Our First Full Day in the Country!

We woke up to a cool spring morning with a few sprinkles of rain to further freshen the country air!

We slept like babies last night!

This was the very first thing I saw when I cam out the camper door.

Glad I took a picture then............

because it is now chopped up for tonight's campfire!

I fixed us a heart breakfast which we ate at noon.

For some reason I cook more when I'm down here.

The cinnamon bread from Collin Street Bakery is as good as I thought it would be.

I added cheese, chopped onion, garlic and green bell peppers to the eggs along with some crispy bacon. Food just seems to takes better in the country!

While I tidied up the camper and then went off to do some critter watching, 

Louis Dean prepared to go fishing in the big tank.

I remembered to bring sugar cubes!

The horses fell in love with me! 

They really REALLY liked the sugar and ate it right out of my hand!

I am a city slicker so I never tire of hearing and watching country critters!

It was an unexpected treat to see the peacock with his plume all fanned out!

Dean and Sherry are working on a 12 foot peacock pen and they are hoping to hatch the peacock eggs. They tried last year but were unsuccessful. Maybe this year!

I thought this was Thumper but it's not.

His name is BBQ because he is so troublesome that Dean threatens to cook him.

He is in the back of Dean's pick up - which is NOT where he's supposed to be!

The horses here are all rescue ones. 

They arrived, one by one, in pretty bad shape but are all beautiful now.

These are the 'new' chicks that were babies not so long ago.

My job this evening is to gather them up and put them in a portable pen up by the camper.

How hard can it be to catch seven young chickens??

This guy's loose but I don't have to pen him up, thank goodness!

They are safer in the pens from the coyotes.

I do enjoy the critters down here.

This afternoon we had 'a fly in the buttermilk' as the old saying goes.

Dean was trying to get out of here and get down to Dallas for the Karate class he's teaching when he had truck trouble on the County Line Road.

Louis Dean pulled him back to the ranch with his truck, then Dean loaded his equipment into the big white truck and are now on their way to class. Louis Dean will spend the night in Irving and come back down here to the ranch in the morning and Sherry will bring Dean home on Sunday,

This means that I am sitting here writing in the late afternoon all alone on the ranch.

For the very first time EVER, I am the ONLY one here.

Wow. 

I will finish my post later this evening,,,,,just getting a head start now so I can sit out and stargaze tonight.

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I just came in from doing all the critter chores!!

I may have lingered a little long at the peacock pen admiring the beautiful colors.

He had his feathers all open when I walked up and, after shaking them at me, he regally closed them in like a fan.

I successfully got all seven chickies in the pen up here by the camper.

In the doing of that, I also got my daily exercise!

I managed to entice five of them to follow me as I held the feeder pan that Dean made recently from a childhood memory of Vacation Bible School. They made them in class and he had this come back to mind and made them again! It works like a charm!

I walked slowly with the feeder hanging low so they could peck at it.

Once we got to the pen....I set it down and as they fed, I scooped them up one at a time!

I had to go back and get the other two - one at a time - by hook or by crook!

I did a lot of walking back and forth which was really good for me!

After that I fed all the chickens and roosters in the pens and the two roaming roosters where they were. Then I fed the goats which were already chained inside their pens except for Thumper and BBQ who stay close to Mimi and BeeBee. Lastly, I fed the ducks.

Then I gathered eggs. 

Then I washed eggs.

I have yet to count them but it will be several dozen!

The sun is about to set and I have poured a rewarding glass of wine.

I will end this days journal now as I go out to sit on the deck and await Louis Dean's return.

Sherry met him and Dean halfway and he is on his way home now.

He called me a few minutes ago and he was at the 7 mile mark to Mart.

I think the ranch is maybe 10 miles from Mart so he should be here any minute now!