Animals as best friends

Sometimes the furry critters are your best friends. (I know many don't understand.)

No matter what you do or think of yourself, they see the real you.

Your family and friends may not be liking you.

The world in which you move may be hateful and unyielding.

You may find that you are swimming upstream or running into walls.

It doesn't matter. Your furry friend is always there for you and waiting for you. Mine was my savior these last two years. These last two years have been the roughest in my life on many levels and he was the one constant I had who held no judgments. (I know many have worse.)

Despite enjoying NECC with my son and delivering a good poster session, I just wanted to hug my furry friend but he is no longer here. I miss him terribly. (Too many emotions buried deep just keep surfacing.)

Getting ready for NECC

I can't believe I leave in about 4 days (spending a little time with my SIL before heading to the conference.) My session description can be found here.

Accomplished:

1. Printed my NECC planner. If I could clone myself, I could actually be in all the places at the same time.
2. Printed all hotel info.
3. Added all other events that I have to my planner.
   
4. Decided where I could carve out some free time in the planner for sanity.
5. Added more information and a discussion to my NECC ning page.

Still to finish:

1. Finishing touches on the powerpoint for the session.
2. Tweaks to the background for bulletin board.
3. Packing up all the assorted materials (handouts, business cards, clips to hang up the background...)
4. Creating a packing list (while I am thinking about it all...)

After the training last week on the ITSI portal from the Concord Consortium, I feel a little rushed. The training however was great and worth the time. Met some great people and had fun and laughs.

Looking forward to meeting up with other educators and sharing!

Tags: ITSI, concord consortium, NECC, wiki, wikicentral

Shooting skeet

Shooting skeet, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Moving target practice. Needless to say, there is no picture of me doing this - I am awful at it. Ryan does a great job and has improved so much over the years. It was fun to watch and try...

How does your garden grow?

How does your garden grow?, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

So fat not too much work and growing really well. There will be a time though when there will be more weeding, picking, canning, and freezing. But, it still makes me happy.

Lesson plans

Lesson plans, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Last week of lesson plans. Can sure use the break!

Birthday sombrero

Birthday sombrero, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Yesterday was Mike's 44th birthday. Now he can't really say I am older as we are the same number. While he excused himself, I told the waiter it was his birthday. Later during the dinner, he told us we had better not think about having them sing to him. Oops - too late. He was a big sport anyway, sombrero and all!

Trillium

Trillium, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Have not seen these since Michigan where they are becoming rare and I think are protected. Beautiful!

New peeps!

New peeps!, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

New additions ot the farm family!

Son taught himself green screen

Son taught himself green screen, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

...using Vegas movie studio, a digital camera, and green fabric. Can't wait to see what he does with a HD DVD video camera (getting for his birthday) and some lights. That's my buddy.

Video of little lambs

Video of little lambs, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Check out the video of the lambs and moms. Will take another one later when the moms are resting but the babies continue to play.

Last set of babies?

Last set of babies?, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

In just under three weeks, we believe we have 40+ baby lambs. Many of them are twins. It is the shortest lambing season ever and pretty tough separating many having babies at the same time. Now is the fun time of watching them jump around and play.

Peach trees early buds

Peach trees early buds, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

I took this picture while lying on the ground and shooting upwards with a telephoto lens. Can't wait until there is buds...then leaves...then peaches!

Homemade spirits

Homemade spirits, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

The picture I used in the label is from a friend's barn - it is hand painted. This year we made our own brandy from peaches on our orchard tress. The shiraz wine was made from a kit I bought my hubby for Christmas. Since we are enjoying a bottle today, a picture was in order!

Cast iron cake molds

Cast iron cake molds, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Love these but never use! My mom used these when we were little and I have pictures of bunny and lamb cakes when we were wee babes! One day need to use - BTW, my mom is the woman on the right in the picture.

Murphy

Murphy, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

He finally had his own photo shoot. In a house with 4 dogs, he is usually the ignored one!

Valentines Day

Valentines Day, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Hope you had a great Valentine's Day! Mine was great despite having a cold! Sushi, candy, and wine!

Great-grandma

SSPX0021.jpg, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

My 96 year old Grandma with one of the dogs. We try to take them in to visit once or twice a week. She loves the company.

Fall beauty

Fall beauty, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Day 31 pic: I created a scrapbooking layout using a plotter fitted to cut and emboss metal and cardstock. The layout was used to create a poster for the company. When they updated the advertising, I was allowed to keep it. One of my favorite layouts!

Female cardinal

Female cardinal, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Day 32 picture: Love the female cardinal! The lack of color in the body makes her pretty pink "lipstick" stand out! Shot was taken from inside using a telephoto lesson (even through glass!)

Snow landscape January 2009

Snow landscape January 2009, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

This picture I think is so pretty!

frozen in ice

frozen in ice, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Day 30 pic - Glad I took this picture as today it looks very different.

Hardy

Hardy, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Day 19 photo - This is the alpha dog in our 4-dog household. It is rare to find him calm and this photo captures it. You still can sense his attitude.

Knee deep

Knee deep, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Day 18 photo - After record cold for days, the snow arrived! In the end we had 2 feet of snow.

Duke

Duke , originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Day 17 pic - Let me in! He does not handle the cold very well and would rather stay inside than brave it. He will run in and make a lap around the room before settling down in front of the fireplace!

sheep

sheep, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Day 16 picture: Winter will just not go away. Extreme cold and even more snow is on the way. I think they do not mind being locked in right now. I know I don't.

This is being posted on the 18th. We now have 2 feet of snow and have had quite a bunch of winter.

candles on a cold night

candles on a cold night, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Day 14 photo: Too cold to go out and get a bunch of wood for a fire (plus keeps rest of house cold.) Candles will do the trick. This is one of the coldest snaps this country has seen in years. We are expecting two hour delays for school. the kids of course would like an actual snow day!

leo

leo, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Day 13 photo: The gecko on the prowl for crickets. Leo belongs to my son Ryan. It is a good thing the pics of the pinky mice being eaten were fuzzy. Cool but gross.

Clean desk

Clean desk, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Day 12 photo: Monday 1/12 was clean your desk day! This is as good as it will look!

Shovel more here...

Shovel more here..., originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Day 11 photo. After shoveling comes a little playing. A buried child makes an easy target!

Buried

Buried, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Day 10 photo. Poor squirrel statue buried under the fallen snow.

Last artifact of the holidays!

Last artifact of the holidays!, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Day 9 photo. The lonely wreath still stands. All the other decorations are put away.

Blast of winter - Day 8 photo

Blast of winter, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

After Christmas with no snow, finally some white on the landscape! Yesterday, ice and no school! Today, 2 hour delay and off to school soon. After snapping picture, wanted to play outside with the dogs!

As fresh as it gets! Day 7 photo

As fresh as it gets!, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

These are eggs from chickens on our small farm. Unless you have had farm fresh (day old), you have no idea what you are missing!

Still of winter - Day 6

SSPX0009.jpg, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

This tree is just so still, conserving energy, waiting till Spring...

Winter leaf impression

SSPX0008.jpg, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Hats off to my son, Ryan who saw this great shot on a walk with the dogs. This picture was taken on 1/5/09. The leaf must have originally been on the ice but as warmer temps caused it to melt, it fell below . Cool effect!

jake

jake, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Share the road

Share the road, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Enough said.

Farm fence line

Farm fenceline, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

After the edge of our woods is a great fence line along my in-law's property. On the edge of the woods (behind the photographer), is an old stone fenceline that is very old as well as remnants of old barbed wire fence.

Happy pups

Happy pups, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

This is really how the dogs walk. They line up this way and turn quite a fair amount of heads in the process. The larger brown dog on the left is actually my nephew's dog.

Joined the 2009 365 photos group on flickr

As part of a 365 photo challenge posted on twitter, here are a few local pictures. This challenge will be a great way to get back into taking pictures. I used to take loads of pictures but have fallen out of not only picture-taking, but scrapbooking.

These pics are actually from my sister-in-law Jennifer Sizemore, though...

1. I will post more than 365 to make up for them not being mine.
2. consider the one of the dogs as "mine" as I had to walk the dogs in order to keep them in their line.