Surprise!

January 05, 2008 – Click on image for higher resolution version.

The hay wranglers stopped by for the hay forks they left last time they delivered hay, and I noticed a box on the porch.  I didn’t think much of it, and brought it in while I told the wrangler where to find their hooks.  When I got back into the house, Jack was opening the box and saying “It’s a present for you.  I thought at first it was probably a new lens for my camera, but when I saw the edge of green I started squealing.   I’ve been  following the saga of the One Laptop Per Child for a while, so I recognized what it was as soon as Jack started lifting it out of the box. As I write this, Jack is hitting buttons to see what happens.

Warmth

Yesterday, it was 9F when I woke up. Today, it is 44F. And the Chinook, which tends to blow when the temperatures rise, isn’t even that strong this morning. It will be so nice to go out and feed the horses this morning.

Desktop Wallpaper

December 31, 2007 – Click on image for higher resolution version.

I love using my photos and graphics as backgrounds for my computer desktop, but hate having icons cluttering up the image. So using ImageMagick and a little scripting, I created some Desktop Wallpaper with my graphics to the right of the screen so I have space for one line of icons. I’ve uploaded twenty-six, both fractals and photos, for others to use. The gallery of wallpaper was generated using Curator, a command line program that I downloaded from the Ubuntu repositories.

Sheila

December 22, 2007 – Click on image for higher resolution version.

Sheila is visiting again. One of her nicest traits is that when she rolls over on her back, she actually wants her chest rubbed, and is not trying to sucker you into getting your hand lacerated.

Ice Fog

December 08, 2007 – Click on image for higher resolution version.

One or twice each winter, we will have one of these weird gray days when the snow falls continuously, but the rate of evaporation equals the snow fall so there is no accumulation beyond an inch or so. As usual when this weather occurs, the horses are ignoring their stalls where they could stay dry and standing braced against the snow instead. Every once in a while I will look out and catch the horses playing in the snow. Hap is still a graceful creature, even at the age of 22: the other two, not so much.