Farm Sights

Last weekend we spent an afternoon into evening bailing hay. It is a day I look forward to several times a season living in the country. (Maybe I enjoy it because I'm in charge of counting kids and taking pretty pictures rather than being dressed in long sleeves and pants in 90 degree weather throwing 40lb square bales into an even hotter hay loft. Maybe...) As I was sitting on the wagon behind the baler with a half naked toddler on my lap, I looked north and saw my older children on a tall pile of hay swaying back and forth on another wagon. Further north I saw more family unloading bales into the barn and even further north I saw the cows grazing on a field. It was a magical feeling, seeing all my family actively involved, smelling all the smells in the beautiful late afternoon sun. It can't even be conveyed in words... maybe pictures.

Kids eating unripe (super sour) apples in the orchard

Finding a butterfly in Grandma's herb and flower garden

Rustic farm stuff

All the cut hay raked into rows waiting to be baled

Kids seeking shade

Fresh cut alfalfa hay... wish this was a scratch and sniff

Burdock - nature's velcro

oh no! BURDOCK FIGHT!!!!

Old grainary and a beautiful blue sky!

Most of my memories are recorded in pictures, either mental or with my camera. I literally think in images. Try and get me away from my desk without my camera. I feel naked without its weight slung across my shoulder! This group of pictures (plus the hundreds, thousands you don't see) is how I see life through my eyes. So many good memories and feelings. And I want to remember each moment. Every single one. Therefore, I take pictures of every day life. A life full of simple pleasures and big ideas, dotted with plenty of accomplishments and plenty of setbacks. I feel incredibly lucky to live this life here this way and give my children these experiences, hoping they never take them for granted, which I'm sure they will. Hoping they will always find a sort of peace helping on the farm, perhaps escaping temporarily from a busy life, like I once did. Always seeking peace and finding it in something as simple and family and the land.