We celebrated Cinco de Mayo weekend in the country and it was muy bien. No big fiesta- just mainly siestas and relaxing. The Sam Houston statue on I-45 symbolizes to us that we are leaving Houston aka The Big City and headed into The Country since our turn off the freeway to Lovelady is right past Sam. Charlie says that he always feels a sense of relief as we pass the statue so I’ve started a silly tradition of waving and saying “Hello Sam” when we drive by. I begin feeling that way when we turn off of the highway and travel down the two lane road that leads to our county road.

We made it to Lovelady and realized that the cows had been down in the lower pasture…by the gate and the trailer. They left us many gifts on the ground along with knocking down the solar lights that I put beside the steps leading up to the deck. I’m not sure why they like those solar lights so much!

After we were all settled in, we decided to walk down the road to the upper pasture and the pond. We checked on some of the plants along the way. The blueberries are now blue – but not dark enough not soft enough to pick. The pears are growing but still tiny. The dewberries are in varying stages – some red and some ready to eat. The fig bushes are tall and full of fruit. The cows seem to enjoy standing under the bridge that the two bushes create. They don’t seem interested in eating the leaves or figs – which I am grateful for since they have already cleaned the leaves off of both of the Confederate Rose bushes. Some of them even like to nibble the little rose bush!

After a pizza dinner with Jason, Danielle, and Raya we came back to the trailer to sit on the deck to listen to the sounds of the country and look for wildlife in the night. After a good night’s sleep, we were awakened by the alarm clock of the country – not a rooster but a herd of cows mooing at our bedroom window! We both jumped out of bed knowing that they were right by the trailer which meant they were right by the truck! They didn’t seem to mind our presence at all when we walked outside. In fact, they seemed to think that we should be feeding them! They were quite vocal and quite loud! One of the cows that I’ve nicknamed “Bette Davis” was intrigued by her reflection in the shiny bumper of the truck. Charlie had to shoo her away from the bumper. She moved down to the driver’s door and once again found herself in the reflection of the truck. Another one decided that she liked nosing the door and door handle until, once again, she was encouraged to move on. They laughed at Charlie when he took the truck to the car wash. They asked what he got into – and he told them it was cow slobber!

Even though these heifers belong to someone else that is running them on our property, the girls (Melissa, Danielle, and Natalie) and I have decided to name them. Maybe not all of them, but some. Jason said one of the cows looked like the Blue Bell cow – so we named her Blue Bell. The one I call Bette Davis  has a black patch around one of her eyes which looks like dark eyeliner, she seems to like to look at her reflection, noisy and extremely bossy to the other cows! (Blame it on watching “Feud” recently.) This small herd definitely has some distinct personalities in it.

Charlie and Jason picked up two deer feeders and a hog trap after our breakfast with the cows. We may need the hog trap now since we found several instances of where they had been on the property. They can really do a lot damage! We enjoyed a dinner of beans and sausage finished off with a lemon meringue pie that Danielle brought. Then it was time for another evening sitting outside under the almost full moon and listening to the sounds of the countryside. It was so quite that you could hear our neighbor yelling at her dogs to quiet down – and she’s about half a mile down the road and across two tree lines and a creek!

Sunday morning started with coffee with the cows again before we headed to church in Crockett. After lunch, Charlie and Jason finally had time to sit back and relax and fish in the pond. We weren’t sure if there were fish or what kind they might be but they found out! They caught three large-mouth bass but let the turtle that kept cutting Jason’s line get away! Charlie put together a bench for me to sit on at the pond. Next trip I’ll take a turn at fishing from the bench!

After a very stressful week or two at home, this was a relaxing trip – that was the main goal! After the weekend was over though, Jason and a friend and fellow welder, started working again on the fence on the property that will lead from the road to the house (when it’s finally there.) It will be a pipe fence rather than a barb wire fence. Jason said that it would look nicer as an entrance to the property and I agreed. Once he and Cameron finish the pipe fence, it will need to be painted. We’re still debating what color to paint it.

Maybe we’ll plan a paint party and invite everyone to come in Tom Sawyer fashion to the Wheeler Country Road!