Early Farm Morning

Back in the days of living on the farm, I dreaded the days when Dad would come wake us up at dawn to do something farmer-related...walking beans, moving cows, going to breakfast.

Ok, scratch that, the days we got up early to go to breakfast were great...and we usually went back to bed for an hour or two after we got home.

Anyways, early mornings weren't my favorite.

I think I've mentioned that William likes to sleep.  He would sleep sixteen hours a day if I would let him.  Needless to say, he has never woke me up at dawn to go do lawn work.  I would probably punch him in the toe if he did.

We don't have early mornings at the Clark house.

This morning I was up at 4:30am - had plans to meet a couple girls from work to practice picture-taking and to teach them how to use their cameras.  We met at one of their pig farms...her dad wanted me to get a shot of their pigs in the pasture with the mountains in the background for their website, which is why we chose sunrise, rather than sunset for our photography extravaganza.

The mountains were covered in clouds by the time I arrived at the farm.  Bummer.

The point is, today was one of those early farm mornings.  I had plans last night to go to bed by nine, so I would be rested and refreshed at sunrise this morning.  We met friends for dinner at the golf course and at midnight I realized that I had missed my bedtime.  Whoops.

Being on a farm at sunrise was wonderful, even if I was running on four hours of sleep.  The pigs were not like the pigs we used to raise.  We woke up the 800 pound sows, opened the gates, and led them into the open pasture.  They followed us all over the farm during our tour.  We went from pasture to pasture to get shots of the pigs, the cows, and the horse...and the sows followed us everywhere.  

Very tame, very friendly, and very big. 

Amber was super excited about everything she learned today.

We've had an unusual amount of rain in the past week here in Colorado.  The pasture was flooded - you can tell in some of the pictures that an inch of water covered the soil beneath the grass.  We wore sweet plastic boots to keep our shoes from getting soaked.  

I can't remember this cow's name, but he doesn't like people very much.  He was traumatized when Amber's brother used to jump on his back and ride him.  

The pigs were so friendly that I was a little nervous to squat down to get the right angle...those 800 pound piggies like to rub against you, and I had visions of them knocking me off balance and dropping my camera in the water.  

The horse, Pinky, was a great model.  He stood really still while I stuck my macro lens in his eye and up his nose.  When I was finished, he just turned and walked away.  I felt bad that I didn't bring him some sugar cubes to pay him for his modeling.  I'll probably be getting a sternly worded letter from his agent soon.

Amber's sister was nice enough to be our people model for the morning.  Plus, she was the only one who looked like she might have taken a shower in the last 24 hours, so she was the best candidate to be in front of the lens. 

I told her to look at Amber's camera so all of Amber's images would have eye contact.  She was a wonderful model.  Our goal is for Amber to be able to take her senior pictures next year.  

They have a new farm kitten - her name is Sparkles.  

My favorite shot of the day.  They had some long grass where we took some pictures of her sister.  Since it was early morning there was still dew on the grass.  My macro lens is too awesome.  If you click on this picture and click on it again to zoom a little, you can see the reflection of another blade of grass in the water droplet.  Crazy. 

I posted a bunch more farm pictures on my Flickr page - the link to Flickr is on the right side of this page :)

I took a four hour nap after I got home and showered.  Naps are glorious things.  I'm thinking of bringing a nap mat to work next week.  Make a sign "Pharmacy will be closed from 1:30 to 2:00pm daily for pharmacist's nap time" and hang it in the window.  

I'm certain this will be well received by our patients.  

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FYI:  William and I are watching a show about a grown man who is obsessed with Barbies.  He just discussed how he washes his Barbies hair...and how she gets Manolo Blahnik (spelling?) shoes because "she deserves them".  I am disturbed by this.  

He would probably turn Beanie into the police for her Barbie abuse.  She used to cut off all their noses with scissors.  Tragic.