February 3, 2009. Harper, Texas. A Day at the Ranch.

The weather at the ranch today was perfect. The sky was blue with not a cloud in sight with the temperature of 75 degrees. Perfect weather for walking or sitting or reading or watching the birds. It was a wonderful day for me. Since our arrival in Texas I have kept up with my normal schedule of waking up at six thirty, until today, when I awoke at eight thirty to find the sun streaming in our bedroom. With windows both front and back with no shades or drapes, the morning sun comes directly into our room. I stayed in the bedroom reading and drinking coffee until ten thirty. I have been reading about Estonia, a place we hope to visit in the Fall, along with Latvia and Lithuania and perhaps Finland. After doing a load of dirty clothes at our house, I walked down to the ranch house by myself to pick up the car. Ken took the car down to pick up the Mule to use when he repairs the screen on the porch. While at the ranch house I fed the fish and watched them for fifteen minutes. They never did come up to the top to eat, probably because the water is very cold and they are not moving much.. We still have many little gold fish along with all the eight large ones. I could not find any perch.

It does not seem interesting, but it is to me, watching these stupid fish, then drinking a glass of water sitting by the fire pit looking for the birds. My binoculars are never where I want them. I spotted two little wrens but could not get close enough to tell which wrens they were, because my binocs were at the Top House. I needed Phyllis or Alice Anne here to set me straight. Gary and Diane lent us a DVD "Young at Heart" and we watched it over lunch in the ranch house. I also started laundry for Suzanne. It is certainly true that four little girls make for lots and lots of laundry. The rest of the afternoon we sat on the porch of the Top House and read our books. Wild pigs have become a problem on ranches in Texas, so Steve and a friend came to set some traps. Tomorrow morning we must go and see what is in the trap, then call Steve. Tonight we had dinner with Joyce and Robbie at their house. She is a good cook so the evening just flew along and of course we ate too much too. Now the moon is bright and the night sky clear as a bell. Steve's friend read a story about the rain in the hill country, and they suggested that it might be October before the rains come again. We have had no rain here since last March. This was a wonderful day but I understand many people would be very bored here. But not me.