The Wild Hogs & Flying Pig!

I've been busy doing rescue ranch paperwork, etc. and having a lot of fun. Yesterday, Tony and I met our good friends Karon and Karen for lunch, before going to the big H-E-B to buy our dogs their annual Thanksgiving Dinner that sweet Eileen was going to sponsor, but those plans sort of changed during lunch, but change is good. You'll see.

Karon's baby sister Ronda sadly lost her battle with cancer, earlier this month and while we were eating lunch and talking about Karon's lost, she opened up her purse, and said, "Ronda loved all animals and she loved hearing about y'all's rescue ranch. Before Ronda passed she asked that in lieu of flowers being sent, she requested that donations be made to our favorite animal shelters. So, I want to donate this to you, in loving memory of Ronda to sponsor your Thanksgiving Dinner for the dogs, because I know Ronda would love it..." Then she handed me a folded $100.00 bill. And I almost teared up, but thank goodness I remembered to look up to keep the tears away.

So when we finished eating our lunch and were ready to pay our separate bills, when the waitress walked up to our table, and said, "All of y'all's lunch has already been paid for by a gentleman that was sitting over there. Karon and Karen looked at each other and then chuckled, because they knew it was their dear friend Troy, who had treated us to lunch. So she called him and thanked him for all of us.

Omg, the H-E-B parking lot was full and it was packed inside with "early birds" shopping for their Thanksgiving dinners. First, we went in with separate carts, so Tony could buy dog food for our rescue dogs and I could buy our groceries. And our plan was to meet back up, at Trigger, to unload the dog food and our groceries and then go back inside with one cart to buy the dog's Thanksgiving Dinner. And when we paid for their dinner, I handed the cashier Karon's hundred dollar bill and then wrote a check for $38.14 to cover the difference. And I want to thank Karon and Eileen for sponsoring our dog's turkey dinner.

When we left the store we ran into our good friend Jim aka The Mineral Man, in the parking lot. "It's a mad house in there," I warned Jim. And then we had a fun visit before coming home.

When we got back home, I decided to mow our front yard and back yard, to get some more exercise. When I finished I came back inside The Cabin and listened to Carlton's messages. And ten minutes later, we were over at Bill & Carol's ranch, visiting with them and Lori & Jeff, who were spending Thanksgiving with them. We had a lot of fun catching up with our friends and we made it home just in time for Tony to lock up Rooster Cogburn for the night, inside The Egg Palace.

Early this morning, our good friends Carol & Bill and Lori & Jeff came over, because they wanted to see the wild hogs that always show up, every morning, when Tony feeds the deer, Maya and our donkeys. So we got to have another fun visit with them, before all of us went over, to the Lodge, to visit with Kinky. And that's about it for today, but I do want to show you some pictures I took, last night, of our dog's strange sleeping habits. And yes, Little Debbie is venting in one of them.

And this one of Henry makes me laugh out loud, because he looks like he is giving my flying pig the evil eye.

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

Call Me, Bob!

Last night and today have been great for me, even though I have missed Tony. Last night, I enjoyed reading 83 pages of Donna Hatch's great book, For Every Goodbye. I didn't want to quit reading it, but I was feeling sleepy, so I decided to go to bed with our four dogs, in hopes that I might catch up on my beauty sleep. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

My four-legged slumber party with Mama, Roy, Belle and Beau was so much fun, we stayed up most of the night, kicking each other, stealing pillows from each other and trying to get comfortable, on Tony's and my queen-sized bed.

Around 1:00, Mama, my lovable twelve-year-old Great Pyrenees got into a snit and jumped off of the bed and went to sleep in our walk-in shower, because Roy was so gaseous. Around 3:00, Beau woke me up heaving loudly, before finally vomiting up something really big and ugly, on the floor. But the good news is, I didn't oversleep, because around 6:00, Belle heard something outside and she started barking and once again, used my stomach, as her soft, diving board to the floor.

After I fed all of our dogs, I took a baby Aspirin and then sat down and drank a delicious cup of Green Mountain Donut Shop Coffee. Then I showered, dressed and went outside to do Tony's and my chores alone.

Two and a half hours later, all of the dogs at the rescue ranch had been fed and their pens were cleaned and I was on Kermit, hauling two buckets of corn and pellets to feed to the deer, turkey and donkeys.

When I came inside The Cabin, Carlton was flashing, on top of the breakfast bar, so I pushed his button and heard him say, "You have one message."

Then I heard a very familiar, cheerful voice say, "Hi, Nancy! It's Carol. I have some great news for you. Yesterday, I sent Jeff an e-mail about you wanting to YouTube his song, that you harmonized with him, and he has just sent me an e-mail, telling me it was fine for you to let everyone hear it. I am so excited, because it is too funny. Everyone is going to laugh their pants off when they hear it....Okay, I'll call you later tonight. Bye."

Carol's great news made me laugh out loud and I could not wait to get that song up on YouTube. Then I started cooking lunch for me to eat and to later save for Tony, when he and Chet O'Keefe arrive back from Port Aransas, with Rick's bees and equipment.

Ten minutes later, while I was cooking, the phone rang, so I let Carlton take the call. "Nancy, are you there?" Tony asked. "We're in"

"Hi, Tony! I was cooking lunch. Did everything go okay?" I asked, as I watched Mama open the front door and go outside. "Where are y'all?"

"Sinton and no...." Tony was not a happy camper, in fact he was madder than a hornet. He told me that the roof, on top of the bee box blew off and bees were scattered everywhere. He had gotten stung about twenty times and Chet had gone to get duct tape to temporarily tape down the roof and some Ibuprofen, for their bee stings... To say the least, "I felt sorry for Tony and Chet and all of the trouble that they had had transporting the bees."

After lunch, I cleaned up the dishes and the kitchen and then I made a very short video, focused on my iPod, of me singing/ruining The Singing Safety's great, new song. This is what I wrote on YouTube to explain the short, thirty-seconds video:

"Several weeks ago, my dear friend Jeff Severson, using the name Bob, played two pranks on me, back to back, so I warned him that I would get even.

Knowing that Jeff, was having our dear musician friend, Chet O'Keefe, work and tweak some of Jeff's latest songs that Jeff had written, for Jeff's new CD, which is soon to be released, I asked Chet to help me get even with our friend, Jeff aka Bob, The Singing Safety!

A few days later, when Chet was set up and ready for me to record myself, purposefully singing off-key with Jeff—it took one recording and only thirty seconds to totally ruin Jeff's great song.

Then, as planned earlier, Chet sent Jeff an e-mail asking Jeff to please listen to some tweaks that Chet had added to his song and to let him know what he thought about the changes. And the rest is history.

Rumor has it that when Jeff heard me singing, he nearly fell out of his chair laughing! Thank you, Chet! We did it! And thank you, Carol, for getting Jeff to give me permission to YouTube it and post it on my blog." Here is a picture of Jeff aka Bob to look at before you listen to the prank that Chet and I played on our good friend. (Thank you, Jeff, for being a good sport and please—no more pranks!)

Click here to listen, to laugh at me and to share.

Around 2:29, the phone rang again. I was writing this post, so I let Carlton take the call for me. "Hello Nancy. This is Keith Olesen, calling you from California." I immediately jumped out of the kitchen chair and grabbed the phone.

"Hi Keith. Oh my goodness, I can't believe that it is you! I want to thank you so much for having that Kinky tequila, cigar party, with your friends, to raise money for our rescue ranch and for sending us that very, generous donation!"

"You're welcome. Next year we are going to do it again and try to raise enough money to sponsor a dog pen. Listen, the reason that I am calling you is to tell you that when I received your thank you letter, I saw the information about the upcoming Concert for Utopia and I want you to know that I have just bought two tickets and I will be flying in to be at the concert. My friend, in San Antonio, that you met at the Bonefit, years ago, at the ranch, with music legends Jeffery Jeff Walker and Ramblin' Jack Elliott, is coming to it, too...." After my good friend Keith and I visited for a few more minutes—we adios-ed each other and I am so looking forward to seeing him and his friend again, before the concert.

It is now nearly 3:30 and there is no word from Tony. I am betting that he and Chet show up by 4:30 and I cannot wait to see him. Hopefully, he will be in a much better mood and that his bee sting pain is gone. 

Just as I finished writing that last sentence—Tony called. He sounded a whole lot better. He and Chet are between Hondo and Bandera and they should be arriving here in about forty minutes. I plan to jump into Buttermilk and drive down to the gate entrance, with the windows closed tightly, in about thirty minutes, so I can greet them and welcome them back to the ranch. 

Around 4:23, when Buttermilk and I arrived outside the rescue ranch, I saw Trigger, with Chet and Tony inside wave and turn off, so Tony could drop Chet off, at the Lodge. A few minutes later, I saw Trigger headed towards me. Then I watched Tony put on his bee helmet, gloves, zip up his bee suit and jump out of Trigger, with bees flying everywhere.

I waved to Tony, as he marched past me, towards the rescue ranch, with a bunch of bees following him. After I had gasped, I turned Buttermilk around and slowly followed Tony and his flying friends. When he was halfway to The Cabin, I stopped and he jumped into Buttermilk's back seat. Then he talked about his and Chet's big, bee nightmare all of the way up to our trailer.

It seems what could go wrong, on their way home—went wrong and he is no longer sure about wanting to be a beekeeper. When he told me that tonight, when it gets dark outside, the bees would settle down and go back to their bee box, for the night. Then he would be able to put a piece of plywood down, where the roof used to be, on top of the house and secure it once and for all to contain the bees.

Even though I really felt sorry for Tony and all of his bee troubles today, at times it was hard not to laugh at the situation. And that is about it for today. I apologize for my blog being so long tonight, but there was much to tell. 

This evening I plan to continue reading Donna Hatch's fabulous book For Every Goodbye while Tony sits in his office, contemplating to bee or not to bee. Personally, I hope that he decides not to bee, because we can always buy honey locally and not get stung.

Y'all have a great evening!