Day Sixty Two...

Signs of spring are all around us here in central Texas. These Iris were taken from one of the gardens this past weekend...the winds were so strong we were afraid they would just be battered and spoiled, so we cut them and brought them into the house. They were really tight buds when we cut them, and they have opened beautifully as the harbingers of spring. We enjoy lots of wildlife around here, cardinals, rabbits, of course the cattle and coyotes, along with wild turkey, some deer (but not too close to us) the occasional skunk and more. We are looking forward to our first spring and summer at this farm, and will be documenting the adventures along the way. Stay tuned...

Headed out this morning to the Board, where I will preside over a Professional Standards hearing. These hearings never go as you expect they will, and it is always interesting to be a witness to the ins-and-outs of the testimonies given by the complainants and the respondents. Anything can happen! The good news is, again, this cuts another ten miles off my early morning commute in, so I have the luxury of hanging out at the house a little bit longer. Yippee!

ATTENTION!!! 3-3-9 is square root day. I think that happens about five or six times every century. The next one will be 4-4-16, and then after that...well, figure it out yourself, I have a headache!

Life in the office was crazy today. An agent kept calling me (I kid you not, no less than a dozen times) and said MY phone had a short in it because the calls kept getting dropped, even though some of the calls were from my land line) and MY FAX machine was not working correctly (we have two and have been getting faxes before and after her attempts) and MY E-MAIL is not working correctly because she is trying to scan something to me and it is still not working. All that after she said our office was not in a convenient location for her to come and drop off an application for one of our lease properties. I am feeling the need for a good deed welling up inside me.

OKAY, NEWS FLASH...Orchid has delivered her bull calf. At least I am pretty sure it is a bull calf. We will know 100% for sure in a couple days, as soon as Orchid gets just a little bit less protective of him/her/it. But, he is beautiful, and was already up and walking around, if not really that sure of himself. He is still a little bit shaky, and everything is very new and exciting. Have not seen him nurse yet, but Orchid is being a good mom, and they both look to be doing very well. Unfortunately, you will all be inundated with stories and photos of the new one for days to come. I hope you enjoy.

So, I do recommend that you go have a cow, man!

Day Sixty One...

Even though it is cold outside, but nothing like the weather recently in the east, here is another little reminder that it is fixin' to be spring in central Texas. I am not sure what kind of tree this is, but I saw it yesterday afternoon as I was going back to the pasture. It is flowering with pretty little white blossoms, and I know what that means. Soon, we will be enjoying mild temperatures and then, before you know it, it will be HOT. But for now, we will just enjoy these temperate days, and lots of us will wish the weather could be like this all year 'round!

I am off to a really early start this morning, and it is going to be (probably) a really late day. I will leave the house about 6 AM and head into the office, and then I need to be at the Board by at least 8:30 AM. My program at the Board begins at 9 AM, and I expect I will need to go back to the office before I can go home tonight. UNLESS I can log into my computer remotely, and get things done from off-site, which will be really a joy. I am not sure if that will be possible though. I will keep you informed!

Back from a day at the Board! I got into the office in record time this morning, and got some stuff done in the office. It is the first of the month, and that is always a busy time, collecting rents, and fielding repair requests. It seems that tenants can never pay their rents without complaining about something. Okay, I realize that I am painting a large section of society with a very broad brush, but that is what it seems like. All is well, though. Today's section in the leadership training program dealt with team building, and that is always fin, since it always involves lots of group participation, and exercises in teams working together to achieve a common goal. It also means we did not have to sit in our chairs at our tables for eight hours, so that was a welcome thing.

Coming home was a pleasure also, since I was ten miles closer to home than when I am in the office. All is well at the house, the Queen Cat and the Princess Cat are both still alive, and the Queen Cat seems to be making some progress on the tolerance front. I am not really sure how it is all going to turn out, but I think the Queen Cat will at some point just ignore the Princess Cat, and that will be the end of that. That leaves the Bear Dog in the middle of the whole thing, trying to figure out exactly where it is he fits in to this picture. He seems a little bit more needy than usual, but who can blame him?

YUM! YUM! YUM! Can you say home-grown asparagus? Can you say home-grown anything? Well, we are having some home-grown asparagus with our catfish dinner tonight. Freshly cut from the bed just right outside the garage door. We did not plant it, it was there when we bought the house, but we are planning to take full advantage of it for years to come. I will let you know how it is some other time, but we expect it will be better than store bought. Fresh from the beds to the steamer, what could be better?

An interesting development in the crocheting department. For the first time, I have come across a skein of yarn that does not match with the one I am attaching it to. Same colors, same color lots, but they do not match. Just by looking at the two skeins side by side, you cannot see the difference, but now that I am blending them into one scarf, they are obviously different. The texture is different as well a the color. Oh well, since I am charging so much for these works of art, if someone does not like it because there is a color and texture variance, they do not have to pick that one! Picky, picky, picky!

Okay, so how are you doing in the good deeds department? Well, you can do better tomorrow. But for now, it would be great if you could call someone or an organization that helps others to see if they could use some help starting a vegetable garden. Money is like manure, you have to spread it around to help little things grow - Dolly Levi.

Day Sixty

There has been a lot of talk on this web-diary lately about cats, and our poor dog is kind of getting an inferiority complex about that. Well, the beginning of this day will be all about the big Bear boy dog that we adopted a couple months ago. We saw photos of him on the Williamson County Animal Shelter web-site, and thought he looked like a pretty good dog. And, What do you know, it turned out that he was and still is. He does tend to have a mind of his own, and he is not shy about letting you know that he wants or needs something, like a good petting session, or something else. He does have a tendency to wander, so we try not to let him roam the property without one of us being outside with him. AND, he has been known to be a gassy dog, more than just a little bit, too. But overall, he is the best boy dog in the house right now. We really cannot say enough good things about him, and we are happy we all found each other. All of our collected DOGmas are doing much better now, thank you very much.

Have you ever seen any Dutchmans' Breeches up close? Well, neither had I until yesterday. Jody and I were out walking around the property yesterday afternoon, and we came upon these tiny little flowers. They kind of look like what I would think lillies of the valley should look like, but Jody said they are called Dutchmans' Breeches. We are looking forward to the property greening up and blooming, I am personally wanting to plant some stuff (day lillies and things like that), but we need to wait and see what is where before we go and start planting. We will need to make a chart of theings that come up, so we can kind of have a master overview plan of all the stuff. Everywhere you look, something else is blooming.

This afternoon, we decided not to play 'Let's Make a Deal' with the boxes in the garage (I'll give you $500 or you can have what's inside Box #3), so we decided to get in the car and take a drive on the west side of I-35. We drove into Florence, Texas which, for a town of only 1,034 inhabitants, has a pretty nice downtown area. Nice old buildings and a main street. Then we left there and drove into Andice, Texas where, about the biggest thing there is the Andice Baptist Church (all brand new and not quite finished yet). There is a Historical (hysterical) Marker in the parking lot of the church, which tells all about the history of the church and its' many incarnations. We left there and drove into Georgetown and atopped at the NEW HEB which was most likely opened once the Del Webb Sun City Georgetown got pretty well occupied. We did some grocery shopping, and got home kind of mid-afternoon, and had lunch. SO now, were are not really hungry, so we are just going to nibble a bit.

Later in the afternoon, we took advantage of the 70 degree weather and abundant sunshine, and sat out by the pool. All told, it was a lovely afternoon. We are going to have another freeze tonight, so I have disconnected the water to the cattle trough, and maybe that will be our last freeze of the season. We shall see... I cannot believe that Daylight Savings Time starts next Sunday morning. This is just crazy!

Now, kindly go and find someone that you care about, and see if there are any good deeds you can do for them. You can do it, I know you can!

Day Fifty Nine...

THE TWENTY EIGHTH (AND THE LAST) OF TWENTY EIGHT THINGS I SEE BETWEEN MY HOUSE AND THE HIGHWAY...in no particular order...

We basically moved out to the country because we liked the country life. After 9/11, we bought the original farm in Red Rock, Texas as a place to get away from the City and also as an answer to the "in case of emergency, cover your windows with plastic sheets and duct tape" philosophy that was the rage in certain political circles. Well, one thing led to another. Soon, we were planting rose bushes and fruit trees, we were painting the walls, and the final blow was when I got the cattle. I was originally going to get some bison (why look at ordinary cattle if you can look at bison), but then I discovered there were no fences for ten acres of land that could adequately hold bison. So we settled on Longhorn Cattle. They are beautiful and gentle animals, and they are fun to have. Of course, they need to be fed and paid some attention to. So, just like with the fruit trees, I was going to the farm one day during the week to do chores, and then we started going to the farm from Thursday to Sunday. Finally, we just decided it was time to do the farm thing, and forget about trying to do it part time.

We found this house, and the house and grounds were nice and we did it. In the long run, I think we are both happy with the decision, and now that the condo in town has been sold, we can concentrate on this wonderful place in the country. We interact more with our neighbors here than we did in Austin. A lot more! We know their names, and we see them on a pretty regular basis, if only to wave to as we pass them on the road. We did not really ever see our neighbors in Austin. So, as I wind up this series of things we see between the house and the highway, I have tried to show you the beauty in the everyday things around here. I hope you guys will all take a couple minutes in your days to see the beauty around you. It is there, I promise.

As a matter of fact, the cool/cold front did make its way through here last night. It was one of those 'can't get comfortable temperature wise' evenings. We started out with the windows open (no covers) then the windows closed (no covers) then the windows closed and under the down comforters. The nuclear weather station was reporting the outside temperature to be about 48 degrees when I got up this morning, so that means it is a little bit cooler than that. And there is supposed to be a little bit of a freeze tomorrow morning. All this and for the last two days, it has been near 90 degrees here.

I have an appointment this morning to take the truck in for service, and after that I will stop at the feed store to buy some strawberry plants. I also need to stop and get gas and diesel in the extra tanks. I filled up the Mule and the tractor yesterday, so I will fill those cans up with fuel and we will be ready for the next thing. Cattle will need to be fed today or tomorrow, and then they will be moved to the other pasture next week. One of our neighbors may come by today to give us some prices for fertilizing the pastures and also putting a weed treatment out, so if we ever do get any rain and the grasses start to grow, we can get a good cutting of hay for the cattle and will not have to keep buying hay. Also a couple friends of ours, Carrie and Margaret may come out here today to look at the grounds. Carrie is a master gardener and likes to play in the dirt, and goodness knows there is plenty of dirt to play in out here. That will be fun if they decide to come out.

When I went outside to get the paper this morning, I was surprised at the gale force winds. Usually I can hear the wind from inside the house, but not this morning. The winds were very strong and it was cold...relatively speaking. I went into Hutto to have the truck serviced, and then there were a variety of errands I needed to run, including getting some strawberry plants for the strawberry jar.

By the time I got home, Carrie and Margaret and Margaret's daughter Liz were here working in the flower beds, and they got an awfully lot of work done, so that was a tremendous start to all the grounds-work that needs to be done, and will be an on-going effort to keep up with it. Once we get the routine down, it will most likely not be so bad.

I just went out and turned off the water to the cattle trough, hopefully this will be the last freeze of the season, but you never know. I suggest you contact someone you care about and ask them two questions; Do you need your flower beds weeded, and secondly, is there anything I can do tonight to keep you warm. You might just be surprised at the response you get!

Day Fifty Eight...

THE TWENTY SEVENTH OF TWENTY EIGHT THINGS I SEE BETWEEN MY HOUSE AND THE HIGHWAY...in no particular order...

Well, day 27 of this series is also the penultimate entry of the things I see between our house and the highway. Penultimate, penultimate, penultimate. Oh, and I really like 'spell-check' too! I like that word, it has such an air of authority. Whatever... Anyway, this was an interesting exercise for me, at times I thought I would not find enough interesting stuff to share and at other times, I thought there was too much to be crammed into just 28 days. Finally, I got it just right, and I hope someone out there has enjoyed this series. Along the route to the Interstate, there are lots of signs and markers, lots of cattle and horses and goats and mules and fields and manufactured homes and abandoned homes and barns and flags and windmills and rusty stuff and churches and stuff. It is the stuff that I am particularly fond of. Since today is the last official work day of the month, I thought this sign was a fitting one to post. When I get to the Interstate, I have a decision to make. Do I want to go to Austin or do I want to go to Waco? We are pretty much right in the middle of the two from a mileage perspective. I have really not spent very much time in Waco in the 24 years I have lived in central Texas, probably not even 24 hours if I totalled it all up, and I think it is probably well worth a visit to spend some time there. But I always choose the road to Austin, since that is where the business is, and also because I am really predictable. Austin or Waco? Austin is Wacko! Whatever!

We slept with windows open last night and it was still plenty warm. When I got up this morning, I checked the atomic weather clock and it reported 68 degrees...and this is the end of February. SO much for winter. Remember earlier posts where I was complaining about the temperatures below freezing? Well, if this is any indication, get ready for some real complaining when we get to spring and summer. I really am turning into an old man. Pretty soon I won't have anything to talk about except the weather, my operations and the pills I take to try and control my cholesterol. Wanna see my scars?

Pretty much an open calendar for today. I am in the process of helping one set of clients negotiate the terms and conditions of an offer on their house, and I have two other deals working. If everything holds, I should have a pretty good March, with three paychecks. I hope this is a signal of a turn around for the housing market in Austin. If not, I am still lucky to be here, rather than ________ (insert the name of some place you don't care for much). Overall, I still feel like I am about the luckiest person in the world.

On the way in to the office this morning, I noticed the trees are all beginning to bloom out. The red buds and other spring time flowering trees are really popping out, and they have pretty much done it over night, or I just was not really paying that much attention. It was another really warm day today, and there is a cold front coming through tonight, the overnight low is supposed to be in the 40's. And we are supposed to have a freeze overnight on Saturday. Predicted low is supposed to be about 28 degrees, not really terrible, and it will only be below freezing for a few hours, but I hope it does not wreak havoc on all the spring time flowering things. We have been stopping by the roadsides and scooping up jonquils and daffodils. Really nice.

A good day at work, and another week is finished. It is hard to believe it is almost March already. Where do the days go? Speaking of the future, let's talk about the past for a minute. As I sit here and write this, Jody and I are listening to the Classical Pops station on XM radio...we like the satellite radio. But anyway, they are playing the sound track to the 'Lion in Winter' and it is bringing back really nice memories. I have always loved that movie, Katherine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole, and I went to see that film when I was either a junior or a senior in High School. I was with the girl I was seeing, Debi. Boy was I ever a confused kid back then. But I still have always really liked that film and the music. I recently found a photo of Debi and myself, and I had no idea what a tremendously beautiful young woman she was. Exquisite. Anyway...

I cannot really think of any good deeds I did today, but I really think if I tried really hard, I could come up with something. All is well, it is the weekend, and I am a very lucky man. Go tell someone close to you, or far from you for that matter, that you love them and care about them very much. You never know, you might not get another chance to do it. Why should you keep that a secret from someone? No good reason I can think of.

Day Fifty Seven...

THE TWENTY SIXTH OF TWENTY EIGHT THINGS I SEE BETWEEN MY HOUSE AND THE HIGHWAY...in no particular order...

This is always a really great way to start the day. Unfortunately, these sunrises are fleeting, and they are gone before you know it. It gives you a great reason, though, to just stop for a few minutes, and behold the beauty. Living in the country gives you plenty of opportunities to see beauty, much more than when we lived in the middle of Austin. There is beauty all over our country and the world, you just have to be able to recognize it. I think that is probably the same with people...most of us do a lot of good things for other people and for each other, we just need to be re-trained to be able to recognize the good that others people have within themselves and within ourselves as well.

Yesterday was an incredibly warm day in central Texas at the end of February. The temperatures all around were in the 80's and there were some reports of low 90's. When I got up this morning, the temperature on the nuclear thermometer was registering a balmy 66 degrees. I am really concerned that we will have a scorcher of a summer, and the drought continues. I was speaking with a gentleman yesterday about coming out and applying some fertilizer and weed control to the pastures, and he said we would get rain again. I think that was a pretty safe statement make, but I would like a little bit tighter scenario, like when and how much. We are all just about to turn into dust and blow away. People are really having issues getting hay to feed the cattle, and that makes the prices of everything go up. If you know any good rain dances, we would appreciate it if you could send some our way.

The black cat (Little Bit Rudd) is making good progress recovering from her surgery. I went into her casa last night and she sat up for a minute and looked at me, and then she literally collapsed and went back to sleep. I had a personal flashback to the early 70's and got just a little bit nostalgic. Ah, to be carefree and on downers, pretty cool, man! The big boy dog (Bear) is just tolerating all of it. Every now and then he has a bit of insecurity, but he gets a good head-rub or some really good petting, and then he goes back over to his bed and curls up. A big dog in a house with two really small cats and he is just kind of the big lummox in the group. Very friendly, but really not concerned with the whole thing. I think he likes his forever family with us. We like him a lot, and we think we were really lucky to adopt such a happy boy dog.

Well, another good day at the office, AND it was meals-on-wheels today (always on Thursdays). I got a good bit of work done on my class preparation, and I am now up to lunch on the first day. Tomorrow I will try to get through the afternoon break on the first day, and if I can, I will be right on schedule for my preparations. I had nine folks on my meals-on-wheels route today, and even the ones that I did not really care too much for in the past are getting to where I like visiting with them. It is interesting how people can come and go. We are truly a mobile society. I wonder sometimes what happens to folks I have been dealing with for years, and then all of a sudden they disappear. Into thin air. Odd.

Okay the little black cat (Ms. Little Bit Rudd) is recovering nicely, but she is still feeling the effects of the surgery and the drugs. Pretty much sleeping all day long (is that the drugs or is that just what cats do?). And when you go to pet her (which she likes very much) she rolls over on her back to show off her stitches and her really cute shaved tummy. She is a darling little kitty. All the people at the vet commented on how sweet she is. Jody said the vet said she was about 10 months old. I expect she will stay inside much more now that she has come back. She has not shown any interest in going outside, and she did enjoy climbing up on the roof and acting like she was a damsel in distress and that she could not get down. Oh, help me, help me...

Today is my friend Tracy R's birthday, and I gave her a call on my way home from work. She is a laugh riot, and a really nice woman. Happy Birthday to you again, sweet lady. She said today was the tenth anniversary of her 26th birthday. Have fun.

Jody fixed meatloaf for dinner tonight...plus mashed potatoes and green beans. Yummy. And the kitchen clean up was not too bad. Jody cooks, I clean. That is the deal. So, I suggest that if you get invited over to someones house for dinner tonight, there are two rules you should follow: Never ask what they are having before you accept the invitation...what is the deal, are you going to hold out for a better invitation? Either yes I would love to or no I cannot make it will be sufficient. Secondly, always help with the kitchen clean-up. It is only polite to try to help, after all they did cook the meal.

Day Fifty Six...

THE TWENTY FIFTH OF TWENTY EIGHT THINGS I SEE BETWEEN MY HOUSE AND THE HIGHWAY...in no particular order...

Here is a multiple-choice question for you to begin your day. The animal depicted in the photograph to the left is: A) A donkey, B) A burro, C) A mule, D) A jackass, E) None of the Above, F) All of the Above. Submit your answers to me via the comment section of this blog. Winners will be announced after the deadline of midnight March 1, 2009. There will be no prize awarded for correct entries, and all entries with the wrong answer will be subject to ridicule. So, if you supposed that I do not know the answer to the question, you are correct so far. I have no idea what the proper term for these animals are, but I like them a lot, and there are at least a dozen of these white (not sure if albino fits) burros (for lack of a more positive identification) between our house and the highway. I really believe they must share some kind of genetic blood line, because I have never seen such a concentration of white burros in such a small area before. Included among them and seemingly co-existing with no real problems are plenty of the ordinary run-of-the-mill brown and black burros. The all white burros are certainly in the minority, but again, they all seem to get along as if they were all the same. I wonder if there is something to be learned from this?

Okay, here is an update on the saga of the lost (and found) dog from yesterday. I had a call in the office today from the lady that I left the dog with yesterday. She called and said she had found the owner of the dog, and they were about four or five miles away from where I found the dog. It seems the owner had been out posting signs to try and find the dog, so all is well that ends well. I am glad that I had some part in the happy ending, and even more glad that I was able to find someone to keep the dog besides myself. I do not need more pets right at this minute.

Work was good today, and we (that would be me) got lots of stuff finished. I think the fact that I had a good nights sleep last night helped tremendously. I got started on the preparation of my next class at the Board, and it is not until March 16th, but it is a class that I have never taught before, so it takes a lot of preparation time. I hate being unprepared, and if you are not prepared, it is pretty darn evident. That is the trouble with adult learners, you really cannot buffalo them into just accepting the fact that you know what you are talking about (when you really don't).

Jody and I jut got home from dinner at the Crossroads Cafe. We both had cried catfish (nuggets, not fillets) and it was pretty good. I assume the nuggets are less expensive on the wholesale level than the fillets would be, but they were good regardless. And there were plenty of them, too.

The black cat is home from her surgery, and I guess her name is officially 'Little Bit', since that is what the vet put down on the paper. Little Bit Rudd...I like it, it has a nice ring to it. She is still drugged up, and in her room, so we will leave her there for the night. She needs to rest, and no jumping around for a while.

Okay, see how a good deed had a happy ending? SO you should try it, go do something nice for someone or something. You will be happy with the experience. If nothing else, you can go and deliver meals-on-wheels with me tomorrow. Always guaranteed to be a rewarding experience!