One good day follows another

I personally wasn't having the best day ever; I slept even less than usual Saturday night, and I felt just a little crossways of the universe.  Even so, it was another great day.   I made a crockpot full of taco soup, enough so that anybody passing through could have some.   Cliff's brother Don and his wife were still here, so the two guys worked on various tractors all day.  Relatives and strangers came for target practice in the pasture.  

On Facebook, I found a picture somebody took of my daughter yesterday that I absolutely love:  I see traces of my little girl from long ago in this shot.   Best.  Picture.  Ever.

Granddaughter Monica has a boy friend.  In a field full of people with guns, he was treading cautiously.  

Oldest grandson and Heather joined in the fun.

Son-in-law Kevin loves things that go "bang".  

The grandson, Heather, and a friend, Allen, spent quite a bit of time cleaning their weapons.  

Gotta love rednecks.  


I shamelessly stole most of these pictures on Facebook.  Since I wasn't at my peak performance, I remained in the house while the shooting was going on, reading the strangest book I've read in awhile, "The Art of Racing in the Rain".  The narrater of the story is a dog.  I cried at the ending.    


Nephew Scott put this on Facebook this morning:  "I love when my Aunt Donna gets out her guitar and sings her songs."  
I told him, "I don't do it often because nobody asks.  Thanks for asking."

A family weekend

A couple of Cliff's cousins visited this weekend.  

Cliff has lots of fun memories of visiting Aunt Juanita and playing with her boys, Art and Doc.  That's Art and his sweet gentle wife, Lois; she's seventy-mumble and still working.  Some of her younger co-workers call her Grandma, and ask her when she's going to retire.  We've seen them at a couple of gatherings in the past two years, but we've always met at Golden Corral.  You can't have a good visit at a restaurant.  

Since they called and said they were paying us a visit, Cliff's brother, Don, came all the way from Kansas.  He and his wife spent the night at Cliff's sister's house next door.  

Edna, another cousin of Cliff's, spent the night at our house.  If Cliff looks strange in this picture, it's because he's eating corn bread and I told him to quit chewing for a minute.  Edna likes my corn bread, too.  

Now I have to tell you, Edna is in her late 70's and doesn't make a habit of traveling a hundred miles to visit somebody; so we were honored to have her.  I would never have gotten well acquainted with Edna had it not been for the Internet.  I knew who she was. because we used to visit her mother, Cliff's Aunt Margaret, when we were newlyweds.  But I didn't know her as a person until we began our email correspondence.  I love this woman.    

We all had fun talking about old times.  (Iris gave Cliff her ball and was waiting for him to throw it; it's all about her, you know.)

You should have seen these two characters clowning around... Cousin Art and Cliff's brother, Don.

Even the oldest grandson was here; it's deer season, you know.  He was waiting until later in the day to hunt.  

Since Cliff's sister had been shopping all day (along with Don's wife), we went to her house after she finally got home; Edna wanted to see Rena, and meet Donald's wife.  Just call us (me, Edna, and Cliff) the three stooges

This is Edna's mother, Cliff's Aunt Margaret: Look at the previous picture... can you see the resemblance?  

Of course, the icing on the cake was when my daughter and her family showed up today with our great-granddaughter.  I wish all of you could have such an intelligent, beautiful great-granddaughter.  But of course, they broke the mold when mine was born.  

I jest.  
Even for a loner like me, family weekends are special.  

Did I mention that a former neighbor kid got a deer while hunting on our place?  

Life is good.

Wow, where to start

Nothing momentous has happened lately, but that never stopped me from blogging before, and it isn't going to stop me now.  The heat outside has been awful, and Cliff finally decided that he's retired and doesn't absolutely HAVE to be outside doing something when it's over a hundred degrees.  He doesn't like sitting in the house, but he will do so now when the weather is bothering him, surfing the tractor websites and watching Craigslist.  

One day last week we took in Truman Library; we've been there before, but this time we took the guided tour, which was well worth the time.  Not to mention, it was something we could do and still keep cool.  I took my cane-chair along in case I wanted to sit down, but hardly used it at all.  When I do a lot of walking like that, my knee still swells some.  If I do a lot of walking two days in a row, it swells even more.  I'm learning to not let this bother me, reminding myself that it won't happen as often as time goes by.   

Cliff wanted to go to an antique tractor show in Macon, Missouri.  He started planning it as a camping trip, but when we found out it was only a two-and-a-half hour drive away, we made it a day trip.  It's just too hot to camp.  As it turns out, the show wasn't all that large.  We had no trouble seeing it all in a couple of hours.  Right after our arrival, we ran into a couple of my cousins, Lela and June.  Seeing them so far away from any of our homes seemed so out of context to me that I didn't even recognize them until Cliff started talking to them!

The road that took us to Macon would have made a wonderful motorcycle ride, but again, it was too hot.  

 I haven't gotten around to digging all my potatoes, but I had a bucket full of them sitting in the kitchen, and I really had no place to store them.  So, I opted to cook a family dinner and invite whoever could come.  My daughter's family; my two oldest grandchildren and their mom, as well as Arick's girl friend; and a favorite nephew who noticed what I was planning on Facebook, along with his son.   

I have a story about something that happened yesterday that may lose some of it's luster in the telling, but if you had been here, you would have laughed with us:  I was in the kitchen, almost ready to pull the rolls out of the oven, when my son-in-law, Kevin, said in a booming voice that almost shook the house, "Oh my god, is that dog sh**ing in that chair?"  

Granddaughter Amber was in my raggedy old recliner playing with my Ipad; she had the footrest up with her feet on it, and her dog, Sophie (a Minipin) was between her feet.  Indeed, Sophie laid a log right between granddaughter's feet.  

It brought down the house.  

Poor Kevin was in a state of shock for at least ten minutes after seeing this sight; he said he had never seen a dog do something like that inside a house without being punished (Not his exact words, but that's what he meant).  Thank goodness, the food I had waiting in the kitchen seemed to revive him somewhat.  

After dinner we gathered in Cliff's shop and talked about old times, telling tales about what all the grandkids were like when they were younger and reliving a few past events we adults had lived through.  In a few more years, I'm sure we'll be retelling the tale of Sophie the Mini-pin pooping on Grandma's recliner.

I had been complaining on Facebook that our favorite Walmart seemed to be out of the freezer pops Cliff and I love.  On these hot summer days, we'll grab one out of the refrigerator in the shop several times a day.  Cliff and I purchased a couple of bags Saturday morning at a different Walmart, but I didn't mention the fact to anyone.  So my daughter blessed us with a bag of pops, and then my oldest granddaughter and her mom came with two bags.  That ought to do us for a few hot days!  (By the way, say hello to Clyde the steer; that's him, neatly wrapped beneath the popsicles and frozen corn.  We had a couple of chuck roasts with dinner yesterday; they were very tasty.)

Not much time for an entry, but here's a slideshow

Nothing like hanging out in Cliff's shop in the rain.  Pulled pork, brisket, Old Settler's Beans, Rice Krispy treats, and Toll House cookie bars.  

What a day!

First off, it rained all day.  We went ahead with the barbecue as planned, but it would have been more fun with warm, sunny, dry weather.  
Cliff, Joanna, and I headed to our friends' vineyard/winery this morning to eat a pancake breakfast; it was for a good cause, and I wanted Joanna to see the beautiful location of the vineyard.   We picked up granddaughter Monica on the way.
  

 Here we ladies are after coming out of the building where we ate a hearty breakfast.  With the permission of the owners, we took Joanna on a quick tour of the building where the wine is made and bottled.  

I knew local bloggie buddy Clarissa (who doesn't blog much any more)  and her mom had planned to come and hunt for morels, but since it was raining steadily, I didn't expect them.

Clarissa showed up without her mom.  Not only that, but she hunted morels in the rain for at least an hour and a half.  She found two morels, which I would have found disheartening.  Not her!  She hopes to return tomorrow with her mom.  She pronounced our place "beautiful".  Yes, her two mushrooms are in that bag.  And yes, she is SOAKING wet.  But happy.  

Friends from Kansas showed up; Don and Cliff have a great rapport, partly because they both love tractors.  But mainly because they're both nice guys. 

Kevin barbecued.  In the rain.  

Visiting friend Joanna and I took pictures.

You know you're a redneck when you entertain your guests in your husband's shop. 

 Eventually we women got cold and went to the house.  We got pretty damp getting here, which made us colder still.   So we bundled up in afghans and blankies.  The three of us met in a chat room, years ago.  No wonder we're such a bunch of nuts. 
So, in spite of the rain, we had a great day.  Thanks to my daughter and her husband who did a HUGE share of the work involved in today's feast.  
Tomorrow morning Joanna heads back home.  What a short visit it's been.

My family tree

My cousin, Pauline, has been working on our family tree for years.

She's finally got it online. What a wonderful thing!

I've learned that my ancestors on my mother's side came from Canada and New England... and before that, Great Britain. Wow.

I'm so glad I have a cousin who has the patience to do all this work, because as much as I love knowing about my family, I'd never have been able to do it.

God bless you, Pauline, for keeping our family history alive.

I have a good family with a great history.

My weekend so far

My daughter had a really busy week, since it was the grand climax of her company's busy season. To celebrate the end of all that work, I made one of her favorite comfort dishes, potato soup... with corn bread on the side, of course. Her mother-in-law and nephew came visiting from Carthage, so they joined us for dinner (that's the noon meal around here).

Cliff's youngest sister and her husband came Friday night, in order to be in the area for his family Christmas gathering yesterday. They brought their dog, Mindy, and she stayed with us while they went to their gift exchange. She's a well-behaved dog, and she and Sadie, being of similar size, love to frolic and wrestle around the house. Since both dogs are prolific shedders, I shudder to think how much hair we've consumed in our food this weekend... but that's just fiber, right?

Cliff's oldest sister lives next door in our old house. She's working twelve-hour days all weekend, and her mini-Dachshund, Angel, gets lonely; so we bring her over here for two or three hours, a couple times a day.

Then yesterday my oldest granddaughter, Amber, called and asked if was OK to come out and spend the night. She knows she'll get more computer time here than she would at home sharing Internet hours with her mom. She brought her mini-pin, Sophie, who presented me with a Yule log on the floor as soon as she came in the house. It's nice to know that even a dog can get in the spirit of the season. We enjoy our granddaughter and our granddog too, in spite of the occasional accident.

I honestly planned to fix some sort of healthy, low-fat meals today, to make up for the cream in the potato soup yesterday (Cliff's older sister finished off the soup when she got home from her long workday). Unfortunately, I have such a stiff neck I can't turn my head without great pain, so I'm going to plan B: Great Northern Beans cooked with a remnant of our Thanksgiving ham and plenty of onion. With, you guessed it, corn bread on the side.

I'd cook our usual oatmeal or cream-of-wheat for breakfast, but granddaughter Amber really loves pancakes, so I'll cater to her. To go with the pancakes, I have some totally unhealthy, salt-laden sausage ready to cook.

I'll make sure Cliff takes his Lipitor; it's all I can do for his heart in times like these. That, and limit his portions.

Random family pictures taken on the Fourth

I'm sharing these mainly for relatives who read my blog. Click on any picture to make it bigger.

Nothing says "Independence Day" like watermelon and champaign poppers (not to mention a Wal-Mart bag).

Granddaughter Monica hadn't seen her brother Jonathan in a while, as evidenced by the look of joy on her face as she runs to greet him.

Cliff's cousin, Edna, as well as her daughters, came to join us on the Fourth, helping to make our day extra-special.

Cliff with his siblings; half-brother Phil didn't make it, so he's missing in the picture.

Granddaughter Amber with her dog, Sophie. I'm sure she will hate this picture, since I've never yet taken a shot of her that has her approval.

My son, my husband, and grandson Arick make this a three-generation picture.

Nothing spells "fun" like a muddy kid and a muddy four-wheeler. That's Trevor, nephew Scotty's son.

Granddaughter Amber and her dad did some competitive bowling with her Wii.

Amber listens in as her brother and grandfather have a conversation.

Fourwheelers and fireworks, oh my!

If you didn't know our family was totally redneck before, all it would take is one Independence Day spent with us, and you'd be convinced.
There's always something to ride. That's our nephew Scotty, who hauls kids and adults around our pasture all day long when he's here, posing with our son Jim.

I think this was trip number one-hundred-one.

This is the Mercedes, the daughter of one of Cliff's second cousins. She was the only one privileged to ride Blue yesterday, since the ride required that we stop all four-wheelers and silence the fireworks while she was on him. Blue is a reliable nag, but he isn't fond of having somebody riding him when there's a lot of strange noise. Anyway, the girl explained that she really had wanted to spend the night with a couple of friends, but her grandma promised her she could ride Blue if she came to our house. Oh, Cliff bought me a new Radio Flyer for my birthday, which is coming up soon. Why, you ask, would a 64-year-old woman want a little red wagon? Well, I moved about half our belongings in the old wagon when we relocated to the mobile home; and I often need a way to transport things to the cabin and back. By the way, my butt is way too big to fit in the wagon, but I had to have one picture of me in the wagon.

Things I don't discuss on my blogs

I try very hard not to air family laundry to the whole world. It's none of your business.

If I'm proud of my children and grandchildren, I'll share my pride. If I'm ashamed of them, you'll be the last to know. Dang it, I do wish I had perfect relatives. But if I did, none of them would claim me, with all my imperfections.


I won't discuss any problems and disagreements with my husband. Yes, we do have differences at times. I'll keep that between the two of us, thank you very much. Unless I can find some humor in the situation. I may, however, avail myself the opportunity to vent a bit in your comment section, where I'm not so likely to be read by those who know me. Yeah, I'm bad like that.


Life isn't perfect here; I hope I haven't led anyone to believe that it is. We live from paycheck to paycheck. That's nobody's fault but ours, by the way. Thank God we have good credit, because that's what has gotten us through so far.


If I can help family members out and it doesn't put us at risk in any way, I'm glad to do it.I won't tell the world about it; it's between us, and personal. My parents helped us many times; we were always honorable enough to pay them back. Still, I know there were times we drove them nuts with our devil-may-care attitudes.


Enjoy my horseback rides, my gardens, and my pride in my family. And trust me not to stab them in their backs online. Surely they'll do the same for me.

The rest of the (tractor) story

If you've been following my tractor stories thus far, I left off HERE, with a WC Allis sitting idle that I just couldn't sell because it had ties to my Uncle Leo. There's another thing Cliff mentioned today: my sister's late husband was the one who restored the fenders on the tractor. With so much family poured into the WC, and with my name on it, how could we let it go?



When Cliff mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we should sell the tractor, I reluctantly agreed. But only because my cousin Carolyn, Uncle Leo's oldest daughter, had e-mailed me some time ago saying that if we ever decided to sell that tractor, her son Brian would like first shot at it.

I let her know we were ready to sell, and very shortly she answered back saying Brian would take it.

He came today to pick it up. Cliff told him all about the peculiarities and eccentricities of the tractor.

So my dear departed Uncle Leo's grandson has the tractor now. It's still in the family. It looks like everybody is happy with the deal!

Brain handed us a check and left; when Cliff looked at the check later, he saw we'd been paid $300 more than we asked. Isn't that something?