A Little Romance

 Hi everyone!

I'm back with another junk journal project and also another practice run with the video making and uploading or is it downloading?!

So one of my girlfriends gave me several vintage type photos to play around with. Here's what I have done so far. I'm thinking this one would be great for a couple on their honeymoon or someone on a romantic vacation to place their little mementos as keepsakes.

So this journal needs more work but at the moment Mr. Cowboy has requested that I step away from my habit to help him with a tractor fix.....hummmmmmmmmm!  Until next time😁

Junk Jounaling

 Hi everyone!! For the moment, I'm out of the hay fields!! Shhhhhhh, don't cheer to loudly, we wouldn't want Mr. Cowboy to hear. BTW, it gets to around 103 degrees here in central Texas each day. What about where you live? I'm drinking water like it's going out of style.  But enough about that.

I'm back to junk journaling when I can find the time. here's some of my latest venture.

I made passports for several characters in my journal along with the storyline of the two Inspectors of this plot. Anyway, it's my fun way of keeping my brain stimulated........Oh dear, I think I hear Mr. Cowboy calling....bye for now!

February into March

 Greeting everyone! Here's an update on my life.  First, my Janome 11000 is in the hospital. I miss that machine but I know that it needs a great cleaning of which there hasn't been in "years."

And then there's this little problem.

Can you see that little red blob laying underneath his mom? Well just the other day, one of those very cold 25 degree, wind blowing at 15 miles per hour days......well this little guy was laying very near the fence where his mommy left him for whatever crazy reason...and what did he do but roll over which placed him on the other side of the fence which placed him out in the road...which unfortunately was the exact moment that looked out the window and saw it happen......!!!*&@#^^$&@)@*^$@!*

What to do.....what to do?!?!?!?!

Have I mentioned that I don't like cows!? And of course Mr. Cowboy was away....Eeeeek!

I threw on my overcoat, found my boots and gloves and walked outside hoping not to spook the little critter.  After some heart-stopping moments and huffing and puffing, I managed to guide him into my front yard and closed the gate.  Then I promptly call Mr. Cowboy!!!!!!! Mind you, it was very cold....let's say freezing and this is a two to three day old calf.  By now this mom has coming looking for him only to discover he's missing.  After a lot of  bellowing and charging the fence look for the little guy, she turns and runs off in another direction looking for him. He's shaking and panting and finally lays down near another fence which, thank goodness, is made from hog wire (small squares impossible to get through)....WHEW!

After about a half hour Mr. Cowboy comes home, wrestles, grabs, tussles.....you can picture it and manages to get him back to his mom.  I'm exhausted after all the action....I think I need a strong cup of coffee to warm up.

To reward himself, Mr. Cowboy bought himself a new pair of boots.

Hummmmm, something's wrong with this picture.!@#$%^&**&@_

Enjoy the rest of your week!

My Hero - Mr. Cowboy

 

The other day we ordered several loads of dirt and rocks to fix the driveway.  As soon as that first dump truck pulled into our area, his back tires sunk in the "sugar" sand we have an abundance of.  The poor guy was beside himself but Mr. Cowboy said "not to worry, I have something that will help to get you out."  After locating a very heavy chain he hooks onto the rear of the dump truck and fired up the dozer.  The rest of the loads were delivered with the dump truck backing into the yard.......hehehehehe.

Snow?!

 

The other week it snowed here in central-ish Texas in January. This is rare and it snowed all day long....another rarity. Mr. Cowboy ventured outside and came back with the giant snowball you see here. Altogether we got 6 inches of snow. It took four days for the snow to melt mainly because our weather was overcast. 

I did manage to get outside for a bit, threw several snowballs at Mr. Cowboy but he was way better than me at that game so I ran inside......I didn't get a picture of that....sorry.

Is anyone else getting any unusual weather where you live?

WOW

 Happy 1st of November everyone!  I don't know where October went. I blinked and it was over. 

I'm celebrating Mr. Cowboy and me this month.....no, it's not an anniversary or anything like that. He's just the greatest guy to me.

To Mr. Cowboy

......this is one of my favorite songs

Guts

I thought the title would interest you!! LOL

The other week Mr. Cowboy and #2 son took the hay cutter apart. OMG! What a greasy mess they made and of course Mr. Cowboy got some of the gunk on his jeans.

Him: Can you get this stuff out?

Me: Oh, oh, uh, I don't think so!

Him: Sure you can. You can do anything.

Me: (Under my breath) Yea right.....uuuugggggg! (Out loud) I'll try dear.

I soaked the jeans in Dawn dishwashing liquid, then scrubbed them with an old stiff brush. Next I sprayed them with Simple Green and finally washed them in the laundry....ALONE.

The results was pretty good. The grease didn't come out totally but you could barely see it.

Back to the hay fields for Mr. Cowboy in his clean Jeans.

Other than taking care of laundry, mowing the yard, baling hay and doing a bit of canning, we've been staying close to home and enjoying the cool  spring rainy weather.

Everyone stay safe.

Spring Cleaning

Still no photos.
I just realized that Spring has sprung!! So for the first time in a very long time, I've decided to time the cleaning and getting rid of stuff with at event.

I've armed myself with plenty of cleaning supplies such as sponges, dust cloths, a couple of buckets, a mop, broom, vacuum, trash bags, strong liquid cleansers, protective gloves, a mask, etc.  I'll hit the living room first, then front bedroom, next the bathroom, another bedroom, a couple of other rooms and finally the kitchen......not looking forward to that area because I know I'll have to throw away some of my old pots and pans which I really love but they have seen their better days.

When Mr. Cowboy discovered what I was planning, he made a B-line for the great outdoors and said he'd be sleeping at the cow barn for the duration.....LOL!!!
I could see this coming long before he knew what I was about to do.....sigh!

Is anyone else planning to do some Spring cleaning? I'd love to know how you go about it.

My Guy & His Keys

Sorry, no photos today. 
Every couple of days, I go out with Mr. Cowboy to help open gates, count cows and calves, watch for fence problems, etc. And each time he hands me a "very" large set of keys. I'm talking at least fifteen to twenty keys on the ring and asks me to open a certain lock. He even knows the number on the keys.....OMG!!!! The numbers on most of them have rubbed off or faded and he expects me to find the key, hop out of the truck and open the lock and gate as a bunch of cows, calves and a two thousand pound bull charges towards the "cookies"/range cubes.
Did I mention that I don't like it when something larger than me comes bowling my way.  Ok, I got off subject for a moment.
My question is, to anyone who wants to respond, does your hubby, significant other, boyfriend, etc. have a bunch of keys and do they know which key belongs where? 

Signed flummoxed ;-[

Retreat, Then Home

This past weekend, my Wacky group went on retreat. We decided to only bring hand work. For two and a half days we stitched and laughed and ate. When I arrived home Mr. Cowboy asked to see what I'd accomplished. I showed him my progress. Needless to say, he was stunned at the small amount of done....hehehehehehehehe. I told him not to worry about it if he wanted his dinner...;-]

A girlfriend asked me to make her a small quilt for a veteran in her area. I'd been looking at this eagle for awhile so I dug in my stash for a background and got started.

This sky fabric is perfect.

All the inners were carefully cut out. This took quite a bit of time, by the way.

And here it is pressed onto the sky fabric.  More to come in a few days!!

How I Spent My Tuesday Morning

Went to Ennis first.

Wound up in Waxahachie.

Mr. cowboy was under the weather but that didn't stop him from roping me into driving him around to get tractor parts all over the place. He did perk up when looking at the new tractors but I reminded him of his purpose this morning....hehehehehe!!

BTW.....Thanks Gene for the tip about adding a caption to photos. I really appreciate it!!!

Mr. Cowboy

Greetings friends!!
Mr. Cowboy laughed a bit when I allowed him to read your comments about the dozer problem.
He thought Gene's comment was a good one because he mentioned "sprocket" as what the "thingy" really was.  He thought the ladies overreacted about the dangers of heavy equipment & accidents. That comment was from Magpie's Mumblings and Barb.
To the Left-Handed Quilter, the guy who loaded the thingy/sprocket had some sort of front end loader or forklift thingy of which Mr. Cowboy doesn't have.....sigh. And to Needled Mom, yes there is always something exciting going on around here even when I don't want any excitement.

I Can't Leave for a Minute...

This is what I drove up on the other day.  The guys were attempting to remove a 400 lb. thingy for Mr. Cowboy's dozer from the bed of his truck with the tractor fork.   Can you say eeeeeeeeeK!!

I could see crushed bodies when I closed my eyes.

They had tied the thingy with a heavy rope and were trying to back it out but I quickly suggested that they should drive the truck forward to remove it.  Sigh.........they listened to me and all went well.

Old thingy and new thingy.......every heavy indeed!!

Tracks off the dozer in order to place said heavy thingy where it belongs.

Close up.....look in the background to see where it's going.

No Sewing But Found Time To...

Look at this eye-candy. Batiks and Grunge......love em!!

As you all may have guessed from my posts this summer, I've not been sewing anything AT ALL, however that has not stopped me from ordering fabric over the Internet.  Mr. Cowboy couldn't believe what I'd done and was about to lecture me on spending money on things that I probably won't use this century but I stopped him in his tracks when I mentioned his spending habits when it comes to golf stuff, trailer stuff, fishing stuff, truck bumper stuff.....all of which pales in comparison to my itty bitty purchase.....dusting of hands, scoring #1 in the air...........LOL!

Too Close

Mr. Cowboy had just stepped off his 4-wheeler & was walking one of the fence rows when he heard thrashing in a wooded area. With little time to lose, a 200 pound sow charged him at close range. Two shots later my guy walked away from, what could have been, something I don't even want to contemplate. 

Wild hogs are everywhere around these parts. It's wise to always carry a rifle. When he texted me a photo then called to say how close that hog was, my heart nearly pounded from my chest.

I won't go outside these days at night fall anymore because of the hog problem. Several of our neighbors have started hunting with hunting dogs because we are so over run.

These hogs have no natural enemies & they aren't afraid of anything.

New Printer, Oh Bother

Under that cap is Mr. Cowboy's powerful brain churning away......LOL.....I'm laughing a bit but it's true. Here's the short of it...

The other week my old printer played out. I loved that printer, the HP J4680 Office Jet All-in-one. It did everything I needed done and I was use to it.  Enter the new printer, the HP 3830 Office Jet.

Did you know that now days these things don't really come with instructions other than how to plug it in and the hoop up to wireless.  So it took a couple of days to find out where the paper should go. Another day to connect to wireless and still another to KIND OF get use to printing from my computer and from the flatbed tray.

That's not the worst. I needed to enlarge a photo. Let's just say that I used up most of the black ink in unsuccessful endeavor. I was nearly in tears when Mr. Cowboy ambled into my world, took one look at me and asked what was wrong. I told him the problem and he promptly said that he knew how to enlarge the photo.

Of course I did not for one moment believe him so he marched me back to the printer and helped me step by step enlarge the photo. Every once and awhile I looked over to see him frown a bit or narrow his eyes. I could almost see steam coming from his ears but in a matter of minutes I had two enlarged photos to work with.  Needless to say, I was flabbergasted. He just smiled and walked away.

Let me tell you, the man can hardly fix his own breakfast without messing up all the pot and pan in the kitchen. How he figured out how to enlarge that photo, I'll never know but I am so glad he helped me out. So here's to Mr. Cowboy's printer skills.

Salute!!! 

What??? Figs!!!

This morning I was minding my own business because Mr. Cowboy was off to the hay fields. I was all set to "think" about sewing something when the phone rang. It was Mr. Cowboy no less, asking if I wanted some figs. As I hesitated to answer, he broke into my thoughts of how to get out of this situation, "Good, I'll bring them right over to the house. Better still, meet me half way," then he hung up.

AAaaaaaaarrrrgh!

Deep breaths, inner peace, inner peace, more deep breaths!

Off I went to meet him half way.  Four Wal-Mart grocery bags filled to the tippie top later.............!!!

 

Lots of trimming stems adding sugar and I also added some marinated orange slices into the large pot.

Lots of stirring as the mixture started to boil so that it wouldn't stick to the bottom of the pot....whispering to myself.....inner peace, inner peace, inner peace.

13 pints later.....canned figs. 

 Mr. Cowboy must sense my mood because he has failed to come in for lunch.......hehehehehehehehehehe!!

Rule #1 - Never plan anything.

Rule #2 - Don't even think about planning anything.

Rule #3 - Don't answer the phone but if you do, remember rule #1!!

My recipe for figs are as follows:

No measurements here.
Figs, a large pot full, rinsed, trimmed of stems
To the figs add a bag of sugar, two pounds if you don't want it too sweet or if you're like me, the four pound bag works just fine.
Bring to a boil and then to a simmer for at least 30 to 45 minutes. You will need to stir when mixture is boiling so that it doesn't stick.
Now can the figs in mason jars and the hot bath. This type of canning is easily found on the Internet.