for a home out of the city, but how great this would be for the dogs (4 at the time, 2 corgis, Lass the BC, and Mattie). She spent the first several years in the river. She could not be outside playing without taking a dip or two. She was 2 when we purchased the cabin, and they seemed meant for each other. She chased rabbits, geese and turkeys, made peace with ducks and squirrels..She barks at passers by on HER river, letting them know that she sees them and they are on "her turf". Her days now are pretty content to hang around the groomed areas (4.5 acres), even staying loyally by my side as I do my chores. She loves summer as it brings the wild blackberries that she pulls from the thorny vines with ease. She relishes fall because it brings wild cherries which she gorges on until we make her come in, as we try to avoid the inevitable regurgitation of 10 too many cherries. She is showing the signs of aging. Her stiffness in the cool damp mornings has me feeling sorry for her. As I reach for Ibuprofen for myself, I check to see if she is in need of Ascriptin or Rimadyl. Rimadyl, now there is the drug of choice in our home.. When Tucker (numero Uno Corgi) began using it 6 or so years ago for his arthritis, and I got my dog back, so to speak.. I have been buying in bulk ever since.. Bogey (numero dos Corgi) was on it for 3 years, and Lass has been on a daily regime for the last year. I pop Mattie a Rimadyl on the really cold evenings/mornings, but as summer approaches and the weather warms, she will be fine without - at least for this season.. I fully expect within a year or so for her to be on the daily regime of this miracle drug. She will be the last to go of the dogs, and probably in the not too distant future. I can't imagine this place without her, but hopefully for me I won't have to for awhile.

My World and Welcome To It

I love this picture. To me it epitomizes my world, which I dearly love. Our 8.5 acres borders on a small peaceful river. The cabin is small and cozy. And the room this place has is dog heaven. The first time I saw it I said, "if it was half as good on the inside as it was on the outside, it was ours".

This picture is taken with an extreme wide angle (10mm digital which is equiv to 15mm in film slr). I love that wide angle, though you have to be careful with your composition or you get very mundane shots. Wide angle landscapes should have an interesting subject in the foreground without distracting your eye from the grandness of the 'scape. I think I accomplished this. Mattie, our aussie, is such a good model and a natural ham in front of the camera.