Trying a new look

When God picked out my hair color, he gave me dirty blonde and i've been busy cleaning it up ever since i could make a good folding foil packet. Color me happy. So when it came time to clean up my roots, i suddenly got a craving for strawberries....

Before and After

NewMex and the Trifecta

Every year since forever, the women in Whatahusbands family have gone to the mountains in Ruidoso for a week in the summer. It is the ultimate girls trip, and a great way for me to bond with the ladies.

This year, I had my first genuine bear siting! Yes, that is a real black bear crossing the street in front of our car.

While I was gone, we added 3 new members to our family!  3 wild Ferrel kitties: Munch, Mungo, and Toonces. We are trying to tame them with our love...and kitty treats.

Munch is the short haired-blue eyed Siamese. He was named after my favorite printmaker (whose name is actually "Munce" (rhymes with once) but everyone in my family calls him munch - I have no idea why.)

Here's Munch in my lap...

...And in the car on the way to the vet. He's a thoughtful little kitty, and it seems like he's always thinking about something. He's is the first to rear up if there's trouble.

Next we have Mungo, the green-eyed black and white kitty. He was named after one of the animated "Cadillac Cats". He is by far the bravest kitty in the trio.  After about 10 minutes at the vet, he had crawled out of the cage and was looking over the edge of the table planning his escape. No fear. The Vet says he'll be our star hunter.

And last but not least, we have Toonces, the long haired blue-eyed Siamese. She is the resident female in the group and also the smallest, but she is the sweetest. She was named after "Toonces the Driving Cat" - an old Saturday Night live skit about a cat that drives a taxi cab.  Whatahusband has been saving this name for our first kitty.  Every car guy needs a driving cat, you know.

She is brave for sure. When she was first caught, she was kept in the laundry room at my inlaws house. The kitties were hanging out behind the dryer and, needing them to be moved, my mother-in-law pulled the dryer out from the wall.  Well, little toonces jumped up into the dryer tube, scurried up through the hose, and jumped out the other end, flying through the air into the backyard! She was caught again the next day, and the trifecta of kitties were again complete.

Here she is behind the dryer at our house. They love it back there!

She is the kitty that will fall asleep on your lap if you pet her. I'm secretly hoping (and actually praying) that she will be the kitty that wants to be with us the most, and the kitty that hangs out at the shop the most. I can just see her - perched up on one of Whatahusbands project cars - Toonces and her car! So Precious.

Our goal is to "relocate" this colony of 3 onto our property with the hopes that they'll be friendly ferels.  They were originally caught in San Antonio by my mother-in-law, the ultimate animal lover.  She and my father-in-law got them used to being with people. They are still so little, and when they get a bit older, they'll be re-introduced to living outside all the time. It is very tempting - I want to keep them inside all the time, but I know they'll be so happy to be out hunting mice and probably killing the birds I have been feeding. It really is amazing to see them light up when we take them outside. I can tell they miss it.

The kitties look alot bigger in these pics than they really are. They are living in Norman's old dog cage.  The maroon water bowl is about 5" wide.

(Toonces is under Munch)

Speaking of Norman, he is not happy. The kitties were out getting fresh air, and when the Norms walked up to check it out, you suddenly heard three little hisses and they were all arched up with fur standing at attention, claws out. He has decided he does not like kitties.

Poor norms. Just when his life was getting better. Now he's outnumbered. One day they all might be friends, right?

Must have Salsa

There are 3 things a good southern woman needs in her arsenol of tricks...a good clean joke, a naughty or inappropriate joke, and a salsa recipe. I was lacking in the last one for quite a while...until now.

What does a bulletproof vest wear for protection? It wears Chuck Norris.

Bam, there's my clean joke.

So here it is! The MOST AMAZING homemade salsa I have ever made. And the best part is, most of the ingredients you probably already have.  It takes about 2 shakes of a lambs tail to prepare, so you'll have time to tell that naughty joke before it is served.


INGREDIENTS
- 1 can of diced tomatoes
- 1 can tomato sauce
- 1 10oz. can of Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies (I use ROTEL brand)
- chunk of an onion (maybe 1/4 of a sm/med onion)
- Salt , generous pinch
- garlic powder, just a shake or two
- Cilantro, to taste (I use ALOT)

OPTIONAL
- Jalapeno peppers (it's mild without the peppers, but still has some kick. add the japs if you want it really spicy.)
- Sour Cream (gross, but some people like it i guess.)

DIRECTIONS:
1.) Toss your chunk of onion & cilantro into your trusty blender.
2.) Turn on the blender for a few seconds to chop it up a bit.
3.) Dump in the rest of your ingredients
4.) Blend until well mixed. (longer if you like it smooth, shorter if you like it chunky)
5.) Pour into a bowl, taste. Add flavors to adjust to your liking.

How easy is that?!?!?
Play with the ingredients if you want. Add lots of peppers for serious heat. Add corn or beans. Whatever floats your boat!

Trust me - it's so good!!

One for my pal....(it's just a plain chip, relax.)

...And one for me. 

The country life

Life here at our house has been adventurous to say the least. We have been plugging along on our home projects and enjoying the freakishly cool Texas weather. We recently purchased a much needed riding mower...since we could only push mow, our surrounding weeds were embarrassingly tall. And filled with all sorts of critters, no doubt.  Anyway, here's me on "Dorthy" as we call her. She can hold 2 beers and a water bottle. yes.


I felt like I looked alot cooler in this picture when it was taken...

I'm an old lady when I drive her. On the throttle there is diagram of the speeds with a picture of a tortoise at the bottom, and a bunny (hare) at the top.  I'm still on the tortoise level. I roll along like an old woman driving through the mall.  Whatahusband, on the other hand, drives at the bunny level, wheels smokin', grass flying, like he's trying to outrun a title wave. 

We've also had our first snake experience. I guess most texans have a snake story. There's really nothing like having your husband run into our living room saying between breaths "Where's my gun? Where's my gun? Snake!".  That's right ladies and gents, he shot a 19" copper head that was hanging out in a cow skull that was in our garden, that whatahusband was moving and figured out the snake was in there AFTER he put it back down. Oh my gosh, I can't believe he was just inches from a poisonous snake!! Thank the Lord the little demon decided not to bite him while he was carrying the skull.

In happier news, I made this very sophisticated and posh tea cup bird feeder and nailed it into a fence post...and the birds finally found it and are eating from it! I really made it for this cardinal couple - a male and female - who have been hanging around. They are so pretty, and they are definitely my birds. I need to name them.

And...big news...did you know that whataburger makes spicy ketchup??? It is SOOO good. We're just crazy about it. They had it in restaurants for a limited time, and we were so sad when they ran out.  Then we found out that they were going to make it and sell it at HEB!!!  So of course, this whataburger house needed to have a bottle...or maybe 2 or 3. Our roasted weenies have been oh so tasty lately. :)  If you come visit us, we promise to let you try it.

Burn Pile

It's been raining here. And although we have had flooding in our house (which is oh so very annoying) the good news is the ground is very wet - and this is the perfect condition for attacking one of our many burn piles.


See it? It's the brown pile of brush behind the tree in the foreground....about 25 feet wide, 6 ft high.

So we prepared the area, got out water buckets and shovels, prayed before we lit the match, and burned this bad boy. Fire in the hole.

It was a little exciting, and alot scary. Whatahusband was cool as a cucumber. But me - I had an internal panic attack when one of the very dry cedar trees with dead leaves all over it burst into a fire ball and shot flames 20 feet into the air. 

We sat in our lawn chairs and watched it burn. It was really quite amazing how much heat it produced, and how the pile went from something to nothing.

We briefly thought about getting some really long sticks and trying to roast weenies...but then we wanted to keep our eyebrows so we decided not to.

It burned and burned all day long. In the evening, after the flames had long since gone out, we raked the embers and found the ground was still very hot. We pulled out the stumps that were left and took them up to our firepit near the house and burned them until they were ash. And now we are experienced burn pile people! And we only caught a teensie weenise part of our field on fire. All in a days work, eh?

Thirty Thirty One Ya'll

Getting older is not so bad really. Especially when you have the weekend I did!  My wonderful hubby welded me an awesome birthday present (I call it the fire chalise, I LOVE sitting out by the fire) and my sister and bro-in-law came to visit.  We had so much fun! There were go kart rides. There was "fishing" at the pond. (throwing the pole in the water repeatedly with left-over fajita meat without a single bite doesn't really count as fishing, but we were drinking cocktails, so I'm going to count it.)  There was s'mores. And Grammy's Strawberry cake.  There was laughing and talking, and lots of relaxing. We even planted wild flower seeds in my front flower beds!

31 is so much fun. :)

A rare Texas May cold front blew in just for me (thank you God!) which made sitting out at the fire even more enjoyable.

My little helper, helping us plant.

Speaking of Norman - he has only grown more joyful as the days pass. We were out walking the fields enjoying the warm weather, and I turned around to this little man sitting under a tree, smiling away.

This is not happiness - it's bliss. :)

Time lately

We have   s l o w l y   been getting ourselves back into our normal routine...with a few adjustments. Since we can't hook up the TV in the living room just yet - it only make sense to go ahead and put it in the only other room that has the TV connection...our room.  I must say - I am not a big fan of TV's in bedrooms. I just don't like it. But I have to admit, it's VERY relaxing to watch Law & Order and sip a Shiner Ruby Redbird* laying in your own bed.  :)

*hey texans, this beer is fantastic. how have you not tried it? It's seasonal, and only here for a limited time. So if you like grapefruit, you HAVE to try this beer!

After what seemed like an eternity of doing dishes outside, camp-style, we got the plumbing finished in the kitchen so we can wash dishes at the sink. Who know this would be such a luxury?!?!

And finally, the norms.  For those of you who don't know, he was chasing 3 large deer and ran into a barbed wire fence the first day we moved out here. HUGE gashes in his fur. 2 of them were  super-glued back together. (In case you think this sounds cruel, I superglue whatahusband back together all the time!) 1 of them...the gash near his tail...split open every time he moved or wagged his tail. So, this dog, who has more room to run around than he ever had before...had to spend the entire first week inside on his bed. All day every day. Poor guy! He would look outside and sigh, or go stand next to the door just begging to be let out. He was hating his life. Especially when I started putting large band-aids on his butt.

Thankfully, he is all healed up! The gash finally closed up (thank you Lord, I was getting worried!), and we haven't seen him on his bed since.  Just a curly brown tail bobbing in and out of the hay field...just where a country dog should be.