The next step on The Long Road.

The next step on the long road was taken yesterday.  We closed on the loan and can now begin construction on our new home.  As these things often are, it was uneventful.  Getting to this point and completing this project are where the challenges lay.  We are grateful to be here and have fortified ourselves for what is yet before us.  LET THE FUN BEGIN! 

Routines and This and That...

As we drove in toward the deer feeder, we were greeted by the cows and a ton of cattle egrets.  Both the cows and egrets took off when I stopped to grab my camera.  This week we filled the feeder and put out a mineral block and protein block for the deer.  Predictably the cows were watching and ran over to check out what we had done as soon as we left.  However we are counting the days when the new fence will keep them away from the deer feeding station.

Supplies for the new fence:

 

 





Matthew has started on the fence.  Today he was measuring and cutting pipe for the corners.  He says once the corners are set, the rest of the fence will go up in a couple days. 
This new fence will keep the cows away from the feeder and more importantly, away from the building site for the house.  Yes, we are very close to starting on the house.  We close on the combined construction and permanent financing on Wednesday of this week!  Yipee!!!

We received some disturbing news from Ryan saying that he had gone to look at the water meter last week and couldn't find it.  Well, that rascal cost a lot of money and I couldn't believe it had already been stolen.  He did say that there was a giant spider in the water meter box he didn't want to mess with so refrained from digging to see if the meter was still there.

 

Today, as we gazed into the box we saw the spider and no meter.  Peg, ever ready to use a piece of equipment/tool swung around her hatchet and flicked out, not only the spider, but three fuzzy egg bundles.  Then we started digging in the meter box to see if we still had our meter.  Thank goodness we found it beneath all the dirt!

 

Then we headed to the tank so the dogs could cool off.  The temperatures were already in the high nineties and Rooster and Beulah were fading.  Once they saw where we were going, they raced ahead to get into the water.

 

As the dogs enjoyed their dip, we commented on how much the water level had dropped in the last three weeks.  Without fairly regular rains, the tank slowly evaporates away.  We may be more aware of it now that we have learned that there are large perch and catfish living in the deep recesses.  We can't wait to bring the grandkids down for some fishing fun!

 

 

 



Pictures from the Deer Feeder: 8.10.213

Do you remember the Spanish burrs with the yellow flowers ?  Well Mike plowed them under this past weekend.

Actually he is plowing under the shaft from the wheat crop.

 

Well here is the feeder down for refilling.

The fence is currently down so the calves come over to see what they might be able to eat.  The kernels are so small they really do not eat much.

Here is a nice buck.

Seems as though they know the camera is rolling.

 

And our first baby caught on camera.

Our first baby on camera. 

we get other critters too, mostly at night...raccoon.

 

Looks like an armadillo.

Another buck before the burrs plowed under.

 

 

 

Spanish Burrs

With so much rain lately these pretty yellow flowers have "popped" out in the lower wheat field, spilling into the cow pasture.  But guess what.. not so nice as they have big burrs.  The locals call them Spanish Burrs.  We will get these "plowed" under before they continue to spread.

We had to walk through the aforementioned to get to the feeder to change out the media card this past weekend.  Here is a nice buck in velvet.  (antlers).  The date is currently incorrect on the feeder.

And one little coyote visits the feeder at night .  Notice how the tail hangs downward.

Revolution

We dropped into town (Bartlett) the Sunday before Bekah's birthday party to see how the set for the TV program Revolution was coming along and took a couple of pictures for those who haven't attended any of the filming.  For the picture below it looks like there was a fight.

 

 I heard from a local that this statute of General P Willoughby was going to stay in town but not sure why when half the figure has been blown off.