C’s terror run through the woods at the grandparents house

July will have us on a trip to the in-laws ranchito again. I am planning to use bug spray this time, as Bill and the boys were covered in chigger bites when we got back home a couple weeks ago. I think we will also have the boys tent a bit closer to the house, too.

They wanted to camp out on the land. What kid wouldn’t. It is so beautiful there, and the adventure of sleeping in a tent in the forest sounded cool. Well, to them it did. I was not happy about it. I mean, having a 9yo and 6yo sleeping alone out on 50 acres in the middle of the hills made me nuts. It was nuts. Anything could happen to them….mountain lions, rabid skunks and bob cats would share the night with them. Now, I know there are a few people out there that are saying “Mountain lions? Oh, come on!!” But yes, there are mountain lions in Texas. When we lived in the Hill Country, they called them black cougars, and we had one roaming our property and the 20,000 acre ranch that was next to us. I experienced, for the first time in my life, what having your hair stand on end felt like. One night I was unloading my 3yo and newborn baby from the car in pitch darkness and I heard a cougar scream very close to me. Terrified is the only word I can use to describe how I felt. The hair on my neck stood on end. I grabbed my kids and hauled ass to the house. The next day I couldn’t find our cat and went looking for it. Our nearest neighbor, who lived about 20 acres away from us, told me that they had just returned home from a trip the evening before, and as they pulled into the driveway, their headlights caught a mountain lion jumping off of their back porch.

We never did find our cat.

So, back to my kids sleeping “out on the land”. To hell with that! We did compromise, and they pitched their tent a few acres behind the house. It was still in the woods and dark as can be, but they insisted, and Bill thought it would be fine.

They were instructed to stay in the tent. They had water and some flashlights…..oh, and their Gameboys, of course! Bill also instructed them on ranch smarts, such as “never cross a fence if you are lost” and “never try to touch the animals”. He stayed with them for a while, then darkness fell and Bill came in the house.

I was not at all at ease. I couldn’t even see the tent from the window. Worry, worry, worry. I nursed the baby, and finally fell asleep…………only to wake to the sound of frantic pounding on the door. Bill jumped from the bed, and ran to the back door. I glanced at the clock and remember thinking “they made it to midnight!”. I went in the kitchen and found Bill leading Cory into the den to climb into the fold-out bed where his 3yo brother was sleeping. I hugged him and felt his heart pounding. He said he heard some noises and the deer near the tent and he got scared, so he grabbed his shoes and flashlight and made a run for the house. I said “that must have scared the heck out of you!” and he nodded his head up and down vigorously! I asked him where Cody(6) was?????? He said “Still in the tent”. It was then that I knew……….if both boys were standing 10 feet from a lion, Cory would grab Cody, throw him to the lion and run. I freaked and told Bill to go get Cody and bring him in. A few minutes later he came into the house carrying Cody, still asleep, and put him to bed.

With both boys safe and sound in bed, Bill and I crawled back into ours and talked. Bill said it was really creepy walking to the tent through the woods in the pitch black. He could hear the deer snorting and walking around, and coyotes howling. It must have been terrifying to our 9yo.

The next night they pitched their tent in the fenced in part of the yard, about 10 feet from the back door. I could see their dark shadows in the tent from the light of their flashlights. I could hear them laughing too. Early in the morning they came in and were so excited about their night in the tent. They said “we weren’t scared either”. They had made it all night in the tent!

Around 7:30am, Bill went out to take the tent down and he opened the flap…….to find their grandmother, Nanny, asleep in the tent!!