Farming in Memphis

A friendly snake sunning on the farm.

Wild turkeys

A tug on the channel coming from the Mississippi River.

Farm Owner

A view of Memphis across one of the fields on the island. Click to enlarge and you can see the bridge, the pyramid, and some of the tall buildings downtown.

Zoomed in shot of the same view as above.

Zach's watching the soybean bean seeds unload.

I arrived home around 11:30 Saturday morning but was just too tired to sit down and look through all of the photos to get a post ready. I spent most of the day on Friday being James' farm gofer. I went to pick up lunches and went to pick up supper, stuff like that. I did get away for over a hour to visit the Metal Museum but they only allowed me to take pictures of the outside displays. But, that was ok, I got some pretty good shots for the "Anything Metal" Challenge I think.

Being on President's Island is a total contrast to the rest of Memphis for sure. I went from pavement, to potholes and gravel, to dirt turn rows in just a matter of minutes after crossing the old I55 bridge.

It was raining when we woke up on Saturday morning (Zach and I slept in while James went back to work), but it didn't rain enough to keep them out of the fields until much later in the day. Zach stayed all day with James and I came home!

I think he said he'll be through planting up there in a day and a half if he can get back in the fields by Wednesday.

Overnight Trip

James left early yesterday to spend a couple days and nights in Memphis to plant soybeans on Presidents Island and I was supposed to go up today to take Zach to spend the day and night with him. He called just a few minutes ago and asked me if I wanted to stay overnight with them. The conversation went,

James: You could stay too.

Me: What on earth for? What would I do all day while you're in the field, I don't want to be in the field all day. And I don't want to spend all day in a motel room.

James: Brenda. You'd be in Memphis. I think you'd find something to do.

Brenda: Oh yeah....(brain wakes up a bit and thoughts of shopping, museums, bookstores,,,taking my camera,,,there's a METAL Museum not too far from the farm,,,) Oh, Ok. I may be able to find something to do for the day.

So, we're out of here for the day and the night. And if it rains I may be able to wrangle James into visiting a museum or two with us tomorrow before we come home. See y'all when we get back!

I've Got a List and I'm Gonna USE It!

Easter was a disaster.

I've spent the past few days mulling it over and over and although my first instinct was to disown my two youngest offspring, I guess I will keep their names on the family tree for a little while longer if they will just get their SHI* together!

I gave Odie away last week. To Abby; She spent the night on Thursday night and asked if she could have him. He'd been Squawking and making my life miserable every time I tried to settle in to watch a Life Time movie so I had had enough of him by then so I said, " YES, YES, Take HIM, but you might ought to call and ask your Momma first." Zach came in and was angry with me for giving Odie away so I told him that I was getting rid of all of my aggravations so he'd best tread lightly or he'd be next on the list!

Things better improve around here or I'm gonna keep adding to that list and I'm gonna start checking stuff, and people, and animals, off.

Last Week in Pictures

Photo Challenge - Your Favorite Color

I thought and thought and thought some more about this challenge and finally came to the conclusion that I don't have a favorite color, I love them all! Right now my favorite color is Spring in all it's tinted and glorious dressings, tomorrow it might be blue,,,or purple,,,or salmon,,,or peach,,, or SUMMER.


I love the delicate purple of the wisteria vine in my front yard. It hides that horrible utility post fairly well. Last week when it was in full bloom, before the winds and rain wrecked havoc, it smelled so wonderful.

I love the deep, cool, greens of Spring, and what a beautiful background it makes for even the tiniest of blooms. You wouldn't know by looking that this tiny white and yellow bitterweed bloom has a really unpleasant scent.

I even love the carnival colors of the corn seed in the planter hoppers.

I love the contrasting colors in this shot. The Bermuda grass hasn't turned green yet but the clover has greened up nicely. Browns can be just as relaxing as greens to me.

JD Green is a favorite color here in my part of Arkansas. These are important colors in my life because they generate our livelihood by way of a job for my husband so that we can eat and have a roof over our heads. I'm thankful that the farmer he works for likes JD green. :-)

I love the deep orange color of Miz Ladybug crawling on my yellowish orange shirt; another dot of Spring color when the ladybugs come out.

Miz Donna was kind enough to be our challenge hostess for this round and she chose Your Favorite Color for us. Don't forget to take a look at all the other challengers by going to the Brenda Photo Challenge Blog and clicking the comment links for each one.

I'm Back!

7 days down and it wasn't even my modem, good thing they sent a new power supply cable with the new modem cause that was the problem. HUGHES NET and their customer service and tech support, that's located WAY over there in the far east, or wherethehelleverelse those folks with limited English abide, don't do a very good job at much of,,,well,,,anything, if the truth be known. OH Wait, they do a fine job of billing every month, gotta give em that.

Anyway, here I am, back in the nick of time for the next photo challenge being hosted by the delightful Miz Donna this time. Her choice for the challenge is for us to do shots showing our favorite color so I hope everyone got busy snapping up all kinds of colorful stuff.

I'll get busy in a bit sorting through my challenge photos and try to clear my muddled brain so I can recall some of the events of the past week. I'll also be working hard to catch up with what all of my blog buddies have been up to.

Farming on Memphis Streets

That was one long trip and I'm not sure I ever want to do it again. I surely wouldn't want to do it during a big traffic day. There was hardly any traffic on Trigg street and down Florida Street.


Servicing the tractor at the Presidents Island farm before starting the trip through Memphis to take it back home to Arkansas via Mississippi.

READY, SET, GO! Matild and Poncho ready to pull out behind us.

Bare streets and run down warehouses on Trigg St. There were a few dilapidated houses here and there on this street that were occupied. There were several that weren't also and should be torn down cause I saw lots of gang signs spray painted on the sides.

Just a few blocks to Florida St. It's almost a straight shot home down this street. Florida merges into Kansas Street which turns into New Horn Lake Rd. That road bisects Hwy 61/3rd St. in SW Memphis and that's where we turned to continue going south.

Continuing down Hwy 61/3rd ST. The shoulders weren't very wide here but the tractor was narrow enough it only took up one lane.

A blurry look behind at the tractor and planter following. Our top speed was 20 MPH and often we were traveling much slower.

We followed Hwy 61 across the state line into Mississippi. Just a few miles (15 or so) we started passing all the Mississippi casinos. Casinos, cotton, and soybean fields, that's what you mostly see in eastern Mississippi.

Imagine this scene with the fields planted with cotton or soybeans. Redneck Vegas!

We poked our way on south through north western Mississippi and then we turned west towards Arkansas and home. I sure was happy to see the Helena bridge that spans the Mississippi River. It meant Arkansas was on the other side!

After crossing the bridge we're greeted with the familiar signs that home is nearby.

After turning off of 49, just over the bridge, we turned south again towards the farm which is only a few miles past Lakeview. Matild knew his way home from here so we were able to speed ahead to the farm to wait for him there.

The 65 trip from Memphis took 5 hours. We were in that truck from 7 A.M. until 2:15 P.M. except for a couple of quick stops and the little while at Presidents Island readying the tractor for the trip. We only saw one police car in Memphis and he was on the Island and that was strange cause the part where he was there is nothing but farm ground.

I was almost sad that I didn't get to document the Man getting cuffed and arrested. :-) I really thought it had the potential of being a really interesting day but I was mostly bored. I did take a few scenery pics that I'll post tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a fantastic Monday!

Happy Birthday MeriKate!!

Happy Birthday MeriKate!! 9 years ago you showed your Nanaw more about birthin' babies than she evah intended to learn!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Rainy days in Arkansas, in the country, in the company of Rednecks, is always an adventure. Even if you have no intention of having an adventurous day, you'd best be sittin' on ready just in case. It's been raining; not constantly, but just enough to make it too wet to be in the fields and too wet to work in the shop yard on the farm. When it's too wet to work I have the privilege of being irritated aggravated aggitated entertained by my Redneck hubby. Being entertained by the Man is not always something the weak of heart can handle,,,for sure.

He went to work this morning around 6 a.m. after waking me up. I did the morning wrangling job of getting the Terrorist up, fed, and ready for school. The bus came for the kids and I went back to bed. I'd been up for the second time for about 1.5 minutes when the Man came back home cause it was too wet to work and before he even got in the door good he remarked,

"You haven't had time to brush your hair yet, huh?" "I'm hungry, whatcha got to cook in here?"

I just stared at him as walked past on his way to the kitchen with the TV remote in his hand changing channels as he went.

Later on, one of his buddies shows up with a tax return for me to do and our neighbor, Jeffrey, comes over too. They're in the living room, I'm in the kitchen doing something, when the phone rings. I heard the Man answer it, and then I heard laughter, so I asked what was going on.

Apparently it was someone calling for the Man to do a farm survey. The Man tells it like this:

Caller: Is Mr. "Man" in today?

the Man: No, he's not here today.

Caller: Are you one of the farmers?

the Man: No, I'm just a man who's here seeing the farmer's wife while he's not home. (this is the part where our two visitors started laughing)

Caller: Oh no, that's just not right! (laughter)

the Man: Oh Man, you're not going to tell on me are you?

Caller: (laughter, laughter) Noooo, of course not, I'm in New York!

the Man: Well ok, have a good day! (hangs up)

By this time, both the guys visiting are laughing their butts off. I told them they weren't helping a damned bit by encouraging him! I'm thinking that survey group won't be calling again for awhile. I swear, it's like being with a 5'11" toddler around company; every time he opens his mouth you hold your breath cause you don't know what might come out.



On Sunday we're going on an adventure.

The man James is working for now has farm ground strung out from Southern Illinois, down to Missouri, on down to President's Island in Memphis, and now even further south to here in East Central Arkansas. The adventure on Sunday will be to go to Memphis to take one of the Mexican tractor drivers to President's Island to drive a tractor and planter back here to the farm.

Presidents Island is just off Interstate 55 after you cross the Mississippi River in Memphis. The route we'll take is almost straight south, right through the southern half of the city. James asked me if I'd go with him to navigate as he leads the tractor through town; I told him I sure would, and I'd take my camera too cause if he gets stopped by the police and they cuff him(we have no idea if it's even legal to drive a tractor on big city streets; the boss said do it so he is), I'm damned sure going to document the moment!

We'll come off the Island, right to the left of the A up there and follow the pink line out of Memphis on down into Mississippi. (click to enlarge the maps)

The trip from Memphis to the farm is about 75 miles or so. It should be an interesting adventure. I'll be sure to take pictures.

I'll be glad when they're back in the field around here!

It's Getting Down to the Nitty Gritty

I'm ok,,,well mostly ok,,, Just been busier than a one-legged kick boxer doing some tax returns. Tomorrow will be a for sure full day cause this client has a federal return plus 2 state returns and I also have to file the spouse's state return separately. The main problem with this is the extra is an LA out of state return. I don't do enough LA tax returns to warrant paying for a tax program to do them with so I do them with a pencil and a calculator.

This requires more use of the brain cells that would really prefer to stay in hibernation. All because of all the extra BS that I must wade through to get down to the brass tacks part of these durn returns.

LA's nonresident returns are 6 pages long with 18 pages of instructions. Then you have to attach everydurnthing but a sample of your toilet paper to their danged returns. They give me a headache really quick.

Like I really need something MORE to cause headaches around here (ya'll remember that I'm trying to quit smoking; I'm down to less than a third of what I was smoking by the way; and I'm taking Chantix which has been trying out a few of it's side effects on my system.)

Anyway, I'm still here, I'm still breathing (and much better too), and except for a little cussing going on around here, I'm fine.

I have been trying to take enough breaks to keep up with what y'all have been up to, so y'all better be good or I'll know! :-)

Hopefully I'll have some stories to tell once I come in for a landing.

Brenda Photo Challenge : The Eyes Have It

It's photo challenge time again! The theme this time is "The Eyes Have It" and I've been looking for eyes everywhere over the past couple of weeks. Please hop over to our Brenda Photo Challenge Blog and click on the names in the comments to view all of the wonderful challenge photos by our very talented challengers.

Zach's chocolate brown eyes peeking at me from between his fingers.

Zach's buddy, Michael, striking an "eye" pose for me.

Mrs. Giraffe looking all shy when I pointed the camera at her.

Pinkish Pelican Eye

The green glimmering eyes of the tree spirit in the tree house room at the Children's Museum.

Goofy, crossed eyes and silly grin of the birdhouse in my oak tree.

More Memphis Children's Museum

Zach's flying a jet in the area where the big Fed-Ex plane cockpit was. There was also a flight simulator program on a computer for the kids to try.

Jerri and Beans in the section about China. They're on a little stage performing a Chinese opera.

A close-up of one of the rooms in the doll house mansion. Such exquisite detail!

Abby in a Chinese classroom. They had mirrors, enlarged photos, and videos surrounding the area so that it made it look as though they were in a classroom full of children.

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Oh yeah, before I forget, It's not too late to sign up in the comments over at our Photo Challenge Blog for The Eyes Have It Challenge. Just follow the directions to leave a comment and post your pictures for viewing tomorrow and we'll all come by to visit.

Shoot and have fun!

Play Day

The Children's Museum is a great place for kids and the grown-up kids who go with them. We had a great time looking at everything and of course the kids all did some major playing. My favorite exhibit was the Magnolia Mansion doll house (below) except that all I could do was look at it cause they had it all behind protective glass. I would love to have a doll house like it that I could fix up with furniture and fixings, isn't it just the cutest thing?


There was a full sized cockpit area of a Fed-Ex plane in that place as well as a full sized fire engine, police car, and Toyota cruiser. There may have been more big stuff but there was so much to see that I'm sure I missed a whole lot of it. Our kids loved the Kiddy Kroger and as you can see below, they did some serious grocery shopping.

Zach, manhandling the produce. All that squeezing and looking who'da thought it was plastic? It looked good enough to eat.

Notice the expressions of the girls as they stand in the check-out line. I've seen those expressions before, haven't you?

The few pictures I took of Zach were all from behind. He was much too busy to bother with me and the camera. He told me soon after we arrived to "go away from him so he could explore", so I mostly did.

The wildest part of the day was following Jerri in Memphis. I'd never been to the museum but she had so she led the way. We had to turn around a few times and missed our exits more than once, but we made it there and back and the extra driving made for an adventure. There may be a few drivers across the line over in Tennessee who were glad to see the car and truck full of kids with Arkansas tags heading back across the Mississippi River this afternoon.,,,,Maybe, just a few. :-)