Raising Brian.......

So....in my last blog I made a mention of raising a baby deer. Now I can officially talk about it-or at least I am going too! We have had "Brian" for two weeks now, we think he was only possibly a day (or less) old when we found him. He didn't take to the bottle right away and he wasn't walking. By the end of the day he had taken to the bottle. I went to the store and bought milk replacer for kids(baby goats) because I searched the Internet and that is what I found. Started mixing up bottles--one cup of powder to 8 ounces of water because that's what the bag said to do! Turns out that is what you do for baby goats, baby deer on the other hand only get 1 tablespoon to 8 ounces. When you mix it really thick the deer gets really stinky gas and diarrhea-deer don't usually have diarrhea, they have hard nuggets which many people see right in their back yard. The one tablespoon is much like he moms milk, which is very watery.


Here is what you do if you find a baby deer: Leave it alone!! Unless; you see a dead doe near the baby. This is what I have found out through this ordeal, you can NOT get a permit to keep a deer, not in the state of Michigan anyway. This I learned by calling the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), I actually had my husband call, but none the less we called. They said, it is illegal to have them "contained", so in your house IS illegal! Then they gave us a website to go to that had the name of licensed rehabilitation homes to call. We found one in Jackson, which is about an hour away from us. She said she wouldn't have room for him for about two weeks. If we could hold on to him "for her" we would not have any trouble with the DNR or anyone else and if we do, give them her name and number and she will deal with it.

You are not supposed to get the baby accumated (or attached to you). Well that is almost impossible when you have to feed him a bottle everyday and rub his butt with a damp cloth to encourage a bowel movement. It all makes great sense, but how can you not want to cuddle with this:

Let me say this, it is A LOT of work. He thinks he needs to eat every time he sees you, so he nudges you with his head which is VERY annoying but it's all he knows, so you forgive him. He pees A LOT! Not a tinkle, a river, it's more than dogs pee. He is also wild so he has no idea that he's peeing inside or outside, on a rug or in the grass. One other thing he doesn't understanding of glass. He hasn't broken any, but when I come home from work he can't wait to get to me so I can feed him and he runs into the glass, and I rush to him, because I don't want him to knock himself silly!

Over all this has been a great experience. Most kids would never be able to say that they took care of a baby deer when they . Most adults would never be able to say it either! Nor would you be able to come home and tell him he needs to get out of the chair!
It gives you a soft spot in your heart for deer, no matter how much trouble they cause.

Playlist by Photo+Takin+Amy on MySpace Music - Play Playlist Songs & Download Tracks

null Playlist by Photo+Takin+Amy on MySpace Music - Play Playlist Songs & Download Tracks

Shared via AddThis

Work work work

So, yesterday was my son Jaden's last day of school. What a day! He informed us that he had an award ceremony at 1:00 p.m. Luckily we were able to make it! He made the honor roll again! We are so proud of him! He also got some awards for reading above his level, passing the math test of 100 questions, missing 3 or less in an amount of time--I think 20 minutes, but I really can't remember! It just matters that he did it!

This I meant to post yesterday, but I didn't have time. At the first of the month I do the billing for our lawn care and this week I have been needed out on a mower so I haven't had time for anything! Sunday, I spent the day editing pictures for Amanda and Corey because I knew I would be able to get much done this week. There is still more to edit!
.
I put a few of these in my Sunday blog, here are some more. These are some of my favorites!

There was also quite a few pictures I took from our boat trip to Muskegon over the weekend of May 22ND, which was our 10Th anniversary weekend, as well as the Memorial Day Holiday weekend. Anyway, we took the boat up to Muskegon and had dinner at Dockers---very yummy--very expensive! What's weird is we can eat on our boat, but we drive it to a restaurant! Ha! Here is a couple shots of the Muskegon Lake

That's all for now, with any luck I'll be back soon!!

Sleepy Sunday

Ha! Not really!! We didn't make it to the boat this weekend. Chuck had to work on Saturday since we just couldn't seem to get caught up with the lawns all weekend. We agreed we would stay home since we had tons of stuff that hasn't been getting done around here. Tuesday my husband found a fawn in one of the yards we mow. He brought it home for me to take care of. So far it is going good, he (we think it's a he) has been eating from a baby bottle and doing all of the business he is supposed to do ( I think)

I cleaned out another garden today, now I only have one left to weed.
I'm having a great garden this year, these little flowers haven't come out for a couple years. I have pink and white this year!

Yesterday, I did an engagement shoot at some beautiful property! the pictures turned out so wonderful! This property is also so wonderful, and for sale! We are looking at buying it! I so hope it works!


The pictures from the engagement:

Wow

So I really thought that would I would be able to keep up with blogging, but I am not doing a very good job at it! Our lawn company has exploded this year, and I wasn't planning on going back to mowing full time. Well, I'm not really back full time, but after this holiday weekend, I will be apparently suffering all week because we took (well not so much my idea) Monday off. The plan was that I would come back and work Wed, Thur and Fri since those are the busiest days. The only problem is, I don't have a sitter and my sons last day of school is June first. Then I won't have anyone. Secretly I was hoping that I wouldn't have to go back to mowing so I could focus on my photography, and then I would be able to work on this blog and the other blogs and the pictures piling up in my organizer.

Here is a couple of photos that I had a few minutes to edit. This is a macro shot of my Lily of the Valley.
This shot here is of the Grand Haven pier. It is named "Pier Night" and it is one of my favorites! I love taking pictures at night and we were showing my mother in law and her (hopefully soon) fiancee around so we stopped at five mile hill and on the board walk so I could take some shots. Here is the view from five mile hill.

Something super funny happened while we were out showing them around the town. My husband and I have found many interesting things in Grand Haven. Well I was searching on the Internet for things to do and I stumbled onto haunted cemeteries. Guess where I found one? That is right, Grand Haven! So we go and find it one afternoon. This cemetery is HUGE! Well there are some stones up on the hill and you have to climb the stairs and this area is fenced in. Well when we get up there we see that it is a family site. A very old family site. This is the tomb stone that is supposed to be haunted. A blue man appears on it. When my husband and I went, it was during the day so we didn't see any hunting. Even though it may seem morbid, cemeteries are very interesting because of the history and the age of some of the stones. Some that we have been to have had mausoleums, monuments and crypts.

Now the funny thing about this cemetery is the night(it was night and very dark) we took the mother in law and friend out, we took them in here and told them about the story we read on the Internet and how big it was and it was haunted! When we found the hill you climb, parked and looked to the right, ahhhhhh!!! There was a deer standing there and it scared the crap out of everyone in the car! Needless to say there was no willing participants in getting out of the car and going up the hill!!

Last photo for the night and I am off to bed! This is a tree from the cemetery. Next time you go into one, take a look at the trees. They are creepy! There are a lot of trees with exposed roots in cemeteries and a lot of leaning trees! Good night All

Point and shoot

This one is from Feb 2009


So today is the day that I am going to test out the card reader on my computer. Pictures have been waiting on my point and shoot camera for a few weeks now. It's time to get them off. Plus, I have had this computer for about as long and it has this fancy card reader that I have yet to use. So here goes. Alright, works great! It's nice to not have to find my reader, hook it up and then go through all the nonsense every time I plug it in!

So here's how the point and shoot works. Sometimes, I don't take my slr and all my other equipment with me, the bag is heavy and takes up a lot of space so I give it a rest sometimes. Well for Christmas last year we bought my mom a nice little fujifilm point and shoot camera. It's an 8 mp and takes alright photos (it's too slow for me and it doesn't always focus) for what it is. Well as a surprise my husband got me one too for Christmas. It fits in my purse and I then I always have it with me. Yes, I have a point and shoot, but a good portion of my photographs are shot with my dslr. I am convinced that my husband also gets tired of carrying my camera bag was some of the reason he got me the point and shoot.

Now that I have went through all of them, I can see they have been there longer than a couple weeks, there are some on there that have been there since our vacation in Feburary!! OMG! I should pay more attention!

Now I am going to show and tell why it pays to have a point and shoot in my pocket (of my purse). To start with, I seen a beautiful sunset and I didn't have my dslr with because we were just going to town no reason to drag it along on the same ol beaten path. Here's what I would have missed if I didn't have my handy dandy point and shoot in my purse!

.

Now I am convinced that my husband actually pays attention and notices when I don't take the big bag of camera options with me. This is when he really feels like going a different way and taking the next turn because we've never been that way! The last time he did that we were on our way to dinner in Bryan Ohio and we passed this old beaten up house set way back off the road. Oh, I don't know if I have mentioned my obsession with old abandoned houses that are falling down and decaying, if I haven't now you know. These houses and buildings are my favorite thing to shoot, and when I can combine people and buildings I am in photographer heaven. Anyway, so we passed this house and my husband says we should drive back there and check it out. HUH? My husband the never break the law and always rain on my parade of awesome things? Well I never! Once the confusion left me I said heck yeah I want to go and check it out! Yippee! So after dinner we find it, well I find it and he takes the drive and I am so excited I am practically running next to the car! Then I realized I don't have my camera, now I am not so excited. In fact I am rather sad now! But, WAIT! My handy dandy point and shoot is in my purse, battery, YES!
Isn't this wonderful? What a miracle I had my fujifilm with me! These are shots of the front of the house. Here's one of the back and side:

I was just tickled pink with this find and couldn't wait to get out but Mr Man wouldn't let me go in because of the no trespassing signs. So I said I would go back with out him!

Here's another fun shot I got while at the store with my aunt and uncle:

Now this wouldn't have been possible with my dslr because if you know what I am talking about it's not as easy to conceal a dslr, or an slr for that matter. If you don't know what I am talking about, dslr is too big to fit in a purse. I don't have the biggest camera available, but my fujifilm is about 1/2 inch thick and roughly the size of a credit card, maybe a smudge bigger, so easy to put in my purse.

These deer were trotting casually across the street in town, I had to stop for them, realized I didn't haven't my arsenal of camera gear, remembered I had my P&S!
Here I am saying that I am so glad I had my point and shoot. Truthfully I am glad I have it. It's a nice little camera for my pocket (purse). Since I would like to believe that I am a professional photographer, it's not something I would be taking the important pictures with. I hope you have enjoyed looking at a point and shoot perspective!

For the record and for those who don't know, slr stands for single reflex lens and dslr stands for digital single reflex lens. It is a camera that gives me control of the things such as shutter and aperture.