He's Lucky I Shoot With a Camera

Our resident buck has decided that he likes to lay in the sand next to the barn.

I caught him there twice today.

However, he does NOT appreciate having his picture taken.

Front Porch Sittin'

Yesterday I was sitting on my front porch listening to this:

and this verse popped into my head:

"Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth."

Psalm 46:10

The Letter D

D is for Doormat.

D is for Dog.

D is for Dog on Doormat.

D is for Dog on Doormat...

who dares to deliberately destroy and devour dastardly dive-bombing bees.

From the Land of Randomness

Our new neighbor is a real bear. No, really. The big, black furry kind. I looked out my kitchen window one evening, and there was a bear in our backyard. By the time I grabbed my camera, it had wandered into the tall grass behind the barn, but at least I have visual proof...kind of.

See the black fuzzy blob in the center of the picture?

That's my bear.

Look what else we've got! We had a manual well pump installed, so now if we ever lose power, we still have water...and four kids to help haul it.

It's pretty cool.

We've also got quite a few of these. We've even named some of them:

Dinner, Lunch, Stew, and Yummy.

Tonight as I was making dinner, Mr. Adorable commented from the living room:

"Mom, being a knight is hard."

And on one of our exploratory hikes before we moved in, our realtor took a picture of these signs on the hill behind the house:

(SCENIC VEIW ... NEXT 2 LEFTS)

A German German Shepherd

My husband and I have always talked about getting a dog. Now that we live out in the country, we were thinking about getting a big one, like maybe a German Shepherd or something.

Maybe not a puppy though, we said. Too much work training and housebreaking a puppy.

Wouldn't it be neat, we said, if we could find a dog that was already trained, was great with kids, and just needed a new home.

Yeah, that'd be neat. We'll start looking soon, we said.

Instead, he found us.

Ruger is a three-year-old German Shepherd imported from Germany. He showed up at our house on Sunday afternoon, and after many phone calls I finally got ahold of his owner, who lives on a road not too far from our house.

His owner is currently traveling and the neighbor who was taking care of him had forgotten to secure him before she left the property, so he went exploring. His owner apologized for the hassle and gave me directions on how to find her house so we could take him back.

And then she mentioned that she was trying to find a new home for him because she travels so much and can't give him the attention he needs.

Um, yeah. He's getting lots of that at our house. Maybe instead of taking him back to an empty house, we could just keep him for her until she gets home. And then if everything works out, maybe not give him back at all.

Everyone thought that sounded like a great plan.

So Ruger is ours for the next few weeks...and could become ours to keep!

Log Houses

You know what I think is especially cool about these log houses?

They were built inside THIS log house:

which has this barn, round pen, and chicken coop next to it:

and this creek running behind it:

in the middle of 6+ acres of land:

and they're all ours!

Things I've Learned in the Past Three Days

• I can easily drink 2-3 pots of tea daily.
• If you want to reduce the noise levels in your home, speak very softly. Everyone else will speak very softly too.
• The world will not stop if all my self-assigned tasks do not get completed.
• However, dishes and laundry do not take care of themselves.
• It is very hard to make important phone calls when you have no voice.
• It is also very hard to whine.