It's been a while...

Sorry everybody! I've not been on here much lately.....but we have been pretty busy, or at least that's my excuse. Last weekend we headed out into our back yard with an aim of getting much done! Friday we had hired a bobcat, so Heath figured that out ready for Saturday....then as we were headed to bed Heath bent down to charge his phone, and noticed a spider on the floor. He thought it looked a little wicked, so looked closer, and thought "that looks like a spider at the Ft. Worth zoo" so he looked CLOSER and thought.....I think that's a brown recluse.....sure enough, after some internet research, we positively identified it as a BROWN RECLUSE.....in our bedroom...under Heath's nightstand....and as we were to find out.....had been frequenting under our bed.....under our HEADS! Now, this spider really is pretty small (in an Aussie's point of view), and in my opinion, looks pretty much like a regular house spider.......but.....he's very dangerous. In fact, he beats the black widow, and is the most poisonous in the States. Just do a Google on BR spider bites, and you'll see why we are very thankful for the Lord watching over us! He had been living there for a good while. The more we looked the more thankful to the Lord we were! Just in case you are wondering how to ID a BR....they have a little fiddle/violin mark on the head with the neck of the fiddle going toward the rear. They also only have six eyes, while most spiders have eight. So that kept us up till about midnight, then Saturday, we got up early and headed out to the back yard around 7:30....by the end of the day we had removed at least four inches of dirt from our back yard, the good dirt went in my garden bed, and the trash dirt went out in the parking lot to be removed later. The reason we had to remove so much is because it was prevoisly a gravel parking lot.....which isn't very helpful to growing grass.....or anything else for that matter! We had a lot of pea gravel and caliche, and it was as hard as a rock. The bobcat was worth every penny. We are now down to mostly decent dark dirt....although it is compacted at the moment. It has been raining ever since though, but maybe that will make it easier to get the last loads out that mostly have to be done by hand. Only problem is that I got most of my plants in the mail yesterday (fruit cocktail tree, blueberries, blackberries, red currants...) and I have to plant them...NOW...IN THE MUD. What fun. It is funny though.....growing up Dad and Mum forced us to work outside pulling weeds and gardening.....oh the misery....but now I love working in the dirt! Thanks Dad and Mum.....I appreciate you more and more every day, for all that you taught us growing up. Gardening is one of my favourite pastimes, and I like/hope to make it a profitable one too....which is why I have/am planting mostly food producing plants/trees....then I get my flowers, leaves, beauty, and fruit! I got my baby tangerine house plant this past week and it already has two teeny tiny tangerines on it, even though it is only about 6 inches tall. We have been busy, busy, BUSY. Tonight is the parade for our Western Heritage Event that hits Abilene this time of year. We won't be going this time as we are heading out to see some friends, which will be a lot of fun! They are a blast. :) They are a tomohawk throwing, deer shootin', boy scouting, story tellin' family! (OK, so I had to throw that in for all of you who'd love to be doing that! Come see us......;) There is a rodeo tomorrow night.....don't tell Jordan....I doubt we'll make it, it is usually pretty expensive, and seeing as it is a ranch rodeo, they don't have bull riding, just broncs.....but the kids do love the wild cow milking! Anyway, that's my update for now! (BTW, I did go to post about 2 weeks ago, and just as I was going to publish it, Jared turned of my computer!) I'll try to get Kristy to upload some pics.