The Top Ten Reasons I Know I'm a Country Girl...........

I've always been a country girl and a farmer at heart, even though I've always lived in a small town or city. About ten years ago, we moved to the country, and I've never been happier about where I live.  I work in town, and my work day is never shorter than 10 hours...many more if there is an evening activity.  But, the drive back home helps me unwind. I'd rather be at my home, on my land than anywhere else.  Although I am a country girl, I noticed as I was writing this that the "girl" part is still pretty important to me!  Here are ten reasons I know I'm  a country girl.....

Number 10.....
I have a subcription to this magazine:

Number 9.....

I'm picky about my watering cans...they have to be metal and stylish....

Number 8.....

My potting shed is one of my favorite places to be....

Number 7.....

Not only do we own this......

But I have a tractor charm on my James Avery bracelet!

Number 6.....

One day when I came home from work..two wild ducks were on my pool deck trying to decide if it was a pond......(sorry for the poor quality picture)

Number 5.....

Click.....Baby deer have been born in my yard.

Number 4.....

I have gloves for carrying rocks and limbs, and gloves for gardening (all pink, of course!)

Number 3.....

I don't like lights outside at night...unless they are the moon and stars.

Number 2.....

The cicadas announce summer at my house....

Couldn't attach the wav file....but it sounds great!!

Number 1.....

One of my favorite places to shop is the Farmer's Market

If you're a country girl, what are your top ten?

Miracle in the Woods...

When I first moved to Central Texas, I couldn't get over the deer. They were everywhere! I saw them in town, once in the parking lot of my school. I saw them in neighborhoods sitting around like dogs in people's yards. I'd stop my car to look at them, it was fascinating to me. I didn't think I'd ever get over it....and then I tried to landscape a yard in the heart of deer country.

If you've read any of my blogs, you know that I have managed to get over my deer fascination. They have the nerve to come into my yard (which I guess was really their yard before I got here) and munch on my plants way too often. They've eaten a peach tree, a fig tree, some mums, lots of basil, and lately they've munched my dahlias down only to find out they didn't like them...and spit them out! They have been enemy #1 of my efforts to turn this place into the Hill Country version of Martha's Turkey Hill. (I cannot even write that without seeing my husband rolling his eyes at me).

Anyway, it's all been so frustrating to me that we've decided to spend a boatload of money on deer fencing. The fencing is coming, but in the meantime I have been trying to find ways to salvage my dahlias. I bought some of that "liquid fence" to spray on the remainder of them and it smells so foul that I can barely stand to be outside after I've sprayed.

But today, just for a little while, they redeemed themselves as I witnessed a little deer miracle in the woods. When I got home from work this afternoon, I saw something moving under an old cedar tree outside of my kitchen. Out here, that could be anything. I've seen foxes, wild turkeys, armadillos, and your run-of-the-mill racoons, possums and squirrels. But this looked different.

It took me a minute to focus, but then I realized it was a doe licking her two brand new fawns clean! I couldn't believe she had them so close to the house! I've been wondering how the bird feeders have been emptied so quickly, and why there was no water in the saucer I keep out there for them. She set up camp for a couple of days. When I first saw them, they couldn't stand and were dark and wet. Within a half-hour or so, they were wearing fresh spots and standing on their own thin, wobbly legs, just like Bambi. They are much smaller in person than they look on the pictures.

I realize the pictures are poor quality, but I didn't want to get too close and scare them. If you click on them, they will enlarge. I wish my dad was around to see this, he would have loved it. What a blessing it is to live in the country!