Pasture perfect

Summer is over. It might not feel like it, but it is.

The kids are back to school. Dan is super excited to have his own desk this year. Monika is delighted to have several new friends in her preschool class.

Glen has been busy trying to get the silo ready for corn silage. We didn't use it last year so there was some old silage to clean out and a couple doors to replace. Chopping will start any day now.

Daphne has been enjoying the relative quiet in the house. She can pull herself up to stand at the living room gate now and likes to play by herself when she has a chance.

I've been working to return the house to some semblance of order after what seemed like a summer of mayhem. I swear, everywhere I turned, there was a pile of something – clothes, papers, toys – that needed to be sorted through and put away. My digital piles are just as bad. While organizing all of the photos I took this summer, I was reminded: I take a lot of pictures of the cows in the pasture.

Not quite as many pictures as I take of the kids, but close. And I would take a lot more, but half of the time when I stop to capture a scene, I tell myself that I already have a photo just like this one.

I don't know what it is about watching the cows out in the pasture that makes me want to snap a picture. Maybe it's the peacefulness out there and wanting to capture a little bit of that serenity to bring back with me. Maybe it's simply the beauty of the colors – black and white (and red and brown), vibrant greens, sapphire blue – all mixed together and a calling to share that beauty with the world.

Maybe my desire to preserve those moments with the cows is my way of honoring this wonderful opportunity. This opportunity for our cows to graze. This opportunity for me to share the joys of grazing cattle with my children. Or, sometimes, the opportunity to escape from everything for a couple minutes and surround myself with the sights and sounds and smells of nature.

Summer is over, but the grazing season isn't. I still have a couple more months to enjoy these pasture perfect moments.