Of Mother’s Day, Green Truck Rides, and Stampeding Cows

May 14, 2017May 14, 2017 | Allison

Hello, dearest readers, and HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! I hope you let your mom know how much you appreciate her hard work. I certainly do appreciate my mom’s hard work! She’s does so much for us – cooking food for seven people three times a day, cleaning the house, homeschooling five kids… so much work, with so much love and patience. ♥ Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! 😀

After supper today we went on a Green Truck Ride with the whole family for fun and kind of also to celebrate Mother’s Day. (In case you’re wondering, a “Green Truck Ride” is when the kids hop on the back of Dad’s old, restored, mint-green truck and Mom and Dad drive us around the farm. 🙂 It’s always quite fun.)

Of COURSE I brought my camera, and even got some neat pictures to show you guys. What a surprise, huh? XD (Note: I did edit most but not all of these pictures a bit, in case you were wondering.)

Oooooh isn’t this pretty with the mountain in the background? This isn’t the main part of our farm – it’s the back section which has its own barns and silos and such.

This picture is of a neighboring farm:

And now we’re back to ours. I thought the fields looked lovely in the golden sun!

Maggie loves to ride on the truck bed with us. 🙂

Isn’t this picture neat? You can see my Dad through the window and in both of the mirrors.

We stopped to visit the cows and they all came running up to us. XD Hmm, this looks like a good opportunity for another “Rather Puzzled Cows” story… (See the first one here.)

“Lookout to chief, over. It seems we have some strangers on the premises, do you copy?”

“Chief to lookout, over. Visitors you said? Hmm, we haven’t had any in a while. I’ll sound the alert. ALERT, ALERT, EVERYONE. VISITORS ARE APPROACHING. STAMPEDE AT WILL.”

*Pant, pant*

*Snort, snort*

“Eww, they’re only the strange looking two-legged things again.”

“*Gasp* Well! I’m shocked at your language, Bertha. How could you be so cruel? I think they’re kind of cute.”

“Hmph. They look suspicious to me. I shall give them my hard stare and see if that drives them off.”

“Well that didn’t work – look.”

“WHOA STAND BACK! THEY’RE COMING FOR US!”

“What d’ya think, girls? Don’t they look suspicious to you? Especially that one holding out the stick.”

“Hmm, I see what you mean.”

“Yeah… let’s take it slow here, ladies. You never know what could happen with these creatures. Just stand back and watch carefully. Close scrutiny is always the best choice in cases like these.”

“OOH, OOH! Hey Bertha, should I run them through with my great and mighty horns? Huh, huh? Just let me at ’em, and I’ll-”

“Oh puh-leez. You’re horns aren’t big enough to butcher a groundhog.”

“B-but… *Sniff* Okay then.”

“Wait. Guys. They’re moving again. HEEELP!”

“Sheesh. What a bunch of scaredy-cows. Why did I get stuck with this herd? I mean, really!”

XD Hee hee! That was fun.

So anyway, after the cows we went to the grain bins with Mom and Dad. It was so much fun! We took the speaker in to see if it would sound all echo-y like our voices did, but it didn’t echo as much as I thought it would. It just got dusty. 😛 The kids played catch with a sock filled with corn, everyone jumped from the ladder a few times, and we listened to music and sat amidst the corn kernels. 🙂

Here’s a couple of pretty cloud pictures to end on…

So yep, there’s our Mother’s Day adventure of sorts. 🙂 I hope you enjoyed the pictures and my rather rambling commentary. Thanks for reading, my friends!

***Allison***

P. S. The next post will hopefully be the birthday haul post. 😀 Except I thought of a much better title. XD Hee hee!

Of Snow, Ice, Snowmen, Puddles… Etc.

March 19, 2017March 19, 2017 | Allison

Guys, buckle up for a TON of pictures! This may be one of my longest posts to date. XD

It snowed last Monday/Tuesday, and I just went photo-wild. XD I got a few neat pictures of the snow, but most of the pictures were actually of icicles or ice. So anyway, have a seat and take a peek, won’t you?

Phew, I don’t know where to start! Let’s see. I guess I’ll start with some pretty, icy pictures.

Ice:

tag (8) (1280x853) — The poor pussy willow buds got rather frozen. 😦

Next up…

Snow:

tag (25) (1280x853) — It didn’t snow very much, but it still looked pretty!

tag (24) (1280x853) — Heh heh, I drew this horribly deformed smiley face in the snow with water.

My three youngest siblings made this hilarious but cute snowman. XD After I took these pictures, they made him a “Snow Cool” sign.

tag (28) (1280x853) — They used icicles for the mohawk, a carrot for the nose (obviously), sunglasses for the… uh, sunglasses ( XD ) and a smear of dirt for the mouth.

After most of that snow had melted, what do you know? It snowed AGAIN! (And then melted super quickly but oh well.) The most amazing thing about this snow was the snowflakes. I mean, they weren’t even snowflakes, they were more like snowballs! They were the biggest flakes I have ever seen – a whole bunch of snowflakes bunched into a clump, some of which were quarter-sized or bigger. I tried frantically to get a good picture that showed how big they were, but I didn’t really get any. 😦 I did get some pretty pictures, though!

tag (3) — We have a nice view of this silo from our deck. 😀

tag (4) — There you can kind of see how hard it was snowing!

Ooh, yay! Now I get to show you the…

Icicles

After we finished gathering eggs, I ran back to the house to get my camera. I noticed the lovely icicles hanging from the chicken house roofs, and I just HAD to get some pictures. 😉 I’m so glad I did! It took quite a bit of patience and a high shutter speed setting to capture the drops falling, but I had SO much fun experimenting!

tag (13) (1280x853) — Woohoo, two at once!

These icicles are on our house, and I took this picture at sunset.

And that leads us to…

Water Drops

After I had taken quite a few icicle photos, I noticed that the drops sliding off of them were splashing into a puddle. I decided it would be fun to take pictures of that too! Instead of kneeling down in the wet snow, though, I got a (rather dirty) measuring pitcher from the chicken house, brought out something to sit on, and started taking pictures. This also took quite a bit of patience, like the icicles. I got a whole bunch of blurry or boring pictures for every good one. But again, it was so exciting when I DID get a good one! Hee hee!

(Note: I edited these pictures a good bit – they didn’t look like this straight from the camera. 😉 )

And now for my very favorite one. ♥ Ohhh my goodness I love it so much!

And last but not least, we have…

Everything Else

I took several not-so-snowy pictures that I wanted to include too.

Quite a few robins were hopping around this puddle, waiting for spring to come, I guess. 🙂

robin 1 — I love how you can see his reflection.

robin 2 — This was a fun one! I made everything black and white except for the robin’s pop of color.

I was pretty tickled to get this next picture. I saw two robins fighting in the puddle all of a sudden and quick pressed the button – and it actually worked! I love it when that happens. 🙂

tag (33) (1280x853) — This is neat, don’t you think?

tag (29) (1280x853) — I rather like this one too.

I shall end with this promise of spring. This poor little beauty was stuck face down in the snow when I rescued her, but she’s still so bright and cheery for all that! Daffodils are such incredibly hardy, resilient flowers that can spring back after even such cold trials as this snow. Sometimes it’s hard to be a daffodil, isn’t it? It is for me…

Aaaaannnd I’m finished! Maybe it wasn’t so wise to put all those pictures in one post, but I just wanted to try and see how it worked. XD What do you think? Was that way too much or did you heartily enjoy seeing all those photos at once? Or are you indifferent? XD

If you actually got through the whole thing, which category or picture was your favorite?

Thanks for reading (and persevering)!

***Allison***

Autumn Photoshoot: “Undeniable”

October 26, 2016October 26, 2016 | Allison

Bonjour! (Or hola, since I’ve been studying Spanish…)

I’ve wanted to do a lyric photoshoot for a long time, and I finally got around to it! I love the song “Undeniable” by TobyMac because it’s so uplifting, and so true. Especially on these gorgeous autumn days it’s easy to see God’s “evidence piling up” in the beautiful world he created for us. Click the play button on the video below, then enjoy the rest of the post while listening!

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There are moments that I doubt You.
Blind to the beauty that surrounds me,
I try to push away the need that I’m needin’ proof.
And this struggle that I have, it ain’t nothing new.

But the evidence is piling up, yup.
You change my heart isn’t that enough?

You give me life that I can’t take credit for;
Call me to walk through an open door.

Undeniable, You are, You are, You are;
Unmistakable, You are, You are.

You’re the bright and morning star,
But still You speak to my heart.
Undeniable, You are, You are.

Your work doesn’t stop with me –
Your signature’s on everything we see.

From the hills of Negril, Jamaica,
To the kid that the doctor said would never make it.
Which is harder to believe: that You don’t exist,
Or that You orchestrated all of this?

Living in the world that is so confusing,
You’re the argument I’m never losing.
‘Cause I believe.

Undeniable, You are, You are, You are;
Unmistakable, You are, You are.

You’re the bright and morning star,
But still You speak to my heart.
Undeniable, You are, You are.

From the hymns that my Daddy sang,
I know I was made to glorify Your name.

And from the prayers that my Momma prayed,
I know I was made to glorify Your name. [x3]

So undeniable, You are, You are, You are;
Unmistakable, You are, You are.

You’re the bright and morning star,
But still You speak to my heart.
Undeniable, You are, You are. [x2]

Which is harder to believe: that You don’t exist,

Or that you orchestrated all of this?

Living in the world that is so confusing,

You’re the passion that I’m never losing.

*********************

I love that line: Which is harder to believe: that You don’t exist/ Or that you orchestrated all of this? Seriously! Which makes more sense: that a Creator God designed our incredibly complex and beautiful world, or that God doesn’t exist and everything just happened to evolve this way?

Living in the world that is so confusing,/ You’re the passion that I’m never losing.

‘Cause I believe.

***Allison***

Old and Worn: A Photoshoot

October 17, 2016October 17, 2016 | Allison

After reading Rebekah’s post the other day, I was like, “Ooh, I want to do that!” So I did. 🙂 I went for a walk around our farm with Maggie and took looots of pictures. Thankfully none of our barns are falling down or anything, but some of them do look beautifully old and worn.

This is somewhat of an experimental post. I don’t usually do B&W (black and white) or architecture photography, but today I’m doing both! Let’s see how the experiment turned out…

2016-10-12-allisonfallcalvesbuildings-165-1280x960 — AHH I LOVE THIS PICTURE SO MUCH! 😀

file-oct-17-2-01-12-pm-960x1280 — Lots of straw!

file-oct-17-2-01-29-pm-1280x960 — Barn siding…

file-oct-17-2-02-48-pm-1280x960 — Maggie had to stop for a drink. 😛

file-oct-17-2-04-59-pm-1280x960 — Look at the “candlestick”! The moon really lit up this post. 😉

file-oct-17-2-06-04-pm-1280x960 — I love this picture as well!

file-oct-17-2-06-27-pm-1280x960 — This is a broken window on our “Pighouse.” We don’t use it anymore except as a machine shed, but it used to be a pig barn (thus the name). I always thought the broken part of the window looked like a pig. 🙂 Can you see it?

2016-10-12-allisonfallcalvesbuildings-168-1280x960 — Isn’t this neat? Vines (I think they’re Virginia Creeper vines) climbed quite a way up this old grain silo.

I think the experiment was a success! At least it was fun to conduct. 🙂

Do you like B&W or architecture photography? What is your favorite thing to photograph?

***Allison***

P. S. Thank you guys sooo much for entering my giveaway and taking my survey! I enjoyed reading your suggestions and opinions. I’m going to do a post soon that Clara suggested in the survey!

Farm Landscapes + PFA #3

March 17, 2016March 17, 2016 | Allison

When I was up at my grandparents’ not too long ago, I took some neat landscape pictures of our farm. (My grandparents live just up the lane – we are super blessed that way!) It was a beautiful spring evening and the farm just looked so pretty…

DSCN1657 (1280x245) — Isn’t this neat? I took it on the “panorama” setting of my camera.

(Click on any photo in a collage to enlarge.)

I love these photos – this one especially.

Can you spot the bird?

DSCN1713 (1280x960) — Geese at the pond – my camera zooms really well!

DSCN1688 (1280x960) — Sun through a tree at my grandparents’ woods

I hope you enjoyed looking at these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them! Which picture was your favorite?

Oh, and I think a PFA (Post from the Forgotten Abyss) might be due. Check out this post I made in September 2014 (!!) with pictures of lots of different animals found around our farm.

***Allison***

More Snow Pictures!

February 9, 2016February 15, 2016 | Allison

It snowed again! It was only a tiny bit, and it’s pretty much all melted now, but I got some really pretty pictures that I wanted to show you. So it didn’t snow in vain. XD Get ready for a bunch more snow pictures! (And an extra-special one at the end!)

{Click on any individual photo in a collage or column to enlarge. I mean to enlarge the photo, not you. XD}

******************************************************

We have a Nandina bush in our yard that is sprinkled with clusters of bright red berries. The red berries looked gorgeous against the white snow!

(I edited this image. ↓)

Snow on our clothesline…

Pigeons on the silo…

Dogwood branches…

Just snow…

Excuse Maggie in the background. 🙂

And now we come to my pride and joy: a picture of an actual, single snowflake! I know it’s not the best quality, but I was very happy that I could get a picture like this! Isn’t it beautiful? God made sure to put beauty in even the smallest snowflakes – tiny pieces of ice that melt at the slightest breath of warm air. What delicate pieces of art!

*Sigh.* Snow is so beautiful. But then again, it is also cold, wet, and slushy when it melts. So I’m glad we don’t have snow year round. 🙂 Which picture was your favorite?

Thanks for reading!

***Allison***

YES YES YES – SNOW!

January 24, 2016February 14, 2016 | Allison

YES YES YES YES YES YES! It finally snowed here! 😀 And it snowed like two feet – which is pretty much for us. The snow is so pretty and white and smooth and sparkling and clean and cold and bright and icy and beautiful and… okay, I’ve run out of adjectives. XD

What’s that you say? Oh. Of course I took pictures – how else would I survive looking at all of that pretty snow? XD What? You’d like to see them? Perfect! I was just getting ready to show you… (I took so many pictures I wanted to show you that I had to make a bunch of them into collages. 🙂 )

First, some pictures of just snow.

Now, onto snowy birds! A lovely cardinal pair came to our birdfeeder in the snow, and I took some pretty pictures of them. I especially like the first collage. The female:

And the male: (Along with a picture of several fellow birdseed eaters)

And some miscellaneous landscape, house, and deck snow pictures…

Look how much snow we got – this is a beforeish and after picture of a little picnic table we got.

I did a really fun mini photoshoot with my sister. (For this collage and the next, you can click on a photo to enlarge it.)

I also built a snow cave. (Well, I actually built two, but this is the only one I took a picture of.) I love building snow caves!

Straight, stately, snowy silos. 😀

Ahhh! Snow looks so pretty on evergreens and rose bushes, doesn’t it?

My dad just got a snow-blower recently, and he actually got to use it! It wouldn’t have been too surprising if he didn’t get to use it this winter, but he did!

Phew! Last collage. Another rare thing that happened is that our pond froze over! We slid around on it a little bit before it snowed, and then shoveled paths through the snow.

Wow – that was a LOT of snowy pictures! I think somewhere around a gajillion – does that sound right? Are you frozen yet? Tired of snow? What were a few of your favorite pictures or collages – if you aren’t too tired of this post yet. 😀

***Allison***