Coon fight at 3am

I was awakened at 3am this morning by the horrible cries of a critter underneath the cabin. I turned on the outside lights in hopes of seeing exactly what kind of critter was in distress. The cries moved from underneath the cabin to underneath the ATV and there was a lot of thumping around on the ground, in addition to the cries. I opened the front door and at that moment, 2 or 3 coons ran under the house. I opened the screen door and stepped onto the front step when a huge ball of fur, similar in movement to that of an oblong tumbleweed, rolled out from under the ATV and into the yard. This ball of fur went to and fro, this way and that away, over here and out yonder. I finally saw a tail and determined that it was two large coons. I shouted, "STOP IT!", and they continued to roll around the yard. I finally yelled, "Enough of that shit!". The rolling stopped, and this gray boar coon released the darker coon and looked my way. Then he stood up and eyed me, and I swear he stood 4' tall! He got down on all fours and started toward me and I stepped off the porch to pick up a piece of a 2x4. That's when I remembered the coons that had ran under the house and I wondered if they were going to jump me from behind, as well as wondering just how smart it was for me to be battling with a mad boar coon outside at 3am while my husband was snoring soundly inside. :/ But, the boar coon stopped and decided that I wasn't worth his time, then turned and slowly made his way out of the yard, grumbling the entire time. The other coon was slower about getting up and was still sitting in the yard licking it's wounds when I went back inside.

After daylight Larry and I found hair and blood all around the yard.

This place truly is...Out where the wild things LIVE!

Doing Our Best For Us

Doesn't matter what you do in life, or how well you do it, someone out there is always going to let you know that they can do it better. Regardless if they literally can, or if they are just tooting their own horn in hopes of tearing you down in order to build themselves up, you will always be told or shown that YOUR best wasn't anywhere near as good as THEIR best.   
So? Why does it matter? Why do we allow another's opinion, another's experience, another's competitive jealousies to dictate our worth, rate our accomplishments, and point out our failures?
We shouldn't!
If our best is what makes us happy and fulfilled, no one else, or their jealous and competitive natures, should ever be allowed to occupy a single space in our lives or our heads.
We should each do our best for us and our lives, and not ever for the approval and acceptance of others!

December 27th, 2015

We woke up the morning of December 27th, 2015, to it snowing heavily and blowing in side-ways. There wasn't but about 2" on the ground when we left about 9am, but it was still beautiful, even if it was cold. I would have loved to stay and hiked in it, but everyone was either going home to East Texas or South Texas to work. But one of these days...

Merry Christmas

My little bitty Yule/Christmas tree at the cabin, December 20th, 2015. Surrounded by sheds, unusual rocks and pieces of prospective arrowheads that didn't make the 'cut', and all found on the ranch. What you can't see are the solar powered lights that come on at dark. That's when the tree really gets 'festive'.

From our place to yours, we wish you all a Blessed Yule, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry

Pictures from December 2015

Sunrise, December 5th, 2015

21 quarts fresh venison, 12-5-15

10 pints fresh venison, 12-6-15 (yes, the jars are green glass)

Wall behind heater looking better, 12-6-15

8 point whitetail I watched from my stand, December 12th, 2015

Blue jean & bandana quilt I started and finished in 2015, just for the cabin bed.

December 2015 Update

December 15th, 2015

A lot has happened since my last post, in spite of it being a 'lean' year pertaining to finances. But, we've managed to get a few things accomplished, and we are thankful for that.

One thing I've learned in my life is to start small. Whether this pertains to a home, a business, or even a relationship, if you start big and take on too much too soon, you set yourself up for failure. Well, we started with nothing and it's taken us six years to get the 'ranch' to the point it is now. Far from complete, but better than it was even 3 years ago.

We've been ridiculed, put down, treated like imbeciles, and hurt more than I would like to admit by the criticism, ugliness and jealousy of people, but none of that has stopped us. In fact, some of those who put us down and made fun of us during our journey, claiming that their journey was the ONLY way, have now bailed because they started too big and tried to make it happen too fast. I hope that their youth, inexperience and ignorance paves the way for their hard lessons to be learned and turned into mature wisdom, if that is even possible.

But I digress...

We finally were able to insulate the cabin ceilings with R30 insulation over Thanksgiving. To keep the insulation dust from raining down on us, we then installed a heavy plastic moisture and dust barrier over that.

We finished insulating the walls of the bathroom and finished the sheetrock in there as well.

It has made a world of difference! In fact, the one night that it was 33 degrees, I had to turn off the bathroom space heater because it was so warm in there! We had a heavy rain storm come through this past weekend and we could barely hear the rain on the roof. Before insulating the ceiling a mere shower would sound like a major hail storm!

We completed the electrical wiring in the house and to the travel trailers, as well as running fresh water lines to the travel trailers and hooking them all up to a septic tank with field line.

The travel trailers now have DC power via smaller solar panels and individual batteries at each trailer.

Our deer cleaning station also has lights and water! YAY!

We've connected four 275-300 gallon water tanks for a maximum capacity of 1200 gallons of fresh water.

I am at the ranch every weekend and any time my husband is off work. While we do have a small refrigerator that is powered via the inverter, I rarely use it and prefer to take my small ice chest. It just puts less stress on the inverter and battery bank to not have to use it.

Two weekends ago I pressure canned 21 quarts and 10 pints of venison at the ranch. Not only does pressure canning tenderize the meat, but it will keep for much longer than freezer kept meat and requires no refrigeration.

I do all of the canning at the ranch because my antique propane stove is heavy duty as opposed to the glass top electric stove I have at the on-grid house in town.

Next week our family will celebrate our first Christmas at the ranch as our daughter and her family travel out here for a few days. We chose the ranch because there is much more room there than our tiny little 'in town' house, plus our SIL hopes to hunt a bit.

Our free ranging deer have benefited from year round supplemental feeding and watering, especially in a year that suffered through several summer months of drought and high fire danger. Thus far I've tagged out on bucks, and my husband, son and father have taken one each. My hunting is pretty much done for the year because I don't like taking does, but I still go sit in my stand to see what I can see and enjoy the peace, quiet and inaccessibility to people. I think I'll leave the harvesting to the menfolk from here on out.

As I bring this little update to a close, I know that we are blessed, and I am thankful for God's provision and care. I also pray that 2016 turns out to be a 'fat' year financially because there are just so many projects we still need to accomplish!

If you are reading this, my family and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Prosperous and Blessed New Year!