We arrived here at the ranch late Monday afternoon.....
and I was so excited to see the cotton fields along the County Line Road!
I've never see the cotton look this high and this pretty!!
I knew it must be time to harvest, and once that was done,
I would be free to pick the 'leavin's'...the left overs!
They seldon ever get their big machinery along the edges of the fields.
I have in mind to pick a big bouquet with long stems for a tall wooden vase I have by the front room door at the ranch.
There's always a special thrill when we get to the gate!
Arriving is so much more fun than leaving.
This time we have Tabitha and Samantha with us.
It's been awhile since they've been down here and I think they were excited.
Tabitha 'sang' to us nearly all the way and I'm pretty sure she thought they were going to the Bells.
Ah, we are back!
The horses came down to say 'Hello.'
This is outside the big garden gate and where I feed them carrots and veggies.
Sherry came down to help us unload and she did all the lifting putting the food and stuff away.
Louis Dean was out mowing the spent garden down within an hour of getting out of the truck.
We got everything situated and carried our glasses of wine out to the deck just in time to see the Harvest moon rise. Perfect!!!
Louis Dean was in bed and sound asleep by 9:00.
I was in the girl bunk and looked at my phone and it was 9:20 on 9/20!
We both slept a good 10+ hours and Louis Dean brought me coffee in bed.
Samantha especially likes to hang out in the girl bunk with me.
We put a screen door guard across the window since she pushed her way out of it one day last spring.
Louis Dean will need to screw/nail it to the wall so she can nose it over and crawl out.
Tabitha has been enjoying herself.
Shes such a big girl cat!
They have been running around and exploring everything.
There was a package in the mail for Louis Dean when we left town and I stuck it in my purse for him to open on Tuesday morning.
It was from Chandy!
A pic holder in the shape of a guitar with three specailly engraved pics.
She even had his named engraved on the case!
I took lots of pictures and videos and we were swapping them back and forth with Chandy - but I forgot to take one of just the case with the pics.
It was a fun morning!
He spent the day getting the garden all cleaned up.
Grasshoppers are everywhere and they ate up all the blackeyed peas and anything else that was growing. Our rose bushes are stilldoing well but my herb garden has literally bit the dust.
I am determined - again - to buckle down and write the rest of my memoir.
My goal is to write a chapter a day, until I opened up my documents and discovered I needed to work on both of those to finish them off. And I did do that!
While I didn't actuall do any art on Tuesday, I did set out all my current projects and glazed the two that were finished.
Tuesday was the Bee Meeting in Hillsboro and Louis Dean surprised us by coming with us!
The speaker was the man in charge of the Beekeeping Program at the Johnson County Jail.
What a great idea and it is wonderful how this retired man has shared his love for beekeeping in such a way as to help inmates discover skills they can use upon release.
Commercial beekeepers can't find enough people for the jobs they have so this is a viable area of employment opportunity.
It was interesting and inspiring and when it was over, we ate Mexican food at El Conquistador followed by a quick shopping trip to Walmart!
I did so well all day and had lots of energy - until I didn't.
Seems I get no warning signs before it's gone!
The moment we got back to the ranch, I walked right in and went right to bed, leaving Louis Dean to unload the groceries. No thoughts whatsoever that he would put any of it up.
This morning I found the toilet paper on the front porch, my candles scattered in different places in the front room, detergent in the bathroom and I finally found the cat food underneath a curtain on the coffee bar area! AND the little 2 for $1 pies from Walmart are in the freezer! (I think Louis Dean is trying to hide them!)
It's always an adventure living with Louis Dean!
Summer called me this morning - and we made some plans to spend the day together!
She drove from home and picked me up at the ranch and then we met up with some friends at a Mexican restaurant in China Springs!
We had a great time and visited and caught up with everyone and what they are doing.
Lots of good things going on with these ladies!
Linda and Dona had been Glamping at a RV park nearby and they were now going home.
Summer and I went to HEB!
LOVED the pumpkins and I bought one of the pink ones.
Plus a lot of the clearance plants!
Yello tomatoes, lantana, plum bago, and more.
I plan to plant all this in the rose bed flower garden area.
Hopefuly, the grasshoppers will not be there.
We plan to borrow a few chickens or roosters to come stay with us up here and eat all these pesky crtters!
We saw they were harvesting the cotton on our way back to the ranch!
I'm so happy I got to see it!!!
Texas produces a quarter of all the cotton used in the USA.
Those are some big rolls of cotton!
Grasshoppers can feed on cotton plants without damaging the cotton!
Summer is planning on going out of town so she brought my birthday gifts with her and gave them to me before she left.
My favorite is the book......
Though I do love the fragrant candle with the wood burning wick and the Autumn Taffy!
She always gives me a Christmas ornament and it's usually cardinals. It's a tradition!
Summer knows I'm a bag lady and I do love the bag!
LOVE the book!!!
I'm grateful for the blessings of being a mother.
It made me cry.....
I'll close tonight's journal entry with Alabama singing....
High Cotton!
This is such an intereting fact about how grasshoppers eat cotton! Oh my, Tabitha sounds so miserable and pitiful! and she did that the entire way? Wonder if cats can get sore throats? I have a bouquet of cotton, but it is fake cotton. I did not know how much cotton Texas produces!
ReplyDeleteOur cotton fields have been harvested already. A good crop if it everywhere this year!
ReplyDeleteYou live good!! Two days a week with Mexican food ...I love it so.
I am so glad you sound so good and that your surgery is in the past! The kitties are so grown.
ReplyDeleteEd just puts the cold things in the fridge and leaves everything in the bags on the table, rather than trying to put groceries elsewhere. 🙄
You sound so delighted to be "Country Mouse" for awhile. Have fun!!
Sending love and birthday hugs to you my sweet friend!!
I always associate the smell of defoliant with cotton picking time here in Alabama. It is a distinctive smell for sure. Glad you are doing well and able to go and enjoy the ranch.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...that howl sounds familiar.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the song and the post. Summer is a darling daughter for sure.
May your ranch time be restful and pleasant. I see you have plenty of cotton picking to do. 🌻
i have never seen the contrapiton that rolls up that cotton and it is amazing to me. i know that picking cotton by hand is a horror on the fingers and the back. wow on that. i wonder if Tabitha was car sick? hope she is well. grasshoppers can sure wipe out everyting thing in sight in just a short time. the bee keeper at the prison is a great idea, for the bees and the inmates.
ReplyDeleteYou are doing so good after surgery and glad you can spend time at the ranch. Didn't think about chickens eating grasshoppers but they can sure be destructive to plants. I was surprised how big the cats are, you usually don't that a picture of them stretched out like that:) Summer is so thoughtful and happy early birthday.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you are feeling well enough to travel so soon after your surgery and having your DIL help unload was a blessing as well as having you're daughter visit for the day. We don't grow cotton here in Ohio so it was a delight to see your cotton fields being harvested. We are at harvest time here but for the most part right now it is thousands of pumpkins. It must have been a good year for them.
ReplyDeleteIt does sound like you are feeling very well. Hope you don't overdo too soon.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see the cotton harvest. Such large bales of cotton now, and I can remember picking cotton by hand in the fields in Ga. We rolled it up in burlap to be weighed. How I hated that job.
Thank you for sharing such interesting happenings at the ranch.
I am so happy that you are recovering so well.."Can't keep a GREAT person down".
ReplyDeleteLove the cotton and all the fun things you do on the Ranch. It's pure therapy. And
that Louis Dean is a real Prize. He's so thoughtful and loves you so much.
Happy Fall to you... one day late ...
Sue
photowannabe
https://allredmop.blogspot.com
I've never seen a cotton field - fab! You seem to be recovering well. Cheers
ReplyDeleteOh that Summer! What a lovely card! It made me teary eyed!
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy you are able to enjoy the activities in the country, and I found it interesting to hear about the man teaching inmates to do bee keeping!
Louis Dean is so cute, and the video of him to Chandy is precious!
I've never seen cotton after it is harvested! Very cool!
Happy Birthday Linda. Wonderful to be in the country !!!
ReplyDeleteHugs
Joy
the cotton is so amazing, i am not sure if i have ever seen a cotton field!! i enjoyed listening to tabitha sing. i have not been around cats too much and i have never heard one sing like this!!
ReplyDeletei have never seen those big rolls of cotton before, they are amazing!!
summer looks so good, it is so nice to see her smiling all of the time!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
I've never seen a cotton field or known that cotton gets rolled into those big cotton rolls. I thought it got picked by hand. I guess I'm way behind the times, LOL.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday!
Enjoy your stay at the ranch.