Thursday, July 30, 2009

End of July Update

I'm still here but been terribly busy. Let's see...the grandkids have gone home. They were so homesick to see their mom and dad and little sister. I know they are so happy to be waking up in their own beds.
Since they've been gone, I've been working a few more days trying to catch up. Where does it go? It seems like everything is getting more and more expensive each day. I've got to make time to work on things for the store. Buddy and I have so many ideas that we've got to get busy and get them listed. And Christmas is around the corner, so will be getting things ready for that.
We did finally get some welcomed rain here. We've had a couple good showers since I last posted. As a matter of fact, it's getting nice and dreary here now with expected showers. We got a little bit this morning to settle the dust. Last Sunday a twister came through my cousin's place over towards Madisonville along I45 and took out this wonderful old barn. Remember when I posted pictures of it last October? Well, it's gone.
It also took shingles off the roof of his house, ripped two holes in the roof and did damage to his new barn/hanger. He has his office in there along with his plane. The building used to have two 40' doors on it, one of which is gone and they can't find and the other door was sucked in. Now get this...the plane was turned around in the hanger but no damage. The news reported cars being spun around on the highway which runs alongside his place. It was fast and furious. Fortunately, no one was injured.


Dottie went and had her surgery yesterday-thank goodness! I've never heard of a female cat coming into heat as much as she did. It's awful! Anyway, there is this wonderful low cost spay and neuter clinic in a neighboring town...very affordable! So, off she went to her appt yesterday. And look what she got...a tattoo! Okay..I'm a nurse and do not promote tattoos on humans but on animals..it's okay. I won't even get on my soapbox about tattoos and subject ya'll to that. I'll save that for another post.


Last weekend we hiked (drove) up to Vernon, TX, for a wedding. It took us 5 1/2 hours but was great to see a change of scenery. We drove through the very edge of the Waggoner Ranch...550,000 acres! It would take a lifetime to cover all that! As we were driving up there, I pointed out to Buddy to look over at these trees that looked like something out of Africa. All the trees were eaten off to high level...perfectly even. I tried to get a picture.. There wasn't a high game fence so we were puzzled.




















As we drove a little further, Buddy saw what was eating the trees like this....


It was camels! Hopefully, you can click on the picture to enlarge it.. I haven't mastered how to do that yet. There were about 20 of them that we saw. What? In Texas, you're supposed to have horses or buffalo or Longhorns..but camels? I guess if you have 550,000 acres, you have to find something to put on there!






Happy Trails...

10 comments:

  1. Glad to hear someone is getting rain in Texas. I had an uncle who had a farm in Texas in the 50-60's. I use to love to go there as a child because they had a well we had to draw water from and an outhouse. For some reason that was a facination to me!
    Camels. Happy thought indeed!
    Debbie

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  2. Hi Berte - glad you finally got some rain. It's been a little rainy here, too.

    Man, I hate that that beautiful old barn got leveled by the tornado. Terrible. Was it visible from Hwy 21? We go through there lots when going to College Station.

    Why did your cat get a tattoo? Is that where they did the surgery? I mean you can tell it's a female by looking unless you are stupid or something. Just curious....

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  3. When we had our mama cat and kittens spayed/neutered at a low-cost clinic, they also got a tattoo! Wonder what that is all about! Must be some kind of identification thing.

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  4. So sorry about the barn & all....MOther Nature is a mean old bitty sometimes! Glad no one was hurt. I bet your house is quiet without those grands. Camels huh! Cool! Who would have thought!

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  5. Getting that tattoo was probably the single smartest thing (next to the spay of course)..this way if she happens to be trapped by someone, they will know she has been spayed...its a little less painful than "eartipping" as well..hope kitty feels better soon....LOVE your blog...and love your pic a few posts earlier of kitty trying to get in the drawer lol!

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  6. We have been fortunate to get rain as well. So sad about the barn. A rancher out this way has a high game fence and he raises elk. They are beautiful. I have heard of folks raising camels. Hope you get more rain. blessings,Kathleen

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  7. That's so sad about your cousin's old barn. I'm glad that noone was injured, though.

    Oooh! I love camels! I hope they have more fence there than just that low barb wire, though. How observant you were to notice those exotic looking trees, too.

    I think I remember reading somewhere that some of the first cowboys rode camels. They were brought to Texas by the US Army around 1860, I think.

    YES! Yes! I just did a search for it...and found this:

    http://www.texasescapes.com/MikeCoxTexasTales/Camels.htm

    The Texas Camel Corps! Maybe those camels you saw are direct descendants of those same camels!

    ~Lisa

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  8. Where oh where has my little friend gone? I miss ya!!

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  9. Holy crap Berte...It is time to post on your blog again....snicker snicker....

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  10. Hi Berte - So good to hear from you and thanks so much for your kind words. It means alot to me!

    I've been checking your blog to see what you've been up to, but decided you have been too busy. I am only averaging every other week myself on blogging.

    I hope everything is going well for ya'll out there on the pecan plantation.
    Have you gotten any of this good rain? How did your pecan crop do with it being so dry?

    I'm glad to hear from you - I feel special! (my word verification is "muddi" - hope you got some mud!)

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