Images

This blog is primarily a place where I share images that I’ve captured at my home – a 50 acre parcel of what I now refer to as a “FarmGoneWild.” My husband and I moved here from Wisconsin when we wanted to expand our capacity to host livestock herding events. We needed more pasture land to raise more sheep to accomplish that goal. it was way back in 2001 when we landed here with seventy sheep, two llamas, six dogs and a handful of barn cats.

Life happens, terrorists fly planes into skyscrapers, plans get derailed, never-before-considered options arise and things change – most often for the better even though it doesn’t seem so at the time. It’s been many years since sheep grazed the pastures we developed to nourish them. Now, we rely on ‘the hay guy’ to “graze” our grassland twice a year so that shrubs don’t crawl from the hedgerows to consume the meadows and encourage trees to take root. Still, the hedgerows take a few more inches of pasture every year, and I’m not mad about it. Those hedgerows are islands which provide unique ecosystems that support birds…lots of birds…birds I never knew existed.

When I first launched this blog in late 2019, I had recently undergone two total shoulder replacement surgeries due to a yet-to-be diagnosed auto-immune disease. For the first time in years, I could function without intense pain and by June 2020, I took my first jaunt around our property in a very long while. It was then that I spotted a brilliant, rusty orange bird perched on the stem of a weed (aka wild flower) in a field which had once been a herding trial arena. I had no clue it was an Orchard Oriole, because I didn’t know that Orchard Orioles were a thing.

When I launched this blog, I didn’t know that I was going to become consumed with filming wild birds that I did not even know existed right here in my “backyard.” But, that hobby grew as fast as the weeds grew along the hedgerows and this blog became a place for me to share my discoveries.

It may seem like a very eclectic mix of material, but along with the information I like to share about dogs and their training, and my passion for writing, this blog holds hundreds of images I’ve amassed of not only the bird, but the bees, reptiles and mammals that I’ve captured when I’m out and about on our precious FarmGoneWild.

The use of CATEGORIES on this blog hasn’t been accomplished with exceptional clarity, but you should find my hobby photography in these sub-categories: