March 2015 Articles

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Just Rambling March 2015

Just Rambling:
This month we are starting a new series for our magazine. This series is entitled, “Constitutionally Speaking.” I have been thinking about this subject for quite sometime and our son, Cody, has agreed to handle this for me. I hope you enjoy his writing about our Constitution. See page 18.

Spiritual Corner is written by our daughter, Dana, this month. I hope you enjoy it and find it uplifting. See page 11

Front Cover:
The front cover photo was taken by our daughter, Velvet Bennett Roberts during our recent snowfall. She and her husband, Johnny, were with me on my old home place helping me feed cattle. I didn’t know she was taking photos until she showed this one to me after we finished our feeding. I was on the tractor putting out hay, and they were opening barn and pasture gates for me. When I look at this photo, it brings back so many good memories for me. This farm has been in our family for well over 125 years. To my knowledge, my great-grandfather was the first owner, then my grandfather. My mother and father bought it from my grandfather in 1949, and my mother passed it on to my three sisters and I after my father’s death in June of 1998. I presently own this portion of the property on which the old dairy barn (shown in this photo) is located. Originally my great grandfather cleared and farmed a portion of this property with mules. He and my great-grandmother had 19 children on this property with 17 children living and their families and extended families are scattered all over our nation. I really don’t know if my great grandfather built the dairy barn or if my grandfather built it after he acquired the property. I do know that he operated it for many years, but it was closed when my Mother and Father bought the property. My grandfather was also a preacher: he preached in 48 of the 50 states, only missing Alaska and Hawaii. After my parents acquired this property, my father row cropped it along with other outside rented property until around 1963 at which time he planted all the fields in coastal Bermuda grass for pasture and hay. My father always loved to plant and raise cotton—I can still see he and my uncle with their two bottom plows in early spring turning over the soil then later hear the clicking of the planters as they planted the crop. I can still see their tractors parked under these old pecan trees (in the photo) when they came home for lunch, or when they were lining up their planters and and cultivators. In later years they would work on their hay equipment under these old trees, since they had gone from row cropping to custom hay baling for other cattlemen in the area along with having cattle operations themselves. I continue to run cattle on my portion of the old home place and continue to utilize the old corral that my father built about 35 years ago. I am getting real close to having to see Tommy, at Tommy’s Feed, about some Priefert cattle panels. One of my sisters continues to have cattle on her portion, while another sister has planted her acreage in pines. My oldest sister and her husband have moved back home and completed a beautiful remodeling of the old home. I know my mother and father would be pleased with how the old home place is being used. When I am working on the farm I often think about my great- grandfather, my grandfather, and my father as they walked this land. My great-grandfather with mules farming, my grandfather milking cows by hand and transporting the milk in cans, my father planting, cultivating and later cutting/baling hay. I think about the hog pasture we had, the pigs we raised, the old hay/feed barn, the corn cribs we filled, and the corn we ran through the old hammer mill we used to make feed for the calves being fed out. I even think about the pecan pies my mother would make from the pecans I picked up under these old trees. So many memories about growing up on this old farm, hard work, but good times. Now my children are helping me, walking this old farm that has helped provide for many of their ancestors in the past. Lord willing, may it help provide for them in the future, and may they love this old farm just as their ancestors have for over 125 years.
Van Bennett