The Melon Shack is a pumpkin patch that is located in Corvallis Oregon off of highway 20. The melon shack had a tractor ride, pumpkin patch, normal corn maze, and haunted corn maze. the tractor ride goes all the way around the pumpkin patch so you can see everything. the corn maze during the day is a normal corn maze that is steady pace great for little kids, but during the night it is transformed into a haunted corn maze that teens and young adults can go to get their scare on. 

they have a wide selections of pumpkins from big to small and in all different shapes and sizes. its a grab your pumpkins yourself still even with he pandemic around. there pumpkin patch is huge and goes around the whole cornmaze. 

a blind woman in a pandemic

 Andrea Barnhurst is a woman who is blind in this pandemic. when asking her a few questions over the phone she says that shes coping okay with this pandemic its stressull but shes doing the best she can. Its hard along with challenging people don't really understand that the guide dogs don't know how to social distance nor what the marks mean on the floor. She hasn't been in a situation where people are treating her any differently than when the pandemic wasn't around. Now with the pandemic people arent helping her find things she needs in the stores now  they just point and say " its over there." Whats getting to Andrea is the lack of socialization and the fact that she cant recognize anyone she knows in the masks, its also hard trying to wear glasses with the masks with the fact that they get foggy all the time. She fears going into a store alone with the struggles of social distancing with her depth reception gone, the lack of exposing her guide dog Bali in the stores. With walking outside with her guide dog there's less people around, she also says that the outside feels like indoors with the amount of people. her fears with this pandemic is  catching COVID-19, getting exposed to someone who has COVID and not knowing it, exposing others. she feels like shes losing her independence because she cant go to stores and places like she did she always needs her daughter or husband to drive her there. She worries about the lack of activity level with her guide dog when the numbers get higher. She worries about her friends and family more than herself when it comes to COVID-19. She feels that there is a different energy in the air when shes walking with her guide dog, She doesn't exactly know what this energy is but she can tell that Bali is feeling stressed and concerned just by holding on to the leach. Andrea says its not easy trying to figure out where people are in the stores, maintaining  social distancing is hard with her and the guide dog, and wearing masks makes her senses different than what they used to be. Her family is worried for her more than usual. what she is doing differently to keep her and her family safe is to wear a mask in public, work remotely, when she goes into a store she doesn't touch everything, washing her hands frequently, and minimizing her time in the stores. 

Lyndsy Addario book report

Lyndsy Addario's book "its what I do a photographers life of love and war" one of the stories that she shared in her time on other countries was when she told her father to give her the money for her wedding so she could use it for her carrier because at the time she wasn't even thinking of getting married she was more focused on her career than love. where at the time before she got married to her husband paul her career was her love and still is even though she's married. I really liked this part of the story because it showed that she was not like the rest of her family that searched for love instead of a career they loved. she went the opposite of her whole family watching her mom struggle with bills after her father left her and their salon. the techniques that Addario used was a lot of moving with the light and respecting the fact that some people said no. she always carried more than one camera because she could get more with two cameras than she could get with one. when she went to a different country and needed to take pictures she sometimes had the model make the rules so she didn't step on any toes during the shoot. if I was in addition shoes of being a photojournalist I personally couldn't be a war photographer. the reason why I say that is because that's a lot of stress and responsibility to take pictures when people are risking there lives to save their country. I don't think she has a screw loose or anything because she is doing what she loves and that's what I want to do in my life. she wanted to be a war photographer to show what's really happening in these wars than what is portrayed. I was able to use some of the techniques she used like having your model make the rules so you don't push any boundaries. when I take pictures now of anyone I usually ask them what they want out of the pictures and what I shouldn't take pictures of for regulation reasons and personal reasons. when Addario was taking pictures of women giving birth she always asked if there was anything they didn't want pictures of and she would respect that. for example, many of the women didn't want there face shown, but the baby could be shown.

this specific picture stood out to me because its soldiers pulling one of there companions out of a situation after he got shot in an ambush. this picture really stands out to me because it shows how much we need to rely on each other especially during these times in war. Addario said a lot of things that were really inspiring but one of them really stood out to me and that was “Everything was silent. I took off clothes and stood naked on the balcony of my lonely room, under the stars. A woman. Naked. Outside. Under the talblan.” the reason why this stood out to me was that it shows that you can be strong during the day and during your job, but at night and after a long day of work she was still a woman, she was still vontable in ways that no one ever saw her as. if you like books like this i would recommend it to people because it does show a real story of what she went threw, but if you don't like these kinds of books i would not suggest reading it.

life of Thompson adult home

Thompson's adult home for physically and mentally disabled adults is run by Harold Thompson and his family. This home has been there since 1999 in Albany Oregon. he knew he wanted to be an adult care homeowner when he was a manager at another care home and he really enjoyed working there with the community and the people in the homes. at his care home, he has six employees, two of whom are his children. 

Harold tries spending about half of the week at the group home and some extra times on the weekends with the guys. they do lots of trips with the homes including going to Florida many amusement parks, san Francisco, zoos, aquariums, seatle, and many more places. Harold took the patients to watch a bike race and helped clean up after the race by picking up all the tossed water bottles. 

a lot of issues he handles at this home are staffing challenges, behavioral issues, lots of documentation that are required by the state and county, and serving medically fragile populations. he has six patients who live in the house full time with many different disabilities from fully functioning to not. 

there are a lot of rules and regulations of having an adult home, there are of lot of training requirement for the staff and employees. everyone who works there must go threw a background check, a basic knowledge test and they have to swear to notify the authorities about any abuse. all significant incidents must be reported through a state website and verified by the case manager. 

some regulations are that windows and doors must be safe for each resident and updated regularly. a yearly plan has to be developed for each resident and updated regularly. all medications must be locked up and signed for each time it is given. the whole home is required to have fire extinguishers, smoke detector alarms, a floor plan, house rules, a menu, and staff schedule.

watching Harold Thompson working with the patients was very enlightening to watch how to take care of people with many conditions and many different ages. I really liked following Harold around and asking questions about how he wanted to start this business in the first place. 

hometown/ neighborhood

Tangent City Hall isn't really a city hall, its called John Bass Farm. which is placed on the bass estate along with a park and the tangent elementary on either side. originally City Hall wasn't placed on the bass estate. when John bass died he originally left to Kitty Kat but also had the provision of when Kitty died city hall would get the estate after that. for many years city hall and Kitty shared the quarters of John Bass estate. eventually in 1988 city hall moved back to the community center. when Kitty passed away the Tangent counsel decided to move city hall back to the Bass estate. within weeks moving back to the Bass estate. a windstorm happened, the wind storm knocked down a tree right through the roof of the new community center. they demolished the new center and created the Bass estate park which consists of a park, tennis court, and picnic tables.

Pioneer Park is a park on Meadow Loop and Lake Creek Drive. Its a small park with a playground, basketball court, picnic benches, and a big field that kids play in all the time. every day elderly people from the manufacture home park walk threw the park and walk there dogs. every sunny day from dusk to dawn teens play in the basketball court and children riding their bikes and playing in the playground having fun and a cheerful time every day. 

Tangent is a small town and there is a medical marijuana store named Tangent Farmacy. Tangent Farmacy is a locally owned store owned by a local family who lives in Albany. many of the tangent residences go there to get their medical marijuana. Tangent Farmacy is located on Highway 99 right next to the Tangent Saloon. Many people come to this store from Corvallis and Albany.

the life in Tangent Oregon

Guide Dog Bail with her handler Andera Barnhurst walking in Pioneer Park in Tangent Oregon 

Guide Dog handler Andrea Barnhurst with her Guide dog Bali next to a bush of flowers getting ready for a walk

Greater Albany School District Tangent Elementary School the only school in Tangent Oregon besides preschools and day cares

birds of the pond

baby duck swimming in the alge following its mother

little duckling making a new friend with a box turtle ( that duckling followed me like i was there mom later)

mother duck teaching her ducklings how to swim in alge