Tree Top Flyers!

Today has been great! First, John showed up and told us that he was fixing lunch for all of us! Then after Ben, John and Tony had fed the dogs and cleaned the pens—June Hartley, one of our great volunteers, came out to visit our dogs, and give out dog treats—and our dogs loved it!

At noon, the guys came to the trailer for lunch. John announced that he was fixing us his famous “Surf and Turf,” meal, and then he went to work in the kitchen. Twenty minutes later, he served us his delicious meal! I begged him for the recipe, and finally he gave it to me, as long as I would promise not to ever give it out. I promised him that I would never give it out to anyone—it was our secret!

Here is John Kemmerly’s and my secret recipe:

Ingredients:
1 pound of Boar’s Head roastbeef—thinly sliced
1 large tub of gourmet Seafood Salad
1 bag of fresh whole wheat pita pocket bread
1 small onion—thinly sliced
1 tomato—diced

Directions: Heat pita-pocket bread at 350 degrees for about ten minutes. While that is happening, mix the onion and tomato into the salad. When the pita is perfectly warmed, remove from oven.
Fill the pocket with the salad mixture first and then top it off with the roast beef! And serve with a side order of Terra Exotic Vegetable Chips! I promise you’ll love it, but please don’t give out our recipe—it’s our little secret! And, don’t forget to turn off the oven!

During our lunch, we were trading funny stories and I said, “Ben, do you remember two years ago, right before Christmas, when your dad, (Rob Welch) came out and surprised us with a visit and gave us those toy helicopters?”

“What?” John asked.

“Yeah,” Ben said. “My dad was helping their church, and they had been given a huge box of about—two hundred of these plastic pull-string helicopters, and he was going to drop them off at the Medina Childrens Home—for stocking stuffers.”

“John,” I said. “Rob gave us about ten of those helicopters, too. And, we all went outside to try them out. Tony showed me how to use it, but I couldn’t keep mine from crashing—everytime that I launched it—but Tony, Ben and Daniel were good at it! In less than two minutes, the guys were launching them at each other, and one of them crashed into the back of my head, but it didn’t hurt me, because it was winding down, and coming in for a landing.”

“I think I still have mine,” Tony said. “I’ll be right back.”

“John,” Ben said. “They were really pretty cool.”

“Yeah, until Daniel shot one into my back at close range,” Tony said. “Here’s mine. I found it in the closet. Let’s go outside and launch it.”

“I think, I’m going to write a blog about this,” I said.

“I thought you were going to write about that mountain lion, Tony saw the other night, going up the mountain—behind the trailer?” John said. “Ben and I climbed all of the way up there yesterday—to check for tracks or signs—and we found some!”

“I can’t,” I said. “If my good friend, that’s coming down in January to celebrate his birthday, with his wife Karen, reads it—he might chicken out. And, I don’t want that to happen.”

“Wait,” John said. “You know how those big, black helicopters are always flying low over the ranch—why don’t we launch it and you take a picture of it, and then you tell everyone that today a low flying helicopter did a fly by?”

We went outside on the porch. “I wish I had some fishing line,” Ben said. “So I can hang it from the roof—to make it look like it’s flying.”

I went inside, grabbed a roll of Tony’s fishing line, and my sewing scissors, and then went outside and made Ben’s wish come true!

Ben pulled the line out and then cut it. Next, he tied it to Tony’s little helicopter, and then stood on the porch rail and carefully hung it from the roof. Then I proceeded to shoot at the toy from different angles.

After the shooting was over, the guys took down the helicopter, and launched it in the front yard for a few minutes, and I came inside to download the pictures, and use Photoshop to erase the fishing line from the pictures.

Around three o’clock, just before John was fixin’ to leave, he reassured me, that it was no trouble for him to pick up, and bring the two newly rescued dogs—with him in the morning.

Around five, Ben headed back to Austin with his two great dogs, Valerie and Penny, which he adopted from us—years ago. And, “T” and I came back to our—still clean trailer to rest.