Our Weekend in the Country........

Louis Dean worked long and hard on the shower Friday morning and he was such a happy man when he told me it was WORKING!!!! Turn the faucet on - and you get water!!! Not hot water - but water!!

I can live with that!

We went to 'town' to celebrate by having lunch at B. Walkers's on Texas Avenue!

Louis Dean was in such a good mood that he joked with both the waitress and the owner.

It's wonderful to have a good restaurant right here in Mart!

By the way, his chicken fried steak was delicious and so was my fried catfish!

We went on down to the Dollar Store - I love that place - and then finished up our shopping at Read's where Louis Dean went off the deep end and bought a whole stack of sirloin steaks - because they were on sale! The butcher ran each one through the meat tenderizer twice for him since he wants to make his own chicken fried steaks!

We came back to the ranch and and I was pretty much done for the day.

My knee was hurting and I even doubled up on the knee braces and used all three of the Chinese medicines Dean gave me. Still, nothing helped but going to bed so that's what I did, getting up only to take a shower (YAY!) and then back to bed.

Dean and Sherry had stopped and picked a bouquet of sunflowers for me on their way back from Groesbeck Friday.

  They are my very most favorite flower.

Louis Dean showed them to me after my nap and they really cheered me up!

He was up at 4:00 Saturday morning putting a big brisket on to cook.

He's been wanting to cook one for weeks now.

He went back to bed and let it cook long and slow.

In the early afternoon he sliced it up and I made a batch of my BBQ sauce and he layered it back in the roaster to cook some more.

There was a lot of it!

While it cooked we went down to check on the garden and water it.

The ducks decided to see what we were up to.

Lots of little green tomatoes!

The fence is a must in keeping the horses out!

Amber gave me a gift set of the four Daniel Craig James Bond movies.

He is my very favorite James Bond because he looks so much like my youngest son, Benjamin.

I sat down with my needlework and watched this one on Saturday.

Dean and Sherry came down for a good dinner Saturday night of brisket and potato salad.

Sherry brought pepper poppers and a bottle of wine.

We love getting to spend time with them!

Sunday morning was spent listening to Jessie Dixon on our Echo Dot before doing our reading and devotionals.

Hearing the gospel music was wonderful. I am new to Jessie Dixon and his music but I do love it so.

He is in heaven now but we can still watch him on YouTube.

We had a big country breakfast for lunch!

There's a ton of jalapenos in the garden and there's no way we can eat them all - but we're trying!!

Look who came down to visit us this afternoon!

He likes it so much here, he decided to stay and take a nap.

I admit to spoiling Rufus! He knows I am good for a treat - or two or three.......

I had just started my movie when the storms rolled in.

It rained earlier but not like this.

We checked the radar and weather updates on Facebook while I continued to watch the movie.

After it was over, I went out to the front room to do one more bit of art before cleaning it all up and packing it away.

I based this cute bumblebee in within a half hour and will finish it later.

I need to find some cute pictures of honey bees!

While I did my art, Louis Dean played his music.

It's one of our favorite things to do together.

This is our anniversary month and Louis Dean was being romantic.

He told Alexa to play Ray Price singing Sweetheart of the Year......

He's not the only one who can be romantic!

I asked Alexa to play Keith Urban's Making Memories of Us.

One of the things that makes me happy is all the memories we have made together.

We have 'history' now and I like that!

I feel good about all the art I have done this trip.

This cow was fun!

12 X 12 

16 X 20 version.......

I wanted it to have some dimension to it so I tried using bark pieces for the fence.

Then Sherry suggested using a piece of real fencing.

Louis Dean cut it up for me. I'll figure out the wire between the boards later.

Which one looks better?

Either one works, I think.....

The cow paintings are done from a photo Sherry took knowing I would love it!

This old girl was fun to paint!

These two - not so much but I will work on them another day!

So thus ends our week in the country!

We plan to go home tomorrow if we can get out.

The rains have nearly stopped but scattered thunderstorms are still in the forecast overnight.

 It's amazing how the hard, packed, dry cracked ground can turn into such a muddy mess that you can sink down into so fast! Still!

We've had such a good time and both of us have accomplished many of the things we set out to do.

I call that a Win! WIN!!