Red Man! or Longmire! or Warm Day!

Today has been great. All that I've done today is playing paperwork catch up, etc. and I still need a few more hours to be totally caught up, again. So tonight's post is going to be mainly pictures, because I want to get caught up.

I had a fabulous time, at Cindy's beautiful, off-grid ranch, in Northern New Mexico. It took Chet and me thirteen hours to drive there. I only drove The Red Pony for about one hour and Chet drove the rest of the way, because I think my driving skills worried him.

And when we arrived, at the ranch, Saturday night, Jody, who is a super, multi-talented, skilled artist, gave each of us two of his beautiful pillows that he had painted.

Cindy's fabulous Rites of Passage premier, film event was held, in Taos, Sunday evening and we met some incredibly great people there, with some of them being the Who's Who, of Taos, including Jonathan Warm Day, the famous Native American Pueblo artist and author, who is also good friends with Cindy & Jody.

I wore my official dress-up uniform: the long-sleeved emerald green blouse, pink bandana around my neck, pink boots and cowboy hat and the art gallery owner's partner, a very nice woman, said to Jo, who was standing next to me, "Now this woman knows how to wear a hat." Then she smiled and looked me in the eye, and said, "I bet you're Cindy's friend, from Texas..." Basically, I looked like this photo taken at my latest Medina Community Library book signing.

And that night I also purchased one of Jody's beautiful, hand carved and painted plaques: the Third of the Seven Sacred Teachings: COURAGE-BEAR: "It takes a lot of courage to listen to your heart and your spirit when your mind is telling you something else."

During the days, Cindy and I spent most of our time visiting, either sitting out on the porch, hiking down to the pretty pond or in her studio, while Chet and Jody took hikes, worked or went horseback riding, on their awesome horses, Red Man, the Quarter Horse. in the picture below and Boss Man, the handsome Paint.

In the evenings, Chet treated us and their friends to several, awesome, mini-concerts, that would always give us goose bumps and leave us speechless, because of his incredible musical talents. 

And while we were out there we also celebrated Cindy's birthday. Jo, who had moved out there, three years ago, from Blanco, is both Cindy's and my girlfriend. She surprised Cindy with the cutest, delicious, homemade "Aliens Welcome" birthday cake. And she also made fresh, raw milk ice cream, using the milk from Cindy's & Jody's sweet milk cow, Tilly. The cake and the vanilla ice cream were so tasty, I ate way too much of it, but what the heck—I was on vacation and I also love Aliens and Yetis.

This afternoon I took a ten-minute break from doing the paperwork, so I could hang up Jody's beautiful plaque. I had to rearrange a few pictures, on the walls, to finally find the perfect place for it.

And I moved our small "All you need is Love" hand-sewn plaque, that a very sweet, young woman made especially for us, because several years ago we had rescued, Roscoe, her families beloved dog, and I hung it on the wall, next to the front door, so the last thing that anyone will see, when going outside, will remind us that all you need is love, because it is so true.

P.S. Earlier today our dear friends Kris & The Mineral Man sent me a picture of their two favorite bumper stickers, on their bumper, that they also tweeted to Craig Johnson, the famous author of Longmire, in hopes that he will respond. And I love it!

Y'all have a great evening!

A Light In The Shadow!

Today has been great. I am sorry for not posting a lot the past few days, but I have been more than busy working on several (some temporarily secret) projects, at the same time, that will be benefiting our rescue ranch, while everyday also trying to mow down the tall grass with Tony. I am not complaining—I am just explaining.

This morning our great friends/dog walking volunteers came out and walked our dogs for us. Then all of us went up to the Medina Highpoint Resort's Koyote Grill to eat lunch together. And as always lunch was delicious and a whole lot of fun.

We got to watch June's cute granddaughter sing, in a school play, on Ellen's iPad. Then June told us an hilarious story about her and her husband's trip to Australia, that involved walking across a pasture filled with cows, calves and kangaroos and then she did an laugh-out-loud reenactment of how her husband had done it.

Then Ellen started telling us hilarious stories about different snakes, she'd met in her lifetime. Two of the funniest were when she found a snake coiled up, in her kitchen drawer, that she finally was able to release outside. And my favorite one was when her uncle or relative was working, in a barn, he found a big long snake mixed in with the hay. So he started wrapping it around his rake, so he could fling it outside. And right when he flung it outside the barn door—his son entered the barn and the middle of the snake's body hit the kid, in the neck and then it started wrapping itself around the poor boy's head. "Fortunately, neither the snake or the boy were harmed," Ellen said. "And to this day that relative still wonders about it really being an accident or not." Suzanne, Eileen, Kris and Jim also had funny stories to tell, but there's not enough time to write about them. Anyway, lunch was a total blast.

My dear friend Cindy Pickard, who has received several awards on her outstanding documentaries, is  working on a fascinating, informative documentary film, in progress, on Prisons: the inmates, their families, the guards and those who teach and bring light to the darkness. It is called A Light In The Shadow and Cindy has let me view some of the interviews, etc. and I absolutely love what I have already seen of it. So I asked Cindy to please let me know if there was anything that I could do to help her with this awesome documentary.

Two days ago, Cindy wrote and told me that she had launched the documentary, A Light In The Shadow, on Kick/Starter. So, I want to invite everyone to please check it out, because you're going to like what you see.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1178181924/the-light-in-the-shadow-a-documentary-film-on-pris/

And please note that Cindy is using some of Chet O'Keefe's fabulous music, in the documentary and that I have just made a pledge to help fund it, too. And I hope that y'all will too after you check it out.

Unfortunately, now I must go back outside and help Tony do some more mowing, etc., so I guess that's  about it for tonight. Hopefully, by tomorrow I will be feeling more rested and will be caught up with the mowing, before F.M.T. (Full Moon Time) on Sunday, May 3rd.

Y'all have a great evening!

He Didn't Eat Much!

Today has been great. This morning after I walked eight miles with Leslie, my dear friend Cindy called. "Hi Cindy! How is Northern New Mexico treating you?" After she told me how amazingly great it was and how much she loved living there, we visited for nearly an hour catching up with each others news.

First, we talked about my new teeth and she was thrilled for me. Then she told me a little about the next documentary that she and her son, Andy are planning to do, but it is a secret right now, so my lips are sealed. All I can say right now is, "It is going to be totally awesome and I can't wait to see it!"

Before saying goodbye to each other I remembered something else I wanted to tell her. "Cindy, I love those hoodie sweatshirts that you sent to me of the Seven Teachings! I wear one of them every day." Cindy chuckled.

"I'm glad. Which ones did I send to you?"

"The Bear, the Turtle, the Wolf and the Buffalo. Every time I wear one of them, some one always comments and compliments me about them." Then Cindy told me about their new store online.

"We've got beautiful handmade jewelry of the Seven Teachings, hoodies and posters by Jonathan Warm Day and our DVD's."Then she gave me the address so I could look it up online and because I wanted to mention it tonight on my post, so y'all can check it out.

After we hung up, as I was looking at the beautiful items for sale on the 8th Fire.org the phone rang—it was Kinky. It was no big deal. He just had a question to ask me.

Near noon, while I was down on the floor "doing Thunder's nails" with the battery operated Pedi-Paws, Ellen called, so I let Carlton take the call. "Hi, Nancy. It's Ellen. Call me." Click. As Thunder's nails grew shorter I worried that maybe Buddy, the giant goat wasn't working out.

A little while later when Tony walked inside the trailer I was still doing Thunder's nails, so I asked him to call Ellen for me. As I grinded, T. punched in Charlie and Ellen Cooper's phone number. Within seconds he started laughing, as he talked to Ellen. Four minutes later when he hung up the phone he said, "Buddy is doing great. They love him and Buddy follows Mr. Cooper everywhere he goes and he is never over five feet away from him at any time. She told me that this morning Mr. Cooper let Buddy go inside their huge greenhouse with him and a little while later when they came out, they asked how Buddy did. Mr. Cooper said, "He didn't eat that much!"" T. and I started laughing.

After lunch I went over to the Lodge to visit with Kinky for a few minutes. When I arrived, he and Frank were in the kitchen eating their lunch, which Kinky had cooked and it looked scrumptious and smelled delicious. Kinky told me that it was shrimp and sausage in a tomato sauce with garlic, onions and a few other spices, over pasta.

As they ate, I told them the latest news on Buddy and they were thrilled with it and they laughed. "He is one very lucky goat," Kinky said, and Frank agreed by nodding his head up and down, because he had food in his mouth.

A little after four o'clock I went back over to the Lodge and watched some college football with him. We watched Penn State vs. Ohio State. When I sat down Penn State was ahead in the middle of the third quarter and we were glad, so after a few minutes of watching the game we decided to take a football break and go outside and sit on the porch with The Friedmans for a few minutes.

When we came back inside the Lodge, Kinky said, "OMG." Ohio State had made a touchdown and they were now ahead, so we sat back down and stared at the television in silence. When the fourth quarter started I came back home and listened to the game as I did some housework and that is about it for today.

Tonight I am going to fix some popcorn and watch a movie, but I don't know which one, yet.

Y'all have a great evening!

Manitou Api ~ Where The Sun Rises!

This morning while Lisa and Matt helped Tony with his chores, I walked six miles, even though I was tired and didn't feel like exercising. I am sure it must have something to do with Mercury in retrograde.

This afternoon Lee, a very nice woman from Houston, drove up to see us. After a short visit inside the trailer, she followed me over to the Lodge to meet Kinky. When we arrived Kinky was in the middle of a pool game with his cousin Steve Samet. After The Hummingbird Man beat him, Steve's son Brett challenged Kinky to a game. Unfortunately, The Hummingbird Man beat him, too. As Kinky did his hilarious victory lap around the pool table we teased Steve and Brett about losing. Then Kinky gave Lee a tour of the Lodge and we had a very nice visit.

After Lee left, I worked on my book for a few hours until Kinky called. He invited us to come over for a visit. Tony was busy farming, so I went alone. We had a fun visit.

Last week, my dear friend Cindy Pickard sent me an e-mail announcing the release of her and her son, Andy's, latest documentary, "Manitou Api ~ Where The Sun Rises!" I am so excited for them and cannot wait to see it, because Cindy let Tony and me get a few sneak peaks of it before she moved to New Mexico! The World Premiere will be at: Globe Theater Winnipeg, MB on February 18, 2010! They have posted a trailer for the documentary and I hope that y'all will check it out. It is so awesome! I'm sure that it will be another award winning documentary for them!

Manitou Api ~ Where The Sun Rises and check out their beautiful web site: The 8th Fire!

Y'all have a great evening!