Tag: writing

My Photo studio needs a bit of reorganization, Again.

My Studio is the victim of many different projects, because well at one time it was an unfinished 2 car garage. It really could use a ceiling. But that is another project for a later date. My housemate and I had bought some of those interlocking mats for the floor and while they were nice there were not enough for the room. Then we found a really good deal on Marketplace and bought 20 more. They were slightly different but went together with the original ones, okay. Still though there were not enough. This if a 500 sq ft room, and the hard cement floor is cold…


This summer I had several things I wanted painted or stained including some boards for my photography to use as props and stands and when finished everything got shoved back into the studio in the unused area. Eventually some of the painted blocks 2×4’s and 2×6’s made their way to the actual photo area, and I have used them. They work great for elevation changes. Last month we found on Marketplace 20 more of those interlocking mats. When we got them home, we realized that they were thicker than the original mats. That meant reorganizing all of the mats in front of the photo area so that the thicker mats were there and the others were covering more of the high use areas of the floor. I began pulling up the thinner mats in the photo area and piling them around. I moved my rolling rack that was mostly filled with photo props and fabric backgrounds and tried to put some of the thinner mats there against the large garage door. They were too big. So after a day of trying to organize the floor I quit and moved on to more projects. With all of these projects and others inside the house that meant moving stuff from in the house out to the studio, things are starting to pile up in the studio. There are little trails to the photo area, the freezers and to the door. Another find last week on Marketplace we got 20 more of the interlocking mats only these were 1ft X 1ft. I decided that those would work under the rolling rack but hadn’t gotten to it. A friend had asked if I would photograph a couple of her gnomes and I jumped at the chance it sounded like a lot of fun. I got them last night went out to my photo area and well couldn’t get to it. There are stacks of various different sized interlocking mats there are painted 2x4s and 2x6s there is a cabinet I removed from the house, there are new bins that needed filling with some of the stuff I had collected to photo, and there are other cube units that never found a home. For my photo project I wanted hanging snowflakes but in order to get that I had to move a light above the photo table.
So the organizing began. the rolling rack got moved and the new small tiles installed, the empty bins were filled up and labeled with subject matter and put back in the rolling rack that was back in its home. The cabinet was now in a corner and a cube shelf unit was also with it. More of the thinner mats were pulled up and the thicker mats were put down. The light above the photo table found a new home lighting up the area around the rolling rack and I have a 8 ft long 1×2 board hung from the ceiling with cup hooks so I can hang snowflakes

and I got the background changed moved the white down and tracked down my snowballs.

I will start shooting the gnomes Tuesday, I need to find some ski’s

The Troll family trip to Eugene.

I don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but these are my troll kids. Frequently my Alter Ego because each one is a piece of me. For most of my friends on Face Book you have seen them many times. For everybody else meet Pinx, Aqua, and Poppa T.
I had decided to make a trip to Eugene Oregon for shopping…. My friend and I make several trips across the mountains every summer stocking up for winter. The plan was to hit the rose garden for the first time this summer… a bit late in the season but still nice. Then we would move on to our favorite farmstand and end the stay in Eugene with a few thrift stores before we blitzed home that evening.
After we cross the Cascade Mountain pass, we usually stop at a small wayside a few miles outside of Springfield, a good place to stop stretch our legs and check out the McKenzie river.

Turning the trolls loose with 3 of their favorite pet lizards, we headed down the trail to the river.
This area is rich in things to explore

We found a nice spot with a picnic table to rest while they checked the river shoreline.

But soon it was time to head back to the car and our next stop.

Back at the car we settled into our seats and headed to the Rose Garden. I left the kids napping in the shade while I went and photographed the rose garden. The garden was beautiful but most of the peak blooms were gone, and I was glad I didn’t have to corral the trolls through the flowerbeds.
Our next stop was Thistledown Farm where we went for apples, corn, salsa, gourds and pumpkins. The Troll family was allowed to pick out their own pumpkins and gourds. The only rule was they had to be able to carry them…

Leaving the trolls in the car, making plans for their jack o lanterns, Sue and I checked out the thrift stores. I wasn’t about to allow these guys in the stores with all the Halloween displays.
By the time we got back to the car they were all snoring soundly and it was a peaceful drive home. With maybe a few snickers, and chuckles coming from the back of the car.
A good day was had by all

Flat Fire threat and I am freaking out

Flat Wild Fire threat and I have been Freaking out.
We are NOT in the evacuation zones, not even in the get ready, But I know how fast things can change. One hot ember and the game changes …. When the Flat Fire started Thursday, I saw the smoke column and realized that it was around the old town of Geneva. Knowing that there have been many fires in that area I knew that the fire would be fast and hot burning through light fuels. By Friday it took off as I expected, but I did not expect it to triple in size. On the way home from Bend I thought what if this really does head to my area, I need a plan. It is about 20 +/- from my home and has to cross though some rough terrain farm fields and a highway. Then more canyon BLM areas. but it is that sneaky hot ember I worry about. The thing is I have 4 vehicles to move, and which vehicle are we not going to move if things go bad. So I came up with a plan, if we do end up in an evacuation level 1 get ready, we will take the vintage motorhome and move it to a safe spot in town. (If need be, we can live in it….) Then come back and start getting ready for the next level of evacuation….. Hoping and praying it doesn’t get that far. This morning, I noticed that the deck had a lot of fine white ash from the fire…it looked like we had had a light snow, but I knew better. Time to make sure that we could move the vintage motorhome if we did go into a level one… We haven’t started that motorhome since we parked it in the new shed and when I tried to start it NOTHING…. At the same time I was dismantling my sprinkler system and manually trying to get my flowerbeds watered, finding out why some of the areas in my flowerbeds were not getting watered. Trying to change out sprinkler heads and faucet connectors….and making sure that leaky hoses were getting water to the waterlines…. and I was moving little things that could be fire hazards if an ember were to land in it and trying to move bigger things like the older Subaru which also hadn’t been moved in about 4 months. The older Subaru also didn’t start… and trying to get an update on the fire which is now over 18,000 acres but the web sites are still saying 3,300. The evacuation levels have changed, and the fire is within 10 miles of my home. Again, a long way away, but… things are not going right and I can’t get current information. My housemate has gone to Redmond and picked up a newer battery for the RV and some 20 ft jumper cables, I am running around trimming flower seed heads because they are within 4 ft of the house…. pulling weeds that have outlived their usefulness as a green fire resistive plant. Doing the watering the best I can with a system that works for general watering but not so much fire protection. I need to get the humidity up around the house. I photographed around the house showing areas cleared of brush and weeds around the base of the house later in the afternoon….. I have done what I can and decided that I could photo the beautiful sunset. Because what the smoke gives us is beautiful sunsets.

So now I am calm I have done what I can and hope that the fire stays contained up north of us. It is still just over 18,000 acres and growing.
Except… I got a call from a neighbor who briefly talked to the local Fire Chief. If things continue as they have the fire has the potential to move into the southern end of our fire district maybe bypassing our neighborhood but possibly moving into another neighborhood I had lived in for several years. I know that one hot ember is all it will take while the fire might move southwest the ember could float anywhere should the wind come up. A trip to Walmart and I came home with more garden hoses.
That was yesterday the fire has is now nearly 22,000 acres and we are as ready as we can be. I have watered my place around the house and done my best to raise the humidity level, hopefully slowing the chance of a fire at my place. I have made sure my important papers are in a quick to grab fire safe, and the motorhome is ready to go at the level 1 get ready be aware, and I have prayed to Mother Nature to keep the fire in its current boundaries….
To be clear this is not my first fire here in Central Oregon, and even to myself it is funny to watch me freak out, but I do it anyway. When I came here in the early 90’s we had a fire just half a mile from the house we were building and then the big Aubry Hall fire hit that summer. When I moved here permanently, I joined the local Fire Department as a volunteer firefighter. I have worked on many fires both brush and structure, and I know the game…. Still I Freak OUT