Here are few finds from our backyard taken this morning some  buds   , a fake rabbit  , a beautiful  red admiral  and doug had just put out his handmade  Bird house  ( each side has a separate bird house and the lights on the main house light up...     

we had snow a few nights ago  and i am hoping it was the last .. beacause i do believe spring as sprung!  

This is the beginning of my story about a 100 year old house that is next door to mine!  After looking at this "eye sore" since i bought my house in 2006, contractor  Bob  bought it!  He is now in the process of restoring it and eventually moving in! I am taking photos of the whole process and getting as excited as he is with each work of art that he does.. ( this is a one man project, he is doing it alone) 

 rebuilding     ( I do believe   when Bob is done, this house is going to be the best on the block in this little Wisconsin country town!)

design  ( this unique treasure was hidden under the hideous siding he has removed)

Thank you for viewing ! :)    Have a great Weekend everyone .....

Today i  found a beautiful  Fountain  Statue  and this interesting tree with a  Monster head ( what do you see? )  

I hope you all had a great Easter... Spring is here!   :)  blessings, Ms Judi

Beware: LOUD heavy medal music

My son Thomas  singing his songs on stage on Long Island...

he is a business man by day and a rock musican at night....    :)

This past summer  we bought a small fishing boat for my guy  Doug and his dad to have some male bonding time out on the Peshtigo  river .   Here is  Doug      holding his first catch of summer of 2009. As you can see it was  quite small ..  he had to throw that one back into the water.. He did catch two  Smallmouth Bass (macro) later that day...  and it was delicious    :)

Wishing you all a great day .. :) 

blessings, Ms Judi

This area has lots of wonderful old stone stuctures.  Here are a few of them:

 stonebridge 
 stonebridge2 
 stonechurch I love this church, I love the stone work.

Thanks for looking!  Have a Wonderful Night!  :o)

 grantsfarm3

Thanks for looking and commenting!  Have a Photoriffic day!  :o)

 grantsfarm5 

Thank goodness we can comment again, that was tough!  Thanks for looking!  Have a Great Evening!  :o)

I think all animals are part of nature, but my camera club would say that a domestic animal wouldn't be considered Nature, but there is nature all around my horses, so you tell me what you think! 

 EllieRolling
 Silver
 Silver1

Thanks for looking!  Have a wonderful weekend!  I am excited, I am meeting with Kay N and LeeAnn (bugaboo) to take lots of photos for the weekend!  :o)

Here is my attempt at the challenge.  I had a hard time with the lighting in my kitchen.  I missed some steps as the shots didn't turn out, but here is what I came up with. 

 Dinner ~ the chicken,  cut and ready to cook
 Dinner1 ~ the chicken, almost cooked
 Dinner2 ~ simmering away, yes it's a box meal, lol I was going for EASY last night!
 Dinner3 ~ all cooked
 Dinner4 ~ served!

Thanks for looking!  Have a wonderous afternoon!  :o)

.

What is it?

An easy one for all you late nite viewers.

What is it?

George Washington Carver by Christian Petersen

 Sculptured in 1949, Mr. Petersen chose to portray Carver as an older man, contemplating a single peanut.  Originally done in plater, funding could not be found for bronzing.  In 1998 donors supplied the funding for bronzing.  (Thank heavens for university fact sheets!)

Full statue, (69" high)
Converted this one to B/W (for not liking B/W, I sure use it allot)
Detail of statue

(Photographer's note: This was taken early morning, in a dark grove.  Several shots had a blue cast to them, using the flash removed the blue tint, but left hot spots on the subject.  I though this would have been an easy challenge, but it is turning out more difficult than I thought.)

This is my Green shots

 TurtleCloseUp1
 TurtleCloseUp

Have a Great Day!  Thanks for looking and commenting.  :o)

2 Views of the old barn at the end of my road.  Would this be boring negative space?

 OldBarnFront
 OldBarnDifferentAngl

Thanks for looking.  Have Fun!  :o)

VALMEYER, IL ~ In 1993 the small farming community flooded and destroyed the town.  They bought 500 acres about 2 miles east of the original town and 400 feet higher, in the bluffs, and relocated the entire town.  A lot of the original residents moved to the new town.  The fall of 1996 the new school opened and the kids moved from the trailers that had been set up outside the fairgrounds.  The new town has a fire/police/town hall building, a legion hall, an archery, a pub and bar, a small convienence store with gas station, a car wash, storage units, 2 banks, 3 churches, a post office, a senior living residences and a paper supplier business.  And the school is kindergarten thru 12th grade, the town seems to revolve around the activities of the kids.  Then there are the new homes of the residents, new and old.  There are now around 1200 people living in Valmeyer.  I drove around the town to look for the good, the bad and the ugly.  Being a new town, there was mainly good, the towns people are very proud of their town and they look out for the town and each other.

The good I found:  

ValmeyerWelcome  
ValmeyerPopulation  the buildihgs in the background are the police/fire/town hall, the legion, archery and corner pub.
ValmeyerSchool  also where the public library is located.

I didn't think I would find any bad, and I didn't in town, I went out of town to what they call the "bottoms", where I live.  This is the only bad I found:

 ValmeyerHouse  this is a house that went thru the flood and was never torn down.  Most of the homes were torn down, a few were redone, like the one I live in.

I didn't think I would find any ugly, but when I went to take a shot of the valley where I live I found the ugly , and boy was it really sad, and it really made me angry.

 MilesCemetery  estabilished in March of 1806.  This vault has been stipped clean and tagged with spray paint. The rest of the cemetery has been kept up by volunteers and luckily the tagger didn't go to the headstones except one.

 ValmeyerGrafitti  this doesn't bother me as much as the cemetery desecration.

Lastly a photo of where I live outside of the town of Valmeyer  ValmeyerBottoms  the arrow is showing where my house is behind that stand of trees.

All in All, Valmeyer, IL has been a great place to live and raise my girls.  The only thing that I don't like about it, is that my family and most of my friends live in Nevada still! 

Thanks for looking!  Have Fun!  :o)

Another trip to the elk park on Sunday.  Its a nice place to visit when it is cold, as you drive thru it, and don't get out.  It was 24 degrees, but I was toasty in my car.  The elk and the buffalo were very cooperative this time.  I was thinking of filling the frame and when I got home I was happy to see that that was what the challenge was.  Here are a couple that didn't seem too soft to me.  I am having trouble with that, not sure why. 

 BullElkCloseup
 BuffaloHead
 BuffaloEye

Thanks for looking and commenting.  Have a Great day!  :o)

Chester 31      > with Doug's bar toys          

Chester 32     > pool stick collection

 Chester 33    > bird houses

 Chester 34    > WHERE IS CHESTER?????????????? can you find him? ( this photo taken at "Tradewinds Supper Club" in Marinette Wisconsin , he was quite friendly with the female bartenders )

Chester 35    > BONUS ... Chester under the lights.....  

More fun shots of Chester coming soon!!!   :)

 WisconsinSundown  ByMsJudi 

Happy New Year to everyone !  :)