Sunday morning

  Already Sunday and I don't know that I've got much done lately. A little housework and a little outside work. Maybe a little more today as it's supposed to get to 60*.
  We had more vehicle trouble this week. T went to get hay and took a long time. When he got back (thank the Lord)he told me what happened. As he was leaving the place he noticed a small amount of smoke coming from the front of the truck where the windshield wipers are. You know, the little grill looking thing in between them? It now looks like a real grill. Long story short - had some more smoke and then some flame. Thank goodness there was a fire extinguisher in the truck. We'll be able to look closer at the problem when T is off again. And maybe today I'll air out the truck and get some of the extinguisher chemicals out of the interior. A light dusting every where! If it weren't for bad luck! etc etc

 

  

Here's Aiden and Dahlia riding Buck last summer. They sure had fun. I probably have already posted these but just now got them uploaded to my laptop from the pc. 

 Took this a couple of weeks ago. Some of our wonderful pack enjoying our bed and the sunshine. I have to keep my good blankets covered with that throw to protect them. lol The cats are beginning to think they are dogs too. When the dogs get excited cause someone is here, so do the cats. They want to go out with the dogs and pretty good at coming back in with the dogs. I can't leave them out very long at a time because of the hawks and coyotes but they sure like it (and the sparrows) I can see I will have to put bells on them soon. Next craft project coming up. haha 

  The old roo is still living on the porch. I had him out in the yard again the other day and the youngster took after him again. The next morning I let him back on the porch much worse for the wear so I haven't made him leave the porch again. He's been a good roo and guess I'll just live with him on the porch til he passes. Gonna have to change the name of the place to something about an old "folks" home. Of course the name is Rockin'TNC so it could be taken both ways. haha 

You know....rocking the house! or sitting in a rocking chair. Hardy hardy har! 

  I've still not started Walker's quilt! Good grief. How easily I'm distracted or how slow I am ....not sure which is the case. Maybe today will be the day. Some days by the time I get the "have tos" done I've barely the energy to make my mile walk. Winter sure is tough on my soul. I hate it more every year. 

  Gonna be a diamond day in spite of it all! 

 

Friday the 18th

  OMGoodness! I forgot yesterday was throwaway day! Didn't throw away a dang thing except in the kitchen. I need to do that today otherwise I will get behind. Ha! As if a person could tell just walking through my mess house. My so called library is absolutely trashed thanks to the kittens. They have tried to clean the shelves for me by knocking things off into the floor. At least they haven't killed any houseplants. I've got to go through that room again and thin it out. I'm hoping to get most of the house thinned out by spring so I don't have to worry about anymore. I'm sure I'm repeating myself. Maybe if I say it often enough it will get done.
   My oldest roo has lost his flock to the youngster so he has taken to sleeping under the porch instead of in the hen house. The last few days I've been feeding him separately and the last two I've fed him on my messy back porch with the quail. Well, not exactly with the quail but on the floor next to the crate. He marches up the ramp and into the enclosed porch and has his dinner. The dogs walk right by him and now the cats will. They tried to check him out and he puffed up. They respect that posture and now leave him alone.
  Speaking of the quail, one of them was playing with a cat this a.m....guess we'll never turn them out. haha Wouldn't last long if they're not afraid of predators. Still hoping to have baby quail next spring but not holding breath under these circumstances. Maybe later.
  It's 54* and sunny out there. T is busy in the woods and I'm doing a little house work. We'll have home made pizza for dinner and a nice relaxing evening. Watch a Barret-Jackson auction on tv. Having a diamond day and hope everyone is doing fine.
 
 

Icy morning

  OMGoodness, was it ever cold this a.m. at 3:30 when the alarm went off! There was ice on the ramp out the back door last night so I was concerned about T going to work this a.m.. The good Lord was watching out for us though. T went out to start the car and scrape the ice off the windows etc and there was none! Yay! He didn't even bother to warm up the car.

  Just a light covering.

  Got the ice broke on the water trough. We had to go back to busting ice because the dang trough heater started shocking the horses like the other one did. Guess they're only good for a couple of seasons. How cheesy is that? I guess I'll start saving my pennies and by the time there's only 2 horses left I'll buy one of those frost-free troughs. lol Too many other priorities ahead of that. 

 Not a very good picture but here's my great great grandpa. Taken between 1906 and 1920. James Oliver A. The family story was he ran off to Oklahoma to stay with some woman but according to his son Charles' family he just wanted to stay with them and not be taken back home. His wife, Nancy, was already dead so can't say as I'd blame him. I had been trying to find his grave for several years. I even sent to Oklahoma for his death certificate. They couldn't find one. This past year someone very kindly posted his and one of his son' s pictures online with the cemetery etc on find a grave's website! Too cool! 

Today's "wayback" picture is my brother and sister. Sometime around 1961 or so. Those were good days for me. 

  Had a diamond day.  

  

Saturday 5 a.m.

  Had a really nice day on Friday. Met an old friend in town, did a little shopping and went to lunch.  Came home to a cat with separation anxiety and a 1700 # horse in the old chicken run. How funny is that? Betty stayed there until Tim came home to rescue her. She quietly stepped over the part of the fence he cut open. It was way past time to do something with that fence anyway. Always looking for something to get into. Love that curiosity!

  There's an ice storm coming tonight. Well, I use the term storm lightly as it's not really a storm coming, just a cold front while it is raining, so to speak. As the weather man says,"winter weather advisory".  But.......it only takes about 1/4" of ice on the power lines to take out the electricity.
  I will be cleaning our oil lamps today just in case. Cooking and heat are no problem. Water and light is the only thing we can lose. Need to charge up phone and laptop too. Emergency radio is solar and crank - no worries. During the ice storm a few years back it took 7 days of no power before the National Guard showed up at the front door. Boy, was that ever a surprise! We were fine but running out of water for the horses. We used that water for the toilets. lol Purdy offered free water to folks for their livestock which was wonderful. We had a few barrels to fill so T took them to town and filled them.
  Went and got a few more groceries just now. Locked in the hubs on the truck so it's ready to go in the morning for T. I reminded him that he could use a sick day if he wants to in the morning. Depends on that ice. They are calling for an inch.

  I'll be glad when the cats grow to a size that maybe the hawks will leave alone. They sure do like it outside. It's getting harder to round them up and bring them back in! It's kinda hard to see but that's a red-tail hawk helping himself to one of the chicks last year. There is at least one pair living in the woods behind us. There is also a Prairie falcon hanging out this winter. He is fast and he cruises really low, about 7-8' off the ground and is not bashful at all. Has scared me in the yard a couple of times haha.
  I've been anonymously following several blogs for several years now. Once in awhile I post something and normally just left my name. Recently I started just leaving the rockintnc thing and not changing it to my name. Anyway, I started following sarawolf over at Sally's Country Home a long time ago. I believe I found her at the countryside forum. Her weaving took me there I believe. The blog kept me going back. I posted something after one of her posts and now I find out she lived in Purdy back in the 80's! What a tiny world we live in. It has been proven to me time and again.  We have a Purdy address but can see Butterfield from the front window.
  I just received a book with some of T's genealogy in it from a second cousin of his. She sent me a free copy of her book for helping with some of the research. It's a beautiful hardback one. We actually got to meet them 5-6 years ago when they were in "the neighborhood". They live in Vegas. eww! I just can't imagine living in that place.
  I'm having another diamond day. Hope you all do too.
 

Throw away Thursday

  Today I will throw more than one something away. Maybe a lot of somethings. lol My library is absolutely trashed! My lovely little pride of cats have such a good time in that room. So many things to play with and climb on and so little time! Get a few kittens - they will help you do your spring cleaning and re-arranging.
  Was able to pick up the van from the repair shop yesterday. Yay! So glad to have it back and running correctly. Well, mostly correct. It still has a little odd surge in it but the check engine light is happy, the air conditioner is working correctly and the cruise control is finally working again! It's been out for several years now. T was right. It was in the vacuum stuff. So was the a.c.. The check engine thing was it needed a download from Dodge that was due before we even bought the thing. Fuel for it is much cheaper than diesel. Only problem with the new repair shop - they don't accept credit cards. Who in the world doesn't accept cards these days? Talk about inconvenience. Now we have to find the money out of the paycheck all at once. Dang it, there goes the groceries lol . Pick and choose - rob Peter to pay Paul as they say.
  I checked out my sister's blog this a.m.. well done! I knew you could figure it out and not screw anything up. You're just a scared y cat. Don't believe everything R tells you haha. At least you've never deleted the entire operating system. haha Loved the pictures. It will make it a lot easier to find those pictures after you name and file them. Last time I saw them it was kinda willy nilly. I'll be able to come down south soon and help you out with that but I'm sure Jonathan can help.
  Did I loan you my disc for Kodak? I can't find it and I know I would not throw it out. If you don't have it maybe Lee does.
  It's hours later, the rain has come again and I finally got my cobbler in the oven. Blackberry of course. I'm just two days later than I planned. lol It will still be yummy. Having a diamond day- hope everyone else is too.

Wednesday 5:15 a.m.

  First things first:

 If you look close you can see that this picture was taken on my son's front porch. I used to hang my spider plant on that corner post. My son says that guy hangs out every day along with a chicken hawk. I reminded him this a.m. that one of those birds may decide to have their dog for breakfast and watch out! I love the picture though. How cool is that? 

  I didn't walk yesterday. I will today after T gets up. 

  Don't know how much rain we have and won't know until the sun comes up but it may be quite a bit. Every little bit will help with our ongoing drought. 

  Rant for the day- paying for crappy television! It just galls me that we pay so much for tv and there are so many shows that are just plain crap. I keep thinking about the old "let's dumb them down" thing. Are there honestly intelligent people out there that want to see that stuff? I wish the satellite company would just let us pay in 20 channel packages or something like that. Let us pick the 20 or so channels that WE want and pay x number of dollars for that. Even some of the channels I would pick have some of those crappy shows on them. It's ridiculous! I know it's supposed to be just entertainment but give me a break. 

  I'm already thinking about a garden this year. I actually did a small amount of yard work yesterday while the temperature was over 50* . I'd like to try a few more things this year. Maybe peanuts again. The redheads were puppies and trashed them last time lol . Guess this year it would be cats, if I choose to let them out on their own. Without their barn/wild cat momma would they have enough sense to survive outside? They've been babied by me and I can't teach them outdoor living. Anyway, back to growing a few things. A few things here and there. My sister loves asparagus and I think she should grow some at her place. It's a perennial so why not? And rhubarb too. She loves that too. Me? Nope, don't like either one but if the SHTF it might taste pretty darn good it there's not much else. lol Some tomatoes and corn would be nice. I won't buy either at the stores unless I can tell they are local. I have gone to the farmer's market and picked up some. 

  I received a beautiful book on some of T's genealogy that a distant cousin wrote in 2012. We met them shortly after moving here. They were visiting relatives in Pineville from LasVegas. I helped her with some research and she shared research and pictures her side of the family had. It's a great book, put together nicely. It was a gift. The price of having one published hasn't gone up that much in all these years when you consider it was around $30 for the book Sharon wrote about our line in the 80's and it was about $43 for this new one by a publisher in Utah. A local publisher does small paperbacks for about $20. One day I will have one published with our tree. I'm still waiting on my sister and a good friend to write their novels and share their wealth with me for all the encouragement I've given them over the years! lol 

  Have a diamond day! I'm going to shut up now. 

Tuesday 2 p.m.

  This a.m. about 9, I went back to bed until 11. I was just used up for no apparent reason. Or because I only had 5.5 hrs sleep. I need about 7, would like 8-10 if that was possible. lol It was a beautiful morning. I went out about noon and it was great! Let the cats go with us (me and the dogs) and they all had such a good time. Running and playing together and giving the chickens a bad time. lol I wish the weather would stay this way but I understand it's winter and it will be in the 30's for the highs real soon.
  I've not lost but a pound but I can tell I've lost some fat. Turned into muscle that is. I average a 30 minute walk, 5 days a week for the past 3 months at least. That's just over a mile. Just think how much I'd weigh if I wasn't walking! haha I hoped for extra energy that people talk about after exercising but have not experienced any of that. Insert sad face here.
  Great job on posting the picture! I knew you could do it. I enjoy reading your blog! Keep up the good work.

 Did I ever mention that I gave this peace lily to the dr's office last summer? I just couldn't keep it in the house any longer. I figured at least with it there I could see on occasion. It's behind the desk now - was out front in the center lobby. May have moved it because of the Christmas tree. 

    Tim just sent me a message saying the van was fixed. We can pick it up tomorrow I think. Yay! 

  Just in time too. His car was making a strange noise when he drove up last night and again this morning. As much as I love to drive my truck, it is just a bit expensive to drive these days. 

  Better quit. You all have a diamond day!  

Saturday 4:47 a.m.

  Mornin' world! T just left for a day of OT. George just flopped in my lap to help. They are such a hoot. They are growing so fast.
  The radar is showing a lot of rain/mix out there and the temp is hovering between 31*/32*. I haven't bothered to look out or step out there. I didn't see anything while T was backing out of the garage. Gonna be 45* later today. Yay!
  I don't have a lot in mind for my chore list today but I need to get the regular stuff done. You know, a small load of laundry out of the way, dishes to be done. We'll have left over pizza for dinner and I have some tuna for lunch. Just need to figure out breakfast- oats- done...

 I think I'll get some blackberries from last season out of the freezer and have a cobbler for dinner too. 

  I got my first seed catalog just before Christmas. I sure would like to grow something this year. Just a few things to add to our groceries. Maybe I'll feel better this year and be able to do more. I've resigned myself to the fact that T, no matter where his hearts at, he's not gonna help with a garden. Every year he says he will and every year he doesn't have time. Oh well, if I want it bad enough it will happen. 

 I already have a crop of prickly pear. Sells for $2 a lb at the cheap store. Wonder how many lbs I could harvest out front? lol Last year I got a couple of plums, a couple of tomatoes, some blackberries and that's about it. Isn't that pathetic? The drought heat was a problem. Even my houseplants that were outside hated it. Nothing could produce anything. This is actually the second year in a row we've experienced drought. Dang I hope and pray for a good year. 

  Guess I'd better get around. Got miles to walk haha. Later, 

have a diamond day. I'm going to. 

Friday

  Starting the day nicely. Got up at 5, which means we slept in! Had coffee and already put my walk in. 1.4 mile this a.m.. T walked even walked for a few minutes. Even though yesterday was throw away Thurs. I didn't get anything thrown out. Gotta add that to my list for the day.
  Sure glad the sun is out early. I get more done when it's shining.

 

We're gonna have pizza for lunch and dinner. Or if you prefer, we're having pizza for dinner and supper. My habit is lunch. Anyway, guess I'd better get breakfast out of the way first. Back in awhile. 

  So much for the sunshine helping me get more done around the house. lol Didn't help a bit. Got up to 45* though! Beautiful day. 

  Long story short....we skipped lunch and just finished supper, the last meal of the day. Although today's pizza also had hamburger and onion added. Pretty tasty......

  A nice slow, easy day. Got the floor vacuumed and that was about it for housework other than cooking a couple of times. A diamond kinda day! 

  See the little picture next to the word "link"? That's how you add a picture to your blog, big sister.  If you want to change the font, it's up there too....kind,size, bold, italic, underlined, scratch through. You don't have as many choices as our email program but it will do. Try it, you can always delete it if you don't like it.

It's still morning but not for long. It's a beautiful day although it's only 32*. The sun is a welcome sight. In just a little while I'll bundle up and go do my chores. I walked a mile and a quarter this morning. Yesterday, a mile and a half. I'm determined to walk OVER a mile every time I walk. 

  The cats are on a terror. Running and playing. Poor dogs just try to stay out of the way. 

  Spring cleaning is on my mind. I'm still thinning this place out. Still have throw away Thursday. One day I may be finished. lol I think I have one room done and dang it if I don't think of something else I could live without. I think it would be easier if I could just throw it out but some things need to go to certain people so that kinda slows things down. 

  I also need to get started on Walker's quilt. His birthday is in April! 

  I've almost got this year's calendar done too. Got 7 months done yesterday. A few more and I'll be done with that little project. It's no big deal now that I only make my own instead of 15 of them for family. 

  Genealogy has slowed to a crawl. It happens in spurts. I spend a few days doing nothing but research and then quit for a week or two. Of course that will never be done. 

  Guess I'll post now. It's almost our bedtime and I'm just now getting back here. Had a diamond day! Later

Last day of 2012

  Well, I figured I'd better at least post on the last day of the year. I did better this year than last on the number of posts I think. I'm not going to bother deleting this year. At least not any time soon.
  Between laundry, cooking tater soup and the phone I'm not sure I can get this posted before the new year. lol
  T wasn't feeling so good today so he's resting. Not being able to edit photos on this laptop makes it a pain to post pictures. I hate to have to download on the pc, edit and then download or send them to this one. How silly.
  The past few weeks I've been down. Between the season and the weather I guess. I so wish it was already spring time!
  We got the cats all fixed! Yay! No babies now. You couldn't even tell they had been operated on. That same evening they were running and playing like crazy. Hoping to get the dogs taken care of this year. It's just healthier for them. Well, maybe not Misty as she's too old I think for surgery unless it's mandatory. You know what I mean?
  Jeanne is still having trouble with her feet. I know sometimes it takes months but I hate seeing her in such pain.
  My sister and I went to see our step-mom at the home and went grocery shopping after. Had a quick visit and spent the rest of the day shopping. My dogs were barking when we got home. My feet, not my real dogs.lol I had already walked a mile on the treadmill before she picked me up. Two stores later and then I had to feed the horses again after dark. Dang what a long day but had fun.
  Our "storm" turned into a nice cold rain but it will freeze tonight and make it slick by morning. Although it's already dark and the temp is still at 33*. I wish the horses would stay in the barn but they prefer the woods.
  Well, here it is another day has passed. It is now Jan 1 ! A brand new year, a fresh start for us all. My friend Jan called this evening. Sounded sad but hopeful. Life wears you down after a while , you know what I mean? It was nice to hear from her. We don't talk much these days. Her phone is limited on minutes.
  We had a nice quiet day. A perfect way to start the year. We don't do the "new year's dinner" superstition thing. We had spaghetti for dinner. This morning we had creamed eggs on biscuits. Good stuff. Not real healthy but good anyway.
  Enough rambling. Maybe this year I'll have more to say.