March 26, 2005 - Big Sandy, TX (Sky Ranch SOWERS project)

This is a 600 acre working ranch.  300 acres owned outright, and 300 leased for $1 per year across the street.  That lake you see on the other side of the entrance is 93 acres in size, fairly shallow with an average depth of 8 feet.  Water temp will get over 90 degrees in the summer, so not any trout live in it.  But crappie and bass do.  Big ones!  Lake record is over 10 lbs.

Little green lizard was the unofficial welcoming committee.  He lived on our power/phone hookup pole.  4 couples on this project, parked in the same area, but across from each other.  Kinda tricky getting in, as it was a steep hill to get to the hilly parking lot.  But it worked just fine.  All that stuff sitting by our rig is everything that lives under the awning when I've not dragged it out so we can wash the rig.  Margaret in the black sweater was the "Ladies Boss" and sort of the "Go To" person on this project.  David Leonard was the maintenance boss that gave us guys our assignments.  Next to Margaret in the yellow shirt is Arnie and in front of him his wife Elrene.  Dave in the blue cap and his wife Betsy with the purple sweater.  Art is standing behind Barb, and his wife Arlene is behind me.  Dave and Arnie and their wives had each worked 78 other projects, this was their 79th.  This was the last project for Art and Arlene as they're retiring to their home in PA.  We really felt like the babies on this project, with all that experience.

Yup, that's me up on the ladder pressure washing the "cabin" to get it ready to paint.  I was afraid to get up on the roof, and one nice thing about being a SOWER is that you don't have to do things you're not comfortable doing.  Only the paint was so old it came off with a little effort on my part.  And the next day I wore my foul weather gear.  The women did sowing and ironing of new curtains in several cabins.  Elrene and Arlene did most the seamstress work while Barb did office filing and things like that along with Betsy.

But even with the foul weather gear I still got wet and had paint chips on my face.

It wasn't all work all the time, of course.  Every day at 10:15 you'd find us in the dining room taking a coffee break.  And the turtle that was crossing the highway must have wanted a break as well, because when Barb stopped to take it's picture before picking it up and taking it to the other side of the road, it pulled it's legs in and just watched her.

Betsy and Barb putting together a mailing, Elrene goofing around with the broom while Arlene is sewing, and Arnie pulling some masking tape after painting the ceiling.  I painted with Arnie for the first two weeks, and then pressure washed that building the 3rd week.  And the view from the deck of the cabin that Arnie's painting.

Art and Dave finished the inside of a pump house, and then installed plywood sides to the inside of this storage container so shelves could be built to hold the fireworks.  Yes, that's fireworks.  As in major show on the 4th of July.  These are leftovers from last year we were told.  What fun that must be! 

While a totally different layout than the truck we had, (Moby Dick) Dave was able to carry lots of tools and use the bed of the truck as a workbench.  Made me miss our truck.  Sort of.

Just a few shots of the environment we were working in.  Pretty cool digs, if you ask me.  And what a treat for the kids and families that come here.  We didn't even take time to go get shots of the water park sports, or the zip lines, or the rope course.  Too busy having fun doing other things.

Other things like wandering down to the stables to see the almost 2 week old colt.  And the horses all ready to take the kids on a trail ride that included moving some cattle from one area to another.

Headgear is mandatory for the kids that are riding, and this gate leads to the fields where the riders will go.

This little dog loves to catch rocks that are kicked toward it.  It'll dodge the big ones, and when she catches one, all she does is drop it and look at you for another one.  Crazy game that she never tired of, but I did after while.

And there they go.  And the little dog (one of three on this particular ride) knew the routine and was just ahead of it's owner.

Almost all ranches have horns mounted on a car it seems.  The reason escapes me.  But here's the Sky Ranch car-with-horns.  Maybe an old Lincoln?  And a couple of brood mares that we'd hoped would foal before we left, but they didn't.  The brown one was particularly friendly, and if Barb stopped the car it would come over to the fence to say hello.  These two were buddies and we'd never see them very far apart from each other.