What Do You Do With Your Pictures?

The cool and rainy weather afforded us time to perform a long procrastinated task; organizing our photographs. When we were preparing for our life on the road we vowed to get rid of as much as possible. We did not know how long we were going to be on the road and did not want to pay monthly storage fees for years, maybe even decades.

The furniture was the easiest to get rid of as we did not have any family heirlooms other than a grandfather clock which is on loan at our son’s house and a gun safe at my brothers. The old personal pictures or mementoes from ours or our parents’ childhoods were the hardest. Some, like high school albums we got rid of altogether while others we passed on to our children to do with them what they wished. After all, they were going to get them at some point anyway. 

One of the hardest things to decide what to do with was the old photographs. They were too numerous and bulky to take on the road and we did not want to burden our children with storing them. So instead, we scanned them; all the photographs of our immediate family growing up as well as those passed on to us from our parents and other relatives. 

Barb's 4th Grade Class Picture circa 1968

A closer look shows a cute little Barbie on the far right.

What's that on her desk?

We scanned and stored them on various SD card and sticks in no real organization in mind. Even with that done we just could not get ourselves to throw away the originals so ended up burdening our daughter with them telling her to do with them what she wished. To this day we don’t know if she still has them and we are not going to ask. 

Me (l) and my brother Rod (r) circa 1967

It just dawned on me that I was not even in kindergarten when the above picture of Barb was taken!

So here we are with thousands of pictures covering decades and decades on storage devices, what to do with them? How do you organize them? We decided to put them into folders by years which is easy for some, much more difficult for others. It is fairly easy to guess the year on pictures with our kids in it but when it comes to old pictures of our parents, pictures of ourselves or just adults, it becomes a guessing game. Nonetheless, we went through thousands of pictures one by one placing them into what we felt was the right folder. 

Still just as cute circa 1970

It was fun to see all the old memories but also frustrating at times when we could not figure out when one was taken. 

Barb guessed the date on this picture to be 2010 based on the boots she was wearing.
Who knows what boots they wore what year?????

Even I used to get into the action but I had to totally guess at the date late 80's early 90's

We are now 90% there, feel pretty good about where we are and have them stored on several external hard drives should one fail. To Barb’s credit she has been very good about organizing our pictures since we have been on the road by year, month, and day which has made recent pictures much easier.

This is how we organize them since being on the road

On the days we could get out on the water we took full advantage of it. I got out fishing three times this week (Barb got out twice) from both on shore and on the water. The biggest fish of the week goes to...…. Me! With this 9lb channel cat.

The most fish award goes to Barb as she just slaughtered them when we went out in our kayak where Withlacoochee River dumps into the Gulf. We caught flounder, red fish, ladyfish, silver perch, and speckled  trout.

Getting ready!

Barb's first flounder!

Fish on!

Shrimp boat headed out to the gulf

Fishing out of a kayak is a little more challenging than in a boat. While Barb did most of the fishing I was trying to hold our place or keep us away from shore. We learned a lot and next time we will set things up a little differently.

Nice little Red Fish

Another day when Dan and I were fishing Barb and Jeanie went to an Accordion Club that Jeanie belongs to. Barb said it was very interesting and has even mentioned that she is going to get her dad's accordion! Here is a short video of what the club was like.....

They also stopped by the Williston Peanut Plant. The pictures are very interesting and resemble grain elevators of those in North Dakota.....

Last but not least, we received a message from a couple we met up in Alaska in '16! Mike and Liz live in nearby Citrus Springs and asked if we wanted to get together for a beer. Since they are locals they know all the good spots. We met them at Copp Brewery in Crystal River. They have excellent beer there and both Barb and I were very impressed. Then it was on to the Old Mill Tavern in Homosassa where they have 50+ chicken wing flavors...... Both were very good and it was great to get together with them again!

Overall it was a great week with a good mix of adventures and accomplishments. If you have any suggestions on how to organize pictures feel free to leave a comment. Two weeks down and two weeks left here in the Yankeetown area, who knows what kind of adventures trouble we can get into!