Monday, February 8, 2010
Wow, time flies!
Okay, it's been wayyyy too long since I've posted the happenings out here in Harper, TX. So I promise, tonight I'll dig some photos off the camera, make something up and post to my heart's content! Stay tuned!
Friday, January 23, 2009
Tears 'til Yuma
As most of you know we moved from Chula Vista, CA to Harper, TX in June of '08. It was incredibly difficult to leave our family and friends and it took a bit to get our feet on the ground in TX. It didn't help that we moved during one of the hottest days of the year! We had to bribe the movers to unload our truck!
There is an immense difference between living in a city of over 3 million people, versus a small town of 2,500! Our local Harper ISD is located on one campus with pre-k thru 6th in one building and middle and high school in another. Total attendance is just over 600. Wow!
The girls LOVE school. They have made wonderful new friends and have learned so much in such a short time. As much as we loved homeschooling last year, the school here is great and the girls really enjoy it. Emily is now in the gifted program and won a medal at the local UIL championship for her knowledge of classical music. Papa is proud! Her favorite song is Summertime, from Porgy and Bess. Both of them are active in Girl Scouts, 4H as well as church sponsored events. Elyse is very social and always "planning" get togethers for her friends.
I have taken a part-time position at the local fly-in residential airport called Silver Wings on the edge of our town, near Fredericksburg. It's a great job, flexible hours, wonderful co-workers and I'm learning more about planes and their parts than I'd ever imagined. We repair Grumman airplanes of all makes and models. Most of my work involves scheduling, contracts, human resources and planning. The company is owned by a strong Christian family which makes the work environment enjoyable.
Joe is probably wishing he hadn't opted for an "early retirement" as he's been busier than ever! When we first bought the little house we're in, we knew it would need some "cosmetic" updating, but as things progressed, we realized it needed a bit more than originally expected. Due to the very dark wood paneling (circa 1979) and brown shag carpet and brown window blinds, etc. we had our work cut out. We plastered over the paneling, tiled the floors throughout, except for the bedrooms (which we had carpeted), totally repainted the entire inside and outside, tiled both kitchen and baths, replaced all sinks, commodes, etc. We even made the add-on room off the back of the house look like it "belonged" by replacing a sliding glass door with french doors and covering the brick wall (formerly exterior wall), with stucco to match the inside of the house, and tiling the room to match the rest. Whew! What an awful lot of work. The funniest part of the process was that every time Joe started to fix something, something else went wrong. In a mere six months, we had the water main break (twice), a huge fire in the chimney, the garage door disintegrated, and dead trees almost land on the roof! We are so thankful that the process is almost complete!
Joe has been torn between working on the house (my choice) and working on the property (his choice)! Our family has grown by leaps and bounds in such a short time! The girls and I attended the Gillespie County Fair, it makes our Del Mar Fair look like the Superbowl of fairs, but it was fun. While there, we spied a darling animal in the "petting zoo" a miniature cow! Never in my life had I been so smitten by something so large. The woman gave me her card and we headed home. The next day I told Joe about the mini cow and he wanted to see it. We made an appointment with the woman from the fair, and the rest is, as they say, history! We are now the proud owners of three Hereford miniature cows, see photos in the right hand column. They are fairly docile, darling, stubborn, and dumber than a post. Joe loves 'em. They are all named after Joe's aunts, Mamie is the oldest, she turns two tomorrow, and is expecting her first calf this summer. Zelda and Lil are our younger calves who we won't breed for about another year or so. Mamie has horns, the other two don't yet. Horns hurt! When we're not watching out for horns, we're keeping an eye on the rear feet, Mamie has a bad habit of kicking! Notice I said "fairly docile" earlier, they will let us pet them while they're being fed cow candy. We are working on halter training and will hopefully show them in 4-H someday.
I've become quite the knitter since moving here, in no small part due to the "free time" as well as just the relaxation/therapy aspect. I've knitted at least 4 pair of socks now and almost finished Joe's sweater, along with a few other small pieces. Along these lines, my dream has been to knit with "homemade" fibers, which led to our next family addition, llamas! Alpacas were at the top of my list, but a bit pricey, so we opted for the next best thing and I couldn't be happier. You'll see Obama Llama and Dalai Llama in the photos to the right, you can guess who is who. Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to change their names soon as I'm getting quite a bit of grief about their names. I'll gladly accept any input y'all may have on the subject. Their father is a Grand Champion and gorgeous so I'm holding out high hopes that they will follow in his hoof prints! I'm also hoping to use them as "therapy pets", they are so sweet, they "hum" and will put their face right up to yours to smell your breath! Then they'll lay their head on your shoulder as a sign of comfort. Melts my heart. Their fleece is so soft and huggable I'm having a hard time not shearing them right now, but they need to stay warm too! The girls fell in love with Peaches the goat while we were meeting the llamas, so we bought all three, they are quite the sight together, Peaches thinks she's a llama and they don't seem to mind at all. I'd like to breed Peaches and try my hand at goat milk and goat cheese. This ought to be fun!
Our next "big adventure" is/were/are/ chickens! I had my first homegrown egg from our dear neighbor Granny Bode, who'll be 90 this year! She's such a love, what a great role model. Anyway, she has white leghorns and when I ate those eggs, I was hooked. Nothing like 'em. So against Joe's better judgment I ordered 24 chicks from Ideal Poultry, which were delivered 12/19/08, just in time for Meagan and Milan to meet them on their visit out here from CA. We surprised Joe and the girls with their visit and man were they ever surprised! The chickens stayed in our living room for nearly a month while Joe put the finishing touches on their "Chicken Palace" complete with insulation, paneling, dual pane/aluminum framed windows, exit ramp, poop chute, mood lighting, perches and bidet (okay I embellished on that last one!).
We still have our "main crew" Rooster (the Airedale), George (the Morkie), Ginger (the Dachsund), Dinky (the Persian), Polly (the Yellow Cockatiel) and Licorice (the black Bunny). Unfortunately, our dear hamster, Fluffy passed away a few months ago. She's buried in the front yard in a Blueberry Waffle box, Emily so loved that pet. One of the hardest parts of being a parent is watching your child's heart break and not being able to make it better.
We've learned a bit about Texans as a people. They can be extremely helpful if they like you, but they don't want their way of life "changed" much. It's been made abundantly clear. We have found a couple of interesting things of note, one is if there's a "Smokey/Sheriff" up ahead trying to catch a speeder, the on-coming drivers will "warn" you by flashing their lights at you. This little trick has saved me at least two tickets so far! I'm so lawless! The other neat thing is that during a funeral procession, everyone pulls over to the shoulder until the entire line of attendees has passed, to show respect for the deceased and their family. Very nice.
Well, that's about it for now, it's getting late (at least in Texas it is) and I'll try to let you absorb this first installment of our Big Red Barn blog. Thanks for visitin'!
Hugs and blessings y'all!
There is an immense difference between living in a city of over 3 million people, versus a small town of 2,500! Our local Harper ISD is located on one campus with pre-k thru 6th in one building and middle and high school in another. Total attendance is just over 600. Wow!
The girls LOVE school. They have made wonderful new friends and have learned so much in such a short time. As much as we loved homeschooling last year, the school here is great and the girls really enjoy it. Emily is now in the gifted program and won a medal at the local UIL championship for her knowledge of classical music. Papa is proud! Her favorite song is Summertime, from Porgy and Bess. Both of them are active in Girl Scouts, 4H as well as church sponsored events. Elyse is very social and always "planning" get togethers for her friends.
I have taken a part-time position at the local fly-in residential airport called Silver Wings on the edge of our town, near Fredericksburg. It's a great job, flexible hours, wonderful co-workers and I'm learning more about planes and their parts than I'd ever imagined. We repair Grumman airplanes of all makes and models. Most of my work involves scheduling, contracts, human resources and planning. The company is owned by a strong Christian family which makes the work environment enjoyable.
Joe is probably wishing he hadn't opted for an "early retirement" as he's been busier than ever! When we first bought the little house we're in, we knew it would need some "cosmetic" updating, but as things progressed, we realized it needed a bit more than originally expected. Due to the very dark wood paneling (circa 1979) and brown shag carpet and brown window blinds, etc. we had our work cut out. We plastered over the paneling, tiled the floors throughout, except for the bedrooms (which we had carpeted), totally repainted the entire inside and outside, tiled both kitchen and baths, replaced all sinks, commodes, etc. We even made the add-on room off the back of the house look like it "belonged" by replacing a sliding glass door with french doors and covering the brick wall (formerly exterior wall), with stucco to match the inside of the house, and tiling the room to match the rest. Whew! What an awful lot of work. The funniest part of the process was that every time Joe started to fix something, something else went wrong. In a mere six months, we had the water main break (twice), a huge fire in the chimney, the garage door disintegrated, and dead trees almost land on the roof! We are so thankful that the process is almost complete!
Joe has been torn between working on the house (my choice) and working on the property (his choice)! Our family has grown by leaps and bounds in such a short time! The girls and I attended the Gillespie County Fair, it makes our Del Mar Fair look like the Superbowl of fairs, but it was fun. While there, we spied a darling animal in the "petting zoo" a miniature cow! Never in my life had I been so smitten by something so large. The woman gave me her card and we headed home. The next day I told Joe about the mini cow and he wanted to see it. We made an appointment with the woman from the fair, and the rest is, as they say, history! We are now the proud owners of three Hereford miniature cows, see photos in the right hand column. They are fairly docile, darling, stubborn, and dumber than a post. Joe loves 'em. They are all named after Joe's aunts, Mamie is the oldest, she turns two tomorrow, and is expecting her first calf this summer. Zelda and Lil are our younger calves who we won't breed for about another year or so. Mamie has horns, the other two don't yet. Horns hurt! When we're not watching out for horns, we're keeping an eye on the rear feet, Mamie has a bad habit of kicking! Notice I said "fairly docile" earlier, they will let us pet them while they're being fed cow candy. We are working on halter training and will hopefully show them in 4-H someday.
I've become quite the knitter since moving here, in no small part due to the "free time" as well as just the relaxation/therapy aspect. I've knitted at least 4 pair of socks now and almost finished Joe's sweater, along with a few other small pieces. Along these lines, my dream has been to knit with "homemade" fibers, which led to our next family addition, llamas! Alpacas were at the top of my list, but a bit pricey, so we opted for the next best thing and I couldn't be happier. You'll see Obama Llama and Dalai Llama in the photos to the right, you can guess who is who. Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to change their names soon as I'm getting quite a bit of grief about their names. I'll gladly accept any input y'all may have on the subject. Their father is a Grand Champion and gorgeous so I'm holding out high hopes that they will follow in his hoof prints! I'm also hoping to use them as "therapy pets", they are so sweet, they "hum" and will put their face right up to yours to smell your breath! Then they'll lay their head on your shoulder as a sign of comfort. Melts my heart. Their fleece is so soft and huggable I'm having a hard time not shearing them right now, but they need to stay warm too! The girls fell in love with Peaches the goat while we were meeting the llamas, so we bought all three, they are quite the sight together, Peaches thinks she's a llama and they don't seem to mind at all. I'd like to breed Peaches and try my hand at goat milk and goat cheese. This ought to be fun!
Our next "big adventure" is/were/are/ chickens! I had my first homegrown egg from our dear neighbor Granny Bode, who'll be 90 this year! She's such a love, what a great role model. Anyway, she has white leghorns and when I ate those eggs, I was hooked. Nothing like 'em. So against Joe's better judgment I ordered 24 chicks from Ideal Poultry, which were delivered 12/19/08, just in time for Meagan and Milan to meet them on their visit out here from CA. We surprised Joe and the girls with their visit and man were they ever surprised! The chickens stayed in our living room for nearly a month while Joe put the finishing touches on their "Chicken Palace" complete with insulation, paneling, dual pane/aluminum framed windows, exit ramp, poop chute, mood lighting, perches and bidet (okay I embellished on that last one!).
We still have our "main crew" Rooster (the Airedale), George (the Morkie), Ginger (the Dachsund), Dinky (the Persian), Polly (the Yellow Cockatiel) and Licorice (the black Bunny). Unfortunately, our dear hamster, Fluffy passed away a few months ago. She's buried in the front yard in a Blueberry Waffle box, Emily so loved that pet. One of the hardest parts of being a parent is watching your child's heart break and not being able to make it better.
We've learned a bit about Texans as a people. They can be extremely helpful if they like you, but they don't want their way of life "changed" much. It's been made abundantly clear. We have found a couple of interesting things of note, one is if there's a "Smokey/Sheriff" up ahead trying to catch a speeder, the on-coming drivers will "warn" you by flashing their lights at you. This little trick has saved me at least two tickets so far! I'm so lawless! The other neat thing is that during a funeral procession, everyone pulls over to the shoulder until the entire line of attendees has passed, to show respect for the deceased and their family. Very nice.
Well, that's about it for now, it's getting late (at least in Texas it is) and I'll try to let you absorb this first installment of our Big Red Barn blog. Thanks for visitin'!
Hugs and blessings y'all!
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Sunrise in Harper
