Dry Kansas landscape

 The kids got out of school on May 16th. I'm not bragging or anything, just stating a fact. I know plenty of schools (Indiana) are still in school. 

 

Summer; so far so good...meaning that my kids haven't driven me completely insane....yet. Which is surprising because this is the first summer in ten years where I don't have any kids taking a daily nap!! Who knew how exhilarating no naps could be!! No more tiptoeing around the house!!

 

The weather has been mild lately, only in the 80's, and we've been taking advantage of it with open windows and plenty of outdoor time before the 100's arrive...and they surely will.

 

Over the weekend we drove out to friend's house to go shoot. As we were tooling down the dirt road I was astonished to have to swerve around a snake in the road. Believe it or not after almost four years living in Kansas this was the first snake I've ever seen.  We backed up and leaned out the window to try and catch a glimpse of a rattler. All I managed to get a picture of was the tail, no rattle. After I described it to my friend she said it was probably a bull snake.

 

Here's a shot of the wheat field we drove through.

Not pretty. We've been in a drought the whole time we've lived here. A drought worse than the Dirty Thirties. When we first moved to Kansas I wrote a lot about the drought but after living in it for almost four years it's too depressing to write about all the time.

 

Heck...driving by fields like this everyday is depressing.

 

On a less depressing note the kids and I use this little trail to practice their driving skills. They are getting better. Yahoo wanted to drive too so she sat on my lap for a few bit and steered.....she's crazy!! If it were up to her we would definitely have ended up in a wheat field!

 

Sorry, no photos of the shooting...gotta focus!

 

Close up of the wheat.

I'm not sure if I'd recognize pretty wheat if I saw it...it's been such a long time since I've laid eyes on healthy wheat.

 

 

Summer is starting off slow but it's quickly building up momentum as I've started adding more and more events to my calendar. T-ball, Baseball, Camp, 4H, swimming, Bible School. If only we could get some rain, that's the only thing that would make this summer better!!

The Joys of MUD!

We started off our visit home to my husband's family in southern Indiana. My brother in law farms down there so I was really looking forward to tromping around with the kids. 

Indiana wheat looks awesome. The color of the photo above is off; it was much greener. 

My sister Officer came down with me because there are times that she really likes to get away from the hustle and bustle of Indianapolis. I can't really blame her. We were raised on a farm and spent lots of our childhood outside romping through trees and fields. Coming to the country is a tonic for our souls I think. 

My mom had told me how swamped with rain Indiana had been. They'd gotten four inches of rain just three days before we arrived so I was expecting muddy puddles. Our first stop, before we even got to the farm, was to buy three pairs of rubber boots. What a good buy! The kids stomped all over the place and I didn't have to worry about ruined shoes :) 

The first time Yahoo saw a muddy puddle she seemed so surprised! And she even asked if it was okay to play in. I'm not sure if she thought there was something in the mud, or if I'd be mad, or what but she didn't have that impulsive instinct to jump right into the mud like the boys did. Of course the boys lived around wet and mud until they were 5 1/2. Yahoo's lived in dry Kansas since she was 16 months old. Quite a different childhood between them. 

I love my brother in law's farm. So peaceful and just a wonderful place to romp around. 

August Storm - *WARNING* Pic Heavy

Friday night I was at a Pampered Chef party and when I stepped outside about 8:00 pm the sky was gorgeous with a coming summer storm. I rushed home grabbed my camera and the truck, because I can climb up on the cab of the truck and get a much better view, I rushed off on the dirt roads. 

Warning!! This post has about 21 pictures. They've been edited only slightly and are true to color. This really was how bright the colors were that night! 

I rather think the tail light one is my favorite. 

Or maybe these sunflowers are my favorite! 

I've never been out in a sky before like this one. It was magnificent and I stayed out in it until I was soaked. This, the sky so vast and powerful, is what I love about Kansas. 

Week 13 - Green

It's really been greening up this spring, much more than last year. That's what happens though when it FINALLY rains! I was sure happy that there was actually something alive to shoot for this week's green theme because there probably wouldn't have been anything like this here at the same time last year. 

f11, 1/80, ISO 1600

This is a field of wheat at the edge of our town.
I love wheat. 

f7.1, 1/125, ISO 1600

Same field different direction.
I suppose some people wouldn't like these photos since they are tilted but a straight on picture, to me, suggests stillness and tranquility. Even though this scene could easily have been portrayed that way those weren't the emotions I was feeling. We haven't had rain in so long and it was nice and wet when I took these photos, I was just so ecstatic about the moisture I wanted to suggest more dynamic feelings than stillness. So, I tilted em'.

And then, just because, I edited them the teeniest bit. 

edited with some HDR 

edited with some HDR and some cross process

Week 14 - Music

White and Red Wheat

A new painting is finished and I'm very happy with it!

My fabulous husband who has always been very supportive of any artistic endeavor I embark upon doesn't like this painting at all. Usually he thinks I'm done with a work of art way before I'm done with it but in this case he thinks I should do a lot more work to this painting. I don't think he likes the fact that it's only white.

Here's what it looked like right when I sketched it out.

And some close ups details.

I really enjoyed limiting my colors. I liked the way the white looked on top of the red. I think I'll do this again, a white painting on top of a spray painted background. I just have to get myself another canvas and think of another subject. Maybe more wheat, who knows?

So, do you agree with my husband and I should do more to this painting?  Or do you agree with me and think it's done? Either way...I'm not changing it :)

Old Time Wheat Harvest

Wheat harvest is just about finished in this part of the country. About one more week is the estimate. Although the drought has been bad and the harvest poor the local farmers have had a better crop than they expected. Better, but still not good.

Every year the locals get together for a day and have an old time wheat harvest to show how it used to be done.

No, this combine isn't an antique...it's just waiting to finish the job that the old time machines start.

I can't imagine harvesting fields of wheat with this little guy.

And look at that tractor! No cab, no air conditioning.

But there were three old time harvesters running in the field and dumping in an old grain truck...not a huge semi truck like farmers use now a days.

Looks hot out there doesn't it? Well, it is. The temps have been in the 90's and 100's for the last few weeks. Today's high is 106. (After I finish typing this post we are going to the pool!)

It was funny because there were probably 50 people out in the middle of this hot wheat field just watching the harvesters run. I'm sure they wouldn't have been so cheery if they'd been harvesting this way everyday for two weeks.

 This was a chance for some of the guys in the area to share some of their old toys too.

 Antique tractors and antique cars.

I was really looking forward to the old time harvest as being a wonderful educational experience for the boys. Honestly though it was too hot and dusty and we were all in a raging bit of a grumpy mood  so we didn't stay very long.

The most interesting thing for the boys to do was pick up wheat the old harvesters had missed. Yip and Yap kept holding up handfuls at me and hollering, "Is this enough wheat to make some bread Mom?"

I kept answering, "Not quite."

So a couple large handfuls of wheat are sitting in the back of my car and maybe this week will try to thresh it and grind it into flour and use it in some bread. I think the boys will be pretty disappointed with how little flour they'll get though! Maybe next year it will be a bit cooler on old time harvest day...I hope!