❈ I am very much the procrastinator. Even on things that I like to do. I’m not consistent but that’s ok. I always come back around.

A lot has happened since I last wrote. The new chickens have settled in and all of them are getting along. At first Mrs Featherbottom was picking on them and being pretty mean but we kept them separate with some fencing and let them get used to each other and now they are fine. They still don’t want anything to do with me and are very hard to catch. Chris will be adding on to their coop pretty soon so that it is partially inside the shop and the part that is built outside will be just an outdoor area and not the place where they sleep.

We cleaned up a lot of the trash that the past owner left behind. There is still some left because there were a bunch of those big roaches crawling around in the cardboard and it grossed us out too much. Luckily though we’ve had some unusually cold weather so the bugs are going away and we can finish it.

It was my birthday on October 12th so Chris and I went down to Galveston to celebrate. We rode the ferry and saw some dolphins playing in the wake and explored some areas around town that I had never gone before then had a drink at The Spot. It was a nice day. We didn’t do anything big because we were saving up for the trip we were going on later in the month.

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For my birthday Chris got me a telescope! I love it so much. We have used it a lot since then and have seen some cool stuff like the craters on the moon, Saturn, and Jupiter. I was not expecting it at all. He always surprises me.

On my birthday Chris woke me up early in the morning. He had to wake up early to go to work and when he was going to his car he heard a noise. It was the tiny sound of a kitten out in the cold. Poor thing was so little and it was pretty cold out. So he brought her in and woke me up and gave her to me.

We named her Opal. One of her eyes was swollen shut and infected, she was cold, and hungry. Luckily I could go to the store and get her some food before work and I had a heat pad to put under the towels. She is such a sweet cat but feisty as hell. She almost never stops moving and attacking anything that moves. Opal likes to cuddle under blankets and torturing our older cats. This was right before our trip to west Texas so we had a friend from work watch her and they fell in love with her. She has so much personality! I wasn’t going to give her up though! She was my birthday gift.

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The next week we started out trip out to west Texas. We took the telescope on our trip with us to Alpine, Texas. This was such a fun trip. We went with Chris’s mom and uncle and stayed in an AirBnB in town. The house was super nice and I love the decor inside. Plus there were mountains all around us.

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We did a lot while we were there but also made sure to rest and not cram too much. Our stay was from Monday til Friday so plenty of time to have fun. There was a hill behind our house that we climbed one morning to watch the sunrise. It’s a pretty steep incline so I was pretty tired when we got up there (plus I was still sleepy).

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Another day we went to Marfa, Texas to see the town. I wish we had spent more time there. The town seemed really empty. We hardly saw any people. It’s a big artist town so we walked through a couple of really interesting exhibits. We also took pictures outside because it was a nice day. I do have to say I thought my outfit that I was wearing was a lot cuter but looking at these photos it’s not. At least I felt cute that day.

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We went to Mcdonald Observatory and saw the stars and went to their astronomy demonstration which was really interesting. Learning where the constellations were and how they connected with eachother and their history was really cool.

Near Marfa there was an area where you could stop on the side of the road and chip out geodes and quartz so like the nerds that we are we all stopped and did that. It was fun! I’ve never done anything like that. It felt weird having people drive by us and see us with hammers and picks just chipping away at the rock but really I didn’t care. We took home so many rocks. Still need to sort through them.

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After this we ate some really delicious burgers then went back to the house to take naps and relax.

We also went to go see the Marfa Lights. I’m still not sure how they work but it was still interesting to see and even if it’s just an optical illusion I thought it was still pretty cool. Just being out there was fun not only for the lights but also we got a really good look at the stars. You could see the whole Milky Way band. Chris brought out the telescope and our camera. We definitely want to buy a lens attachment for the camera and the telescope so that we can get some pictures of the planets and stars.

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Another day we went to Fort Davis to see the old fort and learn how they lived. It’s crazy how hard life used to be and I’m very glad we don’t have the diseases they did and that we have better resources now. The landscape was pretty cool. They had a wall of jagged rocks protecting them from one side and then in front the landscape dropped off slightly so it was the perfect place to watch out for themselves.

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Everywhere we drove we went through some beautiful scenery. We couldn’t make it out to Big Bend National Park this time around but we got to see mountains and mesas still. I loved it. Where we live it’s not hilly at all and there are lots of trees and it’s very humid. So to be able to see open sky and go up and down in elevation was a nice change. Especially since we were in the desert and the air was dry and the temperatures were perfect. We also made it to the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute which is a nature preserve that has trails and a greenhouse with all the native cactus of the area. Chris, Thom (his uncle) and I explored the area. There is a canyon called Modesta Canyon that you go down where at the bottom is a spring. Around the spring is it’s own microclimate. There are ferns and cactus growing together, little fish in the spring pool and tree frogs that are only found in those pools. We got some really great shots.

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Overall we had a blast and we will definitely be making the trip back out one day. I want to spend more time looking at the stars and going hiking and definitely to go down to Big Bend National Park.

Life is going back to normal here. We ripped up the carpet in our bedroom. After we got back from staying in that nice house I felt we needed to rip it up plus I was worried with the new kitten that she would use the carpet as a toilet as right before we left she was starting a bad habit of it. Luckily while she was staying at our friends she did a great job of going in the litter box and it retrained her to go in. It was really old dingy carpet so I was not sad to see it go. Plus we had hardwood floors underneath and once we get it sanded and sealed it’s going to look great!

I also put up blinds in our laundry room in preparation for Halloween. I had to rig it a bit but made it work. I didn’t want trick or treaters looking into the windows and seeing our laundry plus it looks a lot nicer now.

We had a great Halloween. Not a lot of trick or treaters but I did make the porch look cute so I have to post the picture. Next year I’m going bigger. I’m so excited to have a space to decorate.

I know this was long and wordy but it’s been busy and I’m glad to get all of this down. See you next week! ❈