For Jenn - and anyone else who likes to make jewelry...

My sisters-in-law, Jenn and Teresa, have taught me all I know about making hairbows and little teeny bracelets. I'm so lucky to have such great SILS. My sister-in-law Shannon and I are both soaking up all we can since we both have had three incredible boys each, and pink is a foreign color in our homes. When I got to spend a few days with my sister, Tara, we had fun sharing our bracelet and bows things too - that was so fun! I'm anxious to see what all of my sisters have been up to - so I'm posting my latest little teeny bracelet.

Jenn and I have been playing a little with hand stamped jewelry and trying to figure it all out. These posts are especially for her! The charm bracelet is stamped with a 1/16 th lettering and the discs are only 1/2 inch. The other - 1/8 inch. The last one is my attempt at wire wrapping (I think that is what it is called). I hope you can see them well enough when you click on them.

Yay! Scanning Issue is fixed!

I just learned how to fix my scanner's bad habit of scanning what ever it wants when the negatives are really thin. Here is my first attempt using this method. This is an image from a roll of Infra-Red film. Kinda fun to see how little my photo subjects were before they landed their fabulous careers as the Attorney, the President and Human resources. My how time flies!!

Kitchen Chemistry

This post is especially for Kyle and Carli! First, I will apologize for procrastinating the develpment of these pictures! It was a bit more involved since I bought a developer that I had never used before and was unsure of the effects it would have on our already seriously underexposed film! So without further adew, this post is for you ;)

First thing was to research the developer. In the case of the HC 110, it appears that many suspect that kodak used the wrong dilution for one of their recommended development time. Unlucky for me. More research is necessary to find a general consensus for a starting point. After a couple of hours studying several development charts and a couple of good forums, I have found a starting point which two users are pretty close on. All of the other recommendations seem to be all over the board. I don't want to try this time and technique out on Kyle and Carli's film so we will try it out on a couple of rolls I shot of Her Royal Highness.

Chemicals all at 75 degrees and ready to go - I can't waste much time because our kitchen is pretty chilly this afternoon and I don't want the temperatures of my chemistry to drop!

I hope no one was planning on sitting down for lunch anytime soon!

Once one roll is completed, I find that the negatives look properly developed. I will test the same time and methods on a second roll to make sure that I get the same results. Here's what I got!

These lighting conditions were pretty similar to the lighting conditions we had when we were at Empire Mine in Grass Valley, CA - so I am feeling pretty confident that we should see similar results. The whites have texture in them and the darks have detail in them. Here goes nothing!

Here, two of the four rolls of film are getting their final rinse!

If you look closely at the negative you can see Kyle's mug shot ;)

Here are couple of the images we got (please ignore the dust spots in the pictures - I haven't had a chance to dust spot. Don't worry - the dust does come off of the negatives and when you have them printed your pictures will be perfect:

Puff the Magic Dragon!

The Apple Farmer took his "Dragon" out for a little walk yesterday to see what he could do.

S'mores Anyone?

When he finished, we had some great coals for cooking some dinner!

This might look like a new technique in doggy skin care...

...But its not!

I am thickening the plot for an event, which I like to call "A Missouri Moment." The Missouri Moment is defined as a brief or extended period of time where a series of crazy, never before witnessed set of events unfold before my very eyes which fills my being with a combination of wonder and terror. This event includes the time Human Resources stepped on what he thought was an ant hill and five minutes later realized, after he started scratching his legs, that he had stepped in a recently hatched pile of hungry ticks, which wasted no time crawling up all over his legs and began preparing for their first feast. Hundreds of them! Or, the time that we were picking wild raspberries and Taffy woke up a skunk and sent it running through the bushes out into the open where we were - PEEEEYOOOy! And the tent caterpillars which fell from the walnut tree... And the time our house got hit by lightening and the time when the power went out at the house on the north side of the property and and while we were waiting for the power guys to come and find the problem we discovered it ourselves... A young coon had climbed up the power pole and played with some of the wires and connections... I think I have a picture of this one....

Here it is! Can you see the poor critter hanging between the cylinder looking electrical part and the post? You can bet that this is the last time he will play with electricity! I digress! I could go on and on with the Missouri Moments. But before we find out what Taffy is doing I have to describe my latest Missouri Moment! As I was helping the Apple Farmer throw apple prunings into the fire, I ran my pitch fork along the ground and as I lifted up, I found that I had shish-kabobbed an ugly little rodent critter called a Vole - Right through the chest. I was horrified to see that I had actually caught something on my fork other than a bunch of prunings. I was even more horrified to watch it scream at me and then die! So, what is it that Taffy is doing? She is digging up Voles and eating them! Her first catch was two! She ate one and left the other sitting on the ground watching me.

Tutorial: How to Love Your Cat

Beautiful Day for an Auction

We have finally sold the last of our apples. We got up early this morning and loaded up the trailer. The Manager of the produce auction called us this morning before we headed out to see if we were planning on bringing apples! He was happy to hear that we were and made sure that the loading area was clear for us so we could back right in and unload. The apples sold for quite a bit more than we thought they would! We had lots of fun after unloading! Here, the work crew is playing with empty boxes in the back of our trailer. Imagine little kid's blocks on steroids!

One of our pallets of apples.


The Apple Farmer after hearing the final bid on the Braeburns.


How's this for riding in style?


Free Puppies! How cute is this?


Bummer! Those sweet little eyes couldn't even convince the Apple Farmer to let it come home!



YUMMY!

Heading home! Wow - Check out all of those wheels!

Junk Hunt

68 Degrees today! It was a fabulous opportunity to get out of the house and go find some trouble to get into. The apple farmer joined the crew and I, after moving his tractor to the machine shed. We got nice and dirty and found some old scrappy treasures to boot! Here is a seasonal creek on the property. It isn't flowing because it is a bit frozen! The crew thought it was pretty cool that they could 'walk on water.'

Human Resources is quick on his feet!

So is the attorney!


Cool! Some old gear thing.

Cooler! Some old Wheel thingy!

Oh! Oh! The spray arm is falling off! Never Fear!! The Apple Farmer's wife is well trained in vehicle repair!

Check me out! Perhaps the old bailing wire we found in some of those junk piles could have been more effective, however, I thought I might reach into the recesses of my memory and try out some of my knots I learned way back at girls' camp...

The President has found some fluffy seeds in a seed pod. He can't wait to see how they fly!

Her Royal Highness is pretending to be shy.
Somewild rose hips we found. Notice the buds starting to swell on the wild rose. It is still a bit early for bloom, but it does offer hope that we will soon see much warmer days!