March | 2009 | Life in the Slow Lane

Archive for March, 2009

Love

Posted in Friends on March 31, 2009| 3 Comments »

Today little Tate is being buried.

That little boy was so filled with Love! For a 7 year old little boy he touched so many lives. He was big into Kids Petal Tractor Pulls. The radio station about 100 miles from us had a tribute to Tate last week. The two morning guys always help with the kids tractor pulls at the county fair and they said, “here’s to you little man with your cutoff shorts and cowboy boots.” That says alot about a 7 year old boy. When the accident happened his family was coming back from 6 & under state wrestling where he’d placed 6th. This past weekend was the 7 and up state wrestling in Topeka and they are having a big memorial for him. All the kids from his wrestling club wore “Take State for Tate” shirts and they had a moment of silence for him also.

I stopped by Susan’s (Tate’s aunt & my bff) on Thursday to see how they were doing. Tate’s parents are staying with Susan and her family. Tate’s mom and I talked about how much Tate loved the races. She always had to fight with him to get out of TNT’s race car after the races. Considering I think Tate’s family is doing well. I know Susan is very exhausted and I told her to call me if she needs to run to Sonic for a pop. A 15 minute break can do wonders when you have 20-30 people at your house 24/7.

Tate you will be missed and I will miss your sweet smiling face.

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Weekend at the Lake

Posted in Me on March 30, 2009| 2 Comments »

Saturday TNT and I went to the lake for a co-ed wedding shower. After a long day of the wind blowing and being around people I took Trixie for a walk down by the water. It was her first time being at the lake so she was really excited to explore.

After the sad week I had and the dread of going to a funeral tomorrow it was so peaceful to sit on the dock and listen to the ducks, turkeys and geese all chattering.

I took this looking down into the water off the dock.

We ended up with 3 inches of brown snow. Brown snow you ask? That’s what happens when the dirt is blown 40-50 mph and no rain comes before the snow. Almost all the snow was melted Saturday afternoon and didn’t leave us much moisture at all. I have my fingers crossed that Spring brings alot of rain.

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Here comes the dust

Posted in Farming on March 27, 2009| 5 Comments »

The other night I looked out my patio windows and couldn’t believe how bad the dust was blowing. This is east of the house.

This is to the west across the highway.

This is to the North of us looking into the wind.

And finally to the south.

Why does this happen you may ask….lack of moisture. If we’ve had 4 inches of moisture this winter we’re lucky. I’m really scared as to what will happen if it doesn’t rain or snow soon. Back in Spring of 2004 we had a “mini dust bowl” that made driving impossible. Our State Representative was killed in a car accident on interstate. The visibility was at zero so he pulled off the road to wait out the dust. But another vehicle hit him from behind and pushed him into the semi in front of him. He was a very nice man and took both Mildred and senior pictures.

If it doesn’t rain what can you do to keep the dust from blowing? A few of our neighbors used a ripper to create crevices in thier fields so the dust will catch. But you saw the pictures above so this obviously didn’t work all that well!

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*Update on the weather: We are suppose to get 6-9 inches, but right now there’s about 2 inches. Of course it’s hard to tell since the wind is blowing hard. This morning when I came into town the roads were clear so hopefully I won’t get stuck here in town! Happy Weekend!*

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4 of 52

Posted in Picture Challenge on March 26, 2009| 6 Comments »

Carin at forever in blue jeans has set up a challenge to all mothers to get in pictures more often. Even though I’m not a mother to human children I think it’ll be fun to join this challenge.

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If you look out the window you can see how wonderful the tree row looks after I worked on it all weekend. Those were the two rows we left then TNT used the disc to pull up all the roots and get the ground ready for planting the trees!

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We are suppose to get a huge blizzard this afternoon and tomorrow. But it seems each time the weather is updated the number of inches get smaller and smaller. We went from 6-12 inches yesterday to 3-6 this morning. 😦 We need moisture so bad that I’ll take the 40-50 mph winds that suppose to come with this snow. The wind is the only thing that’s been constant in the forecast.

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Way Back Wednesday

Posted in Way Back Wednesday on March 25, 2009| 6 Comments »

When we lived on the farm our Sunday activity was to go fishing in the creek at Grandma’s pasture. The creek is no wider than 20 feet so we used bamboo poles. There was no casting with a rod and reel. The time this picture was taken I would throw my line in and I’d have a bite just like that. I was catching fish left and right. Both my mom and dad tried fishing in that one spot too, without luck. But once my line went in the fish came right for the worm. These are all bullheads or small catfish, but you could also catch large carp and lots of perch. Oh and I can’t forget the many turtles we’ve caught through the years.

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If you have never fished with a bamboo pole you are missing out! Imagine the poles Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn used when they fished. As soon as the bobber goes under you yank the pole up and out comes the fish. If you’re real talented like my mom you yank just before the hook hooks the fish and you don’t have to take the fish off the hook. The fish flies through the air and lands on the bank and she can throw her line back in without having to rebait the hook. Now that’s talent. 🙂

Here’s the crazy thing. I love to fish but I don’t eat them. I usually let them go once I catch them or we put them in Grandma’s stock tank.

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R.I.P. Little Tate

Posted in Friends on March 24, 2009| 6 Comments »

My bff Susan (the one who introduced TNT & I) her 7-year-old nephew , Tate, was killed in a car accident late Sunday night. I’m not sure on all the details since don’t want to bother Susan right now. But Tate’s mom was driving home when she lost control of their PT Cruiser. They’re not sure if the hard wind caused the wreck or if the mom fell asleep. Anyway, she over corrected and the car rolled four times. They believe Tate died instantly since his neck was broken. Both of Tate’s parents and his friend were taken to the hospital and are still there as far as I know.

The first time I met Tate he was three years old. Susan and her brother (Tate’s dad) stopped by my house on their way into town to take me to the race car shop where Susan’s husband was working on his modified. Tate sat between his dad and Susan. He wouldn’t turn his head to look at me but turned his eyes as far over to the right as they would go. He was so darn shy and just the cutest little guy.

After that night he was my buddy. I’d walk into the gym for a bball game and he’d come running, grab my hand and ask me to sit with him. One time he saw Mildred and thought I was her and did the same thing to her. She wasn’t sure who he was until she saw his mom. Just too sad for that family. He was such a little sweetheart! A very sad day!

Hug your kids a little closer today!

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Sunday ride on the Four Wheeler

Posted in Animals on March 23, 2009| 3 Comments »

Trixie loves to ride on the 4-wheeler. TNT was raking the yard on Sunday and Trix just had to ride along.

I don’t know who’s meaner the owner or the dog. 🙂

You have to be ready at a moments notice cause she’ll bail off if she sees a rabbit. I was driving the pickup through our stubble field and had her in the passenger seat with the windows down. She saw a rabbit and jumped out of the pickup window. Its so funny cause she yelps as she’s chasing. So I doubt if she’ll ever sneak up on anything. But she runs so darn fast. We think she might have some greyhound in her too.

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Rock Chalk Jayhawk

Posted in Me on March 22, 2009| 1 Comment »

GO JAYHAWKS. BEAT DAYTON!!!

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Update on the Tree Row

Posted in Farming on March 20, 2009| 5 Comments »

*First off I want to say thank you to everyone who stopped by my blog yesterday. I had the most visitors ever with 64. Plus the most comments ever left on one of my posts. Thank you so much*

I have been busy working on the tree row. Mildred came out one night to help and we got about 1/4 of the way done. Then my FIL gets a bright idea to hire a bulldozer to finish it.

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Big hole to push all the limbs in to burn. 100_3394

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After

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They used this to bring the large trees down and a bobcat to push them to the hole.

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I can’t get over how bare it is. Now the real work begins. We I have to pick up the limbs that they couldn’t pick up and disc the area. After we get the trees we will plant them, set up the irrigation system and put the black mesh down to prevent weeds. So our my work is just starting.

I also have to replace the electric wire that we buried around the tree row for the dog fence. Part of it was pulled out by the bobcat and the other we pulled out so they could get in. That is very time consuming since we dig the hole using a redneck method then I have to go around the whole place on my hands and knees. So figure about 1000 feet of wire has to be buried underground.

You wouldn’t believe the birds that are in our yard now. They seem to be very confused since they don’t have those trees. Even though 80% of the the trees were dead they still found shelter there. Trixie is going crazy because the birds are wanting to sit in the tree right beside the garage.

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So how many of you are like me and will have one eye on the TV watching basketball all weekend. On Wednesday night TNT asked when the tourney started. I told him on Thursday. He said so I won’t see you for the next three weeks. Yep. 🙂 He’s not a basketball fan at all. The first March Madness we lived together I came across an article on the internet about how women can survive the tournament. I printed it off for TNT since it’s the opposite in our house. This is the first year I haven’t had a big bracket pool at work. Usually the $$ is around $80, but this year I just didn’t have it in me to deal with getting all the money gathered. So Mildred and I filled our brackets out and whoever wins the most games gets treated to lunch by the loser. Which will be Mildred.

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!!!

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3 of 52

Posted in Picture Challenge on March 19, 2009| 18 Comments »

Carin at forever in blue jeans has set up a challenge to all mothers to get in pictures more often. Even though I’m not a mother to human children I will still join this challenge.

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