Doing Its Thing!

Well, I'm keeping my promise about showing you our new/improved coffee table. In the beginning, my homemade coffee table looked like this after we removed it, from Outer Space and took it over to The Cabin. And this picture was taken, on October 22nd, before I decorated the big room's almost bare walls.

Here are three pictures, at different angles, that I took this afternoon, of our new/improved coffee table. And please note that the big room's walls are decorated.

And before I go binge-watch all of Season 4 of The Ranch, on Netflix, with Little Debbie, Big Al(ice), Roy, Belle, Beau and Henry Standing Bear, I want to show you this picture that I took, this afternoon, of our wood burning stove doing its thing.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Cowboy Hats!

We've been working hard, over at the property. We've mostly been building fences for the past five days. And when I wasn't outside helping Tony and Aaron with all of the fencing, I was busy inside, our cozy cabin, listening to my music, continuing to decorate the bedroom. Or I was outside, on the front porch, painting/staining the old coffee table that used to be in Outer Space.

I built this coffee table over ten years ago, right after my brother Ronnie and Tom, Cindy's son, came down and built Outer Space for us. I love this coffee table so much and what inspired me to build it, in the first place, was Carol's beautiful coffee table.

I had a blast building this coffee table (that only took three hours to build) even though it never came close to being as awesome-looking as Carol's custom-made coffee table. Anyway, I don't have any pictures of our new/improved coffee table, but later today I will take a picture of it so I can show it off to you.

I am fixin' to go, over to the property, to do some more work, but before I go I want to show you the latest picture I took yesterday of the bedroom.

I did not turn on the lamps on, above the beds, because I forgot to and it is still not finished. It is a work in progress, because we still need to hang up pictures, etc. Anyway, here is the latest update, with a couple of our cowboy hats, framing the Yoda Lisa.

Y'all have a great day and keep on laughing!

Weather Reports!

Since the last couple of days have been pretty quiet, I am going to give a few weather reports. Because, believe it or not it is actually snowing here and it is starting to stick!

It started lightly snowing here, around 4:00 and that was when Ronnie (my super great brother) called me to tell me that it was snowing, at his & Nita's Ponderosa Ranch, in Dripping Springs.

After adios-ing Ronnie, the phone rang again and this time it was our good friend Chet O'Keefe. "....We've already gotten over 3 inches of snow (in Terlingua). There is a blizzard going on here. The winds are gusting up to 60mph and it is snowing so hard right now, you can't see the mountains.... "

Right after Chet and I adios-ed each other, Tony went outside to check on the dogs and to check on the water pipes, so I let our dogs go outside, grabbed my camera and I took a few pictures of to prove it was snowing.

But the snowflakes didn't show up very good, so I took this picture, of an old pair of my pink, beloved, retired boots, that Tony had found outside, in the front yard. Because a few days ago sneaky, Henry Standing Bear, had found them, inside the closet and he had snuck them outside, so he could entertain himself by chewing them up.

So this proves that it is really snowing here and that Henry has a thing about pink boots, too.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

With A Little Help From Our Friends!

Tony and I have been busy this past week and when we were not doing rescue ranch work we were doing cabin work and it has been fun, but somewhat tiring.

Anyway, this past week we worked, on The Cabin's bedroom and it is finally almost finished. So here are just a few before, during and after pictures.

Here are the before pictures, right after we purchased the cabin. Before June and Ellen had the time to get their furnishings.

Tony and I loved the bedroom just the way it was. But because I enjoy decorating so much this is what we ended up doing with a little help from our dear friends: Aaron, Tom & Marie. So here we go.

This picture shows half of the bedroom's walls done (log cabin style) using some of the old floor from my pink writing cabin. Tony and I stained every 1"x4" and my permanently-stained fingers and nails can prove it.

This picture shows that we've finished the walls and on the left we put up one of the blinds from the pink cabin.

Last night I stayed up late and made curtains for the bedroom. In this picture we have put up the blinds on all of the other windows and we hung two, small lamps above the beds.

I

As you can see Tony and I are thrilled with our "cabin" bedroom and to top it off, we put my mother's  homemade rubber tree that I truly cherish. Because back in 1959 or 1960 my mom and her best friend Lucia got creative and decided to make rubber trees.

I remember it well, because I remember watching Mom and Lucia pouring this gooey, green plastic stuff, into various, leaf-sized molds and then baking them in our kitchen. It made sense to me, because like Mom neither of us could ever grow anything. So making a plastic, "rubber tree" made total sense to me. And the best part of it was she never had to water it.

And since my dear mother's passing, almost 20 years ago, I've kept her/my rubber tree with me through the good times and the sad times and I've never once watered it, even though once a year I do dust it.

Please note that my Yoda Lisa hangs, on the back wall, between the two beds, so I hung my "Yo Mama" picture, on the wall between the bedroom and the back porch, but it is hard to see in this photo I took.

I cherish these two pictures, because back in 1993 or 1994 when Jim and I bought our first Apple computer, I figured out how to cut & paste using our Adobe PhotoShop software, before I even learned how to use ClarisWorks (Apples's version, back then, of MicroSoft).

Anyway, after I cut & pasted Yoda's picture on the Mona Lisa and on Whistler's Mother I had them printed. And I sent copies of them to David Letterman. And before I left Austin and had moved to Utopia, Texas—David Letterman actually held up my Yoda Lisa picture and he showed it to his television audience, saying something like, "A crazy lady in Texas sent this to me.... "

And that's about it for tonight, because I am fixin' to make a matching navy blue checkered curtain to hang, on the bedroom's back door window.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Happy Pranksgiving! or Moon Pies!

Today has been great and I am happy to report that last night Stephen K. Morris' awesome music was a big hit with the fun crowd, at the Medina Highpoint Resort.

On my last blog I promised to tell you about the prank I played on our dear friend, Jeff Severson. Many years ago, because of dear Carol, who is dear friends with Jeff and his sweet Lori, introduced us to Jeff and since that time Carol has always made sure to get us together with Jeff & Lori when they come to visit her & Bill.

For several years Jeff & Lori have come down to Carol's ranch to spend Thanksgiving with her & Bill. In fact, it has become a "family" tradition, so to speak. And when Lori & Jeff are down here Jeff and I always get to do a little picking & grinning and it is so much fun. And please note that Jeff is a much better musician than me hands down. 

In fact he is actually a professional actor/retired pro football player who earned 4 or 5 Super Bowl rings/singer/songwriter/ musician known worldwide as "Jeff Severson The Singing Cowboy." Here is a picture of Jeff.

Anyway, this Thanksgiving Lori & Jeff spent Thanksgiving with Carol & Bill, up in Weatherford instead of at Carol's. And Carol called me and she gave me a heads-up before Lori & Jeff arrived, at Bill's place. "Nancy, be on alert about Jeff pulling a prank on you. They should be here any minute and I promise you that within the first hour Jeff is going to ask me about you and then give you a prank phone call."

With that said, I prepared myself to be ready to receive one of "Bob's" (Jeff's prankster alias) crazy phone calls. And sure enough, a few hours later, Jeff called me and left this hilarious message, on Carlton. With his voice changed to sound more like a redneck, he said, "Hello. Hello. This is Bob and I need a turkey—now. Please get me a turkey...."

When Tony and I listened to his message we were nearly rolling on the floor. But because we had company, I didn't return his call, because I had decided to wait and return his phone call as soon as I came up with a good prank to play on him.

The following day Jeff called me again and left another message on Carlton. This time Jeff went on and on about needing a turkey which made Tony and me burst out laughing when we heard it. Tony urged me to call him back, but I didn't because I had not come up with a good-enough prank to play on him. So I let it slide until Thanksgiving morning. This is the e-mail that I sent to Carol around 11:00 Thursday morning:

"Hi Carol! I received Jeff's aka Bob's 2 hilarious phone calls about needing a turkey. I am finally ready to get him back. Here's the plan and you must be a good actor:

1. Tell Jeff and everyone (i want to also get Lori and Bill, too.) that you just got an e-mail from Tony telling you that I've been totally exhausted and depressed about.... and please tell Jeff that Tony has asked you to please ask Jeff to please quit calling me, because I am a basket case, etc. 

2. Then tell them that Tony told you that I've been so depressed that each time that Jeff (Bob) called that I burst out in tears when I heard his message, because i am so sad they didn't come down here.

3. Now let that sink in for a minute or two until Jeff, Bill and Lori feel bad about Jeff calling me and depressing me more.

4. Then call me so I will know that it is working and then act like I am crying on the phone, because I am so sad and make sure to do it in front of Jeff, Bill and Lori. Then tell Jeff that I want to talk to him so i can say, "I got you Jeff, Bill and Lori!"

I plan to be here for the next hour or so and then we are going over to the property to work, so, if y'all are not around we can do it later today…Nancy"

About an hour later Carol called me, and she whispered into the phone, "This is perfect. We just went for a short walk and while we were walking Jeff said that he wondered why you haven't called him back." Then Carol and I burst out laughing.

"Okay, Nancy. I am going to call you right back." Click. 

"Hello Nancy?" Are you okay? We miss you and.....(I talked back to Carol trying to sound like I was depressed, etc. in case Lori, Jeff and Bill could hear me.) "Nancy, I am going to put you on Speaker Phone now, because everyone wants to talk to you." 

"Happy Thanksgiving Nancy," the three said in unison and they sounded like they felt sorry for me and I was loving it. "We miss you and Tony," Jeff said, sounding very serious.

"Next year we are all coming to Carol's," Jeff proclaimed, in an effort to try to cheer me up and I had heard enough.

I started laughing and then in the background Tony started laughing and then Carol burst out laughing, on the other end, "Ha, ha, ha. I got you Jeff! I mean Bob and Lori and Bill!" Then there was a moment of silence, in Weatherford, Texas, until they had figured out my (and Carol's) prank. "I'm not depressed at all, y'all. You fell for it hook, line and sinker...." I said between fits of laughter. 

Later that evening Carol sent me this e-mail: 

"Jeff's brain is in overdrive trying to come up with a way to pull One on you 😊 
You got him good!
I miss y'all and I'll be home in a day or two. Happy Thanksgiving!"

Late this morning Tony, Little Girl and I went, over to the property, to meet up with our dear friend Ellen and her super-nice friend Curtis, because sweet Ellen was ready to adopt Little Girl from us. But before Ellen signed-off on Little Girl's adoption form, she gave Tony and me two-mini Moon Pies, and said, "Today is Moon Pie Day and we're celebrating its 100th Anniversary...."

Tony and I love Moon Pies and I was so excited about it I forgot to take a picture of Ellen and Little Girl's adoption. But at least here's a picture of our mini Moon Pies, before we ate them.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

So Tonight Be There Or Be Square!

Tonight Tony and I have plans to go to the Medina Highpoint Resort, because of there super-delicious All-You-Can-Eat Catfish buffet and also because our dear friend Stephen K. Morris will be playing his awesome music, outside on their beautiful patio. So tonight be there or be square.

P.S. Tomorrow I plan to blog about the best prank that I've ever played on our dear friend.

Y'all have a great evening and meet us up at the Medina Highpoint Resort for some great music!

Happy Thanksgiving To Y'all!

Number Two!

We've been busy. But before I start writing about it I want to wish my sweet sister, Cindy, a Happy 71st Birthday.

My sister is the best sister anyone could have. When I was around ten years old Cindy was my idol, because she was so smart, kind and very pretty and she still is for a 71 year old. But back then I was frustrated with her, because she was older and I wanted to be older than her. So I wasted a good amount of time trying to figure out how I could become older than her. Which at this early age just proves that I was already not the sharpest tool, in the tool shed. And I think my family already knew that, too.

Anyway, now I'm at the ripe old age of 66 and I am really glad that Cindy is older than me, because I can use her as a measuring stick to see what's going to be up ahead for me, before it is my turn to fall off the slow-moving conveyor belt of life or better said, "When God honks my horn."

So I wish Cindy the best birthday ever and I wish that I could be with her today to help her celebrate her birthday, because I love her so much. But I must confess that I forgot to send her a funny birthday card this past week, because we've been very busy working, on the property. But the good news is it won't matter a bit to Cindy that I forgot to send her a birthday card, because she is always happy and she is more forgetful than me. Something for me to look forward to in the future.

Two days ago our dear friend Jim Keaveny came to visit us and he spent the night in The Cabin, over at our property.

While Jim was visiting us he got off, of the Internet Thursday night and he told us that he just found out that his song Is It You has been climbing the Hit Tracks Top 100 chart, for several weeks, over in Europe. "It is now at the number two position on the chart," Jim told us.

Anyway, we had a wonderful visit with Jim and before he left us we gave him one of those super cool, motion detector toilet lights that we've already given away to many of our dear friends. He loved the toilet night light and he also loves our new place—especially the 1977 Airstream and The Cabin.

Yesterday morning around 7:15 Tony took Jack Black (Jack is one of those three dogs that was returned to us, on Halloween.) to Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, to get him vaccinated for Rabies, because Jack was due and because he was getting adopted later on that morning.

So before Jim adios-ed us and took off, for Austin, with his motion detection toilet bowl lights, he ate breakfast with us. And while he was inside taking a shower over here, we went outside to greet Christine & Cliff and their cute son Max, the nice family that was adopting Jack Black from us. And here is a picture that I took of Jack Black's awesome adoption.

After we adios-ed the family that adopted Jack, our great dog-walking friends/volunteers and Jim, Tony and I ate lunch here and then we went to the Home Depot, in Kerrville, to buy some more 2'x4's, paint, stain, etc. so we could finish building "The Closet," in the bedroom, of The Cabin. 

When we left Home Depot "where everyone knows our name," because we are in there so much we drove straight, to the property and we started working on "The Closet" project. 

While Tony was working outside, on the back porch, busily staining the wood and his fingers and before we officially started building "The Closet" I was inside slinging paint on the bedroom wall that will be behind "The Closet." And that is when a UPS truck showed up outside and made a special delivery to us.

Tony went out to the front porch, to go meet our friendly UPS driver that knows us well, because I had more blue paint on me than was on the wall that I was painting. And when Tony came back inside The Cabin talk about surprised. "What is it, Tony?" I asked. "And why did the UPS man delivery it here, because hardly no one knows this address?"

"It's from Karen & Terry, from Port Arthur. They sent us another one of those delicious, spiral-cut hams for our Thanksgiving dinner. Last week I ran into the UPS driver and I took him over here, to show him where we will be moving to. He told me that he went to the rescue ranch first to deliver our package and when he saw our vehicles here that is why he stopped and delivered it here."

"That is so sweet of Karen & Terry to do this again and when we get back home I'll make a note to send them a thank you e-mail." Then Tony and I went back to work for another hour. And here is what we have accomplished so far.

Last night, after we got back home, I spent the evening binge-watching the first three episodes of Longmire's Season 6, before going to bed early. And just so you'll know Longmire's Season 6 is totally awesome. 

Early this morning while Tony was outside doing his daily chores I was inside drinking some coffee and I Googled Hit Tracks Top 100 (PicaNetherlands.com) and I was thrilled to see that Jim Keaveny's awesome song Is It You is now rated at the number one position, on this European chart. And when Tony came, back inside, I showed the chart to him and he was just as thrilled about it as I was. And that is about it for now.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Stark Naked! or True Words Of Wisdom!

Yesterday and today have been great. Saturday, Tony and I spent several hours working on the bathroom, over at the property. The bathroom was fine to begin with, but because we are turning all of the the walls, inside The Cabin, to try to look more like a log cabin we stained some more 1'x4's and then put them up on the walls.

Originally the bathroom was cute enough and it looked like this, but knowing that Tony would have a really hard time pulling/lifting/dragging me out of the beautiful claw foot tub we chose to remove the tub and replace it with a 32" walk-in shower kit. So that way we can only slip and fall and bang our heads when we're stark naked and dripping wet. Which trust me would not be a pretty picture.

And yesterday when we left to come back home this is what we had accomplished in the bathroom.

We still have a little more work to do, in the bathroom, to complete its makeover, but I am already loving it, even though I know that, in the future, we will have to be sharing this one bathroom.

This morning was fun. After talking to Kinky on the phone, We went over to visit with him, in the Lodge and to also pick up the old, cedar bed that Tony and I had made for him, over 15 years ago, about three months after moving our rescue ranch to his beautiful Echo Hill Ranch, in Medina.

Don't get me wrong. Kinky loved this cedar bed that we had made for him, but after he had rearranged his bedroom he decided to return it to us due to a space issue and also because I wanted it. 

The reason that I wanted his/our bed back is because I decided that we could use it, over at the property, as an extra bed, in a soon-to-be built smaller, cozy cabin, in the forest. And hopefully we will be able to rent that cabin out, on the weekends, to tourists, as a dog-friendly Airbnb, in the Hill Country.

After we loaded up Kinky's bed, in the back of JJ Cale, we had a very fun visit with him, in his kitchen. 

While we were drinking some delicious coffee I told Kink my new joke, mind you not the dirty one, because he like Tony has already heard that one too many times.

Anyway, when it was time for us to go, Kinky walked us back to the truck. And while we were standing there adios-ing each other, he told us something that his sweet sister Marcie had just recently told him. A friend had told it to her and it has been stuck in my head ever since—because I love it so much.

Kinky spoke softly, after taking a puff of his cigar, "This older gentleman told Marcie, "What I've learned about life is: It's not about the pot of gold—it's about the rainbow."" 

Then Kinky, Tony and I all agreed that those were true words of wisdom. And that is exactly why I wanted to share this with you. 

On our way back to the rescue ranch, I was doing all of the talking (of course) and then I had one of those light bulb moments, and said, "Tony, I am going to make a sign that reads: "Kinky Friedman slept here (for over 15 years)! And I am going to ask Kinky to put his autograph on the headboard...." And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Heartland!

Today has been great. This morning after our great friends/dog-walking volunteers walked our dogs for us they came over to check out the progress we've made with our cabin.

I was already working, over at the property, when Tony showed up with Andy & Judy, Sarah and Jim.  In fact, I had just chopped up some 2'x4's and was in the midst of building a small coffee cup shelf to put up on the kitchen wall, that will showcase my beautiful collection of Mara mugs—that I love so much.

Anyway, when they all arrived I already had started a beautiful, blazing fire, in our incredibly great wood-burning stove and I had just sprayed on my first coat of polyurethane to protect the rag rug that I painted last night, for my dog statue.

Tony and I gave everyone a tour of The Cabin and everyone seemed to think it was pretty cool and then we had a fun visit with our good friends.

After we adios-ed our friends Tony and I stained about 20 - 8 foot 2'x4's, so tomorrow afternoon we can hopefully finish turning our bathroom into a faux-looking-log-cabin bathroom.

Anyway last night, on my blog, I promised that I would take a picture of my dog statue resting on his new metal, rag rug. And here are the before the rug and on the rug pictures.

And that is about it for tonight, because I plan to work, on Carol's Top Bun Christmas present, because I just finished having Hazel suck up another ton of dog hair. Then I plan to relax and watch a few more episodes of Heartland, on Netflix and then go to bed.

P.S. Next to Longmire, Heartland is now my new favorite series to binge watch. Netflix has nine Heartland seasons and each season has 18 episodes, each episode being 40 minutes long. And it is Canada's favorite show. 

Also, I copied the curtains for our cabin, in the Heartland ranch house log cabin. Except mine are green—not blue.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

The Rug!

I am sorry for not writing much this past week, but I am not sorry for all of the things we've accomplished, over at the property. And, because I am tired I am going to let the pictures tell most of the story tonight.

This is the kitchen and we built the shelves using the wood that used to be underneath the cabin's floor.

This is the front of our cabin, before we decided to spruce it up and eventually, we will turn the entire outside of the cabin using this stained wood. And soon we will replace the front door with our new, red, metal door that was built-in blinds.

We were so happy with the front of the house we decided to build a deck using some of our old lumber.

Then we decided that we wanted a covered front porch, instead of just a deck.

And while Aaron was busy, outside, putting the metal roof, on the front porch, using the old Outer Space roofing, Kris & Jim came out to give us their house/cabin warming gift. And here are Jim and Tony putting together the bench that they gave to us. And it is the most comfortable bench that we have ever had. "Thank you, Kris & Jim!"

An hour later, here is the finished, covered front porch, with Kris & Jim's bench being the center piece, on the porch.

Early this afternoon, my sweet sister Cindy came to visit us and she was anxious to see what all we've done to our cabin and she loved everything. Her favorite part was the shelving made out of these old, 1950's 2'x4's that were used as the pier and beam supports, underneath the cabin.

To celebrate my sister coming to see us and because it was chilly outside, we decided that today would be the first "Lighting of the Wood Burning Stove" for the very first time. Tony took the role of fire-man and in no time flat our new wood burning stove, that I bought over a year ago, was heating up the cabin nicely.

This is a picture of the wall you see when you first enter the cabin and I am still decorating it. And please note that I made the bookcase using some of our old, recycled lumber. At the bottom, left corner, of this picture is the head of my dog statue that we (Tony) put, in front of the wood burning stove.

And there he is, laying in front of the wood burning stove, on the cold tile. And right after Tony put him there I realized that my dog statue, that I treasure, deserved to have a rug to be resting on, instead of the cold, hard tile.

So early this evening, after Cindy left to go back to Austin, we came back home and I got busy making a rag rug for my dog statue, to rest on, in front of our super-cool wood burning stove. And this is what I made.

My rug is approximately 30"x18" and I used many different colors: yellows, turquoise, reds, blues, greens, etc. and I am thrilled how it finally turned out. And I cannot wait to take it over to the cabin, tomorrow afternoon, and get Tony to place it underneath my heavy dog statue.

I promise to take a picture of it so you can see how it looks and please do not worry about my rug catching on fire, because I used the back of an old, metal sign to paint my rug on. And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

The Finger!

This has been a really weird week for me. Some of it not so good, some it really bad and some of it really good.

On Monday we had three of our rescue dogs returned to us for different reasons, so that was not so good. These dogs were happy to come back "home" and they seem to be doing just fine.

For the most part of the week Tony and I have been spending all of our spare time working, over at the property and in our opinion we've accomplished a lot considering our age.

Anyway, yesterday morning I was in a great mood, but not long after that I went into a full-blown tail-spin, because this creep, driving a dark, maroon Tundra pickup tied his beautiful, male, Chocolate Lab to our rescue ranch's gate, using a thin, short piece of rope. Leaving his sweet, but confused, happy dog with only a very small bowl of water to drink—until we found him.

Tony was the one who actually found this dog tied to our gate, because I was already working, over at the property.

So Tony fed the dog and put him into a pen and after Tony had done his morning chores outside he came, over to the property, to tell me about this poor dog being tied to our gate. Tony was madder than a wet hen about it and I just got really depressed, so I just focused all of my attention on working really hard, so I wouldn't have to think about this poor dog being dumped.

Anyway, last night I had intended on writing a post for my blog, but because I was feeling so down about this dog being abandoned I did a little bit of reading and then just went to bed.

This morning after I got up Tony told me that he had some good news, "Last night I told Karon (yes, that is how she spells her name with an "o"), on Facebook, about the Chocolate Lab and she is coming out early this morning to check him out, because she has been wanting to get another Lab...."

Bottom   Line: Karon instantly fell in love with this Chocolate Lab and tonight this lucky, Labrador is getting to know his new family. Here is a picture that I took this morning of this super sweet dog, before Karon came out and adopted him and took him home. And I must confess that I was some what in a hurry this morning, to get over to the property and "the finger" that you see in the photo below belongs to me.

The rest of our day has been great, because several of our friends came, over to the property, to visit with us. First came our dear friends Alison & Blake, from Austin, who were actually, over at the rescue ranch, when Karon came out and adopted the lucky Lab. 

And after the adoption they followed Tony, over to the property and while we were visiting, inside The Cabin, with them sweet Carol showed up, so we all sat around and had a fun visit with all of them. 

And later on, as we were outside adios-ing Blake & Alison— Tom & Marie showed up, because they are Winter-Texans, from Minnesota and they could not wait to see us and the property.

So as I finish writing this tonight—Life Is Good, once again, at the rescue ranch.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Dogs Playing In The Snow!

Today has been great. Our good friend Les sent me this hilarious NTD.TV video of dogs playing in the snow and I totally loved watching it. In fact, I watched it three times before showing it to Tony and he loved it, too.

So I bookmarked it and if you want to put a big smile on your face immediately I highly recommend that you watch this super enjoyable video. Click here.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Four Food Trucks! or CHI'LANTRO Restaurants Rule Austin!

First off, I am sorry for not writing last night about the four food trucks and my excuse is that I worked late, over at The Cabin and was just too tired when I got back home.

It is 7:00 in the evening and Tony and I just returned home, after spending several hours working over, at the property. We hung up the curtains I made, stained over 40 more 1'x4's, hung pictures up, then took them down and then re-hung the pictures until they were perfect.

Continued from Monday night...Four Food Trucks!

When Tony, Hope & Jae arrived, at the property, the first thing we did was give Hope & Jae a tour of our beautiful property and they instantly fell in love with our beautiful, 1977 Land Yacht (Airstream) too. And by the time we had shown them the "enchanted forest," area, then the super-cool, two-story, red barn, the three Madrone trees, which Chet told me are considered by Native Americans to be sacred spirit trees—we invited them to come into The Cabin.

When they first walked inside, The Cabin, their jaws dropped, to the floor and I thought it was because they were really impressed with our cabin makeover, but I was wrong.

Hope was smiling, but she had her hands covering her mouth and the look on Jae's face was like he had just seen a ghost or something. So I said, "What? What is it?" And then they broke out laughing and pointed to my barefoot, half-man mannequin, that was leaning up against the wall, near the front door. Then Tony and I started laughing, too.

Then we all got a cold beer and while we showed them, The Cabin, I explained about buying the mannequin, at the garage sale and why it was wearing a pair of my old, 501 Levis. And they thought it was hilarious instead of weird.

Well, I talked too much as usual, as we sat around catching up with Hope's latest news and our news, in the big room, and when I finally realized I was doing most of the talking, I paused, and then asked, "So Jae, what do you do, in Austin?"

"He owns five restaurants," Hope sweetly bragged on her super-nice boyfriend. "And he also has four food trucks. Jae's CHI'LANTRO restaurants/food trucks. It is Korean BBQ inspired and it fuses Korean & Mexican flavors and.... "

"Omg!" I said. "I love food trucks so much! And I've always wanted to have one. Especially after watching that great Jon Favreau movie, Chef. It is one of my all-time favorite movies...."

Then once again I realized I was talking non-stop, so I asked them to please tell us more about Jae's restaurants, because I definitely wanted to blog about it. And by the time they were finished telling us about Jae's restaurants all I could think of was us making a fast trip, up to Austin and going with Cindy, Ronnie & Nita, to go eat at one of Jae's five CHI'LANTRO restaurants or four food trucks.

Tone and I had a wonderful time visiting with Hope & Jae and before dark-thirty they adios-ed us, because they wanted to get back to the Trail's End Guest House, in Kerrville, where they were spending the night. "Because we love the Trail's End Guest House and that is where we always stay when we come to the Kerrville area," Hope said.

"We love the Trail's End Guest House, too," I said. "Many years ago, our good friends David & Desiree, who own the popular place, adopted one of our wild hogs from us. We named that sweet, wild hog David Beckham, because he chased soccer balls, but Desiree and David ended up re-naming him, Wilbur and they told us that Beckham/Wilbur was very popular with their guests. Unfortunately, Beckham died a few years ago...."

Tony and I came home after Hope & Jae left and the first thing I did after giving Roy a pill for his arthritis was Google CHI'LANTRO restaurants & food trucks and I was even more impressed after reading that they are the highest rated event caterers, in Austin. Anyway, I hope y'all will check out our friend's popular Austin restaurants & food trucks and get back to me, because we can't wait to eat Jae's food. And here is the business card that Jae gave to me before they left. And please note that I put his business card, in my back pocket, so it sort of got crinkled up a little bit.

Y'all have a great night and keep on laughing!

Half A Man! or Four Food Trucks!

Last Saturday Tony and I and our dear friends, June and Ellen had a garage sale, at June's house, from 8:00 - 2:00. It was a lot of fun spending most of the day with these two sisters, and our good friends: Kevin, Curtis, Susan and Baxter.

Tone and I got there a little after 7:30 and while Tony was helping me unpack our stuff/junk and set it up on one of the folding tables that June provided, I spotted something that Ellen had for sale and I knew that I just had to have it. So before our garage sale even started I was already $20.00 in the red, but I didn't care, because I was so happy about my purchase.

Tony thought I was crazy when I told him what I had bought and Ellen was laughing when she took this picture of me removing my precious purchase from the garage sale items.

Yes, that is me carefully removing my new/used half-male mannequin, wearing patriotic underwear and wearing a pair of Kevin's (borrowed) dark, brown shoes, in hopes of boosting sales. And before Tony left, to come back to the rescue ranch to do his morning chores, he asked me what I was going to do with my half-man. So I told him, "I am going to dress him in my jeans and put a pair of my old, pink boots on him and turn him into a lamp!" Tony didn't laugh, but everyone else did.

Around 11:00, our garage sale customers had dwindled, so Ellen and June thought it would be a good idea to do something fun to boost our sales, while we waited for another shopping frenzy. And before you knew it or before Tony returned—we had my half a man-mannequin laying on a trundle bed, hidden under a quilt with his feet hanging out, at the end. And we put a pair of men and women shoes, on the rug, next to the bed. And June topped it off with a baseball cap and she put their lamp and fringed lampshade, beside the bed. And we loved it and we laughed ourselves silly.

When the next shopping spree finally happened, the customers were staring at our restful display and they were laughing, whispering to each other, etc. about it and before long the bed and the mattress sold!

When our multi-friends garage sale ended, Tony helped me load up our stuff/junk that hadn't sold and I ended up making a grand total of $14.00, after buying a lot of their stuff. 

Then after counting my profit Tony happily loaded up his new/used (Ellen's) Nada Chair, (June's) Cabella's outdoor recliner, a really cool, gas camp stove, a set of blue and white, Pottery Barn curtains. And lastly Tone carried my half  a man mannequin and tossed him, into JJ Cale's backseat. Then we adios-ed everyone and came home.

As soon as we got back home Tony carried my half a man mannequin, into The Cabin, and I went into our bedroom to grab an old pair of my Levis and an even older pair of my dusty, Justin Gypsy pink boots. 

Then the phone rang and the father of one of the great girls, a member in the East Kerr 4-H Club, called and asked if he could drive out and adopt Walter from us, because his sweet daughter and him had fallen in love with him, last Saturday. Of course, my answer was "Yes!" 

Thirty minutes later, Walter was officially adopted and he took off, in a big fancy pickup, to go to his new home, in Kerrville. (So please keep your fingers crossed that Walter will mind his manners and his adoption sticks.)

After we adios-ed Walter and the nice man it was dress-rehearsal time and here are a few pictures that I took of Tony trying to help me put my jeans on him and then trying to shove my boots on his gigantic feet.

And the whole time that we were trying to turn my man-mannequin into a cowgirl, Tony kept saying, "Don't you dare take my picture or tell anyone that I was involved with this...." Of course I promised him, but as you can see—I was lying, again.

We had a real problem trying to get my pink boots on him and while we were doing that our phone rang again and it was our good friend Hope calling. She and her boyfriend were running around the Texas Hill Country and she wanted to know if she and Jae could come by for a visit. ..."Great!" Hope said. "We should be there in about forty-minutes. I can't wait for Jae to meet y'all!"

Knowing that time was of the essence, so to speak, I asked Tony to please slit my boots with his knife, in hopes we could put his/her pink boots on. He did that, but we still had no luck, because his feet were just way too big to fit into my pretty, pink boots. So we temporarily gave up.

"Tony, if you'll put my man-mannequin in JJ, I'll take off and go straighten up The Cabin. Then you can bring them over and...."

As soon as I got to our property, I unlocked The Cabin door, opened the windows and then I pulled him, out of the backseat and clumsily carried him, inside The Cabin and I leaned him up, by the front door. Then I quickly put away all of our tools and the scaffolding, into the bedroom and then I swept the sawdust-covered floors.

Ten minutes later, I grabbed my camera and took these pictures of our cleaned-up, soon-to-be cabin, before Tony, Hope and Jae arrived.

Twenty minutes later Tony, Hope & Jae arrived, but I'll have to write about their fun visit tomorrow night, because I am fixin' to go sew another set of curtains, for the window, in the big room, that looks out, at the red barn.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

To Be Continued....(Sorry, Mari)