Just watching and waiting...

Yep, we are just watching and waiting to see what Hurricane Dean does...I did buy duct tape today just in case and batteries for our flashlights and our NOAA radio/tv...The duct tape I use around all the windows and doors as this is an old house and single pane windows do not keep the rain out when it's coming at you sideways...I learned that the hard way during Hurricane Claudette, it seaped in around all the edges of the glass...Monday I will fill the truck up with gas, get some cash out of the bank and if it looks like it might come this way I'll get some plywood. My landlady is older and isn't able to prepare the house for a hurricane so we help them out how ever we can...But for now we just wait and watch...They say it may hit the Brownsville area but they also admit that may not be the case as with Hurricane Rita they messed up...said it was going to hit us and then at the last minute it turned North...

My photo groups challenge for the week is black and white photos....below are some photos I took tonight...

My wonderful husband watching the Dallas Cowboy game...he is so intense. We have an agreement...I keep Michael occupied so Fred can enjoy the game without interruption...Now if that could only happen when I'm trying to scrapbook, lol....

Ebony listening to the neighbors dogs carrying on...

I used a flash on the photo above and I like the photo except for her eyes...The flash made them look wild!

Ebony watching the horse.

The wasp nest in the backyard is growing.

I enjoyed taking photos of Ebony tonight as she was totally ignoring me and it was fun playing with the camera...Now I need to go make some birthday cakes...Tomorrow we are having Cake and Ice cream for Michaels 4th birthday, which is actually Monday...Hard to believe he is 4 yrs old, he is growing up and becoming more human as the days go by, lol. Oh by the way he is officially potty trained...YeeHaw...We have not used any pullups for 2 weeks now and the last week he has done a terrific job!! I told everyone he'd be potty trained by the time he was 4 and he is, lol...I know I'm a bit slow but I was waiting for him to decide it was time...He's a boy what can I say...

A Thursday evening walk

Fred was going to work out on the exercise bike tonight when he said he'd rather go for a walk and I said lets go...So off we went Michael on his tractor, Fred with his snake boots, Dallas cowboy shorts and sleeveless shirt...I had to promise no photos of Fred so no laughs tonight, sorry folks! It's not very often we all go for a walk and I didn't want to ruin it! Below are some of the photos I took.

I was squating down by the dry creek seeing what I could take a photo of when I felt something on my arm...A Grasshopper!! He was quiet comfortable and I decided to attempt a photo of him...not to thrilled about my hairy freckled arm but the grasshopper came out good!

Prickly Pair Cactus with Tunas on it. These are the fruit of the cactus and the indians ate them and they make jellys out of it. I've tried them and they aren't to good raw.

A Rattlebush bloom. I saw these plants a few weeks ago and wondered what they were. This evening they had blooms and seed pods on them...I thought they were beautiful.

This is a reflection of an Oak tree in the dry creek bed that is full of water after last nights rain.

Tropical Depression Erin

Tropical storm Erin is now Tropical Depression Erin...Her center came on land at Corpus and everyone North and NE of Corpus is getting rain, which unfortunately is us!....From what I can see we've only had 2 inches of rain so far, not sure if Fred dumped the rain gauge this morning...Hardly any wind and no problems except for our phsyco Dog who hates storms...Ebony went bonkers last night when the first storms hit and tried to bust in the front door...I wasn't going outside but then she headed for the front window and that is when I jumped outside and hollered at her...She is deathly afraid of storms since Hurricane Claudette hit and the house fell on her...But we don't allow her in the house and she has her own dog house...I cleared my bench off on the front porch for her and she laid up there...I guess that was okay because she quieted down after that and when I checked on her this morning she was in her dog house...
I'm watching Hurricane Dean now...This one doesn't look good at all and whereever he hits I'll be praying for the people...

Update on Erin who is now Tropical Storm...

ERIN APPROACHES THE TEXAS COAST WITH NO CHANGE IN STRENGTH... A TROPICAL STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE TEXAS COAST FROM SAN LUIS PASS SOUTHWARD TO BROWNSVILLE. A TROPICAL STORM WARNING MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...INCLUDING POSSIBLE INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE. AT 1000 PM CDT...0300Z...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM ERIN WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 26.5 NORTH...LONGITUDE 95.7 WEST OR ABOUT 140 MILES...220 KM...SOUTHEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI TEXAS AND ABOUT 200 MILES...325 KM...SOUTH-SOUTHWEST OF GALVESTON TEXAS. ERIN IS MOVING ERRATICALLY TOWARD THE WEST-NORTHWEST NEAR 14 MPH...22 KM/HR... AND THIS MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS. THE CENTER OF ERIN IS EXPECTED TO BE VERY NEAR THE TEXAS COAST WITHIN THE WARNING AREA TOMORROW MORNING. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 40 MPH...65 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. A LITTLE STRENGTHENING IS POSSIBLE PRIOR TO LANDFALL. TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 85 MILES...140 KM TO THE NORTHEAST OF THE CENTER. THE LATEST MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE MEASURED BY AN AIR FORCE RESERVE UNIT RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT WAS 1004 MB...29.65 INCHES. TOTAL RAIN ACCUMULATIONS OF 3 TO 5 INCHES ARE EXPECTED ACROSS MUCH OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN TEXAS...WITH ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF 8 INCHES POSSIBLE. STORM SURGE OF 2 TO 3 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE LEVELS MAY BE EXPERIENCED IN A FEW COASTAL LOCATIONS TO THE NORTH OF WHERE THE CENTER MAKES LANDFALL. ISOLATED TORNADOES ARE POSSIBLE ALONG THE MIDDLE TEXAS GULF COAST ON THURSDAY.

It's 10:16 pm Weds. night and no rain as of yet...the first rain band that came in didn't drop a drop on us...it broke up but the sky sure was black...I went outside a little bit ago and could see lightening off to the East and from looking at the radar we have another band of rain and storms headed this way....

The critters seem to know something is coming and they're coming in the house...ugh!! We just found two scorpions and a blind snake....Yes in the house...We were looking for a Scorpion that Fred had sprayed and this small itty bitty snake starts slithering across the floor..Fred is trying to tell me it's a worm and I said WORM MY BUTT!! I was yelling for him to get the dust pan and he's dinking around as usual and I'm jumping around yelling at him to get it!!...we got the snake and I put it in a jar for photos....It is now out in the pasture...the two scorpions have gone bye - bye...and I'm ready for bed as soon as my adrenlin rush goes away....UGH!! You can bet we'll all be watching where we walk in the house and very JUMPY for awhile...Sometimes I can't stand it here in Texas....LOL...but I wouldn't leave so I have to put up with the weather and the critters because I love TEXAS!! Never a dull moment!!

This is the best I could do on a photo as the Blind snake was moving around quiet a bit and darned if I was going to attempt a photo outside of the jar....They are harmless but it is something I am NOT going to play with...

On a happier note Michael and I rode down to the property today and I found some wild Lantana growing....I love it and keep it marked so that Fred doesn't shred over it!!

Tropical Storm Erin Churning in the Gulf of Mexico

A tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico has been upgraded to a tropical storm. As of 10:30am Wednesday morning, Tropical Storm Erin was located at latitude 26.6 north and longitude 93.5 west, or about 250 miles east of Brownsville. The storm is moving towards the west-northwest at 12 miles per hour. The storm is packing winds of 40 miles per hour. It is expected to make landfall sometime early Thursday morning south of Corpus Christi. A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect from Baffin Bay near Corpus Christi to Port O'Connor. Counties from Corpus Christi to Victoria are under a Flash Flood Watch through Thursday as the heaviest rainfall from Tropical Storm Erin.

Just to keep everyone informed and aware of what may be happening here in the next day or two....

Also on another note I'm a little frustrated. I asked Michael what he wanted to do on his birthday and he keeps telling me over and over again that he wants to fly in a small airplane. I have checked out flights going from Victoria to Houston and they are just to costly...So I called a local group that gives lessons to see if they had any idea on how I could get Michael a flight...and they said they were overbooked and under staffed and couldn't help me. They told me if I knew of any local pilots in the area they would more than likely take Michael for a plane ride but alas I know no one in this area who has a plane...grrr....I so want to encourage Michael because he truly seems interested in planes...I'm totally bummed about this...if anyone out there has an idea let me know...

Now we are off to check the property before the storm blows in....I'll keep everyone posted on how we are doing and since we live on a hill I'm sure we'll be just fine...

Tuesdays and different Points of view...

After attending a funeral today I needed a pick me up...so I grabbed the camera this evening. These are different Points of view that I found in and around the house...

An ant on a moon flower bud.

A HUGE Spider and I mean HUGE!! She had a fairly large beetle and was wrapping it up.

I wanted a Point of view photo of something we seldom see...and this is what I came up with, LOL....Looking through a horses legs while she was eating...it is different!!

Okay so most of you use Pecans for cooking and you know what shelled pecans look like but what about while they are still on the tree....Here you go....

Now go bake some brownies or cookies and enjoy the rest of your evening!!

Sunday Evening

This Evening I suggested to Fred that we get on the roof and cut a tree limb down that was hanging on it...Of course I had other reasons for wanting on the roof too, lol...My photo blog group has a challenge this week of different points of view when taking a photo and I wanted to try some from the roof. All my life I have loved getting up high to see the view and it's pretty beautiful from our roof, well that is if you like country views!!

The back light from the sunset.

Our neighbors windmill and flag through the trees. The sun was hitting the windmill and I thought it was pretty neat.

A view of the cattle pens behind our house.

Our Driveway meandering off towards the main road...

Michael thinking...Uh Oh we're in TROUBLE now!!

This is a busy photo but I liked it...

And that it's Folks as always stay tuned for more...and thanks for stopping in!