Tabula Rasa

Y'all are no doubt already impressed and intrigued - the gal from Texas getting all fancy on you by using a latin phrase for a blog title. Fancy term to indicate I'm being gifted with a nearly blank slate in our garden

Yesterday DH and a young friend of ours began the process of cleaning up our side garden. Planning a total renovation of the garden area. Economics is part of it - prices at grocery store and even local produce markets continue to climb. We'll be putting in some basics for ourselves - plants of tomato, peppers, cucumbers, squash and whatever else looks viable. Went to container gardens because our previous gardener (ahem - yes that would be ME) wouldn't weed on a daily basis and our in the ground garden became a struggle. SO containers it is. The little dog house looking structure is actually a well house - our water well pump is in there. Yes it is far too close to the house but we didn't think of everything when we were planning our home - obviously.

Still have a couple of crape myrtle bushes, a peace rose and currently a container of strawberries which is about to become two hanging baskets of strawberries - snails and slugs are taking harvest.

Plenty more to come as far as

garden renovation possibly a water feature and garden sculpture- big excitement on Buhlaland - springtime, gardening, projects - woo hoo that is all good.

UPDATE: Ok the black containers are water tanks for livestock - we got ours at Tractor Supply

Our State Fair Is a Great State Fair

You may not recall (probably aren't that old) a movie with Pat Boone and Anne Margaret called State Fair - musical score by Rogers and Hammerstein I do believe. We didn't look much like Pat Boone OR Anne Margaret but here is the modern skyline of Dallas as we drove to Our State Fair in Big D last week. Large white arch is part of new hoity toity bridge project over Trinity River.











Oh My goodness - Girl taking these free digital pictures was obviously more interested in showing the Camaro part than making us look any nicer - but 'tis me and hubby as we entered Chevy Land at the fair.
They had a Chevy with decorations honoring the military on display - really nice.














Can't go to the Fair without watching a little livestock judging - that little gal in the pink shirt was working it like mad - didn't see how she ended up but she was definitely showcasing that animal.

Of course there are lots of pink piglets napping up against gigantic sows.

Picture doesn't show too well - we went to a Stunt Dog Show - the dog onstage with trainer was a 3-legged pit bull - missing a hind leg. The dog was amazing - could jump more than 25 feet into a pool to the right of the stage. All the dogs used in show were rescue dogs from shelters.

Permanent buildings at Dallas Fair Park are all done in an art deco style - very pleasant with big trees and many ponds or fountains around to keep you cooler.

Can't go to Texas State Fair without saying Howdy to Big Tex - those are real clothes he has on - talk about Big and Tall sizes.




I had on my list I wanted to visit the Butterfly house - hotter than blazes in there and very high humidity - all tropical butterflies so you have to go through sort of an airlock to prevent escapes of non native species.

Wild metal sculpture outside Butterfly Exhibit - a butterfly costing over $6000 - no we didn't buy a souvenir of our outing!

We drive west from Dallas - having enjoyed our first visit to the Texas State Fair - it was Senior Citizens Day so entrance was free with parking $15. Didn't eat any of the yearly featured fried foods - took our snacks and purchased bottled water and a coke. It was an inexpensive and great fun day for us - haven't been able to get "away" much and this was just long enough to enjoy and not too exhausting.

We had fun at Our State Fair - it was indeed a great state fair! Back home to Buhlaland with tired feet and big smiles~!

When Pigs Fly

I believe that event will coincide with the date I get caught up on blogging - both entering and reading! Bought this little metal "art" flying pig recently and it migrates around our garden spot - you never know where Senor Cerdo will land - he just makes me laugh.

Daylilies - ya gotta love'em - multiply like crazy and almost anyone will take a "little clump of lilies I was thinning out"!

Dragonfly - sitting on lavender but next to huge rosemary bush.

Buhlaland is fully in summer mode now - just experienced a brief and delightful summer storm - no measurable rain but it cooled off about ten degrees. Our tin can garden (my term for an all container attempt to raise a few tomatoes and peppers) is finally going well - may already be too hot for the strawberries to prodce much.

Chickens get to wander around our yard from 6 pm until dark - they come running up to me when I go out to get them back in their pen and coop. They are certainly good at tearing up layers of oak leaves piled under trees and finding whatever tasty morsels lie there. I use the rosemary you can see in dragonfly picture - delicious on any kind of chicken or pork barbecue you might be trying - add to a small can of apricot nectar, half a cup apricot-pineapple preserves and juice of one or two limes , minced tablespoon of fresh rosemary- heat it up and put on something you want to taste delicious!

Hope your summer is going well - life is good on Buhlaland.

Babies to teenagers? my Kids!

From January 27th when Crybaby gave birth to Lantana (first born - caramel face and white body) and Fantana (second born - larger doeling with chestnut body and white head markings) to now - the twins have been darlings of our Class of 2010.

Crybaby is the oldest of our does - she is probably approaching 9 or 10 which is nearly old age for a boer/nubian mix. She is an excellent mother - even though recently she was very ill - she keeps her babies close.

Lanny was making big strides in tree climbing but also showing evidence of juvenile rebellion - she and Fanny chew each other's hair at night and it gave Lanny a Mohawk style for several weeks.

The twins like to lay down together -

or explore together.

Goat kids growing up on Buhlaland - it is good to watch healthy babies. Grateful we have pictures along the way, it would be easy to forget tiny bodies learning how to stand on their own legs. Now they run and like to jump up behind me and nip at my pants when I'm in the pen with them!

We have a total of 9 babies this year. Only one other set of twins two weeks old now. Pictures of Amber and Jasper to come.

Easter Bunny? Doggy Express - no Bloggy Express!

Conan barked and got Zoe barking too - the mailman pulled up in our driveway which is something he'd never do.
We walked up from the barn and what surprises await - a big box from East Texas - delivery is great.
We open each part of our package so dear rejoicing at beauty and thoughtfulness here.

Vickie is the artist who blessed us
with her art, thoughtfulness and her blog's good cheer. If you like cottagey, Texan, good humor (and lots of dear gophers!) please go visit Vickie over at Sand Flat Farm and enjoy her blogging and eye for beauty. Conan the Destroyer was carefully watching us open the big box.


A decorated tote bag - perfect for cheering up our errands and doctor's office visits! I can take our books, my camera and still have plenty of room for the iPod and snacks!

Ah - wonderful scent from a sachet packet and a crocheted doily that will be perfect under my great aunt's milk glass bowl!



The Pièce de résistance - an original Vickie painting of west Texas.

Cute cards and even an old sweet postcard - such fun!

In the realm of totally inappropriate

Sorry about weird spacing - gotta love the free part but blogger does have it's eccentricities!


Please click on this link Bovine MC Hammah and click on the picture of a blue cow and a chocolate bar



Lyrics you are hearing:

Can´t touch this

Moo, moo, moo, moo

Chocolate hits me so hard

Makes me say “Oh, so good!”

Thank you for giving me a mouth to eat with and two hype feet

It feels good, when you know your´re down

A super cool cow from Airy town

And I´m known as such

This is a beat, uh, you can´t touch

I told you, blue cow (Can´t touch this)

Yeah, that´s how we´re living and you know (You can´t touch this)

Look at my chocolate, man

This is an advertisement for a chocolate candy bar - from Norway. Somehow this makes me laugh and I've watched it a dozen times now. ahhh the golden oldies - can't touch this! It is silly on Buhlaland and that is good.

Now where DID I leave that word?

Here on Buhlaland we often sky gaze and star gaze and always find something worthy of our attention. Paying attention is harder when we are scattered mentally and emotionally - a situation we've allowed to exist far too often in recent months. DH and I will ask one another "what was that guy's name?" or "where did we read such and such?" or the worst "you know - one of those _____s?!" we exclaim with such frustration. Misplacing a memory, a word, a name, a doe a deer a female deer - oops got carried away there- is so exasperating. I just read a blog posting which tickled me no end - glad to see it isn't our aging brain cells solely to blame for us playing hide and seek with our vocabulary. Thanks for bringing a laugh to Buhlaland ButterflyMama!

Butterfly Mama: A Brain With a View

Eggs, glorious eggs

We don't know which of the chickens actually got busy and did her job. This morning we found our first lovely little brown egg in the egg nesting boxes. It is shown next to an extra large eggland's best just to show size. Picture is one of the more aggressive hens - they seem to think it is a good idea to peck at us - a lot.

So we are in da egg bidness at long last (really only 4 months!) here on Buhlaland and that is good.

I don't think they really heard me say the words "chicken casserole if somebody doesn't get busy with the egg part" - but within 24 hours we had an egg. Hmmmm

Lanny's Ride?

DH and I were turning onto Main St. after puttering around in town for a couple of hours (puttering can be translated liberally - spending money we hadn't planned) when we spotted a Kodak Moment perfect for A Dirt Woman . Lanny - I don't know whether you were in town on a lark or y'all practice plural marriage or this is a relative by Dirt bloodline - but you have some snazzy wheels.

Sorry about the spotty pic - through our front windshield isn't the clearest spot for a camera lens to work. Here it is the license plate of Mrs. Drt!

See how tricked out Mrs. Dirt's ride is here in Texas -

Love to you Dirt's woman - and yes in Christ we are Unlimited!

Return of a welcome visitor

You may recall the bathtub inspector who gives joy to our hearts and smiles all around. His mom (also know as chauffeur/playdate scheduler) said he liked baby goats at the stock show last month but didn't enjoy the crowds and noise. We have lots of baby goats, no crowds and not much noise so he was invited to Buhlaland to mingle with baby goats. The goat mingling didn't last too long - Crybaby checked on little boy fingers to see if they were edible. Mom had to take his hand and suggest other things to do (not heading in best direction at that moment) and he felt she wasn't correct. He spied the dwarf peach tree in full bloom and became the peach tree inspector. He also discovered - when you pull OFF the little flowers - they won't stick back ON no matter how you hold your mouth. Oh well - no problem - throw down the flowers (and ignore Mom and that other woman who are laughing for no apparent reason) and keep on running - places to go and things to do!

We love having visitors on Buhlaland and our inspector of bathtubs, goat babies and peach trees is welcome any time!

Psalm 127:3 Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him.

What's your tune?

Our pastor had this video played at church today - fun with a good point to make.

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