The term "Sunday drive" originated from leisurely car drives taken on Sundays in the early to mid-20th century as a form of cheap entertainment. That just happens to be the time I was a kid growing up on a Central Kansas farm. I know about "Sunday drives" firsthand as a kid sitting in the backseat of a car while my dad sang songs like "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" or "Mairzy Doats." Those - plus "I'm An Old Cowhand" - were also part of the sound track of our trips to visit my grandparents in Sublette.
If you look up the definition of "Sunday drives," it says that initially, these drives were a form of recreation with no specific destination or time constraints.Over
time, the term "Sunday driver" has evolved to describe someone who
drives slowly, cautiously or inexpertly, often associated with
inattentive drivers. Alternatively, it can mean "those who take their time to enjoy the scenery."
Since the only living things we saw on our trek off the beaten path were grazing cattle, we didn't bother any other drivers on our foray down country roads. So I guess, in this case, we'll stick with the definition of "those who take their time to enjoy the scenery."
We ate supper at Sylvia's Oasis restaurant after a fellow golfer recommended the Mexican food there to Randy. On the way home, we took a detour to the Ninnescah Pasture. Randy had been there more recently than I had. One summer when we were still actively farming, we took more trips down that road than any of us would have liked. There was a group of cows and calves that were determined to find the proverbial "greener pastures." No matter what we did, they would not stay in, so we were on 4-wheelers rounding them up more times than either of us wanted. (That group of escapees eventually ended up at the sale barn.)
Anyway,
it was nice to take a leisurely trip down the road - with no purpose in
mind, other than checking out the water flow in the Ninnescah ...
Looking east at the bridge
Looking west at the bridge
... And "smelling the roses" - or, in this case - the wooly verbena.
The road to another familiar pasture - the Rattlesnake Pasture - used to be lined by a tunnel of cottonwood trees, a route I loved in the summer. But several years ago, those aging cottonwoods were cleared away from the road. I'm sure it made practical sense, but I still miss dodging light and shadow as we work our way down that road. I imagined Randy's predecessors 120 years ago appreciating the road less traveled as
they brought cattle to the Rattlesnake pasture and then checked them throughout the
summer months.
July 2013 - This was before the township tore down most of the cottonwoods along the road to the Rattlesnake Pasture.
Maybe those nostalgic memories factor into my love of a tree-lined road near the Ninnescah Pasture, where the trees still tower over the dirt road and the sun plays peekaboo among the branches.
You can't beat a Sunday drive on a Friday night.
Look for chances to take the less-traveled roads.
There are no wrong turns.
-- Susan Magsamen
***
And an update on the bridge north of our house: We drove up to the bridge last evening to check out the progress. Completion is definitely closer, but the Road Closed signs remain. However, all the big equipment is gone, and the new guardrails are in place.
On August 5, the public works guys told Randy that the bridge would be done in 2 weeks. We'll see if their prediction holds true.
As a Kansas farm girl with a June birthday, my special day was often paired with slow trips to the elevator in a grain truck. It was a "hot" celebration, all right.
This year, Randy celebrated a milestone birthday while working, too. Of course, since he's the boss, he set his own schedule. But we gathered cows and calves from the Ninnescah Pasture on his 65th birthday.
As we were looking for a few stragglers, I made him pause for a quick photo. (He's looking pretty good, don't you think?)
Five years ago, he asked for a special birthday party, and we delivered with a gathering at the Stafford County golf course clubhouse.
October 2015 - Randy's 60th birthday
As I told him several times this year, I'm glad we did it for his 60th birthday, since we're in the midst of a pandemic this year.
This year, we had a few party crashers - deer who darted through the pasture as we drove by on 4-wheelers and disturbed their hiding places. (They were camera shy. No photos of those party guests.)
Other partygoers were loud. The migrating geese and ducks honked their greeting as they traveled south for the winter.
I did a little honking, too. But my honking was with our pickup, using the horn to call the cattle up for an impromptu birthday treat of hay. It can't be a party without goodies, right?
Some were anxious to attend the party and dine at the "buffet." Others needed a little nudge to attend but then formed their own parade route to celebrate the special day.
I can't complain about the "decorations" - even with the muted autumn hues rather than the rich green of summer.
The birthday boy even gave me time to pause on top of the dam to take a photo.
The "guest" most reluctant to leave the party venue was the bull.
He was a wallflower, hanging out far from the party crowd.
But he finally joined the others - with a little encouragement.
The only dancing at this party was choreographed by the fallen leaves in the ditches as we drove the cattle back home.
After many trips back and forth with three trailers, the mission was accomplished ... or so we thought. We count cows and calves as they come off the trailers, and we came up a little short. We had to go back the next day to look for stragglers. It was another nice day for a 4-wheeler ride.
I'm slow to post this. Randy's birthday blueberry pie is long consumed. But it was more important to help than write about it.
2015 - Kinley, 3, and Brooke, 1 ... and Grandpa, 60!
It's amazing to see how the girls have grown during those 5 years. Even though we worked on Randy's 65th birthday, we did get to celebrate a few days later with Kinley & Brooke - and their parents, of course.
2020 - Kinley, 8, and Brooke 6 ... and Grandpa, 65!
More to come on fall cattle gathering and vet visits.
Always remember: Your focus determines your reality.
George Lucas
This
past weekend, we drove to two of our summer pastures to check cattle. On Saturday, at the Ninnescah, the cattle were hidden in the pasture's abundant nooks and crannies. But we didn't see any cattle tracks in the road. Unlike last year, our summer hasn't been filled with every-other-day phone calls from people in that area, telling us that our perennial group of escapees had absconded once again. (You may recall those rascals went to the sale barn last fall when we eventually caught them.)
Looking east
As
usual, I had my camera along for the ride. While we didn't get to see the cattle, but we did stop at one of my favorite photo spots, a small wooden bridge over the Ninnescah River.
Looking west
Just south of the pasture, I spied a large windmill near the intersection. With the cloudy sky
forming an interesting backdrop to the north and west, I asked Randy to stop instead of
making the lefthand turn he had planned. He's used to such requests.
We stopped in the middle of the intersection. It isn't a well-traveled road. And, even if some other farmer came along to check his own crops or cattle, we would have plenty of warning with the flat landscape stretching in every direction.
I noticed a couple of fence posts left behind - probably from an abandoned loading chute - and decided to frame the windmill in a different way.
After clicking a few frames of the windmill with both my Nikon and my camera phone, I noticed the a few sunflowers creating a splash of color in the ditch nearby. Looking closer, I noticed how the shape of the sunflower mimicked the shape of the windmill blades and added even more images to my memory card.
When we got home, I downloaded the photos and clicked through the images, now much larger on my computer screen.
And I discovered a couple of different things. In some of them, the camera had focused on the sunflower, so the flower was in crisp focus and the windmill was just a shape in the background.
In others, the windmill was in sharp focus, blurring the flower itself. Sometimes, the camera chose the close-up view. Other times, it chose the view at the horizon. And, no, the operator did not notice at the time.
My later inspection also revealed I should have paid closer attention to the sunflower I chose for the close-up. Its petals were buffeted by the wind and seemed to have provided a plentiful buffet for insects who had munched the yellow bloom. I wished I'd chosen a more model-worthy specimen.
At the time, I was more concerned about the shape of the flower and the windmill blades. It was only later that I focused on the details. Unfortunately, I've had that happen before when taking photos. I always think I'll learn from my miscues. And I usually do ... for awhile.
The next day, when we visited our Rattlesnake Pasture, I made sure I was focused on a large, intact bloom.
I did notice that the flowers were giving me their backsides in the shot below, but sunflowers turn toward the sun ... or the direction the light would be on a sunny day, at least. But since the bulls were giving me a pretty shot anyway, I was happy with the splash of color on an overcast day.
But let's face it: Give me a few weeks, and I will inevitably go back to my old ways and forget to pay close attention to the details.
Isn't that a metaphor for life itself? We can get stuck viewing life through a particular lens. We see life, people and God through that internal lens called
attitude and perspective.
There are many things that can and will blur the focus of our lives. Distorting our focus are judgment, prejudice, anger, resentment, jealousy, fear, hurt, offense,
ingratitude and a lot of other "stuff."
These give us the wrong images of life, people and God.
Unfortunately, when our focus has become blurred by such things, we accept this warped view as reality, when it’s actually the
projection of our own experience, pain and problems. This sets us up for wrong
reactions, bad decisions and even some mental and emotional
misery.
A favorite Bible verse has this to say about where my focus should be:
Brothers and sisters,
whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent
or praiseworthy—think about such things.Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Philippians 4: 8-9
Back in my voice lesson days, my teacher assigned the song, "Think On These Things." Even though I cleaned out a lot of music when I downsized my office shelves, I kept that particular piece of music because I love the message so much.
It's old enough that I couldn't find the Merle Miller Sacred Songs arrangement (1947) on YouTube, but I did find a high school choir singing a different - yet equally beautiful - song based on the same Bible verses.
Here we are in a pandemic. News stories this week have talked about a "twin-demic" which could happen as winter approaches and brings our usual influx of garden-variety flu on top of Covid-19.
Coupled with rioting and the political rhetoric that bombards us from all sides as the election approaches, it's sometimes hard to focus on anything other than gloom and doom and "noise."
So a quiet trip to a beautiful places to "think on these things" is a good start.
It's not that we get rid of the noise or the things that mar our vision. If you look carefully in the photo above, there's an old drainage pipe that makes the scene just a little less lovely.
Maybe it's a matter of stepping back just a little bit and taking in the whole picture (and hiding that old pipe with a few more pretty purple flowers by using a different angle). Or maybe it's focusing on the even the smallest things ...
... the intricate petals of individual flowers ...
... like tiny blue flowers, hiding in pasture grasses ...
... like cattle (where they are supposed to be), enjoying plentiful grass - even in the late summer ...
... imagining the fisherman who left this fishing pole behind so he/she would be ready for next time ...
... wildlife at nearby Quivira National Wildlife Refuge ...
... and picture-postcard scenery in my own "neck of the woods ...
Do I need to readjust my focus? Sometimes, it's as simple as taking time to really look ... and to start to "think on these things" instead.
The Message puts Philippians 4 in even clearer terms:
8-9 Summing
it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and
meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling,
gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to
praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from
me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes
everything work together, will work you into his most excellent
harmonies.
