Rain & Storm Damage

The high winds and rain-we got 2.2 inches!!-late Friday night and into Saturday caused one of the dead trees to fall onto the back yard fence-which just happens to be a pasture fence as well! But the cows weren't able to reach it-so they couldn't escape. But that didn't stop them on Friday morning-they somehow managed to get the pasture gate opened and Jeff's brother-in-law Donald called to say they were in his yard. No damage done-they are like a herd of puppies-just call 'em and they come running-kicking their heels up the whole way like it's some sort of cute little game to be escape artists!

Part of the tree fell across the fence and onto the kids trampoline-it was like a different playground for them-tunnels everywhere! Country kids can find fun in everything-not to mention all the mud puddles from all the rain we've been getting!!

Well-we now have one of the newest members of the LJH cheerleading squad living next door-Congrats to Hailey-she made the squad for next year!! We are SO proud of you! She was nervous-but at least she didn't have a panic attack this year like she did before drill team try-outs last year! It'll be a busy summer for her-and most likely for us as well!

We finally pulled up the brocolli plants and fed them to the cows this week. They had given all they could-I didn't think they were ever gonna stop making-but that's ok by me! I love brocolli! We'd picked up a few cauliflower plants-so we put them in their place. It's way too wet to even begin thinking about getting anything planted. We bought seed potatoes-but they will have to wait until it dries up a little. We aren't expecting any rain this week-so far- and it should be fairly warm-70's some days. Some of the fruit trees in the area are starting to bloom-my redbud in the front yard is starting as well. I really wish we had the bee hive already and didn't have to wait until the end of April to go pick them up. The tomato plants we started from seed are the most beautiful ones I think we've ever had. They are growing strong and healthy looking-looking forward to the fresh tomatoes they'll make this summer!

Father(Grandfather!) / Daughter Dance

Mady came home from school last week with a note for her Grandpa-an invitation to her school's Father/Daughter Dance! She wanted him to take her-not Uncle Randy or Uncle Ricky. So they had a date tonight! MaMa made her a special dress and Grandpa bought her stockings, new shoes, and a corsage! She was very excited! We'll see how the evening goes!

Jordan and Kylee enjoying a few moments together before we left for school yesterday. She's pulling herself up and standing against everything she can!

We've had a busy week around here-and MORE rain-thank you Lord! Monday started out with Jeff butchering the biggest hog-along with Titus' help. She was quite a big pig-so it took the guys all day and then some of the next. We don't know what we'd have done without Titus' help-he made things much easier for Jeff! The bacon is in the smokehouse now!

Jeff took the steer to the locker plant yesterday-so we'll have fresh beef next week as well! God is SO good! This is the reason we raise our own meat-we know what they've been fed and are processed in a dignified way. We are healthier because if it!

Tomorrow we'll spend the day in Conroe-gotta have new tires on my truck along with an oil change and new windshield wipers-I HATE to buy tires-one of my pet peeves-just don't like to spend money on them! Jeff needs new work boots-and I'm gonna get him an MP3 player for Valentines. I think he'll enjoy it while riding the tractor and while he's about his day. He wants to get a new pump for the well and get it back up and working. We haven't used it for years-even had dismantled the whole top part and gotten rid of it-so we need the motor and all. We need to find some more hay that we don't have to pay an arm and leg for!

Oh-and I ordered myself an eReader-should be here next week. I'm really looking forward to learning how to use it. I have the Kindle app on my laptop-but it isn't always easy sitting and reading from it. And this way the grandkids can have my laptop and I can still read.

We've started some tomatoes from seed and so far-they seem to be doing good. We bought a grow light to put on them last weekend and they are now getting their first true leaves. We planted Brandywine, Delicious, and Creole. We bought the seed potatoes last weekend as well-but we haven't gotten the ground even disced up yet-it'll get done when it gets done!

Garden Produce Bounty!

The first head of cabbage we've ever raised!! We've got 7 more out there!

More carrots-look at the one on the right-it had 4 seperate roots!

The broccoli just won't quit-no complaining here, though! We cut the main heads weeks ago-and the side shoots just keep coming!

The pictures speak for themselves!! The garden is doing great at the moment and we've been getting RAIN!! It actually is MUDDY around here!! We've got to get the big gardens disced up and ready to plant-too wet right now though-Blessings !!!!

The hens aren't laying at all-might get 1 egg a day. I'm thinking on getting some chicks real soon-and just starting over. The steer is just about ready to go to the locker plant-Jeff will probably call and make him an appointment next week. The hog is ready to butcher-we're just waiting on a good cold day to do the deed. Fresh link sausage will be SO good!

My Doc visit went well this week-I lost 10 lbs! Yeah!!In 1 month! The Doc said to keep on doing what I'm doing-borderline diabetes is enough to make a lifestyle eating change. Carbs are my issue-and boy do I love my potatoes, pasta and of course-Jeff's homemade bread. It's been tough-but I have to do this for my own health!

Have a great weekend!

A Day at the Beach!

This is the last large head of broccoli from the garden-along with the carrots I pulled just to thin them out. It made a pint size full bag in the freezer. Yummy!!

Shorty has been wanting to take a trip down to the beach to do a little salt water fishing-so we got up early yesterday morning and made the drive down. It was a beautiful day-but the fish weren't biting. :( Jeff did catch a rat Red-not legal size-so he was returned to the Intercoastal Canal.

Shorty's catch of the day-a very small Whiting-which also was returned-this time to the Gulf. We tried fishing in 3 different spots-including Roll Over Pass-with no luck at all-but we really had a great day of fun!

This is the Cross at the end of Hwy 124 in High Island when you hit the beach. It was such a wonderful site-even with the Sea Gull perched on top!

Well-my Christmas break is nearly over-back to work on Monday! We did absolutely nothing for New Year's-we were in bed by 9:00pm! We'd been really busy all day and didn't even make it to Church for the celebration there. And no New Year resolutions here as well-we just don't do them.

We are having dog trouble again-we've got a few hens missing-Jeff actually found one of them-the dog was after her again-she survived and is back in with the rest of the flock. Lucy is starting to show so we are expecting a litter of pigs at the end of February-yeah!

My Doc visits have shown that some of the problems I've been having may be due to me developing early sign of diabetes. Seems my blood work is coming back that my body is having a little trouble with the carbs I'm eating-so I'm on Meds and cutting back on the carbs and go back to the doc in a month to see if there's been any change and/or weight loss. We'll see-I really love my pasta-rice-potatoes, etc!!!

Have a great start to your New Year!

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!

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.

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!