Work to do

On Sunday, Hubby and I headed out to breakfast followed by a visit to Highlands for some R&R.  But we ended up getting some chores done, too.  Just like in your backyard at home, the grasses grow up, obscuring the landscape and the paths.  So Hubby did some trimming around the barn and over to where we have a firepit and porch swing.  We also dismantled an old campfire circle of rather large stones that was directly under the power lines, then raked up the chunks of charred wood.  Nature will reclaim that small area, and those rocks we will use in landscaping some day.

 Bluebonnets are waning and other wildflowers and other grasses are taking over.  It's on our list of things to do to catalog the plants up there, figuring out what different things we have.  We need to clear out some of the cedar that is encroaching on the oaks, burn up some wood.

Mabel loves her new home.

We didn't see any critters around, but evidence points to mice having a party in the barn.  Plus, there is scat all over the place - bobcats? Raccoons? Deer for sure. And we know there are coyotes up there.  We also made a to do list for next time we visit:  bring mouse traps, the extra BBQ grill, install a shower stall, get another lawn mower, find the screen for Mabel, install filter on water spigot in pump house, put tile on the pump house floor.

We also "raked" the drive with a magnet tool to pick up nails and other small metal debris.  Each time we visit, we find something we hadn't see before: the tires are in clumps all around the place. So we pick up a little trash each time we visit.  This time we got two trash bags full of various types of trash and metal.  We will likely have to rent a dumpster to load up with big stuff each fall.  It's going to be a process...

Then we took a nature walk to admire the place, sat in the swing and got some sun, then headed to a couple of wineries. 

Not a bad way to spend a Sunday, I say.