Table Top!

Yesterday before Tony and I went to Kerrville to run errands I went outside, on the porch, to bring Henry Standing Bear inside and he made me laugh out loud.

So I skipped back inside the house and grabbed my camera, in hopes that Henry would stay put. Then I went back outside and took this picture of Henry Standing (on top of the table) Bear.

On our way to Kerrville Tony and I were talking about the cold front that was due to blow in within the hour.

When we left Big Foot Ranch it was 71 degrees outside and twenty minutes later when we arrived in Kerrville it was 50 degrees and it was very windy. So to say the least—we ran our errands in record time, so we could get back home and start a fire in our wood burning stove.

Last night as the temperature outside dropped steadily, I relaxed and watched the movie The Art of Racing In The Rain. Omg, it was incredibly great and the story line stayed close to Garth Stein's best selling book. So I highly recommend this great movie to everyone.

Before I went to bed the temperature outside was already 30 degrees and it was starting to sleet, so I put another log on the fire and started the faucets slow dripping.

Henry woke me up around 4:30 in the morning, because he needed to go outside and I am glad that he did. 

It was 27 degrees outside and 63 degrees inside, so I added a couple of logs to the fire and then checked the sinks to make sure they were still dripping. 

Because I was wide awake by now I decided to go ahead and stay up, but Henry went back to bed. I made myself a cup of coffee. And because The Cabin was so quiet in the wee hours of the morning I decided to write until Tony got up. I quit writing at 5:30.

As I finish writing this it is only 30 degrees outside and The Cabin's temperature is a cozy 76 degrees. I just checked the rain gauge, because of all of the sleet and it hardly registered any precipitation.

Then I looked outside at the barn and saw that icicles had formed on the roof's edge, so I took this picture.

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

A Forced Smile!

Today has been great and full of nice surprises. This morning our first nice surprise was seeing June, Ellen, Eileen, Lisa and Jim, our incredibly great volunteers, outside walking our dogs and grooming them for us.
Because I love our volunteers I stopped what I was doing (returning e-mails and phone calls) and went outside to visit with them and to thank them for coming out.

After howdies and hugs these women had me laughing non stop as we caught up with each others news, while Jim was out on the ranch walking Layla and Little Girl down by the creek. When our hilarious hen party ended Ellen took off to go groom Rufus and Roxanne, in my writing cabin's front yard and June, Eileen and Lisa started walking our dogs, who were excited to see them because they could not wait to go on a walk with them, so I tagged along so I could continue visiting with them, because they are so much fun to be around.

Before the women took off to go eat lunch in Medina, we came up to the trailer so Lisa could take a picture of Belle playing with her new toy that Eileen had given to her when they arrived this morning. And to say the least, "It is now Belle's favorite toy." And here is a picture that I took of her playing with it this afternoon.

Today around three-thirty I decided to play beauty shop with Mama and groom her in our bedroom because it was so hot outside. And she loved it because she slept non stop on our bed, while I gave her a pretty manicure with our battery operated Pedi-Pet.

Mama woke up when I turned off the Pedi-Pet. After she had admired her lovely nails, she went back to sleep as I began trimming her thick, long locks of white hair that had grown back since we had her shaved down because of her skunk meeting.

When I was nearly done with Mama's haircut, around five-forty, there was a knock on the door—it was Donna Schloss! OMG! I love Donna dearly and was glad that she had dropped by, but our bedroom was a total wreck, because Mama's fur was all over our quilt and on the floor and one of our old timer dogs had just soiled a pet pee pad. 

Trying to act nonchalant I said, "Hi, Donna! What a nice surprise! Please forgive the way our bedroom looks right now—I'm playing beauty shop with Mama right now and she's..." Donna started laughing.

"Don't worry about it. I just dropped Marcie off, after taking her shopping in Kerrville for the day and when I saw your gate open—I just had to come by and say hello and to invite y'all to come over for dinner, at my house, with Marcie and I'm also inviting Sandy & Jon to join us. I want to do it before she has to go back to..."

"We'd love to come, Donna," I said, as I tried to wipe Mama's long, white, Great Pyrenees hair, off of my black t-shirt. What can we bring?..." Then we started visiting in the kitchen and the big room as Tony put Mama and Abbie outside and brought B.S.-S. inside to meet the famous Donna "The Drummer" Schloss.

As our sweet, little, out-of-control Bellerina happily pounced on Donna and kept jumping up on her, while trying to nibble on her fingers, using her sharp puppy teeth, Donna smiled, which I think was a forced smile as she said, "Belle's cute." Which of course made all of us laugh.

"Yeah, when she's asleep," I quickly quipped. "Stop it Belle. Tony?" As T. handed Belle Starr-Simons Eileen's new toy to settle her down I said, "How are Cathie and Robert doing? You know that Cathie and I are e-mail buddies and..." After Donna told us they were doing fine I said, "The next time they come down I hope they will come out and see us and our mutual friend Steve, who lives just on the other side of that mountain.

After Donna and I had talked about our fun ukulele class, that we took together last year and her exciting upcoming trip I told her about needing to read, The Art of Racing In The Rain, which is now one of my all-time favorite books. And before Donna left to go home I told her that I would bring her a copy of the book because I had ordered a few more copies to give to friends and that I was expecting them to arrive real soon.

As our just washed quilt, that I earlier groomed Mama on, tumbles around inside Airy Queen, our Speed Queen dryer, it is now time for me to stop writing for tonight, because I need to vacuum up Mama's hair. 

Y'all have a great evening!

It!

Yesterday I had so much fun with June, Eileen and Ellen. After they walked our dogs we visited outside by the barn and that is when I found out about June's and Ellen's famous cousin, Ed Helms, of The Office, and that he is going to be the host on Saturday Night Live tonight with special guest Paul Simon, which we will be watching or recording, if we go to bed earlier.

While we were talking about having famous relatives I noticed Ellen's t-shirt and started laughing. "Ellen, I love your t-shirt. Where in the world did you get it?"

"In an Alpine thrift store," Ellen said. "When June and I went out there Easter weekend. The road trip that we wanted you to come along with us..."

When Tony walked up I asked him to take a look at Ellen's t-shirt and he immediately started laughing, too. "Endangered Feces!" Then we started reading her illustrated t-shirt identifying endangered species feces such as: the Grizzly Bear, Florida Panther, Woodland Caribou, etc.

And that is when Eileen noted, "Nancy, I love reading your blog when Belle Starr-Simons vomits on you." Then we started laughing and began trading funny stories about vomit. After we exhausted ourselves, from laughing way too much, we came up to the trailer so I could return Ellen's audio book, The Art of Racing In The Rain to her and to also show them my very first "woven work of art."

I started laughing, as they tried hard not to laugh, as they stared at It and took turns complimenting me on my "woven work achievement." When one of them asked me what I was going to do with It—I burst out laughing and then they too—started laughing. "I'm either going to throw It into the trash can or warp-it-up and send It, as a joke, to my sister Cindy..." Ten minutes later T. and I adios-ed our friends and then they took off for Medina to eat lunch, before heading back home to Kerrville.

This morning when I woke up I was grinning from ear-to-ear, because this morning I had dreamed about It and I knew exactly what I was going to do with It! And I told T. about It during our breakfast. "I had a dream this morning about It and I am not going to throw It away or send It to Cindy. I'm going to give It to Kinky, as a joke, when he returns Tuesday night! I'm going to wrap It up and before I give It to Kink—I'm going to tell him that I spent a long time making his "welcome back to the ranch gift." after his long three-week tour, and that I am so proud of how It turned out..." And needless to say, "Tone burst out laughing about It.

This afternoon two very nice, upbeat women came out and made my day. They had the same name—Andrea, but they pronounced it differently as Ondrea and Andrea. They had just finished reading my first book and had come out in hopes of meeting Tony and me and to see our rescue ranch and to get me to sign their books.

The moment that I met "The Andreas" I liked them, so I invited them to go into Outer Space with T. and me and they were thrilled to be invited, which in turn thrilled me too. I had a fun visit with the two ladies and we talked about dogs and cats and our rescue ranch and while I was signing their books Tony mentioned that I had written a second book and they purchased two of them and I signed them, too. Before Tony and I gave them "The Grand Tour" I asked them if they had read, The Art of Racing In the Rain and they hadn't, so I went inside the trailer, grabbed two copies of the book and then I went back into Outer Space and gave them each a copy.

They loved Outer Space, our dogs, especially Belle Starr-Simons, our trailer, the Space Ship, my writing cabin and getting to meet all of our rescued dogs. After that The Andreas jumped into Kermit with me and he took us over to the Lodge, so I could give them a tour and then we started back, but when we saw Roy and Gabby, our donkeys, grazing, I drove over to them and stopped Kermit and then we went over and petted them and then we came home.

Before The Andreas left we went into Outer Space and T. took this picture of us. I really enjoyed their visit and I hope that they will come back to see us soon.

After they left I took a short nap with our dogs, then I went online and Googled Endangered Feces and bought a t-shirt just like Ellen's and I should have it by Thursday!

Y'all have a great evening!

Spaced-Out! or Mr.& Mrs. Jones!

Today has been great but also a little weird, because at one point this afternoon, I felt like I was suddenly cast and co-starring in one of those scary Rod Serling Twilight Zone episodes.

This morning I walked four miles inside the trailer with Leslie Sansone and then I returned several phone calls while Tony was outside doing his morning chores.

Around noon today, T. excitedly took off for his first-paying-photo-gig, over in Pipe Creek. Mildred, a good friend of his in Medina, was having a baby shower for her daughter-in-law and she had hired Tony to come and please shoot the guests and family, for her.

After Tone left the ranch, Aaron showed up with a couple of his friends, so they could dip all of our dogs for fleas and ticks, and then treat the dog pens.

Four minutes past one o'clock Mama and Abbie started barking outside to let me know that Jim and Sean had arrived to possibly adopt one of our super dogs, but unfortunately that is also when the rest of the cast of the Twilight Zone also arrived—to my dismay.

Fortunately for me when I came outside, Aaron was busy meeting the cast, from outer space, so I happily went and greeted Jim and Sean and then suggested that we take off immediately to go look at our dogs, because of the heavy, weird vibes I was getting from the castaways.

When we reached Princess' and Marlin's pen I asked Jim to tell me what kind of dog he was looking for. After he told me that he didn't care if it was a male or female and that they had a cat I smiled and then I started telling them all about Chloe and what a great dog she was—they were interested and wanted to see her. And it was love at first sight, but they wanted to meet all of our dogs, so we took off and that's when the aliens or strangers from a strange land, caught up with us and starting asking me really dumb questions about dogs and making very odd remarks about dogs—darn it.

And that is when I said a silent prayer that Serling's reject Twilight Zone cast wouldn't abduct us and immediately take us off to a land far, far away. And I was pretty sure that Jim and Sean were probably thinking the same thing as me as they tried talking to the clueless aliens.

Fortunately, halfway through the rescue ranch tour with Jim and Sean—the spaced out people went back to their mini-craft and blasted out of here—thank goodness. Thirty minutes later after taking Chloe, then Harley and then Enzo Swift for a short walk—it was hands down—they definitely wanted to adopt Chloe! And I was more than thrilled for this super dog and so were they, but not as much as Chloe was!

After we gave her a few treats we went up to the trailer and went into Outer Space and had a really fun time visiting, before I filled out Chloe's adoption papers. After Jim signed on the dotted line to make Chloe's adoption final we went to get her, so they could take her to her new forever home. And here are a few pictures that I took of them with Chloe, one very happy dog, before going to her new home.

After Jim and Sean drove away with our / their precious cargo, I came inside the trailer and called Jimmie, the former owner of Chloe, to tell him the great news about Chloe getting adopted and he was happier than I was and he could not quit thanking Kinky, Tony and me for finding her a super home. Then he told me that  he was in the book (The Art of Racing In The Rain) where Eve... And that he loved the book and then I told him that we had rescued a big, black dog and named him Enzo and he loved it. "As soon as I finish reading this incredibly great book I am going to send it out to our friend Keith O., in California, because he can't wait to read it. Thank you so much for helping me out and finding Chloe such a great home..."

Five minutes after talking to Jimmie—T. walked inside the trailer and I told him the great news about Chloe and he was so happy for her and then I told him about my not-so-favorite-martians invasion and he had a good laugh about it. Then he showed me a couple hundred of great photos of the people that he had shot at the baby shower and then we got dressed up, so we could go to our good friend Ruth's daughter's wedding. Then we took off in Trigger.

I must say that "Stephanie and David Jones wedding was one of the best, most beautiful and fun weddings that I have ever attended," because it was a country-themed wedding. The bride and groom made for a handsome couple and Stephanie's dress was so beautiful—Kate Middleton, over in England, might ought to re-think about using Stephanie's dress designer and I am serious.

Tonight I want to end tonight's post with best wishes to Stephanie and David Jones new life together. May love always fill your hearts and may all of your dreams come true. And may the Dog of your choice bless you!

Y'all have a great evening!

Nopalitos!

Today has been great, even though it has been pretty quiet around here, which is exactly what I needed, so I could catch up with my paperwork, etc.

This morning at 7:45 I called Harley Belew to do the Utopia segment, sponsored by our good friends Randy & Lisa Sanders, who own the famous Save Inn Restaurant in Kerrville and Wheeler's restaurant over in Fredericksburg.

Today Harley's Pet of the Week was our beautiful, now four-months-old—Betty Rubble and I had a fun time visiting with Harley, at the Rose 99.9. Don't you just love her smile and those Betty Grable eyes.

Around ten-thirty this morning, after talking to way too many people on the phone, who wanted to bring us their dogs and a goose from Houston, I decided to take a much needed break, so I called Sandy at Wolfmueller's Books to ask her a couple of questions about her Nopalitos Salad recipe, because I was going to make it for Tony's and my lunch and I didn't want to screw it up. 

After interrogating her, I thanked her for her helpful tips. And before we adios-ed each other Sandy said, "Nancy, please call me and let me know what y'all think of it." After promising her that I would, I gathered all of the ingredients, took this picture, and then carefully prepared it as she had instructed. And Sandy's recipe was so easy and simple to prepare it only took me fifteen minutes to make her cactus salad.

Right after I took this next picture of the salad that I had prepared, T. walks inside the trailer and declared, "I'm starving, Nance. Did you fix Sandy's salad?" I nodded and pointed to the bowl and the rest is history. We loved it! It was absolutely delicious and we ate it all up!

After lunch I cleaned up the kitchen and then I called Sandy at Wolfmueller's Books. "OMG, Sandy! We loved your salad. And it's now going to be our favorite salad."

"Jon and I are eating it right now for our lunch. I'm glad that y'all liked it."

"Sandy, we didn't like it—we loved it. I was a little worried about it because Tone says he doesn't like Cilantro or onions and he cleaned his plate and took second helpings and...." After Sandy and I adios-ed each other for the second time today, I called a couple of my friends and told them that they had to try my new recipe, Cousin Nancy's Stolen Cactus Salad, and they promised that they would. And I hope that y'all will try it too. Here's my latest recipe that I stole from Sandy. Enjoy!

Cousin Nancy's Stolen Cactus Salad 

Ingredients:

1  15 oz. jar of Nopalitos (I used La Costena brand) Drain and rinse to remove the slime and then dice.

2  Tomatoes—diced

1  Can of Bush's Black Beans—drained and rinsed.

1/2  Red onion—diced

Jalapenos optional (I didn't use any nor does Sandy)

1/4 Cup or more of chopped Cilantro

Juice of 1 Lime

1  Avocado (Or packaged avocado like I used.)

Pepper to taste.

Enjoy! Eat and be merry! I can't wait to make this salad for Kinky and Ben to try, because I know that they are going to love it, too.

This afternoon Jon Wolfmueller called while I was outside, so Carlton took his call. "Hi, Nancy it's Jon. I just wanted to let you know that we have the two books that you ordered, The Art of Racing In The Rain. Next time y'all are in Kerrville come by and pick them up. Bye."

P.S. Mari, I swear that you'll love this recipe. It's the best! I love Nopalitos!

Y'all have a great evening!