Hot Rod Cowgirl

Harvest…Hot Rods…Horses…one hot time in Juniper Canyon…I am writing to you from a very warm and dry Juniper Canyon tonight.

Long days…hard work…dust and heat mean harvest is finally here!

Harvest memories flood my mind with family times…driving wheat truck with my cousins and my uncles running the combines…harvest lunches cooked by my aunts or my Mom…harvest was the best time of the year!

This makes me itch seeing the wheat chaff..we used to douse ourselves with baby powder so that the chaff would not stick to our sweaty skin. Wheat chaff was not fun but barley chaff was the worst.

When we would harvest a field of barley one of us cousins got to follow one of our uncles when they opened up the field…right behind the combine spitting out the chaff  into your truck…even if it was 105 degrees I would keep my windows rolled up tight…we did not have air-conditioned trucks then.

With harvest going full swing…semi trucks haul wheat out of our canyon night and day…when I was little the trucks coming up the canyon at night would scare me as I would see the lights coming on my bedroom walls…the road in front of the house had a large bump on it…so the trucks would hit the bump with a ka-bang rattle and pop!

The semi trucks either load the wheat out of  the elevator about a mile from our house or they load right out of the farmer’s field from the bank out wagon.

The wheat from the elevators is trucked down to the Columbia River which is not far from here….about 38 miles.

The wheat is then loaded on to a barge headed down the Columbia River to Portland Oregon…which is about a 200 mile trip…in this picture there are two barges loaded with wheat.

Harvest is a happy time of year for farm families…working together to bring in the crop…hoping for a good yield and good price. Harvest also means the season is changing.

We go from this view right before harvest gets under way as the wheat has turned golden and the heads are full of grain.

This is an early summer view and the fields look pretty as everything that you can see out here is green…the wheat begins to turn gradually over several weeks time until it ripens to the golden-yellow color.

Here is a view of the field bare…it’s bounty has been harvested and sold…we go from beautiful green fields to golden wheat fields to bare dry and dead fields…so the cycle of life begins again for next year. Our house is down below in the trees that you see. Wild Bill’s burn out strip of highway is visible too.

With true summer colors all around me I get to take great pictures…golden days and incredible evening skies.

August colors and light… templates paint the evening sky with golden crimson purple colors…every color you can imagine.

With ever-changing light…colors and views…we spend our summer nights on the patio enjoying the smells of the wheat ripening…the night sounds of crickets…every once in a while the cool breeze that comes up the canyon from the creek…warm nights that are filled with amazing skies and views!

Home truly is where the heart is and we love our history here…our home…ranch and shop…our life.

We live in God’s country…His beauty surrounds us!

Where anything is possible.

Such as a street rod shop on a cowboy ranch in a wheat field of dreams…

Not just any street rod shop…but Holton Secret Lab…your dreams do come true here!

We are here to build your dream…we understand dreams…we have the qualifications and history to support what we do and our talent that we sell.

Visit our web page and see for yourself…call us…come tour our shop and facility  www.holtonsecretlab.com

On a side note…at Holton Secret Lab we require our employees to know how to ride a horse…in case we need flesh and blood horse power…yep Cowboy Flame is on a mission!!!

Son Greg works for Holton Secret Lab too…I know I have a picture of him on a horse…hang on I will find it!!! He volunteers at the Pendleton Round Up…he used to rodeo himself…my baby boy all 6’5″ of him! Go Ducks!

This is our other cowboy son Curt…he knows how to ride and throws the “Big Loop”…he works for Microsoft…very smart cowboy he is:)

Circa 1930

No Wild Bill This Is Not When I Drove Truck!!! WB tries hard to make me be his age…sorry WB you are older…neener neener!

See This Look….He Is Being A Smarty Pants!

Wild Bill…I have the last word…you know…what I said about our employees…yah you have to ride them ponies with real horsepower too!

Wild Bill is getting his own horse in a month!!! Yee-Haw!!! Ride Em Cowboy!!!

Hey Leonard…I have not forgotten you….stay tuned!