bent boot
Years ago I read a book called Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise?: An Imponderables Book (Imponderables Books)
I’ve seen this practice many times and have read three general reasons. The first makes the most sense. If someone was lost, the boots would show that someone lived nearby. The lost person could follow the boots to a dwelling. Some cover fence posts with boots to protect posts from weather. Some say it’s just tradition.
I like tradition. Long may it live!
GHTime Code(s): nc nc
sunshine on the gate
Sometime ago, I found this antique harrow wheel (or at least that’s what I think it is). I knew I wanted it for yard art, but didn’t know quite how to use it. I thought of making a sunflower out of it.
Welded sunflower
I’d seen several before, but I don’t know how to weld. Paying someone else to make something for me didn’t seem fun at all.
Metal sun on a fence
Finally, I envisioned what it should be — a Sun. We had a gate in the garden that had come from the farmstead where Hubby grew up. It was supposed to provide a place for vining plants to climb, although that didn’t work so well last year.
metal sun wired to gate
I brought bright yellow spray paint for metal and painted it shortly before we put it away for winter. When we got it out of storage this spring, I wired it to the gate, using 100-lb. picture hanging wire. The winds around here require as much strength as I can get.
Today’s weather is overcast with occasional light rain or drizzle. When I came home from work, I saw that bright Sun in our yard. I enjoy a bit of sunshine on a cloudy day!
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GHTime Code(s): nc nc nc ncMay 7
Above video is of my new exhibition site, Aberdeen Steakhouse/Shirley Opera House, Atwood, Kan. We enjoy hearing live music here and eating good food.
A couple years ago, we went there for my birthday, even though I was very dubious about the weather forecast. Hubby was sure we would be all right. We drove home in a blizzard. We ended up taking shelter at his family’s farmstead because we couldn’t see any longer.
That’s how much we like this place.
If you are from this area, attend one of their concerts and support culture in Northwest Kansas. While you’re there in May or June, buy one of my pictures!
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GHTime Code(s): ncOct 6
Aermotor windmill
Windmills are some of my favorite things to photograph. They have such lovely sculptural forms. And nothing says “Great Plains” more than a windmill. Settlement out here west of the 100th meridian would have been nearly impossible without windmills that tapped into the Ogallala Aquifer. Our rainfall is far too undependable without the life-giving aquifer. The homestead where this windmill stands was totally overgrown with weeds and the house was falling down. But the windmill still is cranking away. Aermotor obviously built durable machinery.
Bladeless windmill
Not all windmills have held up under our harsh weather as well as that Aermotor has. This one has lost all its blades, so is useless for anything except an interesting image.
This one is even worse off. I’m not sure how it got so torn up. Perhaps the wind ripped off the blades. Several of them were strewn around the ground below the windmill. Nothing was left of this homestead except foundations, so the windmill is doing better than the rest of the place.
Grounded windmill
No windmill tower was visible anywhere near this windmill wheel that was embedded vertically in the ground. The rest of the homestead was in similar condition, with only foundations and boards remaining of various farm structures.
Windmills are not just creatures of the past. They live on in wind turbines and in a Malawian boy’s dream to bring power to his family.
Here are the windmills on my photo gallery site:
GHTime Code(s): 7c25f de386
 green wheat head |
| Wheat harvest is nearing on the High Plains. By now, this green head is probably nearly ready for cutting. We are expecting a possible Friday date for a combine ride when Marilyn gets her wheat cut. Wendy has never ridden a combine before and I haven’t ridden one for probably 10 years. We are excited. A lovely little shower fell last night, which probably pushed back harvest a bit, but that remains to be seen. |
 river runs through it |
| This rainy summer has filled a lot of low spots in various farmers’s fields. I hope the wheat he’s lost to this lagoon is well compensated from the wheat yield he’ll gain from the rainfall that caused it. |
 Chocolate curls in the mud |
 Lighted chocolate curls in the mud. |
| I don’t usually look at mud, but I was intrigued by these curled-up mud flats in the road next to the lagoon. The texture in the top one fascinated me. I loved how the light played on the curls in the bottom one. Beauty is everywhere, if only we look. |
