Sabbatical - a rest from work, or a hiatus, often lasting from two months to a year.

Maybe it wasn't a sabbatical after all but it was a rest from things and a hiatus even if it only lasted two weeks.  I have a very high stress, demanding job.  A job that could easily be handled if it were a job like any other Office Manager's job on a 52 week schedule, but my job is a 52 week job crammed into a 42 week schedule.

So when I get that blessed 6 week break in the summer that so many non-school workers envy, I tend to go a bit stir crazy. The walls start closing in and the down time starts getting me down.  I don't like to spend money so I don't like to go shopping and there's nothing really to do other than knit and I've been known to blow the discs out in my neck from keeping my head down to knit.... I try to avoid that painful mistake.

Boredom can lead to crankiness in an already stressed home.  Illness can lead to crankiness and more stress.  So with a trip planned to go out to my Brother's ranch for July 9th, I decided it would be a good idea to go down to my sister Nita's house July 2, spend a week with her and then drive out together to Michael's.  It's a long drive from Houston to Loraine, Texas by yourself.  It's not that short of a drive from our house to Michael's either and it's much nicer to have company either way.

Here are a few pictures of us having a little down time:

We celebrated 4th of July at the home of Nita's friends where we did a little scooter riding,  

then moved on to the mini-bike (here Mark is giving Nita the do's and don'ts of riding... do wear a short dress and don't wear a helmet, flip flops are optional), 

 

 I'm next. I like going fast, cuz I wear flip flops!  

 

Then there were amazing fireworks set off within a meager 10 feet of where we were sitting by amateur pyrotechnic wannabe's.  The guy across the street was a Highway Patrolman who had evidently pulled over a Fireworks cargo truck and confiscated the cargo.  It's illegal to set fireworks off within the city limits of any town in the state of Texas.  What I thought was living in town was not living in town.  You would have thought the city of Houston was under attack for 48 hours with the type of booming going on.  Seems the city LIMITS of Houston is rather small compared to everything that is tagged as Houston. 

Nita had to work that week so I hung out at her house knitting, reading, and doing her odd jobs for her.  I did manage to run over for a visit with Jody's younger brother Danny's wife Dee and older daughter Jami Jo (and her two little kids.)  They live in Spring, a part of Houston that's not Houston at all but a town all it's own.  

Then Friday rolled around and it was time to set out on our 415 mile road trip through the middle of Texas.  

We had to stop at Buc-ee's first... I'd never been to Buc-ee's... I guess I never noticed them, since I mount the road trip with a Grande Cappuccino, and a large cup of ice, I don't need things like processed food and carbonated drinks.   To me it was the Beaver version of a Stuckey's.

 

Look they have t-shirts!  Makes me glad I don't wear t-shirts.  

 

Then we had to buy Beaver Nuggets.  We were not leaving without them!  

I have no idea what these things are or what they are made of.  Nita kept cramming them in her mouth and saying "aren't they addictive?"  Ummm no... I really don't have a taste for deep fried cornmeal/capt. crunch in a poop like shape.  I just couldn't get into them.

We drove on through the Central Texas Hillcountry, (yes, that is capitalized, because it is a sacred place) past houses, farms and fields.  Past exotic game ranches with their 15 foot fences to keep the Raptors and T-Rex enclosed and off the highways.  "Oh, look a gazelle!"  "Where?"..... screeching of tires and dust rolling from the bar-ditch. "Never mind, he's gone now."  We drive 80-85mph on the back roads of  Texas, if you can't or you're scared then stick to the city streets.

We get to Michael and Di's and I'm thinking it was a VERY good idea that I didn't come in my Miata.... it had been raining off and on for about 24 hours. The county roads were bad and Nita considered putting her Tahoe in 4wheel drive.  My car would have been in the ditch at the end of the road and that ditch at the end of the road, where the blacktop ends, about 5-6 feet deep, about the length of my car....  So we went fishing instead of sitting out the weather at the house.  Michael had driven over to Midland to pick Di up from her flight in from California. 

The first catch of the trip.....  

Big year for the grasshoppers, they were huge!!!!  I'm not really what you would call a Girly Girl.  I will shoot a snake or pick up dead animal parts off the playground but there are some things that I just can't deal with, grasshoppers and frogs are two that really stand out at this time.  But that's not a problem for Nita.... if it means that she could catch a whopper then she'll grab it and put it on a hook.

The first fish of the trip..... caught with a rubber worm.

To be continued......   It's really hot out here and I'm getting a Night Gown tan line.  Time to go in and get dressed.  I'm sure there is something around the house I need to be doing.

West Texas Pictures part 2.

The backyard at my brother's house. Looking sort of Southeast.

And looking South... see that rise in the center of the picture? That's a huge mesa, Jeff rode his little pit bike all the way over there one day and then called me. I got the binocs and spotted him on the ridge.

Di in the garden. She's very proud of her produce.

As with every first garden, there's always an abundance of something... this year it's squash. We ate squash at almost every meal.

Momma and baby Longhorns were everywhere.

more babies.

They don't even move when you drive up to them.

And if you get too close to the babies they will come after you. I later learned this is the meanest one.

From across the tank.

First catch of the day.

Later Michael and Jeff worked on getting the TV out on the patio.

BEEE-utiful!

So peaceful!

Some may think it's odd to have such fire-power strapped to the dashboard of your jeep. We don't. There was also a rifle mounted just above the sunvisors.

Nice fish! (sorry it's blurry, I was watching for cows.)

That fish broke his $16 fishing pole......

Michael went out to try to get the herd to come up closer...

...and they did, this bull's name is Brisket. I wonder if they have plans for him later on?

Michael and I left the fishermen and went back to the house to prepare breakfast ...

Di was on the phone setting up her next commercial, she produces commercials. I think this one involves Tiger Woods and some sheep.

Voila' breakfast taco, with guacamole, salsa and sour cream and some bacon. YUM!

See they do have some bigger trees on the ranch, it's not all mesquites.

This area is set up for campfires and picnics, with benches and tables, there is a creek just behind those bushes behind Jeff.

Key West may brag about their sunsets, but I think we have something to brag about too.

The next morning Nita and I spotted these two Vinagaroons on a stroll around the outside of the yard.

Wildflowers

There they go again.... off to the tank to fish.

Look! A baby deer! It's at the edge of the water on the right side of the pond.

Michael's house.

This is the 'red' house, where we stayed. It was once a hunting lodge.

Yes, that's a Bobcat. It's a pet of one of Michael's friends. It started storming shortly after this picture was made and put a huge damper on our trip to the lake to watch the Fourth of July Fireworks.

Sunday morning and someone was telling us it was time to go home.... still pouring down raining. I was sitting in the courtyard of the 'red' house looking toward the screened BBQ room.

The Barn Swallows didn't like me being there, but after they figured out that I was going to sit still, they began zooming in and out all around my head. They have the navigation skills of a bat.

Here are some pictures of the inside of the 'red' house. From the kitchen door looking into the dining room with the living room beyond.

Looking from the dining room into the living room.

Another angle of the living room. This house is like a museum. There are thousands of things to look at in here.












Looking back toward the dining room and bar.















Looking into the kitchen from the dining room. That stove was awesome! There are two commercial size refrigerators on the left side of this room. They would put on yearly company parties at this house. They are set up to accommodate around 100 people for a party.








And one last picture for the Meerkat Crew.

That's what I did on my summer vacation. Going to a place like this, sure makes a trip to West Texas worth going.

THANKS Michael and Di for having us at your house for the weekend.

Hope you had a good one....

....we did. Our little vacation to West Texas had a leisurely start Wednesday morning. We had a few unsuccessful stops to make leaving town and decided to make more stops along the way. That's one of the good things about living near Dallas/Ft. Worth. If you don't find something in Dallas and you are headed West, you can be almost certain they'll have the same store in Ft. Worth, about 30 minutes down the line.

Jeff knows Ft. Worth probably better than what Jolea did. He's got a friend living over there and they had just been to the part of town we were going to over the previous weekend to watch a BMX stunt show in Cow Town. So he suggest that we have a late breakfast at one of his favorite places, Ol' South.






At 10 in the morning this place was pretty full. This was no Beef House by a long shot. They place had windows! Windows that were not covered by a greasy film and a smoky tattered window shade. There was smoking, just in the larger back dining room. We sat up front by the windows.

We ordered our breakfast and then I noticed the Daily Special menu on a card on the table. Notice that the standard special is of course the standard anywhere in Texas... Chicken Fried Steak. Jeff says it's huge and hangs off the plate. Those are pretty good prices!



The food is here! Jeff had sausage patties and scrambles eggs with two Cat Head biscuits. I had the silver dollar pancakes. I wasn't very hungry and knew this would swell up and hold me until we got to the Ranch.

After breakfast we made a stop for a couple of bottles of wine, that turned out to be crap. Jeff needed to stop at Cycle gear for some goggles, he was planning on some back roads (more like cow trails) driving on his pit bike.

Then we were back on the road. It was about this time that we got a phone call from Jolea, she said they were finally leaving port in Ft. Loiterdale, I mean Lauderdale. They were headed north to Newport and we wouldn't hear from her again until Sunday. ( No news is good news right? We haven't gotten a call yet, I'm sure they are sleeping in after a long haul like that.)

Back on the road, just picture mile after mile, hour after hour, three or so hours to be more like it, of open prairie, mostly just grass and a few trees, rolling terrain. Occasional small towns. The mesas are starting to rise in the distance, we are climbing in altitude... a very subtle climb. Same old, same old... I could drive this road blind folded as it's I-20, the inner state highway back to my home town. But then I noticed a billboard I'd never seen.... just outside Strawn Texas. We were looking for a convenience store to get Jeff a drink with a little pep in it since he was driving. We took the 4 mile detour into Strawn to a olive oil soap factory. The lady offered to sell it to me, not just the 3 bars I bought, but the whole factory. Unbelievably, she'd been in business for almost 20 years. I guess she had a lot of online business because we didn't see a sole in this town. Hmmm, I wonder if the 100+ temp out there at 2:00 had anything to do with that. The oil and gas industry used to keep these small towns alive, but I don't know what they live on now. I bet these people have to go into Abilene to work.

Then we passed this guy, hauling what looked like a radioactive pig. I meant to ask my brother what this was, I'm sure it has something to do with X-rays for underground gas drilling. It's not everyday you see radioactive signs on trailers on the highway, but then again we are in West Texas. You can see lots of weird stuff out there and never get too far off the highway, mostly it's the people.

Did I mention it was pretty flat out there? Now you know why Tornadoes can really build up some speed. We saw quiet a few dust devils blowing. Those are always fun to drive through.

So this is how they make their living out here.... forget about driving into the big town. Just put up a few of these on your land and let the wind blow in about $1200 per month/per windmill. You can still farm in the land around them.




I guess everyone is getting on the band wagon with these things because there were 100's more out there from when I was last in that area.

I think it's a great idea. Farmers are some of the poorest paid people in our country. Why not harvest the wind.


This post is getting a little long and I still have 3 more days worth of pictures to show you, so from here on out I'll just add captions. I know you won't miss all my wordiness.

Greeted by a Longhorn. By the way, I think my niece has named all the cows. This is the same child who had a baby elk in her living room at her house in New Mexico a few weeks ago.

First things first, unload the tiny dirt bike (he left the big one at home) and go for a spin.

Get your fishing poles ready.... a fact about my sister, if there is water nearby she's going to fish in it.
As with all fishermen, it's a contest, first catch of the day (size doesn't matter.)

Nita with the second catch of the day.And I had the third catch of the day. This would have sent Jody to the house with the heebies.
On the way home we saw some of Michael's horses and beautiful mules. The dark one in the back is a mule also.
Nita getting a little Stinky lovin'. Stinky is the dog, gotta have a dog on a ranch.

This is a good place to stop for today... it's already hot out here and there are tons more pictures to come. I'll post more from Thursday tomorrow.