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| Maldonado |
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| At a museum in Punta del Este |
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| Near Punta del Este |
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| Waves |
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| Estancia Finca Piedra |
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| At a wildlife preserve on the way to Punta del Este |
Monday, November 19, 2012
Uruguay Photo Dump
Over the summer when I was in Uruguay, I didn't take as many photos as I should have. It was a really cool experience which I now wish I had documented more fully. I did take a lot more than I have shown anyone, though. A few months ago I posted maybe three photos, which were the only ones I wanted to edit at the time. But today I went through and opened up a few more in Photoshop. Here they are.
Family Weekend
Last month I promised to post the photos from our hikes over fall family weekend, but didn't have time to edit the photos until now. And I think most of the photos are probably on my mom's camera in Texas... oh well. Time to dive in.
For our weekend, my parents and I stayed at Pinkham Notch in the White Mountains. It's near the base of Mount Washington. The weather was iffy, so we decided early on that we wouldn't make an attempt on the summit, especially since we've done it a few times before and didn't need to again. Given our chosen path, that was probably a good decision. The route my father decided to take was up Huntington Ravine, through the Alpine Garden, and down the Lion Head. In retrospect, that was not the smartest way to go on such a damp and windy day.
Huntington Ravine is arguably one of the more dangerous paths in this area of the White Mountains, because of the rock slab and other outcroppings you have to climb up to get to the top. While these would not be too nasty on a dry day, they're slippery when wet. It's a good place to have a rope, even if it's just to be extra cautious. We didn't have one.
When we got to the rock slab, which requires a friction climb to the top, we found that it was very slick in some places, and at first it looked like we wouldn't be able to scale it. Having dismissed the marked route as not doable, we then proceeded to look around for all other possible ways up. Nothing went. Finally, we retried the marked path, and by that time it didn't seem so bad compared to the others. It went after all. Amazing, right? Who would have thought that the best path would be the marked one?
Finally we made our way to the top of the ravine, where we suddenly realized that--wow--it was actually kind of windy. The clouds were amazing, spilling from the Alpine Garden down into various ravines and gulches like the one we'd just come out of. The landscape looked very Scottish.
At the end of the Alpine Garden, which was actually a very short walk, we started down the Lion Head. I think that was probably the least comfortable part of the hike. I liked it more than scrambling up the seemingly endless Huntington Ravine, but the Lion Head was a steep downhill on rock. Even though the rocks were like stairs, all of our knees took a beating.
Just in time, we emerged from the woods and back into Pinkham Notch. It was just beginning to rain, and there was enough time to take a nice hot shower and be dressed in time for the 6:00 dinner call. It was short hike, but seemed like a pretty long day. There wasn't enough vertical rise to compare it to a lot of the hikes we do in Jackson, but there were some pretty sketchy spots in Huntington Ravine, and I wouldn't call it an easy hike.
As for photos, I just checked my hard drive and it turns out that for most of the trip, I was busy playing with my mom's new Rebel, so all the photos are on her computer. The one good photo on my camera that I actually took myself was this one:
Reminds me so much of fall! Fall is a great season. But it's winter now, so frost and snow are on their way! I have mixed feelings but winter means that morning and evening chores need doing on the farm, so I'm happy.
For our weekend, my parents and I stayed at Pinkham Notch in the White Mountains. It's near the base of Mount Washington. The weather was iffy, so we decided early on that we wouldn't make an attempt on the summit, especially since we've done it a few times before and didn't need to again. Given our chosen path, that was probably a good decision. The route my father decided to take was up Huntington Ravine, through the Alpine Garden, and down the Lion Head. In retrospect, that was not the smartest way to go on such a damp and windy day.
Huntington Ravine is arguably one of the more dangerous paths in this area of the White Mountains, because of the rock slab and other outcroppings you have to climb up to get to the top. While these would not be too nasty on a dry day, they're slippery when wet. It's a good place to have a rope, even if it's just to be extra cautious. We didn't have one.
When we got to the rock slab, which requires a friction climb to the top, we found that it was very slick in some places, and at first it looked like we wouldn't be able to scale it. Having dismissed the marked route as not doable, we then proceeded to look around for all other possible ways up. Nothing went. Finally, we retried the marked path, and by that time it didn't seem so bad compared to the others. It went after all. Amazing, right? Who would have thought that the best path would be the marked one?
Finally we made our way to the top of the ravine, where we suddenly realized that--wow--it was actually kind of windy. The clouds were amazing, spilling from the Alpine Garden down into various ravines and gulches like the one we'd just come out of. The landscape looked very Scottish.
At the end of the Alpine Garden, which was actually a very short walk, we started down the Lion Head. I think that was probably the least comfortable part of the hike. I liked it more than scrambling up the seemingly endless Huntington Ravine, but the Lion Head was a steep downhill on rock. Even though the rocks were like stairs, all of our knees took a beating.
Just in time, we emerged from the woods and back into Pinkham Notch. It was just beginning to rain, and there was enough time to take a nice hot shower and be dressed in time for the 6:00 dinner call. It was short hike, but seemed like a pretty long day. There wasn't enough vertical rise to compare it to a lot of the hikes we do in Jackson, but there were some pretty sketchy spots in Huntington Ravine, and I wouldn't call it an easy hike.
As for photos, I just checked my hard drive and it turns out that for most of the trip, I was busy playing with my mom's new Rebel, so all the photos are on her computer. The one good photo on my camera that I actually took myself was this one:
Reminds me so much of fall! Fall is a great season. But it's winter now, so frost and snow are on their way! I have mixed feelings but winter means that morning and evening chores need doing on the farm, so I'm happy.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Draft Pulling
Two weekends ago was Family Weekend up here at school. My parents flew up for the long weekend. For Friday and Saturday we hung around campus; my parents had parent-teacher conferences and I was leaping on the opportunity to staff the farm stand. This was apparently a bad math weekend for me, because I kept having trouble making change. Several parents raised their eyebrows and one practically reprimanded me for being mathematically challenged. But honestly, who really cares about skeptical parents when you're hanging around the farm?
After all of our business on campus was finished, it was time to drive up to New Hampshire to hike. I'm actually going to make a different post about the hiking; this is about what we saw on the way up to Pinkham Notch, and how we almost missed dinner (served at 6:00 PM sharp, and don't even think about being late!).
As we drove away from school through Swanzey, Mass, we ran across a massive tack shop called the Cheshire Horse. Inside they had a flier about the 54th Annual Eastern Draft Horse Association Championship Round Up. My dad was really interested so away we went to find the fairgrounds where the last event of the weekend was taking place.
When we arrived, the final pulling competition was in full swing, and what a sight it was. There was a huge tractor at one end of the ring, attached to a metal sledge loaded with enormous cement blocks. The tractor pulled the sledge back after each team pulled. The arena was full of both horses and people. Teams of two horses were lined up at the larger end of the ring with a small open space in the middle. And all around were camp chairs with people in them, presumably drivers of these teams. It seemed like an incredibly dangerous setup to me, especially because sometimes the teams would be walking over to the sledge and almost run into one of the people hanging around on the sides.
The pulling was amazing. These horses were in the 3400 lb weight class, which I'm pretty sure included both of the horses. They would be ground driven to the sledge, turned around, and two handlers on either side would drop the yoke onto a hook on the sledge. The horses would then explode forward, urged on by their eager drivers (sometimes aided by hats flapped at the horses' rears).
The horses were originally pulling 8000 lbs. Then as teams were eliminated, it became 9000 lbs and then 9500 lbs. We had to leave before they added any more.
I thought the horses were really pretty, as well as kind of ferocious-looking when they were being driven.
Still, I'd rather be outside the pen petting them than in the ring driving them.
I'll be posting more photos of these guys later (I took over 1000) as well as photos from Stoneleigh-Burnham and Mount Washington.
After all of our business on campus was finished, it was time to drive up to New Hampshire to hike. I'm actually going to make a different post about the hiking; this is about what we saw on the way up to Pinkham Notch, and how we almost missed dinner (served at 6:00 PM sharp, and don't even think about being late!).
As we drove away from school through Swanzey, Mass, we ran across a massive tack shop called the Cheshire Horse. Inside they had a flier about the 54th Annual Eastern Draft Horse Association Championship Round Up. My dad was really interested so away we went to find the fairgrounds where the last event of the weekend was taking place.
When we arrived, the final pulling competition was in full swing, and what a sight it was. There was a huge tractor at one end of the ring, attached to a metal sledge loaded with enormous cement blocks. The tractor pulled the sledge back after each team pulled. The arena was full of both horses and people. Teams of two horses were lined up at the larger end of the ring with a small open space in the middle. And all around were camp chairs with people in them, presumably drivers of these teams. It seemed like an incredibly dangerous setup to me, especially because sometimes the teams would be walking over to the sledge and almost run into one of the people hanging around on the sides.
The pulling was amazing. These horses were in the 3400 lb weight class, which I'm pretty sure included both of the horses. They would be ground driven to the sledge, turned around, and two handlers on either side would drop the yoke onto a hook on the sledge. The horses would then explode forward, urged on by their eager drivers (sometimes aided by hats flapped at the horses' rears).
The horses were originally pulling 8000 lbs. Then as teams were eliminated, it became 9000 lbs and then 9500 lbs. We had to leave before they added any more.
I thought the horses were really pretty, as well as kind of ferocious-looking when they were being driven.
Still, I'd rather be outside the pen petting them than in the ring driving them.
I'll be posting more photos of these guys later (I took over 1000) as well as photos from Stoneleigh-Burnham and Mount Washington.
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