I Got Here As Fast As I Could

When Sarah was 7 years old we purchased our place in the Texas Hill Country. We had spent 2 years searching; following up all leads we got from the small town newspapers we subscribed to. Originally we were only looking for 5 acres but ended up with 54. Things happen that way sometimes!

I had been working part time and when we purchased the property I went to work full time to help pay for it. I worked in a small office with a couple of women. One, Terese, was very nice and the other, Cathy, was somewhat annoying. She prided herself on being a “native Texan” and never let a chance go by to look down her nose at me for not being born in Texas. I should have pointed out to her that William Travis, Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett had not been born here either, but I didn’t think of it at the time.

(Photos - John  and Zac canoeing on Llano with Rickie; Lisa and Larry on Copperas Creek near Roosevelt)

Why this mattered to her, I don't know. But she considered herself Texan and me not.  She had one flaw in her claim to Texas over me though, in my opinion. She had never been outside the Houston area. She liked her subdivision only and had no love of the actual true heart of Texas. When my friend Terese and I would talk about the Hill Country, she would wrinkle up her nose. She had no love of the hills, and the plants, and the clear water, and the rocks! She liked her concrete and her Homeowner’s Association rules.

(Photo - Llano River at Yates Crossing)

Terese said something to us one day that has stuck with me. She said either you are drawn to the Hill Country or you are not. And those of us that are drawn to it can never explain it to the others or convince them of the beauty of it.

I consider myself lucky to be a person that is drawn to a certain area. Some people say they have no idea where they would live if they could live anywhere. I find that sad.

From the first time I went to the Hill Country, I was hooked. The clear air, the way it feels on your skin, the way the colors are brighter and clearer. The limestone and the way it tints the water of the Llano aqua colored. The whiteness of the limestone in the hills and the smell of caliche in the air. The far views, the beautiful sunsets, the live oaks and mesquites. The history of it and the culture of it and the toughness of the people and wildlife that inhabit it. My heart soars when I look out upon it. I pine away for it when I’m not there.  We would do anything in our power to have a place there and Rickie and I have sacrificed much in other areas of our life to make it happen.


(Photo - Nat, Sarah, and Lexi at Barton Springs in Austin)

There are other places I could live but they all have the same physical qualities. They are dry and have hills and plants that stick! They embody the westerners sense of independence and are a little bit wild, so that if you wandered off you might not make it back. If you are out of one of the cities they look a lot like they did 200 years ago.

My friend Myra feels this way about the Montana she calls home as does my mom-in-law Dot about her beloved Mississippi. And my sister Jackie about living near the coast. My cousin’s husband Ralph took us on a john boat tour of the bayou in South Louisiana one time and we saw the land through his eyes, the land he loved.

I hope you have a place you feel this way about whether it is in the country or the city. Someplace that you know you would pick if anyone asked you where would you live if you could live anyplace. And if you don't, I hope you go out and find that place!


"Land really is the best art." Andy Worhol

How does your garden grow?

Rickie and I spent a few hours working in the garden Saturday. The weather was perfect. 70s and sunny!


(Photo - Rick waters a sunflower that has survived the winter)

Rickie pruned his grapes. We are hoping for a better year than the last one. We had so few grapes last summer that we left them all for the birds. They needed them more than we did. Maybe we will have enough this year for a small batch of wine or some jelly.

We lost one of our two oldest peach trees to the drought and Rickie cut it down. It was almost 20 years old. These two peach trees were the first things we planted in the garden. I had gone to Kerrville to the Golden Eagle Nursery and purchased two Red Globe peaches while Rickie was installing a drip irrigation system. This variety has proven to be well suited to the Hill Country, but is now impossible to find. Growers seem to like tinkering with plants even when they don’t need it. We have added other varieties through the years but none have done as well as these two. One survived the summer and Rickie will add a new tree so that we can continue to have peaches. He’s a good plant researcher so I’m sure he will come up with something that will at least have a shot of producing!

Rickie left the tree trunk of the dead peach tree standing with the main branches cut short. Maybe Bixby will use it for his first climbing tree! Jeremy, who is now 15, was the only grandchild that was a tree climber! He liked to climb up the crooked trunks of the oak trees out here. 


(Photo - Jeremy back when he was a tree climber)

Rickie also planted some giant cabbage plants. The picture on the plants showed a baby next to them and the cabbage was that big. We’ll see how that works out here in dry country! Ha! 


(Photo - Sarah and a cabbage about 25 years ago)

As a nod to his Mississippi heritage, he planted some crimson clover in one area of the pasture and also some in a pot on the porch for me. It is a beautiful sight to see the highway a solid red when the clover blooms in Mississippi!

I continued with the weeding I started this week. The winter weeds were getting out of control! While Rickie and I both like a weed free garden it bothers me more than him. I believe it has to do with our childhood garden experiences. He was raised in the country and had a gigantic garden! His dad worked out of town during the week and his mom was left to take care of the house, garden, and cows with help from the kids. She worked full time and the kids, of course, were in school. So it was impossible to keep the garden weed free. Even if his dad had been there it would have been a full time job to weed. The purpose of the garden was to feed the family, not so much to be neat and weed free. So Rickie is not overly obsessive about the order of the garden. His love is the plants.

We lived in a small town in a duplex and my grandparents lived on one side of the duplex and us on the other. My grandfather, Papa, had been a farmer and was semi-retired. We had a big garden in the back of the yard, but it was not as big as the one Rickie’s family had. We supplemented our harvest by purchasing additional butterbeans, purple hull peas, cream peas, and corn from other growers. But still, it was a good size and Papa planted it full of good things! He never had a blade of grass growing in the rows and it was a beautiful garden. He always planted some giant sunflowers at one end just for the beauty of them. They towered over my head and were my favorite thing in the garden! He was a harsh man in a lot of ways and it always amazes me the love he had for flowers and plants. He was always taking me out to look at different flowers and plants in the yard.

(Photo - My sisters Jackie and Deb on the trimmed sidewalk!)

I have been scanning old family photos and one thing in the way of gardening stands out in my mind as I look at not only my photos but Rickie’s family photos. Back in the day before weedeaters were invented and affordable, it seems everyone’s sidewalks were overrun on the edges with weeds and grass. Everyone’s except ours when Papa was alive. Papa used to take a sharp shovel and go along the edge of the sidewalk and cut a very narrow trench that was clear of grass. He also did this to edge the planting beds around the house and yard. He taught me to do this and I tried to keep mine neat although I never succeeded to the degree he did. When I lived in the Houston area, the excessive wetness and the hard gumbo soil defeated me more than once! But I can remember getting on my knees and trimming the grass around the house using only a pair of small hand clippers. It was a hopeless task as the grass seemed to have grown back before I made the circle around the house!

So I follow in Papa’s footsteps and the order in the garden concerns me as much as the plants. But I have loosened up some and Rickie does things that probably wouldn’t bother him if they were left undone. He operates the weedeater because I don’t like the way it throws rocks and stuff at me and I try to do most of the weeding and mulching, especially since I am here more than he is. I like to use the push mower and will mow the yard when he might let it go another week. (Out here you only really have to mow a few times a year it is so dry. Last year we never mowed at all.) I’m hoping for a new garden fence next year and he doesn’t see the need for one. My neighbor got a new garden fence and I have garden fence envy! It is straight and even and beautiful and I drool with envy of it!

But one thing we totally agree on is that we love to work in the yard and in the garden together! I love these Spring-like days that come in the middle of winter. Wouldn’t it be nice if a Winter-like day would come in the middle of summer?

Goodbye 2011, Howdy 2012

2011 had its ups and downs like most years. Our mom passed away in April but we lost her a year and a half before that when her Alzheimer's got really bad. We siblings stuck together and saw her through to the end and in doing so found a closeness that often escapes grown siblings.

My friend Faye (our son's mom-in-law) lost her mother too. And we each received a new grandchild in 2011 to help heal our hearts. Faye's granddaughter CC being born on the day of her mother's funeral and my grandson Bixby coming to us in August.

It was a year of extreme drought and wildfires. But we saw people pull together like never before and our state survives. We had a little rain in the last months of the year to encourage us as we reached the end of our rope.

My grandson Anthony safely finished his tour of duty in the Navy and came back to Texas with his little son. He was able to find a job right away.

As far as I know all my loved ones that want a job have one. It may not be the job they want but its always good to have one and maybe 2012 will bring a better one for those that want it.

All the kids have a roof over their heads and a place to call home. All the grandkids are safe and the grown ones are working toward their life goals. I am thankful for each and every one of them and the unique individuals they are and the love they bring to my life. We have made some good memories this year.

2011 was the year I more or less moved to the Hill Country I love. I've seen some beautiful days and done some work I was not sure I could do. I've learned some things and seen some things that are new to me.

I am thankful for all these blessings of 2011. I hope that you all are safe and happy and that 2012 brings us all peace and smiles.

Deck the halls 2011

The little cabin is ready for the holidays!

This drill on the mantel belonged to Rickie's dad. It's screwed into a block of wood using a large drill bit. This supports it upright. I saw one like this for $200 on a website. Mine was free.

The little snowman on the right was bought at a craft fair. It is paper mache and reminds me of Bixby with his little smiley face.

A friend of mine made the felt angel cone. She makes a lot of nice Christmas pillows, ornaments, and photo books.

The boys put the lights up on the pumphouse for me when they were out. The little fence in front of the pumphouse protects the water cutoff valves in the ground from being run over!

We hang our cards on twine at the end of the daybed. 

The large Santa is made from a cypress knee. I got in on a trip to Nachitoches, Louisiana with some friends.

The little mittens hanging on the old window chalkboard used to be part of my office decorations before I retired. 

I added a little skinny artificial tree to the counter this year. I think it needs some lights so I will get some and add to it. It has small mercury glass ornament balls on it and tiny Santa ornaments. They are kind of lost in the tree without lights. Everything is better with lights!

One of the tiny glass Santas on the little counter tree.

A friend gave me this glass block with lights last year. It had a fancy bow on it which was beautiful but a little too fancy for the cabin. I replaced it with a wooden ornament and put it on the spice rack in my kitchen. I love glass blocks and lights!

These inexpensive snow globes belonged to the kids when they were little. The red ones are almost 40 years old.

I love the Santa pillow some friends gave me and would leave it up all year if I could get by with it! 


Last year I added this beautiful multi-colored throw by daughter-in-law Lisa made for me for Christmas! The small Santa with sleigh pillow is one my friend Belinda made. She also made the felt angel cone in the first picture.

We've gotta have a little camo for the hunters! I made this stocking many years ago. The trim is part of an old shell holder Rickie had. The feather was found on our place and the ornament is from the Dollar General!


We cut a little cedar tree for the back porch again this year, as we always do and it is covered with lights. And we also have the fence post tree again with lights in the front yard. One year I am going to get busy and made several of those! 


I also make a cedar wreath each year and put it on the gate. I haven't done that yet. I was waiting until it was closer to the holiday so it would stay green until Christmas.

And as always we have the lights on the   porch. Zac and Cam put those up for me when they came out to go hunting.


Give thanks for all you've been blessed with and hold your loved ones tight.......


One more picture. It doesn't have anything to do with cabin decorations. It is of my mom last year at her last Christmas. I wish she could have spent that at my little cabin and I wish she could have been healthy to enjoy it and know where she was. I miss her and Daddy as the holidays approach. But as Elvis says, maybe I'll see you tonight in my dreams.

There's a fire softly burning, supper's on the stove......

For 23 years we have spent at least part of the Thanksgiving week at our place in the Texas Hill Country. Sarah was 7 years old when we purchased the property and for the first couple of years Sarah and I stayed behind in the city to have Thanksgiving dinner with my parents and then we drove out that afternoon to finish the week with Rickie. It is unusual in my family to be absent at the holiday gatherings. But we soon realized we not only wanted to spend the time with Rickie but to spend as much time as possible here. 


(Photo - Sarah the week we bought the property) 


Rickie has always taken this week off from work to come out. It is a long drive and only at Thanksgiving, Christmas and summer vacation did we get to spend more than a couple of days at a time here. We didn’t spend much time here in the summer because of the heat.

For all but the last 6 years we stayed in a little travel trailer. It was in shape to qualify as a hunting camp but not much more than that. The many holes in the floor were patched and Rickie had to patch the roof every year where it leaked. It had leaked in the past before we had it and the kitchen ceiling was falling in and the cabinets were badly damaged. Much of it was held together with duck tape. We had only a small air conditioning unit to cool it and you could not stay inside during the day; it was just too hot. The A/C unit barely cooled it down at night.

So our favorite time of year to come was the fall and winter. When we all started coming out together we would eat Thanksgiving dinner at the one restaurant in town that had dinner that day. They prepared a turkey dinner with all the trimmings! We couldn’t cook much in our trailer. We only had a two burner camp stove. We found that we were not alone in spending this week out here! The place was overflowing with hunters who had come out to their leases. Most were from the Houston area, some from San Antonio and Dallas, and a lot of them brought their families since the kids were out of school that week. We had to make reservations to be sure we would get in!


One year we decided to cook at home and bring the food out here but that didn’t work too well. It was hard to heat the food up only using the stovetop. So we gave up on that idea. And one year when Sarah was in college we cooked and stopped by her apartment and ate then came out. And a couple of years we went back to have Thanksgiving with my parents.


But our hearts were always here. We long ago grew weary of living in the big city. What we found exciting there as young people had long since lost its appeal. We were held there only by our jobs which we needed to pay for the place out here. 


(Photo - Rickie makes his famous chili!)

We spent the time cutting cedar, Rickie running the chain saw and Sarah and I stacking the cedar to be burned later. Rickie would hunt and Sarah and I would go to Fredericksburg Christmas shopping. It’s a beautiful little town and was decorated and lit up for the holiday. It always got us in the Christmas spirit! At night we had a big camp fire and sat around it cooking, roasting marshmallows, and looking at the stars. When you live in a big city you have no idea how many stars there are and it was amazing to see the milky way overhead. We tried to learn the names of some constellations we didn’t know and we watched for meteors and falling stars. We learned where Orion would be in the sky as the seasons changed and where the Seven Sisters were.


Sarah kept a box of art supplies and she and I read when rain or snow kept us inside. At night we would put a Louis L’Amour audio tape in the cassette player and all lay in bed in the dark listening to his tales. We had a tiny television but you could only get one channel and that only if conditions were right. 

Sometimes our boys Larry and John (in photo), who were grown, would come out and bring the grandkids but they usually came when we weren’t here. There wasn’t room in the little travel trailer for more than 3 people so we would have to alternate when we came. Once when John and Natalie came it snowed and one of the little electric space heaters we used for heat went out. Nat remembers it as the time she almost froze inside the trailer and the time she made a little snowman on the picnic table! 


(Photo - Sarah and a deer rub)

Six years ago we built the little cabin. It was as if we had acquired a mansion! If we had been able to just come out here and buy property with a nice big house on it at the beginning I don’t think we would ever have appreciated it as much. It’s a small 464 square foot cabin, one big kitchen/living area combined where we also have our bed, at least for the time being, and a bathroom. We have a screened back porch and a front porch. It has a nice stone fireplace, which we usually get to use beginning the Thanksgiving week. I decorate for the holidays on a scale fitting the little cabin.

We keep a little tiny toy travel trailer on the bookshelf to remind us how it used to be in case we ever get to feeling sorry because we don’t have more room. 


This year Rickie took off early and we were here together for a week and a half. John and Zac and Cam came out the first weekend to hunt. They helped Rickie cut and stack cedar while they were here. One day Rickie and I went to visit Sarah and Justin and Bixby and have a late Thanksgiving with them. 


Rickie had to leave to go back to work just before the cold front blew in. We covered the tender plants in the garden and winterized the water system before he left. He filled the firewood bucket up for me and filled the hay rack for the longhorns. 


I grew up in a big family where relatives were always around. And yet I’m not generally a person who gets lonely. I like my own company just fine and I like to do solitary activities like reading and walking the woods and working on whatever project I am doing at the moment. I’m comfortable with myself.


But I felt a sadness when Rickie left this time to go back to work. I’m thinking on those days long ago we spent in the trailer when Sarah was small and we lay at night listening as Tell Sackett went where The Lonely Men go or Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie followed the trail of an outlaw.


As I sit by the fire tonight with the temperature outside dropping and the wind howling, I look forward to the time when Rickie will be back. 


There’s all the news to tell him, how’d you spend your time, what’s the latest thing the neighbors say. There’s a fire softly burning, supper’s on the stove…..

Shoulda Been A Cowboy........

When I was a little girl I wanted to move to Texas and be a cowboy. I didn’t want to be a cowgirl because Dale always had to wait outside on Buttermilk while the fighting was going on. I wanted to be in on it! I’ve since learned that there were and still are cowgirls that did real “cowboy” ranch work, like Hallie Stillwell in Big Bend. If you haven’t heard of her, read her book I’ll Gather My Geese. She was one tough woman!


(Photo - me and my trusty six-shooter)

Roy Rogers was my favorite and I also liked Gene Autry and Cisco and Pancho. While John Wayne made movies as a cowboy, Roy and Gene were real live cowboys all the time. They had ranches and rode horses and sang cowboy songs. They did things the “cowboy way”. They lived by the code of the west!

One time when I was about 7 or 8 I told my dad that I wanted to move to Texas and have a ranch. He said I could have a farm in Louisiana but I told him that was not the same thing! He didn’t understand.

As far as I know I was the only one in my family that did not like living in Louisiana. I didn’t like the muddy bayou, or the tall pines that blocked the sky out and suffocated me. I didn’t like to have my feet wet unless I was swimming! I didn’t like the humidity.


(Photo - David, me and Kathy)

And I didn’t like Louisiana history. I romanticized Colonel Travis, Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett as they died at the Alamo.  When I heard that Davy said to his fellow Tennesseans “Y’all can go to hell, I’m going to Texas” I thought yes, here is someone who understands! I still cry whenever I read Travis’ letter from the Alamo. And the men from Gonzales that would not let their friends die alone and rode to join them knowing they rode to their death. These were the heroes I wanted to study. I wanted to learn about the Comanches and Apaches. The fierce men who rode wild and whooping through the open countryside!

I longed for the dry hills I saw every Saturday morning on TV. The big rocks and the small oaks and the cedars. The rolling hills and the limestone cliffs. The open spaces. The small creeks and rivers with clear bubbling water. The big starry skies and the far away views.

I learned that these shows were filmed mostly in California. But I also learned that the Texas Hill Country looks a lot like that area. I never made it to California to join up with Roy and Dale and Pat but I made it to Texas. My dad moved us to Houston when I was 14 years old.


(Photo - View from Shotgun Ridge at back of our place)

Eventually I made it to the Texas Hill Country, thanks to a farm boy from Mississippi who fell in love with the area when he came here. We don’t have a big ranch or a big herd of cattle. We have 54 acres and a small cabin and a couple of longhorns and lots of wildlife. We get around in a pickup truck not on a horse. We’ve stood together and fought life’s troubles and I’ve never had to go wait outside while the fight against hardship was going on. 

My favorite part of each western was when the heroes rode up to the ranch house. They always approached from on top of a hill that overlooked the ranch headquarters. They would pause and look down on the ranch house. Smoke would be coming from the chimney, the corrals would have a horse or two in them and the cowboys would be working quietly repairing a saddle maybe or maybe having lunch or taking a rest in the bunkhouse. It was always dry and dusty. Roy and the boys would always stop for a minute before going down. Just to look the place over and make sure everything looked alright. Then they would ride on in.

  

When you drive in on our road you top out on a hill just before you drop down to our place. If there weren’t so many oaks and cedars you could see my little “ranch” house.  For 23 years I have been pausing at the top of that hill and looking out at the great view of the hills and toward my cabin. Just to look the place over and make sure everything looks alright. Then I ride on in. 


(Photo - You can see the road that runs behind our place in this photo taken from Shotgun Ridge)

Spring Came Late This Year.......

We got 3.6 inches of rain the other day! Almost what we had for the whole year up to then. We were out of town on a family visit and missed the big event but our good neighbors, Scott and Martha, kept us up-to-date. They understand all too well that we live for the weather report since they do too!

(Photo - one salvia the deer didn't eat!)

Back home this week, I have been out every day in a different part of the property, leaning over close to the ground trying to spot something growing. It requires a magnifying glass at first. But slowly little green forbs and some grass are beginning to grow. In the yard there is a green haze now across the ground. The pastures are slower but starting to make us hopeful. The soil has retained enough moisture to get things going. The difference between 3.6 inches of rain and .1 or .2 inches.




I hope we can get another rain before it goes too dry again and all this dies. The deer will benefit from the winter forbs. And Woodrow and Gus spend a lot of time out of the pen looking for a tasty green treat! With the days getting shorter I'm not sure how much green grass they will have but we are happy with anything.




The trees seem greener and I keep walking up and pulling a branch down to see if they are new leaves. They don't seem to be; just seems likes the tiny ones that were there when the trees went dormant with the drought have greened up more. I went for a walk yesterday and standing on high ground could see across the draw. It seemed like Spring with all the different colors of green! The dead cedars are still there but they almost seem like fall color from far away.

A nice cool front blew in last night and the weather is gorgeous. The garden is happy. Rickie's Russian Kale seeds are up and the green beans are blooming. Our one Cinderella pumpkin is turning orange. The fall aster is blooming and I planted the ginger lilies I brought back from Mississippi and the Winter Savory that tastes so great in hamburgers and pinto beans. Our Winter Savory plant we have had for about 15 years died last winter. Multiple attempts to grow new plants from seed failed miserably but Rickie found some small plants in Austin at Dromgoole's Natural Gardener Nursery.




It has been a long hot summer. (I kept meaning to find that Paul Newman movie and watch it in the spirit of the times.) Many times I have looked out the window with tears in my eyes at the suffering and the dying. But this week I smile. This week I see green and in that green I see revival and recovery. And I see hope.


(Photo - one small tree in yard we watered has acorns)