Monday, December 26, 2011

Merry Christmas-the Day After!








Hope your Christmas was a wonderful one-ours sure was! We had 17 here-so it was a houseful. And I did get my new camera! It will take me some training-it has lots of new features that the old ones don't! I did finally get some pictures of Coccoa-isn't she the sweetest calf ever? I just want to pick her up and hug her-and of course, she won't let me anywhere close to her!

I have taken down all the decorations here in the house-I love having them up-but I'm always ready to get them packed back up when the 25th is over. We still have to take down the outside lights-but the weather is just so cold, damp and nasty-I don't like being out in it for too long! And as usual-I'm sick for the holidays. I woke up Friday morning with a sore throat-then Saturday fever-just felt bad yesterday-today just yuck. Jeff & I both have Doc appts on Wednesday for other things-so we'll see how I feel by then!

Everyone says you always complain about the weather you don't have-well we've had about 8 inches or so of rain this last week alone-Praise God! But I am SO ready for the sun to shine again! Everything is so damp and it's cold out. I go out for a little while-but then have to come back inside and warm up. It's that damp cold that just goes all the way to your bones! And it's really affecting Jeff's back. He's really stiff and in pain. Going through lots of firewood, too!

We don't have any plans for the next 2 weeks while I'm off. Jeff wants to get some more hunting done before the season ends this weekend-but he's seen no new tracks in way over a week up there at Mom's. We thought about going down to the beach for a few days-but not if the weather doesn't change! The time just goes by so fast!




Friday, December 23, 2011

Christmas Eve-Eve!



Maybe not the best title-but I guess it fits well!! We've been busy-but not too much-and not nearly as much as usual for the season! I believe we are finished with all parties and such-and only have Christmas Eve and Sunday's worship service left. Wednesday we had the kids hayride then the youth group's Christmas party-it went very well! The cookie above was from their party.

No more office for me til next year-yeah! We go back to work on the 9th of Jan-kids go back the next day-so I am looking forward to a nice long break! I'm up at Mom's right now-Jeff's out hunting again-we'll go home in a bit-I have to start getting some cooking done-you know the no bake fruit cake and the no-bake cookies from every year!! Honestly-I do want to get some of the actual baking done-cause with Christmas being on Sunday this year-it will make things a little different-but what a wonderful day to celebrate our Savior's birth!

Well-it seems we ended up with not 1-but 2 new roosters. Both are young-one is trying to crow-that awful-yet wonderful noise!-and 4 new hens. Jeff's mom decided she just didn't want to fool with them anymore-so we inherited them. But I do so miss the beautiful one I had! We had 1 litter of rabbits-going to have to breed back the other 2 does that didn't kindle. The calves are doing great-I still need to get a pic of Coccoa-she is so tiny and cute! Jeff took the small turkey and put it in with the bigger ones yesterday-but the hen kept beating her up-but the tom was trying to protect her. He went ahead and turned her out into the yard-he'd let the other chickens out for the first time since the rooster disapeared. It was so funny-that turkey follows him all over the yard! We went into the garden to check on things in there-I put 3 quarts of broccoli in the freezer!-and she stood at the gate waiting on him to come back out. When he fed her-he poured her feed back in the cage she's been in-she came up to it-stuck her neck in and Jeff just picked her up and put her back in! The hogs are growing as well-one's daysare becoming numbered-she'll be sausage before too long! Oh-and we got right at 4 inches of rain Wednesday night-the pond is full again! Praise God-now if we can just find hay at a price that is not so jacked up in price-it has just really gotten out of hand this year! We need to put Deisel in the barn and start feeding him out so he can go to the locker plant. He'll still be small-but the Dexter's don't get big.

We also had a wonderful surprise visit on Tuesday from one of Jeff's family friends. Regina ( I wouldn't do that to you with the nickname!) and her son, Ben, droppped by-we haven't seen her in years and had a great visit. She's living in Katy with her family and her brother, David, is in San Antonio. Jeff got to talk to him and we hope to stay in touch!

We are supposed to have some sunshine today-so I'll try to get out and take some pics of how things are going.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Kylee Meets Rascal !!

Kylee has really been interested in Rascal lately-and they actually met face to face today! Kylee's starting to scoot and roll around a little bit-so crawling is not too far off.
Well-the last few days have been good and bad! When we got home on Friday afternoon-Glory had had her calf-a beautiful tiny heifer! She is a wonderful color and Jordan has named her Cocoa. She was out of the pasture when Mady and I found her-so we moved the cows back into the pasture behind the house because it is fenced with net wire instead of just barb wire. I took some pictures of them yesterday-but with our cloudy weather-they just came out too dark-I'll have to wait til a brighter day. Then yesterday-my big beautiful rooster went missing. We had heard him crowing in the morning-but by mid morning-we found feathers in the front pasture and no crowing this morning. We don't know if it was a dog or a chicken hawk-Jeff saw a hawk one day last week-so the chickens stayed penned up today.
Our calendar is really staring to fill up quickly-this next month is always so busy for us. Next Saturday is Coldspring's annual Christmas on the Square event. Hailey and the drill team are set for a few performances and then the nighttime parade will be after dark. Children's Church Christmas program is next Sunday night-so we've been having practices for it as well! Busy, busy-but we'd have it no other way!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving-A few Days Late!

I sure hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and was able to spend it with family and friends! We spent my week off mostly at Mom & Shorty's with Jeff hunting. We went home Wednesday evening-came back on Thursday evening-back home Friday evening-then back up here tonight after a call from my brother that he had finally gotten a deer-so Jeff's helping him with it and I'll go back to work from here in the morning.

A few of our monkeys-with Randy being the biggest one of all!!



These pictures are of one of the big oak trees that stood in our back yard. It was one of at least 2 that we've lost so far this year to the drought. I was holding out that maybe it would come back in the Spring-but when we got home on Friday-a pretty good size limb was laying in the driveway. So I sucked it up and said Ok-I knew it had to come down. We left for a little while on Saturday morning to run some errands-in the rain!!!!-We got nearly 2 inches-praise God!Anyway-Jeff and I both noticed that with all the wind we were having, that the tree was beginning to lean-so it HAD to go and quickly. Jeff cut it down after Church-it had so many limbs and depending on which way it started to fall-it was just too close to the house for comfort. This one fell right where he wanted it as well-He is so talented!!

We are still waiting on Glory to have her calf-I really thought it would be sometime this last week-but she's still holding on. We've almost run out of meat in the freezer from the last calf butchered-so Diesel's days are really becoming numbered. None of the rabbits kindled-so I rebred them-should be due in another 2 weeks. Our friends picked up the 2 pigs we've been holding for them-boy is it much quieter-those 2 were very noisy! The garden is looking better than any I can remember in years past-too bad that the cold weather is going to put an end to some of it!! We are picking small red tomatoes almost everyday and they are still blooming. We had to cover lots of it before we left tonight cause the temps could go below freezing in the morning. We have tiny heads of cabbage and little heads of brocolli coming on. The snow peas have grown taller than their fence-but haven't started blooming yet and the peppers are still going strong-I put up 2 and a half more pints of them this week as well. These I put through my little chopper with a little onion instead of just slicing them.

I really didn't do any of the Black Friday shopping this year. I did go to Baskin's around 9:30, and there were no more people shopping than normal-so I tried my luck at the Outlet Mall in Livingston and treated myself to a new purse and wallet-just to get back to the camper and have the strap on the old one break-guess it was time for a new one anyway!

We put up the tree on Thursday as well-but I didn't put the ornaments on it until today. We haven't put any lights up outside yet either-but we'll get to it sometime. We also got the flour sifter in that I won off of eBay to go in our Hoosier cabinet. It was the correct measurements-but after a little research, we've found that it has to be taken apart to install it. So now Jeff will have to undo all he did a few weeks ago on it to see if he can figure out how this thing goes in and works. The bin itself will hold nearly 50 lbs of flour! It'll be so cool when we get it into working condition! I just love this piece-we bought it 10 years ago in Montgomery and have always planned to restore it to its' original glory. Jeff did repair the roll tops on it and did a great job-now I'll be looking for the sugar sifter, the recipe book holder a few other gadgets that were kinda standard on these cabinets.

Our high school football team is still going strong and is one game away from playing for the State Championship-same as last year! We are really thinking on making the trip to Dallas this year if they make it that far! We'll take Jordan with us if we go-he is really looking forward to it.

I have 3 weeks and 3 and a half days till my Christmas break. I'm looking forward to it-we won't go back to work for awhile-might even make it to the beach for a few days! The next few weeks are always so busy with Church activities and other things going on-it's easy to lose track of what Christmas is all about. I've really tried to make an effort this year to slow down and not let myself or family get too caught up in everything that's going on. I guess that is why I always enjoy the Christmas Eve Candlelight service. It is a time of worship and fellowship that allows me to slow down and honor Christ first and foremost! May your next few weeks be filled with His love and Spirit!! Have a great week!





Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween-2011!!

Our yearly scary (?) family picture! The first one for Kylee-and there is another extra-the little boy on the left is a friend of the kids that went Trick-or-treating along with them! They made the trip around the neighborhood-family only-then Alana took her crew over to the Fire Station for fun! They enjoyed themselves!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Garden Pics & Happy Cows!

Sugar & Oreo enjoying the grass I pulled from the garden this afternoon. They're eating out of one of the troughs Jeff made from the hollow tree he cut down. He's made 2 planters from pieces as well.

Here's a picture of the baby turkey we hatched in the incubator-SHE'S getting so big!



Broccoli plants growing!






Cabbage plants growing!




The carrots are in the lower right side bed-The squash-Jordan & Suzanne planted the seeds-are in the upper left-and the snow peas are growing up the fence at the top!


Well-no baby rabbits, yet. I forgot to add the extra days-I only added 28 days. One has pulled fur-so hopefully tomorrow.

We had Homecoming at Church today-we had well over 100 people-had to pull out a few folding chairs to seat folks! It's always great to see some of the older people-but sad to think of the ones we've lost this year. We had one couple come "home" from Missouri-it was great to see Danny & Linda! And of course-LOTS of good home cookin'!

We are planning to take the Youth Group to see the movie "Courageous" on Tuesday night. Minnie & family tried to go see it tonight-the Texan Theatre is showing it for free-but they couldn't get in. We had plans for Wednesday-the last night-but decided we might better try for Tuesday instead. It'll be hard for me to get from work-and picking up Hailey from Drill team practice-on time to leave. Gonna try not to worry about it!

Have a great week!













Saturday, October 29, 2011

Wow! Time is flying by-Again!

We got to work again on the greenhouse today-yeah! Jeff got it framed in and Curtis, Jr came by before dark and they got the glass put in! It's looking good. We've got to go get the plastic for the roof now and decide what we will put at the bottom below the glass pieces.


I spent part of Tuesday afternoon trying to get this tomato plant up and back into the cage-it is loaded with tomatoes and blooms! It-and a few others-survived our HOT summer and are now blooming and making tomatoes like crazy! We have 2 other ones that look very much like this-one I've been able to work a little on-the other I haven't gotten close to as of yet. This one will be inside the greenhouse-so hopefully it will keep producing through the winter.
The rest of the garden is doing wonderful-I need to take some pictures of it as well-but my camera isn't taking very good pictures these days. I've asked Santa for a new one already! ;) All the pics I take with it are just fuzzy and it has a very low zoom on it-I can't get close ups like I want too. Anyway-the broccoli has finally taken off-along with the cabbage. The brussel sprouts are still a little slow-the carrots are doing well and the jalapeno peppers just won't stop-they are still blooming as well. The beets never did come up and the lettuce is a little spotty-but they were all old seed-so anything from them was good. We've gotten a little rain almost once a week this last month and you can really begin to see the difference in things. Our first cold front hit Thursday-if you want to call it that-and we lit the first fire in the wood heater last night. I love to watch it burning!

The cows are doing well-I just wish we had more grass for them! We keep rotating pastures and give them a roll of hay every now and then-but it just isn't enough somedays. They love to see me working in the garden-cause they know I'm gonna throw the grass over the fence to them and will stand there and hollar at me to give them more-they are SO spoiled. Glory is due to have her calf around Thanksgiving-I need to check for a more precise date. Oreo is growing like a weed and I can't wait for her to have a buddy to run and play with-they can be SO cute! The 2 rabbits are bred-and have been busy building their nests-they are due to kindle in the next day or 2. This will be the first litters since summer began because of the heat. The pair of turkeys are growing nicely and the kids just love to hear the tom gobble. The one we hatched in the incubator is growing very fast as well-we moved her (hopefully!) into a cage next to the older ones so they can start becoming aquainted and won't fight when we add her to the flock! We did finally get 3 more Aracauna hens 4 weeks ago-but no eggs yet. Actually, we haven't really been getting any to speak of-be glad when they start laying again. It's almost time to start all that holiday baking!

The youth group at church is going well. We had our first big outing and they all had a ball. One of our parents took a bad fall from a horse today and had to be Life Flighted into Herman in Houston-but she's gonna be OK-has 5 broken ribs. Please keep Paige in your prayers-Korey told me tonight that her Mom might get to come home tomorrow.

Jeff is hoping to get the hayfield cut this next week-it has gotten enough rain over the last few weeks to really make it come on and grow!! Hopefully it'll make more than the 11 1/2 rolls that it did earlier in the Spring. I think we only have 1 more roll from our half of the cutting. Shorty still has several-but since he sold all his cows-I don't know why he is holding on to it. Guess he's waiting to buy more cows. We still would like to get the milk cow-but until it rains a little more-and I guess we get rid of a cow-we really don't have the pasture for one. Diesel will be going to the locker plant after the first of the year-but we'll have 2 more calves with the one due in a few weeks. I don't know-we'll just see what happens!


Sunday, September 25, 2011

New Dexter Calf!

What a wonderful surprise! We came home from Church today to find her! We had gone out this morning to check on Sugar-only to have her lick Jeff's hand and arm to pieces-then she has the calf while we're at Church. Anyway-Oreo is a little heifer and oh so cute! She is half Dexter and half Hereford. This is Fozzie's first calf and Glory is due around Thanksgiving.
We did get a little rain the first of this past week-but just about all the results of it are gone. It was really cool yesterday morning-but was 22 degrees warmer this morning. It's gonna be warm the rest of this week and another cool front is due in by the end of the week-hopefully with a little rain.
We brought the 2 sheets of glass home yesterday for the greenhouse. Jeff started working on it again on Friday and got the old sliding glass door from the house put up for 1 side. We've been working on getting the garden cleaned up so we can plant some stuff-we just seem to keep running out of time. We've bought tomatoes-broccoli (2x's)-brussel sprouts and cabbage plants and still have loads of seeds left over from the spring we want to get planted.
We have all but decided on getting a milk cow. The price of milk is outrageous-but the cows aren't cheap, either! Since we do live on quite a tight budget-we've got to find something very inexpensive. Any excess milk can be fed to the pigs and we might have found someone who will allow us to bred them with. Also have another lead on just buying a young boar-but will have to do some more checking on that! A friend was going to try to pick us up some new Araucauna hens at the Bird Show in Conroe today-but she called and said she didn't see any really nice ones to get -so we'll keep looking! I really miss having a few green eggs!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Good Stuff-Cool Stuff-Sad Stuff

Here's some of the good stuff-the new pigs! They are settlin' in very well-they still don't like creep pellets-they much rather prefer slop-go figure!

And 6 more pints of picante sauce!-This batch came out a little on the warm side-but yummy! I also put up 1 more pint of jalapeno peppers-they don't last long around here!



Ok-now for the cool stuff! My hubby is SO talented! See that small space between the trees-that's one of the laying hens in the far background-that's where the small gate that leads into the little pasture at the front of our property is. We had a very large-very dead black gum tree that's been standing in that area forever. It died about 2 years ago and we kept talking about cutting it down before it fell on top of Jeff's shop. It was hollow-had very few limbs left-and was beginning to crack in several places. We knew it had to be cut before it fell on its' own and caused some major damage.





Well-it's down now! And boy-it really was hollow!







And did I mention how cool my hubby is? He threw that big tree right where he wanted it to fall-right between the gate posts!! One is slightly leaning-but will just have to be reset a little! Boy am I impressed!


We celebrated our 32nd anniversary last week-yeah!! We ran into Galveston Friday afternoon and stayed the night-just kinda hung out and took it easy-we really enjoyed each others company with no interuptions! And as usual-I had the camera-and never took the first picture!


Now the sad news. Dogs killed both of our sheep sometime late Thursday night/early Friday morning. The kids have been missing Pretzel quite a bit-she was just like a big puppy that followed them everywhere in the pasture and demanded attention at the gate anytime anyone was in the back yard. No animal deserves that and she'll be sorely missed.

We also have a pair of turkeys now as well -they are about 17 weeks old. The tom is starting to try gobblin'-quite a funny sound!

Youth group is going well-we have an outting planned in a few weeks-they want to have a paintball war-we'll see-but we want to let them get their bearings in the woods at the river so they don't get lost!! No really-we want to let them just get better aquaintted with us and learn that as Christians-they can have lots of fun in good, wholesome ways!









Tuesday, September 6, 2011

RAIN-OK-2/10ths!

We did manage to get a little-but a good drenching rain would be great! It has just been SO hot and dry this year. But we got our first cool front yesterday-it is WONDERFUL!!!
Well-we did our first football game in I don't even know how long. Last Friday night was Jr. High night at the High School game and was Hailey's very first drill team performance. She did great and even won Belle of the week. We were SO proud! And the Trojans beat the Mustangs!!
Only 2 of the turkeys hatched and lots of guinnes. Only one of the turkeys made it though. We bought 2 pigs yesterday-one that is 175 lbs and a small weaned one-both gilts. We'll watch the oldest to see if she comes in heat-she was in a pen with a young boar-and then decide who will go into the freezer-her or Lucy. We really need to find someone with a boar that we can hire to bred one or both-they are becoming WAY too hard to find and expensive as well! I'll get some pics of them when I can remember to take my camera out to the pens.
We start teaching a youth class at church tomorrow night-keep us and the kids in your prayers. We feel very honored to be asked to lead these young minds toward a closer relationship with Christ.
Mom is back in the hospital again-she was holding lots of fluid-Long story as usual-but she's having a bad go with gout now-she's been there for over a week-hopefully she'll come home soon. We didn't go camping for the long weekend, either. Just decided it wasn't worth it with the high gas prices and all. Our anniversary is next week and may go then or might just book a hotel room in Galveston-we haven't really decided-it's hard to make plans when you don't know what's gonna happen with Mom.
We've been having a ball watching the hummingbirds on the back porch-I go out there when I get in from work and watch them fight over the feeders. Jeff counted 8 one day last week-why they can't share is just beyond me-they fuss and screech at each other and it seems like no one gets anything to eat!!

Monday, August 22, 2011

Long time-No Blogin'



First day of School-2011! They were all ready to go-it was Mady's first day of Pre-K. But she cried and really was upset when Julie tried to leave-apparently she was under the impression that Mom gets to stay all day too-Rude awakening! Hailey had Drill Team practice-so Julie had to go pick her up at school-so I haven't had the chance to see any of them. Jordan did come over and said he had a really good day. Alana said Kaytlynn was totally droopy when she got off the bus-at 5:00-she went straight into the AC and onto the couch-she's out like a light! Hopefully the bus ride will get shorter-the usually get off around 4:30-but the bus driver told Alana he has 19 more kids on his bus route this year!

Not much has been going on around here-the biggest reason I haven't blogged in awhile. The hot temps-over 100 degrees everyday-and NO rain! We are still watering the yard in spots and some of the garden-we have jalapeno peppers and a few tomato plants have survived and are still blooming. Sugar never did have her calf-one day she just didn't look bred anymore-but no signs of having a calf-so we don't know if it was a false one or not. But she wasn't bred when we brought her home-so any calf she might have now will be Fozzie's. We had 2 chicks hatch off under a hen-so cute! The turkeys and guinnies are due to hatch next Monday-we'll see!

We were lucky enough to get a camp site back at Crystal Beach for Labor Day weekend! They had a cancelation and called Jeff to see if we wanted the site-you bet! It'll be a great get away!

My boss had to have her shoulder operated on the other day-so we are starting the school year without her-it's been a little hectic at times-but we're getting through it! We are getting more and more Technology equipment and it takes more time and effort to keep it up and running! More job security-Yeah!!

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Fast Week!

My camera doesn't zoom in close-but if you look hard enough-you can see a deer in the middle of this pic! Her and a buck with velvet on his horns walked out right in front of us on our way out to Coldspring on Tuesday. Probably part of the ones that ate up the garden!

We spent a good part of the week getting Hailey back and forth from drill team camp. They had a show off on Thursday at the end of it. She on the right-and did a really good job especially for someone who's never had any dance classes in her life!



Vacation week at the beach may have gone by calm and slow-but-this week at home has just been a blur. Jeff had a Doc appt on Monday-then I went shopping for work clothes on Wednesday and shopped for shoes yesterday and Samamtha cut and foiled my hair last night-thanks again! We got the walls put up in the utility room and bought shelves for it yesterday-so that room is finally coming together!

Jeff's been setting the traps again and caught a baby coon the other night-we just took him for a ride and let him loose at a creek several miles from us. But that little sucker was BAD!! You would have thought he was full grown with all the fuss he was making! And we're on calf watch still-Sugar should be due anyday now-I think I made 3 or 4 trips out to check on her yesterday-1 already this morning! You can tell she's ready-just a matter of time. And the dog did get several of the hens-so we are down to 5 and the rooster-and 2 of them are setting again-the same 2 that hatched out bitties earlier this spring. So we are only getting 2 eggs a day right now-1 of the hens is really old-so I don't think she's laying at all.

Seems Tropical Storm Don was no help to anyone. Can you believe how that storm just fizzled out? I know we got some really need rain last week-but it's already getting dry here again! Everything looks so green-but with 100 dgree days-it won't last long without rain.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Great Week!

I found a shark's tooth on the beach this morning! It's the first one I've found in quite awhile and the only one we've found this week. Not a big one-but one all the same!

This sand crab/fiddler crab met us at the beach this morning-I've NEVER seen a white and yellow one before and he was quite large! I would have LOVED to catch him and take him home to the grandkids-but I knew that would only cause its' death-so I just left it alone.



Well-it's almost over :( But we've had such a great time! We are on the camp grounds waiting list for Labor day weekend-and we are only the third in line. The requests in front of us only want the spaces on the Intercoastal-we'll take ANYTHING!! So it looks kinda good that we'll get to come back real soon! We also made reservations in the middle of September for our anniversary-and we got one of the best sites at the park-right on the Intercoastal canal. Hopefully we'll have our fishing lights by then and can do some serious night fishing! Speaking of-that's what we did last night! We met a young couple who are the new owners of a bait camp down here and they invited us to fish last night under the lights. The speckled trout were just popping and rolling in the water! It was great-but they didn't bite very well :( . I did catch one and I think we ended up with it and 4 sand trout and we're planning to go back tonight. We didn't get back to the camper until right at 2:00 am-really late for us. But it has been SO hot here and I guess everywhere else too. August will be here soon!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Today's Catch!

Our late evening catch of the day! We didn't even venture out until after noon today-We woke up this morning to thunder and lightning! It rained quite a bit-but it all soaked up here, too. Alana said it was really raining hard at the house too-so that is great news! We spent some time in the old neighborhood-they now have a washateria in Gilchrist! We spent quite awhile talking to the man who owns it. Two of his workers walked across the street and into the surf and started catching the heck out of speckled trout! And of course-we didn't have the rods and reels with us! We're gonna try it out in the morning-then gonna ride the ferry over to Galveston and spend the day over there. Don't really have any plans-other than eating somewhere nice!

This is an awful picture-but I'm just so proud of the pedicure I got from Samantha last week. She painted little flip-flops on my toenails since I was going to the beach! My feet are covered with antbites-I got into ants at the house before we left-then on the side of the road when we had the flat on the camper. Well-the fish is ready-I just baked it with butter and cajun seasoning-sure smells good!!



Sunday, July 17, 2011

Beach Vacation!

Kaytlynn with her treasures from the beach this morning-lots of small shells and a few clams.

Jordan & Kaytlynn at the boat ramp at the campground-he's bound and determined to catch himself some bait in the dip net.



Our little piece of Paradice for the week-this is a really nice place to camp so far-but it is awfully hot! We brought Jordan & Kaytlynn with us and Ricky, Alana & Kylie came later in the afternoon. We spent a little time at the beach right at dark last night-it was just TOO hot to get the baby out!




But- this is Kylie and Alana this morning-her second time on the beach! She slept through this morning's trip though!




Last night's trip though-she was wide awake and trying to process it all! She slept well overnight-Alana said she only woke up once-and we never heard a peep out of anyone-Jordan & Kaytlynn were completely worn out!



Well-we finally made it-After ANOTHER flat tire-we had one on the camper bring it home from Mom's-and having to turn around and go back into Winnie for another tire-Ended up having to buy 4 brand new ones! It rained on us close to half of the way down-and Alana said that we got a really good rain at the house! YEAH! We finally-well almost-finished the fence around the new pasture and got the cows moved over there on Friday evening-boy were they enjoying the grass! I meant to take a picture of them-but with all the packing and getting ready to leave-I just forgot! Ricky is going to feed for us while we are here-they've already left for home. We lost 3 or 4 hens on Saturday to a neighbors dog-so they will have to be kept penned up until the problem is solved-that leaves us with only 5 or 6 left-so I'll be looking for some replacements when we get back. I hope to find some Araucaunas-we miss the green eggs! We let the horse into the pasture with the sheep so he can have some grass-A man Jeff used to work with is coming to get the horse on Wednesday-no one is riding him anymore and feed is just costing us too much-so he has to go.

We've fished a few times already-here in the canal and at the beach. I caught a small croaker and Jeff caught a hard head at the beach-hopefully we'll get into some bigger/better catches some time this week. Today is Jeff's birthday-so I really wish he'd hang something great! He just came in from walking Rascal and said it's just roasting out there-guess we'll have to wait til it cools off to try some more!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Summer Break Has Begun!

Kaytlynn coming into Church for Parent's night at VBS.


Jordan coming in-The theme this year was New York City-the kids had a ball!



Kylie and Grandpa-He had her grinning-but I couldn't get a pic in time-go figure! She has already gained 1.1 pounds and grown 1/2 an inch. She has a very hearty appetite!



I don't know what happened to the last post-it somehow was eaten-pics-text and all! anyway-I'll try to start over! We've been getting a little rain-not near enough-but any little bit we are grateful for! I'm off work until August 1st-so I'm looking foward to a little R&R!

We are planning to go to the beach camping next Saturday-We changed our Caddo Lake plans-we just didn't feel comfortable going so far off with all the health issues Mom's been having. We can't seem to keep her out of the hospital-and we're working with the Docs to try to get her off some of the meds-she's on WAY too much stuff! Dad started his chemo Wednesday-through fanny pack drip-he was in very good spirits at Church-no side effects yet-hopefully he won't have to suffer through any!

Jeff was reinstated as a Deacon 2 weeks ago-most members didn't even know he was in an inactive state. We really are enjoying our new pastor-Bro. Tobey and family are great!

I know I had LOTS more stuff on the eaten posts-guess I'll put it on later-if I can remember!






Thursday, June 23, 2011

Baby Kylee is here!!



She arrived at 3:35 and weighed in at 7 lbs-Has lots of dark hair-Mom and baby are doing great! Will post more later!! Love, Susie



Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Canning Day & Baby Watch!!

We spent Saturday morning making pickles and picante sauce! Came out great-even if we did have to buy the cukes from Wood Duck Farm's road side stand! Ours just didn't grow-no matter how much watering we did! But- the tomatoes, peppers and onions all came from the our garden-minus the ones we got from the Allbright's! Good stuff!
And we are on baby watch!! Alana is to check in at the hospital at 5:30 am in the morning to be induced!! So baby Kylee will be here tomorrow! The kids seem to be more excited at this point to get to spend the night with us!! Jordan has enough toys packed-you'd think he was going cross country instead of across the yard! And Kaytlynn is worried about Grandpa not feeding her! We'll have to leave here at 4:30 am to get there on time-hopefully it will go quickly-Kaytlynn sure came fast!!
And THANK YOU GOD!!! It finally rained today! It was SO wonderful!! We still have a chance to get some more overnight-and it seems the grass is already growing!! Hopefully we'll be able to move the cows across the road by the end of the weekend-there is just no grass left anywhere!
I'll post baby pics asap! Gotta get things ready for tomorrow!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Cutest Pic!

Isn't this just TOO sweet? They were already bedded down for the night-it's just SO hot-ain't NO way we're staying under mom's wings! We'll just perch on the edge-or better yet-how about on top??
Well-we've given up on the big garden-it just burned up!! We did bring 3 buckets of mushroom dirt into the garden here at the house yesterday-and planted field corn in it tonight and watered it in. We'll see what happens! The tomatoes are about the only things that seem to be thriving at the moment-the peppers are a close second.
I'm back on 10 hour days for the summer-at least the 16 days I have to work! And I've put 2 of them in already! We are going camping this weekend at the lake-it'll be the first time we've actually taken the camper-camping. It has always been taken somewhere and set up to stay for AWHILE. This will be the test run before our week long trip in July-can't wait!
We are still on baby watch. Alana goes to the Dr on Thursday and they will set up her date to induce. She was dilated to a 1 and starting to thin out last week and has been having contractions on and off for weeks now. Her baby shower is Saturday-so she has to hold out til then! She is SO ready!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Has this Much Time Really Gone Past??

I don't believe I've ever let this much time go by without posting! We've been terribly busy-but I've taken pictures-just never had gotten around to sitting down and posting them. The drought is just about to take away any chance of the garden surviving-that and the deer!! They have got me SOOO upset! The green beans were right at ready to pick-I checked them on a Thursday afternoon and decided they could be picked on Saturday morning-only to find out the deer found them sometime that night or the next. The also have eaten all the peas. Every time we think we might get a handful-they beat us to them! We have a scarecrow-a flag-a noisy pie tin-stinky perfume-that did work for a few days-and we'll be putting the hair from our haircuts out this evening. The corn looks awful-just from no rain and the heat-but Jeff does have several little watermelons coming on-hopefully the deer won't find them. We're planning to dig the potatoes this evening or first thing in the morning. My boss gave us 2 small bags of potatoes and I canned 5 quarts of them. Every little bit counts! We've gotten several BEAUTIFUL tomatoes, a few squash and peppers from the garden here next to the house and the cucumbers are just loaded with little ones-hopefully we'll be making pickles before too long! Here is the second hen who has hatched off her bitties-only 5 this time-but she's a really good mom and taking very good care of them. Wish we could put her down on the ground-but just can't take the chance of something getting them. Jeff killed a 5 foot chicken snake-with my help!-last Saturday. It was between this cage and a cage of just born baby rabbits. Guess it took just a few minutes too long to decide which it wanted for breakfast-TOO BAD!!


This our beautiful granddaughter, Hailey, ready to go to her first dance. The fifth graders were invited to a Junior High Dance to get aquainted. She said she didn't dance with any boys-just hung out with her friends and had a good time. Oh-and she did make the LJH Trojan Belles Drill Team!!



One of the squash growing in the garden. I thought I was planting plenty-but wish now I had planted more-Guess we can try again in the fall.





Another varmit Jeff caught! They will not stay out of the feed! They will tear into every sack in the shed overnight. He also trapped a possum a few days before this on got caught-but something else is up to it again.



This is possibly the BIGGEST project we've been working on. The roof was leaking badly in the camper-so Jeff decided to re-roof it. A friend of Shorty's works for a rubber roofing company and got most of the materials for us! Thanks so much!! Anyway-there were several rotted parts in the ceiling-so that had to be repaired first. And of course-the first night everything was off of it and covered with tarps was 1 of the nights we did get some rain! It rained in on us twice that night! He did finally get it finished and then decided to bring it home last Friday-only to find out that it was terribly rotten along the bottom. Jeff was worried it wasn't going to even make it home in one piece. It did-and they've been replacing walls all weekend-and it is looking great now! We plan to start doing some camping and already have reservations here on the lake in 2 weeks and a week long trip to Caddo State Park in July. It's really hard to make plans this summer because of the arrival of Baby Kylie. Only God knows for sure when she'll make her appearance. Alana is getting very tired-but she has less than a month left to go. It doesn't help too much when both of her kids have a stomach virus right now!

I'll finish for now-still have LOTS of thoughts running through my head of things I've just remembered-but it would take the rest of the afternoon to get it all down!! God Bless!!








Saturday, April 9, 2011

Busy Days and Flying Time?

This is what TIRED looks like!! Jeff had SUCH a busy week-details later-and Hailey has been in Drill Team try-outs 3 days this week-And Friday night just went by with out them! Pictures posted backward-but this is what the backyard looks like after several hours of putting down the mushroom compost then laying down squares of grass. We have decided that we have had enough of the sand in the backyard-it's so bad right now because of the lack of rain-that we have planted San Augustine around in the yard. Jeff, Alana and Mady picked up 100 squares on Friday-but we could sure use another 100 plus to cover up more of the sand!
This is what it looked like before the compost and grass was layed. Did you notice the hens in the picture above? They have truely become "free-range"-they are let out each morning-then shut up at night for their own protection! We have 1 hen who is setting at the moment on 10 eggs-she's got 2 more weeks to go! Hopefully she'll do better than we did!
And we had another tooth pulling tonight-Cayden has had a loose tooth for weeks now-Jeff tried to pull it a week or so ago-no go. She decided it WAS coming out tonight! It was really loose-but just wouldn't let go!
After 2 good pulls-the 3rd one finally got it out-she was SO happy! This is her first one-and Jordan was just way too far ahead of her!
We've been really busy trying to get the garden growing-LOTS of watering! I don't even want to think about next month's water bill :( We've finally coaxed a few things to come up in the big garden-lots of peas and green beans and the corn is popping up in rows!! We intended to get the scarecrow up and out there to day-but didn't get to it. The deer have been known to wipe the gardens in that area of the property out over night! So we have to get a hold on it before they do! Jeff has a few watermelons coming up-the first potatoes were very spotty-the second planting is doing much better and Jeff's mom replanted in the spaces that didn't come up-and this morning-they were poking up as well! YEAH!!

Tomorrow at church will be a very important day-we will hear the pastor that the search committee has chosen. What we know of him is really great and we are very much looking foward to meeting him and his family. We will have a fellowship meal after the morning service to get to know them a little better. Lots of prayer has gone into this and we know that God will let us know what decision needs to be made. I have just one more lesson left in the Beth Moore Bible study we've been doing on Thursday nights-it's the first one I ever had the pleasure to be involved in. I've learned alot about the life of David!

Guess I'll close for now-we are trying to get some food cooked for tomorrow's meal-got a peach cobler in the oven-from last years peaches! Jeff's gonna make some yeast rolls and we'll get a few other side dishes together. Tomorrow will be another busy day!! God Bless!