Country roads take me home....

I grew up in a small town and I am ashamed to say I didn't appreciate it.  I am from Haleyville, AL, and, no, it is not close to anywhere you know.  I didn't even grow up in Haleyville; I grew up 10 minutes outside of town on my parents' farm.  You had to drive 10 minutes from my parents' home to reach a red light.  If you went to "town", you made a list, because you couldn't run to the corner store for a gallon of milk.  There was one gas station on the way to town and it closed early and was not open on Sundays.  I remember there was many times I didn't think I would make it town to fill up and this was before everyone had cellphones, so I would have been hoofing it! ;)

 It was always so hard to give directions to my house too.  You blinked and you could miss my driveway and, yes, it was dirt road.  A long dirt road at that.  You couldn't see my house from the highway, so you couldn't say, "Stop when you see the grey house with black shutters."  This irritated me to no end when I was a teenager, I always wanted to live "in town".  I always felt like like I was missing out. 

Fast forward to the present, I am beyond grateful that I grew up exactly where I did.  I got to go fishing, swim in creeks, play in pastures, and ride four-wheelers.  Throughout the course of my childhood, we had every animal imaginable:  dogs, cats, cows, donkeys, mules, pigs, sheep, and at one point an emu (long story). My parents' have since got rid of most of their animals, but my Daddy still has his hunting dogs and raises quails and pheasants, so his hunting dogs have something to hunt....of course! Plus, growing up in the country you have an endless supply of fresh vegetables and if you didn't grow something that year, your neighbor likely did and would bring you some, more than you needed or wanted.  There is nothing like a fresh tomato right off the vine or pickles canned from cucumbers grown form your garden.  I guess as a child I thought everyone had childhood memories like mine, but, boy, was I off!  Oh goodness...how I miss the country sometimes!

Now I go home and I drive down that dirt road and I think maybe one day I will live on my parents' farm, build a house, have a husband, and have kids that complain about not living "in town".  I better start on that.....I'm not getting any younger! ;)

The pier off one of my parents' ponds.

 This was my one of my favorite trees, but the April tornadoes got it :(

Two of my Daddy's pigs.  He raises his own pork!  You should see them right before they leave to be made in to pork chops, bacon, etc. and, yes, he names all his animals, even the ones he eats.

Lucy and Snickers (one of my Daddy's dogs) swimming. 

My mother's flowers in the spring.....gorgeous! You think I would have a green thumb!  No such luck!



Matthew 6:26-27 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?