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Twitterstormy weather part2 – llama in the snow
28 Feb 2007 No Comments
in photos, thistledown
I think he slept out there last night. Maybe he thinks he’s a Tauntaun.
Changes in the herd
21 Apr 2006 No Comments
in photos, thistledown
Once again I am reminded that never (and I mean never) before moving out to Sherwood did I ever even consider the possibility that I would own livestock…
Welcome our new addition to the crew. This is Llex the Llama.
Llex is our new guardian llama. A couple weeks ago a dog attacked our sheep. It wounded three of them and one did not make it. After a bunch of vet bills, some research and the realization that our electric fence would not have stopped the attack – we decided to get Llex.
He’s five years old and we got him from Rain Dance Ranch. They were very nice and had a good selection. Kelle picked Llex from the 6 they had available. We even have the option to trade him for another if he doesn’t work out, but so far he’s doing well.
The sheep are still not to sure about him. For the first several days, they stayed in the barn while Llex hung out outside the barn door. Then we opened up some of the other pastures to them. Now during the day you will usually find Llex in one pasture and the sheep in another.
Despite being fairly social and friendly, Llex does not like to be caught. He’s happy to follow you around the pasture, but once the harness comes out he goes the other way. Kelle is currently offering to bake a pie for the person who catches him.
Dulcie, we’ll miss you.
4/22/06 Update:
The bounty is no longer available. Kelle has caught Llex and will be baking a pie for herself. She also took him for a walk down the road to meet the neighbors.
Digital Camera Scavenger Hunt
25 May 2004 1 Comment
in games, photos, portland, or area
Kug came up with a great idea for my b-day party this year – a digital camera scavenger hunt. Teams get a list of things and have 2 hours to take pictures of as many items on the list as they can. Kug created the list to be challenging, but not impossible – taking into account the potential advantage that I would have given my familiarity with the immediate vicinity of our house.
We ended up with 3 teams. Our friend Pricilla (who lives a mile from our house) was on one team and that mitigated any edge that I would have given my team. As it turns out, I’m not sure there was any benefit to being local given how well the third team did.
The Rules:
- Your team may use only one car for transportation and one camera for photos.
- You may not purchase anything. You may, however, borrow or beg items or bribe total strangers with promises of fame and glory.
- Your team must be back by 5:00 to qualify for the prizes.
- You may use only photos taken by your team after the start of the hunt. No previously taken photos, images downloaded from the internet, or other sources of pictures will be allowed.
- You must take a picture of the actual item, not an image of the item.
- You must stay within the law.
- Prizes will be given to the team with the most qualifying pictures and to the team with the most artistic photographs.
- Members of your team may or may not be in the photos, as you prefer, unless otherwise specified by the item.
The Items:
- a logo or signboard with a star on it
- a member of a competing team taking a picture of something
- a stranger with an apple on his/her head
- a flag
- a spotted goat or llama (+1 if he’s standing on his hind feet)
- a single french fry on a fast-food napkin
- an alarmingly out of date bumper sticker
- a reflection of something in water
- a truck with a pesticide company logo on it
- an officer of the law in uniform (+2 if you can get him to flash the peace sign)
- a house with a red door
- a single slice of lemon merange pie
- a tacky piece of garden art
- something that is the same right side up as upside down
- Matt’s name spelled out in a creative way (you may set this up using sticks, marbles, or whatever you wish)
- three birds on a telephone wire
- a green tractor in a field
- a sign for a vinyard or wine tasting room
- a bug or a water droplet on a flower
- all members of your team in an interesting pose
- three strangers doing the ‘hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil’ thing
- a railroad crossing
- a sign with a word misspelled
- a place where Osama Bin Laden is likely to be hiding (+5 if you find him)
- a vanity license plate
- a garage sale sign from LAST weekend (must be dated)
- an unusual architectural detail on a house or building
- a black labrador
- a t-shirt with an obnoxious logo (not one of Matt’s)
- a tie-breaker photo- a picture of anything you like that will be used in the event of a tie. Tie breaker photos will be judged on creativity as well as technical merit by any non-participants.
FYI: We live out in the country (sort of), so finding a tractor in a field is not especially difficult. We’re also 10 minutes from a relatively small town, so the more urban-ish items are reasonable as well. If you use this list, feel free to adapt it as appropriate to your locale.
After the teams returned we displayed a slide show of the photos on the TV and anyone who didn’t participate in the hunt could vote on any questionable pics.
The Teams and their Scores:
- John, Me, Steve – 24 points
- Ben, Linda Pricilla – 26 points
- Nick, Tai – 28 points – The Winners
Check out the pics here. I’m trying to keep the search engines out, so you’ll need to login using Username: guest and password: thistledown. Just click the [login] link in the upper right corner of the page.
Whew!
10 Apr 2003 No Comments
in photos
My self-imposed moratorium on blogging is now over. Taxes are finished and I’ve gotten a request for pics of the sheep. So Eric in SF, here you go:
The mountain in spring
30 Mar 2003 No Comments
I was up on the roof yesterday cleaning the gutters and spraying the moss with slime killer. There was a bit of haze so the pic is not a crisp as I was hoping for.
Strawberry Stains Forever
28 Mar 2003 No Comments
The Boy’s first strawberry. What a smart boy.
Photo taken by Kug.
