Cow Poke Cow Catcher Club

       I grew up hunting for food at the market and reading stories set in the old cowboy days of the southwest. Today, when I watch cowboys branding cattle, I am awakened by the significance of their work. The beef at the market? They raised it. The stories about the old southwest? They still live the lifestyle. Cowboys, known as "vaqueros" in Mexico, worked long before Texas became a state.
       My observations are that most cowboys are stoic and gentlemanly; they are humorous and playful; they are great story-tellers, too. And they are sensitive, though they wouldn't show it.
       Clay tells me they love to have their pictures taken, though they wouldn't show that, either.
       "Don't cowboys smile?" asked MyFriendFrances, attempting to coax a smile out of them as they posed for a group photo after their morning's work. A slight lift of one side of their lips and there they had them, the smiles.

MyFriendFrances brought out her flash unit to bring light under the hats of Clay and the other cowboys.

First, they have to catch a calf. Sean prepares to lasso one of them. 

Cowboys hold the calf while Clay medicates and Stephen brands.

Sometimes, a calf gets away.

Sometimes, too, they have a moment to play.

After medicating and branding, cowboys release the cattle into the pasture.

Stephen and his fine horse at the end of the day's work.

This is the photo MyFriendFrances set up with her flash unit, making the colors look rich.

And this photo I took under natural light, then brought up their faces with the dodge tool in PhotoShop.

Power Lines and Power Plant

      Near Vernon, Texas, sits a power plant. Over the years, power lines around it have increased in number . . . and size.

BirdBathCam

      Placing a camera on the bird bath yielded satisfying results, including the discovery of another species in my garden, namely, a White-throated sparrow. Here are the highlights of the images:

      In the files I looked at this morning, I saw the following species come for a sip of water:

Blue Jay

American Robin

Goldfinches

White-throated Sparrow

Housefinches

Cedar Waxwing

Grackle

House Sparrow, male

White-winged Doves

Starlings

Red-winged Blackbirds

Cardinal, male

Cardinal, female

Juncoes, Oregon, Pink-sided

Pine Siskin

      The images show honey bees and squirrels, too, my dogs, MyMrMallory, and Nati as they walk by.

One Tenth by One Tenth

    Every couple of weeks or so, North Texas received, so far, rain. Not enough to ameliorate the drought, though enough to raise the wheat a bit and water the impending wild flowers.
    A dove sits on the back of a chair during the rain.

Mount Dickason

What a view from the summit of Mount Dickason in Alaska. The mountain stands 4,393 feet above the Hayes and Trimble Rivers, and near the town of Skwentna, population thirty-seven.

Verga falls from the distant clouds.

Mount Denali.

Here I am composing a shot. The Jentna River is below, and in the distance the peak of Mount Denali.

Photo by Phil Toft.

Paths to the summit in the snow.

The grassy peak in the foreground? The summit of Mount Dickason. 

In the background stand the Tordrillo Mountain Range.

A well springs up at four thousand feet. 

Myriad flowers on the mountain. 

A female Ptarmigan. 

Signs of Spring

      The signs of spring, not only by the Cooper's hawk that stood on a dray, claws deep in leaves and twigs, watching the squirrel run away down the tree; not only by the vultures, American and Black, that kettle overhead; and not only by the Great-horned owl that alights in the oak above our bedroom and hoots; or the squirrels stoically carrying clumps of dried leaves up to the fifty or sixty-foot canopies; or the presence of nuthatches and chickadees after a long winter; or the starlings arriving at their old nest: Ay, it is the sound of a White-winged dove quietly, sweetly, warming his voice, slowly at first, and then, with practice, he sings a bit longer, delays his crescendoes, and with confidence, raises the level of sound to reach the ears of his mate.

Clay's Cattle

       Images of a cowboy tending to his cattle.

Standing on the feeder counting heads. 

Leading a Hereford bull into an enclosure in the pens.

Gose City Ghost Town

        During the 1920s in Archer County, on land owned by the Gose family, the Texhoma Oil Company set stakes around which developed a town. The town stood up on a small elevation on the rolling plains. Texhoma City, also known as Gose City, provided for the workers and their families up until the 1930s. By the 1940s, the population had fallen from a peak of 500, it is thought, to 150. Please see The Texas State Historical Association's online handbook about Texhoma City.
       

The concrete of one of its four businesses remains, a gas station.

A concrete sign reads "Gose District." 

Walkway, no doubt lining the front of one of the businesses, perhaps a general store.

Peering into a cistern.

Storage and shelter, caved in after eighty years.

A fireplace, perhaps.

My source: 

Brian Hart, "TEXHOMA CITY, TX," Handbook of Texas Online(http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hvt23), accessed February 24, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

Rain: Squirrel in a Box

She climbs into a nest box every time it rains. 

Hand-held Moon

I amaze myself for this image's sharpness, hand-held, no tripod.

D7000 with a Mamiya 210mm lens, tweaked and cropped in Photoshop.

Big Sky over his Shoulder

       Hauled out the Mamiya and 45mm lens to capture this image of MyMrMallory standing on a ridge overlooking Lake Kickapoo. Part of the joy of film is waiting for the development of the images we make.

        Here is another image I took that same day of the big sky over North Texas.

Wind-blown Infrared Tree Under the Moon

Foggy Morning and a Rose-colored Filter

Foggy morning with Mamiya camera; two hounds sniffing in the grass.

Sunset seen through rose-colored filter from Ben's camera shop.

     

Ostrich, Front and Back Views

Blue Ostrich Winery and Vineyard.

Birds to Count

      Today's bird count at Lake Wichita included several hundred Ring-billed seagulls, a few Canada geese, mallards, Northern shovelers, gadwalls, Green-winged teals, Killdeers, dowagers, yellow-legs, Red-winged blackbirds, Starlings, a Cardinal, a Great-blue heron, sandpipers, Carolina wrens, Song sparrow, and two other sparrows. 

     At home, White-breasted nuthatches, Goldfinches, House finches, Robins, and a woodpecker, added to my count. 

         Pictured at top, Lake Wichita at low water level (30%) and Ring-billed gulls. Bottom photo, taken with a new wine-colored filter I bought from Ben, shows several hundred gulls standing along the opposite shore.

Portrait of Hank, Hunting Dog

During our visit to the countryside, we came upon Hank this afternoon, 

and found him with a studied look, patiently waiting to sniff for game.

He wears a GPS tracking device on his collar. His muddy

legs show that he has already trekked through the mud.