Texans in Tennessee

After 10 wonderful days at home, we received a call to Tennessee for more crop work. We were very excited for the opportunity to get to go back to work. We loaded and left on Monday December 3rd and enjoyed the 1000 miles of driving. We arrived in Dyersburg, TN on Tuesday afternoon. It is the most enjoyable town we have stayed in. The people are the most friendly!! A far cry from our stay in Montana. We love the country side. Rolling hills and so many quaint homesteads. Our work will keep us here until December 22--then we thankfully get to go home for Christmas. The company has so much work here, they have welcomed us back for the month of January too. We are so thankful! The area has suffered such drought here, so we are working every crop. We have done losses on Soybeans, cotton and corn. It is our first experience with cotton, so that has been a huge learning experience. We actually are on the western side of the severe drought that you have heard all about through the last months. This area has began getting some rain--in fact it hasn't quit raining here for the last 3 days, so it is much appreciated!!!

Curtis and I always hate the dreaded long days of Sunday. We always try to attend a church and then the rest of the day is so boring.

So, this last Sunday, we had the opportunity to attend our very first NFL game. The Tennessee Titans were playing in Nashville, which is about a 21/2 drive from here where we are staying. We loaded up early Sunday morning and headed out for the big game. We had no tickets and was literally traveling on the fly. The Internet showed a complete sell-out!! We arrived in the smokey mountain city got our $10.00 parking and set out to find a way to get in. Within 1 block of walking, we were approached by a guy that wanted to sell 2 tickets. YEAH we were in!!! We walked approximately one mile to the stadium and were in total awe!!! People were coming from everywhere--even by boat!!! We were not totally in the nose bleeds--but very close. We could as least still make out the numbers on the players backs!!! lol. We had the greatest time, not only watching the game, but watching the people. The first 3 quarters were quiet slow moving--but the game got very exciting--Titans had them beat the whole game and in the last 5 minutes the Chargers came back and tied the game. OT started and the Titans lost 17-23.

We enjoyed the walk downtown Nashville--we parked beside the Country music hall of Fame and was 4 blocks from the Ryman Auditorium. Curtis and I had visited Nashville on our 10 year anniversary and had already toured all these great places.
We did drive over to the Opryland hotel and check out all the great Christmas decorations!! Everything was beautiful!! It was so dark inside not one of my pictures turned out very well.

Back to reality and back to work on Monday!! I will be posting again soon!!
Until then......

So Thankful, We are Home!

Curtis and I made it home on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. It was very nice to be back to our bed! It has been great seeing family and friends! We have had a lot of fun visiting! We have no idea how long we will be here, so we are waiting for the phone to ring. We were able to bring home 2 audits that will be work for at least 3 weeks. We will be working along to complete those and hopefully gain more work as we go.
Thanks so much for reading....and as soon as we move on to a new adventure in work--I will keep you posted!!

Until then......

Vistors--Presidents--and Work?

Yes, we have had company---and it has been GREAT!!! It was so nice to see Robert and Nelda. They arrived on November 3 and stayed till November 7 and did we have a lot of catching up to do. They had spent 2 nights at Marcia Henry's house enjoying her girls and grand-daughters before making the final trek to Yankton, South Dakota. We had little work while they visited, so we spent lots of talking time together.
We did travel to Mitchell, South Dakota to share the Corn Palace. They both couldn't believe that corn is used for such art work.

We had one claim while they were here, (I had 3 major audits to complete, therefore it was lots of computer work) and the day the left, we were non stop work for the rest of the week. We had been in Yankton for 13 days before having to pack up and move for the weekend.

One of my audits entailed us to drive to Rapid City, South Dakota for a signature from a farmer, so we got to travel thru the Badlands and get to make the visit to the Black Hills of South Dakota.

We ended up South of the Badlands National Park and were able to travel right thru the dead center of them to get to Rapid City. I never understood the reasoning of them being called the Badlands--but you visit it, and it only takes a few miles and you understand that it is nothing but ugly terrain and terrain that was to bad to travel through--they say people still perish trying to cross them on foot. But, the colors of the soil make the drive well worth it, 50 miles of no vegetation just layers and layers of colors, that's it. No gas station, no cafe--just the others that trek the national park to learn more about the badlands too.

We stopped in the world famous Wall drug store to eat our lunch and found this still amazing. One man buying up the entire main street, connecting his businesses and advertising free ice water---and he has made a small town be remembered!!! There are approximately 10 major motels and 2-3 cafes along with convenience stores and nothing else. You can buy anything that you would need and alot of things you don't need all in 1 entire city block.

Finishing our lunch we ventured on up I90 and arrived in Rapid City mid afternoon. We relaxed and got to visit a mall that literally was just like what we see in Texas--this is our first in 4 months to have the conveniences of this kind of shopping. We had a great time just walking the mall!! Guess it sounds as if we are desperate for entertainment.

We decided we would spend our Sunday touring the Black Hills and boy did we tour!!
Curtis made the comment that we hadn't seen so much in any one day since we married 25 years ago.

We learned so much history and just stood in amazement of Mt. Rushmore. It is just an incredible piece of art. We took in the 1 mile jaunt of the presidential tour and saw just how they trekked up the mountain with their picks and jack hammers. It is still beautiful today---

Crossing over the mountain we were able to take in Crazy Horse monument, also. This is another piece of art, and so unbelievable that only one man took the job of the Indians request to build a memorial for the Native Indians. It is to be someday one huge complex of schools and hospital--but the monument was to come first before anything else of the memorial was to be built. The gentleman that started this project passed away in 1982, 7 of his 10 kids have decided to keep his dream alive and finish the carving of the mountain. As you can see in the pictures---they just completed the face of Crazy horse in year 2000. They projected completion--200 years!! Not in our lifetime. I was able to visit this in the mid 70's and it was fun seeing just how much it had changed since I was a little girl. So amazing to me to think 1 family with such dedication.

Driving 35 miles north through the Hills we arrived in Deadwood, South Dakota. I had never heard of this place before and little did we know it is a little Las Vegas. All the casinos are in the original buildings of the old west town. It has a great atmosphere of the old days. I am sure if you watch the series Deadwood, you had heard of this place. Lots of gold mine history, and lots of gambling going on. We were able to get a picture of main street---it was almost too little for double lane traffic--I can't imagine how this little town would be in the summer months.

Our whole logic to travel the back roads of the hills was to end up in Sturgis, South Dakota---it was a huge disappointment for the both of us. Maybe if you attended the bike rally, things would have meant more. It was just an ordinary town of 6000 living life just as we do---they say the 2 weeks in August 500,000 people on bikes arrive and this whole area is hopping.

On our way back to the motel in Rapid City we happened upon a national cemetery--it is so surreal to drive through the cemetery of folks that gave their lives for us. Not one thing out of place-the quietness--makes you stop and be thankful. As we were driving through and reading some of the markers the music of amazing grace started playing and we both got chill bumps! The music played for approximately 5 minutes--not a word spoken from either one of us. We noticed some orange rope marking off areas and decided to see what it was all about. They have 30-40 open graves already dug that are covered with plywood--they had just recently had a funeral there and the soldier was buried right up to the next open hole. You can see in the picture

We drive back to Yankton on Monday and have at least 1 more week of work. I have a really important audit that I am waiting to see a farmer on and Curtis has several claims to finish up. We have been told that our work here is coming to a end, so we do have the excitement of possibly coming home in 10 days. We both are really excited at that thought, it has been 9 weeks since we have seen home. We neither one would trade for the things we have learned, the things we have seen and the time that we have spent together. God has blessed us!!
Our supervisor said he would have the definite on our being done or moving on to another area of the US the end of this week. I will be keeping you posted!!
Until then.................

Still in South Dakota

I first want to extend a huge congratulations to Cory's friend Arlin Landers. I had all intentions to do the blog just on Arlin. Arlin graduated this last weekend with the highest honors of becoming an Army Ranger. For those of you that do not reconize Arlins name--he lived with us the summer of 2002, he was a member of Cory's band and spent 3 months in our home. I had hoped so much that I could get some pictures up loaded of him--but I couldn't get it to work. Those that remember him--won't recognize him--when he lived with us he had long hair-in fact I don't think I ever saw his eyes before now--BOY what a change!! He is now married and has spent some time in Iraq and will be deploying back to Irag in 2-3 weeks. Cory and Angel flew to Georgia this last weekend to surprise him for his graduation. Arlin is the guy who introduced Cory and Angel, haven't seen him in 2 years, they were both so excited to get to go!! They were so impressed with his accomplishments and the graduation!! They got to see many routines that the Army rangers have trained for. Cory told me that he has the up most respect for what they do--and how they are trained to defend all of us. Arlin spent the last 61 days in the mountains, swamp and desert surviving. Arlin is among 37% of guys that can accomplish this rank their very first try. We are very proud of Arlin----
(when I get the pictures to work--I will be adding them)

Well, we have moved back to Yankton South Dakota. We arrived here on Friday and we had some small work on Saturday. The rest of the weekend was pretty well blah!! We have done absolutely nothing new to report on. We were told Friday that we should be here for a week, then I have a review that is in Philip SD, which is about 50 miles from Mount Rushmore, so our boss told us to prepare to work here then move to there to pick up more work and enjoy the black hills of South Dakota. So we do have something to look forward to. It will be totally different seeing new country and scenery.

BUT----we are on standy by for the California fires! Three different companies have been in contact with us to check our availability. We will not know anything until Thursday for sure--all depends on the quantity of claims and just how far down the list they go on deploying adjusters. So who knows--we have decided to work here and move along till the phone rings---

Maybe next week--I will have new and exciting news to report---sure hope so! Don't give up on me now!!

Until then.....................

Pheasant Season Has Opened!

South Dakota's pheasant season opened on Saturday at noon. Our boss here in South Dakota hosted a John Deere Risk Protection hunt. We thankfully were invited out to take part in the most impressive Pheasant Hunt either one of us has ever seen. With us having our own hunt at home, we didn't see this to be that big of a deal, BUT, things are a little different here in South Dakota. We arrived at 11:00 a.m. and everyone was preparing to leave the house. There were 14 licensed hunters and 5 extra to help block. We were at the first field promptly at 12:00 nooon to get started. Back in Texas we expect to sometimes hunt all day for 2-6 birds to be found and shot---here in South Dakota--15 minutes 11 birds down---DOWN--not how many were seen. We traveled to the next field 13 birds down. We haven't even spent 2 hours out and the limit was two thirds there. To make the day last longer they took what was killed back to the house at 2:00 to have some lunch. We women stayed behind to cook and get ready for the men when their day was complete. They were gone 1 more hour and came back with 50 birds total. They felt sure that they had shot well over 60 birds total, but finding them was a problem. With the corn harvest being so late, a lot of the corn is still standing in the field, so you must walk the tall corn to get the birds pushed up. Curtis and I were some of the blockers and it was so amazing to see 20-30 birds fly up at once--it literally sounded like a war zone. The dogs worked themselves to death.
This being an annual hunt, the food consisted only of pheasant. We cooked pheasant 3 different ways and then just added the trimmings. We really enjoyed gettting to eat in a kitchen/dining room setting. Curtis requested I make macaroni and cheese--and I cooked my pheasant chicken fried and cream gravy--so we did get to have some Texas cooking. The 2 women that were in the kitchen ask me what we would cook with the pheasant and I told them that we would definetly have red beans to go with that kind of meal---neither one of them had ever cooked much less seen a pinto bean. They requested next year that was to be my support for the meal--they wanted to try red beans. We also missed iced tea--they folks don't serve iced tea. Beer is the staple to the meal---and if you don't drink beer or water, you must bring "POP" along. We have laughted alot about how different our ways are, again!!!
With it being a John Deere pheasant hunt, we were able to meet the top dogs of the company and put faces with voices that we have been speaking with on the phone. So that was very nice-we all gathered at the end of the day to sit in a circle and our boss drug out the guitar for some just old fashion singing. It was very enjoyable to see so many just bellar out those old country songs. Lots and lots of laughter!!
We know we will stay in South Dakota for at least 1 more week--we never know how long we will be in any one place--but for now we have a lot of audits to work on. I will be crunching alot of numbers this week and believe it or not we still have an appraisal to do on corn. By now all of that should be complete but the weather has been such a damper on things--we didn't see sunlight for 5 days this week due to the rainfall.
Never know where our next weeks blog will come from--

Until then..........................

A WHOLE lot of NOTHING!

And this is what we have looked at for 1 week.

We arrived in Montana last Saturday evening and it was the longest drive and longest week of our journey. We stayed in the small town of 1200, in a 70's semi-clean motel room, 5 bars and 1 restaurant. We were the strangers that had came to town. Everywhere we went, the people would stop what they were doing and look at us. I have never felt so strange in my whole life. Just a little bit on edge---we were the strangers---and all the people were there to take care of themselves and their hometown. I found it very interesting that not one sole in Scobey, Montana is on welfare!! Noone that wants to do nothing wants to go to a place of nothing. We did get to meet several good people and listen and learn about their life in this area. It is in their lively hood and their blood. We learned you either love it or hate it! I fell into the latter category. We actually could have stayed for another week to finalize our work, but it is the hunters opening weekend and the motel was needing rooms---so, I was excited to say we could move on back to North Dakota to finish the audit work. I was happy to see that in the rear view mirror.
We did adjust some lentil beans for a 79 year old lady that still ran her farm on a day to day basis. She was the most exciting thing there was in Scobey, Montana. We visited with her for about 2 hours, which I could have stayed all day. She was born in her original home and her mother as born there in 1904. She started telling us about her childhood days when her mother worked just as hard as she and had to deal with gunslingers and outlaws. She said the Indians were very friendly when they crossed their land, mutual agreement that if you don't mess with them, they wouldn't mess with you. She told a story of an outlaw coming upon her families place when her mother was attempting to kill chickens for supper. The outlaw ask her mom how many she wanted for supper and with her mothers reply--We need 2 to feed everyone--the outlaw drew 2 silver shooters and blew off the chickens heads at the same time---WAY TO MUCH OUT WEST FOR ME!!!

We traveled over 2100 miles this week--and I am feeling it. Everyday was a huge jaunt--Friday we drove 119 miles before passing the first town--then we drove 248 miles one direction and passed only 3 towns--so you can get the jest of it!! We saw lots of deer and 1 red fox---looked for a moose all week, but it wasn't meant to be. Every farm we visited had seen moose withing the last month. The agency had one in their back yard just 10 days ago. We would have loved to seen one--but I hate to say maybe next time--but I really feel we will be called back to this area at some point. The company has only 2 adjusters in the whole state of Montana! Not enough for the God forsaken country.

Before we left Huron last Saturday, the town was having a scarecrow and pumpkin decorating contest. We enjoyed walking thru the park and checking out all the entries. I decided since their was not much to share about Montana--I would share some pictures of the creative ideas that these people came up with. It was a great event and some really neat ideas. There was 49 scarecrow entries and they have had this event for over 30 years.

We are in North Dakota for just 3 nights and we received the call to go back to South Dakota on Monday. We will be doing some more work for the same people that we had spent so much time with previously. Believe me, we are looking forward to it!! I will keep you posted---

Lots of word about lots of work all over the country--so who knows where we will land.

Until then...................

Up Rooting?! Literally!

We got notice last night that we will be up rooting and moving on to the next destination, tomorrow morning, October 6th. We are so excited about this move---we will be moving to Scobey, Montana. It is in the north east corner of Montana and is 15 miles from the Canadian border. Our work will be adjusting, range land, lintel beans, and forage. I will be doing some auditing also so we will both stay very busy for at least 2 weeks. I googled this town last night to find that we are going to be in neverland---1 motel, 4 restaurants and Walmart 150 miles away! We were told to bring extra supplies for computer and printer--no large town anywhere around. Another great adventure is coming up and the chance to see Canada--so exciting!!
Up rooting, literally was my title name because, not only are we up rooting and moving on, but Curtis woke up this morning with a dreaded tooth ache. He knew he had to get something done today, before driving the distance and not wanting to have the pain for 2 more days. After doing our job this morning, we decided to type in dentist on the GPS system, it took only 40 MINUTES to find the dentist and drive away with one tooth extracted. I couldn't believe how fast it was---the dentist even had to be called from home to come back to take care of this Texas guy with a toothache!! He is doing much better--but feels like a tree has been up rooted out of his mouth! So thankful for the helpful people in Brookings South Dakota to take care of this---

We have traveled many miles again this week--and in doing so we went through Mitchell, South Dakota, which is the home town of the Worlds only Corn Palace. It was so interesting and the pictures do it NO justice. One farmer raises all the corn, milo and rye that is used in making this art work every year. We were fortunate to see it as it was being done for the year 2008. They had almost completed it--as you can see 2 men still working on the production. They use over 300,000 pounds of corn product to cut up, bind together and nail to the wall. One artist designs the entire building, marks it off on black roofing paper and the men are hired to literally nail by number to get the designs, using over 12 different colors of corn. Everything you see is living product!!! The two large columns on each side of the center billboard are just milo heads---it is so cool!!!

A little further North and just East of Brookings we passed a farm that the owner has many extra hours in the winter to do his own artwork. He had so many sculptures--that a road had been carved out from people stopping and driving thru is field to check out all the junk iron he had welded to make his own yard art. I have a couple of pictures here showing some of his unique work. The Noahs ark was the most impressive for me--the ark was an old diesel tank, and I hope you can make out all the little critters as well as the elephants and giraffe. The Volkswagen spider was very cute also. He had built so many things we had to pick out what we liked best---Not enough room here to share it all!

The whole time we have been here, we have seen empty corn cribs on virtually every farm. I had mentioned that if there were so many, why wasn't there corn in some of them. Today--we finally found a full corn crib. The color from the road is incredible. Harvest is here---most all farms grow pumpkins in their gardens, so all houses have decorations galore, put the corn crib out front--your farm decoration is compete! I would say that South Dakota harvest is 1/4 complete--I wonder if harvest will be finished before the first snow?

We will drive 650 miles tomorrow to reach Scobey, it will be a long day and can't believe that in October we are worrying about reaching bad roads due to a snow storm arriving there tonight. One inch of snow is in the forecast with the temperature low being 26 degrees----Oh so glad we packed for winter months--will we see any snow--who knows--but I will be keeping you in touch!



Until then.............

This and That

This is just a little of this and that---

We have now entered the pheasant capitol of South Dakota! We are in a town called Huron, South Dakota, we moved here last Monday--due to some technical difficulties we were not able to stay in "The little town on the prairie" Des Smet, South Dakota that I had previously mentioned in the prior blog. This part of the state has a HUGE pheasant season--October 19 thru December 31, so everywhere you look, there is something about a pheasant. This pheasant in the picture is located right on the outside of town at another motel. As you are coming into town--you can see him for many many miles--he is huge! Since we have moved North, the country has really changed--lots flatter and some hills and every 10 miles, another recreational lake, and lakes with no trees around them--all surrounded by prairie grasses. Very different for us!

We have done several corn appraisals here as well as learning my new job. I have been officially hired on as an auditor for John Deere Risk Protection Services. I am really looking forward to it!

We traveled near 400 miles on Thursday, appraising corn fields. The young man in the picture to the right had the best dry land corn we have seen so far. He was very interested in visiting with us and learning some of the West Texas ways. In conversation he had ask us how our winter months were, we replying that if we had 1 week of single digits we were freezing--we went on to tell us that last year they had 23 days of 30 degrees BELOW zero!! Glad I get to come home and miss that one. It has been very cool here, we had to drag out the jackets every morning this week. Fall has definitely hit this area, the trees have all turned and all the crops are at harvest peak.

Last week we had an appraisal in a little town called Dante, SD. Back in August this town was hit by a very dangerous hail storm. The hail storm did literally no damage to crops but destroyed the roofs in about a 5 mile radius. Having no crop damage was due to the hail stones being so large. The farmer that we were visiting with told us that his home was hit with hail stones that would not fit in a five gallon bucket--you read it right--a five gallon bucket. It said it killed cattle, and the stones had ended up in many living rooms. I have a couple of pictures showing the damage to a barn and then a garage. He explained to us that one home had 2 stones hit side by side on their roof, and a person could crawl through the hole that was left from it!! UN-imaginable, huh?

Traveling a little further North on Tuesday, we were setting in a nice quiet insurance agency office talking over my new duties--when all of a sudden the walls started vibrating and music started playing. We literally could not carry on a conversation-- Julie, the agent, explained to us that main street was the practice field for the high school band. We left her office and stood outside and watched the band march their formation right there in front of the office as well as right in front of Warner South Dakota National Bank. It being so unusual but also brought a smile to our faces. She went on to explain that they had been state champs several times and the band director does know what she is doing. She marched that main street 3 times right with those kids, just while we were there.

We hope to visit Laura Ingle Wilders homestead today. Hopefully I will have some pictures of her prairie town next blog..

Until Then......

Getting the Job Done

I loved this barn! As we completed an appraisal on Friday, we chose to take a new route back to Yankton and we crossed this barn right against the river. As I saw it, I thought, oh that would make an awesome picture and before I said anything, Curtis had pulled over and stopped--asking what he was doing--he replied--you have to get a picture of this barn. No home in sight but the cattle were grazing effortlessly.

I had said in the last blog that I wanted to explain a little of what we are doing here. We are in South Dakota for corn appraising. Of the 10 farms that we have visited, only one was in an insurance loss. The yields here are so amazing for dry land farming. We have appraised anything from 35 bushels per acre to 158 bushels an acre. Pretty awesome considering that our home farmers have irrigated farms that don't produce even 150 bushels per acre. I also stated previously that most are self family farms--everything they grow they use, meaning that they have cattle to feed in the winter. With that being said, they silage their feed and put it in on farm storage bins. Their are no elevators here. Everything is stored on their premises, if they do sell any feed or grain, they haul as contracted by dates to deliver. Very interesting for us, we really know no other way but to sell as soon as it is harvested. Anyways, if the farmer cuts feed for his own silage usage, then our job is to go measure the remaining crop, take samples of the crop, and the sample has to be weighed and moisture checked for the insurance company. The company has to know what they left to grain harvest and what the most accurate production on that crop is going to be. We measure and work on 1000Th of an acre, and then figure by formulas to get the final production. The first process measure---I volunteered to walk the wheel to take the measurement of what is left in the field---great idea to get exercise--BUT, I didn't take in to consideration of the hills involved--after almost passing out and taking several little breaks, I completed the first 10 acres (whoopee do). That hill, I promise was 10 times the hill on Ave D in Muleshoe, Texas. lol The guys will measure out a certain length of a row to pull all the cobs from several different spots in the field. After gathering the cobs--it has to be shelled(after all three of us have blisters on our hands, I realized I would pay alot more attention to those antique shellers, and would have given lots of money to have one with us), the shelled corn is weighed, then it is moisture checked. After all the figures are gathered, you complete the appraisal by the companies formulas and get the final numbers.

I have learned so much and this experience has really brought back those farm girl roots. It has been very enjoyable and the experience to meet the people has been awesome.

We were notified last night that we will be moving to DeSmet, South Dakota on Monday. Never hearing of this place ( I didn't think) I googled it to see if they even had a motel. To my surprise, this is the home town of Laura Ingle Wilder. So we literally will be visiting the "Little town on the Prairie". It will be the smallest town we have stayed so far, 1200 people, I called for reservations, developed a new friendship on the phone, so excited to see her in person. I will be keeping you updated.

Until then........

Family Farms do still exist!

We finally got to work today, because it dried up and the sun came out. I do have a picture of the corn that just goes on and on in the fields. About 2 miles from where we worked today, we passed a country church and it is so beautiful. Notice how the corn grows right up to the yard of the church. These people let nothing slip without a crop planted there! We also worked a family farm this afternoon that was cutting their own silage for their winter crop. These folks have a 2 row sileage cutter, and do all their own cutting. They have a set up that is very homemade, but it gets the job done. I have a picture here showing how their harvest is and then right below it---a picture of our friends set up for cutome sileage harvesting---quiet a difference. Our Kansas friends have a 12 row header and have built their own cutter to run this monster. Same crop--same harvest---but technology---what a difference it makes. South Dakota seems to be the old timers of family farming. I am so impressed to visit with families that were born and raised right there in the homes they are living in, families being on that same land for over 100 years. As we arrived this morning, the mother and daughter, canning tomatoes, the dad working, waiting for our arrival to do our work. As we worked he began telling how is wife is getting ready for winter--said that she had killed the farm chickens last week to put in the freezer--all farm raised by him---also stating that they butchered all their own pork and beef for the winter. Their entire family would be there for the killing and butchering! I could have stayed there all day just listening--would love to know what it cost them to live for an entire year.
Later this week my plans are to post exactly what our work is. I know I say crop adjusting but it is very interesting to see the steps of getting what the company is asking for. Be watching for it!
Until then......

South Dakota

We're off to South Dakota!! Sunday, September 16, we left Oklahoma and ventured 606 miles north to the town of Yankton, South Dakota. We traveled 5 states before making our arrival time of 7:00 p.m. It was an extremely long day, but one that went very fast, trying to keep up with all the states that we were going through. Yankton sets on the Missouri river and is right on the historic trail of Lewis and Clark. Yankton is actually in South Dakota and go across the river and you enter Nebraska. Our work will take us to both states. We are adjusting corn that has suffered from drought. It is everywhere here---rows and rows and on the hills and right beside the river, beside the camp grounds, right up to the trees. I have never seen so much corn in my life! Yankton is the home town of Tom Brokaw, so lots of memorabilia in this city. We had some time today and visited the Gavins Dam which is about 6 miles from town. I think the pictures even show some corn growing. Looks like we will be visiting here for 2 weeks or so, our boss informed us this morning that we could end up in North Dakota before the work here was finished.

We do have some local home town folks here with us. So nice to see the familiar faces again. We have been so fortunate so far, having someone we have known be a part of our work.

We were sad to leave Ramon Johnston from Lubbock in Oklahoma--see picture---we truly enjoyed making a new friend working and laughing together. Hopefully someday our track will cross again and we will have the honor of working with him again.

Work starts tomorrow morning bright and early--so

Until Then...........

Labor Day Fun

I know it seems its been a while since I have posted anything new. We actually got to go home on August 24 and stay until September 6th. We had a much needed break and lots of fun seeing and visiting with numerous friends and family.

We loaded up 4-wheelers, food and a WHOLE of of laughter and spent 3 wonderful days in Cloudcroft New Mexico. Sam, Lisa and Dal Whalin and Don and Tonda Wood along with Curtis and I road 107 miles thru the Lincoln national forest. It rained on us on Saturday afternoon for about 15 minutes---and that being the worst weather---it was absolutely beautiful. Shirt sleeve riding is the dream and not only a dream, but a dream to ride all day in the mountains without a jacket---the ultimate!!! Its hard leaving such a wonderful place, but one must come back to reality!

We loaded up on Thursday morning for another jaunt to Oklahoma. We are still working for crop company, but they moved us to work around Tulsa. We actually are staying in a little suburb named Glenpool. Looks like we will be working here for at least 2 weeks. We have one more adjuster here from the Lubbock area, so its been nice having someone else as a familiar face. We started work this morning and drove 300 miles today!!! I am tired!! The area here is much prettier to look at, would remind you of the Texas hill country. Lots and lots of horse farms! Nothing better for me than to see the countryside, that is my most favorite thing about job!

Until then......

Kingfisher, Oklahoma

Hello to everyone---
Curtis and I had some free time this afternoon and decided to drive to Kingfisher and check out all the flooding damages to the town. Know matter how much you see on TV and in pictures it just doesn't do it justice when you see it for real. My heart goes out to anyone that has destruction to their property. Even though this is what we do now, it made me feel like we were some kind of reporters trying to check everything out. The one thing that was noticeable, neighbors helping neighbors in the residential areas. A real sick feeling when you see someone actually having the water hose in their house and literally spraying the floors to get the mud out of the house. One lady had ripped up all of their sub flooring had it leaned against the fence outside and spraying it off to put it back in. I wasn't able to get a picture of this, but it gives the realistic feeling to what a flood would be like. We spoke with the lady that lived in the white house (picture shown with carpeting draped over porch) and she told me that their house didn't get it to bad, they just had 2 inches all the way thru their home. The brick home shown in the picture with the furniture out front had 11 inches in it. The man told us that everything was gone---- The main street looked as if nothing had ever happened, even though the river ran right thru town.
Well, hope to have more later---Until then
Curtis and Lavon

As you all know, Curtis and I (with Buster of course) have been in Oklahoma for the past 6 weeks. It has been a very fun and adventurous time for us. I decided to start this blog, for everyone to keep up with us a little better. I have enjoyed watching and seeing so many people thru their blogs and thought why not????
I will try my best to keep things posted on a timely basis---I would love to have your comments, that seems it will keep us connected.
We left Muleshoe on July 15th headed to Enid, Oklahoma.......not knowing what to expect. We actually stayed in Enid for the first month and then moved to Blackwell, Oklahoma to further the work in Flooded Wheat crops. There is literally no wheat left from the May floods that settled in about 100 miles radius. We have personally seen 50-60 different farmers and worked paperwork to numerous to mention. I help Curtis mostly in late evenings, I do ride with him to the farms, but I set patiently waiting for us to gather up and go the the next claim. During my patient time, I have read 20 books. It has been years since I could say that I have taken the time to read, read and read some more. Found several new christian authors that I love now (thanks to the Proverbs women) and have found out that you can go to any library in any given town and purchase books at a very low cost.
We have had some free time per say---the third weekend we were here, we traveled to Wichita, KS to visit Curtis's Aunt Marcia and her girls and grand children. Had a great visit. We also visited Inman, KS to see friends that we hadn't visited with for over 15 years. Was a short visit but one that we loved---got to reminisce a WHOLE lot. Did both of us a lot of good!
The next weekend we traveled to Duncan, OK and attended the Rhodes family reunion held at my cousins NEW home. It was awesome seeing cousins and more cousins that I hadn't seen in 20 years---and meeting all the new married couples. My dads family has never been one for many reunions, we actually tried to get this reunion up and going about 3 years ago----taken that long to get into a routine but scheduling is now every August----Had another great time!
We have visited several churches and met some really awesome people. In Enid, while walking, I had a lady run out of her house and stop me---she breeds Boston Terriers, and wanted to meet Buster---but decided I would do. She was an awesome christian lady that took me in, invited me to their ladies bible studies held every Wednesday morning--So I chose to attend. It was an awesome experience--not only learning about the book of Daniel--but meeting great people and seeing such an historical home of Enid. The owners and host of the home was none other than Mark Price, retired NBA player for the Cleveland Cavaliers, but did play for the Dallas Mavericks.
Maybe I haven't bored you to much---and if I did--you didn't ever read this far--but I invite you back to read some more of the Oklahoma experience----Until Then---
Curtis and Lavon