You Might Be a Redneck If......

Honey Bear

This was an interesting day up here in the mountains.  I  left at 8am to go to my portrait painting group.

Meanwhile, back at home, romance was in the air.
 I guess if you live in the city, you might have the occasional stray dog.  Here, because we're rednecks, we get slightly larger strays.  Little Honey Bear, pictured above, belongs to a neighbor.

She is a mustang rescue from Oregon.  But this morning, she was a mare on a mission.  It seems that Honey Bear is in season, and she went looking for love.I know she looks very mild mannered here, but believe me, she was intending to find some action.  It so happens that another neighbor, Harold, has a beautiful stallion, a registered Missouri Fox Trotter named Pride.  Honey Bear broke out of her corral and made a beeline for Pride.   Unfortunately for the pair, who were both quite eager, a 6 foot metal pipe fence separated them.   After some difficulty, to put it mildly, our neighbor managed to capture Honey Bear, but then, what to do with her?

She had already broken a chain to get loose a second time, so Steve walked her over to our house, with hopefully enough distance between her and her Romeo to keep some peace.  They continued to call to each other, even with about three tenths of a mile between them, and Steve left a note on the door of her owners to let them know we had her.  I came home to find her tied to the tree.  She wasn't real happy, pawing a trench around that tree, but she was safe.

After we got this situation sort of settled, our neighbors set about to help us move a piano to our house.  When you're out in the boonies, this is how you move a piano. That's Mark standing, and Harold, owner of Pride, and ruiner of romance, on his tractor.

Mark and Harold moving the piano

It was a three man job, and I helped a little with my stupid injured shoulders.   It was quite the task,and took about 3 hours, moving this old, heavy, upright piano across the neighborhood, then across our yard, through the gate, under the deck and into the downstairs.  I wish I'd gotten some video of this epic adventure.  I am real happy to have a piano again. it has been 5 years.

And, I guess I'll end this post with today's portrait study.  We got a late start, so this is only about an hour and 45 min. effort. I have not touched it since the class, but might refine a few areas later.  Souix is a lovely model, but I wasn't excited about the difficult lighting (slightly from underneath her and from the other side). Still, it is good practice.

Souix

Oh, and little Honey Bear finally made it home, though they have quite a bit of fence repair to do.