Farmer's Market...

My middle brother came up yesterday from Texas for a visit and we went this morning to see his youngest daughter who had brought some of her baby turkeys to our local small town farmer's market to sell, and it brought back childhood memories. If you've never been to a town's farmer's market you have missed a delightful experience. My first remembrance of a farmer's market was over 50 years ago in Oklahoma City. My mom and dad would go on Saturdays to get fresh vegetables and fruits during our growing season. There were other vendors that rented space on a year round basis, but my favorite's were the open air spaces. Not only were there all sorts of colors, shapes and sizes of vegetables and fruits, there were also folks that brought live chickens, turkeys, piglets, baby goats and sometimes even puppies. Mom would pick out her produce that she wanted and dad would usually get a couple of chickens. When we'd get home daddy would wring the chickens necks and those things would run around and flop and carry on until they died. Mom would have a pot of boiling water that she'd bring out and plunge those birds in to make it easier to pluck the feathers. For those of you who are too young to have had the experience of plucking chickens, let me tell you that wet chicken feathers are stinky. That was a job that us little ones would help with, then after we got all the feathers we could, my older sisters and brothers would work on whatever feathers were left, then mom would singe off the pinfeathers. From watching my mom, I can, to this day, cut up a chicken and even get a pulley bone (or wish bone to some folks). All the stinky, nasty feathers were well worth it, because my mom made the best fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy I've ever eaten, but I do have to add that mom and all us kids were really happy when the grocers started carrying already dressed out chickens.

Thanks for stopping by....

A Dubious Anniversary...

I wasn't going to comment about this, but with my twisted sense of humor urging me on I gave up the fight. On this date, 15 years ago, Lorena bobbed it with a kitchen knife and as she fled the home she had shared with her abusive, cheating husband, she threw the bobbed part in the field. Now at the time I couldn't decide what was more ironic.... the name Bobbitt or the removal of a good portion of the part that helped to convince her to change her last name to Bobbitt. Was this not a future foretold in the highest sense, if she had gone to a fortune teller or a seer would the have told her that she would become famous and then not tell her how she would gain her notoriety? Could she have dreamed that at the moment of whacking off the offending tallywhacker, a chorus of whoops and hollers erupted all across this nation and, hell, who knows, around the world, that women who had been abused, raped and belittled by their husbands, boyfriends or whomever yelled a collective "YES!!!" All those women who had thought about an action like that but didn't have the cajones (pardon the pun) now had their heroine. How many men, when they'd get to acting up, settled down immediately when they saw the raised eyebrow and heard spoken in a clear voice, "Remember about Lorena?... Like I said, I'm a twisted sister, but every time I hear the name Bobbitt, I can't help but chuckle a little perversly. Gentlemen, be kind to your ladies... you have to go to sleep sometime.

I'll try to get back to normal... tomorrow. Maybe...

Helen

Sweat .....

No other way to say it, it's just plain old sweat. It's a beautiful morning out here in the hinterlands and I've been out weeding in the garden. I noticed some poison ivy up close to the fence where the cantaloupe are growing and thought I'd better do some killing. I mixed up a couple of gallons in the sprayer and have been walking around doing some spraying and the sweat started dripping. I'm not talking a little dew on my upper lip, or a little glow on my brow, I mean running down my face, dripping on my feet, the plants,and on my glasses if I bend over, salty, drippy sweat. I always heard, growing up, that it was okay for ladies to glow a little, maybe even get to that next level, perspire, but, as the commercial says, don't ever let them see you sweat. I don't have to worry much about anybody seeing me, out here in the boonies, but dang, I hate it when the sweat drips on my glasses. It's only 75 degrees outside, with a 10-12 mph south breeze, so I didn't think when I went out about putting on a sweat band or tying a hankie around my head. I guess before I go out I'm going to have to remember to do just that or get over getting irritated when I drip on my glasses. One good thing, though... "they" say that perspiration is good for cleansing your pores and keeping your face nice and zit free... I ought to have the nicest skin in town.

Have a good one and try to stay cool...

Good Morning....

When I let my girls out this morning I realized it was one of those beautiful summer mornings that made you want to go outside and just enjoy. It's about 80 degrees this morning after a very warm afternoon yesterday (96 degrees) and it took me back to childhood days when we would always be out the door as soon as we had breakfast. My favorite days were the days the milkman would come to deliver the milk, butter, cream and eggs. You see, I've always been crazy for horses, even as a little girl, and our milkman came in a horse-drawn wagon for about a year after we moved to the big house. The horse was a dappled gray, and I would stand and pet that velvety soft nose and talk to him while the milkman was taking our order to the back door. Once in a while the milkman would even let me ride in the wagon with him to the corner. Although we were only the third house from the corner, that was one of my biggest summer treats. I smile even now as I think of those times....

Y'all have a good day now, y'hear...

Why? (or why not?)

First, the why not? Sometimes on the road of life we come to a crossroads and have to make a decision.... do we stay on the main road or try a "road less traveled"? Now I don't know about you all out there in blog-land, but I've always been one with a curious nature and can hardly resist trying to find out what's around the corner. So this seems to be where this road is taking me, into the wonderful world of blogging. I have always enjoyed yakking it up with friends and now have decided that the world is my friend, so here I am. The why? part of this post came after trying to sign on to post today for about an hour. First off Google didn't recognize me, or my user name. When I finally got that figured out, my password didn't work with my user name. I do understand that probably in this western world I am one of the most technologically challenged people I know and therefore I probably have no business even trying to do this blogging adventure, but I am also aware that I have to "use it or lose it" as far as my brain functions are concerned and I am one of the more stubborn people I know, so here I am trying to teach this old dog new tricks... providing, of course, that I can remember how to sign back on again for the next post.

Until that time y'all have a good day now, y'hear...

Country Life

Besides a number of other revelations about country living in bfe America, one of the biggest for me to get used to is satellite television and satellite internet. If there is even a sprinkle of rain the internet satellite is the first to go. It does, admittedly, take a bit more of a thunderstorm to take out our television satellite. This has made for more than one or two anxious times during an unusually high storm and tornado season. Living in what is affectionately called tornado alley and living in a double wide mobile home and no cellar, or "hidey hole" as they are called in these parts, if there is a hint of anything bad blowing up around us we start formulating a plan for where could we go in the house if we didn't have time to leave. Early on last week we had big storms barreling towards our area of the woods and the diddily-dang cable tv went out. We all put on our shoes, got flashlights, just in case, and greater minds than mine decided the safest place to get would be the pantry... That would be two larger ladies, a 6' 5" son, myself and 3 dogs in approximately 5 X 8 room with shelves. Now over the years I've had bouts with fighting claustrophobia, and my palms are starting to sweat about this time. I decided that I needed to be the lookout....You know the one that when the weatherman say tornado watch, I go out and watch for it. Fortunately the plan didn't have to be put into action, but I'm going to start investigating "safe rooms" that one could get in to with a motorized wheelchair. Just trying to take some prepatory action. Still haven't figured out how to download photos to the site, but I'm working on it.... Y'all have a good day ya hear!!

Reddirt woman gonna go out in the garden and get down and dirty doing some way past due weeding.

Life in the red dirt world...

In our wonderful red dirt world if it rains you have a red mud world. If you have children, which I don't, or if you have dogs that are like your children, and I have two, one of your challenges is how to get red dirt out of any good clothes. I've found that the best thing for me to do is to not wear anything that you have to worry about getting the stains out of in the first place. Since we aren't exactly socialites I don't have to worry what to wear when I'm out doing the yard work or tending to the garden. I would probably be on the fashionista's 10 most wanted lists for a make over if anyone ever visited. I've learned not to wear white or anything light in color when I go to town because my furbabies will be jumping on me when I get home. While it is wonderful to be welcomed home like that, it doesn't bode well for any nicer clothes in light colors. I do think that the girls, my furbabies, are smarter than I am, however, because at my age and my shape I really don't need to wear anything but darker colors.

As I learn more about how to do this blogging stuff I'll start posting pictures of my girls, as well as my world out here in the red dirt. So bear with me as I learn about all these things and I'll try to keep you all entertained...