Nice weekend for us all --

Barely made it to work this morning . . .  the alarm on my clock has quit working and I didn't even wake up until quarter to nine this morning!  So it was a BIT late by the I got to work -- like almost 10!  Oh well,  using up my vacation time early isn't going to be a big deal this year since Mark will be offshore for both Thanksgiving AND Christmas this year.  Won't matter if I have any time left by then or not! 

It was a great weekend, though.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous both days.  It didn't start raining until the wee hours of this morning.   Of course we got 3 inches or so then, but still - it was at least a gorgeous weekend.

Bryan and his help managed to clear out 3 of the 4 downed trees and our place looks so much better!   The front is completely cleared once more:

Half of each of two huge trees in front were cut off before Isaac "just in case"

 

And now all those branches are out by the road to be picked up by the parish --
thanks, Bryan!

 

Here's the first tree in back just after it came down

 



It got cut up, but it was impossible for us to pick up even the sawed-up branches. 
They were all just unbelievably heavy.

That white "X" on the tree standing near the base of that downed tree above is the other tree that came down back there DURING the storm (the one on the ground in the picture below).  Next weekend Mark is going to go rent a really huge chainsaw so they can get that horrendous tree off the fence back there.  

Bryan got all those branches and trunk pieces of that first downed tree
hauled out to the road except that base --
that will need to be cut up with the bigger chain saw next weekend along with
that other giant tree that's still laying across the fence back there.



 

Then it'll all be done.  Now -- if there just aren't any more storms this year . . .

Buddy and Lisa managed to clear up the filthy paddocks that Mark and I hadn't managed to stay on top of over the last month, too.  Then Buddy made yet another wonderful lunch for everyone.  Something new and different.  Huge oven-baked meat balls that were then rolled in bread crumbs and deep fried long enough to make the crumbs nice and crispy.  He served them in a yummy (and spicy!) corn and shrimp soup, with some wonderful homemade bread topped with cheeses and soaked in olive oil.  Yum!  But boy was that stuff filling!  I ate just half of mine yesterday and had the rest for lunch today (and it was JUST as good today, I might add!)

This was an "extra" serving and it had been sitting there for a while --
I took this picture after we all ate and it STILL looks wonderful!

 

Buddy and Lisa both rode Duke for a while, too -- something he definitely needed!  None of them have been ridden for months.   Then we got both Duke and Lizzie bathed.  About time.  They haven't had a bath in a couple of months either!   Last night when I check on them, everyone was sound asleep in their stalls so it must have made them feel really comfy.

Next weekend Mark plans to do some riding himself.  He must be feeling pretty darned good lately because he also asked me to order him some new tennis shoes so he can go work out over at a local fitness center.  Hey - I'm impressed.  I'm not planning to go along, though.   ;-D 

My friend Jan is out in California at some sort of Hollywood Awards thing for Henry Darrow (the one whose biography she wrote).  She ran into Carter Oosterhouse (from HGTV) out there yesterday!  He is SO cute, isn't he!? 

Even Jan, who generally doesn't get all that excited about things, definitely looks like she thinks he is, too.  

Here she is heading down the "red carpet" into that awards ceremony with Henry Darrow and his wife Lauren:

Quite a visit.  I'll bet she's run into all sorts of famous people!


I sure hope things dry out enough now that the porch painting can get finished by this weekend.  I can't wait to put the furniture and rugs back out there and go sit and look at that nice cleared front yard!   

And THIS year we are not going to pile hay on that porch the way we've done for the last couple winters.  I'm sure the neighbors will be happy to hear that.  ;-D   We're going to get an outfit from over in Houston to come build us one of those 12 X 16 storage buildings on skids just inside Lizzie's paddock.  That's one of the high spots on the land.  And Lizzie doesn't go out to graze in her paddock like the guys do in theirs so she won't miss that space in the slightest.  And that way it'll be very easy for our hay guy to just back his truck in through that front gate and unload the hay directly into that building.  Then every couple weeks we'll just haul 10 bales or so over onto the barn porch (well let's be honest  -- we'll probably ask Buddy to do that, actually) so some bales will be accessible to me no matter what the weather -- and no matter whether my back is working or not!  And the house porch will stay nice and tidy!   Lovely.