jacolily’s Neighborhood

Our Labor Day weekend started off with "labor"!  Bill & Cole worked together to build a dog house for the puppies.

This first shot I took in black & white.

Here's Cole using a saw, after much training!  I took this with settings of automatic/rich color.

Mom & I had some time to visit and watch the puppies.  For the next few photos I used my black & white setting.

 

 

The temperature was still hot on Saturday, perfect for a cold fudge bar!  This was taken with automatic/rich settings.

With plans to go fishing on Sunday, we caught worms after dark.  This shot was taken with the Twilight setting...low light with flash.

Sunday we spent the day fishing.  I played around with black & white settings and a new setting I hadn't tried before, beach.  The beach setting takes the color of the water and surroundings and produces beach colors.

 

 

Here is the black & white I took of Taylor fishing.

Also in this area of the Bighorns is a graveyard we found by accident a few years ago.  We stopped there on the way to our fishing destination.  The information displayed, regarding this historical site, describes the small town of Kane, Wyoming, established in 1912.  This town no longer exists.  Due to the probability of flooding from the Big Horn River/Lake, the government bought out the land from the community.  In 1967, the town of Kane succumbed to rising lake waters.  However, the cemetary still exists, along with a few other town markers.  The sad part about the cemetary is that there are quite a few unmarked graves, some of them children.  I took these shots with black & white settings.

 

Monday brought cold & rainy weather.  We harvested a few things from the garden and prepared for canning.  This photo was taken with the black & white settings, without flash.

Camera:  Sony Cybershot 7.2

I believe I was here before....it was the first of June and I was preparing to cover my garden to protect it from snow.  Local & national forecasts report that tonight it may get down to 31 degrees!  We have plastic...we are prepared!  :-) 

When we left this morning to head up in the Big Horns for a day of fishing, I commented to Bill that this was the first time we didn't have to purchase anything to go fishing.  I had ice in the freezer for the cooler, we had a full tank of gas and we even caught our own worms last night!

We had talked about different ways to spend this Sunday on our 3-day weekend.  One idea was to go to Billings, get a motel & maybe do a little shopping.  We decided against that, as September will be a little budget-tight and we didn't want to spend $80.00 on a room.  So, off for a picnic & afternoon of fishing we went.

 

Unfortunately, we caught zero fish!  The frustrating part of it was that we could see these huge fish jumping out of the water...but no bites!  The kids, however, caught an abundant amount of frogs!

 

Taylor found a tupperware bowl, put some rocks & water in it and then Cole caught the lonely grasshopper for their food!  Of course, they tried to convince us to let them bring them home.  I said no way.  They pressed on....maybe just 2 of them?  When I explained that they were all a family & how sad they would feel to be taken away, they let them go without hesitation!  Whew!  They are rather cute though!  :-)

 

Snickers & Hershey were happy dappy....strolling along the water.

Since Taylor was so engrossed in her frog adventure, she had set her pole next to my chair, with the worm still on the hook.  I thought it would be o.k. as the hook was almost to the top of the pole.  Bad mistake...I should have listened to my gut instinct & put the pole up.  Poor Snickers....he jumped for the worm and got a lip piercing from the hook.  I felt horrible!  We couldn't get the hook out, it had to be pushed through and then cut off.  He wasn't in distress as long as we didn't touch the hook.  We packed up and I called my mom & had her look up a vet in the nearest town that we would be coming to.  Thank God the vet answered her home phone & agreed to meet us.  Snickers had to be sedated so she could push the hook all the way through.  I was amazed that I was able to watch the whole procedure!  A shot for pain and a shot of antibiotics, then we were off.  He's doing fine now, just a little groggy.  The vet bill...$80.00!

 

We should have gone to Billings.

 

 

Snickers & Hershey are definitely not ready to "run the house".  As I posted earlier, they are little terrors when let free in the house.  We're working on that.  However, when I get sub jobs, I can't be worrying about their comfort or my house being torn up!  I don't want them to be stuck in their kennels all day!  We've decided to leave them outside as much as possible when I'm at work...they absolutely love it outside. Of course, if it's 20 below zero they will have to suck it up and stay in their kennels.  We want them to have a safe haven, though, in case of rain.  So, I came up with the idea of a dog house.  Bill decided to use this project as a way to teach Cole the basics of building.  I was thrilled, literally.  What a great project for Cole to learn measuring, proper use of tools, and, most importantly, a great bonding experience with Dad!  Of course, when it's finished it will be painted the same color as the new shed!   Bill is a great craftsman...so I know this dog house will be fit for a king dog!  I'll make sure to post pics when it's finished.  Here's a few of the construction.

Bill teaching Cole all about measuring.

Cole learns how to use a saw.

 

Cole helping Dad with the walls.

O.K. Dad... I'm taking my shirt off...it's hot!

I'm lovin'...

~ The new shed is almost finished.  Bill still has trim work to finish on the bottom and shelving to hang inside.  The color of the shed is Blue Smoke and the trim is Chambray. 

 

~ The reading program we have Cole working on at home.  The software is called Mindplay - My Reading Coach.    Cole actually enjoys it!  Phonics, spelling and comprehension are all included in the lessons.  Last night I asked him if he was ready to quit and he said, "no way mom...I want to keep going!"  Cole does not like to read, so this is a really good thing!  Here's the link if anyone is interested.  www.mindplay.com

 

~ Cole & Taylor came home, after their first day of school, very excited!  They both love their teachers (what a relief!), seeing all their friends, and, best of all, their newly built school!  It is pretty impressive for an elementary school.  The building is 49,829 square feet and can accommodate 432 students.  A few other facts:  97.5 tons of steel, along with 100,000 bricks covering the outside walls; Promethean technology (interactive white boards) in all classrooms; and 54 skylights (solar tubes) for natural light!  Of course, Cole & Taylor think the best thing about the new school is the playground.

 

I'm not lovin':

~ Pupplies that tear through the house & attempt to chew on everything from crayons to shoes!  They have their own toys to play with but they prefer Cole & Taylor's things!  Training them will not be easy!

 

~ Our printer is out of ink and at $35 for black & $35 for color, it's almost cheaper to buy a new printer than the cartridges!  :{

 

 

Here in our part of Wyoming, the skies have been full of activity.  Forest fires in Wyoming & Montana have made for smoky skies. 

 A couple of days later, the skies were clear & blue!

This same day, I photographed a few shots of the flowers in our backyard. I experimented with different settings.

 

 

 

This morning I took a photo of the clouds...I don't know why, but I love sky pictures!

Today we had a burst of a storm, out of the blue, that lasted only a minute...literally. It was very strange....high wind, raindrops, and then silence.  I was barbecuing at the time and it totally took me by surprise.  After the little storm, however, we had some very unique skies!  I showed my children the next 2 photos, at different times.  My daughter (8) said, "It looks like the stories we've heard about the Holy Spirit coming down!"  Later, my son (10) said, "It looks just like God coming down from heaven."  Wow!

 

I learned a lot about my camera this week.  All the photos I've entered have the setting in the description. I played around with natural, soft shot, landscape, high sensitivity & low light without flash.  One of my favorite features now is the sensitive mode.  This mode reduces blur, doesn't use the flash in low light settings, and produces brilliant colors!

 

Camera:  Sony Cybershot 7.2

 

 

The kids are off to their first day of school.  Bill started back teaching at the college.  I have nothing scheduled today, except what I WANT to do!  Well, there might be a few things that I NEED to do also, but at least I can do them according to my own schedule.  :-)  I'm working at a sub job this Wednesday & Thursday and I'm sure things will become busy as the school year gets going.  But for today, I'm just going to enjoy the solitude!  Happy Monday everyone! 

It's the Friday night before school starts.  This past week my two lovely children have fought more than all summer long!  She says it's red and he argues it's black!  "I have more icecream than you do!"  The competition goes on and on!  Tonight, though, this mom was reminded how much they really do care for each other.  It was PJ & teeth time....getting ready for bed.  Taylor walked by Cole's room on the way to the bathroom and said, "I love you Cole."  Before I could even hold my breath and hope he would respond kindly, I heard him say, "I love you too Taylor."  Yes, tonight I am one proud mom! 

I have never tried to make pickles...of any kind.  In fact, the only foods I've ever canned are fruit into jam.  Since I am on a "learn to can everything" mission, I started with the cucumbers.  I used a Bread & Butter Pickle recipe.  A lot of onions (I used sweet walla walla), sugar, ginger, vinegar, peppercorns, mustard & celery seed, and turmeric are the ingredients added to the sliced cucumbers.  Now they have to stay sealed for at least 4 weeks for best flavor!  Can't wait to try them!

 

I definitely want to become more familiar with my camera....if only I could find the book!  I took these first 3 photos using the auto exposure w/adjustable settings, with color mode set at rich.  The rest of the functions were set on "smart".  Macro was turned on.  Flash did not come on.  I'm not sure if I can adjust my shutter speed...that would be nice because it took a lot of photos just to get these 3.

 

 

 

 

This last one was really difficult!  I was trying to snap a butterfly flying.  Here's where a different shutter speed would have helped!  Then the only decent shot I got, the flash came on, so it's not quite like I wanted.

My camera is a Sony Cybershot 7.2