Church arena

This is Sarah Ray...if you remember, she's the dog we "inherited" last summer when Buddy's friend from church passed away.  No one can pet her...not even her previous owner.  But, lately, she can't seem to get close enough to me.  There are even times when she lets me reach down and pet her.  I was going to ask ya'll for suggestions on what to feed her but I found something this evening that she will eat.  She is rapidly losing weight.  I have no idea how old she is...we're guessing around 12.  I've been fixing her "people" food and she was turning up her nose at it.. fresh scrambled eggs with ham...nope!  So, I finally found something...moist and meaty with canned dog food...bacon flavored!  We knew she loved bacon and popcorn...oh, boy, does this dog love popcorn!!

As some of you already know, Buddy is the pastor of the cowboy church that we planted.  Our church is focused around bringing lost cowboys to Christ so to do that, we need an arena to put on horse events.  I went yesterday and bought a couple loads of cedar posts to support the arena panels..

Today was a work day at church to put up the arena..this is exciting!!!

The local sheriff was generous enough to bring out some trustees from the jail to help get the arena up.  I can't wait to show ya'll more pictures of it in progress and then some of events!!! I can't wait!
Happy Trails...
Berte

Still Alive Here

Here I sit on Christmas Eve morning, having coffee and reading other's blogs. Yes, it's been awhile. One of my friends told me to just check in and let everyone know that I'm still alive so here I am. I just don't find what I have to say very interesting but here's the latest since forever. Wow, how God has been working in our lives! Here's a quick review.

My sweet little Gretchen is not with us anymore. She was extremely blind with cataracts and 9 days shy of her 11th birthday when yours truly ran over her out in the orchard. It will be a day and feeling I will never forget. We still miss her running this orchard.

On a good note, Button did come to live with us on the farm. What a hoot! This bottle baby was raised with the grandkids and the dogs and she still loves to run and play like she's a dog. Unfortunately for the dogs, Button's longhorns are growing and she doesn't realize how they hurt. We had to pen her up with the feeder calf for months because she was too friendly. It's pretty freaky to be walking the orchard and have a longhorn calf come running up behind you. She's better now about rubbing up against my leg. She'll come running and stop about 2 feet from me.

You can see our latest addition to the family in this picture with Button and Jasper. Gussie is a red heeler or Cattle dog. She is now 5 months old is my compadre.

Shortly after my last post, through a lot of prayer, Buddy started his own dozer business. God has blessed us richly. Looking back over the year, God has put in black and white our direction. In the past, I would wonder if we're making the right decisions but not now. God has been closing doors and slamming wide open others for His direction. With the dozer business, it has allowed Buddy the freedom to do God's ministry and, without a long drawn out story, Buddy is a cowboy church planter and is pastoring the start-up of a cowboy church in Navasota. It is amazing to see God's work being done. Buddy's old rodeo and roping buddies are pretty much taken aback when they find out he's a pastor. How often we hear "You're a...pastor?!" God works in mysterious ways. He's the potter and we're the clay! This is certainly not something we set out to do.. it is definitely a calling.

This is a pretty quick post to cover several months but I have a dirty house calling my name. Ugh.. I will try and keep up with this.

Happy Trails...

This old gray mare is still pluggin' along

I have no pictures to share but only an update. First of all, thanks to those blogger friends for emailing and checking in on me. It really means a lot to know that so many of you truly care. Yes, it's been a long while since I posted. My reason? don't know...no umph to blog. Most of the time, I feel like what I do is not so interesting to others.
I have been busy working because there are some things that we want and, I figure, the only way to get them is with cash in hand...duh!..amazing how that works. Buddy and I are also involved in a new church. It seems like a year now that we've felt in limbo with a church and have prayed for direction. I think the path God led us on gave us a clear picture as to the end of our search. Let me tell you... we tossed around the idea of visiting a newly planted Cowboy Church in our area and decided it was time to visit. The preacher and his wife just moved from Alpine in west Texas where they had started a church and were there for 6 years. They were then sent to our area to start another. They moved here with all their struggles and a huge pile of faith. The church had only been meeting a few months and still in the baby stages of getting started. Let me tell you how God works... we walked up one Sunday morning and the preacher's wife saw me, reached out for me and gave me a big hug and said "You're here. I've been praying for you". She and her husband had been praying for us specifically to come. At that moment, I knew the reason God led us there. Wow, what a ride!
Let me tell you... even for those of you that might not know Christ, someone is out there praying for you right now just waiting for you to open your heart and accept the Holy Spirit and share in the peace and joy of salvation.
Our church is getting ready to have it's big launch the weekend of the 26th and 27th so we've been hustling to get ready. We're having a two day ranch rodeo with a sanctioned WRCA on Saturday and Sunday with breakfast, church service and then an open ranch rodeo.
We know now that God is using us to minister with what we know - our horses. Buddy will be roping with several of the youth on Wed nights after Bible study. I don't rope so I'm just along for the ride on that one. As a side-note, I wonder if I'm along for the "ride" because the other night I took a tumble off my horse and landed right on my tailbone..yep, I do believe it's cracked or broken. My git-up and git-down is a bit on the slow side but I am still gittin' it! YeeHaw! Praise God is wasn't worse!
Anyway...that's pretty much what's been going on. Whether I've been at work or busy with church activities, I've been on the go. I will try and stay motivated to blog and, hopefully, add some pictures in my next post.
Happy Trails...

A Whole Lot of Preachin' Going On

I have to share with everyone pictures of this great little church we've been trying to attend on the first Sunday of every month. It's way off the beaten path to say the least. The building itself is not quite finished..the steeple needs to be finished and there's plans for an arena where kids can come hear the Word and then learn to rope and ride after Sunday dinner.

And this man can preach the Word! What a great way to start your Sunday and then meet afterwards for some good eating and visiting.

Then it was back home for a quick nap and then to work in the garden. We've been blessed with some great rain here lately. Way back I posted about the fact that we had so much rain, it was like a lake out in the orchard. Well, last Sunday it looked like that again and the winds were blowing a current out on the water. I woke up and looked out and saw that a pair of wild ducks had flown in and were swimming out there! That's a lot of rain water!

And the rains bring lots of weeds in the garden so off to work we go... here's a few shots of the back garden.

Already a bell pepper..this is encouraging.

Buddy's watermelons..

corn and beans...

Buddy and I have decided that after doing all the weeding, that we have a new appreciation for homegrown foods. We both worked gardens as kids but decided it's different when you're older and you start it and work it together. I will admit, I do have some very fond memories of running barefoot through the garden when I was a kid...oh, those were the days...

Happy Trails...