Introducing My Hubs

I realized that I wrote this post a while back but never published it. This is Hubs feeding cattle. Hee.

After high school, Hubs spent four and a half years in the Air Force and was stationed in San Antonio, TX; Biloxi, MS; Minot, ND; Osan, South Korea, and Keflavik, Iceland. I joke that it's crazy I had to move *away* from Colorado Springs, practically the Air Force capitol of the world, to meet my fly boy.

He now farms and raises cattle with his dad and in conjunction with other uncles and cousins. One fun part of our relationship has been the way he patiently explains what this piece of machinery does or how [insert farming operation here] works. (I still have a lot to learn.)

Although he worked on radios in the USAF, he got his private pilot's license on his own. An unfortunate quirk of mine is that I can get motion sickness just sitting still! We've flown a number of places - the farthest being San Antonio for a Husker game - but now he just mostly zooms around locally. Lately he's started doing some loops and rolls and I do a lot of praying from the ground. I trust his skills implicitly - it's the plane and wind and stuff that might not hold up their end of the bargain.

He is an amazing papa, too. I'd not have made it through those first (FIFTEEN!) difficult months without him. I think Goose would climb over me and run right past a kitty begging to be petted if a tractor ride with Papa was waiting. One good lesson I've learned by watching him is that he's quite willing to let Goose play in the dirt or eat something messy but delicious. Things are definitely more fun with him around.

Finer Things Friday - Papa's Tractor

Those are two of Goose's favorite words right there - papa and tractor. While I love love love that Hubs is a farmer, his availability varies with the seasons. In the spring with planting, he's crazy busy. In the summer, with irrigating, he's really busy. In the fall, with harvest, he's see-him-for-five-minutes-at-breakfast busy. In the winter, with cattle, he's just plain busy.

Last year, with Goose's nap schedule, there were a lot of days that she wasn't up by the time he left in the morning, and she was down for a nap by the time he came home for lunch, and she was in bed when he came home at night. Being a standard issue daddy's girl, that just wouldn't do! I don't remember when we started riding with Papa in the tractor, but it's a habit we've kept up and will continue. (picture taken one year ago - last May!)

Goose is at the point these days, where, if she sees a tractor or a pick-up, it should have Papa in it and she can't figure out why we aren't stopping to see him! When we do get to go ride with him, she is usually hollering at him before we get out of the car - even if the tractor is a few hundred feet away. She sits on his lap as he steers (or as the GPS steers!) and jabbers away. They sometimes share a snack, she jabbers into the business band radio mic and tries to poke any button she can reach. Sometimes I feel like a third wheel!

About the only way I can get her out of the tractor is a promise to stop at the barn on the way home to feed Socks and the rest of our kitties. She blows Papa more kisses than he can catch, and tells him bye-bye over and over and over as we walk back to the car. He'll beep his horn, she'll holler "beep!" back, waving all the way.

Being a daddy's girl, riding in the tractor, learning about the farm - all these are finer things! For more finer things, visit Amy here.