BACK ON THE FARM

Once upon a time, we lived on a farm in West Texas.

Not much income was produced by that farm. but, a whole lot of interesting experiences and memories sure were!

I wish I had more photos to go with those memories. Unfortunately, writing a ‘blog’ back in those pre-personal computer/internet days never entered my mind. If I’d had any inkling, there would have been pictures of Rocky, the dog, Rojo, the rooster, Boots, the lamb, Peanuts the Shetland pony ( and her colt) and lots of chickens and rabbits…and also, lots….and lots…of snakes!

Well, maybe not the snakes!

Furthermore, I was just too busy to be taking a bunch of photos back then.

So, we’ll just have to make do with mostly word pictures.

I showed you a couple of pictures of our farm-stead in a previous post. Remember this one?

When we first moved there, no telephone or even electrical connections were available. We had to pay BIG BUCKS to get the lines installed and it took several days. As our little mobile home on the prairie had an electric stove (can’t stand ‘em!) I had no way of cooking anything…except on this here camp fire!

As I previously mentioned, (see LESS IS MORE)  the one thing we had in abundance was rocks! So, first thing we did was to create this outdoor kitchen and dining room.
I can call it that if I want to!

I can still remember how good thatcowboy coffee smelled perking away out there in the wide open spaces-to say nothing of the bacon and eggs frying up in an iron skillet!

I tried my best to grow this tree in caliche filled soil.

                             It died.

We enjoyed our ‘campsite’ so much, that after we’d got more settled in, we created another one in a better location and at least, once a week, supper would be hot dogs, cooked over an open fire. And, of course,roasted marshmallows for dessert!!!

When you live out in the country you can do things like that.

We even got us a swimming pool……….and I got a couple of old beds…threw them right on the ground…for some tanning time after a dip in the stock tank swimming pool! Yee Haw! We’re the ‘Beverly Hillbillies’…only in West Texas.

My mom would have killed me for posting this picture of her. But she’s no longer with us and she’s probably lost all her human hang-ups and so I’m thinking she probably won’t mind at all. My sons, on the other hand……….Well, that’s why I cropped these two photos in such an odd way! They, being country kids, are swimmin’ in their skivvies!

This is younger son.  Hopefully, he won't mind this photo too much as you can't really be sure whether he's in his skivvies or some white swim trunks, now can ya?

Remember in FIELD OF DREAMS…”Build it and they will come.” Well, we built this here little playground…and they came! And they came to see all the animals...of which I have almost NO pictures.

As I recall, they all had a real good time!

Eureka! Look what I found!

It's a picture of some of the visiting kids and Peanuts, the Shetland mare and her baby.....and our old hound dog ROCKY is even in there!

The next picture is of my dad, giving Towhead a ride on the colt...whose name I cannot recall.  See all those rocks lining our 'yard.'  I guarantee you, I didn't have to go far to find them.

My kids learned a lot in those days. My oldest learned to drive that little red Datsun before he learned to tell time! And it was stick shift!! I’d be leaving to go work out in the field somewhere in my snazzy old blue truck….

…and I’d tell him, “When the big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the 3, you come on out to the field.” And he would! Man do I wish I had a picture of that!

This is the 70's, ya'll.  Check out those plaid polyester pants with the flared legs, worn over my beat up old cowboy boots!  I don't know what to say about that hat.  It kept my ears warm.  I wasn't into being some kind of fashionista, that's for sure.

The boys  also had all the room in the world to ride their bikes or just run wild. This is older son and tow-headed nephew. Just look at all that beautiful countryside. (Sarcasm alert)

And check out the iron-on patch on the knee of those jeans!

Tow-head usually preferred to go minimalist, as far as clothing is concerned.

Younger son and Towhead

I know this really looks like a desolate place, but those wide open skies actually have their own kind of beauty.  You really can see 'forever' out there.  Especially at  night.  Being out in the country gives you an awesome view of a star-filled sky.

One night, some good friends were with us sitting out on our deck. We saw some lights...quite a few of them..not stars...and I don't think they possibly could have been airplanes.  They would zoom across the entire breadth of the sky...from horizon to horizon....and then zoom back the other way....lickety split!

Even faster than that!

I don't know what they were but we all saw them and I guarantee we were all pretty much freaked out!

Then, there was the DAY OF THE TORNADOS.  Yes, 'tornados, plural!

Oh Lordy!  I don't think I can bear to revisit that day, right now.  Suffice it to say, it was a day which will live in infamy....at least for a bunch of folks who lived around that little Texas town.


One cold winter day, I nearly got my fingers cut off when I got them too close to the tractor fan...trying to get my hands warmed from the engine heat.

The boys and I were regularly attacked by our crazy rooster by the name of Rojo.

I was adopted by a motherless lamb.

A chicken walked right into my house one day and laid an egg!!!

I’ll tell more stories about our farm days some other time. But right now, I gotta go make hay while the sun's shinin'.

See ya later.

I am GRATEFUL for those days and all the memories of them.

And I'm the most GRATEFUL..... of all the things in my whole life that I'm Grateful for....

for these two little rascals!