This photo was taken yesterday on the central Minnesota farm that is home to Register Senior Writer Tim Drake and his family.

When Tim emailed it today to other members of the Register’s editorial team, the Daily Blog confesses to a fleeting speculation that Tim was admitting to embellishing a tale or two during his celebrated career as a Catholic journalist and author of well-received books such as Behind Bella.

Perish the thought! Seriously, Tim’s integrity as a journalist is beyond question. So what is the picture all about?

Here’s Tim’s explanation:

“Life’s always interesting on a farm. As many of you know, we have had a couple of plays in our barn. Well, a home schooling family is putting on a new play (not in the barn) and needed one of the old props from the barn — an enormous book from which characters stepped out. The problem was: the book was built inside the barn. It’s so large that there was only one way to get it out. So, yesterday, utilizing the barn’s hay trolley, we rigged some ropes to move the trolley and raise and lower the book through the barn’s hay doors. Hence the picture… It must have made quite a sight from the road.”

I don’t know about the view from the road, but it’s quite a sight on the Daily Blog, that’s for sure!

P.S. Tim advises the book was used for “Johnny Appleseed” and “Paul Bunyan,” two American folklore plays that were put on in the barn by the home school theater troupe last fall. The book is being given a new cover and being used for the musical “A Year with Frog and Toad” being put on by the home school theater group at a different site in two weeks.