Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Our Strength

At some point early in our blogging experiences we are forced with a decision about what our focus will be. In order to sustain a continuous flow of material I was forced to write about what I knew, which was our rural lifestyle and our communities.

Using the material at hand helped me to identify the strengths and beauty of this little corner of the planet. Time and time again I came up with the same conclusion, it's the people that make this place special, far beyond the million acres of beautiful corn and clouds of fireflies, it's the people.

Again and again I will sing their praises. I can't say enough good things about them.

I thought you'd like to meet a few of the special people who make up our community. Some of them are my peeps, including Rob Houtz who is my tractor guy. He sold me my first Cub Cadet at the Elburn Days celebration fourteen years ago.

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He's the one that saved me when I drove my tractor into a large hole. When I asked him to pose for this picture he asked, "Are you done driving into holes?"

Here are three veterans from American Legion Post #630 in Elburn, Illinois. They were selling raffle tickets and I was feeling lucky so I bought one. They haven't notified me yet, but I'm always the optimist.

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From left to right are veterans from the Gulf War, Korean War and Viet Nam. Thanks gentlemen.


You gotta love a young woman that knows how to drive a big International tractor. She's smoothing out the track after each run of the tractor pull. She steers one-handed and it's awesome to watch. I want to have a try at this job.

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And then there are the kids. One of the big boys brought his big toy to Elburn Days. That's a very impressive engine and you know those young boys are dreaming of the day when they can drive.

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Speaking of kids, here's a video of the senior 4-H showmanship competition. There are twelve, count 'em, twelve hogs running around this show ring. They're not exactly well trained like show dogs, hogs pretty much do what they want. As I understood it part of the task was to keep the hogs from hugging the fence line. The tapping is an to attempt to move them along. You will notice that one hog decides to stop in front of the crowd and take a pee break.



My goal is to bring you a slice of good old small town America, and to give you a feel of what it's like to live in northern Illinois.

Thanks for visiting today. I hope you enjoyed another peek into our little corner of the world.

12 comments:

Simple Answer said...

looks like good peeps to me!

Jill said...

I really enjoy visiting your little piece of the world... It's what makes "you" interesting!

And a girl riding a tractor. Rock on!!

KWolfAK said...

It looks like you live in a beautiful slice of America.

Donna said...

Your pictures make me homesick. For what, I don't know, as I grew up in Los Angeles and now live in Beijing, China - neither city is exactly known for its rural-ness. But the pictures just make me feel like I know those people, or would like to. Thanks for sharing.

StitchinByTheLake said...

You know Suzanne it's really too bad that all of us can't live in small town America. There's just something about the lifestyle that speaks to our origins. Oh I love my conveniences, and I don't live in a big city (just a small city)but the loveand comraderie in small towns is the spice of life. blessings, marlene

Anonymous said...

Ah, the memories! My munchkins showed hogs at our county fair. Hogs look better for the judge if they are kept moving. Something about keeping their muscles taut - not just hanging there. So the kids try to keep them moving...in an orderly fashion. lol

I remember one unusually cool morning. When let into the show arena the hogs felt mighty frisky and were running all over the place. The kids couldn't keep up! That there was funny. Judge suggested running them around in the pen area before taking them to the arena. I have lots of memories of small/tiny town fairs and people.

Chris said...

Great post! The video is a hoot!

Thanks for sharing a small slice of rural life with us!

P.S. I should learn to to drive my husband's tractor.

Chris

Anonymous said...

Brings back lots of memories from my youth in a small town!

life in red shoes said...

Part of the beauty of blogging is seeing how other people just live their lives. Suzanne, you do a wonderful job of sharing with us, your dedicated friends and followers, your little peice of this planet, Again, thank you, Red Shoes

BittersweetPunkin said...

Suzanne...I love your slices...someday I hope to own the whole pie...LOL!! I would love to have a lot more privacy and down home living than we have right now...
Hugs,
Robin

Mary said...

A terrific slice of middle America! I like your peeps.
xoxo,
Mary

Louise said...

I LOVE your little corner of the world and am so grateful you share it. I think you're right about the people. But I wonder sometimes if the place makes the people.