A very old silo looks like it is either trying to escape its lifelong partner or is simply about to tip over. Anyone visiting this deserted barn and silo is probably warned how dangerous it is to walk around the silo that is leaning precariously.
I’m far out of touch with farmers today and don’t feel qualified to talk about their fears and apprehensions other than to say that farmers of all eras have some fears in common. Weather problems, animal and commodity prices along with rising expenses don’t seem to change through the decades although farmers who were active in the middle part of last century would be aghast at the numbers thrown around today,
When I was a lad not yet in possession of a fully developed brain, I still remember watching my dad stand in an open door in our house looking outside at the ground covered with bouncing white hail stones. A hot, humid week had ended with a wild storm that wreaked havoc on farmer’s crops, including my fathers.
Cool air from outdoors came wafting through the open door. My mother stood beside him and quietly asked him how bad he thought the hail had damaged our crops. I vividly recall his answer as it pretty well summed the philosophy of himself and countless other farmers when he said, “I don’t know yet but no matter how bad it is, we will make it”.
Precarious times come to most people’s lives whether they are farmers or not. Financial failures, broken relationships and the inevitable health problems challenge our very spirit. But those people who choose to persevere are the ones who we remember the most.
(Photographed near Dalbo, MN)
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When you photograph waterfowl around wetland ponds you have to be prepared to find "tunnels" through the reeds as often the ducks are seeking shelter there.
A couple of mornings ago I was able to find a narrow opening through the reeds to catch this Blue-winged Teal looking back at me while it stood on one leg, something I can no longer do (on purpose anyway).
Waterfowl will often stand on one leg to help regulate their body temperature. Tucking up one leg underneath their body reduces their non-feathered exposure by almost half and helps their body avoid the loss of body heat.
(Photographed near Grandy, MN)
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It was just a fun, calm day spent casually swimming in the spring air until somebody shouted "SHARK"...
(Photographed near Cambridge, MN)
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The origin of words and phrases has always intrigued me. I found out in college not everybody shares my enthusiasm. I took a class on the origin of words and enjoyed it more than I probably should have. After a particular invigorating class whenever I would come back to the house inhabited by several athletes and shared my enthusiasm, I was met with studied indifference, bewilderment and in some cases, outright disdain.
Shakespeare is credited with coining the phrase “strange bedfellows” in The Tempest when he used it in a sentence, “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.” His intent was to show how difficult circumstances can force people to associate with others or endure conditions that they would not normally choose to do.
I am not sure what difficulties these four creatures face in a wetland pond just outside of our hometown, but found their association on a common log a bit unusual, not that there is anything wrong with that as Jerry used to say on “Seinfeld”.
(Photographed near Cambridge, MN)
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Just outside of our hometown there is a fairly large wetland pond that drains out into a small oval shaped holding pond that in turn, trickles under the highway and goes who knows where via small stream.
This time of the year the dead trees that sporadically line the stream often attract various types of birds. Over the years we have seen a number of species from red-winged blackbirds to eagles.
Occasionally, a hawk will sit there quietly waiting for a critter to make a mistake down below. This red-tailed hawk stood out in the comparative darkness and I was able to get several shots of him sitting on a tree branch before he decided he had seen enough of me and took off.
There was just enough light to reflect off the underside of his wings and body to produce this photo.
(Photographed near Cambridge, MN)
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