Weekend on the farm

Feb 21, 2011: We spent this Sat. watching the guys plant trees. Isabel and Ava helped by riding in the planter and handing trees to Trey. This was really neat because I rode in the same old planter when I was little. I remember driving by a forest as a teen, or maybe college girl, and Daddy reminding me that I'd helped plant those trees when I was little! Ava and Isabel will be able to watch this field transform from a cow pasture to a stand of majestic pines and I'm sure they"ll be just as proud of "their trees" as I was of mine!

Sophia, Trey and the same rusty, old tree planter I rode in when I was little.

Ava and Isabel separating seedlings before they are loaded into the planter.

      Isabel handing a tree to Trey to plant.

The good feeling that comes after a hard day's work!

Sophia in the cab of Granddaddy's tractor

Isabel going for a ride.

Uncle Chad showing Sophia a seedling.

Granddaddy and Sophia

Uncle James once said he thought of Daddy, (his brother) everytime he heard Alan Jackson's song, "Drive" because my dad had 3 girls and let us all drive on the farm. Now Granddaddy lets his granddaughters drive, too. Haven't heard that song in years, and pretty sure if I heard it now I would bawl!

Granddaddy and Ava

Moving dirt is what my dad does in his downtime.  He is a skilled and brilliant land manager, road builder and engineer of waterways and irrigation. And this includes "deterring" the pesky critters that destroy the land, such as beavers and wild hogs.  Here's one of his projects he was working on at the time. I think it involved re-routing a creek. My Dad is like a little boy in a really big sandbox!!!

Also this weekend, we tagged along to watch a controlled burn. The month of February is ideal, the woods are still wet from the winter and it's not too windy yet. Beforehand, Daddy bulldozed the firelanes to make sure the fire would stay in its boundaries.

Trey setting the edge of the woods on fire.

Ava and Uncle Chad montitoring the fire.