The end of this chapter...

Ever since Ricky and I have been married he has had a custom bush hogging business. It has kept him really busy from July through November every year. Well, this year we close the end of that chapter in our lives.

Cleaning up to get it ready to sell

Ricky made the decision to make 2013 his last year of business in bush hogging. Now don't get me wrong, it will be really nice to have him around more. And I know he will enjoy not being as rushed. As he says, he isn't as young as he used to be and spending 16 hours in a tractor in one day is hard on an old man. lol. But, we will all miss this part of our lives a little.

We clearly have entered the "will not take a serious picture" phase with our kids!

We have made good memories through the years on tractors. Some of our only dates before we got married were us riding through fields while he worked. I would just tag along. Then I graduated to being a driver and he would turn me loose on my own. I did pretty good most of the time. (We aren't gonna talk about the time I turned the tractor off and got out and me and Ricky were talking to a friend of ours at the edge of a field when suddenly the tractor I got out of went rolling down a huge hill heading straight for a highway. . . oops!)

When Laney came along, she would ride along in my lap. Then when I was expecting Caleb my lap got smaller and smaller but we managed to all still ride some. The four of us have spent some time all huddled together in the cab feeding cows and riding along.

Me and Caleb feeding cows with Daddy

Ricky most of all spent alot of hours on these big green machines. There were times he would bushhog all day, go climb in his truck and sleep for a couple of hours and get up to bushhog all night and the next day. Alot of times he would be so busy he would leave work to head straight to whatever area he was bushhogging and would stay out late into the night. So, me and the kids got in a habit of packing picnic dinners and we would head out to meet him in a field. The 4 of us would climb up on his big trailer and have a picnic right there in the middle of a field.

A few weeks ago, that big green trailer sold, but not before we had one last picnic on it. I will miss that.

A few times when for whatever reason we were in need of a babysitter and couldn't get one, Ricky would take one of the kids with him for the day bushhogging. Both kids have taken naps in the floorboard of this tractor while Daddy worked on....

It hasn't always been easy on us to have him working so much, but some of our best memories have been in those stressful, chaotic times. I am so glad that we got to enjoy this chapter for all these years. After 15 years, Meadow View Custom Bushhogging is over.

It blessed us to have this over the years, meeting people, the financial help it brought us when we really needed it, and there is just something to be said for hard work. I look forward to the next chapter after this one, but I will remember very fondly these times we spent during this chapter.

Its been a great chapter!