Uninspired

It's March, and I'm completely uninspired. It doesn't seem like enough of an excuse this year. I mean, winter really just arrived, and it's not even cold. Are these days we call March reason enough?

I look back in my blog archive for March of last year, and the year before.

Yep. Uninspired. I can feel it in my words, see it in my pictures.



There's our snow fence. It's the only thing I want to take pictures of anymore.

Thankfully March doesn't last forever.

Pink tulips

I bought myself some flowers, which has nothing to do with Valentine's Day. They're pretty, and whether it feels like it or not, it is winter.



Winter allows for self-indulgent things that make me happy. Like hot cocoa with a tiny bit of instant coffee, and fresh cut flowers that did not grow anywhere near here.



It's an acceptable way of self-medicating for these tiring February days.

Pink is so not my color. I like these anyway.



They remind me that it's warm enough to grow things somewhere, and that my turn will come.


Shot with the Lensbaby 2.0, no longer available - similar to the Lensbaby Muse
and super wide angle accessory

An Afternoon

We have the teeny tiniest bit of snow. It's almost comical. Last year at this time I'm pretty sure we had five thousand inches stacked up and blowing all over the place. I could probably dump a bag of flour on the ground and make a picture similar to this one. Except the dog and chickens are rude, and flour is edible. So, actually, no. I couldn't do this with flour.



I might have to try, though. Since I brought it up and everything.

Yet another January day that did not feel like a January day. I could so get used to this. Yet another weekday afternoon with merely an hour remaining until the school bus returns and I have to face the music. Four o'clock frightens me.

The singing competition between our two roosters became more interesting than drawing in the snow with naked corn cobs. We wandered that direction. Dust and I'd-rather-not-know-what-that-is sparkled in mid-air, caught by beams of light streaming through the barn. He was fascinated.



Sometimes I daydream about a vacation where I just sit in front of the barn, in the warm sunshine, with some of these fuzzy critters. The easy life. That's what this is. Especially when January is wearing March temperatures. Especially when you have a South-facing barn with white paint that creates a practically tropical micro-climate right there.



Did I mention planning my garden? I have big ideas for last year's sunflower stalks.



Did I mention how much we looooooove Arnold? We do. So much. Arnold, on the other hand, does not appreciate how much we admire his adorable little self. At all.

Run Arnold! RUN!!!


It looks like he's just standing there, but that is one of his legs up behind him. Running for his life.

A few things

Way too many orders of business for one blog post. But what the heck, here we go. Feel free to bail out at any time.

1. Scavenger Hunt at Ashley's
I've *ahem* lost the battery charger for my big camera. Tragic (or fortuitous?), I still have my old camera. And after falling off a 100 year old chair, which earned me a 5 inch long dandy of a bruise on my thigh, and tossing that XTi across the room where it left a quarter inch deep gash in the table... it seems to be working better than ever. Lucky, lucky me.

Stacked up:
(this was taken with my full frame)


Winter Wonderland:
Look! We got some snow! What a bizarre winter.


Sweet:
I think Arnold has a girlfriend.


Hole:
Hey Bean, were you trying to get that cupcake into the big hole on your face? You missed.


Frozen:
I mean, not really.... frozen. That hen could be in my freezer, you know. Not that I would do that, or anything.




2. Clickin' Moms

Friends, that button on the side of my blog, the one that looks something like this...


That's an affiliate link. If you decide to become a member, and if I have been the one to introduce you to Clickin' Moms, please... please. For the love of all things photography.... click through my button when you join so I can receive credit for referring you.

If you have questions about the forum, email me. oldnicholsfarm(at)yahoo(dot)com

I'll convince you that your photography will become fabulous overnight, and you won't have to put any work into it whatsoever (at all). Ha. Hahaha! But really, it is an amazing resource.



And, yes, they have a week-long trial membership for only $10.


3. Flickr

I thought it was obvious by now, but apparently not.

I. am. on. flickr. Add me as a contact, friend, whatever. Really, it's okay.

When left-clicking is enabled for a photo on my blog, it'll take you straight to flickr to see activity/comments on that image over there. If you care about such things.


4. Project 52

There is a tab (button thing, click!) under my blog header that says Project 52. This is my little year-long photography project for 2012. Just something to keep pushing me. I'll update that page with a new photo weekly - probably Saturdays since I am a master procrastinator.


5. Carsen's Courage

I love this beautiful lady. I love her sweet family. I love her adorable kid. Her selfless determination to give him the very best of every opportunity is inspiring to say the least. Life isn't easy for Carsen, but what he has overcome already... brings me to tears.



I'm not only lucky enough to know them in real life, but to be related.

Kelly is hosting a Thirty-One bag giveaway - a great excuse to check out her blog.

If nothing else, read this post: Carsen's Courage.
(if you click, read the entire page, and have a box of tissues handy)

Goodbye green

It was as destructive as it was beautiful.



That second night took just about everything, even most of the poor pitiful pumpkin plant that was carefully tucked underneath a thick comforter. I'm guessing the corral hit at least 20 F, if not colder. Micro-climates and all, that's simply too cold.

We're more or less done with the growing. For this year.



Now it officially looks like autumn. Tomorrow I'll gladly admit that this is, truly, the most fantastic time of year.

The colors. The light. I'll love it. Tomorrow.

But right now, I'd like to have a moment of silence for my poor sad garden.



Or not?

*sigh*

The colors.



The late afternoon light.



The kinders don't seem too worried about the lack of green.

We've been busy:

a. Continuing to pick sweet corn. Er... popcorn. She'll figure it out someday. And no, it doesn't look like it will be mature enough to actually pop. But I could be wrong.





I'll spare you the picture where she spit it all over.

b. Swatting at the immature giants. They're now bending low to the earth.



c. Scrounging up a very few red tomatoes underneath 8 foot tall weeds, you know... before the chickens get them first.



KinderGARDENS - what week is it anyway? I'm pretty sure Kirsten is the only one keeping track at this point.

It happened

Tuesday was it. The day I knew was coming, no matter how hard I tried to look the other way. Eventually it had to happen. It always does.

Around this time of year, on a normal year, our front entry-way and kitchen are overflowing with goodness. Even if you somehow managed to walk through with your eyes closed, your nose would alert you to the treasures. Buckets and baskets and pails overflowing. Towering piles and packed shelves. Plums and apples and tomatoes and zucchini... Winter squash and pumpkins... Onions. Carrots. Beets. A runaway tomato or three wherever they'd landed.

This year. Not so much. Not much at all.

And I'm nowhere near ready to admit defeat. Not yet. Summer was too short.



I marched into my favorite thrift store with two littles. We were on a mission. I steered them straight toward the big shelf on the west wall. SCORE! We walked out minus a twenty dollar bill, arms loaded with queen and king sized blankets.

Quite frankly, I felt like we'd won the lottery.

Want to know why?

If you visit a thrift store in search of a specific item, you will rarely find it. It's just one of the unspoken rules of thrifting. You have to get lucky. Not only did we find exactly what we wanted, in mass quantities... one of us narrowly avoided toppling a huge top-heavy display of colorful beaded necklaces. Read as: Mom ruined all her fun just at the exact moment it mattered.

Are you feeling my joy yet?

It didn't last long.

I was single-parenting it for the night. By the time I got everyone in bed, I figured I would have two hours at most before it was completely dark out. Two hours should have been adequate to do some judicious harvesting and tuck the more delicate things in for the night.

And then I fell asleep with the Bean.

I ended up with an hour to get the job done. I couldn't really see what I was doing, but I did it anyway. With my twenty dollars worth of second-hand blankets that still reeked of dryer sheets, fifteen clothespins, a couple of good sized rocks for weights and two upside down pots. Fingers crossed.

And sure enough. That was it.



Besides our wimpy pumpkin plant, which I had promised our boys I would try to save, even though I'm pretty sure the pumpkins won't be ripe until December, and I really have no idea how to make that happen...

My main priority had been to save these:



And these:



Ummm... did you see that? I grew a red pepper. Red. Five of them, actually. This is a minor miracle. And no, they're just barely almost not quite ready to be picked yet. Or maybe I'm not ready to pick them.

Hello my pretties. So glad to see you survived the night.



Tonight?

Round two.

Our forecasted low is lower.

Fingers crossed.

September 10 on 10

I slept until 8:00, which is a miracle. The boys head out the door on a grand adventure with their Daddy. Part of me wants to tag along. More of me is glad for the quiet left behind.

I log onto facebook and my thumb-sucking Bean flops into my lap. Alita mentions starting her 10 on 10 project this morning. This is the reminder I needed. This project has been calling my name for months and months. Post one picture every hour, for ten hours, on the tenth day of the month. An entire day captured. I throw my hat in the ring. Colleen puts in a request for an entire 10 on 10 of chickens. I laugh at the thought of harassing my birds all day long.

I can almost reach my old Canon Rebel without disturbing The Bean.

10:02 am
The beautiful pile in my lap.


11:21 am
She wants to paint. Instead I give her markers. She throws them under the table.


12:23 pm
Fresh milkweed for the captives.


1:49 pm
Naptime. I take a picture that I later decide shouldn't be shared here. What a bummer when this is such a time sensitive thing. Instead of cheating, I decide to post a blurry crop of the photo.


2:56 pm
Spiderwebs all over their faces. The kitties explore the barn, their new home.


4:14 pm
The sun is harsh, but it's a gorgeous day. The Bean is in charge of the clothespins. It works out pretty well except for when she drops the bucket. By now I'm badly missing the wider angle of view on my full frame camera. You can't see that she's standing on a stool.


5:35 pm
The boys are home. The Littler Brother and The Bean are fighting. And they mean it too. It's real life so I try to get a picture of them, but for several reasons it doesn't work out. The Bigger Brother has discovered something. "Mom, your chair is made out of the same stuff as my book! Look. They stick." I cheat and post two photos.


6:36 pm
An hour later and the war has ended. They're shrieking with joyous laughter. What a bipolar relationship these two have. I shake my head. I take one picture.


8:10 pm
It's already too dark out for normal shutter speeds with the capability of this camera. I remember Colleen's plea for chickens. I have an idea. The hens are going up to roost for the night. I cheat and post two photos again.


9:07 pm
The evening is beyond perfect. Warm. No wind. No bugs. The sky is clear and the moon bright. This calls for a tripod and an adult beverage. I shoot the moon. I fail miserably.
9:32
I admit defeat. The mosquitoes have arrived. Instead of capturing the moon I harness it's light.


I think that somehow, it's appropriate to be posting this on the anniversary of 9/11. Life goes on. Our world is different, but it's a new normal. In light of catastrophic events like that, the mundane boring details of a normal day become so much more precious.

Back to School - Part 2

Thick fog all around. We can only see a little way, but I have no doubt the view any further would be too overwhelming. What we have, right now, is exhausting enough.



The little bumps and dips in the road are sometimes worse than they appear. Sometimes they cause more trouble than the big potholes, the ones that are guaranteed to be worth swerving hard to avoid.

Things happen. Small things and big things happen that give assurance that we are on the right road, no matter what state of disrepair it may be in. The right school. The right teachers. These small and big things show themselves for what they truly are, not chance happenings. Blessings. Straight from God himself.

This is right, for us. For right now.

Back to School - Part 1

linking up with You Capture - Back to School

But not the raspberries

Just when I think my KinderGARDEN updates are all starting to look the same... leave it to my kids to switch things up a bit.

But first, we have sunflowers. The big ones.



The really, really really big ones. Really big.



Where's a kinder for perspective when I need one?

Before we continue any further, I need to provide a public service announcement. Go take some tylenol. Yes, now. Or the anti-nausea medication, whatever that's called. I got out my lensbaby. Just uploading these pictures was enough to give me a headache.

I did it for the wide-angle view. And, no, I'm not sorry.

Just go take the tylenol. You'll be fine.

Okay, so instead of ripping around in the popcorn maze and sunflower hallway like we always do, the boys decided to flatten the cattails. They're tall too. And fun.

Why?

Because the corral has finally dried out enough that their Daddy mowed around the swamp as best he could, leaving a perfectly enticing island of cattails. It is September after all.

Why not?



Why do all my pictures of this kid look the same?



But this kid. I can hardly manage to get his head into any pictures at all.


{that's the best you get, and yes I tried}

The Bean had so much fun harvesting sweet corn these last few weeks, she didn't want to stop.

Ummm... that's not sweet corn.



Oh. By the way. Our popcorn is nowhere near ready.

And I won't bother to show you our raspberries. Because I do that every week.







Or would you miss that if I left it out?

Nevermind.

KinderGARDENS week 18