Deja-Vu! or Do Overs! or What Goes Around Comes Around!

Yesterday and today have been great even though I am blaming what happened to Tony and me on M.I.R. (Mercury In Retrograde).

Yesterday afternoon, Tony and I had to go to Kerrville to fill up Trigger, mail a few letters and to buy a few groceries. On our way, near the Quiet Valley Ranch, I reached over to get something out of my purse, but my purse wasn't there. So I checked the floor, before I confessed to Tony, "Tony, I forgot my purse. I can't believe I did that." And after he had quit laughing at me he turned Trigger around and we came back home so I could get my purse. Then we did a do over and went to Kerrville. And last night he teased me about it non-stop.

So what goes around comes around. Last night, before going to bed I had asked Tony to please mail a letter for me when he went, to the Old Timer, to drink some coffee with his friends. And he promised me that he would mail it for me. And he did.

So this morning when he came back home, I asked him if he remembered to mail my letter and, he said, "Yes, but I had two make two trips, because I was nearly to the children's home, when I realized that I had forgotten to mail your letter. So I had to turn around and drive all of the way back to Medina to mail it." Then we both started laughing at ourselves for being so forgetful. (But I am still blaming it on M.I.R. rather than our ages.

Today has been a quiet day, at the rescue ranch, so I spent most of my morning catching up on some paperwork, returning phone calls and e-mails, etc. Then I helped Little Debbie post a cute picture, on her new Blog, The Dog Days of Little Debbie. She was all excited, because it was her very first selfie that she (Tony) has ever taken. In fact, it is so cute I am going to post it here, too.

It is nearly 5:35 here and I am fixin' to go over to Kinky's to go on a short hike with him and The Friedmans. So that's about it for tonight.

P.S. Little Debbie wants me to thank all of y'all for checking out her Blog.

Y'all have a great evening!

An Official Organic Mushroom Farmer!

Today has been great and so was yesterday, even though yesterday M.I.R. (Mercury In Retrograde) erased all but one picture that Tony and I took of our good friends, and Little Debbie eating lunch with us, at the Koyote Grill. And I think that it happened to both of our cameras is a pretty weird coincidence. But considering all of the big astrological things happening right now: the Full Moon (I hate calling it the Blood Moon) and the eclipse tomorrow night and M.I.R. wreaking havoc with our electronic devices—it actually all makes sense.

Anyway, yesterday morning all of our great volunteers came out to walk our dogs and I had so much fun with all of them. Eileen surprised me and gave me the coolest 2016 calendar, too. She said, "Nancy, it had your name written all over it!" I love the calendar and the pictures are totally hilarious.

As you already know Little Debbie has her own Blog and I am having a blast with it. And the reason why we took L.D. to eat lunch with us yesterday, was so she could meet our dear friend Sarah Robinson, because Sarah could not wait to meet her.

Little Debbie did pretty good at the Koyote Grill, but she really needs to work on her table manners, because she has none. While everyone was eating Little Debbie was eyeing them, in hopes to get some scraps. And she did thanks to Ellen, June and Kris.

And because Little Debbie kept wanting to jump up, on the table, I couldn't start eating until Kris had finished her meal and had volunteered to hold her, for me, while I ate. "Thank you, Kris!"

After Sarah and Little Debbie met they bonded instantly when their three eyes met. 

Today has been great so far. My Organic Mushroom Farm arrived, in the mail! I ordered it last week and as we speak I am now an official, organic mushroom farmer and all I basically have to do is just mist the box twice a day! 

Then in 10 days I will get Tony to help me harvest our first crop of delicious, organic, oyster mushrooms! My friend Cindy, in New Mexico, bought one and the box grew two crops. She loved it so much she sent all of the information about it.

And that's about it for today, because I have some more farming to do, because Tony and are fixing' to go back outside to finish making and planting our 1st Keyhole Fall Garden.

Y'all have a great evening! And good luck tomorrow dealing with all the major cosmic happenings!

Pet Search and Rescue!

Today has been great. This afternoon Tony and I met our good friend Jay Pennington, at Billy Gene's restaurant, so we could have a business meeting.

Jay is the President of Pet Search and Rescue and I am a Board Member. We were meeting today, because he wanted to discuss him doing a Scavenger Hunt, for us, in Kerrville, because he recently did one for Pet Search and Rescue, in Boerne and it was very successful.

Our lunch was delicious and this time Tony and I didn't order the exact same thing like we always do, so I am blaming that phenomenon on M.I.R. (Mercury In Retrograde), because Jay and Tony ordered the exact same thing. So go figure.

By the end of our fun and very interesting business meeting Tony and I were all excited about working with Jay to do a scavenger hunt to benefit our rescue ranch. We've agreed that it will happen  sometime after the first of the year, but we've not set a date for it yet. So I'll keep you posted as things progress.

After we left our table, we went into the waiting room, so Jay could show us, on his phone, the awesome video that Gerry Olert, our mutual good friend, made for the Pet Search and Rescue Scavenger Hunt. And we loved it so much I asked Jay to please send me the link to it, so I could post it on my Blog tonight. It was well done and a lot of fun to watch, so please click here to view it, because I promise that it will definitely put a big smile on your face and it will encourage you to do our upcoming scavenger hunt.

Late this afternoon, I helped Little Debbie write a post for her new Blog: The Dog Days of Little Debbie and Tony and I are still laughing about it. I hope that you will check out her daily Blog, because it's only a couple of sentences with a picture and that's how she and I plan to do it. And that's about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

The Dog Days Of Little Debbie!

Great News! Little Debbie has just launched her Blog. The name of her blog is:

The Dog Days Of Little Debbie and her first post is pretty funny even though she tried to copy my blog!

Little Debbie Rocks!

The Bell!

Today has been great and I hope that last night y'all were able to watch Chet O'Keefe's awesome video on Facebook, because I did not know how to paste it or share it on my blog, because I am old.

This morning Chet packed up his van and then came inside The Cabin to drink a cup of coffee with us, before heading back to Terlingua with his compadres Willie and Whiskey, the sweet dog that he is temporarily fostering for us.

This afternoon after lunch, Tony and I took off for Kerrville, because we had three specific errands to run. Our first stop was at the Wild Birds Unlimited store, owned by our friends Kevin and Linda Pillow.

When we walked inside the store Marguerite and Linda immediately greeted us and then the fun party began. Marguerite told us some hilarious stories about Enzo, Odie and Mini, the three super dogs that she has adopted from us over the past few years.

Her stories were mainly about the antics of Mini, the darling Chihuahua that she adopted from us last year and Scout, the pup that we had thought was a German Shepherd mix. And it appears now that Mini is running the household and is in charge of all of the dogs and that the sweet shy, puppy, Scout, is not a German Shepherd at all. "She's a Border Collie mix!" Marguerite said.

Marguerite had us laughing so hard I would have been rolling on the floor if I had not been in a public place. After the first part of our fun visit we bought a beautiful bell and a large sack of super birdseed. "Nancy," Tony joked. "She always gets to spend more on her stuff than I do. Life is not fair."

"Tony, the bell is just one of your upcoming birthday presents to me," I teased. "Linda and Marguerite have y'all heard of Keyhole Gardens?" I asked. "Yes," they both replied. Then we got to talking about how great keyhole gardening is for arid climates, because last Sunday morning, we had all watched the interesting segment about it, on the Texas Country Reporter television show.

We talked about keyhole gardening for about five minutes. And after I had told them that we were going to make a keyhole garden and that our next stop was at, the Plant Haus, to buy vegetable plants to grow in it, Marguerite asked, "Do y'all need cardboard for it, because we can give you plenty..."

While Marguerite helped Tony fill up Trigger's backseat with a ton of folded up boxes of cardboard I was feeling guilty about getting the beautiful bell and all Tony got was another sack of birdseed.  So, I asked Linda about this certain wildflower seed display. "Nancy, these seeds come from Junction and they are the very best for growing wildflowers..."

So when Tony and Marguerite walked back inside the store, with the greatest good vibes, I asked Tony to please come check out these super seeds. And he did. And I bought them for him. I'm glad that I did it, because it made Tony happy and Marguerite gave us a hefty discount on them. "Thank you, Marguerite. Now Tony and I are even Steven."

After we adios-ed our good friends, we went directly to The Plant Haus, our favorite nursery that also has great vibes and Tony helped me pick out our vegetable plants.

Our last stop was at the big H-E-B store. While Tony filled up Trigger and bought bags of dog food for our rescued dogs, I raced around the store filling up my cart with groceries. Then Trigger brought us back to the ranch.

When we got home Tony hung up my handmade bell, on the front porch.

I love my new birthday bell! The information about this special bell says, "These completely handmade bells are very distinctive from other bells due to the family secret formula of melting various metals and adding the hand hewed wood clapper to make a melodic and echoing tone. For generations the formula has been passed on from one family member to another. The individual tuning of each bell creates the unusual resonate sound. Ring them and you will hear the melodious echo to soothe and calm you." 

And the Wild Bird Unlimited has plenty of them, in all kinds of different sizes.

This evening I plan to get started on our Fall garden, because today is the first day of Fall and we need to plant those vegetable plants that we have just purchased. So that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Heads UP!

Chet is here and Tony and I listened to his latest awesome song. He posted it on Facebook 46 minutes ago! Scroll down to the Newport Music Festival stage to listen to it. You're going to love it!

Chet O'Keefe

I'll write more tonight.

Scrubbing Bubbles! or The Girls From Bavaria!

Today has been great and so was yesterday. Early this afternoon we had Claudia and Kathrin, two lovely women, from Bavaria, Germany, come out to the rescue ranch.

I was inside The Cabin when they arrived. In fact, I was in the bathroom, down the hall, cleaning the toilet, when Tony comes inside and says, "Nance, where are you?"

"In the bathroom. Cleaning the toilet," I half-hollered. "Why?"

"Two very nice women, from Germany, are here and they specifically came out so they could meet you and see the rescue ranch. And they want to get their pictures taken with you. You'll like them."

"Great, I'll be right there."

"Y'all, come on inside," Tony said, as I flushed the toilet and Little Debbie and Big Al(ice) barked non-stop. "Nancy wants to meet y'all, too." Then I walked into the big room, which was a little bit messy, because I had not yet put away my art supplies, that I normally store in my office.

I had not put my art supplies up, because last night, after I got tired of working on "Little Debbie Dancing In The Dirt With Friends" my multi-media, work-in-progress, of her wearing a cowgirl shirt, a pink bandanna, a Poodle skirt and pink boots, that look like my boots. I had taken the time to neatly stack all of my paints, brushes, colored pencils, etc., on the cedar bench, that Tony made for me, over nineteen years ago. When we were still living-in-sin, in Utopia, because I was planning to work on it some more today. But that didn't happen today.

And the reason that I am working on this Little Debbie artwork project is because she is fixing' to have her own Blog. But I will tell you more about that later.

Chet, Tony and I had a total blast meeting and visiting with Kathrin and Claudia. They are charming women and both of them are writers and journalists. And Claudia writes about the music industry and musicians for Mittelbayerische Hier lebe ich. 

During our fun visit with "The Girls From Bavaria" Chet gave them signed copies of his Cd's, I gave them signed copies of my  books and Tony showed them several of his awesome photos that he has taken. But Little Debbie and Roy were the stars of the show, because Claudia immediately fell in love with Little Debbie and she kept holding and petting her while Roy flirted non-stop with Kathrin.

Then when they took a few pictures of me signing the books and Little Debbie posing with me, they got to laughing, because Roy kept trying to get into the pictures. In other words, "Roy is definitely not camera shy." Here is a picture I took of our two newest German friends. Kathrin is the one, on the left, holding Little Debbie in her arms. 

Before The Girls From Bavaria left, we invited them to come back this evening, so we could take them over to meet Kinky, because they are Kinky fans, too and Claudia attended one of his German concerts.

And that's about it for today, because I'm either going to do some more writing, work some more on Little Debbie Dancing In The Dirt With Friends project or else work on Little Debbie's upcoming Blog, before Kinky returns to the ranch and Kathrin and Claudia arrive.

Y'all have a great evening!

The Other Side!

Today has been great, but first I need to confess something. Chet and I actually did break the law on our way out to Terlingua. And we didn't get caught thank goodness.

When we were going through the big windmills area, on I-10, Chet spotted something shiny, on the side of the highway and he commented about it. We were driving 80 mph and a few minutes later, he asked me if I minded going back so he could get it.

Within 30 seconds, we had exited the highway, because there was an overpass up ahead. Then Chet took a left hand turn, then another left hand turn and we got back on I-10—heading east. A few minutes later Chet spotted the shiny object and we drove past it.

We drove and drove hoping there would soon be an overpass for us to cross back over to the other side, but unfortunately all we saw was giant windmills, dirt and cactus. So Chet suggested that we find a flat area that he could drive across to the other side.

Knowing that it was against the law to do that, I said, "Okay." Which then made me an accessory to the crime that we were about to commit. And that made me a little nervous to say the least.

A few minutes later, while I was holding my breath and silently praying that the Law was not in our vicinity, Chet slowed down, pulled over to the left lane and then we crossed back over to the other side and started heading west, again. And that's when I started breathing regularly again.

Several miles later, we spotted the shiny object again and we pulled off of the road to get it.  It turned out to be a really cool-looking, hug, silver, 18-wheeler hubcap. And Chet was thrilled to get it and I was thrilled that we hadn't been caught breaking the law and have to go to prison for ten long years. So I told him, "Chet, if we had been caught breaking the law I think I would of told the Officer that we were just trying to clean up the litter, on the highway. You know, don't mess with Texas...."

Well, today is the second day of M.I.R. and it actually has been a great day for me. All of our great volunteers/good friends came out and walked our dogs for us, and I want to say, "Thank you, June, Ellen, Jim M., Eileen, Lisa, Kris & Jim, Suzanne and Chris. Y'all are the best!"

All of us went up to the Koyote Grill for lunch and as always it was a total blast for me. At my end of the long table we talked mainly about the Longmire Season 4 and how great it is and several Longmire fans, at the table agreed that is one of the best series out there and that it is snowballing and just keeps getting better and better with each episode.

After our super fun lunch with our good friends Tony and I took off for Kerrville to run several errands and we got back home around 4:30.

Before I finish writing this tonight I want to show y'all three pictures I took, this morning, of sweet Whiskey, that Chet and his dog Willie are temporarily fostering for us. Chet loves this sweet female dog and he is amazed about what a great dog she is. So here's Whiskey!

Whiskey is two-years-old. She is wonderful with little babies, kids and other dogs. She is house broken, she is not aggressive, not hyper, not a digger or an escape artist. She is trained and needs to have a companion dog. And her only problem is that she is not good with horses or cats. So in other words she is one super dog. So come on out and adopt her tomorrow! And that's about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Tug Of War! or I Love Whiskey!

Yesterday was too much fun. Ruth Buzzi and her husband Kent called us around noon and invited us to meet them for lunch, at the Apple Store, in Medina aka the Apple  Cider Mill and they also invited Chet, too, but he couldn't go, because he was busy.

When the four of us walked inside, the Apple Store, Tony and I introduced our good friends to Barbara and then to Dawn. And we had a super fun time eating lunch with them. And if Ruthie wasn't cracking us up with hilarious stories and jokes—Kent was.

All kinds of people were excited about Ruth Buzzi being there and several fans of all ages, asked her to please let them get their picture taken with her. And after Ruthie had posed with all of them, we asked Dawn to please take a picture of us with Kent and Ruthie, because Ruthie and Kent had already posed with her earlier.

Before we left Medina to come back to the ranch, I asked Ruthie and Kent if they would mind stopping, at The Old Timer, because I wanted to introduce them to our good friend Debbie, the store owner and her super friendly employees. Here's a picture I took of Ruthie posing with Debbie and her adorable Great Pyrenees pup.

Then Ruthie met everyone of the employees and she posed for pictures and then she visited with all them. And to say the least, "Everyone, inside the Old Timer, was totally thrilled about getting a chance to meet the sweet, famous stage, television and silver screen Ruth Buzzi."

Before all of us left the Old Timer, Tony and I invited our friends to come over to the rescue ranch so we could visit some more with them and Chet O'Keefe.

Chet greeted us at the front door and after howdies and hugs, Kent said, "Chet Ruthie and I love your music and we wish that you would play a song or two for us." And seconds later, Chet was sitting on a stool, playing my guitar and singing one of his great songs for all of us.

After Chet sang three songs there was a knock on the front door and there stood sweet Marcie, Kinky's younger sister, with our good friend Nelda. "Hi y'all!" I said. "Come on in. Y'all know everyone. Chet's playing music for us..." 

And a few minutes later, after Chet had sung another song, Kent said, "I wish I had a piano to play, so  we could play some music together."

"We do. My keyboard is being stored inside the Mother Ship. That's my RV that I am fixing' up. Let me go get it for you." Then I took off to go fetch it.

A few minutes later, Chet and Kent were jamming and they sounded fantastic. They took turns playing Chet's songs and favorite, old classic songs that Ruthie loves. It was totally awesome.

When Kent and Chet started singing some old Willie Nelson tunes and Blue Grass songs, I went back to my office and grabbed my old guitar that Ronnie made for me. Then I sat in with them and played along with them. 

When it was time for Ruthie & Kent and Marcie and Nelda to get back over to Kinky's, Chet and Tony left too, so they could try to fix Marcie's car.

And twenty minutes later, I phoned Kinky to ask him to please go tell Tony that he needed to get over here fast. Then I went back outside.

Two minutes later, they drove up in Kermit. "Thanks for getting over here fast. This woman has this dog and...."

After we told her that we would take her dog Whiskey and the nice woman had quit crying. We talked about what pen to put Whiskey in, because Whiskey, who looks exactly like our Belle, but she is a little darker tan, has issues about being left alone without another dog being with her. "You can put her in with Willie," Chet suggested. "Whiskey and Willie already seem to like each other."

Last night Chet, Tony and I went over to the Lodge, so we could have another fun visit with Ruthie & Kent, Marcie and Kinky.

This morning when Chet came inside The Cabin, he laughed and said, "Whiskey is a really great dog and she loves to play with Willie. They woke me up this morning, because they had found one of my socks and they were playing tug of war with it. Seriously, they had my sock stretched twice its size. It was a lot of fun to watch. I love Whiskey and so does Willie..."

Today has been great even though it is sadly, once again, M.I.R. Time (Mercury In Retrograde). I've had a very busy day and tomorrow I will post a picture of our, new, two-year-old, rescued Whiskey.

P.S. Mari, I love the funny comment that you made on my last post about Chet and I doing dumb things on our trip to Terlingua. In fact, I am still laughing about it. And tomorrow, I will also write about Chet and me breaking the law as we were driving out to Terlingua.

Y'all have a great evening!

Cabin #45! or Burrito! or Hi!

Today has been great and so was my trip. While I was in Terlingua I wrote, wrote, wrote and I am very thrilled about how much I accomplished. Seriously, I think my book is ten times funnier that it was before Chet and I took off for Terlingua.

For the past several months I have been wanting to take a few days off and go somewhere, so I could focus entirely on my book. So, early last week when Chet told us that he had four-back-to-back gigs to play, in Terlingua, Tony suggested that I ask Chet if I could carpool with him, so I could work on my novella.

After we got out there Chet and I basically went our own separate ways. While he was busy playing his gigs or out visiting with his friends, I stayed put, inside my cabin, either writing or dictating to my computer.

Saturday night was the only time that I wasn't writing, because I went with Chet, to the famous Starlight Theatre Bar and Grill, in the ghost town, because Jim Keaveny had asked Chet to play with him and his awesome band.

It was an awesome night of incredibly great music. In fact, it was an evening that I will never forget, because they had the place rocking' with Country, Americana, Blues, Blue Grass, etc. music.

A couple of funny things did happen on our Terlingua trip though. Late Sunday afternoon I took a short break from my writing and I went down to the Bad Rabbit Cafe to grab a fast bite to eat, because I could not wait to get back to my writing.

After I ate, I was walking back to my cabin and I was so focused on what I was going to write next, I did the dumbest thing. When I got to my cabin I walked up the steps and tried to put my key in to unlock the door, but the key wouldn't open the door. So I tried a couple of more times and then gave up.

When I started to walk back down the steps, to go to the Office, I saw there were three more cabins down the hill and it didn't make any sense to me, because my cabin #45 was at the end of the row of cabins, that all looked exactly alike.

Then it hit me like a brick! I realized that I was at the wrong cabin. Mine was three buildings down. I felt so stupid and vowed not to tell anyone, especially Tony or Chet, because I knew that they would tease me. I was thankful that no one had seen me do such a stupid thing, because they would have thought that I was trying to break into a cabin. And I was also glad that no one had been occupying the cabin that I was trying to get into.

On our way back yesterday we made a quick pit stop, in Sonora, to fill up the car and grab something  that we could eat on the road. When I was paying for my food I thought I heard Chet say, "I'm going to get a burrito," as he left the store.

So I asked the clerk, "Did that man just say, "I'm going to get a burrito?" Then the woman gave me the funniest look, like I was crazy or something. So I went back to our white car and got inside.

A few minutes later, Chet walked out of the store and he was busy reading his text messages.  He went to this white parked car, next to us that looked exactly like ours and he opened the door to get in. And you should have seen the startled look on his face, when he saw the man sitting behind the steering wheel. Then he looked through the car's windows and saw me laughing.

"When Chet got inside our car he was still laughing. "I can't believe that I just did that," he said, while I was still laughing. The man looked up at me and he was smiling at me and all he said was, "Hi." "I was thinking you don't look like Nancy. Where is she and where is my stuff?"

When I quit laughing, I said, "I'm so glad that you did it..." Then I confessed to him about going to the wrong cabin and because I am hard of hearing and asking the cashier if you had said, "I'm going to get a burrito. And her probably thinking that I was crazy."

We laughed at ourselves the rest of the way home. We got back around 6:00 and within ten minutes we had confessed to Tony about the dumb things we had done and he is still teasing us about it.

I am so glad to be back home with Tony, Roy, Belle, Beau, Little Debbie and Big Al(ice) and tonight, after we go over to visit with Kinky, Ruth Buzzi and her husband Kent, Sean Rima and Marcie, I plan to do some more writing. And that's about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

I Am Writing Up A Storm And I Miss Tony & Our Dogs!

My Only Problem!

The last few days have been quiet out here and I was able to get caught up with all of the rescue ranch's paperwork, etc. and I also got to do a lot of work on my third novella, too. So Tuesday morning, because of all of my work related accomplishments, I rented a car.

This morning, as soon as I called Harley to do his popular morning radio show I checked NetFlix to see when Longmire's 4th Season 1st episode would air today and boy was I in for a great surprise. They had all ten of the episodes for the 4th Season available to watch!

So as any loyal Longmire fan would do—I immediately sat down, with Little Debbie, on my lap and watched the first episode and it was incredibly great. In fact, it blew me away with all of the unexpected surprises.

So now my only problem is to decide if I want to binge-watch the entire 4th Season and then have to wait a year for Season 5 to air or spread it out and watch just one episode a week. It has bugged me all day long, after watching the first episode and I still haven't made a decision. And that is just another reason why my life ain't easy.

Early this evening, Tony drove me to Kerrville so I could pick up my rental car, because tomorrow morning I am going on a road trip, to a secret destination, that only Tony, Chet, Kris & Jim know about, so I can hopefully finish writing my third Cowgirl Sisterhood novella. And I seriously think that I can do it, because I plan to lock myself, inside my cabin, with just my computer, the Keurig coffee machine, iPod with its Bose iDock and my guitar and spend all of my waking hours writing without any interruptions.

I am really looking forward to my self-imposed writing-weekend and I plan on returning to Tony and the rescue ranch Monday afternoon. I wish that I could take Belle, Roy and Little Debbie with me to keep me company and make me smile, but seriously I don't need any distractions.

If the Internet is available I may take a break and try to blog some, but seriously my main purpose for taking a few days off is for me to finish writing my book. So please wish me luck with that.

Y'all have a great weekend!

I Am Running Late! Am Writing Now And Should Post Within The Hour!

Happy Labor Day!

The past few days have been great. Sunday afternoon, while the nice kids, over at the Arms of Hope, at the Medina Children's Home, were walking our dogs for us, the nicest family came out to check out our dogs.

They originally came out to check out Holly aka Hollywood, our sweet, five-year-old Pit, because they love that breed.

But they were also interested in Ginger, our great four-year-old Boxer and Lucille, our sweet two-year-old Boxer mix, because the family also loves Boxers.

The sweet family after meeting all of our dogs ended up loving Holly, Ginger and Lucille. They told us that they wanted to take a few days to figure out which one of these fabulous dogs they should adopt. And before they left to go back home, they told us that they would call us back, in a few days, to let us know who would be the lucky gal. 

Tony and I think that we already know who they are going to adopt, but we're keeping it a secret, just in case we're wrong. Anyway, we are still pretty excited about one of our super dogs going to a super home.

Today is Labor Day and I hope that everyone has enjoyed a great Labor Day Weekend, because Tony and I certainly have. It is approximately 3:10 here and I am fixin' to go take a short, sleepless nap with Roy, Belle, Beau, Big Al (Alice) and Little Debbie. Then I plan to re-watch a couple more of the Longmire episodes to refresh my memory, because Longmire's new Season 4, 1st episode airs this Thursday, September 10th! And Tony and I can't wait to watch it. Then my plans for the rest of my Labor Day holiday is to do some more writing/rewriting on my third novella.

Y'all have a great Labor Day/evening!

One Of Them! or The Turkey Man!

The last few days and today has been great sort of, so I will save the bad news for last. This past Tuesday, in the middle of the day, I decided to take a break from my paperwork and watch something on television.

I was channel-surfing, looking for something interesting to watch when I came across one of those home shopping channels and the info channel guide read something like this, "Emergency Home Preparedness Kits for natural disasters."

Then I remembered in the past years, I've heard about those crazy shopping channels where people get hooked on watching them and then they end up buying all kinds of things and maxing out their credit cards. And it made me laugh out loud, because I would never do such a thing.

But I was curious, so I pressed the remote button and started watching these young, pretty, high-pitch sales, women do their thing. And in seconds I was completely hooked. I was oblivious to the world!

As the women bragged on the products and reported how many were left to sell, I kept my eyes peeled on the totals sold counter, in the bottom, left side of the screen. "Listen up," one of the smiling, sales women said, "We've just sold over 107,000 of this product and we predict that in the next five minutes we will be completely sold out of...."

So I immediately grabbed my credit card and called the 1-800 number and ordered two, one for Tony and one for me, because the price was greatly reduced and the shipping was free and we needed them—NOW—in case of an emergency!

I felt good and was thrilled about my purchases until I quickly realized that I had just become "one of them" impulse-buyer people that are addicted to watching the shopping channels.

Today has been great almost. (Remember, that I am still saving the bad news for the last.) This morning Tony and I rescued a handsome, three-year-old Lab Mix, named Jake. He arrived around 10:00 and the sweet woman who brought him to us was crying hysterically and sick about having to leave Jake with us. There is a little more to this story, but this is all that I care to share with you.

Anyway, about an hour and a half after she had gone, I told Tony that I needed his help, because I wanted to take Jake, who was still pretty upset about being left here, for a walk down to the creek. Tony agreed to help me, so I opened up our new package of H-E-B Honey-Roasted Shaved Turkey slices, that we were going to eat for our lunch, and pulled out the turkey and put it inside a Baggie. "Tony, will you please use my camera and take some pictures of Jake and me walking, because right now he is too nervous for us to take a good picture of him for our website. I just want people to see what a beautiful dog he is. We can take better pictures of Jake, in a few days, after he trusts us and has settled in." Then we went outside to go get Jake.

When we drove up to Jake's temporary pen, in Kermit, Jake was scared and doing a little growling, but the hair on his back was not standing up, which was a good sign. I grabbed the leash and walked up to the pen and started talking to Jake, in hopes to calm him, as I fed him a slice of turkey.

Then I went inside his pen. "Come on ,Jake. Let's go for a fun walk, good buddy. It will be so much fun and..." Then I slipped a leash over Jake's head. "Good boy. Let's go for a walk down to the creek." Jake calmly walked out of his pen with me and then he and I took off.

Then Tony took off, in Kermit, to chase out Roy and Gabby, the donkeys, that had wandered into the rescue ranch.

Once outside of the rescue ranch, Jake began to relax, but I kept on talking to him and telling him what a great dog he was. On our way down to the creek Jake kept stopping to check out new smells and mark them.

When we got to Big Foot Wallace Creek, I walked him right up to the water, in hopes that he would walk into the water and not be scared of it like some dogs are.

Jake stared at the creek, took a couple of drinks and then he slowly walked into the water. The water which was only about five or six inches deep when Jake started walking around in the water, for about three or four minutes, then he decided to get out of the creek. 

I praised Jake for being so brave about water and then I went over and sat down on a big rock. Then I unzipped the Baggie and fed him a slice of turkey and I was thrilled that he gently took it from my fingers. Then I asked him to sit.

Jake obediently sat down for me and I praised him for that. Then I tossed him a slice of turkey and he caught it in the air and I praised him for that, too. Then I talked to him some more, as I fed him most of Tony's and my lunch. 

Then we headed back to the rescue ranch and along the way Jake seemed to be having fun sniffing around the trees, marking rocks, etc.

When we walked inside the rescue ranch, Jake did get startled, because he saw the donkeys grazing near by, that were inside the corral, near the front of the ranch. "It's okay, Jake. They aren't going to hurt you...."

When he and I arrived at his temporary pen, I handed Tony what was left of the turkey and asked him to please give it to Jake, so Jake would know that he could trust Tony and that he was a good guy or better said, "The Turkey Man"cometh!

After Tony hand fed Jake and then tossed the last piece of turkey, into the air, for Jake to catch, I returned Jake to his pen and petted him all over, while telling him what a great dog he was and not to be scared of anything. And I am pretty sure that Jake understood, because he was wagging his tail.

Okay, now it is finally the time for the bad news. This morning my nose was stopped up, then later on, I started having a runny nose and by late this afternoon I was coughing lightly and sneezing some. Anyway, it looks like I might be coming down with a summer cold and I am not happy about that, because I don't like being sick. I am hoping that it is just an allergy and that it will go away sooner than later, but who "Nose" (knows).

Y'all have a great evening!