The Farm - Again

"The Farm” – Segment 2

                Well, the boys had another week of football games and, as usual performed admirably, so I won’t bore you with more football. They do absolutely love their football!

                The focus this week is again Russell’s farm. My heart aches every time I go out there. It looks  so beautiful, especially with the horses (4 of them) running under the pecan trees. I got one of Anna’s nurses to come stay with her this past Saturday and was able to spend about six hours out there. My main “chore” was cleaning up the camper. 

                Russell and I had bought a camper in the spring of 2003, just a small one-bedroom with one slide-out. This was also part of our retirement plan. We were going to travel—a LOT! We were looking forward to joining the many, many retirees who travel with campers and RVs (we were eventually going to get an RV but decided to start small until we learned the ropes). We set it up at the farm so that we had a place to stay when we went out there on on week-ends. We also pulled it to the ranch in Texas in the spring of that year with one of Russell’s brothers, Bob, and his wife Nona. (I've previously posted some of these pictures.)

                That was the only “traveling” trip we made except to a local campsite a few miles east of Vicksburg. We took Landon with us on that one (he was 5 I think). We had a ball, and this was a good learning experience for us. This was before the long trip with Bob and Nona.

This will make a great bonfire!!

 

     

                Russell and several of his brothers and several nieces and nephews pulled the camper to the Texas ranch a couple of times after that (I have included some pictures of some of these trips in earlier postings as well). The last such trip was probably in December of 2004, maybe 2005. But it was the last one Russell could enjoy and we knew that. So we have had the camper at the farm since that list trip. We have been letting Landon, Luke, and their dad use it since then when they hunted the land.

      Landon had a friend with him this week-end, Casey, who also loves being outside. There was a piece of metal (among other things) that washed up on our land during all the flooding a month or so ago. Landon and Casey decided to make a deer stand out of this metal. This picture is what they have done so far. That's Landon's "mule" that he and Luke and Casey use to ride on the land.

     They bought some brown and green spray paint to camouflage the stand. They had so much fun. Casey spent both Friday and Saturday nights with Landon so he could spend a lot of time with him on the farm.

Landon's friend, Casey, painting "new" deer stand

 

Casey and Landon painting stand

     I didn't realize how bad a shape the camper was in; it was really a mess!! I only got about half of the camper cleaned to a satisfactory condition. But I am planning to go back out there after school tomorrow (Thursday). I'm hoping Landon at least will want to come with me. The other boys have football practice after school. I want to finish cleaning out the camper because we want to spend a lot of time there this week-end.
I took pictures of the camper, but I won't share until the camper looks better!!

      Our pecan trees are loaded this year, too! We are planning to try to harvest as many as we can. I'll take some picture of the pecans on the trees as well this week-end.

     Thought I would share this interesting picture, too. Sheri and I were riding around and she was showing me all the improvements she and the boys and a friend have been making. There was this "thing" that had apparently been washed onto our land from the flooding. It looks sort of like a piece off a console from a boat. We thought we would leave it a while as a conversation piece!

     We are going to spend a lot of time out there this week--end. I will take lots of pictures. It will be a bittersweet time. But we will relive older, funny memories and try to make new ones. Russell would be proud!! We love you, honey, and miss you. I know you are still with us, and we will spend time together this week-end.

We had lots of "gunk" washed up onto our land when the Mississippi flooded.