This 'N That...

Oh JOY!  We've been having scattered showers for the last few days, and let me tell you - right here near the middle of July, it's been WONDERFUL!!!  Thank you, Lord!  After last year's drought conditions and 100+ temps for 2 months, it's been such a blessing!  It's been a bit cooler the last few days, too...

I love in the afternoons and evenings to see these big thunderheads building up - they are so beautiful!

The evening sky last night was so pretty after the rain!

This was our sunset!

Boy howdy, are y'all in for a real treat.  Not only do I have a video of my chickens but you get to hear my East Texas accent!  You think Arkansans are bad, just wait til you hear this (sorry, Arkansas)!  We had divested the tomato plants of some horn-worms awhile back and one of my Black Stars had swindled it away from the other chickens...  (besides, everybody else does little videos of their chickens so why can't I?)  Just a little over a minute - that's all, can you stand it for a little over a minute?  I watched this first and though, "eh, it's not so interesting," til I got to nearly the end and heard myself talking.  Then I thought, "WHOA - my peeps might like a good laugh!"

Ooooweeee!  Is that accent bad or what!  I hate to hear myself on audio!  (scratching my foot - fire ant bites...)  Don't these chicks have a nice place to live?  Dad did such a good job on my coop and run!

Josh has missed his chihuahua, Bug!  He loves this little pooch.  Lindsey just shakes her head.  But she's got a kitty-cat, Alice, that she is crazy about so I guess they're even (remember Alice? She used to live here with me...).  Bug was so glad to see Josh, too!  I was really hoping that nothing would happen to her before they got home from New Zealand.  She's about 13 now and is having problems getting around.  

Bug was so excited to see Josh, too!

Well, y'all have a great Thursday - I've got some more tomatoes to process into spaghetti sauce today, and a few more pickles to make before the cucumbers turn to mush.  Take it easy on yourself!  Sending you all a BIG HUG from BUG!

I'm Still Alive Here at Sand Flat Farm!

Ummmm, okay ..... let's see, where were we?  .......

Oh yes, before I get any further, let me share this lovely giveaway with you from Christy at Artisan Farmstead Living!  She's having a giveaway of a lb. of her luscious laundry soap that she makes herself with goat milk soap and I'm REALLLLLY hoping to win!  If not, guess I'll have to buy some...  Pop over there and see her neat blog where she makes all things homestead-style!  Tell her I sent you!  I just found her today doing some blog-hopping!

Thanksgiving?  Check!  Had a great time with all the family? Check!  Ate WAY too much?  Check!  Talked to our Kiwi Kids?  Check!  Did some skyping, too!  Made plans for Christmas holidays?  Check!  Family agreed to draw names for gifts?  Check!  Been trying to get everybody to agree on that for years!  Did some target practice with the kids?  Check!  Even my mama got in on that!  Pictures to follow...

And my mama is serious - don't mess with mama! My brother is lookin' on and Daddy is coverin' up his ears...

My brother discussing the merits of his arsenal...

Anybody around my area need a purty calico kitty?  Lucy is staying with us until I find her another home.  She belonged to Josh and Lindsey, and since they couldn't take her to NZ, I'm looking for a new home.  I already have a sinus infection and severe allergies due to her being at my house.  She's always been an inside cat, so I hate to just put her outside.  She'd freak.  It's taken her two weeks to settle down and feel comfortable here.  She's already spayed and had shots.  Got any takers?  She's free to a good home!  WITH all her stuff!  I'll even bring her to you if don't live too far away! 

Thought I'd show you a fine specimen of canine-ity - our farmdog, Gypsy, is surveying the grounds (actually she is sitting on top of the berm that the boys shoved up with the tractor to use as a backdrop to shoot against).  Little did Gypsy know that soon,  gunfire would commence and she'd be hightailin' it back to the barn...  But I'll swan! - lawsy-mercy... she  did look mighty fine settin' up there for a few short minutes...

She's turning out to be a great dog so far - she's been here about a month now.  She's very smart - I can show her how to do something once or twice and she's got it!  We're thinking mostly Aussie with some border collie in her, too, for good measure.  She loves to play with the young tan outside cat - he who hath no name yet.  Young Tan Outside Cat, herein after referred to as YTOC either is stupid and has no escape skills, or he truly likes being played with by Gyp.  I've seen several times Gyp carrying him around the yard like a ragdoll and she traps him with her front paws.  I thought that she might bite him too hard, but I guess she's being very careful and hopefully has a very soft mouth.  He seems healthy and active and playful, and I let him in ONLY to eat so Gyp won't bug him. He comes in, eats, and then warts the tar out of Lucy. They fight and squall and chase each other all over the house.   I sure hope he makes it.  YTOC's been here two months and is getting big.  I don't know why he doesn't just take a whack at Gypsy's nose with his paw and set her straight...  I told him to many times, but as of yet, he hasn't done anything about it.

And Gypsy loves me.  I'm her person.  Makes me feel good.  She whines for me to hold her and pet her and scratch her.  She just wants me to love on her.  And I do.  What is it about dogs that we love them and they love us so unconditionally?  Why does their love make us feel so good?  Where is this post going?

Hope to get my Christmas tree up this week.  I have no earthly idea as to the whereabouts of my Christmas decorations.  I sold a bunch of them that were getting dog-eared when we moved, threw another bunch away and packed up the rest, and I don't know where it is.  Good excuse to get a few new things, eh? Only thing is, with one cat and sometimes two in the house, how in tarnation am I going to keep my Christmas tree and decorations intact?  Can you tell me that?  I think this year I'm going to go down to the woods and cut some evergreen limbs and such and do some natural decorating. I'm still thinking on that wreath that Vee did that I love SO much - the square one. So simple, yet so natural and I just LOVE natural!

Anyway, I'm really tightening my purse strings this year and am looking to find ways to decorate on the cheap, and natural elements are to be had everywhere.

We've covered lotsa territory this evenin', so I guess I'm outa here til next time.  Will try to post more often - Holidays are so busy!

Keep yore dress down!

Meet the New Farm Pooch~~~

Meet the new Farm Pooch.  Her name is..... drumroll please.....

We don't know yet!!!  She's a border collie mix, an outside doggie (you see where she is don't you?), and I hope she works out and stays here.  I found her on craigslist actually.  I've been looking for awhile for just the right thing and I think she's IT.  Since we're in the country, she'll be loose. Hopefully, she'll help deter coyotes and maybe they won't eat our cat!

Well, this is a short and sweet post - it's midnite - just wanted to say hi - check ya later!

Stuff

Hey guess what???

IT'S RAINING RIGHT NOW!

We awoke to thunder this morning and a nice steady rain has been falling off and on from the sky for the last couple of hours.  I love it - unfortunately I'm at work, but it's dark outside and cozy inside, and I sure could use a nap.  I knew it was going to rain - sinus headaches the last couple of days. Higher humidity...  Think I'll lay my head down on my desk for awhile...

Just kiddin...  Thank ya, Lord, for the rain.  We've needed it so bad, and it'll take alot to get back caught up again, but I'm thankful for every single drop.  'Course, it's been so long since we've had any rain, couldn't find an umbrella anywhere at all this morning.  But I really didn't care!

NOTE:  Sand + rain = gopher trapping! Stay tuned for that!

Josh, my middle son, went up to Nashville to visit his big brother, Adam, awhile back and they sent me some photos.  They went trekking through a wood - some big state park or something.  They found a baby squirrel that wouldn't leave them alone.  They took some pictures and then placed it back in the tree where they found it.  I think it wanted to go with them.  Don't know where the mama squirrel was.  I hope she knew where her youngster was.

Is that not the cutest thing you've ever seen?  I had a pet squirrel when I was a kid.  Dad found it one day while hunting.  It had fallen out of its nest and I believe he told me it was way up in the tree and part of its tail had broken off or been eaten off.  He brought it home to us and we named him Shorty.  He stayed til he was grown - Dad made him a huge cage.  We fed him milk with a doll bottle and veggies and nuts and whatever else we thought he might like.  We left the cage door open more and more and he would climb all over the outside.  Daddy said he'd leave someday, and sure enough he did.  I guess nowadays you'd call us "wildlife rehabbers".  I've probably told that story before...In fact, I know I have!

NEW TOPIC...

Can you believe that Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here before we know it???  I'm really looking forward to the family being together AND of course all the wonderful things that we'll be eating!  Something about family, friends and holidays calls for lots of yummy delicious traditional and non-traditional FOOD! 

How are we going to keep our girlish figures?   Now, when thinking about watching our weight during the holidays this year - let's do what genteel ladies in the past used to do.....

I mean, they're easy to swallow and you suffer no ill effects!  How much easier could it be???  AND they're sanitized!  Why hasn't anybody thought of this recently? 

And keep yore dress down...

What Should I Name This Post?

WE INTERRUPT THIS BROADCAST TO BRING YOU THE FOLLOWING: 

(caution - not for the faint of heart or those prone to losing the contents of one's stomach... cover your children's eyes...)

If the guys on the movie "The Great Escape" had had a few of these guys, they would've made it out of the stalag with bells on.  This'un here is one of the biggest I've caught yet.  You could almost made a nice size coin purse out of him.... hmmmm....

SHOUT OUT to Kathy at Spot on Cedar Pond - Kathy, I've killed 4 gophers in the last two weeks.  When it rains (as it did a couple of weeks ago) the gophers have to do major renovations and excavations to their burrows.  It's been a long time since our last rain last spring.  It's been a long dry spell for gopher huntin'.

SOOOO,  check on my sidebar for my gopher count.  End of the year we'll tally up and see who wins our contest for this year!  No matter who wins I've got something up  my sleeve to send to Kathy!!!  Thanks Kathy, for joining in this fun game!

My daughter sent me a picture of her and her mutt.  Remi was a rescue from the Animal Shelter and he's been THE BEST DOG she could ask for.  He is so protective of her, he's sweet, and he stands guard over his owner without fail.  Half/Lab and half/birddog.  She lets him sleep on her bed, and I think I don't have to worry about somebody trying to slip in.  He uses his big dog bad bark when he hears something strange outside, but he's not a yapper.

Below is what's left of our pond.  Sad.  It was full up to the rim early this year.  If there were any fishies in it, they've been toast for awhile.  I don't know where all the turtles went.  There were tons of turtles in there.... All the brown you see are dead trees... It's a good thing we didn't have any livestock this year.  We'd be out looking for old bathtubs or stock tanks to pump water to them.

For comparison, here's a photo of what it normally looks like...

That's old Jake out there swimming... may he rest in peace.  My husband bought him a granite headstone to put over Jake's gravesite.  Wasn't that sweet?   He was a great dog...

What's going on in  YOUR neck ' o ' the woods?

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month & Other Palaverin'...

I'm sure most of you know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - GO GET YOUR MAMMOGRAMS and do your self-exams!!!  Do everything you can for yourself and your beloved family and friends to stay on top of technology and ways that we can help beat this disease. 

Seen this bumper sticker?  I've been seein' it around my hometown quite a bit lately.  A little chauvinistic, but you get the message.  I happen to love it!  A serious issue to be sure, but hey, whatever gets the message across! You know men can relate to this bumper sticker alot more than one that has the word "breast" on it - they can hardly even say the word!  much less warn the female members of their families.

On a more serious note, a good friend of mine here just had a double mastectomy last Friday, October 1.  She has breast cancer in her family, and they found a very small spot on one of her breasts.  She decided to make the ultimate sacrifice of losing both breasts in order to forestall any recurrence later on (Lord willing). What a tough choice to have to make - I know she was thinking of her husband and 4 kids as she made this decision.  Please keep my friend, Wanda, in your prayers...  thank you.

Now, on to other Palaverin'.....

My son's kitty, Lucy, loves to watch TV.  She prefers FOX news and Family Guy (which I detest - it's so crass) but she does this quite often.  Isn't she pretty?  My chihuahua, Bug, is staying at my son's house while we get the house re-vamped a little.  Bug has always hated other dogs, but she loves Lucy.  They play together, they eat together, they sleep together.  It's amazing.  They run and jump and mock-fight. Of course, Lucy has sharp toenails and sometimes we hear a yelp from Bug when the action gets a little too rough.  But it hasn't stopped Bug from snuggling up with Lucy on a blanket on the couch. 

You know how on a slick coated dog, if they get a little tuft of hair sticking up from the rest - if you pull on it, it comes out and usually has a little bitty scab attached?  Well, sometimes we find those on Bug - results from these two scuffling, I'm sure.  (was that gross? was it? I wasn't trying to be - just seein' if ya'll noticed stuff like that...)

Here's a few random Autumn scenes - paintings I have done in the past. The first one is a watercolor (under glass) of an old red barn in our area.  This is actually how it looked in Autumn.  I took some pictures of it several years ago, painted it a few years later, drove by the area a few months ago, and couldn't find it at all.  Don't know if it's been torn down or things just grew up around it.  It's sad to me to see the old things just fade away never to be seen or remembered again...

Below is a terrible photo of a plein-air 8x10 piece I did whilst in the company of some of my art friends.  We went out on a 40 degree day with the wind whipping around and we had very pink cheeks and noses, gloves on which made it very hard to paint, the oil paints were not moving around very well, and my eyes and nose were watering so badly, I just gave up and let 'em run.  But I got my painting done. Another old barn with a squeeze chute.  I love old barns...and other old structures out in the country...  sorry for the picture quality...

 

I also love back lighting from the sun or other light source. See below.  Late afternoon looking not quite into the sun and the trees were just starting to get some good color.  I love painting outside.  Sometimes I bring my 8x10 studies into the studio and then do a large painting of them.  I have 4 wonderful friends that I paint with.  We are all so different in the way we paint, the way we were brought up, the ways we believe, etc.  But one thing holds us together and makes us good friends - painting is our muse.  We "understand" each other.  We respect each other and our differences, and we love each other in spite of everything else. Painting/Art - seeing it, smelling it, touching it, breathing it in, absorbing ourselves in it.  We have to do it ---   or die.

I can't wait til 2-3 more weeks.  I've been working here for the last 8 years. I'm so ready to get back outside on a more regular basis and paint with my buddies.  I've hired another lady to work part-time.  (that's why I have been MIA here lately - along with all the other stuff going on in my life right now.) We are extending our business hours from 8-5 Mon-Sat. I will work Mon-Wed. and she is working Thurs - Sat.  My art gang is chomping at the bit for us all to get out and paint together, ALL of us, again like it used to be. They've missed me - it's good to be missed.  I've done a little painting these last 8 years, but not like I was before.  I'm hitting the road again, the hiways and byways, the parks, the countryside, wherever my muse stirs my soul.  I hope to start a painting blog when I get rolling again.  Wish me luck!

Enjoy this short Autumn season! and as always - Keep your dress down!

THE "RAT"

For the next coupla weeks, I'm Rat-sitting.  No, no, no - it has nothing to do with my gopher count, which by the way is up to 15 - did you notice?  Five more and I get a black belt in gopher kwan do.  No, my dears, I mean THIS RAT -

This little Rat belongs to my daughter, Princess.  Princess is taking finals this week and next week, and I was  finnagled into rat-sitting for the duration.  Princess called me yesterday when she went back to college and said she really slept well, and it was quiet.  The RAT likes to bark, and loves to play with her "mommy" there at college. "Mommy" is usually busy, so Rat gets into stuff and does really mischievious things to get attention.  Here's the RAT in her fairy princess outfit for Halloween. OOOOO!  Isn't she scarey???

The Rat is a merle Pomeranian and her real name is Bella, but she's such a pill and she reminds me of a little grey rat, hence, I call her Rat.  It's actually kind of stuck. (don't think Princess likes that name tho...)

Here's a saucy grin. You can tell she's just plotting some kind of sneaky activity "Oh what can I do next!!!"

It's like having a little bitty powerful cyclone in the house. And you can bet there's a trail of destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Rat!

She generally wears this cheeky expression most of the time.  She has a game called Gladiator Dog & has a couple of stuffed animals that she slings around in the air and growls like a big dog! I'm sure she's thinking she's ripping their bellies open and their guts are spilling out all over the floor. She loves the applause and the standing ovation.  She likes to use them as pillows.  She likes her chewy bones, and she LOVES to torment our chihuahua, Bug. 

Bug likes to lay on the couch and Rat comes up to the edge and just looks at her and wags her tail.  Bug's lips curl back, the ears go back, and the growling and barking start.  Rat takes off through the house with Bug in high pursuit.  Then she'll turn and face Bug, and they start mock-fighting and biting and growling and Bug's hair is standing up on her back. Tony and I yell for peace and quiet.  We usually have to separate these two because the Rat won't leave Bug alone for one minute.

Here're some shots of Rat in the pasture on the farm this past weekend.  She's very cute isn't she?  Kinda reminds me of one of those big fat spotted ticks.  She DID look like a fat hairy tick when she was a puppy.

Monday night when I was giving Tony a haircut, Rat found and destroyed into a million zillion pieces Tony's headphones for his computer.  Just like a child, if we hear (rather don't hear) her get quiet, you can pretty much bet she's into something. Worse than a two-year-old.  She loves to get into people's dirty laundry - socks, underwear, t-shirts, kleenexes, toilet paper, Q-tips, trash, you name it.  She eats everything she can get in her mouth - paper, pens, pencils, combs, coins, paper plates, Coke boxes, etc. If we were to do an X-ray of her stomach, no tellin' what we'd find.

Rat has some power struggle issues as to who is in charge.  Oh she minds me - she knows I'm an alpha female. I've had enough dogs to know how to get my bluff in early. The Rat thinks Princess is her litter mate, therefore, the Rat thinks SHE's in charge of their relationship.  Maybe it'll do her some good to stay with me for a while?  Princess is going to have to take charge.

Here she is in her Christmas finery.  Amazingly, she's left her elf collar on and hasn't bothered it.  I'm actually quite pleased with how she's avoided ruining the new Christmas tree up to now. But it's only been 3 days.  I think she just hasn't noticed it yet OR that there are some balls hanging within her reach. Hope I haven't spoken too soon!  Bite my tongue!

Princess informed me this weekend that when she gets into nursing school next fall, guess where Rat needs to stay so she can devote 24-7 to her studies?