Dave's House

So I was checking some pictures I snapped of my friend Dave B's dooryard.  Every hunting season, his barn is the barn all the cool locals use to hang their kills prior to hitting the butcher shop to be turned into edible chunks of this or that.   This year so far I have counted at least 6 deer, one huge moose, and Water District Dave told me he saw a bear hanging there for a day.  Everyone wants to hang their game at Dave B's.

I like Dave.  He lets my circle of riding friends use his property to access the trails off the railroad bed out behind his place.  Off and on I have tried to get him into riding bikes, but well, it ain't happening.  Dave likes to putz around his yard making sure it is well kept, planting huge gardens and of course hanging as many deer as possible during hunting season.  Once in awhile I see him strolling up or down Main Street with his significant other.  Nice folks, just not into cycling.

I took a few quick shots of the couple of small bucks hanging from the trapeze contraption he has hanging from his hay bale lift.  They all came out my usual a tad out of focus, but good enough to make any point I wanted to about Dave, the hip local hunters and life in my small parcel of Maine during November of any year you would care to check.

 While deciding which image to head my post about Dave and his deer hanging dooryard, I noticed in  the small window next to the barn door, this moose skull staring out towards Main St.  I copied the image, cropped it, and what you see at the top was the result.

I am never sure what draws me to some images over others.  This one grabbed me for several reasons.  The out plumb variety of lines, the rough texture of being slightly out of focus combined with the old barn wood and window.  Or maybe it was shape of the skull behind the grid which was wrapped in a contrasting border that interrupted out of plumb verticals.  Whatever.  I just liked how it turned out.  I am sure in the scheme of artistic effort, it rates somewhere between Ho and Hum.  I say this because  I showed it to Keith when he swung by the bike shop and he said something like, "Cool".  It was a lukewarm "Cool".


Once I decided I liked it I had to play with it.  Soon I had 5 or 6 copies of it in various shades, light treatment, shadowed hard, or saturated with colors to bring out whatever other cool looks I could drag out of it.  After all my dubbing around with it I think I like the original and the sepia one to the left best..

I most likely  have used up about all the interest you might have regarding this kodak moment.  I figure I ought to close by treating you to the original image I cropped it out of.  So enjoy or not.  If nothing else, it is a small piece of the reality I live with here in southern Maine.  Some things are timeless - Hunting Season in Maine is one of them.