A moment in time...

Doing genealogy research begins to put your life in perspective a little bit. Here are some of the thoughts I have been having lately. As I do research, I realize people are born , they grow up, they marry , they have families and eventually they die. Those that have went before us lived lives very different from ours. Most of them lived very hard lives filled with lots of pain and sorrow. Women married young and had lots of babies and many of those babies died young with diseases we don't have to worry about today. Men worked long, hard hours just to provide food and shelter for their families. Many of their wives died young , probably in childbirth.

Then, many of them went through the Civil War which I think was the worst thing that could have happened to this country because it pitted brother against brother, family member against family member. I read in some of my research that after the war was over and men and fathers and sons returned home after fighting against one another, that the only way they could deal with it was by never mentioning it again. I pray we learn something from that too. Some things cannot be fixed and some hurts only God can heal and the more we talk about them and rehash them , the more bitter we get over those same hurts. Sometimes, we too must go on, leave those wounding and hurts in God's hands and never mention them again. It's not denial, it's just trusting God to help you go on and put those things behind so you don't get bogged down in bitterness.

Here's the other thought that has plagued me all week. I see myself as living in a moment of time. God has seen fit to place me in this moment of time in history. Many have went before me and there will be many that will follow after me. But the question is, what will I do in this moment of time that I have been placed in? Will I make a difference in the world that I live in? Even to my immediate family? Will I have been one that stands up in this generation and declares there is one true God and I will serve Him all my life no matter what? Will I boldly declare His Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven? Will I declare His Word even when it is not popular and no one wants to hear it? Will I be one who looks up and outward instead of always focusing on myself and my own wants, desires , needs and goals as this society we live in today encourages? Will I let my heart be moved with compassion for those God has placed me among in this life? I don't want to live life never having made a difference in someone else's life, whether that be my kids, or my grand-kids or just someone I brush by as I pass through in this moment of time. I want to be God-centered, not self-centered.

Because some day I too will pass from the scene and it will be the next generations turn to stand and hopefully make a difference in this world. And hopefully, they too will serve the God that I also chose to serve. You may be the first person in your family line that stood up and declared "as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." And because of that, a Godly lineage will have been born in your family history. All because you made a difference in this "moment of time" we call today. So my prayer for you is to wake up , don't waste this day, seek God and ask Him to light a fire within you to know Him and to give you a burning desire to see His Kingdom come , His will be done in the world you live in. In this moment of time. called today! If He lights the fire, you'll never be the same!!

On a mission for a lost cemetery...

As you can see by the two previous days pictures I am getting into family history a bit. So today, I decided to take a couple days off and headed for Elkland, Mo. It was there that my grandfather Jesse's grandfather lived and was buried. I think that would make him my Great-Great Grandfather Solomon Tabor Reaves and his wife was Margaret "Peggy" Hughes Reaves. This is his tombstone and he was the Civil War Veteran from the picture on my blog a few days ago.

I stopped at the local post office and inquired about the old cemetery that my uncle told me about that use to be accessable by a road close to the old school. However, that old road had been closed so I had to find the back way into the cemetery. I spent quite a bit of time driving up and down back roads. Finally, I took a chance on an old lane that looked like it was going through someone's field. If I had been paying better attention, I would have seen the sign that said "cemetery lane".

Sure enough, I came upon an old cemetery called "Old Pleasant View Cemetery" and there I found several old tombstones that belonged to the old Reaves family pioneers. A pioneer is anyone born before 1930 as far as I am concerned. Life was tough back then and that should make anyone that lived during those times a pioneer.

I have been on Ancestry.com and have dates and names of relatives from long ago, but now I need to find people still alive that can tell me stories. So that is my next mission. I have an aunt and uncle in their 80's that are still alive and still have excellent mental capacities so I plan on visiting them with my trusty old tape recorder in tow as my memory is not too good.

After walking across the field and snapping some pictures of tombstones (of which most were so old as to make them unreadable), I hunted down the family that are caretakers of the old cemetery and they had a paper that had some old records and names of who had been buried there. I had a wonderful time visiting with them and now we can begin to exchange information. They and their family have lived there for many years so they can help me track down where my relatives lived as the stories are told .

This stone for Annie and A.M. Reaves was in the newer Pleasant View cemetery and I have to do some more research to find out who they were.

And through the Ancestry.com program, I have met online some of my cousins who live in Oregon and have already done much research on our family lines. I am having a great time emailing them and swapping info. It really is a small world after all!!

So as you go about your way in life, don't forget to take time out to research your past so you will not only know the road you're traveling on today, but you will know where you came from in the past!

This picture is of the Civil War Veterans taken in Elkland, Mo. Solomon Reaves was my grand-father's grandfather. I'm going to make a trip tomorrow to Elkland to find the old cemetery he was buried in.

This is a Family Group Photo: Taken abt 1910

Pictured, From Left to Right:

Addie Mae, Oddie Mae, Jesse Allan, Abraham Munroe, Nancy Ann, Timothy Winton,
Solomon Johnson, Benjamin Harrison, Abraham Mathews, James Franklin, William Theodore

Jesse Allan is my grandfather. I have just started a search for pictures of my relatives and was sent this picture by one of my cousins in Oregon. Thanks again Trudy!!

Petticoat Junction

The boy's Poppy  has decided to build his own water tower. I have visions of the old "Petticoat Junction" show and I'm praying that is not what he has in mind. So we went out and did some "surveying". I'll keep you abreast of his progress.

My grandkids were waiting in the jeep. I can just hear the oldest one instructing the younger on the proper way to drive a jeep. Fortunately, neither of their feet will touch the pedals!!

Blackberries are ripe!!

Two of my grandkids have been going with "poppy" everyday to pick the tame blackberries.

Mark wants us to pick the seeds out of everything. Not gonna happen!

We told Koda to open wide and show everyone how big and juicy the blackberries were!

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes

What have I been doing for the last week? Well, my garden didn't do so hot and I finally just ran the mower over it. My grapes got some kind of black rot and all fell off. My corn is about 2 feet tall and tassling. Potato bugs ate every piece of anything green off the vines. And one day, while driving through the countryside, I ran across a Amish community that had a small produce store. They were selling boxes of huge canning tomatoes for $6.00 a box. Now my momma didn't raise no dummy and I figured out I couldn't possibly raise my own tomatoes as cheap as that. So I bought four boxes of tomatoes and brought them home and have canned 47 quarts of tomatoes so far. I want 100 quarts before I am finished, but I figure I hit the jackpot!

Went to my local flea market and bought a second water bath canner for $4.00 because I gave my second one away to my sister. I realize not too many people can much anymore.

I must have been born in the wrong day and time!

Hay Season On The Homestead

If you live on a farm you are aware of what the farmers have been doing. Here's Caleb, my oldest grandson posing beside the tractor that he has been driving all week. He and his dad are mowing, baling and loading the bales up on the trailer to be moved to their storage place. Kids on the farm learn at a young age how to drive all kinds of equipment, how to fix things and all about the meaning of hard work! Good job Caleb!

Wow, what large bales of hay! Remember those little square ones they use to have when I was young? How times have changed! Of course, tractors have came a long way from those old ones that use to have two little wheels right close together on the front. Dating myself, arent I?

Now someone like me who has no depth perception would have a hard time with this job.

Of course the true mark of any farmer is in the boots. Luke the Duke wanted to show off his boots!

And my daughter and I loaded up the grandkids and went out to survey how the work was coming along
And there is the never ending "working on the equipment" that also goes on when you are running tractors and balers and all the rest of the "big boy toys"
Now tell me again Caleb, what happened to the lights on the top of the tractor?

And even Odie the dog seemed to like the hay even though later he was hacking. Do dogs get allergies?

So if you live in the city, pack up the kids and take a cruise out into the country , down the back roads and smell the fresh mown hay and see what the farmers are doing. It's good for the soul to breathe the country air and you'll appreciate what goes in to getting the food we eat into the grocery stores. Those cows that we get milk from have to have something to eat this winter!!

Mean Dudes...

Baby kittens are appearing

our favorite little stray cat who showed up on the doorstep one day and was promptly adopted and named Zoe by my grand-kids who my grand-kids had kittens! They looked like little mice, really. And my daughter who wouldn't think of touching a mouse, held the littlest one in her hand for a picture. Probably reminded her of the runt on Charlotte's Web