Grumpy's Ranch

My parents own a 40-something acre ranch/deer hunting place about an hour and a half from Belton.  It is totally and completely away from everything.  If you need to get away from cell phones, noise, light pollution or any other kind of pollution for that matter, this is the place.  It has become my parent's little get-away, and they cannot go long without heading to the ranch.  I totally get it.  It is peaceful, and the sunsets cannot be beat.  It also can only be accessed by vehicles with a truck chaise (if that is how it is spelled), so our '97 Lincoln has yet to make the trip out.  

If you look at the first picture below you will see three buildings.  I believe the center and left building came with the land when my parents bought it.  The center building holds a bunk bed, couch, table, sink, refrigerator, hotplate, a window AC unit and lots of strange deer "art" (paintings of deer, charcoal drawings and a diagram of the cuts of deer meat) - they came with the building.  The left building is a storage shed, toilet closet and a unity sink for cleaning up after chopping up all those deer.    This building also has unique deer art.  Between the two building is an outdoor shower, not that anyone uses it anytime other than the summer, it does not have a hot water heater.  The building on the right is a new addition that holds, I think, 3 bunk beds. The porch is also new.  It and the bunk room were built by my dad's two best friends who are quite skilled at building things.  

My dad's ranch has 6 rain water collection tanks so they can bathe, wash hands, flush the toilet and have water to train deer to rely on...conveniently close to their deer stands.  

Have I ever mentioned my traumatic childhood experience of when my dad brought home a dead deer and strung it up from a tree in our back yard so it could drain?  Guess who swore off of deer meat that day?  Guess who's family has tried to sneak it into food ever since?

Basically we did what one does at a secluded ranch when not in deer season.  We built a nice fire, roasted hotdogs and smores - it was awesome.  We put the kids down (not quite successfully) and played card games until we were ready to go to sleep.  It was just what we wanted.  

Just let me put one more in of him : )

Also, I turned the dial on my trusty Rebel T5 (or is it 3) to the flower setting and took pictures of bluebonnets.  It has been 7 years since I have seen them in person, and I wanted some pictures to remind me of Texas next time I have been away from home for too long.  

Fun Outside

We looooooove being outside in Texas.  Do you see the blue sky in the background in the picture below?  For our first couple months here, it was a normal for us to have a daily conversation about the sky…about the blueness of the sky, the big puffy clouds, the way the rays of sunlight break through the  big puffy clouds, all of it was equally fun for us to talk about.

Belton has a lake, dam and a spillway.  Although the spillway was not open, we took the kids out to see it.  

Check out the digression of my DB when we told him to smile for the camera.

Unhappy stare and slight frown.  These pictures still make me laugh.

AB is not quite hamming it up, but man, DB is trying so hard to smile despite his impending tears. 

Nope, not working at all.  Just losing it.  

After getting it all out he was ready to give me a good one : )

See AB and DB run.

See AB totally fall.

Our pretty lake and perfect sunset.

I do not know if they have ever seen the sun set into the horizon.  This is a nice lookout point that our kids enjoyed…as well as teenage couples who like to stargaze a night and 

ask their girlfriends to prom.  

Fun with the Kids in the Snow

So way back when we were still overseas it snowed.  I took the older two outside to have a little fun.  Honestly if one of us had not taken them out to play in it, I am almost certain there would have been a coup and they might have taken over the decision making in our home.  It really was in the interest of maintaining our position as parents : )

Although pretty, the snow was not all that thick they certainly had their hearts set on building a snowman.  Therefore we built a mini.  

Because it was a mini we picked it up and hid it behind some bushes so it would not melt in the sun and  so the kids could bring daddy out to see it a bit later.  However, the neighborhood kids apparently thought it was fit for everyone to see because when the AB and DB took daddy out to see it, it had been moved to a more prominent position so everyone could enjoy our masterpiece of a mini snowman.  

My funny kids.