Isabel's Panoramic View of the Farm

Isabel and I took a trip to the farm yesterday for a much overdue visit with my Mom & Dad.

While we were there, Isabel and I took a stroll to check out the cattle and all mom's flowers. Isabel tugged at every leaf on every tree branch she could reach.







Late in the day, she found the old tire swing that so many of the grandkids have enjoyed through the years. Isabel was nervous for the first 3 pushes. But, she finally gave in and had a great time just swingin' and laughin'.









Isabel has been laughing more and more over the past month. Her Razorback grandparents found out Isabel was ticklish when she visited over the July 4th weekend.









Mom wanted some quality time with Isabel. That gave me a chance to roam around the farm in between Isabel's regular 3-hour feeding schedule. I was surprised how a thick underground back in the woods above the spring.

The canopy has dramatically changed over the last few years, as the rise in wood-boring beetles have decimated the large "post" oaks. With an increase in sunlight reaching the floor of the woods, an abundance of ferns has been replaced been wild blackberries, vicious wild roses, tender young saplings, and a wide diversity of native plants.

This is just an amazing difference in just one year. For the past 30 or more years, Dad had always wintered a large cattle herd on the back of the farm's wood-covered slope. Last winter, he only had 30 cattle deep in the woods, rather than the large herds of years before. He's talking about selling all but a dozen or so cattle later this year. So, the familiar cattle trails will soon be unrecognizable, and impassible, as the fertile soil explodes in high reaching plantlife.

Anyway, I was just happy to be on the farm in the middle of summer, with the corn ready to tassle, and pasture grasses (and flowering blue weeds) as high as my chest. Having mom babysit for an hour gave me a chance to take the best summertime photos of the farm that I've ever gotten. Tonight, I was able to stitch them together with Panorama Maker 4.

View from the top of the Tobacco Barn






View from the South-East Gate





View from the top of the hill