An Afternoon Out at the Farm

Last Saturday I got to thinking that before long it will be hot and humid.  The mosquitoes would be attacking and summer would be on.  We'd better enjoy the nice weather while we could.  I loaded up my smoker and all the accoutrements for a picnic and headed to Oberlin.  Dad and Mom agreed to meet Tricia, me and Benjamin at the farm on the old homeplace.  We got the smoker going and we sat out in lawn chairs and visited.  The weather was nice, but it was a little windy. 

The menu for the day was smoked meatloaf, smoked macaroni 'n cheese, and salad with strawberries and walnuts.  Here is the meatloaf right when it is going on the smoker.

I must admit, we were ready to eat when it came off so I didn't get an 'after' shot.  However, I've linked the recipe from a previous post in 2021:  Recipe for smoked meatloaf  I like it.

The old live oak tree could tell a lot of stories I'm sure.  I remember 50 years ago climbing up in its branches covered in resurrection fern.  It was huge back then.  No telling how old it is.  It has had a big hole in the middle of it for as long as I can remember.  When I was younger, we watched a mama red fox raise her babies in the hole of the live oak.

Right behind the old oak was where the old homeplace was.  That's where my grandpa was raised.  There was a water well off to the side of the house and a big persimmon tree that made big orange persimmons we'd eat.

Here is the macaroni and cheese about to go in the smoker.  The mac 'n cheese only needs to go on the smoker for an hour or so.

Here it is coming out of the smoker.  Delicious!  We gobbled it down. 

With everything off the smoker, it was time to eat.  Dad moved his truck to block off the wind and we set up the table right next to it and began to eat.

We visited until the sun went down.  By then the smoker had cooled down and we could load it in the back of the car and drive back to Jennings.  What a peaceful, relaxing, and enjoyable day spent with people you love and good food.

Checking on the Cows

Tricia, Benjamin and I took a ride out to Oberlin, LA on a beautiful afternoon to check on the cows that we recently purchased.  It is about a 30 minute drive north from our home.  We drove the pickup truck and Benjamin brought the Marlin lever-action .22 and had a good time shooting at things in the pond.  We had a nice visit.  It is always nice to have passengers with you for the conversation, but also for the passenger to be the "gate-opener."

If you have a gate-opener, you can stay in your seat and just drive on through, while your gate opener closes the gate up behind you.  Who needs an automatic gate opener when you have your wife with you?

The cows are real tame.  They come walking right up when you drive in.  I should have had some sweet feed or some range cubes to feed them, but we weren't prepared as we decided on the spur of the moment to go check on them.  The cows were all around one of the ancient live oak trees on the farm.  This tree is right in front of where the old Sonnier homeplace was.  The huge limbs of the tree are covered with Resurrection fern that greens up after rains and then turns brown and looks dead in dry weather.  Many times as a kid I climbed up into the crown of this tree and surveyed the countryside.  Beautiful old tree.  If it could talk, it would have many stories to tell.  There is a big hole on the east side of the tree that once was home to a den of foxes.

I don't remember the old Sonnier homeplace that was here.  I'm sure it was torn down before I was born.  I do remember attending family reunions around this tree and watching my grandfather and his brothers barbecuing while all the ladies set up tables with potato salad, baked beans, and cakes and pies.  Us kids ran around with the cousins playing while the food was being prepared.

Directly west of this photo is an old pecan orchard that my great grandfather planted.  They haven't produced pecans in a few years and are getting really old.  They provided shade for the cows (and for us) in many hot summers.  Standing in that pecan orchard brought back memories.  Even though it is winter and there are no leaves in the pecan trees, if I listened real hard, in my imagination, I could hear the wind blowing through the green leaves on a hot summer's day.  I could hear the "cawing" of the crows as they congregated on a fall day to eat pecans, to our consternation.  Directly west of the pecan orchard was a stand of bamboo against the gully that was planted to give the cows a wind break on cold winter's days.  The bamboo created a 'jungle-like' environment that, as kids, we'd run through and pretend we were in Viet Nam.  The cane break also gave us many cane poles that later became spears, or fishing poles, or walking sticks.  I can distinctly remember my grandpa cutting some tall cane poles from the bamboo stand, tying a newspaper to the end of the pole, setting it on fire and using it to reach high into the trees to burn the bag worm webs that filled the pecan trees.

The farm is truly a beautiful place with beautiful memories...