Day 9

Thursday, July 23, 2009

When we woke up this morning, we heard Sunny barking. I look out the window to see what she’s barking at and there are cows out there. Cows, just wandering along the road, right outside our window. Now that’s something we don’t see everyday!

After breakfast, Betty Lou and I went to get the mail and check on a neighbor’s house. The house had been empty for awhile so we found lots of dead scorpions. And a dead, shriveled up tarantula. Yuck! The scorpions and tarantulas are a part of Texas I could certainly do without. And, lucky us – there was even one live scorpion. Luckily it wasn’t moving too fast (on its deathbed perhaps?) so Betty Lou stepped on it.

When we got back to the house, there were a few wild turkeys nearby so I grabbed my super-zoom camera and went back out to get some turkey pictures. Finally, after 4 years, we can add some good turkey pictures to our collection of cool animal photos taken at the ranch.

Now it’s arts and crafts time. Betty Lou bought some foam crowns to decorate and some paint-by-number pictures. The kids always enjoy doing crafts here at the ranch. Once the crowns are done, Betty has found some tulle leftover from another project so craft time evolves into dress up time.

The fun doesn’t stop there, however. Now it’s time to bake our cake for the birthday party later. Betty, with her immense amount of patience, lets the kids help her make the cake and the frosting. I hide in the other room, working on my scrapbook. Bella decides to make a pretend cake at the same time as the real cake so Felisa runs back and forth giving her the play by play of what’s going on in the kitchen. My favorite directions: “Now you have to scrape it all out of the bowl into the pan. And sometimes you have to use your fingers.”

While the cake is baking, we eat lunch.

After lunch, we load up the mule and drive back over to check the mailbox again. The mailbox is next to the stable. The farrier is at the stable today so we got to go watch while he worked. He was very nice and explained what he was doing while he did the entire process from start to finish on one of Doc’s feet.

Back home after that adventure, the cake has cooled and it is time to decorate it. And what goes with birthday parties besides cake? Pinatas! We took the kids outside and lo and behold – the tree has grown another piñata. One per year! Either the piñatas are getting weaker or the kids are getting stronger because they had it busted open lickety split. The piñata had a yo-yo for each of them plus candy and toothpaste. 9 out of 10 dentists approve piñatas with toothpaste!

Dinner time.

After dinner, we went to a neighbor’s house to feed the animals. Not many animals showed up and those that were there were a bit skittish so we decided to save the food for later. We were admiring the log furniture on the deck when Felisa spotted an hand reaching out of a box. Another body part has been discovered on the ranch! This time it was a full wooden arm with a plastic hand on the end. Pretty fancy. We are thinking that perhaps Dr. Frankenstein’s great grandson lives here on the ranch and is secretly trying to build another monster. Unfortunately for him, he always hides his parts where we can find them. Guess he’ll have to find another arm to use.

Can this day hold any more fun and excitement? Why, yes it can! We loaded up the mule once more and headed for the pool. This time I got to drive. Yikes! We made it there and back without any trouble and enjoyed a very refreshing swim.

Back home again, we showered then had birthday cake for dessert. Happy Birthday to Us!

And now - Good Night. I’m exhausted!