Latest News

March News

Saturday, March 31 - Ducklings - Yesterday, on our bi-monthly trip to Plainview for music lessons and errands, the younger kids each picked out a duckling at Tractor Supply. The little chick was glad to have some company. Stockton and Carolina are having fun playing with the ducks. They're very friendly and well on their way to being seriously spoiled.

Just a short video taken of the ducks and chick:

Thursday, March 29 - Typical Spring Day - Here are a couple of shots from today.

Carolina and Stockton at their antique school desk working on their English assignments.

Aspen hatched out this chick. His siblings that were laid around the same time and put into the incubator didn't develop, so he's an only child. Needless to say, he gets held a lot. If you rub his tummy, he goes to sleep.

Tuesday, March 27 - Going Green - A little rain here and there and a couple of small snows this winter have certainly greened everything up. Let's hope the moisture continues.

This was the setting this morning in the front yard. Everything was so green and pretty, I just had to grab the camera.

The garden is showing promise, too. This large sage bush and a lemon balm plant have a head start on everything else. The sage stays alive all winter, and the lemon balm comes back from it's roots year after year.

We should have planted these English peas sooner. I'm afraid they're going to get too hot before they mature.

Back in the front yard, Stockton's playing with the garter snake he caught the day before.

He fixed it a little habitat in this plastic container.

You could call it "Snake to Go".

Here's Carolina's little cottage now that the trees have leafed out.

This was taken on February 12, less than 6 weeks ago.

Monday, March 26 - Question: What's Going On at the Shannon's Today? - Answer: A little bit of everything. Enjoy the pictures.

In the playroom I found this unusual scene.

Carolina had both shih tzu's all tucked in.

(A dog has to surrender it's dignity to have the privilege of being one of Carolina's playmates.)

Outside, Aspen's busy out at her Chicken pens. Have you seen the outside cages all finished?

Different breeds have their own runs. Aspen sells these pure bred eggs on the internet.

Birds alternate days in the outside runs. Inside, these feeders made out of PVC pipe keep waste at a minimum and are easily refilled without opening the cages.

Poor Rusty has to stay out of the poultry building. But he's not far out. His favorite new nap spot is right outside the door. Cool air coming from under the trailer blows out of these cinder block bricks.

Who needs dyed Easter eggs when you have this much variety in your flock of layers?

Atlanta, Cim and Laredo leave on Wednesday the 28th for a national reenactment in Tennessee. This is where Atlanta has been laying out the camping supplies and things they'll need.

Stockton and Carolina accompanied Atlanta on a little walk this afternoon. How lucky they found this little garter snake right away.

More gorgeous pictures from Atlanta's new camera of the flora and fauna in the house pasture.

Sunday, March 25 - Canadian Visitors - This couple from Ontario saw an ad for highway signs that I had posted on Aspen's favorite forum, Back Yard Chickens. They contacted me about buying several signs. Apparently, Al and Wendy come to Texas every year for a month collecting antiques and other items for their shop in Canada. They ate lunch with us and bought several signs.

As the Canadians were just leaving, Betty and Billy Paul Simpson from down the road came by for a visit. They were interested in hiring Cim and Laredo for some work this summer.

Wednesday, March 21 - Hams on the Farm - I don't mean pork, I'm talking about two show offs.

A few poses around the pens.

Tuesday, March 20 - Atlanta's New Camera - Since my nice Nikon got damaged, and since a big reenactment was coming up, Atlanta decided to buy herself a nice camera. She got a Nikon 3100. It will take full HD video as well as still shots. Here are some first examples of what it can do.

Some breathtaking clouds and colors this afternoon became the subject of Atlanta's first pictures with her new camera.

Nathan and Rusty on the wheat field.

Youtube Video I recommend:

Sunday, March 18 - Trip to Cross Plains - Today Nathan and Windy left around 3:30 in the morning to make a fast trip to Cross Plains. We wanted to haul one of the tractors home and also to take pictures of Nathan's dad's place to get ready to put it on the market. All four of the tractors used for highway mowing had been at Nathan's dad's place in Callahan county since the boys finished mowing that county in January.

Here we are just leaving Cross Plains with our load. We didn't start for home until after 2:00 p.m.

Carolina went with us. This is what she did for most of the ride, going and coming.

Blow Out #1 - Between Aspermont and Guthrie, we had a blowout on one of the trailer tires. Nathan's jack wasn't working and we called home, thinking we'd have to get the boys to bring another jack and come to us. Then Nathan tried the small jack that came with his pickup. Amazingly, it picked up the trailer even with the tractor on it. After this, it didn't take Nathan any time to change the tire.

Just south of Guthrie this storm formed. We were able to watch it moving along just alongside and in front of us.

A small funnel cloud formed for a few minutes.

This is how the storm looked after it moved away. In front of us, in Guthrie, Atlanta told us they had a tornado warning. I'm glad we had a blow out and didn't get in any of that weather.

Blow Out #2 - On down the road, just as we were coming into Paducah, we had another trailer tire blow out. Nathan limped into Paducah and found a good place to pull over right beside the courthouse. Later, I noticed two signs that said "Law Enforcement Parking Only" on either side of where we were parked, but since it was Sunday, no one was around to notice. This time we did have to call the boys to bring some tires. Luckily, we were within an hour of the house, so we didn't have too long to wait.

We walked around the once busy town of Paducah. It's such a shame to see these towns so deserted. This was a really big town, with a large downtown square that even had additional streets behind the main square with large store fronts. Here's one at which I would have liked to shop.

After we walked around the square, we read all the historical markers and some markers on the courthouse lawn that listed all the town pioneers and when they settled there. It was very interesting. We even found some Shannons and some Raineys in the list.

I took a few shots of photogenic Carolina, who looks beautiful even with wild hair.

The boys finally showed up and the tire was soon changed. We made it home around 8:30 p.m.

Saturday, March 17 - Muddy Puppy - Look what showed up in the front yard today. Carolina's puppy, Coconut, was left unattended after Stockton had just cleaned out the bathtub that we have in the front yard. We use it in the warm months for a fish tank with a fountain feature. (see Bathtub Fountain Revived July 2010) He had created a mud puddle and Coconut found it.

Luckily it was a warm day and Carolina was able to bathe her outside.

Hmmm, I'm not sure she looks much better.

Monday, March 12 - Work in the Garden - The weather was so pretty that we did some planting and cleaning in the garden today. Potatoes, onions, peas, spinach and lettuce all went into the ground today. Carolina and Atlanta did most of the planting. Stockton was in charge of watering the new seeds.

We have nine raised beds. We used highway signs from an old TXDOT job as our borders.

Coconut seems confused by all this digging about in the dirt.

New Video Posted - I'm putting together a few short videos from our recent trip to San Antonio. The first one is called Mission San Juan and the next is called A Day at the Alamo. They can be seen by clicking here.

Saturday, March 10 - Shannon Flu Days - Wow. Everyone but Nathan has been hit by the flu bug. We must have caught it the weekend of the Spring Dance in Plainview. The frustrating part about it is that it is re-occurring. About the time you feel well enough to resume your life, the next day the fever hits again. The kids have been playing musical couches as one gets better and another relapses. I don't have any pictures to share right now for two reasons. One, no one's doing anything but laying on the couch and that's not too exciting, and two, I broke my Nikon camera:(

While you're waiting for the Shannon's to get better and post something amazing, why don't you watch a few new videos that I published from the kid's jam session in Tennessee recently.

Daniel, Cim and Laredo sing this Bob Wills favorite. A must see.

~Another idea~ While you're waiting for your videos to load up, won't you sign our new guestbook? Just click on the menu above where it says "more" and then choose "guestbook". Don't see a menu? Try this link for ShannonRanch: www.bonnyblue.net/shannonranch/index.htm

Thursday, March 8 - Welding Doll Beds - Although he hates to admit it, Nathan is becoming known worldwide for his darling vintage-style doll beds. We sell them in our Etsy shop and the orders just keep coming in. He took the occasion of cold, windy and wet weather today to take a day off from his new windmill servicing business to spend the day welding in his shop. He turned out several beds today including another photo prop bed to Norway. I can safely say we've cornered the market for photo prop beds in this far away country. We've had three different photographers (or fotografers as they are known in Norway) order beds. And, our first customer there has just placed an order for two more styles. Check out these pictures they sent of the beds being used in their child photography. It's easy to see why they love Nathan's beds.

This baby must be a preemie. This bed is only 20 inches long.