Good Friday

So on Good Friday, we decided to take our cows in for their shots.  They were due for their shots.  We loaded them up in the trailer and off we went to see the vet.

Waiting in line to get their shots.  Surprisingly it went by pretty quick, even for 6 cows.

The Vet is doing his thang.

Another project we did on Good Friday was that we put in an automatic sprinkler system and laid down some sod.  Let me tell ya, that was a lot of manual labor involved!  We wanted to put sod all around our home so we had to dig trenches all around the home as well for the sprinkler system, and we did it manually!  Man, I'm too old for manual labor.  And after we were done digging trenches we put down some sod.  It sure was tiring, but it was fun being able to work on projects together.  The sprinkler system we went with is the Rainbird sprinkler system that we bought from Home Depot.  So far so good.  It's pretty easy to install.  The hardest part of installing the sprinkler system is digging the trenches.  Other than that, it was not bad at all.  

Digging trenches is not an easy task!

Of course we solicited the help from our children, AKA our little slaves
with digging trenches and laying down sod.  Dirty boots don't go
inside!  They stay outside!

A piece of heaven

We really enjoy living on acreage, though there's always a lot of work to do.  It was a beautiful morning today.  Beautiful sun rise, with beautiful weather, and my hard-working hubby mowing on the tractor.  Life can't get any better than this!  I just want to say how grateful I am to be able to find another place and rebuild after we got flooded about a year and a half ago.

Country living is awesome!  I highly recommend it!

And these Bluebonnets are what Texas is famous for.  They bloom
everywhere around here during spring.

What's that white stuff

Weather has been pretty crazy lately.  About a month ago, back in December of 2017 our area had experienced snow.  As you might know, snow is very very rare in this part of Texas.  Just when we thought we were done with the cold weather and snow, BAM we are getting snow again this week.  School was even canceled due to this inclement weather.

We had all our pipes wrapped up so they don't burst in this freezing temperature.  Since we live out here in the country we are on private well.  We also had all the water pipes that are connected to the well (of course just the sections above ground) wrapped up, but little did we know we needed to keep the water pressure gauge wrapped up as well.  Otherwise it will freeze too and stop working.

We will be going to check on the cows too this afternoon just to make sure they're handling the cold weather ok and that they're all getting along.  We purchased a Low-line Angus cow last year, but I guess I never made a post about it...Anyway, her name is Nutella.  Low-line Angus is also a small breed, but with no horns.  Ever since we brought Nutella home, she has not been very welcomed.  At first Nutella and Jelly were friends...but now not so much.  And all the other cows, especially Blackpearl and Peanut Butter are so mean to her.  I feel bad for Nutella.  So we need to go to our old property to check on the cows and especially Nutella to make sure they're all staying warm together, and they're getting enough food.  The weather has been so cold, grass has been very scarce on our old property so we bought big bales of hay for them. 

We are getting snow here!!!  Insane!

The cows got icicles on them.

 Nutella is being excluded from the group.

Peanut Butter's baby is getting so big and she's enjoying a snack

All the cows seem to be doing ok

Operation tire swing

Operation tire swing.

Mission status: Completed

We finally moved into our new place about a month ago, right before Thanksgiving.  So we have been pretty busy organizing the new place.  And many many projects that we want to work on and are working on.  Tire swing seems to be a very easy project.  So a few days ago we decided to just get it done so the kids can at least have something to play with outside.

Check out this tire swing.  It's nice and sturdy.

We have the professional tire swing testers testing it out.  Everything seems to be working perfect.

It's another girl

So the little calf that Peanut Butter just gave birth to is a girl, it's been confirmed.

This little calf is another offspring of Dexter the bull.  All Dexter had given us were girls.  From what we understand with the Dexter breed, the younger bulls usually breed boys and older bulls breed girls.  So that's probably why Dexter had only bred girls for us.

She's definitely a girl.

Being shy hiding behind the pallets or playing peek-a-boo?

Our little herd of 6 cattle

The late bloomer

We went over to our old property to work on some stuff and to check on the cows the other day.  Hubby asked, "why are there 6 cows instead of 5?"  After taking a better look, there was a new calf and it was trying to nurse from his/her momma, Peanut Butter.  All along we were expecting her to give birth to a calf like a few months ago but when that didn't happen we thought Peanut Butter loss her baby or something.  Needless to say we were very very surprised when we saw the calf the other day but we are so happy and excited to see this little calf.  I don't know what it is about little calves they're just so cute and you get the same excitement every time you see it no matter how many times you've already seen it (at least for us it is the case).  We are guessing the calf was probably born the same day when we went out to the property.

We haven't figured out if it's a boy or a girl yet.  So no name for this calf as yet.

Meet the newest edition of our Dexter herd.

No name for this little calf yet

Isn't she cute?

Harvey

This post is about a month late.  I'm sure everyone by now has already heard about Hurricane Harvey (among other major named hurricanes and tropical storms this year) and the destruction it has caused, particularly in Texas.  Harvey is no friend to Texas.  It has caused so much damages and devastation for so many people.  For most people in my area, as always, we suffered a lot of flood damages.  I personally know of quite a few people who just barely got over the last flood we had in our area and finally put their homes back together, and wham it got hit again 15 months after the last flood in May of last year.  I know of quite a few houses in our area who got water all the way up to their second floors.  We had A LOT of water dumped on us in just a matter of a few days.  Even more than last year...A LOT more...It was so insane!

Fortunately, after we got flooded last May we decided not to rebuild on our old property.  Luckily we weren't living there when Harvey came because this time the water went up way higher than last time.  We only got 3-4 feet of water inside our house last May.  But this time it went all the way up to the roof.  And before Harvey moved into our area we moved all of our cows to a friend's property where it was high and dry so our herd of cattle was safe.  Thank goodness!

If you look closely you can see the water line
That's how high the water went up this time.
This picture was taken 2-3 days after Harvey
left our area and before the water receded.

Looks like the water actually lifted the whole house up.
The house definitely got shifted.

This is where our shed used to sit

But after the flood we found it in our barn.  This big ole' shed
floated into our barn.

Looking at our shed (now sitting in our barn) from a different angle

Inside our old house.  Ceiling and insulation is ruined

Horse stall didn't survive the flood

Play set and picnic table in our front yard,
but floated into our front pasture

There was a water tank attached to the water pump that was
sitting on top of this shelf/stand before the flood.  But it
floated away.  We later found it in one of our pastures.

Our neighbors down the street had to rip out their homes and
throw away all of their belongings, once again.  So sad.

There are areas where the county was not able to go to and pick
up all the debris and trash from the flooding.

So they set up a temporary dump site for people to take their flood
debris and trash to 

Look at the amount of trash and debris people dumped.  Big
piles after big piles of them! 

A day we will never forget

Exactly one year ago, our house was flooded and we were rescued by boat.  Ever since then our lives have not been the same, and we have been displaced.  We still think about this experience and are still counting our blessings.

Today is the anniversary of our little "tragedy".  And coincidentally we are pouring concrete for the foundation of the new house that we're building at our new place.

Below are some pictures of the progress we're making with the building of our new home.

They finished putting in all the plumbing earlier this week.

Water well guys were out there yesterday to drill the well.

Concrete trucks after concrete trucks coming to pour concrete this morning.

Concrete boom is so cool to watch.

Concrete guy doing their thing.

Now smoothing out the concrete and making it look all nice and smooth.

We know how to work, and we know how to play

We had some pretty nice weather last weekend.  So we went out to our property to do some work.  Let me tell you, our kids are not always the most behaved.  Life is not always rainbow and unicorns. The kids sometimes whine and fight.  They don't always enjoy doing chores.  But...but yesterday, we all went out to the property and worked.  They actually did a good job and it's one of those little moments where your world seemed perfect!  (well, at least for that short moment anyway :))

And on the side note, we have finally named our little calf... scroll down and find out what we named her.

It was a beautiful day to be outside enjoying the nice weather and cow-watching.

Riding the four-wheeler around and picking up sticks.

Mowing the lawn.

Weed whacking

A friend of ours suggested naming our baby girl Rainbow because she's a blessing after the flood.  We can't think of a better fitting name for her.  And we shall name her Rainbow!  Rainbow is such a cute little calf.

Baby time

We JUST went to check on the cows...and as we were hoping, there was a calf running around right next to Blackpearl!  By now, we can kind of tell when the cows are very close to giving birth...not only is their "back side" kind of swollen, Blackpearl's udder was getting full, the milk was coming in already.  So we have been going to check on her everyday for the past few days and today I guess little baby girl decided she was ready to meet the world!  And yes, it's a girl!  We actually wanted a little heifer so this is perfect!  She's a little cutie.  I'm glad she doesn't look like her dad, Dexter!

So this time around, Blackpearl is wayyyyy over-protective of her calf.  We think it has something to do with the fact that she loss her baby about the same time last year.  Her baby was just a few weeks old when it died during the flood.  So this time around maybe she's worried that she would lose her baby again so she is being extra protective.  We shook the bucket full of cattle cubes and usually she would be the first one to run to us.  But today was different, she wasn't there for her treat and at that point we kind of knew she probably had her baby.  

It appears to us that she was probably just born this morning.

Look at how cute she is!  We have yet to name her.

I promise, just one more picture...just can't get enough of that cuteness!