Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Snow on the Ground ~ Elk in the Yard

Yep, it is another stellar day in Montana! I will warn you, these are not the greatest photos - it was barely light out... and I had not, I repeat HAD NOT had any coffee. But.... here they are just the same. LOL.






Max and Morgan ALWAYS get excited when they see the elk in the yard



I must admit ~ we do too...







This lovely lady spent some time trying to get to the moss higher up



...and got a snowy face for her trouble



They are fairly skittish, so they do not hang around long. The dogs create quite a ruckus. Morgan has a moan that sounds very much like the moo of a cow... and Max has this high pitch whine that sounds a bit like a squealing pig... so when they get excitable - it is a regular barn yard. They run from window to window to get a better look. It is really quite comical.


After the excitement was "over" - or so I thought... I got a cup of badly needed coffee, we took the dogs out back to do their business. The next thing we know, Max is slinking around the side of the house. I look through the house (We can see thru from back to front) - and there goes Max on a dead run to where the elk have gone. I got through the house and whistled - which always gets him to put the brakes on. Today was no exception. Puppy KNEW he was in big trouble. He doesn't even have to be told, in situations like this. He went straight to his bed - tail between his legs... He is a hoot. He has never chased the elk before. He has the deer, and now does know better. I guess he thought he would give it a try - test the boundaries. He now understands after 10 minutes on the "naughty bed" LOL.



Speaking of Max - Have you ever seen what happens when you cross a dog with a frog... you get a DROG. This is how Max lays in front of the fire. Actually it is his most common sprawl. He is quite limber. He even sits up that way, as in raising his upper body - with his legs still behind him. I am working on getting a photo of that, but just like a little kid - it is hard to get him to sit still when the camera comes out.


On a separate note, I have one of those, DID YOU KNOW things to share.

Keyboard Shortcuts:

Awhile back, I was trying to help a friend learn Photoshop. I was searching around at some different tutorials, when I came across a guy who was talking about keyboard shortcuts. I had always blow them off... I used ctrl+z to go back and ctrl+d to deselect, but didn't bother much beyond that. As I watched this video, I realized just how much help it is to the work flow. For example: ctrl+J will either make a duplicate layer, OR do layer via copy (if you just want to do a layer of a selection.) Crazy stuff like that. They are fun to play with and even helpful once you get into the habit of using some of them, as they do apply in other areas of computing. But I won't go into that, because my MAIN point in all of this are the TOOL PALETTE SHORTCUTS... those are the ones that I slapped myself on the forehead for... ("I never knew that!!" WOW MOMENT!!!) OK, so this may not be very exciting to anyone but me... but on the off chance that this is new info to anyone, I am putting it out there.

When Working on an image, there are SINGLE letter (no ctrl+ necessary) keys that will change the tool you are using. For example, if you are moving along, and want to zoom into a spot you press the Z key - and you are now using the zoom tool - want to zero in on a specific spot and need the hand tool to move it around - H and you are now using the hand... Now you are ready to do a little healing? No, can't use the H, it is the hand... LOL - for whatever reason - the healing tool is J. The photo below shows what they are, and is linked to the tutorial that has this. There are several other tutorials as well. Hope this is useful to someone - if so... my job here is done :o). It was a total WOW moment for me. It only took a little getting used to, (making it a habit) since it made so much sense, and made things so easy. You can right click the tools, or run your curser over them to see what the assigned letter shortcut is (FYI).


***OH NO... I almost forgot another really useful one that I use ALL the time - ctrl+0 (the number) is to fit the image to te screen.... (sorry added this later...)

I wasn't so talkative in my last post... guess I found a voice today...

Going to go play a little...

May your day be sunny and bright!!!!

eila

12 comments:

txbubbles said...

Wow, learn something new everyday! I know a lot of shortcuts and use them all of the time, but I never knew about the single lettered ones! Those are even EASIER! Thanks for sharing this tip and the fab photos. The drog just cracks me up! Stay warm!
Big hugs,
Vicki in Texas

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Nice elk and snow pics! I would also be excited if I saw such animals!

I like your dog's position. My cats also know when they do something wrong and run straight to their bed ;-P...

Cheers,

Rosa

Cindyrelly said...

Hi Eila ;)

I just got back from a few days down in Naples @ the Beach and it definitely looked a lot different than your pics in Montanna!

Thanks for sporting my blinkie... When you get a chance send me your email address to cindyrelly at bellsouth dot net so I can send you the html code for how I "hotlink" the blinkie.

Off to unpack and do laundry!

BFN... Cindy

Anne of Alamo said...

I love those pictures and I need something from you!
our neighbor just gave this city slicker some elk
a roast, a few ?back strap and a round steak
and ground elk
they had a butcher do it and it is all packaged...so
we are gonna try elk stroganoff tomorrow...as I have never had elk..and well, I'm scared...tee hee...mcdonalds meat is yummy to me..lol
so if you have some recipes or suggestions...please tell!

Julie Southern (Studio Sherwood) said...

LOL, I love the internets ;)

Kate did indeed go to U of M, and I have a cousin that lives in Missoula as well (and Kate has a best bud that lives in the boonies somewhere around there). Pam only gets deer in her yard, though :)

I love PSE shortcuts, but I have a feeling that there are some I have not learned, and you remind me that I should look them up!

Being Mrs Miles said...

Oooooh E!!!

Your elk pics ROCK - must have been QUITE SOMETHING to see them, right in your own backyard (so to speak) WOW!!! We do occaisionally see deer but not elk.

Dogs look SO FUNNY when they lay like that - back end flattened out like a pancake. Pretty flexible I say! They DO know when they've been bad.

I use shortcuts ALL THE TIME too - could not function w/o them.

Wellllll - I have to break it to you, but we have NO snow left, not a drop - only up on the tops of the mountains now. Springs really sprung!

Hope yours melts soon too - you take care and thanks for sharing your knowledge!

♥ Barb

Barbara said...

Eila,
The pics of the elk are really cool. That's funny about your dog. My cat definately knows when she is in trouble. She will take off running! The shortcut keys are really a timesaver to know. The PSE shortcuts can be found here: http://DarkSideoftheLens.com
Hugs, Barbara

nancy said...

Hi Eila, I love the photos. I wish you gets some warmer days heading your way. IT is in the 60's and cloudy and rain on its way. THanks for the turoroal. I'm not too famaliar with psp and just starting to get around to resize photos. It'll take me a year to learn that. YOU take care and stay warm! Nancy

Cicero Sings said...

I have never seen any elk around here though I've heard we may have some. Lucky you.

Melanie said...

Hi there! I must say the drog picture is my favorite! Gave me my first smile of the day!

I use the control J to copy and the control G to clip but that's the extent of it. I don't know that I can remember what all the letters stand for. LOL! Like the H. Was that for Hand or for Heal? Hmmmm.....But thanks for the tut. I'll check them out and see which 2 I can learn next now that I've got the J and the G down. LOL!

xashee's corner said...

oh my goodness i LOVE your elk photos!! i have NEVER seen one in life yet! was hoping to see one when we were in Arizona last year but no such luck! Thank you so much for sharing AND for your visits and SWEET comments!! :)
We have DirecTV, just to answer you! :) oh and thank you for the plastic bag tip too for the fancy ice bucket! big HUGS!! Have an AWESOME day!!

Nancy said...

An elk in your yard - wow, it must be wonderful being so close to nature.

Your dog is too adorable and just a good listener.

Thanks for the photoshop tips. I need all the help I can get. What a powerful program yet so much to learn.

Have a great day - I'm glad I found your blog.