Thursday, March 30, 2017

From Here To Home!

Today has been great for several reasons. And the first reason is our delicious lunch that I cooked for Tony and me.

Several days ago when I was over at Carol's ranch she and I were talking about eating healthy. During  our conversation she recommended that I try making Dr. Fuhrman's Black Bean Brownies, because they taste just like regular brownies, but they are so much healthier. So I told her that I would.

Well, the next afternoon Carol sent me a picture of what she had cooked for lunch and it looked so delicious I immediately called her and begged her to please give me her recipe for her Shrimp & Cauliflower. And she did.

So this morning I made Dr. Fuhrman's Black Bean Brownies. And while they were baking, in the oven, for 1 1/2 hours— I whipped up his brownie frosting recipe using frozen bananas, blueberries and walnuts. And because I still had so much time left over, before the brownies were fully baked, I washed some fresh strawberries and cut them up, so I could put them on top of the frosting.

So before you gaze upon the delicious brownies that I made today here's a picture from Dr. Fuhrman's site showing his beautiful, delicious-looking Black Bean Brownie. And to get his black bean brownie recipe just click here.


Okay, I need to back up a little here and tell you that I also cooked Carol's easy to make mouth-watering Shrimp & Cauliflower recipe while my brownies were still baking, in the oven. And while all of this was going on I was also watching/listening to Leon Russell's and JJ Cale's incredibly great music, on Leon Russell's YouTube channel.

To make Carol's totally healthy and delicious Shrimp and Cauliflower recipe I grated a head of cauliflower and sauteed it in a pan with some chopped green onions and then I added some cilantro and a squeezed lime. 

In another skillet, when Leon was still singing Back To The Island, I sauteed some shrimp with Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning. And when the shrimp was no longer translucent I removed it from the skillet and mixed it in with the cauliflower. 

It was so simple to make and it is so much healthier than using rice. Seriously, Tony and I absolutely loved it and we could not believe that the sauteed/roasted cauliflower tasted exactly like rice. So we now plan to start eating it regularly. "Thank you for your recipe, Carol."


This afternoon my Martian Watch arrived and I love the packaging—MARTIANNOTIFIER! I am so thrilled with it and I am charging it right now. And I cannot wait until Jim aka the Mineral Man comes out tomorrow morning with Kris and the volunteers, because earlier this morning, he called me and he has volunteered to set up our ION home network camera for us. So I have my fingers crossed that Jim will also have the time to set up my super cool MARTIAN WATCH.



Don't worry. I am nearly done writing this long post for tonight, but I do want to thank The Mineral Man's sweet wife, Kris, because she gave me this really great book From Here to Home by Marie Bostwick. I am enjoying reading this book so much that it is hard for me to put it down. Anyway, Marie Bostwick's highly entertaining book takes place, in Texas and I want to highly recommend that you read it too, because I guarantee that you will love it, too.


And lastly for tonight, I need a drum roll—for my totally delicious black bean brownies that Tony and I love. And as you look at these pictures please remember that a picture is worth a 1,000 words and that looks aren't everything.

Right after I had frosted my brownies before slicing them into small individual pieces.

The added fresh strawberries.

Tony's black bean brownie with some Reddi Wip!

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

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Good Bye Ruby Tuesday

Yesterday afternoon Kinky called to tell me some horribly sad news that our dear friend Copper Love was in a fatal car accident around noon. So tonight, to honor our sweet friend. I am dedicating this, in loving memory to Copper Love.

Everyone who knew Copper loved her for so many different reasons. And all of us knew how lucky we were to be her friend. She was honest, sincere and she always wore a big smile on her face. Copper was always upbeat and funny. And she was a very famous artist respected and known worldwide.

Copper loved all animals and they loved her right back, because she had a very special connection with them—they trusted her.

In fact, Copper came out to our rescue ranch on numerous occasions to work with our dogs that had social problems and she fixed everyone of them. And over the nineteen years that our Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch has existed—Copper only adopted her dogs from our rescue ranch.

Copper was good friends with the Rolling Stones and she hung out with them and that is why her Mazda's custom license plates were code for: Ruby Tuesday.

Copper's many interesting and fascinating tales, about her life were often hilarious or outrageous and if you were one of the lucky ones to ever hear her tell a story—it was something that you would never forget.

There is so much more to tell about how great Copper Love was and how she touched so many hearts, around the world, during her lifetime. She was truly an inspiration to me and to so many others, because she always listened to her heart and she always followed her dreams. Or better said—Copper Lived!

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Twins!

Today has been great and Monday morning started out really weird, but it ended up great, too. Now, before I start telling y'all about yesterday morning being strange I want you to know that Tony can vouch that it really did happen, because he was there and he witnessed it, too. Here's what happened.

First off, I want you to know that I doubt if that red and black Martian Watch that I ordered from Morning Save, last week, had anything to do with this phenomenon, because it hasn't even arrived yet. But it is still something to be considered.


So please know that I am not blaming the soon-to-be-mine-forever, multi-functional, super-cool, red and black Martian Watch for what occurred, in our kitchen and the big room. 

I had been sitting, in Outer Space, drinking a delicious cup of decaf Donut Shop Coffee with Little Debbie sleeping soundly, on my lap and I was just enjoying the morning and counting my many blessings before getting started with some rescue ranch paperwork. 

After finishing my wanna-be coffee and having been grateful for all of the many wonderful things in my life, I walked back inside, The Cabin and looked up at the clock, on the wall in the big room. And I was shocked to see that it was 8:37 AM CST, because I had gone outside when it was approximately 9:15 or so I thought. 

Confused about what time it actually was, I looked at the rooster clock, in the kitchen and it was 9:37. And the digital clock, on the stove agreed with the rooster clock—9:37. So I did what I always do, and half-hollered, down the hallway, "Tony! I need for you to please come in here."

Seconds passed before Tony was standing in the big room with me. "What is it?" He asked. "I was trying to download some more photos before I go outside to work." I then pointed to the two clocks, in the kitchen, that agreed with each other about what the correct time was then the one, in the big room, that they both disagreed with about the time. 

As he kept looking back and forth, at the clocks, trying to figure it out, he said, "That's really weird. I was just in here ten minutes ago and they all showed the same time."

"I know. Me, too. I think that we're either experiencing some kind of Intergalactic time-warp here or my poltergeist has returned to bother me again, because it's been a pretty long time since it last visited us. And if you think about it, Tony, the printer has been running great since the last time the poltergeist was here, except for when it was M.I.R. (Mercury In Retrograde) time. It's got to be the poltergeist." Then I laughed as I stared up at the digital clock, and said, "Ha, ha, ha. Very funny. Not really."

Tony chuckled and then he made himself another cup of coffee and then I made myself another cup of decaf. "As soon as I finish drinking this I'll reset that digital clock," I told him, as he went back down the hallway to go back to work on his incredibly great photos.

As I drank my last cup of coffee, for the day, I returned a phone call and then I checked my e-mail and returned a few of my friends e-mails. Then I rinsed out my coffee mug and placed it into the sink. 

And before I was fixin' to go adjust the time, on the wall clock, I took this picture of it and then I quickly snapped a picture of the stove's clock correct time—just to document this true story.



Then I set my camera down, on the kitchen table and turned to go reset the clock—but that didn't happen, because that digital clock was now synced with the other two clocks, in the kitchen. So of course I was excited, so I half-hollered, "Tony!"

"What?"

"Come here! You're not going to believe this!" Then I heard him grumbling something, as he walked down the hall, but I could not make out what he said. Which is probably good that I don't know.

Anyway, when Tony entered the big room I pointed at the clock, and said, "Look!" Tony looked and then he looked back and forth at all three timekeepers.


"Good," he said. "I'm glad you got it reset."

"I didn't reset the clock, Tony. The poltergeist did it! And I'm almost positive that it wasn't an Intergalactic time-warp like I thought it was." Tony rubbed his forehead and as he was going back outside to do some more work, I said, to deaf ears, "I know the poltergeist did it, because it was jealous about me getting a Martian Watch." Then I shut the front door, turned and stared back at the clock, in the big room, and said, "A'int it funny how time slips away." Then the phone rang—it was Carol.

Today has been great. And to hopefully end this post on the happy side, I want to show y'all a hilarious, (only embarrassing to Tony) photo that our good friend Kris sent to me.

 Last Friday Kris took this picture of Tony and me, because we had both accidentally dressed alike again and they had all been teasing us about it. Anyway this is us wearing our favorite blue & black, plaid, flannel shirts when we ate lunch with our good friends/dog-walking-volunteers, at the Apple Store, in Medina. Kris titled it Twins. 


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

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Home Alone—Drones—Martian Watch— Wild Birds! Oh My!

Today has been great, but first I want to finish writing what I had planned to write yesterday, on my blog.

Several days ago (March 15th to be exact), I was doing some ranch paperwork while listening to The Talk, on the television. Anyway, near the end of the show "The Girls" introduced a new sponsor: morningsave.com. So I stopped what I was doing and watched it. And I was instantly hooked on their products for sale. So to say the least "I immediately went to morningsave.com and purchased three of those items.

Anyway, last week my morningsave.com orders started arriving and Tony was just as excited as me about getting them. And if you click on this link you can watch The Talk segment on these super cool products and then you'll know why I could not resist purchasing them.

I bought the ION Home Network Camera, so I can watch what our dogs do when they are home alone and I can talk to them. The retail price is $129.00 and I purchased it for $39.00!


Then I purchased Pulse Massager for Tony's bad back and shoulder. The retail price was $425.00 and it cost me only $29.00! And the best news is that Tony LOVES it.


And then I bought the Mota JETJAT ULTRA Drone. And its sales price was $130.00 and it only cost me $59.00. 



And this is just a picture of my drone and the home network camera so you can compare their sizes to my laptop and Bic pen.


Then I told Tony all about what I had bought and the big savings and then I went back to work: returning phone calls, e-mails, etc.

Two days ago, my brother Ronnie called me just to see how we were doing. While we were talking and laughing about life I told him about Morning Save. "Ronnie, the three things I bought would have cost me $684.00 retail and they only cost me $127.00 total!" And I knew that he was impressed even though he didn't say so.

Then Ronnie asked me, "How do you like the home network camera and the drone?" And there was an awkward moment of silence for me and then I laughed.

"Tony loves his pulse massager, but we haven't used the camera or the drone, yet."

"Why not, Nance?" I started chuckling again.

"Because I'm not that hi-tech-savvy anymore." Then we both started laughing. "I know it is not all that hard to do, but I'm just not ready to sit down and try to figure them all out." Then I hear him and Nita laughing, because he had put me on their Speakerphone. So I joined them in laughter.

"So when are you going to do it?" Ron asked, as sweet Nita listened and continued to chuckle, in the background.

"Soon. Ronnie. First I have to register my drone with the FCC to make it legal, before we can launch it and you know how much I hate filling out forms and doing paperwork." 

"Do it!" Nita remarked. "Do it, Nance!" Which then made Ron and me burst out laughing, because the three of us having a long running joke about Nita saying, "Do it! Do it!" 

"I think that I am going to wait until Chet comes visit us. He's a lot more smarter than Tony and me when it comes to these hi-tech gadgets and he should be visiting us in about ten days or so...." And this concludes my fascinating shopping spree story—sort of.

At lunch last Friday, after telling our good friends/dog-walking-volunteers all about my three super cool purchases and the incredible savings—I got all excited again. So when we got back home I went back Online to morningsave.com and made one more purchase. : )

I just had to have it and it was 78% off the retail price. So with the click of one button I purchased a MARTIAN Watch. Regular retail price on it was $129.99 and I got it for only $29.00. And I cannot wait for it to arrive.


I know that my beautiful red & black MARTIAN watch reads, "John Hello" on the dial, but I am sure that Chet will be able to set it up for me, so it will say "Nancy Hello." And now this really does conclude my spending spree story.

Now before I finish writing this tonight I have an important announcement to make. I want to let everyone know that next Saturday, April 1st, our rescue ranch will be closed all day, because Tony and I are going to be attending a very special book signing event, at the Wild Birds Unlimited store, in Kerrville.

A few days ago while we were shopping and visiting with our friends, Linda & Kevin Pillow, the Wild Birds Unlimited store owners, they told us that they were excited about hosting a book signing for their good friend, Jim Carpenter, founder of Wild Birds Unlimited. "We'll definitely be here for that!" I declared. Then they showed me Jim's book The Joy of Bird Feeding: The Essential Guide To Attracting And Feeding Our Backyard Birds. And we bought ourselves a copy, so we can meet Jim Carpenter and get him to sign our copy.


Then I noticed their life-size cardboard cutout of Jim Carpenter display with his new book, so I asked Tony to please take a picture of me standing next to Jim to make it look like we've been good friends for a long time. 

Then I stood next to Jim, who is paper thin, and said, "Now Tony, please don't make me look fat." Then I turned to Linda & Kevin and Tricia", and admitted, "I've gained some weight and I am trying to lose it. Wait Tony, let me turn sideways, next to Jim, because hopefully it will make me look a little slimmer." Click—it didn't work.


So, next Saturday from 9AM - Noon we will be, at the Wild Birds Unlimited store and our rescue ranch will be closed all day, because we're going to get to meet Jim Carpenter and get his awesome book signed. 

For more information about attending this awesome book signing event please click on Jim Carpenter Book Signing at Wild Birds Unlimited, in Kerrville. And I hope that y'all will all be there too, so I can stand behind y'all, to hide my enlarged muffin top, when I suggest that we all get a group picture taken with Jim.

And that is about it for tonight.

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

Saturday, March 25, 2017

Bad News! or Stick With Me!

I have some good news and some bad news, so I will start with the bad news first. Last night, around 8:00, I had the phone turned off, while enjoying watching Netflix's Grace & Frankie third episode of Season 3 and the young woman, the former owner of Copper called and she left me a message that I was unaware of. Bottom Line    she was unable to locate the former owners. So, it looks like Copper is here to stay with us until we can find him a better forever home.

This morning I told Copper the bad news and he seemed to be fine with it, because he was wagging his tail. Then I told him that yes, I understand why he is named Copper, because of his color, but I explained to him that his name does not roll easily off of my tongue and that I have to stop and think every time that I call him his name.

The good news is he was still wagging his tail and he seemed interested in what I had to say to him. So, I continued on, "I know that your name is not your problem, but mine. Anyway, since you are starting a new life here, at the rescue ranch, I am changing your name to Topper."

Copper sat down, in front of me and he was still wagging his tail and staring at me, which I think is always a good sign. Then he stood up, with his tail still wagging and he smiled at me like dogs often do when they laugh. And I have a sign, hanging out on our front porch to prove this theory.


And to prove it even further, that dogs do laugh with their tails, a couple of weeks ago, after my good friend, Carol, showed me her new beautiful, canvas print that she had purchased, I begged her to please tell me where she bought it, because I had to have one, too. 

The reason that I love this canvas print so much was because it immediately put a big smile on my face and it warmed my heart, because it reminded me so much of sweet Mama. My late, great, rescued Great Pyrenees. And it also reminds me of my beloved Roy Rogers, because whenever I look at him he is always smiling at me. 


This beautiful, awesome painting is by Pat Saunders-White, an extremely, talented, famous pet artist and the name of her painting is Stick With Me. I bought my 14"x14" canvas print, on Amazon, but her art is so popular, loved and well known that I am sure that buying a copy for yourself will not be difficult to find. But I do recommend going to her website first: patsaunders-white.com, because Artist Pat Saunders-White Rules!

Last night I binge-watched Grace & Frankie Season 3 and watched all of the episodes. Omg, it is more than great, so tonight I think I will watch a movie.

 Tonight I planned planned on writing about several other subjects, but I think that this is plenty for now. 

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

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Her Phone Number!

Continued....

Since this woman and I didn't know each the Twitter instructions suggested that I click Follow and then leave her a message. So I wrote: "We rescued Copper. Please call Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch. 830-589-7544."

An hour and a half later, at 7:49—she called me. She told me that she loves Copper, but she and her husband re-homed Copper 8 months ago, because they could no longer keep him. I told her about rescuing Copper and Susan, at Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, trying to contact her, but all of the contact information, on the micro-chip, had not been updated, etc. I told her how happy I was that she had contacted me and I thanked her for that.

She told me all about Copper being a wonderful dog and that it would take her a few days to contact her friend, who had helped them re-home Copper to a nice family that she knew. She promised to call me as soon as she knew anything. And before we adios-ed each other she gave me her phone number.
So that is where we're at for now—still waiting.

Today has been great. We spent most of our day mowing outside. And the weather was perfect, except for the high winds that kept trying to blow my cap off my head. And then after wards having the pleasure of removing freshly, clipped grass from my ears. The good news is that we got all of the dog pens and alleys mowed including most of the rescue ranch.

And that's about it for tonight, because I am planning to spend the rest of my evening, binge-watching Netflix's Season 3 of Grace & Frankie. I've just checked to see if it is available to watch and it appears they have not yet launched it. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can watch it tonight and that Copper's previous owner calls me back.

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

Update: I just realized that Grace & Frankie airs tomorrow.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Put It Together!

The last few days have almost been great. And the reason that I used the word "almost" is because we could not find Copper's family, even though he's micro-chipped, so we could let them know that we rescued him. And it drove me crazy knowing that we had this super dog that has a home, but we could not contact Copper's family, because his micro-chip information had not been updated.

Sunday evening our good friend Jim Keaveny came to visit us. Like Chet O'Keefe, he too is an incredibly great musician who also lives, in Terlingua.

When Jim arrived the first thing he did, after hugging us, was give Tony and me advanced copies of his new fabulous CD—Put It Together, which will be available for purchase before months end. So the next thing that we did was thank Jim for the CDs and then we listened to Put It Together over and over, because it is now one of our favorite CDs. And another cool thing about Jim Keaveny's new CD being so great is Jim had our good friend Chet O'Keefe come out to the recording studio, Frogville Studios, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to play lead guitar on it.


Monday morning I cooked pancakes for Tony, Jim, Kinky and our good friend, Simone DeVries, who is in Texas, filming and working on another one of her awesome documentaries. We had also invited our good friend Carol to eat breakfast with us, but she couldn't make it, because she had to go out of town for the day. But Carol did invite us to come over later on in the evening for happy hour.

Anyway, while we ate breakfast we visited while enjoying Jim's new CD. And before we adios-ed Kinky and Simone we all agreed to meet later for lunch, in Kerrville and to invite Dylan to join us.

Eating lunch with our friends was a total blast. Simone told us about the documentary that she is working on. Dylan kept us entertained and laughing with his incredibly interesting rock 'n roll tales. 

And the funniest story that Dylan told, with Kinky's help, was when he and Kinky and the famous band The Texas Jewboys, were in California. Kinky and his band got stuck, inside an elevator, with Dennis Hopper when Dylan arrived. With the elevator doors closed tightly, Dylan stood outside the door and carried on a conversation with them while they waited for the repairman to arrive. And when the elevator repairman finally arrived he first got the doors open first and it was stuck between two floors and all that Dylan could see was them from their knees down, so Dylan stood there and talked to their feet. Anyway, it was totally hilarious and my version of Kinky's and Dylan's story isn't near as funny as they told it.

Jim, Tony and I went over to Carol's ranch, around 5:30, for happy hour. And it turned out to be a really fun happy hour that lasted for one and a half hours. 

Tuesday afternoon before Jim Keaveny left for Austin, Kinky, Jim, Tony and I ate lunch, in Kerrville again and it was fun, too.

After another fun lunch with our friends, Tony and I went to Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, so we could pick up Copper and to also meet up with Mike, the nice man that was helping his recently widowed neighbor/friend with his two dogs that he could no longer could keep. Mike was bringing "The Girls" to the clinic, so we could meet him and pick up Misty and Cindy from him and take these two, adorable, sweet, 6 year-old to our rescue ranch. And we instantly fell in love with "The Girls."

Last night, early in the evening, I was on my computer trying everything I knew to contact Copper's owners and I got no where. And right before I gave up Googling this woman I found her on Twitter. 

To Be Continued... 

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

Friday, March 17, 2017

We Rescued St. Patrick!

Today has been great. Our fabulous friends/dog-walking-volunteers came out this morning and walked our dogs for us and we loved it, but our dogs LOVED it more.

After walking our dogs for us all of us decided to eat lunch together, at the Thai O'Cha restaurant, in Kerrville. So, on our way to Kerrville, on Highway 16, before Quiet Valley Ranch ( Home of the Kerrville Folk Festival) we spotted a small dog running south.

So Tony immediately stopped and pulled off to the side of the road and so did Andy & Judy, who were following us to the restaurant. We jumped out of our trucks and hollered, "Hey, little buddy! Come here. Here boy..."

The dog heard us and he stopped in his tracks and then he turned around to look at us—then he came running towards us, while we waved frantically at an oncoming pickup to slow down, because the dog was close to the highway.

This cute dog ran to Andy and let him pick him up. Then Andy handed him over to Tony, so Tone could put him inside, Trigger's backseat. And before we adios-ed our good friends, I said, "We're taking him to Hoegemeyers, so please tell everyone that we will be a few minutes late."

On our way to Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, I turned in my seat and took this picture of a very lucky dog, who seemed happy and perfectly comfortable riding in the truck. And that's when I named him St. Patrick.


As soon as we walked inside Hoegemeyer's lobby, I took this picture of St. Patrick, before we handed him over to Susan, as I told her, "We've just rescued St. Patrick.... Please scan him and give him a check up. We'll check back with you later."


Lunch was a lot of fun and of course our food was totally delicious. But let's get back to St. Patrick.

When we got back home Susan, at Hoegemeyers called to tell me, "I've got good news and sort of bad news. The dog has a micro-chip, but one of the phone numbers has been disconnected and the other phone number isn't accepting calls right now...."

Forty minutes later, Susan called me again, while I was writing this. "Nancy, I have a little more news. I've located his records. He's been neutered, his shots are current and his name is Copper. I've been on the phone non-stop trying to track down his owners..."

After Susan and I adios-ed each other, Tony suggested that I call the pound, so I did. I told the nice gentleman about us rescuing Copper, on 16 and everything that I knew about the friendly dog. Then I asked him if anyone had called them about missing him. "No, ma'am, but if anyone calls I will tell them to call you or Hoegemeyers. Good luck..."

So now it is a little before 4:00 and I am fixin' to call the radio stations where Harley and Big G work, to see if they can help get the word out about Copper. And then I am going to call Quiet Valley Ranch. So please keep your fingers crossed for Copper. I will update when I get some more news.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Today Tomorrow!

The past few days have been great and they have flown by so fast—I can't believe that it is already Wednesday. Here his what we've been up to, at the rescue ranch.

Late last Friday afternoon, Tony and I ran several errands and our last stop was, at Home Depot, so we could purchase a Club Cadet Walk Behind Trimmer that my brother Ron had told us about, when we had visited with him, in Dripping Springs.

Ronnie had bragged and told us about how much he loves this trimmer, because it can easily get in and out of small, cramped in spaces, rolls over rocks and stumps easily while whacking down the tall grass and weeds around it—unlike our push-mowers that seem to last only about a year for us. Because, we go through many mower blades several times during the mowing season, because I am accidentally hitting hidden rocks and stumps, etc. when I push mow the grass in our dog pens.

After we purchased this "miracle machine" we went straight home so we could "test drive" it. Omg, after I "trimmed down the thick, tall grass and weeds, in our front and backyards, easily, in record time, without my back aching—it was Tony's turn and he could not wait to try it.

Bottom Line    We love this Cub Cadet Walk Behind Trimmer and it is the best piece of lawn equipment, on the rescue ranch. We joyfully spent Saturday and Sunday outside, taking turns "plowing" down the weeds, thistle and grass, in every dog pen while no longer caring if we hit rocks, roots, stumps, fencing, etc.

And we did all of this in record time too, because it is much smaller and lighter than our push-mowers and it has a 22" cutting range. And we know that it will pay for itself, in less than a month, because we usually have to hire someone to come help us with all of the mowing and weed-eating.

Anyway, we are very thrilled to have this new piece of lawn equipment, because what used to take us at least 30 minutes to push mow a dog pen—now takes only about 10 minutes or less!

Monday morning our good friend Rick came to visit us and we had a lot of fun with him, even though he adios-ed us Tuesday morning, because he had a long list of things to do, before his return to Nicaragua.

I spent yesterday morning and the early part of the afternoon doing rescue ranch paperwork and then later in the day, we went to Kerrville to run a few errands, before going to TNJ Engraving Company, on Water Street, to have those friendly people put on our new rescue ranch signs, on Trigger's and Buttermilk's front doors, because our old rescue ranch signs, which they had put on our vehicles, in 2010, were finally starting to crack from age and the elements.

TNJ Engraving Company has always been one of our favorite businesses, in Kerrville, because they are great people and they do such great work. We've used them since 2010 to make all kinds of ranch signs for our rescue ranch and funny, personal signs too, like "Tony's No Whiner Diner" for his outdoor chuck wagon kitchen.


And while we were waiting, in their lobby, for Patrick and Garrett to remove our old signs and replace them with our new rescue ranch signs, we visited with their friendly staff. And while we were in their lobby, we looked around and noticed that several businesses that we love also use them, too. Like Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic and Herring Printing just to name a few.

Well today has been great. While I was taking care of some rescue ranch paperwork, a nice man  called and he left a message for me and it went something like this. "Hello Nancy. This is Mike. I need to talk to you about a couple of sweet, small, 6 year-old female, litter mates that need rescuing. They are spayed and are house broken as sweet as they can be. My neighbor's wife recently passed away. My friend is having to move soon and I am trying to help him find homes for his precious, little dogs. Nancy, please call me as soon as possible, so we can discuss this...."

This afternoon I called Mike back. "Hello Mike. This is Nancy, at the rescue ranch."

"Hi Nancy," he said. "Thank you for calling me back."

"Mike, do I know you?" I asked, because I was curious.

Mike chuckled, and said, "Not really, but I sort of feel like I know you, because I hear you on Harley's show...." Before Mike and I had adios-ed each other I had told him that we could help and would take in his neighbor's small dogs and Mike told me that he would e-mail me pictures of them. And he did just that. This is Cindy and she only weighs about 12 - 14 pounds.


This is Cindy's sweet, little sister, Misty and she only weighs about 6 pounds. So if you can, please help us spread the news about these two, sweet, adorable, little girls needing loving homes, to all of your friends. And if they are interested please ask them to call me for more information. 


I have a little more news to tell you, but I am running out of time, so I will write more about today tomorrow.

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

Friday, March 10, 2017

Christmas Stockings! or Wishing!

Things have been great here. This past Tuesday, my new Breville Juicer arrived and I was totally thrilled about it, because Tony and I love juicing and we have decided to do it everyday along with eating healthy food. NO MORE DIETING!

We've been juicing for many, many years and the only reason that I purchased a new juicer, is because I wanted to upgrade to the kind of juicer that Joe Cross recommends, because he is the man who made the great, inspiring documentaries Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead and Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead 2.

Our new juicer has two speed controls and it is much larger than our old one, so after making our first totally juice with it, I had to rearrange the kitchen to make room for it, on the shelf next to and above our refrigerator.




Wednesday morning Tony & I went up to Dripping Springs to visit my brother Ronnie and sister Cindy and to see Ron & Nita's new/used Class C RV. Cindy and us loved Ron & Nita's RV. And as we sat inside it we had a wonderful visit with each other. And before we left their ranch, to come back home, I gave Ronnie our old juicer, so they could pass it on to one of their daughters to use.

Wednesday night I finally finished reading John Steinbeck's nonfiction book Travels with Charley: In Search of America. 

And I enjoyed reading it, but near the end I thought that John had sort of dropped the ball, on his readers. Seriously it is a good read, but I doubt that, this year, I will be slipping copies of this book into my family's and friend's Christmas stockings. 

Anyway, after I read the book I decided to Google it and the more that I researched Steinbeck's book I couldn't stop myself, because the more I probed, deeper and deeper into it, I found a whole lot of evidence and professional opinions from scholars and researchers with the same  conclusion that it might have been more fiction than nonfiction. So if you are interested in what I discovered please check out this link especially: http://truthaboutcharley.com/travels-with-charley-timeline/.

Today has been great. This morning our wonderful, dedicated friends/dog-walking-volunteers came out and they walked our dogs and some of our super dogs even went skinny-dipping in the creek, because of their love for the water. So, I guess Spring is here.

This morning sweet Red Foxx's name came up several times, because our friends could not quit talking about what a great dog he is and how sad they were for him that his best friend had passed away. They were all wishing that Red would get adopted sooner than later, because he is such a fine, happy dog and we whole-heartedly agreed with them. 


Well, I want to end tonight's post on a positive note, before I start watching the Jonathan Winters DVD, that Kay loaned to me this morning. And the great news that I have for you is that early this evening we got a phone call from Red's owner's grand daughter and she and her husband didn't know about Red coming back here. They love Red and they can't wait to come and pick him up and take him to their forever, loving home. And before she hung up the phone she told Tony that they are going to adopt him, the first part of May, when they visit the Hill Country! We love it and once again this proves to me that wishes really do come true.


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

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Hung Up!

Today has been great. This morning Gretchen Wilson was Big G's Pet of the Week. She is approximately 4 years old and she is a total sweetheart.


I spent most of this morning doing rescue ranch paperwork. I returned e-mails, phone calls, wrote up a deposit, wrote thank you letters and paid bills and by then I was ready to get out, of The Cabin, because I needed some fresh air, because I am not fond of doing paperwork.

Tony and I took off and went to Medina to mail my letters and while we were there, we checked out this super cool, newly built Tiny House On Wheels, parked next to the Log Beds store and we found out that they are going to start making Tiny Houses to sell.

Then we made a deposit, in Bandera and then we headed to Kerrville, so we could run the rest of our errands. And after we ate a delicious, late lunch, at the Thai O'Cha restaurant, we ran the rest of our errands and then came back home.

Carlton was flashing, on top of the breakfast bar, when we walked inside, The Cabin, so I pushed his button to see who had called.

Two messages were from our friends and the last message made me sad. Because in 2013, we had rescued the sweetest, small dog that I had named Red Skelton, but later on I changed it to Red Foxx. He was only about 4 years old and it did not take us long to find him a wonderful home, with a very nice man.


Anyway, the phone call was from a very nice woman who had called about needing to return Red to us, because her father-in-law, who had adopted Red, had passed away and I could tell that she felt very sad about it. So if any of y'all know someone who wants to adopt a sweet, 8-9 year old dog, please ask them to call me.

I returned the woman's phone call, but got her machine too, so I left a message asking the woman to please call me back, because I wanted to let her know that we would definitely take Red back and that we were sorry about her father-in-law's passing.

Then Tony helped me re-frame the note card picture that I had painted for my sister's 70th birthday, because I wanted to replace the wrinkled matte and then Tony helped me frame Roscoe's CD, because I totally love it, because every time that I look at the cover picture—it makes me smile and chuckle. After Tony framed it for me I hung it up, between the kitchen and the big room.




Then I found a small space, on the wall, next to our water cooler dispenser, to hang up my new sign that I had purchased earlier today. And it makes me smile, too, even though those flying monkeys scared me to death when I was a kid. 



Tonight I plan to read more of John Steinbeck's fabulous book, Travels With Charley: In Search of America, because I totally love it, because it is inspiring me, after I finally retire, to drive around the country with Tony and our dogs and write about the interesting people/animals/ that we meet. And that is about it for tonight.

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

Monday, March 6, 2017

Decisions! or Spent! or Framed! or Trigger Happy!

This past week I apologize for not blogging. But I do have a good excuse—I was too tired and ran out of time, because let's just say that I was too busy running the rescue ranch, cleaning the trailer and making too many decisions, etc. Seriously, I had so much going on that I escaped the end of each day by relaxing by either doing some writing or reading.

First, I have some great news to tell you and then I will give you a peek into my world as it unfolded last week. My great news is we got a call from Matt, whose family had adopted our sweet Gus from us, on February 18th. Matt's bottom line    "We love Gus and he is working out great..."

Then last week, we ran into Matt, at the River Oaks Shopping Center, after I had mailed some letters and came out of the Post Office Sub-Station. We spent over ten minutes chatting with Matt and hearing about how much his family loves Gus and what a perfect dog he was, etc. So needless to say that made our day more than great for us.

Last week was such a whirlwind for me and the days have become somewhat of a blur for me. Besides returning phone calls, e-mails, sending in reports, making a deposit and mailing out thank you letters, etc. I know that I spent several days mowing down the tall grass and weeds, in our dog pens, that my aching back can prove I did. Even though, because of the recent rain, you would not believe I ever mowed.

I spent almost everyday walking and working out too, with hand-held weights or using a stretchy band, with Leslie Sansone, that my aching muscles can prove I did that. And I know that I drove Tony nearly crazy unloading our food, from our fridge to another refrigerator outside, in the barn and then having to reload it again and again, because I couldn't decide which healthy diet/lifestyle changes we should make.

As you can remember from all of my pictures, several weeks ago, I started our lifestyle change, because of the powerful, FORKS OVER KNiVES magazine, video, etc. and we loved it so much—but I didn't lose enough weight as fast as I wanted to, so I decided that we should try the proven Atkins Diet to quickly knock-off my unwanted pounds. And that was the first time that Tony removed all of the food, in the fridge, because I had bought so much meat, chicken and fish for that diet.

Well, that was a huge mistake for me, because I wasn't happy about mainly eating anything that has or had eyes, because I guess that I have grown soft, in my old age of 65 and from also watching too many depressing, disgusting documentaries about "harvesting" animals.

But when we found out that we could also eat Atkins delicious low carbs snacks and Lisa telling us about the tasty/healthy Kind health bars—we were doomed to fail, because we found ourselves eating too many low carb, peanut butter cups and cranberry almond bars each day, causing us not to lose any weight.

And that is when I got out the big book of juices and quickly decided that we should do juicing instead, so Tony then unloaded all of the meat from the fridge and after going grocery shopping later that day—I filled it back up with fresh fruits, vegetables, etc. and I used up all of the counter space with bags of beautiful, fresh, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, zucchini, apples, oranges, bananas and pears, etc.

And while all of this was going on, inside our two refrigerators, our good friend Jim "The Mineral Man" had told me about this great book that he was enjoying reading and he suggested that I check it out, because he thought that both Kinky and I would enjoy reading it, too.

So I did, even though I was already, in the middle, of reading Carl Hiaasen's fabulous book Strip Tease—I went Online and purchased two paperback copies of Travels With Charley: In Search of America by the great author John Steinbeck. Then I immediately went, over to the Lodge and told Kinky about Jim recommending that we read Travels With Charley: In Search of America and me having already ordered us both a copy. Which delighted him, to say the least.

So basically, every evening last week, I was relaxing by either doing some writing or reading Hiaasen or Steinbeck, if I wasn't over, at Carol's ranch, admiring sweet Rosie, Carol's visiting, guest donkey, while having fun visiting with Carol.


And earlier, when I mentioned about running into Matt, at the shopping center, I also went to the craft store and bought a couple of small picture frames, while Tony was over at, the Wild Birds Unlimited store, buying more high-quality bird seed and visiting with our good friends: Linda & Kevin, Tricia, Marguerite and Jason. 

When we returned home, I framed this little note card, that I had printed, of the painting I had made for my sister Cindy's 70th birthday. But I bought the wrong sized frame for Roscoe's CD, so this week I will need to go back to the craft store to pick out the perfect, inexpensive frame for it.



Today has been great. Early this morning I made fresh fruit smoothies for our breakfast and for lunch I made delicious Bloody Mary juices, without the Mary/merry and the best chicken salad that I've ever made. Using chicken, from the fridge outside, one stalk of celery, one peeled apple, onion, sweet pickle relish, a hard-boiled egg and homemade mayonnaise.

Then I spent most of my day catching up with rescue ranch work and going back and forth to the Lodge, to check on The Friedmans, because Kinky went to visit a friend today and won't be back until late this evening.

To hopefully end tonight's post on a good note, I found this old photo that I had taken, back in April, 2005, when I had purchased a miniature mare that I had named Trigger, Jr. Sadly, I made a wrong decision buying her, because she was always angry and she wasn't very nice to Tony or me, even though I had painted her tiny, adorable barn pretty pink. 

In fact, Trigg, Jr. tried to bite us or kick us with every chance she got, so Tony forbid me to never go back into her little corral. I was heartsick about it, because I had so badly wanted her to love us. So I admit that I made another bad decision even though Tony had warned me against it. 

To try to make her happy I drove Trigger, to Hondo and ended up buying two, very young, adorable, miniature male goats, to befriend her. I named them Romeo and Julio, but Trigger, Jr. instantly hated them, too. 

So much to my dismay I finally gave up and returned little Trigger, Jr. to her original home, outside of Medina. And Romeo and Julio were the only ones thrilled about it. Here's that picture that I took of Tony with Trigger, Jr. the first day they met and I think their body language speaks volumes.


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