If you’ve been following along with our escapades, you’ll be familiar with the story of Jim and Mary’s barn. The structure was originally built as a boat house and located next to the large pond on the property. It included a small kitchen and bathroom and could be used for parties or whatever. There was even a pool table inside, at one time, but since … Continue reading The Barn
Texans like fireworks. They are legal here, and Texans take full advantage of that during the holidays. Last night was New Years Eve, and because of the fireworks, we didn’t get a good night’s sleep. That’s alright, I guess. We’re retired, so we don’t have to get up for work, and we can take a nap when we want one. Our New Years Eve was … Continue reading A New Year
As we stood around the fire, having a few beers and visiting with Barb’s brother and sister-in -law who are visiting from Minnesota, the last full moon of 2023 rose behind us. It had been a beautiful day here in Texas with temps in the 60’s and it was a mild, calm evening. You would think that escaping winter in Minnesota would be a real … Continue reading The End Of Another Year
Merry Christmas to all of my readers! I hope this day finds you well, and happy. We celebrate Christmas at this time of year, and I know that there are lots of different holidays and religious days celebrated at this time also. So whatever you celebrate, whatever you believe in, whatever religion you ascribe to or not, we hope this time of year finds you … Continue reading Merry Christmas
It’s December 21st, pretty close to the end of the year. This past year has been crazy for us, to say the least. We spent the first three months here in Texas, helping us make up our minds about whether or not to move here permanently. When we arrived back in Minnesota at the beginning of April, we delt with a big snowstorm. That pretty … Continue reading End Of The Year
I may have written about an upcoming project we’re doing, or I may not have. In either case I’m too lazy to go back and read all my posts so I’ll just do it again (if I did it already). We are putting in a combination carport, utility building that will serve as a woodshop and storage space with room for a clean workshop to … Continue reading Projects
In writing about living in Texas I have mostly concentrated on our day-to-day activities and how just by being here, we are “becoming Texan.” We are absorbing the culture as time goes by, slipping in unique words like “y’all”, and getting comfortable with the differences from our home state of Minnesota. And let me tell you, there are a lot of differences. According to the … Continue reading Texas
It is the 9th of December, only 15 days until Christmas. Today the temperature is forecast to be 78 degrees. Where we come from, there would be snow on the ground in most years, and cold air. There has rarely been a Christmas in Minnesota without snow. It has happened, but it always seemed strange. Now in Texas, with only 15 days to go, we … Continue reading Weather Changes
This week while sitting on the front porch we were treated to this beautiful sunset. I took several photos while it was happening but this one really stood out as the best. Our neighbors were outside while I was shooting pictures and I was afraid they would think I was taking shots of their house, but they didn’t notice. The clouds and the sun lined … Continue reading Gardening In December
The photo at left doesn’t have any significance to this post other than it’s a nice peaceful scene. I took this shot at Gougane Barra, in Ireland. It’s a beautiful place and if you ever travel to Ireland, I highly recommend stopping there. Today I’m writing about stress. As we all know, there’s plenty of it in today’s world. When I retired, the stress of … Continue reading Stress Relief
The photo at left was taken on November 26th. It was a beautiful day in Southeast Texas. My brother had texted a photo of his backyard in Minnesota after they got some snow, so I took this one to show him what we were enjoying in Texas. It was probably a cruel move, but he knows what it’s like here. Today, as I’m writing this … Continue reading A Slow Week
Being that it’s November 21st, I guess you could call this winter. Winter in Southeast Texas anyway. A cold front came through over night and changed things dramatically. It was 80 degrees yesterday and this morning it was 53 and very windy. And the weather report says we may not get out of the 50’s today. Pretty bleak looking with the dark, heavy cloud cover. … Continue reading Winter
We went shopping at Lowe’s this week and found a few racks with half dead plants on them priced half off. I found these two Phalaenopsis Orchids there and had to have them. They were in plastic cups inserted into the coconut fiber bowls you see in the photo. So I removed them from the cups, pulled most of the compacted media out from the … Continue reading A Busy Week
The day is dawning bright. There are a few clouds in the East but it promises to be sunny. That’s not the way it has been lately. We’ve had several days of rain here on the Gulf coast. In the first 14 days of November we’ve had 2.6 inches of rain in the backyard, which isn’t huge but we really need it. Southeast Texas has … Continue reading A New Week
On Sunday, our greenhouse came by Fed Ex. That’s not a Texan thing, but I’m going in chronological order here. It came in two big, heavy boxes and it just seems strange that a whole building can be reduced to two cardboard boxes. Since it was late in the afternoon when they came, we didn’t start doing anything with it that day. We opened the … Continue reading More Texan Things
On becoming Texan... 