The Ronderosa Was Rocking!

This morning Buttermilk and I pulled into the ranch at ten after ten and I was glad to be home even though our family reunion was a total blast from the past.

Yesterday at ten minutes past noon, Buttermilk and I arrived at The Ronderosa ranch in Dripping Springs. Ronnie was tending to his smoker, but when he saw me pull up he came to greet me along with Nita. After a powerful bear hug from Ron, I was thrilled when Nita wrapped her slender arms around me and gently hugged me. "Hey, Nance!" Ronnie said. "You're the first one here. I am glad that you didn't get lost."

I loved being the first to get there, because it gave us an opportunity to visit before our thirty-two other relatives arrived. Within an hour everyone had arrived, but two—my younger cousin Greggie and his twenty-one year old son Parker, because they had some car trouble after leaving Fort Worth.

I love my family so much. When we get together it is like we are best friends and we pick up right where we last left off, but I must admit my arms were aching from being hugged so many times. In no time flat The Ronderosa was rocking and all you could hear was laughter and chatter, as Ronnie continued to stand outside visiting with our cousins—smoking his delicious sausage, briskets, chicken and pork ribs, in his gigantic, homemade pit.

My brother Ronnie is famous for his barbecue and the pits he has built—everyone wants one, but most can't afford one. In fact, a few years back Ronnie sold one of his giant homemade pits to a restaurant / bar up in Boulder, Colorado and he was paid to fly up there and spend a week teaching the new owners his secrets and giving them his secret recipes on how to cook the Best Texas Style BBQ.

While Ron was outside smokin' I was inside visiting in the kitchen with my sister Cindy, my older Cousin George and his younger brother Cousin Tony. "George," I said. "Do you remember the time when we were kids and you went camping with our family up in Roaring River, Missouri?" George started laughed.

"Yes, I do and I will never forget it," George said. "It traumatized me." We all started laughing and then asked him why. "Well, I had just turned thirteen—I was just a boy and I wasn't really into girls, yet. I was down at the river fishing by myself and catching nothing when this girl shows up and starts talking to me. I guess that she was flirting with me, but I didn't know it and I just kept on fishing. Anyway, when I got back home in Houston She calls me a few weeks later and tells me she is in love with me and it scared me to death!"

"Where'd she live?" I asked. George starts laughing again.

"Somewhere in West Texas. I think it was Lubbock. Then her older brother who was probably three or four years older, probably about sixteen, starts calling me and telling me his sister loves me and I should marry her!" We all started laughing. "I was scared every time the phone rang, because Mom and Dad had taught me to answer the phone, "Hello, this is so-in-so's residence. This is George..."

"Wait a minute, George," I said. "How'd she get your phone number?" Then there was another round of laughter and teasing. Before George could answer me I said, "Well, George, we've got a surprise for you today. This is your life! Come on out,  Miss Becky!" George turned around and then he burst out laughing. And, that is how I spent my afternoon visiting and laughing with my family.

After a delicious dinner I asked Ronnie to show me the drum-box seats that he had built. A minute later he and I were sitting on top of these cool homemade drums, in his music room, beating out some cool rhythms and it quickly drew a crowd of cousins and everyone wanted to sit on them and take a turn at playing them. While everyone played the drums Cindy and I asked Ronnie to please build us drum-seats and we told him that we would gladly pay him for them. And then my Cousin Tony, Cindy and I tried to talk Ron into building them and selling them down on the Drag by UT, because we knew they would sell like hot cakes. Then the real music commenced and I loved it!

Everyone grabbed their guitars, dulcimers and mandolins and started playing and singing and the music was incredibly great and that went on for a couple of hours. Then Mandy's son, Michael, my twenty-eight year old second cousin, pulled out his electric guitar, plugged it into his amp and blew all of us away with his awesome lead guitar talent and skills when he accompanied a rock 'n roll CD. He was like Jimi, Jerry Garcia, Led Zepelin, Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn—rolled up into one! No one could believe what they were hearing as we watched in awe of his magnificent guitar performance. His lead guitar playing gave me goose bumps, because he reminded me so much of my first love Steve, who could play like that and who had actually played with Jimi Hendrix in the late Sixties.

When the music stopped we were treated by Cousin Susie, Uncle Howard's oldest daughter, to watch the latest documentary "Uncommon Vision: The Life And Times Of John Howard Griffin" about her father and our famous uncle, that is having its premier showing in Fort Worth at the Modern Art Museum this coming Thursday.

Everyone enjoyed watching it and thought it was a fantastic documentary about his life and times and it was very well done and Susie told us that it is already scheduled to air on PBS and already getting rave reviews!

I could write all night about how much fun I had with my family, but I can't because I must go to bed.

P.S. It looks like Betty Boop has found her forever home and is going to be adopted out this Friday. Keep your fingers crossed for her!

Y'all have a great evening!

Hi, Robert and Cathie Schloss!

Today has been a lot of fun. This morning at seven forty-five after I drank my smoothie and Tony had eaten his breakfast we jumped in Buttermilk and headed to Kerrville, so Ellen Jackson and her dog Jermaine Jackson, that she adopted from us back in April and Sharon Griswold of Rover Misbehaving and I could do the Hill Country Today show on KVHC with host Andy Magee to talk about our upcoming Adoption and Dog Training Seminar at the rescue ranch on November 6th.

When we arrived at the television station we were two minutes late, because Tony had to stop and get a cup of coffee at the Mini Mart. Our great friends / volunteers Ellen and Jermaine, Sharon, June Harley and Eileen Gotke were inside the station waving to us outside. And Jermaine looked so handsome in his orange bandana. Here is a great picture of Jermaine that Tony took of him after the show.

The thirty minute show was a lot of fun, because Andy Magee made us feel so comfortable and at ease. In other words—she was good. Ellen and Sharon did a great job talking about Jermaine, our rescue ranch, the upcoming dog adoption and training seminar and dog training and I was okay. Jermaine was so cool, calm and collected—he amazed all of us and everyone was so proud of him. He has really come a long way conquering his fears one by one.

Halfway through the taping, during a commercial break Bryant had to adjust a microphone on a table right next to me because the the sound engineer was hearing strange sounds. Luckily, five seconds before we went back on the air the problem was fixed and we finished the show. Here is a short video clip of us doing the Hill Country Today show with Andy. And here is a picture that Tone took of us during the show.

When the show ended we stood up and thanked Andy, Bryant and Roland, the fine folks at KVHC for having us on, then we went outside to visit. 

From left to right: June, Sharon, me, Jermaine with Ellen and Jermaine and Eileen's back.

In no time at all we got to laughing, because these women have the best sense of humor. We laughed and teased Sharon about her black slacks that were covered in Jermaine's dog hair that Tony took a picture of. Then the topic changed to the microphone problem.

"My stomach started growling when the show started. I guess I should have ate something, instead of drinking a smoothie for breakfast," I said. Then everyone started laughing. 

Then one of them says, "It was your stomach causing the sound problem! Not the microphone!" As they continued to laugh I thought about it and realized they were right. Ten minutes later T. and I said goodbye to everyone and then we took off to run a few errands before meeting back up with them at the Kerrville Daily Times at ten o'clock to be interviewed about our event by their nice and friendly reporter Tim Sampson.

Our first stop was at Hoegemeyer's Animal Clinic to pick up some medicine. Then we went and early voted for the upcoming election. And our last stop was at H-E-B to fill up Buttermilk. When we pulled up to the newspaper building so did Sharon, June, Ellen and Eileen. 

Tim was running ten minutes late, so we sat in the waiting area and traded funny stories about our pasts until Tim arrived. Then he took us back to a conference room and closed the door and interviewed us and that was fun. Thirty minutes later we left the building and went our separate ways.

On our way to Walmart to get the oil changed Tony started teasing me about my stomach growling during the TV show, so I joked back in self-defense, "Tony, I couldn't help it. They should have done a sound check on me." Then my stomach growled back in agreement.

This afternoon around three o'clock, we had a nice surprise—Marcie and Donna Schloss came over for a short, but fun visit! First, we went into the Space Ship and then we went into Outer Space and did a lot of laughing, because Donna and Marcie are very witty people. When it was time for them to leave I said to Donna, "I got an e-mail from your brother Robert today. I love his photography."

"He's an incredibly talented photographer," Donna said, as we descended the front porch steps. "Tell him and Cathie I said, "Hi."" And I did after they left.

Tomorrow morning I am going to Ronnie's and Nita's house in Dripping Springs for his "2nd Annual Family Reunion of Cousins" and I am really looking forward to it, but I won't be posting a blog tomorrow night. Because tomorrow is our Open House, Tony can't go and I am sick about it. Please wish me luck in driving up there by myself without getting lost. 

I want to thank the great folks at KVHC in Kerrville and Tim Sampson at the Kerrville Daily Times for helping our rescue ranch. You're the best and we love you!

Y'all have a great evening! And please come to our 1st Annual Dog Adoption and Training Seminar event on November 6th. It will be a blast!

Heartstrings!

Today has been fantastic! Last night I stayed up late reading the book that my new, nice friend Cheryl Ratliff gave to me: Canyon of Remembering because I could not put it down, but I went to bed disappointed because I still had thirty-two pages to go—to finish one of the best books that I have ever read.

This morning I got up early and did my chores and then at seven forty-five I picked up the phone and called Harley Belew at the Rose 99.9 FM radio station to do the Utopia segment of his show and I really enjoyed it. We talked about our upcoming 1st Annual Adoption and Dog Training Seminar event on November 6th at the rescue ranch and Harley's Pet of the Week was Honey, a beautiful yellow Lab mix about four years old that I wish one of y'all would consider adopting, because she is one great dog!

Because this book has touched my heartstrings, I decided not to walk with Leslie this morning, so I could finish reading the book and I have no regrets with my decision, except that I must now walk some "eight-milers" to catch up with my New Year's walking resolution of walking 1,825 miles.

After the breakfast dishes were washed and the kitchen was cleaned up I sat down at the kitchen table with my favorite ceramic, turtle coffee mug and sipped coffee while I finished reading the book, which made me tear up, then laugh out loud and finally rejoice.

Fourteen minutes later, Kinky arrived at the rescue ranch. Right after I had poured him some coffee in my second favorite coffee mug, the one that my best friend Cindy, in Northern New Mexico, had given to me, the navy blue one with the message: "the universe knows" on one side of it and the words, "shift your awareness" on the other side—Alan Warren, the great outdoors man who has the most popular sportsman TV show "Alan Warren Outdoors" showed up with his camera crew to videotape and shoot Kinky, our dogs, Tony and me, so they took off for the Lodge to set things up and the rest is history and it was a lot of fun.

This afternoon Buttermilk took T. and me to Kerrville to run some errands. First, we stopped at Wolfmueller's Books to visit with Jon and Sandy and their bookstore was "buzzing" with book-buying customers and Kathleen Keen was there, too, so we had a quick visit with the three of them.

Before leaving the most popular bookstore in the Texas Hill Country our good friend Donna Schloss walked inside the store with a couple of her friends, so we chatted with her and then Tony and I took off for Hoegemeyers to pick up some medicine and then we went to H-E-B to buy our rescued dogs some hot dogs. Then Buttermilk took us home.

Tomorrow morning I have to get up real early at five-thirty, so I can do my chores and then drive to the television station KVHC in Kerrville to be on Kim's popular morning TV show from 8:30 to 9:00 with our good friends Ellen Jackson and her "wonder dog" Jermaine Jackson that she adopted from us, and Sharon Griswold, the amazing dog trainer, to talk about our upcoming event on November 6th. And, I just found out that our friends June Hartley and Eileen and her dog," the smartest dog on the planet," Callie Dean Gotke will be at the TV station too, standing behind the cameras to cheer us on!

Then we are going over to the Kerrville Daily Times building to be interviewed by Tim Sampson about our fun, upcoming event. Then I am heading home, so I can take care of rescue ranch business. Here is our official Press Release for the November 6th event and I hope that all of you can come to it!

Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch presents their 1st Annual Dog Adoption and Dog Training Seminar on Saturday, November 6th at the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch! Located at 966 Echo Hill Road, Medina, Texas— just two miles west of the Medina Children's Home, off Highway 16 South.

Open to the public. Especially for those who are thinking of adopting a dog, first timers or those who would like tips on training and caring for their dogs. Presentation by Cousin Nancy (Parker-Simons), co-founder and executive director of the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch with training demonstrations by Sharon Griswold, professional dog obedience instructor and trainer of seeing-eye dogs for over thirty-five years. Just bring your lawn chair and have fun, but please no pets, because they upset our rescued dogs. No fees or registration required. Call Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch: 830-589-7544, if inclement weather. For driving directions go their website: utopiarescue.com.

Y'all have a great evening!

I'm Pooped!

Today has been a great day for me even though we are under the influence of the full moon, which explains plenty. I am pooped and am going to relax tonight and read a little of Canyon Of Remembering before going to bed early, so I can get up early and do my chores, walk six miles, do the Harley Show at 7:45 and be ready for Kinky and the camera crew that are arriving around ten in the morning.

P.S. I want to thank Sandy and Jon Wolfmueller for the books, Mostly Bob by Tom Corwin and Easy Soup Recipes that they gave to me for my birthday. Thank y'all, I can't wait to read them!

Y'all have a great evening!

The Waiting Game!

Today has been fun. This morning I got up early, did my chores and walked six miles before Tony returned home from the Old Timer. After breakfast I spent most of my morning taking care of business and am nearly caught up.

Tone's sweet sister Annie and her son Mason and his friend Boo came to see us from New Braunfels and we had a fun time visiting with them. While I made lunch, Tony took them fishing and arrowhead hunting and Annie found a pretty cool arrowhead and she was thrilled about it. They left around three o'clock.

After returning several phone calls I decided to paint another picture and here it is! I titled it "The Waiting Game" and it is #6 of my fasterpieces and I have already put it up on eBay for a seven day auction that starts tonight at 7:00 Pacific time. I hope you like it.

Early this evening I went over to the Lodge to visit with Kinky and Marcie and they loved my latest painting, which made me feel good. I had a fun visit with Kinky and his sweet sister, in the kitchen, while Kinky cooked up some steaks for The Friedmans—Brownie, Chumley and Sophie. And that is about it for today.

Tonight I plan to relax and treat myself to reading some more of the great book Canyon of Remembering by Lesley Poling-Kempes that my new friend Cheryl Ratliff gave to me. It is one of those books that you can't put down and I highly recommend it to everyone. It is awesome!

Y'all have a great evening!

The Drumming Disliker!

My birthday has been great! And I want to thank everyone for their sweet cards, e-mails and phone calls. I really enjoyed hearing from y'all.

This morning before the sun came up I rolled over in bed and found a box tucked under the blanket next to my pillow and then I half-hollered, "Tony!" A few seconds later T. walked into the bedroom and flipped on the light.

"Happy Birthday, Nance. I love you," he said, softly as I pulled the heavy box out from under the covers. "I hope you like it." My eyes got big!

"I love it! Oh, Tony you shouldn't have. Thank you so much for the grinder. How'd you know I wanted one?" I asked, as I climbed out of bed and pulled it out of the box. He told me a little birdie had told him. Thank you, little birdie! I've been wanting my own grinder for a long time for my many woodworking projects. "I'm going to paint it pink!"

When T. returned from the Old Timer he told me that he had posted the flyers all over town for Jane Dog and he told everyone at the store about her while they drank coffee. After breakfast Tony went outside to do his chores, so I walked six miles with Leslie and her friends.

After Tony treated me to a fun lunch in Kerrtown we went to the The Yoga Space, so we could attend the Drumming Circle with our good friend June Hartley.

We were the first to arrive and then June arrived one minutes later, so we visited with her and the friendly staff and instructor as we picked out which drums we wanted to use. T. and I chose pretty twin drums and June's was a pretty, but not as big as ours. Before the three of us sat down beside each other Tony took this picture of me hamming it up before the drumming session started.

After ten other nice, friendly people arrived, there were five men and eight women sitting in the drumming circle and then we went to drumming and I thought that it was so incredible that thirteen strangers could get together for the first time and make such great music—using drums! Seriously, it was way too awesome and the good vibes that were flowing inside The Yoga Space can't be described! I cannot wait to do it again—I'm hooked and so are June and T. and the rest of the ten people! We sounded really great and I wish that I could have recorded some of it to share.

The hour and a half passed so quickly, because I was having so much fun and I like everyone else didn't want it to end. And I am thrilled to say that Tony known as, "The Drumming Disliker" really got into drumming—and he's now a changed man! Rump-A-Pump-Pum! I love it.

On our way home, with my spirit soaring high, because of my drumming circle experience I said, "I want a drum for Christmas, Tone." 

He chuckled and said, "Me, too." 

Once again, I want to thank everyone for making my 59th birthday so great! I love y'all! And June, thank you so much for telling us about the drumming circle at The Yoga Space.

Y'all have a great evening! (Followed by a drum roll.)

Hug A Viking!

Today has been great, again. This morning our good friends, Ellen and Charlie Cooper came over for a visit and to give me two new cacti! "This one is called Resurrection Plant," Charlie said, as Tony and I admired it. "It is an amazing desert plant. It looks brown and dead, but it isn't. When it rains or you water it—it will change colors and turn green within forty-five minutes and stay that way until it uses up the water and then it turns brown and dead looking until it gets water."

"This one is called a Hairy Cactus," Charlie continued.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because it looks like hair and feels like hair. Touch it."  

I touched it and sure enough it felt like human hair. "It feels like and looks like my hair," I said, "but, there's more of it." As we visited in Outer Space we talked about our love and mutual respect for cactus, the airplane that they just sold, Northern New Mexico, etc., but when Charlie and Ellen started telling us some of their hilarious stories about their long ago adventures in Mexico, in the early eighties, we couldn't quit laughing and we hated to see them leave. 

Around eleven o'clock the phone rang—it was Rick, "The Friendly Lighthouse Keeper." He called to tell me that some dear friends of his had called him to tell him that they were staying in Bandera for the weekend and they really wanted to come out to see our rescue ranch and he wanted to know if that was okay. "Yes, Rick, tell them to come on out. We're open and I would love to meet them." Then I went outside and helped Tony clean pens.

When I had just finished cleaning all of the dog pens on the east side and was leaving Wolf's and Cookie's pen Rick's friends arrived. "Hi, I'm Nancy. Welcome to the rescue ranch."

"Are you Cousin Nancy?" 

"Yes."

I'm Anne-Lise and this is my husband Fin. Rick has told us so much about the rescue ranch."

"Is that with one or two "N"s?" I asked.

"It is Finn with two "N"s," Finn answered. Then we went into Outer Space for a visit. 

After we talked about our great friend Rick, I said, "I love y'all's accents. Where are y'all from?"

"We are from Norway," Anne-Lise said, "but we have lived in Texas for over thirty-four years."

"I'm Scotch, Irish and Norwegian," I said. "Small world." As we were talking about our love for music a car pulled up to the trailer and a woman, that I thought I recognized, got out. "Hi!" I half-hollered. "Come on up. We're in here." When she came into Outer Space I said, "Hi, I'm Nancy and this is Anne-Lise and her husband Finn. They are from Norway."

"Remember me?" She said. "I was at your book signing in Medina the other day." Then I remembered and shook my head up and down, because I did remember and then she started speaking to Finn and Anne-Lise in Norwegian and I didn't have a clue as to what they were saying to each other! Come to find out Barbara's mother was from Norway, so we talked about their love of Norway. Then we talked about their RV's and their travels across the U.S., etc. and then before you knew it—we were good friends with much in common when Tony walked into Outer Space and joined the fun. 

"Nancy," Barbara said. "I came out today to meet Jill. After you had told us her sad story at the library I told my husband that I might be coming home with a dog and he was fine with it. Can I see her?" 

Three minutes later all of us left Outer Space and were walking down the front porch steps to the gate when I said, "I want to show y'all my RV before we go see Jill. I named it the Space Ship because..." As I told them the story they walked around inside it in amazement. In other words—they loved it and could not believe what we had done to it. Then Barbara and I walked down to Jill's pen as T. and the former Vikings lingered.

When we went into Jill's pen Jill went and hid inside her doghouse, but she let Barbara pet her and pull her out of it and she calmly sat on Barbara's lap for twenty minutes as Barbara talked softly to her and stroked her. By the time Finn, Anne-Lise and Tone arrived at Jill's pen to watch. Barbara told me that she wants to work with Jill and take her home and give her a try, but she couldn't do it today because she and her husband were going out of town for a few days. She said that when she gets back, she will call us and come out and get Jill. We were all thrilled for little Jill once again.

Ten minutes later as Tony and I walked everyone to their cars I said, "I am going to blog about today officially being Norway Day at the rescue ranch, but I don't know what the title should be."

"Call it, The Vikings Are Coming!" Barbara suggested. Everyone laughed.

"Or, Vikings Reunite or Hug A Viking!" I joked. Then the Vikings hugged me and left.

This evening at six-thirty the dogs started barking outside to let us know that something or someone was here, so Tony went outside to check it out. Two minutes later I went outside to check on Tone.

A nice neighbor or ours was standing outside our front yard by the gate, talking to T., as she held a precious little, female Chihuahua in her arms that she had rescued off of the highway between Bandera and Medina and wanted to know if we could help her and we said yes, but not until Jill was picked up. Thirty minutes later after discussing what to do, Tony put some Advantage drops on the dog to rid her of any fleas or ticks, then the woman told us that she could take her home and keep her there until Jill goes to Barbara's home and I told her that I would take a picture of the lost little dog and make posters for Tony to post around town when he goes to the Old Timer in the morning. "Maybe her owners have already posted a "Lost" poster in town," I said, trying to be positive. Then I went and got my camera and took these sad pictures of her wishing she was home with her family. Please call me if anyone knows who this little lady belongs to and please say prayers for her that she finds her home.

I have got to go make some "Found" posters for Tony to post tomorrow morning for Jane Dog. And my new birthday wish is to get this sweet, little dog back home on my birthday.

Y'all have a great evening!