It Has Been a Long Time

I arose early this morning and headed to the front porch to watch the sun rise. It is a great morning. The porch fan keeps any hungry mosquitos from landing and feasting on my legs while at the same time keeping me cool from our often times oppressive heat down here in Mississippi.  Actually, the past few mornings have been comfortable with temperatures in the high 60s. For those who don’t know, I drive an old ragtop unairconditioned Jeep, and yesterday I was actually a little cool on my 45 minute commute to work.  That is not a complaint by any means.  No, it is simply an observation.  I will take what I can get this time of year.

Back to this morning.  I watched the sun rise, listened to the early morning birds heralding the start of a new day and enjoyed a quiet, very good cup of black coffee in a cup my wife gave me for Christmas.  Simply put, there are not many things in life as simple and wonderful as a country morning.  In a short while I will go in and get some bacon started for a good old country breakfast for the family.  I will probably have another cup of coffee and get ready for the day.

Today is going to be an easy day for me if all goes as planned.  I did a lot of chores last weekend and there is not much I need to do this weekend unless something crops up that I don’t know about.  I will have to run to the feed store to buy horse, dog and chicken food later today and then I have a labor of love to take care of.  I will be brewing a few gallons of beer.  I have the ingredients for nut brown ale for me and a light lager for my wife.  I am not sure which one I will make first.  I may just make them both if the mood hits me just right.

I like to brew beer at this time of year.  It will be ready to drink in about 21 days which pretty much coincides with the start of college football season. Perfect timing, huh? Anyway, I am looking forward to the start of my brewing and college football season. I have some four month old Mead which I need to rack for the final time before bottling.  Mead is more time consuming and though I love it, I don’t make as much of it as I do beer.  I am not patient enough to leave it for the year or more of aging.  I know you can drink it as soon as it is bottled but, in my opinion, it is so much better the longer you let it age.

I really have to get moving.  The sun is well up above the tree line now so, I am heading inside to get my real day started.

I will try to post again soon.  I hope you have a great day and until next time...

One Shot from Today's Photo Excursion

The result of excessive rain and heat in our part of the country is lavish growth of everything green, turning our countryside into near jungle-like undergrowth.

Dog Days of Summer

Elvis, the beagle would rather be sleeping on the back of the sofa in the family
room, but he is loyal and follows his best friend, me, around in the heat
taking a few photos. 

 Today started out hot and humid which made me rethink my statement about dusting off my camera, but then I had a special incentive.  Holden, our youngest son at 12 years of age, said he would like to go with me so he can take some photos, too.  So, we gathered up the camera, one lens and a polarizing filter and headed down the lane toward photo opps and some good old fashion father and son companionship.  We were joined by Elvis our beagle and Holly our 9 month old black lab.  Holden, Elvis and Holly were all in as we walked and found interesting subjects to photograph all along the way.

Holden has been asking for a GoPro camera and I have hesitated because if he is interested in photography then I would really like for him to learn to compose and snap photos he will enjoy.  I have used my time behind a camera to soothe frayed nerves, calm my moods and sometimes just give me time to think about the ways of the world.  I would like to give that pleasure to him and today was a good start.

Photo by Holden Helms- His first photo of the day was
pretty good.

As we walked along the lane we searched for pretty and interesting subjects for our

Photo by Holden Helms - I think his
composition is good  he was just a
little short of the depth of field.
We are working on that.

 exercise in creativity.  Normally by this time of year the summer drought has taken its hold on our landscape, but because of the excessive August rain, we hare living in a lush, green near jungle environment here in central Mississippi where we live.

I had to try my hand at the same subject
and I think his shots were as good or
better than mine.

We walked about a mile or so and there were shots everywhere.  We tried to be somewhat selective in what we shot, but somethings were just asking to be shot as they posed along the lane leading away from our house.

In the south we have some very interesting problems caused by our high humidity. Right out of the house we encountered a condensation problem on the lens of the camera.  That was a rookie move on my part and trust me I am no rookie.  We didn't acclimate the camera to the temperature change when we took it from our air conditioned house and took it out into a 90+ degree heat 90% humidity so problems arose.  It took us a few minutes in the sunlight, allowing the camera to warm to the outside temperature, to be able to use it with any success.  I carefully cleaned the lens and within just a few minutes we were taking photos of things along our way.

Because of the excessive
rain, vines are covering
anything and everything
 that stands still.

As we wandered kept an eye on our dogs because we have a number of venomous snakes here.  Among them are copperheads, water moccasins and several different types of rattlesnakes just to keep us on our toes as we walk through underbrush.  We normally don't worry about them much, but you do have to watch where you step when you are walking. Today, we were lucky or fortunate or something, and we didn't see any wildlife except bees and one tiny anole (lizard) that was eating insects on a goldenrod bloom.

Photo by Holden Helms - Years ago someone saved a little work and wrapped a piece of barbed wire around this pine tree to save a little time.  Eventually it will either disappear into the tree or kill the old pine tree.  Both may be accomplished in time.

Photo by Holden Helms

Photo by Holden Helms - Holly romping in the tall grass.

Photo by Holden Helms--An intermittent
stream that crosses our property has
running water in it.  That is very unusual
during summer, much less in the
late summer months.

It is difficult to see in this photo, but 

if you look you will see the dark area in the 

upper right third of the photo.  It runs 

toward the center toward the bottom

of the photo.  That is a trail that has 

been traveled more than a few times in

the past few days.

Beautiful results of excessive rain and heat.

Sounds of Morning.

Morning comes silently and then at times nature, the farm sounds and civilization all compete...

Good News and Bad News

There is an old saying Mama's baby, Daddy's maybe.  As distasteful as that saying is, I have news about our little Corgi pups. It is not necessarily good news to someone that is wanting to buy or sell purebred dogs. Our little female Corgi may not be the most virtuous dog in the pen.

Since our pups were about three days old, I have had a little suspicion that they may not be full Corgi. I broke that news to our family yesterday.  They all should have figured it out before now, but puppies are so cute they just weren't looking for the tell tale signs of Corginess that they, and honestly I should have been looking for.  They all have short legs, they swish their little hips when they walk just like Corgis, but their coloration isn't what it should be. And most important, their ears were not even beginning to stand up like they should if they were Corgi puppies. So anyway, last night I asked our oldest to look up photos of 5 week old Corgi puppies and then compare them to our puppies.  After that I said now find photos of 5 week old half corgi, half Shih Tzu puppies.  Bingo! Cooper our old Shih Tzu will pass the DNA test.  Ponce, bud, you are not the daddy.

To paraphrase the song, he ain't as good as he once was, but he is as good once as he ever was. Ponce is our beautiful 9 year old Corgi who we thought was the daddy of this litter, but last night we had to break the news to him that he is not these babies' daddy.  Logan, our 17 year old immediately went into an impersonation of Maury Povich. Ponce deLeon Redbone Helms, yes that is his name, Ponce deLeon Redbone Helms, your are NOT these puppies daddy.

Luckily for us, Shorgies or Shihgies or Corgtsues or whatever they are called are very cute puppies. they all already have homes. These are four of the cutest puppies you have ever seen.

Taking the Nikon Off the Shelf Again

My father's WWII B-17 flight log, a wool cap, Derby pigskin
covered tobacco pipe and a rabbit's foot. 

It has been several months since I have dusted off my Nikon and taken a long, meandering walk in the woods, but I think I am going to do just that this weekend.  

I arose early this morning and got my camera down off of the shelf, dusted it off, charged the batteries and made certain that everything was in perfect working order.  I re-shelved it and it is ready for me to take on my first photo adventure in months.  

A canopy of leaves in a local park.

Nothing relaxes me more than to go for a long, slow walk through the woods with a camera strap around my neck. So, my plan is to leave my house around daylight Saturday morning walking in whatever direction suits my fancy in search of subjects that appear to need to be photographed. I have no idea how long this trek will take, but it is my intent to stay out until I get enough photos to share a few on this blog.  I can not continue for too long because I will have to get back to the house to prepare my kitchen garden for its fall plantings, but while I am wandering, I expect to completely lose myself in the act of enjoying nature, its beauty and its solitude. 

Late summer mushrooms find
footing beneath the pines.

Ribbons of steel bisecting our
property on a foggy August
morning.

Why do I love photography so much?  It is easy, when I was very young I fell in love with my father's  Kodak Signet 35mm rangefinder camera.  I used it whenever I was allowed to take shots of  the family, our pets, flowers, rocks, horses, or anything else that was still long enough for me to expose a piece of film with their image.  After a while I got my own camera and proceeded to nearly break "my bank account" by buying film and developing more images than I could afford.  By the time I got to college I was ready to learn more about the art and science of the craft of photography.  I took every course available to me as an undergraduate and my love for the art form grew.  It was in my freshman year of college that I found that exposing the film was enjoyable, but  it was in the darkroom that the magic really happened.  In that first year of school I probably spent more time in the darkroom than I did in the sunlight.  Soon I discovered that I could spend as many hours as the light would allow outdoors with camera in hand and then spend most of the night developing film and printing photos of the things I had been admiring all day.  I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, merely an avid photographer with a some pretty good training so I took good, not great photos. When film began to give way to digital photography I taught myself to use Adobe Photoshop and found it to be almost as intriguing as the darkroom.    

The country lane leading to our home
in the woods.

While I still have a darkroom full of really good equipment including enlargers, tanks, spools, trays, baths and even old chemicals which I am more than certain are useless except to awaken my memory when I see the yellow and black envelopes containing them, I don't spend time in the dark anymore. I spend what little time I can afford in my busy schedule enhancing photos in Photoshop and sharing them here and there as I can.  I even found my old studio flash equipment and will soon pull it out and see if by some stroke of luck it will work after the many years of neglect I have made it endure.

Maybe by Saturday night, I will know if I still have the eye to photograph the mundane and then bring it to life in such a way that others will want to see the images. Now that is done on a computer screen rather than the photographic paper on which I once printed them but hopefully the same ethereal results will remain.

Until next time...

Silver Linings

The Bright Side of a Rainy August

All photos in this post by John Helms

Anyone that knows me knows that I very seldom look on the dark side of an issue.  It is in my nature to look at the bright side of everything. The rains in the south are wreaking havoc on the people of a couple of Mississippi counties and on thousands of people in Louisiana right now.  I pray that no more lives are lost and that their recovery from this natural disaster will be a speedy one.  I try to keep in mind that many times people gain strength in their lives from happenings like this and I hope that this will happen to all of those impacted by this disaster.  

Now, let's look at the brighter side if we can.  When all of this rain has gone, clear skies have returned and the flood waters have receded, what besides a mess and destruction will be left. People will continue to run the race of life.  Some will have to pick up where the storm left them, others like me will just continue to move down the road of life toward the goals I have set for myself, but all will be afforded the opportunity to keep moving.

I was told during a particularly rough time in my life, "it is times like these that build character in a person.  "I have thought about that statement a lot and the longer I live the more I believe it.  Riding down a smooth road all of the time doesn't do anything for a person.  It is through challenges that we learn how to adapt and persevere to what we encounter. The bumps are not speed bumps to slow us down. No those bumps are meant to make us aware that the road beneath us and to help keep us moving down the road so we can get past those rough spots on with the journey.  I have said this thousands of times, if roller coasters were flat no one would get on them.  That is more true in my life now than  ever before. If one never feel sorrow, they never know what real joy is.  If they are never uncomfortable, then the don't appreciate the pleasure of truly comfortable surroundings.  

"it is times like these that build character in a person...if that is the case I could have my on movie franchise, like Superman or Batman, because I must be one hell of a character for all I have gone through in my life." 

I am no philosopher, but I think we have to witness many events to understand the few events we want to remember.  Let me share an example: Because I have always lived in the southern United States, snowfalls are few and far between. Simply put, it doesn't snow often here. Everyone seems to gets excited when on the very rare occasion that a flake or two of snow falls on our countryside. First we are excited, then we are alarmed and then we panic and go to the store and buy all of the bread, milk and toilet paper on the shelves. We think we will be stranded for days and that we have to be prepared for the worst. We are not accustomed to all that snow brings with it during the rare snowy event here in our neck of the woods.  

I remember as a child going out to play in the snow.  Oh my, that was fun.  If we had any, we would put cheap long underwear on under our jeans.  If we didn't long johns, we would more than likely wear our pajamas under our clothes. We would don ourselves in multiple pairs of cotton socks and slip on a pair of mud boots...uninsulated of course, and any sort of coat or hat we could find to try to keep us warm in the cold air we were so unaccustomed to.  How great the cold would feel on our skin.  Brisk air on our faces, snow crunching under our feet, we would meet up with friends and walk for hours with no where to go and specific destination in mind.  The briskness would turn into cold wet hands and numb, wet feet.  After time we would walk uncomfortably home to get out of our wet clothes and to try and find some hot chocolate or soup to warm our cold bodies.  The warmth of a radiating heat of a floor furnace or if you were lucky, a fireplace would seem as wonderful at that moment as the snow did a couple of hours earlier.  It is strange how that happens what we wanted earlier seems far less attractive to us as time goes by.  The cold somehow makes a person crave heat in the winter and just the opposite in the summer.  

At any rate, soon this rain we are enduring now will subside and return on a much more routine schedule of unpredictableness and we will settle back into our mundane or not so maybe not so mundane lives.  The moisture that this rainy period has left in our ground will get us a few more weeks of growing time for those of us with gardens as we move into a traditionally dry time of year. While we ready ourselves to plant our autumn gardens, the moist soil and hot temperatures will prompt the seeds to germinate quickly and grow fast.  Hopefully they will send down deep roots as the moisture in the soil dissipates from the top down and our fall gardens will be much-the-stronger for the harsh weather we have had here in recent days.  

The days will turn to weeks and the weeks months and soon autumn will arrive with its cooler weather, warm, rich colors and it will be followed by the smell of woodsmoke in the air.  Our gardens will be fading if not gone for the year but we will remember them through the canned and frozen goods we have preserved for colder months.  We will taste a jelly or jam made from the plums or blackberries and summer will come back to us for just a moment.  We will taste it in our minds and we will be there, not in the floods or the torrential rains, but in the vegetables that we picked or the entangled vines we harvested along the pathways of summer.  

Living in the country gives one time to look at things like this and enjoy the life we live. It affords me time to wander down a lonesome forest path or a lane through a pine thicket where i might find a log that is the home to a family of chipmunks or maybe just host to mushrooms or maybe, just maybe on that special walk on that day will lead you to a place that no one has seen in hundreds of years.  It is in that place that I might have a moment that I had not counted on. In that moment I will find a little part of my inner being that I didn't know existed and in finding it discover my special place in this wide universe. It is that lonesome, quiet and secluded part of my world I call "the country."

Rural living is not all it is cracked up to being...it is much, much more.