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!

Thanksgiving Week

Well, not much to report here! Jeff & I spent the first of the week just hanging out-not doing much. The doe and 2 yearlings continue to show up almost nightly in the front pasture. They had a birthday party at Curtis,Jr.'s last night-so nothing other than the rabbits on the camera last night. Randy & Ricky got alot of firewood stacked for us while we were at the beach-we left Thursday evening-took the tractor-and went to the beach. It was really wet-so we didn't get much work done. Didn't even fish! :( We came on home yesterday morning. We have all the paperwork in to apply for the disabilty insurance and had a call from the Social Security Office in Conroe-so Jeff will have to call them on Monday.
We have a cold front headed our way that is supposed to drop quite a bit of rain over the next few days-temps might get to 50 here tomorrow-And today we have the doors open and it should reach 76-Good ole Texas weather! Have a great day!

Deer!!

These 2 does showed up Wednesday night-and ate ALL the corn!

And this buck showed up around 7:30 Friday night-he didn't stay around as long as the does did! He's not the one we got pics of earlier-this one appears to be a 6 point!

We spent nearly the whole day yesterday looking for the parts for the hot tub! The new pump and heater came in on Thursday-but all the fittings were wrong. We finally found a place in the Woodlands that got us all fixed up! Jeff and Randy got it all set up and going again-the water was 66 degrees! This morning it was up to 84 degrees-so if it's not raining this evening-we might get in it tonight for the first time in over a month!

The garden seems to be picking up ever so slightly! I have 2 squash that finally came up and lots of lettuce-a few of the snow peas are appearing. We only got the 1 litter of bunnies-so I'll have to rebreed the doe who didn't kindle.

Well-only 5 days this week and then we have our week off! I'm looking foward to getting a few things done here in the house the first day or 2. We'll go down to the beach on Thanksgiving afternoon or early Friday morning. We are gonna take the tractor and get some dirt work taken care of and Duane needs to use it some, too.

We have a pretty strong cool front headed our way-it won't get out of the low 60's for the next couple of days-it was 80 yesterday and will be today again. We have leaves all over the ground-I was just looking around last weekend and thinking that they hadn't started falling yet-what a difference a week can make!

I hear a hen cackling-must have an egg! Have a great week!

RAIN!!!!

Look what showed up on the game camera this week!!! We got 32 pictures of him-he left in the early morning hours, then came back at nearly 10 pm that night!

Boy-have we had rain this week! I have poured out 6 inches from the rain gauge in the last 24 hours or so! We had gotten the rest of the seeds planted in the garden on Tuesday-don't know where they are now! :( Hopefully at least a few will sprout somewhere we can find them. It was SO bad that when Jeff moved the cows yesterday-Rainbow sunk up to her belly in the yard-right by the garden! She managed to get herself out-but really scared Jeff!

Jeff didn't work yesterday-the first day the job has told him not to come in! Randy was rained in and several others-Tim & Candy were stuck-Jeff had to take the tractor down to get their road where they could get out. Then broke their waterline!

We are on our way into Cleveland-Jeff has an appointment to get his eyes checked-then on into Conroe-I have to find a pair of shoes to wear to work. My feet are so weird shaped-I have a hard time finding something to fit. For some reason-flipflops just won't work for work or in the winter-unless I wear them with socks! Have a safe and happy Halloween-I'm sure I'll post pics of the grandkids tomorrow-in costume!!

Deer!!

Jeff got his first pictures of a deer! It was late Sunday night/early Monday morning in the pasture across the road-between our house and Jeff's parents. We are so excited! He doesn't have a good rack-but it is the first deer we've captured on the camera!

And Sheila-I locked my keys in my truck yesterday!!! I don't know when I last did that!! Luckily, Jeff was on his way home from work-so he came to my rescue-my hero! But I couldn't help but think of you-all those times in Cleveland!! hehe

I'm still working on my bedroom-with the wasted time yesterday afternoon-I didn't get much done-but I'm slowly making progress! Mostly need to get the dressers cleaned off and find some place to put blankets and other things!?!

Jeff has a big meeting at work today-it's finally here-Rumor has it they are cutting part of the plant to 32 hours-today will tell which sections and for how long. They have very little work-so it's not gonna be good! Belt-tightening time!!!

Cold Outside!

Well, the old saying around here goes-If you don't like the weather today-Wait 'til tomorrow!! When I got up yesterday-it was warmer than when we went to bed on Tuesday night. It stayed warm all day-off and on little showers-of course after I put 2 loads of laundry out on the line to dry! They did manage to dry-then right after 9:00-the cold front ARRIVED! The temps started dropping FAST. Now this morning its 40 degrees and not expected to get out of the 50's all day-now that's pretty cool for this neck of the woods!
Randy shot his first deer in over 10 years on Tuesday (actually only the 2nd one he's ever got!). Talk about one excited big ole boy!! He was still shaking even after him and his dad got it cleaned!! So we had fried deer steak for supper last night! YUMMY!
Mom will be here in a few hours-I have to take her back over to Conroe for her next heart test-this time echo with the dye. Tomorrow we go back for all the test results-she is so nervous! I told her if she didn't just calm down-she's gonna make herself sick!!
I'm gonna stop by one of the feed stores over in Conroe today to see about picking up Jeff another bee hive. All of our old ones have just about rotted away. We did manage to scrap together an old one last week-he's trying to capture 2 different hives from trees. One is behind Mom's house in a neighbor's yard-and the other is in a tree at his brother James' house. This tree was blown over during IKE and is just full of honey and bees!! So Jeff's gonna try to lure them into the hive body and bring them home. We haven't had hives in years and he really wants to get started with them again!! Wish him luck!!!!