Best Book Signing That I've Ever Been To! or The Art Of Racing To Hayden's Book Signing!

Well, I didn't lie. This morning Tony and I got up really early and we did our morning chores outside when the sun peaked over the high bluff behind our trailer, to shed some light on us and our dogs, pigs and even the deer, that we feed year round, seemed a little confused by our early morning start. Then we came inside and ate breakfast and then cleaned up and dressed for Hayden Hickner's very first book signing in Medina.

Our dear friend Sandy Wolfmueller arrived around 8:15, so we could visit a little, before we went to Hayden's book signing and during that time we gave Kinky a wake up call, I loaned Sandy a couple of my Leslie Sansone workout videos to sample while we listened to Clint Morgan's fabulous CD.

When it was time for us to leave we decided to ride with Sandy, so we could visit some more and leave Trigger parked down by Highway 16, so when coming back she could just drop us off at the road instead of driving the 2.5 miles back in to the ranch. I sat in the passenger front seat, which was a big mistake and T. sat in the backseat.

Halfway to Medina, Sandy, who was driving like a Nascar wannabe race car driver, suddenly slowed down her fast moving mini-van Pace Car, because of a big, slow driving, tow truck that was hauling a big black, wrecked Ram pickup on a trailer and then she scared the heck out of me when she suddenly pushed the pedal-to-the-metal, swerved into the left lane and passed the tow truck on the narrow two lane highway—just twelve inches away from me.

"Good grief, Sandy!" I said, nervously clenching my hands and looking around for Jon's crash helmet to put on my head. "I didn't know that you drive like a bat out of h*%$ too!" Then she and Tony burst out laughing. "I think that I am going to have to rethink Patty's and our upcoming day trip to Whole Foods and Target, in San Antone. Maybe we should just stay home and shop online together."

Then Sandy jokingly tried to defend her unsafe driving. "Nancy, it was a passing lane for goodness sakes and I was only going fifty-five  miles per hour and that tow truck was going thirty-miles per hour."

"Nancy drives like an old lady, Sandy. And she never passes anyone," Tony said, in Sandy's defense. "She gets nervous if I drive over forty miles per hour. I think it is another Fort Worth thing."

"That's sort of true, Tony," I said, "but if that tow truck had swerved, just a little to the left, I wouldn't be here anymore and y'all would miss me. I hope." Then we laughed about it the rest of the way to Medina.

Hayden Hickner's book signing was so wonderful! When we arrived at the library it was packed with people, so before the book signing started we visited with Andy Hickner, Hayden's father and Garnet Sheffield, our dear friend from Utopia and some of the friendly staff at the Medina Community Library. Here is a picture I took of Garnet with her adorable dog Chiquita.

When the book signing started, outside on the library's beautiful back patio, Andy proudly introduced Hayden and then he thanked everyone for coming to it.

Then he introduced Hayden's Special Education teacher and she told us about why Hayden had written his book. Then Hayden read his lovely, beautiful illustrated book, The Bear & the Bee's, while his pretty sister turned the pages on an enlarged book, so the crowd could see, and it nearly made me tear up, because I was so happy and proud of this talented young man. And during Hayden's reading Kinky arrived through a back door and stood with us as we listened to Hayden.

When the incredibly great book signing ended, Kinky and I purchased T-shirts with Hayden's book cover on the front of it and then we bought his book, which Hayden later signed for us. Then I took this picture of Kinky, Hayden and Andy.

Following the best book signing that I've ever been to, Kinky, Sandy, Tone and I went to the Highway 16 Cafe, next door, so Kinky and Sandy could eat breakfast and I was surprised when T. ordered a breakfast taco since we had already eaten breakfast.

After Candace had served Kinky his huevos rancheros with beans and flour tortillas, that looked delicious and Tony's and Sandy's breakfast tacos—they dug in and started eating, as I sat back in my chair and sipped on my unsweetened iced tea, we talked about Hayden's book and what a great book signing it had been. 

During their breakfast several people walked up to our table and introduced themselves to Kinky and told him about having voted for him and how much they loved him and when it was all said and done Kink told Candace, "Please tell the cook your huevos rancheros were the best that I've eaten in a long time." Then we left the cafe.

As we stood by our vehicles visiting, Sandy told Kinky about me saying that she drove like a bat out of h*%$ and it made Kink laugh. "Nance is like me. We don't like for people to drive us, because it makes us nervous." 

"But, Kinky!" Sandy said.

"Sandy, Cousin Nancy is crazy and you know that," Kinky joked. "She's a nervous Nelly, so please drive her home slowly, so she doesn't have a heart attack and die on us. Bye Sandy. Tell Jon that I said, "Hi." See y'all back at the ranch." Then Kinky climbed into Mr. Green Jeans and waved goodbye to us and then Sandy slowly drove us back to Trigger parked on our road next to Highway 16.

There is so much more to tell about our fun day, but it is late now and I must go to bed now.

Y'all have a great evening and please pray that "Don" the tropical storm, pays a visit to us and the Hill Country for some much needed rain this weekend!

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

"A Bear & The Bees" by Hayden Hickner Rocks Big Time!

Yesterday, after Tony and I did our chores outside Kermit took us to the pump house, next door to "Rambam's International House of Pigs" pen, so T. could turn off our water pump, that pumps our water from the creek below the pump house. When he came out and shut the door he was shaking his head sideways—not good news. "Nance, were getting close to being without water, because the creek is so low the pump hardly filled the water tank. I need to go call Robert (our nice neighbor beyond us.) and get him to come over here to see what he thinks." Then he jumped into Kermit and we drove up to the trailer in silence.

After Tone left a message on Robert and Sherry's answering machine I called Kinky to tell him about our water situation and he tried to make me feel better by telling me, "Nance, don't worry about it. Every thing is going to be fine. In the fifties when it was as bad as this—the springs never dried up and..." So, I spent the morning returning several phone calls and e-mails.

Around 1:00 the phone rang and it was Robert. He and Tony talked, for three or four minutes, about the creek and every one's severe water shortage out here—then Tony adios-ed him and turned off the phone. "Robert is coming over now and I need to go meet him down at the creek."

"I want to go too, so I can see how bad it is," I said, grabbing my camera off of the kitchen table. When we jumped into Kermit we could hear Robert, on the backhoe, coming down the road, so we took off to meet him.

When we got down to the bridge T. stopped Kermit and put him into four-wheel drive, then he turned the steering wheel hard to the right and we got off-road and drove down into the nearly dry creek bed and it was weird to see the creek bed nearly dried up with just a few spring-fed puddles left. Here's a picture I took inside of Kermit, parked in the middle of the rocky creek bed looking towards the bridge.

When we reached Robert he had already begun digging a bigger and deeper hole for us and all that we could do was sit and watch.

Twenty minutes later, Robert turned off the backhoe and said, "This should help some. I made it twice as deep and wide, so it can fill more. And if and when it ever does rain again, y'all can use it as a swimming hole."

"Thank you so much, Robert!" I gratefully half-hollered from Kermit. Then Tony thanked him and then we talked about the serious drought that we were in and then we all went back home to get out of the one hundred and one degree weather. 

And now for some good news. Tropical Storm Don is brewing in the Gulf waters and our weather man is now predicting rain for us on Friday, Saturday and Sunday! I am thrilled, but, I sure hope it doesn't hurt our coast and the people and the animals living down there.

Today has been great even though we are now water rationing. Tony and I did our outdoor chores early, so we could go to Kerrville and pick up the little Yorkie, that we rescued, so we could bring it back to the ranch and adopt it out to Rosie.

When we arrived at the clinic we visited with a vet about the little dog. We found out that his name was Zeke, he was born on October 4, 2009, which I like, because that makes him a lucky Libra like me and he was in excellent health. After we paid the vet for neutering and a rabies shot, we went outside the clinic and I took this picture of Zeke with Tony. Then we came back to the ranch to find Rosie, who could not wait to meet her new forever friend.

When we arrived back we went straight over to the Lodge and showed Zeke to Kinky, which he said was precious, and then we went and found Rosie. And needless to say, "It was love at first sight for the both of them." Then we came home.

Late this afternoon Tony and I had a painting project. We painted the hallway, so we can turn it into a trailer photography gallery for Tony's beautiful pictures. It took us two hours to accomplish and I must admit that the hallway looks a lot better since repainting it. But, we are still not done. Hopefully, within the next few days, we will have either painted or sanded down the hall floor and have built a bookcase to put our tools on, then Tone's Gallery will be open for our friends to view and enjoy. When we finish our project and hang T.'s pictures on the walls— I will take pictures and show it off to y'all.

Tomorrow is going to be a fun day. Tomorrow morning Tony and I are getting up really early and going outside, at sunup, to do our morning chores, because our good friend Sandy Wolfmueller is coming out at 8:30 to ride with us to the Medina Community Library, for Hayden Hickner's very first book signing, at 9:30, for his beautifully written and illustrated children's book A Bear & The Bees and we are all so excited for him and I am betting that the whole town shows up, so we're going to try to get there a little bit early and grab a seat, before it becomes standing room only.

Well, that is about it for tonight, except for telling you about a mystery, musician man (friend of ours from Texas) that is coming out tomorrow afternoon to jam with us.

Y'all have a great evening and please keep praying for rain for us!

L—BeNT & Husky Bound's New Drummer!

Today has been good. This morning after returning several phone calls I went outside to clean pens and greet Eileen, Lisa and Jim, our great dog walking volunteers. Jim and I talked briefly about a leash strategy for Mr. Rogers and Miss Dee, after he had returned Layla and Little Girl to their pen.

A little while later when Lisa and Eileen were returning Laz and LaToya to their pen I went over to them and said, "Hi Eileen and Lisa.... Lisa, did you bring your ukulele with you, so we can practice?"

Thirty minutes later, after Tony and I had finished cleaning the dog pens, Tony drove Kermit and Lisa, Eileen and I walked up to the trailer and before we got there we were talking about Eileen being our band's Roadie and Sound Woman and after Eileen told us that she wished that she could play an instrument she says, "But, I bet I could play the drums though." Her words struck a chord.

"Eileen, I've got a drum kit for you to play! When we get to the trailer please remind me to get it for you, so you can give it a try. And I warn you—it's addictive." Then Eileen, our Roadie helped Lisa get her amp out of her car and carried it up the trailer, because she wanted to be a "good Roadie." Then Eileen plugged in our amps for us and then she sat down in the kitchen to watch us practice.

Right off of the bat, no one wanted to sing, so we all decided if we all sang as badly as we all said we did, no one would get embarrassed. Then we started playing and singing and every time that I would look up, Eileen would be smiling at me and tapping her toe and then I finally remembered that I had forgotten to get the drum kit out for Eileen, so I put my guitar back into its case and then went to my office to get my drum kit and pretty pink drumsticks.

And as soon as I had given Eileen my glittering, feathered sticks, plugged the kit into the kitchen wall socket and turned it on—Eileen blew us out of our saddles with her drumming skills! "OMG!" I said. "Eileen you play the drums so much better than I do and I took lessons. Y'all we've got a drummer!"

"Eileen you are playing great!" Lisa half-hollered, so Eileen could hear her over her drumming. In fact, the three of us were so impressed with Eileen's drumming I grabbed my camera and pretended to be taking still shots of her while I secretly took this short video of her unrehearsed drum recital. And here are a few pictures that Tony and I took of our band members with the exception of Ben, because he is in Austin.

When our practice session ended I persuaded Eileen to borrow my drum kit and take it home with her, so she could practice on it, outside in her new/used RV trailer, so not to drive Wayne crazy. And before the two band members packed up their equipment I said, "Eileen, we are so excited about you being our drummer, because we really needed one and we girls can just get Ben and Tony to be our Roadies and Sound Men. I'm sure they won't mind." Then Tony adios-ed them and then walked out of the room laughing at something.

Right after I had cleaned up our lunch dishes our friend Andy Hickner called to thank me for mentioning his son's new children's book, "A Bear & The Bees," on my blog last night and I told him that there was no need to thank me, because I love Hayden's book and I want everyone to read it and then we talked about Hayden's exciting, upcoming book signing on Thursday, the 28th at the Medina Community Library at 9:30 am. and about us getting together the week following Hayden's book signing for a fun visit. Then we talked about our mutual friends Sandy and Jon Wolfmueller and Charlie and Ellen Cooper and what good people they are. And after that he and I adios-ed each other.

Around 2:00, I picked up the phone and called Tammy back, about a cute, little male dog that she had rescued off of Highway 16 and I told her that we could take it, because we now had a space open up, because Enzo had been adopted this past Wednesday and she was thrilled that we could take him in. Before hanging up she told me that she would bring him out here around 5:00.

And Tammy didn't lie, because she and the small, sweet dog showed up at 5:00 and Tony and I instantly fell in love with him and I have named him Peter Sellers, because I loved Peter Sellers and this adorable dog reminds me of him, but I told Tony that we will call him Pete for short. 

Early this evening Tony called our dear friend Maribeth to see if she could come over to babysit the rescue ranch for us tomorrow, because we are going to go see Kinky get inducted into the 2011 Frontier Times Museum Texas Heroes Hall of Fame, on the Courthouse grounds, in Bandera, at high noon and she said, "Yes, I would love to. I'll see y'all tomorrow." Thank you, Maribeth.

And that is about it for today.

Y'all have a great evening and please keep praying for rain for us!