About the picture at the top of this blog

I've shared google pictures of our forty-two acres before, but I pick up new readers from time to time.  For instance, one of my lurkers recently emailed me to introduce herself; she's in northern Alberta, Canada.  I love learning about my readers.    
I had Cliff take the picture at the top of my blog during our morning walk a couple of days ago.  We used to walk a mile down the highway to the Lion's Club Park and take a turn around the baseball diamond.  We've since found out that walking on our own property is much less boring.  There are disadvantages:  cobwebs cross our path in some places from spring through fall, and the grass is usually wet with dew, which means wet feet; but it's worth it.  

This is our property from the air.  Our mobile home isn't on this picture, so I placed the red rectangle there to show you approximately where it sits, right behind the barn.  There's a garage next to it that I didn't bother putting it in.  At the bottom of the picture you can see our old two-story house, the garage, Cliff's shop, and the barn.  If you're wondering about the round area, there used to be a round pen there. 
 The elevation here at the mobile home is 883 feet.  At the back of the property, where you see railroad tracks winding by, elevation is 732 feet, a difference in elevation of 151 feet. Just so you know what a climb it is up out of the canyons.
That red arrow is at the spot where the picture was taken.  The tiny red spot north and west of that is where my cabin used to sit.  In fact, you can see the cabin; it's that little speck of white.
Looking at the header picture, you can tell that there's a deep canyon behind me.  The green field is winter wheat.  We enjoy stopping on our walk sometimes and checking out the river bottom.  During flood years, it's covered in water thanks to the Missouri River, which runs along that distant line of trees.  In the fall we'll see the tractors and combines working.  During the winter when the trees are bare we can actually see the river, but it doesn't show up in the picture.    

Back before Blue died, I rode the river bottoms a lot.  He and I traveled over a lot of back roads and secluded places.  

We poked around a ghost farm.  All the buildings there have since been burned.  
Rest in peace, Blue.  


But I'm getting totally off the subject.  I just wanted to give readers some idea of what our place is like.  You can see that not even a quarter of it is tillable; what you can't really tell is how much of it consists of canyons.  In fact, most of the wooded areas are in canyons.  

How long is our driveway?

That's the question a reader asked in a comment on the last entry.  So I trudged down to the road at sunup, stood at the beginning of our drive, and took a picture.  

You can see our single-wide trailer house peeking out from behind the barn.  Yes, I live out behind the barn, which reminds me of the Little Jimmy Dickens song that is so much fun to sing when I get my guitar out.   




My pappy used to tan my hide, out behind the barn

He taught me to be dignified, out behind the barn
     But when he took his strap to me,
     And turned me down across his knee
He sure did hurt my dignity, out behind the barn

   I got my education out behind the barn
   And I'm not foolin' no siree
   Passed each examination, out behind the barn
   But it almost made a wreck out of me

I smoked my first cigarette, out behind the barn
And that's a day I won't forget, out behind the barn
     I got sick, you should have seen,
     How that terbaccy turned me green
I almost died from nicotine, out behind the barn

I met a pretty girl one day, out behind the barn
She wanted me to stay and play, out behind the barn
     She taught me how to kiss and pet,
     And that's a game I won't forget
'Cause we still play that same game yet, out behind the barn

I wish that I could go again, out behind the barn
And do some things that I did then, out behind the barn
     Now you may think it ain't no fun,
     To be a poor old farmer's son
But you just don't know what all I've done, out behind the barn

But I digress.  Since I was down by the road anyhow, I took a shot of our two-story house where Cliff's sister and her son are living.  

That's the house we moved into in 1975.  We moved behind the barn in 2008.  In the background is Cliff's shop; on the right is our old garage.  Cliff's sister parks on one side, and Cliff parks our seldom-used pickup on the other side.  

I was standing in front of the barn to take this shot.  

Here you have Cliff's shop:  his getaway, the doghouse if he's in trouble, the place he works on tractors and implements, and I'd venture to say his second home.  It's also where we hold family gatherings.  There are a few stories I could tell about how and why we had the shop built, and I will tell them, one of these days.