Sunday, December 8, 2013

2013 Christmas Cooking

Let Us Do Your
Christmas Meat Cooking
We will be smoking Turkeys, Boston Butt, and Whole Hams for Christmas.


  • The Turkeys will be between 12 to 15 lbs. (Larger ones need to be special ordered) and will be $25.00.


  • Turkey Breasts will be between 5 to 10 lbs and will be $20.00.


  • The Boston Butts will be between 10 to 15 lbs. and will be $35.00.


  • The Whole Hams will be between 30 to 50 lbs. and will be market price (somewhere around $50.00 to $75.00)


  • If you would like to bring your own meat, we will smoke them for $10.00 per piece and $12.00 per piece of venison.

All meat will be ready for pick-up on Monday, December 23, 2013 between 12:00 pm and 2:00 pm.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Wordless Wednesday...The Flower Garden

Hamp and I found a few "friends" enjoying our flower garden...










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Friday, June 28, 2013

The Lego Train

A few Sunday's ago, Knox went into the nursery to stay with Hamp.  Hubby and I had to run home to get food for the potluck after church.  

When we got back, we found the boys sitting at the table with snacks and a huge Lego structure in front of them


Knox was the construction engineer but Hamp was the creative consultant!


If we had been another 15 minutes, they would have used every single Lego in the nursery!




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Friday, June 21, 2013

My Artist....

I have to brag....

My oldest did one of the most incredible drawings in art class this spring!


It's hard to believe that my Knox did this!



I have it where I can see it everyday!

He is a talented young man and I just hope he keeps working on his talent... 






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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Wordless Wednesday....Soppin' the Beaters

Hamp helped to sop the beaters...


Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Wordless Wednesday...Holding up Traffic

Bringing home our new Allis Chambler 60 All Crop




Friday, June 7, 2013

The Feed Wagon

Knox is always looking for ways to drive any and everything that has wheels around the farm!

This is what he has been doing with the feed wagon when we get back from the pasture...


Anybody else have flashes of Forrest Gump???

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Wordless Wednesday....Who is Number 6?

Hamp is telling us the names of all the different engines in Thomas and Friends.
Pay attention to the name of the number 6 engine...




Percy is engine Number 6.

Friday, May 31, 2013

Last Day of Pre-Pre School

Hamp went to school this year, be it only 3 days a week.   We enrolled him in the 3 year old class at First Baptist Church Preschool.  He loved it!  

We weren't sure how he was going to adjust but he was a pro!  Hamp has speech problems that make it hard for you to understand what he is trying to say.   It can be frustrating for him but he as learned to cope with making you understand what he is saying.   He started speech therapy going once a week.   As the school year went on, he started talking more and more.  The amazing thing was that you could understand what he was saying!  

Between his speech therapist, Ms. Jennifer and his 3 year old teacher, Mrs. Karen,  Hamp has become a chatter box!  Ms. Jennifer would give Hamp homework that we worked on at home and Mrs. Karen also worked on them at school.  All of this has made it easier to understand most of what he says now.  He has become more adventurous in trying more complex words and sentences.  From this we have found a little Einstein!  Hamp constantly tell us his numbers and letters.  Colors are his favorite way to describe everything he sees.

Every week Hamp would come home with new crafts that he had made.  Watching him learning how to write his letters as been fun!  I am amazed at his ability to go from tracing his name to actually being able to write it!  It's so amazing to watch him grow...

We will miss Hamp not being apart of the Pre School at First Baptist next year.  We are excited that he is so well prepared to start Pre-K at Big A Elementary.  We look forward to seeing how far he goes next year!

Hamp getting his hug from Mrs. Karen.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Wordless Wednesday....Grandmoma's Birthday!

We celebrated Grandmoma's 70th Birthday!!





Monday, May 27, 2013

Memorial Day...

Memorial Day is the day to remember the fallen.

This year I not only remember the fallen but two men who came back from war and taught others that war is not all glory.  They taught us that war should not be taken lightly.  They taught us that through the worst of the battles comes great courage and strength...most you never knew you had.

These two men survived some of the worst battles of WWII and taught us that their buddies left behind were the true heroes, not them.  They spent the rest of their lives here on earth telling their stories and those of countless men who never came home.  

These men did this so we would never forget.

I will never forget them...


God Bless You
Jake McNiece and Reed Pelfrey.  

May your first Memorial Day in Heaven be a great day of reunion and peace...

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Honors Day Is Not a Good Day At Our House....

We hate Honors Day at our house!

There I said it!  I hate having to look at the eyes of my child when something is said about Honors Day at school.  I melt...  I cry... I stay away from Facebook...

This year my son FINALLY gets something and I don't know about it.  His school gives T-shirts to all the students who receive awards.  When he showed me his award (which was for nothing academic, but not being RAC'd all year--this is a type of disciple system at his school), I asked where his T-shirt was and his words were, "They were all bragging with them."  This meant that he didn't get one and he was upset.

As a teacher I have always had mixed emotions about Honors Days.  Its great to recognize our students but we seem to recognize the same ones over and over.  Yes, they are the ones excelling in the classroom but for them, school is easy.  What about the kids that struggle with everything and still are able to pass and even exceed the state tests!  What about the kids that work harder than those being recognize and get no Honors Day T-shirt?  What about those who have learning disabilities and are still able to not only pass but excess on state tests?  What about those who worked, struggled, cried and worked some more only to be given a pat on the back...  It's not fair.  Only those in the gifted classes seem to be getting the awards...at least in my child's eyes!

We struggle with school every year.  I have a son that struggles with the riggers of school.  The way public school is structured is not the structure that allows my son to excel academically.  Every year we have cried over not being able to understand concepts as quickly as his classmates.  Every year I tell him he has to work twice as hard as his classmates but that he can do it!  Every year we cry together and yell at each other.  Every year his surprises me with how well he pulls off passing his CRCTs!

But no one from his schools have ever recognized him for academic achievements   He's been recognized by his SPED teachers in his IEP meetings but never has he been recognized in front of his classmates.  We have only been to one Honors Day in the eight years he has been in school and he didn't get anything for academic achievement. For his learning disabilities, he is achieving more than we ever thought he would be able to do.

He will never be able to be in the Top 5% of his class...we have come to terms with that.  But can't we recognize him for SOMETHING academic!  Every year when he has to watch his friends get their T-shirts and walk across the stage, I watch him get frustrated.  Every year it gets harder and harder to get him to work to accomplish what his school calls "basic" achievement.  I see him struggling to try to keep a B average.  I watch him every year sink to "why should I work so hard when no one recognizes me" mode.  I work hard every year to pull him up and he does.  But how long can I keep it up?  It saddens me that he kept an 87 average all year and was never recognized for it.

I'm speaking of my child.  There are others in the same boat.  They work hard.  They keep their grades up.  They pass and exceed state tests.  They help their school to get high scores on state school wide grades.  Why aren't they recognized?

I know it seems like I am saying that every student deserves an award.  That's not it.  We seem to have forgotten that every student is special.  Every student has something that is valuable.  It takes every student for a school to get that "A" grade from the state.  Every student is able to make some type of contribution to academic excellence of their school.  For some students you just have to look harder for it.  We put so much on those exceeding we seem to brush aside those that are the "average" student.

Honors Day is not a good day in our house!  We are proud of those who got their Honors Day T-shirts and awards.  You deserved it!  

We just wish you knew how much we deserved it too!


Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Wordless Wednesday....Our T-Ball Player

Hamp's T-Ball season is over...





Boy did he have fun!

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Wordless Wednesday...Daddy's Ride

Look who gave Daddy a ride...


Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Wordless Wednesday...Do you see me???

Do you see the little friend we found?


Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Wordless Wednesday... Joe Cool

Hamp....
He's so cool, he has to wear shades....

Monday, April 22, 2013

Baby Bunnies

The other day when Hubby was cutting grass, he stopped and quickly came in the house.  He was in a hurry (if you know Hubby, he's NEVER in a hurry) and had a somewhat panicked look on his face.

"Quick, I ran over a rabbit's nest!  There are baby bunnies in the nest!," he spouted out.  "What do I need to do?"

I wasn't sure.  Together we went back up to where he had run over the nest.  There Hubby uncovered a nest with four tiny baby rabbits...



They were all huddled together and it was hard to tell where one started and one ended.  But you could see their cute little ears!  Hubby said two were outside the nest just after he noticed it.  He put them back in the nest when he came and got me.

We decided to cover the nest back up and wait.  If the mother rabbit was still around, she would be back and would move them.  If she didn't come back, we decided that we would try to raise them.  




We left the nest and waited.  Not long after we left, it started to rain.  I found a large pot and placed it over the nest but with a way for Mama rabbit to get in.  We just waited again and hoped for the best.

As evening set in, Hubby came back with news.  Two of the baby rabbits were gone but two were still in the nest.  The two in the nest just didn't make it.  Mama rabbit, we hope, has the two surviving babies and is raising them to be full grown rabbits!

Happy Earth Day!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Wordless Wednesday....The Violets


Spring is here!

The violets are blooming...




Friday, April 12, 2013

The Accident

Some days are just not good days....  Sunday was one of those.  

As we went about tending to the chickens and goats, it was business as usual.  We moved the large chicken pen with the tractor and had just finished refilling water and feeders.  I went to crank the tractor so that we could move the goats. 

We hand crank our tractors partly to make it harder for the boys to start the tractors.  Hand cranking is not terribly difficult but must be done correctly.  The most important thing to do is to make sure that the tractor is not in gear when you crank it.  Because as soon as you crank it, it's ready to go.  And if it's in gear it will take off with you.  This is what I found out the hard way.

So if you hand crank your tractor and it is still in reverse, it will run over anything in its way.  Even if that's a metal chicken pen....






I must tell that no chickens or humans were injured during the ordeal.  Only the chicken pen was damaged and hurt.  The tractor only had scratches on its tires.  And the chickens aren't as dumb as people would like you to think!  Humans on the other hand....

Now we begin the process of building a new chicken pen....

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Wordless Wednesday....Easter Hunting

Cousins Hunting Easter Eggs




Monday, April 8, 2013

T-Ball


Hamp is playing T-Ball.

Monday was his first ball game.  And he did not want to go.

Hamp cried when I put his shoes on.

Hamp cried on the way to the play field.

Hamp cried when he put his uniform on.

Hamp cried when he was suppose to go out onto the field.

Then...

Hamp got to bat...


and all was right with the world!

Friday, April 5, 2013

Farm Days at Astabula

The last Saturday in March is the start of our tractor show season.  So this past Saturday, we packed up and headed across the river to see all our friends at Farm Days at Astabula.  

This use to be the old Pendleton show that was started in part by a couple of brothers Norman and Ernest Durham.  We have know them for quite a while and usually camp next to Norman and his wife Elaine when ever we can.  The Durham's are quite knowledgeable about hit and miss engines and both have traveled around the US pulling old iron from the scrap yard into working history again.  We consider them almost family and our kids look for them even before we get out of the truck at every show we go to.

Ashtabula is a charming two-story clapboard plantation house built c. 1825 by Lewis Ladson Gibbes (1771-1828) and his wife, the former Maria Drayton and later owned by their son Lewis Reeves Gibbs, the famous SC naturalist. The house was expanded to 10 rooms by later owners and the farmland expanded to over 1,000 acres. The orginal 2-story brick building on the site dates to before 1790 and was the site of a traveler's tavern prior to the building of the main house. This building was later attached to the main house with a breezway and was used as the plantation kitchen, and other rooms are interpreted as servant's quarters and a school room. Ashtabula is a house museum situated on ten acres of open ground with its colonial period brick dependency and well house. The house was restored by the Pendleton Historic Foundation and furnished with antebellum antiques and family artifacts.


The show is set up under in the grove of oak trees with the house in the back ground.  It's really neat to hear all the engines popping and grinding under the trees.  It makes you feel as if you are on a working plantation in the 1880s.  There was an 1883 working cotton gin, blacksmith demos, and all types of toys from the 1800s for kids (and adults alike) to learn how to play.

Here are some of the sites we saw and were apart of at the Farm Days at Ashtabula...

First thing Hamp did was get on Mr. Norman's wagon right between two girls!

This is a corn shucker.  You put in dried corn and this machine will take the shucks from the cob.

Another view of the corn shucker.

Hubby talking with the celebrity at the show, Lyn Ellis.  Lyn was on American Pickers.  I had to leave...I didn't have my boots on.  The conversation was "getting pretty deep." 

This is an antique hay bailer that Sam is filling.  Later on, Knox joined Sam as they bailed some more bails.  These two boys are always finding something to do at every show we go to. 

Ernest Durham (on left with black hat) is showing his latest engine he has rebuilt.  It belongs to  the man on the left, Dean Hunter.

Some of the kids at the show were trying to make some money. They were selling Corn Dogs...ears of corn with faces put on them with a string tied around them.  Sam was handling marketing.

Hamp worked all day at trying to fill up that water bucket.

This is a very rare, single cab steel hauler by International.  To the left you can see the engine that runs the corn shucker.
All day Hamp worked at grinding corn for Ms. Linda.  At the end of the day, I caught Hamp and his Daddy racing to empty the corn grinder.  It was a great end to a great day!


Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Wordless Wednesday....Easter Boy

Easter Boy


Waiting for the hunt to start.
Not real sure about the Easter Bunny....
Winning a Grand Prize...Happiness!!


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