Memorial Day

So, Memorial Day marked the first day of picking wheat.  We met Ben at the field where they were just getting started picking.  Darrel was walking behind the combine making sure Ben was cutting at the right height. 

I thought this was pretty funny and pretty typical , it pretty much sums up the life of the farmer today -

Combining/farming on one side of the road, men playing golf on the other side of the road! HA!  What do the men in our family do on holidays, weekends, or times when other men have HOBBIES? work :) 

Ben said when the wheat curls down like that, the wheat is really dry.  Jack came up with this pose by himself -

Ok, so apparently when the combine is ran for the first time since the last harvest (fall last year), all the little mice that feast throughout the winter eventually find their way shot out of the back of the combine (I can't help it but I find this really funny) - SO, Jack found this mouse/rat? in the wheat stubble and was so proud!

I know it is so gross, but at the same time it was so funny and he was so amazed, I couldn't make him put it down.  Anyway, he already had nasty rat germs on his hands, so what then? 


Ben picks a bit and then tests the moisture in the wheat to see if it is dry enough to pick and if so can it be sent straight to the elevator or it can be taken to the bin at the farm to dry down some more with aeration fans or he can move to a different field where things may be drier- He says he wants no more than 13 1/2% moisture...

This moisture tester was almost Ben's Christmas present...I was so excited, I have even visited another local farmer to get his opinion on the type I should order, when Ben came in and said he and Darrel had ordered one!  Needless to say, I'm still a little bitter :) Did I mention they have no hobbies so I have to buy moisture testers as Christmas gifts?!

Oh yeah, that's the mouse riding in the combine with us.  He laid it down smelled his hand and said, "Mom, my hand smells like, smells like, uh, it smells like..." "A rat?" "yeah, a rat, yuk"

The kids watching the wheat being loaded down on the smurf.  Jack said, "What's a smurf?" What a deprived childhood!

The wheat gets unloaded into the auger and will be stored in the grain bin until it can be taken to the grain elevator.  That's the family patriarch checking in on the grain hauling.

Gatorade break

Jack can always find something to work on in the shop

After lunch, we went to mom and dad's...
It was HOT, so we stopped to pick plums

Jack loves to use the grabber!

The girls stayed on the gator and let the plums come to us! :)

LK loves plums...

and blackberries

Dad has tame berries that have thornless vines, but Jack loves the WILD blackberries.

 

We rode over to the sawmill on the gator to look around -

and just goof off a little

Then we came back so the kids could take a dip in the pool, and by pool I mean small, small kiddie pool...

LK was happy with 2 inches of water in the kiddie pool

So proud of herself

We have a 13 month old that still will not walk alone!  But we love her!

more catching up...

Ok, so where I have been raised, we have decorations every spring...what is a decoration you ask?  Well, most every church has it's own Sunday when it hosts decoration for families to come back and place flowers on the graves of their family members.  There is usually a special church service and then our families gather together and eat a meal together.  People I know that are not from the south have never heard of it, but I have known it my whole life.  The third Sunday in May, for my whole life, we have gathered together with my dad's extended family.  We always ate at my great-aunt's house or my mamaw and papaw Pruett's house, now we eat at mom and dad's house.  This year we went with mamaw and papaw Dixon to where my Hampton family relatives are buried.... Happy Home Church.  I have always thought that was such a sweet name for a little church in the edge of the woods -

Just a note - We always laughed because my papaw Pruett took family pictures at the cemetary... we have lots of pics of dad and his brothers and sister around our family tombstones !? lol  Well, now here I go... BUT, I want my kids to be able to see the names of their great-great-grandparents...


Mom, Lola Kate, and my Mamaw Dixon



Me, mom, mamaw, my aunts - Yvonne and Skeeter, and the kids



Papaw taught Jack to make a toothbrush from a sassafrass(?) tree

so sweet...

look mom, clean teeth!

lk, mamaw and papaw

The Dixon Family

My great-grandparents

Happy Home Church in the edge of the woods

Mamaw has always told me that granddaddy Hampton was the baby of nine kids.  When he was born they never gave him a name, just called him Baby.  When he got old enough to talk pretty well, he named himself Beed.


Jack talk - I got home the other day and both the kids were asleep.  I got LK out first and took her in a laid her down in her bed.  I went back to the car, got Jack and hauled him in.  He is four and big and heavy!  I kept thinking, "he is so big, I think I might could drop him". But, I made it and laid him down in his bed.  His eyes immediately popped open and he smiled and said, "Tricked you, I was awake, I just wanted you to carry me in."  Pinch. him. now.  love him

Vacation Bible School is in full swing right now - 102 Monday night and 100 last night.  They are learning about the Armor of God.  I laid down with Jack last night and asked him what his favorite thing was that day - "Learning about God, we learned about the belt of truth."  I think we are doing something right :)

We got a couple of inches of rain this weekend.  Ben is cutting wheat and we are planting beans.  I have some great pictures from memorial day, something to work on tonight.....

where to start...

So I am pretty much really behind in my posting duties... between decorations, mother's day, anniversaries, birthdays and preparing for vacation bible school, my evenings have been pretty full.  Things are just as busy for Ben at the farm - cutting wheat, spraying corn, planting beans, baling hay...I have lots to share.  I have spent a little time tonight sorting through pictures from cameras and phones, so more posts should be coming soon.  In the meantime, here are a few pictures I had to share.  These are of Lola Kate and her great-grandparents (Ben's mamaw, Lola Juanita, and papaw).  Mamaw Haynes fixes lunch for the boys everyday.  There are a lot of days Ben comes home and sees what I have made for supper and announces it is the same thing mamaw made for lunch, but he eats it anyway :) 

The Lolas - in their matching orange outfits :)

Oh, one more thing - Ben, Bart, and some boys were putting square bales of alfalfa hay in the hay barn and were almost done for the day when the stack fell.  There were two boys that fell from the top of the stack, two were underneath part of it, and I think somebody jumped off the back of the truck - suprisingly and thankfully, no one was hurt, probably just somebody's pride more than anything -



You can't see it now, but there is a trailer behind that truck!





More catching up to do!

Lola Kate and Papaw Bud