Farm living is the life for me

Today, day 4 of Roger being gone to Africa, has been a lot better than the first 3!

Only 7 more days until he gets back into the States!!

I miss him a WHOLE lot but the emails, text messages and occasional 5 sec phone calls have been wonderful.

It has also been wonderful moving back in with Mom and Dad while he is away.

Today the kids spent most of the day at their Great Grandmothers house.

I had an eye appointment this morning because I have been squinting like crazy.

Since I am at my parents house my mom set me up an appointment with the eye doctors that she works with AND payed for it... glasses and all.  YAY

Turns out my eyes HAVE gotten worse.

When I took off my glasses I could barely see the BIG E.

I yelled out "well dear Lord all I can see is a blurry E. I've gone plum blind ya'll."

The kids stayed at my moms office while I was getting my eyes looked at and were little angles!

After lunch I headed to my mawmaw's house on the farm and spent the whole afternoon watching the kids play with all their cousins.

We have a MASSIVE family and they all live within walking distance of each other and the farm (except a few of the grown grandkids).

Mawmaw had 7 kids and those kids have given birth to 16 kids (her grand children) and Roger and I have given birth to 2 (her great grandkids) so when my family gets together, which is all of the time, there are 18 kids and 15 adults.

All of us grandkids at Papal's funeral 4 years ago

It is a FULL house.

Mawmaw's house is the main family head quarters.

Everyone congregates there throughout the day.

If you're bored go pop a squat on Mawmaw's porch and be ready to be entertained.

That's what I did today!

me and mawmaw at Christmas dinner last year

I got to watch my older cousins speeding by on their dirt bikes, covered in mud, talking about the GREAT mud hole they drove their bikes through. (I'm going to check that out tomorrow! been a long time since I have been dirt bike riding.)

I got to look out to see the farm hand (Herman) killing a possum with a shovel. 

Me- "Mawmaw what is Herman hitting over there on the ground with his shovel."  Mawmaw- "well lets see, I guess he's found himself a possum. He doesn't like to shoot the animals, gets the blood everywhere. He likes using that shovel to get em."

I giggled myself silly as the little cousins played "slaughter house" and took turns pretending each other was the cow that was being slaughtered. (my family slaughters their own beef and packages it. I added pics below of the slaughter in 2008)
 

cutting up the cow

cow slaughter

packaging the meat

And smiled ear to ear when Mawmaw told me about how uncle David took her out Jeep riding through some rough terran through the country. 

Mawmaw - "I thought I'd never get out of there. me, out there stuck in the mud, I wouldn't have been able to walk out of there." 

The kids, being kids, loved hanging out on the farm. They loved watching the cows, picking pears from the pear tree and riding the little red wagon down the hill.

I always love going back to mawmaw's and seeing all the fun the grandkids are having.

It reminds me of my childhood.

The long summer days we spent riding dirt bikes through the field.

I'm so glad my own children are able to enjoy the simple pleasures of farm living on the same farm that raised me.

Me showing Paul the cows when he was a baby.

now where is my old helmet?  I gotta dust that thing off and check it for spiders. 

I'm thinking I might give the dirt bike a go tomorrow!

YE HAW!!!