HADLEY ANNE SIMON

Our dear friends Kelly and AJ Simon had their first baby last week, we were just so lucky to be in the Milwaukee area to see that 7 day old baby girl, the beautiful Hadley Anne!  Oh, she was precious!  I might just have to start concentrating on newborns now, get my baby fix!

THE SECOND HARVEST

So when one is gone for  few days, things start to grow faster then before in the garden.  Well, at least it appears to do that.

Ok, where is the actual garden bed???



 So in between trimming the pig's hooves, bathing the dogs,

making Parmesan cheese, deworming the horses and cleaning out the camper and doing the laundry from it, i decided i would go out to the garden.  Get the rest of the things planted that needed to be and see what i could harvest.

What i got was a five-gallon bucket of leeks, and two baskets of spinach and lettuce. 

So what we had for dinner this beautiful Memorial Day was grilled leeks and red onion over fresh salad greens and a sprinkle of my homemade goat's milk blue Stilton cheese and topped off with some champagne vinaigrette dressing. Nummy!

THE BADGER SHOW RESULTS!

Overall - Sam was happy, and that's all that matters.  Her and Honor did very well, obtaining two fifth places, two seconds, a first and a reserve grand champion.  It's all beautiful!  We had fun and the ol' beast of a camper made it down there without breaking down.  I really think that alone makes for a successful horse show. : )

That beast is 21 years old, has a 400 Chevy engine, less then 50k miles and still purrs like a kitten. It actually sounded better and ran smoother the faster i went and the longer we drove.

 Plus the beauty of it all is that the beast wasn't the ugliest camper on the lot!

How 'bout that duct tape????

Turn down the volume on this one. So how fast am i really going?  Sam, who was in the car following me, said we were only going about 65.  Funny part is - this jumping up and down with the speedometer is actually better then it was before this trip, it used to jump up and down around 20 miles per hour!  haha!

THE FIRST ANNUAL GRAHAM FEST - BLUE MONK WAS THERE! 5/21/11

Yes, it was the first Graham Fest for the Friends of Graham Park, a group that are trying to raise funds to keep the fairgrounds around.  Bob was in charge of the band line up so it looked like the Sanborn show - all the usual characters: Ted & Mike (BE), Roger Nelson, Dianna and Kevin - well Kevin wasn't there so a friend filled in - Blue Monk and then the fabulous Jesse and the Rippers.
It was a good time and i figured i got enough images of these guys so what i did was come up with one image that just speaks volumes:

THE FIRST OFFICIAL POETRY READING IN THE BARN BAR! 5/20/11

We had our first official poetry reading in the Barn Bar! It's official this time because that was the point - poetry reading. Just that.  We've had poetry readings before when we had parties in the loft but now that we solely use the Barn Bar - we haven't had any.  Well it was time!  About 20 people showed up and nearly everyone read - it was great fun! Even Madison read one (which was unbelievably awesome - if I might add!).

THE WISCONSIN BADGER ARABIAN HORSE SHOW

today we arrived, Sam, her boyfriend Mike and I got here in Milwaukee at the Badger Horse Show for the weekend. Wasnt sure if the beast of a camper would make it but he did, those old Chevy engines were built for it. Sam and Honor have 4 classes tomorrow and 2 on saturday. I think  they will go well, he is an amazing horse! And Sam did a great job of training him.  So hard to believe we got him as a green broke horse, she just taught him everything!  Right now he is fat and sassy, she's been feeding him plenty, so she decided to enter him in a halter class tomorrow. He should fair well. I'll be back with the updates tomorrow.

THE APP'S FOR CRAP! AND THE FIRST HARVEST

Yes, i got the Blogger app and i made two posts with it only to look at my phone today and notice that it is still publishing the post - from 2 days ago!  really?  So maybe that won't work.  But here's the gist of the post:

Garden harvest!  Yes, the other day i was out there and there was just a few inches of lettuce and spinach up.  I went out today and its up to like 6 inches! YAY!  The corn, pole beans and squash are looking pretty in the Three Sister's beds too.  The asparagus is coming up, finally!  But here's the first harvest of spinach and lettuce:

So tomorrow Sam, her boyfriend Mike and I leave for Milwaukee for the Badger Horse Show.  I guarantee that the garden will be overflowing with stuff when i get back. Today i put in my lovely tomato plants i started from seed.  I have Black From Tula, White Snowball, Green Sausage, Range Pear and of course, Beefsteak.  I also have to get in some of these little melons we are trying this year.

Plus today i have a photo shoot at noon, meeting at three and if the rain holds off - a date with Khrome for a pony ride!  We'll see how that goes!

PAINTING THE BARNS!

I came back from my shoot last wednesday to find Bob and our friend painting our barn.  It's a good thing - it was overdue!  And it's looking great now, all nice a bright red again.  We've added this to a long list of things that need to get done around here.  The list for the inside of the house is REALLY long but that one will never get done 'til winter and then it never seems there is enough money in the winter to do the things on the list.  Oh well, maybe i should find another part time job….NOT!

LIVE IN THE BARN - SIX MILE GROVE AND SALLY BARRIS 5/15/11

Yes, last weekend we had another concert in the barn with our good friends Brandon Sampson and his band Six Mile Grove, and Sally Barris.  It was great fun again to have Sally back!  When i wrote to thank her for playing she wrote back, "Dawn and Bob, the Barn Bar has a special place in my heart. It's like a mini heaven; Music, food, great people, goats. Thank you for having a totally awewome venue for singersongwriters to play at."  This just makes my heart sing!


We decided this one was to be family friendly and as Brandon wrote on the flyers - Bring Your Family - Pet Some Goats - they all did!  It was great seeing all these little people running around enjoying themselves.  The way all gathering should be - kids just bring out the best in people.

We've also decided to feature a local artist's works behind the stage now, and our friend Susan Waughtal was our first artist!  She hung some amazing paintings and i love that i now have a great new background behind the performers!

one of the luckiest little boys around - he got to sing with Sally!

THE BEST MODELS EVER!

Yes, my animals provide me with endless photo ops daily - and sometimes i just gotta take advantage.  Especially Noon - when she sees the camera she just hams it up!

LAURA & MIKE IN LOVE

So on my way up to the horse show on Mother's day weekend, i stopped in Cannon Falls and had the wonderful opportunity to take engagement images for Laura and Mike - in love.  It was fabulous and fun and they were a great couple to work with.  Easy going - the way I like it!

THE FIRST HORSE SHOW - SARAHA SANDS

Yes, it was mother's day weekend and the first horse show of the season.  Samantha did smashingly well against national champions, placing 2nd, 5th, and 6th in her three classes.  The stunning Honor of course looked handsome as always and it was a great time.  Oh, and she did the right thing this time and signed him up for an open class Friday night, this is a good thing because Honor is notorious for freaking out in the first class - always!  and of course he did in this one.  Spooked another horse, flailed around doing his little dance thing he does and basically looked like a fool.  Then he calmed down and the next day did great!  Why?  I have no idea why he does this, he just does.  But then, maybe he asks the same thing of us?

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S THE 24TH ALREADY?!??!!?

Yes, here it is the 24th and these fews weeks have flown by!  I've gotten a lot done, a lot has happened and now, i play catchup here.  But that's ok.  I love what's happening.  I knew i would slow down here with the coming of spring and summer because that's the way it goes but I'll give the update: I've got commercial work coming out of my ears!  I love it!  and new clients everyday!  So I'm off to work on all these images i've taken this month and get ready for a trip to Milwaukee:  another horse show!  Plus the beauty of this too is that our dear friends who live in Milwaukee just had a baby Sunday!  I'll get to be there to take some newborn shots and see the happy couple, so excited!

Who knew?

THE NEW APP

so I got this blogger app, hoping I'll use it and post more. Since I am on the go and REALLY busy in the summer, blogging usually gets lost. I mean look at the last month? Where have I been? Doing too many things. And I've got loads of images to edit, before I can even think of making a post. So I'm on the go now, app on phone, phone in hand. Bring it on, world!

FIRST DAY OF MARKET - MEDIA HO

Yes it was the first day of farmer's market this summer on Saturday and it turned out to be a fairly nice day - weather wise.  It also turned out to be a day where KTTC came out to see the market and film some people there.  One of the people being my husband, Bob.  Yes, once again we are in the media.  How much can the world stand to see us out there before they get sick of us? Should i be concerned????

HERE'S LOOKIN' AT YOU KID!

Yes, EXPOSED magazine put her on the cover this month.  And the funny part is they asked if it was "ok" since the cover lists the article on the TOP 5:

• drinks to get you hammered
• first date no-no's
• sexiest movies
• worst pick-up lines
• morning after dont's

what mother would say no to that?

CATCHING UP IS HARD TO DO!

Ok, so what have i been up to the last few weeks?  Everything good! Images, gardening, images, framing, building stuff, images, plays, Americana concerts, images, massage, Barn Bar, horse vet, images = burnout!

So i got everything in the garden that was supposed to be in there in April, even with this crappy weather, i still got it in.  I think all those people that used aerosol hair spray in the 70's and 80's ruined the atmosphere so much that we'll never have any 'normal' seasons again.

I planted onions, broccoli, carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, leeks, kohlrabi, all blue potatoes, fingerling potatoes, just to name a few.

 We had a private concert in the barn with Pat DiNizio from the Smithereens:

I took images for  a series of work with Michelle Fimon, a poet and we collaborated to create works for the Civic Theatre lobby. This was pretty much my entire life for two weeks.  We did marathon sessions because we were at the mercy of this weather and shot 5 different shoots in one day!  Then it was back to Austin to shoot another two, then back for the last image on Easter.  All the while trying to work around Michelle and her son being ill at one point (or two). Crazy!  What i won't do for art! Plus i built a whole new framing table in one afternoon just so i could properly frame these images to hang.  Pics of that soon.

 Then it was time to start filming Barn Bar, season four.  And KSMQ came back to finish filming us filming.

Then it was Americana night, so of course we were there for that!

Then we went to see our friend's play FLARE that was at the Civic Theatre's lobby where Michelle and my series were hung.  I took the practice images for this play as well.

And somewhere in between all that- i had a couple photo shoots with a newborn and some kitties:

And then there was Easter.  Where our friends and family came over and we had a real nice evening.  Boy this farm livin' is a lot of hard work!!

Oh, and Maddie's latest column came out in the Exposed magazine:
Maddie's Rant

And the article that Jen Koski wrote about our cheese making adventures came out as well.

Jen's "My FIrst Time Making Cheese!"

Go to page 18 for the article.

No rest for the wary.  : )    And this week should be a doozy!  First Farmer's Market next Saturday!