This made my day!!!

So I mentioned in my previous post that our bull went M.I.A.  Well guess what?  Two days ago we found him and brought him home!  Last week we called the county animal control and told them our situation and told them about our missing bull.  They took hubby's phone number and said they would give him a call when someone calls in to report sighting of the bull.  Hubby got a call from the county animal control the other day and said someone found our bull.  Dexter wandered off to a neighbor's pasture/horse ranch about 3-4 miles from our place.  We borrowed a cattle trailer from a neighbor then with help from a friend went and got Dexter.  (I actually didn't go with hubby this time but stayed home). This time hubby got some alpha alpha to lure him into the trailer and without any problems Dexter went into the trailer.  Yes alpha alpha is Dexter's favorite treat.  He loves it! And hubby said when he took Dexter back to our pasture Dexter was soooo happy to be back with his friends, Peanut Butter, and Blackpearl.  As soon as they opened up the trailer he bolted out and ran right to his friends and mooing and making noises.  If you know Dexter he's a man of few words.  He hardly ever makes any noises so he must have been soooo happy and excited to be back home and to see his friends there!  But this is actually not the thing that made my day.

This morning we went to our place to check on the cows and to feed Spot the pig.  And lo and behold!  A baby calf!!!  Peanut Butter just had her baby and it looks like she just had it either last night or this morning!  We actually thought she lost her baby due to all the trauma and stress she has gone through recently and we didn't really expect her to give us a calf.  So when we saw the calf this morning we were soooo happy!  I can't describe the joy I felt when I saw the calf but it was a great feeling!  We haven't had the chance to get a closer look at the calf yet to see if it's a boy or girl but we are just happy we got another calf.

Peanut Butter just gave birth to a calf this morning.  Meet Jelly the newest member of our farm!  And you also see Dexter in this picture hanging out with his friends and the newborn calf.

A happening Father's Day

Things have been somewhat calm lately since the whole flooding deal.  Just when we thought we are catching somewhat of a break our neighbor called hubby up when he was still at church this afternoon and said our cattle escaped.  So hubby went home and changed quickly and went over to our place.  When he got there our good neighbor was able to secure the two cows onto his property.  So all hubby (and a couple of friends from church) had to do when he got there was to get the two cows into the trailer so we could take them back to our place.  It's never an easy task getting cattle into a trailer.  After trying for a little bit (fortunately it didn't take forever this time) they were actually able to get them into the trailer and brought them back to our place.  But Dexter the bull was nowhere to be seen.  So as I'm typing up this blog post right now they are still out there looking for Dexter.  I will probably post something online and see if people in our neighborhood has seen him.  We will probably print out some flyers and post them in our neighborhood and see if we can find him that way as well.  I know most people post "lost dogs" or "lost cats" flyers.  Only out in the country would people post "lost bull" flyers.  Hahaha

I feel bad for the guys because they can't relax today on Father's Day they have to work and take care of these cattle.  But at least when they get home there will be a nice steak dinner waiting for them!  And for all the fathers out there I hope you are enjoying your special day!

This is a picture of Dexter.  If you have seen him let me know!

Close-up

Here's the latest

Sorry everyone I haven't posted any updates lately.  We have been busy doing clean ups.  We have received a lot of help from friends and our church, which we are very grateful for.  The whole house is pretty much damaged we took all the interior and exterior walls out so now our house is just a frame pretty much.  Everything inside the house including all of our furniture and belongings are getting thrown out of the house.  Right now we are just trying to figure out what our next step would be and what God wants us to do next.

The house is just pretty much down to the frame now.

Everything got thrown out of the house.

The house is all gutted out.

This used to be our master bedroom.

You won't recognize this but this used to be the kids' room.

My car getting towed away and more than likely will be totaled.

More clean up effort

To show you how much water we've gotten I stole this picture from my friend on Facebook. 

We have spent the past week trying to salvage as much stuff as we could from our place.  The other day they were trying to salvage any equipment or tools we could from the barn.  Most tools were gone.  Once again we are very grateful for friends who came out to help us and didn't mind getting dirty. Some might disagree and think our place smells like dead fish right now but I think our place right now smells like crawfish...but just a little worse.

We will try to see if we can save our tractor.

With a little help we tried to load the tractor up onto the trailer.

All loaded up onto the trailer and taken to a friend's house to drain all the oil and fuel out of it in attempt to salvage it.

After we got done cleaning up the barn they also attempted to get the cows on a cattle trailer so we can relocate them because there was supposed to be more rain coming in our area and we were afraid of another flood threat.

But after multiple (I mean like they've been trying for 2 days) unsuccessful attempts and trucks getting stuck in the mud we finally decided to just leave the cows there.  So far I think prayers have been answered the forecasted rain for this week isn't as bad as everyone originally thought so we don't think our place would flood again and it should be safe to leave the cows there.  

They tried to put the cows in the trailer... It was unsuccessful.

Please no more rain

Here's a "before and after" picture:

This is an aerial view of our place taken just last week when we flew over our property.

And this was taken yesterday the road is finally dry!

Though the road is dry right now they are forecasting more rain this week.  I pray that the rain either won't come at all or if it does that it won't be as bad as last week.  I really would not want to see someone else go through what we have just been through.  It's very devastating.

Quick update

I might as well just do a quick update here since I can't sleep.  The past few nights it seems like hubby and I have been taking turns not sleeping well at night.  I don't know why or for what reason but we just have been waking up in the middle of the night then can't go back to sleep.  The other night hubby only got 2 hours of sleep because he couldn't sleep.  So I guess tonight is my turn.  So here's the latest.

Yesterday morning hubby was able to borrow a boat and able to get to our house to assess damage.  Water inside the house has completely receded.  The house definitely got flooded out but not as high as we originally thought.  

This is about how high the water got on the outside of the house.

All appliances and furniture are not salvageable.  But we were able to salvage a few things, which we didn't expect.  So we are very grateful.

This is about all we were able to salvage from our house.

Refrigerator tipped over.  Appliances didn't make it, as expected.

Deep freezer gone.  All the pork chops, sausages, bacon etc, and ALL the meat inside went bad.  I'm so sad!

Washer and dryer no Bueno.

As far as the animals go, 3 out of the 7 cows actually survived!!! We didn't think any of them would but 3 of them did!  And one of the 2 pigs actually survived... but unfortunately all the other animals didn't make it.  I wasn't there to witness it but hubby found all the dead bodies of the animals in the yard.  I can't imagine how horrible it must have been for these animals to struggle to stay afloat and stay alive and eventually they got so exhausted that their bodies just gave up and they slowly drowned to death.  

Dexter, Peanut Butter, and Black Pearl are the only cows survived.

 

Spot miraculously survived.

This is where hubby found all the dead animal bodies.  If you look carefully you can see Jack (the donkey)'s body in the right hand side of this picture next to one of the logs.  Other animals' bodies were behind all those logs.  Very very sad scene.  We think the current pulled all of them over to that corner and they couldn't make it out of it and drowned and died there.  Hubby actually found Jenny the donkey by the pig pen in the backyard.  We think she probably jumped over the fence in the front yard but got caught on the fence back there by the pig pen and couldn't make it out and drowned there.

It appears that Meatballs most likely was caught on the play set and drowned and died there.  So so sad! :(. Her body was found left to the yellow slide, if you look carefully.

We are grateful people were so willing to spent half of their day today helping us salvage stuff from our flooded house. 

The water inside the barn went up to as high as the white tarp on that tractor.

Inside the house was a mess.

Such a mess!  It'll take awhile to clean up.  Where do I even start?!

Our master bedroom.  The toy kitchen in front of the door was in the living room but somehow floated into our bedroom.

Master bedroom.

Kids bedroom.

Another look at the kids bedroom.

Kitchen area.  Refrigerator #2 tipped over.

My whole car was buried completely in the water.  Dang it!  I really liked that car too.

Hubby's truck.  Almost the whole truck was under water.  I liked that truck too!

Grateful for these guys who came to help us salvage whatever we could from our house.  I know it was no easy task but they never complained.

A heart breaking story

As I'm writing this blog this morning I can't help but have tears rolling down my cheeks.  I can't stop myself from crying!  Those of you who know me know I don't cry much.  I'm a tough chick after all, and touch chicks don't cry!  But this is one of the few exceptions.

The past couple of days have been quite emotional for our little family.  If you haven't heard somewhere here in Texas there had been some really bad storms and rains last week.  It rained so much in such a short amount of time.  That's the worst rain storms we've experienced thus far for the years we've lived here in this area.  A lot of places have experienced severe flooding.  Our place has succumbed to this evil storm and horrible tragedy.

When the rain first started we didn't think it would get that bad.  We survived the past couple of bad storms we recently had.  And the water never came even close to our house.  But this time it was different.  We hardly got any break from the rain and it dumped so much water in a matter of a day or two.  We were inside our house watching the water rise and rise.  The water was rising very very fast. When we realized the water was getting too high for our animals hubby and I tried to move all of our animals to the highest ground on our property.  At that point the pasture was hubby's waist high deep in water (so almost to my chest). It wasn't an easy task moving ALL the animals but we managed to do it.  During this time trying to move the animals I went to put some stuff inside the already very flooded barn. And it's then I saw our smaller dog with her body and face down in the water.  At first I thought she just found something in the water and was trying to get it.  So I kicked her in the butt very gently and told her to get her head out of the water.  She didn't move!  My heart sank.  I kicked her in the butt again to confirm my suspicion...she did not move whatsoever!  I started yelling for my hubby "Fall is dead, hunny!  Fall is dead!", as I was grabbing the dog out of the water.  Oh, what a horrendous scene.  It was a very very sad scene.  As soon as my hubby heard me he came running and treading through the waist-high water to get to the barn where I was holding the dog.  In kind of a panic mode hubby grabbed the dog from me and started performing CPR on her as he was crying.  At that point I knew the dog was gone because her tongue already turned purple.  But hubby tried CPR a few more times but was unsuccessful in reviving it.  I don't see hubby cry very often but he was crying and mourning over his dog.  I didn't cry but I was very sad about what happened and the only thing I could do right then was to offer hubby a big big big hug.  Before we could finish mourning over the death of the dog we had to go back and get the rest of the animals out of the pasture so they don't drown.  Once all the animals were put on the highest ground we went inside and told the kids about their dog...they started bawling... I didn't cry (I'm a tough chick, you know) but it totally broke my heart to see my kids and hubby weeping like this.  And this is the kids' very first dog they loved her dearly.  Hubby also spent a lot of time training and playing with this dog he loved her.  The night after all this happened I had dreams about this whole incident and it wasn't a pleasant dream one should have.

After we went back inside from moving all the animals we didn't have time to rest. The water kept rising at a very fast pace so we started packing up a few things just in case we have to evacuate.  We also were busy trying to put as much sentimental and more valueale stuff on our beds and tables to give those things a better chance of surviving in case of flood.

The time finally came when we decided it was time to call for rescue.  But it took them hours before the rescuers could come get us.  First of all they were very very busy rescuing others that day plus it took them awhile to figure out how to get to us.  But help finally came!  The rescuers came just in time with their boat to save us!  When they showed up the water was just a few inches away from coming into our home.  After putting life jackets on everyone we started "walking" towards the boat.  We had to tread through the high water in our front yard to get to the boat.  It was really more like swimming then walking.  By the time I reached the boat my feet couldn't touch the ground the rescuer had to pick me up.  Everyone else in the family gradually all made it to the boat.  At that point we were all wet but happy to be rescued.  The kids were cold and traumatized a little.  But kids are resilient!  We were taken to the closest fire station and sat there and waited for our friends to come pick us up.  As of right now we are staying with our friends from church.  We are so grateful for them and for all that they've done for us!

We have also received a lot of love and help from our families, friends and people from our church!  It's amazing to see how fast people just jumped into action to help our family.  Just thinking about it gets me all teary eye every time.

Two days after we were rescued we still couldn't get back to our property to check on things because the water was still too high for any vehicles to get through and the current was still too strong and swift for boats to safely get close enough to our house, so hubby decided to rent a small plane to fly over our property.  The airplane couldn't get too low but from what he could see the water was almost all the way to the roof. And there was no signs of any of our animals.  I was not on the plane with him at the time but was staying put at our friends' house with the kiddos awaiting updates from hubby.  When hubby finally called he just started bawling.  Then I started bawling.  It's all his fault he made me cry!  It's a very emotional thing to see all the things you have worked sooo hard for just gone in a matter of a day!  Aside from all the financial investment we have put into this place it's all the hard work and time we have invested in this place we called our dream home that just went down the drain and in front of our eyes.  We have spent countless hours working as a family, cleaning up this place, fixing up this place, improving this place.  It's not perfect yet but it's 400 times better than it was before.  All these dreams and hopes and future projects we were dreaming about and planning were all dashed into pieces.  And also all the countless hours we have spent raising these animals and the hard work we have put into raising them but now they're dead.  That's what made us so sad.  I think we will eventually get over it but it will leave us with an emotional scar forever.

But despite this tragedy we just experienced we are sooo grateful to be alive!  So grateful for God's tender mercy on preserving our lives and blessing us with so many good people in our lives to bless and help us.  We're also grateful for the brave rescuers who risked their lives to save others.  We are counting our blessings.  We will rebuild but it will take a long time. I will try my best to continue to update this blog.  I will try to post pictures later.

The rotation

This morning we decided to put our cattle in a different pasture so we can rotate pastures.  Original plan was to get some cattle cubes (they really love those cattle cubes for their treat) put it in the bucket and just lure them all into the new pasture.  It would have been perfect if it all worked out as planned.  But if things go as easy and smooth as fairy tales this would not be the "comical" farm life, right?

We got a bucket with some cattle cubes in it.  We started shaking the bucket to get all the cattle to come close to the gate.  All the cows know by now when they hear the sound of cattle cubes shaking in the bucket that means they are getting a treat!

We were able to get all the cattle right by the gate with no problem.  We thought if we could lure the adult cattle into the new pasture then the calves will all follow the mama cows.  We were so wrong!  The calves were too scared to follow the mama cows into the pasture.  So we spent quite some time this morning trying to run after the calves and corral them and guide them to the other pasture.  As I mentioned before I'm way too out of shape at the moment to be running after those calves.  So hubby was running after them and trying to get them to run toward the gate.  That didn't work very well.  Then we tried putting a lead rope on them but they would never let us get close enough to do that.  So finally hubby was able to corner one of them and was able to scoop her up and pick her up.  But boy as soon as hubby picked that calf up the calf starting screaming and mooing.  Hubby kept yelling "open the gate!  Open the gate!"  As we watched the mama cow started charging toward hubby.  I've never seen hubby that scared in our entire married life!  Hahaha. And hubby ran so fast to the gate and threw the calf inside the new pasture and luckily beat the mama cow to the gate and avoided some possibly very serious injuries!  And lucky enough the other calf saw what was happening and kind of freaked out so he actually just crawled under one of the fences and into the new pasture.  So once again the calves are reunited with their mamas.

All cattle accounted for and happily settling in their new pasture with plenty to eat!

It's been a busy morning here on the farm.  After rotating pasture for the cattle we decided it's time to separate the donkeys as well.  See the donkeys that we have they are a 3 year-old mama donkey with her little boy who turned 1 not very long ago.  Usually you start weaning donkeys around 6-9 months.  But we were busy with other things so we procrastinated until now.  The longer you wait to wean them off of course the harder it is to do so.  So Jack has been trying to jump over and crawl under the fence.  He was crying and making noises and just really wanted to get to his mama.  But he's already 1!  He should not still be drinking milk from his mama!

We spent some time fixing up some of the fences this morning hopefully Jack won't be able to escape to the other pasture to be with his mama.

The wild one

Saturday morning we woke up and hubby saw a small herd of about 6 wild hogs in our pasture.  We have a bad hog problem here in Texas.  These hogs reproduce so fast and they are very destructive.  They root up everything and they can be very dangerous.  So hubby got his gun out and started shooting them.  He said he shot 3 of them but all of them but one got away.  So we captured and killed the one.  Afterwards hubby, with the help from one of our kids they skinned that sow and got some meat off of it.

At least she died happy.  She died with a smile knowing her
meat won't go to waste and that we will turn it into good
tasting egg rolls!

I know some of you might think we are bad parents for putting our kid through that trauma of killing and cutting up the hog.  But we think it was a very good learning experience/lesson for them.  We are teaching them that food/meat doesn't grow on the shelves of grocery stores.  I know this might be a shocker for some people, but I assure you food really doesn't grow on shelves!

Let's get started with the skinning process.

I'm actually very proud of my kid for not freaking or being grossed out and she actually got her hands dirty and was helping hubby take care of the hog.

What a great little helper!

Almost done skinning.

Now we will have a bunch of ground pork and I can make some egg rolls with it.  Yes I make some killer egg rolls with these completely free range organic ground pork!

Better than superman vs. batman

What's better than superman vs. batman or captain America vs. ironman?  It's dog vs. snake, of course!

This morning when I was out walking in the backyard with my little one I saw a snake.  It was a pretty good size snake.  I didn't know if it was a venomous one or not so I called for hubby.  Hubby came with a shovel and our snake killer dog.  I guess the shovel was just for showing we didn't even have to use it.  The dog jumped right into action.  He picked it up, flung it around, and the snake was dead. 

In fact, I think he probably killed that snake 3 times over!  After he killed the snake the first time he went back and picked up the snake and flung it around some more then he did it a few more times after that.  

The snake killer in action

Flinging it and twirling it around like it's a chew toy.

I might not like this dog all the time because he's kind of a naughty dog but I must admit he's getting a lot better about obeying us.  And boy, is he a natural born snake killer!

Yeah the snake got ripped in a few places

We don't think it's a venomous one... It has round eyes but it also has single scale.

I think it's safe to say this snake is dead.  Time of death: 5/11/2016 some time in the morning

It is almost 6 feet long