Since almost a month has passed since our last trip to the property, we knew this would be a work trip. However, that was fine since the weather was so beautiful that it made you want to be outside!

Charlie began by taking the weed eater to the gate area by the road. Jason brought his mower over since the battery on Charlie’s mower was dead . Jason cut the grass around the trailer, chicken coop, storage building and the pine trees. I’m trying to decide what color to paint the chicken house after we get it all cleaned up. Any ideas?

While it might be nice to put some tiki torches out by the pine trees and table, I’m thinking some white solar lights wrapped around the trees would be nice too.

Since Friday was a regular work day for me, I worked inside the trailer until I felt the need to go outside. It was nice working from the lounge chair on my computer while Charlie and Jason trimmed the oak tree. (I love being able to work remotely!)

At the end of my workday and Charlie’s day of yard work, it was time to wander down the road to “walk the pasture.” The pasture was covered with bright yellow wildflowers which the cows apparently do NOT like to eat!

First, we checked out the pond which was almost full due to the rains we’ve had recently. The vines with white flowers around the banks were dewberries. We’ve already had several friends volunteer to come over for dewberry cobbler when it’s time! It amazes me how these cows will choose a path and all of them will walk it over and over – notice the path by the pond. You can see these paths in different places in the pasture as they move from one location to another while they graze.

Looking from the other side of the pond and toward one of the feeders and the working pens, we decided to head up the hill still looking for the cows.

Charlie was inspecting the gates on the working pens. Jason has actually worked cattle on this property for the previous landowner. It’s amazing how tall this tree is at the pens – that’s Charlie walking away from it! It makes me wonder how old the tree is.

We headed over to the other fence line still looking for the cows. They were definitely there! We spotted them and they spotted us and they came running toward us. This is a frisky herd of heifers! Once the excitement to have company was over, they began grazing on the fresh spring grass again.

We headed back to the trailer to fix dinner with me lagging behind taking pictures. I thought this was a neat picture of Charlie. (Beware: No one is safe when Kimmie has her camera!)

We had been told that there was a patch of blueberries plants in a certain location but we thought it was just a patch of yaupons. However, on our way back to the trailer we stopped by the patch again and, sure enough, those blossoms we saw last month had turned into blueberries! More cobblers to come!

On Saturday we drove over to Wixon Valley (Bryan) to see Natalie, JT, and Audie. It was a great visit and yummy hamburgers for lunch. We came back to Lovelady and Jason, Danielle and Raya came to see us. Raya wanted to sit up on the grapevines so GranDad took her over there. After grilling steaks for dinner, we headed down to visit the cows.

The first time Jason, Danielle and Raya went down, the cows came right up to the four-wheeler and were nudging Raya. When we went back with them, the cows came up to Raya again.

The adults were talking to “the girls” (aka heifers) and they were pretty well ignoring us. Then Raya let out a long conversation of baby talk and all of the cows stopped and looked at her! Charlie says the brown heifer looking at Danielle and Raya looks like the Blue Bell cow. She’s marked by arrow in the second photo. Look at her sweet eyes!

The sun was beginning to set so we headed back to the trailer to sit out on the deck. The cows just stood there and watched us leave. The kids left first on the four-wheeler and then Charlie and I walked back to the pasture gate.

We closed the gate and headed down the road back to the trailer. We walked for just a few minutes and heard a loud noise. We turned to see the herd running toward the gate! I guess they weren’t ready for us to leave!

On Sunday we attended church in Crockett with the kids. It is such a friendly congregation! We enjoyed lunch at a local Mexican restaurant and then went for a quick trip to Wal-Mart. After we made it back to Lovelady, I trimmed one of our Confederate Roses and Charlie hauled those branches to the burn pile. (I foresee a big bonfire in our future after all of the clean up from this weekend!)

When we first began this journey, we were ready to head back to the “big city” as soon as lunch was over – we definitely didn’t want to be driving in heavy traffic. Today, we were still sitting outside on the deck enjoying the sunshine, cool breeze and watching the birds play at 4:30 in the afternoon. It seems that each Sunday that we head back home, the time gets later and later!

We can’t wait to head back to the Wheeler’s Country Road soon!