Some Pig

By: Samantha S. Daviss

“Charlotte’s Web” was always one of my favorite books growing up. When I was little I just liked the pictures of Fern and her cute little pig. I wanted my own pig so much that my parents went out and bought me my very own concrete foot tall statue of a pig. Yep, they weren’t having any part of me having a pig.

But now my dream has come true. Although I know it has a sad ending already, it’s kind of like watching “Titanic”, you know what is going to happen. History has already written itself, but nonetheless, I still love this little thing. It’s our first year to do the Navarro County Youth Expo, and my oldest son has decided to show a pig this year. So far it has been incredible.

But back to my book reference. “Charlotte’s Web” began to take formation for me in so many ways over the years. It taught me about a great author, a great story about love and friendship, but more importantly how to use your imagination when writing.

Two of my favorite quotes from the book are:

 “Why did you do all this for me?' he asked. 'I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you.' 'You have been my friend,' replied Charlotte. 'That in itself is a tremendous thing.”
― E.B. White, Charlotte's Web

“It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.”
― E.B. White, Charlotte's Web

The first quote to me is just dynamic. It is so true. We always expect so much in return from one another; why can’t we be more like Charlotte and just be someone’s friend without expecting anything? Why can’t we just be family and happy without expecting anything?

I have always said my friends are my family, and I don’t expect anything from them except maybe a phone call or a text, and if I am down, a little love. But that is all. I just expect them to be there when I truly need them.

And the second quote, well that’s just a personal thing that I love to have locked in the back of my head. I have always prided myself on loving my friends as family. I would do anything for them, because of them or to them if they needed me. And as you know, I love to write; so, to me that phrase is very fitting.

But I digress. I want to go back to the newest addition of our family. Her name is Marshmallow, because she loves marshmallows; but we have managed to shorten her name to Marsha. The day we picked her up she was only a month old. And mind you, we are new to this whole Youth Expo thing; so of course, my husband was working, and it was myself and the three boys, in my SUV going to pick her up.

We had an oversized dog kennel at the house that I put in the back of my SUV. Yep, not a trailer, or a pickup truck, but my SUV. And so, the guy put her in the cage for us, and off we went. No instructions, no clue, just a squealing baby pig in the back of my SUV. Have I mentioned she was inside my car? Not in a trailer? Ok, just making sure. Because poor thing was so upset, that she defecated in the cage, and was still squealing and running around and managed to fling poop all over the walls and windows of my SUV.

So, upon arrival home, the teen got to clean that out and I stuck about 50 dryer sheets all over my car to get rid of the farm smell, it was awesome!

But as the days went on, I fell more and more in love with this little creature. She has since started climbing in my lap to cuddle, she knows my scent and that of my son’s, and she loves to lay out in the sun for a little fresh air and some sun bathing.

I know we shouldn’t get attached, but when you have a creature that is as smart as your dog, and as cute, and as loyal; it is hard not to sometimes. So, to all you Youth Expo parents and kids out there, hats off to you all, and even more so for owning a trailer.

Why are you so Mean?

By: Samantha S. Daviss

So, I took an alternate route to get home the other day, because the road was blocked by a train that was stopped. It was no big deal; it didn’t upset me; I just swung around and headed home in another direction.

So as I pull on to the highway, where there is a ton of construction going on, so the normal extended lane for merging onto the highway doesn’t exist, throws me into the traffic sooner than I am able to compensate for the short “runway” of merging into the already flowing traffic. I did notice another car was coming but I was courteous and tried to judge my distance, and my lack of room for accelerating, and joined in the traffic, at a higher rate of speed as to not cause any issues.

So, the car that was coming, ran right up on my tail, and pulled to the other lane, and then wasn’t 15 feet past me, and immediately pulled right back in front of me. Now mind you, I mentioned there was traffic, because of course it is a highway; but at the time it was just myself and this other vehicle. So, there was no need for him to stay in the slow lane, ride right up on my tail, whip around me, and cut back in. The entire fast lane was wide open.

As I sat there driving down one of the major interstates in the great state of Texas, with two of my three precious cargo items in the back of my car (that being my kiddos), I thought “Self…I wonder if these people realize what they are doing when they create road rage, or road anger?”.

But seriously, do they realize it’s not a game? Do they realize they are travelling at speeds up to 80 miles per hours, in a vehicle that can weigh anywhere between 3,100 pounds (or 1.55 tons) up to 6,000 pounds (2.5 to 3 tons)? And they are just machines. They cannot correct their errors; in fact, if they are typically overcompensated, they rock and roll and could easily flip. Their brakes only react and work so quickly. They need time for your brain to think, react, apply, and the machine to actually stop.

All for what? Because someone took up a little of your space on the highway? Because your overall plan and picture driving on the highways was interrupted? The anger and impatience overwhelms me sometimes. There are small children, babies, families, and teenagers driving on the road with you. Just take a deep breath, relax and accept the fact that there will be other drivers on the road with you. 

Stop being so angry all the time.

It is one thing to be frustrated when someone blatantly cuts you off, and nearly causes a true accident, but if someone is just trying to politely merge on to the highway, and runs out of room; cut them some slack, apply your brakes, and don’t cut them off. Because, just because you are trying to get back at the person you “think” cut you off; you never know what the person in front of you will do.

What if there was an accident ahead you didn’t see, or something in the road that you needed to dodge, but instead you slam on your brakes without warning, causing the poor innocent mommy with her two babies, that you just cut off, to rear end you at the high speed of around 75 miles per hour.

All because your little “knickers” got all twisted up, your feelings were hurt, or whatever the case may be.

To you people with no patience or understanding on the roads or highways, to you I say…grow up. This is a massive machine you are driving and handling, not a bicycle; and you are not only endangering your life but those around you. Have a little compassion and understanding, please.

Take 5

By: Samantha S. Daviss

As we all know in the state of Texas, there are five seasons…Spring, summer, Autumn, Winter, and of course hunting season. And thus, began the season of deer hunting this weekend, with opening day this past Saturday.

I have missed very few opening weekends of deer season, spending 90% of them with my daddy. Yes, even at 40, he is still my daddy. But like I told him last night, the faces have changed, and I have added several players to our game (my three boys), but the memories and time together is still just as great as it was when I was a little girl, falling asleep with him in the deer blind.

And as the time passed, I would hunt alone in my own blind, and sit around the campfire laughing, telling stories, and drinking my first beer. And now I am old enough to buy my own beer, and sit and cut up with all the guys around the camp fire, while I watch as my boys come of age on the deer lease, riding 4-wheelers, and shooting their Red Rider BB Guns.

I got to spend some great time with all my boys this weekend. And my oldest hit a milestone; I have always helped him field dress his deer; but this weekend, he did it on his own (with a little refreshing from myself and a buddy of mine), but nonetheless, he did a great job. And I was able to sit in the blind with my middle one, and play on the 4-wheeler with my youngest. Overall, it was a much-needed getaway and time with my boys and my dad, while my husband had to work, sadly.

Sunday came too quickly, as usual, when we are at the deer lease. But we quickly packed up the car, due to an unexpected rain cloud that unloaded on us that morning. And we shut the cabin down, I started my car. Wait, let me rephrase that, I attempted to start my car. For whatever reason, my car battery was dead. So, with two huge trailers on our cars my dad had to manipulate his car around the campfire to jump my car off…and off we went.

Take 2 -- About some 10 miles down the road, one of the tires on the trailer I was pulling, started losing tread. It started shaking and rumbling, and vibrating my car. So, I called my dad to wait on us, and I limped in to the nearest town, because it was pouring down rain, and of course the lug nuts were too small for the lug wrench that goes to my car.

Luckily, we find a guy with the proper lug wrench, get it off, replaced and off we go again.

Take 3 – Now mind you, we started driving at 9 A.M., and it is usually only about a four-and-a-half-hour drive home. So, I am hoping third time is a charm. And off we went…but wait, about 10 miles down the road, my oldest says “Ummm, hey mom, rubber is flying off again.” I laughed and kept going, thinking he was just trying to wear me down. But no, here we go again with the rumbling and vibrations.

I jump out, and of course, the tread has ripped off that tire too. Oh, did I forget to mention, that this is my dad’s trailer, and I am pretty sure the tires are as old as I am? They were so old, the rust to the lug nuts on the spares had welded themselves to the wheel. This time, luckily, my dad was behind us. But yet again, the lug nuts were too small, so off he went to the next town to by the correct size lug wrench.

I stayed behind to work on it. After a few cuts and cuss words, I managed to get one lug nut off. But the next one, there was no way. Finally, after about 20 minutes a nice gentleman stopped to help us out, with the correct lug wrench.

And yep, you guessed it…off we went.

Take 4 – So just in case you have lost count…I have now gone through two tires, I am now on my third, and I have run out of spares. But the funny part was, when I got back in my car and headed down the road, I looked at a text on my phone from a guy friend of mine, saying man I just saw a girl that looked just like you on the side of Highway 190; and I said well hey, she didn’t look like me, she was me.

Nonetheless, we were “On the Road Again…”. Not even joking, and I wish I were, my third tire tread started flying off, about 20 miles down the road. I had about 20 more miles to go to the next town, where my dad was; so, the boys and I slowly limped in. We found a place, bought two new tires and off we went.

This time we made it all the way home. But we had to stop by our friend’s barn, where we are keeping our pig for the Youth Expo, come March. Everything was well, things were great. But the four of us were definitely ready to be home. However, the driveway was blocked, so I backed up, turned the wheel, and tried to cut through a small corner of yard/farm land. Well, after a few hours of rain, Mother Nature had other plans for me, my car and my trailer.

You guessed it, I had to flag down some guys that were living on the property to come pull me out of the mud.

Hence, Take Five! We were finally on our way home, and it was about 7:45 at night. When we should have been home, being lazy, and doing laundry around 2PM; six hours later, we finally made it home.

And End Scene. Another chapter closed on the exciting day-in-the-life of my family adventures.