Four O'Clock!

This past week we've been pretty busy working on several projects, etc. and we've a lot of fun. So now I am going to catch y'all up with what's been going on at: Big Foot Ranch, Carol's ranch and Kinky's ranch.

Wednesday, after Tony and I discussed turning our Airstream into an Airbnb, we went to Kerrville, and I purchased some Mexican blankets and fabric, at Home Town Crafts, so I could redecorate the Land Yacht's bedroom.

Here are pictures of the bedroom, with the two twin beds, before we stripped the linens off of the beds.

Here is a picture of the fabric and Mexican blankets that I purchased, at the craft store, after spending more than an hour shopping for the perfect fabrics. And please note: Tony went to the park and took pictures, for over an hour, while I was eyeing fabrics.

I love the colors in the beautiful Mexican blankets, on top of the stool, and I plan to use these other fabrics to sew throw pillows, curtains and bed skirts. And in the picture below I am using these two fabrics to make the bed skirts. 

During the Fall and Winter months I will replace the lighter-weight, Mexican blankets and use my beautiful, Pendleton blankets. And yes, I will make new bed skirts to match those wool blankets and I will also sew new throw pillows and curtains to compliment the blankets.

Late Wednesday afternoon Tony and I went over to Carol's, because she could not wait to show us her new keyhole garden. To say the least, we were very impressed with her beautiful keyhole garden. And she and her garden inspired us, actually Tony, because he' the gardener in our family, to build another keyhole garden and plant okra and more squash.

Thursday was a busy day even though we actually didn't do much. Anyway, early that evening Carol called me, "Nancy, I just checked the radar. They're predicting heavy thunderstorms later tonight with possible hail. I just put my truck inside the barn and I think y'all should bring Roy over here and put him inside the barn."

"Carol, I think we should put Roy, in your barn too, but Tony just left, in Roy, with his brother Sam to go to the Medina baseball game, in Kerrville. They are playing Menard....Okay, as soon as they get back here, Tony and I will come over and put Roy, in your barn...." 

And I am so glad that we did, because about fifteen minutes before midnight—Big Al(ice) jumped into my lap and she started trembling. and right after I put her thunder jacket on her and gave her a happy pill and had unplugged everything, the first of several loud, heavy thunderstorms began pouring much needed rain. 

Friday morning it was still storming and because we'd gotten over four and a half inches of rain—we were land—locked, which was good, because I didn't have any clean clothes to wear.

So I spent most of the day lounging around in a sweat suit, until it cleared off and the water went down, so we could get out. And for lunch, I used my Instant Pot and cooked a pot of beans and cornbread.

Saturday night, I rented the new movie, Peter Rabbit, that Sandy & Jon had highly recommend I watch. And the dogs and I loved watching it.

So late Sunday afternoon, Tony and I went over to Carol's ranch and after I had told her all about loving the movie, Peter Rabbit, she rented it and she invited us to stay and watch it with her. And we did.

Carol loved the movie as much as I did and let's just say Tony dosed off a few times, until Carol roasted some fresh okra, in olive oil with a little salt. And then all of us snacked, on the delicious okra, as we continued to watch the movie.

Today has been great and the only exciting thing we did was go to Kerrville, so I could buy some fresh okra, at the big H-E-B, and Tony could buy some okra plants, at The Plant Haus, because we are now hooked on eating this delicious, healthy snack.

Early this evening I went over to Kinky's for a fun visit with him, Sarah, Phil, Floyd and The Friedmans, out on the porch. And before I left Kinky gave me some Four O'Clocks clippings, so I (Tony) could plant them over here for us to enjoy. 

Tone planted them for me, along the outside of our front yard fence and I cannot wait for them to start growing and flowering. 

After Tony transplanted my Four O'Clocks he then went to his keyhole garden and planted the okra and squash plants. So life is good.

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

An Eyesore!

Today has been great. This morning I slept in and I enjoyed it. But not as much as I enjoyed adding a spoonful of that delicious, Mexican Hot Chocolate ice cream, to my cup of coffee.

Late this morning Tony and I took off for Kerrville for three reasons. Reason #1 to buy lumber, stain and three drawer handles.

Reason #2 to buy vegetables, at The Plant Haus, so Tony could plant the veggies, in his many key hole gardens.

Reason #3 to go to the big H-E-B, on Main Street, so I could stock up on some more Mexican Hot Chocolate ice cream and get a bag of dog food.

After accomplishing all of this we came back home and unloaded the lumber, the plants and the groceries. Then I took this picture of the five, neatly stacked, quarts of Mexican Hot Chocolate ice cream, before we took them out to the Airstream. 

Late this afternoon after taking a short sleepless nap with our dogs I was ready to tackle my newest project—"Getting Rid Of The Ugly Tool Area In The Big Room And Decorating That Area." 

As you can see from the above photo our "tool area" is an eyesore to say the least, but I must admit that the tool area has come in handy, the last few months, when we are needing to use our tools to get a job done. And it has served its purpose, but now it must go, because I am tired of looking at it.

So after we ate a bowl of delicious ice cream Tony and I "set up shop" on the front porch and we began cutting boards into 60" and 75" lengths, because of what I have designed and planned to replace the "tool area" with. And here is a sneak preview of my partially finished project that I am hoping to finish tomorrow. 

So please wish me luck, because from the looks of the picture below, it now looks worse than it did before we started. Except of course, for Little Debbie, standing in front of the chair, near the bottom of the picture.

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

A Bloody Mary Morning!

Today has been great. I haven't posted anything for the past few days because we have had house guests since Monday and I've been more than busy trying to take care of my everyday rescue ranch business, while trying unsuccessfully to be a good hostess to our visiting friends.

Yesterday, Tony and I took off for Kerrville, so he and I could meet our dear friends Kris & Jim and Denise & Les for our monthly lunch together. We arrived in Kerrville ahead of schedule, so we decided to go to the Plant Haus, so Tony could buy a few more tomato plants, because every morning I make Tony and I delicious, healthy tomato juice that tastes just like a Bloody Mary.

It takes eight tomatoes just to make two alcohol-free Blood Mary juices and the rest of the ingredients I use to make it are two celery stalks, one squeezed lemon, two red bell peppers, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco's Chipolte pepper sauce. So that's why Tony was buying us more tomato plants because we like our Bloody Mary mornings. Here's a picture I took of some of the ingredients just before I juiced them this morning.

While Tony was picking out his tomato plants I spotted these candles burning inside the store, so I went over to check them out and to my amazement, I discovered that they were fireless candles that run on 2 D alkaline batteries. And what was so cool about these particular fireless candles is the (plastic) wick is constantly in motion just like a flickering candle. So after we had paid the friendly cashier for our purchases we walked out of The Plant Haus with Tony's tomato plants and my new 3.5"x7" cinnamon scented, fireless wax candle.

We had a great time eating lunch with our friends and while we were finishing eating our desserts, I excused myself from the table and went outside to get my cool candle, so I could show it to them. And like us they were amazed that it was battery powered, because it looked so real. And they all said that they were going to go buy one, too. 

This is a picture of it turned off.

Here is a 28 second video clip that I took of it flickering, while listening to the beginning of Harry Manx's fabulous version of Baby Please Don't Go. So click here to see it flickering to Harry Manx's great song.

As I finish writing this, before I go watch the award winning video, Finding Joe, I want to thank the awesome, ten, super cool teenagers, from the Arms of Hope, at the Medina Children's Home, for coming out today and last Monday, for volunteering to paint our rescue ranch's white, board fence, mowing and weed-eating. "Y'all did a great job and we love you!"

Y'all have a great evening!

New Home!

Today has been great and thank goodness the sun was shining all day. For lunch I cooked Tony and me fajitas and served it with sliced avocados and Tony told me that it was delicious. After I had cleaned up the kitchen we went, to Kerrville, to get some groceries, at the big H-E-B.

After we had put our groceries inside Buttermilk I asked Tony if we could go to the Plant Haus, because I wanted to buy a Sweet Basil plant, because it is one of my favorite herbs to cook with. Then I told him that I also wanted to copy Carol, once again and buy the same kind of beautiful flowers that she has put out on her deck.

Tony and I love the Plant Haus, because everyone there is always smiling, extremely friendly and always very helpful. It only took us about ten minutes to get the flowers and the Basil plant, then Buttermilk took us straight home.

While Tony and I were putting up our groceries, Roy was sleeping in his chair and snoring loudly, so I grabbed my camera and took this picture of him, and Belle sleeping on her dog bed.

Then T. and I went outside, so he could help me re-plant my (Carol's) beautiful flowers into my flower pots. 

With Tony's help, it didn't take us long to introduce the flowers to there new home, in Outer Space.

Early this evening, when Walter Matthau and I were watching KENS5 news, I snapped this picture of him, because he is so cute and he has already stolen my heart, even though Roy is my four-legged soul mate. 

This little guy is only about one-year-old and he needs a new home. He's great with our dogs, not hyper, not grumpy, house-trained and if we don't adopt him out sooner than later, he might become Walter Matthau-Simons or possibly Walter Matthau-Friedman, when Kinky returns to the ranch late Wednesday night. 

Since Kinky already has three dogs and two cats and we're down to four, fabulous, four-legged friends in The Cabin, we are full up. So, we would prefer to adopt Walter to a super home where he won't have to compete for attention. So, if any of y'all want this great, small, companion dog—please call me at the rescue ranch.

Y'all have a great evening!

I Love The East Kerr 4-H Club! They're The Best!

Today has been really great. This morning at ten o'clock the members of the East Kerr County 4-H club came out, so they could do some volunteer work and to give us $343.50, the money that they had collected last Saturday, at their Bake Sale, at the Plant Haus! And, I couldn't quit thanking them for helping out our rescue ranch, again and telling them what mighty, fine people they were.

Then we went to Fred's and Betty's pen, so the kids could play with them and I am not sure who enjoyed it more, the kids or the pups or me. Here they are with Betty Rubble.

After the pups had tired from all of the attention and affection they were getting, we went to see the two new dogs that we rescued yesterday. As a sweet, little girl played with them, she told me that yesterday she had watched the first season of Gilligan's Island and loved that show, so we discussed the show and then she told me that she loved Golden Girls also.

"I love the Golden Girls, too" I said. Then I changed the subject. "We have not named these dogs yet, so why don't y'all help me name them?" 

In seconds the cute, ten-year-old girl says, "How about Gilligan and Mary-Ann?"

"I love it. It's perfect. We'll call them Gilligan and Mary-Ann. Thank you for helping me..." Here she is with Mary-Ann.

Next they picked up rocks, so our riding lawn mowers won't fling rocks into the dog pens when we have to start mowing again. By the time they finished—they had filled up our yellow wheelbarrow. 

After that the kids visited with our pigs and after hearing Belle Starr-Simon's story, I invited them to come into our yard and play with her and Belle stole their hearts. Before these great super kids left to go home, I thanked them for their good work and then said, "Y'all are the best people and I am so impressed with y'all. I hope that you'll come back, because our gate will always be open for you." And I meant it.

At two o'clock today, we adopted out Dottie West to some very nice people, who live in Bandera. They had called earlier in the morning to ask me about Dottie West, because they wanted to get a companion for their sweet, little ten-year-old dog, who looked a lot like Dottie and was about the same size as she. After we introduced their dog to Dottie—it was love at first sight for them, so here is picture I took of Dottie West with her new forever family, minus their dog, because he was already in the car waiting for them. 

Before the nice couple drove away, with D.W. in the backseat kissing on their dog, they told me that they want to volunteer and come out soon to walk our dogs. And now you know why my day was great.

Y'all have a great evening!