The weather continues to be unsettled - thundershowers, hail,
or like today, sunny, muggy and warm. We’ve had nothing as hot as the first week
of July. And of course these lovely Idaho nights are cool and
comfortable.
We’ve been focused on Mark for the last week since he got
bucked off Jane in the mountains. She touched a hot wire with her nose and went
ballistic. Mark couldn’t get a good hold on the reins and scared her further by
being in and out of the saddle while she jumped. A concussion and one (maybe
two) broken wrists later he is healing little by little. Our hired boys only
have a few more days with us so Mark's getting all the good out of them he can.
Before Mark’s wreck we had a quiet day hosting a
photographer from our marketing cooperative, Country Natural Beef. Lynn
Howlett, http://www.lynnphoto.com, showed up one afternoon while Mark was cutting hay. Not thinking swathing was
much of a photo subject, I sent him over anyway, only to have him get some great shots
of Mark holding a baby meadowlark that had flown out of the hay. Mark picked up the youngster and tucked him in a windrow a few rows away and under cover from the circling hawks.
His mother was chirping nearby.
Then the next morning Lynn accompanied us to move the
replacement heifers to a new paddock. We stopped at grandma Bonny’s on the way to get a generation
skipping photo. She’s a good sport, even though at 96, not exactly excited to pose for a photograph.
What we ended up with was a typical ranch day's smattering of images. Cattle and horses, grass, a little wildlife and some simple folk that live on the land. Images made memorable by the hands of a professional. I wasn't so sure to begin with though.
Mark has taught me (is teaching me still) that good enough
is good enough. His favorite line is “things are seldom ideal.” Might as well
get on with it. And that’s how it was with the photo shoot. I would have
preferred the kids were home as they make such beautiful, youthful figures on
horseback. I would have preferred to travel to our range ground to get some spectacular scenery as a backdrop. Of course I would have preferred looking twenty years younger too, but that
didn’t happen either. Still, the photos are fun, and in 10 years when the faces
of family and our animal helpers have changed, they will be priceless.
When we finished, I grabbed Lynn’s camera and did a
turn-around on him. He called it “a gift” because he’s always on the other side
of the lens.
Lynn is a great photographer. What wonderful photos of such a beautiful location
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