Jody Harris – Fall is in full swing for the Harris family

just a thought Freshly Picked

By Jody Harris T he 4-H chickens have laid their first eggs! These 12 pullets have been nurtured since the spring 2020 COVID-19 shutdown. When we were spending all our time at home, these gals gave our sons something to feed, water and clean up after. We have been patiently awaiting the “first egg” and it finally arrived this week. Everyone needs something to celebrate whether its big or small right now. We recently sold one of the horses our kids had out- grown. The pony, Amelia, found a new home on the farm of one of our friends. She is now a family favorite for all his grandchildren. We celebrated seeing her happy with little kids to ride and love her. Our four children have successfully completed week Jody Harris is a freelance communications specialist, gardener, ranch wife and mother of four. She and her family raise Angus beef cattle and other critters on their northwest Arkansas ranch. She is a graduate of Missouri State University. To contact Jody, go to ozarksfn.com and click on three of back-to-school in these uncertain times. Every- ‘Contact Us.’ thing is going very well. Our oldest daughter is in high school. Do not worry, we don’t believe we are old enough to have a high school student, either. She is actively learning to drive and hopes to obtain a hardship permit to drive herself to work and to school soon. We are actively praying about that and celebrating her goals.

Our youngest daughter is in junior high. She is learning to play the trombone (just like mom) in the seventh-grade band. This weekend, we will celebrate her running in the first cross country meet of the season.

Our oldest son has struggled in school. He loves to be active and mostly outdoors. This year is his first year of middle school. He LOVES it. He is really enjoying changing classes and teachers throughout the day. He is learning to drive a micro sprint race car in the restrictor class. I have been impressed with his willingness to work hard in school in order to spend all his free time working with his dad on the race car. Soon we hope to celebrate the first race finish of car No. 11 over at Port City Raceway.

Our youngest son is at elementary school by himself this year. I really think he’s enjoying the independence of being the only Harris kid there. He is so excited to be able to play fall baseball this season. We all missed getting to play this past spring and summer. We were cele- brating his first practice this week. We are all looking forward to a great game season.

As fall approaches, we look forward to harvest and calving season across Arkansas. In a time when the news media is hammering us with doom and gloom, I can look around this beautiful state and see there are many victories that we can all celebrate. Our family is looking forward to celebrating the big and small offerings of fall 2020. Hope you will too, neighbor.

Did You Know? Chickens have a built-in compass. Their magnetic sense of direction, which allows them to orient themselves with the Earth’s magnetic field, develops at an early stage of life.