The Scouts!

Today has been a beautiful day at the rescue ranch. This morning after Tony and I did our outside chores together, I spent most of my day, inside The Cabin, doing end of the month paperwork and I am proud to say, "That I am caught up with it."

Late this afternoon Kinky called to invite me over to the Lodge, so we could visit and catch up with each others news, since he has been gone, doing his Southern Discomfort Tour, for over three weeks.

We laughed about The Friedmans camping out at The Okay Corral Camp, Winston Churchill coming over to visit us today without Kinky's permission and Tony having to return him to the Lodge, Sophie's upcoming beauty shop appointment and then after we talked a little rescue ranch business we decided to go on a hike with The Friedmans.

While Kink and I strolled, his dogs happily swam and splashed in the creek beside us. And thirty minutes later, after we had talked ourselves out, we were back at the Lodge, sitting in his rocking chairs, outside on the porch, discussing if he should go ahead and put out a few Hummingbird feeders for the early bird Scouts to find.

My vote was "Why not?" and Kinky's vote was "Undecided," even though I bet he put a few feeders out after I left to come home. And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Cloud Nine!

Today has been incredibly great and life changing for me and I am still pinching myself, even though it hurts, to make sure it's not a dream.

This morning, at 9:32, after eating breakfast with Will and saying goodbye to him, the phone rang—it was Carol, so Tony took the call. After he visited with her for a couple of minutes he said, "Nance, Carol needs to talk to you."

"Please tell her I will call her right back," I said, because Nature was calling and at my age when Nature calls—I listen. One minute later I returned Carol's call. "Hi, Carol. What's up?"

In a very serious voice Carol says, "Nancy, I want to give you Maya, if you want her..." And believe it or not I was speechless, for one of the few times in my life. "I love Maya and I know that you love her, too and..." As Carol talked, beautiful visions came into my head of Maya being my horse and me getting to ride her whenever I wanted to. "Maya is only eighteen years old and she is still full of pep. I really want to give her to you—if you want her." So I pinched myself, above the elbow and it hurt.

"Carol, OMG! Are you serious?"

"Yes. I really want to give her to you."

"Carol, I've got goose bumps right now. And yes, I would absolutely love to have Maya! I cannot believe this. Are you sure about this? She is such a wonderful horse and..."

"Yes, I really want you to have her."

"I definitely want her, but let me talk to Tony and Kinky first, to see how they feel about it and Ronnie too. I will call you back within the hour," I unintentionally lied, to the other half of our Cowgirl Sisterhood, because four minutes later I called Carol back. "Tony, Kinky and Ronnie are all for it! Carol this is a dream come true for me. I will never be able to thank you enough. You cannot imagine how happy you've made me. This is a life changing event for me and I love it!"

"Not as much as I love it, Nancy. You're going to love Maya so much and she is going to love you back even more. I am so happy about this. I love that we're keeping her in the family and from now on you are no longer a part-time or a wannabe cowgirl, because now you're an official cowgirl—horse and all..."

Before we hung up, we talked about going to the tack shop, in Fredericksburg, real soon, so Carol could help me pick out the right bridle and hopefully a beautiful, pink horse blanket for Maya, that my saddle will rest on. "Come on over this afternoon, so you can ride your horse."

I was literally on Cloud Nine when Tony and I went outside to do our morning chores. In fact, I was grinning the whole time, from ear-to-ear, as I cleaned the dog pens, dreaming of Maya being my super horse and getting to ride her whenever I wanted to.

Around 4:30, I braided my white hair, put on my pink bandana, cowboy hat and blue jean jacket and grabbed some carrots, that Maya loves to eat and then we picked up Will, over at the Lodge and then Buttermilk took us over to Carol's ranch, so I could ride my horse for the very first time and here are some great pictures that T. took of The Cowgirl Sisterhood riding their horses.

Right after I had first mounted my horse, Maya.

As we took off, Carol's smile says it all.

The Cowgirl Sisterhood Rides Again!

Maya laughing at my joke, even though Pistol didn't seem to get it.

One of the happiest days of my life—thanks to Carol!

Best Friends Always Ride Together.

After a really fun ride on our horses Carol invited Tony, Will and me to come inside her beautiful ranch house for happy hour and after taking off our muddy boots, outside on her steps, we went inside and Carol literally blew-us-out-of-our-saddles when she showed us Maya's impressive lineage papers. "She comes from some of the best, most famous King Ranch Quarter Horse breeding stock," Carol said, proudly.

As Tony, Will and I looked at Maya's papers, I pinched myself again, but on the other arm above my elbow, because I could not believe that Maya was actually my horse, with big time bragging rights. "Y'all, I am going to have some fun, name-dropping her lineage to Quarter Horse snobs," I said, as I gazed out the window at Pistol and Maya grazing together in the pasture.

And that is about it for tonight. I still cannot believe that I am now the proud owner of Maya, one amazing and awesome horse that my dear friend Carol gave to me. I am one very lucky cowgirl to have a great friend like Carol. "Thank you, Carol for being such a great friend. I will love yours and my Maya like she has never been loved before."

Y'all have a great evening! I need to go pinch myself, again.

Breakfast At The Cabin! or Squirt Wins Again!

Today has been a lot of fun. This morning Will and Ben came over with some of Will's groceries, so Will could fix all of us his favorite breakfast.

As we sipped our coffees, Will went to work preparing our meal and at one point Ben went to the sink to help him crack up the eggs. And when their backs were facing me I joked, "Do y'all always dress alike?" Then I snapped this picture of them wearing Miles of Chocolate sweatshirts, like the ones Ben gave to Tony and me, when he gave Will's his.

After they shot back some funny remarks, which I am not going to repeat, Will showed me how to cook his breakfast. "I toast the English muffins first, then I add cheese to the bottom muffin, then I add scrambled eggs and then I top it off with thinly sliced ham, cooked in butter. It's so easy."

There was complete silence as we ate Will's delicious breakfast, but after I had cleaned my plate I said, "We've got to go to town to get groceries today and I am going to buy all of your ingredients and make this for us in the morning. This was absolutely delicious! Why don't y'all join us for breakfast tomorrow morning?"

"Thanks, Nance," Ben said, "but I can't, because I'm going back to Austin later this afternoon."

"What time do you want me over here?" Will asked.

After I had cleaned up the kitchen all of us went outside to do the chores and it was a lot of fun, because we all took turns teasing each other about this or that.

This afternoon we went to Kerrville to buy groceries and then we came home, so I could cook lunch for us and that is about it for today, because tonight I am watching the Academy Awards.

P.S. Early this evening, my dear friend Rick, "The Friendly Lighthouse Keeper" in Port Aransas called me with some exciting news. "Hi, Nancy! Check your e-mail. Squirt (Leisa's cute little dog) just won the race for the third year in a row! I just sent you a press release about it..."

News Release from Rick----------------

In spite of recent hip surgery, Squirt ( racing under the psudonym of "The mighty A** Squirt") took all honors at the Port Aransas Weenie dog and small dog races for the third year in a row.

After a handy win in the small dog races TMAS boldly challenged the winner of the weenie dog races for a winner takes all match. Tension was high and much was made of the possibility of the weenie resorting to underhanded and unsportsmanlike conduct. 

The first race was disqualified as a result of TMAS being attacked and run off the track by said weenie.

Second race was close and TMAS managed to cross the finish line in spite of the aforementioned weenie biting TMAS on his mighty a**. The crowd generally agreed that when running a dog race the dog getting bit on the a** is most likely ahead of the dog doing the biting."

This is a picture of Leisa and Squirt, taken last year, after Squirt won the small dog races.

Y'all have a great evening! Squirt Rules!

French Toast! or First Toast!

Today has been another great day. This morning before Tony and Ben went to do the chores outside, I fixed them and Will my famous easy to make French Toast, topped off with 100% Vermont Maple Syrup and they loved it, which made me feel good. In fact, Will loved my French Toast so much, he ended up having me cook him a total of six pieces and he cleaned his plate. Then Roy Rogers cleaned his plate, before I cleaned his plate.

During our fun breakfast we did a lot of teasing and laughing. We teased Will about eating all of our food. Then they teased me about my accent and what I did yesterday, before Ben made the five Redneck Wine Glasses. "Will, yesterday Nancy was trying to thinking up ways to fill the vases before I glued them to the Ball jars," Ben said. "She ended up finding this long, fake gold chain and dropped it into a vase, but she didn't like it, so when she tried to remove it from the vase, it got stuck and would not come out." Then Ben started laughing.

"It looked dumb inside the vase," I added.

"Anyway, she was shaking the vase and trying to get the chain out and when she finally got a hold of a piece of it, she jerked it out and says, "Aha! I'm a musician!" The men burst out laughing at me.

"Ben, I meant to say, "magician" as soon as I said, "musician," I said to three pairs of deaf ears. "The five vases will be ready for us to use at 5:30 this evening and I can't wait," I said, trying to change the subject. "Will, don't you just love Roy Rogers? He has stolen my heart."

"Yeah, he's a pretty cool dog." Will said, without enthusiasm, as he petted Roy on the top of his head. "Is he drooling on my leg?" Ben, T. and I started laughing. "Stop it, Roy. Go on boy. Get in your chair." Roy did nothing, but continued to drool on his pant leg, so we started laughing.

"He's real well-trained, Will. He came that way," I bragged, "but he only minds Tone and me. Roy, come on boy, let's go outside." Belle and Roy immediately went to the front door for me to let them go outside.

Before Ben and Tony went outside to do their morning chores and Will went back over to the Lodge to baby sit The Friedmans I said, "Lunch will be ready about noon, y'all. We're having pot roast, mashed potatoes and my new okra recipe that Carol gave to me and since Aaron is coming out to mow, I'm also fixin' meatloaf, so we will have plenty to eat."

After the men left The Cabin I grabbed the feng shui book, that Alfredo had sent to me and I began reading about personal Kau numbers, a compass formula which categorizes people into East and West groups for powerful feng shui applications on page 138 and after doing the calculation I discovered that I my Kau number is 2, which is a very good number to have.

For women, you take the last two digits of the year that you were born and add them together. I was born in 1951, so I added 5 + 1 = 6. Then I added 5 to the 6 = 11, then I added 1+1 together to get 2, my Kau number and then I used the men's calculation, which is different from women and found out that Tony's Kau number is 1.

For my good luck directions I am suppose to face Northeast for wealth, West for health, Northwest for love and Southwest for growth. So, during our fun lunch today, I told the guys about finding my Kau Number and then I told them how to find theirs. "Take the last two numbers of your birth year and add them together, then reduce it to a single number. Then subtract that number from 10 and that is your Kau number," I said. "My number is 2, Tony's number is 1 and Kinky's number is 2, like me. It also says that if you negotiate any kind of business deal, while putting yourself in your good feng shui position, you will have the edge over the business person who doesn't know them and..."

So, Ben and Will did their calculations to find out that Will's Kau number is 6 and Ben's Kau number is 6 too, then Will tells me that he doesn't believe in feng shui and then he explains why to my deaf ears, as Tony, Ben and Will devoured their lunch.

While I was cleaning up the lunch dishes, we started talking about the Redneck Wine Glasses that Ben made for us. "At 5:30, we need to try them out," Tony suggested.

"We should use champagne," Will said, "if y'all have any?"

"We don't have any champagne," I replied.

"Oh, yes we do, Nance," Tony chimed in. "We have a bottle in the wine cellar (our bedroom closet, because we don't have any space for it in the kitchen.) "I'll go get it." Seconds later, T. enters the kitchen with a dusty bottle of champagne that someone gave to us. After T. dusted it off the bottle, he placed it inside the refrigerator, so it would be chilled when we made our first toast, at 5:30.

When everyone went back outside to work, Roy, Mama, Belle, Toto and Abbie followed me to the bedroom and we took a short twenty minute nap with me in the middle, facing Southwest for feng shui growth. Then my dear friends Ann, visiting from New Mexico, and Carol, the other half of our Cowgirl Sisterhood, from down the road, came over to see us and we had a wonderful time visiting with them and Ben and Will.

At 5:30, we filled the Redneck Wine Glasses, that Ben had made for us, with some of Carol's fine wine or the cheap, chilled champagne or my fine boxed wine and then we made a toast, "Bottoms up!" Then the real party started.

Unfortunately, as we happily sipped our choice of spirits, as brave June, Ellen and Eileen were driving up to Big D, to cheer on their number one fan, Luna-Tick Tick Boom, at the Assassination City Roller Derby—Ben's Redneck Wine Glass broke apart, because he hadn't glued it together right. "How sad," I jokingly exclaimed, as we laughed about Ben's redneck predicament. "I guess you'll just have to drink the champagne from the jelly jar, Ben." And Ben made the best of it and he didn't seem to mind sipping the cheap champagne from the Ball jelly jar.

Tonight has been so much fun. It was great seeing Ann and I am so glad that she and Carol got to finally meet each other. After Ann left around 6:30 to go back to her brother's ranch. Tony and I had a great visit with Carol. We laughed so much my back started aching immediately. And when Carol left to go back to her beautiful ranch, around 7:30—I immediately grabbed Mari's pretty, pink-dyed sheepskin, from my office and as I finish typing this—my back is starting to feel much better. Thank you, Mari.

Y'all have a great evening! Luna-Tick Tick Boom Rules! I hope her team wins.

The Redneck Wine Glass!

Today has been a total blast, thanks to my dear friends aka "The Greatest Volunteers in Texas" and Ben Welch.

Since February 10th, Eileen's birthday and Carol's birthday on Valentine's Day, all of us have been trying to have an outdoor cookout, in The Okay Corral, to celebrate their birthdays, but due to bad weather, etc. we haven't been able to celebrate Eileen's and Carol's birthday until today.

I was inside The Cabin drinking coffee and catching up with Ben's latest news when Jim, Ellen, Lisa, Eileen and Dottie showed up, so Ben and I went outside to greet them and so I could give Eileen her belated birthday present from Tone and me—a Redneck Wine Glass. But as soon as we gave her our gift, which she loved, she gave me a pink sweatshirt, some beautiful pink tulips and a copy of the Valentine's Day The Kerrville Daily Times, which was printed on pink paper, because a dear friend of Kinky's and mine had written something sweet about us, for the special Valentine's Day section and I loved reading it. Here is a picture that Lisa took of me reading the paper, with the Tulips behind me on the steps.

After thanking Eileen for the lovely, pink flowers, the pretty pink sweatshirt and the baby pink colored newspaper it was my turn to give all of them a personal present—"What Would Ronnie Do?" refrigerator magnets, which made all of them laugh, while they promised me that they would put them on their fridges. Then I invited everyone up to The Cabin to see our latest remodeling and that is when the birthdays party commenced.

When we came inside the trailer Lisa gave me two bottles of fine wine, from Cosco, for the birthday party, even though she, Ellen and Dottie were twisting off the caps of their cold beers, while Eileen topped-off her Redneck Wine Glass with some Bud Light.

While Jim walked our dogs and Tony and Ben tended to the outdoor grill and began cooking the food that everyone had brought, we had a really fun visit inside The Cabin and when I showed Ellen my new feng shui book and the beautiful card, that Alfredo had made for me, she started reading it and started making comments on some of the more simple feng shui rules. "It says here that sleeping with your feet pointing towards the door is known as the death position."

"Omg!" I said. "Our bed is pointing towards the door! Y'all come look at the beautiful, cedar bed that Tony made for us when we got married. I think we're in the death position! " Everyone ran to our bedroom to check it out. "Ellen, this is scary."

"Let me read on, Nancy," Ellen said, calmly. "Y'all's bed is so beautiful..." When we returned to the kitchen/big room, Eileen and Dottie excused themselves and went outside to greet June and Carol, while Ellen speed-read about the placement of our deadly bed placement. 

Two minutes later, after Ellen had read out loud to me and figured out that our bed placement was just fine—thank goodness—we went outside to join the party. While Ben and Tone cooked up the hamburgers Eileen took me aside. "Nancy, you have got to do this for me. It will be so hilarious. Before you print the next 100 "What Would Ronnie Do?" magnets, I think you should rat your hair up into a big beehive or else wear a flip, wear some dark red lipstick and have Tony shoot you talking on your pink Princess Phone and..." I laughed so hard, my back instantly started hurting.

"I will do it, but I don't know about ratting my hair." Here is a great picture of Birthday Girl Eileen that Lisa took and shared with me.

Lunch, inside the writing cabin, with everyone, was filled with non-stop laughter and teasing and Lisa's homemade Cosco chocolate cake was to die for. And there is so much more to write about this super fun birthdays party today, but I need to wind this up, so I can go to bed soon, but I want to thank June, Ellen, Eileen, Lisa, Jim, Carol, Dottie, from New York, Ben and Tony for making my day great, even though my back is still aching.

When the super fun party ended, after I had cleaned up a few dishes, because we had used paper plates, etc., Ben, T. and me started talking about how to make The Redneck Wine Glass that we had given to Eileen. 

A few minutes later, Tony looks up from his computer and says, "I just found out how to make them on YouTube." And after we had watched the short, informative video, we told Ben that we had some errands to run in Kerrville and that we would bring back the special glue needed, some small Ball canning jars with lids and some cheap candle holders, from a dollar store.

At 5:00, when we returned to the rescue ranch we put Ben to work in the kitchen, making Redneck Wine Glasses for us, him and our friends, because he was better at gluing the jar to the candle holder.

After Ben had created five Redneck Wine Glasses for us, I was disappointed to discover that the recommended drying time for the special glue to bond with the candle holders was 24 hours, but we laughed it off, as I carefully placed them on a shelf to dry, after removing the new Vermont Jug of 100% Maple Syrup, because tomorrow morning we are having Ben and Will, who is now baby sitting The Friedmans, over for a French toast breakfast. Please note the fifth Redneck Wine Glass is not visible, because it is directly behind one of the glasses.

And as I finish writing this evening, I want to share the beautiful Tulips that Eileen gave to me today. "I love them, Eileen! Thank you, so much."

Y'all have a great evening!

Happy Birthday David Villanueva!

Today is David Villanueva's birthday and I want to be one of the first to wish him a Happy Birthday! And since I have now had one singing lesson, at Club Ed, I want to sing him the Happy Birthday song.

Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday Dear David. Happy Birthday to You. And many more with Mari, my dear friend, of The NoMads...

I hope this is the best birthday ever for you and please tell Mari to give you a hug from me and a handshake from Tony.

Alfredo!

Like yesterday, today has been great too. Yesterday morning after we did our morning chores outside, we cleaned up, because we needed to go to Kerrville to run a few errands.

On our way to 16, I said, "Tony, please check the mail before we head to Kerrville, because there is a chance that my box will arrive with Sophie's business cards, mugs, scratch pads and t-shirts I designed. They are not due to arrive until tomorrow, but they might have come early."

"Looks like they arrived, Nance," Tone said, as he handed me a box, from the online printing company. "Here, let me open it for you." When T. opened up the box I was thrilled to see; Carol's and my Cowgirl Sisterhood t-shirts, our Cowgirl Sisterhood mugs, our Cowgirl Sisterhood scratch pads, Tony's photography business cards and Sophie Friedman's business cards.

"I can't wait to give these to Carol for her birthday. If her car is there, please pull up to her gate so I can call her, to see if we come over." Minutes later, we were inside Carol's ranch house giving Carol our late birthday presents. And she loved all of it. Here are pictures of our matching mugs.

After a fun visit with Carol, I gave Carol one of my "What Would Ronnie Do?" magnets to put on her refrigerator and then we adios-ed each other and T. and I headed to Kerrville.

Our last stop after running our errands was at Wolfmueller's Book, so I could give Sandy & Jon one of my free "What Would Ronnie Do?" magnets, but they were gone for the day, so we left it with Mary Jo, who was holding down the fort for them. Then we came back home.

Before Carol came over for a really fun happy hour, we spent over an hour outside killing Thistle and it is now looking like we are finally winning the Thistle War at last.

This morning after we had fed the dogs and cleaned their pens, we spent another hour attacking the rest of the Thistle. Then we came inside and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch.

After lunch Tony went to get our mail and it was filled with surprises. My new friend Alfredo, from Von Ormy, Texas, sent me a present, along with a beautiful card that he had made especially for me. I love  the book he sent, Lillian Too's smart feng shui for the home; 188 brilliant ways to work with what you've got and I plan to save the card. Thank you, Alfredo!

My next surprise was our Hidden Springs Maple LLC, 1/2 gallon of 100% Pure Vermont Maple Syrup, that Tony's friend Peggy, turned us on to before Christmas, arrived today! It is Vermont Grade A Dark Amber and is absolutely the best tasting maple syrup on this planet and it comes from Putney, Vermont USA! 

I ordered it online last week and was not expecting to receive it until next week, so tomorrow morning I will be cooking Tony, Cousin Nancy's French Toast for breakfast instead of eggs and he can't wait. We love it so much we just put it up on the shelf next to Carol's and my bottle of Cowgirl Sisterhood wine.

This evening as I finish writing this Roy is resting on his quilt, Mama is sleeping on our bed with Abbie, Belle Starr-Simons is watching television with Tony in his office and little Toto is sleeping next to my feet, under the kitchen table, passing gas. 

I just took this picture from our front porch and now I am going to go into Outer Space with Tony and our fur-family to enjoy happy hour.

Y'all have a great evening!