Just a little winter sneaking in before Christmas

Seventeen below zero last night with -28 windchill. Dosn't bother me. When it gets that cold I just stay in the house where it is warm. There is a big pot of potato soup on the stove and the family room downstairs is nice and cozy, and the potato soup is scrumptous. I'll keep it warm for you, with lots of cracker, butter and jelly. Perhaps a little warm pin cherry juice also.

Once again, Tis the Season, down on the farm.

Once again it is the season that everyone looks

forward to all year. Snow is on the ground, fresh fluffy and beautiful. Crowds are gathering in the stores and music is playing everywhere. Which brings me to a point, I went to the grocery today and up near the front was a lady at a fairly large keyboard, playing beautiful piano music. Some semi classical and some yes, Christmas music. It was awesome and what an atmosphere it created in the store. Even though it was crowded people were being courteous and thoughtful of others. That brings my thought also to the fact that I was at the Mall and it also was crowded but the atmosphere semed light and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Maybe there is somoe hope for this crazy world after all. One wonders...listening to the news.

The photos are from last year at Christmas time, The Christmas card was shot through our kitchen window into the back yard. The snow was three to six feet deep over our whole yard
it was really awesome everything was so white. The other is a shot of "Sun Dogs" taken New Years Day 2009. When the weather gets so cold up here that the moisture in the atmosphere crystallizes, the sunlight refracting through the ice crystals creates a large colored circle around the sun with a sun dog on each side. It is really a remarkable sight when they are as pronounced as the are in the photo. We had sun dogs today but only slightly, not nearly as spectacular. It does remind you though that it is cold just in case you forget.

I love the music of this season. The Christmas Carols and especially the happy kids songs like "Santa Claus is Comming to Town", "Frosty" ,"Rudolf", and all the others. They are such happy songs that it can't help but raise your spirits. And we really should be in good spirits as we contemplate the real meaning of the season. We will never again get a gift so marvelous as the one the world received nearly 2000 years ago, with the birth of the Saviour. And He came to benefit all of us no matter what our current beliefs are. MERRY CHRISTMAS .................

My Beautiful Street

Happy Halloween Season

Oh! what a great time of the year. Pheasent season started a week ago and goose season started last week and duck season will be starting or has started already. but the biggie, it's only three weeks till deer season. Now what is so great about all of that? F O O D ! ! ! Every year right after harvest it is butchering time. Not that I am a great advocut of all that work, but I have never minded taking the time to honor the game (or fish) that I get by taking the time to properly prepare it so that it will provide good meals for those who partake, and it is not wasted.

It is strange but we have never purchased much meat and I have no clue as to how much money we have saved because of it, but out side of chicken there is not much else to buy. Also when we buy chickens we wait and get hens that quit laying for about .50 to .75 cents apiece, buy a couple of dozen of them, cut off some of the legs, thighs and breasts to fry and then we pressure cook and can the rest. Hmmmmm It looks great on the shelves with our veggies and tastes scrumptious. A wall of canned vegies and at least one shelf of canned venison and chicken make one feel pretty comfortable as winter sets in. We have also put up quart jars of Pin Cherry juice concentrate this year. A delicious drink, you can have it warm or cold as you prefer.

Now if I could just figure out a good use for the 12 to 14 huge leaf bags of cottonwood leaves that come off the neighbors tree every fall, I would be in good shape. I have already raked the leaves twice this year and that is my leaves, the neighbor's cottonwoods haven't begin to fall yet. But I feel great with the knowledge that in this time of economic turmoil when jobs are precarious and life is uncertain , we will survive the winter in pretty good shape. Heavenly Father is good to us.

More Harvest Time

We took harvest time seriously. It has been raining for a week now and it is dark and damp out so we spent Friday and the weekend between conference session canning tomatoes. We got a total of 20 quarts and 12 pints. Sure makes the food storage shelves look better. I grew up in a small town that was dominated by 40 acre truck farms and a large canning facility. Tomatoes were brought to the plant by horse and wagon and the wagon drivers would throw tomatoes at the kids trying to swipe them off the back of the wagons. Some times we would catch the one that were thrown, sometime we didn't. Somtimes it got messy and then we got it from Mom when we came home. As I got older I picked tomatoes for ten cents a hamper. For those of you who do hot know about hampers, they were about 3/4 of a bushel. You do remember a bushel basket don't you? But harvest was fun. We still have potatoes and carrots to do, hopefully. Canning is a good bonding time, that is what makes it enjoyable.

I remember that the canning factory (as we called it) used to can with one company label and when they got so many they would switch and go to another company label for the cans. They canned for half dozen different companies. The only thing I remember was that Van Camps had a special size requirement and all the tomatoes had to be the same size. You got a better price for them too. I remember they had individual receipes for the catsup they bottled except for some of the lessor brands, they just changed the labels.

The weather has been terribly damp for a week and I have a slight chest cold (normal) but Sherry came down this AM with a sore throat. Hope we can nip it in the bud before it gets serious. Have a good week.

Harvest Time

Already I have a tree out front that is beginning to shed leaves like crazy and it is just the first day of Fall. The leaves just turned overnight last night and at this rate the tree will be bare in a couple of days.

Sherry is home preparing peaches for freezing. I helped her yesterday and we put up 16 pints and I ate six pints so today she told me to get lost. But I will have to go home soon for a teleconference so I will help her get them into the bags. She still had a 1/2 bushell to do when I left home a while ago. I always loved the harvest season. We would butcher deer and and put up duck and geese and of course there was always fish. But the veggies in the canning jars is what really turns me on because they are so pretty when they are done and the shelves in the storage room are all full. And they always taste so good. Come what may, at least there is food to eat. The Lord blesses us greatly.

New life in the Family

Meet Jackson Paul Webb. Isn't he one of the most beautiful little boys you would ever want to see? He is the offspring of my grandaughter Katie and her husband Clint and all I can say is they do good work. Iam so proud, they now have two children, the other is a beautiful little girl named Morgan. Jackson is special because he is my 80th grandchild, by my count. You must realize that I have 10 children and they will all do the count to check on me and they will all come up with a different count, but that is what makes life with a big family interesting. I only hope we can make his future one that is worth looking forward too.

New babies are always so exciting. I think it is because the next year holds so many firsts. First smile, first signs of recognition, first word, first soft food, first tooth , first this and first that. Everything he does this next year will be firsts, and milestones in his life. Write them down Mom so you can remember them, they will become very important to you later in life, and will bring you a lifetime of memories. God bless the new babies everywhere.

It's a Rainy Day Today, Look for the Sunshine

Today it is raining. Not a down pour just a soft, warm, good steady rain. One that you would like to walk in. The kind that makes every thing smell so fresh. We had one about three nights ago that was just the opposite. It was a crashing thunder, electrifying lightening, head banger that picked you up off the bed about three feet at four in the morning when it hit. Would you believe 2.56 inches in about 30-45 minutes. Filled the basement window wells and we discovered there was one window that was not sealed. Yep flooded the food storage room. Didn't really hurt anything, the only thing on the floor was the cat food and it didn't get to that. Had some food under the window that got wet but dry it out and the cans won't rust. We were protected in spite of it all.

I really love the soft rains especially after the rain when the clouds are still dark but the sun shines through and highlights the terrain with possiblly the hint of a rainbow. I can hear the soft roll of thunder outside my office now. When I was a young lad, really young if that were possible, my mother used to tell me that the cooks up in heaven had spilled a bag of potatoes and they were rolling down the stairs. Amazingly enough I just ralized what I was hearing is how I would imagine they would sound. After all these years..... I love to walk and do so every day at least a mile, usually a little more, but at my age I forego the rainy days. I leave that to the memories of yester-year. I would still enjoy it but doubt that my old body would. Please bear in mind that I do not feel that old but I am like an old automobile. If it is old and still in good condition you kinda baby it so that it will stay that way. I have no desire to go to the junk yard yet. Have a good day and don't forget to look out you window.

Yesterday was Labor Day. I want you to know I did everything possible to not labor the entire day. In the afternoon I took my wife to see Walt Disney's "Up". It was an awesome movie. The first ten minutes was the most beautiful tender love story that one could ever want. But from then on it was all adventure, with just a small reminder of the love in the background. The ending was just right . It was not a sad story nor a happy story but was what ever you wanted it to be. When my wife wasn't crying she was laughing and she loved it. Thanks Walt, We had a wonderful time together.

Last night it rained. A real window rattling thunderstorm with blinding lighting for about an hour in the wee hours of the morning and yes it woke us up. I couldn't help but think of all the little critters that were scrambling for safety or even for their life. How does it feel to be a tiny little critter and get caught up in a river of runoff into the street, down the gutter and into the abyss of the storm drain. I thought of a photo that I once made, called "Natures Umbrella". While in reality, the subject only about two and on half inches high, it must have provided protection to at least one or maybe several little critters on several occaisions at least during its short life then to move on to another time, perhaps another life, to another service, after all that is what we are all about isn't it? Service too others? We are here for a time and then it is time for us to move on also.

4 Sep 2009

This is a new experience for and old man and I am proceeding with caution. I want this blog to be about the beauty that I see in my everyday life. We have evolved into a nation where forces of evil approach us from every direction, either through outright greed or simply for a desire to destroy the greatest nation on earth, I don't know which, probably both. What I do know is that the constant bombardment of of negative comments, ideas, and rhetoric coming through our media is enough to depress even the most positive of individuals.
Therefore this blog is to point out the positive that I see in my life and hope to share with you. I want to impress upon you that after spending a considerable amount of time (three years) in the various countries of Europe and another three years in the Caribbean, Central and South America, I have come to the conclusion that there is no greater country than the United States of America, in spite of all her little frailties. I think everyone should be required to spend some time outside the boundaries of this country in order to gain an appreciation for the freedoms and advantages that we enjoy here. There must be a positive reason for so many people violating our borders just to get into this nation.
Now about the blog, for 60 plus years it has been my job, both as a vocation and an avocation,.... to see. To see what goes on around me and around you. To see the good and to see the bad, although the bad is most often reported. I have chosen for the most part at least for the last 30 yeas to see the good and the beautiful. I am a photographer. Not the world's greatest although I can name a lot of them, and have tried to emulate many of them to varying degrees of success. Neither am I the world's worst photographer, if there is one. But because of this passion for photography that developed at about age ten I have developed the ability to see.
When I was some where near the middle of my career about 30 years ago, I had entered a number of photographs of my work in an art show in our local area. My wife and I were standing off to the side watching the people come and go and listening to their comments when three middle aged ladies walked up. Looking at my work one of them stated, "I recognize this photographer's work, He photographs the beauty in the things we see each day but never take the time to look at". That statement has defined the last 30 years of my life. I am a photographer.