***As of April 20th, Olivia is still missing. We can only hope that wherever she is, she is safe and loved.

OLIVIA IS MISSING IN THE AREA OF RT. W AND BOUTIN DRIVE IN CAPE GIRARDEAU MISSOURI. PLEASE CONTACT ME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE IF YOU SEE HER. 573-382-0015

I learned about Olivia through Kara Brothers.

Kara's part of the Humane Society of Henderson County, KY. who does a lot for their area's animals. She's a volunteer as well as a board member for the shelter. The beautiful photos attached were taken by Kara.

Olivia was rescued by the shelter as a young pup and adopted out shortly after.

But not long after the adoption, The Humane Society of Henderson County was contacted by Evansville Animal Control telling them that they had picked Olivia up as a stray. She was returned to Henderson County immediately, where she ended up for adoption, yet again. She was a sweet dog but terrified in the shelter environment.

I fell in love with Olivia at first sight. If my home weren't already filled to the brim with my hard luck babies I would have been on the drive to pick Olivia up myself, back in October of 2012, after her first return to the Henderson County shelter.

As it happened, I shared Olivia's adoption/foster plea photos on my Facebook wall and low and behold one of the girls on my friend list fell in love with Olivia too. She shared her photographs with her then boyfriend, who agreed that Olivia would be a great new family member.

So the pair made the drive to Kentucky, from Missouri, and rescued Olivia bringing her back to Missouri to live, happily ever after.

Unfortunately, happily ever after only happens in fairy tales, and life has a way of changing everything.

A split up, new living arrangements, and a job that takes Garrett out of town for weeks at a time, does not make a good living environment for Olivia.

With no other options, Olivia's human pair did the right thing and contacted the Kentucky shelter to let them know of their predicament.

But now, it is up to the Humane Society of Henderson County to do what is right for Olivia, and find her a new home so that she doesn't have to return to the shelter. She was terrified there before. And after living the good life for several months, it's sure that the shelter would frighten her even more so now.

Olivia was transferred to foster care in Cape Girardeau, Mo. ~~~~~

There is much to know about Olivia, and she does come with a few issues that anyone interested in her should know about.

She's very sweet and loves to play, but she is frightened by small children and is not at all a fan of cats. It is not recommended that Olivia be placed in a home that has either.

Olivia is just over a year old and needs some attention and guidance.

An ideal situation for Olivia would be an attentive owner(s) willing to put in the time required for confidence training and obedience along beside a professional trainer. A little structure would do her a world of good.

Olivia would do well to be in a home with a single, confident, well established yet non aggressive dog, to help her come out of her shell and provide her with a little doggie guidance.

She's very shy at first, but once you've earned Olivia's trust she's nothing but a ton of love and kisses and so willing to please. She's ready to play, to snuggle, to bum around with; she's game for anything you are.

Olivia is up to date on her shots, heartworm negative, and has already been spayed and microchipped. The only thing she is missing is a family of her own.

If you are interested in meeting Olivia, please contact Garrett (573-318-0273) to set up a get together. 

Olivia currently resides in Chaffee, Mo. where she will remain until March 31. If she isn't fostered or adopted by that time she will be transported back to Henderson County, Ky. where she will be placed back in the shelter, for the third time.

Please don't let this happen. Share this post in any way you can and try to help us find the right home for Olivia.

No dog deserves to be returned to the shelter life again and again. This girl deserves a home and a loving family to call her own. Please help us make that happen.

Images by: Kara Brothers
Courtesy posting for private individual
 

This blog entry is going to be an ongoing, year long blog, surrounding my pets and me. It's a photo challenge, to take at least one image per week, of me and/or my pets, depicting one of the words on the following list.

At the end of the year, it will be interesting to see what has compiled.

I challenge you to try it yourself! Click here to get the details on how you cab take the 2013 My pet and Me photo challenge.

1. My pet(s)
   
   (01-02-13)
   Sug- My senior Lab. My beautiful girl. My loving and nurturing matriarch. She's patient and kind, loving and quiet. She will nurse, care for, and love on anything or anyone who comes through the door. She has been playmate and nurse mate to everything from wild racoons to domestic ferret's, a few two legged babies, and everything in between. She's a priceless gem and I am so very fortunate to have spent the last decade with her.
   (01-02-13)
   Eddie- The regal man of the bunch. Nothing shakes Ed. He's laid back and interested in nothing else in life but comfort and attention. He talks and talks until you listen and if that isn't enough he'll be right up in your face to make sure he gets his point across. Edward demands attention. And once he's gotten yours, he's done with you and off about his business. He's senior, and starting to show his age. But there is still nothing out there like his pool green eyes. (Yes, these are the real color of Eddie's eyes)
   (01-02-13)
   Frankie- The grandpuppy. The son's doggie. The loving creature who frequently visits and some times sets up shop when said son is between 'pads. Frankie is in many images I pass around. Why? Because he is an athlete, a performer, a ham, a camera hog. I pull out a camera and Frank goes into mode. His expression gets extreme whether serious or playful. He has the most piercing  eyes that always make a fantastic focal point. And he pays attention, looking me right in the lens, a rare thing for an animal to do. And he's a teddy bear. A sweet, snuggly, adorable, Grannie G's baby.
   (04-12-12)
   Jack, my beautiful boy. Jack has been through a lot in his short life. He's about 6 years old now and has come a long way. Abandoned and taken to a shelter. Adopted and re-adopted before finding his way here. He survived treatment on a severe case of heartworms when I got him. Not long ago he almost died after being shot in the face; a shot that removed four of his teeth. He's fiercely loyal to those he loves, especially his momma, and although a little gray around the edges these days, still one, big, beautiful, boy.
2. Me
   (02-09-13)
   Roman and I just cannot get enough snuggle time. Honestly, I think Romey would be content if I were bed ridden and never had to get out of the bed again.
3. Yummy
   (02-16-13)
   I heard the strangest noise coming from my bedroom only to call out and discover Roman coming to me with a bag over his face. He loves Dill Pickle chips, but this was just too funny. He would snort trying to get the bag from his snout but when he would lick at the bag it would just pull it back on. Such a goofy dog.
4. Sad
   (02-23-13)
   Eddie hasn't been doing well the past few weeks. Weight loss, regardless of good appetite, has taken us to see the Vet. Knew it had to be one of three things. Either diabetes, hyperthyroidism, or kidney failure. Turns out the old boy has a hyperthyroid problem. Meds it is. twice a day, for the rest of his lifespan. I hope it's many more years to come. He's around 13 now and we are holding on.
5. Morning
6. Afternoon
7. Night
8. Feeding time
9. Outdoors
10. Lounging
11. Happy
12. Thoughtful
13. Play time
14. Spontaneous
15. Planned
16. Winter
17. Spring
18. Summer
19. Fall
20. Love
21. Friendship
    (04-13-13)
    Sug. She's been under my desk while I work since she was only a few weeks old. Now at 100+ lbs, she doesn't fit "under" the desk so well, but she still tries. I always know when I am at my desk for any length of time, I can look down into her beautiful, aging face. She's been my loyal companion for almost 10 years.
22. Best Buds
23. Serious
    (01-01--2013)
    Frank. So serious. Serious about what you ask? Getting piled up under those covers of course! It's winter, and bedtime.
24. Funny
25. Smiles
26. Frowns
27. Pouting
    (04-13-13)
    Roman, pouting because he didn't get his way. Yesterday I spend the better part of the afternoon cleaning out his kennel and the area around it. He's a hoarder, plain and simple, and when I threw all of his "hoard" away, he was devastated. Poor Romey, he's so mistreated. He's still pouting even today.
28. Excited
29. Careless
30. Carefree
31. Bad
32. Good
33. Relaxed
34. Content
35. Comfortable
36. Tense
37. Begging
38. Sunny
39. Rainy
40. Stormy
41. New
42. Old
43. Curious
44. Watchful
45. Learning
46. Jealous
47. Playful
48. Grateful
49. An outing
50. Toys
51. Territory
52. Pastimes

Update 04-06-13: Cash went to rescue. No one stepped up to give this gorgeous guy a home and so he was placed in the best possible situation. He'll transport to a rescue who will offer him foster care until his forever home can be found. Good luck Cash! There are so many of us rooting for you!!

Cash's family is in a bad situation and are being forced to moved. They have tried to find a place to go that will allow Cash but unfortunately landlords in their area won't allow large dogs.

Cash is 8 years old and is a very sweet, AKC registered, Chocolate Lab. (When he sheds his coat he's more of a silver color)

This 80 lb. boy has a good personality and warms up to woman and children quickly but takes a little bit longer to warm up to men.

Cash was a rescue taken in by his current family in Jackson, Mo., and he's up to date on his shots and neutered.

For the time being he enjoys free roam of a fenced back yard, but this arrangement won't last very long. Cash's need to find a new home is urgent.

If you are interested in meeting Cash, please contact Kelli Stewart on Facebook. You can do so by clicking here.

Images provided by: Kelli Stewart
Courtesy posting for private individual

Below is an exchange (email) between Linda and myself about her daughters wedding images.

Linda had originally contacted me to shoot her daughters wedding but because I no longer shoot weddings, I referred a couple of other photographers I know to do the work.

Apparently Linda did not heed my advice and went the cheaper route, hiring a photographer she knew nothing about and hadn't even researched that photographers previous work.
_______________________________________________________________________________


Linda: I really need your help. We ended up going with the cheaper photographer for Iris’s wedding and I’ll just tell you now, I should have listened to you.  I should have hired one that you suggested. The pictures came out terrible. We really need your help. Can you fix them for us? I am sending you 3 of them to see if you can work with them.

Me: I am really sorry you had such a bad experience. Why didn’t you go with anyone on the list of photographers I sent you?

Linda: Well, we were going to spend the extra money but decided to go the cheaper route and used a friend of the family because her prices were just so low and we were told she was really good.

Me: Did you look at her work before you hired her?

Linda: No because my cousin said she was really good and we were just running out of time and we were running low on our budget. And gosh, we just didn’t think they could turn out so bad.

Me: I looked at the images you sent and I can only fix one of them. The other two are just so out of focus there isn’t much I can do with those. How many are like this?

Linda: ALL OF THEM!

Me: Oh my.

Linda: Isn’t there anything you can do?

Me: I can try. I am sending you a link to a site you can created a free account and upload the images to. Once they are uploaded, send me the login information with the password and I can download them and see what I can do. How many will there be?

Linda: Hundreds. I think there are over 300 on the disc.

Me: Did you receive printing rights and/or permission to alter the images?

Linda: Printing rights? We just got them on a disc in the mail.

Me: Was there a “permission slip” of any kind with them or maybe a word document on the disc?

Linda: No. Nothing is on the disc but the pictures.

Me: Ok. Here’s what you need to do. Contact the photographer and ask her to send you a print release. If all of these images are marked with her name like the ones you sent to me, you won’t be able to order prints anywhere without a release. Better yet, ask her if you can get copies of the original, full size images, without her copyright stamp on them, and a release to alter and print them. Contact me when you can get the release and the originals.

Linda: Will do. I’ll be in touch.  
 

TWO DAYS LATER

Linda: You won’t believe this. I contacted the girl who took the pictures and she said the pictures on the disc ARE the originals and all she did to them was apply her name to them.

Me: She doesn’t have the images as they came out of the camera?

Linda: Apparently not. She says she doesn’t have room on her computer to keep every single picture she takes and she deletes them after she burns the disc for her customers.

Me: So were you able to get her to send you a print release?

Linda: She said she would but that would cost me another $300

Me: Can I ask what she charged you to shoot the wedding?

Linda: $500

Me: Ok. Well, if you want to be able to do anything more than share them online, you need that release.

Linda: Do you think you can do anything with any of the rest of the pictures?

Me: Upload them to that link I sent you and I will look them over and let you know.

ONE WEEK LATER

Linda: Ok, all of the pictures are uploaded. Please tell me the truth about if you can fix them or not.

LATER THAT DAY:

Me: I had a look through the images you sent and I could probably correct about 10 of them. The rest are so very out of focus and blurry that there isn’t much that can be done to correct them.

Linda: Only 10? WOW! Can you tell me how much you would charge to fix those 10?

Me: Between $100 and $150

Linda: REALLY? That much? I thought it would be much less than that! So I have to pay her $300 more to get that release and then pay you $100-$150 to fix them.

Me: Yes.

Linda: Well, if that’s all you can do I guess I really don’t have a choice do I? Iris is so upset and has cried and cried about these pictures. We already spent more than we planned to on the wedding which came out to be over $6000 and now another $450 to get 10 pictures out of the whole day. And then I guess we will have to spend more to have them printed. I just can’t believe this.

Me: That’s why I recommended the photographers to you that I did. They do beautiful work and there was no question about the quality or pricing up front. I know one of them personally and follow the other’s work regularly. I could have guaranteed you would have been pleased with any one of them.

Linda: So $100-$150 is the LOWEST you will go to fix those 10 images?

Me: Yes, Linda. That is the lowest I will go.

Linda: Are all of you photographers in cahoots with each other?

Me: What?

Linda: Nevermind. I will let you know what we decide. I just can’t believe I am going to end up spending almost a thousand dollars to get ten lousy pictures of the whole day. My daughter is just sick over it. I’m sick over it. My husband is about to kill me over it. I’ll be in touch.

Me: I’ll look forward to hearing from you.

Linda: I am sure you will. It is just highway robbery what you photographer charge for a few pictures. You must make a bundle of cash for doing almost nothing.

Me: What?

Linda: Well, all you have to do is show up and take pictures and then charge people like us a months wages for pictures.

Me: Well Linda, as you have found out the hard way, it’s not quite that simple. There are hours of prep time before a wedding shoot, travel time to and from the event, and gasoline isn’t free. Then there are the hours spent actually shoot the wedding, not to mention the countless hours we commit to learn to shoot correctly, hours and hours of editing time, and the cost of equipment and software to perform all the work.

I’m not sure how you come to think it is as simple as just showing up to “take a few pictures”, but you are sadly misinformed.

I will be happy to edit your images but that will take several hours considering the images I will be given to correct and I don’t work for free. My time is my commodity and just as valuable as the time you spend working at your job. I assure you that I am not getting rich as a photographer.

I have already spent several hours back and forth in conversation with you as well as working with one of the images you originally sent to me, all at no cost.

Linda: Whatever. I might as well of just thrown a thousand dollars out into the river for what I am getting for my money spent.

Me: Actually, you have only spent $500 so far. You can cut your losses and stop there if you like. If you want images to print from your daughter’s special day, you will need to pay your photographer for the release we discussed. You can print what you have and be happy with it, or you can pay the extra few dollars to have me, or any photographer or editor, to get better images out of what you have to work with. The choice is yours.

NOTE:
I never heard from Linda again, but her daughter did contact me and sent images one of her family members had taken. They were better quality than the images taken by the “designated photographer” and I was able to produce several high quality prints from them.

Iris was very satisfied with the end results, apologized for her mother’s behavior, and all is well. Iris had no problem with the prices I charged her for my work.

This is just an example of “you get what you pay for”.  If you intend to spend thousands of dollars on any special event, you should make sure to figure into your budget, the fees of a quality photographer, to insure satisfaction.

For weddings, there are no retakes or do overs. If you want to insure that you get high quality images of your special day, it’s a good idea to pay for the better photographer than to have to struggle with the bad results of a poor one.

As a rule, I stopped shooting weddings several years ago because people constantly wanted to haggle over pricing, and the price of my time is not open for debate.

I DO recommend quality photographers to those who contact me to shoot weddings and I am very confident about the ability of those photographers. If I weren’t, I wouldn’t suggest them at all. Their quality is fantastic, their pricing is fair, and they are great people to work with. They have far more patience for the tedium of weddings than I.

After the holidays we all have a lot of leftover. But there are so many great first time entree's that can be made from leftovers, it doesn't seem to matter.

On Christmas we had chicken and dumplings. Anytime I boil chicken I cook more than I will use and freeze back portions of chicken and the stock. That way I have semi fresh stock available.

Tonight I realized I forgot to free the leftover chicken so getting it used and out of the fridge was a must. There were plenty of leftover veggies in the box as well so it was either soup, stew, or a pie. We haven't had a homemade meat pie in awhile so that's what I decided on.

There is no set recipe for the ingredients of a homemade meat pie. Just like a pot of soup, this is a great way to clean your fridge of leftover veggies and meat.

Just t give you some kind of idea, this is what I used.

• 2 Large boiled chicken quarters, de-boned and torn up
• 2 Cups chicken stock
• 1 cup carrots (leftover)
• 1 cup potatoes (fresh)
• 3/4 cup frozen peas
• 3/4 cup corn (leftover)
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 2- 9 inch pie crusts

Green beans, cauliflower, broccoli, beans, or any number of veggies would have been great thrown in.

Place meat, veggies, salt, pepper, and stock in large pan over medium heat and simmer until any uncooked veggies are semi cooked.

Mix water and cornstarch together in a small cup and set aside.

Get your pie crust rolled out and the first crust into the pie pan. Cut slits along the bottom with a sharp knife to prevent bubbling when the crust begins to bake in the oven.When veggies are semi cooked, bring soupy mixture to a boil and stir in cornstarch and water mixture. (Make sure to stir cornstarch and water mixture again before adding to your pan of pie filling.) Stir thoroughly. Remove from heat and continue to stir a few strokes.

Spoon pie filling mixture into prepared pie crust. Mixture should be thick and hold together slightly. 

Roll out and cover pie with second crust. Trim top crust along the pan rim and crimp crust edges to keep pie filling from bubbling out around the edges of the pan during the baking time.

Cut some sort of slits in the top of the pie crust. This not only adds a decorative touch but if you pie gets hot enough to bubble hard, it will raise through the slits you cut instead of blowing the side out of your pie crust and making a big mess in your oven.Place pie on cookie sheet (to protect your oven from spills) and bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes or until crust top is golden brown.

Remove from oven and cool on wire rack for 30 minutes.

If you cut straight into your pie, the filling will be very hot and will run out of your crust. Waiting 30 minutes to allow your pie to cool and rest will make sure it sits up like it should without running all over you plate. I probably should have waited longer before I cut my pie. But look at that flaky crust! Yum!!

Note: I recently made the mistake of buying cheap flour instead of Gold Metal like I normally do. Several pies I made over Thanksgiving came out mediocre at best and I couldn't figure out what had happened.

Making this Chicken Pot Pie I used Gold Medal flour and Crisco instead of cheap shortening. WOW, what a difference. My crusts were back to their golden, light, flaky selves and quite delicious if I do say so myself.

Don't scrimp on ingredients if you want quality food in the end.

Love getting together with my family anytime, but the holidays always make it pretty special. We all usually take a load of images and it's hard to swap and share with only 2 out of 5 of the main family members being online with any frequency.

Normally I choose a few of the best images, work them up, upload them online somewhere and two of my sisters can download, share, and print what they like. But for my family members who aren't online, they kind of get left out.

Then there is the matter of all those silly pics, the really good ones, the outtakes, that I left out of the uploads because there were just simply too many of them to get through. I will look at them periodically on my PC, but likely not print them, and my family may never see them at all. Seems such a waste to have all those images "left over" and not share them with the people that are in them, just because they were a little less than perfect.

So I figured why waste them at all? And why shouldn't the be accessible to those of my family who don't get online? In this day and age I can surely make something out of all those images that we can all enjoy for years to come.

The only logical explanation is a DVD Slideshow. I make slideshows for all types of events, so why not my own? Almost everyone has a computer or at the very least a DVD player. Discs are reasonably priced so all it's going to take is a little time and patience. Well, more than just a little time, but time well spent so that I can share the memories with the ones I love.

This is what I cam up with for my Christmas Holiday slideshow, gathered with my wild bunch.

Enjoy.

I do realize it's not even Christmas yet, but I am already planning my garden. I'll be starting seeds in January and February so that I can get them into the ground in the early spring. There's a lot of planning that goes into a successful garden and no time like the present to get rolling on it.

Just getting the ground ready where I live is going to be a chore. For  the past several years I have been limited to container gardens as the soil in my yard is clay and rock and covered with a thick Bermuda or Zosia grass. The plan is to collect some old materials, create raised beds, and try to lower my grocery bill in this rough economy. The added bonus is that I will know exactly what is in the food that I grow and not have to worry about all the genetically altered, chemical laced foods in the stores today.

I found this old photograph of my great grandfather and his dog, sitting with a friend in what appeared to be a garden. I asked my mother why he and his friend were sitting in the garden chatting away the day instead of in the yard. She replied that the garden was the yard. There wasn't much grass to mow because almost every square inch was planted in something edible.

As you can see the area is filled with grape arbors, vegetables, and herbs. Knowing how my grandparents lived, I am sure there were a mess of chickens running around somewhere to fertilize all that nice greenery.

I started gardening for fun when I was young. And when my children were young I gardened out of necessity and canned foods. Sometimes I even sold off surplus goods to pay for other things we needed but couldn't grow myself. One year I made use of a glassed in back porch and raised enough garden starts alone to buy myself a very nice tiller, which I used to tend a half acre garden. The tiller is long gone, as is that nice fertile plot of ground I tended. I have moved a couple of times since then.

Gardening fell by the way side over the years as I worked more and more to support my family. Thinking back I may not have had to work so hard for someone else had I continued to garden and grow the food I placed on my table. Alas, that's history.

Living now in an area with poor soil the biggest chore will be to make raised beds and get them filled with the proper organic matter to produce a good crop. Acquiring the the materials may be the biggest expense in the project and choosing where to set them up is another matter all together. The bonus is that with raised beds you don't have to worry about tilling or an over population of weeds. By building your beds from scratch you can choose what goes in them and therefore choosing more nutrient rich compounds to create your soil.

Also, raised beds contain more nutrients per square inch, if made properly, than that of the average soil. This means that you can raise more food per square inch than you can in a traditional garden bed. Plants that would normally be set 18 inches apart can be packed in at half that distance and therefore producing more food per square inch. I have a friend who gardened in raised beds for more than a decade before he passed away and his entire yard was a garden with raised beds spotting the landscape.

My compost heap out back is small, but I intend to raise it with wire and build upon in greatly between now and the spring in hopes of having a super boost to add to my raised beds. One thing I am lacking, but can find an abundance of, is manure.

I would really like to have a few chickens but alas the people in my subdivision would have a stroke if I acquired even a handful of birds. It would be fantastic to have fresh eggs and an unlimited supply of chicken poo to add to the compost heap. But the restrictions here prohibit any foul of any kind being raised.

It's crazy, I think, since we live eight miles from the nearest town, out in the boonies so to speak, but I should manage not to break too many of the rules here. Were I allowed to have a few birds, I would probably have a coop that looked much like this. As it is, I'll be begging local farmers for my poo supply this year. <sigh

It is my hope that in the spring I can have ready my beds and soil, have enough plant starts to grow enough vegetation to get me through until the next growing season, spend less at the grocery store, and maybe have a little extra to trade or sell for the other necessities of life. The economy is not getting any better, the job market is not growing, and this is just one thing I can do to better myself and reduce my living expenses.

Something I have now, that I didn't have back in the days when I was an avid gardener, is the internet. I no longer have to wait to be able to buy the books I need to gather information to make a more productive garden. Information is at my fingertips and I take full advantage of that. Check out this neat little growing chart that helps you keep your soil viable just by rotating your crops yearly.

So time to catch up on some reading, get out the old gardening books, and get at it. Time to put my skills to work.

****************************************

Planning a garden is a task all it's own. Narrowing down what you have the time, space, and ability to grow in your region takes a little doing. The basics would start with making a list of the things your family eats and how much of it everyone will consume.

In my case, it will be mostly me who eats from the gardens so the list is a little more limited than if I still had a growing family at home.

So if I make a list of the things I eat or will use, then narrow it down by what I can grow in my area,and what is cost effective to produce, I come up with this list.

After the list is complete it's time to start a little planning on which varieties of plants you will be growing, and when to plant each seed to get started. Some plants take longer to germinate than others so it's important to have everything sprouted and at the right stage before placing everything outside into cold frames, and that will mean sowing seeds at different intervals.

I don't plan to build cold frames this year since gathering the necessary materials to build the raised bed garden with be enough of a task. I have a much more simple solution.

On my deck I have a sizable, rectangular, glass top table. My plan is to wrap it in heavy, clear plastic and set my seedlings under it on racks I already have. (As a winter experiment, I plan to try to grow some lettuce and spinach under the table as well.) If I were willing to spend the extra money, and drive nails into the siding of my home, I might do something that looks similar to this.

Seedlings can be started in any sunny window of your home, and in just about any container. I usually start mine in flats (small shallow containers) and then later transplant seedlings into individual pots.

Some items that make great "flats" are the styrofoam or plastic containers you buy meat or produce in at your local store. The container should have drainage holes cut into the bottom to keep your soil from becoming soggy and rotting your seed. I'll use an old cookie sheet or used aluminum pans to place my flats in to keep the draining water from running all over the place when I water.

For leaf lettuce I will take the seedlings straight from the flat into the soil when ready. I won't bother to spread it out much as it can grow well in clumps or rows. When I harvest lettuce I don't pull the plant but rather cut it with scissors or just pull the tops of the leaves from the plant. This encourages the plant to grow more and allows you to get three or four cuttings from a single row or clump before the plant has lived out it's life cycle.

Here's a neat illustration I found on Facebook at Grow Food not Lawns. Using cardboard egg containers for individual seedlings makes it easy.

You could purchase peat pots to plant your seedlings in but why pay for something you may have laying around the house that will only go in the trash can anyway?

After you have transplanted your seedlings from flat into the egg carton, and it's time to plant the seedlings into beds, just cut apart the sections and plant container and all into the ground.

By doing so, you are not over handling the tender new roots of the seedlings and you are putting a little something back into the soil as the cardboard egg tray breaks down.

Since the soil on my property is so bad, and I don't want to spend a ton of money making raised beds, I have been looking for alternate container planting ideas and have come across a few that peak my interest.

Pallets are in abundance around my area. There is a guy right down the road about 2 miles who has a yard full of pallets. I am not sure what he does with them exactly but I am sure I could talk him out of a handful of them in the spring. Small vegetables would be simple to grow in an upright position and pallets are the perfect container for that. Lettuce, spinach, and dill are the first that come to mind.

Illustrations in the link for pallets shows planting Perennial plants in pallets but I think I would rather have those everlasting varieties taking root in the yard somewhere and not in a boxed in container that is likely to freeze over if placed upright through the winter.

Laying flat, a pallet garden might be attractive on my summer deck. In fact, stacking them 18 inches apart about 3 or 4 high might actually be slightly more creative and eye catching. Or simply placed on legs make a cute little table top type garden that will save my back a bit.

Since water, or lack there of last season, was a serious issue, I think it's best if I get some sort of rain catching equipment in the works. I kept a small swimming pool (baby sized) and a few buckets on the deck last year to catch rainwater. And although it worked sufficiently most of the season, just to water a few houseplants and trees, that method probably won't touch what I am going to need to grow a variety of vegetables and herbs.

I found these water catchers online and have actually seen a couple placed along the sides of a couple of homes I am familiar with. I have one downspout on my house that continuously clogs at the bottom and is a nightmare to keep up with in the spring rainy season. Several times a year it clogs and causes my basement to flood and that can be a real mess.

I am thinking that one of these barrels shown here might just be the answer to not only my water collecting needs, but to keeping my basement dry as well.

The one made of the trash can would suffice, but I think the one on the left is more eye appealing and would make a neat little project for Garrett and I to do on a warm spring day.

I think flowers and peace signs all over a water catcher sitting beside my basement door would look pretty nifty and I am sure Gare would be game to help with anything that concerns painting.

Either of these options would be a step up in comparison to my previous efforts.

This will be an ongoing blog, so check back in a few weeks to see what's happening with my spring garden :-)

When I tell a client it will be two to three weeks before their proofs are done, some look at me like I am crazy. Why so long? Don't I just plug my camera into my PC, download the images from there and then upload them online for my clients to see? Isn't it just that simple?

I would love it were that simple.

Not counting how many other dozens of projects I may have going when I do a particular shoot, there's always those clients waiting in line before you and the whole process of just getting your images to a "proofing" stage is well, a process. Uploading them to your online galleries may take a full 24 hours for that step alone.

So what does happen from shoot to proof to portrait?

Each shoot is an experience all it's own, in it's own atmosphere, weather conditions, and with individual subject matter, so each set of images will have it's special needs.

Below is a chart showing the basic process of taking images straight out of the camera (SOOC), to a proof, and then to a final portrait.

This is an image straight out of the camera.	This is a proof.
1. SOOC means "straight out of the camera". This is what the image looks like when it is transferred from my camera straight to the PC. It may not be all I thought I saw when looking through the lens, but it's what I was able to capture with glass and a sensor. It's this that becomes my canvas. While a photographer can look at this image and see the potential, it's likely that many of our clients cannot. Minor edits like exposure, temperature, contrast, and sometimes cropping are made before an image is presented as a proof.	2. Once the images are on my PC I make minor edits on exposure, temperature, and contrast, and sometimes cropping, before the images are presented to my clients as a "proof". This is the beginning of the "post processing" stages of an image. It still has not yet become what my eye had seen or what I have envisioned, but it is a good basis for a client to choose the images they prefer, based on pose, facial expression, etc. All poses a client chooses from their proofs are then put back into processing to achieve the final portrait.
Post processing explained
3. After a clients have made their selections, the images go into the final post processing stages.  For the conditions this image was shot in, my camera was set to over expose the background (see previous image) and in order to let enough light in for the models face to show up without shadow. In doing so, I lost all the color in the sky. So in my first step of post processing, the image split into layers and the exposure was adjusted to return the color to the overexposed sky.	4. One glaring issue with this image, for me, was the models shoe behind her left shoulder. I know it is a shoe, but not enough of it is showing so that the viewer will know what it is, so it has to go. At this point it is just a distraction.  Cloning is one way to remove an object from an image but with the overgrown tree in the background and so many shades of various colors in the area, cloning could get pretty tricky and come out looking tacky. So I got rid of the shoe by splitting the image into another layer and gently sliding the top layer over to the right a bit. This is so that the empty hole where I cut the shoe out, is laying over the branches of the tree in the bottom layer. This looked more natural than my cloning effort. (you can see the layers askew on the left hand side of the image)
	5. Now that I have gotten rid of the distracting shoe, I further cropped the image and added a slight tilt for a more interesting angle, bringing the models face closer. This is now a finished portrait.

Please note that this process will vary from photographer to photographer. This just happens to be the process I have become comfortable with and accustomed to.

Bella Vista Lake Estates, my little piece of paradise. Bella Vista means beautiful village, and I have to admit, it certainly is.

Just outside of Fruitland, Mo. about 5 miles, only about 3 miles from the Mississippi River, and just a handful of miles farther lies the tragic Trail of Tears State Park.

We're nestled on a hill out here, a mountain by all accounts, in a subdivision surrounding a 40 acre lake. The entire neighborhood is surrounded by woodlands so we are definitely in the sticks, so to speak.

A man named Adrian Geisler, once and engineer, dug the lake and sold lots around it just a little more than two decades ago. It wasn't his first shot at making a subdivision as there is at least one more around the Perryville, Mo. area that he built as well. In the beginning there were but 6-7 houses around our lake.

My friends Chub, may he rest in peace, has told me many stories about what this land was like before homes littered the country side. Chub and his father used to run cattle (on horse back mind you) through the bottom where the lake lies now, The rest of the immediate area was nothing but woodlands. How I would have loved to lived here then.

But despite the houses everywhere, this is a beautiful place. (Most are gorgeous homes mind you, there's just too damned many of them for my liking. I would enjoy a bit more solitude and fewer people in my business. )

There is a tree of every kind, wild critters running around, and on a clear night it seems you can almost reach up and pluck the stars out of the sky here.

I wake up in the morning and look out my door and this is my view across the lake.

In the spring and summer, it's spectacular as you can see. I usually get some really nice images in this direction, just standing on my deck or in my front yard. I am fortunate that my home is on a hill, nestled in the woods, so I can look over the rooftops of the houses in front of me, that sit right along the lake shore.

I sent my neighbors across the lake an email this morning (that's their house on the right in the image above) because I realized, this is not a view of their house they commonly see unless they are driving around the lake or visiting neighbors on this side. Needless to say they got a kick out of the view and indeed admitted it was a sight they've rarely seen. I was tickled they liked the images.

And then I got curious, wondering what the view of my house was from across the lake, a scene I have only glimpsed of on rare occasions when I am driving around the lake.The trees out front of my place are hickory, and glowing brilliant yellow just about now. I thought that might look pretty against the slate blue color of my house.

So I tool an early morning drive to check it out, and just to see what I could see of my place from across the lake. It was an enjoyable outing as all the different trees around the neighborhood are changing and the colors were just spectacular and so varied.

(Crossing the dam to the other side of the lake)

(These are just the spillway ponds. They lay on the Eastern part of the dam)

(The dam end of the lake facing Northwest)

I got across the dam and to the other side of the lake, directly across from my house, in the drive area of my neighbor's house shown in the image above. And what do I see? Do I see my house? 

No, but I see a bunch of gorgeous trees. I can only barely make out my house. (If you look closely, you can barely see a portion of my little house in the treeline, slightly above the larger house shown well in the image.)

I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to get a shot of my place across the lake, under those gorgeous yellow leafed Hickory trees. But all at the same time I was happy because my place is just not as visible atop my hill as I once thought it was. I know that my neighbors (from the big house shown above, and handful of others close to theirs) have a slightly better view from their decks on the lakeside. But from the road on their side, I am virtually hidden in the trees and I like that.

Going back the way I came allowed me a better shot of the lake from the dam. Now you facing the side that I live on.

And this is one of the fantastic views I get through a break in the trees, when I am driving to my house.When I am in this area, I know I am almost home.

Now that you have seen some of the houses scattering the landscape of this Bella Vista, one might think that I am living in a pretty ritzy place and high off the hog. And when I tell people that I live out here, their eye brows raise and they automatically think that I live in one of these newer and larger homes.

I laughed when I bought the place and told my mother my home was not like the ones she seen on the drive in. It was simply a cabin "gone bad". By that I mean, some fella came out to this remote spot, when there were no other houses around,  and built himself a little cabin where he could get away and hunt, fish, and enjoy a little peace and quiet. At some point I figure his wife felt he spent to much time out here, and made him upgrade it all so she could move into his little heaven on earth.

It was actually a joke until I started doing some remodeling and find out I was exactly right in my sarcasm. The original construction was a small cabin, only a third of it's current size, long before the people working at Proctor and Gamble got wise to the beauty of this place and starting throwing up homes made for families of six. There are now more than a hundred houses surrounding the lake, and mine is one of the originals, and one of the smallest.

But big or small, old or new, I sure do love my little shack out back, all nestles up in the Hickory trees, atop my hill in Bella Vista. It's mine and I can think of no more beautiful place to be than right where I am at.

Rustic and weathered bliss seems to suit me just fine:-)

I have gotten a lot of great feedback on my handcrafted items and decided to open this blog entry so that others can read them as well.

If you notice several comments appearing on the same date it's simply because I have only recently asked people to leave their reviews.

Handcrafted items include my bar soaps, candles, cotton wash cloths, and body butter. 

To read the reviews, scroll to the bottom of the blog and click the arrows to the right of "Comments".

If you have used any of my handcrafted items, please feel free to leave a review comment of your own! Don't worry if you do not see your comment show up right away, sometimes it takes awhile.

Thanks!

Gila

"What a great photograph. You must have a really good camera."

This is a statement that just makes me want to hurl or throw a complete fit, every single time I hear it. And coming in a close second, is photographers who brag about how high end and expensive their cameras are, even though they never take the thing off of the auto settings.

I warn you, I am about to get on a soapbox here.

It's not all about the equipment, although the good stuff does make our life easier. It's about the talent and vision of the person taking the photos. It's about knowing how to use that camera and not rely on auto setting to do the job for you.

Meet my grandson, who will bust a pose for me anytime, anywhere I ask him, whether conditions or location are right for a good image or not.

The original shot was cute, the lighting was right, and the focus was there, but the bruise from his softball playing incident and the ash bucket in the background just takes the viewer's eye off of how adorable this image really is.

With the proper tools and talent, the snapshot is transformed to a portrait quality image.

This is what good photographers do. They take the best image possible, when the opportunity presents itself, with the conditions they are dealt, and with whatever camera they have in their hand at the time.

It doesn't matter if the camera is a point and shoot you bought at Walmart, or a high end digital SLR that cost thousands of dollars, it's all about the VISION of the photographer and about the TALENT and ABILITY to bring that image out for others to see as we do when we shoot it.

And the task isn't finished when the photos are taken. Editing is a must in today's professional photography world. And it takes the right software and a fair amount of talent to manage the edits.

Don't ever believe for a minute that just because a person has a big fancy camera that they can consistently produce portrait quality images. And don't think that because they have expensive software, they know what they are doing with it.

It's true that anyone can take a snap shot, and even get lucky with a few fantastic shots. Hell, even a broken clock is right twice a day. But it takes talent and vision to produce professional quality image with any consistency.

Ok, I am off my soap box for the day. I think I have made my point.

Took a trip to Illinois a couple of weeks ago for an appointment in Cairo.

I've never seen a ghost town, until now. A living ghost town none the less.

I know that seems an oxymoron, using 'living' and 'ghost town' in the same description, but that's truly what Cairo seems to me.

I grew up hearing stories from my grandpa about Cairo and it's booming era through the 20's and 30's. From all I gathered it was the hoppin' place to be. A river town with lots of movers and shakers, great places to stay, excellent restaurants, beautiful homes, thriving businesses, and fun for anyone who came to town.

That was not the Cairo I saw. What I saw was a community falling down from the foundations up. And what wasn't crumbling, was being swallowed alive by vegetation. Or in some cases, both. My son said the population was somewhere around 3000, but they must have all been working, hiding,  or out of town the day I was there because I didn't see more than a handful of those 3000. My hometown is 1100 people and there is more movement there than in Cairo.

And if the vacant homes and businesses along the main drag weren't enough to stir my curiosity, we ventured closer to the river and the 'historic' part of the city.

There we found brick streets that made my car jitter. Amazingly enough you could see where the bricks had once been covered over by asphalt or concrete that has since worn or washed away. And those with the bricks showing sported a nice collection of grass between each stone. I suspect that if we had gotten more rain this summer these streets would have looked more like grass pathways.

I was amazed at the square footage of bricks and mortar crumbling around me. Monstrous buildings that were once grand structures and had hosted a variety of businesses, were little more than decaying reminders of what once was.

(The building above burned to the ground just weeks after I shot these images and published this blog)

I cannot image the home displays that the Rhodes Buford furniture store once held in a location with this much square footage, or the amount of furniture that was stored over head and in the warehouse section of the building.The architecture was just outstanding on some of these old places. Even blocked up to replace glass and stop intruders, these places looked awesome. The details in the craftsmanship is just over the top. They just don't build places like this anymore.

I asked my son over and over again what he knew about the place, but even though he stayed in Cairo briefly, he didn't know much. He talked of homes he had been in that were just crumbling, and basements that were constantly filled with water. There was some mumbling about Al Capone and a hideout. I think he spent his short stay in Cairo just trying to get out of there and not really concerned with it's history. I believe the building shown below was suppose to be the Al Capone hideout.

But I couldn't take it. I had to know more. I mean really, how does a city once teeming with people just turn into a ghost town? A town that sits between two rivers, that wastes away to nothing. How on earth does that happen?

So I came home and started looking online for any information I could find on Cairo, Il.

It was a tragic but interesting read.

Cairo is the Southern most city in Illinois. What  became Fort Defiance [and now a state park on the edge of Cairo], is the lowest elevation of any location in Illinois.

First explorers of Cairo during the period between 1600-1700 noted the area was muddy and difficult to get ashore. Even today that would be an understatement.

The first settlement to be established was by a Frenchman, Sieur Charles Juchereau de St Denis, and his crew, who were sent by by King Louis XIV and charged with establishing a tannery and to kill as many buffalo as possible along the Ohio River in Illinois in 1702. It didn't work out very well for them after they made a hefty haul of thousands of hides, when they were attacked by Cherokee and other Indians, killed, and robbed of their buffalo skins.

In 1803 Lewis and Clark made it through the neighborhood on their ever famous state sponsored expedition.

Not long after, the land that is now Cairo, would be purchased by John G. Comergy, a close personal friend of Meriwether Lewis. All 1800 acres of it. It was purchased through the Territorial Legislature to establish a bank and to incorporate the city. Lots were sold to further develop the area and fund the land project.

John Comegy died circa 1819-1820 and executors of his will later allowed the land to come into default. The land reverted back to the United States Government.

1837 Darius B. Holbrook, from Boston, opened the Cairo City and Canal Company. The sale of bonds through the Canal Company helped fund improvements to the area like the levee system, ship yards, and dry dock. By 1840 the population had reached a 1000. Later in 1845 though, the census showed a decline to a population of 113, after the London investment group holding the Cairo bonds, failed.

The town struggled as many did when first established, until a route to Chicago was linked with the tracks of the Illinois Central Railroad through the Land Grant Act of 1850.  The railroad system in Cairo became a reality in 1856 connecting Cairo to Galena, Il.. The railway and increased river boat traffic, boosted Cairo into another growth spurt. It was incorporated in 1858. By 1861 the population had grown to 2,200 and became the county seat for Alexander County.

Along about May of 1861, the population grew another 2,700 residence with the influx of Civil war soldiers. By June another 12,000 more had arrived, and another 38,000 troops commanded the area of Bird's Point to cover the waterfront of Cairo. Cairo had become quite the military installation where even General Grant commanded a post  for some time.

At that time Cairo was reported to be a "muddy mess" being a humid climate and area accustomed to flooding. Mosquitos were heavy, and living conditions were dirty. Businesses popped up to accommodate rising populations and some were considered quite crooked.

In 1818 Illinois became a free state while neighboring states of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Missouri still held slaves. Missouri shorelines were frequently breached as slaves seeking freedom escaped to Illinois. Parts of the old Central Railroad storage units under Levee Street of Cairo was frequently used as a hiding place for escaped slaves. Cairo had become one of the key transfer stations for the Underground Railroad. It was discovered on 1998 that many rooms and adjoining tunnels ran for blocks under the street.

1862 populations around Cairo remained steady and then climbing due to the introduction of "contraband slaves" brought to Cairo by the Union Army. They were housed there in "contraband camps" .

After the civil war ended, thousands of freed slaves ended up in Cairo, a stop in major transit from South to North. While thousands of blacks passed through Cairo's port, 3000 freed slaves ended up taking up residence in Cairo, making up 30% of the then population.

By 1890 Cairo's population had reached 6,300 people. By then it was not only a popular river town but a popular stop in the railroad line running between the North and the South

In 1905 a railroad bridge was constructed over the Mississippi river from Missouri into into Thebes, Il., a small town Northwest of Cairo. This was a huge blow in Cairo's status as a railroad hub.

Cairo reached it's peak population in 1907 at a whopping 20,000 residents.

By 1909 racial violence broke out and a black man, who was believed to have raped and killed a young white girl, was lynched by an angry mob of white residents numbering in the thousands. His body was filled with bullets and then cut into pieces and burnt, and his head left stuck half burned, on a pole in Candee Park, at the intersection of Washington Ave. and Elm Street. The national Guard was called in to stop the violence after yet another lynching took place later that same night.

1910 a sheriff's deputy was killed by an angry mob attempting yet another lynching. Once again the National Guard was called in to maintain order. Cairo had sprung into a violent cycle that would later put Cairo at the top if the charts for murder rates in Illinois and yet it continued to thrive as a city.

1910 was the year the Gem Theater opened. Seating 685 patrons it was the new hot spot in town and remained in operation until 1978. The orginal building still stands today but has fallen in terrible disrepair.

In 1920 the city was at a population of 15,200. 

1927 Cairo suffered flooding but was saved when the Army Corp. of Engineers blew a levee.

Like everywhere else the great Depression hit Cairo hard. By 1937 Cairo had the highest murder rate in the state. That same year the prostitute population of Cairo was estimated to be over 1,000.

Populations began to fall to 14,407 by the early 1940's and early in the decade a number of serious fires destroyed local businesses that never rebuilt.

And when WWII was over in 1945 the town suffered extremely high unemployment as apposed to flourishing communities across the state. This further increased crime rates and Cairo soon became a hot bed of organized crime.

(See an Al Capone hideout below)

Racial segregation grew over the decades and the first drive for racial equality came when a federal lawsuit was filed in 1946 to secure equal pay for black teachers. But even the judge in the case used racial slurs showing lack of support for an equality.

Then in 1950 a further decline to population brought the numbers to 12,123 resident, still home to barrel factories, breweries, grain mills, lumber mills, a cottonseed-oil manufacturer, pottery plants, brickyards, and tool manufacturers, and there was a new shop setting up.
The Senate began an investigation into bootlegging taking place in Cairo. Profits were estimated at a whopping $20 million dollars as illegal alcohol was funneled into neighboring dry states. A number of mobster groups were running businesses out the back doors of Cairo not only in bootleg liquor but in illegal slot machines as well.

1952 efforts began to integrate Cairo's schools but black schools would not be abolished until later in 1967.

By 1960 Cairo's population was down to 9,000.

Racial discrimination grew by leaps and bounds with violent outbursts between black and white citizens. By 1962 freedom movements were breaking out all over the country but rarely given notoriety by media. With city facilities, public housing, local parks, and almost any public and private offices segregated, the public swimming pool had become a "private club" to keep out the black citizens. Civil Rights Activist demonstrated in front of the pool but only to have a young black lady run over as a white racist drove his pickup truck through the demonstration. The pool was later closed in 1963 to avoid integration.

During the same time period demonstrations occurred at the local skating rink. When activists arrived the doors were locked with a note on the door reading "No Niggars here!", while the KKK conducting a meeting inside.

After the suspicious death of a 19 year old black soldier arose, a death while in police custody, it seemed an all out war between the races was about to blow up, and it did. The death was deemed a suicide by authorities but the black community did not agree. Cairo native, Reverend Charles Koen, lead the black citizens of Cairo to rise up in protest not only over the soldier's death but for decades of harsh segregation. A riot broke out and the National Guard was called in to restore peace.

In 1969 a civil rights group formed in Cairo called the United Front of Cairo, standing for and with, Cairo's black citizens against the "White Hats", a vigilante organization of local white citizens. The United Front civil rights group boycotted businesses of white store owners who refused to hire black workers. The national Guard was called in, once again, to make sure the situation didn't get out of hand.Later, Lieutenant Governor Paul Simon and a special committee, appointed by the Illinois House of Representatives, investigated the the event in Cairo and soon the White Hats were ordered to disband. Lt. Governor Simon demanded integration of the city and county departments and enforcement of civil rights laws.

Racism continued as segregation lingered. Little League seasons were cancelled to keep black children from playing on teams. Black citizens were not allowed to gather at parks, public events, or form marches, and of course discrimination continued in the work place with businesses still refusing to hire black citizens. An all white school was opened.

Mills, factories, banks and shops began to leave Cairo. No more were the restaurants and respected business establishment. Goodbye to the gas stations and even the hospital which closed in 1986. Singer Sewing Machine Factory that once employed several hundred employees had closed years before.

Cairo eventually desegregated but racial tension is still alive and well in the city today.

Violent demonstrations continued between races, through the 1970's sporting gunfire, fire bombings, marches, protests, and countless arrests.

The population was a little over 6,000 in Cairo in 1970, and by 1971 their was little to picket in Cairo as most of the businesses had closed. The boycott continued for the businesses that had remained for the rest of the 1970's.

Two major blows hit the City when the hospital shut down and the City of New Orleans railroad company, who operated the rail lines, made it's last stop.

Later Cairo was denied a gambling permit which would have allowed the city to operate riverboat gambling. Still evident racial tensions keeping people away from the area were thought to have influenced the State's decision against the permit.

The population and economic stability continued to fall as such that in 1990 the principal of Cairo High School instructed graduates to leave , "as Cairo had nothing to offer them." The towns population was then less than 5,000.

2004 the last major industry in Cairo shut down, and doom lingered over the now small and forgotten Illinois town.

A chilling Youtube video documentary filmed in 2008 featured Cairo in ruins. Buildings from years gone past falling in on themselves, thriving businesses now gone. Fires burning down caved in structures that have sat empty, some vacant since the 60's.

The 2010 census reports Cairo at 2,831 people and the poorest in the state. The City faces problems like poverty, poor education, crime, employment, and tax revenue.

In 2011 there was a catastrophic flood that threatened to do away with Cairo all together. The Corp of Engineers blew levee's in Southeast Missouri to keep Cairo from being completely flooded. Water was as high as the conduit on the building shown below and streets around Cairo were caving in from the water rushing through the many caverns below the city.

Also in 2011 a number of mysterious fires burned down many abandoned buildings in Cairo. All were deemed to be set by arsonists. I remember reading a quote somewhere that said "Cairo is burning to the ground. Good riddance".

Since the flood, many of the sink holes in the streets have been filled in, but at least one remains in the historic section of town. I was told that the city has been unable to keep the cavern below this street filled in order to shore up the street foundation and get the road repaired. No one seems to really care as they simply drive around the barricade. Garrett was amazed by it. I hear that property values are so low in Cairo that a person working for minimum wage can actually afford a mortgage on a sizable home or business site. The problem being is that almost any property you purchase there is in horrible condition, would cost a fortune to repair properly, and good luck finding an insurance company to cover your real estate.

I had to giggle just a little as we drove by the building shown below. I wondered if the tree growing out of the foundation inside the building would cost extra.

I also got a kick out of the fact that when researching Cairo I found photos taken in 2008 of the building shown below, that featured the same curtain blowing out of a busted window. It's truly like the city is stuck in a time warp. Although an interesting place , tortured past an all, and certainly a photographers dream scape, I don't think I would like to live in Cairo. Lack of employment, still abundant racial tension, and distinct poverty issues make it a spooky place to be, in my  opinion. For the short amount of time I was there I felt as though every ghost of the past was still present and breathing down my neck the entire time. I must agree with some of the people who have written about Cairo, that it would certainly be a film makers dream place for production of a zombie apocalypse movie.

If you would like to see more of the images I snatched in Cairo during my adventure there, you can do so by clicking here. If you have comments on specific buildings, you may make comments on individual images or on this blog post. If you have links to other interesting writings about Cairo, Il. by all means include them in your comments.

Click here to check out Ken Steinhoff's images and writings about Cairo on his blog Cape Girardeau History and Photos. Just type 'Cairo' in the search on his blog and you will find countless hours of reading and viewing pleasure. He's covered many more points on Cairo, and in better detail than I have. I love reading Ken's stuff and viewing his images; he's a fantastic journalist. (If you are an Amazon.com shopper, shop through the link on Ken's site and help support his blog for no addition cost to you!)

I have been asked to reproduce some unique images over the years but today's was by far the most interesting yet.

Enter Barbara Meales. 

Barb had seen a notice on Facebook about my doing image restoration as a fundraiser for the Caruthersville Humane Society, and sent me an image of her her grandparents.

This is how it arrived in my email.

When I received the image I only viewed a tiny little thumbnail and the file size of the image.

I called Barb to discuss what size she would like to be able to print her corrected image. The original was, at it's largest length, approximately 7 inches. I should have no trouble up-sizing this to an 8x10.

We spoke about the image's origin and she said she felt the image must have been taken in the early 1900's, possibly the 20's. The image was taken shortly after her grandparent's marriage.

But when I looked at the image in my software, and was able to blow it up and have a really good look, I discovered something quite unique about it.

First of all tt wasn't printed on a medium that would have been commonly used during the era in which it was captured. It was on textured paper more commonly used for post cards or paintings, not photographs.

As a mater of fact, as it turns out, it wasn't a photograph at all. It appeared to me to be a water color painting that had been done over either a sketch or some kind of image projection. How interesting!

The first thing that caught my eye was the clothing. Without the distinct detail of a photograph, the clothing appeared obviously painted.

After careful examination of Grandpa Lane's face, I seen the trademarks of a painter attempting to add expression by the swoosh of a brush on the eyebrows, and the irregular shaped pupils from an attempt to add light and glint. Grandma Lane's face bore the same tell tail signs of a painting. Iris' of different size and the outlining of her lips were obvious, as well as the shadow line of her chin and left ear. And I am betting Grandma wasn't actually wearing the hat which appears to me to be an addition by the artist, possibly to doll the image up a bit.

So I went to work doing my "thang".

The first thing I had to do was increase the exposure as time had darkened everything.

Next I got rid of the orange glow characteristic of almost any aged image, and then proceeded to remove the scratches and water damage that had accumulated over time.  

I had to draw on more to the image because of the way it had been cut, making additions to the clothing and to Grandma's hat.

I attempted to make it look more like an old photograph as apposed to a painting.

It came out looking "not so bad".

But something just didn't look quite right to me about the finished product so I darkened the edges just a bit to add back some of the aged look, and put on a bit of the grain that had come from the textured paper. Still not satisfied, and remembering a comment made to me by a friend about people "enjoying the rusty look of an aged, sepia-colored image", I made the adjustment to aged sepia.

I don't care for Sepia myself by the way, but it seems a popular thing with many people, so I did it just in case Barb might like it. It just doesn't "do it" for me.

I called Barb back and told her to check her email as I had returned the image to her corrected in several variations. She received a couple of them while we were talking on the phone and was very pleased. 

Relieved that she was happy with the results, we started chatting about the research I had done since receiving the original image from her. We started doing the math.

Turns out the image is a bit older than she originally thought.

Grandma and Grandpa are John Lane (born 1860) and his wife Darphenia (born 1871). They were married in 1885 and this image was produced shortly after their marriage. That would make the original image circa 1885-1886.

Barb tells me that although Darphenia came from a family with a little money, she and Barb's grandfather were not well to-do people when they married.

She made note of the fact that Grandma was not wearing any jewelry which is something I had noticed as well. It takes me back also to my original thought that Darphenia was not actually wearing the hat that the artist had painted on.

After speaking to Barb in some length about her grandparents and this image, it dawned on me that I had not this work any real justice by making it appear as a photographic image.

So I went back to scratch with the original image and started re doing it again, careful to keep it as close to what it's original beauty must have been. A simple water color on card stock.

And this is what I came up with. I think I like this last work the best, as I think this is what the original work must have looked like.

I get a little charge of sorts from doing this kind of work. I feel as though I am helping to keep history alive somehow for so many generations to come. Sometimes I feel I help to enriched the lives of the families whose histories I am helping to preserve. And who wouldn't feel good about that?

Thank you Barbara Meales, for letting me be a part of your history!

Have a photo you just love but you wish it had a little more pop?

Is the color, lighting, or cropping just a little off?

Would you like to have an plain old image turned into something you would be proud to hang on your wall?

I can fix that for you.

Part of my photography services is editing.

I used to limit those services to professional photographers only, but a couple of years ago, I started editing for the general public.

Sometimes I do fundraisers for shelters and rescues and donate half my fees the shelter/rescue hosting the fundraiser.

In light of recent events surrounding the Caruthersville Humane Society I will be doing a fundraiser for their shelter in which 100% of the profit will go directly to them.

It's very simply and done completely online.

Offer good Aug. 10-18 Through August 30!

Here's how it works.

1. Email me your image to gilatodd@yahoo.com with a description of the editing type you would like. Please send the highest resolution image possible, preferably the one right out of your camera, that has had no edits already done to it.

2. I'll notify you when I have received your image(s).

3. Make a donation to the Caruthersville Humane Society via the Paypal button on their website, www.caruthersvillehs.com, using the same email address you are sending your photos from.

4. You image will be returned to you via email, edited and ready to enjoy.

Basic Editing $5 per image
Includes correction to color, exposure, depth of field, and cropping.

Change from color image to high contrast black and white or sepia- $5 per image

Object removal- Add add $5 per image

Artist effects- Add $6 per image
Includes making your image appear more like a painting or art piece.

Add names to image- Add $3

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Cropped from your image- $5 each (includes basic editing)

Start with a solid color or pre-designed background and add images for $7 per image (includes basic editing)
Click here to check out pre-designed backgrounds.

Finished images are yours to do with as you like. You can print them, share them, print them on T-Shirts, the possibilities are endless. Enhanced images make greeting cards and announcements too!

Images can be of just about anything; i.e. people, pets, landscapes, buildings, waterways, etc. (To see a portfolio of a few of the images I have corrected, click here)

Please keep in mind that I need a reasonably decent image to work with. Try not to send me anything that is terribly blurry or severely out of focus.

I know it's still blazing hot outside, and not even the middle of July yet, but I am already taking bulk Christmas orders for my handcrafted soap bars. I now offer bulk ordering with discounts for individuals and retailers alike.

Since handcrafted bar soap takes 4-6 weeks to cure, it does seem smart to get a jump on it well before the holidays.

Handcrafted soaps make a great gift item or stocking stuffer for just about anyone. After all, everyone takes a bath right? And even if you aren't giving the bars away as gifts, it a commodity you'll always use and why not get a nice discount on it buying in bulk? It won't go bad.

Unscented versions are great for the hunters in your life, not to mention the folks who are allergic to scenting. All vegetable bars are super moisturizing for your skin and keep all our vegan friends happy. Oh, and I have about 300 scents to choose from.

From now until August 1st, I am offering bulk orders to anyone and everyone at wholesale prices.

Bulk orders:

• Must be paid for in advance
• Will be shipped to your address 7-8 weeks after order is made and payment is received. (If you live locally you can pick your order up and save yourself the shipping)
• Minimum order is 3 lbs of soap (approximately 10 bars), of a single scent.
   

Bulk order pricing:

• Scented bars- 3 lbs- (approximately 10 bars) of a single scent- $52.50 plus shipping- You save 75¢ per bar
• Scented bars- 6lbs- approximately 20 bars of a single scent- $100.00 plus shipping- You save $1.00 per bar
• "Good Old Fashioned" unscented lard and lye bars- 3 lbs- (approximately 10 bars) $45.00 plus shipping- You save 50¢ per bar
• "Good Old Fashioned" unscented lard and lye bars- 6 lbs- (approximately 20 bars) $80.00 plus shipping- You save $1.00 per bar
  
  Click here for scents available.
  

  (If you live locally you can pick your order up and save yourself the shipping)

Prices shown are only good through August 1, 2012 or for regular customers ordering bulk quantities.

*Bars are individually labeled and can be shipped as whole bars or cut into 1/2 bars for your convenience.
 

Interested in seeing how I create my homemade bar soap? Click here.

To read more about my homemade soaps, or order individual bars already in stock, click here.

And check out why handcrafted soaps are so much better than commercial soaps and are really more cost effective.

For more information, please send me a note using the contact me page on my website.

People ask me all the time, "Why buy handcrafted soaps when you can get more soap for less money at Wal-mart or other stores?"

I asked myself the same question until I started making my own soaps and discovered all the benefits of using it. Quite honestly, I might never use another bar of commercial soap again.

Handcrafted soap is a cleanser made with simple ingredients that are actually good for your skin. It’s created from the process of combining fats and/or oils with lye and water to induce a chemical reaction that creates soap containing glycerin.

Commercial soap is made by this same process, but lacks the moisturizing and beneficial ingredient, glycerin, which is extracted by the manufacturer during the soap making process.

And exactly why do they remove the glycerin from commercial soaps?

To make money, of course! Pound for pound glycerin is more profitable than soap and it’s sold by soap manufacturers to companies who produce lotions.  So they are removing the natural ingredient in soap that’s actually good for your skin, so you can turn around and buy it from the lotion manufacturers.

Additionally, most commercial soaps are loaded with chemical additives. Additives that not only dry out your skin but can lead to allergic reactions, skin irritation, and premature aging.

You might notice ingredients on commercial soaps that make them appear more natural, but those ingredients are only added in small quantities to make the buyer think they are something special, and oh yes, more natural.

The real kicker is that most of the ingredients that appear natural aren’t. They are synthetic copies added to fool the consumer into thinking they are buying something better for their skin.

It boils down to this. Using commercial soaps over time will leave your skin dried out, sensitive and feeling like it is unclean and require you to use separate products to reintroduce moisture to it. 

Using handcrafted soaps cleanses your skin while the natural glycerin moisturizes it. It’s loaded with natural ingredients that can restore and retain moisture in your skin, helping to prevent irritation, premature aging, and still get you squeaky clean.

Try just one bar and you will be amazed at the difference.

What’s used to make handcrafted soap?

Using high quality fats and oils will produce a better soap with super moisturizing power. So for my handcrafted bars, I use the highest quality, skin-loving oils such as high volumes of olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, sweet almond oil, castor oil and sometimes shea butter.  

Essential oils, herbs, and specially formulated body safe fragrance oils add the soap's fragrance; herb and spices add color to my soap (if I color them at all); spices, and other natural ingredients add texture and exfoliates. It is not unusual to find handcrafted soap made with such things as oatmeal, sliced almonds, corn meal, rosemary leaves, lavender leaves and buds, and other goodies that provide light, gentle exfoliation for your skin.

Will the lye in my handcrafted soap burn me? 

Although lye is used to make soap, the chemical reaction between all of the ingredients used in the process causes the lye to be literally be “reacted away,” and leaves behind no trace of lye.

How do I take care of my handcrafted soap?

1. Handcrafted soap is best stored out of water so that it air dries. Rest your soap on a draining soap dish or stand it on its side, out of the spray range of the shower head. If left in water your soap will dissolve.
2. Store in a cool, dry place, preferably NOT under the sink if you have metal or leaky pipes. Soap's glycerin will attract moisture from condensation on pipes heated as hot water flows through them. Many people say storing soap in linen cupboards and dresser drawers will give towels and clothing a fresh clean scent.
3. Allow soap to completely dry out between uses.
4. Soap properly cared for will have a life of 3 years or longer. I recently spoke to a woman who was cleaning her parents home out after her mother passed away. She found soap in a box marked 1988, used it, and said it worked wonderfully. I’ve heard of people discovering soap much older that was still in great shape.
   
    

Cautions

As with any skin care product, if irritation develops, discontinue use. Quite honestly, I have never had a single customer report having any irritation or allergic reactions using my soaps, but there is always a possibility it could happen. Even customers with the most sensitive skin using it sing the praises of even my scented soaps.

Some soap contains nut oils; please read the ingredients carefully.

As with any soap, avoid eye contact and do not eat the soap no matter how good it smells. This should go without saying but you just never know about some people so I thought I should throw it out there.

So now if you are ready to make the leap, check out my Soap-N-Stuff page to see how you can order some of my fantastic handcrafted soaps. You won’t regret it.
 

Now taking bulk orders for my soaps. Click here to see the details.

Interested in how I make handcrafted soap? Click here.

Scents available for bulk and special ordering for my handcrafted soaps. Bulk orders must be 3 lbs or more. (Approximately 10 bars)
Click here for details on making a bulk order.

Photographs have been my "thing" since long before I was old enough to own a camera. I'd spend countless hours with my grandmother when I was very young, her showing me images of my family long passed, and telling all the stories they represented. I have similar conversations with my mother in current times. They are tales far better than any fiction novel I have ever read.

As a photographer, some of my favorite work is restoring old photographs.

Passed through generations images get tattered, torn, and of course faded. And while still attractive in that old antique way, many leave much to be desired as far as something we'd like to hang on the walls of our homes. And as with my own old family photos, I found that many of my favorite images were not only beat up pretty badly, they were very small prints.

This snapshot of my mother and grandmother is 63 years old, circa 1949.  It was only 3x4 inches in size. It was scratched/cracked in several places, contained water spots, and was very faded. It actually came out a box of water damaged items in an old building (The Barn Tavern) belonging to my grandfather. Repairing this image took several hours of work and it was worth every minute. It ended up making a nice 8x10 for my wall and if kept in a good frame it will outlive me. Hopefully one of my children will cherish it as much as I do. (See the before and after by clicking here)

The next image is a portrait of my grandmother and her brother Alford, circa 1930. During this time period it was fashionable to have black and white portraits painted over to add color as with this one.

The original image was very faded and had a few scratches. It came out nicely with a little editing and enhancing and didn't take long at all to restore. I spent about an hour on it and was very pleased with the results.

Then there is is this image I found of George White and my Uncle Harry (another of my grandmother's brothers), circa 1930.

This image was a very small, black and white snapshot, that was in very poor condition. It was scratched and faded beyond what I thought was manageable. It took several hours and some tedious steps but I was ever so happy with the results. During the enhancement process it began to take on an old tin type tone, almost mimicking color, which I thought added a nice touch to the image. It too made a good looking 8"x10" print. (See the before and after by clicking here)

George lived to be over a 100 years old and was a story teller in his own right. He "ran" with my uncles and grandfather and I can remember being totally fascinated by the tales he told of their younger and wilder years. They were quite a bunch.

Being friends with George's grandson John, I knew John's mother would get a kick out of seeing such an old shot. I emailed them a copy and I am betting it's now hanging on their wall as well, or at the very least, tucked safely in Judy's scrapbook.

John told me his mother was super tickled to see it and it had brought back so many memories for her. It made me feel good to know that it had made her smile and reminisce.

*************************************************

I keep saying that one of these days I am going to write the story of my family, as we are a colorful bunch. I'd like to sit my mother down one day very soon, along with her cousin Judy, and record all the accounts of our history they can muster up. I think it would make a best seller to be honest, although I am not so sure everyone within it's pages would approve of it all being put into an organized and recorded account.

Back in the day we were coal miners, moonshiners, bar owners, veterans of every war, prison workers, field hands, various other business owners, and a wild little list of characters in between.

*Note: If you have any old images of my family, or the many close friends who I grew up thinking were relatives, I would love to see them. I'd also love to hear the stories behind them as well. You can email me at gilatodd@yahoo.com

I am a big freak about storms. Not the kind of freaky that I'm scared of them, I love them. I'll chase them when I can. I think cloud formations are the bomb and lightening is a super charge for me, no pun intended. Anyone who knows me is well aware of these things.

Garrett's mother was traveling up north this afternoon and she sent me a text with this cool cloud pic attached saying "Look at this!"

This image by Kristin Carlton

It was a "tube" cloud, and they are rare.

No sooner do I get her text, her brother who's traveling with her, posts this image on Facebook. He says they were in the area of Old Appleton, Mo. and as they passed under the cloud it almost blew them off the road.

This image by Kyle Cook

I showed these images to Garrett (who loves storms almost as much as me) and he says, "I want one here!"

Within 15 minutes Gare was getting his wish.

The wind picked up and we could see the cloud coming across the lake. It was ominous and moving quickly.

I snapped a few pics with my cell phone but with all the trees in the way you just can't see the massive length of it like in the previous two photos. It was across one entire end of the lake and wrapped around out toward the highway.

We could see it through the trees.Garrett says "Let's chase it." So we did.

Out on the highway we could see where it was crossing the Mississippi River. But we were going straight at it and the pics were not doing it justice.

We cut down 177 and then doubled back running up right along side of P&G. This gave it a little more perspective.

We chased it on past P&G, out towards Neeley's Landing, and got a few more shots.

By then most of it had rolled across to the Illinois side of the river.

It was a sight to see, that's for sure.

It was the first time I had seen a "tube" cloud so distinctive in quite some time.

See other images of horses from Rolling Hills Farm by clicking here.