Queenie Wineti’s eye is all better and she has been allowed back out into the field with Daisy, though she is still sticking close to the barn cleaning up the last of her food.
You can see the bag of DE that hangs above their feeding car boot. They knock it with their faces and get lightly dusted. This should help keep the flies away from the cows eyes. But nothing will kill the flies better than the cold. Which will come soon.
Daisy never shares her pumpkins so Queenie did not even bother to go over and try.
Though Charlotte has been gone a little while now, Sheila shows no signs of being lonely. She chats and follows me about, she gently leads me to her feed bowl at meal times, politely requests her egg tax when I am in and out of the chook house, (she stands outside the chook house door and when I appear she opens her mouth and I pop an egg in) she never tries to knock the bucket out of my hand or overturn her water container (which cuts down on my work a lot). She is actually never alone. Even when she takes herself to the barn to sleep she is only a wall away from the cows and the piglets are within earshot. Ton usually sleeps with her. She likes Ton but she does not like Boo.
Piglets Plotting.
Tilly and Mama under the mulberry tree.
The chickens are drinking more, eating more and being shifted more often. They are certainly the most work at the moment.
Good morning, here is the first attempt at a Farmy Night Sky. I know it is not October yet, but I have been doing the study and this is the first half decent image I took. I have learnt how to change the ISO in the camera, (in the old days I just bought a roll of faster film). I hope you will see an improvement over the course of the month. I am hoping to have things at least technically worked out by Oct 18, that is the full moon. 6.38pm on Oct 18! I hope to get a shot of the full moon rising up out of the corn. Ambitious? Yes.
You will see that this image is grainy. In photo speak that is called Noise. Plus a lot of the clarity was lost to camera shake. Balancing this all out is my first task.
This shot was taken about half an hour after the sun went down. I need to stay up until it is quite, quite dark or shoot early in the morning. And I really am going to have to get a proper tripod. Mad has suggested a few that I am looking at now. (Early Christmas present I think!) Plus I am going to get a remote shutter release to take the shot. These are quite cheap and will cut down on camera shake. My exposure last night was 25 seconds.
Today I will learn how to lock the mirror in the camera, which will cut down on camera shake, plus hopefully eliminate that annoying click (which every single one of my animals is wise to now).
Speaking of goals, today is the last day of the Home Grown September Challenge. We are going to have a home grown proper nosh up and a good look at the experiment.
I hope you all have a lovely day. Or if it is your bedtime, have a lovely good sleep.
Your friend on the farmy, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
48 responses to “From morning ’til night”
Fantastic first attempt at the start C – you are clearly a natural! Well done!
Have a happy farmy day.
🙂 Mandy xo
Lots more to learn, but like you i am having fun unlocking the treasures in this camera.. i have had it for a year now and am still learning.
That new camera is worth its weight in gold. The piglets’ backsides pic is hilarious! I’ve sent a link to Sally, as she was at a stargazing night yesterday in Keilder Forest, which straddles the border between England and Scotland, and is probably the lowest ambient light place in Britain. Unfortunately, there was an event on in the visitor centre and they had to find curtains for everywhere, and put covers over the security lighting to mask the movement sensors!
Oh no, how annoying, I have to admit to only casting a cursory glance at the heavens on odd occassions, usually once it is night I am yawning and crawling into bed. So this is a big learning experience.. c
I’m not surprised: your days are so full of hard work and fresh air!
that bloody fresh air! c
Coo..there, s a lot more to taking a photo than l ever imagined…me? I aim and click..simple things for a simple person
So pleased that Queenie, s eye is completely ok..did l ever tell that that Queenie was my Mothers name…she would be so pleased to know that she shared her name with a beautiful cow…….
Have a wonderful day
No I did not know your Mums name was Queenie. I went to school with a girl called Queenie Wineti, she was dreamy beautiful and though i lost touch with her after primary school i never forgot her name. c
The first night shot looks good to me Celi! The moon over the corn will be gorgeous! So glad all is well on the farmy! xoxoxo
No clouds at 6.38 pm on october 18! c
How cunning to hang that back of DE from the lid of the boot/trunk of the old car. One of our daughter’s horses had flies all over its eyes, but since she bought her what looks like an aertex mask, that covers most of her head, the problem is solved. How would the cows look in aertex masks….slightly KKK, I was thinking.
Might not go down too well with the nieghbours!! But I did think of it, the flies latch on around their eyes and it is horrible. This year has been worse than usual. I usually hang the Dust in a bag under the tree but it is ruined if it gets wet, and they cannot help but come into contact with it now! c
so that’s what piglets do – they plot!
yes, different from an allotment plot, but if they were close to yours they would be seriously plotting to breech the plot.. hmm.. Too far? did I go too far with that!? . I’ll get my coat.. c
The plot thickens….. yes I’m wearing my coat !
Now you have both lost the plot 🙂 Laura
laugh!! c
Mum asked me about night sky photographing but I think you know as much as we do. For true inspiration check out this video of Northumberland night skies: http://www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk/visiting/thingstodo/stargazing/dark-skies-video
Thank you, i am still learning, being gently nudged by my son, I shall check out this video, thank you.. c
This is a better link to the same thing:http://cainscrimgeour.co.uk/northumberland-national-park-by-night/
I think those piglets have been watching the Great Escape 😉
Love that movie, well esp that steve mcqueen.. c
That Sheila is such a lady. She and Ton are such an odd couple, but a bit alike, too
Growing up we always had flour/feed sacks or gunnie/burlap sacks hanging around for the cows to run against during buggy season. Sometimes the long sacks hung horizontally on a rope (like a clothes line) and the cows would run under it or stand and rock back and forth. These here often hung across the open shed the cows used for shade. I had forgotten those cow dances. They aren’t as dumb as people think!
Impressive night pix. Will be interested in what you learn. We have on of those Joby GorillaPod flexible ones – they wrap around anything.
I have some of those burlap bags too, from the coffee place. i shall remember this for next summer, remind me if I forget, what an excellent idea. Thank you Mouse.. c
Gorgeous photo and how can Charlotte not like Boo?!
Sheila does not like Boo because he tries to herd her.. and she has had quite enough of being bossed around..she growls at him.. funny really.. c
That us a beautiful night sky. When I used my canon, I always used the timer to avoid a shaky shot when pressing the button. We’re heading back to the city today, I’ll be getting out the canon for sure. Thanks for the inspiration.
I love that sunset photo. Might have to link it to my desktop. Right now I have a squirrel on my desktop, and he always makes me laugh. I need something that will make me go “aaaaaah” for a while. ps., my singing workmen are returned. No water, no power, but lots of song.
Lovely day-time photos, especially of Daisy and the pumpkin, and well done on the first night photo. Love seeing your view of the big dipper. I’m happy that, here in the city, we can at least see the dipper and Orion and other more prominent constellations. I almost hate to ask, but I must have missed something while switching countries last time. What’s been done with Charlotte? Perfectly OK if you don’t want to talk about it Celi. Hugs.
My favorite today is Daisy eating the pumpkn. At first I thought those were her teeth you zeroed in on, but then I saw it was actually the rim of her lip. Do cows have teeth?
And when you give Sheila an egg I can’t get over she opens her mouth for you and it. Very funny. I am assuming she eats it whole, right? Having never fed a pig, Im not sure of anything.
AlSo I love learning about D.E.
Yes and how come Sheila doesn’t like Boo? We all love Boo.
For night shots I use my wobbly tripod but use the timer set for the shot… set everything up then set for 10 seconds, and walla no shake as by that stage all is settled… (unless the wind blows…)