Man Gets Run Over By Train

Christmas is train time at our house.  Santa started a tradition of the boys getting a G scale train or track.  The train comes out when the tree goes up and gets put up when the tree gets put up.

Santa adds something to the train or track every Christmas.  He brought enough track this year to add what he had brought before so that the train would go around the kitchen and back to the living room and then around the tree.  

Knox had the idea to video tape the train going through the house and around the tree.  But while video taping something got on the track....

Hopefully we have fixed the debris from getting on the tracks again! 

Each boy will have their own train.  Right now, only Knox has one.  In a few more years, Hamp will have his own.  The hope is that they will keep these for their children.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Planting Wheat

With rain on the way, Hubby got up early and took Knox with him on a mission.  A mission he has been wanting to do for the last three years.  The mission that has gotten away from him due to time and lack of opportunity.  But now the time and opportunity have jumped in his lap and he is living his mission!

Hubby is planting wheat!

I know it sounds crazy.  I have listened to the dream take shape.  Now I get to watch the kid glitter in his eye!  He has had the fields plowed for over a week now.  As soon as he plowed, we got over 1/2 inch of rain and three days of no sun.  This caused the field to be to wet for him to plant.  

Now we are not complaining about the rain!  Lord knows we need it!  Hubby gambled on the weather reports and lost that round.  But he gambled again and won....

Hopefully, in about 4 months time, I'll be posting pictures of him threshing his first wheat crop!  This means fresh wheat for us. 

Christmas at Timms Mill

A couple of Saturday's ago, we loaded up our feed corn and headed across the river to Timms Mill.  This is a grist mill that first milled corn in 1784. 

Timms Mill

 A little background from their website...

The historic mill was originally built on the banks of the Six and Twenty Creek in 1784 by Mr. Isaac Timms. Through successive generations it was moved to two more locations along the creek and is now standing on the site established in 1898. The mill was in continuous use until 1960, and now since the renovation the 14 foot waterwheel is once again turning to power the original stones in the mill.

In 2001, David and Lisa Wortham bought a run-down gritsmill with some property. They decided to restore the mill rather than tear it down, and the restoration was completed in 2004. Since then, we have been grinding fresh grits and cornmeal for local (or not so local) restaurants and produce stands; or, if you’d prefer, get your grits hot off the mill on most Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Each year, around the first of December, David and Lisa Wortham host Christmas at Timms Mill.  They have fresh grits, cider, and bluegrass music.  

The store selling cornmeal, girts, cider and ice cold bottled cokes!

Serving white and yellow girts with hot cider....Yummy!

They invite friends who bring cool things to watch in operation....

A working portable cotton gin.  We lost Hamp in the cotton a couple of times...

Since we had an abundance of feed corn that needed sucking, we ran the corn sucker at the mill. 

After we the sucked the corn, we then put the corn through a corn sheller. 



Hamp spent most of his time trying to but every leaf he could find in the water through the water wheel...

Hamp playing in the water!

Christmas at Timms Mill is one of the highlights of our year!  And the yellow girts are just to "die" for!!