Moving Grandma

Hi folks,

Well, that was a busy weekend. We moved my Grandma from her apartment to an apartment my uncle built for her. It was a perfect day for moving, seeing that it rained most of the morning. There is this uncanny phenomena about rain. One of the greatest ways to bring it on is to plan something that works better in dry weather. I guess I should quit complaining, because number one God sent it, and number two we really did need it. We need lots more of it too. Any one else need to move?
My wife and I were the first ones to arrive at grandma's, seeing that we were supposed to be there at nine o'clock in the morning. We arrived a little before nine. I calculated backwards for the Graber time factor, if I had used the calculation correctly we would have arrived at quarter after nine with the rest of them.
Anyway, as the first introductory drops of rain were gracing the earth with their presence, we began moving stuff out. Thankfully we were able to get most of it in some sort of an in closed transportation device. We had lots of hands and it went really good. A couple from the church, brought in lunch. I think the highlight of the lunch was the donuts. It was a good thing we could sit in our vehicles for about two hours and let it all settle.
Fortunately the rain ceased with our arrival to Grandma's new home. The mud was still with us though, and we had to lay down plastic to protect the nice new floors. About mid- afternoon we had it all moved in. The battle was far from over though, because the ladies had to work at it for awhile to disappear all the boxes. It was impressive how they were able to put all that stuff away. I didn't know if it would be possible. It is amazing how that apartment turned from some empty rooms with barren walls to a place that my Grandma will call home.

Here is a link to pictures from the weekend.

Catch you later!!

Rose Bushes & Big Birds

Hi folks,

I am back again. I had a relaxing weekend, and thus I had time to do what I enjoy (photography). So rather than be selfish, I thought I would share what I saw.

I know the above is not a rose bush or a bird, but I put it there for those eccentric folks who enjoy the abstract.

This is from a rose bush in my mom's front yard. Spring is an interesting time of the year, because of all the trees and bushes showing signs of life.

We went down to a bridge and a heron put on a sort of show for us. I don't think the tree held his weight too well, because he flew off to somewhere else...

...which was a lot farther away. I had to crop this so you could see it better. (If I don't tell you it is cropped, it probably isn't.)

Then he came a little closer to give us good look over. He stood there stock still for about 10 minutes I would say.

This is one is cropped too. I saw this guy on the way to work. I am a little bugged by it because the lighting is all wrong. I might be able to fix that later.

That's all for now!!

Photos from Nebraska Trip

Hi,
The long awaited Nebraska post is finally here. I wasn't sure what angle to portray, whether I should tell about what we did in NE or if I should simply post some of my favorite photos and some photos that I am trying to decide if I like or not.
I guess you will have to follow along and decide for yourself which angle I took.
The above photo was taken on purpose, but I am still trying to decide if I like it or not. I purposely lined up the rows in the field to project them selves toward the horizon at the approximate center of the photo. This also lends to a symmetrical effect on the photo. My problem is those nasty trees on the horizon. Just one tree would have been perfect, but there are several and it leaves you wondering what you are supposed to be seeing. Any way it does tell us something about Nebraska, there are lots of fields.

Friday evening we went down to a very old grave yard and that was interesting. I will confess I was too busy taking pictures to actually read some of the stuff on the stones there. I used a long lens to make the sun look so big on the tip of the grave stone.



More photo shop simply because I wanted it Black and White. Is adding a touch of sharpening cheating too? I think this photo speaks for it self. I saw this on a Saturday afternoon cruise with our Nebraska friends.

What we really went to see Saturday afternoon were sand hill cranes. We saw lots and lots of them. This is one of my favorite shots. (Cropped by the way) I think it was doing some sort of courtship dance and was looking for something to throw into the air.

At sunset we went down by bridge to watch the cranes come in for the night. This is about my favorite of all the pictures I took at the bridge.
Anyway before this post gets long and rambling.... Just one more picture.


A precious little daffodil in Jenny's flower Garden. I hope you enjoyed reading this post.

Till later.

To Bug Clark and Gabe....

A church along I-80 in NE. I've always liked this church, and have wanted to get a picture of it ever since I saw it the first time. So when we were coming home Monday, I grabbed the camera. I'm rather proud of how it turned out, can you tell? I took this riding in a car going 80 mph. It was taken through a window. I didn't really know what I was doing. No, I don't know what ISO I used. No, I don't know what aperture it is. No, I don't know what kind of camera I used. No I don't know anything about the lens other then that it was automatic. No, I don't know what the zoom was set at. Actually, I didn't use a zoom at all. The top picture is cropped from the original, which appears below (see, I show my mistakes instead of pretending they didn't happen). And Clark says the cropped picture could still be blown up to a 11x16. I just set the camera to continuous shoot and held the trigger. I do know that the lighting is kind of harsh, but beggars can't be choosers, esp. not at 9:30 am. Anyway, this goes to show that anyone can take a good picture without knowing anything at all about ISO's and apertures and other way-over-my-head techie terms that certain people throw around all the time. Sometimes, something will just have an emotion with out all the other stuff (no, I guess I won't ponder the emotion of this picture right here right now). So, there you have it!

Btw, these pictures are copyrighted.

Just Rambling Along...

I'm sitting here looking out the window at the green outdoors. It finally rained and thundered properly yesterday! We are very grateful for the rain, we've had an extremely dry spring so far. It's been an early spring too. I'm seriously being tempted to plant garden and stuff, but Grandma says there is no point in doing that yet. I'm afraid that impatience might over rule wisdom in the end though. I uncovered my stuff in the flowerbed yesterday, and was very pleased to see that most of my perennials survived the winter. Now I'm thinking about what to plant this year.

We went out to NE last weekend to visit Clark's sister and her husband, and see their new baby. We had a very enjoyable time (pictures here) . It was good for me to get a dose of reality in regards to babies as well. Somehow it didn't dampen my anticipation of mine though. We had a good visit with Clark's aunt as well. It's really funny to think of her as being a "generation" ahead of us, we relate more as peers.

I've been busy sewing. I'm still having trouble getting a pattern that I like. Once I figure it out, I won't need it any more, and I'll have to figure out a whole new pattern... My mom says I'll be doing that for the next twenty years. How encouraging! I'm really ready to get done with sewing, and start cleaning my house good and proper. And throw stuff away. I LOVE to throw things away, which is amazing, because I used to be a pack rat when I was growing up. Maybe something about living in a small house has helped that.

I'm in a baking mood today, so we'll see if it's productive beyond a batch of bread. I'd love to do pies or cinnamon rolls, only the two of us do not need those kinds of goodies at all! I have a lot of yummy farm fresh eggs from NE right now to use, so maybe I should dig my cookbooks out and find something that takes a lot of eggs.

Anyway, that's the odds and ends of my life today. I have a feeling this is a rather boring post. Maybe someday I will do up something a little more interesting. See you all later!

Cattails and Feathered Friends.

Hi,

I found another favorite swamp!! I went by this morning and saw some interesting things, so take a look and see for yourself.

Some Cattails.

And a goose.

Same goose, different pose.

This is a red wing blackbird, a sure sign of summer.

There I cropped it. Is that better?

This is cropped too, I couldn't get very close. I think this is a wood duck.

That's all for now!!

--Clark Graber--