Bee Is Here!

Today has been great. This morning around 11:00, Budrock arrived with Bee, a big, older dog that his daughter had rescued, in San Antonio, two hours before he was scheduled to be euthanized.

When Budrock arrived with Bee, Tony and Brandon already had Bee's temporary pen, The Okay Corral, ready for him. When we went into The Okay Corral to introduce Bee to us and his new digs, Bee was calm and he seemed very interested in checking it out. While Bee sniffed around and marked his new territory, Budrock told us that he has been the lighting designer for Willie Nelson Shows, for over thirty-seven years. And the reason that his daughter named him Bee was to honor Bee Spears, the late bassist, for Willie's family band.

When Bee seemed to ignore us, we invited Budrock to come inside, The Cabin, to drink a cup of coffee with us, before we went over to Kinky's Lodge, because Kinky wanted to visit with his friend, of many years.

Tony and I instantly liked Budrock and hit if off with him. While we drank delicious Green Mountain Donut Shop Coffee, Buddy and I quickly discovered that we shared the friendship of many musicians and people involved in the music business. But Buddy aka Budrock has worked for and traveled with a whole lot more musicians than me, such as: The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Steve Miller Band, Jerry Jeff Walker, George Benson, Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Bee Gees, Bad Company, The Doobie Brothers, Linda Ronstadt, etc., just to name a few.

The three of us were having so much fun visiting and getting to know one another, time flew by, until Kinky called me and wanted to know why his friend wasn't over at the Lodge. Before all of us went over to the Lodge, Bee told us to check out the KOKEFM.COM, a fabulous radio station, that our mutual friend owns. He told us that it was kicking (you know what) worldwide and it is only broadcasting great Texas country music. When I told him that we don't get any signals out here he told us that we could listen to the music at: www.KOKEFM.COM, on the Internet and we were thrilled, because we know the owner, some of the DJs and bands that they are playing.

As we were leaving The Cabin, Tony gave Budrock one of his photography business cards and then Budrock said, "Let me give y'all one of my cards, too." When he handed one to Tony, Tony burst out laughing and then when I looked at Budrock's card, I too started laughing, because the only word printed on it was, BUDROCK.

"I love your card," I said. "I'm going to copy you and print cards that only read, Cousin Nancy." Then Tony chimed in and told us that he was, too. Then Tony shot Buddy with me, holding up Budrock's clever business card. Then Buddy gave Tony and me some cool Willie Nelson guitar picks, then we went over to Kinky's and had another great visit.

A few days ago, when Buddy and I first talked on the phone, about us taking in Bee, we exchanged e-mail addresses, so he could send me a few pictures of Bee and this one is my favorite, that his daughter took of this great, friendly, lovable, older dog.

Bee seems to be fitting in nicely and as soon as we get Bee's veterinary records sent to us, I will write more about this magnificent dog. And Tony and I have decided to try to put Bee and Dale Evans together, in the next few days, to see if they will get along, but I already know that they will, because they are both named in honor of famous musicians and loved by many. 

Y'all have a great evening!

R.J.!

Today has been great and so have the last few days, because my family was down here visiting us. To say the least, "I love my family and we had a wonderful time with them."

Tonight's post is going to be brief, because I need to catch up on some paperwork, but I do want to tell you about R.J., an adorable seven-week-old yellow Lab, that was delivered to us on Saturday.

Kim, a dear old friend of ours, had called me three weeks ago, to ask if we could help her find homes for a litter of six, unregistered, full blooded, yellow Lab pups that belonged to her neighbor. Knowing that pups are pretty easy to adopt out I told her that we could take all six. Before we adio-ed each other, Kim told me that she would try to find as many homes for them, before bringing the pups to us, in three weeks.

When I told Tony and Brandon about us maybe taking in six yellow Lab puppies, Brandon asked, "Can I have one? I would love to have a dog just like Roy." When we told him that he could, he asked us, "Can I get a male?" Then I immediately called Kim back to see if there were any males.

 After our short conversation with her, I told Brandon, "Yes. Kim said that she will save a male for you." Brandon was thrilled.

Before Tony and Brandon went outside to work, Brandon told me that he was going to name his dog R. J., so I asked him why he was naming his dog R.J. and he said, "Roy, Jr."

Yesterday morning at 11:37, Kim arrived at the rescue ranch to deliver one pup to us, because she had found great homes for the other five precious puppies. When Brandon and R. J. met it was love at first sight for them and Brandon could not wait to hold his new best friend, in his arms.

Then all of us went to The Okay Corral, so we could visit and play with Roy, Jr. This is just one of the many happy pictures that I took of Brandon and R. J.

This morning R. J. went with Tony and Brandon to The Old Timer, in Medina and then R. J. came to work with Brandon. Roy, Jr. stayed in his portable puppy pen and slept while Brandon did his morning chores. And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Eye To Eye!

Today has been so much fun, because my sweet sister and her husband are down here and they are going to spend a few days with us. They arrived yesterday afternoon and the reason that I didn't write anything last night was because Tony and I spent the evening having a fun visit with them.

This morning while they were visiting with us, inside The Cabin, Mama did the funniest thing. They were sitting on the bench and Mama could not get around the coffee table, so they could both pet her at the same time, so she casually climbed on top on our coffee table to look at them eye to eye, to make it easier for them to pet her.

We all started laughing about it and then I joked, "Our trailer is dog friendly and that's why we can't have anything nice around here. Then I grabbed my camera and shot them, as Roy continued sleeping peaceably, in my chair and snoring loudly.

After the photo shoot, I took them into our bedroom to show them the old quilt, that was on our bed. The one that Beau has chewed up and that got a good laugh out of them. 

Today has been so great, because I love my family so much and getting to spend some quality time with them has been a total blast. And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

No Pressure!

Today has been great. This morning after breakfast Tony helped me with our newly purchased pressure cooker, because I could not wait to fully cook a roast, within forty-five minutes.

Yesterday, we met friends for a fun lunch and after Kris and Jim had raved about how much they loved using their new, time-saving, electric, pressure cooker, we bought one before coming back home. The directions were a little bit confusing to us, so Tony called Jim, "The Mineral Man," for directions and advice, which was a big help. And ten minutes later, our roast was feeling a lot of pressure.

Forty-five minutes later, Tony released the pressure and then he removed the safety lid, so we could admire the fully cooked roast and we were disappointed, because the roast wasn't fully cooked. So Tony put the lid back on Poindexter, pressed the Stew button and set the time for thirty more minutes. Then he and Brandon went outside to do the morning chores.

During the thirty minute wait time I reread the directions over and over again, in between returning phone calls and that is when I decided to check the Pressure setting to discover it was set at twenty, instead of seventy. When it was time to check our roast again, I was disappointed again and started feeling a little pressure, because we had planned to eat lunch around 11:30.

This time after locking down Poindexter's lid, I set the pressure to seventy, then I pressed the Stew button and timed it for thirty minutes. Then I did some paperwork. When the thirty minutes had passed, I didn't bother to remove the lid, because I reset the pressure to seventy and pressed Stew for another thirty minutes.

Ten minutes before the roast should finally be fully cooked, Brandon and Tony came inside The Cabin and told me that they were starving. Eleven minutes later, the three of us were sitting down, eating the best roast that I have ever cooked, while I explained to them that the pressure setting must always be set to seventy to fully cook a roast, in forty-five minutes. Bottom line, "We love our electric pressure cooker and are thrilled that we bought it and tomorrow we plan to use it again."

This afternoon Tony and Brandon went to Kerrville, so Brandon could buy some groceries for himself and they could pick up Dale Evans, the sweet dog that we rescued last month, that had to stay at Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic all of this time, because she was in such bad shape when she arrived. While they were gone I decided to try a new recipe I found on the Internet, so I baked a pan of Blue Corn Cornbread to heat up for tomorrows high-speed-cooking lunch.

After Tony had dropped Brandon off he and Dale Evans arrived, so I grabbed some Made In America dog treats, so I could go greet her and welcome her to our rescue ranch. Oh my goodness, I love this super sweet dog so much! When I started giving Dale treats, her tail would not quit wagging and I am not sure if she listened to everything that I said to her.

When I ran out of the dog treats I went back to our trailer aka The Cabin, so I could cook Dale Evans an early "Welcome to Our Rescue Ranch" dinner, because I wanted to make sure that she understands that we love her and this will only be her temporary home, until we can find her a fabulous, forever family.

 With Mama, Roy, Belle and Beau watching me, I cooked her one piece of sausage and two scrambled eggs laced with a little garlic salt.

Then Tony and I went back outside to go feed her and she was thrilled to see us. I asked Tony to please feed her, so I could snap a picture of her. Before Tony fed her he asked her to sit and she did it immediately. Then I snapped these two pictures of this beautiful, eighteen-months to two-year-old, well trained, sweetheart.

Tony and I remained in her pen for about thirty minutes, so we could try to capture a great picture of her and it ended up that Tony took the best picture of Ms. Evans.

Dale is still on medications and she will be available for adoption, once she receives a clean bill of health. And, because Dale has recently had puppies and has suffered from mange, starvation, etc. and has gone through so much, I am seriously thinking about adopting her myself, because I know that my Roy would love her, because she has already stolen my heart. And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Carol's Secret Salsa Recipe!

Late yesterday afternoon, after I had reset all of our clocks, I jumped into Kermit and as I was going over to the Lodge to invite Brandon to come over, so we could play some music together. I found Brandon fishing. And ten minutes later he and I were sitting in Outer Space playing our guitars to some of my favorite songs on my iPod.

We played along with Eric Clapton, Keb' 'Mo, Neil Young, Willie, Waylon, the Allman Brothers, Lynrd Skynrd, Grateful Dead, the Knotting Hillbillies, J.J. Cale, Gary P. Nunn, Stephen Stills, etc. We were having so much fun time got away from us, because we ended up playing for over three hours and the only reason we had to quit was because our fingers were killing us.

On my way back home, after dropping Brandon off, I saw a silver car driving slowly past the corral, so I decided to go see who it was, because a lot of people get lost out here. As soon as I saw Kent Perkins smiling face I waved to him and then we stopped and visited for a few minutes. Before we adios-ed each other I invited him to come over, in the morning, for breakfast after Brandon and Tony returned from Medina. "Nancy, I would love to go to the Old Timer with Tony and Brandon and eat breakfast with y'all."

Last night I decided to go ahead and cook breakfast, so that all I would have to do this morning was heat it up. I decided to make an egg pie. So I sauteed onions, red and green bell peppers, spinach and garlic. Then I cooked a pound of H-E-B's "Hot" breakfast sausage. Then I mixed it all together and added eight eggs and cheese. Then I poured the mixture into a round casserole dish and baked it. Then before going to bed, while the egg pie baked in the oven, I watched one of my all time favorite movies, Electric Horseman, starring Robert Redford, Jane Fonda and Willie Nelson.

Today has been great. When I got up this morning the first thing I did was turn on the oven and put my crust less quiche inside it, so it would be warm enough by the time Tony and Brandon arrived. Then I drank a cup of Donut Shop Coffee, to help me wake up.

When Tony and Brandon arrived at 8:30, Tony said, "Kent went with us to the Old Timer and he and Kinky should be over here in about ten minutes." I then turned up the oven to make sure the quiche would be warmed enough. Then I grabbed the jar of hot sauce, from the fridge, that Carol had made for us, that was her father's secret salsa recipe and poured it into a bowl. Then Brandon and I grabbed my guitar and banjo and started playing some music.

Nine minutes later, Kinky and Kent arrived and as I was removing the delicious looking egg pie from the oven, I said, "Y'all are going to love this salsa that Carol made for us..." Tony cut the pie into fourths and then the men served themselves. (I didn't eat, because earlier I had a smoothie for my breakfast.)

Right after Kent and Kinky's first bite, they took turns raving about how delicious my egg pie was and how much they LOVED Carol's salsa. Tony and Brandon said nothing, because they were too busy eating.

After everyone had cleaned their plates I washed and dried them and then the four of us drank coffee and had a really fun visit inside The Cabin. Before it was time for them to go back over to the Lodge, Kent asked Kinky to sign Max Swafford's fabulous book The Kinky File to him and his adorable wife, Ruth Buzzi. After he had signed the book I snapped this picture of Mama and Roy giving away kisses. And that is about it for today.

Y'all have a great evening!

Hem It!

Today has been great. This morning after breakfast I cleaned the trailer, because I knew that Christine and Marilyn, nice women from Corpus Christi, were coming out around noon, to see our rescue ranch and visit with us.

After Tony and Brandon had done their chores outside, while I was still inside cleaning up The Cabin, Tony cut me some beautiful fresh flowers to fill my pink vase and I love them, so I took this picture of them, before I went into our bedroom to put our new bedspread on our bed, to cover the old, chewed up one.

Because the new bedspread is a king-sized and our bed is only a queen-sized bed, it took me several minutes to wrestle with the new quilt, because it is so big. When I finally had it on the bed I decided to trim off about a foot of the quilt, so it would be more easily for me to manage, the next time we would be having company. (Tomorrow I plan to get out my sewing machine and hem it.)

Tony and I had a really fun visit with Christine and her mom. When I showed them our new quilt on our bed they told me that it was beautiful. Then Tony and I started laughing and I confessed about only putting it on our bed when we had company over and then I lifted the up new quilt and showed them the one that Beau has chewed up. They thought it was pretty funny, because they have several dogs too and they understood the damage pups can do.

As soon as Marilyn and Christine had adios-ed us, I came into The Cabin to remove the new quilt, because I didn't want Beau to know that we had a new one for him to chew up. When I walked into our bedroom, I immediately turned around and walked back out, so I could grab my camera. Then I returned and took this picture of Mama taking a nap.

It is now 3:18 and Mama has just woken up and gotten off of our bed, so I must go now, so I can remove our pretty new quilt and put it back into its plastic bag and return it to our closet. After that I plan to start resetting all of our clocks. And that is about it for today.

Y'all have a great evening! 

Around! or Not Much!

Yesterday morning started as a sad day, because we had to put our dear, sweet, thirteen-year-old Abbie down. She was a nine-week-old wannabe-Lab pup, when we rescued her from the Kerrville pound and we both feel very blessed that she chose to spend her life with us. She was a great dog and we will always miss her. "We love you, Abbie."

Around 10:00, things began to get better for me, because our friends/volunteers Jim, Diane, Ruthie and Dan came out for a scheduled visit. I love these people, so in no time flat they had me laughing and grinning, even though they were unaware of our loss. I really enjoyed seeing these folks and was so glad they had lifted my spirit.

Around 11:30, all of us left the rescue ranch to go to Ellen and June's Shoestring Ranch for their "Thank You" party, because they wanted to thank all of their friends who helped them fix up their darling cabin. When we arrived June greeted us and asked all of us to wear name tags and below our name write down what we had done to help them. So, when it was my turn to fill out my name tag I wrote, "Nancy" and underneath my name I wrote these two words, "Not Much." Then I joined the fun party.

All of our friends/volunteers were there, along with June's and Ellen's friends and their cousin Pam and I had a wonderful time meeting them and visiting with our friends. Their buffet lunch was so delicious I witnessed several people going back for second servings. All in all it was a really great party and just being there lifted my spirits even higher.

Around 4:00, Kinky followed Tony and me, in his truck, Mr. Green Jeans, over to Carol's ranch, so she could ride with Tony and me over to Jim & Liz's ranch to eat dinner with them. We had a wonderful time at their beautiful ranch.

When we arrived at their beautiful home and after hugs and howdies, the first thing Liz did, was say, " Nancy, we have something we want to give to you." Then she left the big room to go get it. When she returned she was holding the cutest little Boston Terrier door stopper. "We bought this for you a while back and today we finally get to give it to you."

"Oh, I love it!" I said, knowing how very special it was. "I absolutely love this, y'all. Thank you, so very much."

Then we left their home and went over to their Grey Goose Saloon to have drinks, listen to some great music, trade stories, while eating their tasty appetizers. A little while later we went back down the hill to their house to eat a delicious dinner that Liz had prepared for us.

Around 7:30, we arrived back at the rescue ranch and after Tony had put up the chickens we came inside The Cabin, to be greeted by our four loving dogs. After letting them go outside, I put my adorable door stopper, on the table next to my banjo and said, "Tony, I know it might sound really weird to you, but I think the timing of Liz & Jim giving me this today is a direct sign from Abbie to let us know that she is okay. I know Abbie was a Lab and this is a Boston Terrier, but it's like we lost our dog this morning and tonight were given another dog. Every time that I look at it I am going to think about our sweet Abbie." And that's when my floodgates opened and I finally let myself cry about losing Abbie and that is why I didn't post anything last night, because I was too upset.

Today has been great. This morning the weather was perfect outside when our great friends/volunteers came out to walk our dogs for us. The sun was shining brightly, no clouds to be seen and the temperature was around seventy degrees. Our dogs were frisky and eager to go for a walk and I enjoyed seeing our dogs having so much fun.

Around 11:30, before we went to eat lunch at the Highpoint Resort, Ellen and her cousin Pam were visiting with Brandon and me, in front of the barn. When Pam was telling Brandon that she wished that she had the time before flying back home, to hear Brandon and me play some music for her, I said, "Well let's go up to The Cabin right now and Brandon and I will give you a mini-concert."

Five minutes later, Brandon and I were pickin' and grinnin' for Pam and Ellen. I played my guitar and Brandon played my banjo. And five minutes later, the four of us were back outside, standing near the barn visiting again.

Around 12:00, everyone took off to go eat lunch and that was a lot of fun too. The food was delicious and we all did a lot of laughing. Eileen had baked Brandon a Blackberry Dump Cake and for dessert he shared it with all of us and it too was delicious, so I asked Eileen how to make one.

So, when Tony and I got back home, I made Tony a surprise blackberry dump cake, while he was gone to Bandera to do some banking for us. It turned out just like Eileen's mouth-watering dump cake and Tony loved it. And that is about it for tonight.

No wait! Hold the phone! Kinky just called me and he told me about what happened to him when he took the mama cat and her six kittens to Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, this morning, so they can adopt them out to good homes. "Nance, when I walked inside Hoegemeyers, I was carrying the crate with the mama and her six kittens inside the crate. Kathy was there and when she came around to look at the kittens and mama there were only five kittens and the mama. I said, "#%&*!" Kathy calmed me down and suggested we go outside and look inside my truck. When we opened the backdoor we found the little black kitten and it was so happy when we put it back with it's mother..."

Now I need to end this so I can go put up the chickens, because Tony and Brandon are at the Medina football game. Life is good.

Y'all have a great evening!