Joke

I thought I'd share a joke today:

The newly-married husband came home from the office to find his young wife in floods of tears. "Darling, whatever is the matter?" he asked.

"Sweetheart," she sobbed, "the most terrible thing has happened! I cooked my very first Beef Bourguignon for you, and I got it out of the oven to season it, and the phone rang. When I came back from answering the phone," she sobbed again, "I found that the cat had eaten it!"

"Don't worry darling," said her husband. "Don't cry. We can get a new cat tomorrow."

Sunday Ramblings

I could not get to sleep last night. I was up and down. Finally went to bed around 3:30 a.m. Then my DH was awake early and calling for me (he is bedfast from 2 strokes). He was somewhat confused, thinking there was a horse in the house. I told him there was only one old nag, ME! He was not amused. He wanted me to bring him the blue and red things that were on the horse's halter. I explained to him that there was no horse in the house and he let it drop. Then he wanted food. He never normally eats that early. Now he has been dozing off and on. I normally go to church but I was reluctant to leave him this morning with him being a little confused.

Then a friend from church called to tell me that an elderly lady in our church had fallen last night and broke her hip. I sure hated to hear that. She is such a dear. We've kinda been expecting it since she is pretty unsteady, but usually she has someone holding onto her. At any rate, I hope she gets better and comes through okay with her recovery.

This past week I mowed the lawn for what will probably be the last time this year. I planted some spring bulbs. I noticed something had been digging where I had planted some of them! Squirrels maybe? I'm not sure. But they only messed with the one spot, so hopefully no damage done!

We had a little tree in the front yard that had died due to our drought this summer. I got the chainsaw out and cut it down. I hadn't used the chainsaw in a long time but it fired right up! That's the kind of things I like, the kind that start well and run well! I had a weedeater once and it was the "Weedeater" brand. I pulled and pulled on that stupid thing trying to start it. It was such a royal pain! I took it to the shop a couple of times and they adjusted something, but it never got much better. I finally took it over there and traded it in for a new Stilh! That put a change in things! I love this one. It starts easily!! Ah, yes that's more like it!! My husband always says if it doesn't work right to get rid of it. Good advice. He never liked anything that didn't work right and he'd get rid of it fast! I was so glad he was like that! I mean if you can fix something fine, but having to take it back to the shop over and over and over again, and it STILL doesn't work right, then forget it! It's gone!!

My next project that I hope to do this week is stain the fence pictured above. We have a circular driveway and that's 40 feet of fence just for decorative purposes! In the middle is a pole with an old dinner bell on top. That part of metal building you can see on the right side is our neighbor's garage. He ordered one of those hanger metal garages which would be better suited to a farm! I still don't like it but I've kind of gotten used to it now. The house is cedar and he put cedar on the front of the garage, but still it's ugly! Oh well, to each his own!

I guess after that the next chore will be to bring the wood holder on the porch and then fill it with wood. We have an insert that we burn wood in, but we have a heat pump that kicks in if the fire gets low. When DH was able he kept the fire going real well and even during the night. I'm afraid I'm not that diligent! They are saying this year that all winter heating bills will be higher, even electric, so I may have to keep a fire going more. Our house is small and it doesn't take a lot to heat it thankfully! I sometimes wish we had more room but economy wise you can't beat this place!

I guess that's enough ramblings for now! I'm hoping everyone has a great Sunday!

Sky Sculpture

Two Trips in One!

Back when I was a teenager I did some goofy things. Well, actually I have done a lot of goofy things but this one I was telling someone about just recently and brought it back to mind. I'll just stick to this one for today!! My two cousins and I were very close. They were both girls and both a little younger than me. One evening the older one, Brenda, was going to the drive-in with her boyfriend. Her sister, Joy, decided that she and I should go with them but hide in the trunk and sneak in that way so we wouldn't have to pay. She had done this before and said it was no big deal. After some talking I agreed to the plan. We got in the car and left. A few miles before we got to the drive-in her boyfriend pulled the car off a side road and Joy and I got into the trunk. He slammed the trunk down and off we went again. I said, "Gosh it's so dark in here." She said, "Yeah, it's just like being in a coffin." Well, I had thought nothing about any of that stuff before then! I said, "I don't think I like this!" She said, "Oh Rachel, it'll be fine as long as nobody hits us in the ass-end." Well that really did it for me!! I was scared half to death for the rest of the drive thinking someone might hit us in the ass-end and knowing that the gas tank was right under us. I vowed then and there that if the Good Lord would let me live through this that I would never do it again! He kept us from harm and we sneaked in with no hitches. I can't even recall the movie we saw! But that was two trips in the trunk for me -- the first and the last!!

P-Jack and Lady.

Ever since I can remember I have always loved horses. When I was real little we had mules, "Brack" and "Red." I don't recall this but my Mom said that my Dad would put me on the mules when he was logging and I was only about 3 yrs. old. She was so scared that he was going to get me killed! He said there were times the mules would slip on ice and go down on their knees but I hung on to the hanes and never fell off. So perhaps that experience of riding mules so young begat my love of horses? Who knows. When I was older I begged continuously for a pony. We lived out in the country on a big farm. One night my Dad went to the auction and he brought a pony back!! It was around midnight when he got home and he brought that pony right into the house and to the end of my bed!! I flew out of bed and got on the pony's back! (that was his first and only time being inside), he went to the pasture and I went back to bed!!). That was the beginning of a great bond between myself and that pony. I rode every chance I got. It was so much fun to ride among the cattle and pretend that I was a wrangler out just checking on the herd or riding fence! Sometimes my neighbors, who also had ponies, would ride with me. I just thought that was the greatest thing to ride in a group! I took quite a few spills on that pony. His name was P-jack. I wanted to name him "Red" but my Dad got to calling him P-jack and he learned that name! So P-jack it was!! The farm was big and there was 3 graveyards on it. I used to stop and wonder what had happened to the people that was buried there. One was a girl only 16 and I would stop and think about her life and what it might have been like and wondered what happened to her at such a young age.

After I outgrew the pony my Dad got me a horse. She was a beautiful mare and I named her "Lady". She was a strawberry roam. I took lots of spills off her too, but luckily I was never more than just shook up or had the breath knocked out of me. I used to pretend that I was barrel racing and I would use an electric pole in the field as my barrel and go tearing around it. My saddle hung in the barn and the mice/rats had been chewing on the girth. One day when I rounded that pole the girth broke and off I went. I landed on my back with my feet up in the air and I just slid like that for several feet. Lady just stopped and turned around and looked at me as if saying, "Don't blame me!" She was such a good horse and those were such great days. My cousin finally got a horse and we used to ride every day when school was out! I remember once it came up a big storm and we found an old house. We made for that and jerked our saddles off real fast and took them inside so they wouldn't get wet. We waited out the storm there. She and I used to shoe our horses too, the front feet only! We'd ride all day and carry our lunch in our saddlebags and stop for a picnic.

Sometimes you would be riding through a field and a bird would fly up in front of you. (That caused a few spills when I was galloping and the horse shied!). Then when the bird flew up I'd stop and often find her nest with eggs in it. There was one nest I knew exactly where it was. One day my brother and I were riding. He was riding one of the mules. I took him and showed him the nest with the eggs. He immediatly rode the mule round and round over it to smash the nest and eggs, which he did. I got so mad at him and regretted ever showing it to him. I said, "Well, just what would you do if you were the poor bird and you came back and your eggs had all been mashed up?" He thought a minute and he said, "I'd just lay some more!" Needless to say I never showed him anymore after that!!

Boating

I took a walk over the hill to the lake. The water level is really down right now. You can see how low it is in the picture. Even though it's nippy outside, when you're in a houseboat you can still have all the comforts of home and still be on the lake! My husband never cared that much for boating but I think it's fun. We thought seriously about buying a boat a few years ago. A friend of mine, who does have a boat, told me that owning a boat was like having a hole in the water that you just pour your money into! Well, I know it's a luxury but it depends on what kind you have and what you use it for. I know he still seems to use his often enough! During the summer the lake is very busy with all kinds of boats and jet ski's. The houseboats have their music going, and laughter and splashing is the most usual sounds we hear, besides the boat motors! Then you can smell the charcoal as they cook out on the deck! We live close to a marina so there are houseboats that stay moored below us all the time. They never take most of them out at all. They just come to them and have a good time! If you can afford it and enjoy it, it sounds like a plan to me!

Hog killing weather!

This sudden cold snap reminds me of my childhood days when we used to kill a hog in November after it was cold enough to do so. It was not a pleasant chore for me since I hated for Dad to kill anything. But this was the source of much of our food during the winter months. I must admit that the sausage they made was the best stuff you ever put in your mouth! What I wouldn't give for some of that good sausage again today! Nothing you can buy at the store tastes as good as that. It was an all day chore with all the cutting of the meat and wrapping it and putting it in the freezer. The hams were prepared for hanging in the smokehouse to cure. Then the fat was boiled down and rendered into lard. Nothing was wasted in hog killing (except the innards of course). Yes it was time consuming and hard work, but on cold snowy days it tasted mighty good indeed!!

Get out the long handles!!

It's raining now and it's supposed to get down to 33 tonight. That's a bit nippy for me! I guess I'll have to get my long handle underwear out soon and make sure to keep the flap on the back buttoned up!

A relaxing place.

The weather has turned cooler now after the passing of a cold front. It feels good! Here is part of our front porch. It's very relaxing to sit out there with a cup of coffee in the morning, or a glass of ice tea later on!

The Boss

Letting off Steam

I have been feeding some stray kittens at an old barn by the side of the road. One day while coming back from church I saw a kitten by the road going through some fast food garbage someone had tossed out their window (litterbugs). I went straight to the store and got some cat food and took back down there. When I went into the barn and called, "Kitty, kitty, kitty," there was 5 came running to me! Three adults and 2 kittens. They were so hungry! So each day I have been going down to take food and water to them. There is an old house there and the owners are elderly and have moved away into a new house. They have leased out the farm. Anyway, it's isolated enough that at night anyone could easily drop off animals there. Since I've been feeding them 2 have been killed by cars. The barn is only about 50-60 feet from the road. Then one day there was another one there. What I'd call a teenage cat! Then low and behold I go down there and someone had dropped a momma cat with 4 babies! They were all healthy and friendly. Cutiest little kittens you ever saw!! Two were born with no tails and they are all adorable. It just makes me so mad that people don't take care of their animals and get them spayed/neutered. Then when this happens and there are kittens they just take them out and drop them off. Just like that, they wipe their hands of them. I just don't understand people. They shouldn't get pets in the first place if they have no intention of taking care of them.

Well, I just needed to get it off my chest and vent!! I don't understand a whole lot of what people do though. I get mad when I see all the trash people toss out. Why can't they take it home and put it in their own trash? Even tossing out cigarette butts is being a litterbug. Stop at a stop light and be in the turning lane and just look down at all the butts in the median!

Okay, enough ranting and raving for today! I feel better now!

Where is Ralph?

Last summer we had a frog that lived in our garage. He was a fat happy-looking fellow and we got along real well. I named him Ralph for no particular reason. I guess he just looked like a Ralph. At any rate, each time I got ready to move the car I located Ralph and put him in a 5 gallon bucket so I wouldn't run over him. Then after moving the car I'd put him back in the garage. Our garage is kind of rustic and has a gravel floor. One day I couldn't find him anymore and I searched everywhere. I was afraid a snake might have gotten him. Then one day he was back again!! I picked him up and made over him a whole lot and let him know how glad I was to see him. In the fall he disappeared and I haven't seen Ralph since. He did not return this summer. You know, I miss Ralph.

Not too long ago I saw a couple of small frogs out front and I caught one. It immediately peed on my hand. I asked my husband if I would get warts! He didn't have an answer. I had no fear though. I have been peed on by frogs before and never got warts! Frogs are just the cutiest things!

Birthday!

Today is Pup's 7th birthday! He requested a pound of bacon for his very own!! See his mouth is watering just thinking about it! I think instead of the bacon though he'll probably get a plain cheeseburger!! He is such a joy!! Truly man's (and womans) best friend!!

Insomnia again!

I was up again last night after too much coffee yesterday at the family reunion. I should know better by now. I even got a tall cup on the ride home but I didn't drink that much of it. At 4 a.m. though I was in the living room floor doing exercises using the hand weights and the ankle weights. Had a good workout though!! Went back to bed and read for awhile and then drifted back to sleep. Woke up too late to go to church.

It's a lovely day, sunny and bright. Here is a picture I took yesterday on my brother's farm. That is where we had our family reunion!
He has a screened in shelter which has one solid wall. It has a bathroom, stove, refrigerator, and all the amenities! He has picnic tables and plenty of chairs around. It's very comfortable, always has a nice breeze flowing through, a tire swing outside for the kids to play on, trees for climbing, a creek over the hill for little boys to dig out salamanders, find snakes, frogs, and whatever else appeals to little boys curiosities! Yesterday it was a black salamander. He was told to return it to where he got it from and I sure hope (for the salamander's sake) he did!!

Reunion time!

We had a family reunion today. Sure great to see everyone and visit. Amazing how all the great- nieces and nephews have grown!! Then to eat all that delicious food that everyone has prepared. Finding out who is doing what and how things are going. Seems the older I get the more I enjoy reunions. Some of them I only get to see on this yearly get together. Seems everyone is so busy working and raising kids and just generally busy with life that it's hard to visit. Time passes so quickly I think we all need to slow down and visit more often!!

Petunia's

I love petunias. They last a long time and are so pretty!

Learning

I just recently started this blogging and it's a day to day learning process. I sure enjoy reading other people's blogs and I enjoy all the pictures they post of so many different things. Obviously some people are really good at taking photos! This is a picture I took of a birdhouse that sits on our front porch. I just love birdhouses! I thought this one would go good with our log cabin and it does. I cut the top off but it says, "Trout Creek" on the fish sign above it. No bird has moved in yet, so the vacancy sign is still correct!

Raccoon Story

Last night I didn't close the garage door until after dark. (I just push the remote from inside the house). There was a raccoon in there chowing down on birdfeed (unbeknownst to me!), so he got locked in. Around 9 p.m. I heard a crash down there and went to investigate. He had knocked over some tools, shovels, and such and he was up in the rafters over the garage door. He refused to budge. I came back in and waited 2 hours. Went back down and he was still there! I gently poked him with a stick but he refused to leave. I even put a piece of steak on a stick and offered it to him but he was not interested in bargaining with me. I ended up leaving the door open all night. This morning he was gone. The bag of birdseed was scattered all over the place where he had ripped the bag open.

Needless to say from now on I will put the door down earlier!!

Whispering secrets!

Insomnia?

I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep. Mind you, normally I sleep until at least 8:30 or 9:00 a.m., sometimes later! So instead of tossing and turning I decided to get on the treadmill. Now after 2 miles of walking/jogging I am sitting here to cool down. I don't know why it's so hard to get motivated to get on the treadmill, but once you do then you feel good after the workout! Good and sweaty that is!

At least I feel this is more productive than tossing and turning.

Fall leaves.

Leaves are changing and it's pretty. We are in a cold snap now. Well.....not really a cold snap, but I should say "a cooler snap!" Today is definitely a sweater day. Yes, fall is in the air....

This picture I took from the porch just a few minutes ago.

Gloomy Day

Today is overcast and gloomy and fairly chilly compared to what it has been. Feels pretty darn good though! I had to get the sweater out.

Had a gentleman come over this morning to look at our chain link fence. It needs to be moved up the hill some, since part of the hill is giving way and I'm afraid eventually it'll sink down in one area. He gave me a reasonable price to do that and will take care of it next week. This is what happens when you live on the edge of a cliff! The rains come and each time a little more dirt washes over the hill. And so it goes. It's a slow process but I'd rather take care of things before they happen if I can!

We got rain!!!

Well, we did manage to get an inch of much needed rain last night. I sure hope we get some more today. They are saying we will, but sometimes that doesn't always pan out!
Here is a picture of beautiful Lake Cumberland I took a few days ago! I took it from my car. Right now the lake is down quite a bit and will remain so until next spring no doubt.

Hopefully rain is in the air!

It is cloudy today. I sure hope we get some much needed rain. It's been so dry here.

Looks like the stores are gearing up for Halloween and I saw this display and thought it was cute, Halloween and fall like as well.

I was in another store where they were already putting out the Christmas stuff. Sure start early!

The colors of fall.

The leaves are changing colors quickly now, looking quite lovely here along Lake Cumberland. I think the maple leaves are so pretty. Walking along the other day with my dog I picked up several fallen maple leaves and looking at them I thought how pretty that shape and color would be in a quilt. I have seen a maple leaf quilt before and it was absolutely lovely. But then I am a quilt lover, so all quilts are beautiful. Another one that stands out in my mind is the dogwood. Perhaps I should spend more time quilting and less time on the computer?

An Outing

Today was a lovely day, warm and sunny. Fall is here but it doesn't really feel like it yet.

My neighbor and I went to eat at the Harbour Restaurant which overlooks Lee's Ford Marina on Lake Cumberland. I hadn't been there in awhile and it was very enjoyable. You can eat and overlook the marina with all the boats. This time of the year it's not as busy as during the summer months, but still there was a few boats out and about. I'm sure the price of gasoline has also slowed down some folks from boating as much as they normally would.

All in all it was good to get out and enjoy the changing colors of the leaves and have a relaxing meal and good conversation with a friend, all in a lovely setting!

Second day of blogging!

I only started this blog in order to leave a comment on someone elses blog where you had to be a blogger in order to be allowed to post a comment. So blogging I am trying to be. It's all very confusing for me. I certainly don't know what I'd find to write about each day in my dull life! I belong to T.O.P.S. (Take off Pounds Sensibly), which I really enjoy. I want to lose 25 lbs. to be at my goal weight. It's an ongoing battle and I love sweets, so I really need to move my body more! It's a matter of getting motivated. Right now it seems my motivation has left me. Hopefully it'll kick in soon!

Fall is in the air and the leaves are falling. Certainly a lovely time of the year but we know that cold weather follows! Usually our winters here are fairly mild though. Seems when I was a kid we had big snows but now we seldom get them. Maybe it's the global warming thing.

I was talking with my neighbor about the cable service here and how we need another one to give them competition so their rates wouldn't be so high. Then when you call them you stay on the phone FOREVER. You are not allowed to call the local number. You have to call an 800 number and talk to them there. It is so frustrating. She had to call them and she stayed on the phone so long she was able to get so many chores done while waiting, feeding the cats, washing dishes, folding and putting laundry away, getting the mail in and opening it, etc., etc. Yes, VERY frustrating indeed! Certainly tries one's patience!!

A new blog.

Here is my first entry in my new blog.