Duty and Honor

Today is Memorial Day, and while I know that Memorial Day is traditionally the time to honor those who gave their lives in battle for their country, I want to take this time to honor the memory of my Grandfather, Kye Harris, who served honorably in World War II. He didn't lose his life for his country, but he did give his body. My grandfather was injured numerous times in battle, and the shrapnel in his body bore witness to this fact for many, many years.

Granddaddy was one of my childhood heroes, and the stories of his childhood are now familiar to my own children. He first tried to enlist at 14 years old, but when the Navy found out his true age, they sent him home. Undaunted, when he turned 15, he enlisted in the Marines, with the support of his mother. The family story is that the Marine recuiter said to him, "If you're stupid enough to join, we're stupid enough to take you."

I have a 15 year old son. The thought of sending him off to war brings me to tears, but if he grows up to be the kind of man that my Granddaddy was, I would do it in a second. I have great confidence that my sons will grow up to be strong, faithful men of God, because they have had a tremendous heritage of a faithful father, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers who instilled in our family a desire to "...do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with thy God."

My Grandfather was one of the survivors of the Battle of Iwo Jima. I am so awed by the courage and honor of the men who fought at Iwo Jima, especially as I learn more about the immense horrors of that campaign. I know that alot of veterans don't look at themselves as heroic, they just saw themselves as doing their job, doing their duty. I think that is one of the reasons why they were such heroes. They did their job, their duty, in the face of enormous odds, unthinkable danger, and overwhelming carnage. Yet they still jumped out of those boats, climbed up those mountainsides, and did their duty.

Granddaddy was very proud to be a Marine, and he took great affront when someone misspoke and asked if he had been in the Army. We grandchildren knew NEVER to say that!

We stood in awe of Granddaddy, and were always delighted to receive a loving hug or a silly song that he would make up about one of us on the spot. He was young at heart, always participating in the family volleyball or basketball games. He had the knack to win a 200 hand in Rook when most of us would never have even tried to bid!

Granddaddy was a devoted husband, always treating my Grandmother like the beautiful lady that she was. He was a loving father that raised up 5 honorable children, one of whom is my mother. Most important of all, my Granddaddy was a true man of God, determined to do his duty, no matter how hard, and no matter what the cost.

I am forever grateful to be born into a family with such a Godly heritage. My Grandfather was the standard-bearer, diligently training up his children in the way they should go. He faithfully shepherded my father and was his mentor. He imparted wisdom and instruction to his grandchildren, and has left a beautiful legacy of faithfulness to the generations yet to come.

Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of being the granddaughter of Kye Harris.

Posted by Katie

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Well, I hear the pleasant sound of busy little honeybees buzzing in their hives. We recently added several thousand new apiary residents to our farm. Yup, we got bees.

In our ongoing effort to continue down the road to self-sufficiency, we decided to add bees to our homestead. Last year, we noticed that we had some pollination problems in the garden, so we decided that getting bees could help us with pollination, and eventually provide us with our own honey.

Finding the bees proved a bit more difficult than we expected. There seems to be a bit of a bee shortage around this area, and they also seem to be in high demand. Anyway, after doing alot of research and finding a supplier, we got 3 "nucs" of bees. I don't really know what a "nuc" is, I just know that the three boxes we got were called "nucs".

We were able to find a local man who makes bee hives, and the boys picked the three hives up last week.

Setting up the hives. Robert only let Benny help, because he figured that would be safer. That's why they are the only ones in the pictures. Everyone else was standing behind me, watching intently, ready to dash away in case the bees decided to be un-cooperative!

Smoking the bees to keep them calm. It seemed to work, as no one got stung!

Removing the bees from the "nuc". We are absolute novices when it comes to bees, so please bear with us if we use improper terminology.

This one had honeycomb already formed!

Benny was very impressed, and was later dipping the comb into some honey that we had so he could eat it.

All hail the queen! She's right in the middle, being waited on by her loyal subjects.

My very brave husband, handling the bees slowly and cautiously with no protective gear.

Well, that's all the time I have for today. I hope y'all enjoyed the pictures of our new endeavor!

Katie

It's Garden Time!

The sun is shining, a comfortable breeze is blowing, the tractor is running...it's garden time!

I love this time of year, when we all get outside and work together as a family in the garden. I am especially grateful for Robert's desire to get the garden planted in a neat, orderly manner. I think he does a much, much better job at planning, measuring, and laying out the plants than I ever could.

We have four large garden beds right now, one has perennials like asparagus, raspberries and blackberries in it. The other three are for the annual vegetables. We're tilling up another area (about half an acre) for rangy, space-consuming crops like melons, cucumbers and corn. I am so looking forward to lots of cantaloupe and honeydew melon!

We also planted some more peach trees this year. Hopefully these will do better than the ones planted (under my supervision) last year!

This year for the first time, we started some of our own seedlings. The kids were engrossed with watching and helping Robert with this new endeavor!

Well, this next picture has nothing to do with gardening, but it sure is cute!

If you can make out the lettering on the shirt, you'll agree with the statement completely!

Katie

Finger Lickin' Good???

Yes, dear readers, this is another fun-filled post about the -ahem- interesting things that resourceful young boys find and do in the great woods of Arkansas!

Before I recount this episode, let me give you a bit of background info. The boys-- all of them - love watching a show called, "Survivorman", about a man who goes into a different hostile environment every show and survives with only the items in his pockets or backpack. While we don't have TV, we do have the ability to watch certain things online. "Survivorman" is something we deem worth watching, and it's actually a pretty interesting show.

Anyway, Andrew was "surviving" in the hostile environment of the Arkansas woods, and decided that he needed to get something to eat. Soooo, he hunted himself up a turtle, whacked it with a rock (bet you couldn't do that, Survivorman!), cleaned it somehow, and -- drum roll, please -- roasted it over a fire!!!!!

Yes. He. Ate. It.

He very graciously offered R.G. and me some of the roasted delicacy. As he was handing a charred piece to his big brother, R.G. asked if he had actually tasted the turtle and Andrew nodded yes.

Big, tough, cowboy R.G. responded, "You're a bigger man than me!", and politely declined the offering. So did I. At least I could blame my lack of turtle appetite on my pregnancy!

I'm afraid that Andrew was a bit disappointed with his sissy family. But, as R.G. reminded everyone, if things ever get really bad, Andrew is going to be the one with the full stomach!

Mama

Samuel

Samuel was getting ready to walk out the door and check for eggs. Here was our conversation.

Mama: Samuel, don't walk outside in your socks.

Samuel: I not. I walking in my feet!

He then proceeded to show me his bare feet!

I guess I thought that was cute enough to run in here and post!

Mama

And The Answer is...

Yes, yes yes! God has chosen to bless us with another girl! Rachel is delighted, of course, and the boys are fine with it either way. However, Daniel was a little disappointed because he already had a (horrible) name picked out.

The only way I could actually tell it was a girl was because the kind sonogram man typed "female" on the screen for me!

Thanks for caring enough to check back and find out!

Katie

I Got A Sonogram.....

Here are some of the pictures.

The cute little baby toes. The sonogram man was actually able to count all the toes. It was so amazing! (Yes, the baby has five on each feet.)

The cute little baby profile.

I was proudly showing the pictures off to Daniel and he patiently said, "Hmmm, that's, um, great, Mama." He obviously wasn't reveling in the moment.

Well, I have purposely left out the sex of the baby in hopes that we can up our traffic for a few days by teasing our readers with that famous tagline...

TUNE IN NEXT WEEK!!! OR MAYBE SOONER!!!