Happenings....

Just a little round up of what's been happening around here.  I really don't know where all the time has gone, the old saying that you get busier once you retire seems to be true, although I can waste an awful lot of time just surfing the web some days (politics, you know... wink wink!)
Anyway, we got a shade sail to add to the pool deck, since it is full sun on there during the entire morning and all the way until about 4pm each day.  It was hard to have little Joss out there without some kind of shade.  I think this will work great!

I need to take a picture of the gate again since we added the wooden pelican that I bought when we went to the coast recently.  He's pretty cool.  I'll get a pic soon.

The hens have been starting to lay and lay...we're getting between 2 and 5 eggs a day now! Whew! They are beautiful, but I'll have to make a few quiches to keep up with them.

 On one of the cooler days we had recently, I dragged myself out and cleaned out the potting shed.  This looks about 100% better then it did before I started, and I threw out a lot of "crap" that I was saving for who knows what.  I think I have a little of my dad's disease of keeping everything because "there has to be a good use for it somehow."  Well, usually I keep it a couple of years and then throw it out anyway, but I don't seem to be able to help myself, so I go with it.

 On Tuesday I went with John to the golf course.  I really enjoy going with him - it's so peaceful and quiet on the course (well, except for when John duffs a shot...enough said about that!) I'm his cart driver.  It's actually a good time.

 This is how we roll on the course, beverage-wise.

After the golf, we drove back through Sisterdale and stopped at the Sister Creek Winery.  We've passed it by many times, but this time we decided to go on in.  It was interesting, a small working winery.  They let you walk through the back area on your own, with a print out to explain what goes on in each room.  

 

I was stumped by the white flag with the red arm above.  Had to come home and look it up.  Here's what I found out (hat tip to A&M faculty website):
Dimmit's Goliad Flag. This militant and defiant banner, designed by Goliad garrison commander, Capt. Phillip Dimmitt, dramatically reflected the political shift of Texians and Capt. Dimmitt away from support of the independent statehood of Texas in the Mexican Federalist Republic and return to the Constitution of 1824 to support of complete separation from Mexico as an independent Republic. Before he returned from the Siege and Battle of Bexar to Goliad in the middle of Dec 1835, Capt. Dimmitt was an avid Mexican Federalist and opposed to separation which was symbolized in the 1824 Mexican tri-color which is also thought to be of his own design. Dimmitt's bloody arm flag was said to have been raised ceremonially on Dec 20 upon the signing of the Goliad Declaration of Independence as the official flag of the occasion although the banners of companies of Capt. William S. Brown andCapt. William Scott were also present at Goliad at the time.
Which banner was actually flown over the Goliad garrison is the subject of controversy and comment by historians. Mary Agnes Mitchell in First Flag of Texas Independence cites memoirs of participants John James and Nicholas Fagan "The Goliad flag was made personally by Captain Dimmitt himself....It was of white domestic, two yards in length and one in width, and in the center was a sinewy arm and hand, painted red, grasping a drawn sword of crimson.....The flagpole was made from a tall sycamore which was procured from the woods along the banks of the San Antonio River.....The flagstaff was in the yard of the quadrangle opposite the entrance to the officers' quarters." Dimmitt's flag flew over the ramparts of Goliad through 10 Jan 1836 when Dr. James Grant and the Federalist Volunteers of Texas forced its removal with threat of violence and which caused the subsequent exit of Col. Dimmitt and those loyal to him from the garrison. The banner is thought to have exited with them. The motivation behind Dimmitt's use of the bloody arm symbol is unclear as was whether he acquired it independently or simply under influence of theBrown flag which employed the same symbol (see Origin of the Bloody Arm Symbol).

They have a small list of wines, but they are all good.  John likes the drys and I like the sweets, so we brought home several bottles of each.