Throckmorton County - Throckmorton, TX

This weekend will host the first winter storm to come into Texas.  No problems but rain for the upper coast and unbelievable humidity which will make it feel a whole lot colder in Houston area then North Texas this weekend.  Looks like I-20 north will be an ice storm.  At the ranch it's one of those things where the weatherman is covering his backside.  If they get a sure enough ice storm the weatherman has covered his backside.  And if they do it still won't be that bad as temps jump into low to mid 40's, ice gone each morning.  Since I did the first layout of buildings surrounding the courthouse and was thinking about what to write on my blog.....wonder what Throckmorton will look like....ice, ice and more ice.  Sigh......I'm glad I'm not in North Texas this weekend.  I'm holding down fort in Houston area home.  Probably won't even turn on the heat.

So here's the park bench I talked about in Pioneer Life post.  RAB Brand..... and around the corner the Sign in Pioneer Plaza (where sculpture is) that pays tribute to early Cattle Ranching in Texas and the Great Western Cattle Trail.  It is Layout #3 this month for me.  Now to do a card next for CKCB!!!  Just as soon as I relax from stressing over my mini covers......sigh!  Once again trying to figure out how this Cottage Cutz die will work and I don't have enough paper to waste on this the covers!

This was the sketch that inspired me and one I found on Pinterest.  Now to give credit where due....this one took a little time to find the how and why.  Posted on Dearly Dee Blog in the UK and then one can trace it to  a layout by Marcie Penner for Basic Grey.  Kind of fun to see where I got to with this layout.  I do want to use the sketch again and hold a little more to the sketch.

Hello Fall

I remember vividly the fall season when our family lived in Niagara Falls and Wilmington, DE.  Beautiful rich colors of the trees and a trip into Pennsylvania for apples from the farm.  All those vivid pictures stored neatly in my brain from before the age of 10.  To my amazement the tree across our driveway at the ranch in 2010 burst forth color hardly ever seen from a native tree.  Had to document the tree in this glorious color!

I used Papers from Studio Calico, Echo Park and Ruby Rock-it.  Embellishments from Fancy Pants, Prima and Studio Calico.  Stencil from Crafters Workshop, Mists and Paints from Art Anthology and Tattered Angels.  Inks from Tim Holtz Distressed Line.

Looking in the distance across my neighbor's pasture is pretty green trees!  I thought while at the ranch this weekend I would take the photo of the same tree this year just a few days over three years.

This time you see dead trees in the back of the tree and water.  In 2010 our neighbor built a tank and chose not to cut the trees down in part of the area where the water would back up.  A common practice to allow cover for fish.  As you can see the grass is shorter and the tree just turning color.

At the same time I am reminded that the early fall rains we have had in abundance I might add have allowed for rye grass to come up and given the summer grasses somewhat a spurt of growth in the warm days of October this year.  Yet you do not see the tall summer grasses we had in fall of 2010.  2011 would put my world to a test that it had not seen since the droughts of the '30's and '50's.  The old timers around town would say the summer of 2011 was far worse then the Dust Bowl.  And it certainly claimed many trees.  Somehow this tree survived.

You can see the damage the drought caused as it fought to survive and did.

Living in my world at the ranch is an amazing one.  Like wishing I had the camera as I sat in the Kawasaki Mule and some movement caught my eye of a baby skunk within arms reach waddling by as if he owned the world back in 2007.  Or would have that youngster given me a spray I would never forget!  And I could list many more treats I get to see.  Life is very constant, my world moves in circles from one season to the next, one calving season to the next, from birth to death of a tree, an animal, or the garden. The cycle never ceases and the circle always begins again.  It's a constant I can count on never changing.  I wouldn't trade my life as a rancher for anything in the world.

I used my Mother Nature I put together for CKCB.  Do check what others have created with their kits.  I would also like to thank deanna13, a member of ACOT's community for the pointing me to the Creative Scrappers Sketch #255 for my inspiration.

May each of you have a blessed day!