Dogs love . . .

cars and water. (Well, many dogs love water. Lapdogs? Perhaps not.) Here a Chesapeake Retriever displays his natural affinity in a local irrigation ditch.

This summer . . .

take in some dog events. There are all kinds involving courses and timed athletic events, herding competitions, and field and water trials. Google event schedules for the different breeds, whether herders, retrievers, or obstacle course runners.

New on the Planet

Darlene Goehringer of Pop's Old Place found this Randall Lineback pair in the pasture recently. Pops Old Place Farm, Hurlock, Maryland, provides breeding stock, beef, and other foodstuffs to a local clientele. A more picturesque spring scene can hardly be imagined. Congratulations are in order. 

Won't Be Long Now

Here is a nanny about to experience a blessed event. Goats are becoming more common in the Big Sky, the Keystone State, and all across the country.  They are often companionable, offer the family milk, and usually amusing if a nuisance at times. They are clever about gates, like to climb trees, and just generally get into things.

Foals in the Future

Looking forward to seeing these appearing in the meadows around and about.

Learning Business on a Dairy Farm

Victor Prince is a widely-known author, former COO, a consultant andspeaker who teaches strategy and leadership skills to clients around the world.

I grew up as a suburban kid. During my middle school summer breaks my parents used to ship me off to work at their family farms. I assumed they did it just to get a break from keeping me out of trouble. Looking back, I realize they also did it to teach me the lessons they both learned growing up on dairy farms. Those summers on the farm helped me in my career in ways my expensive MBA did not. Here are the lessons I learned as a dairy farm "intern."

1. What Hard Work Really Is - I've clocked 100 hour weeks in my consulting career and know how that feels. But in the middle of any crazy project, I knew I would get a break at some point. My dairy farmer family never got vacations, holidays or even weekends off. For 365 days a year they had to milk the cows morning and night, for the cows' sake and their own. Witnessing that gave my young self a perspective on what "hard work" looked like.

2. What a Good Colleague Looks Like - Of course some events like weddings or funerals forced dairy farmers to trade in their overalls for their one Sunday suit and take a day away from work. The cows don't take a break though, so the work still needed to be done. When one farmer missed a milking, it meant a neighbor did two milkings back to back without making a fuss.They simply knew colleagues are supposed to have each other's backs.

3. Calm Confidence is a Force Multiplier – A typical dairy cow weighs about 1500 pounds, or much more than ten-times what I weighed at the time. An animal that size could crush or kick the life out of me without even meaning harm. My uncles taught me to be safe. I taught myself how to control animals that size by projecting calm confidence. 

4. Find Safe-Fail Teaching Opportunities - The thing I most enjoyed on the farm was getting to drive pickup trucks long before I was legally old enough. Looking back, I realize my uncles were carefully selecting what, where and how I got to drive. If they let me drive alone, it was only in off-road fields where the bumps slowed me long before my immature judgement did. And when I did inevitably dent a fender, it was on a beat up old truck. I felt so scared telling my uncle that I knew I never wanted to dent a car again. 

5. Track Your Results - Cows produce an average of about 8 gallons (30 liters) of milk per day and my uncles milked about 25-30 cows. If their 500 gallon bulk tanks were at least 90% full when the dairy truck came every other day, they knew they were profitable. If it was lower, they knew they had to fix something quickly to get things back to break even. That taught me the value of frequent and concrete performance feedback as a way to ensure long term goals get achieved.

6. Internships as Gateways -  My parents were the first in their families to go to college. As a result of their hard work, I grew up as a privileged suburban kid who was starting to be more focused on what clothes my classmates had than what kind of person I wanted to be. By exposing me to a world completely foreign to my suburban existence, I got perspective on where I was, where my parents had come from, and where I could be.Those summers introduced me to idols who wore overalls, and that has centered me for the rest of my career as I moved through more stylish circles. 

Like most small dairy farms, both of my family dairy farms shut down years ago. As an MBA-trained capitalist, I understand why. That said, I remember those lessons well and I keep the old milk bucket I used as a daily reminder. I wish every future MBA and COO had a chance to work at a small family dairy farm for at least one summer. 

Victor Prince, at age ten.

Victor Prince’s book, Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide their Teams to Exceptional Results, (Career Press, July, 2015) is now available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and other retailers in paperback, Kindle, and Audio versions. 

Waiting for the Meadowlarks

A wonderful heirloom. From the Eastern Shore of Maryland comes this exquisite Western Meadowlark. WG the Carver creates these masterpieces, and this one shown above is somewhat of a departure from his other projects.

We've recently reconnected with this friend from our days together at Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania. Now living on Chesapeake Bay near Trappe, Maryland, WG devotes his talent to stunning depictions of waterfowl found in abundance there.  His creations are normally large and life-sized and represent the highest tier of wildlife art. Yet, he occasionally works his wonders on a songbird.

This Western Meadowlark displays his exacting attention to detail and is life-size and so life-like, it's as if the bird flew in from the meadow to say hello.

Around here, we take bets on who will hear the first Meadowlark of spring. Some of us keep our acreage in sagebrush so these treasured friends will still have habitat to raise their young and bring pleasure to our lives with their song. 

I thought it was perched on a chunk of sagebrush, but Bill says he's been keeping a piece of driftwood stashed over the years for just such a project.  I think Mister or Missus Meadowlark likes it here.

Winter's Canvas

Winter, 2015, and still here in 2016

A Bad Day for the Quail

On Monday of last week,  the neighborhood fox boldly paid us a visit. It prowled around on and under the deck hoping to catch a plump quail. The curious thing that developed, was the teamwork with a couple of goshawks who provided aerial attack while the fox worked the deck and grounds.

Seasonably cold temperatures and snow had kept prey from moving and congregating, so it appears the predators became more daring and inventive than normal.

Don't know if Mister or Missus Fox enjoyed any success, but a hawk did snatch a quail off the railing later that morning. We suspended feeding for a bit, recognizing predators have their point in life and must play their part as well.

Christmas trees

Randall Lineback Cattle: from the Brink of Extinction

Vermont Public Radio and reporter Kathleen Masterson have produced an excellent piece on the historical role and current status of a frontier breed of cattle. The original seedstock proved highly important to the nation's colonial life and survival during the Revolution.

Shown are calves of the Randall Lineback breed. Click below to link to the Masterson/VPR report recently aired on November 5, 2015.

The Randall Lineback breed is considered a "landrace" species.

“Landrace”designates animal populations that arise in local areas and geared toward and favoring local production purposes. The breeding of landraces is usually fairly casual, and they gain uniformity mainly through their isolation from other of their kind. This landrace pattern of development results in useful breeds, adapted to their particular geographies. This was true of the New England lineback cattle of the 1700s and 1800s.

Randalls became valued for their milk, meat, and draft abilities.

For more information, click on the link below and also visit the Randall cattle website sited in the Masterson article.

Randall Lineback Cattle

Some Scenes from a Great National Park

Hidden Falls near Jenny Lake . . . 
The Grand Tetons National Park. 

Blackbird or catbird hitching a ride on the road to Cody, Wyoming. Looking for a tick or lousy snack perhaps on the back of his host.

This big boy below appeared
near dusk on Elk Flats, Teton Village.

Trudging his way down to a drink and a greener meadow. His rules of the road meant using both lanes and claiming right-of-way.

A study from our hike along Jenny Lake, The Grand Tetons.

Another of Those Great Barns

Found in front of the
Mission Range, western
Montana, near St. Ignatius.


Not much in the way of
foothills for the Missions.
They rise abruptly from
the valley floor and are notably
steep.

May this survivor enjoy
a long life. Like the rail
fence, barns are becoming
antiques and relics too
costly and often too
dysfunctional today to
maintain

Climbing

Here's our attempt at 
growing Englemann Ivy.

Japanese Ikebana

At the fair last week, we wandered into the horticulture building and through the floral exhibits there. Our eye caught this scene and we photographed it with this blog in mind. Taken at the 2105 Ravalli County Fair, Hamilton, Montana.

 Our thanks to the website www.ikebana.org for the description of this method of flower arranging.

Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arrangement. 

It is more than simply putting flowers in a container. It is a disciplined art form in which the arrangement is a living thing where nature and humanity are brought together. It is steeped in the philosophy of developing a closeness with nature.

As is true of all other arts, ikebana is creative expression within certain rules of construction. Its materials are living branches, leaves, grasses, and blossoms. Its heart is the beauty resulting from color combinations, natural shapes, graceful lines, and the meaning latent in the total form of the arrangement. Ikebana is, therefore, much more than mere floral decoration.

The growing appreciation of Japanese art and architecture in the West has extended to the Japanese way with flowers. Ikebana is an art, in the same sense that painting and sculpture are arts. It has a recorded history; it is backed up by articulate theories; and it is concerned with creativity. In Japan, flower arrangements are used as decorations on a level with paintings and other art objects.

Ikebana and the Japanese love of nature

The remarkably high development of floral art in Japan can be attributed to the Japanese love of nature. People in all countries appreciate natural beauty, but in Japan, the appreciation amounts almost to a religion. The Japanese have always felt a strong bond of intimacy with their natural surroundings, and even in contemporary concrete-and-asphalt urban complexes, they display a remarkably strong desire to have a bit of nature near them. Foreign visitors to Tokyo are often surprised to notice that their taxi driver has hung a little vase with a flower or two at the edge of the windshield. The Japanese house that does not at all times contain some sort of floral arrangement is rare indeed.

Nature is always changing. Plants grow and put forth leaves, flowers bloom, and berries are borne regularly and repeatedly throughout the seasons. Nature has its own rhythm and order. The awareness of this is the first step in involving oneself in ikebana.

In principle, ikebana aims not at bringing a finite piece of nature into the house, but rather at suggesting the whole of nature, by creating a link between the indoors and the outdoors. This is why arrangers are likely to use several different types of plants in a single arrangement, and to give prominence to leaves and flowerless branches as well as blossoms. Even when a single type of flower is used, an attempt is made to bring out its full implications as a symbol of nature.

Do men also do ikebana?

Both men and women study this art form. Indeed, in the past, ikebana was considered an appropriate pastime for even the toughest samurai. Currently, the leading flower arrangers are, for the most part, men. Ikebana is not only an art, but an occupation for men and women alike.

Is ikebana difficult? 

To say that ikebana is a full-fledged art does not mean that it is esoteric. The greatest creations in the field are apt to be made by the most highly skilled experts, but, as in painting and sculpture, there is plenty of room for amateurs. Almost anyone with a little time and inclination can acquire sufficient skill to make beautiful arrangements. Still, as in the other arts, it is necessary to master certain fundamental techniques before proceeding to free creation.

Spiritual aspects of ikebana

Many practitioners of ikebana feel that the spiritual aspect of ikebana is very important. One becomes quiet when one practices ikebana. It helps you to live "in the moment" and to appreciate things in nature that previously had seemed insignificant. One becomes more patient and tolerant of differences, not only in nature, but more generally in other people. Ikebana can inspire you to identify with beauty in all art forms -- painting, music, etc., and to always expect the best in yourself.

What are ikebana arrangements made of?

The varying forms of ikebana share certain common features, regardless of the period or school. Any plant material -- branches, leaves, grasses, moss, and fruit -- may be used, as well as flowers. Withered leaves, seed pods, and buds are valued as highly as flowers in full bloom.

Whether a work is composed of only one kind of material or of many different kinds of materials, the selection of each element in the arrangement demands an artistic eye. An arranger with considerable technical skill combines materials to create a kind of beauty that cannot be found in nature.

How is ikebana different from flower arrangement?

What distinguishes ikebana from other approaches such as "flower arrangement" is its asymmetrical form and the use of empty space as an essential feature of the composition. A sense of harmony among the materials, the container, and the setting is also crucial. These are characteristics of aesthetics that ikebana shares with traditional Japanese paintings, gardens, architecture, and design.

Blog comment: there are several schools of Ikebana. We suggest you visit www.ikebana.org for more information . . .  and inspiration.

Highly rated

The sunsets over Lake Erie are ranked as among the best according to the National Geographic.

At a recent wool and fiber show . . .

this handsome fellow showed up. He's an Angora Goat, a Turkish breed prized for its very fine, dense, and curly fiber known as "mohair." Texas leads in breeding and population of this breed, and no, they are not related to sheep.

Cleaning up after the kids

Our neighbor and local Wren was observed last week taking care of "redding" up around the place. Then, finished, it's time for a song in celebration of a job well done.

My Approach to Digital Photography today

My approach to photogaphy has evolved in this digital era. I thank Arizona Highways and David Meunch for my first exposure to photography above a snapshot level. 

And while I appreciate Ansel Adams was not a documentary photographer, I wonder what some of his subjects looked like when he first set up the shot? Before he applied the Zone System and his dark room magic?

If he and other pioneers of his era had today’s digital abilities, just consider for a moment what masterpieces they could produce, given their talent and vision. Or, on the other hand, would they rebel? 

Would they object when digital images try to copy oil paintings or watercolors? We all like our photographs to have a “painterly” quality, yet when one scans thousands of contemporary works, he finds there’s a danger in producing work that looks at best, fawning and imitative, or worse, like some paint-by-numbers kit one buys at Michael’s.

When it’s garish and obviously unnatural . . . “unreal,” I find it off-putting. What did the scene look like “in the raw,” please? I feel the image is not only manipulated but so am I, the viewer. Am I asked to applaud talent or clever cosmetics?

Am I asked to accept obvious artistry? Or is it . . . packaging? Am I asked to suspend disbelief in the name of artistic license? Or, am I asked to accept it as phony but “artsy,” and therefore respectful of both the subject and the viewer, client, or patron?

For me, this matter is not settled as I continue my journey through the land of photography as art. Technology has opened a thruway for us photographers, but we should be aware there are detours and construction zones ahead.

I recently completed a drawing class. Our instructor told us: “We’re not striving for photographic realism here tonight. Let photographs be photographs and paintings be paintings.” I wonder how David Meunch and Ansel Adams would have responded to her comment.