March 8- 15 Spring Break

On Sunday I head to Bryan to pick up Peyton and Luke for the week.  I drove my new truck to check out the gas milage.  I managed 15.8 mpg which was about what I was expecting.  Thats a lot lower than my old truck and will take some getting used to.  When we got home the boys were ready to play.  I put them a load of dirt in the backyard and they went to digging and playing with there trucks.
They played out all day till about 5:30 and I made them come in. We  had supper and they got their baths then chilled till bed time. They got up Monday morning about 7:00 am.  They played with their inside toys while I cooked breakfast. Susan left early to go to some meeting she had. The boys and I ran errands most of the morning. When we got home they played outside most of the day. I managed to to do a little pasture mowing but its still wet in places. The boys played hard all day, that night Peyton was ready to go to bed by 7:30 pm.  put them down about 8 and they went to sleep pretty fast. Tuesday morning the boys got up about six ready to rumble.  I fixed an early breakfast because they were hungry. They played indoors because we were going to an early movie. We saw " Onward" which was an animated film. They really enjoyed it. When we got home they played outside and I was able to get a little pasture mowing done. Wednesday we ran some errands in town and went ti the city park and let them play for awhile. Thursday we decided to go to Gator World. Susans knee was really bothering her so she stayed home. Peyton and Luke really enjoyed that place. They got to see a lot of gators and snakes, also they have some goats rabbits and chickens to pet. They have a little educational program also.  You also get to watch them feed some huge alligators.  Friday we just stayed home and played around here all day. On Saturday I started washing the trailer, it was filthy from just sitting at the deer lease all winter.  I only got three sides done as my back just couldn't stand holding the pressure wand up amymore.  It would really be tough if I did't have the bucket of my tractor to stand in. The boys just played and ran all over the place.  We just went and got pizza for supper.  The boys have watched Tom and Jerry on tv all week.  They have laughed and laughed as they have never watched these old cartoons.  Sunday morning I carried the boys home. It sure was quiet in the house when I got back.

February 28-March 7 The weather is getting better

   On Friday the 28, I went to my yearly Ole Farts Reunion . I almost didn't make it because that morning I installed two new toilets and my back was killing me. I took a little nap along with some aleve and felt better when I woke. As usual it was good seeing everyone. I left a little early because I was going to Sammi"s volleyball tournament the next morning. It was in the Woodlands and I needed to be there by 7:15. Even on Saturday morning its a hour and 40 minute drive for me. Sammi played well but their team lost all three games. Her team is all first year players and were just over matched. On Sunday Susan got home from her Quilt Retreat. She was excited to have new floors and toilets. Now she has to sand and paint the bathroom cabinets and I"ll redo the walls and put up new mirrors. It will be slow as we have to work around our other plans.  On Monday I found out that the part of our deer lease that was not sold would be available for me to release. Its a long story but the bottom line is I can get 738 acres. It will be dry camping as there is no electricity or water . I had to drop the number of members so I just went by seniority.  We will have to make us a new little camp area but plan on keeping it very simple.  On Thursday i was coming home from town and my truck started shifting funny and seemed to be cutting out. I changed the air filter and the fuel filter but didn"t really help. The transmission fluid looks very clean and no smell so I think mechanically its fine. So probably could be sensors or computer issues.  Iv"e been needing to make a decision about my truck and I finally decided to retire it.  I have had it 18 years and 381,00 thousand miles.  I started looking on the internet for a good used truck. I had already decided to go with a gas engine as we are going to downsize on trailer. I ended up with a 2014 GMC 3500 Crew Cab LWB.  It has the towing capacity to pull my fifth wheel untill we get another trailer. I didn"t need a new truck as I don"t think I have another 100,000 thousand miles left in me to travel. 

A few tales being told here

Sammi

Sammi 

Sammi

Ole Blue"s replacement

 

Febuary 1-27 2020 Another Wet Month

The first weekend we headed to Kenna's volleyball game in the Woodlands.  Ashley was off this weekend and Sammi's team was playing in Missouri City. Sammi was injured (collar bone issue) and was not playing. Kenna injured her ankle in the second game when she came down wrong on it. We left after she was hurt since she was out for the rest of the day.  Susan needed to start packing for a quilt retreat anyway. We had our first beautiful day in awhile.  I washed both truck and car that evening.  On Sunday Susan headed to her retreat near Madisonville until Thursday. I just piddled around because its still pretty wet .  I did some troubleshooting on my JD lawn tractor. Its not starting or even turning over. It has some kind of electrical issue. Later that day we found out that Mackenna's foot is broken. She will wear a boot for 6-8 weeks.  We had another pretty day on Monday. I filled up my deer feeder in the pasture even though it looks like I'm feeding more coons than deer. I figured out my lawn tractor issues, a bad battery and a blown fuse. I continued to take down old pasture fence since its a little more dry. Susan made it home Thursday, it was a cold and windy day so I didn't move much outside.   The next weekend

we went to Ashleys tournament.  Ash had a good tournament and so did her team as they got a third place finish.  I started cleaning the inside of our trailer getting ready for some small trips. I also have a few repairs to make also, The underneath of fifth wheel skin needs to be replaced and also the fill water line to my fresh water tank needs to be replaced. Ive been waiting for some sunny days to do that. On the 12th I had my annual dr visit and then we also went to the rv show. I would like to downsize and go to a bumper pull trailer. The problem with the rv show is you see all these roomy floor plans that are really nice  but then you see that they are 36-38 ft long. Not what I'm looking for.  Its going to take some compromise to reach a 30-32 ft trailer. I had my annual check-up at BCM.  Eveything was good except my A1c.  This was not unexpected because I pigged out Nov,Dec,and Jan.  I'm now back on my diet track (which sucks).  I plan on getting below 200 lbs and my A1c down to a 6.5 by the end of May.  We finally got around to shopping for floors. Susan found what she wanted and they are going to install them on the 26. I went to Lowes and Home Depot and bought baseboards and new toilets . On the 23 I went with Kevin to pick up his old Chevy truck in Bryan. Its just been sitting at Kyles for 2 years. It needs a few things done to get it running so we loaded it up and brought it home.  On the 25 Susan left for another small quilt retreat at Kristi's lake house. She will be gone as they work on the house. I moved all the little items out of the way in the house. The flooring guys will move all the furniture. I also pulled our old toilets out so I moved to the trailer untill all the work is done.  They showed up on Wednesday and went to work, by Thursday around 3;30 they were finished.  I only had to spend one night in trailer .

Mackenna's broke foot

Kenna broke her foot when she came down on this play

Ashley's Game

Quilt Retreat Ladies

Trailer cleaned

All clean inside

Trailer cleaned inside

Look at dem coons

The deer like that corn

loading base boards

Kevin strapping down is old truck

They packed some furniture in the kitchen

Moving furniture back in

Maggie was content in trailer

Jan 1-31 January 2020

January has pretty much sucked so far. I have been moving things off Mack Creek and bringing home. It hasn"t helped that we have had a lot of rain, I was able to get my trailer home and set-up before it got too wet. Since then I have had to pretty much mud stuff in, I did set up a deer feeder  in the pasture and put a camera on it. I checked it after two days and I had 3 does, 5 coons and 1 squirrel coming to it.  Club volleyball has started for all three granddaughters.  We have somewhere to go every weekend now.  We still haven"t replaced our floors from Imelda,  we are going to redo our bathrooms first or at least the guest bath. We had a guy come and he refurbished the bathtub. He is supposed to give me a quote for our shower stall and sinks.  Once we get that done we will get the new floors down. Susan went to Adams for about six days. I finally got all my stuff moved off the lease. We had a good run of 53 years. Lots of good memories.  On another note since I no longer have a horse I have started taking down the fence on the back pasture, its old and I have no plans to put any animals back on it, Since its so wet it has been easy to pull up all the posts.  Even so, after two days my back is killing me so I'm thinking to let it dry some where I can use the tractor bucket to pull up posts. Old age is not fun sometimes.

Kenna got her first car

Ashley

Sammi"s  first volleyball game

refinished tub

Dec 26 2019 - Jan 1, 2020 Junction

The day after Christmas we headed for Junction.  Regan and Kerry left before we did as I went to town to get the oil changed in the car. We did manage to get away by 9:00. Adam also went with us . We meandered our way thru 290 and finally back to 1-10 where 290 ends. After 4 stops we got there about 4:00.  We pretty much just chilled for 4 days. Kerry and Susan went to Kerrville one day. Regan Adam and I just piddled around the ranch doing some small jobs. I really didn't hunt as I didn't need any more deer meat. I did all my hunting from the back window of the house.  Regan did shoot a cull buck which is a funny story but too much typing for me to put in here.  The weather was the warmest we ever had at this time of year but it did finally get cold enough the last 2 days to have a fire. The highlight of the trip was the last evening we were there. Regan and Adam were hunting in stands and I was hunting from the back door. I saw 14 deer, 10 does, 3 bucks and 1 uncertain. I had a nice fire going in the fireplace and was cozy. The deer had moved on and it was getting dusky. I went ahead and put my gun up and then was going out the side door to get more wood. I picked up some movement along the creek bottom so I went to get my binoculars, With the naked eye you could not make out anything , It turned out to be an Axis Buck, Not just a buck but the biggest Axis I have ever seen. I told Kerry and Susan to come see, Kerry said oh that's probably Big Daddy, we see him sometimes, when she looked thru the glasses she said good lord that's Grandpa, never seen him before.   It was just too late for my camera phone to get a picture and no gun available to get a closeup picture.  He never came to the feeder. You have to wonder where hes been and where hes going as no one has seen him before. I have never done a full shoulder mount but I would have this time.  We left a little earlier than normal and went to Adams near Corpus Christi. We left there New Years day and came home.

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Finally cold enough for a fire

watching deer for the back door window

watching some turkeys from the back door window

Regan Buck

Chester hiding from the thunder

Chester likes riding

Cooking a little supper

The beginnings of a little rock dam to collect water

Looking back fro top of the hill, Thats the neighbors place

Regan mulching a little cedar

Headed up the hill to ride around