House on Hillsboro

It. Snowed.

We are all most fortunate that in the days since I have found myself too busy to blog about it because my enthusiasm would have bordered on ridiculous and most likely have been unbearable for a few of my friends above the Mason-Dixon line.

Thursday night's weather report suggested a chance of light snow on Friday with possible accumulation of an inch which Ava HEARD causing her to lay awake in bed for hours, then dream of playing in snow the likes of which she had never seen or touched.  But the Friday morning report squashed our Snow Day dreams with an announcement that no schools were closed and while light flurries were probable, accumulation was not, being that the temperature (that was in the 70's the day before) would remain in the mid thirties.  Poo.

So I took Ava to school.  And I drove home.  And the snow began to fall.  Then the snow began to pile.  I grabbed Jack and ran outside and for the first time in his sweet little life the idea of snow began to make sense.  But I felt awful - positively sick at the thought of Ava watching her first snowfall through the windows of a classroom and me missing the look on her face.  WHAT IF THE SNOW STOPPED?  THEN MELTED!  ALL WHILE SHE SAT DUTIFULLY IN HER SEAT AT SCHOOL, MISERABLE.  WHILE JACK AND I WERE AT HOME MAKING SNOWBALLS - THE VERY THING SHE HAS WISHED FOR WITH EVERY PENNY SHE HAS EVER PLUNKED INTO THE FOUNTAIN AT THE RIVERWALK MALL!!?

So off we went to check her out and I couldn't get there fast enough.  But my fear that it all would melt before I could get Ava's little hands in it lessened with the fall of every snowflake.  It was snowing more heavily now and the radio announced school closings. 

Ava had never been more happy to see me.  We were all SO EXCITED and could barely wait to get home and by the time we did the "flurries" had turned into...A LOT OF SNOW FALLING and an "inch" was every bit of 3 or 4 and counting.

But there was one little problem.  JD was due to fly in that very evening and I began to realize there would be no way.  Sure enough, as I was digging through drawers trying to find gloves and thermals, the phone rang - JD in Dallas, flight canceled, he would not be home at 6:35pm to marvel with us at the snow.  Shuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute.

But we did it.  We bundled up, went outside, and did everything we have ever seen anyone do in the snow.

One by one, Ava checked off the list (compiled since birth) of things she longed to do in snow - snowball fight, snow forte, snow man with carrot nose, infamous snow angel, all the while (and dead seriously) insisting that she was dreaming it all but that in this dream the snow felt more hard and wet and cold.  In her first dream (the night before), she explained, it felt soft like marshmallows and warmer.  I'll never forget those moments.  Long as I live.

I took pictures (bless my little camera, hung in there right through the blizzard, but it was scary!) and Jack wandered aimless, determined to leave his tracks on every smooth and perfect bit of rolling snow he could find, till we could go no more. 

We woke the next morning so happy to see snow still on the ground and eager to do it all again - but this time with DAD! (he had taken a rental car home from Dallas and sneaked in around midnight). 

Everything is more fun (and painful) with Dad! 

Yes, yes.  The snow was deep, the sun was shining, JD was home.  Oh the joy.

My Valentine,

I would choose you

all

over

again.

Turn 'em Out.

For the five months we have lived here, the horses have been able to stare at me at my kitchen sink through the big bay windows of the living room.  They would stand there in the muck of their small, temporary paddock and written all over their faces was "Fence too small", "Need more room", "We're bored", and the worst one of all "I think we'll walk out of this crappy fence tonight and take at stroll down the road right at the break of dawn when all the chicken trucks come through doing 70."   But then a few weeks ago they began to hear the unmistakable clank, clank, clank of a man driving fence posts and all day long they ignored me and my dishes and stood with their ears pricked to the East.  Hopeful.

JD fenced five acres ALONE in under three days during the most bitterly cold days of the winter.  (Normally, I'd have hung around to help where I could but these days Jack and I are a two for one special and it was too cold for the little dude.)  It all happened like magic, really.  In the early morning he bundled up and headed East and in the late afternoon he would return and this continued for several days (not weeks!) until one morning he said, "Today will be the day."  and I squealed.   

And sure enough that very (cold & gray) afternoon, we turned the horses out into the new pasture for the first time.

This way, boys.

Welcome.

Yes, Plank, seriously.  You may go.

Come see.

There's more this way!

JD is a fence building marvel.  And I can say for certain,

I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Sweet New Tats & a 'Stache.

Or it's alternate title:  "JD & Jack, Unsupervised."

Or the other alternate:  "Mama, Mama, Put Me Up To the Mirror!"

No shaving required.

A Favorite Place.

Hunting season is finally over here in Hillsboro and not one minute too soon.  The woods were only open to camo clad gun toters and while there is no actual rule posted anywhere stating this, let one little Mama show up with a camera, two kids, three dogs, and one cat and the mighty hunters will melt into one big, fat hissy fit.  Trust me.

But it was so very hard to stay away.  The woods of Hillsboro still hold so many secrets.  Not to mention that a walk in the woods, especially new woods full of the unexpected, can cure just about any case of the blues or the blahs and end it up with a foot soak in a crystal clear, ice cold spring fed stream and good grief, done everyday, you might live forever.

And we know of just such a place. 

Here is an island where the stream forks, but the best part is behind me...

...dirt bluffs on either side of the water, probably 20+ feet high that not only make you feel like your in a secret cubby hole of earth but Ava can climb the wall, pulling herself upwards with exposed tree roots and delighting in the feel of cool, mushy handholds of soft, green moss. 

Who needs rock walls in noisy malls?

JD and I mainly stand around deeply breathing the fresh air because it doesn't smell a thing like laundry detergent or dish soap or crude oil or airports.

JD - Handsome?  (Can you see him in the picture there?  Look close, he's tough to spot.)

Yes.

Flexible? 

No.

And Frank?  He learned the valuable lesson we must all learn the hard way at some point:

He who steppeth repeatedly in mud,

taketh not the four wheeler home.

The kids can repeat that one by heart.  In four different languages.

*Daddy, JD told you wrong about where this was.  I'll explain it next time we talk.

**I have never intruded on anyone's hunting as implied.  I was nervous just checking my mail during season!

***We did not make little Frankie run all the way home.  We scooped him up as soon as the mud was dry ;)

****That is the first punctuation mark face I have ever made.  It felt wierd. I think I'll erase it.  No.  Yes. No.  Yes.  No.  But only this once.

Merry, Merry Christmas!

Just before bedtime last night, Ava asked me to help her write her Daddy a letter, "I tried to, Mama, but I can't spell the word apologize."  Then she handed me her blue color and this piece of paper,

(bless her heart)

and began:

Dear Daddy,

I am sorry and apologize that you can't be home for Christmas.  If I didn't have you I would cry tears.  I love you and I am so sorry you had to go to work.  Happy Birthday, Daddy.

I Love You,

Ava

P.S.  Your favorite color is green.

Then she nodded and said that's it.  And I had to go blow my nose. 

It moved me so, I decided to write him something, too.

The gifts are wrapped

the cookies baked

there's nothing left to do

but sit around

and think about

how much we all miss you.

So I made a special

trip to town

to sit on Santa's knees

I whispered what

I wanted most

and followed up with please.

But I guess I wasn't

good enough

because, my dear, it seems

that you will be

home for Christmas

but only in my dreams.

Move Over Ice Cream.

We are in the middle of our first hunting season here in Hillsboro and things have gone from Ghost Town to NOT Ghost Town.  This area along the Bayou De Loutre is known for it's deer hunting and folks all over the South know it.  The woods have come alive and now I can't check the mail in my nightgown or take an evening walk with the kids on the days my hair has dried by itself.

JD joined a club consisting of thousands of acres and had the good fortune of several hundred of those being a miles long, freshly laid pipeline, planted heavily with rye. 

Sweet.

If you have noticed fewer than usual deer in your area, it's because they are here.  On this grassy pipeline.  Day and night. 

Well, there are a few other places I have spotted them lately.

But I prefer the pipeline.

Hogs & Dogs. Well okay, Dogs.

This is JD's friend, co-worker, and kindred spirit, CM.  Don't be surprised if the word kindred spirit is edited out tomorrow. 

Please excuse his posture, he is from Mississippi.

If you have ever wondered what JD and CM  were doing on February 26, 2007, and really, who hasn't?, today is your lucky day. 

THE HOG HUNT, 2007.  A Pictorial.  With, perhaps, a few comments because I can't help it.

'Make-shift Hitching Post & Untidy Campsite' is what I call this one.

And next we have 'Cute Pup in Untidy Camp'.  Now I haven't been to JD's camp in a while, so I can't be sure, but it appears as if someone has ransacked the place, looking for valuables.  No surprise.  One look at the outside and anyone would assume there must be a gold mine in there.

And here's one of my favorites, definitely a shot not to be missed 'Boot Change on Untidy Porch'.

Next is 'Meat for Dinner' and funny how it's hanging there on that ten foot pole because that is what it would have taken for me to touch it.

 

'Up to Hocks'  CM & Roanie

'Up to Stirrups' or it's alternate title 'YeeHaw!'

'Handsome Horseman'

And now, 'I'd Rather Not' or it's alternate title 'I wish the Big One had Ridden Roanie'.

Last we have 'Not Now Maggie'.

Well, that about sums it up.  And while this was painful for the rest of us, it was solid gold to these two, stuck on a piece of steel somewhere in the Indian Ocean.  And the hogs?  That's just one you'll have to ask them.