Taking A Hike!

FYI: I am writing this early, because the threat of thunderstorms are predicted for this evening, so I will probably be unplugged.

Today has been great and I am so excited about the prospect of something exciting happening for Little Debbie and me, in the near future. 

And it will also involve sweet Mari and her handsome dog Si(las)—if Mari and I can pull this adventure off.

You see this morning my dear friend Mari sent me this e-mail and that is how all of this got started. Mari wrote:

"I don’t know if you ever pick up a free copy of Hill Country Culture outside HEB, but I get it in the Kerrville Times, so I do read it.

I was thrilled to see the headline : Woman Brings Dream to Life and the subheadline “Hill Country Local Hikes Appalachian Trail”. I just KNEW the article was about YOU. I thought THAT’s why you’ve been walking with me at the Park – it was for PRACTICE.

So you can imagine how disappointed I was to see someone ELSE’s name in the article.

I guess when it cools down again and my Achilles tendon is healed, we’ll have to practice some more………   Mari"

So I wrote back:

"Hi Mari. I love reading Hill Country Culture and I love the Kerrville Daily Times. That is too hilarious about you thinking (wink) it was me hiking "The Trail." And I think it is really cool about that woman actually hiking the Appalachian Trail. I do admire Lorrie Hess.

Why don't you and I actually hike it? It would be so much fun and maybe then Hill Country Culture could write a funny story about us, over the hill, gals taking a hike!

We could make it a two day event and get back here, so we could be with our dogs. And we could take Si and Little Debbie and I could make a hilarious video of us actually walking the Appalachian Trail or at least stepping on the trail, because that counts as hiking the Trail. They could even use this Photoshopped picture that Tony took of me, in Louise Hays Park, pretending to be hiking on the trail.

And instead of me wearing a back pack Si could wear a back pack to carry our 2 bottles of water, because it would only take us about an hour to shoot the video. And maybe Si could possibly carry Little Debbie, too. She is a great traveler as long as her feet never touch the ground.

All we have to do is take multiple shirts and change them out and take photographs of ourselves wearing different clothes and then stand in front of different places and take pictures of ourselves. As if we have spent a month, 2 months, etc. hiking together. Omg, let's do this! Nancy

P.S. Have you read Bill Bryson's book A Walk In The Woods or seen the hilarious movie starring Robert Redford, Nick Nolte, Emma Thompson and Mary Steenbergen? If not it is a must read and a must see for you. It is one of my favorite all time fun movies to watch. And besides it being a fabulous movie, the photography and music are incredibly great, too.

P.S.S. Plus this would be a perfect opportunity for Little Debbie and I to wear our matching Uggs! We've got to do this!!!!"

So as I finish writing this tonight I am (im)patiently waiting for Mari to get back to me.

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

Again!

Today has been great. Early this afternoon Tony and I started transforming his room (formerly the back porch) into a faux-looking log cabin room, like the rest of our cabin.

And we would have finished his room today, but we ran out of wood, at the exact same time that Kinky called me. We had a fun conversation and after we adios-ed each other I decided to check my e-mail.

Liz sent me an hilarious note about her running down to their gate, several times today, to check to see if I had left my red crock pot there and I am still laughing about that. Liz also told me that Jim does not want mine or anyone else's crock pot, because the secret to their long, happy marriage is: Jim only cooks outside with fire and Liz only cooks inside using all of her gadgets. And that kind of logic makes a whole lot of sense to me.

After reading Liz's funny note I clicked on Drew's latest e-mail and he sent me this picture, that Ellie took of him and his super-cool dog, Harry, actually hiking the Appalachian Trail today. And I must admit that I am kind of jealous, because hiking the famous Appalachian Trail is one of the things for me to do on my bucket list.

A little while later, while Hazel was helping me suck up hair and dust Ronnie called and left me a message, on Carlton, "Hi Nance. Just wanted to let you know that I am getting ready to cook some ribs, in my Instant Pot. Call me."

So I called Ronnie back and teased him. "....I just wanted to let you know that I am cooking another roast, in my Instant Pot..." And we had a good laugh about it.

And before I finish writing this tonight I want y'all to know that our new, motion-activated, solar-powered, solar light "As Seen on TV" works like a charm and we absolutely love it. Even though Little Debbie pooped on our front porch, again.

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

Crock Pots!

Today has been great. It has been rainy, so I spent most of my day putting more of our stuff up and the results are huge. Seriously, with the exception of "our tool area," still in the corner of the big room, the kitchen and the rest of the big room look great.

I moved some of my musical instruments around, reorganized the kitchen shelves, unpacked six boxes that included items such as clothing, kitchen gadgets, framed pictures, etc.

Speaking of clothing, today I found my "I Hiked The Entire (width of the) Appalachian Trail" t-shirt that our good, dear friends, Drew and Ellie, bought for me, as a joke when he and Ellie were actually hiking the Appalachian Trail. (That was a few years ago and I did blog about it.)

Anyway, Drew is such a fun loving character and we totally love him for it. Years ago, precisely on January 29, 2015, the day that I blogged Packin' It— he is the man who loaned me his backpack and walking stick, so I could pose like I was hilking the Appalachian Trail. And here are a few pictures to remind you.

P.S. I used Photoshop to put the sign on the tree.

I had so much fun joking about me hiking the Appalachian Trail I ended up making a trail sign and I hung it up on the wall, above our kitchen table. I love that sign. So when we started moving over here it was one of the first things that I hung up on the wall, in the big room. 

And the second thing that I hung up on the wall, next to it, was my prized, pretty, pink potholder, in a shadowbox that our good friend, Jean, helped me finish making, because I was too stupid to figure out how to tie up the ends of the potholder. And here is a reminder of those two precious items.

So me hiking the Appalachian Trail has become a long-running joke with us and all of our friends. In fact, a few months ago, Carol, gave me a hiking sign, as a house-warming gift for our new cabin and we hung her hiking sign, on our front porch.

Okay, I am betting that right about now you're probably asking yourself, "Why is she telling me all of this old news about the Appalachian Trail?" And I don't blame you for asking. Because I think it is really weird that today I find Drew's Appalachian Trail T-shirt that I absolutely love and Drew who corresponds with me regularly about every 6 months or so, sent me this hilarious e-mail just a few hours after I had hung up my T-shirt, in the closet. Drew wrote:

"....Well we are back on the Appalachian Trail. Going to spend the summer here. We are sitting at a brewery with a bunch of hikers. I am about to make a public announcement and explain they are walking on sacred ground retracing the steps of the famous hiker, Cousin Nancy (Parker-Simons)...."

After I read Drew's laugh out loud e-mail and I had settled down a little bit I read my dear friend Liz's e-mail. Her subject line was: 4 New Instant Pot Recipes From Mark Bittman. 

In her fun to read note Liz told me that she has enjoyed reading my blog about our move and the Instant Pot. She mentioned that she was old school, because she had just gotten a red crock pot that she told Jim was his Valentine gift to her. And that instantly made a light bulb go off in my head.

Since Tony and I only give each other Valentine's Day cards I am going to tell him that I am going to give him my old, used, red crock pot as my belated Valentine's gift to him, since for Valentine's Day he gave me the Instant Pot!

Anyway, I checked out the epicurious link that Liz sent to me and the four Instant Pot recipes blew me away and I cannot wait to try them. Of course, now I am feeling guilty about me getting an Instant Pot and sweet Liz being thrilled about getting a red crock pot. 

So I've decided that if Tony doesn't want my red crock pot belated Valentine gift I will sneak over to their ranch and leave my old, crock pot, at their gate. Then Liz will have two crock pots instead of just one and she'll not be jealous of me and my Instant Pot! That is unless Jim finds it first and claims it as his crock pot. 

And I've already decided if Jim claims my/Tony's crock pot as his I will sneak back over to their beautiful ranch and leave my bread machine, next to the gate with an anonymous card that will simply say, For LIZ!

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

Who Knows?!

Today has been great and it rained again, this morning, so we still haven't done any mowing or weed-eating yet. Who knows? Maybe we can start cutting down the tall grass and weeds tomorrow.

Yesterday, a very dear friend of mine, in Utopia, called me and she sent me an urgent, heartbreaking e-mail about not wanting to, but having to give up one of her and husband's precious dogs due to circumstances beyond their control and that is all that I'm going to say about it. She sent pictures of Lola too, and this is just a portion of the sad e-mail she sent to me:

"Lola is a sweetheart.  She loves to just sit and cuddle with you. She walks on a leash well and she would be easily adoptable. She has all her shots and has been spayed."

Tony and I love these friends so much that we always include them in our daily prayers. We wanted to help them, so yesterday, after Katee Sackhoff's surprise super adoption, I called our friend and told her that we could take Lola.

So this morning our heartbroken friend brought Lola to our rescue ranch and Tony put Lola, in Katee's vacant pen. Then our sad friend came up to The Cabin, because she wanted to talk to me and give me all of Lola's records.

As we drank coffee together, in the kitchen, she teared up several times as we talked about sweet Lola. So I kept looking up towards the ceiling, so I wouldn't tear up, too or quite possibly find another visiting Bat, that had attached itself to the ceiling beam. 

In case you didn't know this—if you are trying not to cry you should always look upwards, because it stops you from tearing up and it always works for me. Luckily, I didn't discover a Bat and I didn't tear up. Anyway, before we adios-ed our dear friend, she told me that Lola is only two-years-old and that she had a gift for me.

After she drove away, I opened up the pretty sack and read her beautiful, handwritten card, with a donation included, so I looked down and let my tears finally fall. Then I reached back inside the sack and there was this beautiful, floating/moving angel attached by a spring, to an engraved rock. And to say the least, I love her gift.

Then a couple of hours later, there was another gift for me, that came in our mail. My dear friends that are hiking the Appalachian Trail sent me this T-shirt and I absolutely love it! And I'm going to wear it with pride. "Thank Y'all!"

So I laid it, on top of our bed, so I could take a picture of it for my blog tonight and when I came back seconds later, to take the picture—this is what I saw. 

So, I patted Henry Standing Bear, on the head and then removed my T-shirt from the bed. Then I took my super-cool T-shirt and put it, on top of our branded coffee table, so I could take a picture of the back of it, without Henry hamming it up.

I love that it says in big lettering "I've Hiked the Entire APPALACHIAN TRAIL" and if you can read between the lines, in much smaller letters is "WIDTH OF THE"! Talk about a perfect T-shirt for me to wear, because that is exactly what I plan to do when I finally do hit that trail and get a real picture taken of me that has not been Photo shopped. Like the funny ones that I Photo shopped, a while back, on January 29, 2015. 

As I finish writing this for tonight, I want you to know that I love reading Craig A. Johnson's fabulous book The Highwayman that Kris & Jim gave to us yesterday. And now that I've thought and written about it—I think that picture I took of Henry Standing Bear, laying on top of my brand new T-shirt is a sign to let me know that Henry Standing Bear wants to walk the Appalachian Trail with me. Who knows? Maybe they will allow Henry to walk the entire width of the Appalachian Trail with me?

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

It's A Sign!

Today has been great. About an hour ago, I was enjoying reading Eileen's friend, Nancy J. Bailey's book The North Side Of Down: A True Story Of Two Sisters while Little Debbie slept on my lap. Then a really cool, out-of-nowhere thought popped into my head, so I immediately picked up the phone and called my sweet sister Cindy.

After we had said our howdies to each other, I said, "You know how much I love my new hiking boots anyway, this weird thought just popped into my head. I was just thinking that it would be fun if you and I fly out to the Appalachian Trail and hike it for about an hour or two?" Needless to say, there was total silence on both ends and then we burst out laughing.

"Well Nance, I guess we could do that," she said, followed by us laughing again. "But why?"

"I am putting it on my bucket list. We could go out there for a day or two and hike the famous trail for a few miles. Then we could tell people that we've hiked the Appalachian Trail. It would be really cool."

"But I've already hiked the Appalachian Trail. Ray and I did it right after we got married when we went up north to see his family. I guess I could do it again. Why don't we hike somewhere closer?"

"It's got to be the Appalachian Trail, Cindy. Because it is so famous and we could take pictures of us standing next to an Appalachian Trail sign. Sort of like what Ronnie did when all of us went out to Red River that time. Remember us catching about ten rainbow trout and putting them on a stringer and then Ronnie changing shirts three times and posing in different places, holding the stringer different ways? So he could show all of his friends all the trout he had caught when he got back to Texas."

After we had quit laughing, I continued on, "It's the same thing as me having all of those Martin guitars in my life and people saying things to me like, "Wow, you've got a Martin. You must be really good on the guitar." And I wasn't." Then we broke out laughing again.

"Well, I think that we should think about this for a while, Nance," Cindy suggested and then she started laughing again. "Wouldn't it just be easier and cheaper if you just photo-shopped it? You know how to do that kind of stuff."

"That's a great idea! And I could also put me standing next to a sign on the Pacific Coastal Trail, too! That Cheryl Strayed hiked and Reese Witherspoon hiked on in the movie Wild...." We were still laughing about all of this when we finally adios-ed each other. Then I got busy.

Here's what I came up with and please note that I actually do know how to cut and paste using Photoshop, but time was of the essence, because I wanted to do it fast, so I could get back to reading the great book The North Side Of Down: A True Story Of Two Sisters.

Y'all have a great evening!