An overgrown hay trap.....

This was an old hay patch that was on the place when we moved in. It's to the west of the house, and it was SO thick you couldn't get in there. My sweetheart of a husband decided to clear it, and now it looks amazing. The gate above got destroyed in the process (Oops!), but the post it's hanging from is a good reference point in the after photos.

This is the house side of the hay patch...before.

This is an after photo....the gate post is still there, but the dead tree took out the gate when it fell.

This is the house side of the hay patch....after. It's so nice pulling up and seeing this instead of a thicket full of trees.....It was crazy how thick it was in there....Terry did some of this with the tractor and shredder, but most of it, he had to chainsaw his way in and then push brush.

We're really starting to get excited now because now we're a few projects into the place, and you can start seeing the difference that we've made already. We had a gentleman contact us the other day about cutting the front of our place for hay...I know that doesn't sound like much, but if you could have seen this place when we first moved on here, you would be IMPRESSED!!!! When we brought my Dad's Kawasaki Mule over here to ride the place, there were goat weeds and ragweed taller than the Mule. It was CRAZY....and now someone wants to cut it! I am so proud of my husband and I, and so thankful that we have this opportunity! (THANK YOU, MOMMA!!!! 50 x 500!)

Homemade biscuits and history lessons

This morning I decided to do something that I've always wanted to do....So I made biscuits! I've made homemade dumplings before, I've made bread and rolls, but never biscuits. I wasn't sure how the kiddos would react, but they LOVED them!

Obviously I wasn't prepared (I didn't have a "biscuit cutter"), but the kids thought that these were even more special! :) They were a big hit, and not hard to make at all....Something about living here is making me really want to be as self-sufficient as we can be. I want a garden, I want to make bread, butcher our own meat instead of going to the grocery store....I want my kids to learn these things. I've just really gotten into a "preserve and honor your history" frame of mind. I'm starting a journal...a hand-written journal of daily events, weather, etc. for our place. My Pops kept one, and I'm going to try to get it and make copies. I want a written history of this place so that my children and grandchildren can remember....I love this place so much, and my dear sweet husband is falling head over heels for it, too! He enjoys it so much. I love seeing him happy...I love seeing my kids fishing and climbing canyons on a place that my Grandfather and Grandmother worked for. I love knowing that my Mom grew up coming here. I love knowing that I thought this was (and still is) the most beautiful place I could ever dream of living on. I want them to know how much hard work and love went into this place, and I want their children and their children's children to know too.....

Canyon Lake progress

This is from the south side of the pasture looking north.
From the gate looking southwest...Korey is SO excited now that he can ride his go-cart down there!!!!

Terry clearing the hillside toward Pasture 2.

I just had to include this one...Terry had told me about this tree, but I didn't realize the size of it until I saw it for myself. An ambitious beaver tried to take this one down. We put Terry's Copenhagen there just to give you something to size it against. The little guy must have had high hopes for this tree...but just couldn't get it....Looks like he sawed on it for a while before abandoning it.

Canyon Lake pasture

View from gate to the Canyon Lake pasture-before

Terry on the tractor and shredder

Before

The kids in a cleared spot....You can see the lake now!!!

After

My wonderful hubby started something for me today....I've been telling him how gorgeous our Canyon Lake pasture used to be, and he started clearing it!!! There's alot of canyons on this place, and a long time ago, my Pops and the neighbor that joins us to the left decided to call in the Army Corps of Engineers to see what could be done about the one that joined their pastures. The Corps of Engineers came and put a dam & spillway at one end and then sloped the hillside so that water from the surrounding hills would feed in. The spillway leads to another canyon at the back of our place. When I was little, I thought it was the prettiest place on the property. It's at the bottom of a really big hill....It's just indescribable what it used to look like. Since then, things have grown up...All of the fence rows are grown up, and trees have absolutely taken over down there. You can't even see the lake from the hill anymore. Enough of that....here's my wonderful husband's progress so far....Keep in mind that he's clearing this with a tractor and shredder, so it takes a while. I will post updated pics as they come.

We're addicted.....

Saturday night we went to Bryan for our All-Star party, and

we were running a little early, so we went to Best Buy.....There

we tried out a Wii....and got addicted. I have been looking at them

for a while, but never bought one. We came home with one that night,

and have been fascinated ever since. Below are a few pics of Sunday night...We

had a family get-together to celebrate Kyle's birthday, and even my Dad got involved!!! :)

Pawpaw and Katie playing baseball.

Pawpaw and Korey boxing

Two totally crazy things....

My oldest, Kyle, is THIRTEEN today...CRAZY!!! I cannot believe that it has been that long and that I am now the mom of a TEENAGER! He'll be starting eighth grade this year, so next year he'll be starting HIGH SCHOOL....None of this seems right....It's all gone by way too fast. When the kids were babies, everyone would tell me to enjoy it because "they grow up so fast", and honestly I couldn't imagine that at the time, but now I catch myself telling new moms that all the time. It has flown by.

Yesterday, I was chased by a deer.......Yes, a deer....I came back from feeding and there was a doe and a pretty good sized fawn in the middle of our driveway up to the house. I had my dog with me, and I didn't want her to chase the baby, so we went down to the front of the 20 acre patch that the house is in to check the bulls, and I figured that when we came back, she would be gone.....Well, when we headed back up the road, she wasn't in our driveway anymore, but she was standing next to the fence line between us and our neighbor's place....I figured that we would just ease by her and be fine....I mean, she was a good 30 feet away, and I was going to give her plenty of room by cutting through the pasture. Well, when we got almost up even with her, and I was about to cut through to the house, she started running at me and pawing...I couldn't believe it. Rio had been in front of me, and yet she picked me....on the four-wheeler!!!! I cut through and out ran her, and when I left, she went after Rio. Rio ran back to the house and the crazy doe followed us. She stood right outside our yard fence for about 5 minutes chasing my dog. Rio didn't know whether to stand her ground and protect us, or to run....Thinking back on it, it was hilarious, but at the time, I was so scared for her. I was yelling at her to "get out", and Terry finally heard everything going on, so he opened the front door. When he did, the deer took off......and Rio chased her! I could have killed her. She wouldn't come back for anything...I called and called....Finally I just came to the house and put up the four-wheeler. About 5 minutes later after I told Terry what happened, Rio shows up. I chained her, and when I turned around to talk to Terry, the deer was IN OUR BACKYARD!!! She had followed Rio back here to "finish the job", I guess. She was so tired, her tongue was hanging out and she was breathing really heavy. Even when Terry walked toward her to make her get out of the yard, she STILL stood her ground. Finally after about 2 minutes (which seemed like FOREVER), she left the backyard, but she still stood behind our backyard fence for about 10 more minutes....I guess she was waiting for us to go in so that she could get to the dog. It was the craziest thing in the world. I know deer...There are tons of them here, and alot of doe raise here....We've never had any problems. It just blew me away because I was aware of her, I gave her plenty of room...even tried to "protect" them from my dog....and still got chased. We had to sit the kids down after the ordeal was over and explain what had happened and what they should do if they see a doe and her baby.....CRAZINESS!!!

Just a few cool pics...

This pic is from June 2007...After Katie's softball practice, we stopped in Madisonville to get gas and I thought this was really pretty...had to shoot it.

Sunrise at the house...shot on the 4-wheeler in the front yard before going to feed.

Clouds rolling in...

This was a few weeks ago...I wasn't sure how it would turn out when I shot it, but I really like it.

This is from yesterday evening around 6:30. I shot it out the front door. We were really hoping for rain, but didn't get much. We really need it, so hopefully we'll get some out of the storm that's heading toward Galveston.