Africa revisited...

Billy Lehman and Dana Goodyear have created a website of their trip to Africa to portray the people they wish to help. As you may know, my cousin Stephanie and I joined on their delegation to Malawi. Dana and Billy raised enough money from their wedding to build an entire school in Malawi. After visiting the site of the new school they realized this school will have no books. This energized them back into action to fund a library for the Rummy Goodyear School. The school is set to open before Christmas this year!


Billy makes some bricks out of mud.





If you are interested in learning more about their project, seeing pictures of the Malawi people, please check out:

http://web.mac.com/williamlehman

They are trying to raise $15,000 more dollars to build this library. It is all explained in their letter.

And make sure you watch this video to catch a small glimpse of the hope and beauty these people possess.

The song will stay with you.

To my Connecticut Peeps!

It's that time again when jmcguinness.etsy.com and I go to some town in CT to sell our stuff. This weekend we'll be at the Milford Green, 10-5 both Saturday & Sunday, as part of the Meet the Artists and Artisans. It was ranked one of the top 100 craft shows in the COUNTRY!

You'll see some of my recent works including the following masterpieces...

What is not shown is all the hiking Sara and I had to do to get to these beautiful points. Poor asthmatic Sara was carrying the 20 pound tripod of doom up a 1/4 mile set of stairs.

Please come and support local art!

More rocks out west

Sometimes when you are "out west" you find yourself driving down the windy hills, you're enjoying the gorgeous scenery when suddenly the car in front of you comes to a halt. You wonder why.

Could that be?

No. My eyes must be tired.

It's just not normal.

Is it a mirage?

Did that donkey just stick its' head in that guy's car??

This pack of free roaming donkeys took up shop in the middle of the road.

Sometimes you need a little help from a friend to get to that hard to reach spot.



This looks like a really touching moment, and I don't mean to ruin it for you, donkeys are lovely creatures, but this guy on the right is actually pushing the other one out of his way.


This rock structure here is part of The Needles Highway. The coolest highway ever! We got to drive through rock tunnels and climb on these babies.

Lauren and the needles.

Mama Warfield catches the photo bug and Sara strikes a pose.

Wyoming & South Dakota continued...

My fellow people of these United States of America,

Here are some more photos from our little trip out west.


I don't remember if this was Wyoming or South Dakota, but you have to admire a place that has a bank called "bank." The skull on the building is just a nice little added western personal touch. With the way interest rates are and all that jazz with mortgage problems, I'm surprised more banks don't have skulls on them. It would be more honest.

Anyhoo, moving on. Next stop is the unfinished Crazy Horse sculpture in the Black Hills of South Dakota.


You may recall a man named Crazy Horse from your American History classes. I won't get into the whole story but it ends with this man dead from a bayonet to the back.

Above is the sculptor's model of what is to come on the mountain.


Model and actual mountain carving side by side. The model scale is 34:1.

Above is the view from inside the museum.

I was just working on my silhouetting skills.
That little hole in the rock you see is 9 stories high.

We like to pose in front of things.

Stay tuned, there is more to come.

Devil's Tower

Sara's family took us on a nice adventure from Casper, Wyoming to South Dakota. Before arriving in S.D., we hit up Devil's Tower.

Sara held it with all her big manly muscles.

And I tried to make out with it.

The story of Devil's Tower goes something like this.
Two Indian boys got lost in the prairie. As they were shooting their bows they heard a small animal. They got a bit lost following antelope and went further and further away from their village. A few days into wandering around they felt like they were being followed. They turned around and saw a grizzly bear that was super sized. The boys had the sense to pray to the Creator. The earth shook and a cone of rock rose carrying the boys out of danger. The bear was so big that he could almost reach the top, and managed to scratch all sides of Devil's Tower.

My new best friend

On my way to Wyoming I had no idea how attached I would become to a little four month old wiener dog. During our three flight trip enroute to Wyoming I would look over at Sara and sigh a little happy sigh. I didn't think it could get much better....But just when I thought my favorite Warfield was Sara, I met her younger, friskier sibling Missy. Missy is the cutest little wiener dog to ever step on this green earth.

She likes spending time in the sun, receiving lots of affection, eating everything in sight, chasing squeaky things and sleeping a lot. We had a lot of common interests to chat about on the Warfield's sunny deck. But it wasn't all roses. In the picture below we had a little political debate about LittleMissHottieMcTottie Sarah Palin. Missy likes her, she has to since she is from Wyoming and thus Republican. This little Miss does not want to be taxed on her biscuits or future purchases of puffy winter jackets! Wyoming winters are long and cold, and there are lots of warm jackets in this diva's future.

In typical Wyoming fashion, the weather dropped about 50 degrees and we were sent to snuggle indoors.


All the politics made us sleepy.



Check out that collar of bling!

Sometimes I let her sit on someone else's lap.



Being a cute, little dog is very taxing. Missy decided to catch up on a little r & r at her favorite sunny spot. Stay tuned for some actual shots of Wyoming and South Dakota!