A Long Week

    Stephen's new job allows him to work only a couple of days a week and still make the same amount as before. This has been perfect because the house was not complete when we moved out to the ranch. The chickens needed more space being in smaller pens than they were used to. They had just started to lay again so we needed to get them into a coop as soon as possible. We decided to spend a week getting things in order.
    First on our list was to get the chickens in a new home with more space. We had only kept our best mother hens, one rooster and two pullets (all but two are game chickens). We needed to build a coop that would keep them safe as well as give them warmth for the winter. We took into account the fact that we now live in an area with bob cats, mountain lions, coyotes, and snakes. We used landscaping timbers for the outside border and then dug down around the coop to install tin. The tin would be harder for snakes to climb. It would also make digging into the coop a longer task so we could respond to the chickens if they alerted to danger. We then added a small room with laying boxes that would keep them out of the weather. The chickens were very happy to be in their new home. We still wanted to be sure they were protected so in a final effort to do that we built a dog pen around three sides so that at night the dogs can keep them safe.

    The next job to tackle was one I was desperately waiting for... inside plumbing! Stephen is licensed in water and waste water so this part was the easiest. The hardest part was digging a huge hole for our septic tank. I tried to help but he really did most of the work. This was a huge stepping stone in getting things the way we want them. Once the septic was in it was time to install the toilet. I could not wait for this to be marked off our list but I would have to because it was getting too late and darkness was fast approaching. (Solar power was next on the list!)
    The next day Stephen wanted to start by installing the solar panel. This would be a quick job since we had a completed 1600 watt panel. We had also purchased a smaller panel as well as additional squares to build another large panel later. We wanted to have plenty of power for the house and shop so we also bought two large wind generators. Stephen installed the solar panel and then we got to the toilet.

 

          
        The installation of the toilet took most of the day but we still had a bit of time to install the roof trim. Everything was coming along just as we hoped. We spent the rest of the day relaxing in the cool evening breeze. Out in the desert you can see a million stars when darkness falls. The Milky Way looks like thick cloud cover and shooting stars are common. Some nights it takes forever for the moon to come up and on others, it comes up almost as soon as the sun goes down. I think the evenings are my favorite part of living here.

    
   
 

Freeway

      After renting our house, we had a lot of packing to do. The next week was non-stop running and travel. Stephen had to work in Waxahachie in the middle of the move which added to our extensive travel time. Each trip to our west Texas home was a ten hour drive- one way. We had to make a trip out to enclose the shop so that we could use it for storage while we continued building our home.
      On the way back to Bastrop, after a long couple days of working on the property, we were approached by a semi-truck driver who had found an injured Audad. He was trying to find a wildlife refuge but was running into dead ends. He knew he could not care for the young animal and asked if we would take it in. The poor thing had one eye that was just gushing blood, one of its' tiny horns was broken off, and it had a small scratch above the other eye. We doctored it and stopped to get some baby goat milk and a bottle to care for it during the rest of our drive.
      Once back in Bastrop, the Audad (which the truck driver had named Freeway) was feeling a bit better. It was a stubborn little thing but she was adorable. Over the next few days she learned to follow us around. She also learned to get into all kinds of mayhem. She would jump up on the kitchen sink and turn on the water, she chased my little dogs in circles around the bed, and she would eat her bottle, only on her terms. She also insisted that the bed was hers!

        At first she was hard to get used to having around. School had started and she would scream for attention while I was trying to study. She started to get an attitude about eating and just found it to be a game. She would be eating her bottle just fine and then would realize that she was doing what we wanted her to so she would stop and start fighting it. Poor Stephen was covered in bruises.
      The last trip to our property, before moving out there, we took Freeway for a walk. She loved it out there because it was so close to her home....which was in the mountains close to Van Horn. She did very well on a leash and we could let her off and she would come when we called her name. This day was different and when Stephen let her loose she ran ahead. We called to her and she stopped, waiting patiently for us to catch up. Just as we got near she took off again. We called her name and again she stopped. This time she looked back at us and then forward again. I told Stephen he better get her or she won't stop the next time she runs. The wild nature in her had returned but she was still eating from a bottle and completely blind in one eye. She only had bottom teeth- the top had not come in and her injuries were still not completely healed. Stephen called her again to make sure she was waiting there but she suddenly took off through the desert. We took off after her but could not find her in the thick brush.
      We spent all night looking for her and calling to her. I knew that once night fell she belonged to the desert. With coyotes and mountain lions all over the valley, she would have no chance. Stephen thought she would return when she got hungry but we never saw her again.
      A few days ago, I saw another Audad about her size and I realized that the little girl with the big personality would always hold a piece of my heart!

Spring Semester

   January arrived with many new year's resolutions as well as my birthday, my new nephew Brodie, and the beginning of another semester at school. I was nervous about this semester because I would be taking two classes that I knew would be tough. I love history but have never made good grades in the course. I was also taking government which was even worse. The semester was rounded off by a dance course which would complete my visual and performing arts requirement and my final English comp class.
   Stephen had been talking about moving to our new property but had not made up his mind. There was nothing on the property but the outside kitchen that we had built. I knew there was no way we could make the move. I told him that once the semester started we would not be able to move until it ended. So January meant that we were staying where we were until at least May.
    He was unhappy working for other people and never having time for his own company. He had vacation time at work but every time he asked to take some time off they said they needed him. He had been working non-stop for 14 years and he was burned out. I just wanted to hurry up and finish my degree so I could get a job in journalism and let him stay home to work in his shop and build his company.
    In February he was again talking about moving so I told him that as soon as the semester was over we would go. I applied for school in El Paso so that I could enroll for the summer semester. It was the closest college to our property outside of Sierra Blanca, just over an hour away. I knew Stephen was pretty serious and he wanted to make a trip out to the property to start building a shop and house. Only having weekends off made it very hard. Each trip was an 18 hour drive (9 hours each way).
    I had to miss some days at school and began to worry about whether or not I would pass some of my classes. I was only allowed to miss five classes and I had missed seven. The semster was nearing an end and finals were just around the corner. Stephen and I had discussed it and he was going to give his notice the week before my finals. Once he gave notice he took off a few extra days at work to get some things done on the property. The shop was currently nothing more than a pole barn. No walls, roof or floor- just a frame and the house was only partially built without the trim boards, no inside walls, no plumbing, and part of the floor was still not completed. I was worried about the move.
   Stephen decided to head out west on the day of my final for history. I had to arrange to take my final early and had no time to study. I was so afraid that I would fail. When my grades finally came in I was surprised. I received an A in dance and a B in all three other classes. I was enrolling for the summer semester in El Paso although I was still unsure if we would make the move.
    By the end of May we were still unsure if we would be moving or staying so I added Austin back on my list for school just in case I would need to attend the summer there. We put the house up for rent and when we were contacted by thirty or more people, we knew that we would be making the move. It would all have to be done quickly because the summer semester started the middle of June and it was close to the first already. So we began to pack up. Everyone was shocked that we were going to be moving so suddenly. I was worried too because nothing was finished... we would soon find out just how hard things may be.

A Wonderful Christmas

Christmas was just around the corner and Ronnie seemed to be improving. Tests were coming back with a decrease in cancer cells and blood work was looking great. We waited patiently for the final results, expected just before Christmas. Everyone had been praying for the family and the funds raised during "Medicinal Tunes" had kept the bills paid for Ronnie and Ashley. The Hyatt had continued to pay his insurance through donations from various employees and they were holding his job in hopes of his return....(like I said before, great people!)
Stephen's hair was getting unruly as he refused to cut it until Ronnie returned to work. I guess it was the only way he felt he could do something in this helpless situation. His intentions were to donate his hair to one of the organizations that make wigs for cancer patience; once it was long enough.
On the day the test results came in, the entire family had reason to celebrate. All tests showed Ronnie to be cancer free. It would be a great Christmas for us all. Ronnie would still have to continue on pain medications until his body recuperated and the stint in his heart was removed. This would be several more months.
A few weeks later he was told he could return to work. Stephen's hair was not quite long enough to donate but I was glad to see it cut. Ronnie, who had lost all of his hair in the first weeks of chemo, now had to wait for his to grow back.
The baby was due in less than a month and I was glad that Ronnie would be there for the delivery. Our family had survived this test and I felt that, in some ways, it had brought us all closer. Even though, it would not be long before we would make the final decision to move to our land in west Texas.

Thanksgiving in The Chihuahuan Desert

      Thanksgiving would be much different this year. My two daughters and my son-in-law were now living in Tennessee, my oldest son had to work for the entire holiday and through out the weekend, my middle son was headed to Michigan to spend time with our cousins and my youngest son was with his Grandparents. This left us home alone. Our friend Jim had just delivered his son to the dorms of St. Edwards University and found himself alone as well.
     We decided to head out to west Texas to try Thanksgiving on our land. Stephen and Jim discussed building a kitchen on the property with the materials from one of Jim's shops. So we loaded it up along with enough food to feed an army. Stephen's mom came with us. She was excited because she had purchased twenty-two acres beside us but this would be her first time seeing it.
     Once we arrived, we set up camp and I gathered wood. During a previous visit to our property we had assigned each other names. I mentioned before that one of my sons was nicknamed Billyjack- well, I had earned the name "Gatherer of Wood".
     The night was beautiful but freezing cold. We could not get close enough to the fire and Stephen's mom, Virginia, was freezing to death. We gave her a ton of blankets but sleeping in the tent was not going to work for her. Jim made her a bed by the fire and she survived the night. Stephen and I slept in the truck, starting it every hour or so to get warm. The following morning the temperature gage in my truck read seven degrees. The Sake (Japanese wine) had frozen solid... now that's cold!
     That morning we put the coffee on. It was the best coffee I had in a long time, maybe because it was hot and I was cold. We then put the turkey on and allowed it to cook all day. It was very tender with a nice smoke flavor. We also had a big pot of beans, Jim's homemade pickles, and some kind of greens. The guys had spent the day working on the outside kitchen. They ran into several problems but never gave up and by nightfall there was a structure that we could sleep in. Stephen and I still ended up in the truck because it was just that cold! We were later joined by Virginia and Jim slept in a chair almost in the camp fire.
    The following morning, just before packing up, we all talked about the things we wanted to do. We decided to come out again in a week or so to start working on improvements to the land. We went over some of the things we had discussed previously; one being the name of the ranch. I still was in disagreement but had been outvoted by the males.... The property was to be called "El Chupacabra Ranch". Jim wanted us to vote against having Llamas on the property. We refused and said anyone who wants them can have them. Of course, we didn't want Llamas either but it was funny watching Jim squirm over the idea of them being on the property. He hates the things.

A New Way of Thinking

    Due to all of the chaos of summer, I ended up dropping my fall semester. I spent that time working on a fundraiser for my nephew to help with all of the medical bills he was incurring while fighting the cancer. By November we had worked something out with the Hyatt Lost Pines... a group of amazing, generous people... we would use their facilities for the fundraising event. Former Texas State Senator Gonzalo Barrientos would  be our M.C. Everything seemed to be coming together. Several bands volunteered their time and talent, rounding out the event which I called "Medicinal Tunes."

 

The Flyer came together nicely!!!

    Just before the event Ronnie was being pummeled by his treatments and we were afraid that he would be too weak to attend the fundraiser. The Hyatt prepared for him by making recliners available for him and Ashley (who was about 7 months pregnant by then) so they could be comfortable. 

    The morning of the event Stephen and his Dad went out to the Hyatt and started to cook the meat... almost thirty briskets and over one hundred pounds of sausage. I had a shoot that morning so I rushed off. After completing my shoot I had to get my two of my sons so we could go out to set up.  The Hyatt had an entire staff of volunteers who all wanted to help Ronnie so we were blessed that when we arrived most of the tables and chairs were already set up. My boys started to cover the tables and help unload things. Everything was coming together nicely. 

    The Hyatt provided us with a cashier and a coordinator so all I had to do is keep him informed of how things were going to be done and he would be sure everything was ready in advance. The sound guy they provided free of charge was amazing as well. This left me free to concentrate on my speech and introduction of the former Senator. I was nervous because I had never handled an event like this on my own. Thankfully I had an amazing media teacher who believed in me and allowed me to believe in myself so.... I was ready to rock!

    Ronnie's friends began to arrive and everything looked amazing. I met with Gonzalo as he arrived. He was tired from his dedication the day before. His wife had passed away the year before and the city of Austin created the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center in her honor. I attended the event and knew it had drained Gonzalos' energy and put a strain on his spirit. 

                                      A few images from that event- in dedication to her memory....

 

Speaking fondly of his wife...

A moment of silence and remembrance...

    Gonzalo, being a man who loves his community and is faithful to his friends, was there for us. His words of encouragement meant a lot to our family and especially Ronnie. We are so grateful that he could be our M.C. When he had to leave I took over. That was pretty scarey but we got through it and the night was perfect. Ronnie was so glad to see all of his friends.... all at once. He had an amazing time even though he was exhausted from treatment. The bands were amazing and the food was great- and gone!   

   After all of this, we realized that life is too short to be working all the time.  We wanted to experience life. Our number could be called at any moment and this is not the life we wanted to remember. We made a plan to change everything that we hated about our lives and start all over. Every day's a new day!

  

 

 

 

August Rush- Disaster Strikes

   I knew we would not be making too many trips out west due to the fall semester starting. I have been going to school to get a degree in journalism and being in school full time while running a photography company makes things difficult. Most weekends are spent shooting weddings so we settled in for the long hot summer.
   August is a hot month and this August just seemed to be hotter than the last. Triple digits were killing all of my flowers and our water bill was over three hundred dollars, the highest it had ever been. I finally decided to just give in and watch it all sizzle away.
   Just a few weeks into my fall semester my nephew was diagnosed with cancer. We spent days at the hospital. I was missing classes and trying to stay on top by doing things on line. It was getting hard but I wanted to be there for Ronnie. He had just found out a month or so before that he and his fiance would be having a baby so all of this hit the family hard.
   On our way home from the hospital we saw smoke in the distance. I got a call from my son and he said that there was a huge wildfire. Stephen immediately called our firefighter friend. He said people were being evacuated so we went home to gather things up. We loaded up my sons rabbit, our four ferrets, the dogs, and finally convinced the cats to get into a pen. We spent the night at a church that was not in the path of the fires which were, by that time, burning all around us.
   The following morning we were told that we could go back into our homes so we took our pets back, unloaded the trucks, and headed back to the hospital to spend the day with Ronnie. He had just come out of ICU and was now in a room. This was a good sign but just after getting to the hospital we received a call saying that we were being evacuated again. So, we went back home and went to Stephen's parents house to wait it out. Later that evening we were let back in. The fires had come only four miles from our home.
   It would take over a month to get the Bastrop wildfires out and thousands of people would be homeless with over thirty-four thousand acres burned as well as almost two thousand homes. Life became stressful for us, for our family, and for our community. This was the moment when we realized that we just get through life day by day because anything more than that is not reality. At any moment everything you know can change and your life can become unrecognizable.