Chapter 9 Extended Family

It's a sure sign of spring with the return of the swallows.  I don't know where they go for the winter but I've heard they return to the same nest in the south each year.  That makes me happy.  They are extended family and as the weather warms at the changing of the seasons I begin to look for my swallow family.  I love sitting on the back porch in the mornings watching them weave in and out of the columns catching insects in mid flight.  In the evenings it's an aerial ballet with a symphony orchestra just before dark as they are trying to settle into their homes for the night.  They chatter away as they flit in and out of the columns, it's such a beautiful performance.  The babies have become too big for the nests so they sleep on stone ledges above the arches of the porch as close to their own respective nests as they can get.

This morning I noticed the swallows had all gone hunting.  We have five swallow nest on our porch and I have watched 3 generations hatch and leave and it's only the end of June.  I looked to the sky for a sign of them cause it's rare that they are all gone at one time.  At last one appeared with something rather large and white in it's beak...and then came the others, chasing her.  I don't know if it was a game or if the item is in it's mouth was a special insect treat, so I just watched.  They performed their aerial ballet chasing the one with the treat for quite a while.  At last she dropped her treat as she soared straight up into the air like a rocket.  It floated downward, it was a feather.  She reversed her direction without pausing and retrieved it, the others following in hot pursuit.  Why was this little feather such an item  of desire?  Was it just a game, something soft to line the nest or is it bird mentality.

 I have watched my chickens do something quite similar when one gets a treat and runs to a corner with it.  The others chase it continually trying to peck it away and eat it themselves.  It's like a game of tag.  If it's taken from the first chicken then all the others will chase the one who stole it.  So maybe this is just bird mentality!

I love watching these swallows raise their young.  I think humans could possibly take a lesson from them.  They are the best parents.  Mother and father build the nest together in what appears to be pure harmony.  I have no idea if they bicker or not but they end up with a perfect little home to raise their young and they stay together for life. The nest is made of little mud pellets and shaped like a bowl that has been glued to the side of the house.  They watch over the eggs and the young when they hatch and they both feed the babies until they are ready to fly.  Once they are big enough to take flight the whole village seems to turn out for the lesson.  They all soar through the air, weaving in and out of the columns in absolute synchrony missing a collision with each other and the columns by a feather.  Each bird does a flyby of the nest, chirping as it goes "come on, you can do it".  The little hatchlings sit on the edge of the nest flapping their wings chirping "I'm scared, I'm trying" until one gets brave enough to take the leap into mid air.  It's so amazing.  Sometimes their little wings are just not strong enough and they will land on the ground.  The older birds fly down and sit by them, encouraging them to try again before the "black devil"(Shadow) grabs them up in his mouth.  A few times I have had to intervene and scoop up the baby before it meets the jaws of death.  I will put them in a separate little garden in a pot plant nearby and the village will continue to do flybys encouraging the little one to take to the air.   At last it happens and the new pilots are up into the air and immediate experts!

They will follow their parents for days after this with endless flying lessons and "shopping" for food.  Swallows  generally catch insects in mid flight and they also drink water the same way as they swoop across a pond or water container.  The family continues to stay together, hunting and sleeping together for quite sometime.  The babies go back to their nest each night and mom and dad continue to bring them food.  At some point in time the babies reach the age they can go off alone and build their own home.  I have not witnessed that happening, it just happens and soon the nest is full of babies again!

Chapter 8 Racoons and Porcupines

One night recently I was awoken at 3 am to the sound of Shadow's bark.  His "I've got something cornered bark" is different from his warning bark.  He really should have been adopted by a family of coon hunters, he would have made the best damned coon dog on earth.  I grabbed my "father's" flashlight which is an old metal one that probably isn't made any more.  It's my lucky flashlight.  I always feel my father is with me when I have it in hand.  My father went on to the great beyond about 7 years ago but he still talks to me constantly and I usually listen.  He was a very wise Texan, born on the prairie, lived by instincts and a shotgun!  I remember when the electricity would go out during a storm he would always grab that same flashlight and head for the well house.  He taught me many things so it just seems right to carry his flashlight and use his 22 rifle...I'm safe!  Down the hill I went with leash in hand, I've learned not to waste time going back up to the house for things I know I will need.

It didn't take me long to realize Shadow had a porcupine cornered. Mickey always listens to me so I was able to threaten him with his life if he didn't leave that porc alone.  Shadow on the other hand didn't know I was even there, he was in his hunting mode and no amount of yelling and screaming would stop him.  Hitting him on the ass with the leash didn't help either cause he didn't hear or feel.  This was not the first time I have been through this drill, I've gotten really good at it.  I grab Shadow by the tail, all 83 pounds of him and pull with all my might...I work my way up his tail and grab his collar trying to keep my distance from the porc and my balance on rocky uneven ground..  At last I am able to get a leash on Shadow and it's all over.

My husband can sleep through anything.  Up the hill I go to awaken him and ask him if he would like to shoot a porcupine tonight.  He is a champ.  He jumps out of bed in his sleep, grabs his shotgun and is off down the hill.  He shoots the porcupine, throws it over the fence, goes back up to the house, crawls in bed and is asleep within minutes.  My heart is racing and I'm a bundle of nerves.  I have to sit in my favorite rocker and knit for an hour before I can get my heart back in rhythm and eventually go back to bed.  The next morning, off to the vet, for a mere $300. This time I take both dogs in cause I'm tired of sitting for hours removing quills from Shadow's body.  Two nights later around midnight another porc comes in for a drink of water and it's the same scene over again... except this time apparently the memory of the pain is still fresh.  Or maybe it's the shock collar I have placed around Shadow's neck.  The minute I hear his, "I've got a porcupine" bark, I shock the poop out of him which gives me time to grab my father's flashlight and leash and run down the hill. I threaten Mickey and work my way up Shadow's tail to his collar.  Back up to the house, awaken my husband who jumps out of bed, grabs his shotgun, down the hill, pops that porc, throws it's carcass over the fence and goes back up the hill to bed. We left those porcs near the fence line hoping others would take a lesson from viewing their peer's dead, rotting bodies.  A lesson taken from this for city folk who want to start a new life in the country....never throw a dead animal downwind of your house!

Those are not whiskers on Shadow!

Not a bad case of porcupine quills!

Raccoons love to tease dogs.  Somehow they know a dog cannot get through a fence.  One night I was awoken by Shadow's "I've got something bark".  I jumped out of bed, grabbed my flashlight and leash and was off down the hill. I was scared, it was summertime and a warm night.  Just the kind of night snakes like to hunt.  I worked my way through the cactus keeping my eyes on the ground for a camouflaged snake, making my way to the dogs.  They were at the fence line and Shadow was mightily trying to dig his way underneath the fence.  I wasn't sure what was on the other side, not knowing if it would lunge at me through the fence or not.  My brain doesn't always function well in the middle of the night.  So I was cautious and grabbed Shadow's tail working my way up to his collar while Mickey danced around us in excitement.  As I neared the collar to attach the leash I looked up and saw a pair of eyes staring at me in the glow from the flashlight.  Looking past the eyes I saw the raccoon who was not afraid of me either, he knew I wasn't coming through the fence to get him. In Shadow's determination to get that raccoon he was going in circles around me.  As the leash tightened around my legs I lost my balance on the rocky hill and down I went. I was grateful there wasn't any cactus there, just rocks.  Cursing in every language I knew, I managed to get to my feet and drag that black dog up the hill.  I tied him to a column of the house for the remainder of the night.  I don't like killing things but I swear I would have shot that raccoon if I had my shotgun in hand.  I guess I'm glad I didn't have it because I would have felt really badly about it later.  That little raccoon was just having fun in the middle of the night probably laughing at me laying in a heap on the ground.  It was showtime for him!

Shadow entertained himself the rest of the night by torturing scorpions that unknowingly ventured near him.  He had discovered that scorpions sting so he barks at them and even snaps them off the wall of the house and proceeds to torture them by slapping at them with his paws and biting them back!

Chapter 7 Hunting Trips and Snares

Before the fence was erected the dogs would take themselves on walks or I should say hunting trips.  They would be gone for hours and come back covered in blood.  I shuddered to think what they had killed and eaten, Bambi always popped into my mind and I pushed that thought aside.

One evening they had taken off for a "hunt" and Mickey returned alone.  Usually Shadow would not be far behind him but this time he did not come.  I was certain something had happened to him.  Maybe a rancher had shot him as my cousin predicted often happens to dogs in the country.  As night came on I was really becoming concerned. I thought I could hear him howling in the distance so I determined his collar had caught up on a barbed wire fence as he passed under it.  I drove into the night with the windows down on my car calling as I went.  I was pretty sure he was alive and that was him howling into the dark night, "Mom, I'm hear, help me."  I drove onto a neighbor's property and asked permission to walk around in the valley below his house.  He agreed but I thought I should go home and fetch a flash light so as to avoid rattlesnakes.  I also called another neighbor who was very knowledgeable about these things and animals.  She was the only person I knew out here who would not be afraid to traipse around in the dark rattlesnake infested night!  She agreed to help as I knew she would.

We walked into the dark braving cactus and mesquite, telling the snakes to keep away.  She went one direction and I went the other.  We could hear the dog howling once in a while and we knew there was a fence line at the bottom.  Surely if she started at one end and I at the other the dog would be somewhere in between.  The owner of the property drove his truck down and shined his lights on the scene.  I learned a strange thing about dogs when they are in trouble or trapped.  They will howl until they hear their owner's voice and then they get quiet.  That did not help us.  We had to be quiet because every time we called out "Shadow", he would stop howling.  I had Mickey on the leash and he was trying to lead me to Shadow but I was certain he was going in the wrong direction.  At last I gave up and followed him and he led us directly to the poor trapped little fellow.  I imagine Mickey was thinking, "This is my chance to get rid of this trouble maker,,,,I could take them the wrong way", if dogs think, I'm not sure about that one.  Mickey had a good heart after all.  Oh my gosh, Shadow had a wire "trap" around his neck.... like a noose.  Land owners put them on the bottom strand of fencing where animals dig out holes to climb under.  These nooses are for trapping predators that might feast on the rancher's herd. They are called snares.  Every time Shadow moved, the noose would tighten.  The neighbor with the truck went back to his house to get a wire cutter and Shadow was freed.   Why had I left my crystal swimming pool in the city where I was sometimes floating around on a balmy night such as this?

Chapter 6 The Foundling and the Disciplinarian

I'm the kind of person who takes in orphans, not the human kind but winged or four legged types.  There was a black Labrador that kept making appearances at the high school.  It seems he was trying to teach the gym classes.  My son being much like his mother thought this lab needed a home because he had no collar and had come to teach the class on several consecutive days.  My son left class,  to remove the lab from the gym and stayed outside with the little black guy who was about 9 months old at the time.    This was an extremely friendly dog and wanted to be around people.  My son called me from outside the school via his cell phone to tell me about this dog.  Instantly my interest was peaked.  Surely our fluffy male dog, Mickey Blue Eyes needed a friend.  Somewhere in the recesses of my brain a little thought kept nagging at me, something about male dogs being territorial.  Ignoring the itch in my brain, I jumped in my car and headed for the school.  Mind you I had already rescued two other male dogs that had ventured onto our ranch but was fortunate enough to place them back with their own families.  Surely I was thinking of doing the same with the lab I was about to bring home.  Arriving at the school I met the black lab who must have thought he had finally found his mama.  Into the back of my car he jumped and home we went.

 

Upon arriving home my husband asked me what I was going to do with this dog.  For some reason he had taken an instant dislike to this little homeless fellow...must have been a difference in personalities.  My husband is sort of a quiet fellow and so was Mickey our fluffy dog.  It was clear from the get go that this black guy was inquisitive and full of personality.  I assured my husband that I would find the dog's owners within a week.  I placed fliers all over town and in the two towns on either side of us, in vets offices and grocery stores.  Weeks turned into months and months turned into years....the black guy was already home!  Our vet informed us that someone had recently dumped a litter of black labs and Jack Russel Terriers.   Like it or not, I was going to keep this dog,,,if the dog went then so would I.  This was cause for many heated discussions.  As much as my husband disliked this dog and still does today, he was kind to him, feeding him and paying his medical bills but refusing to speak to him except to call him a few not so nice names...stupid, dumb, and much worse!

I on the other hand fell in love with this funny dog.  He needed a name and the name should fit his personality. He was black like a shadow and he had a habit of chasing his own shadow and the shadow of birds.  He was a bird dog by nature, when he would spot a bird in the yard, off he would go.  The bird would disappear but the shadow was still on the ground as the bird flitted into the air.  The dog chased the bird's shadow.  His name must be Shadow and so it was.

Mickey was not happy about this new family member either.  Mickey was a full year or more older and in a dog's life that is significant.  He had passed through his puppy stage and had become a man or at least a teenager.  This new black guy was still a kid and Mickey did not like his antics.  Mickey forgot how he use to steal the worker's gloves and tools when they turned their heads.  He would sneak up on a pair of gloves laid aside for a few minutes and very stealthily amber off with one.  Sometimes a chase would ensue, all fun and games.  Months after the house was complete we would find the odd tool or glove laying off in the distance that Mickey had managed to get away with.  Those were days in the past, who wants to remember how naughty they were when they were young?  He was not going to tolerate this new guy.

Shadow was very happily occupying his time with "eating" anything left within his reach.  He demolished patio cushions, door mats, shoes, dish towels and even the wooden handle on tools.  His favorite past time?  Digging...he would have been a great pig employed to dig up truffles.  We are lucky there is a tree still standing in our yard.  He literally digs tunnels under them and I am forever following after him with a rake, filling in the holes and tunnels.  This habit earned him some awful names with my spouse.  I sometimes wonder if it makes him sad that my husband will not speak to him except in a nasty tone.  For Micky it's always, "Hey Boy", while Shadow just stands by waiting patiently, hoping perhaps that this will be the time he gets a pat and a "Hey Boy".   I try to make up for it...they are both, "my boys".

Mickey ignored Shadow as much as possible but sometimes he let his guard down and played with him.  They went through ages and stages and sometimes awful fights would occur.  We quickly learned the safest way to stop a dog fight was with water.  We knew better than to get in the middle.  Mickey did not like being cornered or loud noises and excitement.  He was a herd dog and was very serious about it.  He would herd us by nipping at our heels or trying to grab our ankles in his mouth, gently of course.  He practiced his herding on Shadow who thought it was all fun and games.  Nothing seemed to phase Shadow, he was just a good old boy.  A friend came to visit from the city for a weekend.  As she arrived we were all gathered around her vehicle which she parked next to mine.  We were standing in that slip of a space hugging and chatting, welcoming our guest.  Shadow was excited too as he welcomed our new visitor.  Mickey was not at all happy with this situation and quickly disciplined Shadow.  Shadow loved visitors and he was not going to be told to back away.  It turned into a real brawl.  They latched onto each other growling and biting, it was awful.  There is just something very frightening about a dog fight.   I ran for the hose and in the true nature of hoses, it crimped and the crimp got caught on a column about 30 feet away.  My guest, good sport that she was, and I went running for the crimp to untangle the damned hose(someone needs to invent a hose that does not crimp).  Arriving back on the scene of the fight we found our son in the middle of it.  He knew better, he had been taught to never get in the middle of an animal fight.  The damned hose was too short, now what? There I was standing at the scene trying to make the hose squirt further than it possibly could, talk about frustration and feeling helpless.  I had to get my son out of the middle of this brawl before he got hurt,,,,oops, too late.  Mickey closed his eyes and bit down on what he thought was Shadow but it was my son's wrist.  The boy let out a scream that would have woken the Gods of sleep.  Mickey had his victim and he was not turning loose.  What to do but go to the rescue,,,so into the middle of the fight goes mom.  I had to stick my fingers into Mickey's jaws, thus getting bitten myself, in order to pry them open enough for the boy to slip his arm out, which he did but not without a fang ripping some flesh as the arm left the mouth.  Mickey opened his eyes at this point and the fight ended, I think my husband finally got some water on the scene.  The boy was screaming in pain and blood was flowing freely.  I thought the artery had been severed.  Into the house and arm under running water we determined the artery was in tact.  The arm was soaked in Epsom salts and cold water, medicated and bandaged.  The child refused to go to the emergency room.  His tetanus was current, all I had to do was watch it for infection.  The arm healed but left a nasty scar that the boy is proud of to this day.  Why do guys like scars on their bodies?  He has since added many more through his various antics.

Mickey Blue Eyes, who would ever believe this cute little fellow would ever grow up to be such a disciplinarian?  When the house was still under construction, one of the plumbers was so frightened of this sweet blue eyed pup.  He called him "Cujo" and kept his distance going from his truck to the house while looking all around to make sure "Cujo" wasn't closing in on him!

That was the beginning of many fights between these two animal children.  Shadow could never get the best of Mickey.  Mickey had four of the longest fangs I have ever seen, possibly from his Pyrenees heritage.  I believe these herd dogs are known for being capable of snapping a predator's neck if need be to protect the herd.

There were more dog fights on the horizon.  Mickey had become a very strange dog since Shadow arrived.  I'm sure a doggy psychologist could have gotten to the bottom of his problems and diagnosed him with depression, jealousy or manic depressive disorder.  I think it was simply a herd problem, something to do with alpha dog.  Shadow was still not full grown, but he was going to be eventually...oh yes he was.  He began to walk circles around Mickey, wide circles, always keeping a wary eye.  Dogs have some secret language that humans don't understand, but if you watch them enough you can at least notice it is taking place.  Shadow would just be walking along seemingly minding his own business and Mickey would look like he was taking a nap when suddenly he would open one eye and then spring on Shadow.  Poor Shadow, he would just cry, like he was wondering, "What the hell have I done this time?"  I learned to have garden hoses placed on every corner of the house.  If one wasn't available we would grab the dog's water bucket and dump it on them,,,,it worked, dogs just don't like having water dumped on them.

When I would pet Mickey, Shadow would stand at bay and wait his turn.  The dogs had finally quit fighting so much but I noticed that Shadow was changing.  He began to bark at Mickey, I don't know what he was saying but I'm thinking it was something like, "You better watch out and leave me alone cause I've grown up."  And yes he had,,,,he finally quit stealing shoes and eating them.  I no longer found digested dish towels in the yard and the doggy blanket quit shrinking piece by piece.

Chapter 5 The Beginning or The End

There is something to be said for building a house in the way of entertainment, especially when one is on location.  First the ground must be prepared properly, the plumbing, electricity, forms and re bar must be laid and the fill dirt compacted before the foundation can be poured.  My husband had quite a bit of knowledge regarding these things due to his past profession so it only figured that we would be having plenty of pissing contests between him and the contractors.  And we did.  He wanted the house on a certain angle with the back of the house facing south...the contractor disagreed.  Why?  Because he was trying to cut corners.  Since the house was on a ledge he new it would take more fill dirt and ultimately cost more.  After much dickering they came to a compromise which to this day irritates me when the sun is going down.  Then the contractor could not see the need for compacting the soil as much as my husband thought it needed.  An argument ensued and the slab contractor was replaced.  My husband was not to be deterred.  At night after the workers left he would climb up on the roller, start the engines and compact till midnight.  We knew he was finished when the windows of the cabin would rattle no longer and we could sleep at last.  Apparently these people had not lived where we lived previously.  We had gumbo soil that shifted and slabs cracked.  Even though we were now building on limestone soil we were not taking any chances,,,this foundation was going to be a solid one.

There is nothing so magnificent as a convoy of cement trucks driving onto your property. It signals the beginning of a creation.  The day had finally arrived and the monster cement discharge hose was at work dumping it's load of gooey gray gunk.  It truly looked like a dinosaur in the distance.  Once it was poured the cement had to be leveled and smoothed with big rake like things and brushes.  For the next several days it was our task to keep the cement wet with water, an enjoyable task with the hose.  Once the foundation was ready the framers arrived to begin their ballet.  It was a beautiful sight to watch them work together.  They would sing and call to each other and up into the air would go another beam.  One guy on the ground would flip it in such a way that the guy up top would catch it in a smooth easy motion.  These guys were so good at what they did, it was like watching a high wire act.  Before noon one would begin cooking their meal under the oaks.  They always invited us to eat with them.  At the end of each day we would give them fruit and a cold beer before they hit the road. On their last day of framing I cooked them a meal and we had a party.   As happy as I was to have the framing finished, I missed them when they left.  When you work closely day after day with someone you really get to know one another.  They had become like family.

I have heard that the building of a house can either make or break a marriage.  Apparently some marriages have ended in divorce before the house was ever occupied.  I can certainly understand that.  Someone has got to give...and it looked like it was going to be me.  Thank God I had almost 60 acres to walk on and talk to the cedars and deer.  Actually we agreed on most everything except the arches in the house.  I wanted more and the framers installed them only to remove them upon my husband's request.  Personalities really come into play in building a house.  My husband wanted balance and I didn't.  Poor framers, as they were removing two of my arches I cried in front of them.  Their tools were suspended in mid air not knowing what to do as they looked down on me from their perches above....arch or no arch?  Finally I got control of myself and told them to do what my husband wanted.  I took a long walk that day!

The stone masons were artists in their own right the way they chipped, fitted and arranged the stone exterior walls.  I'm talking about heavy stone that had to be shaped just the way they wanted it.  They could look at an empty space and know just how to chip the next stone to fit perfectly in it's place.  They worked from 8 till noon, ate lunch, took a siesta and were back to work till 6 or later in the evening.  They built scaffolding for the higher places and would  lift the heavy stones to each other like a conveyor belt.  It was another awesome sight to watch, another ballet!  The head stone mason was a character.  He didn't speak much but when he did, he meant what he said or at least sounded as if he did.  We had many arches on the back and front of the house and that really irritated him.  I told him it looked like he was building a hacienda and he replied that it looked more like a cantina.  He was particularly irritated when he had to demolish and recontruct one large arch to the carport that was cracked and didn't appear to be structurally sound.  We could hear him mumbling to himself, "arches, arches, arches"! A properly constructed arch much have the right angle in order for it to have the right amount of compression to keep it sound.  I imagine this house will be standing for many years to come.  These fellows really took pride in their work.   He watched me prepare the last meal for the framers so when I served him a meal on his final day he was very proud.

It took about 12 months to build our house but we lived happily in the cabin.  The next Thanksgiving the house was not quite finished(the gas range had not been delivered yet) but I still managed to cook Thanksgiving dinner on the grill and we ate it in our new house.  We began moving our household items out of storage and into the house about that time and were in the house for Christmas.  My son and I moved in much sooner and slept on air mattresses in front of the fireplace. My husband stayed in the cabin until his bed was set up in the bedroom. The house was complete, we were living in it and still married!

Chapter 4 Snakes, Chickens and The First Garden

Our daughter would visit us from the city, only an hour away...she would come out for the weekends.  One morning when we were all still sleeping she had gone out to brush her teeth under an old rotting oak tree.  This was before we had indoor plumbing.  She tip toed back into the cabin and woke me to come see the cute little snake coiled on a stump under the tree.  Sleepily I put on a pair of shoes and followed her to see the "cute little snake". Upon viewing the little thing coiled so prettily upon the stump I was immediately grateful that she had not tried to pick it up...something she probably wouldn't have done any way.  It was a cute little baby rattler, maybe 10 inches long and no bigger around than my pinky finger but very lethal.  I have heard from my vet that they are more dangerous than their mama or papa.  Apparently they cannot control the amount of venom they eject when biting their prey, therefore releasing it all.  As sad as it was to kill a cute little baby, we did.  It was our first snake kill.  I really hate killing anything but sometimes it just seems necessary.

Our son enrolled in school as a freshman and quickly made many friends.  All the kids were very friendly...  it's a small school and town and everyone knows everyone.   He seemed pretty content and didn't appear to miss the big city.

We had a temporary place to live, our son was in school, we had goats, now we needed chickens and a garden.  We purchased 6 Araucana chicks from a local feed store. I had been told not to get too fond of these chicks, ha!   They looked like Easter chicks and I was reminded of my childhood at Easter time. They were my Golden Girls.  It was love at first sight.  They followed me every where.  I was their mama.  They were free roaming chickens and would produce the best nutritious eggs.  And they did just that after about five months.  The problem with free roaming chickens though is that they lay their eggs wherever they decide to.  At first they were laying in the coop but then our daily egg take started diminishing.  It took me about an hour combing through the barberry, cactus and cedar to find her hiding place, actually I followed her.  There was a nest of 24 of the most beautiful eggs, pink and green because that's the color of eggs that Aracauna chickens lay.  Unknown to city people, eggs don't need to be refrigerated and they don't go bad quickly and there won't be a baby chicken in the egg unless it has been fertilized.  It takes a rooster to fertilize an egg and we had no rooster.  The way to tell if an egg is fresh is put it into a cup of cold water.  Fresh eggs will sink to the bottom, older eggs will float and should not be eaten.  I learned all this from my ever knowledgeable laptop. As dumb as we were when we moved out here we never would have survived without the information contained within our laptop!  Praise be to technology!  I felt really bad stealing her eggs. I guess she got tired of me stealing them each day and decided she was going to stop me.  She did for a while and I know she was feeling very smug about it until I was on to her secret!   She was what you call a broody hen...and a damned good one.  Never had another like her since.

One of the Golden Girls!

The first little garden.

This is a picture of an unripe pumpkin.  Most city people have never seen a green pumpkin.  Pumpkins are orange, right?  I planted pumpkins in my little garden from the seed of a pumpkin we had purchased and eaten.  I forgot that I planted them.  One started growing and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what it was.  At first I thought it was a cucumber and then as it grew I thought it was some type of melon but I had never seen a melon with ridges like that.  When it got as big as it is in the picture I posted the picture on the internet to all my friends.  Surely someone would know what it was.  No one could identify this gourd.  So, me thinking it was some type of watermelon picked it from the vine and cut it.  Immediately I knew it was a pumpkin that had not ripened yet and I cannot tell you how stupid I felt.  City folks again!

This was a little garden friend.

We started a little spot in front of the cabin for a garden, a very little spot.  This little garden produced more veggies than the huge garden we would create later.  We had yellow neck squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, tomatillos, onions, peppers, orkra, lettuce and melons.  Maybe I should take a hint from that little garden and go for a smaller one next year.  We were living the life.  Of course we had to fence it in to keep the goats out of it, even though Billy was constantly challenging the fence and sometimes successful.  Whatever made me think I wanted a billy goat?  I guess I was remembering when I was a little girl my aunt had goats.  Actually she was the mother of the cousin I got my goats from.  When I was little I loved playing chase with those goats.  We had to run for our lives to keep from being head butted by them.  Nothing had changed, I was still running from goats.  Sometimes I could be heard screaming for my son to come help me because I had Billy by the horns trying to keep him from butting me and knocking me to the ground.

The goats thinking we were building them a new house!

It was getting time to tell that goat "adios".  He was truly the alpha male around here.  They were beginning to take over our new house as it was under construction.  Goats don't care where they drop their contents, they do it all day any where.  They are eating, pooping machines.  As luck would have it the fellow who was painting the inside of the house was raising goats.  I had my fill of Billy. I no longer wanted to raise goats of any kind.  Billy had been trying to become a father for quite some time and Nanny would not cooperate.  She was very fickle and had been avoiding his advances on a regular basis.  He was always trying to mount her and she would run screaming for help.  He would get that amorous look on his face and jump on her.  She would take off like a frightened virgin and hide in the dog kennel.  I talked the painter into taking him home with a promise he would not eat Billy.  I convinced him that his herd would proliferate rapidly with the help of Billy.  He piled that goat into his van with all his workers and took him home.  Ah, safe at last....said I and Nanny!

Billy was very amorous!

Nanny was lonely, can you believe it?  Now she was more of a pet than ever.  If we took walks, Nanny followed.  It was me, the dogs and Nanny.  A couple of fellows driving through the ranch one day stopped and said, "That's the first time I've ever seen a woman walking her dogs and goat."  I told him to hang around, he hadn't seen anything yet!  One morning I left to take my son to school and didn't close the cabin door tightly.  My husband was in the shower and he could here a lot of banging going on in the kitchen.  He couldn't figure out how I got back so quickly.  Upon investigation he found Nanny rummaging through the cabinets.  It was now time for Nanny to go to her husband in another village!  When the painter returned his herd was increased by one more!

Give Me That Country Life Chapter 3

Before we moved from the city we added a new member to our family.  We had always wanted a dog but my husband would not agree to adopting a canine child.  Not because he didn't like dogs but because he has always felt that the place for animals is out doors roaming freely.  He doesn't believe in humanizing animals. He had always told us that if we ever lived in the country we could have a dog. Now that we were going to have almost 60 acres as our back yard he couldn't put up a good argument any longer.  My daughter found the cutest puppy on a website and emailed it to us.  As soon as I opened the link I knew this was to be my new canine child.  I could not wait to retrieve it.  It was a fluffy little Australian Shepperd/Pyrenees mix with beautiful blue eyes.  My husband kept his promise and we drove 250 miles to get that little ball of fluff.  He would have to live in our city home for a few days but he didn't mind a bit cause he had his own swimming pool.

Back to the ranch.  We began looking for house plans as we continued modernizing the inside of the cabin.  At last we had air conditioning.  I faux painted the walls and we installed a tile back splash in the kitchen.

Please ignore the dates on some of the pictures.  I never could get the date to display right, so much for that camera.  It was one of the first digitals,,,,it has been retired for a few years now.

Ok, we are living in the country and "roughing it".  A person will never be able to appreciate an indoor shower until they have showered in the oaks and cedars.  It is a must do experience though in order to know the difference.  I'm not knocking the outdoor shower however, it was invigorating feeling the sun and breeze on my back. Of course I was forever on the lookout for rattlers and scorpions and don't forget the fire ants.  The first time I used our new indoor shower I was in "Heaven".  I didn't want to get out.  I felt as if I was at a spa, it was luxurious!

Now that the cabin was a modern little condo it was time to think about goats and garden.  I had big plans for a goat farm and a lavender farm and veggies to feed us.  My cousin had a large herd of goats not too many miles from us so we loaded up our new child and headed to my cousin's ranch.  We were city people just learning about dogs and goats, especially herding dogs.  Even though he was only a pup, as soon as the car door opened, he was free and herding!  He was doing what he was bred to do.  Goats were running for their lives and they were running far,,,over lots of acres and we were chasing that little pup in the hot dry hill country air through cactus and mesquite.  I was so embarrassed because I knew my cousin who I hadn't seen in years was thinking awful thoughts about this damned city girl and her dog.  He even voiced a few of those thoughts...something like "city people and fluffy coming to the country and not knowing what the hell they are doing....fluffy is going to get himself shot".  My cousin was gracious enough to let us pick two goats from the herd once we got them all corralled.  We chose a nanny and a billy and thus became their names, Nanny and Billy.  They were young and "cute".  Did we know they would not stay that way?  No.  Did we have proper fencing for them on our ranch?  No.  Were we ignorant about goats?  Yes!

This is Billy, see those horns, cute aren't they?  Not so cute later.  They are going to get much bigger and treacherous.

And here we have Ms Nanny, she was a sweety.  We were her family and she would do anything to be near us.  She was to be our sons FFA project except like I said, she would do anything to be near us.  We learned very quickly that goats need fencing.  There was no worry about them running away.  They browsed near the house and in the cedars never venturing far without us.  They would always appear out of the brush when we called them....talking to us as they came trotting home.  Goats eat anything!  Goats eat everything!  We went to Tractor Supply and purchased fencing for a pen.  Nanny would not let us out of her site.  One day as we ventured off  for a walk she decided she was coming along.  Over the fence she went.  I could hear her calling us so I went back to see what she had gotten herself into.  As she went over the fence her foot slipped and hung up in the upper part of the fence, her leg was broken, just hanging by the skin.  Now  true country folks  would have shot her and roasted her for dinner.  But she was our son's FFA project...she had to be fixed.  My husband held her while I set the leg and splinted it.  That was the beginning of a long and expensive relationship with our local veterinarian.  He checked out our splint and said we did a great job, reinforcing the leg with pvc pipe and more tape.  $200 medical bill for a goat that we got free.  At the time of course we did not know that our son could not "show" a goat with a limp!  She was already disqualified before she was ever on the block!  Lesson learned!  She was now our pet.

The goats grew and became stronger each day.  Nanny's leg healed and she ran sideways but she didn't know it.  We gave up on the "pen" and just let them roam but sometimes stupidly staking them out to graze.  I don't know why we did that, we were just so ignorant about goats....but I guess it was necessary when we would leave home because to them we were part of the herd.  They went where we went, even if we were driving.  A neighbor suggested to us putting up an electric fence.  She was a country girl, she had to know what she was talking about.  Will an electric fence stop goats?  No it won't, but that was another incidence where my husband got to be "right" and I was "wrong".  There were a lot of those incidences.  I'm one of those people that everything must be proven  in order for me to believe it.  After the time and expense it took to erect the fence and install the electric solar panel I finally admitted defeat.  Nothing phased that Billy, he could go right through that fence yelling as he went, taking the fence with him.  Any way it was just too hard carrying water to those goats.  They could eat and drink more than an elephant.

At last the construction of our house was under way.  We had finally decided on plans, consulted an architect and found the "perfect" builder.  The goats became more and more of a nuisance and the FFA thing was over and done with.  Our son decided he wasn't showing any goats because he didn't like the idea of someone buying and eating his goat and that's what it's all about.  City people again.

These goats roamed the property and did what they wanted.  They slept on the porch of the cabin at night and Nanny even took over the dogs portable kennel.  She liked it in there!  One day the guys went to town for something and I was trying to take Billy off his leash and stake him under the trees where he could get more grass.  He decided he wanted to challenge me and then he took off running.  The cable leash was wrapped around my hand and I flew through the air like Peter Pan but I didn't land like Peter or Tink.   I came down hard as I stubbed my toe on a limestone rock which are abundant out here.  Actually the entire ranch is limestone, that's the topography of much of these hills.  Down I went face first, glasses flying, arms and legs splayed out in every direction.  I could see stars as I lay there moaning and groaning wondering what the hell I was doing there all laid out in the dirt and cactus instead of in my crystal clear swimming pool in the city.  I thought about crying but then I thought who the hell was gonna hear me?  I laid there stunned for a while then told myself I was tougher than that.  I had always bragged about being a "tomboy".  So I gathered myself together and rose from the dead with a bruised face but other than that all intact.   Of course when the guys got home and I related my story to them they could only laugh.  My husband told me to leave the goat care to him but of course I could do anything I set my mind to.

The 4th of July Chapter 2

I failed to mention that before we moved to our new home site my husband had purchased a small cedar cabin, 350 square feet to be exact.  It was just a shell, one big room....that was to be our new home while we developed plans for our new house.  He had the cabin moved to our new property.  The contents of our house in the city were put in storage in a nearby town about 20 miles from our acreage.

When we purchased the property there was only one house but a few other homes were soon to begin.  There was a ranch house already in the development which was empty at the time of our purchase.  As we entered the development on July 4 I saw a young man with long hair on a 3 wheeler.  Immediately I knew that the ranch house property had sold and the new owners had kids.  My heart sank at the site of this long haired kid.  I knew at that moment that my secret plans for my son to become a "kicker" were lost forever, because this long haired kid was clearly not a "kicker".  My son who sat beside me in the car was quiet, I know he was secretly elated to see "one of his kind".  As it turned out he had a brother who was also not a "kicker".  They would attend the same high school as my child would attend.  They all became close friends...and none of the three ever changed their image to "country boy"!  Oh well, I could deal with that.  I still had other plans for our new country life...like goats.  I could do that, surely nothing would interfere with my goat plans.

The Cabin Home

Now there was the question of a bathroom, showering, toileting, cooking and washing dishes.  Clothes could be washed at the local laundromat  in town.  First things first...we had a porta potty and a little one man tent.  It made a perfect bathroom for a while.  Later we would move it into a grove of cedars.  We had no running water until we could have a well dug.  We purchased 7 gallon containers and filled them with water from Walmart which was about 30 miles away in another town.  We used these for dishes, porta potty, and showering.  We put the water container in the sun to get warm and my husband built a platform between two oak trees to place the container on.  We then strung rope around the oaks and hung "shower curtains".  It was a very functional outdoor shower.  I set up a card table to be used as a kitchen under some oaks where I washed dishes.  We had a small gas grill  and a 2 burner propane camping cooker to cook our meals on.  I soon became an expert at cooking on these utensils.  I created some awesome dishes on this grill, cheesecakes, cookies, pies, bread, you name it, I baked it.  The two burner cooker and the side burner on the gas grill produced the next Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and they were as good as I could have made in the city.  We smoked a turkey on our smoker and had all the usual side dishes, mashed potatoes, dressing, cranberry sauce, gravy, green beans and more.  By this time we had electricity to the cabin and a well and septic was dug.  We soon framed out a full bathroom, although tiny, with sink, toilet and shower. We then built the kitchenette. It was home for a year and a half.

I must mention here that we did not have to live the way in which we did.  We could have rented a house in town about 15 miles from our property but we loved the land and scenery so much and wanted to be there every day.  Besides, it was an incredible experience that I would not have wanted to miss.  It was a test of endurance for a family that had every convenience prior to this.  It was a wonderful life.  We installed bunk beds and a futon in the "bedroom/living room".  One of our adult sons came and stayed with us occasionally as his job allowed.  We had tv, internet and we played board games.  We celebrated a Christmas in the cabin with all four of our children present.  It was wall to wall beds, even though one bed was under the kitchen table.  We just had to be careful not to step on each other in the middle of the night.

The only mishap during this time was a scorpion stung one of my sons on the ear.  One had to be careful going in and out of the door at night.  A scorpion would often be lurking there and drop on someone as they were entering.   Poor guy, it stung his ear just as he laid down to sleep.  His scream brought us all to our feet, lights on, looking for the culprit.  With the unfortunate scorpion dead and the pain ebbing we all went back to bed, I must say, laughing at the reaction our son had to being stung.  He was so worried it might be a venomous spider.  As he was dancing around the room holding his ear screaming "please don't let it be a spider", we could not help but laugh!

The Big Bang Chapter 1

We started our country living on the 4th of July.  But back up a bit to the previous January.  I was reading the local  Sunday morning newspaper when I came across an article about baby boomers buying up the Texas Hill Country.  Wow, did that ever peek my interest.  I thought we better hurry before all those acres were bought up by the baby boomers who would certainly be waiting in line to buy acreage the next morning.  It was as if I needed to run stand in line before dawn at a real estate office like I once did at Toys R Us which I felt compelled  to do in order to  get my daughter a much sought after "Cabbage Patch Baby" many years ago....something only a good mother would do.

Back up a bit more.  Every time we would take a family road trip I always wanted to stay on vacation.  In other words I wanted to buy a home and live in every national forest we visited...become a park host or a ranger.  I wanted every house on the hill in the distance that I saw.  I wanted that life!  I did not want to go back home to the city.  So back to the kitchen table that Sunday morning with the newspaper in hand.  I knew I had to handle this right or it would never happen.  My husband was already retired but I was still working.  We had three grown children but there was still one little glitch...our "bonus baby" who was only 13 at the time and about to enter high school.  That was it, that was the key.  What a perfect time to get our child out of the gang infested city, into the hills where surely he would become a "kicker" instead of a "skater".

I related all this to my husband and to my surprise, he agreed to take a look.  I don't recall how long it took to  make the trip to the hills, but I'm sure it was very soon after that Sunday, maybe even the next weekend.  We found a real estate agent and began to take weekend trips to the country looking for that perfect spot.

At first we were thinking of raising goats.  What did we know about goats?  Absolutely nothing.  I began learning about goats, reading everything I could find.  Wow, there were more than one kind of goats.  We were thinking of milking our goats and making yogurt and cheese, maybe even selling it someday.  I soon learned that boar goats were meat goats, not milking goats.  My husband wanted goat land, rocky with hills and valleys because goats are suppose to graze on the side of hills and mountains, right?  This determined what kind of land we would purchase.

We looked at land with houses, empty land, unrestricted land, and restricted land.  For some reason we thought we needed to stay reasonably close to the city, within an hour drive.  We saw many properties before we found what we thought at the time was the perfect piece of land.  Buying land is like building a house...after it is built and you live in it you realize what you could have done differently.  We knew we wanted a view and to be off the main highway.  We needed a school for our child that had reasonably good ratings, which by the way we learned after four years really don't mean much.

I began using the computer to find that perfect acreage.. far removed from a settler in a covered wagon.  We contacted our realtor and made arrangements to see it the following weekend.  It was love at first sight, beautiful hills and valleys with awesome views in a gated neighborhood but very rural.  It didn't seem being so far in the country we would ever have to worry about any problems with restrictions but it was restricted enough to prevent anyone from starting a junk yard or set up a mechanic shop next door to us.  We bought it and we couldn't wait to live on it.  We signed in October and spent Thanksgiving weekend in a tent.  We actually cooked a turkey on a campfire.  I felt like a settler of 200 years ago.  I tried to imagine how they would have felt finding that perfect land to begin a new life.

Unlike the settlers, I purchased my turkey from the local HEB.  However there were plenty of wild turkeys around but thank goodness we didn't have to kill one.  I can only imagine how hard life was for them.  I have read that many starved from lack of food, little rain and rocky dry soil.  We didn't have to worry about being scalped by Indians that once lived on this land.  As I looked over the hills I could just imagine an Indian on his pony riding into the oaks and cedar...I could almost feel his spirit and think of how he was forced from his land.

Back to the city to put our house on the market, the place we had called home for 30 years...where we had raised 3 1/2 kids.  It took us only three months to sell that house...almost a miracle.  I use to drive up the street and sit and watch the prospective buyers from my vehicle so on the day they viewed our house I knew it was a sale!  I could tell by their reactions as they were leaving the house and chatting with the realtor in the front yard before they got in their vehicles.  I knew "this" was the one.....and it was.  By May of that year I turned in my resignation and we "closed" on our house in the city.  We packed all our belongings collected over the last 30 years and arrived at our new home site on July 4.