Learning to bob and weave

At the end of last week I promised that this week would be action packed, buckle up and get ready for this week long adventure!

Yall remember our LGD's(Livestock Guardian Dog) in training, Thor and Loki?

They have quickly grown from little white balls of fluff into tye-dyed chew monsters that will eat anything! I've been keeping up on making sure they have all their puppy shots, increasing their food intake as they grow to the size of a miniature horse, being a good first time dog mom, right? All except for one important preventative item, flea protection!

My week started off battling little blood sucking bugs, even now while writing this it makes my skin crawl. And yes, I will fully admit that when it comes to bugs INSIDE my house, I have a psychological disorder. I can "see" them everywhere, I feel them constantly and I will wake up in the middle of the night just knowing that they are jumping on me.

In reality, we saw a couple, jumping on us here and there, mainly after we had been outside playing with the puppies. Bright and early Monday morning I raced to our amazing country Veterinarian and picked up some flea medication. Then I proceeded to vacuum every single inch of the house, wash everything that I could fit in my washing machine and vacuum some more. My vacuum has had the workout of it's life this past week. At first my obsessiveness was controlling me and I was vacuuming 5-6 times a day. But now I'm down to once or twice depending on how much dirt we track in. Flea combing the puppies has proven that they are now flea free, but I'm still on high alert in the house. So that consumed my Monday, but WAIT, I forgot to tell you how the Sherriff visited us on Sunday evening!

I was doing dome work on the soap shop on my computer and I see a white Tahoe with the Sherriff's name on the side, pull up to our front gate. Oh great, Karen had been burning things earlier in the day, my mind instantly goes to the possibility of there being a burn ban. Karen and I walked out to see why he was stopping by and were met with shocking news.

Some driver took out all of the mailboxes on our road!

Initially when the land we live on was split up into lots, it was a dirt road, all of the mailboxes are located on the end of the road where the state highway is. Some driver, most likely drunk or distracted, ran off the road, took out the U post that held all 10ish mailboxes and kept going.

Welcome to the neighborhood! We were told that TxDot would install a new pole then we could put up a new mailbox. But for the time being the post office would hold our mail. Add that to my to-do list for the week.

As you can see, we started off with a bang, literally.

Mid-week was filled with some errand running, one of which was finding a local meat market where I could get bones for the puppies. Instead of always having to yell at the chew monsters, I figured I would give them something they were supposed to chew.

The meat market is a 3rd generation mom and pop shop. Their meats were beautiful and these huge bones were only $2 each! The pup's approve and I've found much less random trash sitting on the doorstep in the mornings.

Next up on the list of things to do was cut soap decks for the shop. This is where Karen comes in. It's not that I can't use a saw, measure and cut things. It's that Karen's saw is his baby and he would probably have a stroke if he saw me using it.

I guess technically I should give Karen a byline or some sort of credit on their listing, eh, he takes credit for enough around here, the soap shop is mine! I should also mention that yes we were in shorts, at the end of January. It was one of those lovely Texas winter days.

Our awesome neighbors stopped by on their way into town, they informed us that the local nursery had gotten in their fruit trees and they were headed to get some. Yall, Karen's eyes lit up at the mention of fruit trees! Back at our last house my Mom had bought him an apple tree, he loved that thing so much, it's probably the only thing he misses about that house. As soon as we bid them safe travels, Karen turns to me and says, You've got to go get me some fruit trees! This is normally how things go around here. I run the errands and get the supplies and then we get to work on the weekends. But this was Saturday, which means I was either running out after sanding soap decks, or I could try and go in the morning.

The music and tequila I was enjoying while sanding decided we would wait till the morning.

Bright and early on Sunday I headed out, to yet another locally owned store in our area. That's probably been one of the best things about living where we do, the sheer amount of small businesses we have and support. The only way I can describe this place is a sanctuary. From all the green living things to how peaceful it was walking around, had I not been on a mission from Karen, I would have spent hours wandering around.

Ok, maybe I did spend a little bit of time wandering around, snapping pictures and taking it all in. I mean, I did need to have photo proof to show how amazing this place was!

I found the fruit trees, some amazing staff to help me get everything I needed and I headed home with the goods.

Like a new father waiting for his child, Karen was waiting at the gate when I pulled up. He quickly grabbed some shovels and we got to work. In retrospect, I should have made him put on some sunscreen. Because when it was all said and done he had a pretty good sunburn on his head...in January! Ahh, I love Texas!

The afternoon was spent digging, mixing soil conditioner and having plenty of laughs with Karen and the girls. The girls dug up grubs to give the neighbors chickens, the puppies would get in the holes and dig them deeper, or sometimes fill them in and we all drove Karen crazy by having a great time. When it comes to working and involving kids and animals, Karen is a novice. He works in the adult world, where you don't stop what you are doing to put grubs in a jar or chase a butterfly to see if you can identify it. We need to work on Karen's free spirit, but for now the girls and I have enough to make up for his rigidity.

All in all we have two peach, two pear and one plum, the smallest kid loves plums! And Karen conceded to let me scour the junk pile to find something to use for cages to protect them. It worked out perfectly, we had enough wire for one cage and I found four already made lurking in the mounds of junk.

We also laid out plans for where the future garden is going to go, the outdoor kitchen and many more projects. One of my favorite things to do is walk the land with Karen and hear of all the ideas he has for how to use the land and what to put where.

That was our eventful and exhausting week in a nutshell. And the lesson of the week is, learn to bob and weave because every week there's something different coming at you!

B.