I Don't Know Who It Is!

Today has been great, because of dear friends. Since last Tuesday I've been pretty blue since our dear friend Rick passed away.

Tony and I are so lucky, because we got to work a few hours, next door, on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and I tried to be cheerful at work and hide my sadness concerning Rick stepping on a rainbow. But I guess I wasn't very good at it. Because this morning when we went to work, sweet Darlene, who Tony and I just love and adore, took me aside and she handed me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. And she said, "Nancy, these are for you. I must admit that I bought them for myself, but when you told me about your friend's passing I want you to have them. In hopes they will help you feel better...."

Darlene's gesture was so sweet and sincere I almost teared up, so I thanked her while I stared up at the kitchen's ceiling. Because years ago, sweet Nita, Ronnie's wife, had taught me the secret of always staring upwards to avoid tears. And it worked.

As usual work was fun, because we love everyone that works at Escondida. Anyway, Tony and I only worked about 2.5 hours today, because we were meeting our dear friends, Eileen, Chris and Suzanne at 11:45, for lunch at the Apple Store, in Medina.

When Tony and I got off work at 11:05, we came home and the first thing I did was put Darlene's lovely flowers in a vase.

Knowing that time was of the essence for us to be on time for our fun lunch, Tony and I quickly cleaned up The Cabin, because we had decided to invite our friends to come over after lunch, so we could show them all of the things we've done with The Cabin. And I am so glad that we did that.

Tony and I arrived first, at the Apple Store at 11:45, so we went ahead and placed our orders. Then we went outside and found a picnic table, under the sun, for all of us to eat at.

As the sun beamed down on us, Tony and I passed the time by betting who would show up first until we were served lunch. We thought about waiting for Eileen, Suzanne and Chris to arrive before eating our lunch, but time marched on and on and on. So we started eating our delicious lunch.

After we had finished-off our hamburgers, we took turns to go get our apple ice cream desserts, so one of us would be at the picnic table, to greet our friends. I went first.

Naturally, I was the first to finish my dessert, so I said, "Tony. I don't think they are coming. We must have had a miscommunication or something...." Tony nodded.

When we got back home, the first thing I did was check my e-mail and Eileen, at 7:59 this morning had sent me this note:

"Nancy,

Suzanne is sick, so we called off lunch for today. Will reschedule another day after she gets to feeling normal."

Then I sent Eileen a funny reply to let her know that we had not checked our messages or e-mails before going to work this morning and that we had enjoyed our lunch at the Apple Store and that we looked forward to having lunch with them sooner than later.

Then I heard a horn honk outside and our dogs started barking. As Tony exited his man-cave, I said, "Tony! Someone is at our gate, but I don't know who it is."

"It's Marita," Tony replied, matter of factly, as he walked past me on his way outside. 

"Marita & Hans?" I asked. "Our dear friends in Bergen, Norway?"

As we watched Hans & Marita's KIA rental car pull up to The Cabin, I asked, "How did you know it was Marita?"

"She had just messaged me," Tony explained. "Asking if they could drop by...."And that is when I thought—thank goodness we cleaned up the house.

Omg, we had so much fun visiting with our dear Norwegian friends. Over coffee, we caught up with each other's news. And that is when they told us that they had returned to Fredericksburg, so they could go to concerts all over the state and then go to Austin to attend SXSW.

And while we were outside, sitting on the front porch, laughing and talking about some of our favorite musicians, Terlingua, etc. we heard another honk and it was sweet Carol, driving by in her pickup—heading to her ranch. And as I finish writing this Carol just called and I let Carlton take the call, so I am now fixin' to call her back.

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

On A Roll!

Yesterday was so much fun. Friday morning our great friends/dog-walking volunteers came out and walked our dogs for us. Then all of us went to the Apple Store, in Medina, to eat lunch together and to celebrate Chris' and Suzanne's April birthdays.

Eileen brought the cutest, themed birthday cake for them and it was absolutely delicious, but too fattening when we topped it off with the Cider Mill's tasty apple ice cream.

And I didn't complain about my high calorie count intake, but my jeans sure did, on our way back home. To say the least, "It was pretty painful."

Later in the afternoon our good friend Steve Pietzsch came over and he brought along his brother Mike and his son Daniel, who were down here visiting him. They came over so we could do some picking' & grinnin' and we did and it was a lot of fun. And right after we had put our guitars away, Carol, who we had also invited, came over. And then we spent about an hour, inside The Cabin, catching up with each other and talking and laughing about life in general.

The other day when I wrote about giving up on making a quilt, because many of the seams did not line up with each other, even though the layout had looked fine, when I had placed the pretty 5 inch squares, on the stove top, before I sewed them together.

And as you already know, I have decided to cut up and use my quilt to make throw pillow covers to give away as Cousin Nancy gifts and to also make matching, tiny quilts for Little Debbie and Big Al(ice). And possibly make place mats if there is any leftover, scrap quilting-material.

Then I put my stupid-looking, wanna-be quilt out of mind and turned my attention to making Carol's Christmas bun—using our dog's hair. But after surfing the Web for my intense, five minute research, on the cost of spinning wheels—I gave up on that too, because of that potholder warning sign. 

Anyway, when I told Carol about me not making a dog-hair bun for her Christmas present she tried to hide it, but I could tell that she was really disappointed. "Nancy, I totally understand and don't worry about it, even though I have already been collecting Scout's and Pepper's hair to give to you. I thought it would be nice to have a little bit of their hair, in my little bun, too...."

Late Saturday evening, I was thinking that I was so glad that I had told Carol upfront about me ditching her Christmas bun project, before letting her waste anymore of her time collecting her dog's hair. And I was ready to lay to rest my dog-hair-bun project and forget about it and get on with other important things to make. 

Well, that thought didn't last long, because Saturday night, when I checked my e-mail Fay had sent me this e-mail that I want to share with you now. Fay wrote: 

"I was interested on the yarn making process after reading your blog, and Lord knows I want to see Carol get her dog-hair bun. LOL!

I found this really sweet girl who does spinning tutorials on Youtube, who also has an Etsy shop! So I ordered you a Drop Spindle & Yarn Beginner's Kit and it should arrive by mail next week. Here is a video you can watch where she explains it so easily, so you'll be ready to go once the spindle arrives.

Have a great weekend & get that dog hair washed, dried and ready!

Bunches of love,

Fay"

So that got me excited all over again, so I checked out the drop-spindle video that Fay had sent and I was on a roll! So I did a little more research and found this video on how to spin dog hair into yarn. So it looks like Carol is going to get her dog-hair bun after all.

I am now looking forward to receiving Fay's cool Drop Spindle & Yarn Beginner's Kit gift, but I already know that I am going to need some extra help collecting enough dog hair to make Carol's hairy bun. 

So before I ask you to please send me some of your collected dogs' hair, I want you to know that I've already checked it out and YES—it is legal to mail dog hair to people. So if you can help me out please send it.

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

P.S. My good friend Cathie sent me this hilarious Star Wars youtube about bad lip reading and I am still laughing about it.

Yummy!

Yesterday was great. Early in the morning, I decided to try to reduce some of our healthy, whole-food, plant-based food, that had completely taken over the kitchen counter.

First, I emptied out the big container that was full of sugar, so I could use it to consolidate the organic, bags of short grained rice. And I didn't throw out the sugar. I put it in two big baggies, so Tony could take it outside, to use to fill his many hummingbird feeders.

Then I added the sack of Himalania Dark Chocolate Goji Berries to the big container that I already have a mix of goji berries, walnuts and organic chocolate nips.

Then before Tony went outside to do his chores, I made us this ugly-looking, but totally delicious, healthy smoothie for our breakfast. It consisted of: almond milk, frozen mixed fruit, blueberries, banana, 3 big handfuls of kale, goji berries, walnuts, organic chocolate nips, cinnamon, ginger and chia seeds. Then I stayed inside to walk 4 miles with Leslie, while our super-great friends/volunteers walked our dogs for us.

Then a little while later, Tony and I went to the Apple Store, in Medina, to eat lunch and to celebrate sweet Eileen's birthday. Eileen's party was really fun. The food was delicious and Suzanne's beautiful, chocolate, 3-layer, birthday cake was absolutely delicious, even though I only ate one bite and took mine home for Tony to enjoy later.

Then last night, I relaxed and had a wonderful time reading more of Carl Hiaasen's great book Basket Case. Seriously—it is one of those books that you don't want to put down.

Today has been great, too. We had some visitors come out to see our rescue ranch. We gave all of them a tour, but unfortunately none of them were in the market to adopt a super dog from us.  

Late this afternoon for our lunch, I tried a new recipe, that I found, in the Forks Over KNiVES magazine. I made us delicious Yam Quesadillas, on page 70 and I topped them off with their Pea Guacamole, on page 71.

Both recipes were very easy for me to make and to Tony's surprise he thought they were absolutely delicious. And I must admit that I would have never dreamt that blending yams with vegetable broth, green chiles, lime juice, chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, cumin, garlic, black beans and salsa could taste so yummy. 

Here are pictures that I took of the whole process. yam mixture, before I grilled the tasty, yam quesadillas, in 100% whole wheat tortillas, using my pretty, pink George Foreman grill.

Then I made their delicious Pea Guacamole recipe.

Then we sat down at the kitchen table to eat our healthy, meatless lunch and we thoroughly enjoyed it, especially Mr. Potato Head!

After we ate lunch there was a "ton" of leftovers, so I filled two, one,  gallon-sized baggies with one small baggie of yam/black bean mixture (2 servings) and then I slipped four, 100% Whole Wheat tortillas into each big baggie, labeled it and sealed it. Then I put the bags into the freezer, so in the future, we can eat this meal, two more times. And all that I will have to do is just make the Pea Guacamole or real guacamole.

And that is about it for tonight, because I can't wait to start reading more of Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen.

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

We Wish Y'all A Merry Christmas!

This has been one super busy week for us and it has been a good one for us. Yesterday afternoon after having a fun lunch with our great volunteers, at the Apple Store, in Medina, we took off for Kerrville, to buy our dogs their Christmas Dinner.

Of course, the grocery store was packed with last minute shoppers, like us and the good news is we survived our grocery shopping for the dogs and for us. The bill for our dog's "people" Christmas Dinner came to a grand total of $146.68.

Today has been great. We got up early and while I finished doing the last minute cleaning of The Cabin, Tony was outside doing his morning chores.

It is now2:00, in the afternoon and we are all set for our good friend, Jim Keaveny, to arrive, so he can spend Christmas with us, before he heads back to Terlingua. Like Chet O'Keefe, Jim is an extremely talented singer/songwriter/musician and we wish that he could spend more time with us, but he can't because he has several gigs to play next week, in Terlingua. For example: Chet and Jim will be playing together, on New Year's Eve, at the Bad Rabbit Cafe, which is one of our favorite places to go to when we are out there.

Tomorrow morning, at 9:00 our faithful, fabulous volunteers are coming out to help us prepare and serve our rescued dogs their delicious, annual Christmas dinner and we are looking forward to that, too.

Anyway, I do apologize for not blogging much this week and my excuse is I was simply too tired to write, in the evening, after these past, busy days.

And before I post this, we wish y'all a Merry Christmas!

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

In A Perfect World! or Mending Fences!

Today and the last few day have been great. First off, Kinky will finally be back, at the ranch, tomorrow after his three-week long tour, in Australia. And I can't wait to tell him that Jim aka The Mineral Man told me that he heard back from his friends, in Australia, that attended Kinky's concert as Kinky's guests.  Jim said, "My friends had a wonderful time at the concert. They said that Kinky was great and he even mentioned my name and talked about me while up on stage. And Kinky was so nice to them he even had a complimentary bottle of wine sent to their table for them enjoy..."

A few weeks ago, after spending, about 6 -7 months researching all kinds of wood burning stoves, I purchased an American Made cast-iron wood burning stove, at Home Depot, to heat our trailer or my cabin, because we want to get off-grid.

This Pleasant Hearth wood burning stove is EPA approved for mobile homes or manufactured homes, too and it will heat up to 1,200 square feet.

And about ten days after after getting the wood burning stove, my off-grid friend told me about also considering buying an Eco-Fan, because all of her off-grid friends use them. Even though our wood burning stove came with an electric blower, I asked her to please send me a link to the one that she uses. And after reading how incredible great these eco-fans are I purchased one, too.

Because this three pound, EPA approved, heat powered fan drives heat into your entire house or trailer without electricity. And there is no big noisy blower. It is whisper-quiet and it comes with a 10 YEARS LIMITED MANUFACTURE WARRANTY!

Now I want to show you this adorable dish towel that I love, because our dear friend/volunteer, Suzanne, gave it to me. She told me that it was not a birthday present either, because a month ago, when she was shopping, she saw it, and she said, "When I saw it—it had Nancy written all over it. I meant to give it to you sooner, but I kept forgetting to bring it to you" And when I showed the dish towel to Tony he loved it, too and he suggested that I not use it and get it framed instead. Which I am thinking about doing.

Friday morning when Suzanne and our other great friends/volunteers came out they walked our dogs for us and then all of us went to the Apple Store to eat lunch and to also celebrate my birthday. Sweet Eileen brought the cake and party plates, etc. And after we ate our delicious lunch they lit the four, long, pink candles, on my beautiful, delicious, chocolate birthday cake. 

And after they sang happy birthday to me I blew out the candles. Then these tall, thin, pink candles lit up again and again, so I finally gave up trying to blow them out and laughed and then plucked them out of the cake and put the flames out permanently, by sticking the lighted ends, into the side of the cake. And to say the least about my birthday party that they threw for me is it was so much fun and I loved their cards.

This morning two of our great friends/volunteers, Jim "The Mineral Man" and Eileen were a part of the famous, annual, downtown, Kerrville parade. Tony and I really wanted to go to the parade to see Eileen, dressed up in her famous bat-suit and to also see Jim riding, on the Hill Country Shriners Club float, but we couldn't go, because on Saturdays we always have our open-house to the Public, from 10:00 - 3:00. But the good news is that, after the parade, Jim & Kris sent me these pictures.

It is now 6:20 and I just took a short, fifteen minute break, to go help Tony mend a fence and now I am back to finish writing tonight's post and it is about Lori Darlin' who Tony rescued, from the pound, a few weeks ago.

Three days after her arrival here, Lori quit eating, so we immediately took her to Hoegemeryer Animal Clinic, because we were scared that she had Parvo, because she was so anemic. Anyway, when Dr. Craig Janssen saw her, he immediately put her of fluids and meds. When he came out to the lobby, he said the P-word and he told us that it would take about four or five days to treat her. So we were sad about her having Parvo and we left empty-handed and came home.

The good news is it only took two days for her to fully recover, so, on that Friday we picked Lori Darlin' up and brought her back home with us and we were given special feeding instructions for her.

So yesterday, late afternoon, we returned Lori Darlin' to Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, for a full check up and to receive her first puppy shots. And the reason that the first time when we took Lori Darlin' to the vet clinic they told us that she was too anemic and weak to get them. And the good news is this sweet little, three-month-old pup has been given a clean bill of health and she is healthier than ever! And she and Henry Standing Bear have become the best of friends. They play constantly.

Lori still needs to get a fabulous, forever home and if any of y'all can help her find it faster than us, then please spread the word and know that she is now totally house broken and she is crate trained. And she has learned how to get along with other dogs of all sizes, including Little Debbie and Big Al(ice). And here is a picture of her that I took earlier this afternoon. She is very smart and as sweet as she can be.

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

P.S. Just to show you how big Lori Darlin' is this is a picture with her and Belle and little Big Al(ice)

Taking Care of Business! or Invisible Ink!

Today has been great. Early his morning when I woke up it was thundering and raining outside and Tony was  drinking coffee with his friends, at the Old Timer, in Medina, so I went back to bed, to catch a few more hours of sleep. Because I didn't fall to sleep until 1:45.

The next time that I woke up, with all of our dogs sleeping on the bed with me, it was thundering and raining outside, again. It was sort of like a deja-vu, but this time Tony was drinking coffee, in the kitchen.

After taking an Aspirin and giving Roy his three pills, I drank a delicious cup of Chai Latte, before I showered and got dressed. Then I started taking care of business.

I returned e-mails and  phone calls first. Then I paid some bills, made up a deposit and tried to write thank you letters, but unfortunately the officejet was in a snit and rejected all ten of my printing requests. But in the printer's defense it made all of the sounds like it was printing my letters, but when I went back to my office to retrieve the thank you letters with my added personal notes to them—the pages were all blank or the printer used invisible ink.

Awhile later, I was running diagnostic checks on this often moody officejet when Tony came back inside The Cabin, after doing his morning chores outside. He was soaking wet, and said, "Nance, I'm starving. What's our plan for the day?"

"We need to go to the bank to make a deposit, then go to the Post Office, so I can mail some bills. I wrote the thank you letters, but the printer isn't printing anything that I can see. I guess we could take off now, if you want to?"

"Okay, let me take a shower and put on some clean clothes. It will take me about twenty minutes."

On our way to Bandera to make a deposit I persuaded Tony into eating lunch, at the Apple Store, in Medina, by telling him how delicious their SPJ Burger was. The one that made Texas Monthly's Top 50 Burgers in Texas.

So after making the deposit and then mailing my letters, in Medina, I saved Tony from starving to death, because we went to the Apple Store and ordered the exact same thing for a late lunch—SPJ Burgers and iced tea. And like me their SPJ Burger is our new favorite thing to eat, at The Apple Store. And that's about it for tonight, because I am expecting an important phone call.

Tomorrow night I will tell you about us rescuing a small dog today, named Jack, who I've already found a great forever home for.

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

My Fellow Americans!

Today has been so much fun, because we met our fabulous friends aka best dog-walking volunteers in Texas, at the Thai O'cha Restaurant, to celebrate Tony's birthday.

Tony and I were the first to arrive at, The Best Thai Food Restaurant, in Kerrville. And because we had just picked up a few groceries, at the big H-E-B, I suggested that we wait a few minutes, inside Trigger, before going inside. And while we waited I thumbed through the new H-E-B TexasLife recipes and fresh ideas, August 2016 and I found several healthy, delicious-looking recipes that I want to try in the near future.

A few minutes later, we climbed out of Trigger and as we were walking towards the entrance, our dear friends Kris & Jim pulled into the parking lot, so we waited for them to join us. After howdies, I asked, "Kris, weren't those Hans Freitag Wafers with cocoa cream filling delicious?" 

Kris & Jim laughed, and Kris said, "Yes. In fact I am blaming you for an added pound...." Then Kris handed me this DVD, and said, "We finally remembered to bring this with us. It is so funny. You'll love it."

"Oh great!" I said. "I love Jack Lemmon, Dan Ackroyd and especially James Garner. I am going to watch it today...."

When the four of us walked inside this friendly restaurant with great vibes and delicious Thai food, our friends Ju and Song greeted us and then showed us to our table for eight. 

Eileen arrived next and after howdies she put Tony's birthday cake on our table. And then she teased Tony about him getting older.

The she handed me this magazine. "This is for you, Nancy. I thought that you would enjoy reading about the Apple Store's SPJ Burger making the 50 Best Burgers, in Texas. It's on page 89."

Then I thanked Eileen for giving me the magazine and that's when Lisa joined us. And within a minute she had all of us laughing out loud with her latest news. And then a few minutes later, Kay and Sarah joined our party of eight. 

After Ju had served us our drinks and had taken our orders the real fun began as we caught up with each other's news. Kris showed us adorable pictures of their new grandson. Eileen and Kris & Jim talked to Tony about turning 62 and being eligible to get Social Security. I talked about Sunday's surprise Black Helicopters fly-by and us twice, in the past few months, seeing mysterious, white, unmarked eighteen-wheelers caravanning fast down Hwy. 16 towards Medina. 

Then we started discussing Tiny Houses and that's when we learned that Sarah actually lives in one. "Oh my goodness!" I said. "I love the Tiny House movement and I watch tv shows, read books about them and I check them out, on the Internet almost everyday...."

Following our delicious as always, fun lunch, Eileen lit the candles, on Tony's birthday cake and we sang the Happy Birthday song to him. And to our surprise "my old man" blew out both candles on his very first try. "Way to go, Tony!" 

It is 6:20, and Kinky has just called me to ask me to come over to meet some friends of his that are visiting him, so I guess that I had better wind this up, because I told him that I would be over there in five minutes.

So, to say the least about Tony's birthday party, "It was a total blast and Tony loved it and especially the hilarious birthday cards and delicious cake." And before I must go and forget, sweet Lisa baked Tony her famous, delicious Banana Bread and he's saving it for tomorrow, but I have no idea how long it will last, because we love Lisa's delicious Banana Bread.

As soon as I get back from Kinky's I am going to spend my evening, with Little Debbie and Big Al(ice) sleeping on my lap, while I watch My Fellow Americans."

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

A New Tradition!

Thursday and today have been great, because I spent most of my day Wednesday catching up with paperwork, returning phone calls and e-mails.

Yesterday was great, because Tony and I met our dear friend Fourth for a really fun lunch, at Billy Gene's Restaurant, in Kerrville. Then yesterday evening I went over to Kinky's Lodge for a really fun visit after he and I and The Friedmans had taken a short hike around the ranch.

Today has been great, because this morning most of our wonderful, fun friends aka dog-walking volunteers, came out and walked our dogs for us. And we all ended up meeting, at The Apple Store, in Medina, for a tasty lunch.

Tony and I and a few others had their delicious Friday Lunch Special which was Fried Catfish, Coleslaw, hushpuppies and french fries. But when I saw Eileen's delicious-looking SPJ Hamburger, I told her, "I'm going to get that the next time we come here to eat."

Early this evening, I called Kris & Jim to tell them my latest off-color joke and like me they thought it was pretty funny.

Before I adios-ed our dear friends they asked me if I knew what was happening, at Bad Girlz of Texas tomorrow afternoon and I told them no, because I hadn't heard anything about it.

After they told me I told them that Tony and I would most definitely be there. So after we Bye-byed each other I went on Bad Girlz of Texas FaceBook page to learn more about their cool event. And then I copied this off of their event page and copied it and pasted it below, so y'all could read about it and go to it, too.

"Details

We are starting a new tradition at our Kerrville location that we have been doing for years at our Canyon Lake location... the monthly CUSTOMER APPRECIATION PARTIES! For those that do not know what to expect, we offer Free food, Free drinks (alcoholic and non), a Free gift of some sort, and, of course, Free live music. For our inaugural party, Brigitte and Jill will be joining us fresh from Luckenbach. They played at The Hunt Store last August. It is not often that you can catch these two dynamos playing at the same place, at the same time! Although they both travel nationwide for the Last Honky Tonk Music Series, one is based out of Louisiana, while the other is based out of Nashville. If you have not heard them before, please check them out at:
www.lasthonkytonk.org
https://www.facebook.com/JillKinseyMusic/?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/BrigitteLondon/?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/HighwaywomanRadioShow/
http://tunein.com/radio/The-Highwaywoman-Show-p381577/
They are truly wonderful singer songwriters!

We thank you for all the support and kindnesses you have shown us in such a short time here in Kerrville! We just want to give a little back to the community! In an effort to get the word out, please feel free to share the event to your page, click attending, tag and/or invite your friends; anything you can do to let people know that this is a FREE and VERY entertaining event! Check the event page occasionally to see the status of the menu, perhaps the recipes, as well as what the free item may be.

This is gonna be GREAT!!!"

I have a "Breaking News" update to share with y'all. In the past eight months, Henry Standing Bear has gotten so BIG that he is no longer able to fit "down under" our furniture. So now he has chosen to be "up above." And here is a picture that I just now took of him, as Little Debbie and Big Al(ice) slept on Henry's torn security blanket below.

So as I finish writing this tonight, I hope that Tony and I will get to see y'all tomorrow, at Bad Girlz of Texas, The Coolest Fun Shop, in Kerrville, which is also right next door to the famous Wolfmueller's Books store, which we all know is the Best Book Store, in Texas.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing! See y'all tomorrow at Bad Girlz of Texas and Wolfmueller's Books!

Iowa!

I wrote this Sunday afternoon and I was planning on posting it last night, but we had no electricity.

Today has been great sort of. You see last night at 6:15 our electricity went out. And it hadn’t even been twenty minutes since I had called Kinky to warn him, about thinking twice, before going to Kerrville, because we were under a severe thunderstorm watch until 11:00.

Around 6:30, thinking that our phones were out too, Tony told me that he was going to drive up to the top of the Kerrville pass, so he could call the Bandera Electric Co-op to report our power outage.

At 7:40, our phone rang and that startled me, because earlier, when I had picked up our portable phone there had been no dial tone and the only phone that was ringing, inside The Cabin was from this one.

 So I cautiously picked up the phone, even though I was scared to, because of the lightning strikes that were nearby. “Hello?”

“Nancy, are y’all okay?” Our dear friend Jim asked.

“Yes and no,” I said. “We’ve been without electricity for nearly an hour and a half and…” Then Jim went on to tell me that he had just looked at the radar and it looked like the storm was right on top of the rescue ranch. And I believed it.

After a brief visit with Jim about the weather conditions and Kris, I gave him Kinky’s cell phone number and asked him to please call Kinky to let him know that the electricity was out.  Then I heard thunder and I quickly put the phone in Tony’s hand, because better Tony get struck by lightning than me.

At 9:22, our power came back on, I was thrilled, so I immediately called Jim, to tell him that we were fine and for him not to worry, because the power had just come back on, while Tony was busy plugging everything back into the wall.

As soon as I hung up, the phone rang—it was Kinky. His loss of power was no longer and he just wanted to make sure that our electricity was on, too.

Then at 10:15 we had a major storm with thunder and lightning and a little pea-sized hail, thrown in for color, so we quickly unplugged everything again.

And then 12 minutes later our electricity went out again. We figured they had to fix something, so we waited. Finally, at 11:48, Tony called Bandera Electric, from The Cabin. Then we decided there was nothing else for us to do, but go to bed. So I turned off our lantern and turned off my red candle.

I got up this morning, at 6:29, expecting our electricity to be back on, but sadly it wasn’t.

So later on, after Tony did his morning chores outside, I fixed us a delicious breakfast—a tall glass of water, that I obtained from our water cooler dispenser and of course it was not cold. And we each drank two glassfuls. Talk about delicious!

Trying to be in a more positive mood about our situation, I jokingly asked Tony if he wanted to watch television with me and that made us both laugh. Then I dusted off my television and we sat down, in our chairs, in the big room and watched my television do nothing, but collect new dust, for about ten minutes or so.

Around 10:30 this morning, Tony went to go check on the creek’s water crossings and when he returned, he said, “We can make it over to Kinky’s, but not the other water crossings, yet.” So we jumped into Buttermilk and went over the river, into the woods, to get to the Lodge.

“Hi Kink,” I said, trying to sound cheerful. “I tried to call first, but your phones are down.” Then we had a fun visit with Kinky and Scott, out on the porch, with The Friedmans.

About 40 minutes later we heard some thunder rumbling, so we adios-ed our friends and high-tailed it back over to the rescue ranch. And by now, Tony was starving, so I gave him our last  banana.

Around 1:30, I asked Tony, “Do you want me to fix us lunch? Water is all we’ve got, but I can put it in bowls and we can pretend it’s soup.” Tony tried to chuckle, but I could tell that he was pretty stressed out about our situation and that he was probably wondering why it was taking so long to get our electric meter back to costing us money, again.

A little while later, we went and ate lunch, at The Apple Store, in Medina. Tony ordered a cheeseburger with no onions and I ordered their chicken salad plate. And the funniest thing happened while we were waiting, in line, to pay the cashier.

Some nice woman told the cashier that she was from Iowa and touring the Hill Country. Another woman who was checking out some wind chimes overheard her and says, “We’re from Iowa, too and we’re here visiting relatives. Then they started telling each other where they lived, in Iowa.

And when it was my turn to pay the bill, they were still talking about Iowa this and Iowa that. Then one of them says, “We have wooden shoes!” I looked over, at Tony and he winked at me and that nearly caused me to burst out laughing.

Then the other friendly couple, says, “We have wooden shoes, too! They are so expensive we waited until our son’s feet had quit growing to buy him his pair of wooden shoes.” And they were still talking and bragging about their wooden shoes, as we quietly exited the Apple Store. And Tony and I were still laughing about their wooden shoes, as we climbed back into Buttermilk to come back home. 

It is now 3:32 and we still don’t have any electricity or running water. Tony is outside filling up the dog bowls again, with more water that he got from the creek. And The Cabin’s temperature is 81.1 degrees and slowly rising.

I have to quit writing now, before my computer completely runs out of juice and I am hoping that I will get to post this tonight, as soon as our electricity comes back on.

To Be Continued...With A Happy Ending!