I'm Ready for Anything.

Got Beer
Got Arbor Mist
Got Tia Maria for the coffee
Got snacks
Got movies
I'm ready to say adios to 2009 and welcome in a new decade!

You Know What?

I find it odd that reality TV has taken such a toe-hold in America.

,,,,I don't care if Tiger Woods had numerous girlfriends, he's still a great golfer. His girlfriends are nobodies business except his and his wife's.

,,,,I don't care if Jon and Kate are divorced. I don't think either of them are capable of thinking of anyone right now except themselves. The losers in all the drama are their children. How did their lives become so important that it had to be played out on TV anyway?

,,,,And don't get me started on OctoMom!

The best entertainment on TV lately has been the commercials. Have y'all seen the Beef Jerky commercials with the Sasquatch?

Christmas 09

Two of these are nieces, can you guess which ones (a hint, they're twins)? The other little divas are 5 of our granddaughters. This was the quietest they managed to be all evening; they were watching a movie on TV. I think it was a horror movie called Jack Frost or something very nonChristmasy.

Whew, I'm Beat!

I wanted to buy James a new shotgun for Christmas this year so today we went to Mack's Prairie Wing in Stuttgart, AR; quite a large sporting goods store. See the empty parking lot up there in the advertising photo? Well, today it was smack dab full, and as soon as I walked through the door and was bombarded with wall-to-wall human males clothed in cameo, I realized I had found Hell.

There wasn't room to walk so you sort of traversed with weaving motions through maze of bodies. Some were weaving themselves, some were merely standing in groups of 3 or more discussing their afternoon hunting plans, I believe some were even having family reunions. There were camouflaged persons who pushed and shoved their way through the aisles, and women with shopping carts prodding you from behind. Worst of all, it was impossible to tell which bodies were working there and which were shoppers, so after standing at one counter for about 30 minutes for a hunting knife purchase I'd had enough and started staggering my way through to the front doors and some much needed fresh air.

We did come home with a shotgun but we didn't buy it there cause I'm pretty sure we'd still be standing in line at one of those counters hoping that one of those folks we kept asking for help actually worked there.

I'm Trying here.

Tae Kwon Do is done till around mid-January.

I'm not through Christmas shopping and not sure when I will be.

Lacking the Christmas spirit and not sure it'll be happening.

Just all blah.

Come December

On or about December 1st I'm going to get back into the swing of things and do some serious blogging.

No more excuses.

Later dudes and dudettes. :-)

Photo Challenge - Ageless

It's time for a new challenge and the prompt this time is Ageless. I can't wait to see how everyone interprets this. Be sure to go over to our Photo Challenge Blog and click on the names of all the participants in the comments.


Ageless is "Old Man River". Can you imagine how long it took to carve its way from the far north state of Minnesota all the way down to the gulf? If he could only talk, the tales he could tell....

"Well, I built me a raft and she's ready for floatin'
Ol Mississippi she's callin' my name
Catfish are jumpin', that paddle wheel thumpin'
Black water keeps rolling on past just the same
Old black water, keep on rollin'
Mississippi moon won't you keep on shinin' on me?"

Ageless is our ancient moon. How many turns of the Earth has it witnessed since it's birth?

"Don't go around tonight, Well, it's bound to take your life, There's a bad moon on the rise."

Ageless is our ever eternal sunsets (and sunrises).

Red sails in the sunset, way out on the sea.
Oh, carry my loved one home safely to me.

Don't Forget the Photo Challenge Tomorrow!

The photo prompt is Ageless. Go sign up at our Photo Challenge Blog and show us what you've got. It's FUN!!

Learning to Drive

Every time I hear that song it reminds me of learning to drive when I was a kid. It was much different for me than it is for lots of kids these days because there aren't as many rural roads now as there were back then. By rural I mean unpaved roads that only had a few cars or trucks traveling them every day. The one we lived on when I drove for the first time was just under a mile long and it was a dirt lane shade lined with every kind of tree.

I think I was in about the 3rd grade when PaPaw decided that he could get busy farmin' earlier in the day if he taught me to drive my sister and I to school. It didn't deter him that although I could see enough of the road through the steering wheel to keep the car between the ditches, I couldn't see the road a'tall when I had to scoot down to push in the clutch to change gears. This didn't create too big a problem the times I scooted, pushed, and shifted all quick like, but when I didn't push in quite far enough and it wouldn't shift right off, I'd be weaving from one side of that little dirt lane to the other. That time right before we reached the end of the lane where I'd have to scoot way down in order to push in both brake and clutch, it finally happened. I wove too far one way or the other during my scootin' time and ran us off into the ditch. He took off walking and fussin' about how if I was gonna run into the ditch I could have done it back closer to the house so he wouldn't have to walk so far to get the tractor.

That was the end of my driving that day but by the time I was about 10 I could drive most things with wheels on it, if it would crank.

Tippy Toeing with an Occasional Trip

That's pretty much been what it's been like around here of late. It's rained, and rained, and rained some more, then the sun will pop out all bright and shiny for a day or two before it clouds up and dumps some more of the wet stuff. It's the makings of a nightmare harvest and these farmers around here are some very grumpy fellas.

The farm managers ain't real happy either.

And the wives of these men aren't being too terribly sociable.

On a better note, Alexis had all 100 - A's on her report card! Zach had 3 B's and 2 C's. Jami told me Krysten, Abbie, and MeriKate had A's and B's on their reports, so that's all good. I'm sure Jordan and Jaylen had A's across the board too because they're bright young'uns. Maybe we'll get all of these children through school some day, won't that be nice?

I attended the Parent/Teacher conferences at school on Wednesday with my usual aggravation about the parking around that place. The high school students take up the biggest portion of the parking and that doesn't leave a whole lot of room for the teachers and practically NONE for visiting parents. I mentioned to a board member that it might be practical to disallow the underage drivers a parking place even though they hold a "hardship" license to drive. I say this because according to the Arkansas DMV regulations, hardship licenses are not to be issued merely for the convience of the parents but I grant you, each and every one of the 14 and 15 yr olds who drive to school here has a school bus that goes by their house before and after school. Riding the bus would surely cut down on some of the traffic messes in front of the school as well.

Ok, all done tripping through my mind. I hope everyone is having a super weekend!

Highways and Bi-Ways Photo Challenge

Heading home after turning onto the first gravel road from the highway.

A right turn onto this gravel road takes you right to my drive after you travel just a bit less than a mile.

Standing in front of my drive looking north along the road.

Winding highway near Mountain View, Arkansas in the Ozarks.

Lastly here's a shadowy, cool, look at lost road again.

Thanks for coming by to see my Highways and Bi-Ways. Don't forget to skip over to the Photo Challenge Blog and click on the comment links to see all the other participants. This is always fun practice with our cameras!

Get Real!

I don't need to watch Jon and Kate on TLC to get a dose of reality cause we've got a soap opera type of reality going on here in the delta most every damned day.

Trish isn't speaking to me now for the past good while because of my "hateful ways". I know I have plenty of those but I'm not quite sure just how that applies in this case, however I'm respecting her wishes cause I'm all out of the energy it takes to try to figure out what I've done wrong this time.

Jami and her girls loaded up last night and moved to Union City, TN and I'm not happy about that either. I won't elaborate on this right now because my fuse is short on the subject.

James continues to take off his boots and leave them on the porch to get rained on (and it's rained a LOT lately), and continues to bitch and moan because he forgot to bring them in and they're all wet inside. I don't know about you, but after doing this once I think I'd have learned my lesson from having squishy feet.

That's all for now but I'll think of some more later, I'm sure.

So, you want reality? Come on over, I'll give you a big dose of it and you won't have to watch any commercials.

WAIT, wait! Don't forget the newest Photo Challenge that's happening tomorrow! Hop on over to the fine Photo Challenge Blog that Miz Donna fixed up for us and sign up to join in the comments. Get to shootin' some Highways & Bi-ways!

Creaks and Moans

The sounds around here are not from a Halloween booger but do to me whining cause my back and legs have been paining me something ferocious lately. I do a little, wait for the pain to ease, then do a little more. I gotta tell ya, not a whole lot is getting done around here.

Looking Back on the Week

The Chick told her momma:

I know where Lost Vegas is and I know where Lost Angeles is, but where in the heck is the Awful Tower?


Beans cons James into a ride on the 4wheeler any time that he's at home at mid-afternoon and she's in the neighborhood. On Wednesday she insisted they go a mile or so down the road so she could show him a dead possum that someone had run over. Then on the way back home she had him stop the ATV so she could stand on the front and sing the Hannah Montana song to him. Her interests cover a wide range.


Abbey has new glasses! She looks SO sweet in them!


Cause I just keep going back in time.

And it's 1, 2, 3, ,,,,

Sometimes this song slips into my mind and just plays itself over and over even now, all these years later it seems just as appropriate.

Obama’s Speech Lacked Punch

Obama’s Speech Lacked Punch


I like this guy.

Photo Challenge - Pets

These two kitties were residents at the corner farm stand and were nice enough to patiently poses for me.

I almost let this one get by me. I was in the bed already and it came to me that this was October! Next I remembered what the date was in October, and then I remembered that Cindra and I had just talked about it being time for the Pet Photo challenge.

Don't forget to go over to the Photo challenge blog and click on the comments to see everyone's great challenge photos!

It's About Time

Beginning Thursday it will become illegal to text and drive in Arkansas. This is a good thing but I think they should make the fines a little stiffer in order to really begin to deter accidents and deaths from this idiotic practice.

Maybe if they make the laws at the federal level and up the fine.

Muscadine : The South's Own Grape

Soul asked me what a muscadine was so I thought I'd post a picture and a little information about this wild (or cultivated) southern grape.

They're a good bit larger than most grape varieties and they're very good for you, even better than blueberries and blackberries some say. The skin is tougher than regular grapes and after I bite into one and enjoy the sweet, juicy insides, I love to chew on the skin to get that last burst of muscadine flavor. Grandma used to make purple muscadine jelly from the skins and white muscadine jelly from the insides.

Delicious!

Another favorite way to enjoy this fruit is muscadine wine. Post Familie winery in Arkansas makes some of my favorite varities; red, white, blush, all wonderful!

Whenever I taste a muscadine it brings back memories of walking along the cotton field turn rows in September looking for vines loaded with those wonderful fruits.

Happy Fall Y'all!

The farm stand a few miles down the road is all decorated for Fall.

Fall is a lovely season, but it makes me sad too cause the days are getting shorter and shorter,

And I know that Fall leads to Winter and I so hate to be cold.

Maybe Winter will pass in a flash like our summer did
and it'll be Spring then Summer again.

Short List

We thought Willie died, but he didn't. His brother did die though and that's very sad news for Willie.



Jillian, aka, Beans, declined her asparagus at supper and decided she rather have a taste of the Elephant Ear plants growing in the flower beds. She bled, she swelled, she couldn't swallow for a bit, but the poison control center said Elephant Ear caladiums are not poisonous but she will have those icky reactions (mouth bleeding, swelling, problems swallowing) for a few hours. We need to find a better way for her to get her greens.

Photo Challenge - Food

A Kid's favorite cuisine always includes fast food burgers and fries. Wendy's burgers are almost bearable.

These next photos are of some of our babies enjoying so cool, sweet, watermelon. From looking at Bean's size these were taken about 3 years ago. The first one is of Jordan.

Here you have the Beans.

The Chick and Beans.

This is one of my snacks, a cup of coffee and a cookie for dunking.

Miz Donna chose food as our challenge prompt this time and I've had to scrounge through some old photos to find some. Time just got away from me; not because I've been busy or anything, but just in a fog and quite lazy about doing most everything.

Anyway, y'all don't forget to go over to the Photo challenge Blog and click on the links in the comments to see everyone's Food challenge photos.

Remembering Ben

In memory and in honor of her sweet grandson, Ben, Miz Sally is having a wonderful giveaway for a lucky young person. All you Mommas, and Aunties, and Grandmas, Grandpas, Uncles, and Daddies too, should hop on over there to see what it's all about!

7th Grade Barton Bears Football

We've got little uns

and

We've got a couple of big uns.

They all looked like real ball players out there, even with their coaches assisting them to keep them lined up like they were supposed to be.

Those were some big ol' boys raised on the banks of the White River that our little Bears played last night. But that's ok, ours will grow and losing their first game by just one touchdown ain't bad.

A Waste of Time

I've been thinking for some time now about some of the problems going on in this great country of ours and I spent quite some time doing research so that I'd have all the facts to support my opinions.

I've decided now that it's all just a waste of time because, if the truth be known, the citizens in this great country of ours could not get together and agree on anything if their lives, or even their children's lives depended on it.

For every truth one finds 20 untruths and, as often is the case, it doesn't seem to be about if something read, or said, is the truth or not, but it's whoever can protest, yell, and holler, or afford the cheesiest television ads who gets noticed and who is eventually believed by a whole lot of people who don't know any better.

And you know something else that is so sad? The conservatives who expressed this terrible fear over the past week that the president's address to our students would be used to push a partisan political agenda, that's what.

Friends, we shouldn't worry about what terrorists might do to our country. We're well on the road to destroying it ourselves.

Photo Challenge - Purple

This was a hard one for me cause there's not much of anything the color purple around my house and neighborhood. But our Beans did wear purple to school on Tuesday so I was able to snap her cute self posing in purple.

These are some pretty little weeds that were growing beside the highway. I had to slam on my brakes and back up to get this shot. Luckily it was a rural highway and the traffic was almost nothing.

My purple morning glories.

It's that time again! Upload anything purple that you've snapped with your camera, post them to your blog, then go over to our photo challenge blog and follow the directions to leave a comment about your post.

It's fun!

And we love to see your work!

Thank you Miz Donna for the purple idea!

Sports Equipment Stupid

Zach is playing jr. high sports and they've been practicing football. Yesterday he brought home his mouth guard with instructions for me to "boil it so I can form it to my mouth."

So I did,,,for several minutes cause I forgot about it.

It started out looking something like the ones in the top photo. The end result was the strange object below.

What he meant to say was "put it in boiling water" for a minute. He's pretty mad at me for following his instructions. We both now know that mouth guards are not boilable.

And he forgot to take money this morning to replace it. I reckon I'm in hot water again.

Mousy Demise

Jerri took this pic while they were in Panama Beach, Fl a little over a week ago.

While Jerri was helping Zach to clean his room on Saturday, they found some baby mice in the bottom of his couch/toybox. (Yep, I'm going to have to give up on my farmer and call the exterminator) . Beans and Alexis rescued one and decided they would make him a home outdoors (at our insistence). Anyway, they laid mousy down and somehow, Beans stepped on him which brought a quick demise for the little fella, so they decided a funeral was needed.

Nanaw to Alexis: Are you going to eulogize him the way my brother did when my sister lost her kitten? "Asses to asses, butts to butts, if he'd kept his butt out from under that car, he'd still be with us."

Without missing a beat or a change of expression, Alexis said, "No, I'll say, Lord, Lord, why did this mouse die? Cause Jillian stepped on him and now she's about to cry."

There is never a dull moment around here.

Weather Forecaster

I picked Beans up from preschool on Wednesday because her Momma was busy with plumbing woes. She got busy right away watching cartoons on Noggin. When PopPop got home a little earlier than usual and asked Beans if he could turn the TV for just a minute to see what the weather forecast was, she jumped up, went and looked out the door, and told him, "It's sunny", before sitting back down to watch Little Bear.

Gonna catch up tomorrow!

I hope. I hate when I miss a day or two of reading what my blog buds have been up to.

We had a little rain today, the clouds looked ominous but only had a little shower.

Had visits from the Chick and Beans the last two days, that's been sweet and funny.

The neighbor's dog took a bite of our Beans today, THAT wasn't a bit sweet or funny!

I visited the doc today, some blood work, some new pills to try, but can't really fix old and creaky.

Gonna hit the hay, hope everyone's been having a great week!

First Day Back to School!

Bored but cute. :-)

Photo Challenge- "View From Above"

Today's the day for the newest Brenda Photo Challenge and Miz Charmine was kind enough to choose our challenge prompt, "A View From Above", and our display date. Thank you bunches Miz Charmine!

Looking down at Zach and PopPop as they climbed down for a closer view of the Blanchard Springs that are responsible for the Blanchard Springs Caverns in the Ozark National Forest near Mountain View. (Please click any of the pictures for a larger view).

Looking down on a portion of Sylamore Creek near Mountain View, AR.

A shot of the White River taken from atop the Bluff at Calico Rock, Ar.

A view of the overflow from Mirror Lake, part of the creeks and streams near Blanchard Springs in Arkansas.

I had a lot of fun with this one! Be sure to visit the Brenda Photo challenge Blog comments to view all of the other wonderful views for this challenge.

Thank you again Miz Charmine!

More of the Ozarks

The guy at the general store had these baby rattlers in a box.

You'll probably need to click to enlarge the picture to see them better.

A collage of some different views in and around Mountain View, AR. The last picture is of the small painting I bought by Ken IronHorse.