Here's one from 2003.
Our neighbors at Lake Malone State Park campground
Courtesy of Mike Thompson. Oh, how we want to photoshop this one up...
That's their kids' tent. One
good rain and they would have been swimming inside the tent. We got to see plenty of the kids
since their parents sat up loudly partying half the night, so the kids had to get up
and fend for themselves for breakfast. That SUV had no muffler and the jackass drove it to the
bathrooms (gunning the engine all the way) as he couldn't be bothered to walk across a field. A couple of times
he didn't even bother to do that; he just opened the driver's door and took a leak standing behind the
door! On the way back,
instead of following the road, he climbed the hill to their campsight, greatly aiding
the erosion there.
The group of kids next to them (also loud) brought two lanterns (propane and white gas), neither of which they knew how to work
(we showed them, but they cross-threaded the propane tank and it was leaking). Then there was their huge 3-room
tent, which we helped them set up. I wonder if their inflatable couch lasted the entire weekend?
There was another group of loud partiers further down and the campground manager for that night told me she
had been told not to do
anything about enforcing the rules, so all us people who like to be asleep at 2 a.m. were just out of luck.
We really advise that you DON'T camp there!
Alum Ford campout, October 2003
Coypright 2003, None O'Yours Productions.
All of these images are 800 pixels on their longest axis.
Campsite 7 The one at the end, and the largest, sort of.
We did not set up our tents on the gravel pad, and nobody hassled us about it.
The best thing is, the camp was renovated less than 2 weeks before our visit. New retaining timbers,
gravel, chemical toilet, picnic tables, and even lantern stands. Alum Ford is in the Big South Fork
Recreational Area, on the Sheltowee Trace trail, and most of the other campers that weekend were nice,
quiet backpackers!
Tarp City, as usual. Population: 3. The foil setup by
the fire ring is an experimental reflector oven (rack, coat hangers and foil). It worked well.
Small waterfall on the way to Yahoo Falls.
Stump The usual fascinating fungus. This stump is not only covered with
mushrooms, they grow down the hill over the roots.
Dinner!
Dessert! No, we did not actually eat these.
Yahoo Falls Yep, we walked 3+ miles to see this.
It's 5 minutes off the Sheltowee Trace, once you get to the right stream (translation = we
went the wrong way for at least a half mile). Picked up lots of fire tinder on the way back.
Real dinner Plus tennies for dessert. One-dish cooking over a
charcoal starter has turned out to be a great way to cook.
Houchins Ferry, Mammoth Cave National Park, October 2005
A new, smaller camper joins us.
Let's try a little Javascript here. Roll the mouse pointer over the small image to see a larger pic.
--Hmm, outsmarted myself again...you couldn't scroll to see the entire pic (and if your monitor's
resolution is set to 800x600, you won't see it all). So, good-bye navbar...
couldn't get the <div>s to position correctly. I might need another CSS lesson on z-index.
The Green River from our campsite. In the morning, the river was an almost-perfect mirror.
Some campers. The itty bitty green tent in the background is mine.
Sloan's Crossing pond. Ponds are rare in karst geography areas.
Daddy and Camperette.
Older stuff
Scarecrow 1
Beaumont library scarecrow on its 1 year anniversary
Scarecrow 2
Scarecrow 3
Tapestry: Claimed Returned Or,
another day at work... You can make your own tapestry at the
Historic Tale Construction
Kit. See some examples at
Something Awful.
This was superceded in 2006. I never got around to
modifying its sucessor.
Prairie grass (little bluestem)
Eastview barrens, western Kentucky
Letters you wish you could send With a touch of LOTR.
You may need to zoom this image larger if your browser scales it down.
A harmless little hobby...
Frankly, I find myself increasingly disappointed with the results of traditional photography,
so these images have all been manipulated in various ways. What I see on the prints never matches what
I see in my mind/the viewfinder, and that's not entirely my fault. In low-light outdoor photography,
there is too much contrast, too much loss in the shadows.
The Houchins images were scanned from 35mm negatives and that worked pretty well, but now (Dec. 06) I have
a Canon Power Shot S2 IS. SWEET!!
