Coffee's Ready, Come and Sit on the Porch

[Mini Horses]

Mine free range 99% of time. 😁

 

[Alaskan]

@Alaskan ... What made you move to Alaska yrs back?

Well.... spouse moved a bunch as a kid... hated it, so said we got ONE move and ONE ONLY after marriage.

I moved some as a kid and liked it.

Anyway.... we met and married and had kid #1 at Texas A&M.

My baby sister.... through a string of events... had ended up in Alaska... got married and had her first kid... and invited all family up for the baptism.

Now.... spouse and I were stuck at that point of school was almost done... what are we going to do... where do we want to live...

I had gotten all blasted tired of having to drive an hour one way for church, so one of my top requirements was a close church.

We considered moving onto the home place..... sheesh and all, that IS my degree.

But.... even back then, the road going past the front was higher speed limit, lots of places around it had been sold and made into subdivisions... only the ranch across the road was still a working operation. They had put in a huge shopping center.... the ranch store was gone...

I found being on the home place stressful. As a kid we would sit out on the porch and barely hear traffic. My dad's father always told me that an ideal place was where you could stand at your house and shoot with a rifle in all directions and not hit anyone.

But now... you go out there... and there is constant traffic rush..... my sis (who is now on the home place) has had neighbors write her letters fussing at her because she left brush piles in the pasture from redoing fences. The city is threatening to put a huge bypass right through the property.... some huge circle....

Anyway... I didn't know what evil was going to happen... or that the bypass evil would happen... but they had already forced a huge electric power line to go across our property, and commandeered a bit of land to put power transformer station something on.

Anyway... the entire thing was deeply upsetting and stressful.

The more I considered moving out there, the more I realized I wouldn't be able to. The stress would get to me.

So..... there we were.. figuring out our next step... quite unsure of what to do...

And we went up to that baptism of my niece, in Alaska.

The place was gorgeous. Even in high tourist season there were few people, and loads of open space.

The stores were small, no huge box stores. (Those huge boxes stores overwhelm and stress me).

Even with it being a tiny town, there were many places to eat, and the food was great. Lots of tiny quaint coffee shops and stores. And, they had a thriving church, full of young couples just starting out, with a great deeply spiritual priest.


I was worried about the cold... even before we moved. I LOVE heat. Texas heat without AC is great in my book. But.... everything else was great.

So... we moved here.

 

[CrealCritter]

"my" dog Baxter on the left, Her dog Baby Bear on the right. I quoted "my" because She has spoiled him rotten. And yep they both are laying down right next to Her for this picture. I just came to the conclusion that my dog, is really Her dog now. I'm completely OK with it.

My 1985 Vow to my second best friend and Wife, on that huge day.

I promise always, to Love, to be Faithful to, to Cherish and to Protect, You. For richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, till death do us part.

Always means always, always has, always will, until death due us part.

Also... I just realized that her dogs are just helping contributors put into our life by Almighty. Both are here to help me accomplish my imperfect best attempt to fulfill, my daily vow to Her mainly the Protection part.

I told you I like pictures of beautiful things. Well for me there really isn't anything more beautiful than this picture of Her. Taken when we first started dating and I fell in Love with her 💓 Seems like yesterday to me, but was around 39 years ago.

EDIT... I decided to remove the picture of my wife.

1 John 4:8

Almighty, really is Almighty! His Spirit had me in tears of joy a little while ago. Thank You Almighty for loving us all and for everything You've done and continue to do for us all. Your Love for us has no end.

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

 

[The Porch]

Mine free range 99% of time. 😁

way to many big owls, hawks & eagles here

 

[The Porch]

Well.... spouse moved a bunch as a kid... hated it, so said we got ONE move and ONE ONLY after marriage.

I moved some as a kid and liked it.

Anyway.... we met and married and had kid #1 at Texas A&M.

My baby sister.... through a string of events... had ended up in Alaska... got married and had her first kid... and invited all family up for the baptism.

Now.... spouse and I were stuck at that point of school was almost done... what are we going to do... where do we want to live...

I had gotten all blasted tired of having to drive an hour one way for church, so one of my top requirements was a close church.

We considered moving onto the home place..... sheesh and all, that IS my degree.

But.... even back then, the road going past the front was higher speed limit, lots of places around it had been sold and made into subdivisions... only the ranch across the road was still a working operation. They had put in a huge shopping center.... the ranch store was gone...

I found being on the home place stressful. As a kid we would sit out on the porch and barely hear traffic. My dad's father always told me that an ideal place was where you could stand at your house and shoot with a rifle in all directions and not hit anyone.

But now... you go out there... and there is constant traffic rush..... my sis (who is now on the home place) has had neighbors write her letters fussing at her because she left brush piles in the pasture from redoing fences. The city is threatening to put a huge bypass right through the property.... some huge circle....

Anyway... I didn't know what evil was going to happen... or that the bypass evil would happen... but they had already forced a huge electric power line to go across our property, and commandeered a bit of land to put power transformer station something on.

Anyway... the entire thing was deeply upsetting and stressful.

The more I considered moving out there, the more I realized I wouldn't be able to. The stress would get to me.

So..... there we were.. figuring out our next step... quite unsure of what to do...

And we went up to that baptism of my niece, in Alaska.

The place was gorgeous. Even in high tourist season there were few people, and loads of open space.

The stores were small, no huge box stores. (Those huge boxes stores overwhelm and stress me).

Even with it being a tiny town, there were many places to eat, and the food was great. Lots of tiny quaint coffee shops and stores. And, they had a thriving church, full of young couples just starting out, with a great deeply spiritual priest.


I was worried about the cold... even before we moved. I LOVE heat. Texas heat without AC is great in my book. But.... everything else was great.

So... we moved here.

I love you and your wife's story! Thank you

 

[The Porch]

"my" dog Baxter on the left, Her dog Baby Bear on the right. I quoted "my" because She has spoiled him rotten. And yep they both are laying down right next to Her for this picture. I just came to the conclusion that my dog, is really Her dog now. I'm completely OK with it.
View attachment 17048

My 1985 Vow to my second best friend and Wife, on that huge day.

I promise always, to Love, to be Faithful to, to Cherish and to Protect, You. For richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, till death do us part.

Always means always, always has, always will, until death due us part.

Also... I just realized that her dogs are just helping contributors put into our life by Almighty. Both are here to help me accomplish my imperfect best attempt to fulfill, my daily vow to Her mainly the Protection part.

I told you I like pictures of beautiful things. Well for me there really isn't anything more beautiful than this picture of Her. Taken when we first started dating and I fell in Love with her 💓 Seems like yesterday to me, but was around 39 years ago.
View attachment 17049

1 John 4:8

Almighty, really is Almighty! His Spirit had me in tears of joy a little while ago. Thank You Almighty for loving us all and for everything You've done and continue to do for us all. Your Love for us has no end.

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

Very sweet! The Joy Of The Lord

 

[The Porch]

Mine free range 99% of time. 😁

Well guess who came to visit today???

We had 3 visitors, they scoped out the chicken run for quite some time,

 

[Britesea]

Yeah. We live in an area that has the highest population of Bald Eagles except for Alaska. Plus Red Tails and other assorted raptors... plus a family of skunks that have lived in the culverts by the side of the road for several years now... plus foxes, raccoons... A couple months ago our neighbors across the road found a cougar on their back porch....

 

[Messybun]

Wow y’all, gorgeous but no thanks to having to protect my animals from those predators. I just had a red shoulder move in, or at least I just noticed it, and I’m not happy about it.

 

[tortoise]

Yeah. We live in an area that has the highest population of Bald Eagles except for Alaska. Plus Red Tails and other assorted raptors... plus a family of skunks that have lived in the culverts by the side of the road for several years now... plus foxes, raccoons... A couple months ago our neighbors across the road found a cougar on their back porch....

I think WI has WA beat for nesting pairs of Bald Eagles. And Minnesota has about 8 times as many as WI. But I had NO IDEA Alaska has so many! wow, that's mind boggling! I posted a map of occupied nests in WI. I live right under a cluster of 3 dots representing occupied nests.

I live near enough river and lakes that they're a daily sight here. A few years ago we had several chickens killed by large birds of prey, and the Bald Eagles circled our coop frequently. Not a great feeling.