The Aren't People! or Life Is Beautiful!

Today has been a great day. This morning after Tony and I did our outside chores, we discovered that my faithful sidekick and companion, Roy Rogers, was in the dog house sort of, because he had wanted to come inside The Cabin, while we were working, so he single-pawedly tore up the new screen on our front porch window.

After I gently scolded one of my dearest friends, for tearing up the window screen that we had just replaced, last month, I leaned over and hugged and kissed my ninety-three pound, sad-eyed looking dog. Then I laughed and said, "It's okay, Roy. Don't worry about it. We're just not meant to have nice things. Some people are and some people aren't and we are—The Aren't People..."

Then I came inside The Cabin, grabbed my camera and took this beautiful picture of Roy-Boy looking a little guilty, through his newly torn up screened window, that he alone had done, because I could not be mad about something as unimportant as a ripped-up window screen, because it can be so easily repaired.

After I shot Roy, with my camera, Tony and I went outside to do some more beautification work in The Okay Corral. While he patiently planted dozens of my beautiful flowers in the wood-lined flowerbed, I spray painted the bottom part of our big windmill—purple. Then T. painted the top part for me, because I'm too short and the windmill, right next to my writing cabin, looks absolutely beautiful! Thank you, Tone!

While T. dug six deep holes to plant our new blooming Blue Plumbago plants, which are so beautiful and also my favorite blue plant—I stole rocks from our old fire pit, that we are going to redo using much larger rocks and I made a rocked-lined flowerbed, along the fence, in front of our beautiful, newly painted purple windmill.

Two hours later, we called it a day for The Okay Corral and then we sat down in the metal, lawn chair rockers to rest and to admire the beauty of our work today and five minutes hadn't passed, before I had the living daylights scared out of me. "OMG! Tony!" I screeched like an owl, as we watched this giant bird, just a few feet away from us, by his bird feeders, dive down and grab an innocent, sweet, little Sparrow eating seeds off of the ground and then it flew off with it! "Did you just see that Vulture do that?"

"That wasn't a Vulture, Nance. They have a name, which I think starts with a "P", but around here we just call them Sparrow Hawks..." Even though Tone explained it to me—I was sick about the poor Sparrow's fate—it never knew what hit him/her.

Before I end this beautifully written post tonight I must apologize to you, for purposefully over using the word "beautiful" so often, because while I wrote this evening—I've been listening nonstop to my new favorite Keb 'Mo song, Life Is Beautiful, because it is one beautiful/happy/upbeat song, that I am totally in love with, which earlier this evening I finally learned how to play all of the way through and can now pick on my guitar—that Ronnie made for me.

Y'all have a great evening, because life is beautiful and torn window screens don't matter at all.

Academy Of Country Music Awards!

My arms, legs and back are no longer aching, because I have spent the day inside The Cabin doing paperwork. I'm watching the Academy of Country Music Awards tonight and I am loving it.

A Herd Of Elephants!

Yesterday and today have been good days, because I got a lot of exercise outside, using the heavy duty weed whacker, to cut all of the grass and weeds, inside The Okay Corral and then by helping Aaron and Tony, clear brush and burn it, for our upcoming big and beautiful horse & donkey holding pen.

Last night before going to bed my arms were the only body parts aching, but when I woke up this morning I could hardly get out of bed, because I felt like a herd of elephants had walked back and forth on my back, during the night.

Even though my back and shoulders are still pretty sore, from using the heavy, hand-held-Weed Eater, lifting, bending over and dragging brush to the burn pile, I feel really good about getting the strenuous exercise and seeing all of the work that we've accomplished, in just two days.

Tomorrow, I plan to stay inside The Cabin, with our dogs, to do paperwork, etc., because T. has banned me from going outside to do any more manual labor—until my back feels much better and I have absolutely no problem doing that. And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Best Cole Slaw In Texas!

Today has been great and so was yesterday, because yesterday we had really hot water and also because we took the day off and met my sister and her husband, in Fredericksburg, for a fun-filled afternoon, while Aaron came out to work and baby sit the rescue ranch for us.

The first thing we did when we arrived in Fredville was jump into their car and head to the famous Willow Loop, to take pictures of the gorgeous wild flowers and it was beyond spectacular.

After our super fun photo event, we went back to Fredericksburg to eat lunch at Wheeler's Restaurant, that our dear friends Randy & Lisa also own and our meals were delicious.

Wheeler's Restaurant serves American and German food and is famous for having the Best Burger in Town. But, I must tell you that their cole slaw is the best cole slaw that I've ever tasted, so I think Wheeler's should also be famous for serving the Best Cole Slaw in Texas. And when Karin and Air Gun, our dear German friends, come back to see us—we're definitely taking them there.

Before leaving Wheeler's, Randy saw us and came over to our table to visit with us. "Randy, I love your cole slaw!..." I proclaimed, wishing that he would tell me the ingredients and my wish came true right then and there, because he told us the secret ingredient he uses in the recipe, but unfortunately I can't tell y'all, because it is our little secret.

Around 2:00, we hugged and adios-ed my sweet sister and her dear husband and then left Fredericksburg to go to the Home Depot, in Kerrville, to buy some dirt and flowers for the upcoming flowerbed, in The Okay Corral. Then we came home.

As soon as we arrived back, Tony and Aaron, under my creative supervision, created the prettiest flowerbed for me, on the rescue ranch and I am so thrilled with it. "Thank y'all. I love it and I hope the rabbits don't find it."

Around 7:00, after Aaron left to go home, I picked up my guitar and figured out how to play a few more Keb 'Mo tunes and then I went to bed early and that is why I did not write last night.

This morning after I did The Harley Show, which is always fun, I did paperwork and returned several phone calls and then I spent the rest of the afternoon repainting some things, in the Okay Corral.

Before our day ended, our dear friend, Rambam came out with his friends Sam and Lisa, because they love dogs and they wanted to see our rescue ranch and we really enjoyed meeting and visiting with them, even though, because I'm hard of hearing, I kept calling Sam—Stan. "Sorry about that, Sam. And thank y'all for that generous donation and that expensive bottle of fine Italian wine, that I will save for a very special occasion!" And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening, even though Mercury is still in retrograde, until the 12th of April!

In Hot Water! or Buddy Holly Was Here!

Today has been a great day, but I am a little tired tonight, because my day ended at 7:00 tonight.

This morning I had Tony wake me up real early, so I could drink some coffee and wake up before doing my Utopia segment, about our rescue ranch, on Big G's popular, morning radio show.

As I poured my first cup of coffee, Tone walked into the big room and declared, "We have no hot water."

"Do we need to replace the hot water heater?" T. started chuckling.

"Nance, they're called water heaters—not hot water heaters. And yes, we need to get a new one this morning after we do The Breakfast Club with your friends. I'm going to call Aaron right now, to see if he can come out later this afternoon to help me install the new one. " Then he called Aaron at 6:35 and then Tony adios-ed me and took off for the Old Timer with Trigger.

After I did a fun Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch segment with Big G., I called Kinky to make sure he was up, because he was going to our Breakfast Club, in Kerrville, too. He answered on the first ring, "Thanks for calling, Nance. I'm up..." Then I heated up some water on the stovetop and took a sponge bath, because we had no hot water.

Breakfast with our friends Beth and her father was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it and when it ended we went to the Post Office, so I could mail out a package, before we went to Home Depot.

"Welcome to Home Depot," a friendly woman said to us. "Can I help you find something?"

"Yes. We need a new hot water heater," I said. She smiled and Tony winked at me and then he started laughing.

"She's from Ft. Worth and they call them hot water heaters up there," he explained to the helpful Hill Country woman, as we followed her back to the hot water heater section. We ended up buying a 40 gallon electric one, then we came home and did our chores outside, even though we were running thirty minutes late doing them.

When we were done working outside, Tony took off in Trigger to go make a bank deposit for me, in Bandera, while I returned several phone calls before Hazel and I quickly cleaned up the trailer, because we were scheduled to do a camera shoot at 2:30, with our new friends from the Cailloux Foundation, because they had recently awarded us with a substantial grant.

The camera shoot was a lot of fun. We did it outside of the rescue ranch, next to our sign, on the white boarded fence and my Roy Rogers was in it too! Mark, Betty, Kinky and I smiled and laughed as Chris, from the foundation and Tony shot us, because we kept trying to get Roy to pose and look at their cameras as we held their check. Here is one of Tony's pictures.

When Tony jumped into Kermit with Roy sitting beside him, so he could return Roy back to our front yard, Betty, Chris, Mark and I strolled back to the The Cabin and that's when I found out that Chris played guitar and that he was the actor who portrayed Buddy Holly, in the local production of “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story,” at The Point, in Hunt and at the Cailloux Theatre, in Kerrville, which has been rocking the Texas Hill Country ever since, that everyone has been raving about, and he is in The New Buddy Holly Band, while Betty walked behind us so she could stop and pet and visit with all of our dogs along the way.

So, I invited them to come inside The Cabin, so I could show Chris my guitar, that I am so proud of, that Ronnie custom made for me. And little did I know, that Chris would actually pick up my guitar and do some Buddy Holly for us. It was fabulous and he was so good I got goose bumps. Here's a picture of Chris Huber that I took, right before he gave me those goose bumps. It was like Buddy Holly was here, in our big room.

Early this evening Aaron came out to rescue us and by 7:00 we were in hot water, once again. Thank you so much, Aaron. And that is about it for tonight and by the way—Chris loved playing my guitar and he could not believe that Ronnie made it for me. Talk about making my day!

Y'all have a great evening!

Page 42!

Today has been a great day. Early this morning, while I sipped some Kona coffee, I checked out our new Texas Monthly, April edition and I nearly fell out of my chair when I turned to page 42 and saw our dear friend, Rick Reichenback, "The Friendly Lighthouse Keeper," picture—sitting on his front porch, on the private island that he lives on, near Port Aransas.

As soon as I read the great two page article written about Rick and his super-cool job, which Texas Monthly normally uses only one page for that column, I called him to congratulate him, then I called Sandy & Jon, Cindy & Ray, Kinky and then Ronnie, of course, to tell them about Rick being in Texas Monthly. "And he is also in there twice. He is in the Texanist column, on the back page." And when T. got back from the Old Timer, he sat down, at the kitchen table and read the cool column and The Texanist column, before eating his breakfast.

This morning, while Tony did his and my chores outside, I spent most of my morning doing paperwork and I am now temporarily caught up with it all—thank goodness. And then we took the rest of the day off—relaxing. I hope that y'all will check out the story on our dear friend Rick. And that is about it for tonight. Except Tony just told me that he is thinking about buying a mule, so he can go riding with Maya and me!

Y'all have a great evening!

Cameras And Carrots!"

Today has been a great day. Our super volunteers; June, Ellen, Jim, Eileen, Lisa and Dottie came out and walked our dogs for us and many of our super dogs also went for a swim in Wallace Creek and so did Lisa, because Lois Lane pulled her into the cold, clear water.

Later, on a fun walk with Ellen & Cosmo Topper, Dottie & Latoya Jackson and me with Little Lulu—Ellen found Lisa's wet socks drying on the side of the bridge and we had a good laugh about it.

When Ellen and I returned Cosmo and Lulu to their pen we forgot to close the gates behind us and Mr. T. ran out of his pen and started running all around the rescue ranch. "Tony is going to put us on probation." Ellen joked.

"Don't worry about it. He's gone to shoot pictures of the Bluebonnets, in Fredericksburg, with his sister and her friend. He'll never know about it." And about that time Lisa caught him, up near the barn. As Eileen walked him back to his pen, she teased us for letting him get loose.

"Tony is not going to be happy about this when he finds out. Which one of y'all did it?"

"Ellen and I started laughing and both started pointing fingers at each other. "No, I did it," Ellen confessed.

"No, it was my fault," I said. "And we're going to keep it a secret from Tone and..."

Today, since Tony took a day off, I decided to also and I finished reading the fabulous book, Half Broke Horses that Karin and Air Gun bought from Wolfmueller's Books, to give to me. Then I read Joe Herring, Jr.'s fascinating book, Home; Photographs Of Kerrville and I really enjoyed reading it and looking at the interesting photographs.

Early this evening, Tony and I grabbed our cameras and carrots, then we jumped into Trigger, to go find the horses and donkeys, on the ranch. Needless to say, "They loved the carrots." Here's Little Jewford saying a little prayer of thanks, before he received his delicious carrot from Tone.

Yesterday, the beautiful Monarch Butterflies arrived, so when we came back home I saw several of them , next to our front yard gate, so I shot this one with my camera. 

Y'all have a great evening!