Welcome to the wild kingdom

Living in the country always leads to interesting encounters. I've seen bobcats, coyotes, deer, turkeys, skunks, snakes, wild hogs, and many other creatures around our house. Once when Alicia came to visit, we had a run-in with a skunk. She almost got sprayed and never even saw the skunk.

This summer we have had LOTS of encounters with creatures. I've discovered that yelling at a skunk is more effective at getting it out of the backyard than throwing rocks at it. I've learned that raccoons will attack dogs--poor Queso. I've learned that if you don't properly seal holes for plumbing lines, snakes like to come inside.

This isn't the actual snake, but about a week after Ryndon was born my Mom and I found a 3 foot snake curled up on the base of our shower. It was just a common rat snake, but no snake should be in the house.

A couple weeks later, I woke Ty up about 5 a.m. trying to kill a spider on the ceiling. Needless to say, the spider lived (not sure where he got knocked to). I didn't get the diaper wipe fully on him before he dropped a little. I screamed and flailed my arms. Ty woke up. I had moved Ryndon to the end of the bed so he was safe. Unfortunately, I never found/killed the spider. Even worse, Ty wouldn't let us go sleep in the other bed. I HATE spiders.

Life since Ryndon

Before Ryndon came into our lives, we got lots of sleep, horses were exercised often, house was pretty clean, laundry and dishes were done and put away.... Now... Don't expect a clean house if you show up unannounced. I think I do pretty good just to get dinner done, laundry and dishes washed and the horses and dogs get fed.

However, I wouldn't trade it for anything. He is the most amazing thing in the whole world.

He is such a happy boy.
He loves his swing.
Sound asleep.
Cuddled up in the hospital.
He used to be so little in his car seat.

Don't let this sleeping boy fool you. He doesn't sleep too much.

What is 'Duckville'?

'Duckville' is in the middle of nowhere. It's a term that was created to describe our location. Rick Looney is even our mayor. He's self-appointed since he came up with the name.

Duckville is a pretty interesting spot we like to call home. We live about 20 miles north of Stephenville. We have a Mingus address, Gordon phone number, live in the Gordon School District (Palo Pinto County) and live in Erath County. (No, that's not Earth spelled wrong.) Mingus is made up of about 8 bars, a city hall, post office and bank. Gordon has a SMALL shopping strip--hardware store, post office and one or two others. The nearest 'grocery store' is in Strawn. But you have to know when it's open. It seems to be closed every time I have been there.

Add all of that together and you might gather that Ty, Ryndon and I live in the boondocks--hence the need for its own name.