Do Unto Others!

Today has been fun! Before breakfast, Tony returned from his garden—carrying his yellow, five gallon, vegetable bucket! "You're not going to believe this, Nance!" Tony proudly said. I looked his way, he was grinning, and holding up the biggest zucchini, that I have ever seen!

"Oh my gosh, Tony!" I exclaimed, as I reluctantly looked into the bucket, fearing that it might be full of more fresh veggies. "That's the biggest one, so far! Congratulations!" Tony went back outside to water his garden, while I washed every vegetable in the nearly full bucket. I am happy that we have an over abundance of organic vegetables to eat, but I didn't know where I was I going to put his latest load, so I returned them to the plastic bucket, and fixed our healthy smoothies for breakfast.

After breakfast I walked five fast miles, again! Then I took care of some paperwork, and following that, Tony and I went to Hondo, to pick up Buttermilk—she was ready to come home, again! It seems that she is spending more and more time at the auto repair shop, but you would too—if you were a 1996 Ford Explorer. In other words—she's been rode hard, but we still love her.

When we arrived back at the rescue ranch—we stopped to meet our three latest rescued dogs, that Aaron had picked up at Hoegemeyer's for us, while we were gone! They are adorable! One is a wannabe female Min Pin, and the other two are male and female Fox Terriers. I haven't named them yet, but will tomorrow, when I take pictures of them—to post on our web site:
utopiarescue.com.

Kinky is back at the ranch! He called me this afternoon, to invite me over for a visit. I accepted his invitation, and decided to do one of those—pay it forward acts of kindness, or a 'do unto others—as others have done to you,' deals! So, I grabbed my camera, and Tony's yellow bucket—full of fresh, clean produce. The bucket was so heavy—I could barily lift it into the back end of the truck.

When Trigger and I arrived at the Lodge, I pulled a muscle in my shoulder, when I lifted the bucket out of the bed. "Hi Kinky! It's me!" I half-hollered, as I entered the kitchen. I heard Kinky hang up his phone, and then I heard footsteps headed in my direction.

"Hey, Nance! How are you? What's in the bucket?"

"I'm fine, Kink. I brought you some of Tony's vegetable crop. I wanted to share them with you," I half-lied. Then I happily started unloading the pile of vegetables onto Kinky's kitchen table, as I was thinking—better here than there. When I pulled out the giant zucchini—Kinky started laughing, in amazement! When the bucket was half full, I took a break, and shot Kinky, and half of the load of veggies!

Y'all have a great evening!

You Reap What You Sow!

This morning, after drinking our smoothies, Tony went outside to go check on his garden, so I decided to walk the walk, in front of my television. On cue, when I shoved the workout DVD into the DVD player, my dogs knew what was fixin' to happen, so they ran for cover! They quickly scrambled around 'the big room,' and jumped up, into their favorite old chairs, so I wouldn't accidentally do a hit-and-walk—because they know me, too well. To them, I am the female version of Mr. Magoo—the cartoon character, from way back when.

While the DVD's silent, long running, warning message appeared on the blue colored screen, warning me about going to the nearest, privately owned penitentiary, if I copied their DVD, I put a load of wet, clean clothes, into Steve McQueen, to tumble dry!

FYI: Last month, I forgot to tell y'all, that I changed Airy Queen's name to Steve McQueen, after watching 'Junior Bonner.' Anyway, the message on the screen, goes on to state, that they strongly suggest that I consult my physician, which I don't have, before doing their workout. And, lastly, to protect themselves—it says that if I should possibly drop dead, in my tracks—Tony and Kinky would not be able to sue them. We're talkin'—walk at your own risk here.

Well, I sorta like taking risks, it's a Libra deal, I can't help it, so I pushed the play button on the remote and took my chances—wondering if I would survive another workout. I had my fingers crossed.

I was forty minutes into my personal walk-about, with only five minutes left to go, when Steve loudly beeped, to let me know his work was done drying, and then Tone comes inside the trailer—carrying a large, yellow, five gallon bucket—with his organic, heirloom vegetables inside it!

While I did my final stretches, T. quietly washed the vegetables in the kitchen sink, and then he neatly piled them on the drain board. When my workout was done—I gasped for air, and nearly had a heart attack, when I saw Tony's morning crop! Here's a picture of it!

Tone's healthy vegetables were beautiful! We're talkin' beans, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow squash, and zucchini! And, he was so proud of them!

I didn't know what to do with his vegetable crop, that could easily feed a family of four, for several days, because I don't know how to can, or even know the procedure for freezing fresh vegetables properly. I also knew that there was no way, that we could eat all of his veggies in a day. So, not wanting to hurt Tony's feelings, I said, "They're beautiful, Tone! Congratulations on today's bumper crop!" While I secretly hoped that I would come up with a solution, as to what to do with his vegetables, sometime during the day.

While showering—I nearly had a full blown panic attack, and got soap in my eyes, when I wondered, and then worried if Tony would be harvesting that many vegetables everyday! I knew he had over-planted some, and that you reap what you sow—and the thought of that—truly had me scared!

While I was drying myself off, I started quickly counting, in my mind, the number of local friends that we have—that we could dump his vegetables on, excuse me, I mean share his vegetables with. By the time I was fully dressed—I sadly realized, that my jeans were a little too tight, because I had eaten too much of Ray's birthday cake, but more importantly—I realized that T. and I needed to get a lot more new friends—P.D.Q.!

Fortunately, I had a lot of paperwork to do today, so I put my worries on hold. Around four o'clock, my dear friend, Cindy P. called—she was coming over for a visit! That cheered me up, because I couldn't wait to see her! She's moving to New Mexico, in August, and she had just returned from there.

Before Cindy arrived—I came up with a solution for today's over abundance of vegetables—I'd cook them, and then freeze them! When Cindy arrived, I had cooked nearly half of the squash, onions, zucchini with some tomatoes, and had already put them into the freezer!

When Cindy saw what was left of today's crop, sitting on our drain board, I offered to 'share' them with her, and she was delighted, but not as much as me! I quickly filled a sack up, with Tony's vegetables! I now, only had to cook one more round of vegetables, to clear off the drain board—for tomorrow's crop!

As Cindy and I sipped wine, and talked about the 'Enchanted Land,' which we both love—I put the last containers of cooked veggies into our freezer!

Y'all have a great evening!

P.S. I want to do a shout out to Marcus, the great waiter at Bella Vita! You Rock!

It Has Never Sparkled!

This morning, I was wide awake at five o'clock, in fact, I was wide awake all night, and never slept a wink. I went to bed at my usual time, but could not fall to sleep, because my stomach was upset, from eating some fried food, again. At three o'clock, I vowed to never eat fried food again—after throwing it up, in the bathroom. It was not a pretty sight—and neither was I.

At five o'clock, Tony climbed out of bed, and to his surprise, so did I. I was exhausted from no sleep, my stomach was fine, and I wanted to watch Kinky on Imus at six-thirty. I came into the kitchen, made some coffee, while Tony fed the dogs for me. When the Imus show first came on—his crew announced that Imus would not be doing the show today, because the T-line is down, at the Imus Ranch.

I don't know what a T-line is. I figure it must have something to do with telephone or electrical lines. Anyway, I was disappointed. Tony called Kinky at five-thirty to wake him up, "Kinky. Kinky, it is five-thirty. Kinky wake..."

"I'm up Tone. Thanks for calling me."

"Imus can't do the show today, because the T-line is down at his ranch." There was a pause. "I think it is a telephone line." Then there was another pause. "Okay, bye."

Before T. took off for the Old Timer, he suggested that I go back to bed and try to get some sleep. I did as I was told sorta. I went back to bed, but couldn't fall to sleep, because I was trying too hard. So, I got out of bed and decided to vacuum the trailer, because a nice woman, from Austin, was coming out this afternoon to see the rescue ranch, and to meet Tony and me.

Hazel was sleeping soundly in the closet, until I turned on the light, and dragged her out of the closet, and put her to work. After all of the dog and cat hair had disappeared—Hazel went back into the closet. Then I prepared our morning smoothies, as I watched and listened to The Today Show. When Tone returned home, we drank our healthy breakfast, and then I went back to bed for the second time, and Tony went outside to work with Aaron.

Fortunately, I slept over two hours with my dogs, then I got out of bed, to start making our lunch. When I walked into the kitchen, I was surprised to see some of T.'s crop—on the drain board, washed and ready to cook! Here is a picture of our first produce from the organic garden:

I sauteed his squash, the zucchini and onions—and they were absolutely delcious with the baked Tilapia! And tomorrow morning, I'm going to add the radishes to our morning smoothie! I can't wait!

Well, it is close to two-o'clock right now, and Sue should be arriving out here, within the hour. The trailer looks descent, the kitchen is cleaned up, but not sparkling—it has never sparkled, and I am fixin' to finish up this blog, because Thunder just started barking! I can't wait to meet Sue!

Kinky called and just told me that he will be doing the Imus Show—this Thursday morning, at six-thirty CST!

Y'all have a great Tuesday!

P.S. Sue came out and we really enjoyed her visit! We had much in common like our love for dogs, cats, all animals, eating healthy, sailing and music! And she is a writer, too! I love it!