A Summer Swim

After working for hours in the warm sun and wiping sweat from your brow, nothing sounds better than a cool dip in the river. For a half a mile the Wynoochee River runs along our property, sparkling and glittering on its way as if to entrance the hard working farm boy and beckon him to its cool comforts. After plunging into the cool water it is hard to even remember how hot you had just been.

But plunging in is just a taste of the fun that can be had. If you inhale a great lungful of air, you can dive down to the bottom of the swimming hole and sink your hands in the sandy floor. Or you can explore the sandstone sides and find the nooks and crannies where trout and salmon are hiding. For the more adventurous, there are cliffs from which you can jump and go sailing through the air landing with a great splash. Although those activities are wonderful, the thing that tops them all is swinging from the rope swing hung in a great leafy tree over hanging the river. From there you can glide through the air and land right in the center of the deep hole. If you are good you can dive off the rope... but if not, you can belly flop!

Swimming is fun- in fact, so much fun that at times a “quick dip” becomes quite long. Because, you see, you cannot swim with most watches, and the sun is generally covered with trees so it makes it very hard to keep track of time. Or, at least, that is the way the excuse often goes for the young swimmer who has tarried long in the swimming hole. Summer would not be complete without swimming- nor would farm boys and girls.

Farm Photography

Have you enjoyed the photography on our blog? Well, the pictures that have been presented here have been taken by our farm photographer who happens to double as my little brother. Over the past two weeks he has been increasing his skills by taking part in a photography course. So just for fun, I thought that we might throw in a few of his shots from around our farm and the near by countryside.

Through photography it is our goal to depict the beauty of God’s glorious creation. When a picture is properly framed, lighted, and composed it can help us see the beauty in even the seemingly mundane things around us. The truth is that we become so accustomed to the creation we live in that we forget to step back and realize the marvelous intricacy and design of things such as a blade of grass or a water droplet. So as you view these pictures we hope that they will help you to step back and reflect. Be sure to let us know what you think!