New Fence

Here is the new fence The Boys were working on...

The Boy,at 13, is a  pretty good welder! One of the many many skills his Daddy has taught him! We believe in teaching our son to be a man while he is growing...not waiting until he is 18 then expecting him to know how to be one! I almost feel a rant coming on here...I have noticed how few boys my sons age  have any"manly" skills. They don't know how to do basics like maintenance on a vehicle or basic plumbing or electrical or basic manners like holding the door for older ladies or anything but facebooking or my-spaceing....grrrr! I guess we are just old fashioned in our beliefs but I think people are hindering their sons by not preparing them with basic  manly life skills...OK, rant over!

 I don't know how all this lovely grass grew in this field with hardly any rain...

The other side of this field dips into a sort of ravine and then has a lovely ridge on the other side. You can see how far it starts to drop off at the edge of the grass by noticing the white tips of the fence post sticking up!

The folks on the road behind us have a great view of this ridge..you can almost fool yourself in to thinking you live in the mountains! Unfortunately for us the only view we have is this one  and you can only see it coming up the driveway! That is hardwood forest growing on the ridge so, if we get the right temps, we sometimes get lovely Fall color over there...well... good  Fall color for Texas anyways!

Wordless Wednesday

 Father and son......

Duck Tales

 It is very dry here. It has been well over 30 days with out rain. To say we are in a drought is an understatement! The good thing is at least we are not a 100* plus like last years drought! That's life in Texas....sigh!
 The garden is a good piece from the house and there is no water out there and if it is going to survive it has to have some water! Hubby say he is going to run water out there...Hubby has been saying that for 3 years! ( I can hear a collective mmmm-hhhmmmm from all you wives out there!) I ran my own water out there by using  several water hoses connected together and this year one sprang a leak to the duck's delight! Now if you have ever had ducks you know if they have even a sprinkling of a muddy place they will work it with their little duck bills until it grows into a pond and that is what they have been working on all summer!

 Those are Crazy Daisey's babies splashing around and Butterscotch the buff runner giving us the "duck eye"!

 The ducks, I think, have unionized !  They worked hard at wallerin' out a little pond for them selves!

 All summer long the quaking of orders and the loud duck "laughs" by the foreman duck to quit lolly gagging and get back to work! These ducks are floating...their mud  hole may not be wide but it is deep!

Well...it is not exactly big enough for all the ducks at once...maybe it is a time share mud hole! Ducks! If they weren't so distracted by water they could rule the world... Bwaaahahaaha! OK, maybe not the whole world, maybe just the wet parts!

Goatie Goat Inn

Yes ,yes I know it has been awhile since I have been in blog land ! I guess when you are a truly hermity person,like me, it sometimes even extends to blog land too! I have no other excuse for being away...I have just been over come by hermityness! My father-in-law has made a complaint that I haven't blogged so I decided I better get back with the program!

I had a wonderful visit with Texan! I tell you all, our visit was like we had know each other our whole lives! She made me feel so comfortable and at home, which is hard to do because I have that whole hermity thing and I have  a lot of trouble feeling  comfortable even  around folks I have know for a while! Let me tell you all,we talked and talked and had one good time after another! We fabric shopped and she showed me how to machine quilt and shared all kinds of pointers on sewing .We checked out her pressure caner, that had no book, and made sure it was ready to go and there were a few comical moments but thankfully no explosive ones! We did some good old fashioned plant swapping and she sent me home loaded up with goodies she canned this summer which,by the way,I have polished off a few jars of already! I can't wait for us to visit again! Oh, and her home is  like stepping into a magazine  and she did so much of it herself! That girl has some talent for sure! I know you all are thinking where are the pictures..well......didn't even think about it! Just having too much fun I guess!

Now,on to the Goatie Goat Inn! The Boys worked on it while I was gone and here it is...

Not quiet finished but almost! I know you "up north" folks are probably a little shocked at it being all open and all but you have to remember where we are, Southeast Texas! We have maybe January and February of cold and the rest of the year is baking hot sooo...we will add some tin or ply board in those months and the rest of the year it will be much more comfortable for them like it is now.

Butter Bean and Mr.Tumnus have already been sleeping in here.Butter Bean is telling Nibbles to stay out of his new room!

SweetPea says she would like to have this  one next to her love, Butter Bean. Yes, Butter Bean is now in love with Sweet Pea...he has abandoned Doodah,whom he used to be obsessed over! Goatie lives....more twist than a soap opera! Doodah could care less by the way, that relationship was rather one sided ! Maybe I should make up my own goatie show...Days of our Goaties...As the Goatie World Turns...hmmm what do you think?


The turkeys would like to move out of the turkey slum..umm...run down coop that they live in and live here! Don't worry turkeys,your coop is next on the list!

Hopefully I will be able to have some discipline and keep up with my post for awhile....if I don't I know Papaw will let me know!

On my way

 In the morning I am on my way to visit Texan! While I am away the Boys are going to work on a new goat barn!

 
We have been planning on this for awhile  but thanks to Mr.Tumnus we are speeding up the project! He is our only goatie that hates the goat houses they stay in at night and has made it his personal goal to destroy them all! He better be careful or he will be on Craig's list if he doesn't straighten up!

 Here is the kitten we kept,Oscar Peterson!

Isn't he cute...!

 Hubby cut down the dead tree lightening struck a few years ago in the goat pen...it had one live scrawny branch and the goaties started munching on it as soon as the chain saw stopped!

 

 This tree cutting was a pure red neck adventure for sure...I wish I had remembered to get my camera! It involved stuck chainsaws, compound bows, straps and an old tractor running along by itself and a huge crash in the end! You can just let your imagination fill in those blanks,LOL!

In the end it all turned out and the goaties got a good snack!  See you in a few days....!

The Fallen

 As I drove to the post office this morning I saw the whole road through town was lined with flags and I began to weep.

This road lined with flags leads to the cemetery...

We have lost one of our own here in Coldspring...Sgt.1st Class Calvin B. Harrison. Just click on his name to read about this amazing man. I did not know him but it does not matter,I grieve for him like he was mine some how.

This afternoon my son, joined by his fellow scouts, will go to the cemetery to put out American flags  to make ready the end  of the journey for our fallen soldier.

Sgt. Harrison will come home forever tomorrow afternoon...

This all seems like so little for a man who gave his life for our country....may you forever have peace Sgt.Harrison.

Blogger's Bock

Blogger's block...yep I have had it! I guess it is like writer's block only for bloggers, my creative mental juices have not been flowing! Would that be brain juice...hmmm. See my mind has just gone loopy! So let me see about some catch up for everyone.

I hatched 24 baby chicks in the incubator!

I was quiet impressed because I had used the incubator to hatch 3 batches of turkey eggs and had a very,very poor hatch rate.

The chicken eggs did great though!

We spent last Saturday morning at the feed store giving away kittens! They were all gone in 45 minutes! I do feel like all the people who wanted them will give them good homes. They all seemed nice and stayed and talked awhile before they left with their kittens,small towns ya know! The little one we kept is now named Oscar....Oscar Peterson. No, our last name is not Peterson, it's just Oscar's last name!

The in-laws made a surprise visit Sunday evening. Me and the MIL spent Monday at the antique shops,always fun!

I have been dehydrating bell peppers. I find I  have developed  some sort of need to be preserving some kind of food at all times!  I used some of the dehydrated bell peppers the other day and I am very impressed at how well they worked out in my recipe! I pan seared a couple of steaks then added some beef broth, a little tomato sauce, some Worcestershire sauce,S&P and some of the dehydrated bell peppers and let it all simmer for awhile. Then when the meat was to my desired tenderness I thickened the sauce with a little starch...mmmmm, it was really good!

Hubby comes home tomorrow! He will come home to a much cooler Texas than when he left last month! We have had some unseasonably  cool weather lately...I am not complaining,nope! I am cheering! I love the cold weather! It was 40* when I got up this morning!  This is not good for my Fall garden if I expect to get any tomatoes...but..I am so happy to have cooler temps I don't mind missing out on the extra tomatoes!

Some more big news,I am planning a trip next week to visit my blogging sister Texan! I can't wait,we have loads of fun stuff planned! Whew,I hope we can fit it all in and she has a bunch of baby goaties right now and you all know how I love those baby goaties! Hubby will get to be the single parent farmer for a few days...hmmm...I am not going to think about it,lol! I hope the Boys won't get into too much mischief!