Kudzu and Fathers

The Saturday before Father's Day I packed up myself and the munchkin and headed north to see my Dad.  Daddy had just had his birthday on May 15th and knowing him like I do I figured he would rather have something to eat than yet another shirt or screwdriver set.  I packed up two homemade sweet potato pies, homemade snack mix, and drove North to Clay County.  I'm a lot like my Daddy.  We love sitting around talking.  We love going for rides in the country.  We love sweet potato pie.  Just sweet potatoes, milk, eggs, butter, sugar, salt, vanilla, and cinnamon.  No meringue, no crumble topping, and no darn marshmallows.  Just good, old fashioned, simple cheap sweet potato pie made with Vardaman, MS sweet potatoes.  (If you're interested I have a recipe for sweet potato pie, it's HERE.) 

While I was there we decided since it was so darn hot we would jump in the truck and drive up to the hay ground in Chickasaw County at Woodland.  I wanted to see what the hay was looking like and as always any opportunity to take pictures of one of my most favorite places on earth is always welcome.  

As usual Daddy's hay bales are tight and perfect, and the grass rolls out away from you as a perfect green carpet.  The sky was a bold blue overhead, MawNan's mountain loomed up in the distance, and sweat rolled off my head and down my back.  We talked and looked at hay bales commenting on how the grass was coming back, looking good.  It needed some fertilizer but it had to stop raining to get that done.  

I got some pictures of the kudzu at the end of the canal field and wished I was braver or stupider and would go down the banks of the canal to get a few pictures of the kudzu in full leaf rising up on either side of the canal.  I'm terrified of snakes so I'll just have to wait for cold weather.  I'm not wading through hip deep vines and leaves just for a picture.  

We were looking at the new pull behind rake when the neighbor pulled up on his 4-wheeler and of course you gotta talk.  We talked about his new equipment, how he was back into cattle when he said he would never own another on his place, and he and Daddy fussed about where the dipstick is on a New Holland tractor.

On the way home we stopped at the store for a drink and to check on our favorite lady, "Poochie."  I got chastised for staying gone too long and leaving my Daddy without any good help.  She's one of my favorite people.  It was a good day.  Maybe not what most Dad and daughters did for Father's Day but we're not most people as the old saying goes.  One of the guy's Daddy works with asked him Monday what he did for Father's Day and Daddy replied with a smile, "Took pictures of Kudzu."