Change of Plans.....

My last journal entry was Monday night and we were all set to leave for home Tuesday!

Our goal was to be on the road by noon but we missed that by an hour.

It was a little after 1:00 when we were at the gate.

We heard the truck make a high pitched sound and thought the fan motor might be going out.

The truck IS 20 years old!

We rolled on throught the gate and down S. County Line Road.

We turned left at the red brick house onto another gravel road - they are ALL gravel here in the country! We made it to the spot where it dead ends to another gravel road (I don't know the names of these roads!) when the warning Bing Bing Bing went off. Louis Dean said we needed fuel which we were planning to get in Mart. We were about to turn between the silo and the lone tree when he looked down and saw that the engine had overheated - again.

We stopped. I get all anxious when things like this happen but we were still in the country so I knew it couldn't be too bad - except we had two cats in a carrier and it was HOT!

Every truck that passed by stopped to help us. All three of them.

We were trying to reach Sherry but her phone wasn't ringing right.

The second truck that stopped had a retired couple in it. Louis Dean told them the situation while I was called auto repair places in Mart to see if someone could tow us in. No towing and no WAY they could fix it that day. Or even the next! When I got off the phone, Louis Dean told me the couple had gone back to their place to get water. By this time Louis Dean could plainly see that the water pump was leaking. The third truck stopped and we told them water was on the way and by this time we had talked to Sherry so she could come help us if for some reason the couple didn't come back.

But they did. Jeanette and Ted. They are from Montana. Three years ago their son was here living and working with Jeanette's dad when one Sunday morning he told his Grandma and Granddad that he didn't feel like going to church with them. When they got home that afternoon, he had passed away.

Jeanette and Ted returned to Texas to spend time with her parents and two years ago her mom died. Now they stay to take care of her dad.

Louis Dean gave them a pint of honey and she came up to the truck window to visit and tell me how much she appreciated the jar. Her neighbor in Montana keeps bees and Jeanette had just finished the honey she had given them. We exchanged testimonies and names and told each other where we lived.

I intend to stop by and visit her sometime.

Louis Dean filled the radiator and we made it back to the ranch.

Since I couldn't find anyone to fix it, Louis Dean decided to change the water pump himself.

He spent over an hour diagramming that sepentine belt so he would know how to put it back on!

Then Dean called. He was at work but Sherry told him what was going on and he called his mechanic buddy - who lives about 4 miles down the road - and he said he could fix it the next day. 

We just needed to buy the part and antifreeze and pay his labor which was very reasonable.

Sooooo.....Sherry went to town and picked up the part and antifreeze for us.

She would loan us her vehicle the next day and I would follow Louis Dean to drop off the truck and we would go to town to do errands.

Win! WIN!!

We then proceeded to unload all the stuff we had just packed into the truck earlier!

To celebrate things working out for us - I made supper!

My first time to fry okra successfully on a hot plate!

It CAN be done!

I had called Louis Dean's doctor's office to reschedule his follow up appointment -again.

So Wednesday we took Sherry's Dakota and headed to Waco after dropping the truck off.

Dean was already at work!

This is the photo he sent me.....with the caption "Look what I'm driving today!"

Country folk love heavy equipment!

We went to the bank, HEB, Walgreen's for Rx, Home Depot. Subway for lunch and finally.....

Hobby Lobby!!

It was all decked out for fall on one side of the store while they were putting Christmas on the other side! I inhaled and savored the moment - and then went straight back to the art supplies!

I bought new tubes of oils, several tiny little brushes for the Santa faces, pink soak (it can get oil paint out when nothing else can and I use it to final clean my brushes after using turpentine) and a brand new turp jar, plus a stack of canvases and a really nice oil diffuser. I may take that one home with me to use in the bedroom and bring the old one back down here.

Everything but the turp jar and pink soap was on sale!

We picked the truck up on our way back to the ranch!

All is back to rights in our world.

We decided to just stay until after the bee work on Monday morning since we were mainly going home for Louis Dean's doctor appointment.

We felt like an old country couple - him watering what turns out to be small round watermelons - and I sitting on the porch cutting up strips for birthday quilts.

I am loving every picture of Baby Jaxon Dean!

Chandy is so good about keeping us in the loop and making us feel like a part of it all.

She is recovering well and the family is excited about the baby.....

Bella and her baby brother.

So sweet!

Today has been a slow easy day.

I watched the movie The Book Thief and started Bee Season.

And I painted some more on the Santas.

I laid a fresh palette and used fresh oils and new brushes and clean turp.

I'm no longer struggling with my materials.

Louis Dean played some music this afternoon.

He was playing this morning when I got up.

Tomorrow he said he would dig a trench or a ditch for his electric and water lines out to the pond.

He doesn't like using extension cords.

I went down to Sherry's at 6:30 for our monthly Zoon meeting with Texas Bee Supply.

It lasted until 8:00 and then we ate supper down there with them.

I made a salad to go with the good lasagna and garlic bread Sherry fixed!

And we had this for dessert!!

YUM!

Louis Dean and I closed out this day sitting by a campfire.

We normall watch Jupiter and Saturn up in the night sky - but our new roof blocks them from view.

No worries. He said he would add another deck!

I laughed! It sounds like he might deck all the way down to the duck pen!!

So Goodnight as we are STILL in the COUNTRY!!