“I think over again my small adventures
My fears, those small ones that seemed so big
For all the vital things I had to get and reach
And yet there is only one great thing
The only thing
To live to see the great day that dawns
And the light that fills the world.” – Intuit Elder
The winter super moon is one of those things that is neat to see, but you have to really want to capture it with a camera to put up with the cold. And on this evening, it was really cold. Below zero windchills as I recall. This moon was rising over the Mississippi river, so … Read more
I realize not everyone has the good fortune of having a wooded backyard. But many folks do have the opportunity to photograph some very interesting and beautiful birds somewhere close by.
There is a community park not far away from where we live, and they do have feeders there with a viewing blind available most of the time…so perhaps there’s something like this close to where you live.
I’m fortunate in that I feed a lot of birds year round and one of my favorites is the Red Headed Woodpecker. They like to eat suet, sunflower seeds, and during the summer, a decent amount of insects.
They are hard to miss as well…bright red head, pearly white belly and undersides and coal black on the back. I was happy this year to see they had a successful nesting so hopefully we’ll have these beauties for years to come.
As the sun sets behind this farm in Iowa, not far from where I live, I can’t help but think it’s symbolic of our times. There’s no question that over the years, particularly those from the early 1980’s on, we’ve seen a notable reduction in the family farm. It’s hard to make ends meet in farming. When you rely on things as fickle as the weather, and commodity prices…well, you’re working with some pretty volatile things.
Some of my high school friends, their families, more specifically, ran small farms. I worked on a few…bailing hay mostly…it didn’t seem all that fun then. But it was purposeful. And although the work could be hard, hot, sweaty, and dusty…you knew you accomplished something at the end of the day. It was the first place I learned, that with every day, there was always something productive that could be done.
I miss these family farms. I think our country is the lesser for them not being here in great abundance.
“The land is sacred. These words are at the core of your being. The land is our mother, the rivers our blood. Take our land away and we die. That is, the Indian in us dies.” – Mary Brave Bird, Lakota
