Pipe Down

Merrill is looking for critters. Critters, especially night critters, like to curl up for an afternoon snooze in the midst of a pile of irrigation pipe.

We will pick up these pipes, one by one, and load them onto a pipe trailer. Then we drive to the field and unload, stringing the pipe down the field edge, where it will carry a drink to thirsty soybeans.

As we load pipe, the girls do a critter check. Some critters don't matter much when you're irrigating--this one will just scamper away.

Possums don't matter a whole lot, either. The girls found a possom in one pipe; they just set the pipe aside and continued to load.

The next pipe with a possum sleeping inside got loaded onto the trailer....."We'll shake him out before we put the pipe together."

One person drives, pulling the pipe trailer ahead twelve rows at a time. Then she stops while the other two heft a pipe off the trailer, lock it into the lengthening metal snake, walk the span of the fresh-laid pipe, and repeat.

Time came to deal with the possum pipe. I climbed up on the trailer, to hoist the top of the 30-foot length of pipe into the air. Erica stood below, stabilizing the down end. The higher we tilted, the more tightly the critter pressed against the inside of his hideout, holding his position as we angled the pipe into the sky. At length, with the pipe nearly vertical, gravity overcame static friction, and we heard his sharp little claws sliding and screeching their way down the inside of the pipe.

What looks a lot like possum silhouetted in a dark pipe can sometimes turn into skunk when it drops out at your feet. I started shouting; Erica started running. The pipe, without its south-end stabilizer, careened wildly and cratered into the soybeans, missing the retreating skunk.

Even with the inherent risks, evicting Pepe Le Pew is the best choice. You can either chase him out before you hook the row of pipe together, as we did, or wait and let the water flush him down to the end cap the first time you turn on the juice. He will turn on his juice as he drowns, caught in the long tunnel, and you will have to deal with his putrid carcass when you pick up pipe two hot summer months down the road.

Isn't he odorable?

100% sure

Revelation: It is possible to be 100% sure of something and also 100% wrong.

We don't like to admit this, especially about ourselves. All well and good for the other chap, but could I be wrong about the things I've said and thought and believed and taught my whole life? It's humbling and it's scary. This revelation can be used to wash away every bedrock of life and to advance all sorts of agendas that are just, well, wrong.

If you can be wrong when you're sure, maybe you are wrong! How do you know you're not mistaken in your most important analyses, like who God is and what He's saying to you? How do you know anything, for sure, really? And if you can't know anything for sure, how can there be any kind of universal right and wrong, or even general standards about what's beneficial and what's not, that might apply to us all?

John came home from Bible study this morning with good answers from Romans 14. "For God is able to make him stand........let evey man be fully persuaded in his own mind........why dost thou judge thy brother? .......... for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ."

Be fully persuaded; fully enough to take a stand and make a difference for righteousness in your world. Extend grace to your brother, who may or may not see things as you do. Ultimately, we will all stand, or fall, before the Lord. Be humble enough, even after proclaiming the ship unsinkable, to climb into the lifeboat when you feel your shoes getting wet.

So if I stand let me stand on the promise that you will pull me through. And if I can't, let me fall on the grace that first brought me to you. So if I sing let me sing for the joy that has born in me these songs. And if I weep let it be as a man who is longing for his home.

I remember a time of unspeakable grief in our lives, when John and I groped for solid footing, lost in a pain-racked world that didn't make any sense at all. "I only know two things," I told him then. "I know God is good. And I know He loves me." I'm not afraid to be 100% sure.

Every summer

Every summer, Merrill grows sunflowers.

I love summer.

The Driver's License Examiner

Don't look now but...............

Erica's street legal.

Happy birthday, E.

Infrared

It's HOT here.

There is no A/C in this crowded old church, packed on a hot summer night with proud dads, and melting mamas fanning paper programs. The lonely sound of a violin stirs the heavy air.

"Hey, Barn......."

Hay Barn

I apologize for this post, which popped into my head as I drove past the barn in the photo. Somehow it wedged itself into my cerebral reticulations like a splinter, festering until I yanked it out and laid it on the cyber table. I am now free to think about something else while driving, instead of rehearsing this post in my head, chuckling my way through the miles.
Thank you for releasing me.

Camp

Camp was loud and rowdy

(why is the expression on Erica's face so different from Moriah's???)

and fun and funny,

and sticky

and quiet and thoughtful

full of God and full of love.

That's why we came.

(This boy is helping his grandma raise her arms in praise to the Lord)

Too Many Horse Photos

The sky has been blue and the 4H shirts white in several years' worth of county fair photographs. Time for a change.

Which do you like better, the 100% silhouette, or the below shot with a little bit more of CowgirlE showing through?

Black Eyed Susans

When God is the architect, the photographer doesn't have to work very hard.

Midwest Miles

Two thousand midwestern miles slid past my minivan in July.

Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Nebraska.

Good to go, good to be home.

Playing with the Big Zoom - Chickens

What do you see in this magnificent eye?

My read is: 60% uncertainty, 30% suspicion, 10% curiosity.

That combination means the birds don't let me get too close. They walk and squawk if I try to get shots like these without a nice, long, optical zoom.

Who can blame them? Distance is probably a wise choice if your tiny little chicken brain can't settle for certain between a photographer and a fox.

Equine Athletes

Riding horses competitively looks easy when you watch someone who has practiced a lot. But, like every other sport, equine athletics require a lot of training detail which the casual observer may fail to appreciate.

Here Pam, the 4H leader, is coaching Erica through balancing exercises. Erica is building muscle for holding her body straight, while she learns to move it in rhythm with Oliver's loping motion. All without benefit of stirrups or handholds.

P.S. Did I mention that I love my new camera?

Pitcher Picture

My new camera has an 18x optical zoom. That means, at a bridal shower, I can focus on the artistic aspects of glassware across the room when shower games and bows on wire whisks lose their intrigue.

How Audrey Relaxes

The vet clinic where Audrey works treats small animals only. There she handles cats, dogs, hedgehogs, snakes, bald eagles, gerbils, parrots, and turtles, but no livestock. This week, sandwiched between days at her job, she found a chance to shadow our farm vet, who doctors on big animals as well as pampered poodles. So Audrey got to view livestock from a veterinary perspective, extracting wolf teeth from a stallion, cleaning a cow's abscessed hoof, inspecting a hundred pigs for health and happiness.

When she finally got a breather from vet work, I found her thinking about something else you can do with pigs and cows.

What's outside YOUR window?

I'll tell you where I took this photo, but you mustn't tell anyone:

shhhhhhhh.........The Krispy Kholesterol Donut store......

The "Fresh HOT Donuts" sign was lit in blazing pink neon as we drove past. It's like a siren song, causing many a good dieter to crash on the rocks.

Of course I was there strictly for the artistic photo opportunity.

Fourteen!

This girl grew up. Happy Birthday, Merrill.

First Shot

My eyes have been automatically focusing wherever I bid them for nearly half a century. But they're getting tired and a little balky. Vintage eyes using the tiny LCD screen on my camera means my photos are often not pretty....just pretty blurry.

Rachel and John solved the problem by surprising me with a new camera. Their timing couldn't have been more perfect---a few days later the old one died a quick and complete death. The new camera has a generous three-inch LCD. I hate to admit that I need the Large Print Edition camera, but apparently I do.






The camera had only been in my possession twenty minutes or so when Audrey and I headed into a fabric store. When my old eyes glimpsed our images in the storefront glass, I paused and took this shot.



The reflection of the cars outside, our silhouettes, and the bolts of colorful cloth beyond the glass intrigued me. With all three elements in proper focus, I'm pretty much liking the new toy.

It Must Be Horse Show Season

BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER:

Asparagus Heaven

Planting an asparagus bed is a lot of work. You have to dig down twelve inches before setting the roots; you have to fertilize heavily. Then you have to wait a few years before you can even harvest more than a stalk or two.

But if you lay the groundwork correctly, the payback will be abundant and long-lasting. I'm eating asparagus nearly every day; I've even given away a few handfuls.

Growing asparagus reminds me of raising children: dig deep. Lay a good foundation. Fertilize well.

Though there is a season of waiting while the roots take hold, the fruit will be long-lasting, a rich blessing that spreads well beyond your own four walls.

And, while you may be glad that you put in the early labor, the credit for tasty asparagus and faithful children ultimately goes to God.

Incredibles at Home

Have characters from The Incredibles come to dwell in my home?

Or are these my children?

Relaxation

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Photo by FAR

The Photo Road

I need to exercise. I need to lose some weight, and I need to keep the ol' ticker banging out its rhythm for the next several decades.

Yesterday, Merrill told me that she would be rising at 6:30 to sample the great outdoors with a little run/walk down the gravel. "I'll come with you," I volunteered. "I need to exercise."

We ventured out early into the cool grey, wearing our workout shoes and exercise pants. At the edge of the driveway, I spied morning's dew gathered into a single drop at the end of every blade of ditch grass. A thousand jewels, a thousand fleeting diamonds, crying out for permanance before lifting off into the sky, one molecule at a time.

I ran back to get my camera. Merrill ran ahead to get her exercise.

I spent the next half hour capturing water beads from every angle. Here are three of my favorites.

The road to flab is paved with good intentions.

Viola Performance

On the way in.

Dad helps the violist and accompanist laugh away pre-show jitters.