While we all tend to think of the word, Zoom, just a bit differently nowadays, ( hey, I attended a Zoom conference just this afternoon!), I was going to share something using the old definition.
I stumbled across this photo again, and marveled at it. It’s easily recognizable as our place due to that gunsight notch in the rimrock on the horizon. The fields have changed a bit, years of farming have leveled them.
If you ZOOM into the left area of the photo, you can see a flume crossing the creek. When I showed it it Vernon, he just thought it was an older version of the flume we replaced just a couple of years ago. I disagree. I don’t think our flume could be lined up with the gunsight like that. I believe it to be an older, different flume all together. I’ll have to ask Johnny.
If you ZOOM into the main area, you can see all the workers and horses threshing grain. Notice the shocks standing in the foreground. I can’t ZOOM in anymore or the photo becomes too pixelated.
I can imagine the hot work, itching from the grain dust, plucking at a sweat soaked shirt as the dry straw stalks poke in random places… the sounds of the horses snuffling, the harness jingle, the clunks and scrapes and squeals of equipment… a hand waved as a fly deterrent and a slap of a gloved hand on a mosquito, deer fly, or sweat bee… the welcome gurgle of spring water down parched throats as the canvas bag evaporates and maintains its cool contents… the raspy grunts as loads are lifted, the lilt of a young boy’s voice as he works alongside the men, the friendly teasing of a work crew…
Hard work. Those guys knew what hard work really was. Hopefully, I will never forget the hard, dusty, back breaking, labor that went into making this ranch. Those people were tough. My hat’s off to them.
It’s amazing what you can see with a little ZOOM.
Find me here!
I remember the canvas water bag my dad hung from the bumper of the car when we drove across the Mojave to camping in the Sierras. Those were the days! Thanks for my trip down memory lane.
our area has an Antique Power Show every, I actually got to pitch oats shocks onto the horse drawn hay rack in the field, then ride on top of the load to the thrashing machine, belt driven by an old steam engine, & pitched the bundles in the machine! SO much fun! Fun for me for a day, Very hard work for our fore fathers!