HAVING FUN WITH COWS AND CALVES!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i heart faces week 13: dramatic b&W

                                                                                                                                     

                                                                           As always my little brother makes some great expressions for pictures!

                                                                       

                                                                             Click on the logo below to see more great dramatics black and whites.

                                      

                                                                                                     

aurora

A sad thing happened on Thursday. My cow, Aurora, died.  She was due to calve the 9th of April, but something went wrong. she suffered a severe torsion (twisting of the uterus) and there were three different tears in her uterus. Her calf had died and had gotten so bloated that it burst through her unhealthy uterus wall. The vet did a C-section to remove the calf and sew up her uterus. He said she was a pretty tough cow to live as  long as she did. The dead calf was essentially poisoning her. Part of it was protruding from her uterus and the fluid from the uterus had spilled into her body cavity. We did our very best to try and save her, but she died that night.

Aurora was a sweetie, very polite and friendly, and so well behaved.   We even won showmanship at the county fair last year. She was my favorite heifer to show, she knew exactly how to hold her head up and responded to the littlest cues I gave her. I enjoyed showing her at county and State Fair last year and was hoping to show her again this year. She was also special because I owned her and she was my first bred and owned animal that I showed. I miss her, but losing cows is part of farming, just as losing loved ones is part of life. There is a time for everything.

I am looking forward to the birth of her siblings in April. Maybe one of them will look just like her!

 

                           

 

 

fix-it friday #48

This week's photo comes from Natalie P. This photo is of her adorable little gal, Abigail. I loved her eyes and the great composition of this photo!

                                                                                                                       The Original.                               My Fix. I adjusted levels, added a soft light layer, added a high pass layer to her eyes, and dodged a bit the lighten

                              the whites of her eyes. I also slightly brightened and increased contrast. Lastly I ever-so-slightly sharpened the photo.

 

                                   My first time using Pioneer Woman’s actions! Here I used “Slight Sharp”, “Slight Light”, and “Soft Faded.”

new faces

We just brought some calves home from another farm and had them isolated for while so we could vaccinate them. They’re cuties!

  

                    

i heart faces week 12: “Focusing on Angles”

                                                                          My brother found a toad and we had lot’s of fun taking pictures!

                                                                                                   Click on the logo to see more great “angles.”

muddy buddies

 

 

                                                                                 Jack and Dundee really enjoy rolling in the mud….

 

                                                                                        …..and getting these tangled in their tails!

fix-it friday #47

This week's photo, which was sent to us by Amy Pinney, is proof positive that many, many photos are fixable and we can save many precious moments even if they are taken in less-than-perfect circumstances.

Amy wrote: "The photo I'm submitting is one of my daughter watching her Grandpa play Pinball. It's very closely cropped to include just her face and arms propped on the machine, which you can only see enough of to know what it is. I'm very interested to see what the I Heart Faces team can do with it!"

  Here’s the original photo on the left and my fix on the right. The first thing I did was adjust Levels, then I cloned out the dark arm? in the left corner and cropped the photo. I dodged a bit under the girl’s eyes and then I increased the saturation.

Springtime

It’s Spring time on the farm and besides lot’s of babies and melting snow it means lots of mud. We had to chase the heifers into the barn this morning and with the rain we’ve gotten in the past few days it was really muddy. I mean so muddy that when you walk you almost get your boots sucked off! The heifers didn’t mind it at all, but us people who had to chase them in weren’t too happy. I’m just glad I didn’t fall down in it!

fix-it friday #46

“This week's photo came from Sarah Halstead who blogs at Loving My Life. The little cutie-pie is her son, Dustyn. Sarah wrote that she was ‘having issues with overexposure in the top left corner and with blemishes on his face.’”

                       

                                                           The original.                                                Lightened the shadows in his face and added more color/contrast.

                                                                                                                                    Used healing tool to remove blemishes and added vignette.

                    

                                           Converted to black and white.                                                                      Selective color.

 

the girls

                                                                                                   Samara is a very hungry baby calf.

                                                                                  Kayla likes to much on her hay.

                                                                                                    Fire is friendly and curious.

                   

 

                                                   Flame, and her sister Felicity want to know what’s going on.

 

                                               Bo takes after her mother in being very docile and good natured.

heifers

                                The other night when I was watching the heifers for heats I brought my camera along to snap some pictures.

 

                                               This barn holds about 120 breeding age heifers. They really enjoy their pasture access.

                                                                               This poor girl’s too short to see over the crowd!