This morning, I saw my first armadillo since my sister picked me up at the Houston airport and drove us 3 hours further into Texas. The prehistoric-looking creature was wandering around the burn pile this morning. Finally he entered the forest.

Moving from the West Coast to deep East Texas has been a big transition. Mom can’t stay alone, so I’m here as long as it takes. I forgot how different my home state of Texas is from anywhere else in the world.

A bobcat crossed the road on its way into town on Friday. Before that, I saw an animal that I didn’t even know existed. It was like seeing a unicorn. I almost couldn’t believe it. It was a solid white deer. Others in town said they were rare but real.

I take that deer sighting as a good omen. It’s been quite a ride since I got to the deep, deep south. A man was trying to tell me that he wanted to sell a ‘fakir’ so many times that I finally had to ask him to spell it. Turns out he was trying to say ‘half an acre’ but he had condensed it into five letters.

It’s nothing less than the code talking here sometimes. “The devil is whipping his wife,” one man announced. After a moment of thinking, I remembered that that means he is raining while the sun is shining. We dress up fun. We talk fun. I love them.

It is not enough to wear a belt buckle. It doesn’t even count if it doesn’t look like a car door. Hats are de rigueur and will need to be wrinkled by hand. Straws in the summer; felts in the winter. As it has always been.

There is a horse on our property that is a former champion, Lynx still stands tall and proud. He lives where I’m staying and I’m told he brought home a lot of those shiny buckles that cowboys wear as rodeo victory trophies. He is in his 20s, but that doesn’t stop him from romping in the grass before a storm.

There is a funny little horse named Pedro that keeps getting my attention. I’ve told you everything. He wanders and he follows me whenever he can. Last night, he got me some carrots and we watched a shooting star together.

Sporks (spoon/fork) are cross breeds between miniature horses and donkeys. There are a couple of them and they are the first hoofed animals I have seen fighting. They love to bray, day and night.

Horses and cows are everywhere, as well as donkeys of all shapes and sizes. It turns out that they are more than just eating lawn ornaments, the smaller equines keep coyotes and venomous snakes away.

I tried to get Pedro to chase away a chicken snake, but he ran over it. They only get excited when their lives are in danger, but the long black creature was easily five feet long and I didn’t like it in the yard.

Temperatures are just above freezing and spring is beginning to show in the new growth on the trees. Such is life here in Piney Woods, deep in East Texas. Stay tuned for updates and additions to our little piece of paradise called Misfit Island.