Bringing Home the Bacon

Grandpa's old Ford tractor. Still runs.

Nothing says family reunion in the country like watermelon on ice in a wash tub. Farmer approved!

The food, the fun, the close-talking uncles, it’s family reunion season here in the Midwest. Husband and I have both been lucky to have great families who love to get together. My family has an annual reunion  that we look forward to each year while Husband’s family gets together less frequently but with more travel. This summer we have back-to-back family reunions and I’m starting to see a pattern in the types of people who attend.  There are the same types of people at each one--of course they are family so we love them all. See if you can name the people in your family who fit some of these: Power Couple - come in from an urban center with their teen kids and work the room talking to everyone. They like to organize. Great Aunt - knows everyone and keeps up with all family goings-on. Can rely on her to tell you an embarrassing story about your Dad/Grandpa in his youth. Cousin Wallflower - you're not sure why he/she bothered to come since they don't talk to

In 1930, rural kids in Ohio were in the first generation to grow up with 4-H Clubs , an organization that was rapidly expanding across the country. Teenagers Don Michael and Frances Caylor were among Montgomery County's 4-H members headed to camp that summer. Frances was happy to get a break from the crowded home where she lived with her aunt, uncle, father, grandfather siblings and cousins--12 in all. Her mother had died a few years earlier in childbirth. Fortunately, Don could give her a ride to camp. He was a farm boy through and through who loved mischief and tormenting his twin little sisters. Frances (left) and Don (right) both loved 4-H and supported the Montgomery County Fair and 4-H programs for the rest of their lives. UPDATE: Oops. Don was misidentified in my earlier version. The photo above shows the right camper. Thankfully, they did NOT fall in love that summer. Or else Husband and I would be related. And that could be a problem. Frances was my g

Have I mentioned before how much Husband loves his Hoveround Chair-endorsed TV programs ? Oh, I guess so . Well, the 88 episodes of Matlock clogging our DVR have just risen in value (Joke credit: Husband's brother). On July 3, the year of our Lord 2012, Andy Griffith departed this earth. He is now playing the ukulele in heaven with Dick Van Dyke. Husband (right) and his father with their idol at Disney's Hollywood Studio. That crossover episode of Diagnosis Murder and Matlock was CLASSIC. Oh, wait. Dick Van Dyke is still kicking?  Thank goodness! Now Husband still has at least one living octogenarian TV star to admire. Here's Husband, me and the kids with Mary Poppins and Dick's Disney-approved doppelganger. Maybe Andy's solving crime or singing show tunes in heaven with Angela Lansbury, then. What?  You say she's still with us too? Well, it looks like Husband's DVR collection isn't extinct yet, although I'm going to feel terrible

Can today GET any more American? I'm sitting on the expansive front porch of my un-air conditioned farm house, sipping ice tea/lemonade (I drink them together because that's how AMERICAN I am!) and blogging. Just as our founding fathers imagined it would be. Also,  because some rodent alert went out that the hunter of the family is out of town, there is a mouse running loose in my kitchen. (This may be the real reason I'm on the front porch, sorry America.) Speaking of American heroes, have you seen the VIRAL ag video from the Peterson Farm Brothers, I'm Farming and I Grow it. THIS is America. Kansas farm boys with cut off t-shirts and seed company ball caps, working hard to feed us all. The video was posted Monday by Greg Peterson and now has 3 million 5 MILLON (as of 7/9/12) hits. Take that, P3TA. UPDATE: The OFFICIAL I'm Farming and I Grow it t-shirts , with percentage benefitting the Peterson's. Ryan is getting one of these! And because I get a