212 The Death of Agriculture

I live in Mississippi, and even though I live in a neighborhood, surrounded by other neighborhoods, there are farms just half a mile away. A 15 minute drive to the north and you are in downtown Memphis. It is a diverse little area.

On our last photocation we took the northern option, so this time we headed out to explore the rural scenery. Well, technically it did not start out as a photocation. Candy wanted to go exploring. And, of course, I wanted to tag along. A new photobuddy, Tricia joined us on the trip also. Candy wanted to find the Horn Lake for which our town is named. She had also heard that there was a way to drive right up to the Mississippi River. We never made it that far. On our way, wending through backroads and around fallow fields we spotted this barn. The skeleton of a barn to be exact. It took only a split second to decide we had to pull over.

Oh, did I mention we had the babies with us? We had Cheyenne and Connor tagging along. Candy had a stroller for Chey, but I had to take Connor on my hip. To be fair, it is where he usually would be anyway. Tricia was sweet enough to send me a couple pictures she captured of me with my photography assistant. It did make taking pictures a bit harder than it should be. I could not bend (with ease) and bob and weave to get the best angle, but this place was so amazing that I think I got some really good shots anyway.There was this gorgeous old tractor on one side ... and huge amounts of bees and wasps.And on the other side of the barn there were beehives. At the time I thought they were for honey, but then it occurred to me that they are probably there to pollinate the crops. DUH! I don't know why I didn't think of that right away. I took a few shots with my Argus, but with Connor on my hip it was nearly impossible. He kept putting his hand in front of the lens, or trying to grab my light-blocking contraption. I eventually just gave up, but it would have been a great place to take some TtV shots.All over the ground were bits of old farm things. This huge nail, and iron gears and such.

Connor was mostly good, but there were a few times he tried to get down. I let him down for a few minutes, but I picked him right back up since there was so much debris on the ground. We had a great afternoon, just driving around and taking some pictures. I made a new Shutter Buddy. I can't wait to do it again! We have plans to go out on Tuesday for Candy's birthday. Chip has already agreed to keep Connor so we can explore in peace!

And after all that sun, I took Katie to the Memphis Zoo, but I will have to blog that later. I know you are dying to hear about our zoo experience.