University of Mobile Visitors

Two Visitors From UM

On Thursday October 16th, we had a visit by two of our favorite red heads, our baby granddaughter, Ashley and another of our "Other Younguns, Hanna (really from Montana!).

Both of these girls know that they're welcome to the farm at any time they desire to come. Again, Grandmother knew just what to cook that is each one's favorite food. Hanna has been up several times with Ashley, so Grandmother had already stored in her "Favorite Foods for All Younguns, Grand Younguns and Other Younguns library in her head's food file!

I think that they knew that our visitors from Auburn were coming in the next day and they decided to come on in and get their share while there was a good supply of groceries on hand!!!

Both of these young ladies are musicians. Hanna plays viola in the UM Orchestra and some other groups and teaches violin to several young students. She is a Music Major. Ashley is our Vocalist grandchild and sings with the UM Choirs. She is a Music Minor student. Both make beautiful music in their own realm.

We were really honored to have them with us for the day and hope they will come back more often.

On previous visits by these two, they have made similar ventures to the dirt pit, cemetery, etc. that the Auburn group did on their visit. As soon as they got to the pit, both tossed their shoes aside and played in the sandy soil.

So, we wound up with nine grand younguns and other younguns within 3 days and did we have a ball!!!

Auburn Younguns' Vistit

What a Great Weekend!

What a fun weekend we had at Lonesome Pine Farm when seven Auburn University kids came for a visit over the weekend of October 17 - 19th.

Bradley had asked if he could bring some of his friends from school to the farm on this weekend. Of course, we readily agreed as we love to have any of our grandchildren to feel a part of the farm and to bring friends in to show them how the Old Folks live. This makes us proud that they feel comfortable doing so.

On Friday night two groups headed from the Loveliest Village on he Plains at different times. One group of two young ladies and Bradley that were able to get away about 3 pm. The other group of three guys and one young lady couldn't get away until around 6. Each group had some pretty bad driving conditions caused by light rains and quite a bit of fog for the second group. But, they all made it safe and sound. Sound!?!?!?!

The young ladies were Jordan Dailey of Trussville, AL, Kenda Early of Moundville, AL and Chelsea Ferguson of LaGrange, GA.

The guys were Charles Gentry of Houston, TX, Hunt Prothro of Miami and Connecticutt, Forest White of Mobile, and Bradley Hughes our Grandson.

When each group arrived we told them, "I'm Grand Paw and this is Grandmother." This was to put them at ease and to let them know that we'd done our usual "adoption" of them as "our other younguns." So, that was the way it went all weekend.

Grandmother had thought up all things that Bradley likes to eat and did a good job of guessing what the others would like. This is some special talent that Grandmothers have that us old Grand Paws don't have a clue to! So everyone was well fed before heading off to bed.

We had planned to let the girls sleep in the middle and front bedrooms and the guys sleep on the front porch and on pallets in the dining room. But, the girls decided to sleep 3 to the bed in the middle bedroom. That gave plenty of bed room for the guys not to sleep on the floor.

The adventures began on Saturday morning after a big breakfast so well planned out by Grandmother. As noted, she had everything from cereal, to eggs, grits, sausage and biscuits with all the fixings.

A little later they all decided to go down to the pond to check it out. Sylvia had come by for a few minutes and we decided to ride down so she could meet them all. When we got there, there were two of the guys up in the two pines on Jose's island who had a "damsel in distress" kidnapped over there. (They were making a movie on a little digital camera!) Captain Sport was aboard the Duncan ship and was leading the good guys over to rescue the DD (distressed damsel) !!! (Wild imaginations!)

Well, somehow, the Villains managed to escape across the flat and down to the swampland along Dunbar Creek. The chase continued all along the beaver dams and unknown numbers of water moccasins in that wilderness. They finally were spotted along the edge of the hayfield but they disappeared under the bridge. By the time the search party made it back to LPF headquarters, several were pretty scratched up and one had a number of fire ant bites. (A little Campho Phenique stopped the burning from the bites.)

After a great dinner (lunch for yankees) where Grandmother had good eats piled high on the dining table and everyone "et hardy!" Word got around that the Scalawags had been spotted at Sylvia's Quarry, so the pursuit continued.

Grand Paw transported them up the hill in Aunt Sylvia's old green pickup so they could still have enough energy to chase the Culprits up and down cliffs and earthen mountains. After about an hour of chasing, climbing, hopping, and jumping it was determined that the Meanies had been seen headed down past Providence Church and up to the community burial grounds on both sides above Duncan Hill.

Grand Paw transported them up to the cemetery where they scouted all over both sides to visit the internment sites of our ancestors and all the wonderful workers that worked on the farm over our lifetimes such as Lucy, Dennis and family, Tommy, Florence and Willie. The Baddies were finally captured as they emerged from an old gopher hole in the side of the cemetery where they'd crawled into and the old gopher turtle ran them out!!

After a session of Q & A and confession and apologies from the Criminals, they were judged to be ok guys. Then all of them "took in the town" of Millry. That took about 3 minutes!!! They made an appearance into Sookie's Convience Store and were "well looked over" by the customers there. They came home and ate supper, then decided to go back for another few minutes to finish up their exploration. They made pictures by the Halloween "Spider" made of a big roll of hay and black flexible drain pipes near City Hall. Then they ended the visit very appropriately by photographing themselves around the Caboose.

On Sunday morning, Grandmother led a procession of seven scrubbed up Other Younguns through the sanctuary and back to the College and Career Sunday School Classroom. Two of the guys had to leave between SS and Worship as one had to be back in Auburn to set up for services there that night. The others stayed for Worship, then back to Lonesome for dinner and preparing to head back the the Lovely Village.

We really did hate to see them leave. We thoroughly enjoyed their visit and are looking forward to another time when our newly adopted Other Younguns can return to the Old Folks Place.

W A R
E A G L E ! ! !

Note: I tried to insert some pictures of our Other Younguns into this blog but they worldn't work right.