It's A White Christmas Day

YES, for Christmas Day my oldest daughter got her Christmas wish and we got a 

White Christmas!!

My youngest daughter braved the very chilly air (single digit with the wind chill factor) to take some pictures around our property.

She is very artistic with her shots, and I love it.

All I have to say is I'm glad my husband didn't listen to some who said he was crazy for ordering an SUV with 4 wheel drive!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

It's a Carriage House Christmas

Welcome to our Carriage House. 

Where you can hang your hat and 

put your boots up to relax.

My daughter loves to decorate her room up for Christmas as well.

Enjoying the Holidays

It's a Cottage Christmas

I put up Christmas decorations in my little cottage today.  I was lots of fun.

Each year I put things in different places, but I really like my strange 

little cotton Christmas Tree on this old magazine rack table with my little jars all lit up.

It is so cozy.  I just love to go out there and read through all of my decorating books.  

Now that's a Holiday.

This year my little center piece on the trunk is different.  I used left over burlap and a white hanky in an old sewing drawer I had and filled it with a few sparkly things.

See my little birdie?  I thought she was so cute.  

It has to be a girl birdie, because it's a girlie cottage.

Don't you just love my feather ornament clipped on the lantern?  

I just thought it was so soft and pretty, I just had to find a place for it.

Now that I have the Cottage done, I hope to get the house decorated....

Especially BEFORE Christmas.

Guards at the Gate

LuLu!

I had let the horses and donkey out of the pen to let them graze on the rest of the property and LuLu did NOT want me to leave.  Every time I would get out of the car and get her to move and then while I was climbing back into the car, she would get back in front of me!  That sinker.  I waited for about 15 minutes for them to get bored and leave the gate area so I could leave, but they didn't.

Fry is checking out the car for any treats

LuLu will not give up!  She is determined to keep me from leaving.

I had to go back to the barn and call them up, give them treats and then run back down to the gate to get out!  Well that only took me 30 minutes!

All in a Days Work!

Photos By:  Lola

Change of Season in the Cottage

Out in my little Cottage, I've put out my Fall decorations.

I love this little Owl, it matches my owl ribbon.

I had some ribbon left over so I added color 

to the side table and by my welcome sign.  

The little bird is sitting on a real birds nest that I found on the property.

I was lucky to find the pillow and ribbon that had the matching colors, then all I had to do was find some flowers to put in this vase.

I hope you like my Fall touches to my favorite place.

Photos By:  Lola

The Fall Colors of Nature

This is the beginning of Fall here in Texas where the leaves finally start to turn into the rich beautiful colors of green, red, orange and yellow.

The berries on a plant complement the fall leaves in the background.  

Nature just has the prettiest art work ever!

Soon it seems the leaves will be gone.  Here in Texas our Fall comes late in the year and does not stay long, so we try to enjoy it while we can.

Babies Are Always Cute

These are 3 of our new babies.

Here is the 4th  and latest baby, one day old

All babies, human or animal, are always so cute!!  Don't you agree?  I might be scared of some animals while they are big and mean, but there is nothing like the sweet innocence of a baby, even animals.

Photos By:  Lola

Have I always wanted to be a Rancher?

Fry and LuLu are saying hello

Mama and her twins come for a visit

So I was doing some recovery and was laying on the couch watching TV and found that for the second day in a row I was watching "Silverado" with Kevin Klein, Kevin Costner, Scott Glenn and Danny Glover.  It is one of my favorites.  Then I started to realize that I really liked a lot of western movies.  I love "Lonesome Dove",  "Open Range" and "All the Pretty Horses".  Then I started to remember that I was always attracted to "Cowboys"  and the rustic and farmhouse decoration styles using old worn furniture and pieces.  Oh I went through my modern faze but I have always gone back to the old things.  I use to hate going with my parents to look at antiques and I hated stoping at garage sales and now I love going to those.   I would laugh laugh laugh when my girls would moan and groan when I would drag them out to those places.  And now my oldest has some items from antique stores and flea markets in her apartment and loves it.  And my youngest has started enjoying having old western items in her room too (she is a cowgirl).  When I think back to my thoughts and likes that I had has a child, young adult and "mid" adult....I realize how much being a rancher must have been somewhere down deep inside my soul, because even though I was brought up as a city girl,  I believe this is were I was really meant to be.

In watching the movie a little more I also realized that the "Cowboys" really don't say much.  It is a lot of body language and looks, the squint of the eye, the tip of the hat and the touch of the gun hung low on the hip all are a forms of communication.  Then I started to realize that the reason those cowboys always work with animals, like horses, is that they speak the same language, body language.  If you ever get the chance to watch the documentary on Buck Brannaman, do so.  He is the "Horse Whisperer" and even helped on the set of the movie.  He is fascinating and the communication between him and horses is incredible.  But it just makes since that cowboys and horses have such a long history together being they are so much alike.  I'm glad I found my cowboy and my life I seem to be born for, but taking awhile to break down that city gal.

It's BACK

WHO'S THERE?

It appears that something is back.  We are hoping it is not a skunk again, I haven't smelled any calling card yet, so hopefully it is not so, however I also hope it is not a snake.  My daughter was out walking around the cottage and spotted a snake sunning.  Hummmm.  What is visiting my cottage that was uninvited?  Will keep you posted on any new development.

I DID IT

Yep, I really did it!!!!  All by MYSELF!!!  I pulled the Horse trailer! Not only did I pull the trailer, but I  backed up the SUV, hooked up the trailer, checked the lights and pulled the horse trailer to my daughter's school to pick up Kevin (the lamb) and bring it home AND I backed in the horse trailer and parked it up under the barn overhang ALL BY MYSELF!!!  Yep, my husband was impressed, not only impressed that I actually did it, but that I didn't call him for any help, advise, emergency or "freaking out".

I must admit when my daughter informed me before bedtime the night before that we needed to take Kevin up to the school for her Ag teacher to weight him, I was less than thrilled.  My husband did manage to get me to pull the trailer once before with one of the horses in it, but I narrowly missed the curb in a turn (I didn't know it until HE told me!).   So I was very worried about the whole ordeal.  This was also only my second time to not only pull the trailer but back it up.  Which if anyone has ever had to back up a hitch pull knows it is odd and backwards to back up.

BUT I did it, I did it, I did it.  I felt like breaking out in song like the men, Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering did in "My Fair Lady" when they successfully transformed Audrey Hepburn from a flower girl to a royal woman and were extremely proud of themselves.  I DID IT!

So I think I am becoming a Rancher

We had a pregnant cow (Oreo) that was limping and needed her foot (hoof) checked, so I helped my husband get the cow through the shoot and tricked her with "treats" to get her to hold her head out while my husband put the bar on her.  I really learned a lot....like don't wear little sandal type shoes in the sandy dirty cow pens especially here in Texas where there are FIRE ANTS!  This was the only picture I managed to get because I soon found myself actually having to help.  She wasn't be cooperative so we had to tie a rope around her hoof and then rig the rope up and over the bars for leverage, so when she finally lifted her hoof we quickly tightened the rope to hold it up in the air.  So in other words I battled the cow for control of the hoof while my husband examined it and tried not to get kicked.  He then gave her a shot to make sure no infection would take hold and then we let her out of the shoot.  I then gave her some treats for being "somewhat" good.    I like being the "treat lady" (as my husband calls me) but I must admit, the cows are not quite my favorite to hand feed.  Their tongues are very rough and then they slim you!!!!!  So I had dirty and bitten feet with nasty slimy hands that were quickly becoming sticky hands......all in a days work.

Photos By:  Lola

To the Lamb it Goes

Well to the Lamb all attention has gone.  Yes now we have a lamb.  Our daughter wanted to show a lamb this year and so we sent her on her way with her Ag teacher to a lamb sale.  She decided and bid on her lamb all by herself.  She was very determined to get what she was looking for inside her budget and came home very proud of her purchase.....Kevin.  Yes, she named him Kevin.  He will answer to it even.  I'll say hi KE...VINNNN (you have to imagine me saying it the way a lamb baa's) and he answers in a baa.

When we got a text from our daughter saying she had indeed bought her lamb, we quickly begin preparing.  We luckily had some extra stuff from the horses, so we built a temporary pen out of the old temporary horse pen panels and pulled out old water and feed buckets.  And for a shelter we emptied and dragged our old rubbermaid shed into the pen.  My husband had just finished wiring the wire mesh onto the panels when they drove up with Kevin.

As you can see all the animals have been curious of this new addition.  Yes, I'd say we are on our way to being a ranch and a farm!

LuLu and Fry check out Kevin

Jake dosen't like Kevin and runs barking full force at the pen!

Kevin has really attracted not only our attention and all of our animals, and then of course we have been worried about coyotes, but last night at 2 in the morning we hear a noise, so the whole house was up and my husband headed out with the shotgun.  I turns out a strange dog had somehow got into the horse pen and was barking at the lamb through the pen.  Luckily for us the horses and donkey where stalled and he didn't get the lamb (who remained quite through the ordeal) but also lucky for the dog that LuLu wasn't out, because she would have killed the dog.

Then today it began raining and I went to check on the animals and Kevin.  He was laying next to and outside of the shelter, so I had to pick him up and drag him into the shelter, thank goodness I got him in before it rained buckets!  I'm sure if someone had a video going, it would have been rather funny.  Me, who has NO EXPERIENCE trying to in the rain, get a lamb to get up and drag him around.  But I did IT!  So a lot of time and attention has gone to the lamb and it hasn't even been a week nor have we come to "show" time.  I think it will be a long year.

Photos By:  Lola

Cottage Time is my Favorite Time

Some new additions to my cottage.  I found these little "Z"s that were used on old signs.  I made the little "H" hanging and the tiny clip hangers I got from a little antique shop.  I think they will look so cute with some black and white pictures hanging from them.  And the tin 10 is because I think the Cottage is a 10!

This is a new light, I found the shade frame at one of my favorite little antique shops, got a pendant light kit and sewed a cord cover out of left over burlap I had.  Now it is easy to lay in the bed and read.

I love my little Cottage!

Photos By:  Lola

Fighting the HOT dry spells

Even with the Texas native plants that are drought tolerant it becomes a battle to keep plants alive much less pretty.  A lot of rock beds help, but what I don't get is no matter how hot and dry it gets the WEEDS never have a problem growing!  I do enjoy a little landscaping, so here is a little bit of what I have been able to bring an image from in my head to reality.  I just need a staff to help with the rest!!!

A Little Faux

Photo By:  Lola


My husband always thinks I'm crazy when I explain what I project I want to do and even though he is not quite sure about what I'm doing lets me go through with it and is pleased with the results.  Here are the doors in my hallway that are just cheap plain white hollow core doors from a box store.   The plain white just didn't go with my rustic home so I faux painted them to match the trim and then added the cross pieces I made out of the left over trim so they would look like old barn doors.  I must say though, my family was quite happy when I was finally done since it took several steps and several weeks to finish.  Especially having door knobs again was great, but the animals I think preferred the doors without knobs (I had to touch up a few nose prints down low).  I still need to get the hammered nails to cover my screws (so don't look to close yet), but I hope they look like real wood doors to you.

Oh, P.S.  My potted plant next to my little outhouse (as shown in my previous posting), well.....one of the horses decided it looked really yummy and managed to lean over my temporary fence and eat most of the plant and then apparently thought not only was a few tasty bites enough, but the whole plant would probably be delicious!  So she pulled the whole plant out of the pot, but I guess it got caught on the fence because I found the remnants on the ground!  Needless to say on that spot of the fence I added additional height, so we will see if I have won this battle or not.

Texas Outhouse Update

Here is an updated picture of my outhouse.  I'm still waiting on a few things, but my husband did pour me a little slab for it to sit on, back off behind my cottage.  I would love to have some kind of ivy climbing it, however, with all the wasp and fear of snakes trying to use it as shelter from the heat, I've opted to not use any type of ivy.  It seems to take forever to get my ideas to fruition, I think that is because one, it is so blooming HOT, but second.....well I believe I have ADD when it comes to projects.  I don't believe I use to have this problem, so maybe it has come with age, or I just can't remember what I was working on so maybe it is more of a memory problem rather than ADD.  Anyways, I start something and then because of something I'm working on, I either have to go get something or move something and that causes me to start on another of my MANY MANY projects!  Sometimes, I actually say to myself (or to one of the many animals around me)...stay focused!  But even then the projects seem to take FOREVER!

AND AT NIGHT.....oooooo...... ahhhhh.  hehehe

The Special Beauty of Bluebonnets, Texas State Flower

Photo By:  Lola

I found this little old Bluebonnet on our property in the fork in the road all by its self, not only was it found long after the normal time bluebonnets have long since died off for the year and gone to seed, but neither the cows, nor the horses ate it!!!   So this one is special.  Here in Texas we do not get a very long Spring before the strong heat browns almost everything until the next Spring, so when it is time for the Bluebonnets to appear, it is very exciting here in Texas and very beautiful!  You are not allowed to mow the natural wildflower, so you find them all along the highways and roadways (and if you are lucky, on your own property!).  During the couple of weeks they grace us with their beauty, people bring their kids and animals to do the traditional "Bluebonnet Pictures".  We ourselves have a family portrait in our own yard with the bluebonnets and it is one of my favorite family portraits.  My husband took a close up of one and I have it in a frame by my kitchen sink, so I can enjoy it all year long.

Living the Simple Life in this Modern World

So I thought I would show you some pictures of our home....

......our vehicles

 and my daughter's school

to show you our simple life......nah, we went to a place that the owner's only open up one day a year for people to come view.  It is really neat, they have all these old buildings that they brought onto the property, a bank, a grocery store, barber shop etc.  A lot of the buildings back then were used for more than one thing, like the school was also the church, the grocery store was also the post office, but the jail and bank buildings were separate. I wonder why?  Hahaha.

There was also this club that does wood carving and the details were incredible, of course my pictures do not do them justice at all.  I need a new camera!

This one little one had such detail, the face, the clothes were all so tiny as you can tell the size in comparison to my finger nail.

It was a fun day to envision "life back when".

Photos By:  Lola