I'm back!

What a weekend!  I started it by meeting my brother Mike at the hospital in Dallas where his wife Di was recovering from the surgery, she was doing awesome!  Within 30 minutes we were rolling Di out to the car and we were off to fill a prescription and to have lunch.

Then we hit the road heading West toward their house.  I had called Nita that morning and she was leaving West Houston heading that way too.  I had mentioned that it would be so cool if we could meet on the highway somewhere, but with her starting a 7 hour drive and us only a 4 1/2 hour drive, it was very unlikely to happen.

Out around Abilene Tye to be exact, we had to make a pit stop.  Di and I were standing in the shade waiting on Michael, talking about how blasted hot it was 108F, when Di said "I wonder if Nita is already at the house?"  We were only about an hour away ourselves.  I called Nita to check her ETA.  She said "I've just gotten on I-20 at Abilene."
"West of Abilene or East of Abilene?  We're outside Abilene."
"Oh, I've already passed y'all."
"Well what mile marker are you at?"
"I'm at 338 or what ever8."
So I ask Michael, what exit we are at...  337!
"Nita!! Quick take the next exit at 337 we're at the Circle J Truck Stop!"  What are the chances?  That's how our convoy started.  It's weird how we always line up by birth order... kinda natural.

That's Michael up in the black truck in front of me and Nita in the rear view mirror in the white Tahoe.

The drought is so evident out here.  We saw several smoke plumes from grass fires.  This old land is just burning up!

The next morning, as the sun came up over this ridge, Nita and I were at the stock tank fishing. She was fishing, I was watching.

The ponds are down by yards not feet.  If you couldn't see Nita there in shorts and a tank top you might think it was Winter.

This was last year in July! Same pond!  Last year I wouldn't drive my car for fear of sliding off into the ditch and being stuck in the mud.

The fish were just not biting, so we moved on to the Dock Pond.  We grew up in West Texas, and in the back of our minds we always just know to watch for snakes.  It was that time of the morning when they are moving from the warmth of a big flat rock to the shade of a mesquite tree.  As we walk along through the tall grass we make a Brrrrrt sound and even wave the end of the fishing pole out in front of us about a foot off the ground.  Hoping to stir something up before we get right on top of it.

When we got to the Dock Pond it has a floating boat dock on it I stepped out of the truck and started looking around for snakes.  Nita was getting her stuff from the back of her Tahoe.  I heard some rustling in the grass about 10-12 feet to the right of where I was standing.  I looked but I didn't see anything, maybe because I was looking for a rabbit or even a lizard.  I took a couple of steps and made the Brrrrttt sound, and heard more rustling.

It moved and I saw it!  "SsssssNAKE!"  Can you see it?  Look at the bottom of the picture for his rattle, then follow his body up and to the right.

Nita came around to my side of the truck to see, couldn't find him between the prickly pear cactus and the mesquite limb, so I made one step in his direction so that he would move.  At that point he turned his head back toward us and made one half-hearted coil and flicked his tongue.  He still hadn't warned us with his rattle.

Nita said "let me get my gun!"  When she returned with it and took aim, she said "my hands are shaking."  I told her "you can't shake, take a breath and hold it.... or give me the gun."  Those words no more left my lips that she fired and that was the end of the snake.

I don't want to get yelled at that we shouldn't have shot this rattle snake.  Had I been by myself I would have probably let him slither off on his own.  But Nita will be fishing out here at the pond for the rest of the week, by herself!  We know how accident prone she is fish hooks in hand last year.  If anyone is going to come in contact with a wild animal it's her... she just attracts them!

I'm 5'7" and that's my arm holding the snake by the tail straight out from my body.  That's a 6 iron from Nita's golf bag holding what's left of his head still he was still twitching.  I was probably holding him about 6 inches off the ground.

Trophy shot, Nita with her kill back at the house. He was good and dead by this time so he had a kink.

After we dropped the snake off and Michael removed his rattle for me to bring home, we went over to the Spring Pond to fish.

Not bad... not as big as the one she caught here last year. No, I don't fish like this, I don't have the patience for worm fishing.  But I do have the patience to sit and watch her do it. It's very interesting.

With the heat setting in, we went back to the house for breakfast, laid out by the pool for a bit and then we all loaded up and went in to town to pick up a few things to make all the fabulous meals that Di had in the plans for us.  I think I put on 15 pounds in the 3 days I was out there.

The next morning we were back at it, but this time Michael gave me his little revolver with Snake Shot loaded in the first two chambers and slugs in the rest.  I think he wanted me to shoot his gun.

This trip to the Dock Pond didn't warrant any killing.  The fish were still not biting, and most were less than 8 inches long we don't take pictures of puny fish unless it's less than 3 inches long, and that's to rub it in someone's face.  Stinky thought it was unbearable out there so she stayed in the water or laid in the mud.

Nita tried fishing from the floating dock, which was no longer floating, but resting at a 45 degree angle in the mud.  No good!  So we gathered our stuff to leave.  Just as I was about to swing my leg over the rail of the board walk Nita whispers "look, over there in the tall grass...."  I'm scanning the ground for something slithering and finally see it, a porcupine!

He just wanders right over to us like we are not even there.

Nita tried to push him away with Michael's snake stick, but he wasn't having anything to do with it, that was his dock.  We decided that we had better leave before Stinky noticed him and tried to attack.  Seems like Stinky had an encounter with a porcupine years ago, I know she's been bitten by a rattlesnake.

We headed on over to the Spring Pond where Nita had better luck, again catching some good size bass.  We don't keep them... catch and release.

For you foodies... Di prepared with one arm Halibut in roasted cherry tomatoes and capers with an awesome salad Friday night.  Then Saturday we had Quinoa Cakes, Michael and Nita had their own creation of Wennie Panninis for lunch.  My niece Andee came in from New Mexico and since we had such a late lunch no one wanted dinner that night, so we just dined on the Triple Fudge Brownies that Nita had made.  We topped them with Vanilla Bean ice cream, hot fudge and caramel sauce and toasted pecans.  Notice that we tried not to leave out any of the important food groups in this meal.  Then Sunday Di and Michael prepared Chilean Sea Bass and asparagus on the grill, and Nita made an awesome fettuccine in a cream corn and pepper sauce.  We ate like pigs!

Yesterday morning I packed my things to leave but not before Nita and did a little fishing.  We headed out in our normal rounds, skipped the pond closest to the house the water level was just too low, went to the Dock Pond... no big fish, no wild life...  We headed to the Spring Pond.

 See that water running out of that pipe?  It does that without a pump, 24/7, 365 days a year.  This is prime real estate!  This is what they mean in the ads for property that say "natural spring fed pond/creek."

He keeps the Mares over here in this pasture.

The cows have access to the other two ponds.  He keeps his geldings in a pasture that surrounds the house and near the barn with watering troughs.  Horses have a pecking order to the heard and can cause psychological and physical damage to each other.  You are also supposed to worry about over grazing of pastures, especially when you have as much livestock as he does and it's so dry. I don't know that he does so much because of the size of the pastures he has.

Hey nosey, why the long face?

Back to the action at the Spring Pond....  Nita starts catching fish, they gradually get bigger, and bigger.  Seemed like between every fish she landed, she'd have one take the worm and break her line!  Something down there was HUGE!  (That's her patented rod holder she's using... if you'll notice, that's how she always holds her rod when she's removing a fish. Yes, that horse stood right there the whole time she was fishing.)

The temperature was climbing just like right now... 98!  She said "I'm giving it one more chance" as she double tied a new weight, hook and worm on her rod.

She took a few swings and dropped her hook.  She wasn't casting, fishing close in, not 10-12 feet out from where she was standing on the bank.  Here's how the play by play goes:

A swing and light swoosh of the worm on the hook, 'PLOP' as it hits the water 4 feet from where the water is pouring into the pond from a pipe in the bank. 

The angler's eyes are focused on the line, her hands are steady, feeling for any vibration signaling an interest from what lies near the bottom of the pond.  

"He's nibbling." she says, breaking the silence, only the sounds of nature, birds, bees, the leaves rustling with the wind, horses making horse sounds in the distance.
"Take it!" Mental telepathy doesn't work with fish she has to talk to them.
"You can do it!!!" She says in a mock voice sounding like Townie in the movie Water Boy.

Her eyes never leave the surface where the line and water meet.  Her stance looks awkward, almost painful, but she doesn't have to stand like this for long.  

BAM!  The surface of the pond erupts as the line tightens and the tip of the rod bends with the weight of something heavy fighting for it's life.  Her arms and upper body react like a trained fighter, her feet set in the sand not to loose their traction.  She begins to reel and pull the fish in, not fighting too hard against the fish, careful not to break the line. Talking to her catch as she reels him in, "Careful, careful, stay away from that stick!" she demands.  "Come to Momma!"

Ain't that sweet!  Big Mouth Bass!

After a brief photo shoot, she gently eases him back into the water, so that he may go on to be caught again another day.  

We headed to the house for breakfast with the family.  I said my goodbyes.  It was good to see Andee and meet her boyfriend Andy.  Hey, we should have told him we were changing his name to Frank.  That's what we usually do when someone shows up with the same name as a family member.


I rolled in to the driveway around 4 yesterday afternoon.  Hubby and Gracie were happy to see me.  It was good to be home and out of the heat.

Di and Michael will return to Dallas later this week.  She'll have the right breast removed.  She's hoping that she won't have to have any chemo or radiation at all.  The lymph nodes were clear, so that's good.  Nita may stay out at the ranch until the early part of next week, just to help out when they return Saturday or Sunday.

Hope you have a great week, try to stay cool where ever you are, especially if you are in Texas!  Pray for rain!!! Lot's of it.