Happy Thanksgiving

'Twas the night of Thanksgiving, but I just couldn't sleep.
I tried counting backwards, I tried counting sheep
The leftovers beckoned - the dark meat and white,
But I fought the temptation with all of my might.
Tossing and turning with anticipation,
The thought of a snack became infatuation.
So, I raced to the kitchen, flung open the door
And gazed at the fridge, full of goodies galore.
I gobbled up turkey and buttered potatoes,
Pickles and carrots, beans and tomatoes.
I felt myself swelling so plump and so round,
'Til all of a sudden, I rose off the ground.
I crashed through the ceiling, floating into the sky
With a mouthful of pudding and a handful of pie.
But I managed to yell as I soared past the trees...
Happy eating to all - Pass the cranberries, please.
May your stuffing be tasty, May your turkey be plump,
May your potatoes 'n gravy have nary a lump,
May your yams be delicious,
may your pies take the prize,
May your thanksgiving dinner stay off of your thighs.

May your Thanksgiving be blessed!

Farm City Week

Last week Altus celebrated Farm City Week. Paul and I decided to do the farm tour that was offered at 8 AM on Wednesday. It was an early morning, but one worth waking up for. We had a great tour guide and learned a lot about cotton farming, peanut farming, irrigation, and tractors.
This was our tour guideOur first stop was at the cotton gin in Humphreys. Here we learned how the cotton is cleaned and baled. There are different grades of quality that determine how much the farmer will get for a bale. The lowest grade cotton goes into the seats in your car, under the floorboards and stuff. It also goes into making jeans. The higher quality cotton goes to make nice shirts and blouses.
We were told that this bale was a low grade cotton. We also learned about cotton seeds. Most farmers use genetically enhanced seeds that resist insects and diseases. They are not allowed to harvest seed since they sign a contract with the seed companies.
These are cotton modules, ready to be processed in the gin.The gin we visited had just survived a fire, which is fairly common. When cotton gets caught somewhere and gets too hot, or if the metal parts spark, it causes a fire. As you can imagine, this spreads very quickly and they have to contain it fast! It smelled pretty bad in there, but we got to see the facility. What a mess! It looked like snow all over the place! Everytime I breathed, I felt like I was inhaling cotton fibers.
This picture was taken inside the building.Next we visited a cotton farm. Here we learned about planting and harvesting cotton. The farmer also showed us how the equipment worked. Here he is explaining how the very expensive cotton picker picks the cotton off the plant. (These are only 2 parts of the machine.)This is the large cotton stripper. It is less expensive, but doesn't do as good a job. Each farmer has to evaluate what type of equipment to use and when to harvest. A view of the cotton stripper from the back And this is a hopper
Our next stop was the Altus Peanut Company.There are some peanuts grown here, but this is mainly a storage facility where other growers can store their peanuts. I think this company buys the peanuts and then sells them. The man who ran the place taught us about growning peanuts. In this picture he is showing us what the plant looks like. Peanuts are the part of the plant that grows underground.He made us guess how many pounds of peanuts were here. The pictures doesn't show all of them, but there were 8 million pounds of peanuts stored under this roof!These are spanish peanuts.After the tour of the facility, we went into the business office and tried all kinds of peanuts: roasted, salted, jalapeno, and cajun. There were also peanuts without the shell in a variety of flavors.

Paul and I had a chance to ride on some tractors at the end of the tour. Paul was so excited to see me on a tractor...I think all I needed was a cowboy hat!Me on the small tractorPaul on the huge John DeerePaul convinced me the big tractor was so cool, I had to try it out for myself.They really were fun to drive! Especially the big John Deere - it was like a luxury sedan inside! So comfortable, with heating and air conditioning, a radio, and a great panoramic view from the high seat! I really wouldn't mind having one of these.
And here are some videos of us driving the tractors. This one is me:


And this one is Paul:

Altus Speedway

I'm a week behind in my blogging, so these pictures are from last Sunday when we went to the Altus Speedway. They were hosting the 7th Annual Spooker Nationals. There were USLMA late models, supertrucks, superstocks, bombers, chargers and hornets (if you know what all those are, you know more than I do). I just know the cars got better looking the longer we stayed (and I wasn't drinking!). It actually is quite fun to see these things go round and round and crash and stuff. Here are some pictures.
Small carsSupertrucksRandom guy checking out the race from the skySunsetBig cars lining up to raceBig cars racing

Saturday Events

Last Saturday we drove all over the place! First we went to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge to see buffalo, prairie dogs, and longhorn cattle.





Then we went to a place called Meers. It used to be a mining town, but now there's just a restaurant known for their huge burgers and delicious peach cobbler. Paul and Travis got the huge, plate-sized burgers and finished them! Amanda and I just got regular sized burgers. I got the peach cobbler with homemade vanilla ice cream and shared with everyone. It was sooooo good!


Last, we went to very tiny winery in Roosevelt, called Windmill Winery. Paul found it on a website, but this place was in the middle of nowhere! We weren't too sure about it driving up, but it turned out to be fun. We sampled 7 or 8 different wines, talked to the woman who ran the place with her husband, and toured the facility, which really only included the one room where they store 4 large stainless steel vats. Not a large operation at all. We bought 2 bottles, one of them a hinie wine, called Blushing Hinie (you'll have to see the website). Anyway, all in all it was a great day. Who says there's nothing to do around here?

Happy Halloween!!!

Here's a little something fun for Halloween!

Friday night football

On Friday night, Travis, Amanda, Paul and I went to the Altus high school football game. It was homecoming, so it was a pretty big deal. I think the game we went to last year was the homecoming game too. We had fun thinking back to our own high school days, sharing stories, watching the band, cheerleaders, and mascots, anticipating the homecoming king and queen...and watching the game.When we left in the 4th quarter with 57 seconds to go, the Bulldogs were winning 49 to 6! I heard they play Lawton every year for homecoming because it's a sure win.There were 2 mascots, a boy bulldog and a girl bulldog. They were both dressed up for homecoming. This girl (at least we think it was a girl inside!) was sooo entertaining! She would dance around and shake her bootie until her dress was falling down. Then she'd yank it back up and adjust it, pull it to the side, adjust the boobs...whatever. It was really funny. I'll have to work on getting the little video up of her dancing.

First week in Altus

The beautiful Altus reservoir.I have no idea what Hubert's Hump is, so don't ask.Paul and I went out to dinner in Blair with some friends. Blair is about 10 minutes down the road from Altus.
These are our friends, Travis and Amanda. Paul and Travis are flying partners while they are here, and they're in the same squadron back in Charleston. This particular night we were out for Travis' birthday.
Paul and I got lucky! We got here just in time to say hello (and good-bye) to our old friends Jennifer and Greg from Scott AFB. We also got to meet their beautiful baby girl, Sarah Grace. Paul and Greg flew C-21s together when we lived in Illinois. They were here for KC-135 training and left for England just last week! Good luck in Europe y'all! We're coming to visit you!Last year when we were here we met a very nice couple, Hugh and Maria, through the church we attended. They were so friendly and welcoming to us! Once again, they were more than hospitable when they invited us over for a Sunday brunch after church.

Journey to Altus, OK

First, we visited my mom in Atlanta.
Then we visited my cousin, Stacey, and her boyfriend, Kevin, in Birmingham, AL.
Next, we traveled to Loretto, TN to visit my old roommate, Adea, and her parents. Adea actually lives in Nashville, but she came home for the weekend. Here, she and Paul are racing cows on her Wii (really cool video game system!).
We also visited Adea's uncle's farm, complete with a lake, cows, lots of land and trees.
I thought this would make a nice rustic pic.
Adea and I pose with her parents, Dan and Debbie. By the way, Debbie and Adea are wonderful cooks! We ate soooo good while we were there!
Maybe I'm weird, but I find some weeds very pretty! Or maybe they're wildflowers.
Cows! Real cows! Paul was so happy! He and Adea didn't race any of these though.
There was even a little baby!
Paul lost my camera case somewhere along the way as we were walking, so he had to ride a 4-wheeler back to find it. He told me later that if he had known he would get to ride that thing, he would have dropped the camera case on purpose! Apparently, it was a lot of fun.
Our last visit was with friends in Columbus, MS. Here we saw Heather and Rich. Rich and Paul were in the same pilot training class several years ago. We've kept in touch with them over the years and just wish we were closer. They are great folks! We couldn't believe they still wanted to see us after JUST having a baby! Heather got out of the hospital on Saturday and we showed up on Sunday! The only change in our plans was that we stayed at the base hotel. They still insisted that we come for dinner and breakfast the next morning!
This is their newborn baby girl, Elizabeth Grace. Isn't she precious?
We had a really fun time catching up and witnessing them settling into their new roles as parents.
We would just like to thank all of you who were kind enough to share your guest bedrooms, time, and food with us while we journeyed to Altus. We had so much fun seeing each and every one of you!