Hart Ranch

Here's where we hung out this Memorial Day weekend. Joe and I love spending time at my parents' home in Whitney. In fact, everyone does. They have worked really hard to transform the place over the last 11 years. My dad likes to joke that he works harder in retirement than he ever did at his nine to five job.

They've remodeled a bare bones farmhouse and made it into something really special. The cedar split rail fence (below) is actually part of the small dog area that my parents built especially for Harry and Phoebe. Since they are city dogs, we wanted to be able to let them outside without worrying about them darting under a horse.

Phoebe did make friends with the new baby (out of "Bully for Sarah,"a mare my mom named for me, in honor of my college graduation). Mom thought it was amusing to tell everyone that "Sarah" had her first baby and watch their reactions. Stick around Hart Ranch long enough and you may have one named after you too!

Recently they began working on creating an outdoor living area. They built the pergola and patio and had the limestone table built. I went with my mom to pick out the slab from a quarry in Florence, TX. All it needs is a pool...Joe and I are trying our darnedest to convince them it would be worth it!

Since the guest bed is a queen, and far too small/safe for Joe, me, and two small dogs, I sleep on the living room sofa. It's nice because there are floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on the pasture, so I often wake up to see deer or turkey crossing the valley. It sucks because they are on the south and east side of the house so all of that lovely sunshine comes pouring in at daybreak..and I am notoriously not a morning person.

When Phoebe woke me at the butt crack of dawn Sunday, this is what I saw. Sometimes being up early isn't so bad.

Found a butterfly frantically crawling around the yard . I only got a couple of shots...when I scooped it up to get a picture of it balancing on my hand, it flew away. I thought it was dying, so it was bittersweet.