The Long Winter? Well, it was a very short summer anyway.

My mom is an avid fan of the "Little House" series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. My sister and I were just little kids when she started reading them to us. Every night before she tucked us into bed, we would climb up on one of our beds, and mom would read a chapter or two. 

The three of us will often quote her books, or refer to them in some way. It is actually quite amazing how life in pioneer times is still relevant today. (My favorite thing to joke about is when Ma slapped a bear. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read Little House in the Big Woods. It is the first one. Get on it!)

It has been a couple weeks ago now, but we got the first snowfall of the year. I don't know if it really counts, since it didn't stick around long, but there was actual measurable SNOW. In OCTOBER. How crazy is that?

You won't believe that this photo was taken on October 22!

My friend John let me use the photos he took of the snow.
Look how it is piling up on the pumpkins!

 I believe that maybe once, when I was a kid, there was snow on Thanksgiving. That at least makes sense though. Late November snow. Middle of October snow? That is just absurd.

Then my mom pointed out that during the Long Winter (Book #6) It started snowing in October.

Well I suppose that kind of put things in perspective. It isn't that bad to have just a little dusting of snow in October. At least the snow stopped.

Later that same day I happened to be going through pictures on my computer and I realized something.

Spring, Summer, and Fall had only lasted 6 months.


You see, the last time we got snow was in March. And it wasn't just a little dusting. It was enough snow to keep me home from school It was enough snow that we couldn't see our neighbors house down the road. It was enough snow Austin built a ramp to jump his snowmobile.

March 5, 2013

He is really hard on his stuff.

 That is just a really incredible thing to think about. Three out of the four seasons, and they had to fit into only half of the year. The other half is snowy and cold. I don't know that I ever thought about exactly how long the winter was before. It just sort of becomes a matter of routine.

Well, there it is I suppose. Food for thought!

Fall 2013

Here they are. Just as I promised. This last weekend was the perfect weekend to take pictures. The sun was shining through the leaves, and John had let the cows out to explore a recently harvested field so I had the cow pasture all to myself. I called the dogs, grabbed my camera, and we headed out for a lovely walk.

“Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and the day, from the view of the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves and withered hedges, and from repeating to herself some few of the thousand poetical descriptions extant of autumn--that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness--that season which has drawn from every poet worthy of being read some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling.” 
― Jane Austen, Persuasion

“The autumn leaves blew over the moonlit pavement in such a way as to make the girl who was moving there seem fixed to a sliding walk, letting the motion of the wind and the leaves carry her forward. [...] The trees overhead made a great sound of letting down their dry rain.” 
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” 
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Windmill Picture Project

Every once in a while I feel like I should have a blog just for my photography. But then I realize I would have to maintain two blogs, and I'm just too lazy for that.

Anyway, I wanted to share these, and maybe someone will share their thoughts with me. Can't get any better if I don't get any feed back.

First, the story.

Back in our cow pasture there is this really awesome windmill. It is ridiculously old. Our landowner, who is probably 90 + years old, told John that when he was a young man they made some repairs to the windmill, and that it was old then. I wish that we could find a date on it somewhere.

I have had this idea that I would take a picture from the same angle every season, and then display all four pictures together. To preserve its awesomeness for posterity. Since, unfortunately, nothing lasts forever.

1

2

3

4

So? Which one do you like? I think I like #4 the best. But I'm not sure. What do you think? Should they be edited differently? Let me know in the comments!

Harvest Time 2013

It is that time here in the Midwest. On days when the sun is shining and the ground is mostly dry farmers will race to the fields to complete the most important of farming jobs.

Harvest.

Beans are usually first, and are notorious for how dusty and dirty they are. Pay attention if driving through the country with your windows down, because the watery eyes and choking cough from driving through a cloud of bean dust is NOT WORTH IT. (I wouldn't know from personal experience or anything.... no... not at all.)

John asked me to come pick him up and take him back to the house
so he could bring some more wagons over to the field.
Blue skies and golden bean fields.
Perfect.

Trucks are red and tractors are green.
There is a bumper sticker in the store where Austin works that says that.
I always thought it applied to us.

"Old school" farming with the 4020.

More recently, I got the chance to ride with John in the combine while he was working on corn.

He wasn't really expecting me to show up in the field, and I think I might have scared him a little bit when I just showed up out of nowhere. It is wise to never sneak up on big machinery. I didn't mean to walk up behind him I swear!

I wasn't exactly sure where he was combining at.
So I sort of ended up behind him.
 But it turned into a rather cool picture, so I'm okay with it.

The view from the cab.
Don't ask me how a person manages to line everything up correctly
so that the stalk feed into the combine.
I don't think I could do it.

Dumping the combine hopper into the Kill Bros. wagon. 

The "boys" (Austin and John) are still working on getting all the grain in. I think John said this morning there are 47 1/2 acres to go, and we might end up helping another farmer combine his corn. Not sure though.

More pictures

Here are some more pictures I took during my blogging hiatus. I'm thinking tonight I'm going to go out and start taking some fall pictures in the woods. That is, If I can steal the Rancher from the boys for a little while. Might even be able to get a few pictures of John combining if the weather cooperates.

I might have fallen off the face of the earth, but I'm back now.

Okay. I realize I haven't published anything since May. (I'm not a very good blogger I guess.) I had this whole blog post written out in my head that would explain away why I've been gone for so long, but I don't want to make excuses, and I guess I'm just not ready to talk about it.  Maybe someday I will. I feel like I've learned a valuable lesson in Forgiveness, and I want to share it so maybe others can learn from my mistakes. I'm still working through all of the emotions though.

Anyway. It is fall now. It is a frosty 50 degrees outside right now and the leaves are beginning to change colors. I keep waiting for "the moment."I feel like every year there is a moment when the scenery is at its peak beauty, and that is the moment that you should take pictures. Northern Illinois really is its most beautiful in the fall, and I hope to share it with all of you soon.

Before I do that though, I'll share a few pictures from my crazy summer. Catch you up a little bit on what has been going on.

Planting. The shoots are just so little.
Sometimes it is hard to believe that they will grow to be so tall.

More spring. Upper left: wild columbine.
Lower left: John and Austin are out checking to make sure the beans are coming up.
Right: The skeletal remains of a windmill that ran a pump.
We don't really know how old it is.  But we love it, and try to make sure it doesn't fall on our watch.

Kittens, kittens, and more kittens! Gah! So cute.

The Fourth of July. It is kinda a big deal in Mt. Morris.
Left: My "little sister" Kelci ran for Let Freedom Ring Queen this year.
Upper Right: We finally got to take a picture of all three of us in our crowns.
Lower Right: Austin and I being goofy at the fireworks.

Random Summer.
Top: The corn got SO unbelievably tall this year. I've never seen anything quite like it.
It sort of created a wall all around our house.
Bottom Left: Audra emcee'd the local Kable Concert Band, as well as played her flute.
She was awesome.
Right: Wednesday nights in Mt. Morris look like this.
Everyone is downtown watching the Kable Concert Band.
Bottom Right: Audra on the 4230. John really wanted a picture of her on the tractor.

So.... yeah. Pretty much the whole summer. (I skipped over a little bit.) I've got a lot of fall pictures I'll put up soon. No, I really mean soon. Not 6 months from now. I told you. I'm going to be a better blogger now.

Farming #3 -- The Disc

Now that spring has finally arrived, John has finally made it out into the field. Now I think it is pretty safe to say that everyone knows that in the spring, farmers plant. And that is true. However, before you plant, the ground has to be ready. After a long, cold winter the ground is hard and dry on the surface. The ground almost begs to be worked. There are many tools and machines that can be used to prepare the ground, and I'm sure I'll talk about more later on, but I'm going to start with the disc.

First piece of machinery.... how exciting!

The disc is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It is a whole bunch of heavy, slightly curved, metal discs arranged in rows, that are then drug behind the tractor. The discs turn in the ground and break up the soil.

Now you might be saying to yourself, "Grace, that looks like a rusty piece of junk in your pictures, why would you even bother using that thing?". Okay, I know it might look like that, but there are two things you need to know. First, just about everything on our farm looks kinda rusty. (Haha, John is gonna be mad that I wrote that!) Second, the discs don't stay rusty for long. The friction from the soil makes them shiny again in no time.

See? Once again it looks like steel.

There you have it. Not really complicated, but it can start to get confusing when you see all the machines together. I still get confused sometimes, and then Austin makes these faces at me like, "Really? Don't you know this yet?".

He'll get over it. He grew up with all of this. I didn't.

Stay tuned to the blog! Sometime at the beginning of next week I'll be putting up a new blog, with Austin's help, about the hydraulics on the machinery and how they are used. I know. Sounds really exciting, I'll make it more interesting somehow....

See you soon!

Spring has finally arrived

After a VERY long winter, and then a season of monsoons, I think spring is finally here. The weather is finally starting to warm up, and we might actually make it to 70 by the end of the week. I has been over six months since I could wear my flip flops without my toes freezing off. I'm ready for some warmth.

Turkey Tracks

Deer Tracks

Ahhhh.... spring. My favorite time of year. The bright green of the grass is almost shocking to your eyes after all the dullness of the winter months. The trees wake up and begin to poke out some leaves. The farmers start to get over excited and get our every piece of equipment they own and inspect it for the upcoming planting season. The race begins to see who can get into the field first.

Austin, for once in his life, just taking it easy.

I've been trying to spend some more time outside enjoying all this nice weather. I'm not a person that enjoys really hot weather, so once summer kicks into full gear I'll probably be hiding back inside in the air conditioning. But for right now, I'm going to take as many walks and ride the four wheelers as much as I can.

I'm so happy to see all of these lovely spring colors after so long! Aren't you? Or is Mother Nature still trying to make up her mind about what season it should be where you are?

End of the semester feels

This is my last semester at Kishwaukee College, and my last semester as a member of the Kaleidoscope.

I can't decide whether I feel happy or sad about it. This gif set pretty much sums up how I feel.

Remember, you can recieve updates about when I post new content by entering your email address below. Leave me comments with your thoughts about the end of the school year. I love reading what you have to say.