he's here

The grandson entered the world last Friday night and here are the promised pictures.

Baby G....8lbs 13oz

Sprout #2 did an outstanding job under nail-biting circumstances. She's a total champ. I probably annoyed her, but she was understanding of my concern. I think describing her labor as loooooooooooong wouldn't be an overstatement. Thanks to all who prayed us through this process. We are beyond grateful. Thank you, thank you.....mmmmmm-wah (big kiss)...can't thank you enough!!

baby G and KK

Thought I was gonna have to break a few arms to get my chance to hold the baby. Such a big, sturdy boy! Do you see gratitude oozing from my every pore? Oh, and I NEED a haircut!
Holding a newborn just makes one happy, doesn't it? Is there any better feeling?

Sprout #1....now he's Uncle W. Looks like he swallowed a canary!

Took the opportunity yesterday to bombard the recovering Sprout and Son-in-law's house with much of my photo paraphernalia. I was hankering for some nifty newborn photos. Never mind I know NADA about taking photos of infants....just jump right in...do it...get the feet wet.

After some unfortunate attempts to take baby's picture in a stupid basket (with a handle that obscured his face), and trying to balance Grandson in the seat of my western saddle (he's not fond of tooled leather and an abundance of silver)....I took his photo with a huge, scary-looking bear!

Cute feet

Doesn't matter that said bear looks ready to devour him...Grandson looks peaceful enough. It's an honest and solid first attempt. Photographed with love.

Scary bear really looks ravenous in the above photo, but baby G is so brave, he's smiling. Take that, scary bear!

Oh lands!....There's lots to learn, isn't there?

The little smile captivated me...so I had to do a close up...even though it shows my limits as a newborn photog.

The Sprout wanted to keep Baby G awake some during the day yesterday hoping he might sleep a little better during the night. I think we accomplished that, Sprout.

He was jostled, bounced, maneuvered, balanced, and we might have bumped his head into the handle of the stupid wicker basket. Hopefully, he'll hold no memories of the trauma.

Promise me.......you won't ask the Sprout about the Boy Scout axe photo prop. It's better left alone for now.

Smiling love to all.

rattler hunt

The Sprout and the Son-in-Law (SIL) related a heckuva rattlesnake story to me and the Texan the other day.

 "We saw a HUGE rattler stretched out by the storage box!"

Did you kill him?

"Well....no. We tried throwing a heavy rock at him, but we missed"

The comical image bounced like a pinball in my mind. The Sprout and the SIL were out for a leisurely sunset walk in the country. Neither was prepared for the possibility of spotting a rattlesnake. The SIL despises snakes and his attempts to bean the snake with a heavy rock made me giggle. The Sprout reported his attempted killer rock throw was from about 20 feet.....didn't want to take any unnecessary chances standing too close to an angry rattler. Smart SIL.

The next evening the brave duo appeared at our house and announced they were going back in to seek and destroy the offending rattlesnake. I grabbed my boots and my garden hoe and threw in with them. I love the gory-ness of slaying a rattler. We drove about a mile from our house to the land where I keep a couple of horses. Not the 'best old-lady horse in the world'...show horse Rodney, but a couple of geldings with some lameness issues. OK, they are very expensive pets basically, but I sorta enjoy looking after them and living the horsey lifestyle. The old steel water tank the horses drink from sprung a leak.

The water level is going...down....down

The leak was at the bottom of the metal tank

Don't like a leak like this in the middle of a drought

The Texan hired an outfit to come and spray the entire tank with some kind of waterproof foam. It worked like a charm and the tank is now holding water! Thank you, Texan.

Anyhooooo......on with the deadly serious business at hand....the SNAKE HUNT! We trekked down the big hill. See the little house in the distance? That's our target.

Only green thing is the hardy mesquite tree

This is the reported snake hang-out. Notice fierce SIL with my hoe

Guess we scared the socks off the snake, because we didn't see him anywhere.

The grandson went with us. His first snake hunt

The expedition was a bust as a snake hunt, but it made for a memorable walk. We bid 'til we meet again' to the snake and started the death march back up the hill to the truck.

We could sure use some rain. Not a shred of grass anywhere on this barren land. Yesterday we hit the record of 50 days of 100+ temperatures this summer. Not really the kind of record or notoriety any of us wanted.

Well....it's time for the Labor Day weekend and the traditional ending of summer. I'd like to chop this summer's head off with my hoe. Or, have the fearless SIL smash it in the head with his killer rock. This summer has been like the rattler.....hostile and unwelcome.

Let's look forward to a more hospitable Fall, shall we? Hope you have plans to kick back and welcome the coming of Autumn. What are you going to do? Let me know if anything fun happens. Wishing you the greatest of weekends.

Hoe-y love to all.