Wild Flowers and Country Things....and Prayers for Devin

 We spent most of Monday getting ready to go to the ranch....

watering plants, cleaning house, packing the food for a week in the insulated bags.

It was shortly after 4:00 when we finally got on the road. Since we always go to the ranch in the big white truck, Louis Dean did the driving. I napped unashamedly all the way to Hillsboro where we were meeting Dean and Sherry at the Hill County Beekeepers Association for our first meeting there with them. 

It was good to be able to meet up since we didn't have Tabitha and Samantha with us this trip.

Amber is taking very good care of them at her house.

Samantha has her favorite toys and she especially loves this orange ball.

Tabitha was looking precious napping on Amber's piano bench.

I took this photo off the group's Facebook page.

Can you see all four of us?

It was a great meeting and very informative!

Now it looks like we will be members of both groups!

Win! WIN!!

We ate dinner together at El Conquistador there in Hillsboro before going separate ways -

Sherry and I went in the truck to Walmart to buy wax rings for the toilet - we got THREE of them - and an electric hot water pot since I am heating water to wash dishes. Sherry drove the truck since it was dark after we came out from the restaurant. The two Deans went on back to the ranch.

Since it was after 10:00 when we got here, I couldn't see all the work that had been done since we left earlier this month.

This morning, I put on a pair of gardening shoes and carried my cup of coffee out to see everything.

My wildflower garden is all abloom! I even found two tiny bluebonnets! Here's hoping next year there will be more. We have an abundance of blue bachelor buttons and gorgeous red and orange poppies.

My lettuce is all so big and beautiful!!

And I spied red strawberries!!

I picked a few ripe ones to flavor my tea today.

I just love all these beautiful flowers!

Hopefully there will be more coming with the warmer weather.

I planted lots of suflower seeds so I am hoping to see them in the months to come.

I took this pic from the fence line where the wildflowers grow.

Pardon the Ma and Pa Kettle style front porch - we have some cleaning up to do once all the bathroom is put back together - some of that's out there for the time being.

Plus the guys are still finishing up the metal work; they should be here in the morning with the gravel and Bobcat to fo the road work.

Look who was in the garden with me today!

Mama Tux......and she is so much smaller than the kittens she had!

I couldn't resist picking a small bouquet of the pretty bachelor buttons to put in a cobalt blue glass wine bottle. My dear neighbor of long ago, Mary Jo, gave me the nap sign.

And who should be on the girl bunk when I went in but Mama Tux!

She's a good little lap cat, too!

Louis Dean has been working all day on the plumbing.

There was another broken pipe under the bathroom floor so he took parts of the floor up, hauled the sink and toilet back out to the porch deck and did the repairs.

As far as he can tell, we can turn the water on in the morning and - if all is well - put the bathroom back together! My mission today has been to do what I can do, say prayers for Louis Dean as he works and maintain a calm peaceful attitude.

I intend to write, paint, clean and whack some denim every day.

I got well into writing chapter 21 of my memoir, whacked up a basket full of denim jeans and overalls.....read several chapters in my current reading book, Open Season....

and had such a good time painting more of the background in this Santa train canvas.

It's been a good day here at the ranch!

I will be remembering Devin in prayer all through the night when I wake up as well as tomorrow. His surgery begins around 7:30 in the morning.

Update from his grandmother, my friend, Mary....

I wanted to give a little update before Devin's surgery tomorrow. They have to be at UAB at 5:45 a.m., so anticipate the surgery beginning around 7:30.

After the scan last week - NO cancer other than jaw! Prayers answered there! However, after looking at 3D models, scans, xrays they have decided to take the entire right jaw - joint to the chin. This will give them the best chance of success if they leave none of the right jaw. They will not go through small incision in throat as they originally thought, but will go along outside of jaw/chin line to remove the entire jaw. They will use his right leg for bones/tissue/skin grafts. Will be a much larger scar than the one on his face.They just cut the bone off, cover it with muscle and leave it hanging! Will then remove lymph nodes and 4 teeth. The first 48 hours are critical for all the grafts, blood flow and skin. He will be checked every hour on the hour for those 48 hours to make sure it's all coming together. Will try to have him up walking Thursday afternoon and have decided to begin his PT while in  the hospital. Will not have the steel bands in his mouth as they are completing rebuilding the right jaw. AFter 2 months of healing will begin Radiation, then 2 months after that will have bridge, implants done.He will have a special dentist, cannot have any more teeth pulled as the Radiation weakens the other jaw bone.IF he will drink everything they give him, may get to leave the feeding tube at hospital when he goes home - he's going to try he said. The docs said he does not need to lose any weight. Weighs 135#, about 5'9 1/2".

All the docs said he's in excellent health except for the cancer - that's a blessing too!

Prayers for Devin, docs, nurses, all of us. 

Mary