Do you believe it? We now have the largest painting in the world of our new President Elect Barack Obama. Woo Yay!!! Yes, Barack Obama is our new President!!! HOPE won, and it just keeps on winning. So many of us who just simply cannot, (will not) get this smile off our faces. A new day dawning.

The field painting is still holding up quite well. I have to tell you, that it is an amazing feeling to be living right next door to this carpet of colors. Jim and I keep thinking about it, and we look at each other and say, "Let's go out to climb the ladder and gaze down". It is a beautiful sight. You know we have both thought privately about the view the man who floated away on his helium balloon lawn chair would have had, but neither of us plan on this kind of ride. Really, and someone dared call us us kooks on their blog.... ha, ha.

Can you see Jim? He put the ladder in his tractor bucket to add an extra 6 feet for the picture. I didn't climb with that setup.

Over the last few weeks we have had a few visitors, including Polaris Images photographer, Phil McAuliffe. He flew over a few days before the election and took some beautiful wide aerial views. I hope someone will pick up some of his 14 released images. Not only because I want to see them out here, but because I think they are awesome. They showcase the magnificent rural setting we are nestled in. This painting really pops out here in the wilds! Tagging our field may just become an annual tradition.

In the days before Phil arrived the weather was awful. First we had a downpour mixed with a very brisk wind. That not only gave me a comb-over hair do, but it coaxed tons of leaves to dance themselves right off the trees and onto the painting. All that mess was followed by our first snowfall. Luckily it warmed up and the sunshine melted the white world. Jim and I removed the leaves from the poster, and we bailed out the leftover puddles with a sponge. Then we then hauled the water away in buckets. I thought digging sweet potatoes was hard work, but hand plucking leaves was back breaking. Imagine cleaning a 15 foot ear!

Phil was due to arrive over head at 11:00 am. I managed to keep the painting free of leaves all morning. Then as I heard his engine, I put on an old leather jacket with a huge American Flag on the back, and I stuck myself on and around the painting for scale. I waved and danced about a bit, too. Drats, I had hoped you could see this grand jacket from the plane, but alas, you will have to just imagine it on me, the tiny ant like figure in orange sneakers on this giant painting, instead.

So, hey, if you are the press, and you are reading this blog. Rock this painting, man! Get out these images so we can all shout, "Woo Hoo"! I can find no reason to stop the celebration of Barack yet. Let's just keep it going on!

We are on the Daily Heller http://blog.printmag.com/dailyheller/Who+Designed+The+Obama+O.aspx

Denise Dennis on Huffington wrote about us too. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/denise-dennis/ and scroll down her archive.

We got a shout out in Moby's journal. We love Moby, and were actually listening to his music when we were preparing the painting. How cool is that! http://www.moby.com/journal/2008-10-24/pretty-amazing.html

This coming Saturday the 15th we are on the ireport show on CNN

SATURDAY 7:30A EASTERN (11:30A GMT)
SUNDAY 2P EASTERN (6P GMT)
MONDAY 9A EASTERN (1P GMT)
MONDAY 1:30P EASTERN (5:30P GMT)
We also stream this show at the following website:
http://cnn.com/ireportforcnn

You can see our report here http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-133354

Woo Hooo, here's my shout to you,
Hilary