Buzzards fly through the morning fog. The pond, only about 500 feet away, has all but disappeared in the soupy air. The dock, barely visible. Everything is wet, including Jake the horse. We feed him last nights table scraps as the cows look on, interested but too nervous to come close. Two days ago we helped cut three of them from the small herd to transport them for sale. The remaining cows are suspicious of us now. Barb is outside arranging sea shells and pine cones into a pleasing display as smoke from our fire pit wafts past the window.

A few days back we took a walk around the ponds and discovered two new alligators there. This past summer the ponds had dried up in the season’s heat but now after copious rains, the gators are back. The turtles, egrets, ducks and ibis share the water with the gators while avoiding each other. A giant Live Oak spreads its limbs across the backyard of the main house here, where plans are being laid to build a sun room on the patio. One of the great tree’s branches will have to be removed to make room. We cleaned all the furnishings off the patio, and blew away the leaves and sticks from the area. Construction will start next week.

We’ve been to the gulf a few times, the sandy beaches being only about an hour away from where we live. We bring our lawn chairs and have lunch on the sand as the waves roll in and shores birds play in the surf. We find interesting shells and watch crabs skitter away when we get too close. They run amazingly fast. We took the ferry to Galveston Island and the fog was so thick we could not see anything while crossing. Galveston has its own mini “Coney Island” with an amusement park built on a pier. We plan to visit there again soon to check out the grand old houses built by cotton and cattle moguls that weren’t destroyed in the 1900 hurricane. In the mean time we visit museums and read the history of the area.

We cut down a dead Mesquite tree two weeks ago and have collected most of the available firewood from the property. And while our friends and family back home are suffering with below zero temperatures, and blizzards of a foot of snow, we will see 80 degrees today. We do not plan to go home until the cold and snow have gone. Yesterday we sat by the fire and watched Carolina Wrens fly in and out of the greenhouse, building a nest in a spider plant.

Barb continues to work on some crafts, while I struggle to find anything interesting to write about. We take a three mile walk almost every day and sometimes a bike ride. We went on a tractor buying trip one day, toting the beast home on a flatbed trailer. Jim has about six of them now. The amount of equipment and tools he has amassed over the years is truly amazing. Any tool you could think of to fix anything you could think of is here somewhere.

So this is what we’ve been doing. And we’re going to keep doing it until the snow and cold are gone back home. Then we’ll be back there starting work on our gardening. Sounds like we have a plan going forward.