Thursday, May 27, 2021

More Visitors & Fun

Had more fun visitors! My niece Shelby is on a nursing assignment in Houston until July so she and her boyfriend Adam came to the farm.  They drove to Pamela's Friday night and hung out then they all came to the farm.  Of course Jerry was ready for a new visitor or two.   Jerry loves having visitors and it's even better if he gets a couple of carrots. LOL

The girls decided to stay on the porch. That's Bri laying down which is very unusual. She's always ready to bark at Jerry but she was tired. Lilley didn't want to get her paws wet since it had rained earlier. Sophie was in the yard with us.



Gotta love this girl. She's such a nut. Our first stop was for lunch in Calvert at the Wonky Donkey. It's a pizza place that opened since we moved to the farm. It was really good. Pamela had fun with Shelby and Adam and so did we. 



After getting our tummies full we walked across the street to En Gedi Winery where we found yummy wine to drink. The owners are really nice so it's always a great place to visit.    After the kids did a tasting we all had a glass of wine. While inside the rain came down really hard. Some of the streets were even flooded by the time the rain stopped but luckily the street we parked on wasn't flooded.  
From here we headed to Taylor to the Texas Beer Co. Adam drank some wine but he likes beer better so we had to give him to enjoy too. Well he did enjoy the wine but he likes beer. They have all kinds of beers and ciders.

It was getting late and I needed to get home to cook dinner if we all wanted to eat. While I was cooking baked penne pasta Adam and Shelby pulled the cover off the pool table.  Shelby was the winner. 3 out 5 games I believe. She gave her Momma the credit for pool playing ability. Are you reading this Nancy? LOL
   

 Sunday we got up and hung out at the house until lunch time. My original plan was to take them to the 4C Brew Barn for lunch and a beer but it was raining..Again. Uggh  We gave them a choice what they wanted because there was an opening on the covered porch to eat but they voted for Mexican food. So we drove on down the road to Cameron to have Mexican food at El Charro. We really like the food there and everyone else left with happy and full tummies.
Now we went back to the house and just hung out and took a couple of pictures. Well Shelby took a picture. I did something wrong when trying to use my selfie stick and none of the pictures turned out. So this picture that Shelby took is the only one that turned out.

We had a great visit. Hopefully we can all get together again before she goes on her next assignment. It had been about 4 years since we'd seen her. So it was good visit!
After PT this past week I got a present in the mail. Big surprise.. it wasn't a special occasion.  But wow check out this beautiful shawl. My cousin Gayle made it for me. She is very talented. 
I just love the colors.  And while Gayle and her sister, Lisa were cleaning out their parents things they found several Bibles and they thought I might like this Bible. Their parents, my Aunt and Uncle passed within weeks of each other the first of the year. 
They think my Mom gave this Bible to my Uncle her brother and thought I should have it.
Both gifts are really special. Can't think Gayle and Lisa for their kindness.


So another busy week and I'm thinking I've wore out my friend Shirley. Hope she ate her Wheaties. LOL. She always tells me she's wore out after reading about my blog adventures. 

That's it for now..
Until next blog...A family is pieced together with hope and faith.


Friday, May 21, 2021

A Little creativity and Friend time

I finally made my first log cabin quilt with Bonnie and Camille fabric. Love red and teal together.  I gave it to Pamela to give to her nursing friend Amanda who is having a baby girl.  She has 2 boys and now she's getting her girl. Hope her baby girl becomes her best friend like Pamela has become mine. Amanda's boys love Pamela. I think Pamela loves them back. I love my embroidery machine. I can now make my quilt labels and them not fade away.
      
My good friend Donna at Donna's Lavender Nest did the quilting for me. She always does a beautiful job on whatever I have her quilt for me. I had a fun taking pictures of the quilt. My knee was cooperating with me so I moved around a little easier. I had just finished PT so that helped.  Sometimes I can never decide which setting I like best to show off the quilt. It looks like the little girl is showing the old man the quilt.  This last picture shows off the quilt the best.
Yahoo our fan is working. LOL. Okay I know this is a crazy video to post but the fan has been down for almost a year. David had started trying to fix and ordered a part only to have it trashed by Jerry our donkey. Our front gate was closed so the UPS or Fed-X truck dropped the box over the gate. Jerry found the box before we did and chewed up the box along with the part. Well okay not so much the part but he probably stomped on it. The part didn't work. Now, was it because of the donkey or was it just not the right part who knows. Then David called the manufacturer for some help but work got in the way until now. He did some more magic and Thursday he put the fan back together and with fingers crossed turned the fan on..... And it works. These fans move a lot of air.
Friday (5/14) our friends Pam and Kevin came in from Austin to stay with us. Our first visit since before COVID hit.  It was great. David and Kevin drove in to Rockdale to get some BBQ from Brett's BBQ. Very yummy. We decided to go out to check out the blackberry patch in the pasture. David decided to wear some gloves while picking but Kevin was was brave one and did it bare handed. He also got pricked several times.
Pam and I stayed in the golf cart. LOL. Jerry guarded us. He was hoping we still had some carrots for him. Anyway We found a couple new cactus growing near by with bright yellow flowers.
  


So far the cactus by the front gate look pretty frozen. David was thinking of pulling them up anyway.
We had Pam all turned around when we driving on the back roads and showing them the country sights. We hung out on the back patio until time for dinner. We took them to Central Avenue Bistro in Cameron. It was a beautiful night to sit on their outdoor patio for dinner. David had the yummy roasted red pepper salmon, Kevin order the pulled pork nachos, Pam and I got the shrimp dinner. Food was great and so was the service.
Saturday we got up and went to the New Baden General Store for Breakfast. Love living in the country. When we got there there was only a few folks in the wide open space of dining area. No problem social distancing. After breakfast we drove to Calvert for the farmers market only it didn't have many participants yet. May be a little early for much produce availability. 

David bought me some ground coffee at the Farmers to Market Calvert Coffee Co.  It's pretty tasty. Now I drink it cold with a creamer but I'm sure if I were a hot coffee drinker it would be good too.  
We walked from one end of town to the other.
And the best part is my knee allowed it. It was tired and it tried to give out a couple time on the uneven cobblestone sidewalks but no pain. Yay. We did stop at En Gedi Winery in town. We all got a glass of wine before leaving Calvert. We drove down another back road to get back to Gause and down 2095 to go to 4C Brew Barn. It was late enough to order a bite of lunch so we had a pizza. David and I got the one with everything and Pam & Kevin got one with ...mmm I forgot but it was just the right size to share. 4C makes their own craft beer and David and the others chose their flavor and I got a frozen strawberry daiquiri. mmm so good. 
And yes it's frozen and yes it's different than  the frozen margarita that I drank when I went into Afib back in October. LOL how is that you ask? Well it's all in my mind really. I associate the frozen margarita with my Afib. It's like a former friend of mine that was eating a Clark candy bar and went into labor. She hasn't eaten one since. It's psychological. 
While looking for my selfie stick to take a picture of all of us, I snapped this picture in my sewing room testing it out. 


I handed the selfie stick to David to hold while I snapped the picture of all of us.  He was such a mess. He held the phone up above us and the phone only saw sky then the ground. Finally I got him to find us on the screen.  I do believe he did that on purpose. We were all definitely laughing for this picture. Then my Apple watch died so I had to reach out to hit the camera button on the phone instead of on my watch.  Go figure.
Lilley didn't want to be left out and neither did Jerry.
David mowed all the yard except this patch of wild flowers by the hay bales.
David had bought a couple of peach trees before the snow and they were still in pots and they survived. In fact they have some peaches growing. I hope that when he plants them they don't go into shock and die. You may have to look hard but the peach is slightly lighter than the leaves. Can you find them? There's at least 3 of them visible.  Check out the wild lilies we saw on the side of the road just down from us. I don't think anyone planted them on the fence line anyway but then maybe.  They're pretty. Love the country.  
Welp that's it for now. 

Until next blog...It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


Monday, May 17, 2021

Love and Fun is in the Air

David's little sister Glenda watched her youngest son get married to the love of his life... Congratulations Kevin and Alyssa. Even the pups got involved. Don't you love the backdrop? It's their back yard. They had a small intimate wedding.  Wishing them the very best. 
Then 10 days later she watched her oldest son Phillip married the love of his life, Jessica. May they always be as happy in the future as they are on the day of their wedding. Congratulations Phillip and Jessica.  Now that's a lot of Love in One Family.  I did ask the girls if I could share their beautiful pictures and their happiness.
On April 29th Pamela rode with me to go to my Knee procedure follow up and before we went we met up with my former co-worker/friend Samara. for lunch. It was so good to see her. I haven't seen her in over 16 months.  Covid has kept family and friends apart for way too long. 
On April 30th we received our first calf of 2021.   #4 Betty is a good Mommy. Her baby keeps her on her toes. It keeps bouncing around and she just wants it to stay close by.  They were at the bottom of the property so I couldn't get a good picture.




The next day it had been raining and when we walked out to start grilling we saw the rainbow. Don't you love rainbows. 

On Cinco de Mayo I went to PT like usual but dropped off the pups first at the groomers. It's so funny it must be hard work getting beautiful because they'll always so tired. Lilley was the first one at the end of the day to be put in the car. Next came Bri. She is the most energetic and rarely shows signs of being tired. Then came the pillow Princess
Sophie is just happy to be back with her furless Mom Pamela and everyone else. Look at that sweet face.









On our way to Pamela's David texted that we should have some Mexican Food for Cinco de Mayo. Being silly he said I could pick up some Tacos from Jack in the Box. 
But his next text had a better suggestion and said we could go to El Charro in Cameron. Pamela wanted to go too. She followed me down the road to the farm. From there we went to El Charro. This is one of those stories where you had to be there to laugh. Pamela and David had Margaritas. Pamela went for a strawberry one.






After PT on Friday the 7th I went to get my nails down. I picked one of my favorite nail colors. When I got home David tells me my names match my new crocs... I thought nay but yep they do. LOL

David and I decided it was a good afternoon to hang out on the patio.
The pink flower are in the water tank now planter. The cold weather didn't hurt them at all. In fact they are full and vibrant.  



















For Mother's Day David and Pamela took me to lunch at Messina Hof Winery. The Vintage House Restaurant. We actually went on Saturday to avoid the crowd. We had heard good and bad reviews. We already knew we liked the wine and now we can say we liked the food.. 


I had shrimp scampi, David had chicken parmesan, and Pamela had Gorgonzola steak pasta.. No complainants from us. The service was great too. David finished the chicken before I got a picture and Pamela had already tore into hers too.
Okay so we posed for our picture but David tried to not smile.

More good news this month. My nephew Zachariah and Bailey Jo in Missouri are expecting another boy. Then we found out our nephew Zachariah and Jordan are also expecting another boy. Boys everywhere. LOL
An on May 10th we received calf #2. Her Momma Ginger took a while to recover. It's her first calf. Now she has to get her out of the water.
This is a closer up picture of Betty and her calf born on April 30th.  We have at least 2 if not 3 cows that are looking kind of pregnant. Our herd is growing..... These 2 make 19. We really need to get rid of some Especially if we have any more babies arrive this year.  These little ones are so fun to watch now that they are up and bouncing around.
Well that's it for now.
Until next blog.....There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved