31 January 2012

Lions and Tigers and Bears--OH MY!

This was the bulk of my purchase at Wal-Mart yesterday. Is it just me, or is anyone else seeing a trend?

'Outside Day'

The temperature is supposed to reach 72 degrees, so at least part of my day will be spent outside. Maybe start cleaning up the garden space or something.

. . .BTW the last two letters of my GOBEE plan stand for Eating and Exercising (less of one; more of the other) Those two are represented by one "E." The last "E" stands for Ebay. I've opened an Ebay store involving one of my hobbies--but more on that later. Haven't really got it going full speed yet.

So just to recap:
G--Garden
O--Organize
B--Book and Blog
E--Eating and Exercising
E--Ebay

29 January 2012

More Mattie Lou

Here's another 'cool' entry from Mattie Lou's 1947 Journal:
Monday March 3
Colder this morning. Bob Wilkins came and we wormed all the calves.
Washed a little. Broke my wash board. Makes me sick. I have had it for 6 years.
Buster has gone to farm with a load of hay for the cows.
B. went to see "California" and I visited with Jo and Les (Took a bath).

28 January 2012

Joining the 21st Century

OK. We 'caved.' We joined the 21st century and purchased a flat-screen TV. Wow! Got it hooked up and working today.

Got the pinto beans soaking and they'll be ready to go in the morning.

I'm a bit tispy (on amaretto sours) so I better sign off before I type something I'll regret!

Runnin' Around

.Just a runnin' around Saturday. Thrift Town and Goodwill (my two favorite places to shop). I found a new (to us) slow cooker at Goodwill. Bigfoot broke our other one (I had it sitting on the floor kinda out of the way under the table and he still managed to kick the knob off with his big foot---not able to repair). I like to cook pinto beans in the slow cooker. . . I need to put some to soak overnight right now. Better go do that before I forget!

27 January 2012

"B" is for Book and Blog

My GOBEE plan continues . . ."G" is for garden, "O" is for organize, "B" is for book and blog.

Several years ago at a flea market I came upon an old set of handwritten journals. They were written by a lady named Mattie Lou Ewing. Mattie lived in Sulphur Springs and I have her journals from 1947, 1948, 1949, 1956, and 1962. She lived, what she probably considered, a very normal rural farm life. But reading these journals in the 21st century, one realizes what a truly different world it was.

So . . .right now I am in the process of transcribing these journals. Eventually I would like to do some research about her and the 40's and 50's, etc. and somehow work it all into a book. (And now I've got time to do it).

Here's a little peek at Mattie's first few entries of 1947:

Wednesday—January 1
This is the first diary I ever attempted to keep, but I know
I will enjoy every “day” of this new year. The snow and ice has everything
completely covered, and it's a very beautiful sight. I have a head-ache, but am
having a wonderful time, with my rag rug. B.B. is at the farm and will bring
the calf home for food.

Thursday—January 2
It’s still dark and gloomy out-side. Buster is at the farm
feeding cows. I am feeling fine today and “Short Tom” is enjoying our bright
fire. We went to see “Janie Gets Married” at the mission. We came home by 8 and
listened to radio. The calf was delivered to plant and killed. We will have
plenty of beef.

(B.B. and/or Buster is her husband).

I have also kept a handwritten journal since I was a little girl (off and on), so I find this sort of thing very interesting.

I'm also going to attempt to do better with this blog--try to make an entry almost every day--I always feel it will probably be boring . . .

20 January 2012

GOBEE Continued . . .

What a beautiful day! 82 degrees on January 20th?!

Hung out with my mom today. Had to drive her to a doctor appointment. Then she and I met my aunt (her sister) at Montgomery Street Antiques Mall and had lunch at their little cafe. Browsed for a bit . . .

The "O" in my GOBEE Plan (see previous post) stands for "organize." I have to make sense out of this place . . . these rooms . . . this yard . . . etc! Just yesterday Bill came home from work and told me, "I'm gonna get some old boards from the jobsite." I said, "What are we going to do with old boards?" And he said, "Build stuff.". . . . . . 'Nuf said.

I have my own 'hoarding' issues to contend with. But I, at least, want it to be 'orderly chaos.'

I'll keep you posted . . .

18 January 2012

The GOBEE Plan

Now that I am a 'stay-at-home' wife (which, just 2 days in, I'm lovin' it!), I've got to make sure that I stay busy and productive--at least part of the time.

So I've come up with my GOBEE plan. GOBEE is an acronym for the 'projects' I want to work on during my new-found extra time. Now, keep in mind, that these projects are in addition to the daily 'gotta do' stuff.

I'm going to "GO BEE productive."

So . . . the first letter (G) stands for GARDEN. I want to have a very nice garden this spring. And since I'll be home most of the time I'll be able to take extra care with it. And, believe it or not, it's already about time to start thinking about it.

I'll share the rest of my GOBEE Plan one-by-one over the next several days.

16 January 2012

Cat-fishing?

Here are a few of Bigfoot's cats (Ascot, Blanket, and Spot). They are 'fishing' for birds. Below is a picture of the 'bait' at which they are staring. Don't fret--the 'bait' is positioned so that they will not be successful with any capture attempt.
The cats really enjoy sitting in my flower pots, so I'm not sure if I should even attempt any spring flower planting.
Bigfoot has a new toy that he will use at work--but I'll let him tell you about that . . .
My big news--LONG story short . . . for health reasons I resigned my teaching position about a month ago and Friday the 13th was my last day on the job. VERY emotional time--I really didn't want to quit but found it necessary.
So now I'm going to be a 'kept woman' and I'm gonna love it!
I've got a few projects in mind to keep me busy, but more on those later.

01 January 2012

LAST OF THE OBAMA US DESTRUCTION YEARS.??

Not a whole lot to report here.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL.....!!
Working in Dallas now, and the drive is FUN.!! Been salvaging some stuff, but hard to keep good workers on hand for that nowdays. Had Jackie and my nephew Joe hooked up for a few days last week, and even paying them $60 cash per day, buying them lunch daily (friday took them to El Chico's), and giving them a ride in the towncar to and from the job...they aren't too interested to do anything this coming week. (Lazy F-ERs.!!)
(any idea what real wood true louvered interior doors cost today?.....NOT cheap..but these are going to be buried to rot slowly underground...a HUGE WASTE of value --- the Amerikan Korporate Way for the last 50 yrs)
This is only 16 apts of doors.....we have 150 more apts to demo.
It's truly amazing the stuff that comes out of these old 1964 era apts and gets tossed into a roll-off dumpster to go to the landfill. I'm scavanging what I can and still do my job as the superintendent-"helper" project mgr. I did save about 15 Kwikset deadbolts with keys, and a few insulated metal entry door units (with jambs attached), and some bypass slider closet doors with tracks to hang them on....but I "could" get fairly new 1.6 gal/per flush commodes...and wall-hung bath lavs...and stainless steel kitch sinks with faucets.....but no time to pull these out, so they mostly end up going to the landfill....this is horrible..but I don't have the time or manpower to handle it....I'll save what I can.
Spent New Years Eve afternoon at my son's IN-law's house not far from where I live. Went over to "see" how they were coming on a quick weekend deck bldg job. A 14x16 elevated deck, 2' off the ground. Ended up staying and helping for 4 hours. Got it finished up and it was nice to build something again for a change...I like doing that kinda stuff, but haven't done so in awhile.
Caren and I had Sonic hotdogs and milkshakes for our New Years Eve din din...was asleep by 9 with the sound of fireworks in the not to distant background.
Caren went to Oklahoma to the casinos last week with her mom for a day or so....she DID NOT win....and I have not asked how much she lost..keeps things smoother that way.
Here is my son's rock crawler Sammy Suzuki 4cyl. This thing is small but will climb over nearly anything with him behind the wheel. He's leaving this at my place for a few weeks.
My son stopped by today, and we loaded up a Caddy motor that I picked up for him he bought on Craigslist a few weeks ago. We think it's about 650lbs of 1972 Eldorado motor....500cubic inches...back when gas was 20 cents a gallon and High Horsepower and torque was kool. (your avg 1970 full-sized sedan would pull a 5000# trailer easily at 12 mpg). Luckily I still had Caren's mom's JD tractor and it picked it up handily. He's gonna put this one in his white '70 Cad Coupe with air bags that he fixed up at the end of his high school days. I need to add pics of this old Cad soon.
Here's Jack the Ripper.....depressed about another year of Obamanation.