Wilma Meets The Water Faucet

Its been too long since I, best blogger at Our Little Ranch, have written a blog. I've been pretty busy lately and just haven't had the time to sit down to write. Not that I am griping, but having Wilma (or any puppy for that matter) is hard work and it seems one of us always has to be watching her, feeding her, or cleaning up after her.

Adding to my busy-ness recently was the fact that Luke was a bit under the weather yesterday, so with him and Wilma, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off!

While we were in South Texas this past weekend, Wilma came along for the trip. While the 3.5 hour car trip with Wilma sounded a little scary to us, we want to get her "broken in" for car trips so that we can take her with us when we go visit our family in Indiana.

The little puppy rode in Luke's lap the whole way there and the whole way back. This is a change for us because usually Luke drives everywhere and I'm the passenger. Wilma's arrival has turned me into the primary driver, mainly because I'm not as good at playing with Wilma as Luke is. I tend to panic when she starts biting me, or gets bored, or starts barking. I will be glad when she's out of the puppy phase. So will Luke, because lets just say... I'm not the best driver. While I drive painfully below the speed limit (I'm terrified of getting a speeding ticket), my issues with driving lie in simply not paying attention. There were several almost-accidents on this trip.

While we were in South Texas, Luke and I wanted to run into Kingsville for a few hours to check out the antique shops there. My wonderful mom (former Bulldog breeder) volunteered to keep Wilma for the time we were gone. As Luke and I got into the car to drive away, I gleefully squealed, "We're free!" and we peeled out. Its not that we don't adore Wilma — we do. It was just nice to have a break.

About 2 hours later we returned and found Wilma outside playing - soaking wet. You see, Grandma Luann (my mom) introduced Wilma to a water faucet. We have now discovered that it is the cheapest toy you'll ever find. The best part is that Wilma plays so hard that she tuckers herself out and then sleeps for hours afterwards.

Here's some photos of Wilma playing while we were in South Texas.



Not only does she like to drink from the faucet, but she loves to let the water run on her back. She goes crazy!


Rock climbing is one of Wilma's newer hobbies. Look at her face. If that ain't a happy puppy, I don't know what is.

I think she thought we were about to take that stick out of her mouth. Not so happy, here.

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We asked Wilma, "Hey Wilma, do you like cats?" This is the face she made. Excellent sense of humor.

More playing.

Wilma - senior portrait style.

She loved this grass. It is a special drought resistant grass that is thick and deep. Only bad news is that she laid there and got bit on her belly by either ants or chiggers. She had big red welps on her stomach but they cleared up.

Sometimes she runs so fast her ears start catching some wind and flop up! Wilma the bat bulldog!

Cat talking to Cats.

So as promised here is the blog that maybe reveals a little too much of the weird world that is Our Little Ranch.

***Our legal counsel said that we should write a disclaimer to this blog so those men in white lab coats don't try to come get my wife. So this blog is written in good fun and no actual accounts of real life cats talking actually took place.***

But use your imagination anyway, it makes life mucho better. And this is how the cat talking ordeal went down.

Two nights ago Catherine and I were just about to go to bed and Catherine blurted out "Do you know what Dixie just told me?!"

I responded with "No, I do not know what the cat just told you." I said it in a very "here we go again" tone.

Catherine proceeded with this:

"Well she told me that she has been hearing us make a fuss about how much we like the porch kitties and she needed to get some things straight. First off, this is her house and she is not sure why we keep calling it ours. She told me that she is the master here and we need to do what she tells us to, not the other way around. She also said to me that all decision making processes like bringing a new pet into our lives would have to be brought up to her at a weekly household meeting. And finally that when we are gone she has parties at the house, because it is her house and she can do what she wants."

Seriously, I cannot make this stuff up. I about wet my britches and could do nothing but smile. Catherine told the story with such a serious face I was beginning to wonder if the cat could actually talk and I just was not paying close enough attention.

We don't say much about Dixie because she really is from "the bad place." You know, like H-E-Double Hockey Stick! She is evil! She will just randomly latch onto our arm and hold on for way more than 8 seconds while you flail your arm around in the air as you run around the house trying to get away from Satan kitty. But the weird thing is after she makes an attempt at your life, she then crawls back on you and starts to purr. It's like she is thinking "Okay, we are friends again.'' The vet told Catherine that she should put her on anti-depressants to help her. Does that sound like rubbish to anyone else?

Even though Dixie/Diddles/Rucifee (the list goes on and on!) is mean at times she can also be very sweet. Here are some pictures of "The Lady of the House" when she was a little younger. I have tried to get some pictures of her recently, but each time I do the camera explodes.



This is Dixie and her brother Tad when they were just babies. I wish her eyes were still blue like this, but now they are yellow/tan/green.


Here they are again. This was one of the last pictures of Tad. Unfortunately, the guy who comes and fills up the semen tanks with nitrogen ran over Tad. And that was the end of that.


But Dixie has moved past that, and here she is playing Christmas Kitty. She still gets in the tree, but with her current body condition score, the tree tends to lean and/or fall over when she gets near the top.

Here she is working. Dixie likes play pretend secretary.

So that is the most recent Cat talking experience I have had. I am sure that I will be met with something like "Luke, Dixie just told me how much she likes her pictures on the internet," when I get out of here.

Until next time friends!

Real People

So as you know Catherine and I headed up to Indiana for Easter with my family. We had told my sister that when we are up there we would like to take pictures of my nieces so we can actually have pictures of people and not just cattle (or Catherine and I taking pictures of ourselves). I told Cassie, my sister, that when the girls are dressed up in their Easter dresses we would try to get some good pictures of them.

Well any of you that have young children know that getting a four and six year old girl to cooperate is quite an undertaking. I have not, not that I won’t eventually, put up the “outtakes” of the girls. You know the ones with tongues sticking out, dresses over their head, and the like. Since this is such a serious blog I will just keep those to myself. Ya right! I will post them too and I am sure that years down the road my nieces will hate this blog and try to convince me that I need to pay for their therapy for the embarrassment they have sustained from the pictures I posted of them. I am pretty sure that was the longest run on sentence on this blog and if it makes no sense just forget I wrote it.

Continuing on with my story. We tried to get the girls to pose for us and tell them how to hold their hands, where to look, etc. For the most part they did great, but more than once they would say “Are we done yet?” or they would see an egg they did not find on the hunt and run after it.

However, we were able to get a few good pictures of the girls and even some of the newest addition to the family, Madi Bonebrake. Madi is the daughter of Adam and Stephanie Bonebrake. Adam is my first cousin. I think. I am really awful at getting that stuff straight. I really have to think about it when I am trying to tell someone how a family member is related to me.

For those of you who have seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off you should remember when Simone is explaining to the Economics Teacher about how Farris is really sick. And for those of you who have not seen this great movie, and are going to rent it right now, here is the quote:

Economics Teacher: Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

Simone: Um, he's sick. My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious.

Economics Teacher: Thank you, Simone.

Simone: No problem whatsoever.

When I am trying to explain where someone is in my family tree I am always like “He is my Mom’s Sister’s son.” which would make Madi my Mom’s Sister’s Son’s Daughter. Does that make her my second cousin? I think so. Sorry Steph and Adam, I know I should know this stuff better.

Anyway, enough jibber jabber. Here are the pictures!!!!



This is my youngest niece, Sophie.





This is my niece second cousin, Madi. Still can't get that right.



This is Hunter, another niece. Isn't that what my Mom's Daughter's Daughter is? I think I could really confuse people if I started talking like that. It kind of reminds me of those stupid questions on standardized tests that go like this. If all Whirps are Twits and all Twits are GargleBoomers, are all Whirps GargleBoomers? Does anyone else remember those? I think the answer is yes, but it always makes me nervous having to think about those.

Also, so everything is not black and white, here is a picture with some color! It is Hunter again.



Last thing, I promise. Don't forget about the comment contest that we have going. Tomorrow I will tell you what the prize is. Trust me, you want to leave as many comments as you can! Ok get some sleep and be sure to check back tomorrow for the prize announcement.

Forgive the absence.

It's been almost a whole week since we've blogged! Gosh... I bet you thought we'd dropped off the face of the earth, or as sooo many bloggers do, start going months at a time without updating.

Have no fear! We're back and in full force.

We have a good excuse for the silence though. Luke and I drove... yes, drove... to Indiana for Easter. It's about 1100 miles each way. We left from Boling, Texas on Wednesday and arrived in New Richmond, Indiana late Thursday evening. I'm sure we've covered this before, but Luke's hometown of New Richmond, Indiana is actually the famous "Hickory, Indiana," that was in the basketball movie, Hoosiers. The movie was filmed in New Richmond, although they changed the name to Hickory for the film. Still, all over town, like the post office, the cafe, the town's welcome sign... it says Hickory. Pretty cool stuff. If this has already been on the blog... sorry about that!

Anyways, we had a great few days back "home," as Luke calls it. Of course Texas is and has always been my home, but as time goes by, mainly because of the people we love that live there, Indiana starts becoming more home-like too!

We snapped a ton of photos. I have a few to post on the blog now and I'm sure we'll be posting more tomorrow or the next day. We're lucky to have some real live people (translation: not our porch cats Beans or Buttons) to be in our photos. We have the cutest nieces, Hunter and Sophie, and their happy personalities were easy to catch on camera. These photos here weren't posed - I just snapped them during some fun moments.


Right at the start of the Easter dinner at Luke's parents house. Hunter's Easter dress was black - she looked like a complete diva and we all loved it!

My greatest discovery of the trip was pepper jelly. I was parked in the kitchen standing by the counter where my mother-in-law had all the food and snacks out. Everyone kept coming over and getting a Triscuit, putting cream cheese on it, and then this green jelly. I was just standing there watching, but finally braved the unknown and gave it a try.

After an undisclosed number of Triscuits+Cream Cheese+Pepper Jelly, followed by an outstanding dinner by Luke's mom, we headed outside for the Easter egg hunt. Luke had been helping the Easter bunny all morning so he was ready to let 'em at it. It's fun to learn how different families do things. When I was a kid, we hunted real eggs, and it was more about finding the eggs than candy or prizes. My parents and grandparents put on some great Easter's,


Now I'm realizing that Easter has turned into Christmas 2, because I overheard someone saying, "What are you going to ask the Easter Bunny to bring you?" Well... as you can see, the Easter bunny brought this family's kiddos plenty of treats, such as a hoola hoop in a tree, recorders (the musical instrument you play with your nose), and about 5 tons of candy. Crafty Easter Bunny, huh? Here, the Easter Bunny Uncle Luke is lining the girls out on the rules of the hunt. Sophie (left) has got her eye on the prize, already checking out that hoola hoop.



And they're off! Does this little angel look excited to be on an Easter egg hunt, or what?



We took a break from monitoring the egg hunt to photograph this cool, old but completely restored Chevy pickup that belongs to Luke's parents and... drumroll please... is their wedding present to Luke and I! How cool is that! Yes, right now it is in Indiana, but Luke's parents are bringing it down to Texas this summer and we can't wait. It's in Bulldog green, too! (Boling Bulldogs, by the way!)

Now... back to the Easter Bunny/Santa scenario. Hunter and Sophie asked the Easter Bunny to bring them baby ducks, and.....

.....they got them!

Easter morning Sophie and Hunter were the proud recipients of 2 baby ducks. I got to know the ducks quite well as Luke and I were responsible for feeding, watering, and keeping them alive from Thursday night to Sunday morning.

The girls named their ducks Theodore (owned by Hunter) and.... American Idol (owned by Sophie.) Last I heard though, American Idol was getting a name change, I think to Chrissie. So there's Sophie and American Idol. I mean, Chrissie. Oh.... whatever. Sophie and her duck!

All in all, we were gone for about 6 days, and a week gone means lots of laundry and things to put away. We came back with a full car due to many hours spent antiquing around west central Indiana. We found some really cool stuff... blog coming soon about that, too!

Quite a lunch break!

Catherine and I got back from Houston this morning after I was an official at the judging contest. To celebrate our return, Luann (my mother-in-law) called and said she would like to take us to Mach's for lunch. We went to lunch and had a wonderful lunch with Luann. Catherine's grandpa Sloan even stopped in and had lunch with us. On our way home, I wanted to see the progress that had been made on a house that is being built down the road from us. Well this is not really a house it is more like a La Quinta! So we drove by the house and started home. This is when it started to get interesting. We were driving along and noticed that a horse was running along the side of the road. Then we noticed that there was an older gentleman trying to get the horse back in. We told him that we would help him try to get the horse back in. I got out of the car and stood in the middle of the road, hoping to turn the horse when Luann and Catherine turned it back towards the gate. The horse quickly turned towards me and started running at full speed. I start to wave my arms and say "HO! HO! STOP YOU STUPID HORSE!" The horse gets within five feet of me and then rares up and tries to paw/claw me with his front feet. When this happens I immediately think that I have no business penning horses and know nothing about it. After I see my life flash before my eyes, the horse runs out into a field and starts to run away. The plot continues.... So the older man gets back in his car and takes out after the horse. He is going down a grass lane that divides two fields. He is going all out chasing this horse, he is flying down the road. This is when it happens. We were about to abandon the penning operation and head back to the house. All of a sudden I see the truck the man is driving FLIP OVER!!!!!! I mash on the gas pedal and we start towards the scene of the accident. Catherine is calling 911 and I have no clue what to expect when we get to the truck. We get to the truck and Luann and I start to run towards the truck yelling to see if we can get a response from the driver. We finally get to the truck and the driver is laying on the roof of the flipped over truck. Luckily he was conscious and responsive. The 911 dispatcher is asking us all of these questions and trying to get the EMS and sheriff to our location. We see a sheriff’s can fly by and we are telling the dispatcher to tell the cop to stop and turn around. But the cop keeps on going and turns on another road and then another. We can see him and are trying to tell the dispatcher to tell him to stop and turn around. For some reason he keeps getting farther and farther away. So Catherine and I jump in her mom’s car and spin our tires taking out after this policeman. Luann’s car has been named Hooptie, since the tires could fall off at any moment. So I was thinking that the Expedition was going to fall apart as I was chasing the police car. (How weird, normally it is the other way around!) So we finally get him to stop and follow us back to ground zero where Luann and the wrecked truck were. As we come back to the turnoff to the grass lane, the fire department and ambulance were coming down the road. They got in line behind us and followed us to the wreck.

What had happened was in the heat of the moment in chasing the horse the man driving missed the 12 foot culvert that he drove his truck off and as the truck went over the culvert it flipped on top of itself. Luckily the driver was not injured and actually once the emergency personnel got there he climbed out of the truck and wanted to see where his horse was.

So that was our crazy lunch. The horse is still running loose and was last seen by the Iago Federated Church.

Here are a few pictures we took with our phones of our front row seats.



Nurse Luann keeping the driver calm and awake. She had to pull up her old skills of working in a hospital.



The Boling and Wharton Fire Departments bracing the truck so it did not continue to roll.




There were quite a few individuals that showed up to the scene. Even a few on-lookers that stopped along the road.