Dixie Dude Ranch

My mother has reminded me that I have been remiss in my blogging duties. Funny - even though we live together, she still keeps me blogging! It makes me smile.

Last month we went to the Dixie Dude Ranch, courtesy of Cindy, my mother-in-law. For Thursday through Sunday, we had fun filled days of rest, horseback riding, and (best of all, in my opinion, no cooking!). There were loads of other kids for the boys to play with, a pool to entertain them during the heat, and no shortage of delicious homecooked food served family style in the quaint dining room. Each evening we were treated to awesome entertainment. My favorite was the trick roper you see in the photos. Not only was he very talented with a rope, but he was hysterical, too! I have a lot of photos to load, so I'll just stick them all at the end of this post.

Summer is nearly over for the kids and is totally over for me. I'll begin my new job for Northeast ISD tomorrow as we enter a week of teacher preparation. I'm really excited to be working with challenging kids again, and this time I'll have a team of 10 other members with whom I'll be working! It promises to be an interesting year!

As for my boys, Ridge will go into second grade at Specht again and now Holt will join him as he is entering Kindergarten. Aaron - HOORAY! - will begin a nursing school orientation/into. class for SAC's nursing school program in October. For now, he is working hard at a new job at a dialysis clinic. It's been a challenge for him - he usually has to be at work (a 45 minute dive away) by either 4:15 a.m. or 5:15 a.m. Crazy!

On the "farm" front, we are excited to report that our chickens are now in full production. Aaron and I finally culled the flock, killing and processing (i.e. plucking, gutting, and freezing) a total of 8 roosters over the course of two weekends. We have a great flock now of 9 hens and 2 beautiful roosters. On hen, the Americana breed, is faithfully laying us one green egg everyday. Between the other 7 Plymouth Rock hens we are getting between 5 and 7 eggs every day! I'll try and get some photos of the roosters and the green eggs sometime soon.

For now, here are some shots from the dude ranch. Remember, click them to make them bigger.