I spent the morning helping Daddy. First we got the new gate hung. We need a longer piece of chain now, but we'll get to that at some point. Anyway, it's nice to have a pretty gate. :D
Then Daddy trimmed some more tree limbs. I drove the truck, adjusted a few of the fallen limbs into a more convenient position for dragging later, and tried to keep the horse out from under the next falling limb. Daddy twisted his ankle pretty badly at some point shortly before we stopped.
After lunch, Daddy went off to work on the airplane and I saddled up the tractor and went to work dragging the limbs off. (Shifting range and gears correctly now. :P) After that I took the golf cart down the drive and picked up some of the extra large rocks we'd managed to plow up. I also picked up sticks and moss and tossed them over the fence. I was going to start mowing, but the mower decided that it wasn't going to work. I think the problem has something to do with the starter. Daddy's out there looking at it now...speaking of which, I need him to look at the golf cart too--it didn't want to work for me this morning.
This morning I attmepted to 'stream-line' things because I was supposed to be at the cemetary at 9 to help put Confederate battle flags on the veteran's graves.
The A's would have taken both Dolly and I out to eat at Slim's Bar-B-Que, but Dolly wanted to go on home and we had relatives coming...which was fine because I wasn't ready for lunch anyway! Turns out, we ended up going out to eat at Slim's anyway!!
It was rather funny...we were to meet Betty, Jessica, and Jessica's kids at Slim's. We were sitting out front when a couple come up and the lady says to Savannah, "You're --'s granddaughter, aren't you? I'm Betty's sister." Her husband is Italian; he's also 91. I had difficulty understanding him, but he seemed to be a very nice man. He showed us some pictures of him in uniform back in WWII--quite a fine looking young man. :) Later he told me that he entered the war when he was 16 and when it was over he was 25...I didn't ask which side he was on. The uniform he had on in the photo's looked like wool.
Anyway, after a bit, when Betty's niece showed up, we went in and got seated. Minutes later, Betty, another of her sisters, and Jessica showed up...only Jessica was outside feeding her 5 month old baby, Harper. Her daughter, Macy, is 4 and cute as a button--but more on the kids later. :) It was sometime later that Butch, Granddaddy, and Daddy got there.
Savannah and Jessica got their salads before mine arrived, so I was holding Harper (he is adorable and such a good baby!) I tucked him in my left arm when my food arrived and ate most of the salad with the little laddie comfortably sitting there...he got ahold of my nose at one point, which was kind of funny. Anyway, I was mostly done when Jessica took him back--she seemed rather impressed that I didn't have any problem balancing him on one side while chowing down. To say the least, I throughly enjoyed the little feller's company. :)
Macy and I got to playing with the salt and pepper shakers--which have flip tops with a thumb latch. Anyhow, we got salt and pepper all over the table! (Not on purpose, of course.) Both Jessica's kids have green eyes, big round green eyes.
Because Butch was driving his sister-in-law's car, everyone came out here. The guys did a little shooting and we gave the ladies a tour of the place. Macy got to ride on Snip for a little bit and I think she really enjoyed it. I went to fetch him without the lead rope, so I whipped off my belt (the one with the CS buckle on it)....
Then...disaster struck! *bemused smile* I really shouldn't laugh, but it really was almost funny the way the little girl stood there and stared at the bugs on her feet and then began to howl when they bit her! Yes...she was standing on the edge of a fire ant pile. She didn't want her feet on the ground after that!
In an attempt to get her mind off her stinging feet, Betty started talking to her about the barn...and the tractor...and then I pitched in and asked, "You want to see it closer?" When I got a positive reaction, I scooped the little thing off the trunk of the car and headed for the barn. Jessica got some pictures of the following actions...
I climbed up on the tractor with Macy and sat her in my lap--trying to explain why the John Deere isn't a "big tractor". Sure, it's a big tractor, but it's small compared to some! :)
Then we went to see the chickens...and I told her a little about the roosters and the hens...and why some were in the "hosbital"...and then (and I wish I had a picture of this!), we watered the hens. I wanted to just put Macy down, but she didn't trust that there were no ants around and the one place I did set her down was right next to some cow dung and that was "gross"...so anyway, we concluded the matter by having her get on my back, while I was on my knees with my head poked into the coop! I told her she had to help me hold the chicken wire out of the way and to be careful because it might stratch. She was pretty game about that...and even got to pet a hen and Tail-less!
I had a ball...too bad Savannah didn't get any pictures. I think I may ask Savannah to ask Butch (she has his e-mail) to ask Jessica to send us some of those pictures! I can just imagine the kind of hilarity they might cause...
I love kids...