The Morrison Hotel!

Two weeks ago, about an hour before Kinky took off to do his Australian tour, our good friend Jim aka "The Mineral Man" helped Kinky solve a problem with Echo Hill's Internet connection.

Kinky really appreciated Jim's help, so he told Jim, "As soon as I get back to the ranch I want to take you out to lunch to thank you for fixing the problem."

Jim told him it was no big deal and that it wasn't necessary and that he was just glad to fix it for him. But Kinky insisted on taking Jim to lunch, because it had been a big deal for Kinky's guests that visit him, at the ranch. Then Jim had an idea.

"Kinky, I have some really great Australian friends that are huge fans of yours and I know they would love to attend one of your shows."

"Not a problem, Jim," Kinky remarked. "Give me their names and I will gladly put them on my guest list..." They had made a deal that made both of them happy and me, too.

So right about now, Jim's good friends: Caroline and daughter Jocelyn (Joc) and Kath & Gary are enjoying Kinky's performance, at the Morrison Hotel's famous Naked Whiskey Bar's "Welcome to Morrisville—American Festival."

So this evening (Friday, the 14th after talking with Kris & Jim today) as I finish writing this and have it scheduled to post for Saturday, 5:01AM, Texas Time.) Jim & Kris and Tony and I want to say, "Howdy" to Jim's great Down Under friends: Kath & Gary and Joc and Caroline and we hope that y'all had a total blast meeting Kinky and enjoying the show! And we hope that y'all will come to Texas to visit Jim & Kris, so that Tony and I and our great volunteers, at Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch  can meet y'all, too!

Cowgirl In The Sand! or Don't Tell Mama!

The past few days were not so great, because I've been watching too much news about this polarizing, negative, upcoming presidential election and I let it had totally upset me or should I say depressed me. And on top of that just about everyone I know, who are on both political sides have told me that this election has them depressed, too.

So last night when I couldn't sleep once again, because of this upcoming, presidential election—I sat up, in bed and vowed out loud that,"I am going to stop watching anything more that has to do with this election."

Of course, I said it to deaf ears, because Tony and our dogs were all sleeping soundly, except for Henry Standing Bear, so at least Henry heard me.

And yes, I am admitting it and not very proud of it, but I intend to be a "cowgirl (whose head is) in the sand" because enough is enough of this total nonsense.

So today has been great, because I am no longer having anything more to do with the alarming, Late Breaking Bad News about this election. But I promise to vote. So I've said enough and now I shall step down from my soapbox, because I don't want to be spreading any more negativity around.

Now for some good news. This morning our good friend Jim aka "The Mineral Man" sent me an e-mail about Little Jewford. Not our miniature donkey that I, long ago, named Little Jewford, but our good friend Little Jewford who is always helping out our rescue ranch. And when I looked at the attachment Jim had sent that put an even bigger smile on my face.

I wish so bad that Tony and I could go to Little Jewford's concert, in New York City, because he is one of the funniest comedians that I've ever met and on top of that he is an incredibly great pianist.

I have been so lucky to have shared the stage with Little Jewford on several occasions. In fact, back in late October 2006, I was at the Texas Book Festival, in Austin, sharing the stage with Little Jewford and Kinky, because Kinky and I had both been invited to speak there, because Kinky had written a new book and I had written The Road To Utopia: How Kinky, Tony & I Saved More Animals Than Noah that was published by the University of Texas Press.

Anyway, as soon as the three of us got up on stage to talk to the crowd, Little Jewford instantly broke the ice for us and had the whole crowd, including Kinky and me, laughing within seconds. And Little Jewford kept them laughing, in between Kinky doing a reading and then me doing a reading. It was so much fun and it will be something that I will never forget.

So if any of you New Yorkers are reading this now, I urge you to get your tickets early, because I know this will be another one of Little Jewford's sell-out shows. And that is about it for tonight.

P.S. Here's some more good news. That sweet, female German Shepherd pup that I recently wrote about was adopted to a great family, at Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, just a few hours after we had met her and had taken her picture!

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing! And if you can't laugh then please go to Little Jewford's Don't Tell Mama NYC!

Meat Loaf! or Henry Was Here, Too!

Today has been great. This morning a very nice woman called me about if we could help a stray, female German Shepherd pup that had showed up at their home. Unfortunately, I told her that we were full, but I would gladly try to help it find a great home.

The woman also told me that she and her husband had just dropped off the pup, at Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic to get shots, etc. and she told me that  Susan had recommended that they contact us.
"We have to go to Hoegemeyer's later this afternoon to pick up a refill of Roy Rogers' arthritis medicine," I told her. "And we'll be sure to check her out and take pictures, so I can blog about it tonight."

So after we had picked up some trash bags, at the Home Depot, we went to Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic. When we walked inside the clinic, Susan was talking on the phone, so a sweet vet-tech stood up and greeted us, "Here's Roy's pills" she said, as she handed the blue bottle to me. "She's gone to get the sweet German Shepherd, right now, so you can take some pictures of her."

Seconds later, another nice vet-tech walked into the lobby with this beautiful pup. "We think she is between six months to a year old and she is very sweet." The anxious pup looked a little bit stressed out, due to so many life event changes, so it was difficult for met to take a picture of her with my iPhone.

So the woman who was waiting to pick up her dog moved in to help me try to get a decent picture of this beautiful German Shepherd.

After the nice woman helped me, they returned this sweet German Shepherd pup to the kennel. (Please note that Susan is still talking on the phone about a patient.) Then a young woman walked into the lobby, probably picking up her pet, too.

When Susan hung up the phone as we were leaving the clinic, she stood up, and said, "Nancy, wait. We need to show you the German Shepherd, so you can take pictures of her."

All of us in the lobby chuckled, because Susan had been so busy helping a pet owner, she hadn't noticed all of the commotion, of us trying to get a decent picture. "We've already done that," I told her.

Susan laughed, and said, "Okay?" then she paused, and said, "But, you need to know that the couple who dropped her off, asked us to tell you that a woman is coming soon to look at her, because she is interested in the pup."

"That's great news," I said. "And if she doesn't want to adopt her please ask Marguerite to come check her out."

"So you want her to shoot me?" Susan joked, because she knows that sweet Marguerite has such a big heart. And in the past, Marguerite has already adopted four dogs from us, that we had left, at the clinic, to get vetted."

"Better you than me," I jokingly shot back, as Tony I left the building.

A few minutes later, after Tony had dropped me off, in front of the big H-E-B, I heard a familiar voice half-holler, "Hey, Nancy!" I stopped and saw Jim aka "The Mineral Man" walking up to meet me.

After we grabbed our shopping carts, we followed each other inside and stopped to visit, at the Halloween candy display that looked so good we each picked up a sack of candy and put them in our shopping carts. 

We had a fun, but short visit and the last thing I asked Jim before adios-ing each other was, "What are you cooking for dinner tonight?"

"Meat loaf," Jim replied, as we took off in different directions with me wandering what his meat loaf recipe was, because he is such a fabulous, award-winning cook. And as I put a large pack of Bounty paper towels, into my basket, which took up most of the room, in my grocery cart, I decided that I would ask him for his meat loaf recipe, so I can steal that one from him, too.

As I wind up this post tonight I want to share with you Henry Standing Bear's latest home-demolition bedroom project, that commenced, in the wee hours of this morning, while we slept. I have come up with two titles for it and I'm not sure which one is my favorite: Henry Was Here, Too! or What "Wood" Henry Do!

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

The Ranch Rules!

Last night I had so much fun watching the entire Season 2 of The Ranch, on Netflix. It is one of Tony's and my favorite sit-coms on Netflix, starring Sam Elliot, Debra Winger, Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson, and a brilliant cast of talented actors. The Ranch Rules!

Today has been great. We had quite a few visitors show up wanting tours of our rescue ranch and in between giving them tours that I decided that I wanted to try to take a cute picture of Lori Darlin', because her brother Gus' picture that was sent to us is too adorable. Here's the one of Gus that they took, again.

So I decided to sacrifice one of my many, beautiful, pink bandanas and cut it down to size, so it would fit around little Lori's neck. Then I spent nearly thirty minutes outside, in the front yard, on the front porch or in Outer Space, trying to capture a great picture of Lori.

But sadly, none of them turned out great due to my limited camera skills. And this is the best one I took of Lori, in Outer Space, hiding behind a rocking chair. It ain't great, to say the least.

Sadly once again, this is the only decent picture out of the whole bunch that I took of Lori today. And please note that I had to bribe her with puppy food to even get this photo of her laughing at me.

Late this afternoon, I received a phone call back from the nice woman that has been interested in adopting Lori from us. And no thanks to my poor photography skills, she had gone to meet Lori Thursday afternoon, while she was still, at Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, waiting for us to pick her up and take her home. 

And to end this post tonight with some good news—she and her husband want to try her out for a few days to see how she gets along with their two other dogs, because Lori has already stolen their hearts.

So approximately ten or eleven days from now, after we have treated Lori, at home, with her daily antibiotics, ear mite drops and super vitamins and after our veterinarians have given her a round of shots and have spayed her—Lori will be auditioning for her hopeful part, in this super couple's home. So please keep your fingers crossed for her and for me, while I continue to keep trying to take a great picture of this super sweet pup. 

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

Gus & Lori Darlin'!

Today has been great. Last night when we were fixin' to go to bed little Lori Darling was sleeping soundly, in her large crate. But ten seconds later after we had turned off the television and the lights in the big room—she started whimpering.

So I went back into the kitchen and turned on the light and the television and she was already sleeping soundly when I left the room to go back to bed.

Late this morning Tony and I took Lori Darlin' to Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic and we were totally impressed how good she is when going for a ride. Seriously, as soon as Tony had backed-out Trigger she curled up on the front seat and went to sleep. And the few times that she woke up she would just look around and then go back to sleep.

After dropping off this precious little girl we went down the street to Randy & Lisa's Save Inn restaurant to eat lunch and this time we both ordered the exact same thing—iced tea and their delicious Sinker Omelet.

Then we went to Wolfmueller's Books to visit with our good friends Sandy & Jon. When we arrived Jon greeted us from behind the counter and Sandy didn't because she was out running errands.

We had a fun visit with Jon, in between him helping customers find or recommend books. About twenty minutes later Sandy returned to their super cool bookstore. Then we sat down, near the counter and we laughed and caught up with each other's latest news. And after we adios-ed our friends Trigger took us home.

When we got home Susan had left a message for us, on Carlton, so I called her back. Susan told me that Dr. Janssen had thought Lori's age to be 8-9 weeks. She also told me that the small patch of missing hair on the tip of her ear was most likely caused by flies. Lori had ear mites, so they had flushed her ears and treated them and they also gave her a bath.

And because Lori is very anemic they were sending her back home with vitamins and antibiotics for us to give to her. "We will need for you to bring her back, in about ten days, when she is much stronger, then we will give her shots and spay her." So tomorrow we will go pick up Lori and bring her back home.

This afternoon, when I checked my e-mail the nice couple who had rescued Lori's brother, from the pound, sent me an update on Gus, along with the cutest picture of him. In her note she told me that Gus seemed to be already house broken and that Gus takes turns helping her husband work on his projects, in the barn and then Gus will go help her water their garden, etc. And her good news didn't surprise me at all, because seriously these two pups are super dogs. And that is about it for today.

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

Lorena! Lorena!

Today has been great. Early this afternoon we met our dear friends for lunch and Tony and I had so much fun.

When we got back home Carlton was flashing, on the breakfast bar, and he said, "You have five new messages and the last one made me prick-my-ears. "Nancy, this is Jim *&^%$. I am calling you and Tony to see if you can help. Yesterday, we went to the Kerr Pound and we adopted the cutest, sweetest, little, male puppy. We took him to our vet and he was wormy and under-nourished. He has a twin sister still there and....Please call me back when you get this message. Bye."

So I immediately called Jim back and told him that we could help and he could not quit thanking us for helping rescue their pup's sister.

Then Kinky's and our friend showed up, who is baby-sitting The Friedmans for him, while he is touring in Australia, so we quickly filled her in on what was going on before I called the Kerr County Animal Services to see if they still had the small puppy.

And when this very nice woman officer told me that the pup was still there I asked her to please hold on to her, because we would come and take her. While I was asking the office the hours that we could come to pick her up I asked the friendly woman to please hold for a second. Then I asked Tony if he would mind running back to Kerrville before they closed today.

Tony said, "Not a problem. Tell them I am on my way." Then our friend, who had been listening to all of these conversations told us that she might be interested in adopting this pup.

So before we adios-ed Tony, I asked him to please bring the puppy back here, instead of dropping her off, at Hoegemeyers, like we usually do, because I wanted our friend to meet her first, before we take the pup to the vet clinic tomorrow.

Then I called Jim back to tell him that Tony had left to go pick up the puppy and then we talked about  the pups. When Jim told me that they had named their puppy Gus, after Gus in Lonesome Dove, I said, "Then we'll name her Lori Darlin'! The way Gus pronounced it." And Jim was thrilled about her name, because he told me that he had been thinking the exactly same thing for her name.

While Tony and Trigger were gone to rescue this puppy, I decided to go ahead and set things up inside The Cabin, so Tony wouldn't have to do all of the work.

I went outside and carried our smallest puppy pen, back inside The Cabin and then I sat it up to accommodate a small puppy, because it was too young to be put outside. After I had put down a reusable pee pad, I found a small bowl to put her dog food in.

Then I went back into my office and grabbed one of the hundred pot-pie-pans, that I used in our Longmire—Texas Style video spoof. You know "the alien-attracting helmets" that we wore on top of our heads. And after I filled the pot-pie-pan with water and filled the small dish with some puppy chow,  then I stood back and took this picture.

An hour later when Tony & Trigger returned with little Lori Darlin' we decided to let her play outside, before we took her over to meet Kink's and our friend. And I took a few pictures.

And this one looks like her mug shot.

When we took Lori Darlin' over to meet our friend, she thought the pup was cute and before we left to come back home, she took several pictures of Lori, so she could send them to her husband.

When we got back home we introduced to all of our dogs and then we put her into her puppy pen, next to the kitchen table. 

And it didn't take us long to figure out that we needed to enlarge her pen, because she was bigger than what we had thought she would be.

And as I finish writing this post, Lori Darlin' has jumped out of her pen. So now I must go help Tony bring inside a larger puppy pen to replace the smaller one.

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

Thrilled!

This week has been so busy for us and that is why I've not posted anything since last Sunday. Besides having to take care of ranch paperwork, etc. it still was fun for us.

Last Sunday Hans & Marita invited us to eat dinner with them and Stephen & Eva, on Tuesday, at Stephen's & Eva's home, in Fredericksburg. Because Hans had bragged several times about Marita's fabulous Norwegian cooking, Marita was going to do all of the cooking. And they also asked me to please bring my guitar too, so Stephen Morris, Hans and could do a little jamming.

After we had confirmed the date with them, Tony went over to Kinky's Lodge to visit with Kinky's and our good friend Brian Molnar. He's the great singer/song writer/ musician who often tours with Kinky and he also produced Kinky's latest CD, The Loneliest Man I Ever Met.

Anyway, when Tony came back home, he said, "Nance, you're not going to believe this! Brian is good friends with Hans & Marita, too...." And when we told Marita & Hans about Brian being here they asked us to invite him, too.

So late Tuesday afternoon the three of us carpooled, in Brian's rented Lexus, so we could go eat dinner with our friends and Brian brought along his guitar, too. And to say the least, "We all had a total blast. Marita is a really great cook and we had a lot of fun jamming together.

Wednesday and Thursday were quiet days, so that is why I didn't post.

Friday was a great day. Our great friends/dog-walking volunteers came out and after walking our dogs for us, we went up to, the Koyote Grill, to eat lunch together. As always we did a lot of laughing and we did a lot of talking about how great Netflix's Season-5 of Longmire was. And we were all excited about getting to watch the hilarious, Netflix sit-com, The Ranch-Season-2, which airs on Friday, October 7th.

Saturday morning and most of that afternoon we spent with our good friend Jim,"The Mineral Man," over at Kinky's Lodge, because Jim had volunteered to try to help fix the Wi-Fi problem that Kinky's guests were having trouble with.

And after Jim had to make another round trip back to his home to get his PC— he came back and solved the problem and fixed it. After all of us had used our own devices to make sure that we could all get on the Internet easily, I decided to call Kinky.

When I called Kink, I already knew that he was sitting, in the, San Antone airport, waiting to catch a plane to Australia, because I knew that he would be glad to know that Jim had fixed the Wi-Fi problem for his guests to use. And I was right.

After telling Kinky the thrilling news, Kinky asked me to please thank Jim for him and to tell him that he wanted to take Jim out to lunch to thank him, when he gets back to the ranch. "Okay," I said. "But you can thank him right now, because Jim is still here, packing us his computer stuff." Then I handed the phone over to Jim, so Kinky could talk to him. And before their conversation had ended, Kinky had told Jim that he was going to put Jim's Brisbane, Australian friends, on his Brisbane guest list  and that thrilled Jim.

And that is about it for tonight, because tomorrow is going to another busy day for us.

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