08/30/08

Today we went to Farm Days in Silk Hope, North Carolina... it is a little town near Siler City where we go to the stockyards and have our cheeseburgers. It was a surprise for the kids. I don't like to tell them ahead of time about a lot of things because I just love that element of surprise. :) I took a ton of pictures and won't show them all today, but here are a few. It was a great time, but was it hot and humid!!! It continued to give me a new appreciation for those that work out in that heat all day long.

We saw old tractors, cars, farm machinery, etc. Wesley was beside himself and Mikayla loved it, too, because there were horses there. We stayed there a good five or six hours so we did a lot of walking around and learning. I enjoyed watching the older farmers sit back and talk about how things worked or just watched them work! They had a lumber mill going and it was interesting to see how they took a tree and turned it into pieces of lumber. There were just so many things we saw.... so much that will go away if we don't preserve it. I am thankful for those who choose to preserve it.

Wesley loved every minute of it and didn't want to leave. When we got home he went out to the barns and started "working on a fence." He just came in and told me he wanted to be like Daddy and work hard.... be a "John Deere Man." I am thankful for that.... simple, hard-working and down to earth.

We are going to watch a movie together tonight. I have a few things to work on for school. Enjoy the pictures for today. These are just some interesting parts we saw that I wanted to share at once. Others will come later. :)

The lumber mill was run on steam. They heated the boiler with wood to make the steam.

Here the men are putting the log on the saw area. Let's just say I wouldn't want to get caught in that saw!

This is the other end of the saw area where the wood comes out once it is cut.

Stacked wood that had been cut. It was pine. The sap was glistening in the sun. You can't tell it from the picture... maybe if you clicked on it to see it bigger.

Mikayla tried her some homemade molasses. She really liked it!

Wesley was loving the fresh squeezed apple cider. He was smacking his lips when I took this. lol

Our sweet little "Farm Bureau" kiddos. They got the hats for free when we got into the gate.