I was Thinking, or Not

This little ditty was inspired by this little slide show . Blame the Victorians if you must, but it twas never thus, not they, nor the revolutionaries of the twentieth century that given us thus, but we ourselves, that in the blame should lie, as it is truly our appetite for waste and desire for stuff that hath bought us to our knees. The demise of the crafts, and the people within whom we entrusted to create that which we would desire is is our own lack of desire for quality versus quantity. We want more of the same, and lots of stuff that we can claim. We wanted so much those things that to us seemed to say we were rich, when in reality it only made us all the more poor in body, self and same. We have only ourselves to blame, not Walmart, or Target, or Woolworth, or any such barron of worthless junk and greed. These are but the merchants of such, not the buyers, not the providers of the emptiness that is pervasive in the quantity that we own, or at least convince ourselves that ...

The Doud Dairy Farm Journal will now be posted to Frontier Spirit blog at (http://frontierspirit.blogspot.com/). If you are following the DDFJ blog post, you will find them now at that blog. Use the link above to view and subscribe to that blog if you wish to continue to follow this blog. I appreciate all comments and subscribers that I get, thank you. Sleep Well, and Peace. JD

Doud Dairy Farm Journal Monday August 31, 2009   Well we didn't move the goat fence after all. We let the goats out to eat, drove the ducks to the pond and Arleta trimmed some of the goats hooves. Today I have to build at least a temporary shelter, because the weather is turning towards winter, and prospects are not panning out as fast as I would like. I will need more hay as well, and I don't think I can get any more from Mary at this time. As for today, I guess we will try to move the fence, but that depends on the weather, if it looks like rain, I would rather leave the fence, get a few bales of hay and build a temporary shelter with a tarp.   I need more fence, but our cost right now are such that they exceed my current income. I am trying to rectify that by getting some egg layers, but that is another out lay of cash. I could buy chickens from the auction cheap, but they most likely have some type of disease that I don't want my birds getting, so I pay a bit of a...

Doud Dairy Farm Journal Sunday, August 30, 2009   Winter is coming... and there is still so much to do.   We got out to the animals late last night, as I had to finish up the car for Mary. As a side note; Mary is very unhappy with her car, and that does not make me happy. I will have to do something about that, but in comparison to what she has driven in the past, this car is far superior. Oh well, that is the way with people these days. I notice that people do not appreciate much that is not what it is expected to be. She had a concept in her head, but the car was more or less than she expected. She like most of her generation expect that whatever they buy, it should be newish like, no matter the relative cost. This is an example of how not proud Mary is about her car, IPD sent her a lapel pin with her order, and she left it sitting on my desk. She was commenting on how some one in her family was commenting on her car, and hoping she didn't pay much for it. She didn't...

Doud Dairy Farm Journal Saturday, August 29, 2009   We need to locate a farm very soon. Winter is coming and we can not winter our animals over where they are at. We would like to get more animals, like a few milking Devon cattle (at least one bull and three to ten cows), and some sheep. We have an opportunity to purchase some sheep at a fair price, if we had the capital and place to put them, but that would take a farm. I could get work, if I had a farm. It is all on the farm. I need to use some scrap lumber to build a feeder for the Goats.   The diagrams will be uploaded later, as they did not transfer through the Google Docs application. This is the Frame, we will need two (2) of these build from 2x3 or even 2x2 lumber. (Structural Frame Diagram goes here) This is the Top, we will need one of these, the holes should fit a bowl, like the dog bowl. It is made from sheet material, or from 1” slab lumber at least 8” wide. (Top Frame Diagram goes here)   The two fram...

Luke Review   Most of the problems that my dog Luke has are my own.  I am trying to understand him, while the reality is there is no understanding, just a dog being a dog.  I have not earned the respect of the dog as his leader.    

This is Luke

I can only hope this will not make a difference. I hope, I dream, but what comes of it is half realized. There once was a man here that was something else, but now is as he never was, so cold, so dim, in a shadow that is unrecognized by these eyes. No matter of compensation could ever rearrange the feelings that have died. Oh yes I recognize this one, she, for what she really is, but does that matter now, no not somehow. This is the after-scene, the closing of the screen before the tolling of the bells, and after the eyes have shut out the light. There is that slight glow around objects that exist still, but even this is dimmer now. The sunlight does not matter now, it is all just a shadow of its former self. Thomas in this darkness holds close to the flame of the match, lighting another fag. His trembling is not from fear, but from the lack of drink. He shoves the matchbook back into his dirty jeans pocket, inhaling deep on the filter of his cigarette. Rocking on his heels to...

I often sit here thinking "what the fuck am I doing here", such as myself, why have I not made good on the promise of my mind. There is no telling or retelling of the story, itself a tale of no consequence, that is only to me important. Such self importance, seems to me to be the bread of the day. This is the thoughts that enter into my day, the scarce breathes of clarity in an otherwise obscure blur of consciousness. It really wasn't to long ago, although maybe to long since, that I was not what I am today. What has changed in me, some little hands that burnt the rage out of me. I was driven then by a smoke of dreadful consequence and circumstances that necessitated the need for self reliance. For this I am given of no real movement these last few years, by which means. When I was fully emerged in the study of my darkness, then I understood well the price I paid for light and brevity. It was scolding to be so forthcoming, to be so forward, given that I now find th...

Summer passes ever slowly Gracious in her green garb She dances now before me Ever always leading me on

This is our barn from the street side. From Richland Farm The image was manipulated in the GIMP to produce a better sky. It still needs work and the test print was horrible, but that may be the printer as well. I do not like the wash that it has, it might work better in monochrome and I considered that, but I got frustrated with the photo before I got to it so this is just a sample shot with airbrushing and some photo fill. I can't believe that digital compares to film, but then again I am a film type of person, and I just don't get the tools I am trying to work with yet. Film I "grok" so it is only a matter of learning the new tools to produce acceptable images. Considering the time I have been working with these tools, but also considering that they are not the top of the line tools (well except for the GIMP ), I guess it is not too bad. Still not ready for prime time, but I am working on that. There are a few sites out there that have galleries for publicati...

Yea, another post on the post listening again in so many years to the Moody Blues. Yea and they are still such a groove, but you got to take it all in whole, not just this track or that track, 'cause man they wrote it to be listened to all the way through. Respect their intentions man, and listen to them solid grooves and heavy beats, from beginning to the end, there ain't no skip tracks, no silence, just smooth waves of cool all over the place. If you get the chance check out "Days of Future Past" from track one through, totally awesome, man, yea. Peace, JD

This is our house, that is Arleta's house, that she shares with me. It looks a little rough right now, but soon it will receive a fresh coat of paint and some minor updates and it will be a fine house indeed. Peace JD

I don't really have favorites per se. I usually go from one obsession to the next and back again with liquid fluidity. Today I am thinking that wouldn't it be nice to let some people in on a few of my thoughts. Well I am thinking that I want to craft a new photograph. Mostly because I am bored, and because I have to do something while I wait for the bank to make their move. So today we will maybe pick up the boy, if everything goes according to his Father's plan. Well that's fine because I want to shoot him too, but not in that way that you are thinking, no I mean with the camera. I have to go to the storage shed and get the tripod for the camera. Today I am going to go to the Salvation Army store with my wife Arleta, my step son Justin, and maybe, just maybe our friend Mary, oh yea what is her name America, awesome. While there I am going to look for a look that I want to portray in my next photo of Mary. Arleta will have to help me, I need just the right look....

For the longest time I really only shot pictures of landscapes and still life. I worked through phases where I really wanted to shoot people, because I think they are interesting, and because I was young and wanted to be cool with the babes. I did however find that Models generally suck, and I dislike the "professionals" almost as much. So I set about working with average people, but then that fucking idiot got caught chopping up boys posing as a photographer, and the whole thing got blown out of context. Yea, American Press for killing the work of hundreds of legitimate photographers. Gone are the days of walking up to a person and saying "I really like the way you look, could I shoot a few shots of you for my portfolio?" No now you have to have releases, and all that smuck, and even with that they suspect you got everything from some "fly by night" internet scheme, and that your real intention is to exploit them for amazing financial gain. You use...

This is an incomplete list of the music I would listen to. I will add those that I feel worthy as I think of them, or someone mentions them. There is no preference and no order, just music. The Steve Miller Group (aka Steve Miller) The Eagles The Firm Led Zeppelin Pink Floyd The Sex Pistols Planet Gong Patti Smithe Talking Heads Adam Ant The Guess Who Stone Temple Pilots R.E.M. Red Ryder Ugly Kid Joe Joan Jet Joni Mitchel Helen Ready George Throughogood Kiss Kansas The Kinks King Crimson Robbert Fripp Thomas Dolby Garbage Bush The Toadies Buddy Holly Frankie Goes to Hollywood U2 (although I hated Bono for a long time) Sonny and Cher (and Cher) Prince and the Revolution (as well as the Artist) DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (Will Smith) Tone Loc Selpatura Pantera Black Sabbath Ozzy Osbourne Ronnie James Dio Rainbow (Richie Blackmoore) Tim Buk Too Blur Skinny Puppy Butthole Surfers Pat Benetar Johnny Winter The Edgar Winter Group ZZ Top Molly Hatchet Mot ta Hoople David Bowie (Ziggy...

I realize that I need a tri-pod for the camera, to get use of the exposure comp feature of the camera. It seems a little silly to put such a little camera on a tri-pod, but if I want the shots that I am not getting I need to do just that. From Salmon River Falls Here, in this photo, a longer exposure would have brought out the detail and given the water a more dreamy like effect. The framing isn't bad, it is an interesting shot, but it could be better. This is the raw photo, no manipulation expect composure in the view finder. From Salmon River Falls In this photograph, I could have used a longer lens, to compress the depth of field. I also could get better control over the depth of field with a manual focus lens. I can set the film speed to some degree in this little snap shot camera, but that wouldn't really help to much. I need to experiment with other settings yet. This is a raw photograph with no manipulation or cropping except that which I do in the view finder.

Because of the same reason I just hit return and this blog page just published, when I wanted it to go to the next box, not publish. Sure it was me, I should have hit tab instead. but I didn't and now I have to edit the post. No big woop, but it is. I have to think how to use the computer, not the computer learn how I work. Now that is a tall order, but that is what a Human User Interface is, and so far, for so many reasons, this is why computers suck. I could go into the HUI thing, but that is a matter best left to technoquest , my more technical blog, while this one is more for the purpose of just saying here's the problem.

Bet you never thought I would get to this. Well I am posting the first of many photographs I have made with my father-in-law's digital camera. I really didn't think I would get anything with a digital camera. This first photograph was manipulated in GIMP on Ubuntu hardy. I didn't do much to it, just converted it to gray scale because I thought it lent it self to the look of Panalure, but it doesn't have the grain structure of Panalure. I still have a bunch of photographs to work on, so I will be posting them soon. I will also post the full color version of this photograph later as well. It was taken at Salmon River Falls, in Orwell, NY. I have to say I am impressed enough with the quality that I may actually buy a digital camera, but I won't be throwing away film yet, as it is the only true way to get real black and white (silver) images, but for now I don't have a darkroom anyways, so GIMP has to be my darkroom. This was taken on a Kodak EasyShare CX75...

I've been at this for to long, now. It ceases to amaze me that nothing comes from all the writing, as it is mostly posturing. How have I gotten to this point? Where do I go from here? What difference does it make?