Our newest ranch resident

This is Tank. He showed up on the ranch two days ago whining and hiding under our trailer. Skip was in town and I stayed in the trailer until he got back because you just can't tell if a stray will be friendly or dangerous. As it turns out, Tank loves us and we love him. Ginger has a new pal to play with as you can tell by the picture - she is wanting to share her chewy toy with him. He is very gentle, appears healthy, has a great appetite and is gentle with our old dog, Casey. We will get him all checked out at the vet tomorrow and also put up a notice at the Fina gas station in case he has caring owners. Right now, because he had no collar and was very submissive, we think he was abused and dumped. We named him Tank because he has a white "T" marking on his chest and he's certainly built like a tank. :)

More adventures on the ranch!

Beginning design for the front gate

This is actually a fireplace plate but we had been looking for an eagle for the front gate and this was exactly what Skip wanted. We found it and ordered it off the internet. It reminds him of the American eagle used in many military insignias and of course the Army crest. We will take it to the local welder/fence maker to weld on a black rodiron gate for the front of the property. Don't know yet whether we will actually have the lettering "Eagle Ranch" or not. Still designing - :)

Vaya con Dios amigos!

The Eagle has landed

We found this eagle sculpture at the Hemispheres outlet store in Sherman and plan to build a fountain in the front of the house to put in on. It is resting in our "garden" in front of the trailer for now. We just love to look at it and visualize where it will be, inviting folks at the front of the house to "Eagle Ranch". Can't wait!

Speaking of waiting. . . what an understatement! We are waiting for the appraisal to get back so we can break ground. Should be today. We'll see - nothing moves fast around here! In the meantime, it's COLD and with a little rain, we are mostly honkered down in the trailer working on the computer, writing Christmas cards or cooking. I am getting very creative with soups these days. I just made one yesterday with leeks, potatoes, spinach and ham. Delish!

We are looking forward to some warmer days this weekend so we can get some more things done around here. With cooler, dry days, we plan to do some more trimming up on the trees around here. Plus, we need to plant the thirty trees in containers, and the 15 smaller trees we just picked up from the USDA office in Bonham. We are hiring a friends ranch manager and crew to help us. The larger trees are too heavy for us to lift. We made out a schematic of where we will plant. And will probably mark the places with our orange landscaping paint. We also have to get more lava sand and an organic compost to put around the trees after planting. These are organic products we like to use but we will have to go to Sherman to find them. Hopefully all will be planted by Christmas.

More later! Vaya con Dios