Oklahoma Wind

Raise your hands if you have been to Chicago.

For those of you with your hands raised, you probably know that it is also known as "The Windy City". 

OK, you can put your hands down.

Now, I need another show of hands.  Who has been to Western Oklahoma?

For those of you who have been to Western Oklahoma, you probably know that Chicago doesn't hold a candle to how windy it is here!  90% of the time the wind is blowing and I don't mean just a little breeze.  I'm talking 30 - 60 mph winds!. 

Here, most of the trees lean to the north.  If you don't steak the trees when they are little, they will lean.  If you look at the tree in the picture, you can see that it is leaning in addition to the blowing branches. 

To prove that this is true, this afternoon I battled the 40 mph winds, and took a picture for you. 

  

Mom, this should explain why I cut my hair!

 Your windblown farm friend,

Amy

P.S. You can put your hands down now.

Frozen Cotton Stalks

I just wanted to share this picture with you.

This picture is of Frozen Cotton Stalks.  I took it during the ice storm back in January.

I just thought you might enjoy seeing it.

Amy

Combines

Things are getting ready to speed up a lot around our house.  It's almost time for harvest!  I love harvest, everyone gets so excited during this time.  It's almost like Christmas in June!

Well, to get things off to a good start, all the machinery hast to be in good working order.  So we service all the machinery first.  This weekend we worked on the Combines.

For those of you who don't know what a combine is, I'll explaine.

This is a combine.

A combine is used to harvest various crops.  The header ( the long round thing on the front) changes for the different types of crops.  In this case, this header is used to harvest wheat.  As the batt turns it pushes the wheat into the sickle.  The sickle cuts the top of the wheat off and sends it on conveyer chains through the machine.  The conveyer chains pull the wheat through the machine to the roter.  The roter seperates the grain

from the straw.  The grain then travels to a large bin on the back of the combine. 

Once the bin is full, the grain is augared out of the bin and into a grain cart or semi trailer.

 

Even though we service the combines before we start cutting the wheat, we don't always make it through without any delays.  If the combines do breakdown they are usually down for just a few minutes, but sometimes they are down for hours.  We always pray for a year with no breakdowns!

Hope you have left a little more educated on farm life!

Your Farm Friend

Amy

My Crazy Haired Dog

I have a Dog. His name is Moose.  He's a very cute dog, and I love him. I can't help it. Just look at his face...

How could you not love a face like this?

I got Moose from LB for Valentines day in 2006.  He took me to the Dog Kennel and I got to pick him out.  He was the only one of his litter left and not ready to be weaned yet.  But I knew he was the one for me.  Three weeks later we brought him home.  He only weighed a pound and a half. 

We bought him the smallest dog collar we could find and it still didn't fit!  From that day on Moose has gone with me almost everywhere I go.  He can't go to church or work with me of course, but he can most every where else.  He goes with me so much, that he actually has separation anxiety.  Who would have ever thought that a dog could get separation anxiety!

Moose (aka: Moo) is a West Highland Terrier.  These dogs are known for their Long White Hair.  As you can see in the picture, Moose is not lacking in that area.  We do have him groomed every 8 weeks so that he can actually see where he's going.  His hair will get so long that I don't know how he keeps from running into things!

See?  Well, maybe not!

So we load him up and take him to the groomer.  In the summer time it's lots cooler for him.

But in the winter time, he has to wear a coat.

He doesn't mind wearing clothes.  He gets excited every time you get any of his shirts out.  I think he thinks he is supposed to wear clothes. We do, so why shouldn't he? 

Despite all the crazy hair, clothes wearing and anxiety attacks, he has one pretty cool personality.  He definately knows how to make you feel better or make you laugh.  He is always at the door excited to see you when you come home and he's always under the table waiting for you to drop your food!  He's my buddy. 

I think everyone needs a house dog!

To all you dog lovers out there,

Amy

Wal-mart

LB calls walmart the evil empire.  I believe that his reasoning behind this name is because I think it's one of the greatest places on earth!  Or maybe because I tend to spend a lot of money there.  Either way...

I love walmart.  I love walking up and down the isles looking at all the products.  I like to get decorating ideas or organizational ideas.  Sometimes I see something that is just really cool and I spend time coming up with a reason to justify my buying it.  I can almost always create a reason for something!

Before I got married I lived just outside a much larger town and walmart was only about 10 miles away.  I visited walmart at least once a week.  My Little Sister and I would quiet often make late night runs to walmart and just walk around looking and trying on shoes, hats, and purses.  We made lots of good memories and stayed up to date on what the latest styles were, and what sales were going on.

But, now that I live in a small farming community it is over 30 miles to the nearest walmart.  I'm lucky if I get to go twice a month.  It is so sad.  I feel like i'm missing out on things.  Like I'm out of the loop.  When I do get to go, it is usually so rushed I don't get to spend much time looking around.  It's always make a list, stay focused, get what you need and get out.  I actually have walmart withdrawls! 

I got to go to walmart last night!  It was so exciting!  We got there at 10:00 PM, and we didn't leave until 12 Midnight.  Since LB was working on an exchange, I got to actually look around for a while.  It was so nice.  Now my withdrawls have been supressed for a while and I'm happy.

I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to go to walmart.  It has everything!  Literally!

Amy