Meanwhile, back at the ranch.....

We next drove to the LBJ ranch which is still a working ranch. We did the auto loop through the ranch and THEN found out there is an entrance fee to pay at the Ranger Station. We didn't know our timing so we didn't pre-purchase tours of the house. I think I'd like to do that if we ever get back. We did get to see the animals as well as his Air Force One plane. At the Ranger Station we discovered that this park abuts a state park dedicated to preserving farm life of the early 20th century (before electricity and running water). If you have an extra hour or two you should explore it!

I debated showing this as 2 individual pages but decided that it was just as easy to talk about the differences in one paragraph. The left paper is a simple wallpaper. When I realized I had cow photo paper, I HAD to use it. The windmill is a VERY old CM die-cut. 

The right page is a sketch from one of my classes, so I cannot show you the base. I struggled to put the map of the ranch on this page. Look closely--do you see it? Nope. I finally realized it added nothing to the story so I left it out. I do have some military stickers and had an Air Force title sticker. I thought adding the giant "1" sticker as well as that blue plane die-cut put the whole layout in context.

Back in Time--LBJ's Boyhood Home

It's time to return to our chronological pages! As you may have forgotten, the last post in the chronological albums was 8 months ago and featured Manassas in October 2014. It wasn't until May of 2015 that I had any additional park photos to share. Jim and I had taken a trip to Texas as I was speaking at a Surgical Technology Conference. We added a few days of sightseeing before the conference and we traveled first to the LBJ National Historic Site. This is a collection of sites and the first stop after the visitor center was the Boyhood Home.

What you see above is an 8 1/2 x 11 pocket page. I had trouble getting the brochure onto the layout and so decided to use the pocket to give me some extra room. I used a piece of patterned paper as the background, using something similar to what would go on the next page to have some consistency. If you see this book in person you'll see that you can just see the edge of the following page along the side.

We toured the home with a ranger--just Jim and me on the tour. It's a very primitive house full of lovely vintage pieces. These are my favorite types of structures to visit. I love the old kitchen stoves and the hand-operated gears. Not that I don't like modern conveniences. I just find the setting homey.

The photo on the top of the right page is a combination to create the panorama. No sketch or inspiration page this time--I just went through my supplies and tried to arrange things in a way that would highlight the photos.