Sheep Log-Luthien's Health

On Friday, September 26, with the help of Dr. G, we drained a very big cyst on Luthien's face. She had to be isolated from the other sheep because it was possibly a serious and contagious issue. Stephanie and I continued to treat her with penicillin (3ml) shots and flushed and drained the pocket. The sheep were VERY stressed out to be separated and were not eating well. While we technically should have waited for the results of the culture to come back, the healing seems to be going very well, and as of this morning, nothing had grown in the culture so we made the executive decision to put the sheep back together on pasture.
Top Photo:Sister Theckla, Jayda, Luthien and Angel.
Bottom Photo Baby Jayda and Angel

Sneak Peak Senior Portrait!

Here are a couple shots from a senior photo shoot I did over the weekend. The weather couldn't have been nicer and if it wasn't peak color for fall I can't wait to see what lies ahead. After shooting in the park we headed to Boulder for some urban shots.
We started out in studio and if that was all I had done I would have been satisfied, but in my opinion, the outdoor shots we got blow the studio ones away.
I am just in the process of editing and while my goal is to present 25-30, it is going to be very hard to narrow it down.

New lens and Photoshop breakghrough

I guess we've been busy doing something but I'm not quite sure what.
Maddy is still doing volleyball almost every night after school, and Hannah is doing cross country three nights a week.

Will has soccer on Tuesdays and most Saturdays.
Eli is working hard and worrying about the economy, along with the rest of the United States and much of the world.
I have been busy getting everyone where they need to be, doing work for the PTO and the Lyons Arts and Humanities Council, and for fun I drag my kids to the park to play with my camera and then try new tricks in Photoshop.

We, at play. . .

We had two very rainy days this week, but that didn't stop my friend and me from doing a nice mountain bike ride up the Antelope Trail. At one point I thought my tire was flat because the sand was so deep and wet it felt like I was riding through marshmallows.
Maddy lost my little point and shoot, otherwise I would have taken some photos of the mountains, socked in with clouds. There is a beautiful valley up there with an old, abandoned farmstead. I guess unless I find that camera, you'll just have to ride up there to see it yourself.
My first photo today is of Will and two friends who are on the sidelines during the soccer game. I am WAY across the field, using my 18-300 lens, in addition to shooting at the 300 focal length, I cropped it in Photoshop-the boys have no idea they are on camera. The day was very bright, so I put a polarizer on the lens. I also shot in aperture priority-8.0 to give me more depth of field for the sports shots.
This second photo is of Will going for the ball. I'm also putting this on the blog because you can see the snow on the mountains in the background (who put that school in there?). The rain here in Lyons was not rain up at the higher elevations. Maddy is itching for ski season and seems to think she needs a new coat to match her new skis.
This week watch for more sports photos as Maddy has a volleyball game and Hannah has a cross country tournament. Tuesday should be an exciting one with Hannah's tournament in Longmont and Will's soccer practice in Lyons-where I am supposed to do team/individual photos.
As for the sheep. . . we spent part of the day working on their pen, cleaning and getting the hay shed ready for hay. We also got 20 bales of hay to go into the shed. It has been a long time since I moved a bale of hay. I had forgotten how fun that was.

Fall Sports

Fall sports started this morning with Hannah's first cross country meet. Hannah was nervous as we walked to the high school and was relieved when her friend ran up to show her where all the other middle schoolers were warming up. Eli's giving some last words of encouragement.
Hannah did very well and finished the two mile course in 24 minutes.
Immediately following the race we went home to get ready for Will's soccer game. There are eight boys on the team and they played against a tough team that had four boys. One of them had an asthma attack, so it was four (us) on three (them), with our team subbing players every few minutes. We still have some key things to figure out, such as less hugging, more going for the ball (boys). We parents need to remember that the boys are doing playing as much to hang with their buddies as to win.

Girls of summer.

We went to Greeley today to see cousin Michelle's new college housing-an old house that used to belong to Mike. On the way home we stopped at Walmart for haircuts they took a break in the fighting while we were there, and then fought the rest of the way home. Thankfully I didn't give in to my desire to pull over and $$%^&), but as soon as we got home, I had kids picking up dog poo, and cleaning windows on my car.
Eli and I took a nice walk with the dogs to visit the sheep. Funny how that place can be such a refuge.
There is a little darkness there now, but we are all hopeful that it will not be there for long. . .
Tomorrow everyone heads back to school.
I did take a few moments to take pictures of the girls-the lighting was so nice this evening. Although they drove me crazy all day, they are still angels.