Day Three Hundred Thirty One...

Last night, after dinner, I put the new LED lights on the OLD Christmas tree that we installed on the front porch. You really have to be careful what you put on the front porch when you live out in the country. At first, everything is okay...just a couple tables and chairs, some potted plants and a small fountain for a water feature, maybe a small battery operated radio to listen to KUT. BUT, if you are not careful, you will end up with a Barca-Lounger out there before you know it, and then you are really in trouble. Add to that a 26" color television that only works right after you pound the side twice, and a beer cooler, and you have the makings of a mobile home lodge building in the making. It is the same way with 'yard art'. I am not sure what the boundaries of 'yard art' are, but I am relatively certain that if you are not careful, you end up with, not really 'yard art' but a bunch of crap in the grass. Whatever... Anyway, the tree will stay up until New Years, and then it will be banished back into the shed, awaiting the next season. It won't be all that bad, and when we take it down, we will really be surprised how big the porch is.

We headed off to Taylor this morning, and got some cattle feed, and a few other things. On the way there, the emergency pager went off (November is my month) and it went off again this afternoon. Not too bad, no fires or anything, just a couple maintenance issues that could not wait until Monday. One of the issues was somewhat exacerbated by the tenant but that is another issue that will need to wait until next week. No sense getting all worked up over it now. It is always interesting to me how some folks cannot use common sense to stop or at least minimize a problem. Oh well, that is why I pay myself the big bucks. My time with the pager will be over on the first of December (for the next two months, anyway), and it has not been too much trouble. I hope by saying that I am not jinxing it.

When I got home, I put the cattle feed and the other supplies in the feed shed, and got a bale of hay loaded on the tractor to take out to the pasture. Jody, Tanya and their son Patrick were on their way out to the house, to pick up a heifer calf I had given Patrick, and the also said they could take the steer calf out to another friend in Smithville. So far, the two mamas are not making too much noise about their calves being missing, but I expect them to start bawling about dark:thirty. These are the first two calves we have given away, and I feel kind of odd about it, but that is just the way things will be. We will pretty much keep seven cows and the bull (Mr. Speckles) as our program breeding stock, and go from there. Although we did not know it as we were building this stock, we have some pretty good blood lines of cattle, and they calves that have been produced have been very nice, and are expected to show well. Live and learn!

Other than that, it has been a really calm day, and that has been good. The cattle have been fed, the new hay bale is back there, and I am pretty much in for the day. I think Jody (the Tanya and Patrick Jody, not my Jody) is going to do some dozer work for us also, if it ever dries up. I think we are going to contour some of the land in the pastures to make a couple more tanks; one in each of the pastures that does not have a tank. Hopefully, that will also help with the drainage of the rain water so it will not just pool, it will drain in to the tanks. I hope anyway...

I think tomorrow we will probably go into Georgetown for a little while. Chick-Fil-A is having a mint chocolate chip milk shake special, so I think I will take Jody into town and surprise him with one of those. He loves mint chocolate Chip, and he had that for his spoiler last week at Dairy Queen. Maybe we will work a little bit of shopping in to the mix as well.

Okay...you know the drill...Deeds, Actions, Kindness, Changes, FUN!