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A Mountain Hearth

Tales of Modern Homesteading and Outdoor Adventure

September 30, 2014

Through Another Lens

Sometimes, it’s refreshing to get a glimpse of our life through someone else’s lens. We had some friends come down to visit from Portland last month, and they had some photographic fun with our homestead and weekend adventures. I take all of the pictures on this blog with an old Olympus digital camera from 2001, and tend to focus in close-up on aspects of our life, so seeing the sweeping “bigger picture” panoramas captured on a newer camera gave a new and fun perspective.

We took our friends huckleberry picking on a narrow ridge, and you can get a sense of that looking from one edge to the other in this panorama. Between picking, munching, and gathering around for snacks, we had a grand time until the rain set in and sent us back home.

I like how the late summer blackberries are as prominent in this picture as the farmhouse.

In this one, our garden seems to wrap around the prayer flags as a central pivot-point.

Here, we have backyard camping at it’s finest, right among the gardens, quail coop and fruit trees.

Getting a good shot of the root cellar with my camera has been a challenge, but this panorama incorporated the entire wall of shelves with the beginnings of late summer canning filling the spaces, boxes of jars about to be filled, and all of our home-brewing endeavors. The root cellar is a dynamic place, and if you could see it now, there would be solid rows of colorful canned goods, and in another week, bottles of cider filling the empty spaces.

I especially enjoyed our friend Jeff’s “Selfie with Chickens.”

We put so much hard work into our homestead, it feels at times like an ongoing work of art. Perhaps the process of photographing and writing about the experiences are what makes it feel that way, or perhaps it is in the added dimension of sharing it with other people. Looking at our friends’ pictures, I felt like I was viewing my masterpiece through another lens.

Filed Under: Art, Homesteading, Life

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Old Gates Farm says

    September 30, 2014 at 11:52 pm

    your root cellar looks lovely! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
  2. LaraColley says

    October 1, 2014 at 4:13 am

    Thanks! It's one of my favorite things about our house. Root cellars are rare around here!

    Reply
  3. Jeff Callahan says

    December 4, 2014 at 5:08 am

    Wow…these photos sure remind me of the awesome time we had with your family at the magical place you call home!

    Reply
  4. LaraColley says

    December 4, 2014 at 7:13 pm

    We loved having your family over! Now we need to come up and have a big city visit ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply

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Out here in Oregon, I enjoy the rough-hewn life of a modern homesteader and mountain woman, weaving the outdoors into the fabric of daily life. Whether tending this McKenzie River homestead hearth or a campfire in the backcountry, I find great enjoyment in the work of a sustainable life. Gather around as I share my tales of outdoor adventure, conservation, restoration, land stewardship, wildcrafting, handcrafting, growing food, and keeping chickens. It is my hope to share ideas and inspiration, and strengthen connections with the land and wild places. Read Moreโ€ฆ

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