365 Challenge #181

watching the harvesting from the truck

Look at all that beautiful hair that has grown in!

Bummer. How come my favorite ones are always the ones that are blurry??

Book Drawings

These are some of the drawings I'm working on for my grandpa's book.

The pencil lines are a little smoother in real life...my camera tends to make the pencil smudging look a little choppy.

And the one I'm working on now.

365 Challenge #180

They're harvesting pumpkins in a different area of North Carolina now, so we switched hotels today and got to stop by the fields on the way.

The harvester doesn't usually leave this many pumpkins in the field, but unfortunately this field was planted with ridges, so quite a few pumpkins get left behind and need hand picked.

It was over 100 degrees out there....I felt so bad for all the guys.

The harvester cuts the pumpkin vines with these blades.

Then the pumpkins, vines, and dirt get pulled up this belt. The dirt falls through the cracks and the vines are grabbed by two spinning bars and get pulled away from the pumpkin.

The pumpkins go up the belt, under the driver, and then to the top of the machine where people standing on top pull off any vines that got missed.

Then they get dumped into the storage bin which is being pulled by another tractor alongside the harvester. The storage bin can then dump the pumpkins into semi trucks which take the pumpkins to the Libby factory.

At the Libby factory, the pumpkins get canned within 24 hours.

They cook the pumpkins. Then the entire pumpkin (stems, rinds, seeds, and pulp) is blended up and pressed through a strainer so fine it can strain out even the dirt.

Then it's canned and ready for you  to make pumpkin pie.

365 Challenge #179

Ok, none of these are great photographs, but they do capture memories (which I think is the most important....and it's pretty hard to get good pictures in our hotel room). He really just loves the air conditioner.

View out our window.

This is how he eats most of his meals (since he doesn't have a high chair). I think it's hilarious....haha, so lazy :) I'm trying really hard to ignore the fact that the blueberries are touching the hotel floor.

365 Challenge #178

I took these with the self timer on my camera and a tripod.

365 Challenge #177

I love balloons...they add so much interest to a picture.

Nate took this one :)

365 Challenge #176

I've been wanting to try this idea for awhile, and Nate helped me make it happen last week. The whole shoot turned out even better than I'd imagined, and I can't wait to do this again for another family!

Love the bird in this one.

"I'm flying!!"

365 Challenge #175

Molly had her kittens the day before we left for North Carolina. (It looks like 4, but there are 5.)

She was really upset in labor (not that I blame her), and got really, really mad if I didn't sit by her and rub her stomach during contractions.

The first kitten was breech (which I wasn't sure was normal for a cat, and the vet said later that it isn't normal). The head was stuck for 10 minutes (also not sure if this was normal for a cat)! Finally, when the kitten's feet were turning blue (really didn't think that was normal), I rotated it just like you would a human baby, and she was born right away. Craziest thing...she wasn't really moving, but Molly started biting her until she started crying. I guess that's one way to stimulate breathing....

Joel thought it was all very fascinating. He kept looking at me like, "What are those things?? Why are we adding more animals to our house??"

Cuddling with his mama's tail

It's like a full body pillow.

365 Challenge #174

We're in North Carolina for a couple weeks while Nate runs a pumpkin harvesting crew. This is how we're surviving the heat (and how Joel is keeping himself entertained for hours in the hotel room).

When the air clicks off, he looks inside until it starts again.