While I cherish the opportunities to document all the crops that grow near where we live in Central Texas, cotton is perhaps my favorite.  Those delicate blooms evolve into frizzy bolls.   Consider the clothes you’re wearing.   The most comfortable items are probably  adorned with cotton fibers.   Corn and milo harvests are soon coming to an end for this season.  For farmers who’ve planted cotton, like Troy Boehm,  in Norman’s Crossing, that harvest is a few weeks away.   These are photos made last evening at the Boehm family farm.  

On one of my evening wanderings this week, not far from Granger,  a really nice field of sunflowers appeared.   While I took a few photos then, it wasn’t satisfying to be shooting photos directly into the sun.   So the next day I drove back to the site, asking  permission to get a little closer, but at the beginning of a day.  These are from just after sunrise.  The little critters were a bonus. 

I hadn’t planned it like this, but the post made earlier tonight?  An  expansive field of crops seen  a few minutes after sunrise this morning?   Well, this photo was made along that same county road two nights ago as the day’s final burst of sunlight fell onto an old outbuilding.   Mentioned before many times, but I do love this Blackland Prairie.

While on the way to take photos of something else a few minutes past sunrise this morning, I saw this series of golden fields a little east of Granger, Texas.   I took a minute to snap a photo.  By then, the sun was pretty intense, but that’s okay.  Prairies are nice. 

No need to repeat my thoughts about the rookery at Taylor’s Murphy Park.   These are from a couple nights ago.

East Williamson County farmer Arnold Raesz (pronounced Race) and his family are completely focused on harvesting 3600 acres of corn on the Blackland Prairie.  A few years ago, I did a column on Arnold’s brother, Larry, also a farmer.    Their oldest brother,  Herbert?  He farms, too.    I’ve yet to meet Herbert, but you never know. It could happen. Like other farmers in our area, farming goes back several generations in this area.  Arnold’s sons, Shaun and Steven, also farm with with dad.  Shaun’s  oldest son, Montgomery, 20, is studying at Texas A&M and plans to make farming his career.  His younger son, Maverick, 17, will be a senior at Hutto High School this year.   He’s still considering all career options.  I like how the crew gathers  in the field for evening  supper before heading back out, working well past sunset.   As the area we live continues to experience growth, I hope we don’t lose all this beautiful land to subdivisions, concrete and steel.   A column I wrote will accompany some of these photos in Wednesday’s Williamson County Sun.

My Taylor friend Michelle Miller lives in town, but she and her husband, Joe Moldenhour, and Brian Miksch, Michelle’s brother-in-law, also farm on the Backland Prairie.   They are a small operation if compared with some of the huge family farms in our area, but they know this land very well.  These photos were taken on a recent night as they harvested milo (also called maize) in a field east of Thrall.  Joe’s the fellow in the Longhorn Baseball t-shirt.  Hook ’em.  Respect our farmers, friends.

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Honestly, I try to hold back on posting photos from Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, in Wuthrich Hill, Texas.    The setting, however, is divine.  We had light rain tonight on the Blackland Prairie.   While it wasn’t much, the skies were just right.

So I’m sitting in my car this afternoon, reading an e-book at Georgetown’s San Gabriel Park  while finishing a bag of chips, keeping an eye on park activities.  It wasn’t a certainty I’d photograph anything.  In the distance, however, something got my attention.  A grownup and a toddler, sitting under the shade of an oak, actively-engaged, prompting me to grab the cameras.  Mom was more than happy for photos.  Two-year-old Skyla and mom were honing their sign language skills.   Skyla was born with Down syndrome.  Although she has good verbal ability, sign language is another way to communicate.  And connect.    It turns out mom and daughter had already been at the park for two hours while Skyla’s brother played a little basketball.  No worries.  Skyla and mom had things covered.   For almost 50 years, this defines what I mean by community journalism.   Through the years, however, photos of children have  not been in favor with newspaper editors.   Too soft, they say.  Not newsy, they say.   You know what?  If they bothered to listen to their readers, they might redefine their thinking.    Just look at Skyla.  It’s not just about cute photos, friends.  It’s about everyday life.

These two photos were made this evening along a county road  a little east of Thrall, Texas, almost in Milam County.  Barns are special.  This one might be living its last days.    The second photo is just something I like.  Note that I do not take photos of people walking along railroad tracks, but the tracks, sans humans, are interesting.  The road at right is United States Highway 79.