Winter slump. Winter projects.

I am officially in a winter slump. The photography class I was taking, just ended. Over all I am really glad I took it. I am sad however, that I never could do the homework assignments, which were optional. I just can't ever seem to take a good picture when I am looking for it. It also doesn't help that we have had nothing but muddy grounds and soggy skies, not leaving much room for creativity. My camera has been parked in the office for a while, which makes me sad. I am tired of wearing my winter clothes, and longingly stare at the summer clothes collecting dust on their hangers. My good friends baby shower is this weekend, so hopefully I can draw some motivation from that and spark my 'eye' again. The following week however I am headed to portland to go wedding dress shopping with my best friend and I am SO excited! I am also going to take some engagement photos for them. I have already started clearing memory cards and my computers hard drive in preparation for a new batch of pictures.

The good thing about being cooped up inside is that it makes you take a long hard look at your indoor decorating. I get bored easy, and often want to re-arrange, get rid of old things, make our home a little more 'us' not he brought this - I brought that. I also get in shopping mode, as it is the perfect rainy day activity. I like to frequent thrift stores looking for furniture I could possibly restore. I had been wanting to get a mail holder to eliminate piles of paper on our kitchen table. One day while perusing the aisles at value village, I found the perfect thing!

Well, it needed some TLC...but it could be the perfect thing. I hit up Jerry's, the local home improvement store, and bought some spray paint and few different grits of sand paper. The first step was to remove that lovely decoupage someone so graciously caked on.

Thanks mystery person, it only took me and hour and half. I also had to do this by hand, due to all the tiny tight little spaces and angles. The next step was to paint!

Luckily the sun peeked through just long enough for the paint to dry. After a couple coats, it was time to sand again- I was going for that antiqued look.

This step was probably the worst. Due to my impatience the paint was still a little tacky, and was hard to sand off. My finger tips were also starting to get a bit raw, and I cringed with every stroke. I am pretty happy with the end result though!

Now, to find a place to hang it, We'll save that for a another day...

I can see clearly now...

I feel like so much has happened since my last post, I don't even know where to start. The biggest 'spectacle' I suppose is the new addition to my face. Yep, I finally caved and got glasses. One more reason to join the geek club, on top of my ever growing interest in electronics.

I also am currently taking a photography class, which I am enjoying. It is more 'basic' than I hoped, but what can you expect from a 'basics of photography' class other than explanation of buttons. It has been nice to slow back down, and really know what I'm talking about. I actually caught myself getting flustered while quickly trying to photograph a herd of elk frolic past my house. I had to switch lenses from my portrait lens/50mm to my zoom lens/75-300mm, forgetting to change all the settings along with the swap. When my photo's were coming out black, I panicked, but then said to myself "O.K., just look at your current settings, compared to what your trying to photograph". I was very pleased it only took me about 2 seconds and a few setting combos later, and bam, perfect exposure! I was elated, and figured at that point the class was worth the $85 .

Also, Brad got a new job! He is now the Fleet Maintenance Mechanic at Lane Electric, a local private union electric cooperative. We are so excited for all the new ventures we will be able to make now! We have so much on our minds, and are completely revising our 'long term plan'. Nothing is really set in stone at this point, So sorry for my lack of detail, but I don't want to jinx anything good. I hope to keep you updated as things go in our favor!

RAW Deal

This past weekend the rain did not stop pouring. It just rained, and rained, and rained. So I cleaned, and cleaned, and cleaned. Did you know you can even wash your walls? Who knew...and they should have told me sooner. Anyways, sunday morning there was about a 10 minute break from the rain, so me and Brad walked around the property to look at the new river that had formed over night.

This creek has an eery roar to it, you can even here the boulders moving around on the bottom every so often. Not to long after I snapped this pic the rain returned, but only a constant drizzle, so we continued our walk. Overcast provides ideal lighting for picture taking, so I took advantage of this to take my first 'RAW' photos. Now I know anyone who knows anything about photography is scratching their heads asking, "why on earth have you been shooting in anything else?", and to be frank, I was scared. The word RAW itself is kind of scary, its something people say when they jump from behind corners or dark places trying to catch you off guard. To give myself some credit though, I was shooting in RAW + Jpeg, I wasn't all that naive. For those who have no idea what Jpeg vs. RAW is, simply, RAW is a bigger file size and less 'compressing' (which loses some picture quality) is done in camera to save memory space giving you more freedom to edit afterwards. RAW is not necessarily 'print ready' straight out of camera requiring editing afterwards. Whereas Jpeg's are smaller file sizes, leaving more room on your memory card, and are generally print ready without any editing required - not giving your much room for creative freedom. This is, at least, how I made sense of it in my mind. The next few photos are my first babies fathered by RAW...

I am also working on my eye for composition. I have been reading the book pictured below (which is also used as a text book for college courses...what have I turned in to?? Reading a TEXTBOOK like a novel?!?) which I actually love and have found very helpful!

Silverwood

Anyone in my family, this title I would assume caught your attention, for those I am not related to, let me elaborate...

(also for the relatives - I am sorry for lack of complete detail - please feel free to comment and fill in my lack of knowledge on some things)

A long time ago...like maybe the 1940's or so...My Grandma and Grandpa purchased 200+ acres in the Chequamegon Nicolet National forest (North Central Wisconsin). The land had been affected by a forest fire, therefor making it pretty cheap to purchase. I am not sure of the exact price, but I know it was around $10 an acre. My grandfather started the 'White Birch Regeneration Project", replanting all native White Birch or 'Silverwoods' in efforts to restore the land to it's oringinal beauty. On their parcel of land there was a small lake - South Twin Lake. You can't legally own a 'body of water', but you can own the land under and around it, making it a private lake.

My mom, her five siblings along with their parents, all spent their summers (and some winters) at the lake living in a small three bedroom cabin my grandfather built. The cabin had no running water or electricity. They did have a fridge running off a generator, and a woodstove in the kitchen to boil water. There was also a working oven, but I do not actually know how they ran it? I feel like they had gas lines, maybe that also ran the fridge...anyways. Dishes were done by hand, fetching water from a hand crank well, boiling it on the woodstove and then pouring over the dishes. You bathed by ducking in to the sauna, also built by my grandfather, then running quickly to the lake to suds up. In the winters they would spend days ice skating across the frozen lake, and enjoying fires inside the cabin. I am somewhat jealous of this upbringing, I can not even imagine the fun they had.

Above: A view of the cabin's screened in porch // Below: The Nelson clan at the last family lake reunion.

I did however get to enjoy these family traditions on three different occasions. First my freshman year of high school, again the summer after my junior year, and most recently the summer of 2008. So I will be able to cherish some similar memories. Sadly though, 2008 was our last big family hoorah at the lake. Due to rising tax fees, my grandparents could no longer afford to keep it. My grandfather is very much a naturalist, and greatly hoped for this land to never be developed. With no guarantee down the road that some family member would give in to the generous offers of developers, he sold it all to the forest service. At least I am assuming thats why he did it, he never really said, and my grandfather you just don't really question.

During the last few days of the 2008 reunion, he along with my grandma, encouraged all family members to take some sort of memrobila of the cabin. Once ownership switched fully to the forest service the cabin would be taken down due to fire danger, and because it was not up to code. Everyone was scrambling picking things off the walls and shelves, I just kind of sat there thinking 'well there went all the good stuff'. I walked down to the lake to get away from the crazies, and passed under the flag. THE FLAG, That was it! I ran back up to the cabin and asked my grandma if anyone had asked to take the flag, and to my suprise no one had, I was elated!

Now your probably wondering, an american flag? No sillies...My grandpa, a long time ago...like maybe in the 1960's, ran a boys summer camp at the lake and had a 'camp flag' made. In the years after the camp ended, we would hang the flag for all the family gatherings and it just kind of became a 'family flag'. It was pretty tattered and faded, so I put it in a big black plastic bag to help preserve it until I had enough $$ to do something better.

Hanging in all its tattered glory.

Well Brad , being the wonderful and thoughtful husband he can sometimes be, suprised me christmas morning by having it hand sewn to matte board and put in to a frame he built himself. I don't know if I will ever get a gift again in my life that means as much to me as this tattered flag framed with old fence posts...

This HUGE ( 5x7 ) thing inspired a office re-model, seeing how it would only fit on one wall. Please excuse the painters tape and lack of base boards...

I also inherited a wood bowl made from white birch that my grandma would keep fruit in, and a couple chunks of white birch wood from the wood pile, why not. I am so glad that we had purchased our first EOS camera before this trip, because I went picture crazy on this trip knowing it would be my last stay at the cabin ( I hope to still visit sometime, but it wont be the same), and I have many beautiful photos to look back on. Heres my favorite...