{Cotton Harvest Along Our Bike Route}

Being on our bikes, out in the lovely rural area we enjoy not only clean air but beautiful sights of Georgia crops.

On Wednesday we spotted one huge field where they had started harvesting cotton...

Husband Pieter with his Bicycle Helmet, holding the fluffy cotton.

You also get an idea how tall this pressed wall behind him is!

That is enough cotton for LOTS OF T-SHIRTS...

This one still needed to be covered.

This is the 'Mold' where the cotton is being sucked into and compacted.

Heavy equipment is being used for this cotton harvest.

This is the mechanical cotton picker.

Behind this picker you see the bare plants, to the right there are still 4 rows for the next turn.

Okay, we did go to the same field on the other side, where the harvest still needed to begin, to show you how vast it is!

This is a screenshot of the Youtube video shown below.

Our little Toyota RAV4 with the bike rack and our two Schwinn Bikes parked alongside the road and we walk into the field.

It has been a very DRY summer, as you can hear from Pieter's footsteps through the grasses towards the cotton...

A short, 21 second video, showing you the VAST cotton field...

An up close view of these ripe and fluffy cotton balls.

This gives already a taste of the vast field it is being grown on...

A sea of white cotton balls as far as you can see!

Impossible to look into the low sun, that is still very strong here in Georgia!

Wednesday, October 12 at 18:07 and still 27°C or 80.6°F

Hope you enjoyed this little rural excursion with us on our Bike Route! 

Interesting links:

What does a cotton plant look like?Growing cotton in the south - Interesting short video showing the plant and also its enemy the boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis).

Cotton Ginning Process Video I - Showing how those pressed bales are being loaded up.

Cotton Ginning Process video part 2 SilverLake Growers Gin - Showing you how it is being handled at the Cotton Gin for removing all the seeds, sticks, stems and burrs. Also the excess moisture is being removed.

Cotton Seed House Silver Lake Growers GinPart 3 - Showing you what is being done with the separated cotton seeds.

Cotton Trash and uses for it Silver LakeGrowers Gin part 4 - Showing you the waste, which is also being used as fertilizer and in compost.

Cotton Bale press, Docking, Trucking of cotton Silver LakeGrowers Gin part 5 - Seeing the end product being pressed with the use of hydraulics and loaded up as bales to be used to make clothes!

The History of Cotton | Cotton Documentary - Documentary Films with mention of the Arab word Qutun that sounds more like the Dutch Katoen, for English Cotton... Interesting movie!

{Lazy Speckie Girl}

Wow, nights are getting cooler and at times we look at our felines with the thought of wanting to curl up and be lazy...

Our youngest adopted girl is a master at it.

Her name derived from a German diminutive of 'Bacon'...

You get the picture!

She can be very demanding for attention and she forces you to do something with her...

So picking up one of their balls to make her fetch it is the thing I do.

But she's not even standing on her feet!

Catching it all right and looking at me with a face: 'What's wrong? I sure don't need to get up - YOU can run around!'

How can we get mad at them...?

She will never ever be as svelte as her sister by adoption 'Tiggy-Tiger' is and that's okay.

She's happy and just loves her attention.

It is also very hard to brush her, she hates it.

BUT she also has jumped down from the balcony, so she is an athlete after all; when SHE wants to be one.
By the way, her weight is 7 kg.

Thanks for your visit!

{Happy Lunch in Miami with Friend Natacha}

Being together with dear friends is such a BLESSING!

Each and every time we drive down to Miami, Florida we meet with dear friend Natacha and her family.

One of our favorite places to go for lunch together is at The Pasta Factory in Coral Gables. 

It is on Calle Ocho, a famous street in the heart of Miami and Little Havana grew around it, with hundreds of thousands of Cubans that fled dictator Fidel Castro.

Photo is taken on July 2, 2016.

So happy for being together - wish there were not 1,000 km between us!

But true friendship will last forever, especially if a friend becomes like a younger sister to you over the decades.

This photo from our lunch together in 2008, I only used for showing you the windows where you actually can look into The Pasta Factory and see how they make it from scratch.

Started more than 25 years ago when Carmen and Richard Sanders arrived from Argentina with their 3 sons.

They were the previous owners of the renowned Pasta Factory in Argentina and did bring unique skills for freshly made pasta.

No doubt we will be back there many more times together!

Thanks for your visit.

Related links:

{Our EVERGLADES ADVENTURE with friend NATACHA} | previous post by me
{My 30 Years of FRIENDSHIP with Natacha} | previous post by me