The Big Chill In Texas

Hi, Friends, How are you?

I hope you are warm and well.

We are fine here in Texas. Bill and I haven't lost power. The power lines in our neighborhood run under ground, so we haven't had some of the transformer issues. Texas is experiencing normal storm conditions combined with shortages in our power grid due to frozen wind turbines and solar panels that aren't getting enough sunshine. 

Our lowest temperature was 1˚. It hasn't been that low since I've been in Texas. Bill's mom is in her 80s and she doesn't recall anything this cold. Every Texas county was under a winter storm warning which is unprecedented. We are accustomed to power outages in the spring and summer instead of the winter so many Texans weren't prepared. 

I feel very blessed that we did not lose power. Bill was a Boy Scout so he has some skills in the event that we did. Even with that, much of our camping gear in out in East Texas. 

 Bill's mom lost power at her place. Bill was on his way to check on her when the assisted living place called and said they didn't have power. She had been in the cold for about 8 hours. He brought her here. 

It took a while to warm her up. 

Our daughter lost power and she is safely ensconced at my brother's house.  

We got a boiling water safety alert this morning. Thankfully we had a lot of bottled water to take out to East Texas. 

We'd already had our coffee before the alert came out. Gross.Hopefully that was good water that was already in the pipes. No word on when that will be lifted. I'm not drinking the water for a while though. 

I've had moments of concern about our new house out in the country but I've tried to put worry aside. If the pipes or the well freezes, it's something we will deal with. I'll be sad but in the grand scheme it would be okay. That is one of the ramifications of having an extra place, I guess. Our neighbor went over to check on it yesterday. He said everything looked fine. It's a God thing that we have met him because he never met the other owner. We met him a few weeks ago when his dog was running around on the highway and he and Bill exchanged phone numbers. What a blessing. 

We got another dusting of snow last night so the roads are bad again today. 

We don't have snow plows down here so we rely on sunlight and traffic to clear the roads until the snow melts. 

We bought a house in the spring of 1983. It had been a bad winter so we lost a lot of shrubs because of the low temperatures. I have a strong feeling that some of my shrubs here in town will die. 

I know that one of my favorite trees out in East Texas has storm damage from ice that blew in a few days before the snow.  I don't know what else was out there and the few things that I planted should be okay. 

I joined an East Texas plant group on Facebook. Many of them lost everything in their green houses when they lost power.  

I brought in most of my tender potted plants and they are okay for now. 

 

This is has been another bizarre experience in what has been a long year. 

We are through most of the cold, cold temperatures. The energy crisis continues so we aren't out of the woods yet as far as that goes. 

We are used to wind, hail, tornadoes. Winter storms? Not so much. 

I don't know how you guys do this every year. 

That is an update on us.

I hope you are well and warm!  

Katie 

Our Exciting News About An Antique Farmhouse

Hi, Friends, 

How are you? 

I'm on pins and needles over here. 

If you have been following for a while, you may remember that there have been a few houses that have intrigued and tempted us. 

There have been a couple that we can't seem to forget and I've enjoyed taking you along on our house journey. 

There was the less than perfect Little Lake Property.

There was the Sinking Bungalow and the sweet Sunset house. 

There was the Faux French Chateau. 

I'm a big believer that everything happens for a reason. When we lost Sunset last summer, it took a little while to understand that loss. Now with the lockdown and Covid, I think our staying here has been a blessing. We know our neighbors and our neighborhood. They have been our only companionship for the last five months. (From across the street, of course.) 

Bill and I have always wanted a place in the country. We have talked about that dream for the last 37 years. 

We wanted a manageable amount of acreage. 

I've had a longing for chickens and for growing food. Bill needs to tinker with things. He wants geese. 

But why? Why, when we have been blessed with a lovely home? 

Why would God want us to have a second home? We are blessed enough with this one. I've spent a lot of time in prayer about it. 

During the last third of our life, we thought we would travel. When will we be able to do that again? 

We thought we would have little feet visiting us. That's not on the horizon and now with the pandemic, I doubt our children will want to bring little feet into this scenario. I could be wrong but I doubt it. 

  There have been times when we have been discouraged and the dream seemed out of reach. 

One of things that has hit me during this virus situation is to have peace in the things that I cannot control. I've always had a feeling that if the right house or property was out there, we would know it and that it wouldn't be that hard to find. I've seen God work in my life enough that I know this to be true. 

 Our realtor has had us in a couple of search matrixes. We get emails everyday about a downsized suburban home and country properties. 

It's a lot of emails but there was nothing for sale that looked interesting. 

Bill would get the emails and he would look at the links. He forwarded those to me that intrigued him. 

Most of the time, I've been "Nope, I'm not living there with you." 

Last week, he got an email which led him to another link. It was a house that had just been put on the market. When he clicked through the pictures of the property and the house, he wanted to see it. We were already going to be out in that direction, so he set up a showing. 

I hadn't seen the pictures or the listing. I didn't even know that we were house hunting. I didn't even really want to house hunt. We were supposed to be relaxing.

 

We pulled up to the house. 

I didn't even notice the picket fence. (I have always wanted a picket fence.) 

The acreage had vista and interest. "Okay..." 

I walked up to through the front yard and stepped up onto the porch. I got a warm and tingly feeling. 

That tingly feeling means nothing if Bill sees something he doesn't like ~ just FYI. 

We opened the front door. 

"This is original shiplap!" 

The realtor and I began to talk about the original doors, beadboard ceilings, the original kitchen cabinets. 

There are original door knobs.

"How old is this house?" 

The realtor said the house was built in 1932 but it's had some recent work and a hodgepodge of floors.

There is a big unfinished addition which caused me to think that Bill would never go for this property. 

 

We walked through the house and the yard. We walked out to the barns. 

There is a big one that is falling down and a little old chicken barn. 

We got in the truck and drove to two other houses. They were "No."  

Bill and I chatted in the car. 

The work was not too daunting for Bill. 

Yes, there are things that the inspector needs to check and we have concerns. 

Bill was not deterred by the addition. If fact, he thought it was a good thing that it was unfinished because we can finish it the way we want. 

The more we talked, the more we became sure that we needed to make an offer. 

We saw the house on Friday. We put our offer in on Saturday.

We didn't think that we would hear on Sunday. It's the country and there is "country time".  

As Monday stretched on, we started to feel like the owner had gone with another offer. 

It was the Sunset house all over again. 

I prayed and told that Lord that whatever happened was okay. I'd be disappointed but it was okay. 

At almost that moment, Bill walked out of his office and said, "He accepted our offer." 

I got goose bumps all over again. 

There is work to be done but a lot of stuff has already been done. 

This project may take five years to get it exactly how we would like it.  

This house has details that I'd never dreamed we find. 

We still have to get it inspected and we still have to close but we hope to have a little weekend farm by Thanksgiving. 

It almost doesn't seem real. 

I'll be back to talk through some plans, room ideas and show you some family heirlooms that have been hoarded for such a house as this. 

Thanks for following along on this journey. 

Katie 

Update - we had to pull out during our option period due to excessive damage to the eaves, 5 or 6 layers of roofing and poorly done additions. We continue to search for a perfect weekend retreat. 

Victory Gardening

I decided early on this in current situation that I could manage without a few things but I could not do spring without flowers. 

Spring is here in Texas but it almost feels like summer. My last iris finished blooming last week. 

My oak leaf hydrangea is in bloom.

A few weeks ago, a new cutting garden bed was created when I ripped out all the Asian Jasmine. 

Cosmos and zinnia seeds were sprinkled into the soil. They were ordered from Amazon during the first week of the shut down. A quick trip to Callaway's yielded what I thought was the rest of my planting happiness. 

Callaway's has stayed open, so I have made a few trips to pick up seeds, annuals and perennials. 

I try to head over as soon as they open. Some customers are in masks. Very few of them wear gloves. I wear both and avoid getting closer than six feet to anyone. 

Most of the beds in our yard were ground cover and shrubs. Other than leaf clean out and occasional weeding they needed very little maintenance. I have slowly been pulling that stuff and out and replacing everything with flowering plants or plants with more interest. 

I'm trying seeds and perennials but fill with with seasonal color.

I adore foraging in the yard for flowers and greenery to create arrangements for the house. 

Years ago, my roses reverted to root stock. I had less and less full sun as the trees matured. 

I gave up on roses except for a miniature rose and my climbers. The climbers only bloom in April. The miniature tea roses bloom in the spring with a big show and then only sporadically through the rest of the growing season. 

Four more bushes have been added to those. That should keep me in roses, I hope. 

We have some lettuce and tomatoes started in our smaller stock tank.  

They have both doubled in size. 

I have cucumbers in a whiskey barrel. Bill got this for me for our anniversary.

The fountain is up and running after a few frustrating false starts. 

I love the sound of water in the garden.
If our warm weather holds, we will put the stock tank swimming pool up.

That is about it for now.
Join me in the morning for the Pinterest Challenge.
Katie 
Linking with,
Common Ground
A Stroll Thru Life

Camping Weekend?

After a 10 hour power Christmas take down and organization feat, Bill hit me with the news that we were going camping. 

  What? 

Camping is work. I was exhausted. 

However, I rallied - somewhat. 

I say somewhat because I just wasn't the most organized this trip.  

Over the course of the weekend, we made three trips to the Dollar General. 

Thank heavens that there is a Dollar G in just about every small town in Texas. I think they put the Alcoa out of business, though.  

Usually, there are Joanna Gaines inspired tablescloths and linens. Hotel china, tea cups, coffee cups etc, etc, etc. 

Not this time. 

After the great mouse caper of 2014, we decided not to store anything inside of it except Irish Spring bath soap.  

Mice love toilet paper and paper towels - FYI. They don't love the smell of balsam. 

 You may remember that I rehabbed the camper two and a half years ago. 

There is a great series of camper posts but because I am lacking in blogging sticktoitiveness so there was not really a reveal post. 

Fabulous thrifting expeditions ensued and darling black and white accessories were collected for the camper. Since we don't store anything in the camper, they got dispersed throughout our various cupboards. Some of it was congregated for this trip but not everything. 

Hence the many trips to the Dollar G.  

We didn't bring any coffee cups. We love camp coffee. 

These were the only coffee cups at the DG. 

The Good Morning Sunshine mug is mine. This choice was very ironic as I am NOT a morning person at all. 

This was my natural centerpiece.  

There wasn't a thing blooming. It was fun collecting what was available.  

I really don't love all the pantry items on display. I think I'm going to make a little curtain for this niche. A spring rod should hold it in place. 

On a whim, I grabbed this postcard in an Adirondack frame at the last minute. 

We both loved how it added a cabin look to the camper. 

I painted the log cabin watercolor. 

As I lay on the bed dozing and napping, (Napping in the camper is about the best thing ever.)

I had a good look at the inside. 

I was a little astounded at the amount of work that it took to transform it from rusty red and brown to tasteful gray, black and white. 

I tried tooting my own horn to Bill but he didn't seem as impressed with me as I was with myself. Haha. 

These are all pictures with my iPhone but here are some styling shots with the decor items that were thrown in the truck right before we left. 

There is a punch list of stuff we still need to do.

I think I'll make a list of everything we need to bring so next time we don't make so many trips to the Dollar G. 

I'll leave you with some Selfies With A Dog.

:)

These two were so excited to camp. 

I was correct. It is a lot of work but the weather was amazing. 

We also had a fun time with family. 

It was a great weekend. 

Can you see the Dollar G in the distance? 

Katie