Bok! Bok! Cockle Doodle DOOOOooo!

Not time to wake up yet, but it is time to go to sleep!

Just a quick note to say I haven't forgot the blog.  My days are all messed up and I just realized my Friday blog didn't get posted.  We have been blessedly busy enjoying being 'home'!  We went with punkin' to her horse lessons on Friday: 

She is doing pretty darned good if I say so myself!

Today we went to Laurel Valley in Thibodaux.  I got some great pictures there, but it is too late to share tonight.  So, I just grabbed a few of the chickens (they have a little farm there) and am tossing them into the blog.  I love the looking at the chickens and roosters!

This rooster was strutting around acting like he owned the place:

And this hen was plenty mad someone took her egg.  She was letting everyone know she was not happy!  I think she was a tattle tale:

And I love the color of this one:

Weird getting excited about chickens, isn't it?  I have shared chicken pics before... just cool critters.

Soon I will be sharing some of the wonderful antiques I found there.  In the back, behind all the trucks and tractors I found this:

I know, it is a silly picture, but I thought it was cool.

I am beat!  After Laurel Valley we went to a fair.  Even that was great!  It has been nice being here and just resting and hanging out.  Steve is still waiting on his VISA for Venezuela, but working on tying up the ends of the job he just finished.  Soon... very soon... we will be moving.  I hope we are in Oklahoma by mid May.  Holding my breath now... we shall see.

Off to bed, more soon.

As the World Twirls

Anything natural piques my interest.  I love looking at flowers, critters and landscapes.  I find every living thing breath taking and beyond my comprehension - and I cannot imagine how anyone cannot realize there must be a higher being to have all the beauty that we do have.  How does a seed know what kind of flower it is supposed to grow?  How does an egg know what kind of bird it is going to be?  How does a flower know it is supposed to be purple and not yellow?  It knows because God gave it the knowledge to know.  That is my theory and I am stickin' to it.

While I was in Mississippi, I was picking berries, remember that?  What I didn't tell you was that I had to fight high and low for them!  Well, I actually left low for this little fellow and I took the high ones, occasionally dropping one for Mr Turtle to find.  He did and he ate it!   He did keep an eye on me though  :-)

Again, keeping an eye out for God's creatures, I found where Punkin's grasshoppers went!

She misses them, but she was glad to see the birds didn't eat them!  Lol...

I think a few of them were chatting about me:

Now moving on... Saturday after we got home, I went over to Steph's to visit.  We let the chicks out and were chatting when Punkin came over and said something was very, very wrong. 

She had a bad and weird rash on her toe:

Granny looked long and hard at it and assured her not to worry about it - it was just a horseshoe rash.  She looked at me worried... then I told her to look carefully at her shoe:

She looked, and she saw... a match!  

Thankfully, she realized she was going to live!!  

While we were outside, I looked down and saw Steph's hose.  Does anyone remember K and B?
 

If not, it is a south Louisiana thing.  I sure do miss that drug store!  This hose made me think back to when it was around... funny how the world keeps on twirling.  The only thing the same is how much the world changes....

This is just a random post - not much is happening.  We got the air conditioner fixed and the tv satellite fixed too.  We are back to a 'normal' life and... Life is good.

The journey ahead looks nice, even if it is a bit... obscure.

We can see the fun stuff in sight.  We are looking forward again and in anticipation.  As I said, life is good. 

Off to parts unknown with our girls.  When I am lucky enough to do this, I realize how much I miss our guys.  Sure wish we were closer.  Miss the other half of our lives... but they are happy and that is really what matters.

And the world keeps on twirling...

He is Tired...

I have never seen my husband this tired.  He is exhausted.  And he hurt his arm - the one he is holding - so when he tries to rest, it doesn't happen.  I don't know what is going on with it, but he has agreed he needs to go to a Dr.  You know he is hurting if he has agreed a Dr needs to be involved.  Poor baby...

Thank God that job is done.  The job used to be fun for him - but it isn't anymore.  He just wanted it behind him - and now we can say it is over and he can move on.  It is rather amusing to me that he was transferred in January to Tulsa, but this is the end of April and he has yet to make it to the new job or talk to his new boss.  It is time to move on, right?

Venezuela first...  for a quick survey... for the last job - the one he has yet to leave behind.  *sigh*

We got to go spend a few more hours with David and his wife before we came home.  David and Steve used to work together.  They worked hard, fought like dogs and eventually solved problems - but in the end they became very good friends.  I thought I would share a picture of David and his wife Lorraine:

We had a great visit.  We are so glad David and Lorraine are a part of our lives and that we had one more chance to get together.  I think they will be making it up there to see us though, so it wasn't goodbye - just see you later.

We made it back to Morgan City early Saturday afternoon to find out our air conditioner thermostat got broke on the way here.  It cannot be fixed  :-(  and Wal Mart does not sell camper thermostats, so we are without air con until the new one comes in.  We overnighted it, but it doesn't look like it has been shipped yet.  It has been a nice, steamy 2 days.  Haven't I said I *hate* heat??  Lol...  Oh and we are at the same campground and site we were at last time.  The only thing different is our friends, Nancy, Bill and Renee are gone.  Man, that is odd... Sure do miss them. 

Easter was great!  We went to Steph's house and Steve boiled mudbugs.  You have seen pictures of the crawfish before, so I will not share them - just suffice it to say they were good.  The Easter eggs were pretty; punkin' did a great job on them.  I have always loved coloring Easter eggs though I am not sure why, but I will share one of the pictures I took:

Pretty, weren't they?  I just love the cheerful colors.

A tradition when we boil crawfish is for me to make Steph 2 strawberry pies - they look like this:

I make two; one to share with everyone else, and she keeps one.  It has always been a joke - both are supposed to be shared, but somehow someone 'forgets' to take one out of the refrigerator.  Since that is the case, below is a picture of what the one she does share looks like after everyone gets a piece of the pie:

Yup, it is gone.  Every single time.  And I am convinced if we made and shared 5 pies, they would all be gone.  This is not the traditional strawberry pie with glaze - it is much better!  Want the recipe?  Here it is:

The Best Strawberry Pie Ever!

1 pre-baked pie shell

1 pint of fresh strawberries, sliced

1 small box of strawberry Jello

Sugar

2 Tablespoons Corn Starch

1 c water

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

Red food coloring (if desired)

Pour strawberry jello into 1 cup measuring cup and fill remainder of cup with sugar.  Pour into pan, add water and corn starch, mix and bring to boil.  Cook for 5 minutes.  Add Vanilla, salt and food coloring.  Pour over strawberries and stir. Pour ingredients into pie pan, place pie in refrigerator and chill. Serve with cool whip.

Make 2 and keep one for yourself!  You will want it.

And finally, summer is here no matter what the calendar says.  Isn't this the perfect picture?

And for some reason, I love this one too:

More later if I don't melt.

Send snow.

Ocean Springs, Yarn and Fun Things

I know, I didn't blog yesterday like I thought I would, but I was out enjoying lunch with a friend.  And packing - getting ready to move on!  And walking.  I do that every morning.  While I walk, I am counting our little baby calves and enjoying them.


This little guy, "T-Bone" sees me and takes off running to the fence to check me out while I am walking.  Some mornings he walks with me until his mommy bellows, then he heads back to mom, but he does so still watching me.  I wonder what he finds so intriguing?

This is "Porter".  Porter (his last name is House) is going to be one big bull when he grows up!  This is the guy that watches the bulls fighting and nearly kills himself and everyone in his path to get the best view possible.  Thankfully, today they seem to be not butting heads so he can keep up with me.  His friend in the background on the right has gnat problems - we all do here.  Those little gnats have TEETH.  I know they do!

And this is "Ribeye".  She is indifferent and just curious.  Her mom watches her like a hawk so every time she almost gets interested, she gets royally fussed and has to go back to mom.  She did however, find a candy wrapper yesterday and lick it - nearly til the writing came off.  It looked like it was a Reese's wrapper, so I think she will deliver chocolate milk when she grows up!

Please ignore Ms. "Damn That Gnat".  She was mooing she was so mad that those gnats kept biting her.  She must have tender leather, because she is always slapping at them, scratching and trying to bite them.  But ignore her a minute... look behind her at Mrs. Mean Moma staring me down.  She has something to tell me - and I believe it was "Stay away from my newborn twins - I had a rough night and I will kick your last!"  She would not turn her head away for the longest time - she wanted to be sure I wasn't messing with her or her new babies.  I did see one of them born, but not the second one.  I even saw mommy nudge one up later and enjoyed watching her make the calf learn to walk.  So very cute!

So now you have seen all the babies born since I have been here - unless we had any new additions last night.  Porter is my favorite - he is so interested in everything I do, I feel so loved!  Lol...

Yesterday I went to Ocean Springs, Mississippi and found a couple great stores. One was a yarn (and specialty gift) store.  Steph, I wish I had known about it while you were here - it is a great store!  You would have LOVED it.  Maybe you can come back through here sometime and check it out!

This is name of the store and the storefront:

She has a oodles of yarn:

Of all colors and textures:

Aren't the yarns wonderful?  She has a large selection of local artists work and gifts as well.  She was telling me about classes she has too - crafty classes.  If you are in the area, be sure to stop in and say hi.  

Here is the information you need to know:

Kathleen's Fiber Arts

630 Washington Ave

Ocean Springs, Mississppi  39564

(228)818-6666
kbrownvc@yahoo.com

And while you are in Ocean Springs find this sign:

Walk in to enjoy an old fashioned drug store:

And if you look to the left, you can take a break at this old time soda fountain:

Remember when the Drs used to give 'prescriptions' for ice cream cones at the local soda fountain?  Dr Tracewell used to do that with us... come to think of it, I think Dr Miller did too!  Why don't they do that any more?  At this one, they serve ice cream, old fashioned peppermint sticks and great, friendly hospitality.  

Yesterday was a great relaxing day.  I enjoyed walking around with one of the girls here at the campground.  Now that we are moving, several women have moved in for a pipeline job.  I sure do enjoy having others around!  We walk every morning and browse the area in the afternoon when we don't have other plans - like doing laundry.

When we first moved here, the girl that runs the campground had to take us and show us where to park.  She didn't have any maps, but I didn't find that out until last week.  We were talking and she told me it was one of the many things she needed to figure out how to do.  It is a newer campground and she is just learning the ropes.  So I "Googled" it, then pulled up Google Earth and went about making a map for her.  I got site numbers and mapped it all out.  Really.  What else did I have to do?  This is what I came with:

Not bad for having zero experience making maps huh?  See sight 69?  That is us - at the top of the hill overlooking everyone - ♫ ♪ Where the wind comes whooshing down the plain, ♪ ♫  And the waving wheat, can sure smell sweet! ♪ ♫  .... oh wait!  That is Oklahoma!  I am not there yet.  Coulda fooled me!

And lastly...  It looks like we will be leaving here for Morgan City on Saturday morning. We have had several setbacks - Steve could not get sea water on the rig to run his commissioning (we think he has that taken care of), a leak in the sink in our camper (I will work on that today), brakes going out in Steve's truck and last but not least - I think Steve may have at the very least tendinitis in his arm, but it honestly sounds more like a worn out or torn rotator cuff.  He is in a lot of pain, not sleeping well, and otherwise exhausted.  He has gone for 7 weeks with only 3 days off, working 12-14 hour days.  It is a wonder he is still walking.  I worry about him.  Keep him in your thoughts and prayers, please.

What is up in your world?  Anyone still reading?

Piece By Piece, the Puzzle Completes

I didn't think I would get to it.  I have been busy typing something today, and by the time I finished, typing was the last thing I wanted to do.  But here it is; my Monday post!

Yesterday, I had to visit my nearby laundry mat.  I am certainly glad that we have these kind of washers - as compared to the itsy, bitsy, teeny, tiny ones we had in Singapore.  I am even thankful that I have a lot of them in one place so my laundry is done lickety split quick.

I will also say, after having a front loading washer in Singapore, I swore I would never, ever in my life own one.  However, last week, I wanted to wash our bedding and I gotta tell you, it was a much better experience than my Barbie sized one in Singapore - and it only takes 22 minutes from beginning to end. Unlike the washer in Singapore that took HOURS to wash my one pair of jeans OR two shirts.  Yes, I even appreciated these front loaders:

And finally, the dryers.  Look at the size of them!  I can take 2 or 3 loads (some people put even more) in to dry and these take a mere 30 minutes to dry all the clothes - even the super thick bath towels are bone dry.  I am thankful for fast drying dryers.

 

As you may have noticed, I have also found out the least busy time to go to the laundry mat.  I have you fooled -  I have yet to find it NOT busy - except yesterday.  Nary a soul in the building, except me.  Not even the lady that works there was inside, she was plopped outside in chair.

Why?

It smelled like someone got skunked and brought their clothes into be washed.  I think it cleared the place out.  I was not so lucky - I HAD to get Steve's clothes washed so I toughed it out and washed clothes.  It was nice a peaceful, and I didn't have to fight for dryers like I usually do!   I guess I was thankful for the skunked person - if that is what it was - but it took me a bit to be thankful for that.

The bulls are still at it.  They are constantly butting heads.  They give me quite a bit of entertainment:

The funny thing is, you know how boys watch their dads and girls watch their moms to figure out life lessons?  Well if you look on the right side of the picture below, you will see a mini 'bull' watching the conflict.  He will nearly kill himself getting across the field when 'the guys' are butting heads.  He runs all around them to get a good view of how it is done right - paying close attention and getting all the hints.  He is so fun to watch!

Also, I have seen one calf born and two others have been born while we have been here, but I missed the other two big events.  So fun to see the little ones learning to walk and tumbling over their long legs to try to catch up to momma... I check every morning and can tell you if we have new babies.  I love seeing new life!

The cows (and bulls) get out of the fence every once and a while. I am one of two people that will herd them back into the fence and try to refence so they will stay in there.  Yeah, I am meaner than the bull - he tries to stare me down, but I am meaner than he is and I have won every time - so far.  He is back in the fence again... 

But once I got him in the fence, I looked down and what do you think I saw?  No dear, not a bloody self, but...

Blackberries!!  So I ran and got a bowl and walked beside the bull all the way down the fence line and picked all the ripe berries.  That bull was still staring me down, but I ignored him, reached into his pasture and got berries.  I actually got quite a few of them!
 

The problem?  I don't eat blackberries!  Lol... so I gave them away.  Yes, I will pick some more because it gives me something to do.  And yes, I will give them away too.  And whoever I give them to will be quite happy to get them.

You know those little round stickers that come on each piece of fruit and veggies?  One day in my bored state, I was pulling one off to wash the fruit.  I looked at it and it said it was from Guatemala.  Curious, I picked up another fruit and found out it was from Mexico.  It piqued my curiosity, so I grabbed a piece of paper and started saving them.  Everyone knows in our old age we can't remember one thing from the next, so I surely wouldn't remember all of the countries my fruit came from and I thought since I was bored, I would start keeping track of where my fruit comes from.  You would not believe it!  Our fruit comes from every nook and cranny in the world!  Try it - you will be amazed!

Oh what my life has become; skunk scented laundry mats, bulls butting heads, mini bulls watching, calf counting, blackberry picking and sticker tabs....

Such is my life.  But the end of life here is nearly finished.  Tomorrow, Steve starts the testing of the unit he has been building.  If all goes well, after the commissioning of the unit, we will be moving on later this week. Looking forward to it.  

So I have quite a lot to be thankful to be thankful for here, and I realize that.  Every little piece of our lives fit together to make the puzzle complete, right?  I am looking forward to leaving this little piece behind...

But I will miss 'my' cattle.  And the bulls.  And the calves.  Aren't they all cattle?  Lol...

Nary a Fairy

I know, I haven't blogged for several days.  I am honestly trying, but I have nothing to write about.  I have decided instead of stressing over it, I will start trying for Monday, Wednesday and Friday blogs until my life turns around.  It seems that I can blog when I am busy, but when I am not... well, I have nothing to talk about.  SO, I will try for 3 days a week.

While I was at Stephenies, she showed me her Monarch chrysalis.  Look at one of them below.  See the gold in it?  See the wings forming?  Isn't it amazing?

This is one of the caterpillars that has not yet gone into a caccoon - a monarch caterpillar:

Remember me making the fairy furniture?  Punkin' put it right in her fairy garden:

I watched for fairies sleeping in the bed, but never saw one... :-(

Remember the chicks?  Aren't they adorable?

Punkin' even reads to them:

They are wonderful entertainment.

And finally, the lifesaving bird houses:

As I set listening to the music of the purple martin chatter, I thought of how these bird houses saved my husband's life.  He made bird houses when he quit smoking to keep his hands busy.  I am so proud of him; he went from smoking 3-4 packs a day to zero.  He quit cold turkey and to this day, he has never picked up another cigarette.  These birdhouses occupied him while he was doing so.  They mean the world to me - for obvious reasons I love them.  He will owe me a new one though, when we moved I gave mine to Steph.  Gonna miss having it, but it was wonderful sitting outside her house, listening to the music of life; the birds and my hubby's.

I made a map for the campground we are in - they people running it are new and learning.  I was bored and they needed a map.  Gotta love Google Earth - it got me started, and I got it pretty accurate after walking it off.  Fun stuffs!  They are tickled pink.

Today is April 15th.  Tax day.  I finally got Steve to pull out our taxes to do them last night.  What happened?  He got online, found out he had until the 18th, half did them and got off.  *sigh*  He has 3 more days so I am sure on the 18th, we will be turning in taxes.  Is there such a thing as tax-crastinate?  If there is, he has got it bad... lol...

It is almost as bad as his mow-grastinate problem.  He does that every summer when we have a yard!

And so that is today's blog.  Be back Monday!

Meet the Chicks

Steph and Raelee got chickens.  They are chicks - young and cute.  And they are urban chicks - Steph lives in the city limits, so that is why I call them urban chickens.  They have a farm in the city... well not really, but if you count Goofy, their HUGE dog as a horse, Buster the dog, Patches the cat, their fish, and now the chickens, she has a farm.  This last couple of weeks has been tough hanging out in the camper, so I went to Steph's to watch her menagerie of critters play.

I took pictures of the chicks, but unlike Steph, I have no idea who is who.  I only know one chicken and I will get to that in a bit.  Take a gander at the chick pics:

This one is Lexi:
 

Lexi is blind.  We watched her walk into walls, cardboard boxes and chairs.  We finally decided she is definitely blind, but she is healthy.  Once she figures out where something is, she is fine.  She is also incredibly smart - like I think all these chicks are.  We are just paying attention to Lexi.  Raelee and Lexi are close.  If she needs her kid, she stands straight and tall and cries for her.  Raelee will go over to her and say something, and Lexi immediately settles down.  She just needs to know she is not alone, I think.  It is fun to watch her and more fun to test her.

She is not as active as the others, but why would you be when you cannot see bugs?  So she sleeps more than the others...

She might be just a tad spoiled too:

Punkin' and Lexi love playing...

Thankfully, all the chicks are supposed to be girls.  I guess we will see.  If they have one that crows they may have to move away soon since they are in a neighborhood.

It was a blast watching these little gals.  They are still learning their balance, so they trip a lot, run and tumble, stand up and look back like "What the heck just happened?!"  and are just generally great entertainment.  Made for lots of giggles!  

They loved something in the brick and would even jump to get whatever they were after.  We never saw a thing!

If you would like to know who is who, go to Steph's Blog,

I will just call them chicks and enjoy the smiles.

Yep, I love this kind of entertainment... and it sure did my soul some good.