Talkin' 'Bout a Heat Wave

Yesterday, it was 97 degrees out... at 6pm.

Today, it's looking to be another scorcher.

Thankfully, I have a well developed fantasy life...

and am choosing to spend today at the farm.. with snow.

Seriously.. Thoughts?

Charolais White

Since I came into the lives of The Hubs, LW and GG, I have spent a fair amount of time teaching them that there is only one type of real cow.  These are Charolais, (pronounced shar-LAY ) which are french beef cattle my grandfather / uncle raised on the farm in Texas.

I've trained them all (including The Tweedles) to recognize Charolais cows on sight.  They're all white and the bulls have that curly hair on their foreheads.  I take great pride every time they can pick them out from the other riffraff.

These are better left on the boxes of gateway computers or in milk commercials.

These ones always look like they just rolled around too long in the Texas red clay.

And don't even get me started on these guys.  Quite frankly, up until now, there hasn't been a cow that can rival Charolais in my heart.  Which is weird to say, since most people don't have room in their hearts for cows. And while I don't think I will love any other cow more than Charolais, I've stumbled across one that comes close.

These shaggy long-haired lovelies are highland cows.  You know, from Scotland.

Look how cuddly and sweet these little guys are.  I just wanna squeeeeeeeeze 'em. And love 'em.  And put one in my pocket and take it home and name it Hamish.

And they even come in Charolais white.  Who wouldn't love these guys?

Lady Seriously.. Thoughts?

Farm Deer

I've been fighting a migraine for the past few days and it finally beat me down today.  So, instead of continuing with the last day of our Sequoia trip, please enjoy a look at the three does and two fawns that have been visiting my parents at the farm.  My dad took these amazing pics from the kitchen.

Isn't this little fawn adorable?  I've never seen a fawn outside of a Disney movie.  They really do have spots!

That vertical post is the bird feeder which is about halfway from the house and the hot wire you see in front of the deer.

This little fawn got brave and actually is about half way to the house.

Curious little thing.

I love those big deer ears!

The other little fawn has moved off into the woods in this photo.  My dad thinks that not having cows on the property is the main reason they've seen more deer near the house than ever.  Well, that and mom has a "no shooting from the back door" rule.  She says it isn't "sporting".

Seriously... Thoughts?

Is There Anything Sweeter than a Country Church?

This is my Grandmother's Church.  And since I was baptized there, it's my church too.  Although, can either my Grandmother or I still claim this as our church since my Grandma passed away a while ago and I live half a country away?  I think yes.  If home is where your heart is, then I think a church can be too.  Don't you?

Although, even this country church has come a long way from when I was a kid.  To start, this half on the right, it didn't exist when I was a kid.  When I was a kid, it was just the main chapel with open crawl space underneath.  Under the church was a great place to catch crickets and lizards.  And yes, I managed to do both in a dress, and still be lady-like.  Sorta.

The original church also used to have out-houses out back.  We didn't use them of course, the Church had indoor plumbing by then.  And out back, we used to have picnic tables under a porch where we'd celebrate during revival. Mmmmm.  Cornbread, fried chicken, black eyed peas and deviled eggs.  I can smell the southern cooking now!  That's all done in the new addition now.  It has a lot of indoor seating and a lovely kitchenette space.

But one thing that hasn't changed?  The view.  Something about this view always makes me feel closer to God and at one with the nature around me.  And if you look really hard, you can see the farm from here.

Seriously.. Thoughts?

Private Eyes Are Watching You

This road might look familiar.  At the end of it is one of my favorite falling down houses on property that was once owned by my Great Uncle T. 

You might remember me telling you that this is a bit off the beaten path.  You have to leave regular roads and travel on a dirt road through to the other side of a state park to reach this bit of private property.

And even way out here, we have the neighborhood watch.

Seriously.. Thoughts?

America: Falling Down

I'm 36 years old, married for the second time and mother/stepmother to four amazing kids.  I went to and graduated from, a State University and have a full time job.  I also do contract work for friends and family when they need me to.  I'm a member (albiet not a very good one this year) of the DAR and am going to be the PTA President of Bunny's school next year.  I pay my bills, keep the family organized and running smoothly, and I even clean bathrooms.  In a lot of ways though, I'm still a lot like a little kid.  I'm still trying to figure out what I want to "be" when I grow up.

For a while I wanted to be a painter.  In high school, I learned to oil paint and man did I love it.  And I wasn't too bad if I do say so myself.  Later, in college I took a watercolor class and loved the challenge it represented.  I haven't painted in years though.  Too busy I guess and I recognize I lack the passion for it.  I liked it, but I don't love it.

I've dabbled with the idea of homeschooling my kids and the rewards and challenges that would go along with that.  I haven't followed through of course, in part because our family needs my working income, but also because I doubt I have the patience to be a very effective teacher.  Even for my own kids.  Patience is something that I struggle with daily and fail at more often than not.  I keep trying though!

For as long as I remember, I've wanted to be a writer.  A fiction writer specifically. In college, I briefly courted the idea of becoming an editor.  I'm not sure why I strayed from that.  I guess because while I am definitely left brained in my approach to most things (organized, systematic and consistent), I have enough right brain influence that whatever I do in life has to have some measure of creativity.  And reading other people's creative outlets just didn't seem like enough to feed my own creative needs.

Obviously, photographer is one of my dream jobs.  And this one might even be achievable one day when I've taken about a million more photos and really defined my take on the craft. Until then, I take as many photos as I can of things that I find interesting.  I love that I've found a way to blend a story with my photos in this blog. It gives me a purpose to my photos (which keeps my left brain happy) and an excuse to take a million more and share the stories behind them (happy right brain).

Which brings me to these old homes that are in the area around the farm.  They've been around as long as I can remember making treks to the farm, and after being given some background on a few of them from the Awesome Uncle K, I know that several of them have been around a lot longer than I imagined.

I always wondered about these buildings.  Someone built a home for his family ages ago.   They lived there, loved there, probably laughed and cried.  Babies were likely born in those buildings and given the time period, some probably died there too.

This house is on an old dirt road we called "tunnel road" as kids since the tree branches grew up over the road making a tunnel effect. We would take this road home late at night from church revivals (if we were good in church) and we would watch the stars occasionally peak in at us from behind the branches.  The road probably has a proper name, but I didn't bother looking for it.  It will always be tunnel road as far as I'm concerned.

This is one of my favorites and always has been.  This is just a hop, skip and a jump (one street and a regular house lot) from a big lake that's in the area.

The front porch - or what's left of it - faces the rising sun and the lake.  What an amazing view they would have had each morning.

I imagine that it was a great location once upon a long time ago.  Water with plenty of fishing nearby, woods all around to hunt in before development really set in.  I would love to be able to go back in time and see what this house was like when it was originally built.

This has also been one of my favorites for a long time.  Unlike the other houses that sit just off of roads that are still used regularly, this one sits on a piece of property my Great Uncle T used to own on the other side of a state forest.

This is a view of the house from only partway down the dirt road you have to take to get there.  There's actually two pieces of property down this way.  The house and the land at the end to the left used to be Great Uncle T's.  It was sold out of the family a while ago.  The land at the end to the right belongs to my Uncle S. - my mom's oldest brother. 

The Amazing Uncle K, told me this used to be a regular stop for the local stage coach.  Now it mostly houses an assortment of critters and hay.

This all of course, leads me to my latest "when I grow up" job.  I want to tour the country - maybe even the world - taking pictures of these old falling down homes.  I want to talk to the locals to find out the histories of each of the homes, and when I have enough, I want to publish a coffee table book with my photos and those stories.  I'll call it, America: Falling Down.  I claim all copyrights to this idea and the title.  Don't steal my idea or I'll.. well, I'll cry and then you'll feel bad. Honest, you will!  I don't think it will make the best seller list or anything, but it sure would be fun.

Seriously.. Thoughts?

Mayberry Ain't Got Nothin' On Us

While we were visiting at the farm, The Tweedles got to go fishing for the very first time.  Now, please, bear in mind that they are only 5 and 3, so no, they didn't catch anything.  In fact, I think we spent more time getting them set up, than they did actually fishing.  But it was a fun experience none the less.

On the afternoon of our last day, we put off nap time and gathered the kids up to go down to the Big Pond to fish.

Let me say here right up front, I do not fish.  That's not to say when I was younger spending summers at the farm, that I did not fish.  I did.  But I don't recall ever catching anything and frankly, sitting quietly waiting for the fish to bite was outside of my capabilities when I was young.  A teacher might refer to me as "Energetic" but lets face facts, I was High-Strung. Of course, I'll deny that if anyone asks. But fishing is a farm experience I didn't want The Tweedles to miss out on, so The Hubs was awesome enough to show them how it's done so I could play with my camera catch it all for posterity.

The first thing The Hubs did after getting each of The Tweedles a pole, was realize that if they sat on the dock (which my wonderful and amazing Uncle K built when my brother and his family was visiting so they could fish) they'd lose their boots in the pond.  So, off came the boots!

Then he got a fishing pole with a bobber for each of the kids and set them up to fish.

Bunny first, because she's the oldest, most annoying and has no patience to be second.  High-strung people, I have no idea where she gets it from.

Bug dutifully held his fishing pole for a good 5 minutes.  We were so proud.

Bunny watched The Hubs cast and reel a few times and wanted to do it herself.  The Hubs being the absolutely amazing father he is, sat down and taught her how to cast.  He has way more patience than I do.  It's why I married him.  I needed someone to balance me out.  But I'll deny that if asked.

She didn't do so bad either!

And for a while there, they all fished in happy harmony.

Can I just stop here a second and tell you how much I love this photo.  There's just something about Bunny and The Hubs fishing together that really chokes me up and gets me all misty.  And her one pant leg rolled up just a little, and in her stocking feet.  I don't know why, but this one sure gets me.

Of course, then one gets me too.

And this one.

Are you sure we can't move to Texas Hubs?  Hello?  Are you listening? 
These photos always make me start whistling the theme song to The Andy Griffth show and I get a clear visual of Opie walking barefoot on a dirt road with his fishing pole over his shoulder.

Opie's got nothing on my Bug though.

Seriously.. Thoughts?

She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy

One of the truly unique things about living out in the middle of nowhere, is that even before you get your license, heck even before you turn 16, you can drive.  Four years ago, when we took the family to the farm for Christmas, this was a huge deal for GG.  This year, even though she was 16, she still didn't have her license and it was still a big deal.  One of the very first things my wonderful and fun Uncle (who will henceforth be called Uncle K because calling him just Uncle seemed weird to me) did, was put GG on a tractor. 

It wasn't unusual to see this coming at you as you wandered through one of the fields.

It was a little unusual to see Uncle K hot-doggin' it on the tractor forks as GG brought the tractor down to the field.  Brave man my Uncle K.  He came along to give some instructions so that GG could do some work for him, all in the guise of "fun".  Man that Uncle K is slick!  He's like Tom Sawyer, I tell you!  Must be something those country boys learn early on.

His instructions were simple.  Bring the tractor into this little corral area where he was storing some hay bales, pick one up, and move it out for the cows.

Sounds easy enough.

Except for one thing.  In all of her driving lessons with The Hubs, they never covered reverse.  If you blow up this image (just click on it to see the larger version) you'll see that she backed up the tractor forks right into the wire gate there. 

Now let me tell you another thing about my Uncle K, he is the most patient, calm man I know.  I don't think I've EVER seen him lose his temper.  Not once.  So after letting her back up and pull forward and back up and pull forward and back into the gate, pull forward, back up so the tree limbs attacked her and pull forward again and we'd all had a really good laugh, he walked up and gave her some friendly and calm instructions.

He even told her what a great job she was doing - especially for someone who hadn't ever done it before - and finally got her backed up to where she was suppose to be.

A few more pointers later, and she backed right up to the bale and got it on the fork and in the air!  Not to shabby for a girl who hasn't even taken drivers ed yet!  I think we have a video of this, I'll try to get my hands on it.  If I do manage to post it, please ignore the laughing people in the background!

Seriously... Thoughts?