kims Version of this week end1!!!!

Thursday morning I finished packing what little I'd decided to bring, then Mom and I drove to where Kate's Aunt Judy would pick me up and take me the rest of the way. While I moved from one vehicle to the other, I forgot to take the camera from my glovebox. So that means I got no pix.
Judy had to stop by a courthouse for some real estate info. I asked to come along since I've never been in a courthouse. The vault was really cool. Documents and newspapers from way back in 1888.
We then continued on to Headland where we met up with Kate and her mother Debi at a restaurant. Good food.
Kate and I left the ladies chatting and went to drop my things off at the house. We would stay in the huge camper next to the house.
Then we began to work. Kate explained everything that I pointed to and asked questins about....and she explained everything that I did not ask about (which helped me catch my breath ).
Our job was hauling the peanut trailers to the peanut co-op. I hitched the trailers to Kate's truck and we'd bring them to the fields that were ready for them.
Item of slight interest: The trailer hitch key slammed down on my finger once. It hurt.
We brought 7 or 8 loads of peanuts to the drying sheds. Not sure how many we brought to the fields.
I got a chance to shovel the peanuts around in one bin to level them out. Wish I could've done more.
Before we went home, we stopped by a house because the person there wanted Kate to take care of their Shih-Tzu while they were out of town. We had a hard time remembering its name. It sounded like Crimpy, Cruppy, Crappy... :P
Dinner was good. I forget what it was, but it was good.

Friday we got up early to feed the dog, and went to Landmark Park ( www.landmarkpark.com ). Our job there was to serve sample drinks of sugar cane juice. During the slow times we played cat's cradle and Kate showed me around the rest of the park. My favorite place was the church. The acoustics were wonderful. I sang Oh Come Emmanuel there. It rained a lot that afternoon, so I cleaned the house a bit.
We ate out for dinner. I had fried chicken on a salad. So good....or did we have that the day before? :scratches head in confusion:
We went to feed the dog and he escaped outside. We hunted and chased him all over the yard and worried about the neighbors possibly calling the cops on us. :P We called the owner and they said to leave the pooch alone and it'd be fine outside. :rollseyes:
That night we watched movies, and bugged a friend over the phone.

Saturday we went to the park again. I brought my violin to play when I got bored. I hid behind the barn with the mule that was grinding cane.
But I got cold. So the boss-people said I could play in the house with the seamstressers. There was a fire there.
There were some cool old gents on the porch weaving chairs and we got to talk music for a while. They said they'd teach me a new song, but we had no time.
I left the seamsters after a couple songs and moved to the other room where there were 5 mountain dulcimer players having fun.
Oh, it was marvelous. We played and played and played. I learned some new songs from them.
Around lunchtime, Kate and I left to eat. And then we went on a short nature trail. We saw no wildlife. It reminded us of the walk Anne of Green Gables and Diana Barry took.
We toured around and I played some more. Then we went to Target to pick up some stuff....and then went home.
I played for the Kirkland's after dinner. Many hymns and Irish. Some bluegrass. I taught Kate how to play Come Thou Fount. She did pretty good for not playing in two years.
We plagued some more friends over the phone in late evening.

Sunday. The day of 5 adventures.
We decided to go to Kate's church. Took about 30 minutes to get there. But when we arrived...it wasn't there. Of course it was lost, so we started driving around trying to find it. First one way, then the other. Finally we decided they must have gone up to their "new" 100yo church building they'd just bought. Of course it was way on the otherside of town. Took 30-40 minutes. Yes, they were there! Kate and I walked through the door just as they finished lunch. Services had already been held, but they allowed me to play my violin for them for about 10 minutes.
Afterwards I helped them work on the church. A lot of the floor needed replacing, the walls needed repair, the bathrooms were gutted...was all a big mess. When they finish it will look vera nice.
The girls and I pulled staples and nails from the ceiling beams, swept up debris, stacked lumber, and examined the three leftovers of mice we found. One was a full skeleton, another was a skeleton that still had the hide, and the other was missing a skull and hanging in a cobweb from the ceiling. It was amusing listening to them squeal. The girls, I mean. Not the dead mice.
We were there about 3 hours. I got two blisters and injured my hand somehow.
Kate then said if I wanted to see the river we'd have to leave. Sadly I put down my tools, picked up Antonia, said goodbye, and left.
Back at the house, I insisted we walk out to the river. I was tired of driving everywhere and wanted to stretch. Kate and her mom finally agreed.
It was a nice walk through the rye fields. Then...I realized we were going to have to walk through 4 cow pastures. And there were cows in them.
In the first one, the cows stayed far away. Just looking up and walking forward a few steps curiously. Kate pointed out the donkeys in the distance and tried to convince me that cows were nice and more scared of me than I was worried about them.
There were several large trees about 100 years old that would've been wonderful to try climbing. But our goal was the river and we wanted to get back in time for dinner.
At the last field, we walked along a ditch full of water towards the beaver dam. Kate was explaining what the beaver had done in the area when we noticed the cows weren't keeping their distance. They'd closed in. A one-eared bull was near the front. Some of them were stamping their feet nervously. Then we noticed there were several calves in the direction we were headed. Oh grand.
We nonchalantly turned around and started heading back to the house. The cows began to follow. We stopped and turned to face them, thinking we might just bluff them into leaving us be. But 10 fat cows won't back down from two smaller girls.
So we turned and walked away. Slightly faster.
The cows came closer. We've both been around animals enough to recognize curiousity or animosity. These creatures were not behaving like your friendly neighborhood milch cow.
Kate began to get nervous and called her mom to bring some feed out to distract the cows. I watched the animals nervously everytime her phone chirped or when we snapped a stick underfoot.
We headed towards some trees, with the cattle on our heels (about 6 feet away. Yes we have long heels. )
Wouldn't you know, none of those marvelous 100yo trees was around for us to climb. I found one about as thick around as I am, and scrambled up it. Kate followed, but slipped and slid down the tree. I grabbed her hand and pulled her up. We were only about 5ft off the ground.
Sitting there wondering what to do, I began to sing Be Thou My Vision. (for those who don't know, I sing or hum when I'm really, really nervous. So laugh). The cows left by the third verse.
Cowboys sing to cows for a reason, I reckon.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Kate and I slid down the tree and hurried back to the house, calling in ahead that no rescue party was necessary.
(Later we found out a friend had been praying for us all day)
Kate's grandma met us and said she wanted us to go down the road and pick some blue flowers she'd seen. We hopped in the truck and went flower hunting. We found some odd berrylike plant with bluish fuzz hanging on them, and we found a leftover of a coyote.
We returned to report to Kate's grandma that no blue flowers were there. But she insisted they were. So then we all piled in her van and we cruised up and down the road at the high speed of 15mph. We brought home a sample of the blue-fuzz berry-weed whateveritwas.
It was starting to get dark, but we decided there was enough time to drive back out to the river on the gator. This time the cows stayed away.
The irrigation system was cool. Kate told me about it's flooding time and how they found Indian arrow and axe heads.
The beaver dam was a pretty mess. Was nice and quiet around there.
On the drive back we saw the most beautiful sunset.
I made dinner. Hamburgers. Everyone enjoyed them.

Monday we overslept. I took my time packing. Probably shouldn't have because Kate's truck had a flat tire. I wanted to try changing it ourselves, but we went to an auto shop instead. Very interesting to watch.
We stopped in Eufaula at Little Ceasar's. oh so good.
Arrived at my house just after lunch.
Kate got to play Come Thou Fount and other songs with us on her violin.
I wrote out some tablature for her.
We got a tour of the grounds to see what had happened while I was gone.
And then Kate went home.
And I made cookies.
The End.