Bett And Chet! or Andy And Andie!

The last few days have been so much fun, because our dear friend, Chet O'Keefe and his super dog, Willie, drove all of the way, from Terlingua, Texas, to come see us.

They arrived late Monday night and they went to visit Kinky, so we didn't get to see them until Tuesday morning.

Yesterday morning, while Chet ate breakfast with us he told us that he needed to run some errands, in Kerrville. And that he was hoping that we could eat lunch with Bett, so he could meet her and thank her personally for giving him her awesome cut-away, Martin guitar that he loves.

And this all happened after Bett had read Donna Hatch's fabulous article, in the Kerrville Daily Times, about Chet's van burning up, in June, and him losing his Martin and just about everything else that he owned. And fortunately, his wish came true, because we met up with Bett(y), at La Four's restaurant.

Our delicious lunch with Bett was a total blast for us, because we became fast friends with her, because we quickly discovered that we had so much in common with her. 

While we were eating our delicious lunch, Chet stood up and took a picture of La Fours' famous painting of Jesus, that hangs, on the wall, behind the checkout counter. 

Kinky had made this painting famous in an article that he wrote and then later on, in 1998, when he mentioned La Fours' painting while he was being interviewed by Jeff Guinn, a columnist for the Fort Worth Star Telegram, because he had honestly thought it was a painting of Andy Gibb, of the Bee Gees until Freda told him that it was Jesus.

And please note that the very first time that Kinky and I ever met for lunch, at La Fours,  about 20 years ago, he pointed to the painting and asked me who I thought it was and my answer was I don't know? Then he teased Freda about me not knowing who it was, too. 

Anyway, Chet took a picture of it, because he wanted to surprise Kinky with it when Kink returns to the ranch tomorrow. Anyway, when we told Freda, one of the owners of, La Fours, about Chet wanting to surprise Kinky with it—she thought it was funny and she giggled about Kinky making it so famous. And before we had finished eating our lunch—Chet had agreed to also make copies of it for Bett and for us, too.

  

And after we ate lunch we went outside the restaurant and I took this picture of Bett and Chet.

After we adios-ed Bett we went down the road, to Walmart, so Chet could make copies of La Fours' famous painting and for Chet to pick up a few other things that he needed before he and Willie headed back, to Terlingua.

After shopping, at Walmart, when we were on our way, to Bad Girlz of Texas, so Chet could go talk to the sweet owner, Andie Morgan, about a possible upcoming gig, at her store and that is when I came up with the title for the famous La Four's painting—Bee-Gees-Us.

So while Chet was visiting with Andie, we went next door to visit with our dear friends, Sandy & Jon, the owners of  the famous Wolfmueller's Books. And after our fun visit with all of our friends we returned to the ranch.

As soon as we got back home, Chet got busy framing La Fours' famous painting and as soon as he gave us ours, Tony hung it up on the wall, above our entertainment center. And we love it.

"I''m going to have so much fun with this picture, because when people come out to visit our rescue ranch we always invite them to come inside, The Cabin, so we can visit with them," I said. "And if Kinky's around we usually take them over to the Lodge, so they can meet him, too. Can you image how funny it will be for them to come inside, The Cabin and wonder why we have a picture of Andy Gibb, hanging on the wall. And then, when we take them over to the Lodge and they see the same picture of Andy Gibb, hanging on his wall—they will think we are all crazy." Then I called Carol to invite her to come over, so she could visit with Chet, before he packed up and leaves the ranch. 

When Carol came over we had a fun visit with her, while we waited for Chet to arrive, because he had gone over, to the Lodge, to drop off Kinky's framed picture of Andy Gibb.

Carol had a fun, but short visit with Chet, before she had to go, home, to feed her horses. And around 9:00 last night, we adios-ed Chet and Willie, because he had decided to drive halfway there and spend the tonight and then get up early this morning, so he could drive the rest of the way home, because he has a gig to play tonight, at La Kiva.

This afternoon we had to go back to Kerrville, so we stopped by Wolfmueller's Books first and dropped off Chet's Bee-Gee-Us picture for Bett, so she can pick it up the next time that she is in town.

And as I finish writing this, it is now time for me to show you our print of Bee-Gees-Us. And if you want to see this original painting, I suggest that you go eat lunch or dinner, at La Fours restaurant, because their food is delicious and because Kinky really has made that painting famous.

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

Hey! Bo Diddley!

Today has been great. Early this morning, before Tony and I went outside to do our chores, I signed copies of my first two novellas to Chet O'Keefe. Then Tony and I jumped into Buttermilk and went over to Kinky's, so I could give Chet my books, because last night Chet told me that he loved to read and would like to read my novellas.

We had a fun visit with Kinky and Chet and before we left to come back home to feed the dogs and clean their pens, the four of us decided to meet for lunch around 1:00, at La Fours, our favorite seafood restaurant, in Kerrville.

Lunch was so much fun and while we were eating our delicious meal, Chet and I got to talking about his music and some of the bands that he has been in and famous people that he has played lead guitar with. When Chet humbly mentioned Bo Diddley's name, Kinky's, Tony's and my jaws dropped down to the floor, because we love Bo Diddley's music. Then Tony and I spent several more minutes being fascinated, as we listened to Chet and Kinky chat back and forth about some of their mutual friends they know, in the music business.

And that is about it for tonight, because this evening I am going to get back to writing regularly, on my third Cowgirl Sisterhood novella series, since the holiday season has ended.

Y'all have a great evening!

7th Generation Texans! or No Knead!

I took yesterday off after we did our morning chores outside, because I needed to take a break from the rescue ranch and also from my kitchen, so Tony took me to our favorite sea food restaurant, La Fours, in Kerrville, to eat lunch. When we walked inside La Fours, our friends Kris and Jim, "The Mineral Man," waved for us for us to come join them at their table, but we decided not to. Actually, I'm teasing you here, of course we joined our friends for lunch. And I am  so glad that we did, because Kris and Jim made our lunch so much more enjoyable.

During our fun lunch, they asked us if we had gone kayaking with June, Ellen, Eileen and Lisa, earlier and Tony and I looked at each other in disbelief, because we had totally forgotten about it, which made all of us burst out laughing, because T. and me are such forgetful senior citizens.

When they told us about buying a Lassie (Lasko's Blower Fan Model #4905, the more expensive model and the prettier one than ours, because theirs is silver and black, instead of black and yellow like our Model #4900.) I was so thrilled for them and listening to them brag about how much they loved their Lassie, pretty much made my day for me.

Last night, while I was still on strike from doing my everyday chores and almost-everyday blogging, I sat down with Roy and Mama to watch the rented movie, Cowboys & Aliens and I thought it was pretty good, even though Mama and Roy didn't and basically slept throughout most of the movie.

Today has been great, of course, because our fabulous friends aka "The Greatest Volunteers of Texas," came out and took our dogs on walks, down to Wallace Creek, so they could go swimming and yes, our dogs loved it even more than Tony and I did. Thank you, June, Ellen, Eileen, Lisa, Jim, Kris and Jim, "The Mineral Man!"

When the dog walking-swim-a-thon had ended, all of us jumped into our vehicles and went down the road, to eat lunch at the Koyote Ranch's Koyote Kafe and Tone and me had so much fun.

Some of our interesting and some times hilarious things that we discussed during lunch, included: Maine, Russia, Alaska, haunted buildings, seeing ghosts, Texas Master Naturalists classes, the art of bread making, June's easy to make soda bread recipe, 7th generation Texans, Hurricane Issac, the movie Cowboys & Aliens, the best of all you can eat buffets, Blayre's amazing 1,000 dog treats, famous Texas Rangers, being allergic to certain foods and almost dying from eating it, Tetanus, the possibility of us starting up our very own private, 9-members-only, exclusive club, how delicious our food that we were eating was, setting a date for all of us to go kayaking together in September and Savannah, Georgia, etc. In other words, "We did a lot of talking and laughing."

Early this evening, around 6:00, after I had surfed the WEB for "How to make artisan bread in a dutch oven," I came across www.gardenfork.tv and found a fun, tutorial to watch, on how to make a version of "Jim Lahey's Sullivan Bakery Bread, The No Knead Bread Recipe made famous by Mark Bittman of the New York Times. So after watching the video twice, I printed out the full instructions and began making it.

After I had mixed the 3 cups of King Arthur brand flour, 1/4 teaspoon with instant active yeast and 1 1/2 cups of warm water in a bowl, I covered it with plastic and then placed it inside our oven, with the oven light on, to keep it warm, so it can rise for the next 12 hours.

Then around 6:00 in the morning, I will hopefully rise and shine and remove it from the oven to complete the final process and then 2 hours later I will bake it in Tony's dutch oven, inside our stove. So please wish me luck with another one of my attempts at making bread. And that is about it for tonight.

P.S. Here's the latest update at 8:12: I just finished walking 4 Miles With Leslie Sansone!

Y'all have a great evening!

A Little Piece of History!

Since, finding that picture of 'Men In Trees', and after receiving updates from Paula, about her and her dad trying to solve the mystery of it—I want to share a story with you about WWII.

On May 2, 2007, Kinky called to invite Tony and me over, so that we could meet his long time friend—Will Hoover. It was around nine o’clock in the morning, Tony was working, so I drove over to the Lodge to meet Hoover.

For years, I have heard many stories about Hoover, and I was anxious to finally get to meet him. I already knew that Hoover was an extremely talented song writer, singer, writer, musician and he writes regularly, for a popular newspaper in Hawaii—where he lives. And, Hoover was one of the main characters in Kinky’s book, “Steppin’ On A Rainbow.” In other words, Hoover is really famous!

After driving over to Kinky’s, I met Hoover, when I first walked inside the door—sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee, while Kinky was in his office, talking on the phone. I poured myself some Kona coffee, sat down at the table, and we started talking. By the time Kinky had gotten off the phone—Hoover and I were already good friends.

Kinky, Hoover and I had a great visit, and it was a lot of fun, because Hoover kept making us laugh! When it was time for me to get back over to the rescue ranch, Hoover walked me to Trigger, and then he asked me to please wait a minute, because he wanted to give me a copy of his CD, “Hoover—The Lost Outlaw Album!”

When he returned from the cabin, he gave me the CD, and then he asked me if I liked history. I told him yes, and then he opened up the trunk of his rental car, and reached inside a bag. And then—he handed me a tiny stick from a pouch, and he seemed real proud about giving it to me!

“Well, thank you, Hoover,” I said, wondering if I should pick up a stick from the ground, and give it to him. I was thinking this must be some kind of Hawaiian tradition. Then he told me the fascinating story about my little stick.

Years ago, after our government had finally decided where to retire the U.S.S. Missouri—they chose Hawaii, because that is where the peace treaty to end World War II was signed. A couple of weeks before the U.S.S. Missouri was to be opened up to the public, Hoover had been assigned to write a story about the history of this famous ship. Hoover told me that when he went aboard the ship, there were workers everywhere, repairing and painting it, so it would be ready for the public. He was given a grand tour, and granted full access to anywhere on the ship!

He made several visits to the U.S.S. Missouri, and on one trip, he noticed men ripping up the original teak deck, because it was damaged and needed to be replaced. “Cousin Nancy,” Hoover said. “There were boards and planks of the deck scattered all over the place. I thought, this is history and I want a piece of it! So I asked if it would be okay for me to take a few of the deck planks home, and they said fine. They didn’t care. So, I grabbed several pieces of the old teak deck. And, you are holding a piece of history in your hand. That deck that I took home, was the deck where the peace treaty was signed!”

I got goosebumps after hearing Hoover’s story, and I was absolutely thrilled to have that little piece of teak wood! Wow!

Later, that morning, I went back over to the Lodge to give Hoover, a copy of my book, and to tell him that I loved his CD, and that my favorite song on it was, “Jesus Don’t Drive No Fastback Ford.”

The following morning, I went back over to the Lodge to talk some business with Kinky, and to ask Hoover to sign his CD that he had given to me. Before I reached the gate, Hoover caught up with me, and told me that he started reading my book and he was really enjoying it, and then he told me that he was also a Libra and we talked about that for a while. Then I asked him to please sign my CD.

Today, when Tony and I met some friends at La Fours Restaurant, for lunch I remembered to take my camera with me, because near the front door of the restaurant, hangs a large framed photo of the signing of the peace treaty on the U.S.S. Missouri—with Truman’s signature at the bottom of the old picture!

P.S. Hoover, thank you for the stories, the laughs, that great CD, and that little piece of big history. Thank you! Come see us!