Holidays and More Animals in the Road

ELAB Sr. and Trumpet Music
Originally uploaded by sunasak

How we spent our Christmas. We cooked a nice meal that could be transported to the land between Yorktown and Nordheim, Texas, and we took it to Lee's dad this morning. We then managed to cook or heat up (without a working oven) ham, yams, mashed potatoes, that green bean casserole that people other than me eat, and ELAB Sr.'s favorite sweet and sour cucumber salad. Plus we brought two pies and some cookies. He seemed pretty darned happy to have a Christmas dinner.

He also seemed to love his gifts, which were trumpet music (including music from Pirates of the Caribbean, which of course he has never seen), and a new pair of house socks I made for him. Oh, and candy, which he claims to have "too much of" but I think he secretly would take all he could get of.


Ornery old men and ornery sons often get testy, so I had them drive me around to look at all the neighboring towns when they got to arguing with each other. Then we fed the cows, new heifers, which Lee's dad is training to be friendly, and which also will have little calves in March. I hope these get to stay a while. One cow was very suspicious of me and would not eat until I stopped taking pictures of them. All three are lovely, shiny and black, mostly Angus.

I took a bunch of pictures of the farm, which I always seem to do, including cool black vultures who want to nest on the farm, a scenic bucket of leaves, and some very artistic cow poop which you see on the right. If you click the top picture on this post, the rest are near it on Flickr. There are also lots of nice photos of the new cows.


Later on, Lee's dad was sure he saw a fire, so we drove off to check it out, only to encounter a bunch of cattle in the road, running loose. They weren't doing much other than eating that grass that is always greener on the other side of the fence, but when we stopped so I could take their pictures, one of them was positive we had food in the truck, so she came right up to check us out. Everyone else started mooing their bovine heads off. So, after a few parting shots, we departed before starting a stampede. So, this makes two exciting encounters with livestock in the road in a few short months! I do lead a life of excitement, don't I? Oh yeah, and there was no fire. It was just haze or something. The long distances in the empty, vast countryside can fool with your eyes.

But seriously, it was nice to take some Christmas cheer to someone, and it reminded both of us that Christmas is a time for giving to those you love. I am glad we could make Christmas nice for Lee's dad.

I miss the kids though. Thank goodness they are scheduled to come home tomorrow. Send good weather vibes. And I hope your day was good.