A Trip to Corpus Christi

We were out of pocket for a couple of days last week and didn't get to post Thursday night.  We don't have cows or goats in milk so it seemed like the perfect time to take a little trip.  Dad and Mom graciously agreed to come check on the animals and feed and water them, gather eggs, and generally make sure everything was okay on our little farm.  We left Thursday morning on a 6 hour drive to Tricia's hometown to visit her Mom and brothers that live there.  We stopped for lunch west of Houston at one of the two Czech BBQ joints we like to stop at - Mikeska's and Pracek's, and stopped on the way back at Bucc-ee's, of course, which is famous for it's clean bathrooms and snacks.

Tricia grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas.  It's really not a bad drive, west on I-10 through Houston and then south on 59, then south on 77 right into Corpus.  There's always lots of wind off the gulf and driving into Corpus, there are numerous windmills generating electricity.  It's wild to watch all those turbines spinning.  Corpus Christi is beautiful city sitting right on the bay.  It's now home to the USS Lexington, a naval air station and they just got a brand new harbor bridge.  You can see it in the distance in the photo below when the boys and I drove out to Cole park and walked out on the pier.

Corpus Christi was also the home of Farah Fawcett.  Who can forget Farah?!  The famous singer Selena was also from Corpus.  Freddy Fender, a singer I really liked from my youth lived in Corpus Christi as well.  He sang, "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" and "I'll be there before the next teardrop falls."  But the most important thing in Corpus is Tricia's Mom.  She's 88 and in great health and Tricia tries to go visit as often as she can.  This time, Russ and Benjamin and I accompanied her for the visit and I'm glad we did.  We enjoyed visiting with Mrs. Garcia and two of Tricia's brothers, Albert and David, as well as Albert's wife Janice and their kids, Michael and Celeste.

We laughed, played games and visited and had great fun.  In our neck of the woods, cooler weather is also called "gumbo weather," and we eat a lot of chicken and sausage gumbo and shrimp and okra gumbo.  In the Hispanic culture, there's another dish that's eaten, and we were introduced to menudo.  Tricia's brother, Albert is a good cook, and worked hard in the kitchen to make menudo.  Menudo is a soup made with chili powder, cumin and other spices along with hominy and tripe.  Tripe is the stomach lining of a cow.  In Mexican-American culture (as well as Cajun culture), when an animal is butchered, nothing is wasted.  Menudo is good and spicy and we enjoyed it!

We drove by the T-heads and watched the shrimp boats come in and admired the beautiful water.  Corpus Christi, despite being on the coast, has a water emergency.  They're running out of it, and water rationing is in effect!  They do get less than half the rainfall we do, averaging only 31.7 inches a year.  The reservoirs are low, but that's not the primary reason for the shortfall.  Industry is gobbling up most of the available water usage.  There is talk of water desalination plant construction, but the cost is high and prohibitive.  What are they going to do?  It reminds me of a line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, that says, "Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink."

Russ & Benjamin

We like to work on projects while we're there.  Russ is a plumber and was able to take the reins and help install a new washing machine to replace a 1992 model that had worn out.  Actually, it was still working, but the selector switch had broken and parts are no longer available.  I'd say Mrs. Garcia got her money's worth out of it - 34 years!  Wow.  We talked about the fact that my brother still has an old International Harvester deep freezer that my grandmother had that still works.  To the best of our knowledge, that thing was manufactured in the late 40's or early 50's!  Things used to be made to last.  Unfortunately, in a disposable society, those days are gone.  Back to the washing machine, we made a quick trip to Home Depot for some new water lines and had the new or gently used washer in place in no time.

While at Home Depot, we picked up some paint for our next project.  We repainted Mrs. Garcia's shed.  We first applied some Ospho to eat away at some rust spots and then we put two coats of exterior paint on the shed.  It was like Mark Twain's "Adventures of Tom Sawyer" where Tom fooled Huck into painting the fence.  In this case, however, it WAS a privilege to do so.  The three of us tackled the project and had great fun in "quality control," pointing out spots that each other had missed, teasing and harassing each other relentlessly.  We actually ran out of daylight and painted the first coat by the lights from the head lamps of our SUV!  The next morning when the dew burned off, we quickly got the second coat on.  While not professional painters, by any stretch of the imagination, the finished product looked good!

The Painters (Benjamin and Russ)

Fueled by several cups of strong coffee along with egg, potato and chorizo taquitos for breakfast, we were adequately caffeinated and energized and got the second and final coat on in surprising speed.  We'll see how our work holds up to the test of time.

 

The painters and Mrs. Garcia

Tricia's mom was pleased with the completed work, but we were more pleased to be able to do something for her.  I snapped this photo of Tricia and her Mom in front of the freshly painted shed.

Mrs. Garcia and my bride

At half past 11 AM on Saturday, we loaded up and said farewell to Mrs. Garcia and Tricia's brother, Albert.  I tried my best to get Mrs. Garcia to come and stay with us for a while, but she said, "Maybe later."  We'll keep trying.  Hopefully, we can get her to come visit us soon.  Now, we're back home and have a lot of projects here on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm we'll be discussing with you in the upcoming days.  Happy New Year to all of you!  What type of projects do you have going on?  We'd be interested in hearing about them.

The Water Tower

The water tower still standing in Elton, Louisiana

If you grew up in a small town, the title of this post will jog your memory. We had a water tower in our small town (population 2,500). It has since been taken down. In 1993 a country singer by the name of Joe Diffie sang a song about the water tower in his town. The song was a catchy one. One that you'd sing at the top of your lungs as you rode in your truck with your windows rolled down on a dirt road.

1993 seems like such a long time ago.  Perhaps I was living in a bubble, but it seemed like people were happier back then.  Sure, there was division, but at the end of the day, we loved our Lord, we loved our country and we loved each other.  Think Mayberry.  Yes, it was just a TV show, but for the most part, the community values and spirit and neighborliness was real, at least where I lived.  

So let's talk about the water tower in a small town.  Here's how Joe Diffie's "John Deere Green" started: 

They were farm kids way down in Dixie

Met in high school in the '60s

Everyone knew it was love from the start

One July, in the midnight hour

He climbed upon the water tower

Stood on the rail and painted a ten-foot heart

The water tower in Kinder, Louisiana was silver in color and some home-town "artists" had climbed way up to the top and painted things.  They didn't paint a 10 foot heart.  If memory serves me right, the painting was, "SRS '76".  Translation: Seniors of 1976.  Some proud individuals that had or were going to graduate from Kinder High School, braved the climb with a can of black spray paint and advertised their school spirit for all the world to see.

Brave souls, indeed.  The water tower is way up there.  You had to have stamina to climb that ladder.  You had to not be afraid of heights.  Though I've done my share of other questionable things, I never climbed the water tower.  I'm telling on him, and he probably won't appreciate me saying this, but my Dad climbed the water tower when he was a young buck.

I'll have to get him to tell me the story again since it's been a long time since I heard it, but I seem to recall him telling me that he was scared to death.  Not to mention the fact that when he and his friends got to the top and looked down, there were flashing lights coming from the police cars of Kinder who had been tipped off about their nightly maneuvers.  To Protect and Serve.  The officers were interested in having the climbers come back down and have a visit.  There was no place to run and no place to hide!  

Here is the chorus to the song about the water tower in a small town: 

In John Deere green

On a hot summer night

He wrote, "Billy Bob loves Charlene"

In letters three-foot high

And the whole town said that he should've used red

But it looked good to Charlene

In John Deere green

See what I mean?  That's a song you can really sing out loud!  The young "Rembrandt" from a rural town wanted to convey his love to Charlene.  Yes, he should've used red to accentuate the romantic feelings, but all he had was a can of John Deere Green paint that would ordinarily be used to touch up the old John Deere 4020.

In addition to serving as a blank canvas on which to paint your pride in your academic prowess or your love for the "Charlene" in your life, the water tower actually served a purpose.  Water towers ensure pressured water to the community and rely on hydrostatic pressure to distribute water to the town.  They must be high in the air to accomplish this.  Each foot of height will provide 0.43 PSI (pounds per square inch) of pressure.  

This saves the municipality on pumping.  Once the water was up in the tank, you had pressure, even during power outages.  Even if the power was out, you could shower in the morning - at least while there was water in the tank. You would need a pump to pump water back up there once the reservoir was depleted.

Water towers often have the town's name painted on the side and/or the town's slogan and perhaps boasts of football championships painted up there as well.  Not to mention a place for the "Billy Bob's" of the community to declare their undying love for "Charlene."  It doesn't even need to be painted in red.  Charlene liked it in John Deere green.  God bless small towns in America!

As the song continues, you see that Billy Bob's painting on the water tower paid dividends:

They settled down on 80 acres

Raising sweet corn, kids, and tomatoes

They went together like a hand and a glove

On a clear day from their front yard

If you look and know what to look for

Up to the east, you can still read his words of love

In John Deere green
On a hot summer night
He wrote, "Billy Bob loves Charlene"
In letters three-foot high
And the whole town said, "The boy should've used red"
But it looked good to Charlene
In John Deere green.

The Art Barn

When I'm driving out and about, I like observing things off the beaten path.  I love Americana or things that have Southern charm, unique architecture, or country style.  A lot of country folk are confident in who they are, regardless of the fact that most of the coastal elites look way down their noses at us.  We may be a little different, but we've learned to lean in to it and embrace it.

I see lots of patriotism.  American flags are displayed all over the countryside.  People love the red, white and blue.  On Louisiana Highway 26, heading north between Hathaway and Elton, something changed, and it caught my eye.  I did a double take and pulled to the side of the road.  There is a barn just west of the road that I had blogged about back in 2018.  This barn had a big rooster painted on the western side of it.  Well, now the painting has been updated.

If you are thinking that it now has "See Rock City" painted on it, well, that is a really good guess, but that isn't on the barn.  The rooster that was previously on the barn is out and has been replaced with a huge painting of Old Glory!  The painter did a remarkable job on the mural.

You have to admire the artistic flair and craftsmanship.  That took thought and follow-through to get out there and get that done.  I have a hard enough time painting my barn red.  It either needs to be pressure washed or another coat of paint, but that isn't even on my radar.  This gentleman here loves his country.  He loves freedom and what our country stands for.

May God bless the USA and Americans that value freedom, justice, and Godly principles on which she was founded.

A Barn With Character

If you drive a few minutes north from our house up Highway 26 and look to the west, you'll see a barn with a lot of character.  I've always liked it.  Forgive my photo.  It is off-center and out of focus.  I almost missed it, but I caught enough of it to show you what I'm talking about.

The painting on the side of the barn depicts a rooster.  A very proud rooster with his head held high as he high steps with tail feathers announcing his presence to all the hens in the barnyard.  He rules over the hens.  It is his barnyard.  Behind him are the first rays of sunlight radiantly outlining the majesty of the cock of the walk. 

To me the barn painting exudes confidence and optimism.  I like our barn, I really do, but our barn is just... red.  You can see a photo of it at the top of the page.  We have several proud roosters that crow loudly to welcome the new day, but I think if I looked outside each morning and saw a rooster like this one, proudly emblazoned on the side of my barn, it would get me moving faster than a cup of black coffee.

Roosters are self-assured and assertive and they may have had something to do with Scarlett O'Hara's feisty, never quit, dogged determination at the end of "Gone With The Wind:"

“He had never known such gallantry as the gallantry of Scarlett O'Hara going forth to conquer the world in her mother's velvet curtains and the tail feathers of a rooster.” 
― Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

Probably there was a rooster like this painted on the side of the barn at Tara.

Writing it on Your Barn

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:

5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

The Shema is a Jewish Prayer and the first part of it is from Deuteronomy 6:4-9. As Christians we see it as a declaration that the LORD is one and that we should love him with all our hearts.  We should keep these words in the forefront of our lives and always on our minds.  It stresses that fact in that we should even write them on our home and gates, so that we are always focusing on them.

On the way to work the other day, I pulled to the side of the road outside of Crowley, Louisiana, to take a picture of a man who took Deuteronomy 4:9 literally:

Almost.  He painted, "GOD IS LOVE" on the side of his barn with the "O" in Love being a heart. While some paint "See Rock City" on their barns, this gentleman made a more meaningful sign on his barn that conveys an encouraging proclamation to the millions that pass by on Interstate 10.

God definitely is Love... and more and more need to experience that love today. Thank you to the barn painter in Crowley that is spreading words of hope.

Praying for the Crop

My work life and my home life couldn’t be more different.  I work in an office at a desk sitting behind a computer for five days a week from 7:30 to 4:30.  When I am home, I am seldom indoors, always outside unless it is dark or storming.  During my lunch breaks at work while I’m enjoying some leftovers, I search through the Internet for stories of interest that I might consume along with last night’s delicious meal.  Those stories are largely about gardening, homesteading, agrarian blogs and such. 

Although I’m by no means an art critic, nor do I have good taste in fine art, I do know what I like when I see it.  On this particular day I think I Googled “Agrarian Art” or “Old Agriculture Paintings” and came across some artwork by an author named Jean-Francois Millet that I liked.  I looked at a lot of his work and I like this one the best:

Image Credit

It is a very simple painting that depicts a couple in the midst of solemn prayer.  If you look closely, you can see that the gentleman has a digging fork and the lady has a basket.  There are potatoes in the basket as well as strewn around on the ground.  There is a wheel barrow loaded with what appears to be sacks of potatoes that they have already dug.

It is either early in the morning or late in the afternoon by the lighting and this tells you that this peasant couple is hardworking.  I think it is nice that they work side by side.  I would imagine that they talk to one another and share their thoughts all day.  Either they are laboring early or they have put in a long day in harvesting the potato crop.  If you look off in the distance, you can see a tall church steeple.  The steeple prominently shown in the background coupled with the couple’s reverence lets you know that faith was of foremost importance to this couple and this rural community.

I wanted to learn more about the background of the painter and the painting so I visited This Site and This Site.  Jean-Francois Millet was from France and was born in 1814.  If you look at his work, you will see that he painted many depictions of peasant agricultural life.  Many of his paintings feature simple farming folk bent over in work and capture the strong work ethic of a people tied to the land and its produce for their very survival.

The painting I posted above was originally named “Prayer for the Potato Crop.”  The art collector who commissioned the painting didn’t pick it up and Millet renamed the piece, “The Angelus.”  The Angelus refers to the ringing of the church bell at 6:00 am, noon, and 6:00 pm, calling Christian people to prayer.  The bell ringing is interesting to me, because my surname, Sonnier, is French and was the occupational name for a bell ringer (Late Latin sonarius, an agent derivative of sonare ‘to ring’) according to what I learned here.  It may have been an ancestor of mine that was up in the bell tower, overlooking the fields and ringing the bell, calling the couple to prayer – although I would have rather been in the fields!

I think it is important that the peasant couple humbled themselves and recognized that their success and survival was dependent upon the Almighty.  They toiled in a hardscrabble existence and performed manual labor that had been in effect since the Curse of the Ground in Genesis 3:17-18.  They were fervently praying for a bountiful harvest.  You can bet that they were doing the same when they planted the potatoes and worked the fields up until the harvest.  You can’t help but hope that their prayers were answered.

Millet’s painting is a good reminder that we would do well to answer ‘the bell’ and its call to prayer in our daily lives.

A Work of Art

This blog post is quite the quantum leap from yesterday's post about getting down in the dirt and digging up potatoes.  Today we're going to get ourselves cleaned up and get cultured and critique some art.  Years ago there was an art exhibit in New Orleans featuring the artwork of French impressionist Edgar Degas.  Our daughter Laura Lee really likes Degas art - always has.

So when her art professor in her college class assigned the class a senior art project, Laura knew exactly what she wanted to do.  The assignment was for the students to 'become the artwork' of their favorite painting.  Sounds kinda intriguing, does it not?  Laura and her good friend decided that they would 'become' the Degas painting, "Two Dancers Entering the Stage".  Here is the painting:

Edgar Degas' painting, "Two Dancers Entering the Stage"

So the girls got busy and painted the backdrop on a sheet.  Then they got dancing outfits and painted both the tights and dance skirts and even painted themselves so that they would look like a painting. They stood in front of the backdrop that they painted and posed like the two dancers in the original painting and had a friend snap a photo of them.

I think the results were stunning.  What do you think?

Living replica of Degas' work (Laura Lee on right)

Pretty cool, huh?  She got an A+ on her final art project of her senior year in college and is set to graduate on Friday, May 13th.

Oh, here are the subjects of the painting once they stepped off of the canvas:

Stepped right off the canvas

Mom & Dad are proud of their creative girl!

American Gothic

American Gothic is the name of a famous painting by Grant Wood.  As he was driving around Iowa, he saw an interesting house and endeavored to paint a picture of not only the house, but the people he envisioned might live in it.  The painting is now in the Art Institute of Chicago.  To me it is a very odd painting.  The upstairs window does not seem to go with the house.  Furthermore, the people look so gloomy, sad, and long-faced.  The man with the pitchfork represents the mid-west work ethic and the woman models a prim and proper farmer's wife or daughter.

Image Credit

Tricia and I decided to have some fun.  We're not from the Mid-west and I don't have a 3 pronged pitchfork, but we do have a manure-scooping pitchfork, and my Mom just bought me some new overalls, so we decided to do our own American Gothic.  

But we couldn't be serious for long.  We do want to be hard-working and resolute, but we want to have fun and laugh and find humor in all situations as well.

While hopefully we don't look like the characters in the original painting, we do hope that we have the traditional rural values that the subjects in the painting.  Yeehaw!