A SOLDIER - ONE OF US

TODAY AT ST. MARY'S CATHOLIC CHURCH THERE WAS A SERVICE FOR A YOUNG MAN NAMED CHRISTOPHER STAATS. HE WAS BORN HERE IN FREDERICKSBURG. The newspaper encouraged residents to show their appreciation for the ultimate sacrafice Christopher made in Afganistan recently. As usual Fredericksburg poured out their support and love by lining the streets in honor of him. His job in Afganistan was to teach the people how to farm and raise crops. Their vehicle exploded and he and another soldier were killed. Two others remain in the hospital today. I felt honored to be able to represent all our families. Never forget these brave YOUNG MEN ARE SERVING AND DYING FOR US.

GOD BLESS HIS WIFE OF BARELY 4 YEARS. FREDERICKSBURG WILL MISS HIM.

This man wears this tag around his neck. He was the nicest guy and very excited about sharing his duties. He is one a two-man team that travels with the Liberty bell and 10 commandments. They attend every funeral they can. They take it all over the country. The riders were telling me that they attend the Memorial Day parade in Washington, D.C. where 400,000 riders ride by the monuments. They go 2by2 taking a total of 6 hours to ride past different flags and locations. What a rumble!!

Saint Mary's Catholic Church was beautiful in the brightness of an otherwise solemn day. The cars for attendees were a block long and 5 rows deep. The gravesite was limited to close family and friends only.

There were both men and ladies that ride with the patriots. I could not believe how many gathered.

this is a picture of a "band of brothers" I chatted with. They all have interesting stories of how they joined the riders. Some wore their own metals from past service. There were probably 100 bikes all lined up when I got there. They travel all over to be present for occasions like this.

These riders came from all over to participate. It was a beautiful day and all the wonderful colors were bright and clear.

Each of the riders held a flag.

"Amazing Grace" was all around as the bagpiper exited the church. All the riders and the military (in full dress)stood at attention and saluted as Christopher was carried from the church for one last ride through town.

Fredericksburg is so much about family. These 2 precious children held their flags as the hearce passed by. This home chose to lower their flag to 1/2 in honor of Christopher. Everywhere you looked something amazing was going on. As Christopher came by silence fell all around me.

The children of St. Mary's Catholic Church all poured out to honor Christopher. The man with the bell gave each and every child a chance to give it a good ring!

As the procession turned the corner the chills once again consumed me. Everyone was so proud to honor this American Hero. I said my final goodbye and hoped Christopher would take a moment in Heaven to say hello to my Mom, Dad and Brother Kevin along with Bud's Dad and his brother Cal. We ALL MISS THEM TERRIBLLY AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT OF OUR LIVES. WE LOVE YOU

This exact replica of the Liberty Bell travels around the U.S.. They try to make it to any parade or memorial ceremony for the fallen. It is flanked by the Ten Commandments. Wouldn't the world be a better place if people reminded themselves of these 10 simple rules. When you rest your head on your pillow tonight think about the price men and women of the military have paid for that peace you are able to find........till we meet again..........6 oaks

octoberfest is family

Hi everybody! Well, everything here is just as wonderful as last time we talked.

October came in and the family celebrated with a

weekend of fun, food and laughs. This group of ours has always had a tough time getting together at one time and place. Believe it or not it happened on Oct. 9-11. Everyone arrived on Friday evening. The Grandkids of all sizes and shapes began to pour out of cars and trucks! We had Colin (in the black) and Ainsley( in the red) that best buddied up immediately. Next we had our little Barbie Princess car. Here you can see Corbin with Marin in the drivers seat. They were all smiles all weekend. Mom's and Dad's were busy setting up sleeping arrangements including the McDowells in the workshop, Jennifer and Marin inside with Grami and Grandpa Bud took Colin and Ainsley to the new house where they set up a tent in the master bedroom. Every child was presented with a personalized flashlight and you would have thought we gave them a wonderful treasure. It is amazing to watch them run and play. Screams of laughter and giggling were heard for hours. We set up a tent for Heather, Dean and little Nate (who is 1 yr.)

The next morning began early as everyone creeped out of sleeping bags and tents. We ate a great casserole that we cook every Christmas(royal ward). We now know not to cook it for kids next time. I guess a bowl of sugary cereal would have been just fine. Thanks Bud for spending all that time in the kitchen. The adults loved it and ate leftovers the next day.

This is Cadin(3) who never gave up trying to keep up with the older ones. When he decides something he never gives up. He took the job of keeping the night fire going. "More wood" was his battle cry!

This little one is Corbin(5) He looked stunning and "strong" in his Pirates of the Carribean jammies. I love a man who will allow a woman to "drive" and be content to just be a passenger on a trip!!

Even the adults could not resist a little fun. This is an old outside teeter-totter I found in Azle. Mandy can not pass sharing time with each and every little one.

There were even horse races!
Nate kept busy showing off his housekeeping skills. Earlier that same day he was so cute when he picked up a dirtclod and as I was filming a video of him he turned around and ate it! You can hear everyone yelling NO Nate just as he put it in his mouth. I am sure he is not the only one who has eaten dirt in this group.

Nate is one guy who always has a mission. He kept Mom and Dad busy chasing him. I am sure he will have chores when his sibling comes along.

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This is a picture of the house painted. Thanks for looking and I thought this picture of Cadin should be "THE END!" I GUESS WHEN YOU GOTTA GO YOU GOTTA GO

SUMMER TIME MEMORIES

Well everyone September is about to be a time of the past. At 6Oaks we have had a wonderful summer! Before you look at the photos let me say I have missed each and every one of you. Not a day goes by that I don't think about the ole gang of many friends that have supported my wonderful husband in his aloneness(is that really a word?) You have included him in every way you can while I am away. We are always reminding each other that this is all in the plan and only temporary. He feels like he knows all the people personally all the way down Hwy 16 S. We know when someone paints a door a different color, cleans up the yard and have always supported the Priddy Pirates in all their sporting events. I just think it is hard to have your football team take the field to the announcer saying "and here are your priddy pirates!"
the temp down here is falling and rising daily. Last week the nights fell to 60 and I slept with the blinds up and the windows open. I am someone that has been afraid of the dark all my life, so this is a MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENT for me.
Now, the family is coming down for the Fall Fest here. There will be everyone from 1 year to 37 years of age. Usually someone can't make it and this time we will be missing Adam,Kris and David. We will be thinking about them as we bob for apples, play sports and eat smores!
I hope everyon has had a super summer as we all look forward to cooler days and bundling up in a quilt in an effort to squelch the goosebumps! Well you are now about to enter a recap of my summer.


WE DID SOME OLD FASHION THINGS

WE SPENT THE DAY AT THE RACES

AND SOME TIME BEING SILLY!!

WE MADE FUNNY PICTURES WITH LAMBS EAR PLANTS.

WE BUILT SWINGS. AND WERE PRESENTED WITH THINGS WITH WINGS!

WE TOOK IN A MUSIC FEST FOR THE GUINNES BOOK OF RECORDS





AND MADE FACES INTO THE CAMERA JUST FOR OURSELVES.

WE TOOK A LOOK BACK AT BARNS OF YESTERDAY









WE KILLED SCORPIONS, AND ENJOYED WONDERFUL BUGS!

I MET THE AUTHOR OF BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY







KELLY'S HEROS DROPPED BY. GOD BLESS EVERYONE!

WE STARTED FIRES

WE OPENED UP OR VIEW

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WE SAT UP THE TELESCOPE AND SAW THE MAN IN THE MOON!










AND WE SAW THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FULL MOONS!

THE SUNSETS WERE SPECTACULAR AND WE ARE REALLY GLAD WE DIDN'T MISS VERY MANY

THROUGH IT ALL OUR TRUSTY WONDERFUL GIRLS DIDN'T MISS A RIDE ON MOMMIES CAR!






OR IN THE CAR FOR A DAY TRIP!

WE BEGAN TRADITIONS

AND THEN WE LAUGHED AT SOMEONE'S GREAT SPOOF ABOUT THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER. (OR SHOULD I SAY THE COW DAYS)

WE KEPT AN EYE ON ALL THE LITTLE BABY DEER AND SAW MANY BEAUTIFUL MOMMIES.















SO, IN A THIMBLE OF PHOTOS FROM THE SUMMER THESE ARE SOME OF THE WONDERFUL THINGS I THINK ABOUT WHEN I TRY TO SLEEP AT NIGHT. WITH MY TYLENOL P.M. CLOSE BY I BID YOU GREAT DREAMS AND MANY TOMORROWS!

THANKS FOR TAKING A LOOK AND SPENDING TIME OUT OF YOUR BUSY DAY! TILL NEXT TIME............SKARLETT.....I DO GIVE A DAMN! VICKI

anyone seen the sun?

this is the walkway to the porch door. these are 2 beautiful trees we have outside the
front door of the barn

Now, that is definetly a good question! It has been raining here in the hill country for 4 days straight. Bud and I have emptied the rain gauge 3 times for a total of approx. 5 or more inches. Today after church we saw the big yellow thing in the sky for about 1 hour and then it began again. I was lucky enough to get the front of the barn mowed. I have a weed that can be 2 feet high in 24 hours.
Last night Bud and I were eating dinner on the porch. (as we do every meal) Bud picked up the binoculars and looked toward the new house. He was shocked to see a HUGE buck. This dude is the biggest we have seen to this date. His velvet was off, and he was just lollygagging around. To his left was a really nice buck just slightly smaller. I grabbed by camera thinking I could get to the house 75yds away and snap their picture. That distance seem like a mile. By the time I arrived and scouted every window for them they were just a distant memory. I probably scared them away when I pushed the wrong button on the camera and accidently took a picture of the floor flash and all! My sluthing could use some practice.

I decided to share some pictures of the barn after a great spring and lots of warm days this summer. I know some of you have never seen where I am hold up.

The house it at a great stage. The electricity is pretty well wired now. The pillars on the porch really were fun to see. They added the beadboard ceilings as well as the crown molding.

I have not seen hide nor hair of the plumber for about 1.5 weeks. He will be installing what we need for the water system. We are doing a water catchment unit that will keep all our rain water in it. We will have the capability to switch from the well to the rainwater whenever we need to. I understand that just a few inches of rain can fill up a 10,000 gallon tank in no time. My grandmother Hilda use to catch rainwater to wash her hair. EEEEGADS am I becoming her?

this is the ceiling on the porch

Breathe deeply........let it go, although she had hair that came down her back and ran along the floor for many feet!!She also could flip her false teeth over and over and make us crack up laughing. ok Vicki STAY ON TRACK.

I just ran down and took some pics of the house where it stands completed today.

Bud is on his way back to Azle right now. If you see him wednesday at El Paseo lucky you.

I hope this finds everyone well........found a new white wine by the way. it is Messina Hof and it is really smoothe.

the windows on the left are the master bdrm
the windows on the right are in the living room.

the pitch on the left is our bedroom. the next opening is the 2nd set of fr. doors

Well, time to end for today......as I have said before tomorrow is another day.

A picture for you of an old out building on the road to Hilda just down the road about 30 miles

Hi everyone, it has been a long few weeks since I have blogged to you! The picture you see is where we were last week. All the felt is on the roof and now the siding is going up! The unroofed area you see is the garage. One of the guys working on it (Michael) wanted to know how much we will be renting it for!! HA HA! NO!NO!

the picture above is a full view of the single car garage with 2 attached carport slots! the upstairs is all storage area.

Now the siding is going up on the north side of the house. The windows behind the guys are in the kitchen. This should go pretty fast for them. They are quite a team when they get their rhythm going.

The electrician is hooking up wires. All the lighting was wired in last week as well.

I have been running back and forth to Kerrville to stores we do not have here in the Burg. I know that 25 miles really well.

Adam, Kris and Jennifer came down for a sneak-a-way weekend.

Here is a question for you........How come you feel like you are walking a little taller when you are side by side with your children! I guess because I am so very proud of them. They are awsome people and we all know the world can use a few more of these! We went to the horse races on Saturday and also took a driving tour thru Doss and Hilda. Not much happening in these 2 towns either. Every blade of grass along the way is quite crispy to say the least! When the guys left on Monday I took them to the Austin airport BY MYSELF. Wow! Me behind the wheel in Austin going home form there with only a sleepy Sorella and Annie to navigate. It really is easy and just a straight shot up 290. I was glad to see any sign that said Fredericksburg to reassure myself that I was on the right track. Really appreciate the kids taking time to come visit and help give house ideas and confirmations on what we are doing. I have some new ideas on the list. We cooked fresh salmon, shrimp and made a good salad and ate way more than any of us is use to. We went to a hamburger place that has been written up as super. We rated it 8.5-9 points. The burger the guys ate must have weighed 1/2 lb. ea. We tried the onions rings and fried avacados. The french fries came with the burger and it went on and on and on. All in the name of making sure it will be good if anyone asks where to go. Yeah! I told the owner he was responsible for making me buy another size larger IN ANYTHING!!!!!

We slipped into Luckenbach where there was a guinnis (sp?)world record was about to happen. There were over 2100 guitar players attempting to play 2 songs. One was Willies' Luckenbach and the other one was This Land Is Our Land. The racord was set with somewhere over 2500 players all playing at the same time. Boy! What a hodge podge of human (somewhat frightening) beings. There were people from 2.5 years old to older than dirt. They were to play at 2p.m. but had a hard time getting ready so they moved it to 3 p.m. so about 2:30 we left. Our stomachs were cramping from hunger so we headed out. I am sure there will be something in the newspaper this next week. We were there to witness the crowd at least. The guy here is Arnold from the lumber store here in the Burg. I could not believe I knew someone participating. The photo was one place where the players parked their guitar cases. I guess there is a brotherhood of DON'T TOUCH MY CASE going on.

Well it's late and tomorrow is another day Scarlett.......................

love you all,

thanks for visiting

signing off from 6 oaks.......come see us!

Hey everyone! good to be back with you once again. It has been really HOT around here with an occasional summer shower. Wednesday I got kinda bored so I took off east on 290 toward Johnson City. It is a nice ride and pretty scenery. There is a great antique store that you can blow right by if you are driving anywhere around 50 mph. Zoom and it's gone. Today I intentionally stopped in to see what's new. A precious gray kitty just a few weeks old greeted me upon my arrival. Adorable....wish I could bring it home to clean up creepy crawly and slimey things I know are out there somewhere on this acreage! Last week I smelled something raunchy when I got out of the car. I looked down and there was a dead BAT on the ground just about where I was standing! I scooped it up with the dustpan(learned never to touch something as gross as a dead BAT)! and gently placed it ON TOP OF BUD'S TRACTOR!!!! Waited until the next day to sneak over to the neighbors fence and quickly (accidently on purpose)tossed it under a large cedar tree. Now give me a break I was just thinking about Annie and Sorella's safety.

Oh, back to the antique story......... I poked around for a while and found a good jar of old marbles. I think every grandchild should have Grandpa Bud teach them a serious game of marbles, don't you? Then I found a game of checkers and a 1945 lamp that is truly a really cool piece for the house. When I left there I took a virgin road and came across this adorable little hair salon. Yes it was TRUVY'S! remember Steel Magnolias. I just coundn't believe my eyes. It made me kinda giggle inside and I thought about getting out

of the car but restrained myself.

This little character was on the road just down the way. Now this one I could not drive past without taking a picture. It was close to Baron's Creek about a 1/8 of a mile from here. I was scared it was a rattlesnake so I turned around and grabbed my

camera. This one made my skin crawl and I thought I would probably dream about it. Come to find out it was just a chicken snake! But I firmly believe the only good snake is a DEAD SNAKE!!

Moving on to a much cuter something I saw.....the turkeys are back and brought new babies with them. Last year the tom's were here quite a bit. If you made a gobble-gobble noise POOF their tail feathers plumed out and they began to strut their stuff. There were 5-6 of them. Well we know how it went because these precious little turkeys came running up to the barn close enough to see them. They played on some of the boards and played king of the hill on a dirt mound down by the new house. All of a sudden a little head popped up and they realized Mom was moving on. they took off running as fast as they could to catch up. It all turned out well and they took off to spend a day exploring all things wonderful and exciting.

Here are a few pictures of the status of the house. We have been roofed! The first pic is the view of the house from the road back to the barn. the center pic is of the back of the house and the one on the right is the front dining room. All the windows have not been cut out as of today. There are at least 13 more windows to cut. I will have another pic from the whole front of the house when the lighting is better. I usually get the photo after the crew leaves. I guess I need to get one in the morning.

Well, today is over. it is 11:20 p.m. and tomorrow is a whole new day.

God Bless us everyone................................Vicki

off to the races

YOU THINK IT IS HOT IN FREDERICKSBURG. CHECK THIS GUY OUT THIS IS "FRED" HE KNOWS HOW TO COOL OFF.

Our grandson Colin came to spend the weekend with Bud and I. He arrived late Friday night. As soon as he brought in his bags we walked (in the dark with a Qbeam) to see the house. He was off like a scalded dog and loved poking around looking for something a 9 year old would interesting. He loved looking for deer in the night but found none. As you can see from the photo he was up first thing Sat. and again began his hunt. He was excited when mission was accomplished. He stayed amazed by the way the deer are not afraid of us being here when feeder went off.


Bud and I drug him to the monthly flea market and learned more than we cared to know about cactus from a man named Allen. He knows every species by the latin name and got a hold of our attention and would not quit! We scoured the barns for treasures and found just a few really worth $$. Our next adventure were the horse races at Lady Bird Johnson Park. It was our first time to see these races and it was really pretty fun. No, no gambling. We just wanted him to experience the speed of the horses. He studied the information on the horses and would choose which one he thought would or could win. That little stinker picked the #3 horse for 4 races and by golly the #3 horse placed or showed every time! My horse won the first race and I was excited. We stayed for 5 races and on the last race we went to the rail. The thunder of 10 horses at that speed was amazing. Colin could not stand still and climbed the rail constantly to get a better look.

When we left we headed for the airport to see the planes. You can walk up and look at private planes that are parked outside. This old truck was parked there also and Colin and Bud could not turn down the opportunity to jump inside for a quick photo.

It as not all playing though. Colin helped get the dust out of this rug the old way. I gave him the broom and let him go at this rug from the shop. He really got into it! He beat it and beat it until I said "ok"! He was getting way into the whole idea. He left here on Monday and took with him quite a collection of flint to give as gifts to brothers, uncles and Mom and Dad.



Here is where we are with house. Robert and the crew completed the roof. this first photo is the rear of the house. It faces west. The other pic is from the front (east) side. This week Robert will begin to put the outside board before attaching the Tyvek on. We will be blowing in all our insulation. This baby should be air tight and really efficient when complete.

So yadda yadda yadda.......on and on she went! Thanks for visiting and we hope
everyone has a super week. Til next time............the boss from 6 oaks!!!