hooray for hayrides

Last weekend we enjoyed an afternoon free of work, worry, phones and pressures.  Instead, we bundled up and hopped on the wagon.  A modification of a hay wagon, making a much safer excursion.  It's always so annoying when you have people fall off the wagon, literally.

My brother-in-law, Larry and his wife, Denise, organize this outing and invite friends and family in the area.  That's Larry facing this way and Denise in the yellow.  And there is hay on the floor, making it legit.

Larry has been a farmer all of his life, and took over his dad's operation.  So he knows this little corner of Jackson County very well.  He always takes us on a different route, over hill and dale, through ditches and down lanes, stopping here and there to point out the local points of interest.  You can see in the picture below that he is winding up on a good tale.

This is the first time that he has hauled us around from the comfort of his pickup instead of the tractor.  I think he must be getting too mature!  He is older than I am, after all, so is nigh on antique.  He stopped to point out the rare black buffalo in the picture below.  And he says that with complete seriousness!

We rode past this pretty little church and the cemetery nearby.  

 And this country schoolhouse, where almost all of the Hansen kids attended classes.  9 kids.  Bob went there for 2 or 3 years, and he is number 6 of the 9.  Then the school closed and the kids all had to ride the bus to town school.  The building was used for other purposes, but now is boarded up and deserted.  It stands alone in the middle of fields, but comes alive when they start talking about ballgames, cooking lunches, the Christmas play and their teacher.  I can tell when Bob talks about country school that it was a wonderful experience.

We finished the ride at a county park with a weiner roast and smores.  We needed the fire to keep warm until we started up the cars to go home for the night, back to the real world.  Thank you, Larry and Denise!  You're the best!