Death of a Refrigerator

The seedy underbelly of the ranch...(let's digress for a couple of minutes here - what is a "seedy underbelly" anyway? All the underbellies of our animals are soft, clean, vulnerable, tender... what's an underbelly in nature that's nasty? And then, let's talk about seedy for a moment. What's bad about seedy? Does that mean nothing's growing yet? But if there are seeds, then there's possibility...so anyway, I'm not sure that using "seedy underbelly" really gets at what I meant....)

I've discovered that living on the ranch is very different than living in the city. I guess I thought living at the ranch would be similar to living in the city, except we'd have more land. It is not that at all. It is completely different out here. For one thing, the garbarge people are sorta regional - they don't belong to a particular city. No one collects recycling here. There's a bit a snigger when you ask about it. And another thing is that it's not just a simple matter of putting the garbage at the curb. Oh no - we have to figure out how to get it .5 miles away to the road. So, stuff can sit for quite a while. But even if we could get it to the curb, the garbage folks will only pick up black contractor garbage bags of stuff. Nothing else. So if we have anything else to get rid of, we have to make an appointment with the regional "dump", put it all on the flatbed of the pickup and drive it 25 miles.

It makes me think differently about what I'm willing to bring home.

Of course, we didn't know all this when we moved out here. We didn't realize that we were really moving into a different culture with all kinds of different norms, values and habits. So, we brought our city thinking (and garbage) with us. And now, we need to get all this stuff cleaned up and moved on.

Below is the death of the original, home-built Kegorator. We're sad to see 'er go. Although Tim thinks the refrigeration unit for the freezer still works, so he took that off and we'll reuse it to air condition one of the busses Jeff just bought. Now that's recycling.

This is window glass left over from building the new terminal at DFW airport. We got a great deal on it 3 years ago. Planned on using it to build a greenhouse and to replace the garage door (when we build out the garage into Tim's office). But, we haven't gotten around to doing those things yet and so the glass sits a bit forlorn. Looks like it's trying to return to the ground as sand...maybe in a few more years it'll have done that.

Can't remember where we got this chair. Tim is looking for someone who could weld it back together and then we'll paint it and keep it.

The construction crew for our neighbors addition were sloppy guys. There's still trash on our two properties from stuff that didn't make it into the garbage cans.

This is a special plexiglass that we used to fix the roof of the car wash when there was major hail damage. We thought we could use it out here. Haven't decided how yet though.

I'm graciously calling this the 'staging area'. This is the staging area for all of our projects - no matter how many millennia they are from happening.

Okay - now this thing was really a good idea. I liked having this sink. It was supposed to be for my future greenhouse (as you can see from above, I have a lot of stuff for my future stuff....). Unfortunately Tim accidentally hit it with the Kubota and the legs fell off. I'm thinking of turning it right-side up and filling it with flowers.

Mushrooms

Just a quick update this morning... we saw evidence of the wild pigs (feral hogs) again down by the lake. We were hoping that they'd moved on, so that was disappointing. They are terrible for the environment. They dig up everything - all the flora down by the lake - so that it is completely destroyed. That then destroys the system of plants that prevent so much erosion and the the hill above where they've torn everything up starts sliding down into the lake. They also carry diseases which they can leave behind in the soil. Fortunately, we're not growing anything down by the lake (it's owned by the Corps of Army Engineers).

This morning it was a touch cooler than it has been - and there's a nice breeze, so we're thankful for a day that didn't start off with intense heat.

Because of the rain the other day, we've had a number of mushrooms popping up all over. It's surprising to see mushrooms at this time of year here, but there they are.

Mornings at Sage Creek Ranch

Morning comes really quickly around Sage Creek Ranch - there's a moment where there's no sun and then the sun is fully, roundly, hotly there.

It peeks through the trees - and thank God for the trees or it'd be much hotter, much sooner.

It brushes the well house and gives the strawberries; Dew plant and Gerbera Daisy their first dusting of the light they need to keep blooming.

It lightly strikes the lichen - but just for a moment before it's too high to burn the delicate flora from the rocks to which they tenaciously cling. The lichen turns brown by August in Tioga, Texas. But this year, we've been blessed by sufficient rainfall to keep even northern Texas green.

There are places where the trees, bushes and tall grasses are so dense that only a fragment of yellow gets through at the first light of morning

On my way back from the mailbox, I can see that the sun is already moving quickly enough through the sky to light up the driveway.

I cross the road to the neighbor's stock pond. It is beautiful in the morning - still, pristine-looking and verdant.

Even the road looks quiet and still this morning. Devoid of traffic even during our "rush hour".

Driving the dogs and the golf cart home from the mailbox, each morning is a total immersion in nature. It never fails to delight me.

Each morning, I look through the trees at the neighbor's property to see if I can spot the horses and their donkey.

What are you glorying in today?