# 459 - Celebrating Country Life!

The deck building process exposed a visitor, a Black Widow.

My husband tried to hold it still for a few shots. I found it oddly beautiful. After the photo session, he let it go in the woods.

Lions, tigers and bears. Well, not quite. However, we do have cougars, spiders and snakes. And, the bears are in these woods again because of a re-introduction plan that has now prompted official sightings in the area. Black bears.

For now, I am adding Black Widow spiders to my list of creatures and insects that city-life did not expose us to quite as much.

Also, the deck construction is finished. We are still going to add lattice to it, but this beauty is wonderful to step out onto instead of cinderblocks and indoor/outdoor carpeting that quickly gets clogged with DIRT GALORE.

Here is a photo, at night, of my mother-in-law standing on the deck.

I will be landscaping around the deck, so stay tuned. Of course, Beaker, the chicken missing the top beak, has already found her way to the top of the deck, but that will soon be off limits with the finishing touches that will be put onto the deck.

My huge picnic table fits on the deck and we certainly enjoy sitting outside while soaking in the peaceful view and country sounds.

Another great bit of news today that we received had been our electric bill. First of all, at this time of year, we would be getting an electric bill at the big city house that would be at least around $400.00 because of the days on end that were in the high 90's and right at 100 degrees.

The chickens are hanging out beneath the RV.

Here in the RV, we are in the shade for part of the day, but the hot days find the air-conditioning unit in the RV to run non-stop, so we were DREADING the moment the electric bill arrived.

You can imagine our high-five celebration as we opened the bill to discover the charge for a HOT month in Texas to be approximately $140.00! So, we are paying more for gas and commuting to Downtown Houston on a daily basis, but the overall break from "big house" bills is very nice.

It's so nice to have affordable electricity with this country electric co-op.

It's so nice to not be air-conditioning nearly 3,000 square feet of house.

It's so nice to be able to step out my front door and be in the midst of nature.

It's so nice to no longer share a front curb on a street without adequate parking space.

It's so nice to live on land that has trees instead of in a development that is just over ten years old and struggling to grow trees because the developer bull-dozed everything before construction began.

It's so nice to not hear police sirens throughout the night, every night.

And, it's so nice to see the beauty in nature, even if it includes a Black Widow every now and then.