Life in the "Pearl"

Barn Building 2

2012-02-06T13:06:00.007-06:00

So the next week we have our official barn building! We had several friends from church and their sons out and started the day.
We began with a prayer so that we all go home with all our fingers.

Then the Mrs. (who worked all day long tirelessly to feed us and keep us hydrated) brought out breakfast tacos.

Then the work began.

Young men instructed by older men. It's biblical.

Lots of discussion on the roof.

Header goes up.

Ridge beam.

Break time.

Looking good.

All our friends signed the header.

Some of the guys wives came out to bring food and stay for dinner.

The barn raisers!!!

A feast afterwards.

Good friends!

A good days work. We got more done in a day with all our friends help than Papa and I could have done all week. It is so great to be in a community where our friends will give of themselves sacrificially. We are indebted to them all.

Barn Building 1

2012-02-06T12:38:00.003-06:00

With the big wind we had in September that relocated our barn for us came the opportunity to re-build and if your gonna re-build you might as well upgrade right? So our plan was to build a new barn to replace the old that would end up being 3 times the size of the old one. Now most projects around the homestead are usually done by me and the Mrs. or Me and Papa but this one seemed to be of a size that we would need to bring in reinforcements. This would be a multi day project and certain things needed to be completed before others so the weekend before the official barn-raising we had a preliminary event to set the 22 6" X 6" posts. Of course Papa would be there as he is a sucker for anything involving construction and where he can be in charge! I also enlisted the help of my Sunday School teacher whose big idea the barn raising was and a long time co-worker who not only helped with the work but brought out a concrete mixer as well.
The mixer really made the work go easier and faster.

Papa and SS teacher worked on placing posts as Co-worker and I mixed concrete and moved posts.

Remember, a co-worker of mine would also be an inspector. We just can't help ourselves.

The Mrs. would bring water...

and kisses for me!

Day one complete! We were ready for a barn raising!

Long time gone...

2012-02-06T12:01:00.002-06:00

Wow! It has been ages since I last blogged. I have been so incredibly busy it has just gone by the way-side. So , I've got all these pics I have not blogged on the computer and I will once again try and stay consistent. I'm sure it won't happen but I'll try.

So , last time I blogged I mentioned that we got rid of a steer and my oldest female whipper-snapper was none too happy. Well, we took the money from the steer and bought Charlie!

The whipper-snappers are having a great time riding him.
He likes chasing goats.

Sissy is quite happy with the animal upgrade.

And becoming a really good rider.

All is well.

Bubs trip to the hospital

2011-11-26T20:42:00.003-06:00

For a long time now we knew that our son would eventually need some sort of corrective surgery on his foot. We always knew that there was a problem, we just didn't know what it was. He has always had a hard time running and as he aged it seemed to be getting worse. We finally found the right specialist who determined that the problem was a deformity in his ankle from birth and the Dr believed he could repair it easily.
So Bub went in for surgery and an overnight stay in the hospital. After 2 weeks he went back to the DR and all is progressing nicely. He won't have to wear a cast, just a boot, and should be in PT in a couple of more weeks. He can now move his ankle in a way he has never been able to move it before!

Unfortunately, they don't have a surgery to stop him from being a dork!!!

But we know all is well when the appetite returns.

Last of the catch-up

2011-10-05T22:14:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago clan Daniel traveled to Houston for a wedding. On the way back the whipper-snappers wanted to stop by A&M and take a look around. I know, I know but their Papa is an Aggie and he has brainwashed every one of them. It's OK by me though as A&M seems to be a conservative island in a sea of liberal collages. Besides, think of all the cool SEC football games!
They really enjoyed seeing the college and if that is what it takes to motivate them then Dad is all for it!

Another recent occurrence was Bub turning 13! It is hard to imagine that we now have a teenager in the house. Seems like a few months ago he was a toddler, now he is working towards honorable manhood.

It was his first boy/girl party and there were over 20 kids there but all seemed to have a good time.

And most recently we sold our last steer. We were gonna keep him and show him in the state fair this year but decided to go ahead and sale him. He has been a really sweet steer that we all bottle fed but he had a purpose. Bub and Sister didn't seem to have a problem with it but Sissy sure did. She was pretty tore up about it. I think she has a bigger love of animals than the other two but when she sees what we are buying with the $$$$ I think she will be pleased. That will be revealed in a later post.

Labor Day weekend...or the big blow!

2011-10-05T13:21:00.003-05:00

Every Labor Day weekend clan Daniel loads up the travel trailer and heads east to the Mrs. families farm and camps, gets ready for deer season and leaves our travel trailer until after the new year. This year we decided to forgo our long weekend trip and stay home to re-floor the whipper-snappers rooms. We intended to pull up the carpet and stain the floors, after removing the carpet we determined that that was not an option so we decided to tile both floors.
The Mrs. does the bulk of the artistic type work like laying tiles to be square and uniform.

Dad man's the saw and does the bulk of the tile cutting.

Bub got in on the act helping to lay tile in his room.

We went to bed Monday night feeling quite proud of our accomplishments with the tile until Tuesday morning when we awoke to this...

Seems a huge windstorm came thru and played havoc on the homestead. We knew that there was a storm but had no idea that this had happened.

The next morning Nannie called asking what was in our garden. When we went out to see we found our barn.

Apparently it had slammed into our travel trailer (that should have been 2 hours away!) totaling it and then lifted up, crashed onto one of the storage sheds (totaling it) and then breaking it in two landing in the garden.

Thankfully no one was injured and we have insurance to cover the losses.

Unfortunately for the Mrs. this barn was her 10Th wedding anniversary present so she was really tore up about it. The re-building process should make for good blogging!

School starts - life gets hectic!

2011-10-05T09:54:00.004-05:00

With the start of school we assumed that life would settle down into a nice routine...NOT! The whipper-snappers on their 1st day of school.
Bub was asked to play in the marching band. Usually you don't do this until the 8Th grade. He is a 7Th grader this year.

Homecoming rolled around and that is always a big deal in a small Texas town.

Sissy is cheering for the 5Th and 6Th grade pee-wee football team.

Bub is playing for our 7Th grade Jr. High team. He's the big kid in the middle.

Bub after a game. He is an offensive lineman.

He and his teammates rode in the homecoming parade.

So did Sissy and her cheer squad.

At pee-wee homecoming I got to escort sissy onto the field.

I'm gonna be in so much trouble in a few years!

A great adventure

2011-10-04T21:22:00.006-05:00

This summer Bub and I got to go on a grand adventure and experience something I had always wanted to do but never had the chance. A backpacking trip in the mountains. Now my family and I are avid campers and hikers but have never combined the two. Partially because of the age of our kids and partially lack of opportunity. Well opportunity knocked this year in the form of one of my good friends from church. Seems he has a lifelong friend who is a county extension agent and part time back-country guide in Colorado who has been dying to get my friend to the mountains to go on a trip. Well he and I decided what a great father-son trip it would be and recruited a couple of other buddies from church and their sons and we were off. We took two trucks up the mountain filled with men and gear. There were ten of us all together and we had a beautiful day to start off.
Here we are waiting on the rest of our party to make last minute preparations as my good friend (let's say...Rufus) talks over a few more details with our guide.

Well our beautiful day took a sour turn. One of the trucks started over-heating on the way up and two of our party had to take them back down the mountain and hike back up. While we waited the weather turned off rather wet.

Luckily we were still in a good humor as our guide showed us this small creek that eventually becomes the Rio Grande river.

This is our starting point. We were headed to the big tall mountain in the background.

As we hiked along the weather teased us as it would appear to start breaking up only to rain more in a few minutes. The first day we stopped a lot as we got accustomed to our packs. Rufus and I joked that we could imagine our fearless guide turning to us at any point and saying," I ain't gonna lie to you guys, I'm lost and kinda scared" but he never did.

It was a great experience with breathtaking views.

Bub was holding his own on the first day.

We were very excited as we had been waiting for this for a long time. We never imagined it with rain though. We always assumed camp fires and John Denver but it don't always work like that.

Bub and a good friend. These two were the two youngest our guide had ever taken on a trip like this.

Another close friend and his son.

By late afternoon on day on the rain was pouring and the wind was getting colder. We finally had to hunker down in our tents and make the best of it. All our gear was pretty well soaked but we managed to muddle through. I should have taken more pics but at this point it was the last thing on my mind. I was feeling pretty confident that we might get snowed in at this point.

But as it usually goes the dawn turned into a beautiful day. We had not made anywhere near the miles on the first day we should have what with the vehicle problems and the weather so we re-routed our trip and started of on a gorgeous morning. We had camped at 12,500 feet elevation and we were all feeling like tried and true mountain men.

The second day was great. The weather held out most of the day, we did 15 miles which we considered a pretty fair distance and we saw a bear in the woods. Look close in the trees and you can see his head. Our guide had never seen one in the woods so you can imagine how rare a treat this was.

We saw some beautiful sites,

and had a great time

enjoying all that God has created.

Billions and billions of years? I don't think so.

summer 2011 - in a nutshell

2011-10-04T21:00:00.004-05:00

OK, remember I'm recapping six months of not blogging. Finally back in the saddle. At the end of the year (last school year) the whipper-snappers had awards ceremonies. Here Bub is hanging with some of his hoodlum friends.
Our youngest beauty graduated from kindergarten.

She's gonna do great things!

This summer was jam-packed! Each of the kids went to church camp, spent time with their grandparents, went on multiple camping and or fishing trips and stayed extremely busy. Sometimes all and sometimes a few went in a hundred different directions. Here the Mrs. is showing off the catch with Papa at a lake in the area where we stayed with them for a week. Well, the Mrs. and the whipper-snappers did. Somebodies gotta work!

The whipper-snappers did lots of tubing behind Papa's boat.

Bub spent a good portion of the summer (thru the middle of July) playing baseball.

Our youngest beauty turned 7 this summer. My how quickly they grow up.

And of course the usual summer activities were enjoyed as well.

Summer, watermelon and whipper-snappers. It don't get no better!

The end of the summer was spent winding down and getting ready to go back to school. Cheer camp was part of that as well. Then finally school started and we could rest...or so we thought.

Catching up

2011-10-04T20:34:00.003-05:00

These are just some random shots of the homestead taken by my oldest daughter this spring. I know that it's springtime because everything is green and since we spent all summer with no rain and everything is shades of brown, this must be before that!
My barn... tragic really. You shall see what I mean at a later post.

Purty, ain't it?

Our goats had babies this summer.

Ethyl had a boy and a girl and Lucy two boys.

Bub and Sister will be raising and showing goats this year instead of steers.

Cheaper in the long run and we can breed them ourselves.

Jack

This is Babe. He likes hanging with the chickens.

We also goat-sat for a friend for a while this summer.

Each of the whipper-snappers got to try their hand at milking a goat.

Everyone enjoyed it and the milk was out of this world delicious. The only downside is you have to milk twice a day, every day, all year long. Goat sitting is the way to go.

Long time gone!

2011-09-29T15:59:00.004-05:00

Wow, I can't beleive it has been so long since my last post! Clan Daniel has been so very busy this summer that I just haven't had a chance to get back on the blog but that is soon to change! I will attempt to catch everyone up on the last few months here in the pearl as best I can. We have been going 100 mph. From church camps to hiking trips to beachside vacations to barns blowing across the pasture, it has been a crazy few months. If I don't shorten it and get back to the daily grind I may never catch up! I will be back on soon with many stories so please stay tuned!

canning chili

2011-04-25T21:19:00.004-05:00

So this weekend clan Daniel picked up our fully processed steer. With the knowledge of the fact that we would soon have 500 lbs of beef the Mrs. set out to clean out the freezers. After a thorough clean-out she discovered some hamburger and some deer meat that needed to be used so we decided to make a big pot of chili and can it.
Now we have never canned chili before but we have bought a lot of canned chili so we felt sure we could do it. The Mrs. started the process by grinding some deer meat.

I cooked it down and spiced it up. Chili is an all day process around the homestead.

Nannie came over to help the Mrs. with the pressure cooking.

Each batch had to cook at 10lbs pressure for one and a half hours.

We ended up with the equivalent of 23 cans of store-bought chili at 1/3 the cost...not bad.

Easter in the Pearl

2011-04-25T19:09:00.002-05:00

Sunday we celebrated the Resurrection of our Savior!

Thank you God for all of Your Provision, Mercy and Love

Sisters softball career (well maybe?)

2011-04-25T18:51:00.004-05:00

My oldest daughter is playing softball again this year. This is her 2nd year to play. Because we live in a small town we sometimes have a hard time getting enough girls in the same age range to make a team. Last year was her 1st year to play and because they needed more girls for the team she was forced to play up (can't play down) with older girls. Needless to say they did not have a good year and I was afraid she may not have wanted to play this year. Fortunately she did and is having a good time. She is playing catcher.
I don't know if this will be the sport she loves or not but she is definately having fun right now.

I do doubt that she will ever find a sport she will love more than raising and showing animals but maybe she will enjoy enough to want to do both.

Shop 9 years in the making

2011-04-25T11:33:00.004-05:00

I don't currently have a shop w/ a concrete floor. We had a detached 2 car garage when we moved in but decided we needed more living space so we closed it in. Since then car maintenance happens on the grass and shop work in general waits till sunny days. Well I am now finally at least 1/3 of my way to a proper tool shop.
It isn't as big as I would like but we do with what we can.

It will be 16x20.

As readers of my blog know we are not really the hire it done kind of family but I decided that the concrete was something I was willing to pay for.

They came out Friday and formed everything up.

We were excited all day watching what was happening.

I spent the day planning my shop and then re-planning as new ideas came to mind.

I wanted to make sure that I could go 2 stories if I desired to do so.

I also made allowances for water and electric at some point.

Saturday they placed the concrete.

The Mrs. and I sat and had coffee while the work was done. (Don't you just love construction Mimi?)

We are all very excited....

...too bad it will probably take us another year to get the building built.

No matter. I have a concrete surface to work on cars at least.

Family Reunions

2011-04-18T16:26:00.005-05:00

This weekend Clan Daniel ventured south for a family reunion! This was family from my wife's father's mother's side of the family if that made any sense. What it boiled down to for me was spending a Saturday with a bunch of folks I have either never met or met a few times along the way of our 17 years of wedded bliss. Beating you say????? Surprisingly...NO! As a matter of fact we all had a grand time and are ready to go do it again next weekend (of course no one is actually inviting us anywhere next weekend). Since we knew it was a couple of hours away we decided to pack our tent and sleeping bags and crash the camping spot Mimi and Papa had already paid for. We wanted to go down Friday night so we didn't have all that driving to do on Saturday. The weather was perfect for sleeping in a tent and the whipper-snappers had a great time sleeping out.

Saturday morning we rolled out of bed, showered and where off to the reunion where the whipper-snappers played in lots of dirt, met cousins they never knew existed and fished all day.

These pics are of the different families that were in attendance. I will not try and name everyone since I don't use real names in my blog, have no possible way to provide nicknames for all, and couldn't possibly remember the nicknames even if I did give them as I can't remember from one post to the next which daughter I call what.

Needless to say they are all a nice bunch of folks that we can't wait to get to spend more time with.

This is the family that hosted the event, nice bunch of folks and apparent gluttons for punishment.

I know these folks... you've seen them in past blogs.

These too.

And these.

This is the Baker portion of the family that was in attendance. We go on vacation with these characters every 3 years.

Me, the Mrs., the whipper-snappers and Mimi and Papa.

A nice shot of my in-laws.

A bunch of kiddo's hanging around a horse. This horse was north of 30 and just as sweet as can be.

The whole family went on a hayride. Good times.

The whipper-snappers (mine and others) got to feed fish. It is so dry there because they have had no rain to speak of in close to a year.

After the reunion we went back to our campsite and hit the hay. The next morning we had coffee with Mimi and Papa...

while the whipper-snappers were still asleep...

and also while they fished.

The dogs were whooped too.

Papa told the girls stories while we loaded the truck and then we were off for home.

A Great Weekend! Thanks to all who helped make it so.

The old shed

2011-04-10T21:02:00.004-05:00

OK. This is a pretty neat story (I think). I spent this weekend repairing a storage shed that we got a long time ago and have hauled all over North Texas. My wife's sister (my pesky sister-in-law) had a friend who was flipping houses and he bought a house that had 2 storage sheds on them and he wanted them moved. He wanted one and was willing to give the other away (if you moved his for him). That being said somehow my pesky sister-in-law calls my wife who calls me and we agree that of course we want a free shed (really had no place to put it but hey, it's free) and of course we can move them both for you (like we had ever done anything like that before). So we call Papa (no, he had never done it either but he's always game and he had lots of tools and equipment) and we take a Saturday and a trailer and a bunch of blocks and a come-along and a tractor jack and we set to work on moving that 1st shed to the owner's house. That took about 10 hours and about 10 people. The next day we go back for our shed. This time we are down to 4 people and I think it took us about 4 or 5 hours to load it (we were taking it to some land Papa owned about 50 miles away the next weekend), we had definitely got through the learning curve.

Anyway.... The next weekend me, the Mrs., Mimi and Papa all load up to haul this shed to it's (temporary) new home. We are cruising along at 635 and I-30 (highways in the DFW area) when the trailer hitch came loose. We were passed by the trailer with shed attached and watched in awe as it took the next exit (in a construction zone) and fell off a 2 foot embankment. Fortunately angels were flying with us and held that building on the trailer. I guy in a front end loader was right there and helped us load it back on and away we went.

A few years later God leads us to the Pearl and we go and load this shed up again (3 this time) and haul it here where it has been ever since. Since this shed is around 20 years old it has a few issues. Most recently it has began to rot so this weekend I decided would be a good time to get it back into some decent shape to try and make another 10 year run (I hope!). I got out my trusty saws-all and circular saw and went to work. The Mrs. seemed sceptical but didn't say a word as I tore into the old decayed and rotted wood.

Fortunately it was minimal and only at the front so I had little to replace. Just one floor joist and about half the front wall and some flooring at front.

I moved along at a good pace on Saturday and got almost all the wood replaced leaving the exterior sheathing, floor decking and doors.

Sunday after church I started on the flooring. I only cut out what was rotted so it doesn't look pretty going back but hey, it's just a shed.

Sheathing and doors where next.

Then the trim.

All I have left to do is re-paint and it will be as good as new (well as good as it was a year ago anyway).

By the way, I won't mention who forgot to check the hitch to make sure the trailer was secured, Papa. That will be our little secret.

Another Spring Saturday

2011-04-10T20:42:00.003-05:00

This past Saturday all where busy here in the Pearl. Bub who is not pictured below was unfortunately stuck inside all day Saturday working on 2 school reports. That's what happens when you have sports practice during the week. You gotta take care of business on the weekends. I was working on fixing an old shed but I will post on that later. I'll start with the end. This is our Saturday evening sunset God provided for our end of the day enjoyment as we relaxed in the cool of the evening after a busy day. This is Nannie's finally completed porch I built her. I can't remember if I ever posted pics of the finished job so here they are.

This is the inside of the porch all clean and painted. We seem to stop down many times during the day on weekends and rest here at this spot. We can almost always find Nannie out here reading a book or talking on the phone.

The Mrs. is planting the garden. She still has lots to do but it's coming along nicely.

Nannie spent the day mowing when she wasn't on the porch.

She's kinda dangerous on this thing.

Sissy had a friend over. They played all day.

Sister hung out w/ Sissy some, watched some T.V. and played in the garden. It was a busy day for all.

Cake World!!!

2011-04-10T20:20:00.004-05:00

The Mrs. is an awesome cake decorator. As a matter of fact the Mrs. is a pretty awesome anything she does. Before clan Daniel moved to the Pearl, the Mrs. had a pretty nice little catering business on the side. After we moved to the Pearl we decided that it had become too time consuming so she gave it up. She then got into cake decorating and was doing quite a few cakes here locally until her newspaper adventure forced her out of the cake business. Now she's easing back into it and she had two that needed done this weekend. This one she made Friday for a friends daughters birthday. I may be biased but I think it looks as good as anything you would see on Cake Boss or Ace of Cakes. This cake she made on Saturday for a 4 year old boys birthday party. Everything is edible except the army men. You can imagine that with 2 cakes made in 2 days there is lots of cake and icing left over. What to do with it all???

Let the whipper-snappers decorate their own cakes.

Not too bad are they?Bub's is on the left, Sissy's is in the middle top and Sisters is on the right.

Of course making is not near as fun as eating!

They seemed to attack this part with as much enthusiasm as the decorating.

It pays to have a momma in the bizz I guess.

What's up at the Pearl?

2011-04-08T16:30:00.006-05:00

There has been a lot going on this year at the Pearl. Missed my blogging for some time but trying to get back in gear. I've changed position's at my job so I am away from home a bit more than I use to be. The good thing is that when I am at home I can actually be at home and not have my head buried in a computer (unless I want to blog!). We have been much busy this year but with spring upon us things are really starting to happen. Bub (Davy Crockett Jr.) got some live traps for Christmas last year so he has been trying them out. I hope when school is out he fills the barn wall with critter hides. We have started with the garden and this year got a good early start on onions and taters but have now fallen behind with the rest of the planting. That's next on the list.

I took a few Saturdays to build a chicken house. Once again I got to play with a chainsaw so all was good.

Our steer (Babe) was right there to lend me a hand. It makes a job sooo much easier when everyone pitches in!

My finished product!

Well, not quite. I still need to paint it. It turned out pretty good I think.

And what does every chicken house need???

New chickens. We have 25 new chicks. I am still a free range man so hopefully the new house will help me keep these longer.

The whipper-snappers have a good time with the babies. I just hope they are still this interested when it's time to gather eggs.

Jake is always interested when a new arrival shows up at the place.

Pretty cool pick I thought. Bub took this. Most of his artistic shots were blurry but this one looked pretty cool.

The County Show

2011-04-07T14:16:00.003-05:00

Well, finally after many months of hard work the county Jr. Livestock show has finally come and gone. The whipper-snappers worked long and hard and they finally showed (and sold) their animals. Here are the boys right before the county show. Bub just before going into the ring. The whipper-snappers fed their animals twice a day, tied them out each day, walked them and worked with them almost daily. It becomes a part of our daily routine.

Sister just before entering the ring.

Bub gets some last minute show pointers from our chapter Ag teacher. You can see by the goofy look on his face that she is about ready to knock him into next week. Bub thinks of himself as quite the comedian.

Sister showing. Sisters steer went south on us this year. Luck of the draw but she still worked him and did a good job in the ring. She got 8Th place in her class.

Bub's steer did much better and if we had had another month he may have done a bit better. He was 5Th place in his class.

Bub's steer was sold to a local buyer who will be putting it in their freezer. Bub pretty much understands the purpose behind the cattle business.

Sissy saying goodbye to Sisters steer Oreo.

Oreo also is going in a freezer...mine! Sister understands as well but it's harder for her. Girls and animals, ya know?

It is hard not to grow too fond of them though. You spend a lot of time with them.

Sissy is not old enough to show just yet. 3rd grade is the earliest. She likes riding gates though.

Sister says goodbye again. She was such a trooper, she loaded him into the trailer for the processor herself. Big girl!

This is what kids in the country do for fun at shows. See how high they can get their steers to head butt them off the ground.

About a foot...not bad.

Ft. Worth Stock Show 2011

2011-02-06T21:47:00.005-06:00

This past week clan Daniel spent a fun and freezing week at the Ft. Worth Stock Show and Rodeo getting ready to show their steers. Show day started at 6:00am with the washing of the boys.
It was only about 14 degrees. See where the soap bottles are sitting? Yeah, that's frozen over.

After the washing comes the drying.

And of course the silliness and goofing around ensues.

Then it's our turn to show so me and the kids and our Ag teacher go wait to enter the arena with the 74 other steers showing in this class alone!

Milling around outside the arena.

My beauty in the ring.

She did a great job.

Bub in the arena with his steer.

He also did a great job.

We definitely had a good time.

Ft. Worth is a huge show and a lot of big dollar steers are here. We always expect to finish here lower than other shows we attend but the whole clan is together for an entire week with no TV, video games or interruptions.

Always worth it and always a good time.

The big freeze!

2011-02-06T20:56:00.007-06:00

OK, so the first week in February 2011 just might go on the records as the coldest 4 day period in the North Texas area. I don't know but I do know that I was as cold as I have ever been. We had ice, snow, sleet, temps in the teens and twenties and wind chills hovering around zero. This is a good definition of clan Daniel's daily existence. Mud and poop covered boots! From left to right Sisters, Sissy's, the Mrs., Bub's and mine. The Mrs. was kind enough to start us out on cold days with a hot breakfast. This particular day it was scratch made biscuits and homemade gravy.

The animals had a tough time in the cold weather so we had to pay extra attention to them.

Snowball fights were possible Friday as we finally got some snow instead of just ice.

Jake and the other animals stayed in close to the barn and waited to be fed.

By Friday the wind had sort of died down so the animals would venture out into the sun.

Each day during this cold spell I would go out a couple of times a day to make sure water was accessible for all.

The girlie's wanted more snow so a broom to the trees helped with this.

Kids sure love playing in the snow.

And making angels.

The goats waited patiently each day for me.

And always hoped I would feed them.

Snow-covered homestead.

Whipper-snappers playing.

Back shot of the place.

Animals.

Babe.

We needed to split would to keep the fireplace going. I've heard all my life that wood warms you 3 times. First when you cut it (that was in the spring),

second when you split it,

and stack it.

And the 3rd time is when you burn it. That is definitely the easiest.

Birthday Girl

2011-02-06T20:46:00.003-06:00

Saturday was my oldest daughter's 10Th birthday on Saturday. We had spent the whole week at the Ft. Worth Stock Show freezing to death so the Mrs. let Sissy pick what she wanted for breakfast. Sister chose monkey bread!
She has received quite a few birthday cards with cold hard cash so she decided to by...

A new bike!!!

Ain't she a beauty?

A Sunday afternoon

2011-01-31T09:07:00.006-06:00

As you can probably tell by reading this blog I am not a fan of paying others to do what I think I can do. There are times that it seems too far out of reach and I will hire others to do the job for me but for the most part The Mrs. and me are do-it yourself'ers. This can be a problem when you have more projects to do than you can seem to get done in what little free time there is in life. This self-sufficient-ism is a trait I would like to pass on to the whipper-snappers so with that being said it was time to change the Mrs. oil in our 15 year old suburban and I recruited the help of my first born to learn the process. After getting the vehicle up on ramps we crawl under to empty out the old oil and change the filter.
I believe that you learn best by getting your hands dirty

and I knew that with the oil filter replacement Bub would find out just how dirty it can be.

This is why I want him to learn this. I don't like this part at all.

After the old oil is out and the filter removed I show Bub how tight to put the new one on.

Then he starts putting the new oil in.

But wait Bub, this is a full service shop. Gotta fill up the wiper fluid.

Top off the brake fluid.

Check the power steering fluid.

Top off the anti-freeze.

Then Bub slowly backs the truck down the ramps.

After letting the engine run we check the oil level.

Next don't forget to check the transmission fluid.

Clean up is a must. See our garden in the background? That starts up soon. Bub also learned that at Clan Daniel's oil and lube an oil change also comes with checking the air in the tires and taking mom's car to the gas station for a fill up.

Dirty fingernails. The sign of a good days work. Nice job Bub.

A few non specific pics.

2011-01-30T21:54:00.002-06:00

Just thought I would throw out a few random pics of clan Daniel just living life. The girlie-girls having a tea party
Bub and his snake.

Sister falling asleep on Rosie. Rosie was asleep until the Mrs. snuck up to take this pic.

School board appreciation week. The whipper-snappers got to hand out goodies to the board members.

Even dear old dad got some goodies from a good looking girl.

A busy start to the new year!

2011-01-30T20:09:00.005-06:00

Clan Daniel has been running a hundred miles an hour since the dawn of 2011. So much so that I have had to neglect my blogging. This doesn't mean that the pics aren't piling up, it just means that I have a lot of blogging to catch up.

We will start with a project that Nannie has been wanting me to tackle for her. She asked me to screen in her back porch. The first nice weekend that we had in 2011 we decided to tackle it. Nannie went out of town with Sissy so me, Bub ,Sister and the Mrs. went to work to get-r-done! Here Bub tackles the ram setting. This handy little tool uses a .22 caliber load to shoot a nail through the wood and into the concrete.
Sister thought this seemed to be big fun and she wanted to try. After this she seemed to bore rather quickly with the whole process and spent the rest of the day playing on her bicycle and scooter.

Bub on the other hand was with us through a good portion of the initial construction. He too drifted away when the work started to become a little tedious.

But through the framing he and the Mrs. where there lending full support. A nail gun sure speeds the process.

Bub was a big help with the measuring and sawing.

We started out at 16 inch centers and decided that was too close together so we took them all down and started over at 24 inch centers.

Bub had to give the nailer a try as well. He handled it so well we let him build the header.

The Mrs. couldn't stand aside and let me and Bub have all the fun so she snatched the nailer from her poor son, knocked him aside and went after it herself. Bub is just out of eye shot in a pool of tears.

We got this far in about half a day. Went pretty fast but slowed from this point. We lost Bub around this time.

This is about as far as we got at the end of day one. Framing and siding complete. No door, screen, caulk or paint. A good start none the less.

A good day of work. Nannie will be pleased with the finished product.

After a long day of work the Mrs. and I rest and admire the fruits of our labor. The next day we will attack it again.

We started day two by caulking and painting. The Mrs. is definitely the painter in our family so she handles detail work and I slop it on the big areas.

After two really long days we are 90% complete. Still need to do a little caulking and touch up painting and I will sometime soon put a ledge shelf on top of the siding but by and large Nannie was most pleased.

Contentment

2010-12-28T10:29:00.001-06:00

Whipper snappers meet MRE's

2010-12-28T10:20:00.002-06:00

What do you do when your a kid, Christmas is over and the only thing in the ice box to eat are leftovers that you've had for lunch and dinner for 4 days already? Dig out a couple of packs of MRE's (meals ready to eat) and go to town.
This seems like a cool idea when your 9 and 12 and taste is not the most important item when it comes to dining requirements.

They had fun...

and got full!

A nice finish

2010-12-28T10:05:00.003-06:00

Sunset in the Pearl. Beautiful ending to a great day.

God is so good!

Happy horse.

Blessed!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-28T09:33:00.004-06:00

Christmas is a special time here at the clan Daniel homestead. Not because of how crazy kids get about this holiday, though it is fun having young ones, but more importantly because we get to spend time with family and friends and celebrate the beginning of Gods plan of redemption for mankind. The Mrs. and I try to stress to the whipper-snappers what it is that we are truly celebrating. The birth of Christ is not as relevant as what took place on the cross but it did set the plan into motion and there are a lot of miracles to point out to the little ones of Gods mercy and control. Christmas Eve dinner is always a different event as far as food goes. In years passed we have done appetizers only or made homemade pizza among other things. This year it was tamale's!
Since Mimi and Papa usually spend Christmas Eve with us the whipper-snappers get to open gifts on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

Of course that is no problem for them as they are all up to the task.

Christmas is special to all whipper-snappers but the younger ones really seem to enjoy it the most.

Sister was having quite a good time!

Young and old(er) alike have a good time. Funny, you give Papa a goofy hat and he's always ready to go. (see earlier posts)

Everyone enjoyed their gifts!

Christmas day we had a more traditional meal.

Reindeer food left out for Santa's herd. All gone Christmas morning!

We all had a wonderful time and hope that your families did as well!

December with the clan!

2010-12-26T13:22:00.003-06:00

It's been a busy month for the clan. We had a steer show early in the month and Bub and Sissy both did great! They both finished 3rd in their class and Bub was a close 2ND to winning Jr. Showmanship!
We had a good time either way. Next up - Ft. Worth stock show!

Lot's of Christmas preparation means many long evenings so the little ones get sleep when they can.

Bub had a band concert and did a bang up job. Wish I had done as good getting this pic in correctly.

Sister had a kindergarten Christmas play and also did great. Still not sure where I messed up.

The whipper-snappers decided to make dad some Christmas cookies!

It was a group effort.

Ain't they purty!

They were having so much fun Bub had to get in on the action.

They were sure tasty!

The last of the Thanksgiving holiday!

2010-12-17T16:21:00.004-06:00

These are the last of our Thanksgiving holiday pics. Just some shots of some of the fun activities we do while at Bakersfield. Mimi and Papa were married on Thanksgiving some time around the turn of the last century. I think they are in their 1o2ND year of marriage or something. A great model of all a marriage really can be. You just need a tractor.
Sister is finally getting her turn to be the lead tractor driver. In clan Daniel proficiency in tractor driving is required by your 8Th birthday.

She's getting the hang of it and looking cute while doing so.

Crossword puzzles were a big player this year. It was a community effort.

Our new puppy Buster was on hand for the festivities this week. He's all tied up (both figuratively and literally).

Mimi and Papa's dog was there as well so the girlie-girls had plenty of outdoor dogie fun.

I think the puppies were pretty tired by the end of the week.

The BIL makes his own chain mail. He was making this one for my pesky sister-in-law.

BIL spent a lot of his free time in this position.

My pesky sister-in-law in new battle ready metal shirt. Dorks!

Since the pesky sister-in-law is an avid biker (both pedal and motor) she tried to help Bub fix his ride.

I think it's still broke.

We also broke out a couple of puzzles this year for some wholesome family fun.

We had 2. One 500 piece and one 1000 piece.

500 piece done in 2 days. We brought the 1000 piece home in the box! Maybe next year.

Man do we eat!

2010-12-14T13:00:00.005-06:00

Every year we spend at Bakersfield we cook and eat a lot! Probably too much. Every year in January or February (after the holidays) we will discuss how next year we're not gonna cook as much. We will say that all we do is cook and clean up and that next year will be different. Then September rolls around and everyone has broken their New Years resolution and we start planning another menu that is full of lots of cooking, cleaning and calories!
I don't understand why we complain about it. Almost everyone of us likes to cook and I know that we all like to eat. We don't eat a lot of the foods we prepare at Bakersfield any other time of the year so it is a special event. Clean up is never much fun but we are together while it happens.

Plus we get to cook outside quite a bit which is a different experience from kitchen cooking and you get to make a bigger mess.

There is also usually some sort of flame involved.

The whipper-snappers get in on the action at Bakersfield and that gives them a sense of self-reliance.

And they can impart their wisdom on others.

Everyone gets a chance to show off their specialty...

...and eat things that they don't normally get a chance to eat.

I love dutch oven cooking!

Sometimes tricks are played or food fights break out, but it's all in good fun.

We didn't even eat this turkey Thanksgiving week.

The Mrs. and me are seeing how many meals we can get out of a $10.00 turkey. Up to 6 so far!

We also get a chance to relive some childhood memories...

...and do things that we have never had a chance to do before.

The Mighty Hunter!

2010-12-07T20:41:00.003-06:00

After 3 or 4 of the hottest November days I had seen in a long time and after 3 or 4 days of bonfires, tractor rides and screaming kids running through the woods; the deer hunting was pretty much over. So Bub decides he wants to go squirrel hunting.

He received for Christmas a couple of years ago a single shot .22 rifle so we gave him 3 bullets and told him to take off. After about an hour he came back with this. His mom or I could not have been more proud. A 12 year old boy heads off into the woods alone and comes back with his supper!

You kill it, you clean it is my motto so his Papa and me give him some pointers and he's off to the races.

Skinned it out real nice.

Then Papa showed him how to tack it to a board to salt it and cure it.

Mom fried it up. Hunter eats meat!

The BIL had never had squirrel (go figure). Another first!

The tree incident

2010-12-07T16:41:00.002-06:00

My life is full of should offs, could offs and would offs. This had the potential to be the single greatest post my little blog has ever seen. I also had the potential of winning $10,000.00 and being on T.V. I also had the potential to kill myself with a large portion of my immediate family in attendance. We at Bakersfield, from time to time, need a branch cut out of our way. This particular branch was not particularly in our way but it did have a rather unpleasing aesthetic quality to it so...

Papa and I decided that we would remove said limb from our little slice of heaven. We enlisted the help of BIL for the task and went at the job with vigor and much male bravado.

Notice above Papa's role in our little play. He is to keep said limb from crashing into clan Daniels home away from home.

BIL on the other hand is to hold the ladder good and steady as I wield the chainsaw above my head. Now this may look foolish to those reading my little blog, and all the women in attendance were vocalizing that very thought at the time, but did we listen?

The good news is no one was seriously injured. The aesthetically unpleasing limb is no more. My camper is fine. I had the ability to teach my children the importance of chainsaw and ladder safety in a somewhat "hands-on" approach. I now realize that I do have, at age 42, the ability to get up after a fall from about 15 feet while avoiding a falling chainsaw. I also learned what Moe from the 3 Stooges must have felt like working with Larry and Curly.

The bad news is our video camera had a dead battery so the Mrs. was unable to film the entire event even though she had the foresight (and 17 years of wedded bliss to me experience) to attempt filming expecting that an America's Funniest Home Video's moment would soon break out.

Better luck next time!

Campfire cooking!

2010-12-07T16:15:00.003-06:00

Whenever we are at Bakersfield we try to do breakfast taco's on the campfire at least once. It's a pretty big production pulling this off and it takes multiple players but the payoff is oh so delicious! Papa for one is always ready to jump in where there is cooking to be done so he began some of the prep work of frying hash browns and sausage while I got the fire going for the eggs and taco construction.
Each person gets their taco made special order as we can only manage to pull off a couple at a time.

It was pretty hot this particular day so Papa and me were sweating like a couple of sinners at revival!

The whole family gathers around to watch the show while the anxiously wait their turn to pull up to the feed trough.

It is a very cool meal to eat right out by the fire with the wood smoke mixing it's flavor in with the eggs meat and taters.

Campfire breakfast taco's. Another first for BIL.

The finished product!

Am I a good dad???

2010-12-06T20:44:00.003-06:00

I guess all kids like to play with fire. I know I did. Heck, I still do. So when Bub came up to me and said he wanted a torch, I guess the responsible adult thing to do would be to explain all the dangers of playing with fire. I said, "Cool!".

Now the whipper-snappers didn't want a stick with one end on fire, they wanted honest to goodness, chase the ogre with the pitchfork, torches.

I could tell Papa didn't think this was the best idea in the world but as I expected he jumped right in when he saw it was bound to happen. He helped cut the sassafras trees to the appropriate size. Green wood is a must.

Then we wrapped an old washcloth around the end and tied it on with small thin wire.

Next we found some old candles and melted them in a #10 can.

A good use for used candles.

Then we dipped the washcloth in the wax...

...coating thoroughly.

Then we tied a second washcloth around the first and repeated the waxing process.

Next... light 'em up!

They really worked great. Burned for about an hour. We brought home more sassafras to make more. I just might win coolest dad of the year award.

A Thanksgiving post

2010-12-06T20:09:00.003-06:00

As we do each and every year, clan Daniel spent another wonderful Thanksgiving holiday at Mimi and Papa's farm in beautiful east Texas. My next few posts will be of what we did the week that we were all there. The usual cast of characters were in attendance, the clan, Nannie and Mimi and Papa. We were joined this year by my pesky sister-in-law and her husband all the way from Colorado. We had a great week and had many adventures and ate way too much food. I can't begin to describe how Blessed we are to have a place like Bakersfield to go and the ability to be with our family for such a wonderful visit. When I was a kid I had a great-uncle (my grandmothers little brother) who lived in Faulk Arkansas. For any 1970's "B" movie fans you may remember the movie, "The Legend of Boggy Creek" about a Bigfoot type creature sighted in that area. When my uncle would come and visit us I would always ask him if he had seen it he would always assure me that he had seen it many times and I would hang on every word. Anyway, when I was 10 or 11 years old we went to his house for the first time and he had a sit-n-spin tied to tree like a tire swing. I played on that thing all day and got as sick as a dog.

So this year I decided to rig one up for the whipper-snappers. We had it tied to a large red oak tree with a lot of space for swinging.

You can go back and forth like a swing or around in a circle.

I think the kids got a kick out of it.

I know I did!

In-laws

2010-12-06T12:53:00.002-06:00

My sister-in-law gave us all a new family member last year for Christmas. He's my new brother-in-law , blog name Bil. He's from the west coast. He rides motorcycles and makes chain-mail and fights in battles as a knight. Then he falls in love and gets married and he's got this redneck brother-in-law. So they come to Texas for Thanksgiving and I take him deer hunting and the lucky sucker gets a 7 point deer in his first 3 hours of hunting in his life! A 7 point! This by the way is the same deer Bub didn't take a shot at a couple of weeks ago. Bub could have gone with me that morning but chose to sleep in, what a goober!

So I figure if he's this lucky than he can do all the work cleaning it as well.

I was pretty impressed, he didn't get sick or nothing. He was right there the whole time. After I showed him how to skin the deer he was off and running with little assistance.

The funny thing is everybody seemed pretty shocked that I let him take the shot at all. Guess they figured he should start on something a little smaller it being his first time out and all. Papa said I ruined him getting such a good deer his first time out.

Enjoy it while you can Bil, it's cull bucks or does for you from now on!!!

Old will be new again!

2010-12-06T10:45:00.003-06:00

The Mrs. and I have had a tough time in our married lives when it comes to kitchen tables. Through the first 3 or 4 years of our married life we had several used, hand-me-down, or bachelor pad table and chair combo's. Then after that we were blessed to receive a "borrowed" table and chair combo from my mother that we had for several years. (It is a long story as to why my mother loaned a new table and chairs but that's what happened)
When we moved to the Pearl that table worked well in our small-ish eat-in kitchen area. When we built my mom a new house across the pasture she decided that she no longer wanted the table and chairs that we had been using as she wanted to get something new for her new digs. She purchased a large, very pretty mission style table and chairs that looked and worked great in her new house. Only one small problem...she H A T E D it! So she decides she wants her old one back and gives us the new one. Cool. Except it was way too large for our eat in space. Well we rocked along with that for a couple of years until we could stand it no more and decided to sale that table. That was about 4 months ago. We have been living with a card table and chairs ever since. Then we bought an old kitchen table from some friends from ours at church and I sanded and stained and poly-urethaned it. It came with 4 chairs and we found 4 chairs at a garage sale so we mixed and matched the 2 and now we have a table that we really like, really fits the space, and the 5 of us can now eat dinner again. Yea!!!
It is very rustic which goes great in our house (imagine 100 year old farm house) and we no longer have to push it against the wall when not in use and pull it out each time we use it.

I didn't really like it much when we got it but I knew the Mrs. did but after getting it in the house I am really digging it as well.

Deer Season is here!

2010-11-14T18:41:00.005-06:00

Well, deer season is in full swing so Bub and me went to Bakersfield this weekend and had quite a time. We arrived late Friday night, unloaded and hit the hay for a 4:30 am start. I knew it was gonna be a wacky weekend since I was bunking with a miniature Elvis!
Saturday morning we hit the deer blind at about 5:00am and saw nothing but does from sun-up until 9:00am when this beauty walked up!

He was sniffing after a couple of does that had just left the area and made the fatal mistake of not bedding down early.

The sad part was Sunday morning Bub had an 8 point about this same size walk up on him. He was waiting for the "perfect" shot and unfortunately for him it never happened and the buck walked away. He was very disappointed in himself but also learned a valuable lesson, you have to sometimes take what's given to you and make the best of it.

Speaking of Bub, he was a big help in the cleaning of the deer. Here he is pulling it up so we can clean it....

...and then the rope broke. Sorry Bub.

After we finished with the deer we cooked burgers on buddy burners. Buddy burners are stoves we make in RA's. It's a #10 can as a stove and a tuna can with cardboard and wax under it as a burner. Bub had a great time cooking with this in class so I told him we would cook supper on it.

Here's Bub grilling a burger bun.

They were mighty tasty burgers!

The downside to buddy burners is that they are small, so you eat while you cook.

So good we did it again. The meat is only about 3 ounces, small buns, pickles, mustard and ketchup only! That's what we call man burgers!

We came home Sunday evening and the Mrs. and me completed processing the deer.

Neither she nor me are fans of taking deer to the processor so we do it ourselves. It's a little more work but we will eat great quality meat all year at a small price.

We cut it into small pieces, weigh it out and individually package it.

in one and two pound packs with a food saver.

We ended up putting 23 pounds of quality meat up for the winter. I'm sure we will get at least 2 more deer and that will generally last us through next deer season. A great weekend to be sure.

Oh, and a special Happy Birthday to the Mrs. She let me and Bub go hunting on her birthday! She's pretty awesome. Of course her daddy was a deer hunter all her life so she is kinda use to it!

What we've been up to

2010-11-07T20:43:00.006-06:00

What has clan Daniel been up too? A bunch! We are so busy most of the time we can't keep it all straight. I don't have time to give this blog all I should but I will give what I can when I can. A couple of weeks ago Bub and I went deer hunting. It was youth weekend in Texas so only he could hunt. It was a rather chilly morning and we saw a lot of deer but mostly does. We saw nothing to shoot at all weekend but had a good time anyway.
We will be going back next weekend and I expect better luck.It should be colder and the bucks will be more sprightly I hope.

Bub was the only one who could hunt two weeks ago. We will both be packing this next time.

The weekend we were hunting also turned out to be my 42ND birthday. When I got home my youngest gave me a present that she wrapped herself.

Next came Halloween, the girlie girls dressed up as felines of some type. One was a leopard and one was a cheetah I think. We went to an activity at church and then around town for some trick or treating.

The boy was an axe murderer. I was not pleased but I assume this will be his last year w/ Halloween.

I'm also currently working on re-finishing a table we bought for our kitchen. We sold our other table and chairs (it was just too big for the space) and bought this table from some friends.

I think it will go really nice in our house when I'm done.

We have been eating off our card table for a couple of months so the idea of having a real table and chairs is rather appealing.

I'll post some finished pics when I'm done.

Meet Buster. He is the Mrs. new boxer given to her by a friend. We had to get a new boxer because we lost our first one, Butch.

Well we didn't actually lose Butch, we more like ran over him. Specifically I ran over him. It was bad luck all around. But now we have Buster! Ain't he cute?

We went to the Cowboy Stadium Today for a tour of said stadium with Bub's RA group at church.

We got to see the field from a luxury suite,

see the Cowboys locker room,

and go onto the field. It was a really good time!

After we got home from the stadium we had some popcorn for dinner. Sister fell asleep so it must have been a busy weekend for her too.

Camp breakfast casserole

2010-10-24T22:20:00.005-05:00

While at the farm a couple of weeks ago we broke out the dutch oven for breakfast. We started the coals and waited for them to get ready.
While we waited for the coals we got all our ingredients out and ready.

We lined the oven with foil (makes clean up a lot easier) and we were on our way.

I started out by sauteing the onions and mushrooms on the underside of the lid.

After the shrooms and onions were ready I cooked the sausage.

While cooking on the lid we pre-heated the oven.

After the sausage was cooked we cooked the hash brown potato's.

Hash browns take a while so this is a good time to catch up on some reading as Bub demonstrates.

When the potato's where done we placed them on the bottom of the oven and the shroom, onion and sausage mix on top and topped it all with grated sharp cheddar.

Then beat 8 eggs and pour over mixture.

Cook for about 30 minutes with a few bottom and some top coals.

Enjoy!

Another busy weekend

2010-10-24T21:54:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago Clan Daniel had a busy weekend. Our youth football league celebrated homecoming and as soon as that was over we loaded up and went down to the farm in east Texas to fill the feeders and bring back some hay! Sissy is a cheerleader for her brothers team and Sister is the teams adopted mascot.
The whole family is ready to head out the door for the game.

At halftime Dad got to walk Sissy out to be introduced at the 50 yard line and then be escorted by her brother.

Bub had a rose for his sister.

Grace and her escort "court".

After the game we headed to the farm. Once there our neighbor came over and loaded the hay onto the truck.

Sister spent a lot of time while we were there playing in the sand.

Sunday morning we cooked breakfast in the dutch oven.

Bub helped with the fire.

After breakfast we hauled the corn to the feeder. Bub helped out with the heavy lifting.

He was tired but it will hopefully pay off.

The girlie girls relaxed while the boy and me did the work. All in all it was a great weekend with the family but too short as most are.

OK, now what?

2010-10-08T12:46:00.002-05:00

Do you ever hear God talk? What's He sound like. He speaks real quiet to me, almost a whisper. He's a slow talker too. You've got to listen for a long time before you really understand what He's saying. I wish it was more like the burning bush. Seems as if that would be easier except that takes the Faith out of the equation, and you know how God is all about the Faith part. I've been thinking God was ignoring me lately. Or maybe He got bored with me and fell asleep. The Mrs. does it all the time. Turns out He was talking in real low whispers. Real slow. As a matter of fact I don't think He's done yet. He has something on His mind and I think it's pretty important. I've been asking for Him to show me what He wants from my life. That I am all His. Maybe He's telling me.
That's the scary part. Do I have the courage to do what He says? Or will I continue on my own way even though I know that never works. I honestly don't know yet what He is saying I just get the feeling that He's talking. It's still too loud to hear Him. (no by the way I am not hearing voices, it's God, I talk to those other guys all the time and know what they sound like)

Please pray that I have the courage to continue to hear Him and that once I'm done that I will be obedient and do His will. That's the hard part.

When life catches up

2010-10-04T19:50:00.002-05:00

Do you ever get the feeling that you missed something along the way? Do you ever stop and wonder if this is all there is? Don't get me wrong. God has totally Blessed my life in ways that I could never have hoped for. I have a beautiful wife, three great kids, family and friends too numerous to count. We have a roof over our heads, plenty of food to eat, we are warm in the winter and stay cool in the summer. God placed us in a wonderful town and put us in an awesome church and has drawn us closer and closer to Him over the last almost decade. But there are times that I wonder if I missed something. Am I doing what I was created to do? I get the feeling at times that my whole life is get up, go to work, come home, work some more, go to a meeting, go to bed and then get up and do it all over again. There is a list of things a mile long that I want to do,mostly work around the home place, and I get the feeling that I get about 6 hours a week to do it. Needless to say I never come close to getting it all done.
How do you break the cycle? How do you make the time to do what you want to do in life? I'm not talking about climbing a mountain or seeing the world, I'm talking about building a barn or riding a horse or building a chicken house or trimming the trees. These are the things I don't seem to have the time to do.

My mother-in-law made a statement a long time ago that the more money you make the more of your soul they want and I guess that is true to a certain extent. I don't make that much money so I can't begin to imagine what really financially successful people have to deal with. All I know is that I've got to find some me time at some point. I volunteer for just about everything so part is my fault for not saying no but I thought that's what grown-ups did. Maybe I'm just getting old!

Saturday in the Pearl

2010-10-02T21:27:00.005-05:00

What a jam-packed, action filled day here in the Pearl at the clan Daniel homestead. The Mrs. and I started our day as we are most likely to start any Saturday, on the front porch with a cup of coffee. This day was a special day on the porch in that we watched 2 deer in the pasture next to us for quite a time. The deer here in the Pearl usually don't come that far out of the bottoms and to tell you the truth they seemed a bit confused. Next I started trimming then trees along the front fence row next to the road. When we moved to the Pearl this was a really grown up area and I worked long and hard at getting that area under control.
It's been about 3 years since I trimmed on these trees and they really needed it.

Funny though, like most things I guess you don't realize how bad something is until you start working at it. The fence row looks much better now though.

It took 4 pick-up loads to haul all of the brush to the burn pile.

The girlie-girls hung out with daddy while I worked on the trees. They didn't help me much though because they were too busy...

Riding their bikes!

The whole time I was working on the trees , these two were up and down the road.

They truly seemed to be having a great time. Where was Bub you ask?

Homework!

After trimming the trees I went down and helped the Mrs. with the animals.

They all seemed to be enjoying a beautiful fall Saturday in Texas!

The Mrs. was working with the steers. That is an everyday occurrence.

I took a pic of the gate and a post. Don't know why, I just thought it was cool.

Then we all had to load up and head to Alvarado for Bub and Sissy's football game.

I like to run the chains during the game. It gives me the best seat in the house.

Here you can see Bub (#16) blocking as the Panthers drive for a score.

While Sissy and Sister cheer their Bubby on!

After the game (Panthers win 12-0) Mr. Happy poses for a pic with my two beauties. After the game we all went back home. Bub and Nannie went shopping for Bub's 12Th birthday. The Mrs. and I hauled the rest of the branches to the burn pile then we spent some more time with the steers. After it got dark we ate hot-dogs and watched a movie.

All is right with the world for us. Another glorious day in the Pearl!

The State Fair of Texas!

2010-09-30T21:01:00.004-05:00

This past week clan Daniel was in downtown Dallas at the State Fair of Texas! The two older whipper-snappers were showing their steers at the progressive steer show. That simply means that the steers are not fully developed and ready for market but are working that way. They both showed in the same breed category of AOB (all other breeds) which simply means that they are no specific breed of cattle but are, well...mutts. There is a lot of work to these shows. We had to arrive on Monday and the show is not until Wednesday. We did not want the whipper-snappers to miss too much school so Bub went with the Mrs. on Monday and Sissy went on Tuesday. They were both there on Wednesday.
You have to be in the 3rd grade to show in Jr. FFA so Sister has a few years to go.

They have to wash their steers, blow dry them and get them all shined up for the show.

They also have to make sure that they get their school work done while they are there as well.

No idea why this pic is like this or even here.

There is also down time, but they usually work so hard that they are really tired.

She's so purty!

Here Bub poses for a quick pick right before going in to show. No, that's not a pink show stick. It's Aggie maroon. Papa has corrupted him.

Here is Sissy before going in to show. You can't see it but she actually does have a pink show stick.

Here are our two stockmen after the show. Sister took 6Th and Bub 7Th. Not too bad but we have a lot of time to work on them. We will have a show in December, the Ft. Worth Stock show in January, then San Antonio and Houston to follow. We'll keep you posted!

Labor Day weekend!!!

2010-09-26T21:41:00.005-05:00

I know Labor Day was a few weeks ago, but clan Daniel has been very busy of late and getting to the computer for anything but work has been hard to get to. We have been dealing with school starting, grades, pee-wee football and cheer leading and steers! As I type this it is at a small moments peace before the State Fair stock show begins tomorrow. Labor Day weekend we went to Bakersfield to get ready for deer hunting and to get some new posts for a new barn we are planning to build in the fall. The buzzards to the left are what we found in one of our deer stands. It stunk to high heaven! I think I will let my new brother-in-law hunt from in here! He's a Chargers fan so he won't know the difference.

We also got the feeders working and the corn was flying! I had to get some wasps out of my stand but I fought them off bravely. We are now ready for youth weekend at the end of October and deer season in November.

As always while at the farm we had some relaxation time. Above Nannie and the girlie-girls eat watermelon and to the right Bub takes me and the Mrs. on a joy ride around the pasture. The tractor and go-cart don't hold the same charm as they once did. Now it's all about pick-up trucks.

We are also still cleaning up from last years tornado at Bakersfield. This is a benefit for me because I am in need of a new horse barn here at the Pearl and the downed cedar trees will make great support posts. Oh, and it's always fun using a chain saw.

Of course Papa prefers the comforts of the tractor! I can't imagine how hard this would all be with hand-saws and mules. We worked our tails off all day but I was able to bring home about 15 good posts to get the barn rolling.

We also had another task we wanted completed before this season got rolling. We have been needing to extend the yard sewer line to the camper for a couple of years now. We finally will not have to haul the trailer waste to the septic line for the barn (sounds gross I know, but this will be awesome!).

Look! Works great! Bub was really happy to help!

Steer shows coming!

2010-08-23T14:13:00.002-05:00

This past weekend we spent several hours each day working with the whipper-snappers steers. They have a show next week (first of the year) and we are getting ready. They don't want to walk much yet so we tied them to the back of the pick-up and drove circles (mind-numbingly slow circles) around the pasture with each.
After some time doing this they got pretty good at following along.

Bub looks good here in his basketball shirt, swim trunks and boots don't he?

They got brushed after each round of the pasture as well.

Seems real happy don't they?

This one is Bub's. He did a little better than Sissy's.

It was a good day for all involved. Wish us luck next week.

Fig preserves!

2010-08-23T14:06:00.002-05:00

Papa and Mimi came over to the house last week and Mimi and the Mrs. were out gallivanting and found a fig tree. So they picked some and brought them home and made fig preserves. Papa and Mimi must have been the ones that knew how this was done because in 17 years of wedded bliss this is the first I recall of homemade fig preserves.
They cooked up nicely...

...and were delicious!