FarmFresh

Happy Father's Day

I am surrounded by testosterone, humor at bodily functions, dirty dishes, and smelly, smelly, smelly dirty clothes. I feel like most days I fight a losing battle to instill a modicum of civility. "Mama Tried" will be chiseled in my tombstone. It might even be "Mama Failed."

Luckily, my two boys have some outstanding male role-models in their lives, and it is not just up to me to craft good, strong, decent men out of the baby boys with whom I was blessed. My dad, my father-in-law, and my husband are wonderful.

Happy Father's Day!

52 Fridays: Looking In

I struggled with this one. Looking in...my closet? Not a chance. My pantry? No way. My fridge? Maybe. It did get cleaned out this week at least.

But I kept being drawn back to the farm. We started grain harvest this week. It is hot and dusty. Once you start sweating and the grain dust settles in your skin, you start itching. Luckily we have giant green machines that do the hard work for us. We have a new John Deere combine this year that is tearing through the grain fields much faster than our old one. We cut the field around our house yesterday, and the combine was sitting in my front yard this morning.

Here is "looking in" the direction of the header. (That's the front part of the combine. It is a big wheel-like piece that pulls in the grain heads and chops them off the plant stalks.)

Lots of people are finally finished with school and enjoying summer with their kids, having too much fun to post this week. You don't want to miss what our group's *other* Kelly, Seattle natural light photographer Kelly Baxter has come up with this week.

Here is a shot to help gauge how big the combine's header really is:

Our guys were getting it ready for the day, blowing out the grain dust and dirt that gets everywhere. The panels on the side aren't normally up like that.

52 Fridays: Simplicity

This week's theme is "simplicity." It is hard for me to find anything simple about my life! I am sure it is the same for you.

Summer is in full swing in South Texas, no matter what the calendar states. We are in the lull between the end of school and the start of harvest. There are full days around the barn, getting the combine, grain buggy, and tractors ready for the onslaught of the rest of the summer. And free time? It seems to fill up with baseball.

It is such a simple hallmark of summer - a game involving a stick, a ball, and a glove. Sure, there are lessons and camps and cages, batting gloves and fielding gloves and and catcher's mitts, sacrifice flies and pickles and grandslams. But, when you get down to it, the essence of baseball is the simplicity of two boys throwing the ball, a basic game of catch. One can always find an abandoned ball somewhere in our yard. If you are lucky, there is a minimum of dog slobber encasing the leather. ;)

Denver family photographer Lisa Turner is the next photographer in the blog circle. I can't wait to see how she views simplicity!

52 Fridays: Abstract

Not sure what my 52 Fridays involves? It's a year-long project, along with 16 other photographers, to stretch and sometimes stress our creative vision. Each week we post an image interpreting an assigned theme. I post my picture and a link that will take you to the next photographer's site.

This week is a stress on the creative vision. Abstract? Not my forte.

So I turned once again to what is outside my door - the grain in the field. Add a little Lensbaby, and boom! You have abstract. Taken in the heat of the early afternoon, the harsh and hot sun is finishing up the heads. The heads go from green to yellow to oranges to dark reds, maroons, and rusts as they mature. It is almost time for grain harvest. You can see what it looked like a few weeks ago and how much it has changed since then.

I am always blown away by the work of Hannah Mayo/West Palm Beach FL Lifestyle Portrait Photographer. You'll be thrilled with her work!