3 and 4/100 Dogs ~ Unnamed Terriers

I got a two-fer today.  These two guys ran out of the yard of a house I passed by on a walk, acting all rough and ready and protective of their territory.  By the time they actually got up to me their ears were laying back, their tails were wagging, and they were jumping in the air just begging for some petting.  The one on the right is obviously a Manchester terrier.  His companion, who I would just bet may also be a relative, appears to be some type of fox terrier.  He ran out to greet me again on my way back and followed me all the way home.  He hung around in the front yard for a while, making friends with my mom's dog who  initially went outside to give him a piece of his business, but they quickly were sniffing each other out.  Our little visitor quickly had his curiosity solved and trotted back up the long hill to his home.

Better Days

I am fascinated with dilapidated buildings, sheds, garages, barns, anything that has seen better days.  And there just happens to be an abundance of those types of structures in this area so I hope you don't get tired of looking at them.  Truck and I went out today and I spotted a few of these treasures in between spits of rain.  This one is located in a little community called Arcadia, which happens to be a spot in the road between Garrison and Center.  My grandparents lived about a mile from this scene over a hundred years ago.  Their house fell in a half-century ago and what was once their land (until they sold it in about 1940 and bought a general store in Jericho) now has a great big oil well on it.  Sigh!

When You Live on a Farm in Texas ...

... a truck is a requirement.

This is me and my new Nissan Frontier pickup truck that I purchased today.  So, no, I didn't take this picture.  And believe me, after looking at it, no more pictures of me on this blog (at least until I slim down a little!).

Merry Christmas

Golden Girl

Answers and Comments on Previous Posts:
Yes, EG, we're about 25 miles from the Louisiana border, about one hour's drive from Shreveport.

Dana:  It's very beautiful here.  We're smack dab right in the middle of the piney woods of Deep Texas East.  Green rolling hills, home of the long-leaf pine (the ones with the really long needles), a few alligators, lots of wild hogs, deer, raccoons, possums, armadillos, squirrels, a few coyotes and bobcats, and an abundance of colorful birds.  Can't wait for spring when we will have dogwood, redbud, honeysuckle, and wild roses growing in the woods.

I don't have any boots.  A few years back I frequently wore a pair of Tony Lama's but these days I'm afraid I'd have trouble getting them off.  Age tends to do something to the limberness of your body.

EG:  As far as the climate goes, both Arizona and Texas are pretty temperate.  At least in this area of Texas and Phoenix, although Texas is very humid and Arizona is very dry.  The wintertime temps aren't too diverse, although we do get quite a bit of freezing weather here.  But the lifestyle between a city of three to four plus million people (depending on which stat you look at ~ and that's metro Phoenix, of course) and living on quite a few acres with many miles between me and the nearest grocery, movie theater, gas station, doctor's office, etc., and our nearest neighbor about a quarter of a mile away ~ well, there's just no comparison. 

EG:  No, I was using a 55-250 mm lens on the cardinals in the previous post (as well as this one) and I was none too close.  Although that day I was able to venture a tad closer than I had been the day before.

King Red and Some of the Harem Girls

There are lots of beautiful birds here.  I've discovered that I will need a larger zoom lens to get the kind of photos I would really like to have, but until then I'll just keep practicing.  Maybe the back yard birds will eventually get used to me sitting on the steps near their feeders and allow me to creep a little closer.

You Know You're in Texas When ...

... you see fashion boots and cowgirl boots next to each other at the beauty parlor.

December Calves

There are always lots of baby calves born here in the winter months, especially December.  Mother no longer has a cow/calf operation but her pastures are leased to a neighboring farmer (we call them farmers here in East Texas, not ranchers) and he has nine new baby calves.  Yesterday a group of about fifteen cows and five calves came up to graze in a pasture right next to our house and these babies skipped and skampered all the way.

Some of you have mentioned an interest in knowing where I've relocated to since leaving the desert Southwest.  I'm an including a link for a map of Nacogdoches County.  If you will notice in the very northeastern edge of the county the little town Garrison (population 844), we are seven miles southeast of Garrison.  If you click four times on the zoom out area of the map you can see where we live in relation  to the entire state.

Red and Yellow, Brown and Gold

Texas has beautiful autumn colors.  My journey was safe.  I'm still getting organized.  I was so happy to get satellite Internet service established yesterday.  (SRQ:  It's just like receiving your TV service by satellite.  You have a dish pointed at the Southern sky and your computer receives the microwaves from the satellite which connects you to the Net.  It's the only option in very rural areas other than dial-up.  They can't lay cable into remote areas and it's very hilly here so cell towers generally are not tall enough to transmit signals.  Cell service in this area was pretty sporadic until a couple years ago and still only a few providers' products will even pick up or receive signals.)  It's definitely not as fast as broadband and I'm sure I will get used to the fact that when you click your mouse the next destination is not a nanosecond away ~ more like 5 to 40.  The biggest disappointment is it takes soooo long to download pictures.  I will have to get in the habit of doing some of my proofreading while waiting for this to happen.  Some of your blogs open very quickly.  Others take a minute or two.  I don't know why the difference.  So because of that I probably won't be posting as often but then perhaps my pictures will be more discriminating!

2/100 Dogs ~ Sammy (Santa) the Boxer

For those of you who visit my blog, you're all familiar with my granddog Sammy.  This is the last you will see of him for a while.  Tomorrow I leave for Texas where I will be living with my mom who, although almost 90 years old, still remains fairly independent, but she has fallen several times lately and is in need of someone to give her a little more support.  I'll be changing from a city girl to a farm girl (did I just say girl?), moving from a three-bedroom home into a small bedroom at my mom's house.  But it's the least I can do.  She deserves to live out her life in the home and on the farm she loves, and as long as I can provide that environment for her, that's what will happen.

I won't be away from this blog for long.  My computer was shipped last Monday and arrived at Mom's yesterday.  Today I called the company who will be installing satellite Internet and changed the installation date from Wednesday to Monday.  So I'll travel on Saturday, have Sunday to get settled, and back to work and back to blogging on Monday.

Until then ....

Deck the Halls

1/100 Dogs ~ Maven ~ Beagle Pup

I've decided this blog needs another project so I'm taking on the task of photographing 100 dogs.  Surely it will be more fun than the 100 Strangers Project  that appears sporadically on my other blog.  So the number 1 position goes to Maven, the sweet beagle pup who chose my friends to be her humans.  She's not very spoiled!  She has only a few toys, has been enrolled in doggie kindergarten, and her human mom is checking out references for nearby doggie day-care facilities!

Many of you have asked about MY NEW CAMERA!  It's just an entry level Canon Rebel but I'm tickled pink.  I also splurged a bit and got a 55-250 mm zoom lens.  That's what I used to take the soccer picture on Saturday and the doggie pictures today.  I have a lot to learn and look forward to expanding my photo horizons!

Niels Petersen House

Niels Petersen, a native of Denmark, homesteaded 160 acres of land in Tempe in 1872.  He continued to add land to his holdings and 20 years later was one of the wealthiest men in the Salt River Valley and by that time the Petersen Ranch had grown to well over 1,000 acres.  He built this lovely Victorian home for his second wife, Susanna, of South Montrose, PA, in 1892.  Nielson was a respected community leader holding several public offices.  When he died in 1923 at the age of 78, the town flag was flown at half mast and schools and businesses were closed for his funeral.  The Petersen House, owned today by the City of Tempe, still stands in its original location.  It is operated by the Tempe Historical Museum as a historic house museum and is listed on the National Register.  It is open to the public for meetings, social events, and tours.  Niels and Susanna are buried on the grounds of the estate.

Dr. John M. Evans House

This absolutely charming Queen Anne style house was built by Dr. John M. Evans and his wife Jennie in 1893. It sits on the grounds of the Arizona State Capitol complex and appears quite Lilliputian in comparison to the high-rise buildings which surround it. The cottage is unaltered and remains much the same as when it was built 117 years ago. Evans was a physician who also had real estate and mining interests and he and his family lived in the house until 1904. In 1908 the Oscar Mahoney family became residents of the onion- domed house. Mahoney was a Confederate veteran, the first superintendent of the Territorial Insane Asylum, served on the city council and was the county coroner. His wife Virginia was one of only four women licensed to practice medicine in Arizona in the early 1900s. The house sits across the street from the Carnegie Library and both buildings have a place on the National Register of Historic Places. The building is currently owned by the State of Arizona and is the administrative office of the Arizona State Archives and Public Records. Unfortunately, it is no longer open to the public.


My thanks to Si Robbins, author of “From the Arizona Room” blog in the Downtown Phoenix Journal for the historical information on this beautiful building. I had decided last night to publish this picture even though I had little info about the house and this morning when I was checking some of my favorite blogs I discovered that Si must have been reading my mind and knew I was looking for some facts about one of my favorite historic properties in Phoenix.

Go Defense!

Today was my first day to try out my new camera.  Now I don't have any excuse for lousy pictures.  Em (in the dark glasses) and his teammates put up a valiant effort against a very strong opponent in their match today.

"Tis the Season