My First Funeral! or Ashes To Ashes!

This morning I took this picture of some wildflowers that Tony had picked for me yesterday. Aren't they beautiful!

Today has been great. This morning Jon Wolfmueller called and he left an hilarious message for me, on Carlton, "Hello, Nancy. I'm glad that you got your marrying kit yesterday and that you are now an official preacher. I don't want to sign up for a wedding, but I do want you to do my funeral. I want to be the first, so put me down."

When I returned Jon's call I joked, "Jon, I would love to do your funeral and I will be glad to put you down in the ground, but don't die, just so I can make some extra spending money." Jon started laughing.

"How much is it?" Then we both started laughing.

"Jon, I have no idea. I guess I'll have three rates. The cheapest rate will be for friends and family. Then the middle rate will be for nice people, musicians, artists, authors and animal lovers. And the highest rate will be for arrogant people. What do you think?"

"Sounds good to me."

"You'll definitely get the Friends & Family rate and don't worry about the cost, because I will just send my bill to Sandy after we put you down..."

Today, in between visitors showing up for tours, I finally finished feng shui-ing Tony's and my bedroom closet and it feels great knowing that all of the de-cluttering has been done there. Then I did some much needed de-cluttering in the big room.

I removed old magazines, a few objects that had been gifts to me, but the most important thing that I removed was our beloved Thunder's urn, sitting on the top of our entertainment center, because every time that I looked at it—it made me miss her.

So, without telling T., I slipped outside with her urn, said a silent prayer to her and then I scattered her ashes in our front yard, then inside The Okay Corral and lastly around Yoda's and Lucky's grave, because they had all been best friends.

Late this afternoon, T. and I went outside to replace the old, solar battery inside The Eternal Squirrel, that rests on top of Yoda's grave and after Tony had replaced the battery and set the Eternal Squirrel back in place, he began to dust off the top of the little solar panel and I quietly gasped, because it wasn't dust that he was removing from the top of the solar panel and the top of the grave—it was Thunder's ashes instead.

I decided it just wasn't the right time or the place to tell Tone about me earlier scattering her ashes right there, so I said, "Hey, let's go water the garden and the flowers." And seconds later we were inside The Okay Corral, happily watering away.

I am really glad that I did remove Thunder's urn, from The Cabin and did scatter her ashes outside, because I am no longer saddened whenever I look towards the entertainment center. And trust me, I will tell T. about doing it, if and when he ever notices that her urn is missing. Ashes to ashes...

Y'all have a great evening!

Zeus!

Y'all, I have been trying to write a blog tonight, but with the many interruptions on the Internet tonight and the rolling power outrages, due to the coldest weather that we have ever seen—I've given up.

Today has been a great day thanks to the kind comments made by Mari and 'Erb and for Charlie and Ellen Cooper, our Angel Neighbors, showing up this morning, to help us this morning,  to feed the dogs, clean their pens and watering the dogs, and for the caring phone calls from Jon Wolfmueller, Rick, the friendly lighthouse keeper, down in Port Aransas and Joni, the publisher and my editor for the new, great magazine "Texas Animal Imprints."

As of this morning, Kinky's pipes are frozen and he has no water over at the Lodge, but fortunately, we have cold water, but no hot water. It has been a rough and hectic day today and it ain't over, yet. The temp right now is 19 degrees and dropping to 15 degrees by morning, but tomorrow it is supposed to warm up finally—thank goodness.

I have some super great news about Zeus being adopted out tomorrow, but I will tell you all about it tomorrow, when the sun comes out tomorrow, because I'm fixin' to go to bed now, because I'm doing Harley in the morning at 7:45.

Y'all have a great evening! And stay warm. Burr......I can't believe that people chose to live in this kind of weather, because I need the sun and it's warmth,

They Grabbed Me!

Today has been so much fun even though Mercury in retrograde wreaked a little havoc right before sunset.  This morning I got up real early so I could do my morning chores, walk with Leslie and get the trailer cleaned up, because my good friend, Joni Daniel, the Publisher of "Texas Animal Imprints" magazine, the one that I write a bi-monthly column for, was coming out to visit us around one-ish and I couldn't wait to see her!

Around eleven-thirty, while I was cooking our lunch the phone rang—it was Jon Wolfmueller. After we said our howdys to each other he started laughing and said, "Have you gotten your mail today?"

"No. Why?"

"We just got our mail and I wanted to tell you that we got the new Club Ed's 2011 Spring catalog of classes and you're in it!"

"What? Are you serious?" I asked, with excitement.

"Yes. When I picked up the catalog to look at it, I opened it up on page 55 and there was a picture of you and a short article about "Cousin Nancy Loves Club Ed" and I nearly fell out of my chair. It's a good picture of you and a great write-up by Phil Houseal—you're famous, Nancy..." Jon and I talked a few minutes more about how excited I was being featured in Club Ed's catalog and what a nice man Phil Houseal was, and before we hung up I thanked Jon for letting me know.

Then I went back to cooking and then the phone started ringing off of the wall—with friends and well wishers telling me that I was in the 2011 Club Ed catalog! To say the least, I was more than thrilled. Thank you, Phil—you made my day today and I am so honored that you included me in the catalog!

After lunch I walked two more miles with Leslie, to complete my total of eight miles walked today and then I cleaned up. An hour or so later Joni showed up in her cute, baby-blue colored VW Bug convertible, with her sister Julie!

As we drank coffee and nibbled on Ellen Jackson's delicious holiday cookies, inside the trailer, we caught up with each other's news and then we started talking about the magazine and the upcoming "Texas Animal Imprints" January/ February issue. And by the time that conversation ended—it looks like T. will have one of his beautiful pictures appear on the cover of "Texas Animal Imprints" magazine! I don't know who was more excited about it, but I think Tony was. I am so proud and happy for him. "Tony!" I said. "You're a professional photographer and can now brag that your pictures have appeared in magazine articles and on magazine covers, calendars and books, too. I love it!" T. blushed and said nothing, but I could tell that he was more than happy about it.

We had the best visit with Joni and Julie, even though it was too short, but there was so much laughing I had to take an Aspirin. After we went outside and visited with all of our rescued dogs—they told us that they had to leave and we hated to see them go.

After Julie and Joni left the rescue ranch, Tone printed out and showed me two pictures to get my opinion on them and I absolutely loved them—they grabbed me! And, when we went over to the Lodge to give Joni's gift to Kinky, we took the pictures with us for Kinky and Marcie to see and they thought they were beautiful, too! And here they are. The second one is of Little Jewford and Shalom on the ranch and I think these pictures look like paintings.

Y'all have a great evening!

The Mexican Food Miracle!

Whew! Today has been interesting to say the least, so to set the mood before telling you about it, I have turned on my Himalayan Salt Lamp and cranked up my iPod and Neil Young is singing "Harvest Moon" one of my all time favorite songs.

This morning I didn't walk because I had too much paperwork to do. I spent four hours writing thank you letters to many of our supporters who made a $50.00 or more donation to the rescue ranch and then I packed mailers with a signed copy of Max Swafford's The Kinky File to send to them as a free thank you gift for helping us.

By twelve thirty I was exhausted and ready for Tony to drive me to Medina to mail out the books with  enclosed thank you letters. After writing the Post Master a check for eighty-eight dollars and twenty cents I climbed back into Buttermilk and she took us to Bandera so I could make a deposit at the bank.

Then we got on Highway 173 headed for Kerrville, because we needed to go to H-E-B to buy dog food for our rescue dogs and that's when things started getting interesting.

"Tony, can we stop by the Camp Verde Store before going into Kerrville," I asked. "I need to buy a new pair of Crocs, because I've worn out my old, pink pair. The bottoms are smooth." T. nodded his head yes.

Four miles later and twelve miles from Kerrtown, Tony pulled off of the highway and parked Buttermilk across the street from the coolest store on 173. After Tone had done "The Procedure" which consists of rolling down his window, unlocking the doors and opening his door from the outside and then rolling the window back up—we got out of Buttermilk and then went into the store that has a little bit of everything.

As always it was full of tourists and the friendliest staff helping people check out or find something. When a smiling sales clerk asked me if she could help us, I told her no thank you, because I knew where their Crocs were.

When we went into the Croc room and saw the many colorful Crocs displayed on an entire wall it made me smile, because Crocs have good vibes and that's why people buy them—the knock offs don't have good vibes. Tony was getting antsy even though it only took me fifteen minutes to decide on which pair to buy.

When we went to the check out counter, as I was pulling our my checkbook the young woman said, "Oh dear. You don't want to buy these Crocs, because they are mismatched— one shoe is bigger than the other one. Let me help you find a matched pair." Right then I should have taken it as an omen, but I didn't and we followed her back to the Croc room.

Ten minutes later as T. paced back and forth and grumbled about "starving to death" the helpful clerk told me that she couldn't find a matched size for the pair I had wanted and then she started pulling Crocs in my size off of the wall, so I could make a decision on which ones to purchase. "I don't like the orange or the yellow ones," I said. "Do you have my size in the pink or turquoise?" She looked and looked, but they had none in those colors that were a size small.

Seven minutes later, as Tony grimaced and rubbed his stomach to show me that he was going into "starvation mode," I thanked the super nice, young woman and told her that I really wanted pink Crocs and would come back when their new stock came in.

As we crossed the street to Buttermilk Tony said, "Let's go to The Save Inn right now. I am feeling weak, Nance."

I ignored him and said, "I love this giant, camel metal sculpture. Isn't it cool!" Tone ignored me and climbed into Buttermilk, turned the ignition switch and nothing happened. Then he did it again and again and again and nothing happened. "Looks like Buttermilk's died, again." I said, as I pulled my cell phone from my purse. "Who can we call to help us?"

Tony who was now knockin' on death's door managed to do "The Procedure" and then he got out of Buttermilk and opened her hood and stared at the engine. Then he picked up a big rock and started banging on the battery as tourists getting in and out of their cars watched us. "Nance, it's her battery cables. One is loose and I don't have any tools in the car. I need a wrench." Then he said a couple of cuss words to Buttermilk. "Call Jon. Maybe he can help us out." I called Jon and told him about the predicament we were in and he told me that he was on his way to help. Then I went into the store and asked a clerk if we could borrow a small wrench from them.

One minute later, she returned with a small, pretty, blue wrench and handed it to me. "It's pretty hot outside. Would y'all like some tea or lemonade? It's on the house." I thanked her for the kind offer, but told her no thank you and then went outside to give my starving husband the cute, little wrench. Unfortunately, the wrench didn't help, because the threads on the screw were stripped, so I went back across the street and returned the wrench.

As we sat on a retaining wall in the shade waiting for Jon to arrive, Tony grumbled as his stomach grumbled louder. "Tony, I know why this has happened! Mercury is in retrograde, again." T. said nothing. And then Jon Wolfmueller pulled up and parked next to Buttermilk.

"I brought my tools and jumper cables," Jon said, wearing a big smile on his face. After Tony and him talked about the cables Jon suggested that we try to jump start Buttermilk. After the men hooked up the battery cables, Jon started his engine and gave life to Buttermilk!

"Buttermilk lives once, again!" I said. "Jon, thank you so much for rescuing us. You're our Croc-idile Dundee." Then I told him about stopping at the store to purchase Crocs. "Seriously, Jon, we want to take you out to lunch or dinner for helping us. Sandy can't go because she didn't help." We all started laughing as T. and Jon removed the jumper cables. "Jon, this happened because Mercury is in retrograde, again..."

Jon rolled his eyes and then he and Tony started laughing as we climbed into our vehicles. Jon followed us all of the way to Balser's Northside Automotive and then he took off for Wolfmueller Books.

While the nice mechanic repaired Buttermilk, Tony and I sat next door at Acapulco Mexican Food Restaurant eating a very late lunch that literally saved Tone's life. Thank goodness for the Mexican food miracle!

An hour later we were back at the ranch and I was reading the sweetest, five page, fan mail letter that came today from a woman in Germany. Karin P. wrote to tell me that she loved reading my blog and my first book and that she is a Libra like me and nearly the same age as me. She also told me that she loves Kinky and found me when she went to his home page. She said that her husband Jusgen is going to buy my second book for her birthday present on October 4th.

After reading her sweet and humorous letter I felt honored and I have decided to mail her a free signed copy of my book tomorrow—for her birthday. Her letter has made my day. Thank you, Karin! With Mercury in retrograde I hope it gets there before your fifty-fourth birthday.

At ten minutes past six this evening the phone rang—it was Jon. "Hi, Jon!"

"Hi, Nancy. I was calling to make sure y'all made it home."

"No, Jon," I joked. "We're still in Kerrville and haven't gotten home, yet, but thanks for checking." He burst out laughing. "Here's your sign. I'm sorry, Jon. I couldn't resist it."

"I told Sandy what you said about wanting to take me out to lunch or dinner to thank me, but she wasn't invited because you said that she didn't help. Anyway, she wants to go and says she helped by holding down the fort at the bookstore." He and I started laughing.

"Okay. Well, tell Sandy that she can go, but we're not paying for her dessert, because she helped some, but not as much as you did." Jon repeated my words back to Sandy and I could hear her laughing in the background. "Bye."

Y'all have a great eveing!

Thanks!

Today has been full of nice surprises. This morning after I walked eight miles our great volunteers Matt, Meghann, Danika and a friend arrived to help Tony and walk our dogs.

During our visit I asked Matt if his cowboy hat was still working. "Yes, ma'm!" Matt said. "I love my cowboy hat and so do the women. In fact, I've got a girlfriend that I want you to meet. She's really sweet..." After Matt's hat update Meghann told us about her and Lisa's duplex that they have rented and how cool it was. Hearing their good news made me happy for them.

After lunch T. and I took Lucky to Hoegemeyers Animal Clinic because he wasn't feeling good. Lucky is our beloved three-legged cat and he is over fourteen years old. Our ride to Kerrville was not enjoyable because Lucky hates being crated so he screamed and made god awful sounds the entire twenty-two miles.

When we arrived at the clinic they were very busy with clients. After a quick examination by the vet he told us that he wanted to keep Lucky overnight so he could examine him more thoroughly. Our next stop was at the Post Office so I could mail out a copy of Tom D. Wells' book Drop-Ins to my sister Cindy. Then we went to another one of my favorite places in Kerrville—the Wild Birds Unlimited store.

When we got out of Buttermilk to go into the store the first thing I noticed was this beautiful, gigantic wind chime hanging out on the sidewalk. "Tony, I love this wind chime! I wonder how much it is?" Then I looked at the price tag and frowned knowing I couldn't afford it.

"How much is it?" Tone asked.

"Nearly four hundred dollars," I replied. "It is definitely worth that much money, but I ain't paying it. I'll bet you that I can make one like that for a lot less money." Then we walked inside the store and were greeted by the friendly owner. "I love your giant wind chime outside," I said as I walked over to the seed cake treats display. "And I love your store. The vibes in here are fantastic!" I grabbed two packages of Woodpecker Picnic seed cakes that Jon Wolfmueller had highly recommended we use and then we browsed around the store at all of their cool bird products before paying for the seed cakes. Then we headed home.

Before turning off Highway 16 we went to the mailboxes to get our mail and we had a lot of it. As Tony slowly drove the last two and a half miles to the rescue ranch I looked at our mail. Most of it was advertisements asking us to buy things that we didn't need or want. Then I opened up a package from my sister Cindy. She had sent me the cutest card and a mystery book that we had talked about, that she thought I would love to read because it takes place around the Texas Hill Country. The name of the book is Chile Death by Susan Wittig Albert and I can't wait to read it and I plan to start reading it tonight. 

Then I opened up a card sent to me from Will Hoover, my good writer friend who lives in Hawaii. A while back I had sent him a copy of my new book, because he is in one of the stories. The minute I opened up the card I laughed out loud when I saw Hoover's picture. I showed Tony the picture of Will that was taken at the Jimmie Rodgers Museum in Meridian, Mississippi on September 8, 2009 and he laughed, too. Then I read his sweet note out loud.

I spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone and taking care of ranch business. Early this evening I got a call from Dr. Rydberg about Lucky and it was not good news. He told me that we can pick Lucky up tomorrow and bring him home and that we should count every week that he is with us as a blessing. Kinky and Tony were both upset when I told them the news about Lucky.

I am feeling pretty sad about Lucky tonight, but before I end tonight's blog I want to thank my sweet sister Cindy and fellow Libra friend Will Hoover for making me smile and laugh today.

Y'all have a great evening.

I Need To Take A Nap!

It is seven-fifteen in the morning as I write. Today is going to be a busy day for me and I still don't know what I am going to wear tonight. Since Kinky and I will be signing our books at the Kerrville Folk Festival tonight I am writing today's blog early and have scheduled it to post at eight o'clock this evening.

Last night at eight-forty-five, right after I posted my blog the phone rang—it was Kinky. "Nancy! Tony! Nancy..."

"Hello, Kinky. What's up?"

"Nance, we're leaving Kerrville right now and we're heading back to the ranch," Kinky said. "I need a favor. Daniel Taub, a reporter for Bloomberg News is staying at the ranch tonight and he wants to see the rescue ranch early tomorrow morning before he leaves for Austin to catch a plane back to Los Angeles."

"That's fine, Kinky. How early do y'all want to come over?"

"I want to bring him over there a little after six in the morning, because he has to be at the airport before nine. Is that okay?"

"That's fine. Do you need a wake up call?"

"Yes, if you don't mind. How about six o'clock?" As soon as I got off of the phone I went back to Tony's office and told him what was going on and then I asked him to wake me up at five and then I got busy.

After vacuuming the trailer with Hazel I made six egg and cheese breakfast tacos and then I wrapped them in foil and put them in the refrigerator. Then I ground some of Ben's gourmet coffee beans that he gave to us for Christmas, filled Mr. Coffee with water so I wouldn't have to do it this morning. Then I sat down and started reading Tom Well's book, Drop-Ins and I was immediately hooked and did not want to put it down when it was time for me to go to bed.

This morning when our alarm clock went off at five o'clock Tony was already up and dressed. After I dressed I put the breakfast tacos in the oven and started Mr. Coffee. Then I fed Lucky and the dogs.

At a quarter till six I punched in Kinky's phone number and he picked up on the first ring. "Good morning, Nance. We're up. Can we come over now?"

"Sure, but I need to go open the gate." I said. "I've got some breakfast tacos and coffee made for y'all."

"That sounds great. We'll be over there in a couple of minutes. Bye." As soon as I put the phone back in the cradle I jumped in Trigger and went down and opened our gate. Five minutes later as the sun was coming up I went outside and greeted Daniel and Kinky as they walked up to the trailer. Then I invited them inside for some coffee and breakfast tacos.

While we sipped coffee and they ate breakfast we had a fun visit. We mainly talked about the rescue ranch as Daniel took notes. After he told us about his and his wife's adopted, rescue dog that was part Beagle and Bassett I gave Daniel a copy of both of my books about our rescue ranch.

At six-fifteen it was time for them to leave so Daniel could get on the road. After Daniel gave me his business card I said, "Daniel, it was really nice meeting you. I want you to know that you have set a new rescue ranch record. We have never had anyone tour our rescue ranch this early in the morning and I am going to blog about it." Everyone laughed.

Daniel was so nice. He apologized for having to come over so early and I told him that I was teasing him and that it was no big deal at all. Then he thanked me for the breakfast and the books and then he and Kinky said goodbye to us and left.

It is now eight o'clock in the morning. Tony has not come back from the Old Timer, yet and I feel like I need to take a nap. Will write more later. I've got to go over to the Lodge to see Kinky.

8:45AM

While I was over at the Lodge Kinky and I talked about needing to take a nap, tonight's book signing, tomorrow's Chisholm Winery book signing and then we had a business meeting. Before I left I noticed a Nixon plate clock on Kinky's kitchen table and I laughed out loud. "I love your clock, Kinky!" Kinky and I both laughed as we looked at it. "Good grief! You can hear it ticking!" There was a moment of silence as we listened to it tick.

"You can have it, Nance," Kinky said. "It needs to be worked on. Take it." I did as I was told and took it with me when I left the Lodge.

When I returned to the trailer with the 37th President clock I showed it to Tony and it made him laugh, too. Then we went outside and took pictures of this Luna moth on the front porch. Here is the picture that I took.

Now I am going outside to clean dog pens and then I plan to take a much needed nap.

10:40AM

I just came in from cleaning the dog pens. When I started cleaning Hank's and Nellybelle's pen Jim McMahon, our great dog-walking volunteer arrived. After a short visit with him he leashed up Blackie and Alfie and took them for a walk.

Thirty minutes later while I was cleaning Mr. Rogers and Miss Dee's pen our friends and great volunteers Ellen and Eileen arrived to walk our dogs and I couldn't wait to talk to them about Jermaine Jackson and Callie Dean Gotke, because I love getting updates on the dogs they adopted from us.

"Callie is doing fantastic," Eileen said. "She is so smart! And she already knows how to sit on command and..." Then it was Ellen's turn to brag.

"Jermaine is doing good too. Last week he..." Their stories were funny and we did a lot of laughing. After Jim returned Alfie and Blackie to their pen he came over and asked if he could buy a copy of my book from me so Ellen and Eileen took off to walk some dogs and I came inside the trailer and signed a book to Jim and then took it out to him.

After lunch I cleaned up the kitchen and then told Tony that I had to take a nap because I was exhausted from lack of sleep so I went and laid down on the bed with Lucky and my dogs and Tony took off for Kerrville to run a few errands.

1:45PM

I just got up because I couldn't fall to sleep because I kept trying to figure out what I'm going to wear tonight. I know that tonight will be fun no matter what I decide to wear and I am hoping that I will sell a lot of books and will get to see Jim Finney an old friend of mine from Austin.

I've known Finney since the eighties. I met him when he was a roadie and the sound man for Ray Benson's Asleep At The Wheel band. He used to come by our embroidery business to pick up the hats and jackets that we sewed for the band and that's how we became good friends.

Our paths crossed in the Fall of 2007, when Tony and I went with Kinky to Kerrville to see Ray Benson's play "A Ride With Bob." After we got off of Ray's bus I asked one of the cast members about Jim and he told me that he was their Road Manager and doing the sound that night then he took me over to see him. We caught up with each others news before and after the show and it was really great seeing him, again. And Tony liked him, too. The dogs just started barking. Gotta go—some body is here!

4:15PM

It was our friend Richard of Richard and Jane. When I went out to greet him he told me that he had something that he wanted to talk to me about so we went into Outer Space. After we sat down Richard told me that he had talked to Jon Wolfmueller the other day about the book he is writing and Jon had told him to talk to me about self-publishing. So I told him everything I knew about publishing within forty-five minutes then another unfamiliar car pulled up to the trailer and two people got out.

As we walked out the gate to greet them Richard thanked me for my time and then drove away. "Hi, I'm Nancy. Can I help, y'all?" Laurie and Bob introduced themselves and then told me about the trouble they were having trying to catch a feral cat at the cabin they were staying at, so I invited them to go into Outer Space with me so we could talk, because I liked them.

After we discussed their cat problem Bob told me that he was a musician and he knew Kinky. "I played guitar with Jerry Jeff at your first Bonefit."

"Wow! That was a great night at the La Zona Rose!" I said with enthusiasm. "That event was on March 10th 1999—the day Tony and I got married..." Well, as usual I talked my head off and we discovered we had mutual friends in the music business. He knew Finney and Henry Gonzales, too. Near the end of our fun conversation I called Kinky to see if we could come over. "Kinky, it's Nance. Your friend Bob Livingston and Laurie are over here. Can we come over?"

"The Bob Livingston? The one and only Bob Livingston?" Kinky teased.

"Yes, the Bob Livingston." Bob and Laurie laughed and then they followed me and Kermit over to the Lodge and we had a really fun visit with Kinky. Then Laurie and Bob came back to the rescue ranch to borrow one of our "live traps." After they left I went back over to the Lodge to discuss tonight with Kinky. Before coming home we decided to caravan to the festival and leave a little after six.

I just got home and it is four -twenty and I am starting to go into panic mode, because I still don't know what to wear and I need to take a nap.

To Be Continued...

One, Two, Three!

Today has been fun! This morning when I was four minutes away from walking six miles, the phone rang, so I let Carlton take the call. "Hello Nance! Nancy are you there? I'm at the airport..."

As I listened to Kinky, I decided to take the call. I paused Leslie, picked up the phone, and hit the speaker button, so I could walk circles around the big room, while talking to Kinky. "Hi Kinky! Where are you headed?"

"Hi Nance!" Kinky said. "I'm glad I caught you. We're headed to Kansas City in just a few minutes. How are you doing and have you seen The Friedmans?"

"I'm fine, and yes, The Friedmans are doing fine." Then I told him about rescuing Clark Kent and he thought it was super, and he was looking forward to meeting him.

"The plane's fixin' to take off. I've got to go. And remember Nance, keep on laughing. It's important. Take care. Bye." As soon as we disconnected, I pushed the play button and finished my workout with Les.

Around eleven o'clock, our good friend, Todd, showed up to walk our dogs! I am so happy that our dogs are getting so much attention, and getting walked everyday by our super volunteers! Thank you, Todd!"

While Todd was outside hiking with our dogs, I sat down at my laptop, and worked on my book, because earlier this morning when Tone came home,  I declared today off, so I could try to finish my book. 

While I was working on the design for the  jacket cover, the phone rang—it was Rick, in Port Aransas. He wanted to know if I had tried my sparkling apple cider, yet. "Not yet, Rick. I am planning on trying it out this evening." We talked for a few minutes about his secret recipe, and the 'loose lid' technique that I needed to be careful about, so Cousin Nancy's Sparkling Apple Champagne, wouldn't blow up in the fridge! I hope that I don't have to redesign the label and put a warning on it!

At one o'clock, I was so frustrated with my design, I decided I needed to take a short nap with my fur babes. Unfortunately for them, our nap didn't last long, because I had a 'ligh tbulb moment' about my book and the jacket cover design! In less than ten minutes of nap time with my buddies, I jumped out of the bed, and went to my computer. The first thing I did was to change the title, then I took off my boots, and replaced them with my pink Crocs. Then I grabbed my camera and shot my pink boots! That's all that I can tell you right now, but I am thrilled with the new title, and the new jacket design!

Around two-thirty, while I was in my office, trying to replace a black ink cartridge, so I could print out a copy of my revised book, Tony half-hollered from his office, "Nance! Come in here! Mari wants to talk to you! She's at Wolfmueller's, and she and Jon are online!"

"Mari, of The NoMads?"

"Yes!" Thirty seconds later I was in Tone's office talking and laughing with Mari and Jon, from Tony's computer! 

We talked about the funny 'pink boot' cartoons that Mari has been sending to me, and then I told Jon and Mari about the new title, and the jacket design for the book. They told me that they loved my new title, and they thought my idea for the artwork, for the book cover, sounded great! They had made my day and didn't even know it! Then I had another 'light bulb moment!'

"Y'all stay right there! I'm going to get my camera, and take a picture of y'all! I'll be right back!" I race walked into the kitchen, and grabbed my camera and then returned to T.'s office. "Okay y'all, on the count of three I am going to shoot you! One, two, three!

I love the picture of Mari and Jon, and I can't believe that technology has come so far! I would have never guessed in a million years that I could look and talk to friends twenty-two miles away! Wow!

Y'all have a great evening!

Cheaters!

The reason that I didn't write a blog yesterday, was because unfortunatley, I am not a computer nerd. Yesterday morning started out great!

At seven-forty-five, I called The Rose 99.9, to do The Harley Show live. Harley had me laughing in thirty-seconds, and it was a lot of fun! His Pet of the Week was Moe Bandy! After trying to sell the listening audience on Moe, I told Harley about my true love—Hudson, and I couldn't quit talking about what a great dog he is. After doing the Harley Show, the phone rang—it was Kinky.

"Good morning, Nance," Kinky said. "I think you should adopt Hudson!"

"Were you listening to The Harley Show? And, where are you?"

"Yes, and I really think that you should adopt him. He is precious, and I just drove through Fredericksburg, I'm going to eat breakfast in Johnson City, then..." Kink and I talked for about ten minutes. He had left the ranch early, because he had to be in Dallas before one o'clock.

After walking six miles, and when Tone was finished outside, we ate lunch. Then we decided to go to San Antone to get my long awaited Apple computer! To say the least, I was excited! As we were fixing to enter The Apple Store, a very tall man, carrying a new Apple computer, nodded his head at us and said hello. We said, "hi," as we passed by him.

"Nance!" Tony said, with excitement! "That was David Robinson! I can't believe it!"

"Who is David Robinson?"

"He is one of the greatest Spurs players ever! He's over seven feet tall and..." As Tony filled me in, I went to the display table and found the computer that I wanted. Then a friendly nerd showed up to help me. As we checked out, Tony asked the nice nerd, if David Robinson, had just been in the store. The nerd nodded, yes. That made T. even more excited.

Ten minutes later, Buttermilk was taking us back to the rescue ranch.

When we got home, I unpacked "Roy" and then immediately gave the computer a test drive! I loved it for three hours! But, because I am not that computer savvy, things started going south. The upgraded software was a little confusing, and I got confused on how to transfer my files from the old "Roy." I knew that I was trying to do too much, too fast, and I found myself getting overwhelmed. So, I called Jon Wolfmueller, to ask him to walk me through the iChat software.

Jon was great! But, after fifteen minutes into my lesson, I gave up, because I couldn't remember the one, out of four thousand different passwords that I use, so I pulled the plug. "I'm sorry, Jon, not tonight. I'm truly exhausted. Thank you for helping me. Let's try it again in a few days. I wish I was nerd, as in Nancy Nerd, but I'm not. Bye." Jon was laughing at me, as I hung up the phone.

This morning, at ten-thirty, Ashley Judd got adopted! Fingers crossed, we hope that she has found her forever home! Tim and Chrissy, the young couple who adopted her, are super people and that's what Ashley deserves! Here's a picture of Ashley, who was Miss April, in this year's rescue ranch calendar! Isn't she beautiful!

Today, after lunch, we went to Kerrville to get a few supplies. While we were in Walmart, Tony says, "Nance, you might ought to think about getting some new glasses, before you take your driving test next week. You might flunk it with those old wire rims."

"Thanks, Tone," I said, a little sarcastically, as we headed to the 'Cheap Cheaters' department. They didn't have any wire rims that I liked, so as I tried on one ugly plastic pair after another, and then having to force myself to look into the mirror, I started laughing! I said, "That cousin family reunion tomorrow is going to be hilarious! It's been nearly twenty or thirty years, since I've seen some of my cousins, and I can just see everyone looking at everyone else and thinking, how much older everyone looks than them! I wish you were going with me. You'd be one of the youngest ones there, and I could tell everyone that I robbed the cradle!" Here are my new 250+ powered $8.95 cheaters!

I'm going up to Dripping Springs, tomorrow morning, with the help of Garmina, Tony's GPS, and hopefully I want get lost. I will be spending the night at Ronnie's, so I won't be blogging tomorrow night.

Y'all have a great evening!

Hello New Mexico! Here Comes The Hobbit Express!

Today has been a lot of fun! This morning I went to Kerrville, because Cindy Pickard had asked me to do her a favor. She had asked me to meet her at San Saba Cap, at ten o'clock, because she was getting her signs aka 'vinyl skins' put on her new FJ Toyota! I was one minute late.

When I arrived, Cindy was outside, with the owner, discussing the placement of the beautiful signs. "Hi Nancy," Cindy said. "I want you to meet John Baker. He owns San Saba Caps." John and I shook hands. "Didn't these turn out great!" My long time best friend asked, as she showed them to me.

"They're beautiful," I said. When Cindy and John were done, I told John that I had been in the embroidery business for over twenty years, and that I was very impressed with his work. Then we went inside his store, and Paul McCullar, came up to us and said hello to Cindy, and then he introduced himself to me. Paul and I quickly got to talking about being in the embroidery business, so he gave Cindy and me a tour of their work area, where their embroidery equipment is. Wow! This company was big time! In fact, they had so many sewing heads—it made my head spin!

When Cindy and I left San Saba Cap, we ran a couple of errands. Our last stop was at Pier One. When we walked out the store's door, I was carrying a sack with two gifts, that Cindy had bought for me!

On our way back to San Saba Cap, we ran into a traffic jam—and we were stranded at the corner where Wolfmueller's Books is a few doors down from. As we watched some kind of giant government equipment, that was causing the backup, slowly start moving. I looked over at Cindy, and saw Jon Wolfmueller waving at me from the corner! Cindy quickly rolled down Trigger's window, "Hi Jon!" I half-hollered. Before Jon could speak, the traffic jam was over, and I had to take off! Sorry Jon.

When we pulled up at San Saba Cap, Cindy and I were in shock, when we saw her beautifully decorated FJ! "It's perfect!" Cindy said, with excitement in her voice.

"OMG Cindy, it's beautiful!..." John came out and met us, as we climbed out of Trigger, and he was wearing a bigger smile than Cindy was. Here are some pictures that Cindy took of it, when she got home. By the way, Cindy named her FJ—the Hobbit Express! I love it!



Late this afternoon, I went over to the Lodge and had a fun visit with Kinky, Will Wallace and Copper Love! Copper is the artist, that did all of the artwork for Kinky's new self-published book, Heroes Of A Texas Childhood, which should be coming out real soon!

Around four o'clock I returned to the rescue ranch. Twenty minutes later, Will came over to borrow some tools from Tone. We had a nice visit with him. As soon as Will was gone, Kinky showed up with two people from Southern Living magazine! "Nance, Tone," Kinky said. This is Jennifer McKenzie Frazier, and Robbie Caponetto. They want to shoot me over here."

After howdies and handshakes, we all went into Outer Space for a short visit, with these two nice people. When Robbie pulled his camera out and started shooting Kinky, I went to get my camera. When I came back, I asked Robbie if he would mind if I shot Kinky, too. He had no problem with it! I shot Kinky seventy-three times! Here is a picture of Robbie and Jennifer and a few pictures of Kinky.



When the shooting had commenced, we took them on a tour of the rescue ranch. They loved my writing cabin, and admired the painting, 'The Von Kinky Family Singers,' that Dusty Pendleton had done! Then we went on the dog tour. Jennifer fell in love with several of our dogs, while Robbie shot Kinky several more times with our dogs. Jennifer told me that the article will probably be in their upcoming November issue of Southern Living! I can't wait!

Before I go watch a movie, I want to say that I met four new people today, that impressed me, and that I really liked. Thank you, Paul and John, and Jennifer and Robbie! Y'all rock!

Y'all have a great evening!

So Far, I've Walked Two Miles Today!

This morning, I heated up some of Carol's homemade pumpkin bread and whipped up some smoothies. When Tony returned from Medina, I asked him to please try a slice of Carol's Fairy Tale Pumpkin Bread, even though he does not like pumpkin or believe in fairies. He said he would try a slice.

So, I spread Carol's Greek strained organic yogurt, onto our warm slices of pumpkin bread, (Carol had brought the yogurt along with her loaf, and recommended that we make sure and spread it on the top of our slices.) OMG! It was absolutely delicious! And, Tony loved it, too! In fact, when he sliced his third piece, I said, "Tony isn't that yogurt great with the bread? I was just reading the label, and it is low in calories and really good for us!"

"Nance," Tone said. "I think that you are wrong. This isn't yogurt—it's frosting. Carol just used the container." I thought about it and he was right.

"Great! I just ate a ton of that frosting, because I thought it was low calorie and nutritious yogurt, and now it looks like I am going to have to walk four to six miles today!" Tony laughed, and then drank the rest of his smoothie. "What do you think of the smoothie I made?"

"I like it," T. said. "What new ingredients did you put into it this morning?"

"Fairy Tale Pumpkin!" I said. After cleaning up the kitchen, I did my first two mile brisk walk—using my weights.

At ten o'clock, I was on the phone with Jon Wolfmueller. "Jon, last night when I was fixin' to go to bed, I went to the backdoor to bring Mama and Abbie inside, but they didn't come in! I panicked first, and then I woke Tony up! He got dressed, put on his boots, grabbed his giant flashlight, and then went outside to the backyard. Five minutes later, all three were back inside the trailer. Jon, you're not going to believe what they did! This morning, Tony goes out to the garden to check on it. When he comes back inside, he is madder than a wet hen, because Mama and Abbie had eaten all of his five to six inch broccoli plants!"

Jon laughed, and then he asked me if I could help him find the infamous Mari, of the NoMads, because he had lost her phone number. Then Tony walks inside the trailer to tell me that Jennifer B. and her family were here to adopt Fred Astaire! I told Jon that I needed to get off of the phone, and go outside for an adoption! We said our goodbyes.

I knew that Jennifer and her family were coming out this morning, because earlier in the week, she had called me about adopting Fred! They were in love with Fred and couldn't wait to meet him! She promised that they would be here at ten o'clock. So, earlier this morning, I had filled out his adoption papers, and was ready for the adoption!

I went outside to greet Jennifer and her family. Fred's tail was—just wagging in the rain! The B.'s had brought their son, Michael, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, who they had adopted from us a while back, to make sure that Fred and Rebecca would get along. Rebecca is a 'smiler' and she grinned, when she saw me! In fact, she wouldn't quit grinning! She was happy and she looked great!

As Jennifer filled out Fred's adoption form, Tone and I visited with the B. family, and laughed as we watched best friends—Michael, Rebecca and Fred playing! These were great people and I was so glad they were giving Fred his forever home with Rebecca!

It is nearly eleven-forty, I am fixing to sign up on Facebook, as Aaron and Todd are outside, taking our dogs for their walks. I plan to walk another two miles around one o'clock—wish me luck! Here are a couple of pictures of Fred with his new family! Y'all have a great afternoon!

Cross Cultures, Kerrville, Texas!

I have a confession to make to all of y’all. This morning, I decided to finally finish painting our front porch deck. I painted half of it barn red, months ago, but I never got around to painting the other half. So, since it was a beautiful morning, with low humidity, I asked Tony to help me put the cat and the dogs up, so I could complete my painting project.

After Tony fulfilled my request, he opened up the can of barn red oil based paint, and went to stirring it. The paint was real thick, and Tony told me that it was ruined, so I went inside the trailer, filled a glass with creek water, and then went back outside and poured it into the paint bucket. Tony stirred and stirred and the paint wasn’t near as thick as it had been!

Tony then filled my paint tray, and I went to work—rolling paint on all of the unpainted surfaces and then I repainted the original paint—then I went inside. Mission finally accomplished!

After lunch, Tony and I took off to Kerrville to go to Cross Cultures to complete my new wardrobe, Wal Mart to buy more air time for Tony’s phone, the craft store, to buy a stamp for the event and lastly to get groceries at HEB.

On our way home, I thanked Tony for helping me with my paint job, earlier this morning. “I hope the paint is dry when we get home,” I said. “When I painted the first half, it took over twenty hours for that oil paint to dry, because it was real humid that day.”

“What?” Tony asked. “That was oil based paint?”

“Yes, Tony.”

“Nance, you never told me that it was oil paint. Oil and water don’t mix. It will probably be all bubbly or not take at all.”

When we arrived home, the water and oil paint was nearly dried, but it looked like a mess—there were clear patches and dark patches, here and there! And, I have to admit—oil and water definitely don’t mix!

This evening, Jon Wolfmueller called to talk to me about our sold out event, this coming Saturday. During our conversation I told him about the mess I had created on the front porch. “It looks like I am going to have to buy a bucket of latex paint tomorrow, and repaint the entire front porch.”

“Nancy, you can’t,” Jon said. “The oil paint won’t adhere to the latex. You will probably have to re-sand the entire porch and steps.”

“Are you serious, Jon?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Forget that,” I said to Jon. “It will be easier to remove the front porch entirely, and we can just use ladders to get inside the trailer and into Outer Space.” We both laughed!

Tomorrow, I am planning on vacuuming the outside of our trailer’s front porch and Outer Space, because of the thousands of spider webs that seem to really like it here. Our trailer, right now, looks like a haunted trailer, that the Adam’s family poorer relatives would live in—it’s scary and I don’t do scary or spiders!

P.S. I have decided to leave the porch as it is, and in six months, when it will need repainting—I’ll buy latex paint!

P.S.S. At Cross Cultures, I purchased a new tie-dyed t-shirt, a necklace with a peace sign, a purse from India, and a black hat with a peace sign on it, and the word peace on the brim! I wore them over to Kinky’s for shock value—he just smiled when he saw me, and then we discussed the future musical events for the spring. And, the names he was throwing out at me, for the future Bonefit events out here, were totally awesome—to say the least!!