OK, now what?

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

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

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!

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!!!

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!