Yee Haw and fun

 So the last time David asked me to go to breakfast in Calvert and run errands we found everything closed because it was a Wednesday. LOL So this time we planned our activities for a Thursday. Our first stop was the Old Calvert Hotel for breakfast. Cute décor and yummy food. David had an omlet and I had waffles.  We want to go back  for a lunch next time. Their hours are 7am - 4pm. The owners are working on opening up the Bed & Breakfast section of the hotel soon. They do have special events periodically in the late afternoon/evening so I'll be following their facebook page.

Outside just to the left of the entrance to the café is a wall of Morning Glory's. So big and pretty.

     

After this we headed to get our vaccine booster and then on to Lampasas's to pick up David new flatbed trailer.  He sold one of the one's we had so he could get a slightly bigger and stronger trail to carry a car.  The one he sold could hold a car but once you drove the car up you could get out because the trailer rails kept you from opening the door... Oops.

On Monday (11/22) the Robertson County Vet came to vaccinate the cows, to tag and steer our younger bulls. Since I'm not able to get around the pasture or corral smoothly because of my knee and probably because I'm a klutz David asked a neighbor's son to come down and help. When we moved up here Pamela found out her Chief Nursing Officer, Amber lived on our lane and her young son was real handy with cattle and other ranching detail. Oh boy was that the truth. Garrett is awesome. He knew exactly when and what to do and was a great help!  Thank God Garrett was here because I could have never had the strength or coordination to operate the head lock. This young man is full of knowledge, hard working and so polite. Can you tell we were totally impressed and grateful for Garrett's help. David said he learned a lot this day and hopes to pick up a few more tips from this young man.

First the cows had some issues getting through the head lock because of their horns.  When they did, you had to be ready to close the head lock to capture them.

I should have gotten a shot of Garrett in action but I didn't. This Bandit our 1 year old bull. He was not happy at all but then what bull would be.

Our Thanksgiving was small this year. It David, Pamela and I. Pamela bought the pies and sent them home with me the day before Thanksgiving so she wouldn't forget them. LOL.  Well David thought it wouldn't hurt to have a piece of the pecan pie since Pamela doesn't like it anyway. LOL I snapped this picture of him and sent it to Pamela. Didn't take her long to call and say he better not eat all the pumpkin. He didn't touch it.

Thanksgiving morning David and I took a ride out into the pasture to check on the cows and our neighbors cows came to the fence line to see what was going on. They are 3 times the size of our Dexter cows and they love Jerry. Jerry goes up to the fence to get their kisses.  They're so nosey. Those big eyes starring at you.

Then there's Ferdinand. He's been playing in the hay bale David just put out but he was curious what we were up too. He even let David pet his nose quickly before turning away.

Our garden has gone nuts producing tomatoes like crazy so I decided to can some salsa. When I was doing the last step of boiling the jars of salsa I noticed salsa in the pot. Didn't know why until I pulled the jars of salsa out to start sealing.  Has anyone else had this happen? The bottom of the jar just broke off cleanly.  

Wednesday (12/1) I got up and drove down to Pamela's to go into Houston for hair appointment.  I hadn't been in to see Brittany in over a year and half. I was just visiting. It was good seeing her and the shop owner Joyce.  Of course I do need to go get my hair spruced up but I do that in Rockdale at the Talk of the Town with Gene these days but I haven't been for a while. 

I stayed the night because the next morning I had to be up at 5am so I could drive Pamela to Houston Intercontinental Airport for her trip to Mexico. We left her house at 6:15am and got to the airport at 8:05am. We had to make one stop for coffee and a Danish for me.  It was hard dropping her off at the airport.  I can't lie I might have teared up.  I'm such a goofball. Anyway she's on her way to Mexico for the wedding of her friend/my adopted niece Hannah to the love of her life Phil.  Maybe she'll let me share some her pictures from her adventures. 

After dropping her off I was going to try and have lunch with a former co-worker but when I called to see if she was available she was sick. Poor Samara. So I started to work my way back home. I called to see if Mom and Joe minded if I came by for a visit but they didn't answer so I stopped at a quilt shop in Montgomery, TX. I saved several yards of fabric from the shop. LOL It was crying for my help..... 

 The Montgomery Quilt Shop is a sweet shop with a sweet owner, Kimberly. If you get a chance you should go check the shop out.  Can't share pictures of the fabric because it's gonna turn into a quilt for someone special.

While shopping I got a call from Joe and said for me to come on by. So I paid for my fabric and headed down the road.

Today was a good day for my Mom. For the moment she seemed to recognize me and her smile was in place. Joe sat and visited for a while but then he went to take care of some business while I talked and teased my Mom.  I pulled up Snapchat and took some pictures. It made her laugh.

Especially this one.  Aren't we cute?  LOL.  I hung out for almost 2 hours. She started getting tired but it was a good visit. 

I said my goodbyes and headed back toward College Station to run a couple of errands and pick up Pamela's pups who were coming to stay at the farm while their furless Mom plays in the sun in Mexico.

When I crossed the railroad tracks on our road the girls started barking. They know when they're almost to the farm. They get to see their Furless Gramps, Lilley, the cows and Jerry.  Yahoo.

Well that's it for this post. I'm all caught up. I'll see what I can get into over the next few days to write about.  Might be a few things coming up.

Until next blog......Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand. Emily Kimbrough

  

Lunch time & other fun times

 

At the beginning of the month I went to Lunch with my friend/neighbor Linda at the Pony Express in Hearne. She asked me if I'd ever had the garlic cheese balls and I said no. OH MY! Those things are dangerously good.  Of course latter my breath smelled of garlic so I didn't worry about vampires. LOL.  Thanks to Linda I know of something new that's bad for me but very yummy.  It was a great lunch. Next time I need to remember to take a picture of us together, not just the food. 

On 11/4 we had our 8th calf. During the time I could never catch a picture up close. It's laying down next to the hay ring in the tall grass. Ferdinand has been a busy boy. 

While trying to catch a picture of Mom and her calf up close Jerry felt he needed some loves. LOL. He is such a mess but very loving when he wants to be.  And he's very photogenetic. 

Pamela came up Sunday 11/6 for Sunday dinner and hang out for a while. After dinner while watching YELLOWSTONE  I pulled out one of my 3 puzzles. We decided one of the 1000 piece puzzles would be our choice of torture. We got all but one piece of the frame done and a few little patches. It was hard to concentrate while watching Yellowstone. So much happening.  

So it's starting to look a little like fall around here. A little. The trees are starting to show some fall colors. all around. 

And our silly garden has started producing more peppers and tomatoes. I was having a hard time picking on the bush pictured here. Can you see why?  That thing is know as a banana spider. Not sure of the scientific name but it huge and it's web is like glue if you walk into it. Yikes. Hate spiders and snakes.

Then on 11/11 we received another calf. That makes 9 calves for 2021. They're so cute. I just want to pet them but that won't happen. The Momma cows and the rest protect the calves completely. 

This calf puts ups back to a herd of 22.

Bri and Sophie came up for a visit.  Bri and Jerry were having a good talk. 

       

On Friday 11/11 Pamela asked me to join her and her neighbor Courtney along with her Mom, Lisa to go to lunch and go to a couple of wineries in Navasota. Of course who am I to say 'no' to my daughter and wine. We had a lot of fun and I enjoyed meeting Courtney's mom Lisa and hanging out with the girls. Our first stop was Wildflyer Mean Company

I got a glass of their Marooned. It's a blueberry and lemon mix mead.  The rest of them got a flight of the different meads they have available then they chose the one they wanted to have a glass of.  

      

  

Next stop was The Threshold Winery. We had to do a tasting here. It was our first time here. Nice people, good wine and nice view. 

Have y'all been seeing this on gas pumps? Cracks me up.

That's it for today.  Hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving!

Until next time....

Fun time with the Kennedy's & more

On 10/23 Saturday evening it was date time with the Other Kennedy's. LOL  We bought tickets to go to Cameron TX for the "Steak, Stein and Wine Festival".  Each ticket was for a steak dinner with sides and dessert. It was very very yummy. The first time David and I went in 2019 we didn't know about the steak dinner thing but enjoyed the craft vendors, music and the wine. This year there weren't as many vendors but we enjoyed the dinner and adult beverages. Hope more vendors come back next year. 

David and John headed to grab a beer and David surprised me with a very yummy and dangerous drink from the 5D Travelin' Tavern. It was a pumpkin spice white Russian.  

The festival had a cute booth set up for a photo with your sweetie or whoever. We all took pictures.

We had a lot fun just hanging out and listening the I think it was the South 77 Band. They were good.

David's car got a boo boo. Something went through rear passenger window and shot out the driver's side window. Wow! We called Safelite to make sure they had the right size window for the 4 runner but... we couldn't get into Bryan for 3 weeks. That's a problem so David got an appointment in Killeen. That's about an hour drive so we spent quality time getting his windows fixed. We dropped it off but wouldn't know until mid-afternoon if they can finish that day or if we have to come back the next.

He told me to look for a quilt shop and he'd take me by but I wasn't in the mood. Figure that one out. Then he suggested we could run to Leggato Winery in Lampasas's but they're closed on Wednesday's. He suggested a couple others but they too were closed on Wednesday's. Striked out. When come get my front windshield fixed we'll go on a Thursday. LOL  Next he had me looking for a couple different stores and get directions so he could find some special screws he needed. After 2 to 3 stops and no luck our tummies were saying feed me.Well he had been hearing about the great burgers at the Andice General Store so off we went. It was about 25 minutes away. Check it out! Yum Yum. Good old fashioned hamburger and fries. Big and juicy..So when I was looking at the map I say the town of Ding Dong and said oh we have to go there. Well there was two ding dongs in the car trying to something that didn't really exist unless it was under the bridge. I was really looking forward taking a picture of the 2 ding dongs in Ding Dong Texas. It's on the map but there's nothing there that we saw. Oh well.Saturday, (10/30) was such a beautiful day. I had a book club meeting to go to in LaPorte Texas. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive to Brenda & Cliff's home. They were great hosts. The girl next to me drove just about as far. We're both retired and live in the country.  The girl standing next to her will be in the country next year with a good drive to. But who cares, the weather was great, the company was awesome and food was down right tasty too. The girl sitting in front of me is Brenda. Our Book club has 20 members but we were the only ones who were able to make. This crew is part of the original members from 1997. And the gal in the middle standing next to me is Jan. She's the one who started the group.  We have a lot of fun and we've read some really great and some lousy books in the last 24 1/2 years. On my way home from the meeting I texted a former co-worker Samara and asked where she was and if she wasn't busy I'd swing by and give her a hug.  Some how Siri got that messed with a previous message I had sent to my husband and sent him the one for her.  I'm sure when he read it he was wondering who I was going to be hugging. LOL I texted him first to say Oops that was for Samara and then texted her. We ended up meeting in the HEB parking lot off 290. I couldn't stay long and she was heading to the store anyway.  With Covid and everything I haven't seen her in a long time except on Snapchat and FB.  It good to see the real girl and get a hug.  She always kept me laughing at work.  I love when she takes the picture because her phone always makes me look so young. 😍                                                            My next stop was Pamela's back in Bryan before going home. Crazy girl picked up an extra 4 hours and wasn't getting off until 11pm so I had to stop to let her girls out to go potty and feed them. The grand floofs were happy to see their furless Grammy.Sunday, the next day Pamela and I drove to my Mom and Joe's for a visit. Didn't get any pictures at the visit. It wasn't a good day for Mom. Hopefully when we go back she'll be having a better day. It's hard to see her struggle to engage with us or recognize us. Missed her smile that day.When Joe walked us out to the car to get the gate we were standing there talking and I kept hearing a pecking sound. I looked up to see this little guy just hammering away on the tree.

I go to a quilt bee in Cameron with the Rockdale Sassy Stitchers. Love that name. Anyway I have to share this picture of Carolyn (red shirt) with her stash buster quilt top. Wow! It's awesome and it's made with fabric scraps from other projects.  

 I'm not sure I could do that. That is like one inch squares. It's gorgeous but oh all that sewing...Another quilt is from my from Kim who goes on retreats with me. I shared pictures of her incomplete quilt top from retreat... Well it's finished now and it turned out beautiful.She took pictures that her brother took which are also awesome and printed them on fabric to make this quilt. She gave the quilt to him recently for his birthday. He loved it of course. The quilting looks great and her fabric choices really worked with the pictures.  I think our friend Bekki with Busy Bee did the quilting. If I'm wrong I'll correct myself later. Correction it was quilted by a lady in Rosebud, TX.

 

Just an awesome job all the way... 

Well that's it for now  

Until next blog post..“A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles.”