An Eyesore!

Today has been great. This morning I slept in and I enjoyed it. But not as much as I enjoyed adding a spoonful of that delicious, Mexican Hot Chocolate ice cream, to my cup of coffee.

Late this morning Tony and I took off for Kerrville for three reasons. Reason #1 to buy lumber, stain and three drawer handles.

Reason #2 to buy vegetables, at The Plant Haus, so Tony could plant the veggies, in his many key hole gardens.

Reason #3 to go to the big H-E-B, on Main Street, so I could stock up on some more Mexican Hot Chocolate ice cream and get a bag of dog food.

After accomplishing all of this we came back home and unloaded the lumber, the plants and the groceries. Then I took this picture of the five, neatly stacked, quarts of Mexican Hot Chocolate ice cream, before we took them out to the Airstream. 

Late this afternoon after taking a short sleepless nap with our dogs I was ready to tackle my newest project—"Getting Rid Of The Ugly Tool Area In The Big Room And Decorating That Area." 

As you can see from the above photo our "tool area" is an eyesore to say the least, but I must admit that the tool area has come in handy, the last few months, when we are needing to use our tools to get a job done. And it has served its purpose, but now it must go, because I am tired of looking at it.

So after we ate a bowl of delicious ice cream Tony and I "set up shop" on the front porch and we began cutting boards into 60" and 75" lengths, because of what I have designed and planned to replace the "tool area" with. And here is a sneak preview of my partially finished project that I am hoping to finish tomorrow. 

So please wish me luck, because from the looks of the picture below, it now looks worse than it did before we started. Except of course, for Little Debbie, standing in front of the chair, near the bottom of the picture.

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

Dang You, Tony & Steve!

Today has been great. This morning our good friend Rick, came over and we had a fun visit with him. And thirty minutes later, our dear friend Sarah came to visit us and she ate lunch with us, on the front porch. We had an H-E-B Supreme Pizza. (On sale right now 2 for $5.00.)

After cleaning up the kitchen I decided to take a short nap, because I was feeling a little bit tired. So Henry Standing Bear, Belle, Little Debbie and Big Al(ice) took my one hour nap with me until the alarm clock went off, at 2:55.

I had set it for 2:55, because I didn't want to miss Ellen's show, because I love her show and on today's show Oprah was her guest. I also love Oprah Winfrey, because I admire her for all of her life's accomplishments and her wisdom.

In the first ten minutes of Ellen's show she and Oprah were talking about the movie A Wrinkle In Time starring Oprah and Reese Witherspoon. And I was not disappointed, because while they were talking about the movie, Oprah said, "...Never give negativity power"...and..."Never feed negativity." And I totally loved hearing those wise words, because for me they are words for me to live by.

After watching the show I called Carol, "Oprah was just on Ellen's show and it was fabulous....Can Tony and I come over?"

Three minutes later we were, inside Carol's beautiful house, visiting with her and Bill. And then Carol showed me this really cool spiralizer that Amazon had just delivered to her door. "I love this," I told Carol before she even gave the three of us a demonstration.

And while she was getting the zucchini, beets and a sweet potato I checked out the Mueller SpiralUltra instruction sheet to see if I could figure out how to use one of these gadgets, because I love cooking with vegetable spirals instead of pasta.

But before I could say, "I'm gonna buy one of these things."

Carol said, "Don't buy one, Nancy! Because I just bought you one, too...." Now that was some exciting news, but I felt guilty about her buying it for me and I felt I had to do something in return to repay her for her kindness.

So, I said, "Carol, hold off on the demonstration for a few minutes, because I want to go home and grab my camera and bring y'all a tub of that delicious Mexican Hot Chocolate that we're so addicted to. I'll be right back."

As soon as I got home, I went straight to the Airstream and unlocked the padlock and went inside and removed a tub of our treasured, limited edition ice cream, from the freezer. 

After locking up the Airstream, with precious cargo in the freezer, I went into the house—grabbed my camera, adios-ed our dogs again and then took off for Carol's ranch again. 

After putting the precious, tub of ice cream into Carol's freezer and telling her and Bill how much they were going to love it I took these pictures of Carol doing her "spiralizer" demonstration.

After her interesting food demonstration was done Carol put the vegetable spirals and mandolin sliced vegetables, on a cookie sheet, sprinkled them with olive oil and sea salt and then she shoved them into the 400 degree oven to roast. And omg, they were totally delicious and the four of us ate all of it.

Ten minutes later, as we were adios-ing our dear friends, Carol said, "We'll try the ice cream after we eat dinner...."

Well, I was nearly halfway writing this post this evening when the phone rang and Carlton's Caller ID showed it was Carol. "Hi Carol." 

Then I heard her chuckle, and then heard her say, "Dang you, Tony and Steve Pietzsch! Omg, we love this ice cream! It has such a unique taste....I think we need to make Steve buy all of us stretch pants with elastic-waist bands, because it is his fault for introducing y'all to this one-of-a-kind ice cream." Then she and Bill started laughing.

"I'm so glad y'all love it, too," I said. "I want you to know that Tony and I are going to H-E-B early tomorrow morning, so we can buy more of this limited edition ice cream before they permanently run out...." And before Carol and I adios-ed each other, I said, "Please tell Bill that tomorrow morning I'm going to put some of this incredible ice cream in my coffee..."

And that is about it for tonight, except I want to show you this picture I took of our beautiful flowers by our front yard gate.

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

A Hairy Situation! or What Would Ronnie Do?

Today has been really great even though I was faced with a hairy situation. This morning while Tony was, in Medina, paying sweet Sherlyn to cut his long curls off or better said—getting his ears lowered, I was at home trying to decide whether or not if I was going to wash my hair and it was literally driving me crazy.

Now you might be thinking, "Why in the world would anybody, be on the fence, trying to decide if they should wash their hair or not?" So I am fixin' to tell you right now.

You see, we have a shallow well and it has a high content of iron and that is one of the main reasons why we are going to/ and are in the process, of getting things set-up, so we can start harvesting rainwater.

We are planning to continue to use the well water to flush our toilet(s), but we will use our collected rainwater for everything else, inside The Cabin: the shower and the sinks, etc. And I am excited about  being able to wash my hair using rainwater, because up until now since, our move, when I wash my hair—it feels like wire when I try to comb it and I am scared that it will also, in time, tint my long, gray hair—a light shade of red.

Anyway, this morning while I was trying to decide what to do, I was in the kitchen and I asked myself out loud, "What would Ronnie do?" And all six of our wonderful, loving dogs did not answer my question, but they did turn their heads and stared at me like I was crazy old lady.

So I felt stupid, because of their unanimous response to my question. And then I remembered what my sweet, smart brother, Ronnie, had told me two weekends ago, the day after Katelyn's birthday party, at the Ronderosa Ranch.

He and I were drinking coffee, in their kitchen and I had told him about our decision to collect rainwater and my concerns about me, sooner than later, becoming an elderly, fake redhead, because of the well water's high content of iron.

Ronnie laughed at me, like he has for over sixty-six years, and then he said, "Nance, your well water is hard, because of the iron. We have a good friend that spent the night here many years ago and she took a shower and washed her hair here.

We have soft water, since the drought and she was totally amazed how shiny and soft her hair felt after washing it here. Anyway, since that day Jan swears by soft water and since then she buys gallons of distilled water and she only washes her hair with soft water...."

So later this morning I realized that Ronnie, unbeknownst to him, at the time, had already answered my question, "What would Ronnie do?" So I took a shower and I purposefully did not wash my hair, because I had it tucked up, inside my white, Terlingua cap.

This afternoon after we ate lunch we went, to Kerrville, to run several errands. Our last stop was at the big H-E-B. And while Tony was outside at the pumps, filling up Roy, I was inside the store buying groceries and the last thing that I put into my shopping cart was—one gallon of distilled water, so I could wash my hair with it.

As I patiently waited in line to pay for my groceries I was so happy about buying the distilled water. In fact, I was so thrilled about it I was wearing a big smile. "Hey Nancy," a familiar voice said, and I turned around and it was our dear friend Jim aka The Mineral Man standing in line, behind me. And I immediately felt it was a sign for me, because Jim is The Mineral Man. I couldn't believe it.

Anyway, I had a fun visit with Jim, as we waited our turn to get checked out. We talked about him and Tony going fishing soon, H-E-B's Limited Edition Creamy Creations Mexican Hot Chocolate ice cream and Kris' upcoming knee surgery, etc.

When Tone and I got back home I put my gallon of distilled water, out in the sun to help warm it up and then we unloaded the groceries and put them up. Then a few minutes later Tony adios-ed me and took off for Medina, so he could see his friends at The Old Timer and then go take pictures of the Bobcats baseball game.

So with him gone, I decided it was time for me to wash my hair and I've never been so excited about washing my gray locks before. I took my camera outside with me, so I could document that I had actually bought a one dollar, gallon of distilled water to wash my hair.

Then I put a large, plastic bowl, in the kitchen sink and filled it with this precious, warmed water and I washed my hair. And I was grinning the whole time during the process.

After I towel dried my hair I was totally amazed how soft my hair felt and how easy it was for me to run a comb through it. And because I was so thrilled about my hair's new condition I chose to blow dry it using our Lasko floor fan, instead of letting it dry naturally, because I could not wait to see the final results.

So I opened the front door, moved the high-powered fan into position and then I stood back, in front of my saddle, and let the fan blow me away. And as I stood there for two minutes, super-fast, blow-drying my hair, Little Debbie went outside and pooped, on the front porch. And I didn't care about her doing it, because my wiry hair was now soft as silk and it was as white as it could be. So once again life is good, at the Big Foot Ranch.

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

My Stuff!

Whoa, last night right around midnight, I had already unplugged everything and I was reading and just about ready to go to bed when there was this super-loud thunder clap and the rain began pouring down.

Big Al(ice) who had been sleeping on my lap jumped up and her eyes told me that she was scared. So I carried her over to the kitchen island, put on her thunder jacket and then she took one of her itsy, bitsy "panic pills."  Then we all went to bed and we didn't sleep for at least an hour.

Today has been great. This morning a very nice man delivered our 2500 gallon water cistern using his forklift, because he had to park his eighteen-wheeler down the road, because he couldn't drive it onto Big Foot Ranch. And that is Big Al(ice) still wearing her thunder jacket, directing traffic.

While Aaron helped Tony set up the cistern and hook it up to our other 1500 gallon cistern, I searched in vain for the books that I've written.

It was very frustrating to me, because even though Tony and I had raided our closet, The Mother Ship, all of the packed boxes, inside the barn, etc. days before—I still came up empty-handed.

After Aaron adios-ed us, Tony helped me continue with my search, but still no books to be found. So I gave up and cooked us lunch. And yes, I admit I ate the delicious Mexican Hot Chocolate ice cream for dessert, because I am still on my sabbatical and Tony ate some, too.

Late this afternoon, we found my saddle and Maya's bridle, lead rope, pink blanket, etc. and Tony helped me haul them inside, The Cabin. I was so glad to find them even though I still have no idea where I am going to put my saddle and tack, because I used to keep it, in my pink cabin.

A little while later, Tony and I went over to Carol's beautiful ranch, so we could pick up Roy, our 2012 Dodge Ram truck, because Carol had offered to let us put it, inside her barn, in case of severe weather.

On our way over to Carol's, I got a bright idea, and said, "Tony, maybe my books are being stored, in Carol's barn. That's the only place that we haven't looked..." And sure enough they were! My last three books that I've written and self-published, after the University of Texas Press published my very first book The Road To Utopia: How Kinky, Tony & I Saved More Animals Than Noah, in 2006.

I was on Cloud 9 about finding my books and more of my stuff. So when Carol invited us to come inside, because "I have something I want to give to you, Nancy..." I went from Cloud 9 to Cloud 9 1/2, because Carol had given me the most beautiful, potted Easter Lily. She told me, "I love Easter Lilies and when I decided to buy one for myself I decided to get you one, too...."

As always we had a fun visit with Carol, while we petted sweet Scout (aka Carol's Shadow) and little Pepper, who occasionally low-growled at us in between pats on top of his head.

After we adios-ed Carol we came back home and Tony cheerfully carried in my big box of treasured stuff that included my books, because he was so tired of hearing me b*^%$# about "Where Are My Books?..." 

And while that was happening I took this picture of my beautiful Easter Lilies.

Then I started unpacking my box of goodies and I was thrilled about also finding my purple, alien, Roswell, New Mexico koozie, my pink, feathered, glittery drum sticks, my Chihuahua bottle topper that looks like Little Debbie, except it has two eyes, the famous Taos Pueblo. artist Jonathan Warm Day's beautiful note card and of course copies of my books that I've written.

So this evening, before I sit down and relax by watching a couple of episodes of Heartland, my all time favorite Netflix series, I plan to sign three of my books to our dear friends Andy & Lisa and to our new found friends Cathy & Chip. And I hope to mail them tomorrow, provided Carol can give me Chip & Cathy's Wisconsin address. And that is about it for tonight.

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

P.S. Cathy & Chip if you read this post, please note that my two novellas are pure fiction and none of the stuff that I wrote about Carol is true, except that she is my best and dearest friend.

Sabbatical!

The last few days have been great, besides working on our front porch and getting it semi-finished. I use the term "semi-finished" lightly, because I plan to keep adding things or more signs to the porch wall, when I find them in our many unpacked boxes.

Speaking of unpacked boxes I am literally driving myself crazy, because I can't find the box or crate that has my books that I wrote. Tony and I have searched "The Mother Ship" (my little RV) twice in hopes of finding them and we've gone through our closet twice, with still no luck.

The reason that I am so desperate to find my books is because I want to give signed copies to Andy & Lisa, because Andy was so kind and instrumental in helping us with our water collection. And I also want to give signed copies to our new found friends, Cathy & Chip, that Carol & Bill introduced us to last week. So I am asking y'all to please say a little prayer to Saint Anthony to help me find my books.

This past Saturday afternoon Tony & I went to Andy & Lisa's pot luck dinner, at their beautiful home, a few miles from here. Our good friends Bethany and our famous artist friend, Steve Pietzsch, who has also been very helpful helping Andy with our water-collection project came to the party, too.

Lisa assigned everyone what to bring to their pot-luck dinner—thank goodness. She & Andy cooked the delicious lasagna. Bethany made the salad, Steve brought 3 different kinds of ice cream for our dessert. And we furnished the chips and dips. And to say the least, "The conversations were delightful and were laugh out loud hilarious and the food was more than delicious."

Speaking of delicious I want to tell you about one of the ice creams that Steve brought, because it is now my most favorite ice cream, in the world and Tony and I had never heard of it or tasted it before.

It is an H-E-B Limited Edition Creamy Creations brand, called Mexican Hot Chocolate. And it is to die for.

Okay, hold your horses. I am sure by now you must be asking yourself, "But I thought Nancy was doing Weight Watchers?" And my answer is, "Yes, I am doing Weight Watchers and totally loving it, but because of this ice cream—I am temporarily on an extended dieting sabbatical."

Now back to my story. We had a wonderful time at Lisa & Andy's party, but we had to leave early, at 6:00, because Tony had a pool tournament to go to, at the Medina Highpoint Resort. Bottom   Line: He won one game and lost two.

Sunday morning our good friends Lisa & Andy came over, so we could show Lisa The Cabin and I was thrilled that she loved it, even though the second coat of paint was still drying, on our front door.

After our fun visit with our neighbors, our dear friend Eileen and her sweet sister Dean came to see us. Eileen and her sister loved everything that we've done to The Cabin and I was sweating bullets the whole time they were there, because I was worried that they might get red paint on them, because our front door was still not totally dry. 

We had a fun visit with Dean and Eileen and after they left Tony and I jumped into Roy (our 2012, white Dodge Ram truck) and we took off for the big H-E-B, in Kerrville, to buy that mouth-watering Mexican Hot Chocolate ice cream, before they ran out of it. 

Bottom   Line: We bought six quarts. When we got home Tony put four of these coveted ice cream quarts, in the Airstream's freezer and two inside The Cabin's freezer. And before we did anything else—we split a quart of Mexican Hot Chocolate ice cream.

Monday morning, Tony called Carol to invite her, Cathy & Chip to come over, because we could not wait to show them our new front porch, especially since the red paint had finally dried. But sadly, Carol told Tony that Chip & Cathy had already taken off, a few hours earlier, to go back to their home, in Wisconsin.

Carol had thought they were staying until Wednesday and it was just one of those mix-ups. But the good news is Carol came over and we had a great time visiting with her. 

Today has been great and I am still on sabbatical, because early this afternoon we went back to the big H-E-B, in Kerrville and we bought two more quarts of this heavenly, limited edition ice cream. And after I cooked us lunch, Julia Child's Chicken With Mushroom Sauce today, we sat down and ate more of this delicious ice cream. And I still do not feel guilty about it one bit, because once I've had enough and am no longer on sabbatical—I will resume doing Weight Watchers, again.

Before I finish writing this tonight, I want you to know that it is raining outside with thunderstorms, high winds and possibly hail predicted for tonight and the wee hours of the morning. I am fixin' to go put Big Al(ice)'s thunder jacket on her and give her a tiny pill when it starts thundering, so she won't freak out. And when the bad weather comes our way please know that we will be unplugged and eating more ice cream.

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

A Long Time Coming!

The last few days have been great and we finally finished working on our front porch and we only have the rest of the outside of The Cabin to do. Which due to budgeting could take several months for us to finish.

Tony and I love how the way The Cabin's front porch turned out, but it was a long process to get it the way we wanted it. So today's post is mainly going to be filled with before and after pictures of the front porch and here goes.

On June 22nd, when we got the property, I took this picture of the front of The Cabin.

On my birthday, October 17th, I took this picture of us, sitting outside, playing music with our dear friends: Hans, Stephen K. Morris, Jimmie and Chet O'Keefe.

In November, after we put up siding that we had stained, we decided to build a front porch.

In February, we replaced the old front door with this new door, even though it was still unpainted.

Recently, knowing that wasps would be gathering, under the front porch roof, we decided to paint the ceiling "sky blue." 

And this was a long time coming, because we were constantly going up and down ladders, etc. And after we finally finished painting the ceiling—we like the blue color so much we decided to change the green trim color to blue, too.

And then I decided to paint the stained siding white, because I felt that the white paint would protect the siding much better than stain. So we did that.

With that done, I decided to paint the front porch's white floor and that seemed to take us forever to accomplish.

Then three or four days ago, I decided that it was finally time for me to paint our front porch door Candy Apple Red, as I had planned to do since buying the door, back in June. 

Well, yesterday, after finally finishing the painting of the front door, I found my old, checker-painted, boards, that use to be inside my pink cabin, for over 18 years, and we used them as floor, trim boards.

And here is a picture that I took this morning of our finished front porch. And that is Big Al(ice) showing off her new place to potty.

And here is Little Debbie coming outside to find a place to go potty.

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

Great! or The Cedar Choppers!

Today has been great and so was Saturday, Sunday and Monday. First off, I had a fabulous time at Katelyn's birthday party, that Ronnie & Nita threw, at their Ronderosa Ranch. To say the least, "It was totally great.

Being with my beautiful family was great. Seeing old friends and then playing music with them was great. The food was great.

Sunday morning I left the Ronderosa Ranch, around 8:30 and I got back to Big Foot Ranch, about 10:20. And after hugging Tony and all of our dogs I took a shower, put on fresh clothes and then Tony and I took off, for Kerrville, to run a few errands.

Of course our first stop was, at Home Depot, to buy paint and our last stop was at the big H-E-B, so we could pick up a few groceries, so I could cook a late dinner for our dear friends, Jim Keaveny & Rachel, because they were driving in, from Terlingua, to spend the night with us.

When we got back home, we unpacked our groceries and then we put on our work/paint clothes, because we wanted to get started painting the front porch ceiling "sky blue" as quickly as possible. Because a porch ceiling painted the color of the sky keeps wasps away. Here are some pictures that I took of our project.

Jim & Rachel arrived around 7:30 and it was so good to see them and while Jim told us about leaving for his Holland tour, on Tuesday (today) I cooked us a delicious roast with carrots and potatoes and onions, in my Instant Pot.

And earlier, when I started peeling the carrots, we excitedly told Jim & Rachel about us getting an Instant Pot and they both started laughing. "Jeff Haislip just got one of those things, too," They said. "And he's been telling everyone, in Terlingua, about how great it is...."

While our super-pressure cooker was cooking us a delicious meal, in under an hour, Jim told us that he was going to spend half of his tour opening for Joan Osborne. And these are the dates for those shows, in case you might be, in Holland.

Sunday night we had a blast visiting with our friends and we stayed up until midnight, so we could wish Jim a Happy Birthday.

Monday morning, around 10:30, I cooked breakfast and while we were drinking delicious Donut Shop Coffee, we made a toast to Jim's birthday and we had a good laugh about it working out that Jim spending Thanksgiving, Christmas's and his birthdays with us.

Around 12:45, after another fun visit Jim & Rachel took off to go visit Kinky. And we took off for Carol's ranch, so we could celebrate Mark's birthday and meet Bill's sweet niece, Cathy and her husband Chip, who were visiting them, from Wisconsin.

And that was a total blast, too. It was great to see Mark as always and meeting Bill's family was like being with our own family. Carol cooked up a fabulous fajita dinner and she made one of her signature pies—Magnolia Pie. (Last year, Carol gave me the recipe to this mouth-watering pie and after eating a small slice I definitely plan to make it for us soon. After I loose several pounds—thanks to Weight Watchers.) And yes, I might as well admit it now that Saturday and Sunday I fell off the wagon doing Weight Watchers.

Tony and I spent our Monday evening painting the rest of our front porch or at least as much as we could before running out of paint.

This morning our dear friend Gerry Olert came to visit us. Gerry is the incredibly talented, video-grapher that has done all of our rescue ranch videos for the past 20 years. And he is also the one who worked with me on our hilarious video spoof Longmire—Texas Style. Starring the one and only Little Debbie!

Before Tony and I went to go eat lunch with Gerry, in Kerrville, Gerry asked me to do a short video for him, on our front porch. So while Tony stilled my wind chimes for Gerry, I grabbed Little Debbie and he shot us and it was painless.

We had a fun lunch with Gerry and after we adios-ed him Tony and I went to Home Depot and bought a few more buckets of paint. And then we came home and started painting, again.

Tonight as I finish writing this I want to tell you about this fabulous book that I bought for Tony, because it arrived this afternoon. The book is The Cedar Choppers: Life On The Edge of Nothing by Ken Roberts. Published 2018 by Texas A&M Press.

It is a fabulous book. And Tony's dad, his brothers, his relatives and him are mentioned in this awesome book. It is a "can't put it down book" and as soon as I finish writing this I plan to spend this evening reading the history of all of these cedar choppers.

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

I've Gone To the Ronderosa Ranch With My Banjo(Guitar) On My Knee! Happy Birthday Katelyn!

I'll Be Packin'!

Today has been great and I am feeling great. No more sneezing, coughing or hacking, because of allergies. Now I am keeping my fingers crossed that the pollen counts stay low, so I can go to Katelyn's birthday party, at Ron & Nita's Ronderosa Ranch, this Saturday.

I am still laughing at myself, when last week I got the dates confused, for Katelyn's birthday party. Seriously, it would have been hilarious if Carol and I had packed and driven up there, last Saturday, to Ron & Nita's ranch and no one being there.

And the sad part about it is I know that everyone in my family, sweet Carol and my other close friends that know me well, would not have been shocked if I had done that, because all of my life I've been known to do that sort of thing. It is just another one of my quirks like me getting lost all of the time.

And another sad part about it is Carol can't go with me this weekend, so I'll be going solo which of course will give me the opportunity to get lost and never making it to Katelyn's birthday party. But because I'll be packin' (my new guitar/banjo, mandolin and favorite guitar) on this trip, I'll hopefully stay more focused, so I don't get lost. But I'll still say a little prayer before I go just in case.

And now that makes me wonder why Carol, last week, was so eager to say, "We'll go in my truck. I'll drive!...." After she had told me she could go to the party. Hmmm...

I am loving doing the new Weight Watchers so much. Seriously, Weight Watchers has made it so much fun. I am now looking forward to every evening when I can add up all of the food (that I've eaten) points and still have points leftover to rollover (So I can use them at Ronnie & Nita's covered dish BBQ dinner.)

This afternoon while I was on Weight Watcher's website I checked out several of their delicious-looking, healthy meals and then I decided to watch their Oprah videos. Omg, Oprah's words powered me up in so many ways that I did not want to shut down and go, to Kerrville, with Tone. But before I closed the lid of my lap top and adios-ed Oprah without her knowing it, I printed out Weight Watcher's Creamy Spaghetti Squash with Ricotta and Spinach recipe, so I could buy the ingredients and later on today, cook it for our dinner.

When we got back from Kerrville, Tony helped me fix our dinner, because he was nervous about me trying to cut the huge spaghetti squash in halves. So while he was sawing away on this gigantic gourd I diced onions, grape tomatoes, shredded fresh spinach, etc.

And about 40 minutes later, I served us Weight Watcher's Creamy Spaghetti Squash with Ricotta and Spinach and it was more than delicious. 

In fact, Tony ate two big servings and we had enough leftover for several more mouth-watering meals. So I filled several Baggies with individual servings and then froze them to eat at a later date. And the best news is this meal only counts 4 points.

Tomorrow our main meal is going to be zucchini frittatas and I am looking forward to eating it again, because a few days ago when I cooked it for us—there were so many free points (eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, onion that you don't have to count) that the total points for that meal was only 4 points!

Before I finish writing this tonight, I want you to know that I am fixin' to drink a glass of my fine, boxed, Chillable Red wine and read a little, because I still have 8 points leftover for today. And that is about it for tonight. Cheers!

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

An Entomologist!

Today has been great sort of. Even though the pollen count is high, I am starting to wonder if maybe I have some kind of bug. Because last night I started feeling feverish and went to bed at 9:00 (the old time 8:00) and I slept like a log and I did not wake up until 9:00 this morning.

After I got up it didn't last long, because within a minute or two I started feeling weak and dizzy. So I went back to bed and slept another two hours. Then I helped Tony vacuum the house and put things in place, because our friend, Doug Foss, an entomologist and the owner of Foss Pest Control was scheduled to come out and treat The Cabin, so we won't be bothered with scorpions, spiders, creepy-crawlers, etc.

Well, Doug showed up promptly at 1:00 and he did an excellent job ridding our home of pests and we are thrilled about it. Especially Little Debbie and Big Al(ice).

You may be asking how do we know Doug so I am going to tell you. Our friend, Rie Foss, works at the Bank of the Hills, in Kerrville. And Tony and I love her, because she is always helpful, so upbeat, always smiling and laughing.

Every time that we go to the bank, Rie is the first to greet us and then we start talking about dogs, key hole gardening, etc. and by the time we've done our banking—we always leave wearing smiles on our faces. So before I write another word I want to highly recommend using Bank of the Hills and Foss Pest Control.

Late this afternoon I checked my e-mail and my good friend Mari had sent me this link that shows 18 fascinating maps and I found it so interesting I want to share it with you: Fascinating Maps.

It is 4:52 right now and I am still feeling a little bit puny and I think I am going to go back to bed to rest some more. If that is at all possible with six dogs snuggling up close to me.

But before I go I do want to show you this beautiful, less than 30 seconds video. It is about a man that was in the hospital for over 5 months, because of flu complications.

When he came back home he had lost over 50 pounds and was unrecognizable to his dog. And I promise that if you watch this heart-warming video it will put a really big smile on your face. And that is about it for now.

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

With My Warmest Regards!

Today has been great even though I have a bad case of allergies. This morning I woke up coughing and sneezing and it's been that way for the most part of my day. Now I am done complaining, except I do want to show you what the Stone IPA beer looked like, that our good friend, Jon Wolfmueller, Jean and Joan's sweet brother, stole from our 6-pack that The Girls brought to us.

Speaking of Jon, this afternoon Tony and I went to Kerrville to run a few errands and our first stop was at Wolfmueller's Books, so we could pick up our signed copy of Elizabeth Crook's novel The Which Way Tree.

Tone and I had a fun visit with Jon, at the bookstore, even though Sandy wasn't around. After paying Jon for our book that he & Sandy had asked Elizabeth Crook to sign to us, we took off for the big H-E-B, on Main Street.

Besides buying our regular grocery items: dog food, beer, Coffee Mate French Vanilla, eggs, Eureka bread, etc. we high-tailed it to the Kleenex section and picked up a few pretty cardboard boxes. And then we went to the allergy isle, which was packed with people sneezing, hacking and coughing, just like me and we grabbed a couple of cans of saline nasal spray. Then we checked out our items and came back home. And that's the highlights of our uneventful day.

Tonight I plan to read and then go to bed early. In hopes that when I wake up tomorrow morning my runny nose and coughing will have subsided.

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

Praying For Rain!

The last couple of days have been great. Aaron came out, on Friday, to help us build another level "slab" for our second water tank for it to sit on.

Yesterday morning, as you can see in the above picture, Aaron and Andy came over and helped us connect our gutter system to the first tank. And to say the least we are more than excited about collecting rain water and that is why we are now praying for rain.

Saturday afternoon, Tony and I had a fun surprise or better said—twin surprises. Yes, our dear friends/twins Jean and Joan came out for a fun short visit and to see our ranch and they were bearing gifts for both of us.

They brought Tony a six-pack of Stone IPA beer, except we noticed that it was missing one beer and we were not about to say anything about it.  Then Jean or Joan says, (Remember they are identical twins and that is why I can't remember who said what.) "We bought six, but Jon drank one of them." And we all had a good laugh about that.

Then Jean tells me, "I made this for you, Nancy." Then Jean hands me this pretty sack and inside it was this beautiful, pink, crocheted shawl with a ribbon tied around it. And yes, my jaw dropped and I was speechless, because I loved it so much and I thought it was so sweet of Jean to have spent her time crocheting me this lovely shawl.

When I finally recovered and got my voice back, I thanked Jean for her beautiful gift and then I pointed to the wall where "our" framed, pretty, pink potholder takes up space. And both she and Joan laughed. And that made Tony and me start laughing, because their laughter is exactly the same.

The only bad thing about Jean and Joan's visit was they did not stay long enough. After we had given "The Girls" a grand tour of The Cabin and Big Foot Ranch they bid us farewell. And after they left I came inside, The Cabin and laid out the shawl, on the breakfast island and then I took this picture of Jean's pretty, one-of-a-kind, pink shawl. Which I cannot wait to wear.

Today has been great and it has been a pretty, quite day. So late this afternoon, while I was cooking a soup/stew, in my Instant Pot, Tony and I went outside and spread some more pea-gravel on our circular driveway.

Sadly, even though that gigantic pile of pea gravel is slowly disappearing—I'm nervous that it may take us a few months to completely use up all of our pea gravel.

Now before I finish writing this for tonight, I want you to know that my soup/stew recipe turned out to be absolutely healthy as well as delicious. And it only took me 45 minutes to pressure cook the whole thing. Which included dried pinto beans, zucchinis, carrots, onion, bell peppers, corn and tomatoes and a slew of spices. 

In fact, Tone loved it so much he took a second helping, before I froze the rest. And I am doing great on Weight Watchers and my soup/stew used up only a tiny amount of my daily points.

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

More Tons!

Today has been great. First off, I love doing Weight Watchers and so does Tony. It is easy, fascinating to me to add up my food points and still have leftover points that roll over. That I can save the points up when I really want to splurge on a dessert of something like that.

Also I cannot believe that I have no aching muscles of joints today, after Tony and I hauled and then spread out 1 1/2 tons of pea gravel yesterday.

Which is really great, because early this afternoon Tony and I decided instead of us going to pick up another load of pea gravel, we decided to get it delivered to us instead. So we now have more tons of pea gravel, outside near the barn, waiting for us to haul it to the "slabs" tomorrow. And I'm not talking a mere 1.5 tons like before—I'm talking 6.5 tons.

So tomorrow morning we will be outside using our his and hers wheelbarrows and we will be hauling this pile of pea gravel, down to where we have our wheelbarrows parked. FYI: My wheelbarrow is the small blue wheelbarrow and I've already decided that once we finish moving this huge pile of pea gravel—I plan to paint my wheelbarrow pink.

Late this afternoon, I called Carol and then I went over to her beautiful ranch, so we could have another fun visit and also for me to invite her to come with us this Saturday—to Katelyn's birthday party, at Ron & Nita's Ronderosa Ranch.

As always Carol and I had a fun visit and we laughed so much my back began to ache. Anyway, when I invited Carol to come with us, this Saturday, to Katelyn's birthday party she was more than thrilled about going to it. And I am not sure if she was more excited than me about going to the ranch party.

Anyway, as soon as I got back, to our ranch, the first thing I did was call Ronnie & Nita, to tell them that Carol was coming with us to the birthday party. And after I told him this exciting news about Carol coming with us, our conversation went something like this:

"Well Nance, that sounds great," Ronnie said, sounding a little bit confused. Then I heard sweet Nita laughing, in the background, because they were on the Speakerphone like I was. "We would love for y'all to bring Carol."

"I knew y'all wouldn't mind," I said. Then Ronnie chuckled and Nita started laughing, again.

"But you do know that Katelyn's birthday party isn't this Saturday. It's on the 17th?" Then we all started laughing.

"Omg, I thought it was this Saturday. Of course it is on the 17th. I feel so stupid." And as we continued to laugh, I added, "That would have been great for us driving up there, on Saturday and y'all not being there....." 

After we had finally quit laughing about me getting the dates wrong, we adios-ed each other and then I immediately called Carol. "Hi Nancy," Carol said. Then I told her about me getting the dates mixed up and like the rest of us she burst out laughing with my news, and then she said, "That would have been horrible for us to show up and...."And that is about it for tonight.

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