These often-graded gravel thoroughfares in rural Kansas are called county roads. That’s who maintains them and keeps them (mostly) free of washboard ridges. This one runs precisely east-west in front of the family farm. You can see the dust kicked up by an approaching vehicle. Not hard to drive on it this weather, but I have scary memories of an ice storm on Thanksgiving weekend.
A mechanical monster in the fields, something that might chase you in your dreams. I didn’t ask my brother-in-law, but my guess is that it strips the corn cobs off the stalks, and there is a lot of that kind of work to be done in the vicinity.
Lots of gently managed nature for a city boy. I could make a bad art joke and refer to this as a color field painting.
My wife grew up on this farm in Marshall County, Kansas. I grew up in an apartment in New York. The combination has worked for more than 50 years. This is beautiful country, rolling, not flat as some would imagine. Her family is a delight. The crop in the middle distance is corn, at least 2.5 m high with adequate rain this year.
Placed directly opposite the exit from the Walmart where you can't possibly miss it. Keep in mind, however, that Kansas just resoundingly defeated a ballot initiative to remove a provision in the state constitution protecting a woman's right to make choices about her own body. But I wouldn't blame the sign-maker for anything. We could have done so much worse.
Still in Kansas. We had some big thunderstorms roll through here last night. It's the Midwest, so normal, but there was a big temperature drop. Maybe that will let me get back out on the streets.
So another infrared shot on my brother and sister in law's farm. There is a simple but not obvious technique to get this kind of color manipulation. Let me know if you want to know how it's done. The corn looks like it has been touched by King Midas. That wouldn't taste good to us or livestock.
We spent most of yesterday on the farm in Marshall County, Kansas, where Mrs. C grew up. Her youngest brother and his wife bought it from their parents many years ago. They still grow a lot of corn. I went out wandering with my infrared camera and got this shot across the top of a field. The plants, probably 2.5 meters high, seem to glow with all that reflective chlorophyll.
For the second year in a row, the in-laws, uncles and cousins went out with shotguns looking for quail on the day after Thanksgiving. They are so good they have their own private entourage of paparazzi, me, ShadowyOne and U "R" Us. Above, the two of them and son-in-law Brian pose with deadly weapons. Two of them had never before touched a firearm. Lunch and dinner were full of warming swill. Since there were no birds to be found, the afternoon session was shooting clay pigeons. The rookies who couldn't shoot a moving object had a chance to perforate a been can, which was thoroughly blasted by my daughter and finished off by my son. Near sunset, everyone posed for a group picture. Then back to the farmhouse for more swill.
