CHRISTMAS CACTUS PROPAGATING

A coworker has a Christmas cactus plant she got as a gift.  A piece of it broke off when she was taking it out of the box and so I thought "let's put it in some water and see what happens".

I brought it home and put it in a small glass, changing the water every couple of days.  

Sure enough...

In a couple of weeks we had roots!  I let them get a bit longer and then put it into some potting soil.

And now it's doing great!  In fact, it's doing so great...

I decided to get two more pieces, repeated the process, and they are doing great as well. 

Here's an image (via Pinterest) that shows what they look like in all their glory.  I'm not sure how long it will take to get this big but it'll be fun to watch them develop.  They like shade and not full sun or heat, so we're kind of thinking these might be nice to let grow on the screened in porch.

FORMS HAVE BEEN SET

 So...THIS happened:

They set our forms!!

The house is coming to life!  What this is for is to provide the perimeter for the concrete slab that will make up everything (porches, living space, garage).  This is the view from the front, will be looking at the entire front of the house with the garage on the right, the porch in front and the master bedroom on the far left hand side (as looking at the house).

Here are some other angles:

This is the front corner of the house, where the master closet will be and the jut out is part of the corner of the guest room and the other part is the front porch that was taking shape.

This wall encompasses the master closet, the master bath and the master bedroom.

This wall is the garage and back porch.

This is the front corner of the garage.

Here's another view of the front of the garage while standing on what will be the front porch (well, close to the front porch).

And lastly, here's a cool picture:

This is the entire back of the house, encompassing from right to left, what will be the master bedroom, living room, screened in porch, dining room, utility room and back of the garage.

What we like about this picture, and what we didn't realize, is that when we moved the house forward 10 feet (compared to the prior house) we knew we'd have more of a backyard but now we can SEE it.  And wow, we DO have a much bigger space between the house and the orchard.  We see all sorts of potential here.

Now the forms are set and this week they are loading the fill dirt into the forms.  It's a bit wet out there now after the snow melt and rainfall (this was done to beat the snow last week) so we'll see how everything goes.

We have a house taking shape!

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART'S SNOW DAY SUNDAY

Today as this posts, we are having thunderstorms.  Go figure.  Just a few days ago, we had a very rare snow day here in Houston.  Actually two snow days.  It was fun and a good day to stay in where it was warm.

It helps when we have the right tools, and 2nd Man used his largest pot we got at the Factory to Table sale last year.  This is a 14 quart Le Creuset pot.  It fit two 6 pound chickens side by side!  He worked his magic and in the end:

We had a wonderful pot of chicken soup to keep us warm for the duration of the cold snap.

Thursday, we posted snow pictures HERE from the farm and from in town.  Click the link if you missed it.

Now, here was Hobart's fun snow day:

We put a bowl outside on the balcony to catch snow and brought some in for Hobart to play with.  He looked at us like "what am I supposed to do with this?"

You can see his foot marks in there, he touched it and dragged his foot through it a few times.

2nd Man made a snowball and he had a blast pushing that around the floor.  He was moving quickly so it was hard to get a good picture.  For 19 years old, he's still got speed when he needs it, ha.

Later, I decided to make a miniature snow man out on the balcony and he was utterly fascinated by it.  He watched it for a good hour or so, you know, to make sure it didn't escape, ha!

But then the fun was over, it was time to retire to a special spot we made for him: his bed with a heating pad (on low of course) under a towel.  He sleeps here for hours.  Because...

#notspoiled

 

THE GREAT HOUSTON SNOWSTORM OF 2025

Or something like that...ha!  It was a crazy day for sure but in the end, just beautiful and, for us, awe inspiring.

It started Tuesday evening...

This is the radar about 7pm, the red arrow is the farm and of course pink is snow, blue is rain.  It was freezing out there and snowing, Houston was still raining.

But that didn't last long.

During the night, it dropped below 32 while we were sleeping.  I woke up to check the weather:

It was finally 28 and snowing.

When we woke up:

It was near whiteout conditions in downtown Houston.  We couldn't see beyond about one block.

The entire city was shut down.  Almost no one went to work (except essential personnel of course), freeways were empty, virtually all stores and businesses closed, and even the two airports were closed, with no flights landing or taking off.

One it stopped, I went out to explore.  A lot of snow.  About 4" in Houston.  It was beautiful for sure.

It was a lot of snow, even on our balcony more than 25 floors up.  It was crazy and fun!

It was the soft, powdery type of snow.  We think this is the kind that people like for skiing.

At lunch, when the sun finally came out (but still below freezing), we went down downstairs to "play" in the snow and it was awesome.

I joined in an impromptu snowball fight with neighbors (epic fun at 59 years old) and then, with our first ever major snowfall, I just had to do this...

🎵Do you want to build a snowman?🎵

YES!

OK, so it won't win any awards but hey, I did what I could with what I had on hand.  Had to find enough clean white snow that hadn't already been scooped up for snowballs or had snow angels made in it, and then I used what was around in the flowerbeds to bring my snowman to life.  Several people took pictures so it was famous for a bit!

We were regretting that we weren't living at the farm yet to experience this, but "J" from 2nd Family surprised us by walking down to our end and taking pictures all around for us to have!

This was on her back porch/deck as she went outside to get some pictures.

This is one end of our driveway looking down toward the barn and shed.  In the Spring, this is one of my favorite spots to mow.

Speaking of mowing, here is one of our trails, normally a green winding path, now a white wonderland! 

This is part of our front yard, the view we will have from our future front porch.

The orchard is snow covered.  Thankfully the trees and bushes are freeze hardy (at least we hope!).

This is a pond, not ours, but one on the other side of our fence.  It's very pretty covered in snow and frozen over.  Looks like a postcard.  We wish he'd someday sell us that part of his land, it would be awesome, ha.

Barnabas looks cold and lonely in this picture, ha.  It's so wild to see this, the snow covers the weeds and trim debris and the things that sprouted up, so seeing it not only clean and white but trimmed and all alone looks so cool.  So much space for new stuff once we get out there!  We saved the best picture for last:

Just love this picture.  It might be great to have it turned into our first Christmas card to mail out next year from our new house!

We are forever grateful to "J" for getting us these possible once in a lifetime pics.  But hey, if it does happen again next year, we'll be there to experience it!

Sunday will be some Hobart snow pics, he didn't go outside but he had some snow fun nonetheless.

SNOW

 More update tomorrow, but just to let everyone know we survived the great Houston blizzard of 2025, ha.

This was on the balcony 25 stories up.  It was crazy.  

But beautiful!  The entire city stayed home yesterday and mostly today as it melts and becomes black ice on the roadways.  Tomorrow should be back to "normal".

Stay warm and safe!

SO THIS HAPPENED AND SNOW IS COMING

We have keys!

Last week, we entered/started the final phase.  We had a symbolic passing of the torch and met our superintendent of building.  We went over our plans, he's already been out to the property and groundbreaking has happened!  At the end of the meeting, they gave us these keys.  They are keys to a house that's not there yet of course, ha, but they will unlock the doors once they get it framed and up.

It's happening!

And in the meantime, we have this coming:

Lows around 16 and then a snowstorm that just might be the biggest snowfall ever recorded in our area.  Latest models show a potential for 5 to 8 inches of snow in some areas (farm shows 9" as worst case).

Both airports have closed for Tuesday, playing Wednesday by ear.  All school districts have closed for both days, hospitals are rescheduling non major surgeries and most stores are putting up signs that they will be closed.  The city official said this could be the worst driving conditions ever seen in Houston.

Even the mayor said "wherever you are when you get home tonight, plan on staying there for two days".

We will be safe at home, 2nd Man already works from home and from my office, we will all be bringing our laptops home tonight after work.  Now we just have to hope the power grid holds.

But hey, we have keys!  We can't even think about anything else right now, ha. 

Winter wonderland pics possibly coming soon!

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART WINTER SUNDAY

 It's a cold day, down to 27 this morning, but it's about to get absolutely bone chilling cold for us (teens) along with perhaps record snowfall!

I went to the farm yesterday (it was gorgeous, 60's and sunny) and got the last of the plants to save from the freeze.  Came back and 2nd Man made us some miso seared mahi-mahi over brown, red and wild rice with cranberries and green onions.  It was so good!

Hobart is getting settled in for his long Winter's nap...we covered him up and he was watching me take pictures but it only took a few minutes until...

...he was sacked out.  He slept here for 3 hours uninterrupted.  Because...

#notspoiled

QUICK FARM TRIP TODAY

 

Off to the farm today but just for a bit.  A couple of reasons, one to see the new gate we had put up a few days ago.  We needed a new gate because the old one was sagging.

But the main reason is to grab the last of the plants that I left out there.  They are freeze tolerant to upper 20's but, like much of the rest of the country, a huge Winter storm is coming.  We could see temps in the teens AND snow...in fact they are saying that there is a possibility, though the models are still fluctuating, we could get record breaking snowfall (for our area of course).  One model showed 3 to 6 inches of snow in Houston.  That means the farm could get that or more.  A shame we won't be out there to see it from the comfort of our new house but we'll have "J" take lots of pictures for posterity.

But hey, no pipes to worry about this go round!

ANIMAL TRACKS

With all the cleared areas around the yard now, the grass hasn't filled in so after a rain, when the ground is soft, we get tracks!

These look like maybe a raccoon?

And we're thinking these are deer tracks?

And this is Bigfoot...oh wait, KIDDING.  Alas, this is a stock photo, but who knows what we'll discover.

It will be fun when we're out there to get one of those "animal tracks of Texas" booklets and learn some tracking of whatever creatures are passing through.

Found this, it's pretty cool.  These would probably be what we see out there. Well, maybe not the BEAR, ha.