AND THE REST OF THE STORY......I miss my blogging friends sooo much! Last week I actually had some time to blog BUT EVERY SINGLE TIME I tried to get on-line I couldn't.....problems with the DIAL-UP SERVER!! Any who I wanted to answer some of the questions yall asked me on the comments about the pecans. Flora we have about 1000 trees now. About 100 trees were already here when we bought this land. We planted about 400 trees in 1997 and they are producing well. We planted the rest this past February and in the year 2004. We planted Sumners and Cape Fears mostly but we did plant some newer varieties this year. Mouse we grade the pecan by it's looks and by the way it feels in your hand. It is a quick & easy process. Clara I dont think the shaker would be a good idea for your apple tree, lol, I think you would end up with apple sauce! Not a bad thought though! Do I like pecans.......only if they are cooked in something....like a cake or mixed with chocolate!!! We do crack them open & taste to see what kind of nut we have but OH they make me sick!! My dog, however, loves them but they give him gas!!!! Marci we sell our pecans to a pecan buyer/broker that gives us the best price. Oh too funny about the mantle....it is made out of cypress wood......Danny would just die if he had to look at his mantle & know it was made out of one of his baby's!! LOL, if a limb breaks off of a tree around here we have a funeral & Danny wears black for a month!! LOL! Hey Lucy....howdy Annie.....Jen what about that pecan pie? (I hope Miller is doing well....Happy late birthday!) Hugs to my OFT girls...Kelli, Revee, Sandra!!! I miss my blogging friends soooooo much. Amazing how people affect your lives...even through a computer!!!

This busy year of mine is coming to a close......I'll be glad when January gets here!! I have sent samples out of my pecans (you send out a pound of pecans to a potential buyer, they weigh them in the shell, count how many it takes to make that pound, shell the pecans & then weigh & grade the meat for quality). This is how I get bids on our crop & the best price. I should know first thing this morning who will be the buyer. THEN PECAN SEASON WILL BE OVER!!!! YES!!
Next Saturday is my niece's wedding. I will be glad to have that behind me and I think she will too. The pictures are from her shower that we had in my home in November. The Wedding cake was made from towel's and wash cloths. My VERY TALENTED Sister-n- law made it for my niece. The colors, brown & pink, are the colors she picked for her wedding. I thought it turned out pretty nice for someone (ME) who HAS NEVER BEFORE HOSTED A SHOWER OF ANY KIND!!!

OK so I finally posted!! Well it has been soooo busy around here. As I have told most of you, this is the busiest time of the year for my husband and I. From Thanksgiving until about the first week of January..well we are wide open! Our pecan crop is not as big as last years but we still have plenty to do. We dont get to enjoy Christmas like everyone else because we are too busy with the harvest, our regular jobs, and well....just life in general. Oh course we celebrate the birth of our LORD JESUS but we just dont have the time for all the "doings" this season brings. Many of my friends and relatives have no idea how hectic it is for us and many turn their noses up when I say "we dont have time for that at Christmas". It takes them being here on a harvest day to see what we are doing and even then they cant see the big picture. We had no idea it would be like that when we planted these trees but it is a choice we made and I think it was a wise investment for my husband and I's future and not to mention our childrens future. I am not a shopper, I'm not much of a party person, and I am really not much on decorating espc. at Christmas. To be honest, I'm not much of a gift giver at Christmas either. I make it my practice to give through out the year and I dont like being tied down to the idea that I have to give something at Christmas just to say I gave something. Are yall screaming "Bah Humbug" at me, lol! Anyway....I enjoy being out in the field during pecan/Christmas season.....I get to marvel at what the CREATOR has done out here on the small area of the world that HE has so graciously allowed me to live on and be a part of. I so love where I live and I cant help but be thankful for THE BIRTH that gave me the freedom to live like I do and the Grace that will allow me to enter into HIS KINGDOM one day. HE is so good to me!!!!!!

My boys have been very helpful to us this season. You will see in the posts I made earlier today some of what has kept us so busy around here. So dont think I have fallen off the face of the earth...I'm here! I do miss all of yall terribly....I wonder what my blogging friends are doing ( Waving at you Jen, Flora, Clara, Mouse, Marcy, Patty and my OFT friends!). I will be back in the saddle soon! In the mean time.....warm yourself by the fire in between Christmas doings....boy aren't we blessed!!

Burning the midnight oil happens a lot in pecan season. After getting the nuts up they have to be put in the cleaner so the trash can be picked out & the pecans can be graded. Frequently we do the cleaning & grading after it is to dark to see in the fields.

If you enlarge the top left picture you can see the big wagon backed up to the conveyor where the pecans go up into the cleaner. It it too dark to tell but lots of the leaves & trash are being blowed out the top into another wagon. The trash is hauled off later. The other pictures show the graded & cleaned pecans as they go into the 100 pound sacks.

After shaking several rows of trees one of the boys blows the pecans away from the trunk of the tree out so Danny can come through with the harvester and pick them up. We also use one of the other tractors with the sprayer to blow some of the leaves off of the pecans. When Danny comes through with the harvester, it picks the pecans up and blows the leaves out the back. (We are all covered in a nice think layer of grime at the end of the day!) The harvester has a large hopper that fills up with the pecans and of course some trash. The hopper is emptied into a large wagon & carried to the building for cleaning & grading.

This is what we have been doing here of late. PECANS!!! It has been a slow process due to the rain we've been getting. Here is my oldest son in the tractor shaking a tree. My youngest is standing by until he finishes, then we rake out a path for him to drive away to the next tree.

I'm trying this new beta blog out!