It finally happened!

Always thought it would, and finally today....someone fell from the upstairs to the first floor, and it wasn't Summer. (I had to clarify when they were telling me the story, you fell to the first floor or out the window? The window would have been farther, although possibly softer if the ground wasn't harder than concrete from severe lack of rain.)

It was Tristan.

He appears to be fine.

So, like I was saying before....
pecked

to

death

by

achicken.

So we were driving home the other day, and we saw this rainbow.

Not a drop of rain in weeks.

I immediately thought this must be a message from the Lord.

Possibly this is the calm before the storm.

That's an alarming thought.

So, I pondered a little longer.

In the end, I decided it was a friendly reminder that I was out of Skittles, and it would be good to have some on hand in the next few weeks.

What a happy pair!

Maybe I was wrong about Tristan.

He just asked for some Tylenol.

We were at the house the other night, and this lone longhorn was hanging out in our backyard.

He had some nice horns, I was admiring them.

Recently it crossed my mind to wonder what the neighbor does with these guys when they reach the end of their life. I mean, it sure would be cool to have a nice hide for a accent piece in the middle of the living room floor. And bumming one from the neighbor, it turns out, could save the cost of almost two dishwashers, less a little bit of processing, or whatever you do to them.

(Yes, this is a very impressive self-portrait. My bebe loves me - not trying to escape or anything.)

So then as I was thinking about a beautiful hide, I was filled with regret.

How could I have been so stupid? Why did I not get someone (Scott) to save that snake I ran over and get his hide? That could have been great bragging rights for the rest of my life....

Have I ever told about the time Scott was casually telling a story....."about that snake that Rachel killed". Since he is cool, he didn't mention in the story that I killed it by means of driving over with vehicle. No, maybe everyone sitting there was imagining that I'm a snake fighter. Maybe I shot it with a pistol that I pulled out of my boot.

This is the part where Summer did escape. She did not fall out the window though. I helped her down. And yep, mostly I took this picture for evidence that my feet are still visible from my eyeballs, even though there is a giant baby in the way.

(This is the back view of the house, minus a kitchen window. I'm not really sure why it's covered up right now.)

So speaking of snakes and so forth, turns out we have Ranger Bill doing our HVAC on the house.

He came out the other day to check things out and had some tall tales about a water moccasin he just had a run in with in the last crawl space he was in.

I was beginning to doubt his story when the snake was about six inches around....and then after fighting with it for a while, he busted out a gun and shot it. That part really got me.

At least it was a good story.

Maybe I'll use some of his material next time I run into a gullible Midwesterner. If only I had a snake hide to go along with my tall tales.

Side view of the house.

Look how tall we are. (See our shadows?)