2010 - Day Three Hundred Thirty Four...

Alright (I am still on the alright schtick instead of okay), today is kind of a big deal to me...a momentous occasion...kind of like saying that I am a legend in my own time...but whatever. Today marks the 700th entry I have made to this on-line journal, nee blog. Seven Hundred Days of entries without missing a single day. There was really only one day that I ALMOST (but that only counts in horse shoes) forgot to make my entry, but I didn't, so there! I am baffled that I have kept this thing going, and I am even more baffled of the people who say things to me that they could only know because of these entries. It has been fun, and it will be interesting to see how long I can keep it going. You never can tell, it may be the only thing that survives the next melt-down, and that would really make us all look pathetic! SCARY!

Alright, I pretty much stayed in the office all day today except for about 30 minutes around lunch-time when I went to the office supply store. I left the office about 2:45 and went to St. David's Rehab Hospital on 32nd Street. A friend of mine (Deb) was in a really bad car accident before Thanksgiving; she and a colleague were driving back from Marble Falls and the driver of an on-coming truck had a seizure, was unconscious, and hit them head-on. Deb sustained some broken bones and bruises, but is doing much better than her colleague, but both are making good progress. ANYWAY, I went to visit Deb this afternoon on my way home, and I was very happy to see she is doing very well. A friend and colleague of both of ours (Sally) was also there, and we all enjoyed a very nice visit. She (Deb) has a great attitude, and is keeping everything in perspective. She is also doing some work from her hospital bed! She expects to be in the hospital for another few days, and then home for more rehab.

Made it home with no trouble, went out and fed the girls, and Jody reported that he retrieved five eggs this afternoon. Not too bad! I realize that I have been lax (not the airport) in providing you with chicken photos, so this is an interesting one I took this afternoon. I like it a lot!

Tomorrow I will have about three meetings, so it will be a busy day!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, CHICKENS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2010 - Day Three Hundred Thirty Three...

Back to work this morning and life remains good! No real traumas or tragedies, so that (I believe) says something about our business. It can run in spite of us all being away for four or five days.

Last night I took a few photos of some of the things happening around the place, and this photo is of the morning glories, they may be down but they are not out. We had pretty clear skies today with high temperatures near 80 degrees, but there is another cold front supposedly coming in tonight, and the temperature on Wednesday morning is supposed to be in the lower 30's. That means the temperature here will be in the 20's. We will see how the plants do after that, but it is inevitable that everything will die off and come back in the spring.

Spring is a wonderful season around here, particularly at this property. Since the property was n Iris farm in a previous life, there are lots of interesting plantings around. Even though we are going to downsize the plantings, there will still be lots of wonderful sights for many years to come. This is a photo of an Iris that is kind of confused about the season, and it is a lovely yellow with markings very similar to an orchid. I got too close for the real details to be evident, but I think you can get the general idea of this beauty.

I stayed pretty much in the office all morning, and left to go to a meeting about 1:15. En route, I stopped and got gas, and I think my car has pretty much overcome whatever it did not like about its service call last Friday. My mileage is back up to acceptable levels, and my odometer clicked over to 120,000 miles on the way back to the office. How dangerous do you think it is for me to be taking photos while travelling down MoPac at about 65 miles per hour? Not sure...

Jody got five eggs from the girls this afternoon, and they were all happy to see me when I went out there and fed them after I got home. I will go out and put them to bed in just a little while. Jody is fixing turkey, spinach and salad for dinner tonight. YUM! I am not shy about leftovers, happy (and thankful) to have them! I am not sure they are leftovers, though. We shall see.

Tomorrow will be a day of mostly office, nothing planned at this time.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, SPRING BLOOMS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2010 - Day Three Hundred Thirty Two...

All good things must come to an end; I have tremendously enjoyed my five-day mini-vacation/extended Holiday Weekend. I am getting things in order to go back to work tomorrow, thankful for even more now than when the days-off began. This morning I was honored to see a beautiful sunrise, and it was a pretty darn glorious day. Okay, except maybe for the morning glories, that have suffered from the cooler weather, but they may be down, but they are not yet out!

It was a really lazy day for both of us; we read the morning paper and I cleaned off my desk in the office, trying to get it coordinated for the end of the year things that need to be done. Once that was somewhat accomplished, I made a nice egg loaf and we enjoyed that.

We drove in to Georgetown very late in the morning, and went by the Collector's Market where we retrieved a micro-wave egg poacher from our booth. We are starting Atkins today or tomorrow, and the egg poacher will go with me to the office so I will not be so discombobulated at lunch times. Atkins is not really that hard to follow, just no bread or dairy (did I mention that I really love breads and dairy?) and starches, but I get pretty much all the meat and fats I can ingest. I think my real killer is the fast foods, so I need a good excuse to stay away from the dollar menus and the fries and the sodas. I am kind of looking forward to it, because I really need to lose some weight and the discipline will be good for me! YES, SIR! Whatever...

We also stopped by the Dairy Queen in Georgetown and had a spoiler. There is a tremendous difference between this DQ and the one in Salado. The folks in Georgetown and friendly, the place is clean and modern and they pretty much know us on sight. Not sure if that is a good thing or not. Anyway...

On the way home I stopped in the middle of the road to take this picture of the clouds. This lonely looking road is about a half-mile from our house. It looks worse than it really is (as far as the loneliness is concerned). We have really great neighbors, and we love living out here. After I took this photo, the skies continued to cloud up, and right now it is totally cloudy. The winds really picked up this afternoon, and they are coming from the south, so we do not expect it to be anywhere as cool overnight as it has been the last two nights. It may not even be cool enough for a fire tonight, but we are ready just in case.

We got six eggs from the girls this afternoon, and they got fresh organic layer mash and fresh water in their dispensers. That makes 39 eggs for the week, which we think is a lot of eggs from six chickens. They should start slowing down the production pretty soon, but they do not seem to be cutting back. Maybe it has to get cold and stay cold for a while, this is one of those 'learn-as-you-go' projects, so we will just have to see. When we got started with the chickens, we expected each girl would want their own nesting box, but it is pretty typical for four of them to lay in one box, and two in another. I do not think they have ever laid in the bottom three boxes. Interesting...

My car seems to be running better, so I am still not sure if I will take it in to the dealer tomorrow on my way to work or not; I will just play it by ear for now. Tomorrow starts the 'end-of-the-month' routine and the 'begin-the-new-month' routine, so I expect it will be a pretty darn busy week. Gonna spend some time playing catch-up.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, CLOUDS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2010 - Day Three Hundred Thirty One...

Another relatively busy day, but it was busy doing stuff in and around the house. Our friends Joe Mac and Carolyn got up and headed for home, leaving here at about 9 o'clock. Hopefully, they had an uneventful trip back to Gautier, and they should be cooling their jets in their own home by now. We had a really nice time with them during their visit, and miss them already.

We had our first honest-to-goodness freeze last night, and it took out some of the vegetation around the house. A lot of the cannas have been burned and the morning glories may have been burned a little bit, but they looked pretty good this morning. The next day or two will tell how badly they did overnight. BUT, they were GLORIOUS when they were blooming, I really enjoyed their beauty this year, and already look forward to next year.

Not too long after they left, I headed over to one of the neighbors and bought some square bales of hay to use as a wind break around the chickens outside pen. I think I most likely did not need to do that, but these are pampered chickens to say the very least. We got another six eggs from them today, so we need to keep them as happy as possible! Now they will have a little outside shelter from the harsh north winds that are becoming more frequent. AND, in the spring, I can make a hole in the bales and put some good dirt in the holes in the bales and plant tomatoes or peppers or something. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

I had my car serviced yesterday, and it was a pretty major service job. AND of course, there is something not right about the car right now. It idles very fast now, and it idles when it should not be running, that is the whole deal with a hybrid. The motor is not supposed to be running all the time. I called my service person (Sally, bless her heart) at the dealership and even though she was not working today, she called me back and said they would take care of it. Something is probably just sticking somewhere, and it will not be a really hard thing to fix, she does not believe. My mileage has really taken a hit with this new development, my MPG has been reduced by about 7 miles per gallon. That is HUGE!

Anyway, Jody and I ventured out to Salado this morning to explore what is really available up there. Even though we have lived here for two years, we have always drifted southerly for groceries and things, but we are thinking we can get the needs met north; it is closer and less congested.

We started out a Ace Hardware, which is a relatively new addition to the area. A very nice store, and we bought a pecan picker-upper. Then we went over to the Brookshire Brothers grocery store, which is a VERY NICE place. The produce and meats and vegetables are all lovely, and it will be a very nice place to shop. It was not at all crowded, and we did not expect it to be too busy, since it is the weekend after Thanksgiving. Most everyone is existing on leftovers right now, we expect.

After the grocery, we went to the Salado Dairy Queen. Well, what can I say...there is no comparison between this store and the ones in either Taylor or Georgetown, so we will most likely have to pass us the temptations to go to Salado for spoilers. The staff person who seemed to be in charge was not at all friendly, so that is the main reason we will not be regulars there. We could overlook the rest, but we want our spoiler vendors to be happy. Whatever...

Home now, fire going, dinner finished and pretty soon it will be bedtime for me (just getting started time for most) and falling asleep with the television on. Heaven!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, SQUARE BALES, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2010 - Day Three Hundred Thirty...

Most likely this will be a short post. I admit it, I am less than intelligent. I was up at 3 AM and off to fight the madding crowds (the great unwashed) when the stores opened at 4 AM. I have only done that one other time, and that was two or three years ago. Jody and I found a real bargain in the major appliance arena, and as long as I was up...

SO, I hit Target first, and bought a new digital camera. In today's mail, we had an advertisement from Costco, and the camera I bought was $20 more in the Costco ad, so I am pretty happy with that purchase.

Then I was off to Best Buy, and that took me until about 6:15 to complete that transaction. Then I was off to Toyota to have my car serviced (120K service, which was a big one). One of the service items was to change the spark plugs in my car. I am going on the record right now, my car is not right. How can I tell? Because I have driven the car for 120,000 miles, that's how. Anyway, I am going to run a tank full of gas through it before I make a final judgment, but there is something odd about the performance of the car after this service. We shall see...

Jody and Joe Mac and Carolyn came to pick me up while my car was being serviced, and we headed off to Red Rock. Joe Mac and Carolyn had never seen that house, and we needed to go down there anyway just to check to make sure everything was okay. The place looks pretty good for not having been occupied since May, and it really needs some loving. I hope we can find some buyers for the property soon.

On the way back, we stopped in Elgin for bar-b-que. Of course, I had to have pork ribs (I always have something with bones in it so I can bring the bones back for the dog). We got there about 11:30, and had a very nice lunch. All was good, and we all enjoyed it. Interestingly, it took until I was at the Toyota dealer for me to figure out who won the UT vs A&M game; no one in line at Target OR Best Buy knew who had won the game. I think they were all in bed really early to get up in the middle of the night. HOWEVER, once we were in Elgin, it was REALLY evident who won the game. I guess the best team won! As fr as I could tell, the A&M folks were very gracious about the win, but there was a lot of chatter in Elgin about it. I am not sure who was the favored team, but the game turned out pretty much the way I expected it would.

Once we got home, Joe Mac and I went out to feed the cattle, and we put fresh hay out in two pastures. Now, when I move the cattle next week, the hay will already be out in that pasture, so I will not have to deal with that. Life is good.

We got six eggs from the girls today, so that is really nice. It is supposed to be below freezing tonight, and be below freezing for several hours, so this will be the girls first real cold spell. I expect they will make it through just fine, at least I hope so.

We finished that, and pretty much sat around for the rest of the afternoon. We all headed back into Walburg for dinner tonight at the Walburg Restaurant. Joe Mac and I had the buffet, Jody and Carolyn both had the grilled salmon. There was an incredible number of people coming and going from that place, and it stays busy LATE into the night on the weekends.

Early to rise, early to bed.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, BUFFETS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2010 - Day Three Hundred Twenty Nine...

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, and I hope this day of giving thanks was truly rewarding.

We took a little side trip this morning into Salado, just to show our friends Joe Mac and Carolyn the sights between here and there. We were also looking for the new Ace Hardware that has recently opened in Salado. While we were there, the Brookshire Brothers grocery was opened, and Jody went inside and got two loaves of chicken bread for a dollar. A great buy, and Jody was very happy with the grocery, AND it is closer than going to either Georgetown OR Taylor, and the traffic is not as much of a problem. A good discovery!

Got home and started heating the dinner, and pretty much just messing around. The cold front came in between 2 and 3, and the temperature dropped about 30 degrees in about 15 minutes. Quite a noticeable change for sure.

Dinner was on the table and we all sat down and had a wonderful meal, after which we were too full to get up, so we just sat around and talked for a long time. I finally got up and started cleaning up, and once that was all done, we all went down for naps.

We got up from naps, I started a fire in the wood stove and went out to feed the chickens. We got four eggs from the girls today, and that is not too bad. A couple of the chickens are obviously from the United States and have taken the day off. We are now all sitting around in the living room, enjoying good conversation and the fire.

Have a great evening!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, COLD FRONTS (and cold backs too), Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2010 - Day Three Hundred Twenty Eight...

All the news that's fit to blog...and then some! Stayed in bed extra long this morning, since I was planning to take the day off and enjoy the company of our friends from out of town. I finally got up around 7, and Jody was actually up before me! We did our morning ritual things, made coffee, got the paper, read the meters. While I was out, there was evidence of what was trying to be a really pretty sunrise, but it never really materialized. Too many clouds, but it was pretty!

I watered the morning glories and then changed the contents of the outside water source for the chickens. The outside water container needs about twice the attention that the one inside their coop needs. Evaporation!

I also changed the flags, even though the winds were really high. I love the flags, and I love that we have a proper place to display them. They are all fresh and lovely.













And, by the way, our friends brought us this piece of yard art, we love it. HOWEVER, we are kind of the mind that this one guy is kind of lonely, and we may need to develop a herd of these guys, since we already have the space!

Before long, Joe Mac and Carolyn were out in the front of the property, up by the road digging cannas, iris and lillies to take back to Mississippi with them. After they had a couple large bags of bulbs, we got in the Mule and went to the back pasture and checked on the cattle. All was well, and we went even further back in the pastures, just for the heck of it. All was still well!

We all piled up in the car and headed for Georgetown, where we had lunch at the Down the Alley Bistro. Very nice! Once that was finished, we headed off to Round Rock with the intention of picking up our dinner for tomorrow at Sprouts; but we were sidetracked to the Round Rock Honey Warehouse, where Konrad gave Joe Mac and Carolyn a five minute tour of the facility. That was really nice of Konrad to take his time, and it was a lot of fun.

We finally got the turkey, made one more stop before we went home, and we were all pretty tired of doing nothing. We went and let the girls out of their pen and collected six eggs. Today is the nine week anniversary of us getting eggs from the girls, and they area averaging about thirty eggs per week overall! We love that!

We went back into Georgetown for dinner tonight at El Patron. It got off to kind of a shaky start, but it all worked out fine in the long term.

Tomorrow is Giving Thanks day, and I know that I have plenty to be thankful for.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, GOOD FRIENDS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!