This and That at The Peanut Butter Cafe & Roadhouse

Beside the Stream and Pioneer Woman

March 8, 2008 AmeliaJake 2 Comments

Is it the camera business – and software that brings editing and enhancing to the amateur, not to mention printing – that is behind some blogs today. Well, yes, I would say so. Now, I don’t know what was the chicken and what was the egg with the Pioneer Woman but along with her stories of her life, there is a pictorial place that few of us experience – the Old West, the New West, the prairie, nature and so forth. So, yes, Nikon and Hewitt-Packard would take notice of the potential for marketing. And Adobe Photoshop – hey, is there much difference between being talked through a recipe and talked through photo editing? Probably not. And she is starting a whole new blog devoted to it, along with the Pioneer Woman Cooks blog.

Now, on the upper right sidebar of Confessions of a Pioneer Woman, Beside the Stream is featured – a blog with lots of pictures about the mountains and Colorado. This lady, I think her name is Alice, starts right off telling you she hadn’t really taken pictures until a “professional” camera arrived at her house. And now she has a tutor. I don’t know what brand of camera she has and it probably doesn’t matter. I think the idea is to get people wanting to take more photos and do more things with them and that leads to overall growth in camera sales, software and accessories.

This is okay with me. Perhaps soon I will be looking each day at photos of living in a bayou, in a bunch of cities, in the desert, in the High Plains, in the Sierras, in resorts, and so forth. Well, it should be educational.

Say, anyone want to give me a fancy camera to capture a small Indiana town in photos. I’m from Lagrange County; I can do farms and Amish and Shipshewana. I’m from the pioneer stock of the area – I’ve got old photos that can be resurrected.

Nikon, Canon, Olympus . . . if you’re interested, remember I’m ameliajake@theleaningcow.com

2 thoughts on “Beside the Stream and Pioneer Woman”

pottermom says:

March 8, 2008 at 2:48 pm

I have to admit I love the photos but I also admit I’m a bit of a snob with photography. It is due to the fact that my daughter is a photography major in college. She has had to work so hard to learn to take a good picture with film, develop it herself and print it herself all without the aid of a computer. After watching her learn these things and seeing the satisfaction she gets from a well produced photo in silver gelatin medium I almost think it’s cheating to use digital and photoshop. With photoshop you can take any photo and make it good, shoot you can make it to where it doesn’t even resemble the original. My daughter’s professor first gave them a disposable camera and sent them out. He said if you can’t take a good photo with a disposable camera you won’t be able to take a good one with a professional camera. I happen to agree. Pioneer woman has a good eye but sometimes I don’t like how much she photoshops her shots. Yup, I’m a photo snob. lol

I had a friend raving about the wonderful prizes Ree gives away in her contest. She was gushing about how generous she is. I’m thinking to myself through this fountain of adoration that she’s nuts if she doesn’t think there’s a lot of commercialization going on and money is changing hands. I seriously doubt this is coming from the pocket. If it was it would still be her old clothing and knicknacks going out the door.

LaGrange county… my family is originally from Tell City, quite a bit south of you. We lived in west Chicago for three years too so I’ve been in your country.
pottermom says:

March 8, 2008 at 3:11 pm

okay, I went to the Colorado lady’s site… what a surprise. She is from my old stomping grounds. I grew up on southwestern Colorado just over the mountain from where she writes from and I have stood on the grounds of the Animas Valley Grange pictured in her post….. small world? I’d be surprised if she and I didn’t know some of the same people.

Comments are closed.

***Jody Lynn Vance: 1985-2011***

Jody was born at sunrise on a bright, sunny, cold, snowy Groundhog’s Day and from Day One she was a gift to everyone around her. Her infectious laugh and rambunctious spirit made her the center of attention where ever she happened to be.

She and her Dad would watch Sesame Street and sing at the top of our voices (and quite out of key) all of the songs. She enjoyed having Mom fix her hair so it was fancy and just right.

As a toddler she had quite an impressive vocabulary and often had a lot to say. One time Dad was headed out the door to go to work and she pointed her finger and said, “No. No. No. Don’t go anywhere!“

Jody was very seldom crabby, always happy and she wasted no time in spreading that joy to everyone around her. Jody’s favorite place was to be perched on the lap of Mom or Dad or playing with her toys spread out all over the floor. Jody was always affectionate, wanting hugs and “moochies” as she called smooches on the cheek.

At around two, Jody’s illness began to attack her. It took a beautiful, innocent child and put her through untold pain and suffering,

I know that through all of that she was not afraid. She had the heart and spirit of lion. She never gave up; time after countless time, she would open her eyes and there would come that smile. Jody lost her speech, but never was at a loss for words. She could say more with a look or a half smile than most people do yakking all day long.

After numerous doctor, hospital, and specialist visits, we were given the news of her illness. I remember that moment frozen in time … it was as if the entire world stopped. It was in that brief moment we both knew that we must make the very most of the time we had remaining together and not dwell on the despair of all of the things that would never be.

Jody was not expected to live more than three or so - but she had too many things to do and stories to tell, so she cruised by that birthday and over two more decades of birthdays, Christmases and millions of smiles and hugs. Jody was well-liked by other kids; once when she was being wheeled into her classroom at Handicare, one of the children yelled, “Hey everybody, Jody’s here” and all the kids cheered.

Two of the biggest joys in her life were her two little brothers, Joey and Sammy. She would just beam with joy when they would sit next to her and when they began to get older she’d love to listen to them running through the house and playing together. The two of them would start laughing and Jody would laugh right along with them. She would listen intently to everything they did and they would include her as often as they could. The three of them loved watching Saturday morning cartoons and The Three Stooges.

Joe and Sam did without a lot of things that other kids had, did and took for granted … and they never once complained or were resentful of the way things were. That shows a special kind of love and a special kind of family.

As the years went by and the boys grew up into strong and healthy, Jody’s health slowly and steadily declined. She would have long stretches where she was fairly stable and then would become so very ill.

Many times we were sure the end was near and then she would open those sparkling blue eyes and stretch just like nothing had happened at all.

Once she was in the hospital with her usual bout of pneumonia and lapsed into a coma; this went on for 8 days. One Dr. came in, examined her and just shook his head. Later that night Jody’s eyes popped open and she was refreshed from her cat- nap.

People over the years have commented, ”I don’t know how you do it. ”This always struck me as odd. My thoughts would always be: How could you even think of turning your back on someone who needs you that much?

It was always our promise to Jody that she would always live at home with her family and I think she found comfort in knowing that.

But, no one person can take the credit for caring for this wonderful young woman. It has taken an army of doctors, nurses, teachers, aides, pharmacists, friends, and family over the years to maintain Jody at home, and we could never begin to thank you enough.

Jody always kept her head held high and never seemed to be afraid; she has truly been my inspiration on many occasions. When things were gloomy and seemed hopeless, just one smile and a hug was all I needed to go on. Jody will always be my hero. I love her and will treasure the time we had together.

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