It's a Good Morning

I had several appointments starting early this morning so we made a quick run-through Whataburger to grab breakfast for Jacob.  For those of you outside of Texas and the "Whataburger area"....it's wonderful!  The best thing about driving out of the drive-thru was this...

I'm so glad to see places like Whataburger and Chick-fil-A taking a stand on their Christian beliefs.
I have to share with ya'll where I got to spend my morning talking to God..

I could see for miles and miles.  I was at total peace there. 

I sat and watched the birds and the butterflies and hummingbirds.  I soaked in all of God's beauty.

And, yep, I talked about a few of you...if you felt anything, it was me lifting you up in prayer.

Happy Trails...

Berte

And the Winner is...

The winner of the spatterware bread pan, the colorful napkin and the recipe keeper is....
Hookin It With Mr. Lick Lick.    Congratulations!!!!  Enjoy and prayers that everything that is baked up in your new pan will be full of blessings and that you be able to fill others with wonderful blessings!
Thanks to everyone that left such sweet comments on how they've been blessed.  So nice to hear!
Happy Trails...
Berte

Construction in Progress

Finally have someone to come out and start construction to finish out our back room.  It was initially our big back porch but our kids decided they had no place to stay when they come so we closed it in.  With the house being a metal barn, it's like an Easy Bake Oven out there with no insulation. 

The floor is painted concrete but when these guys finish their work, I'm going to paint the floor a different color..right now it's almost a minty green.  Not good... Once all the insulation is up, the sheetrockers come in.  Then the trim man will come back in and finish up.  I'll be doing the painting and staining.  I'm so ready for all this!

This end will be my sewing corner.  If you look closely, you can see the chicken house out the window and Prairie Barbie standing there (to the far right).  I can't wait to be able to sew while watching chickens and horses!
I'll keep ya updated on the progress.
Happy Trails...
Berte

GiveAway Ending Soon

If you haven't already put your name in the hat for the giveaway, read all about it here.

Time is running out...deadline is tomorrow night.
I'll be announcing the winner Thursday morning!

Happy Trails...

Berte

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

Horse and Chicken Update

Bye-bye, Daisy.  Theresa ended up selling her sweet little mare to a family south of Houston for their twin boys who are disabled.  She's the perfect fit for them.
In the meatime, we ended up buying this sweet boy...

He's an Appaloosa that comes compact.  He's a playday horse that will be great for beginner kids at church to ride....not to say that they've won but to say "I did it!"  Our last playday got rained out and rescheduled for the end of August so I'm very anxious to get him out there.  As a matter of fact, we've got a work day at church tomorrow to get the arena up.  We've been using the arena at the county fairgrounds.

Red is coming along well.  He's putting on some weight and looking a lot better. I have to admit, he is the sweetest horse I've ever owned.

I think we can definitely confirm that Lincoln is a tom...

and Lucille a hen...

my little Salmon Faverolle rooster is growing...can you see all those toes and feathered legs?

This is one of my black sex links...isn't she pretty with those gold feathers?

An Ameracauna hen....check out those precious feathery cheeks!  She's one of my favorites.

Every time I order Ameracaunas from Ideal, I always get a white one.  This one is ALL white.  The others have had some brown in the feathering and my granddaughters always name them Snow White. I was asked by them again if I'm going to name her Snow White.  And...oddly enough, she doesn't have the typical feathered cheeks but I know she's an Ameracauna because her legs are dark green.  I heard the eggs they lay will be close in color to their legs.  I can't wait to see hers!!

By the way, I appreciate all the names suggested for The Bathroom Lady.  I think Prairie Barbie fits her.  A big thanks to TexWisGirl that always gives us some great pictures from The Run Around Ranch Report. I even had one of my friends suggest Stepford Barbie!  Yes, she is donning her white gloves.  The truth be known, those gloves are holding her fingers on!!  If ya'll only saw this girl naked you'd be coming up with a whole new set of names!  I wish I could have caught a picture of Lucille, the turkey, sitting on her shoulder earlier this evening..She had pulled off her hair and her hat... poor Prairie Barbie...I won't even go there...well, okay, she has a sizeable hole in the back of her head.  Duh...who would have thought Barbie had a hole in her head?!?!?

Don't forget about the GiveAway here.
Happy Trails...
Berte

The Bathroom Lady

Remember when we took our road trip last week and I told you we stopped at some antique stores along the way?  Well, there are always little goodies that I'm looking for when we stop in those places but this particular store in Meridian was the only one along the way that had tons of junk outside.  Buddy loves more old junk.. you can really find some treasures in there that people disregard.  Anyway, my immediate first stop at this store was the bathroom.  Of course, the owner said it was out of order but she keeps the sign up so no one will go in there.  Why do they always do that?  I thought stores had to have a bathroom for customers.  Needless to say, I was just thankful she gave me the "okay" to use her facilities.  I immediately found the light switch, yanked down my pants and, fortunately found the toilet just in time because, when I looked up, standing just behind the door was "The Bathroom Lady"....
Yes, I would stay that she scared the pee out of me but I was already well taking care of that!  I was just not prepared for someone standing there as I shut the door.  But after having a few minutes to give her a quick glance, I was thinking that she would make a dandy "scarecrow" for my chickens.  Years ago I had Eve...

She served her purpose keeping birds out of my garden.  It was really pretty funny because we would watch people as they drove by on the road running in front of our house and they would be waving at her, thinking she was real.  But time and the horses quickly took care of Eve.  She was stuffed with hay and the horses found her to be quite tasty.

So back to the antique store and The Bathroom Lady, I quickly called Buddy back to the bathroom to show her to him.  He agreed.  She's pretty cool. I asked the owner if she was for sale and after making a quick phone call, her price was named, we made a deal and we loaded The Bathroom Lady in the back seat of my truck with Jacob.  Our next stop was to eat lunch and we thought for sure someone was going to report us to the cops for leaving "this person" out in the truck in the heat!

The Bathroom Lady is now standing proudly out with the chickens in hopes that she will help keep the hawks from zooming in on the chickens.

I've had to wait for the rain to stop with the torrential downpours before I was ready to put her out.  I'm really glad to get her out of my house because she was sitting in a chair next to Buddy's recliner eyeballing him....gotta watch the Bathroom Lady.

The turkeys haven't quite figured her out....what?  No red toenail polish to peck at?  Hmmmm, I might have to give her some painted toenails...

What I do need to give her is a name.  I can't keep calling her The Bathroom Lady!  I thought of Corinda but it just hasn't clicked yet.  If any of you precious bloggers out there come up with a name, please share.  Surely there's got to be something better than The Bathroom Lady..

Don't forget about my GiveAway!

Happy Trails...

Berte