Sometimes You Have to Kill Your Own Snakes. Or Not.

I didn't grow up in the country. I lived in a small town until I was 14 and we moved to Houston. My dad was an outdoorsman and we went fishing and to alligator infested swamps and lakes growing up. (Photo - me, David, Kathy) For a few years after I was grown I lived in a rural area on a couple of acres. We had horses and I learned to ride and care for them. But I never lived in an actual country setting. Most of my life was spent in big cities.

All that changed a few years ago when I retired and moved here full time on our 54 acres. Most of the time I am by myself and I have had to adapt and learn new skills. If Rick was not gone so much with his job I would never have done some of the things I have had to do, including confronting some deep-seated fears. 

These last couple of years have been the times that try people's soul for me; the best of times, the worst of times.

It all started with the bad drought summer before last and the fear of wildfires. This was a new fear for me. I've always been near a fire truck; in fact, when I was a child we lived across the street from one (in the photo). I've always had one within a mile of me. Out here there is no back way to escape on our street unless you take off on foot. Several times at night and in the morning I have walked outside and smelled smoke from fires. Our neighbors saw lightning start a fire a couple of times. Once I worried so about the smoke I called the Sheriff's department to see if anyone had reported a fire near me. They sent a deputy out to be sure and we walked the property and determined it was smoke from a fire elsewhere in the county. 

Last summer I had a close encounter with a rattlesnake. I was putting birdseed out and stepped right a'straddle one. He came out from between my feet and coiled. He went one way and I went the other. I was lucky he didn't bite me; I can only assume he was as startled as I was! If Rick was here I would have yelled for him. But I was alone so I got the shotgun, even though I was shaking, and killed him and put him in the pasture for the buzzards. I was shook up and my friend Lois said the whiskey manual says one finger of whiskey for each foot of rattlesnake. So I had 3 fingers of whiskey.

Then the least dangerous but the biggest of my fears confronted me. What I call the Invasion of the Wolf Spiders. I am afraid of spiders beyond all reason. Even pictures of spiders, toy spiders, dead spiders, little spiders, big spiders, poisonous spiders, non-poisonous spiders, even Charlotte. I normally don't mention this phobia because I have found that people are cruel and will hide toy ones, etc thinking it is funny to scare me. It is not funny. It is a horrendous handicap to have to live with and I wish I didn't have this phobia but I do.

This past fall we were invaded by these giant, palm-size, furry spiders. They were at eye level on the hay barn inches from my face, on the porch, on the steps, in the sheds (even on top of the drill bits I needed though I seldom use them), in the wheelbarrow, and worst of all, in the cabin. We have had them in the sheds before. We spray for bugs there so usually there were only dead ones and then only a couple. Rick would always try to get rid of them before I saw them. Even the dead ones send my heart racing and fear paralyzing me. My cabin is one room plus bathroom and porch. So I have no place to run. First there was one in the fireplace. I called Rick crying with fear. He said I must have brought it in with the wood, which freaked me out more to think it was so close. Then there was one in the middle of the floor when I returned from town. Again, paralyzed with fear, I called Rick. He said be strong, kill it, throw the wood out, be brave, you can do it, it must have come in the door.

I finally got the book out with photos of the cabin during construction and determined they were getting in from the corners of the fire surround. I plugged these with steel wool. I had the electric company turn the outside light off as we thought that might be drawing them in in large numbers, even though I have another fear, a fear of the dark. Before it was over, I had encountered 21. I imagined another 10,000 living under the house.

But I was as brave as I could be and I got through it, although I was damaged by it and have nightmares still.

Then this week as I was mowing the yard I came upon a 5 foot rattlesnake. I use the walk behind mower instead of the riding mower because I like the exercise. I saw him just as I went to turn around. There was no one to call on for help but myself, so I got the shotgun, killed him, cut his rattles off, threw him in the pasture for the ravens and buzzards, and got the bottle of Garrison Bros bourbon out. 

In addition to these fears and phobias I have come to face, are the usual country chores to learn of caring for the longhorns in rain and snow, covering the garden for the late freezes, water line problems, mice in the pumphouse, and the usual assorted problems of country living. Rick and I were discussing this today and my transformation into a country girl and I was feeling pretty proud of myself. These are all part of the things I endure to live in the country and I figure it's a trade-off I am willing to make.

And then......

We are adding a deck to the bunkhouse and went to the shed to inventory materials me might need. Coming back we walk right past a 5 foot bull snake. He takes off for the canoe and makes himself at home there. Now, I don't have a phobia about snakes. I learned from my dad not to kill a "good" snake and I follow that. I find them beautiful and fascinating. But as my brother Andy says about electric fences "they won't hurt you, but they'll make you hurt yourself". I figure it I run into this fella in one of the sheds, I will harm myself getting out! He's hiding in the canoe still and I hope he wanders off soon but I'm sure he will be my neighbor because it's a nice place to live.

So, just when I think I can relax into my experienced country girl role, one more encounter to see if I'm made of the "right stuff". I'm not sure if I am made of the "right stuff". But I'm sure I'll carry on, battle my fears even though I won't leave them behind, and pay the cost to live the good life. 

Now, let's see, 5 feet of bull snake equals 5 fingers of whiskey.............

A Place For Everything and Everything In Its Place

Over the years lots of things have kept me awake. Getting up with the kids when they were little, waiting on teenagers to get home, worrying about personal problems, and lately the aches and pains that go with being 63 years old and with minor, yet annoying, injuries I mostly do to myself working on my projects.

There are plenty of problems in the world to keep us all awake and as all of you with kids know, you always worry about them being safe and happy. However, none of these things or pains woke me up last night. No, I came out of a sound sleep to worry about where I was going to store our suitcases in the little cabin.

I thought I had accounted for everything we own and had made a place for everything. It's been a few years since we used a suitcase and I guess I forgot we had any!

We really only have a couple of options. Under the bed or the beds in the bunkhouse or in the storage building. I just cleaned the storage building out and unless I want to toss out the holiday decorations I kept, there is no room there.

If I had a car with a trunk I could keep them there. But we both drive a truck and I already use my back seat to store things to be donated and things to be recycled that don't fit in the toolbox. So that's out.

Under the bunkhouse beds I have extra blankets, air mattresses, bulky winter clothes, the sewing machine and fabric, some holiday pillows, tablecloths for the picnic tables, tote bags and purses, and a box of toys for Bixby. I like to leave some room for guests to put their bags so I can't put anything else there unless I toss something out.

That leaves our bed. It has our shoes in boxes and some canvas storage bags where we keep some work clothes. It has a dust ruffle to hide everything. I've left a little room to put some family mementos I wanted to keep but even that is not enough room for suitcases.

Living small requires being ruthless sometimes with what you keep. We have already donated truckloads of stuff and have sold some furniture, some of which we really liked. But, you know, you can't take it with you and it's a comforting feeling to have only what you really need or love.

So, I'll rethink a few of the things I have under the beds, maybe store my work clothes in my suitcase, and make it work. Or use the suitcases as the storage containers for the blankets, etc. Or maybe reevaluate some of the things I kept in the storage shed. Do I really need a plastic container of large margarita pitchers with lids? Maybe I could fill those with water and put in the freezer for when we need ice. Hmmmmm, I think I'll do that anyway. Then I can use that plastic container to store our new garden frost covers instead of buying one.

Living in a small space requires you to think a little more creatively about what you have and what you use it for. It requires "nesting" things that will hold stuff, turning the item itself into the container.

Now, I've got all these new storage ideas running around in my head. I'll probably be awake all night making plans! Let's see - if I put my shoes in the canvas storage bag, then I have room where the shoe boxes are for mementos, then put the purses in the tote bags, and put the tote bags in the suitcase, then etc, etc, etc................

(Photo - Spring cleaning; rugs on the clothesline!)

Now There's Flowers Growing on Ground So Poor That Grass Won't Grow

This morning Rickie and I took our coffee to the garden. He had worked there off and on all weekend and it's a beautiful place to sit a while. A gobbler had been by the yard earlier, as they've been all Spring, and we could hear him talking. 

The poppies Rickie planted from seed in the fall are blooming, as are the larkspurs.

When Sarah was young we used to go to Fredericksburg whenever we were here for Spring Break. We often went to Wildseed Farms near there and they would have fields of larkspurs. We would come home with a handful of them to put in a pitcher on the picnic table. 

In the vegetable area of the garden, we have some little tomatoes already. The snow peas and potatoes look beautiful. We also have peppers, onions, squash, tomatillos, cucumbers, chard, and the perennial herbs have put out. We have had some cold weather this Spring a few nights and the grapes have been nipped pretty badly. The Black Spanish grapes survived fairly well and we may get enough for some jelly. The more sissy Champanelle grapes don't look so good.

Mexican persimmons have been blooming outside the garden. Their flowers are very small and unless you walk up to them you won't notice. We've found only two females on our place although we have lots of males. The females produce a small black fruit that wildlife love. The tree bark is beautiful; they're a great small landscape tree. We have a male and a female growing together by the garden shed. You can see the difference in the two. The female on the left has darker, lusher leaves.

The lace cacti have bloomed and we were able to see them and capture some in pictures, thanks to a heads-up from our friends Martha and Scott that they were in bloom. Over the years, the population of them seems to appear in one area and then disappear some years later only to show up in another place. They like the rocky areas and will grow in any tiny crevice in the rock. Right now they are in a place where no grass ever grows. Rocks cover the surface of the ground and you can see large slabs of solid rock. There is hardly any soil there.

Mealy blue sage is blooming everywhere. It's my favorite wildflower. I love many others but it's the one I associate most with this part of Texas. Before we bought our place I had never seen or heard of it. The first year here we came out one weekend and the whole place was covered with it. I love the way it moves in the wind and the long stems of flowers. This one is growing in the bare ground by the longhorns' pen. 

In the old sink planter I have some of the verbena that grows wild here. It's beautiful and covers the ground in the yard and pastures. It's one of the most hardy plants we have and requires no help from us to flourish. It appears with a little amount of rain and makes a purple carpet over the ground. It transplants easily and I've moved it with success whenever I try. Bixby pulled up a little plant when he was here last. I rooted it in water in a glass in the kitchen window and planted it in a pot with some peppers. I've got in on the front porch and I'm using it to help protect the peppers it shares space with from being eaten by deer. The yellow primrose in the sink is also native but I purchased it from a nursery. 

We have about 25 mulleins growing in the area in the center of the driveway. They're biennials and some of them will bloom this year. It's been a while since we had any of the big ones. Even without blooms they are beautiful. They get no supplemental watering from me and still they flourish.

One of the most unusual and interesting wildflowers we have is the Antelope Horns milkweed. It's a perennial and we have several that come back every year. The last few years more have appeared, I'm happy to say. Milkweed provides food for butterfly larvae. This particular one has the scientific name of Asclepias asperula, named after Askelpios, the Greek god of medicine that brought Orion back to life. You can find out more about this milkweed from the Native Plant Society of Texas website. Native Plant Society of Texas.

As the title of this post reflects, George Jones is on my mind. There'll not be another like him. As I look out across this land where we've made our home, especially during the worst drought times as we've seen in recent years, this song always comes to mind. I've seen the longhorns without a blade of grass to eat, not even dead grass. And yet the Spring will come with it's flowers if we get the smallest amount of rain. "As I stand here looking over this part of Tennessee Texas.... there's a beautiful sight to behold, and no one knows why there's flowers blooming on ground so poor that grass won't grow." 

George Jones - Where Grass Won't Grow

The Last of the Mohicans

He's a scrappy little fella and in spite of his size and their numbers, he doesn't hesitate to go in and try to stand his ground. He's the only one left of the four of his kind that ruled his kingdom here in the fall. He considers this particular ground his, even though he has conceded the other places to them without a fight. 

He goes in from the higher ground first, coming at them from above with his arms waving, making his war cry to try and intimidate them. It's his only hope since he is so outnumbered. He has to bluff his way in. He has faced the reality that he can't run them all off. He is outnumbered 50 times over. His only hope is that they let him share this land that once was his alone. His plan is not to appear weak. They spot weakness in an instant and show no mercy in the face of it.

As soon as he hits the ground they attack. Again and again they repel him. He retreats to the last sanctuary in the kingdom. One that has been largely ignored throughout the year. He knows there is food there and he thinks he can hold out. Maybe they will move on later and he can return to the land he once roamed freely.

He is wrong. They have split their numbers and have taken the last hope he had from him. Beaten and hungry, he makes his retreat. Like others taken over by stronger and more powerful enemies, he is defeated. The powerful show no mercy to him. They rule now by their size and their numbers, as has happened throughout the history of the world. They allow him to live, but he lives at their pleasure, cut off from his food and water supply.

The weak live at the mercy of the strong. Once he was powerful and the land was his to control as far as he could see and travel. His enemies were powerful but they were small in numbers and he had his defenses. He was quick and he could hide when he could not defeat them in battle. His strength was that he endured. That will be his strength now if he and his kind are to survive.

Not everyone likes him. He has a reputation of destroying things others love and he is often cruel himself. He is a killer of babies and a destroyer of crops. His ways are hard but he is trying to survive in a hard world. He knows no other life.

He has one powerful friend and one only. Though she loves the new invaders and is in fact partial to them above all others, she has a soft spot for a beaten people. It is both her weakness and her strength. She will make sure his food supply is replaced when they move on and she will try and stay the hand of the most powerful enemy of all. The one who would put a bullet in his head and be done with him.

The flock of wild turkey hens are back and they have the squirrel on the run. Spring has come to the ranch.

Dragon Ladies and Mutton Men

Huge Estate Sale! My heart beats faster, my mind is racing, I read the list of items again, zeroing in on the phrase "Much Much More!" at the end of the ad. I wonder what could be in that much much more; it's so tempting. I surely don't need anything else since I have to get rid of stuff I already have. Still, there is the possibility of a real treasure!

There is always some sadness involved in an estate sale. Some loved one passed away or went to a nursing home or maybe went to live with one of the kids. But one day someone will be having an estate sale for me, I imagine, and I hope someone is happy to get the things I treasured.

It was a gorgeous day for a sale. The setting was on a hill overlooking the little Texas town. The road was winding and narrow and up and down. I found a place to park among the pickups and a few cars and headed down the hill to the home. Everything was outside. The items were all clean and spread out in the yard and in the spotless tool shed. I started making the rounds. I am building a little outside toy box for Bixby and need some things to decorate it and I always keep an eye out for Texas treasures.

On the table with bottles I spotted a clear soda bottle with an embossed Dragon on it. It was from the Dragon Bottling Company in San Antonio. I had never heard of it but I have a bottle from the Hippo Bottling Company in San Antonio. It's like this one but has an embossed hippo. I like the Dragon even more! So it was the first item I picked up to purchase. When I got home and looked up info I discovered the company was owned by a Tejano woman in San Antonio. Her husband had started a carbonated water company named Rodriguez and Son Bottling Company. When he passed away during the Great Depression she became President of the company and a few years later, the sole owner. In 1934 she changed the name to Dragon Bottling Company (you go, girl - much more flair!) and began bottling 12 flavors of soda. It shut down in 1962. So I had a treasure with both Texas history and the history of women entrepreneurs!

At the end of the table of bottles I found several unused labels for the Range Canning Company out of Fort McKavett, Texas. There were two kinds of labels, one for chili and one for boiled mutton. While I would generally go for anything chili, the boiled mutton one appealed to me because it had a cowboy roping a longhorn on it, in addition to a picture of a sheep. It was red and yellow, my two favorite colors! Even though I am getting rid of stuff that goes on walls, I just had to have it and because of its size I figured I could fit it in somewhere in my bathroom, which has cowboy and Texas stuff.

The Range Canning Company was the first meat-packing operation in West Texas. It was founded in 1893 by William Black, a rancher in the Ft. McKavett area. He was considered the nation's authority on angora goats and he also help found the New York Cotton Exchange. There is a beautiful old fort at Ft. McKavett and we have visited it several times. It's on the top of a hill and a group from NASA that does star-gazing parties goes there every so often with their telescopes. The Buffalo Soldiers were stationed at Ft. McKavett and frontier reenactments are held there. 

I looked online when I got home and found one of these identical labels on eBay for $48.00. I paid $9.50 for mine. Wish I had picked up a couple more to sale! I love that it mentions it's handy for yachting and miners. 

(It's covered in plastic wrap in the photos I took, that's why is has the wrinkles. I'll leave that on until I get it framed.)

My other treasures included yardsticks from the Arroyo Lumber Company in Harlingen and Negley Paint Company in San Antonio. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these yet but I love old yardsticks and how can you not for 50 cents each! My mother retired from a paint company in Houston and lumber yards are my favorite places to shop, so anything related to paint and lumber is right up my alley.

For Bixby's toy box I bought a red wooden carpenter's level for $5.00; it's just like one I already have. Someone picked it up while I was looking at it and when he decided against it and put it back, I grabbed it. I am madly in love with levels. My family is full of carpenters and I am obsessive enough to want all things to be level. I also bought a little iron star for 50 cents that I may use on the toy box. 

And a beautiful old swirly brown doorknob. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. But old doorknobs are another love of mine and I figured it was $1.50 well spent! I'll think of something to use it on. It has a nice feel to it and if I can figure out how to incorporate it on the toy box I will.

There were many rustic birdhouses for sale for $2.00 each. Probably 50 or so. I was tempted but I need to clean out the birdhouses I have now for the Spring nesting season and didn't get any. Now that I'm home I wish I had picked up a few. Well, I guess I could make some if I need them. Still, I hope they all found a good home.

For a few dollars I got a history lesson in dragons and mutton and some things for projects. Next time you see an estate sale ad in your neighborhood, I hope you check it out. You never know what you'll find or learn!

The Littlest Ranch Hand

Sarah, Justin, and Bixby came out to the ranch a week or so ago. Bixby proved to be a natural ranch hand! He helped with all the ranch chores and showed no fear of the 1200 pound longhorns.

Justin filled up the coffee can with cubes that we keep in the woodshed and Bix took control of it. With his dogs Wyatt and Holly at his side, he kept the cubes coming and Gus was loving it. Woodrow is standoffish and missed out, although he did accept one from Justin. 

We took to the roads on Saturday. Justin writes a food blog called Breakfast with Bixby and our first stop was Isaack's Restaurant in Junction, where we fueled up for the trip to Fredericksburg. Our favorite waitress Helen took our order. While waiting for the food Bix and I took a tour of the entry lobby and the deer and hog mounts on the wall, where he practiced his word-learning skills. You can follow Bixby and his dad on their breakfast adventures at Breakfast With Bixby.

Our first stops in Fredericksburg all had to do with food and wine. Wine tasting at the Fredericksburg Winery, chocolate at Chocolat, olive oil at The Olive Oil Shops. 

(Photo - Bix eating his chocolate turtle outside the Chocolat shop)

We had lunch at the Altdorf Biergarten. After that Bixby fell asleep and he and I found a shady parking space where he could nap while Sarah and Justin went to a few shops they wanted to check out.

In the country you always have to make it home in time to feed and we did. Then Justin put a couple of bags of corn in the deer feeder while Sarah took Bixby for a ride on his favorite new toy, the Mule. 

After that it was time for some relaxation. Continuing our good eats, we fried some venison backstrap for supper with some mashed potatoes and gravy. Ranching is hard work and requires lots of fuel!

After some venison patty sausage and homemade biscuits the next morning, the littlest ranch hand left with his parents, leaving the ranch foreman with no ranch hands. Gus has been moping every since he left.

Ikea, we have a closet!

Once the decision was made to build a bunkhouse instead of adding a bedroom, we had to make some modifications to the cabin. Most urgently, a closet was needed!

So I went to Houston last week so we could go to Ikea. Buying a closet system is a bit complicated and we were glad we had made a previous scouting trip to select the components we needed. We got to Ikea right before they opened and a most helpful salesperson got things done for us. 

It turned out that we had to get a bit bigger closet for the hanging clothes; the doors that went best in the cabin had to be configured a certain way. Happy to have more closet space but we had to modify our plan on bookshelves. No problem for us; we are always modifying plans!

I took the boxes home and unloaded them. Because I was by myself then and couldn't lift the big 8 foot long boxes, I unloaded them in my usual way. Backed up to the porch, opened the boxes, and brought the pieces in one at a time. It wasn't until the next day that I noticed we had left two boxes of drawers on the loading dock. Not to worry! Ikea has a plan for that and I called, they had them, and Rickie picked them up. He came out this weekend and we put the system up.

I was a little worried we would break the corners off when we raised the cabinets after assembling them, but no, all went well. We did rearrange the drawer, shelf, and clothes rods in the one cabinet after we put them in. We didn't want the hanging clothes bunched up so we ended up not using one shelf and one drawer.

They won't go to waste though. The small wardrobe at the end of the kitchen we had been using for clothes is going to be transformed into a pantry and I'll cut the Ikea components down and use them there. I'm going to start working on that today.

I went through my clothes and have 5 large trash bags full to donate. If I didn't have to keep two sizes of pants (chubby and more chubby, depending on whether I have been on a diet or not) I could get rid of another chunk of pants, but it is what it is!

You can see an unfinished cabinet in the corner next to the closet (photo above). I am going to paint this black and make a top out of some cedar we have and stain the top. We have a mesquite storage rack hanging over the cabinet and I'm hoping to match that stain.

We had planned on closing in the window so that we could put one of our bookcases there. But when it came down to it, we hate to get rid of a window. So we decided to change the arrangement of the bunkhouse a tiny bit so we can put two bookcases there, which was our original plan anyway. 

Then I am going to attempt a project I'm not 100% sure I can do. I'm going to take apart an oak bookcase we have, cut the shelves down and reassemble as a thin bookcase. This will go between the window and the fireplace. Then we can keep our wildlife reference books, cookbooks, and photo books in the cabin. I have a backup plan in case this project turns out looking like hell. We got some gift cards from Ikea as a sales promotion when we bought the closet system. We can use these to get a thin bookcase if necessary.

Getting rid of an extra bookcase is requiring me to walk the walk I've been talking about tiny houses! I've already gotten rid of one bookcase full of books, as we had planned to go from 4 to 3. Now we are going from 4 to 2.5. It's hard for a book lover to turn loose of books. But I'll donate the mysteries and thrillers that I can always get on Kindle, and keep the Texas history, classics, and a few of my favorites.