Dear Santa Claus

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Dayphoto

Dear Santa Claus,

My mother is helping me write this as I am 5 years old and can’t spell very good yet. I saw you at the Delta Thanksgiving Parade, but I was too scared to talk to you. I stood in line a long time, but when it was almost my turn I started to cry so Momma said I could get out of line and write you instead.

I would really like a Walking Doll, Santa, if you have one in your work house. I promise not to put it in the bath tub with me like I did my Sally baby doll. I now know that water will not be good for my dolls.

My brother is just now three and he wants a yellow teddy bear with brown pants that we saw at Hesteds. He cried a long time after he saw it and Momma said we didn’t have enough money for it, but he could ask Santa for it if he wanted too.

I don’t know what he is going to ask for, but Momma said she would write the letter for him also. He wasn’t afraid, but he had to get out of line with me as I just couldn’t stand in the line anymore.

Momma said we will leave you some cookies and milk by the Christmas tree. Oh, yes, and we don’t have a fire place. We do have a warm morning heater, but that would be too hot to come down and the chimney is really small. Daddy said we could leave the front door open and you can just come on in.

Thank you, Santa! And tell Mrs. Claus Hello from me and my brother.

Linda

November 28, 1954

Sunday Morning

Posted on November 27, 2011 by Dayphoto

It cold, calm and clear here. We woke up to 8 degrees, but it is warming up. I think it was 20 when I came up here to post.

I’m not surprised at the cold…I saw a Sun Dog Saturday morning.

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Most of the corn is about harvested. The fields that are left are having that high moisture trouble we had last year. Its a type of corn, of which we are not ever going to plant again…I can assure you.

I’ve been critter sitting….the kids have been gone for several days so the little cage animals have been living with us, Hank/Puff has been living with Shannon, and I go down and take care of the cats and the goats.

Terry is working on the grain truck…he got the tailgate fixed from when the bolt came out.

We are being over-run with mice so we have a huge trap line going in the barns. Ugh. Our two cats and the dogs work at it, but there are just too many.

Anyway, have a nice Sunday!

Linda

Look What a Fairy Princess Found

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Dayphoto

The little fairy Princess was visitng me yesterday and she wanted to play “I Spy”….this is what she saw…

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A beautiful November Rainbow!

Fairy Dust for me to share with you!

Linda

While at the Wind Museum …..

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Dayphoto

The Wind Museum in Lubbock, Texas has several types of windmills.

They had just finished assembling and hooking to Excel Energy and the power grid a huge wind machine.

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Although, we know those things are huge, standing in front of them really shows how huge they are. Terry is 6’2″ tall….he looks like a elf! 🙂

Linda

The End of the 2011 Harvest

Posted on November 20, 2011 by Dayphoto

Finally we made it….done! Finished! The 2011 year of crops are harvested and sold. Even, what hay we save out to be sold is sold!

Now different work starts…repairs to the machines, fences and buildings. Always the fences need checked, but we have finally finished. This year was good. Nothing like last year that seemed to go on and on and on. The last of the corn wasn’t harvest until in December, then we couldn’t sell it until the end of March.

Terry was thinking of getting out of farming…but guess what?! He said he thinks he will go another year. (Then there will be another year…when you have dirt for blood I don’t think you ever really want to give in and stop.)

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Have a nice Sunday everyone!

Linda

Once Upon a Time …

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Dayphoto

… in a corn far, far away. A farmer was trying to get all of his corn picked. Every day he greased up his combine, poured fuel into the combine, and drove it way, way out into the corn field.

Up and down the rows went the farmer, filling his big red-orange truck with golden seeds of corn.

Gradually, as the harvest kept on the farmer grew very tired — fill the hoper of the combine, then dump into the truck, when the truck was full he then would drive it to the elevator and wait his turn to dump his truck so he could start over.

The day came (when after sitting at the elevator since 6 o’clock in the morning–until 9:30 a.m. when he was able to finally dump and get back home) he became overly tired.

But wait…..

What is this?!?!?

A little fairy princess appeared at his side, with a touch of her magic wand the corn flew into the hoper and the big truck filled up as if by magic.

But the fairy dust didn’t stop there…when the farmer took the big truck to the elevator he was able to be back in the field in an hour.

Who says there isn’t magic in the world anymore?

This farmer knows different.

Linda

Wordless Wednesday

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Dayphoto

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Linda

In the Land of Wind

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Dayphoto

We were looking at one of the several really cool musuems in Texas when we came upon this display.

Although, we were in Texas the artifact came out of Colorado…the tip of eastern Colorado.

Completely out wire (that is a very fake and very dusty crow)

This is the other nest!

Really very amazing birds!

Windmills…everywhere!

Linda

Confluence Park and Lake

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Dayphoto

Confluence Park and Lake

Our little town has a place

called Confluence Lake and Park

Here is where our Fourth of July Fireworks are shot, families play and swim, and those who love to walk can hike.

The lake is home to all sorts of water fowl

The Heron kept flying away so I couldn’t get a photo of them.

A spot of peace in our little rural town.

Linda

The Cotton Gin

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Dayphoto

The module of tightly packed cotton (cotton is dry like the clothes you love to wear).

Is then delivered to the cotton gin.

Here the module is ran through several cleaning machines–machines that take out the any bits of sticks, burrs and the seeds.

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, of whitch the fiber is almost pure celulose. The cotton fiber protects the sticky seed until it is time for it to ‘leave the plant’ and make a plant of it’s own.

The cotton plant is a shrub, and in the tropical deep south or other tropical areas of the world it is a perennial, therefore producing bolls all along. That is why in tropical areas the cotton is picked by a picking machine. The picking machine picks only the bolls that are ripe and broken open.

In subtropical regions…west Texas, the shrub is not treated as a perennial, but stripped taking all of the plant parts. It freezes in west Texas so the plant will die anyway.

The fiber is most often spun into yarn or a thread and then used to make soft, breathable fabric.

Once inside the gin machines pull and clean the cotton, plus seperating it from the cotton seeds.

The balls go through another process that stretches the balls and bales them together.

They then go to the packaging station

Where the 550 pound bales are wrapped ready for delivery to a factory

I hope you have enjoyed this tiny little window into a small part of the farming world of west Texas.

I have found that farmers and ranchers everywhere love the land. They take great care to take very good care of the land and the plants and the animals that live upon the land. One reason is this is how they make a living, but the other reason (and probably the most important reason) is it’s in their blood. In their dna, in the fiber of their beings.

Roy (he farms over 3,000 acres), Terry -farms in western Colorado, and Vadarae who owns several farms and invited us to “Come on down the Harvest is on!”

I have a few more delightful posts from the west Texas area that I will do soon. But Friday with Fuzzy and Boomer will be tomorrow!

Linda