Priase You in this Storm

Rebecca and I rode out the storm almost wondering why it was so calm at our house. As we ate dinner and watched the live stream of a Tornado, it was like watching a movie, yet going through areas just miles from our house. Relative to other areas we were never really in danger. It barely rained, the wind was not bad, and we never lost power. As we watched we knew so many people were hurting, yet what could we do? As the pictures and videos rolled in, the destruction we knew would be there was now evident on our TV. "Warzone," "bomb exploded," "destroyed," were as common phrases as "what's for dinner?" These type of images and phrases are pretty frequent on a global scale, but to realize how close it is to you and how it easily could have been you, puts it in a whole new perspective.

Why were there lives thrown into an uproar and mine spared is such an easy question to conclude. I have to remind myself that we all deserve this and much more, and we will all face this in one way or another. Our sinful nature will ultimately lead to eternal destruction and turmoil if not for the saving grace of Jesus Christ. The destruction from the storms paints such a clear picture to me of how putting our hope in anything else can be taken away in a minute. Houses, cars, and other possessions that people spend their whole lives working for can instantly become worthless. Having these things is fine, but how much more valuable to invest time in loving God and loving people.

I woke up this morning planning on going to work like any other day. I am behind on my yards from the bad weather so I was anxious to get caught up. While I was eating breakfast, I scrolled through the news photos and each one striking at my heart. I continued on to my parents house, but felt so weird about taking care of mostly cosmetic needs from my customers, when there were so many who had real needs that were much more pressing. My dad is on the chainsaw team of the Birmingham Baptist Association Disaster Relief Team and was meeting up with them this morning. I debated in my mind for just a minute more, and then decided to tag along with them for the day.  My yards were such that they can wait another day, so I made myself available to help. One of the benefits of being self-employed is the ability to be able to do this. I'm so glad I was able to help even if it only was to a few people.

Here's a map to show how close the houses with massive destruction were to my parents

The really bad areas of town that are constantly on the news are not open to volunteer relief yet because they are still in first responder search and rescue mode. So we went to four houses over the course of the day that are so close to my parents house, yet by the destruction felt like a different world. All of them had numerous trees down in their yard and on their house. As volunteers we aren't allowed to work on trees that are affecting the house for insurance purposes, but everything else is fair game. The association has a trailer full of chainsaws and we got to work. All the houses we went to were extremely grateful. You can sense their sheer overwhelmed feeling from the destruction and the relief to see somebody come to help. Again it points you to the gospel of being overwhelmed by your sin, and there is a perfect Savior willing to help you.

Pines, oaks, sweetgums, tulip poplars, it didn't matter the type of tree, they were possible victims. Here are just a few photos from our days activities and other houses around. There is still so much more work to be done.

A good reminder to move my car away from trees during a storm

This guy told me he was asleep when this happened

Tim Herrington showed up at the last house with a food trailer to feed the neighborhood. A great time of fellowship to lots of people hurting.

Farmer's Tan

Being outside everyday, I get a lot of sun. Bullfrog Quick Gel SPF 50 is my standard covering when I'm working. With my fair skin, if I don't put on sunscreen I have a bake time of about 30 minutes before I start turning red. Tanning is a slow process for me so I thought I'd document the progression of my farmer's tan. I've already got some nice sock feet and a permanent undershirt. So here's the monthly progression of my watch tan (right arm) over the course of the summer. Exciting, I know.

Flashbus in Nashville

Rebecca and I are both approaching our busy time of year. This past weekend was a sample of several more to come. On Thursday we drove to Starkville for an engagement session, then another on Friday. On Saturday we shot a wedding before we headed back to Birmingham. Its great having clients in Starkville which allows us to travel to our old home and see all our MSU friends.

On Sunday we had the opportunity to drive to Nashville for a one day seminar called the FlashBus Tour featuring Joe McNally and David Hobby as the speakers. Rebecca, Caroline (Rebecca's Samford boss), and myself made the trip. As the name implies the seminar was all about small flash. Lighting is probably the hardest aspect of photography to me. Its easy to take a nice picture outside, but to be able to light up someone nicely indoors or in low light in an interesting manner, takes some skill. Rebecca and Caroline are way ahead of me on skill level, so I mainly went to be able to have a basic understanding of what Rebecca is trying to accomplish when I help her on shoots. As many of the volunteers had these as name tags, I am the VAL - "Voice Activated Lightstand."

We had a great time and I learned a lot. Both speakers are well respected in the photography world and they were both great speakers which kept it interesting. Lots of great simple tips on lighting to make a picture so much more interesting.

On a side note, I've always visioned photographers as "artsy" people, well the bunch at this stop on the tour was more like a Star Trek convention with cameras. Lots of dry humor comments from the audience and technical lingo on camera workings. We saw several clever t-shirts like: "Do you mind if I shoot you?" or "Ask me to flash you." I would be willing to bet I was the only Agronomist there.

Who are the nerds taking pictures with the bus?

We took these pictures with no flash, ignoring everything we just learned from the day

Thank You For Smoking

I don't think I've delved into many political issues, although I try to stay current on as much as possible. Perhaps they will become the subject of more posts. I bring this one up because it came up today and was humorous to me.

Working outside by myself I'm left to my thoughts and the radio most of the day. My headset is only FM so I'm not privy to any AM shows. My current radio lineup is:

• Rick and Bubba - when I wake up - 10:00 AM
• Glenn Beck - 10-11 AM
• Rush Limbaugh - 11-2 AM (If I can't pick up station or its a big sports day then "The Round Table")
• Variety Hour - either Paul Finebaum  or Todd Schnitt
• Rick and Bubba Replay - 3 PM til I pickup where I started in the morning
• Back to Finebaum, Schnitt, or News
• Michael Savage - 6 PM til I get home

I rarely listen to music unless its the weekend or some other situation which has yet to arise.

One issue that has always intrigued me is smoking. Let me start by saying I've never smoked, never intend to, and think its a horrible habit. The anti-smoking campaign was well ingrained to me. If you ask me what I remember about elementary school it would be tire swings and the D.A.R.E. Program.

If they wanted us to learn anything it was that smoking was bad. After one such program I intended to warn my sweet old neighbors Mrs Ernie and Mr. Buddy that smoking was killing them. I made it halfway over, then realized I was a small child and panicked at the thought of explaining to them how bad smoking was. Mrs Ernie is still living, still smoking, and has to be in her 80s.

Smoking has gone from common practice to being demonized and to avoid like the plague.

I'm not so much interested in discussing the health consequences of smoking, but rather the government response to smoking. As mentioned above, we have been inundated with the negatives of smoking since our youth. Everyone knows they're bad for you, yet some people still smoke. Fine by me. In fact I think it is the only product where the makers advertise for you to not buy their product.
So the government, on all levels, continues to tell you not to smoke and makes them out to be the worst thing in the world.

But rather than banning them all together because they are so bad, their way of "helping" you to not smoke are "sin taxes." A plan to try to make them so expensive you wouldn't want to smoke.

In some states they have become so expensive there are now black markets for them. These high taxes have become a big source of revenue for states. To the point they are dependent on them. I haven't heard on any government entity that is doing well financially right now, so they are scrounging for any source of revenue.

I have heard two stories as of late that made me think of this. First, several New England states are considering lowering their cigarette taxes and second, Illinois is in the process of passing a bill to reverse a 2008 ban on smoking in casinos. This seems to be sending a mixed message to the kids. Why would the states be trying to lower taxes or repeal bans? The answer....Money. The only reason to lower prices is to sell more in your own state. Perhaps their demonizing campaign over the years has actually worked and less people are smoking. Not good news for the government. The fact is they need you to smoke so they can keep funding all their projects. They have hurt their golden goose.

I recently heard a story about MSU's newly retired sports play by play announcer, Jack Crisitl. Cristil is now 85 and still smokes to my knowledge. Recently someone inquired about why he still smokes despite all the negative health aspects? Cristil responded by saying, "Son my dad lived to be (I forget the exact age) 95." The reporter responded by asking if his father smoked as well. Cristil answered, "No, he minded his own business."


If smoking is so bad then ban it. Don't demonize it in the streets and then get addicted yourself to the money.

If you want to smoke, then go ahead. I only want the government to intervene when your freedoms start to infringe on mine, and I don't think smoking does.

Weekend in Brandon

This past weekend took us to Rebecca's parent's home in Brandon. The initial reason for the trip was Mrs. Melanie's birthday. It grew into also celebrating Philip and Chouna's engagement along with taking engagement pictures for them and another couple whose wedding is coming up in May. So another weekend was spent mixing business with pleasure.

Another theme through the weekend was animals. Mr. Chip's passion is horses. Unless something else needs his attention he is at the barn or on a horse. So along with the horses he also has some cows and chickens. One of the mares was very pregnant. We were on watch all weekend for a baby horse, but she didn't go into labor. There is also a pond on the property and for the first time I took a fishing pole. I love to fish, so I don't know why I haven't in the past, but I will probably make it a regular occurrence from now on. I spent a couple hours on Friday before the engagement party fishing and caught 6 bass. I was the only one out there so my cell phone was the only camera available. They were all 'keepers' if I had been keeping them.

Massaging the pregnant horse.

The chickens were also a new addition. Rebecca has always had a soft spot for chickens. I think it was because she never really had one. She came close as a child when she got some chicks, but their cat got hungry one night. So we went out to see them. He has two roosters and two hens. One of the roosters has an hourly alarm along with the traditional sunrise notice. Their bobbing movement was very interesting to me. One of the hens got very protective of he food we brought them and lunged at Rebecca. I think she got her fill of chickens for a while.

These chickens were not bashful at the crowd

As we were walking back to the house that evening we came across Mr. No Shoulders. Rebecca and her mom were on either side of the driveway and walked right beside him. Rebecca noticed as she was right next to it. I was a few feet behind them, so now the water moccasin was in between me and the ladies. It was about 3 feet long and very still. Mrs. Melanie ran back to the house to get a shovel. She handed it to me and as I was coming down with my first whack to the head, it took off towards the water. I chased it and continued to swing as it dodged my every blow. Just before it reached the water I made contact. It tried to lunge at the shovel once it was wounded, but I continued the barrage. It eventually stopped moving and I carried it to the garage for closer inspection.

The water moccasin. A good portion of him had been chopped off by this point.

New Toy

Most of my business equipment is leftovers from high school days. All of it still runs fine, so I haven't had a reason to get anything new. However, even during our high school days we always had our eye on a Walker Mower. In many ways the Cadillac of mowers, it was always out of our price range. This past fall picking up leaves was definitely the limiting factor in my efficiency. This type of mower allows you to 'bag' while covering a larger area in shorter time. Along with the suction of the blades, it also has a fan that acts as a vacuum. The container on the back holds about 6 times the amount a bag on one of the Honda push mowers. Another future benefit it the ability to exchange implements on the front instead of the mowing deck. So all that and I get to sit down while I mow.

Dad found one on Craig's List a few weeks ago and we made Longscape's first big purchase. I'm still getting the hang of her, but I think she is going to be a great addition.

I think I have settled on the name 'Giselle'