Okra Pod Santas, The Trolley, Jack #28 and Another Santa Claus Painting!

Last year Nita's sweet Master Gardener neighbor, Sheryl, gifted me a ser of hand knitted washcloths and it was wrapped so pretty in tissue paper with an okra pod painted Santa tied to the package.

We grew okra in our garden here at the ranch - in fact- okra was just about the ONLY thing that grew this year! Since we weren't here often enough to pick them, they grew long and dried out with that intense 100+ summer we had.

The okra is STILL growing now!

Next year I hope to paint all the okra that is on the plants now.

I woke up at 7:30 this morning -

Sherry and I had planned to work the bees and treat for Varroa mites - but that didn't happen. 

I checked the weather and radar and rain was arriving in the next hour - so I went back to bed and didn't get up again until 11:30! Louis Dean slept that late, too!

This was a good day to stay in and listen to the rain as it came down steady nearly all day long.

I did a lot of art and Louis Dean busied himself with small repairs and this and that.

Sherry and Dean had gone to 'town' and they called close to 5:00 saying they were headed into Mart.

I quickly carved tonight's small Jack--o-lantern and we headed in to meet them.

There's a pub in town called The Trolley and we decided to try it out.

I'm not sure what these drinks were but they were pretty.

Sherry's was a kind of pina colada and mine was like a lime popsicle - but not! 

I gave Louis Dean a taste.....and he then ordered a Shiner.

Still - it was fun and we had a little something to eat before heading back to the ranch.

Sherry and I dropped off Jack #28 on the railroad track underneath the caboose on Texas Ave.

The Mart football team (Panthers) are like famous around here and tonight they were playing Dawson.

I just checked the score and saw the congratulations to Coach Kevin Hoffman on his 100th win tonight! I'm thinking this Happy Little Jack smiled back at a lot of smiling people as they came through town heading home.

I finished another Santa tonight before I packed up my brushes and oils and cleared the table.

Tomorrow is our last day here and I am going to clean the camper and cabin and then decorate for Christmas. 

I have all the Christmas decorations I bought for Lillian down here (I must have gone by Fort Worth and undecorated before coming down to the ranch) so I will be putting up a Christmas tree and making things merry for when we come back next month right after Thanksgiving.