Simple Saturday in the South

On Saturday in Late November 2020, we woke up to a beautiful day.  We took care of a couple of items on our project list that we've been wanting to knock off the list.  Although the weather was beautiful, it was still a little warm with the temperature being 77 degrees.  That doesn't exactly seem like fall, but oh well.

Right after lunch we decided to get in the pickup truck and drive out to the farm.  It's a 30 minute drive to the farm.  We live in the country on our little homestead, but Oberlin, Louisiana is even further in the country.  On the way, we stopped off in a small town called Elton.  Elton boasts a good little specialty meat market called "Mr. T's."  We got some smoked boudin and boudin balls and some root beer and continued on our journey.

Upon arriving at the farm, we filled the water trough for the cows and walked across the pasture to the gully and watched a bunch of striped-head turtles swim in the muddy water.  The irrigation well droned on in the background, pumping water to fill the crawfish ponds.  It was quiet.  We walked through the old pecan orchard that my great-grandfather planted.  One of the old pecan trees succumbed to Hurricane Laura.

It lay tragically on its side, uprooted by the strong south winds of the hurricane's fury.  I have on my list of things to buy is a good chainsaw.  Once I make that purchase, we'll cut the tree up and split the wood for firewood.  It'll keep us stocked up for years.  Sad, though.  These trees stood tall and strong for years and years.

There is another old tree, however, that remains standing - the old live oak tree.  It is literally hundreds of years old.  I reckon this tree could probably tell some stories about the changes it's seen and storms it has weathered.  Its strong limbs stretch out, coming close to the ground and then reach back upward again.  Some of the limbs have bark that is smooth like grass.  The cows like to rub their backs on the limbs, polishing the bark in the process to a glossy shine.

Benjamin had climbed high up into the tree like I used to do when I was his age and much younger.

The live oak has a hole on one side and has been like this for as long as I can remember.  It doesn't appear to have weakened the tree.  At one time, I remember, a momma red fox had a den at the base of this tree and raised some little ones.

The cows came running to meet us - all 16 momma cows and 15 calves.  They're pretty tame.  They were expecting some feed, but we didn't bring any with us.  Mom and Dad drove up in Dad's pickup truck.  We let the tailgates down and sat down and visited for a long time, waving as people drove by slowly on the country road in front of the old home place.  It seemed everyone had the same idea.  It was a nice afternoon to relax and not do anything in particular.

As the afternoon faded into late afternoon, the sun cast long shadows across the landscape, taking in the beauty of God's creation made me thankful a full five days prior to Thanksgiving.

I'm thankful for a simple country life - thankful for a place to enjoy the afternoon without Covid, without politics, without stress, without phones ringing - just peace, quiet, and simplicity.  My kinda place.