Tuesday's Treasures and Wednesday Brunch

 We left the ranch around 1:30 Monday and stopped at HEB to pick up some Jalapeño Saltines for a friend and I grabbed us a couple of sandwiches from there along with a salad instead of stopping at Subway. 

It's a good thing I did as it took us nearly 2 hours to get to Hillsboro due to a traffic accident.

It was 5:30 before we got home!

I made me a salad and 

served Louis Dean the very last of the fajitas!

"Waste not - want not, love!"

Did any of you watch Peirce Brosnan  in Remington Steele??

I remember him speaking that line in one of the episodes.

We took turns watering the front and back flower beds after which LD took a nice long bath!

I met up with Brenda shortly after noon at Texas Thrift!

We only shopped that one store and had lunch  at Chick Fil A.

The yellow tags were 50% off and the rest was 30% off with our senior discount.

The lamp was $6.

Another yellow tag!

And another!

$3!

The chalk board was $5 less the 30% discount.

I hung this note holder in the foyer to put Summer's mail in and hang things to give in bags.

Louis Dean likes it when I find something for him - so he was happy with this western snap shirt!

Somehow I missed reading this book so I snatched it up!

Not a yellow tag but so pretty!

Brenda found it for me and I could NOT resist!

I'm so glad I got it!

I'm going to use this huge tablecloth to cover the baby grand in the den once I get that window wall done. One more session to drywall and then I will move on to painting, putting up trim and decide on window treatments. Then DECORATE!!

The bracelet and earrings were both yellow tag sales.

This beautiful necklace was not but still a nice bargain with the senior discount.

I start out in the mornings watering the back yard flower beds and herb gardens and close out the day with watering the front ones after the son goes down and then we celebrate with a glass of wine  before bed.

I have been sleeping a lot lately so it was 10:30 when I got up  this morning and 2:00 before I started preparing our meal.

I saw this recipe on Facebook and knew we would love it!

A little olive oil (I used tomato infused) and a layer of flour tortillas.

Whisk up some eggs - Sherry sent us home with a dozen huge ones - and some chopped homegrown tomatoes with seasonings and chopped onion and fresh chopped herbs from my garden.

Sprinkle grated cheese on top and I added a few sprigs of cilantro.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Delicious!

I had cooked bacon but forgot to add it so I served that on the side.

Topped with sour cream and guacamole - Perfect!

This evening I mixed up a tuna salad and we may eat a sandwich or salad of that after we come in from watering!

Louis Dean has been working on this song.....

Goodnight from the Chapmans!

Weekend at the Ranch......

 We left Irving shortly after noon on Saturday hauling over a ton of natural stones to the ranch.

Louis Dean man handled them from the back yard along the fence line to the truck and later unloaded them stone by stone after we got to the ranch.

He is still strong - though not like he was before his heat stroke a couple of years ago.

He's 87 and I tell him often that you cannot regain ground once you have lost it at this age.

That is why I keep a close eye on him.

We stopped at Hillsboro for lunch at El Conquistador instead of our usual Lone Star Cafe.

Fajitas for two and they were so very GOOD!!!

We took enough home to have for another meal.

We stopped at HEB in Bellmead for a few things before we arrived at the ranch gate.

I have to admit to it being a bit of a stressful trip down....

and once we were here, LD was bound and determined to unload all that rock ASAP!

Which he did - in the heat and the sun.

I'm thinking we may not visit the ranch in July and August when it will be the hottest.

So far we NOT had hundred degree days - and I am hoping we WON'T - but if we do - it will be safer for him to be at home where I can keep him out of the heat easier than I can here.

The wild flowers are beautiful and is the rose garden with four different colors of roses.

We spent Saturday evening putting things in order and sitting out on the front deck after our showers.

It was about 10:30 when we went to bed and I must have been more tired than I thought because I slept until after 11:00 Sunday morning - barely getting up in time for Fellowship Church service online!

We traveled lightly - other than all that stone and building materials - and even left our cats at home with Summer.

Sunday Louis Dean mowed and did whatever it is he does outside.

Mainly moving things around.

I made new batches of hummingbird nectar and he cleaned the feeders.

For our late lunch we had the rest of our leftovers from El Conquistador and STILL didn't eat it all!

Our dear sweet blogging friend - Susie Q - sent LD a box of western movies her Teddy Bear loved.

Since no one else in the family wanted them - she boxed them up and sent them to Louis Dean!

I have not seen quite a few of these before including this one!

It was really good and who doesn't like a film with Sam Elliot in it??

The Golden Hour - or just before it!

Our pond is in a mess and we need to get a water faucet back out there.

During the winter so many things froze and Son Dean is putting them back using 'Pex.'

We spent a few hours sitting out here - coffee in the mornings and wine in the evenings.

Sherry and Dean came in from working all day helping a neighbor - that's the way it is in the country - and we visited a little while before she and I walked down to tend to the critters.

The ducks knew it was time to eat and go in the pen!

These are the adult ones.

They go in one side of the duck coop.

Now it was time to let the 'baby' ducks out so they could swim around for a bit.

I'm guessing these could be teenagers by now.

These are the ones that Sherry hatched during the winter!

Next up?

Feeding the fish!

And the crawdads!!

They bought 100 fish and stocked this tank and the duck pond.

It was good to see the mops again!

They are sweethearts.

I just realized I did not see Rufus at all nor Tarzan!

Tarzan is a hunter and can be gone for a few weeks - but he usually comes home when we  are there.

There are an abundance of goats - and many are Billy goats which they are hoping to sell soon.

This is Tabitha and Samantha and Ginger's mama.

This guy was very affectionate!

It was fun to visit all the animals.

Never a dull moment down there!

The last thing we did was put the baby ducks back in their pen and that's when I took this pretty sunset over the duck pond.

I also toured the 'new' old house and noticed this beautiful watercolor one of Son Dean's student's mom painted for him a long time ago.

We were just about to call it a day and Dean and Sherry had gone down to their place - when something unexpectantly happened!

Louis Dean plopped down on the couch and water had accumulated in the light fixture and was so heavy it pulled the ceiling down a few inches!

I jumped in the truck and drove down honking my horn to get Dean to come back up and look at it!

I figured the AC condensation drain had stopped up - but NO!

Dean climbed up on the roof and it was all bone dry!

I came in and took a pic and you can see the insulation in there is wet but not soaking.

And no more water came down other than that surprise shower LD received!

We will address this situation when we go back next week!

The AC was cooling like a champ all weekend and I solved the problem of the five dead outlets by using extension cords until the electrician can get out there and figure what the problem is.

I did start Chapter 33 of my book and am thinking I may finally be getting the hang of writing.

I'm no longer dreading opening up the documents and am actually looking forward to getting past the next few chapters and enjoy writing the rest of the book!

We are home now.

I picked a bouquet of our roses to bring home with us.

A bad accident on I35 slowed us down to a standstill and it took twice as long to get home.

It was good to be at the ranch even for a couple of days! 

Summer Days With My Very Own Summer Dee!

 I have long held hopes and dreams of Sanford & Son vacating the back yard - but I was not holding my breath!

Our neighbors getting a new fence spurred Louis Dean into action and he is well on his way to cleaning up stuff!

We will be taking a load down to the ranch in the morning and we think Dean and Sherry can use some of the stones in their landfill projects.

Summer totally impressed Louis Dean with her overalls!!!

Isn't she the cutest thing???

She had a dental appointment and then her car has been in the shop for repairs and we are enjoying having this special time together!

She is handier than a pocket on a shirt and has blessed us with her special talents!

She fixed the problem Louis Dean was having with pop ups on his lap top and then got his phone working again. Jesse calls it 'drive by clicking' and he had accidently hit some button that said he was 'unavailable' when we called his phone and it said 'call failed' when he tried to call out!

It's always good to have family members that know how to 'fix' things for us!

I have been working on the drywall and hoped to have it all done by now - but that didn't happen.

One more session will be next week!

I've narrowed down my color choices and hoping by the end of July this project will be a done deal!

This afternoon Summer and I went to La Madeleine for a late lunch. 

It's always a good thing to be able to spend some one on one time together!

***note to Whitney***

I am loving my tiny cross bracelet!

Louis Dean and I are both enjoying these slow gentle June days.

Most days we stay at home and we love that!

Tomorrow we will make a quick trip to the ranch to unload his truck of 'stuff!'

Summer will be here at least through Sunday as her car is not ready yet.

We will leave out kitties here with her since it will just be for a few days.

With all our work in the yard with  plants and pulling weeds and keeping things watered -

It will be hard to get away for any length of time or we will lose all our flowers and such.

Mulching helps but we haven't done enough of that yet.

It's a good thing to stay busy and busy we are!

But not overly so.

Striking that balance is a challenge - and I think we are finding it!