The Diamond H Ranch

On January 1st we packed up the puppy and headed to the panhandle to see Chris's family.   

This is the Diamond H Ranch mail box.   Todd, my father in law and marketing expert, would never leave his mail box un branded.   No mail box is complete with out its own customized camo over lay!

No ranch would be complete without its own baby wild boar either.   Meet Spot - who was being babysat by Grandpa Toddy.   Apparently Grandpa Todd would like some grandchildren!

My mother in law, Karra, has two stoves in her kitchen so she can adequately feed all the hungry cowboys.   Her kitchen would not be complete without her own Diamond H brand in her back splash.   Karra understands my love for kitchens and feeding people, so she lets me take over the kitchen whenever I come to visit.   Her kitchen is a picture of perfect organization and I LOVE cooking in it.   

Here is the view from the back door of the ranch house looking out over the north pastures.

Here is the back view of the ranch house.  Todd and Karra added on about 2000 square feet to the old existing ranch house.  The windows at the top are of the bunkhouse which sleeps about 15 people, or 15 future grandbabies.   

This is the side of the front of the ranch house.   Not the best picture but you get the idea.

The mantra of every ranch wife.

We celebrated Todd and Karra's 30th wedding anniversary by making them Boeuf Bourginion from Julie Child's cookbook.    It took all day but it was worth it.

Prepping for the Boeuf

 We made asparagus, roasted pearl onions, sauteed mushrooms, and mashed potatoes to go with the Boeuf.

This is Chris helping prepare the Boeuf.

We also got to help a first time mama cow give birth to her 125 pound son.  It was an amazing experience and not nearly as gross as I thought it might be.

We had a wonderful time with Chris's family.   Going to the Diamond H is like going on vacation.   Cell phones do not work and there is always a perfect sunset.   

This is was Giada's second visit to the ranch.   She learned how to jump cattle guards, almost got killed by donkeys, almost got eaten by hungry mama cows, and learned how to go under fence.   She also got to go to the lake and de-stuffed a stuffed animal.   I would say she also had a great vacation.

Thank you for enduring my iphone pictures

An Explosion of All Things Pent Up

OH MY GOSH.

Bad things happen when I get too excited.  Things get broken.  I hit things in cars.  Squirrels spontaneously combust.  It is crazy the amount of excitement energy that God has given me the ability to generate.

Frankly, I sometimes wonder if you could power a small city off of my excitement.  It's pretty ridiculous, just ask my wife.


Well, work has been crazy, and we've been out of town nearly every weekend.  (Saturday morning after my quiet time is my favorite time to blog...coffee still flows in abundance, good music on the stereo, the day is still quiet - it basically rocks.)  The business and traveling have greatly limited me from being able to release all of my silly excitement about random things in life via the blog.

I am about to explode in real life from all the fun, random, silly things that I have been wanting to write about for the last month.  I hope you have fun.



1.  The album Trouble by Ray LaMontagne might be the perfect Spring time cd.  Last weekend, I sat on the front porch listening to this cd.  The Sun was still up (God love you, Daylight Savings time!), the breeze was slight, the pond was pretty, Diamond H steaks were on the grill, the wine was a Punto Final Malbec, and my wife was looking particularly beautiful.  One of the best nights of my life, truthfully.


2.  Online Shopping.  I love it.  I can find nearly anything online for less money.  I get to compare prices, service, etc all from the comfort of my Michael Jordan basketball shorts and iTunes library.  Booya.

I love online shopping, but I have also discovered something about myself through it:

I turn into an impatient and emotional two year-old when I have that tracking number.

Seriously.  I will open my email, open the Online Shopping label in my gmail (I told you, I'm sick) and find the tracking email from Eastbay.  I will check the track of my package 3 times a day at least.  "Oh, I know that the package left Indiana yesterday, surely it will be to Texas today, right?"

For my birthday, this was particularly problematic.  I had several things that I wanted to shop online for.  Armed with my bday cash, I went to freaking town.  (BTW, I heartily endorse the following products.  They are all more than SHFP worthy.  Seriously, you should buy them.)  New 320 GB harddrive for my MacBook?  Cheap and Check.  New, RIDICULOUSLY HOTT Nike Basketball shoes?  Wes and Luke Friesen bought the same ones, Check, and triple Check.

I have never acted more completely ridiculously than while waiting for these two packages to arrive.  It was completely absurd.  I have since apologized to my wife.  Yep, it was bad.

Haha.  While repeatedly tracking my Eastbay shipment for my basketball shoes, I see that they have arrived in Conroe on a Saturday.  This is awesome.  This means that the next business day (Monday), I will see those magical words, "OUT FOR DELIVERY".  The next day, I dutifully, triply check my tracking number only to find that they have been passed off to the Post Office for final delivery.  What kind of awful joke is this, UPS???????  The US POST OFFICE?  They stink so bad they can't even make a profit with a monopoly on our mailboxes and you give my prized basketball shoes to them for final delivery?  What in God's name are you thinking???


I had a minor near meltdown, and the shoes showed up on Tuesday.  Like I said, I apologized to my wife for my frantic and completely pathetic emotional state.

Will I change my online shopping ways?  Absolutely not.  Will it likely provide me with more fodder for random blog posts?  Absolutely.

3.  I rear-ended a woman on Belt-way 8 doing 35 miles an hour.  It was awful.  No one was hurt.  Her truck was totaled an mine ends up with cosmetic damage (I guess we can still say something for good ol' GMC, right?).  Not quite sure how that happened, but apparently two car lengths isn't enough space to check your blindspot with how fast Houstonians can slam on their breaks.  Such is life, and this is how we learn our lessons.  Thank God for comprehensive insurance and for keeping everyone safe.

I sat there on the side of the road with my overactive sense of irresponsibility, trying to keep from getting pissed off at myself, and asked the Lord why He let this happen.  I felt Him gently speak to me and let me know that it was ok, and that He wanted to reveal Himself to me as My Provider in a new and deeper way.  I'm excited to see Him do this and thankful for His comforting voice in times like that.  I'll keep you posted on my poor truck, Duke, and the facelift that he's getting.

4.  Costco has changed our lives.  Jess and her mom joined this month, and it is one of the best things ever.  Not only do they sell tons of incredible organic snack food and fruit, but they also sell Lucky Jeans for $37.  Cue awesomeness and go join Costco.



Explosion is over.  I feel better now.  I am off to watch Clash of the Titans with the all the brothers today.  I cannot wait to see it.  You see, I watched the original one time while sick as a middle-schooler.  I thought it was awesome then.  I cannot wait to see the new one with CGI awesomeness.

Also, the first crawfish boil of the year is today at the Jordan's house.  I love crawfish.




I am going to quit blogging now.  Too many exciting things exploding into cyberspace.  I want to stop before this man blows up too.

With (obvious?) excitement,
Mr. Hill

The Excited List

The top ten things that make Mr. Hill exuberant at the behest of our friend, Travis Bearden...

This is so much harder than making "The Angry List".  A couple of differences are obvious to me as I begin to try and think through this list - These are in order of importance, there are many more things in life that make me excited in life than make me upset, and trying to describe the emotion that rises up at the thought of these things is beyond me.

1) My Jesus.  This is not here as cliche.  I am who I am because of Him.  He is my love.

2) My Wife.  Again, not cliche, simply true.  She is my partner in everything that I do.  My life would be completely awful without her.  Watching her be who she is enthralling.

3) The thought of being a father.  No, we have no kids on the way, nor any plans for them currently, but I have wanted to be a dad since I was little.  The honor and privilege it will be to be a daddy is beyond my words. 

4) Having the opportunity to be a blessing by the direction of the Holy Spirit.  Be it giving, encouraging someone, or teaching.  I am alive for these moments.

5) People.  I love people.  I love being around them, talking to them, watching them.  People.

6)My G Puppy.  Cutest and smartest ever.  No debate.

7)The Diamond H Ranch.  I proposed to my wife, learned how to bass fish, shot my first big deer, bled and sweat, grew in Jesus, learned to build fence, and generally became a man on that piece of land.  It is very dear to me.  

8)Sports.  I love playing sports.  I love watching sports.  I love sports - especially Aggie Sports and playing basketball.  My wife probably questions my sanity with how excited I get at the thought of playing basketball.

9)Nike and Ralph Lauren clothes.  They fit right.  They make me really excited.  Undoubtedly, Nike makes the coolest sport apparel.  Period.  It is the best, and it makes me happy.

10)Music.  I don't even want to be honest about how much memory on this Macbook is taken up by music.  I also do not want to be honest about how much money I have spent in  my life on music.  It is likely disgusting.

11) Ten just wasn't enough for this list...Cowboy Boots.  The way they smell when they come out of the box.  How dependable they are.  How good they look.  How versatile they are.  The world should wear boots.

I love my little wife, her pretty red shoes, and how well she fits in my arms.

Desires fulfilled and Trees of Life.

I am literally brimming with excitement this morning.

Yes, brimming.

You see, in the last 3 days I have experienced the fulfillment of no fewer than three of my childhood/teenage dreams.

Yes, I am really serious about that.  Three in three days.

Jesus is really fun and exciting like that.

We'll take them in order of occurrence.  Saturday, Sunday, and Monday timing:

-SATURDAY-
Desire fulfilled: Preaching in a church.
        You have to understand, as I type that, I am crying.  That is a desire that has been so deep in my heart, so full of passion to teach and encourage God's people - It's really hard for me to express how much life there was in me when I walked over to the little podium.

       No, I didn't preach to thousands, it was just about 15 or 20 at my parents little country church in Childress, TX where our family's ranch is....Do you know that, that didn't matter to me on Saturday night?  Christ Jesus, my Master, spoke a message to my heart for his people, and trusted me enough to steward those words right.  The Creator of the Universe, the Love of my heart, my Lord.


Proverbs 13:12 - Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire is fulfilled, it is a tree of life.


-SUNDAY-
Desire fulfilled: Shoot a really big buck on MY OWN ranch.
       Alright, I recognize that not all of you will understand this one.  You have to know, since I was a little kid, I loved cowboy and ranch things.  When I was in high school, my parents bought our ranch...I was one step closer.

       My whole family has always been bird hunters - dove, quail, pheasant.  That's cool and all, but I wanted to shoot a big deer.  I had shot little cull bucks and does before on other people's ranch to help them maintain the eco-system balance, but I had never seen a buck worth shooting on our ranch.  We were waiting for the right one and the right time.

Sunday, the time - and the buck - both came:

Here's how it happened, if you aren't the hunter (or wife of a hunter) type, feel free to skip past this paragraph.  :)  So, we drove in the "Mom Mobile" (Our diesel Mule) over to this wheat field where we had been seeing Fred the Deer.  (Yes, his name is Fred.)  It was me, Dad, and our Outfitter friend, Chad.  We pulled up and there were 10 does...no Fred.  I was slightly discouraged.  We thought he might've been shot already by our neighbors, because we hadn't seen him in a couple of days.

Dad says, "let's drive over to this one other place that I've seen him."  We drive over to the side of this little draw next to the wheat field.  I was thinking, "It's OK.  We'll come back tomorrow.  Maybe I can shoot another buck.  It's OK.  Jesus will fix it."  (Even if you don't care, you must understand, this was a momentous occasion for me.)

Fred is there across the draw(small canyon for you non-country folks) and back up towards the wheat field .  Fred and a 6-pointer friend actually.  I have Chad's .300 Winchester Short Mag.  This is basically a small cannon.  Fred appears to be 9 points (one of his antler "tines" doesn't for like it should).  Fred is also MASSIVE.  NO kidding.  He easily weighed 300 pounds, thus the need for the cannon.

Fred begins to walk down into the draw.  We lose the line of sight.  We walk quietly, excitedly, nervously toward a fence at the bottom of the draw.  We have him again.  He's turned a little toward us (not a good profile shot) so we wait.  I cannot even begin to explain to you the agony and horrible excitement that you experience at this point.  What if he runs?  What if we don't get the shot?  It's awful.

Chad says, "He's going to walk down the draw...wait for it."  I wait.  (Chad is awesome)  Fred begins to walk down the draw.  Chad again, "I'm going to stop him, you ready?"  I find Fred in my sight.  "Yea, yea," I say.  A whistle...another whistle.  Fred stops, Chad, "now, take the shot."

BOOM!

Fred is clearly hit.  He is stumbling a bit.  He is still moving.  Chad says it was a perfect shot.  (I feel 10 feet tall at that point.)  Fred is attempting to move toward the end of the draw and the big canyon (bad news), Chad tells me to, "put another in him." so we don't lose him in the canyon (all very guyish) I chamber another short mag quickly, line him up, and pull the trigger again.

Big Fred buckles.  It's over.  Turns out, both of my shots were less than two inches apart, right in the kill zone.

It was so perfect.  Then I walk up on him.  He has a front kicker.  He's a 10-point Buck, and I shot him on my ranch with my Dad.

I realize that, that doesn't strike a chord in the heart of all of you, but you must understand, that was a desire of my heart from the time I was a little kid.  God provided the ranch, the deer, the time, and the place.  It was amazing.

Proverbs 13:12 - Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire is fulfilled, it is a tree of life.

-MONDAY-

Desire Fulfilled:  Have friends like my Lone Star Marina Men.

       To say that I was short on friends through middle school and high school would be an understatement.  Describing me as unpopular would've been an understatement at times through those years.  Literally, at times all the way through high school, I was at times totally devoid of having a good guy friend.

       I literally begged God for friends, for men.  I begged God for men who I could share life with, share struggles with, share victories with, enjoy the Lord with, and enjoy everyday life with all the same.  I wanted real friends.  Not just friends that were for a certain part or piece of life, but friends that I could share all of the things that make me, me with.  Jesus, sports, food, good beer, dominoes, prayer, sin struggles, good stories, the lot.

       Monday morning at 5:30 I was praying with some of those friends.  Every Monday morning we meet in a conference call from all over the state of Texas (and one loner from Memphis, TN who needs to get his butt back here.) to pray for each other, for our marriages, for our relationships, to pray that we would endure as men who are called by the name of Jesus Christ.

       When I cried out before the Lord in my bed at 1503 S. Lamar in Amarillo, TX for all those years asking him for those type of friends, I never could've imagined a group like the Lone Star Marina.  Ben, Brad, Don, Geoff, Prothro, Daniel, Sloan, Wes, and Kyle Wood - not to mention all of the sweet women who put up with us and the many other folks who love to hang out with us.

Thank you, Jesus, for my friends.  They are truly a desire fulfilled in my life.

Proverbs 13:12 - Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire is fulfilled, it is a tree of life.




I want you to know why I wrote this blog.  It wasn't to sound like a braggart.  It wasn't to boast.  It's purpose was two fold:

One: To express my heart of thankfulness to my Sweet Love, Jesus for bringing my dreams to fruition.

Two: (And honestly the main reason.) To give YOU a three-fold testimony from my own life that Jesus gives you dreams and He will bring them to fruition.  If you will trust and follow Him, I promise you that He will always bring you a tree of life.


Whether you are waiting for your desired spouse, the desire of the right job, the desire of seeing your kids become successful, no matter what desire resides in your heart - I promise you, you have a God who loves you and longs to fulfill that desire.



John 10:10 - The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).



Yep,

A Fulfilled, Mr. Hill