Kansas

My father grew up on a farm in Troy, Kansas. He joined the Navy, saw California, and decided that was the place for him. I grew up in southern California. In addition to the many family road trips to Kansas to visit my grandparents and aunt & uncle, my brother, sister and I spent several summers on the two farms, gathering eggs, milking cows, feeding sheep, and hollerin' for pigs ("Suuuu-eeee, suey-suey"). My aunt still lives in Troy, a small town right out of Middle America, with a water tower to announce its presence.

My aunt no longer lives on the farm we visited as children.
A few years ago she moved into the home
(on the outskirts of town)
in which my uncle grew up.

Pretty, isn't it?

In the old days, if you wanted water,you had to pump a handle.
I remember doing just that!

This is the view off my aunt's back porch.

That's a soy bean crop just waiting for harvest.Doniphan County has its own water tower.
I liked this photo because the top of the tower looks
higher than the clouds.

It's fall and the harvest has started. The main crop around Troy is corn, which will be used to produce corn products (like Fritos), feed for livestock, and bio-fuel. I walked into this corn field and thought,

"If you build it, they will come."

This year has produced a bumper crop and farmers will be putting in long hours of harvesting right up to Thanksgiving. The harvesting is done on a combine, a HUGE machine that cuts the stalks, plucks the cobs, shucks the husks, and isolates the kernels,

which are then transferred to a HUGE trailer
pulled behind a HUGE tractor.

From the trailer, the corn is transferred to a container on a semi-truck, driven to storage bins, and using a conveyor like escalator, dumped in. Farming is BIG business. Did I mention that everything is HUGE? Last year I climbed about one third of the way up this tower. I'd like to get all the way to the top. Maybe next year. Most of my childhood days in Kansas were in the summer when it is hot and humid. (I am so glad my father found California.) But the weather on this trip, just at the start of fall, was perfect. I saw skies like this every day.

Trip to Tahoe

I haven't been to Lake Tahoe since... I can't remember the last time. Let's just say it's been awhile. I figured it would be a good place to spend some time before I start getting a lot of calls to sub. I wanted to stay at a place that was right on the lake and a friend suggested The Crown Resort in Kings Beach on the north shore. I called on Friday. They were having a Sunday to Thursday special deal which suited me exactly. I love it when a plan comes together.

This first photo gives you an idea of the culture of
Kings Beach: funky and laid back.

A view of the resort

A place for morning breakfast & tea
and an evening glass of wine

After arriving and checking in, I relaxed in the
late afternoon sun...

and watched the sun set.On Monday I drove all the way around the lake looking for scenic vistas, checking out places that had been recommended, and deciding where I wanted to return and spend more time.

Please enjoy the views.

On Tuesday I returned to Sand Harbor,
a much photographed Nevada State Park.

The beaches are pretty deserted after Labor Day,
which was fine with me.

On Wednesday, I drove to Tahoe City on the west side of the Lake, had lunch, and took an afternoon scenic cruise to Emerald Bay. The weather was warm, the water calm, the sky blue.

A perfect day to be on the water.

On Thursday I was tired of driving and photographing, so I spent the day at the resort, walking the beach, wading in the clear water, reading, and enjoying the warm sun & cool breeze.

I was suppose to float over the lake in a hot air balloon on Friday, but the launch was canceled due to high winds. Total Bummer. I was already packed to leave Kings Beach, so I left and drove home. Most of my previous visits to Tahoe had been in the winter for skiing. This was the first time I spent any time there in the summer.

It's an extraordinary place.

Full Moon Rising

The full moon has an especially powerful effect on the inhabitants of our planet. Lunacy and our lunar satellite seem to be closely related. When the Moon is full so are hospital emergency rooms. Werewolves howl, vampires prowl, and witches ride. We all know the Moon is made of green cheese, but did you know that by blowing nine times on a wart while the Moon is full will make the wart go away? Every month I try to photograph the full Moon. As the date approaches, I scout around for a suitable landscape and note exactly where the moon will first appear. A full Moon rises within minutes of sunset. This is not good for photography because by the time the Moon clears the hills, the sky is too dark and the Moon is too bright. But on the evening before the full Moon, the moonrise is thirty minutes before sunset. This is perfect. There is still enough light to capture detail in the landscape and the sky turns a magical blue.

I took these photos while standing in one of Guglielmo's vineyards off Main. I used a 400m lens on a Nikon D300 camera. In Elements and LightRoom, I did a some sharpening and color correction, but other than that, this is how it looked.

Maybe I'm a lunatic,
but I can already feel the pull of October's full Moon.