Fire and Rain

As you can see by the rain gauge, we have received 3 3/4" of rain this past week.  It's a wonderful thing in this drought stricken part of the country.  It isn't a drought breaker, (we'd need this amount every week for at least a couple of months before we could say that)
but it is a step in the right direction.

So when we have a chance at a few days of drizzle and the county lifts the burn bans we get to work on much needed chores...which are burning burn piles.
Let me just say this for the record.....I am skeered of fire...very, very skeered.  A wild fire through here, with the conditions such as they are could do an incredible amount of damage (look at the reports of the Bastrop Fire a year or so ago ) in a short amount of time.

One reason is that when you live rurally like we do you are only covered by small independent Fire Stations.  We don't live in the city limits so we don't have the infrastructure (fire hydrants) that a fire truck could pull up to and start spraying water.  We are limited to trucks that can carry their own water.  There are not roads everywhere and the terrain can be treacherous so fighting the fire is just altogether difficult.

IMPORTANT NOTE HERE:  I'm having trouble posting pictures....but wanted to publish this so I'm just going to continue this post and maybe add the pictures later...although it won't nearly be as interesting without the pictures of FIRE!

 

Even though we have an established road and driveway....vegetation continues to grow...even in a drought and we do have to do some trimming from time to time.  What usually ends up happening is that we do a fair amount of trimming and put it in a pile or two and then when the conditions are right we burn it. 

It's always a little scary for me in the beginning...even though we've done this a time or 10.  When that first bunch of branches finally catches on fire and it's on it's way.  And for some unknown reason...even though it's been dead calm...the minute the match lights the first branch on fire...the wind begins.  Maybe it's because fire creates wind...I don't know that to be true but it sure does seem like it. 

So we got the rain and the burn ban was lifted for a couple of days and we thought that we'd take advantage of  it all and burn, baby, burn.

We actually had two piles to burn but decided that we'd just do the biggest pile for now and wait until we had more rain to do the second.

The whole process took around 3+hours from start to the ash pile.    

Christmas without Mom

This was our first Christmas without mom.  I don't think that Christmas is ever going to feel the same again.  We had the people, we had the food and we had the decorations and presents but the most important element was my mom's presence and she's not here.

My mother had such a way with Christmas.  It was her most favorite time of the year and she was completely in her element. 

 

From my first memories of Christmas in our home it was a time of happiness and anticipation of presents yet to be opened.  The tree would be bought and ornaments would be brought out and hung with care.  And tinsel had to be strung just so....there was no getting around just throwing the tinsel on...you had to ever so carefully place it just so.  As children we could not appreciate the careful placement but as we grew up it began to take on a new meaning and it was a time when we were all together as a family doing something together. 

 

My mother had a way with Christmas presents as well.  I cannot tell you how many times that I could not for the life of me think of something that I wanted other than a cookbook or a novel and my mother would find something special for me and put it under the tree.  She had a gift for gift giving.  She knew us so well that she knew what we wanted even when we could not think of it ourselves. 

 

I was not looking forward to the annual picture taking around the tree.  We've done it every year with my older brother making the sign with the year on it.   But no one mentioned it this year and I have to say "Thank You" as I think I would have been reduced to tears at that point.  

 

My father said the blessing before the meal this year...something he has not done in decades and he choked up when he mentioned the woman who was responsible for this family.  It was a moment. 

 

We are creating new memories and we are learning how to deal with our loss. 

 

I knew that this Christmas would be the hardest but we were able to celebrate it and we were able to even have a few laughs.  It doesn't mean that it won't hurt every year...but this next year I'm hoping it will hurt a little less. 

 

No, Christmas will never be the same and I will ALWAYS miss my mother not being a part of it anymore but we will pull together as a family and make the best of it that we can. 

The Stray Table

Today I made homemade marshmallows.  If I was a better blogger and thought about things in advance I would have taken pictures of the whole process...but as it is...you will just have to be happy with a picture of the finished product. 
Marshmallows are a relatively easy thing to make.  Bloom some gelatine, make a sugar mixture, add the two together and presto you have marshmallows.  It's fun...simple, fast and they are really, really good.  And when you do this....you can make changes to the taste. For instance...if you wanted a peppermint flavored marshmallow then all you have to do is add peppermint flavored extract.  Do you get my drift?  Varieties are endless.
I'm not all that concerned with Thanksgiving and being without Mother.  That's because years ago when we all started getting married and started to have whole other families involved...Mother decided that to make things easier on us...they (she and Dad) would travel to Vegas to have Thanksgiving with my younger brother and his wife.  This worked out wonderfully for us not having to decide whos house to go to or worse..have to eat two meals.  And like I say...it worked wonderfully for years...then there was the year that Bob's mother got sick.  I kept asking her to allow me to do Thanksgiving dinner.  We had the room and the time and all she would have to do is sit back and enjoy.  She staunchly refused and then called us the night before and told us that she would not be able to do it.  We'd been invited to several other Thanksgiving dinners but had turned them down because Polly was going to do it.  I don't feel like it's proper manners to call someone up the night before and say..."Hey, our plans have changed...do you still have room".  To be honest...most people probably wouldn't bat an eyelash at that and they'd all have enough for us to eat...but it's still not polite and so we decided that we'd just do our own thing...
So with the weather being pretty nasty...cold and wet....we headed out in jeans and sweats to see what was open.  We had to travel down the interstate into the next town and we found some sort of family eatery....not cafeteria style but something similar and we had what had to be the worst Thanksgiving Dinner EVER!!!! 
I swore up and down that this was never going to happen again and that Polly would just have to give up and I wouldn't take no for an answer.  Not 4 months later Polly died and I said to Bob..."I don't care who you invite, just start inviting people and we'll feed them.  And so he did and that is the beginning of what we like to call "The Stray Table". 
So this is for people who would rather not go to families (for whatever reason) and it's for our friends, and it's for people who don't have anywhere else to go. 
We've had as many at 22 and we've had as little as 10.  All different people from all walks of life.  The conversation is always lively and interesting and I work my butt off...but it makes me happy. 
So Daddy heads to Vegas tomorrow to spend Thanksgiving with my brother and his family and today I began the initial prep work for Thanksgiving. 
If you celebrate...Have a wonderful Thanksgiving...if you don't have anyplace to go...come on by...we'll be more than happy to feed you. 

Sunday I Race

For the past 12 years I have raced in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Austin, Texas.  And for the past 12 years I have raced in Celebration that my mother was alive and seemed to be cured of the breast cancer that she was diagnosed with 16 years ago. 
This Sunday is different.  This Sunday I will have to race in memory of my mother who lost that fight and I've been emotional about it all week. 
As I have done in the past two years I will post the following to my facebook page.

Tomorrow I Race.
Tomorrow I Race in Celebration of all those who have fought and won the battle against Breast Cancer. 
Tomorrow I Race in Support of all those who are fighting Breast Cancer.
Tomorrow I Race in Memory of all those who have lost the fight and tomorrow I race with the hope in my heart that a cure will be found and I will never have to race again.  

This time my post will be.....
Tomorrow I Race.
Tomorrow I Race in Memory of my mother who lost her fight against Breast Cancer and all those who have gone before her.
Tomorrow I Race in Celebration of those who have won the fight.
Tomorrow I Race in Support of all those who are fighting and tomorrow I race with the hope in my heart that a cure will be found and I will never have to race again.  

Country Livin'

Can you see em?  Look closely....there they are.....can you see em? 
As I was running an errand for a friend last week I spotted this whole flock of Jake Turkeys going from one pasture to another.
Jake Turkeys are immature male turkeys...you can always spot them as they are usually fairly dark in color while the hens are light to light brown.  Jakes also don't have well developed beards (a tuff of hair that projects from the front of the chest). 
I keep forgetting that I have a wonderful camera on my "smart phone" so that I can take these pictures at any time....and I also suck at picture taking but I'm learning. 
But this is the reason that I live in the country.  Where else could you see this?  One of the many reasons that I love being out here.

Breaking Point

Suffice it to say that I live in the country.  I live in the country because I like the trees and nature around me.  I live here cause that's what I want to live around.  I don't live in the city.  I don't want my place to look like I live in the city.  I don't want a HOA (Home Owners Association) to tell me I have to mow my lawn, trim my trees, put my garage door down or any of the other asinine things that they think are important for the "neighborhood" to look respectable. 
So for the past 15 years or so we have gotten a delivery of Propane from a certain Propane Company who shall remain nameless.  And they only have to deliver about once every 6 months or so.  But they have one particular driver who bitches every single time he comes about us not trimming our trees enough to suit him. 
We've had words before about this but this time when he delivered....he left a note on the door followed up by a letter. 
Now if there was a safety issue associated with this then we just might take another look at the situation but there has NEVER been an explosion of a Propane Truck because some limbs scratched the tank.  It's a TRUCK....trucks are to be used!!!!!!
So because I had just trimmed the limbs that my husband and I had deemed fairly obstructive....when the letter arrived I just had had enough so I wrote the following to the company:

********** Propane Company
With the payment of this check we should not have anything else on our account. Please take us off your list of customers as we will no longer require your services.

We have been very happy with your service with the exception of the driver who delivered our last delivery. He has continually complained about our lack of trimming trees.

In Fact, we try to keep our driveway REASONABLY clear of tree limbs but what he is asking we consider to be excessive.  We do not live in a subdivision and there is a reason for that. We don't want anyone to tell us how we can and cannot have the drive to our home look.

We DO understand how big a propane truck is and he can easily drive down the driveway and get to where he needs to go to make his delivery (he has been able to do it every single time that he has delivered)  but what he is asking we consider too much.  We've had all kinds of trucks down this driveway include Concrete and PEC (Pedernales Electric Cooperative) trucks. NO ONE else has complained or even suggested that we need to trim.

We live in the country and we want to keep it looking like that.  Our driveway is not a city street and we don't want it to look that way.  

So thank you again for the services rendered but you have lost a customer.

Sincerely,
Bob and Lyn Pool

So what do you think????  Am I just getting old and cranky or do I have a right to keep my drive looking like I want as long as it doesn't cause some sort of safety issue for the trucks that have to make a delivery.....

Front Yard

Our front yard has always left a lot to be desired.  When we finished building our home we created two small plots in the front and got some cheap sod and left it to do what it was going to do.  It didn't do very much...you can't grow much without dirt and we are such water misers that if it didn't get rained on it wasn't going to be watered. 
There was also a problem with the bed that would be to the right as you walk out the front door.  You either have to go to the end of the walk to get over to the shop or you have to cut back to the porch and go around or just go to another exit off the porch all together.  Confused yet?  Surfice it to say that it's very problematic and our dogs never respected the paths and tended to cut across the plot all the time.  Then we began to cut across and suddenly it stuck us that because it was a natural way to go we should disassemble part of the plot and make it into two with a way more natural flow.  So that is what we did.

We planted nothing but natives in the little soil that we had and then a friend offered to bring us some nice dirt that was in a river bottom.  We thought that would be a good idea except that it wasn't.  It was too sandy and it was sterile.  It would grow nothing and it was washing away with every single rain storm that came our way. 

Yes, yes, we had poppies in it earlier in the year but poppies are fairly easy to grow and we don't want just poppies...we want all manner of natives. 
So we're at it again.

With the weather giving us a break from the heat we're going at it again.  But this time we are starting with the path.....we've decided that the gravel did too much moving around and relocating itself.  The stuff we are putting down now is crushed granite.  Don't you just love the color?
Next we'll bring in rocks.....lots and lots of rocks.  Big rocks and little rocks and all shapes and colors to make the beds more interesting....
It's a work in progress and will probably take 6 months or more to complete simply because we want to take our time and enjoy the process. 
I'll keep you posted.