Sunday Afternoon

It was Sunday afternoon, which meant a trip to do some irrigating. Due to our extremely low precipitation this year, there's extra attention to how winter water in the creeks is being spread over the land to try to get it as wet as possible before it gets warm and the evaporation rates skyrocket.

This is a fairly new field of tall wheat grass, and it's being irrigated by the old tried-and-true method of flood irrigation. Not too many fields are flood irrigated on the ranch anymore. Most have been converted to the more expensive but more efficient pivot irrigation.

Desert Boy was thrilled to have a chance to use Daddy's real shovel and set off to dig a hole. He's better than I am at using a shovel!

I was playing with camera lenses and enjoying the winter sunshine.

Meanwhile my husband was moving one of the irrigation dams to change where the water was spreading on the field.

I haven't spent much time with this fish-eye lens, so I wanted to try it out some more. I like how on this photo the sun flare extends beyond the circle.

Thick orange plastic is used for irrigation dams. the top is secured first, then the sides, and then the bottom. Generally rocks and/or dirt are used to secure the sides and bottom.

Meanwhile, Desert Girl enjoyed sitting on the bank and throwing rocks into the water. Little by little, she scooted closer to the water. (Can you guess what's coming?)

Here's another view of the dam. This one has some fence posts to help support it.

Desert Boy had moved to a different place to shovel, where the ground was a little softer.

The dam was almost in place.

And I was ready to do something different. So I went for a little walk and got Desert Boy to come with me.

What I like most about this series of fish-eye photos are the shadows. You can see how close Desert Boy is to me.

I was hoping he wouldn't walk right into me!

He stopped, fortunately. He thought the whole thing was pretty funny.

In fact, he laughed himself onto the ground.

He thought he was being so cute, sticking his feet up into the air. I don't think he ever realized that his irrigating boots were on the wrong feet!

I also found out that the fish-eye lens is good for making your legs look really long.

Next it was on to playing with some ice. With the dam moved, the water level in the ditch had fallen, leaving the ice hanging above the surface. Desert Boy couldn't resist grabbing some.

He was proud of his big piece of ice.

But then he couldn't resist chucking it back into the ditch.

A bit later my husband pulled up with a shoeless, wet, and muddy Desert Girl. She had managed to scoot close enough to the edge of the ditch that she had slid right in and was soaked.

She wasn't thrilled about it.

But when she saw her Daddy, she managed a little smile.

Camera Fun

I have like a zillion (or maybe a zillion and one) photos to sort through, but I'm just not feeling up to that right now. So here's a quick post. I want your opinion.

I headed out with my husband and the kids today to do some irrigating. If you're not the one doing the irrigating, it's not so exciting (unless you're my son who thinks it's a real treat to dig with a shovel or my daughter who manages to fall into the channel--I will try to tell that story soon).

I took my camera to test it out and learn more about. Specifically, I tried using my fish-eye lens (0.20x) some more.

This is the fish-eye view.

This is the non fish-eye view.

Which do you like better? (And for bonus points, why?)

Trains, Trains, and More Trains

The kids and I headed east for a week to visit family and friends. Desert Boy would have loved to have traveled by train the whole way, but we'll have to wait till he's older for that. Instead, we had a heavy train theme, which started with this freight train we saw on the way to the airport.

 We pulled over to the side of the road to get extra photographs and watch the whole train go by.

Our next train opportunity was when we got to Chicago. We had five hours until our Amtrak train departed, so we checked out the bean in Millennium Park. I think it's pretty cool, but the kids weren't nearly as impressed.

 Desert Boy was quite vocal about being cold, so it was time to hop on another train (if hauling two suitcases, a backpack, a preschooler and a toddler in a stroller up all the stairs to the elevated train ("el") could be called hopping on!).

Then we walked three blocks to Union Station, a place I hadn't visited in years. We had a wonderful surprise waiting for us in the Great Hall:

 Great Grandma! Many thanks to my aunt and uncle who helped get her there. Desert Girl was delighted.

 The kids had a lot of energy, so after some visiting, they were ready to run--or ride!

 The Great Hall had plenty of space to move around.

 The kids liked playing on the Trunki.

 They also liked running and yelling.

 Before long (and before Desert Boy got his clothes off), it was time to head to the trains. But before we could go, there was something that had to be taken care of.

 Uh, oh! The Amtrak police came calling.

 The Sergeant and Desert Boy had a little talk.

 They resolved everything and Desert Boy had a fun experience.

 He was wearing the right shirt that day!

 Then it was time to gather up our piles and piles of bags and head to the train. Fortunately my brother Ed was able to join us and help out.

 It was exciting to see the Amtrak trains.

 We boarded and found our seats. I was delighted that the kids wanted to sit with their uncle.

We had an enjoyable trip, although it was dark out so we couldn't see too much outside.

When we got to the train station, Grandma and Grandpa greeted us.

The next day, Desert Boy couldn't wait to see the HO train that we used to play with as kids. It had sat in a box for so long that it needed some sand paper to remove corrosion and rubbing alcohol to clean it up.

 It worked--just barely.

 The engine that worked the best was an Amtrak one!

We still had more trains in the plans. The next one was at a neat cafe called the Whistle Stop. They have several G-gauge trains running above the tables.

They also have walls covered with railroad memorabilia, a museum, and a bench that Desert Girl and two cousins had fun warming.

 After we ate, it was time to head outside and look at some of the outdoor exhibits.

 The collection is really impressive!

The caboose is open for visiting, which was very exciting for the kids.

We had a few more train adventures during our trip, with the most notable being riding the train in the Denver airport. It goes back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. A few of the passengers got a laugh when they saw how excited the kids were on the train. And that we were riding it for an extended period of time!

More Road Art

I'm a big fan of road art, and I saw this the other day.

It's an interesting use of a George Foreman grill!

Much of the road art is a play on words, like Barb Wire.

And so Barb isn't out there all alone, Bob Wire is nearby.

If you want to see more road art posts, click here.