by Jan Fielden

Sitting on the front porch today was a real treat. The show of watching the water in the lake/tank was what looking at hundreds of diamonds would have been like. Everywhere we looked in the lake there were “water diamonds” because of the sun shining and the wind pushing the water. Then the temperature turned colder and it was time to come in the house! Reminds me that winter is coming and feeding the cows through rain, maybe ice, maybe even snow, and cold, cold wind. Brrr I don’t want to even think about it.

The Colonel walked around behind the dam and found some leaves from a Black Gum tree. The original tree had been chopped down but a new one grew from the trunk. He said it was much smaller the last time he looked at it but today it was at least 15 feet high. So, he looked around for some leaves. He found some beautiful ones and brought them home to show me. As if that wasn’t enough, he picked me some flowers from the yard, walked in with them behind his back, and then gave them to me. I love getting flowers, any kind of flowers, and The Colonel always makes sure I never am without any.

Remind me of my oldest son who did what all little boys do…he picked some beautiful tulips for me. He was five years old. I thanked him for them and asked where he had found them. Oh, they were next door he said. Soon, the lady of the house was knocking on my door. Seems he had picked every one of her tulips that lined the side of her house. When I told her my son had picked them and given the flowers to me, she said, oh well that’s what little boys do! Guess the Red Oak Ranch has a flower picker too, but he only picks the ones on our land!