December 22, 2003

Well, Merry Christmas From The Coast!

It has been mostly slow and quiet down here, interrupted by brief moments of excitement.  We drove up to Houston for Thanksgiving with Virginia, Lanell, Greg, and his family.  It was great food and a great afternoon.  We had a full house for the weekend, with Lanell, Virginia, and cousin Jessica at a weekend slumber party.  Lots of horse riding, and fried fresh catfish two nights in a row.  It really is rough to have direct access to the fish, shrimp, oysters…  I am definitely the girl to know.  At Freuline Oberbeck's "Kampskool for Wayward Girls" we even have the ability to go out for an English  Hack, or a Western Saunter.

Of course, our one year anniversary here having just passed, it would not have been complete without Mascot being the first girl to be bit by a snake.  I am guessing copperhead.  She caught it square on the skull between her right eye and ear.  The poison was immediately drawn to her saliva glands, which then began over-producing in order to break down the toxic protein.  Basically, her head swelled up and she got to lean up in my lap for about five hours.  By the next morning she looked like she had a grapefruit stuck in her throat and was back to normal.

The chicks have grown since their arrival on October 30, and have recently been moved out to the coop.  There are three young cockerels that will be eaten rather soon, as we certainly don't need more roosters.  They are very strange, with feathers all the way down to their toes.  They actually look like baby eagles.  We are all set, in fact, to cage them and feed them out on a bag of corn.  Incidentally, TopKnot was such a bossy little thing, he got kicked out of the coop.  June Bugg rules the roost, and Stella is keeping the new brood in line until they get the hang of the ropes.  The eight new hens are such a beautiful variety of size shape and color!  They have quite an example being set for them by Mae and Stella.  Golden eggs every morning by 9:00.

We gave ourselves a fun Christmas present, and tore the Living Room apart for remodeling.  Underneath the grey paneling, we found pink-painted-wood-plank walls--and, under the old brown shag carpet we found pink vinyl.  Wow.  It looked like Barbie puked in the house.  After a week with the contents of the living room  in the office, we finally have it put back together in Cactus green with a new huge bookshelf on one wall.  It is 180 degrees from the way it was.  Amazing.  I can't wait to do the office!