A few Spring flowers

I finally got out today and shot some of the pretty flowers popping up everywhere. I've already missed the bloom time on a some of the flowering trees in our area, so I'm making an effort to capture more than I let slip by. This is a bush in my Father-in-Law's front yard.

I'm not sure what type it is, but this little bugger seems to like it.

I took very many pics of native wildflowers, but still have lots of editing to do to them.  Promise I'll post them ASAP.

Big Yellow Truck

Today on the way to pick Babe Jr up from school I was stuck waiting while the State Road Crew cleaned out the ditch.  This bright truck caught my eye in my side mirror.  My camera was in the back seat so I had to snap it.  I think it looks pretty cool after running PW's Boost action and CoffeeShop Urban Grit.  Although I do wonder if the truck's driver noticed or thought I was nuts.

Photo Challenge: Wind

 

http://www.iheartfaces.com/

Thanks for looking.

Wild Horses

Last weekend I wanted to take some photos on top of a mountain. My sister volunteered to be my subject and we piled in the truck with my dad and went to a reclaimed strip mine. Little did I know it is also home to at least 50 wild horses.

I'm not sure that wild is a totally accurate term.  Supposedly someone released a bunch of them a few years ago and they bred and thrived.

They let us get really close, but not quite enough to touch them. 

There were several colts.  They were so pretty. ♥

Time for the baby to eat.

 

This song was stuck in my head the rest of the day.  Its originally The Rolling Stones and has been covered by half a dozen different people, but this is the version I kept hearing.

 

Coal Fair

Since we live here in Coal Country, the school doesn't have a Science Fair, we have a Coal Fair.  The kids can choose a subject to which their project applies and pretty much make whatever they want as long as it relates to the coal industry.

Babe Jr chose art.  She found this illustration online, a lot of people in our area have this logo as a decal on vehicles and such.  She decided she wanted to make a clay model.

 We went to Walmart and purchased some fast drying clay and a set of poster paints.  With minimal help from Mom, she came up with this:

I helped her decide how big each body part should be, then she would roll them out and I stuck them together bracing the joints with tooth pics.  She then formed his little hat and light, I helped with the eyes nose and hands since they were so small and fiddly, last she smoothed it all out and added his belt.  We then let him dry and harden a few days after which, as it shrank... both legs fell off.  There wasn't time to let another one harden and set up before the fair so we just super glued them back on.

Once he was put back together, we got out one of Mr Backwoods' work shirts and decided where the reflective stripes needed to be.  Babe Jr started painting and I mixed up the bright blue and black poster paint to get a more authentic uniform color.  She let him dry, added a second coat the next day, and he looked great.  So great in fact................................that she got first place!

Please overlook the dirty table, I took him out on the porch so I could get a shot in good light and the outdoor furniture has not yet been spring cleaned.  She now gets to enter him in the regional coal fair and compete for cash prizes!  She's going to touch up his paint job again and make a little platform with a few pieces of real coal to serve as a sort of diorama backdrop and give him a base that we'll sticky tack him to in hopes that he's less likely to break.  Wish her luck!  I'm already such a proud mama, just hoping he holds together so that we can keep him and display him proudly on a shelf at home after the big completion.

POTD: New Charm

My mom sent me a new bead for my charm bracelet for my birthday.  When I opened it and saw what it was, I knew I had to blog about it so I could add it to the "Photo of the Day" thread on my favorite message board.  She got me the little camera!

The "♥ to Shop" and "family" beads were picked out by my sister and step mom when they gave me the bracelet for Christmas.  The plain one is a just a lock to keep the others from falling off the bracelet when I'm not wearing it, but Mr. Backwoods bought it for Valentines day because I asked for it.

Charm bracelets are so cool because they are accessories that show off your personality.  I think the next beads I need are a tiny coffee cup and sterling silver version of the terrible terrier.  I will probably buy some nice colored glass ones for myself though, just because I think they are pretty.  Both charm bracelets I've owned have only been built upon with gifted charms, I wonder if its a faux pas to buy your own?  Because everyone knows I always abide by traditions and social norms, haha!

Mother Nature might be Bipolar

Yesterday we got this:

Yes that's marble sized hail.  It looked like mothballs all over the yard.

It was reported to be as big as tennis balls the next county over.  Today it was 88 degrees and sunny, not a cloud in the sky.