Something We All Suspected Was Going To Happen Eventually Anyway

I was already 15 minutes late leaving the farm to go to a meeting for the new Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival which will be held in conjunction with the Bluegrass Classic Stockdog Trial in 2010. I had the car started and was just getting ready to fly out of the driveway when Stella's son Wyatt pulled in.

I rolled my window down.

"Did you see the space ship land the other night?"
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Oh you KNOW I turned the ignition off.

"Uh, no?"

"Yeah, I got crop circles in my new alfalfa field!"

"Really."

"Yeah! You can see them down there across from your trees."



Sure enough, right there in plain view off our back porch. If we'd just been paying attention...



Most likely he had a mini tornado blow through and flatten everything (that would be Stella's luck).

Except I've been here all week.

And there ain't been any wind.

A Porch With A View

"I guess you can come in. But just for a minute (note tail flicking in annoyance)."



These are the re-engineered trusses. The original ceiling was to be vaulted, with the front of the loft having a 4' clearance, dropping down to a 1' clearance at the back wall. When the trusses were placed, we actually had only 25" in the front. Minor (read major) trauma getting this straightened out, but now we have 3' all the way across the entire storage loft. Much better.



Saint Tim and Iris doing a little building inspecting.



But we all know who the real inspectors are.



This was the view from "Comby's" new porch this morning.

Not too shabby.

A Room With A View

Evening is my favorite time of day (even better when Saint Tim is cooking dinner ;-). I like to sit on the porch with a glass of wine and listen to the birds bustling around singing their night songs, watch the chickens start making their way home and peek through the branches of the old red bud tree and watch the antics of the horses out one side and Miss Ewenice and the boys the other.





Miss Ewenice is a sun worshipper. Sometimes she tilts her face almost straight up in the air, just to get the light just right.

You really should click to biggify. While maybe not a classic beauty, I think she's just lovely and she makes me smile.

Stealth

By far, one of my favorite photographs to date. Captured while out on my Sunday Stills search. Usually Saint Tim is the wildlife spotter. I love my camera (definitely click to biggify!).

I also have some nice lamb shots from the weekend, but I just can't bring myself to add them to this post. That hawk looks big enough to haul off a small lamb.

Not that Keebs and Graham are small anymore :-/.

Sunday Stills - Water Towers and Silos

I really enjoyed this challenge. I spent a good part of Friday afternoon (when I was looking for something to do OFF the farm so I wouldn't be making the news for killing our contractor) running local errands. I carried my camera with me and stopped by some of my favorite farms along the way. Let's take a scenic silo survey.



If I didn't love our farm so much and this place wasn't on a busy highway... Another converted tobacco barn, complete with a Kentucky style round pen and the fencing out front is a nice little riding arena. Just darling.



A bit further down KY 62.



And a little further. On my first pass by, their horses were all grazing around the silo. I thought to myself I should stop right then. I'll never learn. They would have added some nice interest and also helped put into perspective the incredible height of this silo.



Heading around the bypass in Georgetown. I'm guessing some of these silos are missing their tops, but I don't really know. I love the color of the stonework on this one.



Here's a special treat (as always, click to biggify), crossing out of Scott County into Fayette County/Lexington. This was actually an old water tower. KET (Kentucky Educational Television) featured it on Kentucky Life and here's what their website has to say.

"Dr. Tony Ryan also has an abiding appreciation for the past. In 2001, the Irish airline owner bought Castleton, a standardbred breeding farm in Fayette County that dates back to the late 1700s, and converted it to a thoroughbred operation (returning it to its original function, and joining three others he owns in Ireland). He also began making over its buildings and landscape with an eye toward giving it more of an Irish look.

Our visit focuses particularly on a round tower Ryan had built to cover a water tower. The round stone structure was inspired by ancient examples that dot the Irish countryside, built between 600 and 1000 A.D. as lookout towers and shelters to help protect the citizens from marauding Vikings. Castleton Lyons general manager Julian Dollar and project manager Darrell Edwards talk about how this replica was constructed.

The tower also links directly to Kentucky history. When immigrants from Ireland and Scotland arrived in the Bluegrass in the 1800s, they brought their dry-stone masonry skills with them—and found a land much like home in its rolling topography and abundance of rock. Those Irish artisans began the tradition of building the beautiful and durable stone fences that still line many a scenic Central Kentucky byway."

For more Sunday Stills...