Back in the Country after 80 Days!

 The last time were at the ranch was August 5th.....

I totally missed September but 80 days later we would once again open the gates to visit.

I packed up our medicines, books, Louis Dean's music, non perishable foods, laptop and journals and had it all piled up in the corner of the living room.

Ilene and I had our Friday night movie opting for something light hearted as it had been a stressful day.

This worked nicely!!

It's good to have a friend to watch a movie with and I always feel better after visiting with Ilene.

It had started to storm just as she was leaving so I thought it would be good sleeping weather and went on to bed.

Louis Dean surprised me by serenading me before I went to sleep.

He's such a romantic!

I slept so well and woke up at 8:00 determined to get on the road before noon.

More storms were to come in around 3:00 and I did not want to drive in the rain.

However, Louis Dean had stayed up really late so he slept until noon!

It takes him awhile to wake up even after he gets out of bed.

First, he couldn't find his wallet so I carried all our stuff out to the truck while he searched for it.

Once he found it he loaded the truck and then collected over three gallons of pecans! The storm had shook the nuts loose from the trees and he didn't want the squirrels to get them all.

Finally, we left at 3:00 just as the storms were rolling in and I drove the entire trip in the rain with some seriously heavy downpours. So much so that I got off I35 at Milford and drove the back way country roads arriving at the ranch at 5:38. Made it before dark and it was not an easy drive but we made it!

Louis Dean got out in the pouring rain to open the gate....

Then he had to shut the gate and if you look closely, you can see that the tail gate was down.

I remember when I was walking around the back of the truck when we were leaving and noticing Louis Dean's music books setting on the bumper.

He put them in the truck but didn't shut it securely so we drove all the way here with the tailgate down.

I am getting pretty good at backing that big old truck in under the metal carport.

We started unloading and discovered we had not lost a single thing but what was right inside got very wet! I even had a container of salad sitting in a basket that was still there!!

Thank you, Lord!

We meant to go down and eat supper with Dean and Sherry but it was too wet and too muddy and Louis Dean was too cold!!

He put on some dry clothes and made a pot of coffee, lit the Dearborn heater and warmed up.

Another early bedtime for me!

This morning I watched Fellowship Church online and then started cleaning the corner where we sit.

The windows were so dirty and everything was coated in a pretty good layer of brown dust.

This afternoon I went down to see all the things going on with Dean and Sherry.

They have done a lot in the screened in back porch and by Christmas it will be ready to party!

I want to string up Christmas lights and have a Happy Hour in there.

We are planning to come back down here a day or two after Christmas and stay for a week or more.

Sunday night supper was Sherry's charcuterie board which hit the spot!

Between the four of us, we wiped this out!

Louis Dean and I walked back up to our place passing the duck pond.

The small goats were still out and Sherry's 30 ducks were marching in to their coop like little soldiers.

Sherry sent us home with a dozen fresh eggs!

A good way to end this Sunday night in the country is with a campfire!