Thank you Gerry for this award

Gerry from The Daughters Of The Shadowmen gave me this award and I appreciate it so much. However I have trouble picking a few to award to so I will just say all the blogs I read are so special to me. I've done so little to write about today I don't feel I deserve it today. Just to put it mildly I've had "the don'ts", that is what my Mama used to call a day like today. She didn't have many of those unless she had what she called a "sick headache". We could have gone to Homecoming at my hometown today. We could have rode on the church float in that parade. I would have seen a lot of people I haven't seen in years. Tomorrow the church will have an all day affair, but I don't plan to go. Hope I'll cheer up by Monday and go to the Historical Society meeting to listen to music and an hopefully interesting speaker. Monday is my favorite day of the week so maybe I'll have the "do's" by then. Again thank you Gerry for thinking of me.

Foggy Morning

We had planned to go to Poth, Texas to buy feed for the cattle this morning. The news was telling us it was zero visability at our town so we decided to swing by Burger King to await some of the fog to lift. While we were eating John was explaining zero visability to me. Duh! I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday. When that white stuff is so thick you can't see what is ahead of you I would say that is zero visability. At least everyone was driving with common sense this morning. Most people had their lights on and people were not passing or speeding. The feed store didn't have much business so all those Polish men were sleeping late or had already been there. I'm inclined to think they had already been there and made their purchase. While I'm speaking of feed stores I will say we haven't been back to On The Farm where we pass the columns I've wondered about so much. I did show the picture to John's son and he said I've seen those and I've wondered too what they are. Oh well we may never solve that mystery. By the time we loaded up the fog had lifted and it was a good ride home and then to the ranch. John dropped me off at the turtle feeding place so I was able to spend some quality time with my turtles. It was a warm sunny morning and they all seemed to be there. Counting turtles is about like trying to count cows. Lucy was right there eating her share. I observed turtles sure are made low to the ground. When they came out of the water to grab any morsel of food they spotted then they would head for the water to eat their body dragged on the rough ground where the cows had tromped when it was wet. I don't think turtles have real good eye sight either because they run into each other sometime. We could hear a lot of shooting so John went to check that out. Sounded like it was on the place but it was across the road. Sounds can be very misleading out there. We saw several hunters with their rigs heading to the country as we were going out. Some of them use a lot of imagination with thier little deer blinds. We saw one hauling a big SUV on a flat bed trailer and the SUV was painted all in camoflage, then he had his deer blind tied on top of that. I can't believe how much money some people spend on hunting. Mel loved to hunt and I loved to go with him but we were tight wads. His granmother didn't charge us but we did chores for her. Our blind was on the ground and was so old the cold (yes it got cold sometime back then) could come in. I passed the time counting the Daddy Longleg spiders in the corner. Wanted to keep an eye on them anyway. Don't know why my stomach always chose the quiet of a deer blind to growl. Mel didn't like that at all. How could a deer hear that and if it did maybe that would save it's life. hee hee I was on the deer's side but I never told Mel.

God bless Fort Hood, Texas

Do I Aspire To Be A Detective?

It was such a beautiful day I wanted to go visit my turtles and reestablish my ownership. The renter man always says the girls are feeding them twice a day. They were waiting and seemed hungry so they got their puppy food and old bread. Lucy was late coming up. I just knew she was living in a fish tank in the farm house. The farm house is to the left of this picture and farther up the lane. When we got even with this old orginal house there was an old pick-up parked behind this house as if someone was hiding it. There are plenty of places to park a vehicle without parking it behind this house. All the blinds were drawn and everything was very quiet as usual at the farm house. When John stopped near the old truck and got out to walk to it two guys rushed out the back door. John ask if the truck belonged to them and they said yes it will be gone tonight. By that time I had got out and the girlfriend to the son of the renters came out and we spoke a few words as to how lovely the day was. Then she gave me a shocker. She said I have my niece living out here now. Lets see now I'm losing count. How old is she I ask? Three years old and her mother's boyfriend is mean to her so I'm taking her to live with me. In the mean time while we were checking the cattle, feeding the turtles, and filling the house water tank the truck disappears. I wouldn't be giving these people so much leeway but I'm not the landlady, am I?

Clocks

I know I'm a day late and a dollar short with this entry but something just struck me funny today about the time change. We talked to an elderly man who just recently lost his wife. He ask us if we got all our clocks changed. Yes we did and we have at least one in every room and some rooms more then one. Then there are the watches. Oh well! The man said "everytime I change my clocks I get jet lag". I had never heard it described that way but I know it does get people all mixed up and most doesn't like it. Last year I told you about the large clock I bought for John so he could use a flash light from the bed and not have to keep interrupting my computer time with asking me the time every few minutes. He still does and Saturday night about two he woke me from a sound sleep to ask if I wanted to come watch the clock change. This clock looks very much like the picture here and it runs like a race horse until it gets to the correct time. I said no thank you I saw it last year please let me sleep. To be honest I didn't say it quite this kindly. Happy time change!

I Kept Johnny Boy Out After Dark

I get cabin fever on Sunday afternoon. Wanna hit those country roads. John wants to sit in his recliner and sleep with the TV on. Yes I could go alone and I have but that isn't as much fun saying "awww look at those donkeys", "look someone lives in that old house", "boy that man has lots of cows". Then John gets wound up and tells me I drove a combine down this road in such and such year. I farmed peanuts on that place right there. He did his thing until five and I couldn't stand it any longer. I ask "if I get my truck out will you go for a little ride with me?" Well how long? Like I would know how long. When you wind around the county then you have to drive back. Can I help it if the sun goes down? My truck is a 2006 but it doesn't have many miles on it but if I don't stay off those wash board roads it is going to sound like a rattle trap. We found a road I hadn't been on and I'm not sure John had. It was so narrow when you meet another truck you both had to move into the grass. Didn't meet but two so I could hande that. We saw lots of big oak trees, goats, cattle, pretty homes and ugly old mobile homes. We saw a few old cemetaries but it was getting too late to stop. John is getting more chicken and I'm getting braver in my old age.

Fat Turtles

Bet you thought you would never hear that from me. New renters paid us a visit. They paid their rent for November and their electric bill for October. He has taken on the job of filling the house water tank and the girls have taken on the job of feeding MY turtles. Not once but twice a day. Can you say FAT TURTLES? When they rented the farm house John told them and you have to feed the turtles. He was only kidding but they took him so seriously. They said they have added some guineas to thier animal family. This family all really love animals. They stayed about an hour and reported which cow was mooing all time and the others were mean to it and leaving it behind. Which cow did this and which cow did that. The Mom said they saw two turtles come up by the house but she doesn't think they are our turtles. She thinks they came from some other pond as they didn't look like our turtles. They really notice everything about the animals. The man told us the cats have been killing the mice and he is glad. He said he is terribly afraid of mice more so then rattlesnakes because of something that happened in his childhood. They had to pen the ducks as they were trying to make their way to the water tank and they are afraid coyotes or wild hogs will eat them. Too bad as I know those ducks would love that water tank but its a little too far from the house and you can't see it from the house. The man was going to go home and put out a block of mineral and salt for the cows out of the grain tank. Can things be going this smoothly out there or am I dreaming?