THE REWARD

We have owned the Tin Star Ranch for four years now.

Thousands of hours, blood, sweat, and worry have gone into our Gabriel Mills Garden of Eden.

Along the way we have discovered "treasures" on the land in the form of ancient soda and beer bottles, rusty 7up (steel) cans, metal quart oil cans, and various old iron tools (all displayed with pride in our barn).

We have seen wet newborn fawns, moving brown fluffs that became wild turkey chicks, and brilliant green colored snakes that were pursued by sprinting road runners.

We have watched wild turkey toms swell their plumage and strut back and forth like kings holding court in an effort to impress hens.

We have spied a tortoise as it dug a hole with its back feet and laid wet sticky eggs in the hole.

We have discovered cedar lizards that are HUGE and are so aggressive that when you find one, they don't run away, they charge you like an angry rhino!

We have watched a luxurious fox walk to the edge of our pond, drink his fill, and disappear back into the brush as tho he were an apparition.

We have discovered the incredibly clarity of the moon and the stars that can only be found when one leaves the city lights behind and allows the velvet of total darkness to occur.

We have watched lightning pitchfork across the horizon, huge black crowds rumble their warning, sunrises, sunsets, and the silver glory of brilliant heavy frost.

We have felt the ever present gentle Southeast breeze in summer, the biting chill from the North in winter, the sloshing mud in April, and the baking soil in August.

We've heard the birds sing, the squirrel chatter, the turkeys call, the doves coo, the coyotes howl, and the deer snort.

We have marveled at a 15 acres blanket of wildflowers growing naturally, an inhospitable spiny cactus covered in delicate yellow blossoms, yucca with red spears reaching toward heaven, the spring sprout of agaves, brown pollen clouds from cedar, and the stampede of thistle.

We've watched the night horizon and wondered how far the light of the distant radio towers might be? We've heard the cicada and wondered how many shells they would leave? We've marveled at the number of fire ant hills, scratched from chiggers, pulled cactus spine from tender places, brushed off bugs, and swatted mosquitos.

But most of all, we have thanked our Lord and Savior each day for the bountiful reward and privilege of sharing in the spirit and soul of the Tin Star Ranch.