Episode: 34 Longmire—Texas Style!

If you would like to listen to this podcast rather than have to read it please click here on: The Cousin Nancy Show or click on The Cousin Nancy Show on the right side bar. 👉 )

This story took place in the spring of 2016.

Tony and I and all of our great Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch volunteers loved the Longmire series on Netflix. In fact, we were all hooked on the show and we could not wait to watch the upcoming Season 5, on Netflix.

Seriously, all of us loved the Longmire show and the fabulous cast so much that we all owned Longmire caps, T-shirts, buttons, mugs, bumper stickers, etc. And also had Craig Johnson’s Longmire books. 

And not to brag I actually had been given two autographed Longmire books—thanks to our dear friends Kris & Jim and Sandy & Jon.

Anyway before I go any further with this story, I must tell you that at that time I had recently received an unexpected inheritance and since the money was sort of burning a hole in my pocket, so to speak, I thought it would be fun to make a Longmire video spoof, so I could make Little Debbie, my precious, one-eyed, rescued, Chihuahua more famous than she already was. 

Big Jim, Little Debbie, Me & Lady Liz

So the first thing I did was hire our dear friend, Gerry Olert, The Greatest Video-grapher in Texas, to help video and edit the Longmire spoof for me. Even though there wasn’t even a script written, yet.

And luckily for me, Gerry cut me a really great deal—$300.00. One-fifty upfront and one-fifty when it was done. And I was more than thrilled about it, because it would be the very first time for me to produce and to be a director of a short film!

So the next thing that I did, after hiring Gerry, was to ask our dear friends aka “The Best Dog Walking Volunteers in Texas,” if they would like to be actors in my short movie. 

Gerry Olert—The Best Video-grapher in Texas

Bottom Line: They all wanted to be in the video spoof and they immediately started picking which Longmire character that they wanted to play. And luckily for me—my dear friends Eileen and Lisa then volunteered to help me write the script. Which to say the least was pretty important in the making of Longmire—Texas Style!

Anyway, a few weeks later the first scenes were shot in one day, at the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch, by Lisa and Tony. And please note that the cast members and I made our own costumes to wear, including wigs, alien-attracting-helmets, a deputy uniform and Little Debbie’s adorable wardrobe including her tiny eye-patch.

Eileen & Me

Little Debbie with Lisa & Me

Chet O'Keefe

Lady Liz with Bob the alien

Chet O'Keefe, me and Gerry Olert after filming

The Longmire cast & Longmire Posse's Facebook Comments about our spoof

Everyone knew there lines, but when it came time for us to actually start shooting the scenes—I basically forgot the script and ended up ad-libbing almost all of my lines which then caused the cast to have to ad-lib their lines, too. And those scenes turned out to be hilarious and none of us could believe how well it had turned out so far.

So the cast members were so excited about the video that they could not wait to finish it and they wanted to do it as soon as possible. But being the producer and the director I had to make a decision and tell them that we had to wait for a few weeks to shoot the final scenes of the spoof with our dear musician friend Chet O’Keefe, at our dear friends Jim & Liz Cravotta’s authentic1880s saloon.

So needless to say, the volunteers were disappointed with my decision to delay the final shooting of Longmire—Texas Style for a few weeks. But after all was said and done it was worth it.

Finally, a few weeks later Chet did return to the rescue ranch. And a few mornings later we all met up, at Big Jim’s & Lady Liz’s Grey Goose Saloon, for Gerry Olert to finish shooting the final scenes of Longmire—Texas Style video spoof.

And after we wrapped it up— Gerry did his awesome editing and I uploaded the short movie to my Cousin Nancy Channel on YouTube. And the rest is now history.

If you would like to watch Longmire—Texas Style please click on it and to watch the short video Longmire—Texas Style Behind The Scenes, that I made using Tony’s fabulous behind the scenes pictures that he took during the filming of the spoof please click on it, too. 

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Okay. Now here’s a Cousin Boomer Update for y’all:

Boomer came over yesterday and his left leg and arm were in casts and he was all bruised-up and he was mad. Tony asked him what had happened to him and Boomer told us that he had bought a can of fly spray that was on sale at the grocery store. Then he went home and sprayed it all over himself and then he climbed up on the roof and jumped off—and he did not fly. And after the doctor had patched him up he went back to the grocery store to get a refund, but they wouldn’t let him return it, because it had been on sale.

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Now it is My Thought For Today Time And I Have Two to Tell you:

Imagine if you will…An atheist is stuck at a green light, behind a car with a “Honk If You Love Jesus” bumper sticker.  

And, Imagine if you will…A world where dogs take bad owners to the Pound.

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Okay now it is Make Me Laugh Time!

 

A man walks into an elevator and there is a beautiful blonde inside the elevator and after the door closes, she looks over at the man and says, “T.G.I.F.” 

So he looks at her and says, “S.H.I.T.’’

They go up a few more floors and she looks at the man and says, “T.G.I.F.” 

So he looks at her and says, “S.H.I.T.”  

When she reaches her floor, she looks at the man again and says,“T.G.I.F means thank goodness it is Friday, duh?” 

So he looks at her, and says, "S.H.I.T means sorry honey it's Thursday, dud?”

If you’re happy and you know it—it’s your meds.

A clown held the door for me today—that was such a nice jester.

People are shocked when they find out that I am not a very good electrician.

Now here are a couple of Tony’s jokes:     

A blonde is trying to sell her car, but the only problem with it was it had over 400,000 miles on it. 

So she was upset, because she couldn’t sell her car, so she went to a bar and she met a woman that was an auto mechanic. And the blonde told her the story about her mileage problem and the lady mechanic said, “I can help you, but it is illegal.”

 

So the next day the mechanic rolled back the miles on the odometer.

A few days passed and the blonde runs into the mechanic, at the bar, and the mechanic asks the blonde, “So, did you sell your car?”

And the blonde said, “No! I’ve decided to keep it, because it only has 40,000 miles on it!”

A brunette went to the doctor and she told him, “Doctor, I hurt all over. Every where I touch myself I feel pain.”

 

So the doctor says, “Show me.” So she touches her elbow and screams with pain and then she touches her knee and she screams with pain, again.

    

So the doctor says, “You’re not really a brunette are you?”

And she replies, “No, I dye my hair. I’m a natural blonde.”

And the doctor says, “Well that explains it then—you’re finger is broken.”

And here is my last joke. A teacher asks a Billy, “If I give you two cats today and then give you four cats tomorrow how many cats do you have?”

Billy says, “Seven cats.”

And the teacher says, “No. Two plus four equals six. You’re wrong.”

And Billy says, “No. You're wrong, because I already have a cat.”

And this concludes this segment of Make Me Laugh Time. 

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Well, folks I do hope that my podcast has made you laugh at least once, but if it didn’t—who cares! I want to thank y’all for listening. And please remember my favorite quote: Life is short.And so am I!Y’all take care and keep on laughing!  Adios y’all!

Jelly Roll!

Yesterday morning Tony and I met Lisa and Kris at a secret location (Randy & Lisa's Save Inn restaurant) in Kerrville for our first AACC (Ancient Aliens Coffee Club).

Sweet Eileen was supposed to come, but could not make it, because she had "pastel painted herself into a corner" at her art class, in Boerne. The Mineral Man (Kris' husband) was a no-show too and Kris was a little vague about why he could not make it. But no worries they will both be at the next meeting.

Tony and I were the first to arrive at our secret destination and we got to have a fun visit with Lisa and catch up with her and Randy's news.

Lisa was second to show up and before she even sat down at our table, she and I were already talking about things we needed to discuss at our first AACC meeting.

By the time Kris arrived we gave Lisa, the owner, our orders and Tony and I ordered the exact same thing. Then our meeting commenced.

Right off the bat, we all agreed what our secret hand signal would be and what our secret code word would be. Then we talked non-stop about how much we love watching the History Channel's Ancient Alien show.

While we ate our delicious breakfast, Lisa and Kris talked about the British author and scientists, Arthur C. Clarke, the famous science fiction writer that wrote the book 2001: A Space Odyssey, and who worked closely with Stanley Kubrick on the 1968 movie with the same title. And besides Clarke writing many other award-winning science fiction books Clarke also wrote 2010: A Space Odyssey and  2061: A Space Odyssey.

I felt like a dummy, because I had never heard of Arthur C. Clarke and I could only remember that I had liked the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and that Hal, the computer, had really scared me.

I was thrilled that I had remembered at least that much about the movie, since it was made over 51 years ago. And before I rejoined the conversation I wondered to myself if Alexa is maybe the new Hal?

When Kris and Lisa were telling me about the face on Mars, Lisa grabbed her cellphone and showed me this picture.

After I got over the shock of seeing this Mars man or martian, I told them about me writing a blog about watching Nasa's Unexplained Files where they sent a land rover out on Mars surface and it came back with a half-eaten jellyroll. "And Nasa has never been able to explain it, because it is actually a half-eaten jellyroll left there by someone or some thing...."

Anyway, after everyone had quit laughing I realized that we had finished eating breakfast, so I announced, "I am so excited about our Ancient Aliens Coffee Club and all of this. When I get home I am going to Buy Clarke's books: 2010: A Space Odyssey and 2061: A Space Odyssey and....And as soon as I finish writing my 3rd Cowgirl Sisterhood novella I am going to retire the Cowgirl Sisterhood for a while and write another fiction book about our AACC going on a fact-finding mission/adventure in Terlingua! And we could meet/get abducted or something by some aliens."

"Then I think all of us should go out to Terlingua," Lisa suggested.

"Me too," Kris said. "A field trip."

"And while we are out there we could make a short movie, too!" I said. "Starring Little Debbie of course, and we could wear our alien-attracting helmets (upside down pot pie tines tied down on our heads) that I made for our Longmire—Texas Style video spoof....And Chet O'Keefe could star in it too and we could ask him to write the soundtrack for it...." The wheels were set in motion and already turning—so to speak.

Before Tony and I adios-ed our friends, Kris and Lisa promised me that they would watch the movie Paul and I promised them to read Clarke's books before our next meeting and that I would send them the link to my blog post about the jellyroll on Mars.

So, as I finish writing this I want to give you the link to my June 5, 2015: A Roll or Flat Tire! blog post about the jellyroll found on Mars.

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

The AACC!

Monday when Lisa and Eileen came to visit us, Lisa told us about her binge-watching Ancient Aliens on the History Channel and how much she loves this show. And I told her that I would love to watch it, too.

Tuesday Lisa sent me an e-mail informing me that Ancient Aliens is also on Netflix, too. So, last night I started binge-watching Ancient Aliens on Netflix and I absolutely love this show.

Wednesday morning after posting on my blog about Jay and Gerry's fabulous movie Smile, I sent Lisa an e-mail suggesting that we get together more often and I proposed that we meet for coffee once a month, in Kerrville. I also suggested that we get Eileen, Kris & Jim and Tony to join us. Lisa was totally on board with the idea.

Later that morning Lisa sent me a note. She told me that she was excited about us meeting for coffee every month, because it would be so much fun and it would also give her and I a chance to discuss Ancient Aliens episodes, and she also wrote, " ...We can call ourselves the AACC (Ancient Aliens Coffee Club)." I totally love that name.

Even though Kris & Jim, Eileen and Tony are still unaware about all of this I am sure they will want to be participating members in our exclusive Ancient Aliens Coffee Club.

I can't wait for our first coffee meeting, because we will have a lot of business to discuss. Such as:
a logo, who pays for the coffee, a mascot (hopefully Little Debbie), rules, a secret handshake, decoder rings, an oath, etc.

And since Lisa and I are the co-founders of this new prestigious Ancient Aliens Coffee Club I am hoping that she will be voted president and that I will get to be the vice president. I think it is the only logical and fair thing to do.

Anyway, I do know at our first official meeting I do plan to suggest that we dust off our alien-attracting-pot-pie-tin hats, (The hats that I made, in 2016, that we wore in the making of the Longmire—Texas Style video spoof.) for us to wear to every club meeting and special events. And if no one objects to my idea I will offer to make even more alien-attracting pot-pie-tin hats to sell at events to help pay for our coffees.

This is all so exciting to me I keep pinching myself, but I've forgotten why.

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

P.S. This morning Gerry Olert sent me this picture of him and Jay Pennington scouting locations, in Texas, for their next movie Vinegar to Honey!

What About Bob? or Tony Saw The Light!

Today has been great. This afternoon after taking a peaceful, sleepless nap with our four-leggers I was thinking about Bob. Because as soon as the weather cools I plan to paint a life-sized mural, on the water catchment tank outside our front yard. I'm going to paint a 1969 VW Van with Bob driving the van and waving a peace sign, as it goes down the road.

Now you may be asking, "Who is Bob?" Well, as you may remember, many years ago my dear friends Kris & Jim went to Roswell's Alien Museum, in New Mexico and they brought me back a six foot tall, blow-up, green alien, because of my fascination with aliens. And they had named it Bob before they gave it to me and it stuck. I loved Bob.

Anyway, Bob soon became more famous, because Little Debbie started her own blog. And here is the picture that is on her blog, of her posing with Bob, Jr. and me.

About the same time that Little Debbie started blogging I bought a used Shasta RV and I fixed it up. I re-painted it turquoise and I named it the Mother Ship. And I also painted Bob on the front door, with a 1969 VW Van, in the background.

"So what about Bob?" Well to jog your memory a little more, I used Bob in the hilarious Longmire—Texas Style, video spoof that I wrote and produced to make Little Debbie even more famous than she already was. Here is a picture of Bob and Little Debbie posing with the cast and crew at our wrap-party.

After the Longmire—Texas Style wrap party, at Big Jim's & Lady Liz's Grey Goose Saloon, Tony and I took Bob home, because he was so exhausted—he was deflated. And here is a picture I took of Bob resting inside my pink, writing cabin. (And not to brag, but to brag—I built the bed that Bob is sleeping on.)

This afternoon after my sleepless, but restful nap I brushed most of the dog hair off of my clothes and then I went into the kitchen, because I finally knew exactly what I was going to do with my little, battery-powered, chain of twinkle lights, that I had purchased last week at Wal-Mart, for under $5.00. And I named this Bob project—Believe.

In the picture below, there is a little green plaque that says Believe holding a Mason jar and for years I have kept Bob, Jr. inside the small jar. The small Believe plaque is to the left of the Great Pyrenees On Duty sign, that Carol recently gave to me. And I love that sign, too.

The hardest part of this easy-to-do Bob project, was removing the twinkle lights from the packaging, because they used way too much tape. 

Anyway, after I had installed the 3 AAA batteries and had tested the tiny string of lights, I removed the Mason jar from the Believe plaque. And then horrors! Inside the jar there was this big, dead scorpion that had died, on top of Bob's feet. So I immediately went to show Bob's uninvited dead guest to Tony. And let's just say that Tone was not impressed.

So I went back into the kitchen and buried the scorpion, in the trash can, without any kind of ceremony. Then I washed out the dusty jar and Bob, Jr. and dried them both. Then I shoved the tiny string of lights inside the jar with Bob, Jr.

Then Tony helped me hang the battery box below the plaque. Then I flipped the switch for the lights to come on and that's when Tony and I burst out laughing, because when our friends see Bob, Jr. glowing, on the Believe plaque it will hopefully make them laugh, too.

As I finish writing this I have just turned on Bob, Jr.'s Believe plaque, again and my cobalt blue candy dish that also has twinkle lights inside it and I can't quit laughing. And Tony just walked in here and when Tony saw the light(s)—he started laughing, too. So I hope this post has made you laugh at least once or twice, because I know that one of my purposes is to make people laugh.

So, if you have not laughed yet, here is my last attempt tonight to make you laugh or at least chuckle.

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

Miniskirts! or 501 Levi's!

Today has been great and a lot of fun. This morning our dear friend Gerry Olert, came to visit us.

Gerry Olert, from San Antonio, is the famous videographer who did all of awesome rescue ranch videos for us, but when I think of Gerry the first thing that always comes to mind is how much fun I had working with Gerry when he edited the Longmire-Texas Style video-spoof starring Little Debbie. Laugh out loud, I had written, starred in and produced this video—just to help make Little Debbie more famous.

Of course the making of Longmire—Texas Style would not have been so much fun without all of the help from our dear friends/dog-walking volunteers, Chet O'Keefe and Jim & Liz Cravotta. Below is one of my favorite pictures that Tony took of Gerry (far left) posing with the entire cast, at Big Jim's & Lady Liz's Grey Goose Saloon, on April 2, 2016, after the wrap party.

And this is one of my other favorite pictures that Tony took that day, of Liz & Jim, Little Debbie and me during the wrap party. And I still cannot believe that it has been almost three years ago, when we made the video.

Anyway, this morning during our fun visit with Gerry he was telling us that his & Karen's sweet, old (18+ years) cat had passed away since he had last visited us. Then he told us that he and Karen recently went to a rescue shelter and adopted the coolest kitten that already knows how to fetch and retrieve a ball. Then he pulled out his iPhone and showed us adorable pictures of Luna, the kitten that has stolen their hearts. Here is one of his beautiful pictures of Luna cat-napping on Gerry's lap.

Early this afternoon, Gerry treated us to a fun lunch, at the Cracker Barrel, in Kerrville. It is funny, but Tony and I did not order the same thing as usual, but Gerry and I did. He and I ordered a breakfast that came with a side of two pancakes, that also came with these small bottles of maple syrup. One for each of us.

I don't know why, but I fell in love with these cute, little glass bottles of syrup and I told Tony and Gerry that I loved these bottles. So when the sweet waitress returned to check on us, Gerry asked her to bring us two more bottles of maple syrup.

As we finished eating our meal, Tony and Gerry encouraged me take the four, empty, little bottles home since I loved them so much. And after we had quit laughing about it, I said, "I can't. It might be illegal and I don't want to be in prison, because of maple syrup...." 

Bottom   Line: I finally asked the friendly waitress to bring me a doggie bag. (So, I could sneak the empty bottles out of the restaurant.) While we waited for the doggie bag Gerry and Tony teased me about going to prison, etc. and I was getting more nervous about taking the emptied bottles.

So, when we decided to leave Gerry and Tony took off first and as I was walking past the table, next to our table, this friendly-looking, old man wearing a Vietnam Veteran cap, probably about my age, had this long white beard that looked like he was a member of ZZ-Top~~waved for me to stop. So I did, and he looked up and said, "If the Feds were in here they would arrest you—"

Omg, I thought "I'm busted!" And I thought that I was going to faint, but I didn't, because Tony was gone and wouldn't be able to catch me from falling. Then this friendly man smiled, and said, "For laughing too much." Then he and I started laughing.

As soon as all of us were outside and I felt safe, I told Gerry and Tony about the man stopping me and telling me that I should be arrested and they burst out laughing. Then Gerry joked, "We left you behind, because we didn't want to be accessories to the crime."

And after we had quit laughing, I said, "At first what he said to me really did scare me. And I was immediately thinking, they are going to call the police and tell them, "We've got a sticky situation over here. This old woman..." 

After our fun lunch, Gerry followed us over to the East End Market, because he wanted to see Jim & Liz's fabulous booth (#42). And as the three of us were walking into this super-cool store—Jim Cravotta came walking out and after howdies, handshakes and hugs, Jim said, "Liz is inside and I'll be right back. I''ve got to get a wrench. Go say howdy to Liz." So we did. And then we had a great time visiting with Liz & Jim and checking out all of their fabulous stuff they have for sale.

Here are just a few pictures that I took of their treasures and antiques that I wanted to buy.

This is a working spinning wheel that I wanted, but because Mama (my perfect Great Pyrenees) is dead I passed, because Henry's, Roy's, Beau's, Little Debbie's and Big Al(ice)'s hair is too short. 

This is a Mary Quant romper, in beautiful condition, that Liz bought and wore—back in the 60's. For those younger than me who may not know who Mary Quant was, here is a link to Mary Quant to find out more about her. (Taken from Wikipedia: "The miniskirt, described as one of the defining fashions of the 1960s,^[19] is one of the garments most widely associated with Quant. While she is often cited as the inventor of the style...")

Unfortunately, I never owned an original Mary Quant miniskirt or romper, but back then I wore miniskirts all of the time. In fact, I even got sent home from high school one day, because the Principal told me that my miniskirt was too short. And before Mom came to pick me up, I tried to explain to him, "It's not too short. I'm short. It's just an illusion..." But neither him or mom bought it, so I had to go home and change miniskirts, before returning to my French class that I was flunking, because of my Texas accent.

And here is an assorted collection of 1920 magazines that totally fascinated me.

Before adios-ing Liz & Jim, I told them that I was going to donate my mannequin legs, for Jim's project. "I want you to have it, but I want you to know that Tony and I put a pair of my 501 Levi's on it, so it will be dressed. But we never could put a pair of my old, pink, Justin Gypsy cowgirl boots on it. And before we left our friends we decided that Tony and I would meet Liz & Jim, at Wolfmueller's Books, to give them the mannequin legs. And Jim joked, "That's the perfect drop-off place. And I'm sure that Sandy & Jon will love that!" And we were still laughing when we walked out of the store and adios-ed Gerry.

Before coming home, we swung by So Fast Printing, my favorite and Kerrville's favorite print shop, so I could pick up a few pictures, that I had e-mailed to Rose and had asked her to print for me on card stock. Because I am planning on framing and hanging them in my writing cabin. Then we came home. Here are the four pictures that I plan to frame and hang tonight.

Then I took this picture of the doggie bag and the four empty bottles. Then I put them into the sink to soak, so I can hopefully remove the labels. And now I am wondering why I even took those stupid, tiny bottles, because I am not even sure what I will use them for.

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

Great! or The Cedar Choppers!

Today has been great and so was Saturday, Sunday and Monday. First off, I had a fabulous time at Katelyn's birthday party, that Ronnie & Nita threw, at their Ronderosa Ranch. To say the least, "It was totally great.

Being with my beautiful family was great. Seeing old friends and then playing music with them was great. The food was great.

Sunday morning I left the Ronderosa Ranch, around 8:30 and I got back to Big Foot Ranch, about 10:20. And after hugging Tony and all of our dogs I took a shower, put on fresh clothes and then Tony and I took off, for Kerrville, to run a few errands.

Of course our first stop was, at Home Depot, to buy paint and our last stop was at the big H-E-B, so we could pick up a few groceries, so I could cook a late dinner for our dear friends, Jim Keaveny & Rachel, because they were driving in, from Terlingua, to spend the night with us.

When we got back home, we unpacked our groceries and then we put on our work/paint clothes, because we wanted to get started painting the front porch ceiling "sky blue" as quickly as possible. Because a porch ceiling painted the color of the sky keeps wasps away. Here are some pictures that I took of our project.

Jim & Rachel arrived around 7:30 and it was so good to see them and while Jim told us about leaving for his Holland tour, on Tuesday (today) I cooked us a delicious roast with carrots and potatoes and onions, in my Instant Pot.

And earlier, when I started peeling the carrots, we excitedly told Jim & Rachel about us getting an Instant Pot and they both started laughing. "Jeff Haislip just got one of those things, too," They said. "And he's been telling everyone, in Terlingua, about how great it is...."

While our super-pressure cooker was cooking us a delicious meal, in under an hour, Jim told us that he was going to spend half of his tour opening for Joan Osborne. And these are the dates for those shows, in case you might be, in Holland.

Sunday night we had a blast visiting with our friends and we stayed up until midnight, so we could wish Jim a Happy Birthday.

Monday morning, around 10:30, I cooked breakfast and while we were drinking delicious Donut Shop Coffee, we made a toast to Jim's birthday and we had a good laugh about it working out that Jim spending Thanksgiving, Christmas's and his birthdays with us.

Around 12:45, after another fun visit Jim & Rachel took off to go visit Kinky. And we took off for Carol's ranch, so we could celebrate Mark's birthday and meet Bill's sweet niece, Cathy and her husband Chip, who were visiting them, from Wisconsin.

And that was a total blast, too. It was great to see Mark as always and meeting Bill's family was like being with our own family. Carol cooked up a fabulous fajita dinner and she made one of her signature pies—Magnolia Pie. (Last year, Carol gave me the recipe to this mouth-watering pie and after eating a small slice I definitely plan to make it for us soon. After I loose several pounds—thanks to Weight Watchers.) And yes, I might as well admit it now that Saturday and Sunday I fell off the wagon doing Weight Watchers.

Tony and I spent our Monday evening painting the rest of our front porch or at least as much as we could before running out of paint.

This morning our dear friend Gerry Olert came to visit us. Gerry is the incredibly talented, video-grapher that has done all of our rescue ranch videos for the past 20 years. And he is also the one who worked with me on our hilarious video spoof Longmire—Texas Style. Starring the one and only Little Debbie!

Before Tony and I went to go eat lunch with Gerry, in Kerrville, Gerry asked me to do a short video for him, on our front porch. So while Tony stilled my wind chimes for Gerry, I grabbed Little Debbie and he shot us and it was painless.

We had a fun lunch with Gerry and after we adios-ed him Tony and I went to Home Depot and bought a few more buckets of paint. And then we came home and started painting, again.

Tonight as I finish writing this I want to tell you about this fabulous book that I bought for Tony, because it arrived this afternoon. The book is The Cedar Choppers: Life On The Edge of Nothing by Ken Roberts. Published 2018 by Texas A&M Press.

It is a fabulous book. And Tony's dad, his brothers, his relatives and him are mentioned in this awesome book. It is a "can't put it down book" and as soon as I finish writing this I plan to spend this evening reading the history of all of these cedar choppers.

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

Not For Sale!

Yesterday afternoon Tony and I had a very pleasant surprise. Doug, a friend/volunteer of ours who, in the past, has helped drive our dear friend Paul, out here, to deliver free dog food to us, showed up with his visiting daughter Lisa and her friend Annie.

Doug wanted Lisa and Annie, from Connecticut, to see our rescue ranch, while they were down here visiting him.

When they arrived, Tony was busy giving two nice women a tour, so I went to greet Doug, Lisa and Annie. And because we think so highly of Doug, because he volunteered  to drive Paul out here, because Paul was no long permitted to drive, I knew from the git-go that I was going to enjoy giving a tour of our rescue ranch and visiting with Doug, his sweet daughter, Lisa and her sweet friend, Annie.

I had already introduced them to all of our dogs, on Lois Lane's side and while I was introducing them to Donny and Marie Osmond, we saw the women leaving in their car, as Tony drove up, on Kermit. "Did they want to adopt any of our dogs," I asked, as Tony climbed out of Kermit.

"Well, yes," Tony replied," and no." Then he chuckled. "They wanted to buy Henry Standing Bear."

"No way," I said, as he walked up and joined us. "Are you serious? They wanted to buy Henry?"

"Yes. I'm serious," Tony stated. "When I told them that he was a part of our family, the woman told me to just give her an amount, because money was no object to her. I mean she really did want to buy Henry. So I told her that we loved Henry and he was not for sale." Then he laughed and said, "They were real nice women and she may have been teasing me, but she sure seemed serious about it."

Then the five of us took off. Tony and Kermit came up to The Cabin, while I finished walking around, introducing the rest of our sweet dogs to our friendly visitors.

While I was just about finished giving them a tour, Lisa and Annie told me that they were involved with animal rescue, in Connecticut, and that they are always pulling dogs from a local kill shelter and then fostering them until they could find them good homes. And they told me that they were big-time animal lovers and how much they love dogs. So, I invited everyone to come up, to The Cabin, so we could visit some more and drink some water, inside our air-conditioned trailer.

Tony and I had a blast visiting with Doug and getting to know Lisa and Annie. And at one point, Doug told us, "I know that coming out here is going to be the highlight of Lisa's and Annie's trip." And the women told us that Doug was right about that, because they were very impressed with our rescue ranch and then they thanked us for what we do out here.

Before our friends had to go Tony asked them to please watch our Longmire—Texas Style video and watch Chet O'Keefe sing his song, that he wrote for me, Ode to Cousin Nancy, when we had a house/dining hall concert, out here for him, two years ago.

They thought our Longmire—Texas Style spoof was absolutely hilarious and all three of them teared up, when they watched Chet sing, Ode To Cousin Nancy, even though Tony had pre-warned them that it would make them cry.

And as we were hugging and adios-ing each other, I joked, "I'm sorry that Tony made y'all cry. I always hate it when visitors leave here crying and wiping away tears." Then all of us burst out laughing. Life Is Good!

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

Gerry Olert, Chris, Eileen holding Little Debbie, Jim, Suzanne, me, Kris, Bob, Chet, Lisa, Kinky, Wendy, Sally, Stephen & Hollin!

Today has been great and so was our weekend. Last Friday all of our great friends/volunteers met at the Thai O'Cha restaurant so we could celebrate Suzanne's and Chris' birthdays and Eileen brought the cutest duel birthday cake. And to say the least, our food was delicious and we had a lot of fun.

Chris, who played Ferg, in our Longmire—Texas Style video, is standing 2nd from the left and Suzanne, who played a cowgirl, inside the Grey Goose Saloon, is standing behind me,  to the right of Jim who played Longmire. I know this is getting a little confusing, so I am just going to list our friends from left to right that starred in our funny Longmire—Texas Style spoof.

Gerry Olert, Chris, Eileen with Little Debbie, Jim, Suzanne, me, Kris, Bob, Chet and Lisa.

And if you would like to see more pictures of the cast and crew I suggest that you watch my slideshow Longmire—Texas Style Behind The Scenes.

Last Friday, after the fun birthdays party, we came straight home, because we knew that our dear friend, Chet O'Keefe, was coming to see us, after his long three-week tour of Canada with friend Sarah Burton. And we had a fun visit with Chet, before he and his dog, Willie, took off for Washington state, Saturday afternoon.

After we adios-ed Chet and Willie, Tony took off too, so he could go fetch our mail. And I got got the cutest and the sweetest card, from a woman named Wendy, thanking us for rescuing her old Pit Bull that had run off during a thunderstorm. 

But first let me fill you in. Last month, while I was out in Terlingua with Cindy, Ronnie & Nita, Kinky had rescued a Pit Bull that was in a field near Highway 16. So when I got home from my fun trip, Tony told me all about Kinky's rescue.

So when we got back home, I went and met this lovely, sweet, old girl and I named her Sally Field, before we took her, to Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, to get a check up and her shots, etc.

Well, it turned out that Sally had heart worms, so they treated her. Several days later, when we were going to go pick up Sally, Tony walked into the kitchen, and said,  "Nance, Sally is such a great dog, I'm sure she belongs to someone, so would you call the Pound to see if anyone is missing a Pit since last week?"

When I called the Pound, the nice woman told me that a Pit Bull, fitting her description had been reported missing since last week and she gladly gave me Wendy's phone numbers.

Then I called Wendy and told her that we thought we had her dog and that Sally had just been treated for heart worms. Wendy was so happy I'm pretty sure that she started crying as she kept thanking us. 

Wendy told me that her two dogs had run away, during an intense thunderstorm and that her little dog had safely returned home, but not her Pit. After telling her that she could pick up her dog, at Hoegemeyers, she said, "Please call them and tell them I am on my way now..."

An hour later, after eating a fun lunch with Jim aka Longmire, at Billy Gene's Restaurant, we stood outside the restaurant and called Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, to find out if Sally Field was the woman's lost dog.

And to make a long story short, Susan told me, "Yes! Wendy and I guess her son came and picked her up and when Sally came into the lobby and saw her family, she went crazy trying to get to them and they started crying. And Nancy, the woman paid for the heart worm treatment..." This is a picture I took of Sally Field when we took her to Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic.

Yesterday afternoon, Tony and I jumped inside Buttermilk and took off for The Auslander, in Fredricksburg, because our dear friend, Stephen K. Morris, was hosting another one of his great "The Outsider Songwriter Spotlight" with his awesome musician friend, Hollin McKay. 

Tony and I had a blast watching and listening to their great music and Stephen even took a minute to introduce us to the standing room only crowd and he plugged our rescue ranch. Here is a picture that I took while they were performing on stage. Stephen is on the left.

And this one is Stephen's trunk with our bumper sticker on it.

During a break, Stephen introduced us to Hollin and I told him that I had and loved his and his brother's first album, which they had cut, in 1994. Anyway, I hope y'all will check out Stephen's awesome Songwriter Spotlight shows held every Sunday, from 4:00 to 7:00.

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