Marguerite's Sweet Next Door Neighbor!

First off, I want you to know that I love my new Star Guide App, that my dear friend Sue told me about yesterday.

When it finally got dark last night, Tony and I went outside and we had a lot of fun using that easy to use Star Guide app. So, I too, give it a 5-Star rating.

Today has been great. Early this afternoon Tony and I met Kinky and our mutual friend, Max Swafford, for a fun lunch, in Kerrville.

Max is the talented author who wrote the fabulous book The Kinky File: Investigating The Mystery of Richard "Kinky" Friedman. Which is a MUST READ for all Kinky fans. And our rescue ranch still has several copies of Max's great book. And if you would like to have this book all you have to do is make a donation of $25.00 to Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch and please make a note to me that you would like to receive Max's book.

As we ate our lunch we talked about old friends we knew, about me baby-sitting The Friedmans all day tomorrow, because Kinky is going to be the MC for Willie Nelson's 4th of July Picnic.

I love Willie's 4th of July Picnics and in the past I have been lucky enough to be backstage at several of his picnics. And getting to meet some of the awesome musicians is something that I will always treasure.

This years picnic has an All Star lineup of some of my favorite musicians that include: Merle Haggard, Alison Kraus, Billy Joe Shaver, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Bush, David Allan Coe, Asleep At The Wheel, Leon Russell, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Eric Church to name just a few and of course, Willie. Anyway, Kinky told us that he is really looking forward to seeing so many of his dear musician friends tomorrow.

Before finishing our lunch we had also talked about some of the greatest dogs and cats that chose to spend their lives with us and how lucky we've all been and then Max and I exchanged our favorite fruit smoothie recipes.

I told Max about our favorite smoothie that I make that includes all of these healthy ingredients: H-E-B's frozen Mixed Fruits, almond milk, goji berries, chia seeds, kale, cocoa chips, walnuts, banana, ginger, blueberries and yogurt. "It is so delicious, Max," I said. "It's like having a dessert."

Then Kinky chuckled and started teasing me about me using way too many ingredients. "Nance, you should keep it simple with just a few ingredients," Kinky suggested, as we stood up and shoved in our chairs, so we could go pay our bills.

Then we adios-ed each other, in the parking lot, jumped into our trucks and took off in different directions. Our direction was the big H-E-B, so we could buy a few groceries.

Usually Tony and I always run into several friends, at the grocery store and it takes us a long time to get out of the store, because I talk too much, but today we only ran into sweet Sarah, who is Marguerite's next door neighbor and dear friend.

Tony got to know Sarah and her husband Junior when he took his Master Naturalist class with them a few years ago. And I finally got to meet Sarah and Junior last October when sweet Marguerite had invited all of us to eat lunch, at her beautiful passive-solar home.

Anyway, Sarah saw us first, as we were just about ready to leave the store and she stopped and said hi to us. And after we exchanged greetings, she chuckled and said, "Marguerite asked me to watch your Longmire—Texas Style video with her and all we did was laugh. We loved it and it was hilarious!...."

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

Congratulations Tony!

Today has been a great day, especially for Tony, because this morning he went to his Texas Master Naturalist Hill Country Chapter commencement to received his badge!

Tony was lucky that Eileen Gotke, our dear friend, volunteered her time to be his fabulous mentor for the TMN course, because she has helped him throughout the two and a half month long course that he really enjoyed. "We love you, Eileen and we think that you are one of the nicest, most giving people in the Texas Hill Country."

When Tony arrived back at the rescue ranch he was grinning from ear-to-ear and he was proudly wearing his TMN badge. "Nance, you are not going to believe the incredible gift that Eileen gave me before the ceremony started!"

"What?" I asked.

"You're not going to believe the incredible gift that Eileen gave to me before the ceremony started!" He repeated loudly, as I began to chuckle.

"I heard what you said the first time, Tone," I said. "I said, "What," because she shouldn't have given you a present, for helping you so much. What did she give you?"

"A Beekeeper's hat and veil and this cute beehive ornament! How cool is that!" Then we came inside  The Cabin, so he could he could put on his bee helmet, so I could shoot him with my camera. 

When I let our dogs inside and they saw T. wearing the gift that Eileen gave to him they started barking at him. While Tony removed his beekeeper's hat, that he is thrilled to have, I told him what his wonder dog, Beau Bridges, did this morning. "After you left this morning, I let Beau and Belle come inside, while Abbie, Mama and Roy went outside. He was so excited to see me he raced through the big room,  jumped up on the big dog food container and then jumped up on the drainboard and accidentally knocked our toaster off. You should have seen it, because it would have been a hilarious YouTube video." 

After we had stopped laughing about it, Tony said, "You should have taken a picture of him, on the drainboard."

"I couldn't because my camera was acting up, because of Mercury in retrograde."

Y'all have a great evening!