Go away Summer.

It finally rained here. It is still raining after 4 hours, little steady soaking rain. Fabulous rain. I can't tell you how giddy we are over it. I can relate to those scenes in old westerns when people would go outside and splash in rain puddles when the rains finally came for their crops. Serious water bliss right now.

This weather has shoved me hard into the "I am done with summer and the heat" camp. I am ready for Fall, for school to start, for lunches to be packed, for my Fall mantel to be setup, for Halloween to start creeping in, and for knitting to fill my hands again.

Instead, I will slog through another two and a half months of Texas summertime, which means heat and more drought.  I will daydream of Fall and the coming Winter. I will tend my Companion garden ( which should go bonkers after this rain) and wait patiently for it's coming Fall harvest.

Blissed Out on rain. *happy sigh*

Open for the season

We opened our pool up for the season today! One weekend ahead of the community pool, which was our goal. :) Our first swim was 2.5 hours long. Here's too many many hours and days in the pool this summer. Floating, playing, swimming, daydreaming, napping, splashing, dog paddling, and connecting. So happy right now.

Trees are more work than I thought!

Casey and I went over to my parents house yesterday to help my mom with some trees that needed pruning. When I say we helped, I really mean that Casey was going to do all the work, so I dressed as usual in jeans, a tee, and flip flops. With all the rain we have had lately my parents trees had grown a lot and some branches were so heavy that they touched the ground.

Casey got to work with the chainsaw and clippers and I happily spent my time taking pictures.
Until I saw how big the tree branch waste pile was getting. So regardless of my inappropriate clothing and shoes and lack of gloves, I jumped in to help my mom haul the branches to the side yard to wait for bulk pick up day. 2 hours later (!!) the trees were finished, the yard was clear, the waste branches were stored and we were all sweaty and sporing some cuts from the thorns.Sammy spent those 2 hours happily chewing up a chunk of wood. This little pisser gets to spend 10 days with us starting this weekend. I have sworn to teach him how to sit, not pee in the house, and lose 2 pounds.

One final task was left before we could go to lunch. My mom had heard something in the garage the night before. It sounded like it was stuck to the glue traps that they use by their garage doors, and my mom being afraid of snakes just shut the door without looking and called Casey. LOL. Turns out a huge bull frog was stuck to a trap and trying to free himself. Casey helped him out and helped him over the fence with a toss.

Yay for Spring in Texas!

Little Birdie

Casey found this little guy today as he was weed whacking along the fence line. Lucky he didn't hit him at all. Poor little guy is so tiny, he looks to be a type of sparrow.

Looking around we found a nest that we had not spotted before.

So Casey scooped up the little guy, after having to chase him across the yard and keep Penny away from him.

We put the little guy back up in his nest to give him time to recoup before he tries to fly away again. He was feisty!

Shade Making & Book Reading = Happiness.

I had two hours before Alex got home from school today and I was ansty being inside. I had reading that needed to be done for next weeks finals and other reading that was tempting me. The sky was amazing, and the air was cool, so I did the logical thing and made a shade canopy and a nest of quilts out in the yard.
Bring in music, my blackberry, the two required readings, a passel of pups and combine it all into a perfect afternoon outside, shaded from the Texas sun, but enjoying it to the fullest.

It was lovely and a much deserved bit of relaxation as I near the end of semester.

Spring in Texas

The creek behind our house that is usually empty has about 20 feet of water in it right now. Another 20 feet to go before it comes into our yard.

Casey had to drain some water out of the pool because it was overflowing. He was so nice to take the time to point out the beach for me too. :)

Spring in Texas from Nicole Boyles on Vimeo.

What to do with old Birthday Balloons?

What to do with old Birthday Balloons?

Target Practice!

Thems a Big 'Um

We had a bit of Easter excitement out here in our neck of Texas. Neighbors found a huge rattlesnake in their front yard, which really means that it had to come from the greenbelt behind our house and through the yard on our side of the street. *shudder*

This guy measured out to 5 feet 3 inches
We did the right thing by chopping off it's head, just in case of reflex bites.

Robert scored a mighty big rattle, over ten nubs on it.

*shudder*

Guess who won?

Nothing makes a morning exciting here in Texas like Casey running back into the house asking for the camera.

It usually means one of two things.
a) He wants to take a picture of someone being an idiot
b) There is some animal he found and wants to take a photo of it.

Today it was B, which I knew because he kept chanting FrogSnake, Snake eating frog, CAMERA CAMERA CAMERA!

Behold the Texas Frog Snake!

Otherwise known as Luncher and Lunchbox.

Ultimately the winner was the Grackle, a Texas black bird, it swooped down and snatched this buffet up, because Casey broke up this duo with the axe since we can't have that bugger in our yard. Not with kids and dogs and ummm, me being a ninny. I could barely look as he took the fatal swing. If he had been shooting it, I would have wrestled him for the rights to pull the trigger. But the axe is a bit more Texas Chainsaw Massacre-ish. Where as I am a bit more Dirty Harry-ish.

But anyways, WELCOME to LUNCH in TEXAS. We love it here. Truly, we do.