Frankie and Slim

Frankie and Slim
Happy New Year

Friday, September 28, 2012

ALL HAIL THE WORKING MAN



My son Tandy is a printer by trade working both as a press operator and a salesman.  (Primarily a loving single father of three and a hardworking school volunteer.) He was never trained in the field of mechanics but has always been able to take things apart and put them back together (with only a few left over parts.) He did manage to keep a junk car (purchased for $100) running enough to get him to and from college for two years

For a couple of years now he has been following directions from Ron plus doing research on the internet to fix our backhoe.  (Notice I say "our" backhoe because you may remember that Ron gave it to me for Valentines Day one  year.)  This work has been done on weekends as time and weather has allowed.

Now the backhoe is up and running and Tandy is enjoying learning the art of operating it.  Last weekend he dug trenches around two dead trees and uprooted them.  We always pay him for his work to cover his expenses and time away from home.  This last time Ron said he believed Tandy had such a good time playing in the dirt he probably should pay us.

I do have to point out another amazing thing about my son.  He hated getting his hands dirty as a child and would finger paint in pre-school with one finger and then demand to immediately wash his hands as soon as the required painting was complete.  Now he is a pressman in a print shop with permanent inked hands, and as a greasy "volunteer" Diesel mechanic. 

(Tandy's 42nd birthday is coming up and it has truly been 42 years of  love and amazement from the moment of his birth.)

Thursday, September 27, 2012

UNCOMMON BONDS

Slim always enjoys chasing and playing with the many cats on our place.  Once in a while a special bond will form with a certain cat and such is the case with Jed.
After the fun and games, the other cats run off to the barn, but Jed hangs our with her best friend Slim.
Slim decides it is time to come back in the house and lets me know by tapping on the window.  Jed tried to follow Slim in a few times but has learned that is not okay.
Jed watches and waits for her friend to come out and play again.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Saturday, September 22, 2012

REALLY! I SWEAR!

PORK RIND PANCAKES

I am on a low-carb diet and have been craving pancakes. Well here we have zero carb pancakes....I kid you not!  Put some butter on them and some low-carb syrup and you're in heaven.  These three are supposed to be a single serving but they are very filling.  Share this information with anyone you know on a low-carbohydrate diet. 

Click here for recipe. 

My other craving is pizza and I am hoping to try a recipe I've found for pork rind pizza crust!!!  I'll let you know how that goes.

Friday, September 21, 2012

STILL A SECRET

Hope and Dixie on June 18, 2010
  
Perhaps it is time to let my secret out of the bag to my blog friends ....without any disclosure to our granddaughter Hope.  In case you noticed that I haven't mentioned my goats lately, we sold them in July.

It was taxing to care for them in the heat of another drought and with Ron's health needs and my own medical concerns, it was a decision that had to be made.  We had been advised at our local feed store that goats were hard to sell at that time.  Undaunted, I put a notice on Craig s List and Elizabeth, Polly, Tina, Dixie, Lord Voldemort, Dr. Cole an Ashley-Asher were sold in an hour.  It was a God-thing.

The man who bought them only lives about 30 miles from us and he has a lot of land.  He has a small herd of pygmy goats to clear his land and added our bunch to his.  I gave him the name of each goat as he and his grandson loaded them and they both looked at me like I was crazy. Oh dear.

It was the practical thing to do.  It was a difficult thing to do.  It is going to be very difficult to tell Hope because she loved the goats, was with us when we got the first four and had picked Dixie as her goat.  However I believe she is at an age where she can be bought and am thinking about giving her the money we got for Dixie when I tell her. 

Meanwhile my daily chores have been an whole lot easier to deal with since the goats moved away.  They were more labor intensive than I realized. 


Wednesday, September 19, 2012

NO WORDS

Martha is on the left.  My sister Elenore is on the right.  A quilt that Martha made is in the middle and Martha is giving this beautiful quilt to ME!  Why?  Because this very special quilt is made out of my mother's dresses.

Martha is my sister and bil's close friend.  I know her through them and have become her friend also.  My sister gave her all of our mother's dresses after Mom died and Martha  surprised my sister with a quilt like this several years ago.  I rejoiced in my sister getting such a lovely quilt and having such a wonderful friend.  

You can only imagine my shock and total disbelief when I received  one too on Monday.  A total surprise and a wonderful, beautiful, loving, caring gift.

I thanked Martha and I hugged her and I thanked her again.  I wanted to reach in my purse and find enough money to pay her for such a magnificent gift but there could never be enough money to cover this priceless gesture.  I see my mom in each dress from her fancy Christmas dress to her favorite house dress to her comfy robe.

It is time to write Martha a thank-you note and I have no words.

Monday, September 17, 2012

MOVING ON UP...OR DOWN

Question Of The Week 09-17-12



If you had to move to a state or country besides the one you currently live in, where would you move and why?

Sunday, September 16, 2012

FAIR MY A&#!!!

You've heard this before so you can skip this rant.

They call it the F.A.P. (Fair Access Policy) and I have mentioned it before.  It is applied to our use of DISH Satellite which is the only internet available to us.  We live four miles outside of town and no other internet providers will service us except for dial up services or other satellite services that also employ these same restrictions.

It is Sunday and I enjoy watching a video of our church service from the previous week.  I cannot do that today because I have used too much of my internet bandwidth.

I subscribe to unlimited Netflix movies online and to HBOGO.  While the services are "unlimited" my interne keeps me from enjoying hardly any movies before I receive a warning that I am about to exceed my allowed broadband usage.

Word with Friends and Scrabble games were great fun until I realized multi-player games were causing me to use too much bandwidth.  I had to give them up. Thankfully Judy (kenju)  introduced me to a couple of other word games that didn't consume too much usage.

Because I could not watch movies or play word games, I returned to my art projects on the Julia Kay Portrait Party.  My new camera takes great shots that make a much better appearance on the website when posted but guess what....they use too much of my upload and download allowed usage.  The same goes for pictures that I post on my blog.

The grandchildren visit and bring all their electronic gadgets and can't use them because I can't spare the broadband.  Yes there are better things for them to be doing here, but it's just the principle of the thing.

Yet I can leave home and get unlimited internet access outside our post office. In restaurants, at the library, in the hospital or medical offices, motels, etc.  You can't leave home "without it" because you never had "it" to begin with.

Once we ever get an alternative to this satellite service there will be a mass exodus.

Friday, September 14, 2012

RULE # 1

Thank you brother dear for sending me this.  Now I'll know where to look for this guy.  He's hanging out around here a lot.

Monday, September 10, 2012

PEANUT BUTTER AND MUSTARD

Question Of The Week 09-10-12



What’s something you know you do differently than most people?






I eat peanut butter and mustard sandwiches..  I also name everything...not just  our animals.  My truck is Zippy, my computer is Lappy-Lou, my refrigerator is Blackie, my sleep machine is Tonto....etc.

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP

I hate to miss a Wednesday post but we're off to more medical appointments so I'm going to share this quick story that I posted on face book yesterday.  Hope you enjoy it.

"A man left for work one Friday afternoon. But, being payday, instead of going home, he stayed out the entire weekend partying with the boys and spending his entire paycheck.

When he finally appeared at home, Sunday night, he was confronted by a very angry wife and was barraged for nearly two hours with a tirade befitting his actions.

Finally his wife stopped the nagging and simply said to him,

"How would you like it if you didn't see me for two or three days?" To which he replied, "That would be fine with me."

Monday went by and he didn't see his wife. Tuesday and Wednesday came and went with the same results. Come Thursday, the swelling went down just enough where he could see her a little out of the corner of his left eye."

Monday, September 03, 2012

ALWAYS ASK "WHY"

Question Of The Week 9/3/12





If you could offer a newborn child only one piece of advice, what would it be?

My advice would be: Always ask "why".