Chet O'Keefe Is Playing Tonight!

Today and the past few days have been so much fun and if I wrote about all of it, it would turn into another one of my books. So, I am going to give y'all my condensed version.

Thursday morning, after cooking breakfast for Rick and Tony, they made several trips to the barn, so we could start preparing our dog's annual Thanksgiving dinner. When they returned for the last time, Tony said, "I'm sorry. The mixed vegetables are frozen. I forgot to take them out of the freezer last night."

"It's no big deal," I said. "They can thaw out in the bathtub." Then I went and filled up our bathtub with hot water and then I put the big sacks of frozen vegetables in the hot water. Then Rick, Tony and I  started dividing up the ground turkey, cornbread stuffing, olive oil, eggs, garlic and cheese and put them into three buckets, while sixty dinner rolls baked inside the oven.

By 8:00, when Kris & Jim and Chet arrived to help us feed the dogs, we poured the warmed up vegetables into the buckets and then watched as Tony and Rick took turns mixing up the dog's holiday feast. Then we went outside to go feed the dogs.

Tony fed the dogs on the west side, while I fed warm dinner rolls and supervised Rick and Chet, on the east side, to make sure that certain food aggressive dogs ate their tasty dinner in the alleys. Twenty-five minutes later, the three buckets were empty and the dog's stomachs were full.

Seeing all of the dog pans licked clean, made the six of us feel good that we had just made our rescued dogs happy by serving them a delicious, warm Thanksgiving dinner. Before Kris & Jim, who had paid for our dog's Thanksgiving dinner, and Chet left, I took this picture of our dear friends. From left to right: Rick, Chet, Kris & Jim. "Thank y'all!"

Later in the day, Chet O'Keefe, Kinky's and our famous musician friend, who wrote the song Ring The Bell, who is staying over at Kinky's Lodge, came over to eat Thanksgiving dinner with us, which was not served in three buckets, but was buffet style and was delicious—thanks to Karen & Terry's mouth-watering, spiral cut ham. "Thank you, Karen & Terry!"

Around 5:00, all of us jumped into Buttermilk and went over to Carol's ranch, so we could visit with her and her beautiful family. After a really fun time with Carol and her lovely family, we came back home to rest.

Friday morning, our company left and late in the afternoon, Ginger Rogers gave birth to five beautiful puppies. She is doing a great job taking care of them and she is still skinny, even though she is eating like a horse. Hopefully, within a few more days, she will begin putting her weight back on.

Friday evening, Chet, Tony and I went up to the Medina Highpoint Resort, to eat their delicious catfish buffet and listen to some music. While we were having a fun time there I introduced Chet to Sarah Robinson, one of my favorite people, who helps run the resort and in no time flat she and Chet were talking about him coming back and playing his fabulous music tonight. 

Chet told her that he would love to perform, so tonight Tony and I are planning on going back to the Medina Highpoint Resort, to meet some friend there, so we can listen to our friend sing his famous tunes. And that is about it for today, because I am fixin' to go into Outer Space, to play my guitar for our dogs, who pretend to love my music and then I am going to take a short sleepless nap with them, before getting ready to go listen to Chet O'Keefe perform. 

Y'all have a great evening!

Five!

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving Day as we did. Late this afternoon, while Tony was gone to Medina to buy some milk, Ginger Rogers started having her pups and I would have hollered for Tony to help me, but he was gone.

The good news is that Ginger didn't need any help, because she was a great mama and took care of everything all by herself. She had a total of five, healthy, beautiful puppies!

Tony and I have our hands full with all of this, so tomorrow I plan to sit down and write about our great Thanksgiving Day and all of the fun that we have had. Here is the first picture taken of Ginger Rogers with her five, adorable, little babies. (The picture is blurry, because the puppies were moving while nursing.

Y'all have a great evening!

Expecting Company!

Yesterday was great. Around 1:30, Tony and I took off in Buttermilk, to go pick up Carol, because she wanted to go to Kerrville with us, so we could visit. We had two errands to run and the first one was at the H-E-B, on Hwy. 16, so Carol could fill some water jugs and I could get ten last minute groceries for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Carol, Tony and I spent the drive time talking about this beautiful video, that Tony had posted on his Facebook, that Carol loved so much, she had sent me the address. It is a totally awesome video of four, famous, Norwegian musicians singing, Leonard Cohen's beautiful song, Hallelujah. We all agreed that is now our very favorite video of all time to watch, so I hope that you check it out, because I promise that it will move you so much, that you'll watch it over and again and then bookmark it.

When we arrived at the grocery store, we decided that we would meet Carol back at the Expedition, instead of trying to find each other in the store. When Tony and I were on Isle 9 searching for our last item, Carol appeared and she was wearing a big grin on her face. Then she half-hollered down the isle, so everyone could hear her, "Oh my goodness, Cousin Nancy is here!" Then every shopper turned to look at her and then at me, because she was pointing at me and laughing. Then Tony and I burst out laughing and we didn't quit laughing until we got back to Buttermilk.

Our last stop was at Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, so we could pick up Walter Matthau and Ginger Rogers, two new dogs that we had rescued on Sunday. Walter is Gingers brother and they are about one-year-old. Walter had been neutered on Monday and we knew that Ginger was pregnant with five puppies, due in the next few days.

When Susan brought the adorable terrier mixes into the lobby, they immediately melted every one's heart, because they were so friendly and cute, even though Walter was wearing a cone around his neck, to keep him from tearing out his stitches.

When we got back home, Tony put our dogs in the back yard, so Ginger and Walter could spend a little time in our front yard, so I could keep a watchful eye on them while he set up our portable puppy pen, in my office, down the hallway.

Before we brought Walter and his sister inside, I took these two pictures of them, but it doesn't do them justice, because they were a little timid and didn't know why they were here.

After they had settled in the office we brought the other dogs inside. Then we called Carol and invited her to come over for another visit, while we waited for our dear friend Rick, The Friendly Lighthouse Keeper, to arrive, because we had invited him to come up and spend Thanksgiving with us.

Tony and I enjoyed visiting with Carol for about one hour and then Rick arrived. And the reason that I did not write last night was because we were having so much fun with our friends.

Today has been great. This morning after breakfast, Rick did my outside chores, while Tony fed the dogs and I played in the kitchen with Ginger and Walter. These two sweet dogs were more relaxed and they seemed comfortable to temporarily be living in a thirty-year-old trailer. 

When Rick and Tony finished their chores outside they came inside, so all of us could play with Walter and Ginger. I took this picture of Ginger and her brother begging Tony for just one more treat.

As I finish writing this, it is 1:30 and we are waiting for Paul and Brad, from Georgia, to arrive at 2:00, because they are back here, visiting their family and they wanted to come out for a visit, which I know will be fun. 

Tomorrow morning, at 8:30, we plan to go outside to serve our super dogs their annual cooked Thanksgiving dinner and I can't wait. Hopefully, if it is not too cold, our friends aka volunteers will come out too, so they can enjoy watching our dogs gobble up their warmed, tasty Thanksgiving dinner.

If I find the time tomorrow I will try to post some holiday pictures of our dog's enjoying their Thanksgiving dinner, that Kris & Jim kindly sponsored this year. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving Day, like all of us are going to have. And who knows? Maybe we will be sharing our holiday with Ginger's five new puppies!

Y'all have a great evening!

Randy!

Today has been great and so was yesterday. Last night around 10:00, Kinky called me from Brisbane, Australia, to check on us and The Friedmans. After telling him that all of us were doing fine, I updated him with the latest news about Willie Nelson's band member's bus plowing into a pillar, about eighty miles east of Dallas, due to rain and high winds. He seemed relieved after I had told him that Paul broke his ankle, his brother bruising a hip and Hawkins' rib. Then we talked about the weather and Tony and me cooking quesidillas for the dogs, for the past two days, before we adios-ed each other.

This morning was cold, but not as cold as yesterday was, thank goodness. After I had cleaned up the breakfast dishes, Tony and I bundled up. He loaned me one of his coveralls to wear and I had the hardest time putting that thing on. The zippered legs and arms were almost seven inches too long, so he helped me roll them up, before I pulled up my pink hoodie and tied it tightly under my double chins. Then we went outside to do our morning chores.

The dogs were glad to see us, until they realized they were getting dog food, instead of warm, tasty quesadillas for breakfast. Before going outside, we decided that Tony would feed and that I would clean the pens. Before I went into Katie's pen, Tony warned me, "Nancy, be careful. Some of the pens are slippery." So, I heeded his advice and took smaller steps and used the rake to help steady me, so I wouldn't slip and fall.

When we were nearly done with our chores, Tony started laughing when he saw me, in the pen beside him. "I've got to take a video of you!"

"Why?"

"The way you're shuffling your feet around, you look like you're doing a great Tim Conway impersonation and my coveralls are so big on you, you remind me of Randy, Ralphie's kid brother, wearing the coveralls, in that classic movie, The Christmas Story." We both started laughing, even though I told him there would be no video for him to make or us to watch. And that is about it, because I am going to watch the Dallas Cowboy game, while cooking up some more quesadillas for our dogs outside.

Y'all have a great evening!

Ham!

Today has been great. This morning after Tony did the chores outside, we decided to go to the big H-E-B, in Kerrville, to buy everything that we needed for our Thanksgiving dinner. Then we called our friends Kris and Jim, to see if they wanted to meet us for lunch.

On our way to Kerrville, I asked Tony if he wanted to have turkey or ham for our Thanksgiving dinner and he said, "Ham. I forgot to tell you that Karen and Terry, in Port Arthur, sent us another delicious, spiral-cut ham and it arrived earlier this morning, while I was outside feeding the dogs. It's in the fridge, in the barn."

"Great!" I said. "When we get home I'll send Karen an e-mail to thank them."

At 12:30, we arrived at Bella Sera, our favorite Italian restaurant and a few minutes later, Kris arrived without Jim, because he couldn't make it. As we ate our delicious lunch we did a lot of laughing, until Kris told us, that she had just come from H-E-B and it was packed with customers and she wasn't kidding.

After Tony and I had shopped at the busy grocery store we came straight home. After we had put up all of our groceries, I grabbed the rescue ranch's H-E-B bags that were filled with large bags of shredded cheddar cheese, flour tortillas and garlic salt, so I could cook up some garlic and cheese quesadillas, for our dogs outside. When I was halfway done cooking them, I stopped and took this picture of the warm doggie treats.

Around 4:00, with our own dogs drooling at the red thermal bag, on top of the kitchen table, that was full of warm treats, Tony grabbed the bag and then he and I went outside and happily surprised our rescued dogs. When we gave Bee and Dale their rescue ranch quesadillas they got so excited, we decided to give them two more and as we walked away I think I heard Dale say, "I love it here," but I am not sure, because I am hard of hearing. It took us about fifteen minutes to hand out all of the dog treats and our dogs couldn't eat them fast enough, before begging for more. And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Who?!

Today has been great. This morning after Tony and I did the morning chores outside, I came inside, so I could cook Tony and I lunch and while that was going on, I put some beans into my crock pot, so I could slow-cook them all day.

After we ate lunch, I spent an hour doing some paperwork, returning phone calls and e-mails. Then I took a short, sleepless nap with Mama, Roy, Belle and Beau.

Late this afternoon, Carol came over for a fun visit. While she and I were in Outer Space visiting, Tony came outside and said, "Karon has just called. She wanted to know if she could come over and bring Chris and his son Kyle over, because they are interested in Sandy Wolfmueller. They will be here in just a few minutes." Carol and I were thrilled about the possible adoption. Then she told us that she needed to get back over to her ranch, so Carol adios-ed us, as she climbed into her big truck and then she drove away.

Tony and I then went into The Okay Corral, so we could play ball with Sandy Wolfmueller, while we waited for Karon and them to arrive. Sandy was having a blast retrieving the ball for Tony, when Karon, Chris and Kyle arrived.

After howdies and introductions, we learned that Chris had had a Border Collie and he loved that breed and he wanted his son to have his own dog. Fifteen minutes later, after Chris had talked to Kyle, Chris said, "We definitely want to adopt Sandy Who?"

"Sandy Wolfmueller," I said, then I talked to much telling them all about our dear friends Sandy and Jon and their famous, fabulous bookstore. Then I went to The Cabin, so I could fill out Sandy Wolfmueller's paperwork. Ten minutes later, Sandy was officially Kyle's dog and she seemed so happy about it. Before everyone left to go back home, Tony snapped this picture of Kyle's new best friend.

We are going to keep Sandy here, for about a week, when Chris and his family will be ready to come pick up Sandy and take her to her new, loving, forever home. And we are totally thrilled about Sandy Wolfmueller's adoption and that is about it for tonight. Except I do want to thank our dear friend Karon, for helping us find Sandy a super home.

Y'all have a great evening!

Sandy!

Today has been great. This afternoon Brandon, Tony and I went to Kerrville to run a few errands. Before Brandon and Tony went to run a few errands, to save time, the guys dropped me off at the H-E-B, on Main Street, so I could get the groceries needed for our dogs upcoming, annual Thanksgiving dinner, sponsored by our dear friends Kris and Jim.

While the friendly checkout clerk scanned the eggs, garlic, mixed vegetables, cornbread stuffing, cheese, ground turkey and dinner rolls I told him, "All of this food is for our rescued dogs annual Thanksgiving dinner, that we cook for them." His jaw dropped and then he smiled and told me that he thought it was way too cool..." As Tony and Brandon walked up to help me with the filled up grocery cart.

After running a few more errands, our last stop was at Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, so we could pick up Mama's pills and take the well-trained, sweet, six-year-old, female Border Collie mix, that we had rescued two days ago.

The sweet dog rode in the back seat with Brandon, when we left Hoegemeyers and she was calm and well mannered. When we stopped at the red light, at Sidney Baker and Water Street, we were the second car and in the right lane, talking about what to name the sweet Border Collie mix. Then the weirdest thing happened.

We saw a young male adult bicyclist pass between us and the car beside us, in the left lane, and stop at the light. When the light turned green, the Lincoln, in front of us, slowly took off, just as the man on his bicycle turned right in front of the Lincoln, which nearly hit him. The guy waved to the startled, old driver and then he happily pedaled off down the street.

"Did y'all just see that?" Tony said. "I can't believe that guy just did that. Where's the law when you need it?" Then across the street from us, a police car, also stopped at the light, on Sidney Baker, flipped on the lights of his police car and took off after the crazy cyclist, so he could write him a ticket, which the guy most definitely deserved. To say the least, "We loved it and thank you, Officer."

A few miles down the road, we started trying to come up with a name for the dog again, that was now leaning up against Brandon, so he could keep on petting her. When we were up on the Medina Pass, I said, "I've got it! We're going to name her Sandy Wolfmueller, in honor of our dear friend! It's perfect." Tony and Brandon agreed that it was a perfect name for the sweet girl, who was now sleeping soundly, next to Brandon. Please meet Sandy Wolfmueller, a super cool dog who will be joining the rest of our rescued dogs for their cooked, delicious Thanksgiving dinner. I know that she's going to love it, too!

Y'all have a great evening!