Home on the Ranch!

It was after 2:00 when we finally left Irving Friday.

So many things to do in order to leave your home for a few weeks.

The last chore was filling up all our water bottles.

What with my art and his music, laundry we brought home to wash, food, perishables, supplies, that computer stand Louis Dean bought in Galveston last month, tools, equipment, books, needlework, denim to whack up, new laundry hamper........we filled that old one ton truck completely up with a TON of stuff!

We stopped for a late lunch or early supper in Hillsboro at the Lone Star Cafe.

Yeah, he ordered onion rings. Although we only ate a couple and brought the rest home.

They have super delicious margaritas and it's a tradition to have one on our way down.

We got to the ranch about 6:30 and came right in and took a little nap,

Sherry had come down Thursday night and turned the AC on for us so it was pure luxury to slip into bed in the nice cool camper and sleep for an hour or so.

Then we were ready to haul in the stuff!

Look what I found when I was putting up the refrigerated things.

This teeny tiny frog is less than 2 inches! He must have been squished by the fridge door!

I love the golden light just before the sun sets.

It's my favorite time of day!

I fed an entire bag of celery to the horses in celebration of just being here!

Sherry came up and we checked out the garden while Louis Dean took another little nap.

I whooped and hollered a little bit when I saw the watermelons!

They hadn't posted about them so I would be surprised!

I nearly teared up seeing all the garden growing so well!

Louis Dean is mainly interested in cucumbers and tomatoes!

Not much in the way of one.....

but plenty of these!

Dean's corn, green beans, black eyed peas are all doing well.

He's plowed up yet another big area to grow pumpkins and watermelons.

And sunflowers!!!

The sun was just setting over the garden.

What a perfect evening.

The night was every bit as lovely as we sat out on the front deck sipping our wine and watching the moon rise. Louis Dean first saw it back low in the trees and said, "There's a new light we haven't seen before.'....thinking it was a neighbor's place or something. In another few seconds we knew it was the moon! And thus ended our first day back on the ranch for the month of July!

We both slept like babies last night!

Louis Dean slept longer than I did. I think I was so excited to be here, I woke up early!

I mad our coffee out in the front room and looked over and saw this big old hairy spider!

Turns out, it's just a friendly jumper spider that eats a lot of mosquitoes.

We let the good ones live and just encourage them to stay outside - not on the dining table!

I had gathered some fresh tomatoes last night so we had BLT sandwiches for a late breakfast.

Then Louis Dean went back to bed for the first of several naps today.

I got on my bike and went down to see what was happening at Dean and Sherry's.

There's always work to do on a ranch and equipment to tend to and that's what Dean was doing.

Sherry was rustling him up something cold to drink.

She had been out tractoring at 6:30 this morning!

I wandered around looking at their garden and met their two new kittens.

So tiny and cute!

The big dogs were up there sniffing around but as big as they were - and as tiny as these kittens are - they did not intimidate them one little bit!

That's the way Ann the goat lady's cats are.

They run the roost no matter how many big Great Pyrenees are around!

I went on down to the meadow where there was a cool breeze and called Lillian.

I told her all about the country and what I was doing.

Sadly, one of the four baby goats disappeared last week.

Flat disappeared, Dean said!

No tracks, no blood, no sign of anything. Just gone. He thinks she might have gone down in the creek and got lost. Or maybe a big cat took her off.

I guess we'll never know.

He watched the sky for days looking for buzzards but nothing.

This evening - during the time of the golden light - I took Louis Dean over to check out the garden.

He was properly impressed.

Then we all loaded up in the big white truck and went to see a neighbor about a vehicle.

A ranch vehicle.

One that will drive in the mud and get us down to the critters when we need to do Critter Chores....even in the rain.

I even test drove it!!

It would be so handy and we are all thinking about going in together and buying it.

Just a few things to consider and one of them is a shelter to park and protect it from the elements.

There's not one already here and available so that's a big consideration.

Not sure Louis Dean is up for another big project so we may have to wait a bit on this.

Still.....I sure did love driving it!

We are in the country and I guess we are going to go to bed with the chickens!

Or at least within the next couple of hours!