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December 29, 2012

Let’s Journey into the New Year

As the New Year comes upon us, my time here in the snowy winter wonderland draws to a close as we will be heading south to the Salton Sea in Southern California  for the rest of the winter.  But before going I wanted to share a little look back into our life here this past month before we journey into the New Year. 

Photo by Here I Am Carrie

 

Early in December I had this helicopter intrude upon my privacy.
Could have been taking some sort of scans or photos.
He was making grid work sweeps.

Photo by Here I Am Carrie

 

We’ve had not so much snow so far this year.  Only about 1 foot, compared to 2 1/2 feet last year at this time.  But the new snow plow and way less snow was such a relief on both my hubby’s body as well as mine.  Way more time also to do other things during the day instead of constantly clearing snow.

Photo by Here I Am Carrie

 

And what do we do with our extra time.  Nothing like cutting firewood
and burning all the branches during the season where fires are
welcome to help keep warm while working or taking a lunch break.

Photo by Here I Am Carrie

 

Another fun day with a  tree that didn’t fall the right direction or even fall for that matter.   In the middles of the lower right photo shows the tree still upright yet cut right through as it got caught on a bunch of other trees.  So in the upper left photo, I am in the big old 4X4 truck with a cable running around trees to pull the log to the left of where it is.  The top right photo I have manage to pull the log all the way down to a level area.  The back of the truck was originally where the butt of the log is now, so I pulled it about 25 feet.  In the lower left photo you can see why it got hung up to start with.  The dead tree was just full of branches.  Now that the old truck isn’t being used for plowing it makes a great winter woods truck, with the chains on all 4 tires.

Photo by Here I Am Carrie

 

Christmas day was just hubby and I along with Cole
who we were dog sitting for the Christmas holiday.  2 whole weeks without going into town or having company or a parties during this holiday.  So that made it very relaxing as well.  Yeah!  I made it without any back, neck, shoulder or arm pain.  No complaints right now.  My body is doing good.

Photo by Here I Am Carrie

Photo by Here I Am Carrie

 

Since Cole was here I was going for walks every late afternoon after 3pm.  Somehow during this time all the photos I took come out blue.  I have had this happen many times before when we have snow on the ground and it begins to get dark.  I always love the the effect it has.

Photo by Here I Am Carrie

 

With Cole by my side I was tromping on all my old trails.  Here we are taking the very narrow trail that runs along the creek on a steep hillside.  On the left photo you can see my boot in the lower right corner showing how it drops right off to the creek below.  The trail is only about 2 feet wide.

Photo by Here I Am Carrie

 

After crossing the foot bridge we leave the creek and head
into the forest and break new trails through the snow.

Photo by Here I Am Carrie

 

Cole is part of our family when here.  He was first brought to us to dog sit when he was only 6 months old and we had just said our goodbyes to our old dog Buster only 1 week before.  Cole was a godsend during my time of grief for my Buster and has continue to bring joy every time he visits for over 4 years now.  Some of you may remember Buster and my blog the day he passed was also a Blue Day on November 8 2008 .  Somehow we just haven’t been ready for a new dog yet.  When it’s right it will just happen.

Photo by Here I Am Carrie

 

So Cole and I have been having a ball exploring the forest around me.  I even tried to do an angel in the snow.  Problem is I couldn’t get up without messing my angel up too much.  Then just when I did get up Cole wanted to stomp all over my angel.   Ah…. to be a kid again.  

Photo by Here I Am Carrie

 

I never did get my new batteries for my camera that I ordered last time I was in town.  So often when I have tried to use the zoom the lens wouldn’t go back in.  So many of the photos for this blog were taken with my very first digital camera also an Olympus, much older model Camedia with 3.2 megapixel.  I am waiting till we get down south to start looking for a new camera.  There just aren’t any stores around where I live to check them out.  This little bird was taken from inside my window.

Photo by Here I Am Carrie

 

We will have lots of work the next couple of weeks to close the house up for the winter.  Packing and a million details to take care of like cutting back all my still wonderful blooming geraniums and a few other hardy flowering plants in the greenhouse.  I will take these plants along with the palm tree and oleander and wrap them up with a light cover to help insulate a little more.  Usually when we really get extreme cold the sun is out to heat the greenhouse for those really cold nights.  3 years now we have manage to keep all the plants over the winter with no heat.  As you can see my tomato plant in the upper right photo looks just pathetic.  It has had aphids for a couple months now.  Any good gardener would have thrown them out of the greenhouse, but I just couldn’t as they were still loaded with tomatoes.  Still harvesting to date.  To protect the rest of the plants I have had to spray them like crazy to keep them from getting infected.  Always good to do anyway as when they come from outside they tend to bring all those pests with them.

Creation by Here I Am Carrie

 

Well time is drawing near where we will make this last drive on our country dirt road that takes us into town.  I love the drive in the winter as all the potholes are filled with snow and the scene is completely different.  The bridges on the road are only single lane and the creek run along this very windy narrow road with often steep drop offs.  But I have been driving it for over 20 years now with 13 Kilometers before connecting with the highway which then goes to town.

Photo by Here I Am Carrie 

 

The closer to town I approach the less snow there is.  By the time I hit the highway the road can be bare.  Often town has no snow, while we will have it the entire winter as we are considerably higher in elevation.  This particular day I was given a beautiful show of the sun trying to break through the clouds.

Photo by Here I Am Carrie

 

It’s only another 8 klms on the highway to town.  I often go the whole way without seeing another car.  Just rolling hillsides of ranch land.

Photo by Here I Am Carrie

 

Well the holidays are over as is my winter hibernation coming to and end soon.  I won’t have internet for the next 3 months.   I will try and get a couple blogs out through the library.  We have no TV or internet while down south.  I will have time for reading  some books and spend lots of time being social with friends and community events as well as our never ending landscaping projects.

Photo by Here I Am Carrie

So may you also  journey in the New Year with
health, happiness and most of all love
and have a
Good Morning …Good Afternoon…Good Night….
What ever it is to you.

Photo & Words
by
Here I Am Carrie

December 8, 2012

Creativity to Christmas

Well it has been a very busy past month and more so with finally taking the time to be creative with my many photos in so many different ways.  I have been up many a late night trying to squeeze all this extra work into my already busy days.  So just a little view of all my creativity I have been up to the last month and more.
  Also ending this blog with a very special merry Christmas video I  created from many of my winter photos and Christmas scenes.

But first lets get in the winter spirit.  We are late getting snow this year but it is coming now.  I finally look out my window at a winter wonderland which has help to put me in the Christmas spirit. 

My winter wonderland view and a little more.

Photo by Here I Am/Carrie

Photo by Here I Am/Carrie

Creations by Here I Am/Carrie

 

My New Website
click on link below
 Creations by Here I Am/Carrie

You can keep updated with all my new creations with Greeting Cards, Books, Videos, Blogs and more.   I am using this free website for sharing all my creations in one place which has wonderful templates for almost whatever you may want to share.   This site is through the company Shutterfly where I also have my photos printed.  Unfortunately they are not set up for selling what you create without paying for a professional fee.  So right now what ever I make through their company such as my book Expressions of Nature or Calendar, I make no profit from it.  But I love the use of their share site to create my website for sharing everything from my many other websites all for free.  You can always find this link on all my blog sites.
Below is just a photo I took of my new home page.

Photo by Here I Am/Carrie

 

Greeting Cards
I am finally making greeting cards with my photos instead of just sending them by e-mail.  For Christmas I made homemade ones as well as use some recycled Christmas cards and added my photos, but hope to have a site in the future where I can order ones I create and later sell  from the internet.   I am taking baby steps on this whole process, so I will first feel the market out in local craft sales and flea markets.  Also am doing a lot of research regarding suppliers of material for doing my own cards or having them printed with my photos  ready for sale.  Just weighing the costs of everything to find the best way to sell my cards and make them affordable yet profitable either on personal sales or on the internet.  Any suggestions on this process would greatly be appreciated.
My Christmas Greeting Cards

Photo by Here I Am/Carrie  

I also created book marks with a quote I made up and on the back my website location.  These I included with my greeting cards I sent for Christmas.

Photo by Here I Am/Carrie 

Books
I have also been busy creating books.  I am mostly doing the books for gifts and possible sales locally or at craft or flea markets. The costs of shipping and purchasing only one books is so expensive for an individual to purchase through the internet.  But feel free to have a look if you haven’t already.  Anyone thinking of doing a book checkout Blub they have a great free downloadable program for creating your book on your computer that you upload when complete and can then purchase a copy and sell with profit if you want to, otherwise a great way to preserve something special to you.  In the program you can slurp your blogs here from many blog sites right into the book, however I found I had to do a great deal of formatting to get the look I wanted.    My book at Shutterfly (Expressions of Nature) I make no profit from I only made the book through them as I had a coupon special for a free book.  Here the book is done on the internet using their templates which can also be changed a great deal.
click on link below to view entire book
My photo book Expressions of Nature
Below is just a photo of the cover of the book.  I apologize for the poor picture I was in a hurry and ended up with glare on the right side. 
Photo by Here I Am/Carrie

 

Below is a link to my book from my blogs God’s Garden of Nature a way to preserve my blog in book form.  I hope in the future to have it available in E-book.

From the blogs of H...
By Carrie Nienierza

 

Calendar
Here are photos of my pages on my
Calendar I created for myself.  Again I so apologize for the poor qualities photos I took of my calendar.  Trying to get so much done to fast.
 

Creations by Here I Am/Carrie
Below is January – November

Creations by Here I Am/Carrie

Below is the last month December

Creations by Here I Am/Carrie

Camera
With all this extra creativity going on I realize I do need to take a step up with my little point and shoot camera and go to something I can do more with.  After much thought I have however decided against a DSLR camera as I just can’t justify the cost of all the lenses I would need.  I have always wanted a camera with a longer zoom  and  have manual setting as well.  So I am looking into the  new generations of power zoom cameras that will enable me to at least get better shots of the wildlife here without  packing so much extra gear.  My choices are The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ150 with a 24X zoom or one of the Canon Powershots SX40HS with a with a 35x zoom or the SX50 with a 50x zoom.  Please if anyone has any comments on the subject let me know.  I know nothing about cameras except the bit of research I have done.  I have always been happy with my little Olympus point and shoot I have had for 4 years and probably taken over 10,000 photos with it and it still gives me some really great photos.

Photo by Here I Am/Carrie 

Coyote and Whiskey Jacks
My camera does lack when it comes to wildlife I try and get in our field from my house, this is a coyote.
 
Photo by Here I Am/Carrie

These whiskey jacks were taken
from inside my house through my window.

Creations by Here I Am/Carrie

Smoking Salmon
Hubby has also been busy creating his yearly smoked salmon.

Photo by Here I Am/Carrie

Firewood
My poor old 1978 Datsun truck has been getting a real workout with loads of firewood.  We almost have 2 shed filled now.  We have 3 different stoves in different building so even if we aren’t here all winter we need lots of firewood.

Photo by Here I Am/Carrie 

My Merry Christmas Video to all of you.
Heaven on Earth
I end this very long blog now with my latest video created to wish everyone here a Merry Christmas with winter scenes of our place. Starting up our driveway with surrounding scenes. As evening approaches and the lights come on in our home you will be taken inside for a glimpse of a country Christmas inside then the next day continue your journey back down and out the driveway. Be sure to have your Audio on.

So wishing  everyone a very
Blessed Christmas
and a
Happy New Year
filled with Hope, Health and most of all Love.
Any may you always have a
Good Morning…  Good Afternoon…  Good Night…
What ever it is to you.
Photo & Words
by
Here I Am/Carrie