What fun times we have been having lately.
Well, some fun and some not so fun.
Our sewer line started giving us trouble, so we took a few days to fix it. We discovered that the prior owners had installed the drain line incorrectly which we had suspected. Here’s a photo of the trench we dug. Sorry for the poor quality of the photo, but it is a trench and it’s a trench we dug the old manual way, and I just didn’t feel like taking my good camera outside.
I dropped my expensive camera and it immediately went dead and wouldn’t turn back on. We had to send it back to Canon for repair to the tune of $300. Ouch!
I don’t have a photo of that the broken camera. Just use your imagination to visualize me apologizing over and over to my husband for being such a clumsy idiot.
I’ve also been cleaning more reclaimed wood for our next big home project. This time it’s reclaimed clapboard siding with its gorgeous chippy white paint.
I’ll be sharing photos of this project very soon. Until then, we are painting, painting, painting.
Will it ever end?
Please meet Scraps. He’s another stray dog that showed up on our property about 10 days ago.
As you can see, he was half-starved, and his expression was just the epitome of hopelessness.
One night while we were having dinner, I told Mark that it was so difficult to sit there and eat, knowing all the while that a poor, pitiful animal was starving outside.
Since then I’ve been feeding him once a day.
He’s already so much happier.
He’s such a sweet dog. Very submissive, gentle, and calm.
We are fostering him until we can find him a good home.
Can you help me do that? I would appreciate it very much if you would share a photo of him on your Facebook page. He so deserves to live the rest of his days with a loving family.
We just cannot adopt another dog.
I swear to you: if I ever win the lottery, I will try my very best to solve the pet overpopulation problem.
Speaking of dogs, we found out recently that the City of Nacogdoches installed a dog park and since then, we’ve tried to take our dogs into town for their social hour at least once a week.
Kacy just loves it. Can’t you tell?
Big dogs seemed fascinated by Kacy (probably because of her size) . . . and vice versa.
Hey, it’s a mutual admiration dog park!
Molly‘s still not sure about the whole dog park experience.
She’s usually content to watch from afar.
I don’t blame her. Her mama’s a people watcher, too.
She is getting more adventuresome every time we go, and she’s always happy to make a new friend.
This is the view from the road when we had a blowout, the day we decided to take a day trip to the DFW area.
Luckily, we had a spare, and Mark knows how to change a flat tire. It was scary though, having to change a tire on such a narrow, busy road. It was so HOT, too!
I noticed the pretty hay fields as Mark was slaving away. I was in charge of keeping our dogs in the vehicle.
We took another day trip to Jefferson recently to check out the town. We have friends who are from that area, and they’d spoken so highly of it that we had to check it out.
It’s such a pretty town.
The architecture there is gorgeous, and we shot photos of a few houses that we liked.
This one was for sale. So pretty. It was situated on an entire city block as I recall.
We also did a little antiquing, of course. We can’t go anywhere without stopping at an antique store or three.
Mark shot these photos of a gorgeous tin ceiling in one of the antique malls.
I bought an old apron and some vintage linens on our shopping trip, and I’ll share those photos soon.
One of the malls we went in had a vintage advertising collection that I thought was pretty neat.
Other than those adventures, Mark has been mowing parts of our acreage every three days or so. We get so much rain and the grass grows so fast and we have several acres . . . well, it just seems he is almost constantly riding his lawnmower around.
Fortunately, he doesn’t mind the work.
Hope you enjoyed this post about our life in East Texas!
Hi Kim – so nice to get caught up with what is going on in your neck of the woods. Love your stray dog, he looks like he was dumped, can’t see a dog like that running away, but who knows…. Perhaps post him on PetFinder or ask a rescue close to you if they will post him on their site for you. I understand about the difficulty of having one more mouth to feed and take care of, I hope you can find him a wonderful forever home soon. In the meantime, if you need some money help until you can place him, can we, your blog family, help by making a donation? Let me know if I can be of help in this way for you.
Kim, great hearing from you and your life adventures. Your foster looks mature too. So nice of you to foster. Our animal shelter recently went to being ‘no kill’ and the community is very active with cross-posting, fostering, and overall support in general. I hope yours finds his fur-ever home! I bet Kacy has all the big dogs running – that’s what my daughter’s Welsh terrier does! Whoa – that trench – that’s a lot of work, anywhere, any weather. You guys are some of the most resourceful folks around, really. Can’t wait to see your newest project – I’m sure it’ll be brilliantly amazing when complete. Thanks for sharing.
Rita
Kim,
I am not a dog person, but that picture of scraps broke my heart! He looked so sad and it is obvious he was starving. Thank you for saving his life. I have raised several strays, in fact that is how I got all my pets as a child. At times it was like all the cats in the area knew that they could come to our house and they would find a home along with a couple of dogs! There were several that would show up starved or wounded, and I would fix them up when I was a child. (I became a nurse so I guess this is just in me). I hope you find a home for scraps.
Blessings
Oh, I wish we could take the little doggie. I love dogs! We don’t live too far from you; only in Pflugerville, but my husband just had surgery this morning so I don’t think he’d be up for taking on another dog right now. I’m going to talk to him anyway. On another note, I read a post of yours from last month where you mentioned a recent trip to Austin and shopping in your favorite shops there. Would you please share (or email me) where you like to shop because I’m always looking for great, old stuff. Thanks, Cindy
Oh, it would be fabulous if you could adopt him! I know he’d feel like he was the luckiest dog on earth. (And I know that dogs realize when they are saved.)
I often shop at the antique mall in Austin in the HEB shopping center at the corner of Burnet and 2222. I also like Gypsy’s Antiques further down on Burnet and Uncommon Objects on Congress. Oh, and if you’re willing to take a day trip, Pieces of the Past is fabulous in Johnson City! If I think of more shops, I’ll certainly let you know!
Your sweet stray boy is a truly lovely dog. You can see it all in the eyes. I wish he could stay with you, I know he loves you passionately. I have two thoughts to offer. Firstly, if there is anything I can do to defray the cost of having him, (food, vet, anything) please let me know because I am more than happy to help. Also, I live in Fort Collins which is a hysterical dog town, it’s like heave on earth for a dog lover like myself. If you are not successful in finding him a forever home, I would come get him and bring him to a rescue up here where I know he could find a home because EVERYBODY loves dogs here. EVERYBODY. I would take him in a heartbeat myself, but I love my husband and don’t want to loose him. PLEASE let me know if there is ANYTHING at all I can do to help other than take him myself (which I SO WISH I could) but I just can’t. Besides hubs being adamant that it’s his turn to choose next time, we currently live in a rental with three rescue dogs already so it’s just not something I can do right now.
Sarah Marie, thanks so much for your incredibly kind offer. I think (and hope) that I have found a forever home for Scraps. Thank you so much for keeping him in your thoughts and prayers. After the rough life he’s had so far, he deserves to have a happy home where he can count on a good meals and affection.
heaven on earth. I meant heaven on earth. Sorry.
Oh, I’m so very relieved and pleased that you have (hopefully) found him a good home! I can see from his eyes what a good dog he is. I have one with eyes like that. He’s so afraid of being dumped or left or lost again, my husband can’t walk around the house without the dog stepping on his heels (he’s a rescue, as are all our boys. I got him from the pound). I’ve really been thinking a lot about Scraps over the last few days. Bless you and your lovely husband for not turning him away. Please let me know if I can help!