Post 2 about Texas

Last evening we had a doozy of a storm pop up and the rain poured and poured. It felt cozy inside the house. Just wish all my peeps had been here. I've got chores to finish before town leaving, so lets get right to the second installment of our April trip to Texas. This is proving to be a challenge for me to complete. I don't know if I can do it! There are so many words to write in a short period of time. 

In Louisiana, Blake made the trip around the corner to see Gmaw. 

In Laffy, Mollie was hoping for a full day of snap filters. 

This is what the day looked like in Texas. 

Purple beards...

And pie faces...

The animals were being weird for some reason. 

William and the Beebs were hanging out. 

I think William was hungry for pie.

In DC, Emma was celebrating the cat being away. That would make her the mouse. 

Short snaps are hard to read. 

Beba and I went looking for bluebonnets and paintbrushes and we found them. 

Back at the farm, Hank was enjoying some grass.

The bluebonnets in the yard were looking quite lovely. 

One more.

A tiny flower pic.

Carlie came for the weekend. Praise the Lord. 

I have a hard time culling bluebonnet pics. 

Anna enjoyed some more fence time. 

Caitlin joined us for the weekend also. 

I adore these close up pictures of teeny tiny flowers. 

This is an extreme close up of a bluebonnet. 

The sun was setting on the Swanders time at the farm and I had a very difficult time taking out any of these following pictures. 

Emma in DC didn't want to get up. 

Mollie had multi problems in Laffy. 

I forgot Randy came to town too.

Beba was sleeping in.

It was nippy enough outside to need a sweater. 

James had to get his mowing finished before he left for home. 

Again, too hard to take any out...

Bubble mowing at its finest. 

And you gotta wear your safety reading glasses. 

Yep, too cute for words. 

In DC, Emma was still hating clowns. 

In Corsicana, the you know what, had hit the fan. We have been having problems with the plumbing for a long time. We knew there was plug somewhere and John was trying to fix it by using a roto rooter. It's a thankless job. Although we do thank hime so that's not really true. Anyway, after using the apparatus, we still had a problem, so we had to call in the professionals. 

I offered to hold this thing in place. It was a mistake. The "water'  from the hole this thing was coming out of was splashing out and some got on my hand so I used a plastic back to protect myself. John didn't seem to care. 

Look at that cute freckled face. 

The flushers came and went and did not fix it. It was sad and disappointing. After a discussion with them, they suggested we get our septic tank pumped out and that might fix the problems we had been having. Only one problem, we had no idea where the septic tank was. Treasure hunt! Wait a minute. This was a hunt, but there was no treasure... 

Has there ever been a better name or slogan? I don't think so.

Even with the plumbing issues, time was taken out of the day for trying to net catch a fish in the pond.

This guy needs more than beauty treatments. 

The vibes were good except for the plumbing issue. 

I think this was determined to have been an adult and not a child who did this. 

In Lafayette, the Clines were enjoying some crawfish. They could flush and not worry. 

Carrie was checking out the chin hairs. 

The plumbing problems didn't damper these spirits!

The pajama'ed set were about to hit the road.

One more pic first. 

The Swander people hit the road before the you know what hit that fan when the plumbing situation blew up and it had to be dealt with. 

So, at some point, I don't know when and I don't care, a septic tank man/person/cowboy came to pump it out. But you can't pump it out if you can't find it. This was a problem. The only way to look for a septic tank you have no idea where it is, is to take a long iron probe and stick it in the ground until you hit what you think may be a tank. We did this for what felt like was hours. But to no avail. It was discouraging to say the least. 

You might not be able to tell, but he is looking for the missing tank. OK< it's not really missing, just hidden from us all.

Hank did not care, because he can poop ANYWHERE.

We always have to do some selfies. 

The septic tank man put what's called a bladder in the sewer line to blah blah blah...I don't care...to find a problem. He did. 

These are real and true words. That hose has seen things that would make people shudder. 

Then a whole other thing happened and we couldn't believe it. These days are so not correct on my head, but at some point, we all lost phone service and were closed out to the real world. It happened suddenly and we all began to walk around looking for some service. 

Masiy did not care. 

We later found out a car hit a cell service poll and all hell broke loose in the cell phone world. It matters so much. 

Snap streaks were in danger and that mattered a lot. 

When the septic tank cowboy put the bladder thingy in the line, a puddle of water arose up out of the ground in the spot John is standing here. So he began the back breaking work of digging a hole. A very big hole looking for the broken pipe. He found it. 

This had to be fixed before we left town. 

So he set to work to fix it. 

In other news, our sweet friends, Dan and Jarrett came to help us look for the septic tank. There was much discussion about how and where and when and how. This country fellers were resolute in their attempt to find it. And they did. 

Out by the red barn is where it was found. Not one of us knew that at all, 

We have documented it, but I don't think any of us will forget where it is. 

Nothing beats a country boy for finding country things and working in the middle of someone else's mess and muck.

Men may drive us crazy sometimes, but they do the heavy lifting of the really gross stuff. And this was gross. 

Here's a lesson in septic tank pumping out. After you find the opening to the tank...

A pumper truck comes in and puts a big hose down the hole and pumps it into a truck like this.

And men stand around an open septic tank, that smells FABULOUS, and shoots the breeze while it's happening. 

Then the broken pipe must be fixed, which mean that hole you see fills up with unmentionable things and must be scooped out and removed. I didn't do any of that.

The sun even sets on days like these.  

Mixing the old with the new plumbing. All that stuff at the bottom of the picture is old clay pipe. 

And now this is all for pictures for posterity and to remember what John did fixing the plumbing. 

Putting in a clean out so it will be easier to roto-root if necessary. 

The whole saga is almost over. 

Filling the hole with the hope of flushing with reckless abandon. 

We may have been accused by some of hiding a body here. 

If so, these are the culprits. 

While all that was happening, some were eating ice cream with reckless abandon. 

And then I couldn't sleep that night. 

I think I just might pull this off people! I have one more post to start and finish and then I will have completed the entire April Texas trip, just in time for us to go back to Texas. That's a good place to be. 

Headed west.

I don't have time to chat! I've got one more for to do!

It's like a mini cliff hanger...