Tuesday, January 31, 2012

A Dream Come True!

Today has been one super great day for me, even though I spent over four hours this morning doing non-stop computer work.

Around 1:30 this afternoon—Carol called. "Hi, Carol. I can't believe you just called, because I was just thinking about you." Carol started laughing.

"I just gave Pistol and Maya a bath, before the paparazzi shows up to shoot us riding my horses. Can you and Tony come over around 3:30?"

"Omg, we would love to, Carol. I was hoping that you would call, because I spent so many hours this morning behind the computer—I thought my eyes were fixin' to fall out..."

It was nearly 4:00, when I climbed into Pistol's saddle, for the very first time and Carol mounted Maya. Then our Cowgirl Sisterhood fun began.

As we rode Carol's super cutting horses around her ranch, Tony stood back and shot us and at one point during our fun ride I said, "Carol, I love Pistol so much. He is a fabulous horse and being your first Texas friend to ride him is an honor and a dream come true..."


After a wonderful afternoon of riding Carol's horses we went out to her deck for happy hour and all I need to say is, "We had a blast!"

Y'all have a great evening!

Monday, January 30, 2012

Soup & Salad!

Yesterday, Tony and I worked outside almost all day. While Tony and Aaron did a lot of cement work, I used our weed-eater to knock down a lot of thistle. Even though I wanted to spend yesterday writing on my book, the work we accomplished outside was worth it.

Today, after doing our chores outside, we made a quick trip to Kerrville to get groceries (for homemade soups and salads) and office supplies.

Because my mind is racing ahead of my book and I must catch up, I plan to spend this evening and hopefully tomorrow afternoon out in my writing cabin—knocking out many pages. So, I told T. that we are eating soups and salads this week so I can get some writing done. Wish me luck!

Y'all have a great evening!

P.S. Tonight I received this from my dear friend Mari. I hope someone can help get Ryan back home.

MISSING!    
 
"Ryan", spayed female pit bull mix, current on vaccinations, has been missing since Monday night, January 23rd.  Last seen about 12 miles S of Kerrville  on Hwy 16/Medina Hwy.  Please call if you have seen her or have any information.  Phone # (281) 748-4536.



Saturday, January 28, 2012

Reata!

Today has been very busy, but still great. This afternoon we rescued a dog from Sherri, a fellow rescuer, from Bryan, Texas.

Even though it took Sherri and her friend four hours to get Chloe to us, when we met Chloe, a beautiful, sweet, 3-4 month old Catahoula possible Pit mix—she melted our hearts immediately when she kissed Tony on his cheek. "Sherri, this is one perfect pup," I said, as Chloe licked my hand. "She has great manners and you can tell that she is a very smart dog. This dog is highly adoptable."

"I know. Thank y'all so much for taking her in," Sherri said. "I have fallen in love with her, but we have so many rescued dogs we just couldn't keep her..."



After we had played with Chloe in the Okay Corral we took her down to Lulu's pen, so she could meet her new roommate and those two hit it off immediately. Even though Lulu is a senior citizen she recognized that Chloe was a pup and she was great with her, while Chloe played gently with her new best friend.

Early this evening Tony and I went outside to check on Chloe and Lulu to make sure they were still girlfriends. When we drove up they were curled up and sleeping side by side in the warm sunlight. As we petted Chloe I said, "Tony, I like the name Chloe, but I am changing her name to Reata." T. liked her new name.

If anyone knows a super person who deserves a super dog—please tell them about Reata. We already have Jim and his wife in Austin interested and if that doesn't work I plan to call Fay, up in Canada to see if her friend is still looking for a great dog. She just needs basic training like sit, stay and come, because she is calm, friendly and happy to be alive.


Y'all have a great evening.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Olive Oil!

Yesterday was a really great day. Before doing our chores I went over to the Lodge to visit with Kinky and we had a fun visit. We talked about his exciting, upcoming Southern Discomfort tour and The Friedmans.

After Tony and I had done our chores we went to Kerrville to run a few errands. While we were at Home Depot, buying a Pelonis convection oil filled radiator heater for my writing cabin, that Sandy and Jon Wolfmueller had highly recommended that we get, we ran into our super volunteer Jim and his wife Diane and then in the paint department, then we ran into our dear friend Les and we had a nice visit with him, while my quart of red paint was being mixed.

Our last stop was at Herring Printing to pick up some printing. When we walked into Kerrville's favorite printing shop we were greeted by the friendly employees and then our friend Joe Herring saw us and he came up to the counter to greet us and we had a fun visit with him before heading home.

As soon as we got back home I punched Carlton's button to listen to any new incoming calls. "Hi, Tony and Nancy. This is Kat. My son Bryan has been wanting to adopt a dog and today is his only day off. Could we come out to look at your dogs? Call me."

Forty minutes later, Kat, Dave, Bryan and Molie, the dog that Kat had adopted from us over eight years ago, arrived. After howdies and handshakes we took off to go show them our dogs and before we had finished showing Bryan all of our super dogs—he fell in love with Walter Cronkite. So, we walked Walter down to The Okay Corral, where Molie was waiting, so we could see how they would got along. After a quick "sniff-a-thon" the two dogs were in love with each other, which thrilled all of us. Here is a picture of Molie in Tone's lap and Bryan with his new best friend.



Today has been a great day. This morning when I got up at 6:00, Tony tells me that we had run out of propane during the night and that was why The Cabin was so cold. After I had put on a couple of layers of clothes I suggested that T. bring the new little heater into the house, to see if it could help warm us up. And I am glad that he did, because in no time flat—The Cabin was warm and cozy, thanks to Olive Oil.

Before Tony returned home from the Old Timer, I called Wolfmueller Books. "Morning, Jon. I just wanted to let you know that we bought one of those oil filled radiator heaters at Home Depot and we love it. During the night we ran out of propane and early this morning we plugged her in and she really helped warm up our trailer...Tell Sandy I named her Olive Oil. Bye." 

Around 9:30, when we had just started our morning chores Jim, Roy & Della and Ellen, our super volunteers came out to walk our dogs and our dogs were more than thrilled about it. 

When I was almost done cleaning the pens our dear friend Maribeth, from Utopia, arrived, because I had called her yesterday morning to invite her to come over and spend the day with us, because Tone and I had been missing her.

After the pens were cleaned, Jim came up to tell me that his sister-in-law Ruth had come out with him, because she wanted me to autograph my first book that I wrote. "She bought it at Wolfmuellers and cannot wait to get you to sign it.

So, on my way up to The Cabin, I stopped at Jim's truck, next to the barn and greeted Ruth and then I invited her to join me and Maribeth for a visit and a cup of tea in The Cabin.

The minute I introduced Maribeth to Ruth our fun hen party started and it was filled with hilarious confessions and some funny true-life stories, as Belle slept in her chair and Roy snoozed below her on his quilt.

Later this afternoon, Maribeth, Tony and I met Ellen for a late lunch in Kerrville and it was a lot of fun. Before heading home we swung by Home Depot, so I could pick up another one of those heaters like Olive Oil and then Buttermilk took us back to the ranch.

Around 4:00, as we were outside saying goodbye to Maribeth—the propane man arrived in his gigantic truck, to fill us up, which filled me with relief, knowing that we would have central heat tonight and not have to use the twins—Olive and Safflower Oil. 

Once again, I want to wish my dear friend 'Erb Cares a happy birthday and I hope that it has been the best ever for him and that is about it for today.

Y'all have a great evening!

Happy Birthday 'Erb Cares!

Today is one of my favorite people's birthday. I've known 'Erb Cares and his sweet wife Karen for many years and the only problem that I have with them is—we don't get to see them as often as we would like to.

Because 'Erb has kept me laughing with his hilarious e-mais ever since I met him, I want to sing him the Happy Birthday Song, so here goes.

"Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday Dear 'Erb. Happy Birthday to You. And Many More..."

"Erb, Tony and I hope that you have the best Birthday Day ever and we wish that we could be there with Karen and you to celebrate it. We love you and Karen. Kinky sends you his best. Happy Birthday! And please come see us sooner than later.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Happy Birthday Ben Welch!

Today is Ben Welch's Birthday and Tony and I want to be some of the first people to wish him the happiest birthday day ever.

We have known Ben for nearly a decade and Kinky, Tony and I consider him to be family. Over the many years laughter has played a major part of our friendship with Ben, even though during difficult or sad times we have often leaned on each other for support and advice. And that is why we love Ben so much.

Ben, it has been an honor to know you and count you as a true friend, so therefore we wish to sing you the Birthday Song, even though I have not taken my singing lessons with Carol yet.

"Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday Dear Ben. Happy Birthday to YOU! And many more...."

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Pistol Packin' Mama!

Today Mama and I have been feeling much better. It's a good thing that I wrote early yesterday, because last night we had STORMS. It started raining heavy around eight-thirty last night, so I unplugged everything that needed to be protected, then I went to bed and it seems that every time that I was falling into a deep sleep the sky would light up followed by a big bang, causing Mama to jump off of the bed— barking loudly. So, this morning when I got up—I was pretty tired, because I never slept for more than 45 minutes at a time.

Early this afternoon, before Trigger took us to Kerrville, we stopped by to welcome Carol back home, because for the past two weeks she has been out in Arizona practicing her "cutting" on Pistol, her new cutting horse.

After howdies and hugs Carol took us up to the barn to meet Pistol. "He is a wonderful horse and Maya is in love with him already..." And when I laid my eyes on Pistol for the first time—I was in love too. As we petted Pistol and Maya, Carol told us, "When I called Lorri and Jeff to tell them about getting Pistol, Jeff tells Lorri to tell me that, "I am a Pistol packing mama." And I am..." Then we talked about the cool pictures that Lorri and Jeff had sent to me.

This afternoon before heading back to the ranch we stopped at Wild Birds Unlimited for two reasons; to see our friend Marguerite, who adopted Enzo 2 from us and to pick up some specialty Woodpecker bird seed that Jon and Sandy had raved so much about last week and had told us to get, as soon as possible.

We had a fun time catching up with Marguerite and hearing about Enzo's hilarious, latest escapades and Tony was beside himself inside the cool store, because he wanted to buy one of everything that he saw. "Tone, when we win the lottery, I want this wind chime for over $200.00 and you can buy everthing else," I teased.

On our way home Tony stopped at the last Mini-Mart on 16, before leaving Kerrville—to buy a lottery ticket for us. Wish us luck.

Y'all have a great evening! And don't forget that tomorrow is Ben Welch's birthday!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

One Trick Pony!

We are scheduled to have some heavy thunderstorms later today and tonight, so I am going to try to beat the storms, because I will definitely be unplugging soon.

Yesterday morning, I woke up feeling pretty miserable and so did Mama, so when Tony got home from the Old Timer I suggested that we take Mama to Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, as soon as we finished breakfast, because she had no appetite and was lathargic—just like me, except my stomach ached fiercely and I felt like I was going to throw up at any time.

After we dropped Mama off at the clinic, we came home, so I could go back to bed and Tony could do our chores outside.

Around noon, we took my temperature and it was 101 degrees, which depressed me even more, because I was already depressed about not feeling good, because I'm never sick and I really hate being sick.

At 4:00, Tony and Buttermilk took off for Kerrville to pick up Mama and sixty-nine minutes later, they walked inside The Cabin. "Janssen told me that Mama was running 101 degrees, a low grade fever and he took some ex-rays and also did some blood work on her and he wants us to give Mama one of these pills every day."

"What are they?" I asked.

"Rimadyl, for pain. He said he would get back to us with the results..." Then Mama and I went into the bedroom and went to bed. She slept, but I didn't.

Last night I went to bed at 7:00 and I didn't wake up until this morning, when Tony woke me up so I could do Big G's radio show at 7:20. After an enjoyable show with Gordon Ames, I checked my e-mail to discover that I had a received an interesting e-mai from Jay Pennington, Gordon's friend, who was now ours too.

When he and his sweet wife Sarah had come out to visit with us on Saturday to talk about his web sites that he has, to help adopt dogs from shelters, which I am very excited about, so as a gesture to thank him for wanting to help our rescue ranch, I gave him and Sarah signed copies of my two books.

Anyway, this morning Jay had sent me a picture of him sitting on a pony, that was taken in his front yard, in San Antonio and I about fainted, because Jay was sitting on the same pony that I had sat on, years earlier, in my parents front yard in Fort Worth. Even the tack was identical and Chiggar's ears were pinned back in both of our pictures. And here are the pictures of this one trick pony.



As I finish writing this at 1:30 to post tonight at 8:00, before going back to bed with Mama, I wonder just how many kids, like me and Jay, that little pony made happy.

Y'all have a great evening! And Happy Belated Birthday to Dylan Ferrero!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

In Good Company!

This morning I woke up with a tummy ache and feeling sick to my stomach, so after helping Tony clean the dog pens I have spent most of my day feeling a little puny and laying in bed with Mama and Roy to comfort me, but fortunately, tonight as I write this I am feeling much better. So, now I am going to attempt to do a little catching up.

Friday morning was beautiful the temperature was in the mid sixties outside, a perfect day for our super volunteers to walk all of our dogs for us. As Tony and I were finishing up our outside chores June, Ellen, Eileen, Lisa, Dottie and Jim showed up and they began walking our dogs and our dogs were thrilled about it and so were we.

When our chores were done, T. jumped into Buttermilk and took off for Kerrville, so he could take photos of our nephew Zachary showing his pig, at the Kerr County Stock Show and I took off to go visit with the volunteers and I really enjoyed it.

After the dogs had all been walked, "The Girls" invited me to join them for lunch, but I couldn't because I was on a mission. One hour later I was at a J.C. Penneys cash register buying socks for Tone and me, because ours were threadbare. After accomplishing my mission I swung by H-E-B to pick up some groceries and then Trigger took me home.

Early Saturday morning, Rick called and left a message on Carlton, "Hey, Tony and Nancy. John is driving us to the airport for our trip to Nicaragua! Don't worry we will be fine. Bye."

When I had finished my first cup of coffee, I picked up the phone and punched in Rick's number, in hopes that I could catch them before they took off and I am glad that I did, because I had a really fun visit with the three of them. And before hanging up I invited John to please come up soon to visit us and he said he would, so I have my fingers crossed that he will, because Sandy & Jon, Carol, Tony and I have really missed him.

Saturday, I got the coolest care package, in the mail, from our dear friends Lorri & Jeff Severson, Redskins Super Bowl VII, who I recently had fun pickin' with over at Carol's ranch. They had sent me some pictures of Jeff—in good company, hanging out with some of his old friends and Jeff signed each picture to me, which I absolutely loved. Thank you, Lorri and Jeff!

In the next few days I plan to frame Jeff's photos and hang them in our big room. Here are the pictures they sent.




Hopefully, tomorrow I will be feeling much better. Tonight I plan to do some more writing and that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

I'm On A Roll!

Today has been a fantastic day. Last night I did not write for my blog, because I was working on one of my books until after midnight and tonight, because I am still on a roll with it, I must write more tonight too. Tomorrow, I promise to catch y'all up.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

UFO Beer!

Yesterday was great and so was today. Yesterday morning before Tony and I went outside to do our chores, I started cooking a bag of black beans, so I could try to make black bean soup, like Kevin's at the Water Street Cafe.

When our chores were done outside, I checked out a couple of black bean soup recipes on the Internet and then I started adding peeled carrots, onion, garlic, chicken broth, salt, pepper, green chiles and roasted tomatoes and an hour later—we ate Cousin Nancy's Delicious Black Bean Soup. And Tony ate seconds. Then two hours later, while doing some paperwork—I got gas big-time.

Normally, I do not have a gas problem and am proud of it, but yesterday afternoon I had gas so bad I went outside and took Roy for a long walk, to blow it off, because Tony would not quit teasing me about it.

Even though I scared Roy a few times with a couple of loud emissions during our hike, we happily returned home after a one hour long hike, because I had finally run out of gas, which was good news, because our dear friends Sandy and Jon were coming out around five o'clock for a visit.

Five minutes before five, Sandy and Jon arrived with some sausages that they had picked up at Daddy Jim's Quality Meats and a six pack of UFO beer—which was out of this world.



So, while Tony cooked up their sausages, in the Okay Corral, I gave them a tour of my pink writing cabin and then T. showed off Chuck to them and they loved it.

When the sausages were cooked we came inside The Cabin to eat them, because it was getting close to dark-thirty outside. While Tone cut up the sausages, I gave them a tour of The Cabin and they loved it and they could not believe how cool our fake wood burning fire was inside our television set.

After the delicious sausages had disappeared and I had cleaned up the kitchen, Tony and I had a blast visiting with the Wolfmueller's, in fact, it was non-stop laughter until they went home. And I am proud to report that I never once farted.

Today has been great. This afternoon Tony and I met Kinky in town for lunch and it was fun. Before leaving the restaurant Kinky told us that MSNBC was sending out a camera crew, from Austin, around six o'clock, so they could interview him about his views of Rick Perry dropping out of the race today, to air on their 7:00 show tonight.

When Trigger, T. and I got home this afternoon I checked our mail to find the latest copy of the Bandera County Courier newspaper and I about fell over when I saw my picture in it, taken last Friday by our friend Clair, when I was pickin' and grinnin' at the Medina Jam Session.


And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Press & Go!

Today has been a great day and the reason that I did not post on my blog last night was because Tony and I watched the movie, The Help, and we loved it. In fact, it blew us away and we could not quit talking about it after it ended.

This morning when Tone and I went outside to do our chores, the dogs started barking while T. was feeding the deer and our precious three pigs. "Nance, someone must be up at the gate. You'd better go up there and check." So, Kermit and I took off.

As we approached the gate, I saw a friendly face waving at me, near La Toya Jackson's pen, so we slowed down. "Hi, I'm Nancy. Can I help you?"

"I'm Donna. My husband and I wanted to check out your dogs, because we want to adopt a companion dog for Hope, our dog that we rescued during Hurricane Ike. Ellen & Charlie Cooper are our neighbors and Ellen spoke so highly of y'all—she thinks that y'all are angels."

I couldn't help but chuckle. "We love Ellen and Charlie. Hop in Kermit and we will go up to the gate to open it, so your husband can drive on in."

After Jim and Donna had introduced themselves to Tony, he took off in Kermit to start feeding our dogs and the three of us took off, so I could show them our fabulous dogs and after they had met all of our super dogs they decided to adopt Pilgrim, but first they wanted to see how Hope and he got along, so T. leashed up Pilgrim and we met Donna, Hope and Jim outside the rescue ranch, so Hope and Pilgrim could meet and we could take them for a short walk together.

Twenty minutes later, after Pilgrim's adoption papers were signed, I took this picture of Pilgrim with his new forever family—thanks to Ellen.


When our outdoor chores ended, mine began inside. At 11:29, while I was doing some paperwork, before taking off for Kerrville, to run several errands—our good friend Rick "The Friendly Lighthouse Keeper" called and left a message on Carlton, which made me laugh out loud, as I continued doing my paperwork, because we couldn't take off until I had finished it.

"Hi, Guys. Leisa and I are shopping. In case Nancy doesn't have anything to worry about for the next few weeks, we wanted to let y'all know that we are going backpacking through the jungles of Nicaragua for seventeen days, with pythons, leopards, etc." Then Rick started laughing. "Bye."

Even though Rick's news about their exciting, upcoming jungle expedition didn't really surprise me, because those two are always doing something wild and crazy, I know that I will worry about them until they get back to Port Aransas—where they belong.

On our way to Kerrtown, we decided to eat lunch at Kevin and Julie's restaurant, The Water Street Cafe, before running our many errands.

When we arrived at The Water Street Cafe, Julie greeted us with a friendly smile and then she told us about Gigi, formerly Ginger Rogers, the darling, little Chihuahua that she and Kevin adopted from us back in October. Then we placed our orders.

"I think I'll have the combination again," I said. "Black Bean soup and Chef Salad." Then Tony ordered their Roast Beef Panini with potato salad on the side and we had no regrets, because our lunch was delicious.

Right before we left the Water Street Cafe, Kevin walked in and he greeted us. "How was your lunch?"

"Kevin, it was delicious and your Black Bean soup is the best that I have ever eaten. You make the best soups in town. My favorites are y'all's Lentil soup and now this..."

Before leaving Kerrville to head to Bandera to make a deposit we stopped at H-E-B to grab a few groceries and because Kevin's black bean soup was so delicious, I guessed at what the ingredients might be, so I picked up a bag of black beans, carrots, tomatoes, corn, cilantro and onion, so I could try to duplicate his tasty recipe for us or hopefully come close to it.

The last thing I put into our grocery cart, before checking out, was an inexpensive hair dryer, because Windy had more or less blown it last week. My new Conair Press & Go, with retractable cord has 1875 Watts, is compact, powerful and fast drying, so I named her—Mariah, before we had even reached the checkout counter.


Early this evening Kinky called to tell me to mark our calendar, because our friends Captain Frank and his sweet wife were coming out to see us on Friday and they were bringing us doghouses.

"That sounds great, Kink. I've just added it to my calendar. By the way, as you well know, this past week has been pretty rough on me—thanks to the full moon. A lot of crazy people have been calling me and coming out of the woodwork, but thankfully not all of them were nuts. Anyway, I've written a song about it. You know that famous Barbra Streisand song, "People. People who need people are the luckiest people in the world?"

"Yes."

"Well my new song is, "People. People who need people—need to get a life," Kinky burst out laughing which made me start laughing too, "or a job or a hobby or seek professional help, because it ain't me, babe. No. No. No..."

And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

T. Was Pretty Upset!

Today has been great even though Tony's dog Belle Starr-Simons came close to ruining it.

Early this afternoon, when Kinky returned to the ranch, while I was over at the Lodge visiting with Marcie and Will. After Kink and I had discussed a little business we had a fun time in the kitchen, catching up with everyone's latest news. And when I told them about jamming last night in Medina, they all thought it was pretty cool.

An hour later, when I returned to The Cabin, Roy and Belle happily greeted me, in the front yard, because they knew that Tone was inside and he was in a snit. "Nance, we just lost our connection to Directv a few minutes ago. I'm fixin' to call them." Then he called them about it and after doing everything the technician told him to do with no results, he set up an appointment for them to send out a repair man.

T. was pretty upset, because he was looking forward to watching some very important football games tonight, so frustrated as he was about missing the games, he went outside for about fifteen seconds and then he came back inside,  "Belle, chewed on the cable wire outside..." Then he went back outside and wiggled the barely chewed cable wire and our cable came back on!" Ten minutes later, after he had taped the damaged wire up with black tape and then covering the two wires with duct tape and taping them to the trailer, until we could fix it properly— he was thrilled. And then he called Directv back to cancel the scheduled repair appointment.

This evening, because I am tired, I plan to watch The Help and then go to bed real early, because I did not sleep very well last night and I had the strangest dreams that made no sense to me—thanks to the full moon.

Y'all have a great evening!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Go! Go! Go, Gerri Go!

Today has been a great day. This morning Jim, one of our great volunteers came out with Ruth, his visiting sister-in-law and while Jim took our dogs for walks Ruth and I had a fun time getting to know each other inside the warmth of The Cabin.

Late this afternoon Tony asked me to come outside to help him work on Chuck, his chuck wagon chuck box, in the Okay Corral and I had fun working with him, as Mama, Roy, Abbie, Belle and Toto watched us from the front porch.

When we ran out of boards we headed for The Cabin and that is when I popped the question on him, "Tony, I read in the Bandera County Courier that on the second Friday of each month in Medina—they have a live jam session at 6:00, at the community center and everyone is invited. Will you go with me tonight? I want to see what it is like."

"Sure, it sounds like fun, but I'm not playing the mandolin. Okay?"

"That's fine. You don't have to, but would you call Fourth and Lynda to see if they want to go, too? I need to go clean up."

At 5:55, Tony grabbed my guitar from the backseat of Buttermilk and we went inside the Medina Community Center and the place was packed with fifty to sixty friendly faces and musicians ready to jam and a nice woman came up to greet us.

As I signed us in, the woman told Tony, to put his guitar on the table behind us."

"It's not my guitar. My wife is the picker." When I started tuning up my guitar a friendly man walked up to us and inquired about it, so T. told him that Ronnie had custom made it for me and the signatures on it were Billy Joe Shavers, Kinky's and Willie Nelson. Then we visited with our friend Claire, from England, who rescues dogs and finds them good homes and who is also the official photographer for the Bandera County Courier newspaper. Before the woman told me where I should go sit with the musicians, she asked, "Do you want to sign up to sing?" Which made Tone and me chuckle.

"No, ma'am. Not until Carol and me take some singing lessons in February." Then I took off to go sit with the musicians and a few minutes later I was jamming with some very talented banjo players, dulcimer players, fiddlers, mandolin players, guitarist and a bass player. And on the second song, as I was trying to keep up with the boys, because they were all using capos and my pink one was across the room inside my guitar case, Claire walks right up in front of me and shoots me, a couple of times, with her camera, which made me laugh and then turn about ten shades of red.

For over two hours I picked and grinned with some great musicians, as we accompanied about twenty different people who had signed up to sing a song and I had a total blast and Tone enjoyed it too. And just to let you know—Fourth and Lynda were "no-shows."

Before I finish tonight's post and go to bed, I want to give Gerri, my dear friend a plug. She is a very talented writer and she has published her first short story, The Telephone Call by G. M. Dickerson, as a Kindle edition on Amazon and I have read it and it was a beautiful story. In fact, this is the review I wrote for it on Amazon.

"I really enjoyed reading G.M. Dickerson's beautiful, heartfelt short story. It was filled with emotion. Reading it made me laugh out loud, smile and get a little teary-eyed and I loved Dickerson's style of fine writing. I can't wait to read her next story." And I hope that y'all will check it out. Go! Go! Go, Gerri Go!

Y'all have a great evening!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Blowing In The Wind!

Today the weather has been so beautiful here and I have just come inside The Cabin, after solar-drying my long, gray hair out on the front porch, because several days ago, Windy, my fifteen-year-old blue hairdryer blew up in my hand, while I was trying to dry my hair and it scared me to death when the sparks started flying. Thinking fast, when Windy died in my hand, I pulled her plug—then I immediately plunged her into the toilet, because I was scared that she might catch The Cabin on fire.

That morning when Tony came home from Medina I told him all about my hair-raising experience with Windy and he laughed about me burying her at sea, so when I threatened him that I was not going to go outside to help him with the chores—he quit laughing immediately and then we put on our jackets and went outside to do the chores.

The reason that I am telling you Windy's long-winded, blowing in the wind story is because, today, while Trigger, Tone and I went to Dixon Automotive, in Hondo, to pick up Buttermilk we were talking about the cold front that was coming early tomorrow morning. "Well, as soon as we get home I am going to wash my hair, because it is going to be too cold to do it tomorrow. In fact, I am going to take a shower right before I go to bed tonight too, so I won't have to do any of that tomorrow."

And that is about it for tonight, because I need to do some more writing on my book.

Y'all have a great evening!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Buck!

Today has been a great day. Late this afternoon we invited Carol to come over, so we could watch Buck, on Netflix, the beautiful movie about Buck Brannaman, the awesome, world famous Horse Whisperer and we loved watching it so much—we talked about it for over thirty minutes after we had watched it, while we watched Apple TV's slide show of my photos on my computer, on the television.

When pictures of Dude would show up with Carol riding Dude, Karin riding Dude, me on Dude and the pictures of Carol on Maya with me on Dude, that Tony took of us, for the jacket cover of my next book, we started talking about Dude and what a wonderful, magnificent horse he had been. Then Tony says, "Carol, I've got hundreds of pictures of you and Dude."

"Omg! I would love to see them." Then Tony stood up and went down the hallway to his office to get his computer.

When he returned to the big room, Tony started showing us his slide shows and the movies that he had taken of Dude and they were so beautiful. "Tony, can you please put these on a CD for me?" Carol asked. "I loved Dude so much and you have better and more pictures of him than I do. Your photography is awesome..."

When we began viewing Tone's great pictures that he had taken of us on her horses, we picked out the perfect picture to use for my book jacket and because it made Carol so happy and thrilled about it, I said, "You know what, Carol? I have just decided that I am going to dedicate my book to Dude." And that  made her smile.

As I finish writing this tonight, T. is in his office burning a couple of CD's of all of his Dude pictures for Carol, Mama is stretched out and sleeping soundly on our bed, Toto is next to my feet, under the kitchen table, in his doggie bed multi-tasking—sleeping while passing obnoxious gas, while Roy Rogers sleeps on his quilt next to my chair and Belle Starr-Simons and Abbie Van Buren are keeping Tony company in his office. Life is good at the rescue ranch.

Y'all have a great evening and thank you for praying for rain for us, because we got over one inch of it this morning!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Hide All Of The Food!

Today has been a great day and the weather could not have been better for us to be outside working on Tony's long awaited chuck wagon box, that Ben and Aaron helped him design and build. But first let me backup. I want to finally showoff our finished kitchen remodel, complete with three new light fixtures—that maxed out the rest of the available credit on my Home Depot credit card. And please note that the two large boxed-in wooden drawers sitting on top of the refrigerator were built by Aaron and me, which hide all of the food (Crackers, chips, tall oatmeal box, etc.) that we used to stack up on top of the fridge.


Moving forward, today Aaron, Tony and I painted Tony's new chuck box, that will store all of his Dutch ovens and cooking utensils, etc. in and the problematic picnic table which now, thanks to Ronnie, has a pink racing stripe painted down the middle of the table, to tie it in with The Bunkhouse, my pretty, pink writing cabin and here are some pictures of our latest efforts in making the Okay Corral—more than an okay place be.




This week after Home Depot receives another one of my monthly payments, we plan to cover the top of the chuck box table with stainless steel or some other kind of metal covering and then we are going to buy some Mason jars to store flour, sugar, coffee, etc. in and then we are going to dig some holes (washer pits), so we can start pitching Washers with our friends—while Tone enjoys cooking for us. 

And even though our Okay Corral project is not nearly finished yet, it's okay, because we're having so much fun outside creating it, we are looking forward to the day when we will be outside sitting around a real wood burning fire, inside the rock fire ring, (When the Burn Ban is lifted.) having fun with our friends.

Y'all have a great evening and please keep praying that we get some more rain, so our drought will end sooner than later!

Friday, January 6, 2012

You've Got A Friend!

Since my last post Tuesday night I've taken some much needed time off and I have been really busy. This evening as I write this, inside The Cabin, sitting at the kitchen table, that Ronnie custom built for me in 1995, within thirty minutes, right before I officially left Austin forever and moved to my beautiful Rolling Thunder Ranch (10 acres with a stock tank, just outside of Utopia). A fire is safely blazing and crackling inside my 32 inch television with my music playing and I am filled with so much joy, because my "Carol copy-cat kitchen remodel is finally finished—thanks to all of the help of Tony and Aaron.

Today has been a beautiful, warm, sun shiny day out here and thanks to our, "Texas' Greatest Volunteers;" June, Ellen, Eileen, Jim, Dottie, Roy & Della and Carol —they showed up and they walked all of our dogs for us and our dogs absolutely loved it. "Thank y'all, so very much! We truly love y'all, but not as much as all of our dogs do!" (Unfortunately, Lisa was a no-show today, because she had accidentally stubbed or broken her toe, which Ellen is going to offer to loan her her foot cast.)

There is so much more to tell about my really fun day today with the volunteers, Ben Welch and Aaron, ( Our dear friends.) but tonight I am going to spend the rest of the evening writing, inside our beautiful, warm and cozy cabin, because my 2012 New Year's resolution is for me to write two books this year.

Y'all have a great evening! (James Taylor and Carole King are singing, "You've Got A Friend" and it is so beautiful and blowing me away.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Dreams Really Do Come True!

Because the holiday season is always the busiest and most hectic time of the year for me, I decided yesterday to take a much needed week-long-vacation from the rescue ranch, starting immediately and since then I've been so busy remodeling my kitchen for the last two days, I'm feeling extremely happy about the way it all looks, but tonight I am feeling pretty worn out, because of all the hard work that I've put into it, with Tony's and Aaron's much needed help, even though I have still not totally finished the kitchen remodel or painted that dang picnic table in The Okay Corral, which I definitely plan to paint tomorrow.

As you know, all of my life I've dreamed of living in a cabin in the woods, being surrounded by animals and I am just about there. Here are the before and after pictures of my almost finished, "Copy-cat Carol's Kitchen" project.




Even though it is only 8:20, I am fixin' to go to bed in The Cabin, in the woods, surrounded by animals, so I can get an early start on things tomorrow. Dreams really do come true and I am so blessed. I can't wait for Kinky to see it, because I know that he is going to love it as much as I do. I wish that all of y'all should be so lucky as me to have a $7,00.00, 1983 Fleetwood trailer to fix up, because they make for a great cabin.

Y'all have a great evening!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

I Lied!

First off, I must confess that I lied last night, but not on purpose. After I had written last night's post, I cooked up some Orville Reddenbacher pop corn, to eat while T. and I watched Lonesome Dove, but that didn't happen because, I had forgotten that we had given our copy to Karin Pohlman, as in Care Inn Poleman, to take back to Germany with her, so she and Jurgen (Air Gun) could watch it, because they've never seen it and I had forgotten to buy us another copy.

So, Tony and I split up the pop corn and then he went back into his office with Abbie and Belle to watch some action movie, while I stayed in the big room with Mama, Roy and Toto so we could watch a few Frazier reruns. Then I played my guitar for a little while and then we went to bed around 9:00.

Today has been a great New Year's day, even though I did not get around to painting our picnic table, as I had promised I would, because it was a little too chilly outside for me and because we also went over to the Annex for Kinky's sister Marcie & Mario's New Years brunch at 11:30 in the Annex and we had a blast with all of our friends.

As Kinky, Donna "The Retired Drummer" Schloss, Izzie & Austin, Copper Love, Dylan Ferrero, Marcie, Tony, Mario, The Friedmans and I ate Mario's delicious International cuisine, that he had carefully prepared—there was non-stop laughter with interesting conversations about Copper's painting trips out to Terlingua, the Taz Manian Devils pictures that Mario showed us when he went to New Zealand and Australia and the champagne wasn't bad either, even though I added orange juice to mine to make it a healthy Mimosa.

When the really fun brunch party ended Tony and I jumped into Trigger and took off for H-E-B in Kerrville, to get some supplies and while Tony was outside filling up Trigger's tank with gas, I was inside speed shopping, so we could get back to the ranch and I had a nice surprise while I was putting a package of Claritin into my cart, because of Cedar Fever. "Hi, Nancy. Happy New Year!"

"Well hi, Kevin, happy New Year to you, too! How is the Chihuahua doing?..." (Kevin owns the popular Water Street Cafe and he and his family are the ones who adopted a too cute Chihuahua from us, for their daughter, a few months ago." After a short, but fun visit with him we headed off in different directions. Then Trigger took us home.

Y'all have a great evening and Happy New Year to everyone!