Pick a metaphorical hat and odds are Wade Blake has at least tried it on.

Pick a metaphorical hat and odds are Wade Blake has at least tried it on.

Blake, to put it mildly, is a man of many talents. Whether it’s working with horses at Temple Ranch or making sure newspapers and websites in the Hyde Media Group are dispensing information in a timely manner, Blake stays busy.

Oh, you can toss in being a pretty dang good photographer in the mix.

“Find something you love to do and make money doing it,” Blake said.

And Blake certainly has found a lot of things to love. How does he juggle them all?

“I’ve asked myself that,” he said with a chuckle. “It becomes a routine. I don’t look too far into the future, for one thing, or too much into the past.

“I’m lucky, I know that.”

His day begins with caring for horses and cleaning their stalls at Temple Ranch, starting around 7 a.m. He’s been doing it for four years and it takes him back to his love of horses as a youth.

“I’ve got 14 stalls. I probably lift about 2,000 pounds (of manure) every week. Some people have a gym membership, I have this,” he said, smiling. “Growing up I had several breyer horses. My mom always loved horses, and I do too.

“Every single one has a different personality, similar to dogs, I guess.”

There is an element of risk to what he does at the ranch. After all, a spooked horse is a dangerous horse.

“I’ve always felt like it’s my responsibility to make sure that horse is not nervous with me coming into the stall – for my safety and theirs,” he said, noting that a frightened horse is likely to hurt itself as well.

From there, he goes to the Hood County News, where he has worked in the pressroom since 2015. The 53-year-old first got into printing at age 18 and has worked for the University of North Texas Printing Services, along with Georgia Pacific in northern California from 2001-05.

He arrives at HCN around 10 each morning and works “until the job is done.” Along with helping run and maintain the press, he recently revamped the website and now manages websites for HCN, the Springtown Epigraph, the Azle News and Gatesville Messenger, as well as each paper’s E-editions.

“Sam (Houston, HCN publisher and Hyde Media Group CEO) asked if I could play around with it (the website) and figure it out,” Blake said.

Blake, a graduate of Eastern Hills High School in Fort Worth, returned to the area after Georgia Pacific closed its offices, where he worked in California. He started a website called Granbury Guide and also brokered his own printing deals, using an old AB Dick printer out of his house.

“It was gravy money, business cards and such,” he noted. “When I moved here, I thought I was out of printing.”

Also before coming to HCN, he worked at Lowe’s and as a handyman and painter around town. Remember, there’s not much this guy hasn’t done when it comes to work.

And, if you need him to photograph a wedding or family get-together, he’s done that. He’s also taken the occasional shot for the newspaper.

“I’ll do some shots for close friends, save them some money,” he said humbly. “I prefer landscapes and nature. I’ll wait for an hour for a bird to land in a tree I’ve got framed.”

In fact, he did that very thing, waiting for what he said felt like forever to get a great photo of a heron on a sandbar. He recalled driving along when the sun was approaching just the right place in the sky, so he stopped and was patient as he got a photo he’d been trying to get for some time.

“I pulled over and was finally able to get that shot. It was perfect,” he said.

Blake said he also keeps his camera around for a good shot with the horses, such as when they buck.

“Those are the moments you have to take advantage of,” he said.

Blake got his first camera when he was eight years old. It was one of the old models that still used film – and he used a lot.

“My mom was always saying, ‘You used all your film,’” he recalled. “I’ve never been serious about it – it was more of a hobby. But if you do something long enough, you get good at it – and it has been a huge passion of mine.”

Blake sells himself a little short. He’s won several awards in international online competition with photographers across the globe.

“You’ve got other photographers giving a thumbs up to your photos. That’s pretty cool,” he said.

He sketches, and he plays guitar. And he’s quite adept at playing video games.

“My parents bought Pong when I was a kid and I’ve always had a console. I remember the Christmas I got an Atari, and it really grew from that,” he said.

Blake’s children include his son Hadyn, 28, a mechanic in Granbury; his daughter Hannah, 31, who lives in Midland and gave him three granddaughters; and his stepdaughter Ashle, 39, who lives in Granbury with his two grandsons.

Hannah and Ashle married brothers.

Blake has a sister who is nine years older than him.

“I grew up my teenage years as basically an only child,” he said with a smile, adding that his mom and dad were married for 63 years before she passed away in May at the age of 83.

“I never saw my parents fight. We were a Beaver Cleaver family,” he said.

Along with everything else, Blake finds time to care for his 93-year-old father.

“I’m blessed I got to spend another year with them. My best friend lost his dad at a young age, and I got about 40 more years than he did,” Blake said.

It’s a busy life, but Blake wouldn’t trade any of it. As for the most challenging part?

“Sometimes not getting it all done,” he said. “You’re always going to have train wrecks and Murphy’s Law and sometimes things just don’t get done until the next day,” he said, pausing, to grin, and added, “Except for the horse manure.”