Things That Happen Overnight

The title may not make sense to you, but it does to me.
I left the house for work one day, came home that night, and we had our mailbox finished.
Emerson has been growing like a weed - seems like overnight, he keeps getting bigger and bigger.  The little shirt he has on says 'Grandpa's Sidekick'.  He's almost outgrown it already.
And our green beans - literally doubled in size overnight.  It's like, we water them at 6:00 one night, and the next day, after some sunshine, they have doubled.  Del says we should have beans to harvest in a few weeks.  Holy Moly, that's exciting to me.
Always a touch of disappointment though...Dang our chickens, they're eating our corn stalks!!!  They eat the bugs everywhere else in the garden, but then they get to the rows of corn and are like 'plowing them down'.  We're going to have to figure something out for next year, although I do get the biggest kick watching Del flap his arms all over the place chasing them through the rows of corn.  He makes for the best Scarecrow!!

Finders Keepers

Our neighbors chickens have started coming over to our house every morning to visit with our girls.  Well, in that process, they have decided to stay for most of the day and lay their eggs in OUR chicken coop.  At first, we got a little excited when we found the first egg, thinking that our chickens had finally 'arrived' in their time of laying eggs.  But nope...we soon realized it was the Lokey's chickens just using our laying boxes.  The first few days, we didn't say anything because we just weren't sure - then the beginning of this week, Del told them he thought we were getting their eggs...sure enough, they confirmed that they were finding less and less eggs over in their laying boxes and wondered what was happening to their chickens.  We've laughed about it since and have decided to just keep whatever each of us gets, as our chickens fly over into their yard too, and will probably continue to do so even when they start laying.
So, between the 19 chickens we have, we should be just fine in the egg department for awhile.

Look Who's 3 Months Old!

Same monkey, same pose, same onesie.
But oh my gosh, is he getting a personality.  What a sweet baby boy he is - loves to smile and talk, even giggles at times with his momma and daddy.
Growing like our garden - fast and healthy!!
Love this little guy!

The Predator

We lost one of our chickens last week.
Our neighbors lost two of theirs.
And we found out why yesterday.
I was at R.S. Presidency meeting for a few hours and then on my way home, Kathryn called me saying she had just got off the phone with dad who told her the news.
Jordan had shot a predator in our back yard.
Jordan tells the story as follows....
He hears all our chickens pitching a very loud fit and he sees them run off.  He looks out our back windows to see a coyote right by the edge of our garden.  He takes off into my back bedroom closet and grabs his 22 rifle from our shelf and quickly loads it and goes out on to the back patio.  By this time, the coyote sees and hears Jordan and had made it half way to the chicken coop before she tries to make her escape back into our forest.  But Jordan took quick aim and got her, leveling her to the ground, but not yet killing her.  He said he had to go over and shoot her twice more to finish the job.
I arrive home to find him hovering over his kill.
He and Del decided it would be a good experience to skin the coyote, so Jordan spent the next hour hanging it up and skinning it and then burying the carcass.  It was a little more overwhelming than Jordan thought it would be and by the time he was finished, he was a little more than just grossed out, he was exhausted.
Our neighbors were thrilled Jordan had killed it as the wolves and coyotes are real threats to all the pets and animals homeowners have around here - sheep, goats, horses, chickens and rabbits...so, hopefully, there are not too many more around, although they do happen to hang in packs.
But at least, there is one less threat in the neighborhood tonight.

My Three Little Angels

Frisco Texas Shawnie Trail Stake

Del said his interview went well yesterday and was truly a very spiritual experience for him.  He was not called back, for which we were not surprised and very grateful.
Last nights evening session was attended by stake members 12 yrs and older, as requested by the first presidency.  This was a new directive, as usually, it is an adult only session.  But the purpose was explained and understood by all in attendance and it was good to hear the message presented by the visiting General Authorities.  Del and I were thrilled to run into literally tens and tens of our past stake and ward friends from Frisco, renewing cherished relationships and memories.  Afterwards, we went to dinner with Alana Wright and her son, Andrew.
Today, our stake conference was held at University of North Texas in order to accommodate the thousands who were in attendance.  It was announced, the new Frisco Texas Shawnie Trail Stake, with President Richard Platt as our stake Pres., Bishop Doug Freeman (Kylie's past Bishop) as first counselor and Pres. Argyle (his first name slips my mind) as second counselor.  All good men and all loved.  It will be a really good stake - There are seven units - 3 Prosper Wards, Aubrey, Crossroads, Little Elm and Frisco 2nd Ward.
This is the 4th stake we will have lived in since moving to Texas 11 years ago and the the second time we have been involved in the creation of a new stake.  It's exciting to see the growth of the church here in Texas.  We are truly blessed.
Tomorrow is my daddy's birthday.  He would have been 88 yrs. old.
Happy Birthday daddy.