SPRING FEVER

[grapeman]

Here we go again............... Well the Epoch Winter Storm is about upon us now. I need to transplant my tomatoes and peppers into the greenhouse, but don't dare-since the power may go out and they would need heat in there. The Weahter Service is predicting 16-25 inches of snow by tomorrow afternoon. The local weather says 10-20 inches here in the valley. Either way YUCCKKK. I"M GETTING TIRED OF THIS!!!

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

Spring is trying here, I can even see across the street to the Mayo house!(yeah Dr. Mayo, Mayo Clinic fame) Maybe today I'll go to the other side of town and get a shot of the big green fella, this is "that" valley...Ho Ho Ho...

 

[Wade E]

Appleman that s%&ks! Im getting heavy rain with sleet right now and
for the next 2 days. This oughta give the guys coming in to fix my
basement a little work just to keep the water out of where they are
working!

 

[jobe05]

Hey....... Thats onNorth Main St. inLe Sueur.


Then there is this reference:

Edited by: jobe05

 

[rgecaprock]

I can't believe you all are really getting still. I talked to Frank yesterday, he said he has dandelions coming up through the snow. Spring is trying to push winter out!!

 

[PolishWineP]

Our mourning doves are back! Along with a lot of other summer birds! I am SOOOO excited!

We're slated for 60 degrees today! Oh happy day! The cats are back to spending their days in the screen porch, being cats in the sun and watching the birds.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Got up this morning and the side of my head hurt...thought I was in need of a softer pillow.....Come to find a tiny Deer Tick stuck behind my ear...heard they were out already...and indeed they are.....Now I am all swollen behind my ear...Hope I don't get Lyme's Disease.


Got nasty sinus problems too...comes with spring.


On the bright side...the Daffodils are finally up...thought they had died.

 

[Joanie]

NW Owwwww! and ewwwwww too! I just Googled "lyme tick". It says the tick has to be attached 24-48 hours before it will transmit Lyme disease.

 

[Joanie]

This is a two-fold post. First I've been wanting to try composing a panorama. When I got up this morning it was snowing and looking kind of misty so I grabbed my camera and walked down the road to take several series of three photos to get the photo below. You can see it doesn't look anything like spring here!

The second reason is for Waldo. He wanted to see a picture of my drumlin and I could never figure out how to fit the whole thing in one photo until I thought about a doing a panorama. Sorry for the long wait, Waldo!

 

[grapeman]

NW, you probably should see your doctor so he can treat you to reduce the likelihood of Lyme disease. The sooner you are treated, the less likely you will be affected. One of my nephews was bit a few years ago and he got full blown Lyme disease and ended up very, very sick from it and he was in his early 20's. Won't hurt to see the doc.




Great job stitching Joan. I can barely make out the seams.

I hope you don't get hammered too hard with the snow today and tonight. I gave up and went ahead and transplanted the tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouse today. I don't have a big one, so no permanent heat. I turned on the electric heater, but got a tank of propane for the space heater for tonight. We are apt to lose power, so I don't want to rely on the electric heater.

 

[rgecaprock]

Wow, Joan,
That is really cool. Tell me how you did it!!!


Ramona

 

[NorthernWinos]

Nice Joan..you sure fit those photos together nicely....I had to Google Drumlin field...Interesting...it just looked like a big snow drift.


I did get a lot of swelling from that little insect that was latched on...I will be at a Clinic tomorrow in Fargo and will see if they can fit me in for this.

 

[Wade E]

NW, do you still have the tick as you can bring it to the doctor and
see if its carrying Lyme disease so as they can see if you need to get
started on meds for it or not!

 

[NorthernWinos]

I do have the little bugger in a Dixie cup...will put in my my tote right now as we are leaving pretty early in the AM. My head and neck are sore 6 inches away from the bite....nasty little critter.


We have lots of those brown dog ticks and a fair amount of these tiny Deer Ticks...guess this is the time of year for them.


Always gives you the creeps when you find those sneaky little buggers hooked on to your skin....at least a mosquito is noisy and you know they are there and can protect yourself...these just sneak up on you....


I was out in the old grass enjoying myself fertilizing, trimming, etc....din't even think of Ticks already....then the dog and cat were out too...got to get them collars soon....Spring has sprung!!!!

 

[PolishWineP]

Nasty old things, those ticks.

Hope they get you in and fixed up right away. Sounds like it's got an ugly start to it. Seems like they started early this year.

 

[Joanie]

Hi Ramona!!

It's best to use a tripod but I didn't think of it until about a half hour ago. Hehe Silly me. You basically take a photo, move your camera slightly, take another and so on until you've takes photos of whatever you want to include in your panorama being sure to overlap them. I took several sets of 4 photos but ended up only using three as they overlapped quite well. Always take more than you think you need! (The beauty of digital!

)

Next you need some good editing software to copy and paste each set of photos in a blank document. It takes a bunch of adjusting and aligning. (Always align the important stuff!) I made sure the tree tops and those dark pine trees lined up (We planted them more than 30 years ago. They were about 6 inches when we put them in and they're 70 feet tall now!!

) Don't worry about the tops and bottoms of your photos not lining up. You will eventually crop the whole thing to clean that up. Of course if I'd used a tripod, I probably wouldn't have had to crop!

It was a fun project. I know I'll be doing more.

And speaking of tripods...my brother made me a makeshft tripod years ago. All you need is a screw-eye that fits into the hole on the bottom of your camera where a real tripod would go and a 5 foot piece of lightweight chain attached to the screw-eye. Once you screw it into your camera, you adjust the chain so you can step on it then pull up until the chain taught and it's at eye level. It's not perfect but it's cheap and it really helps you steady your camera. It'a also a lot easier to carry around than a tripod!

 

[Waldo]

This is a two-fold post. First I've been wanting to try composing a panorama. When I got up this morning it was snowing and looking kind of misty so I grabbed my camera and walked down the road to take several series of three photos to get the photo below. You can see it doesn't look anything like spring here!

The second reason is for Waldo. He wanted to see a picture of my drumlin and I could never figure out how to fit the whole thing in one photo until I thought about a doing a panorama. Sorry for the long wait, Waldo!


Was worth the wait Joan......Thanks !!! Awesome photo. I have spent all day radically trimming back holly bushes that the freeze got which I dont understand because they stay green all winter. But after this last cold snap the leaves all curled up and turned black. On a positive note, I spotted a hummingbird yesterday evening and figuiring he was a scout I cleaned and filled all of the feeders this morning too.

 

[grapeman]

Joan you should be able to use Photoshop to make a panoramic composite picture. I have done it before with Photoshop Elements to make panoramic pictures to use as backgrounds for 3-D work with the CAD program I use. When I use it that way you can do 3-D walk-throughs and see what it will look like out a certain rooms' windows. It's a little more automated than cut and paste. You just select the pictures to use, move them roughly in place and the software positions them correctly. When you tell it to stitch, the software makes them all into onand you cut it out to trim it like you say. Try it with your version of Photoshop.

 

[rgecaprock]

Thanks Joan,


I see what you are talking about with the chain.. I love taking pictues and I burn up alot of battery taking lots then getting rid of just as many but that is the beauty of digital!! Your panorama is great!!!


Ramona

 

[Joanie]

Appleman, I did use Photoshop! I'm sure there are other programs like it that would work as well. The CAD thing sounds really cool! =)

Ramona, what camera are you using?