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Exploring The Catalina Mountains

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This year (or I suppose it is this past year at this point) Scott and I made the long drive to Tucson for Christmas to spend the week with some of his family. His sister, brother-in-law, and two nephews live there, and his parents flew in from Kansas as well.

Scott and I have spent a decent amount of time in the Catalina mountains, and we were both really looking forward to getting out to climb quite a bit while there over Christmas. On one of our first days in Tucson, we went out exploring with Scott's nephew and their two Australian Shepherds to scope out some climbs for the next few days. They had a fairly wet fall in Tuscson, so things looked much greener than the other times I have been there. There was also water running down the entire wash area, which I had not experienced there before. The water made everything much more lush and beautiful, and the dogs loved having the water to cool off in. 

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Next up: more images from Arizona, mainly some climbing photographs, as well as images of one of the most spectacular sunsets I have ever witnessed. 

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Kansas Homestead

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Happy Saturday everyone! We are currently getting slammed by a spring snowstorm here in Denver, and I'm curled up on the couch enjoying the forced relaxation. I'm also getting caught up (dare I say completely?!) on images and blog posts. Fare warning though, this is going to be a long post with LOTS of images (it was such a stunning place), so buckle up folks.

Last October I drove to Syracuse, Kansas to meet up with Myra and Brandon, two friends from grad school, to give Myra some company while she took images for her thesis work. Myra's mother's family is originally from Syracuse, and they still own the family farm on the outskirts of town (the focus of Myra's thesis). The house has been uninhabited for quite some time, and the land has only been used as grazing land for cattle, resulting in some serious decay and dilapidated conditions. 

The main obstacle to getting into the house was the bird situation. Numerous birds had taken up residence in the home, and they definitely left their mark, on absolutely everything. I have never seen so much bird poop in one area before. Before we entered the house, we tried to make a lot of noise to scare as many birds out as possible. Unfortunately, not all were scared away, which made for some startling encounters once we were inside the house. 

Lots of other creatures had made their home there as well, as well as plenty of tumbleweeds. These items filled the little basement house with lots of great texture, and they all caught the light in rather wonderful ways. 

They have a small tenant house on their land as well, which has also been vacant for a long time. It was falling apart more completely than the main house, with a section of floor completely caved in, and doors that didn't fit right. It still had some wonderful details inside however, and the timing with the sun couldn't have been much better. 

And that sums it all up! Needless to say, my light and shadow obsessed self went a little crazy with documenting it all. Thanks for sticking through that, and hopefully it was all worth it.  

Next up: a short post on my favorite subject in one of my favorite places: light in my parents' home. As always, feel free to share via the links below, and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss anything. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!