The year in fast forward

 Did some research

Went to LA

 Went ice skating

 Had a deck built

 Ripped up a deck

 Put in new gas and water

 Found an historic inscription

A&M beat OU!...

and that's the short version... or the version that had pictures to back it up.

Sweet Potatoes

 Lynn Farms is now in the business of growing sweet potatoes. 

This is the first year, so it was a whole new experience for all of us. The novelty of it made it a lot of fun for all of us to be involved in. We planted 5 acres of sweet potatoes this year, and yes, we manually placed every sweet potato cutting (called a slip) into the rotating wheel on the planter and watched each slip jut up in the soil as we crept down the rows behind the tractor.

Ross drove the tractor as my dad, Greg (his right hand man), Jeremy and I frantically tried to keep slips in the planting wheel as the tractor moved along. Newt helped finish it up when the second shipment of slips came in. There was a lot of laughter. Conversation happened when we came to a stop, but I discovered that you couldn't focus on keeping up with the planter and trying to have a conversation at the same time. My hand eye coordination and my reflexes were greatly strengthened.

It was quite the team building experience, and I think we would all agree that it was a lot of fun! Now it's time for harvest... I got word from Ross that they just cut the sweet potato vines today, so they should begin harvest late next week. I'm hoping to make it over there for a few days to observe the harvest process and see what the yield is like. If all goes well, they are thinking about planting 50 acres next year. So, to all of our blog readers out there, support our farmers and eat more sweet potatoes!

New Orleans

Newt finished up his masters at Tulane, so we all gathered in New Orleans back in May to bid him congratulations! We're all super proud of him and excited to watch his path unfold as their adventures continue. Newt and Kristy moved up to Philadelphia last month. I've never been to the Northeast, so I'm looking forward to exploring that part of our country sometime soon. We sure do miss having you close by, and always having a place to stay down in New Orleans.

Our Little Dining Nook

We have a galley kitchen with a wall situated on one end where we put a rustic table we scored at the flea market before our move. We've longingly looked at our table over the last months of living here, knowing that it would make the perfect nook for us to enjoy dinner and conversation. Newt came to visit a number of months ago, knowing that was a hope of ours, but that we needed chairs before we could enjoy the space. So...
 

My very creative brother spent some time with the welding machine on the farm and made us two of the coolest chairs ever! They are a work of art!




There has been much great conversation shared around this table, seated in these chairs, since they arrived! So... Thank You Newt for our chairs! They perfectly complete our little dining nook!

Blooms!

Here's a glimpse of some of the beautiful blooms we've been enjoying in our yard the past few months...

The gardenias added fragrance to our dinner table!

Blaze of Glory climbing rose - we hope to have photos next year of blooms climbing up the trellis...

 The zinnias have added so much color and joy to the house this summer, and the butterflies love them!

and...

Our mystery plant, the crinum, popped up through the soil from it's bulb this spring (a gift left from prior homeowners). We've anxiously awaited to see what color it might be, and 2 weeks ago, it unveiled the mystery!

Our New Deck!

Ross headed down to the farm this spring to help my dad with planting, so while he was down, he came over here a few different weekends and built us a new deck! He used as much of the wood from the previous deck as he could. Once again, my brother totally impressed me! I am super grateful for this generosity and sharing his amazing talent with us! We went from a deck that five people could barely fit on to a deck where we hosted a Summer Solstice party where 20 people comfortably moved about from house to deck to yard! Up until the last few weeks of intense heat, we were eating breakfast, lunch and dinner out on our new deck! We love it! Thank you so much Ross!

Before

Working in the heat...

Ross getting started...

Miss Ida May helped out...

That was Cloud Dancing's ball...

And, we have a new deck!!!

Yes, we are all super excited!

Thanks Ross, We love our new deck!

Cloud Dancing would like to say thank you also, because she loves her new perch that she can watch the squirrels from, and she loves the new shade and den that you created for her to hang out in during these hot Texas summers.

3rd Anniversary!

We celebrated our 3rd Anniversary on May 19th!

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at our local winery here in Bryan, TX (Messina-Hof)