Rain

rain, originally uploaded by mhall209.

It has been a long winter around here. We are just a little above normal in terms of rainfall, but we have many more snow storms than usuall. Last weekend was an awesome sunny weekend, and we found our way to the nursery. My wife picked out this plant, and it has since been planted in the front garden.

Fast forward a few days and it is raining again. (Of course, I am on spring break!) I was able to get this shot from the front porch, where I didn't even get rained on!

Nestle

Nestle, originally uploaded by mhall209.

Today was a really rainy day. In fact, it is supposed to start snowing any time now. What a great way to spend spring break! Yuch. During a break in the rain, I headed outside to see if I could get any good shots. Apparently, Nestle wanted to come along as well. She doesn't like to be locked up in the house all day, but she doesn't like to be locked in the house either. So she followed me around while I looked for shots. While I was composing a shot of one of our chickens I saw Nestle out of the corner of my eye watching, maybe a little perturbed that she was not getting all of the attention. Well now she can get lots of attention!

Fixer Upper

Fixer Upper, originally uploaded by mhall209.

I love these old relics of buildings. Their are many of them in the area I live in. This one is just a little bit off of my commute route, and I drive by it twice a day. I have stopped to photograph it in the past, but today the combination of spring green grass and the cloudy sky made for a good photo op.

I would love to know the story behind this house. I image it most recently could have been a meth lab, or some sort of flop house. But at some point it was someones dream home. I can just imagine some young cowboy bringing his bride home to this house. With lots of grazing land around, and plenty of water in the form of streams and rivers, this would have been an ideal homestead. But now, not so much.

Deer family

Deer family, originally uploaded by mhall209.

Driving down the road I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I stopped and backed up. (When you live out in the middle of nowhere like I do you get to do that.) I looked, but wasn't sure what I was looking for. I had a digital camera, so what the heck, I took a shot. It doesn't look like much, but if you click through and view the shot in Flickr you can see where I have posted a note, showing what it was I was looking at. I thought it was pretty cool!

53

53, originally uploaded by mhall209.

I went for a drive this evening up a long country road behind our house. It doesn't really go anywhere. After about 8 miles it turns to a dirt road, and 8 or 9 miles it runs into another dirt road that is closed in the winter as it is not maintained. The last time I was on that road the ruts in it were about 24 inches deep, really. My little Toyota Corrola is not too fond of that road, so I just drove to the intersection and turned around. It takes about 2 hours to drive that 30 or so miles, but it is a really nice drive.

I didn't see a lot of wildlife this time up the road. Just a few turkeys, some squirrels and small birds. There were lots of cows though. Happy California cows. Like this one, number 53. He was not too happy that I disturbed his grass dinner.

Sorry number 53.

Main Street Tractor

Main Street Tractor, originally uploaded by mhall209.

While I work in an inner city urban school, I get to drive through some beautiful agricultural areas on my way to and from work. This image was taken just outside of Stockton, California. I am really amazed at the old looking tractors that some of these farms still use. This tractor looks like it has been sitting there in that same spot rusting forever. But in reality, this is an actual production machine in a small family farm. It is a vital piece of production equipment. How they keep it running is beyond me, but they do. In another week or two the family will start it up and plow all this wonderful green grass under, and then plant a new crop. The tractor will get parked right where it is when they are done with it. It will stay there till they need it again.

I think its pretty cool.

Where is the form

Where is the form, originally uploaded by mhall209.

I was in Sacramento poking around the Capitol building when I came across the reprographics room. I used to work in reprographics, so it peaked my interest. Turns out this is where the California Legislators go to get all of their bills and such printed. We will set aside the discussion of why, in this day and age, it is necessary to print anything in the Capitol Building. I mean it is the year 2010 after all.

So lets talk about all the signs. Fill out a form! I am guessing compliance is an issue here. Wouldn't you think that in the place where they write all the laws for the State of California the law makers could follow the silly rules?