I'm sorry that I've neglected you.

It's not like I've been sitting under a rock.  I blame work, FaceBook, Pinterest and knitting on the neglect of my blog.

Work always sucks the most time away from me.  I still have a hard time accepting the 30 minute drive in either direction.  When you count those precious minutes that I could be doing something else, those minutes add up.  It's not like the drive is a pain, even though I come near death at least once a week... A-hole drivers usually in a Beamer.

I do enjoy my pod-casts, The Budget Minded Traveler, and The Daily Travel Podcast, for when I have the time to travel more and farther from home, and of course This American Life and Selected Shorts, it's kind of fun being read to like a kid.  Makes the drive more fun too.

I'm still having a lot of fun at my job, it's very action packed and the days go by rather quickly with all the 'action' going on at this school.  They could make us into a reality show.  I also get a little knitting in at lunch.

If you are friends with me on FaceBook then you are pretty much aware of the things that have been going on in my life and you also know how it feels to neglect your own blog. FaceBook can kill a blog.

In October or November I can't remember, my long time friend Judi and I took a road trip to Branson, MO

Great trip! Lots of laughs, ER trip can't have a good trip without a visit to the ER, Duck Boats,

Lucy and Ethel or Thelma and Louise?

Paddle Wheel Boat show, Hypnosis Show where Judi was the star and most entertaining participant (she could have signed autographs after the show but she was too busy guarding her shirt full of 'money' crumpled dinner napkins), antiquing, pretending to know people and asking for selfies with complete strangers.  Ghost Tour, vineyard tours and picnics why would someone call a store a vineyard? There were no grapevines involved, we ended up having our picnic behind the Amish Store in the car.  We'll do this again, not the eating behind the Amish Store, the Branson trip.  Who knows, we may eat behind the store again.

Then Thanksgiving and the guy's birthdays with Jeff and Jody.  Jolea was working in Austin.

Then three weeks later school is out for Winter Break.  Jolea gets attacked....

This was the first day.... it got worse, a lot worse!

But the girl had to work so she dressed up and made the best of it.  When things get rough, throw on a wig and a costume and go for it!  She had the biggest black-eyes 3 days later when she showed up at our house for Christmas.  Jeff was helping a friend transport her car back to Arizona so he was in Flagstaff for Christmas, he flew in a couple of days later.

On Christmas day, Jolea and I took one of our whirlwind road trips Allen-Houston-New Braunfels-Austin.  Fast and furious!  We did take time to stop at a Stryker Jersey Farm on I-10 out of Schulenberg on the way to New Braunfels.  Pretty cool set up, very laid back to say the least. Great cheese.  I wish I could have picked up milk for yogurt.

Then it was back to school, we're on the down-hill slide part of the year.  It'll be over with before you know it.

Spring break is right around the corner but I haven't decided if I'll go out of town or not....   I do have a family trip planned the week after.  Mike, Di, Nita and I are meeting in Fredericksberg.   It's going to be great, Lots of vineyards to visit, lots of shops to explore, lots of eating!!! I promise to post on this.

I'm knitting....  but I'm handing off things before I bother to take a picture of it :(    I made a Painted Hills Shawl
sent that off to Nita for her birthday in November.  I'm working on another one but with thicker yarn for myself.  I knitted Jolea a cabled buttoned headband and caps for both Jeff and Jody, Jody's has earflaps.  I know Jeff wears his because he was wearing it when he showed up at our house 2 weeks after Christmas.  I have no idea if Jody wears his but he's been working nights on the roof of a Wal-Mart for the past 3 weeks and I'm sure he's had the chance to try it out.

I should be stating "Hello, my name is Judith and I have 7,392 Pins."   Don't judge.  This is one of the reasons I don't do drugs, when I do something I go to the moon with it. You've seen my yarn stash, my craft room, do you want to see my pantry full of mason jars?  Trust me...

If you follow me on Pinterest then you know the time suck that has become, although I do try to only Pin on Sunday afternoons, I used to Pin every night! So, I'm doing better.  Jody gave me an LG tablet for Christmas... now I can Pin in my sleep.   I have some really good stuff in there! OH MY it's Sunday! let the Pinning begin.  

Now you know why I've been neglectful.  I'm sorry, I'll try to do better.  I've also been dabbling in Essential Oils.  If you are interested, I've done a lot of research on a lot of brands.  I'm using Young Living Oils, I like the fact that they own their own farms as well as the manufacturing facilities and keep up with the purity of their products.  If you have any questions, let me know.  I can hook you up, or as Jody says, "do some voo-doo on ya!"  Shhh, don't tell him I have a witch doctor head-dress in the yarn closet.

Have a great week, or month, which ever lasts the longest before I'm back.  I'm sorry!  Check out my Pins while you wait. I feel like I should have you sign a waiver...

And the fun continued.

 Where was I?  Oh yeah, into 'the park'. 

 Big Bend National Park, on the border of Texas and Mexico.  Not a place that sees much traffic during the summer months because of the extreme heat conditions, but we weren't scared.  We carry our own water.... and snacks.

This view is called The Window.  I'm not afraid to ask people if they would like for me to take a picture of their group in exchange for them to take a picture of our group.  Little do they know, I'm a crappy photographer!

 At the Chisos Basin. 

 On the road to Terlingua.  Don't let the website fool you, Terlingua looks like Hell.

 Knitting on the bank of the Rio Grande River.  I probably could have swam/wadded across to Mexico.

Crossing the Pecos River.  As kids, our family used to camp at the headwaters of the Pecos River high in the mountains of New Mexico. 30+ years ago I would drive all over West Texas delivering Oil Field parts to Gas Plants.  On my deliveries I'd cross back and forth over a tiny dried up stream that would proudly be marked as The Pecos River.  This looks like the Mississippi compared to that tiny trickle of water.

Di and I did a selfie!

We picked these figs on a morning walk around the Amistad Acres where Mike and Di had the 5th wheel camper parked.  The figs were the size of lemons!

 I don't know why I didn't end up with any pictures while on Lake Amistad,  I guess we were just boating along too fast or we were in the water.

The Pecos River has oodles of canyons and cuts running into it.  If you didn't know this river it would be easy to get lost and turned around.  This is the split between the river on the left and Deadman's Canyon on the right.  We took Deadman's, more shade, it was in the upper 90's.  Luckily Mike knew his way around even though the river was down by 8 to 10 feet and it had been years since he'd been on it.

The canyons are beautiful.  Some places are wide with room for goats and sheep to graze.

There are places where you can see Native American cliff drawings. 

 Other areas are straight up!

 So peaceful!  So quiet.  We drifted along, lost in our own thoughts.

 Our Captain and beer handler.

 The wind blows through these canyons creating scooped out spaces in the rock called wind caves.  Some are so big that you can camp in them...  Mike and his buddies used to do this years ago.

 This is the train trestle still in use today.  That little house-like structure is the old pump station from the 1800's when the trains ran on steam.  The water from the river would be pumped up to the trains on the trestle.  It has been underwater for a long time, and Mike was amazed to see it almost completely above water.

 This is the vehicle bridge otherwise known as The Pecos High Bridge.  Di and I took our selfie from the look-out at the end of the bridge on the far left.

 This picture was taken from the top of the boat ramp.  As Di and I walked up the ramp to get the truck and trailer we noticed goats climbing on the side of the canyon wall.  Of course I didn't have my phone/camera.  If you look REALLY close, you can see a black goat on a rock just above the water, he's almost in the shadow of the cliff.

 On the left of this shot you can see the rock wall that edged the old highway that wound it's way down the bank of the river.  There used to be a lower bridge to cross by.

 It linked up with the right side of the river, which is now used as the boat ramp.  This was the steepest and longest boat ramp I had ever been on and the backing up job that Di did was stupendous!  Have you ever backed an empty boat trailer?  You can't even see it! 

 This is where the Pecos meets the Rio Grande.  The Pecos is in the foreground and the Rio Grande is in the back coming from behind the cliff.  That is Mexico on the far side of the Rio Grande.

There was a HUGE Border Patrol presence in the area.   We saw several boats on Lake Amistad, and then checking for sunken rubber rafts and such on the Pecos.  They patrolled by car through the neighborhoods on the lake and down the dirt roads leading to them, checking for tracks and footprints. 

We returned back to the ranch Monday.   I snapped this picture before I left for home Tuesday Morning.  It's the bathroom at Mike and Di's house!  So zen!  That huge window in the steam shower looks out onto the pool and the mesas beyond.  Just beautiful!

Another great vacation for the books thanks to Michael and Di.

Well that was fun.

I drove out to my brother's ranch in West Texas on Sunday, where we began conditioning ourselves for the extreme heat and sun that we would be experiencing in the coming days.  In order to do this we laid out by the pool several times a day and had cocktails promptly at 5:00 every evening.  After a couple of days of this brutal conditioning we struck out on our adventure.  First we had to provision in Midland.  Since we were staying in a house we planned on cooking and eating in for our days in Marathon and also once we got to Del Rio and the lake.

Midland was not a happy stop, Mike lost a wheel off the boat trailer as he was driving over an overpass.  Thus resulting in hours of working on the boat trailer (with the boat on it) to repair the hub before getting the wheel back on.  My brother Mike is one of the most resourceful people I know (including my Dad, my husband, and my son.) Speaking of my son, Jeff just happened to be working in Midland and he came running to the rescue to help his Uncle Mike out.  In short time they had done the repairs and checked the lights on the trailer all on the side of the road in 90+ heat.  What should have been a 1.5 hour stop for food and supplies in Midland ended up being 5 hours.  We still had 2.5 hours of driving to get to Marathon.  We would arrive after dark, 9ish as the sun sets out there around 9PM. 

Mike and Di had invited me along on a 'business' trip to the Big Bend area of Texas.  When you live remotely as they do you plan all your business to be taken care of in one huge circling swoop.  This trip was to drop off a headboard that Di had designed for a hotel in Marathon and then on to Lake Amistad to pick up their 5th wheel camper.  Once you leave the house, there is no going back until you are done.  I have lived in Texas all but 3-4 years of my entire life and had NEVER been to Big Bend.  They felt this was a sin and that it should be remedied as soon as possible.

Di is doing some decorating business at the Gage Hotel  so they had rented a friend's home to stay in.  (If you look at the website for The Gage, just know that the beds are not going to look like what is shown in a few months, Di is in the process of changing them...)

We even had an impromptu dinner party while there with some of their long time friends. (Di can throw a dinner party at the drop of a hat, and she can create dinner out of whatever you have on hand, she is amazing in the kitchen.)  No one turns down a chance to eat when Di is cooking.

The house was awesome!  Eclectic, with touches of modern art AND treasures of the southwest and Mexico.  The owner had built and decorated it on a budget and used LOTS of recycled objects such as commercial doors like you would see in a department store and the overhead bay doors you can see in this picture were used in the living area/dining area and also in the master bedroom.

Please disregard our laundry hanging on the doors, we didn't have a clothesline....

These 'glass bricks' are actually Patron Tequila bottles!

I love this sliding door!  This picture was taken from inside the bedroom that I slept in.  The wall stopped just above the door and it was open to the living room on the other side.  The other side of this wall was covered in corrugated tin.  Needless to say, I could live in this house!  Here is the AirBnB details on Casa Wilma if you are interested.

While staying at Casa Wilma it was just a hop and a 20 mile (at least) skip down the road to Alpine, a bit farther on to Marfa, where the classic movie Giant was filmed and you can see the famous Marfa Lights if you are lucky.  We had drinks at the Hotel Pasisano, and dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant in Marfa. It's their favorite place to eat when in the area.

We struck out the next morning heading south into Big Bend National Park, or as the locals refer to it "the park".

 I had been all but told by friends that I was crazy for going to Big Bend in July.  Normally the temps run 100+ degrees, but that morning when I stepped out of the truck for Di to snap this picture it was in the low 80's!  We had conditioned ourselves, remember.... 

This trip is to be continued.....  it's becoming another of my long stories.  Just know I have some beautiful pictures of Big Bend and the Pecos River valley to come tomorrow.

Trip to ATX continued

 It always surprises me when I'm driving along, and pull up to a red light to look over and see the State Capital.  There are SO many interesting things about this building, too many to list so you can check ten of them out here.

As I was saying last week.  We decided to take a vineyard tour in the Hill Country (wine grapes are grown in several areas of the state.)

We set out for Fredricksberg, Texas.  Jeff had asked me to pay his slip rent when I was in Austin so we took a little side trip out to Lake Travis.  It was a dreary looking day out at the lake and there was absolutely NO ONE at the marina.  This is Jeff's little sailboat (that's Jolea climbing aboard to check things out since Jeff hadn't been there in several weeks.)  Looks like he's been doing some sanding to prepare for painting in the Spring.

These are the stairs down to the water from the parking lot.  Crazy steep!  Talk about a work out.  We had to rest after we got back to the car before we started our road-trip to Fredricksberg.

We took a little side trip off the road to Fredricksberg to Luckenbach.  Jolea's friend Kristy (being from Chicago) had never heard of Luckenbach, Texas or the song.  I think she may be the only person I've ever met that hasn't.   We listened to a band doing a sound check for an afternoon concert, I don't know who they were, but they were pretty good.

I did a little KIP knitting in public.  Then we set off to find a Mexican Restaurant for lunch.  We stopped at a place that was packed to the gills with cars in the lot and people inside.  We had a waiting time of 20 minutes only to find we would be seated where the waitstaff not only hoisted trays of "very hot plates" over our heads on huge trays but also furniture.  The food sucked!  I was not a happy traveler. That old adage of a packed restaurant of locals doesn't always mean that the food is good, or at least it doesn't mean that in Fredricksberg.

We left Fredricksberg and headed back the way we'd come.  We'd passed about a dozen vineyards on the way, but we had no idea which one to choose.  We finally just turned down a semi-paved road toward Becker Vineyards and Lavender Farm.  We were not disappointed although I wish I'd bought some Lavender syrup.  After our tasting and tour we bought a bottle of our all around favorite and grabbed what was left of the cheese curds I'd bought at the funky grocery store that morning.  Next time I start to go on a vineyard tour I'll get more cheese AND crackers.   It was fun sitting on benches out on the beautiful lawn, enjoying the wine and company and the beautiful countryside.

 I also purchased a bottle of a 'reserve' wine that we were told could only be purchased at the vineyard.  Hmmm, I wonder why I found this wine at my local Total Wines store yesterday?  (I was going to save it for a special occasion, the snow days last week were perfect.)

It was early evening so we headed back to Luckenbach for the evening concert.  Slaid Cleaves was playing and we decided to hang around for that.   We ended up sitting across the table from a couple (teachers) from Pflugerville (no that's not a Dr. Seuss town) who were so sweet and shared their cheese, crackers, hummus and Tiny Bread with us during the band break.  The music was great and the atmosphere and kindness of strangers made it even better.

We spent our drive home through the Hill Country, entertaining Kristy with Country Music which she said she didn't really care for blaring from the speakers loud enough to scare any deer that may be on the sides of the road.   It was a great day!

The next day Jolea and I returned the rental car and went to the grocery store so she could stock up.  The nearest grocery store is a mile walk from her house and not on the bus route.  We then went to have lunch at Hopdoddy's, they deserve all those stars they have on their review.  If you ever go there.... share!  Your burger that is, those burgers are HUGE!

I headed home after lunch, only to find that I-35 was a parking lot.  The 4 hour drive turned into a 6 hour drive.  I was exhausted when I got home from clinching my steering wheel in fear that someone was going to rear-end me in the stop and go traffic. 

I got home to a nice warm cozy home, where Jody had been busy making etched charms and trinkets all weekend.  He made me this key chain fob.  It's so me.

Y'all have a good week. 

With change comes some adjustments.

So I changed jobs.  It sort of changed the amount of spare time I have too.  I lost an hour and a half out of my week days with this change.

It's a lame excuse, but it's mine.  Now I don't knit as much as I used to and you know I don't blog as much.  The APB has been canceled.  I'm still here.  Thank goodness for a snow ice day or I may not have had the time to post this.  Have y'all seen the footage of the ice falling off buildings in Plano!?  I work in Plano, why would I want to go park my car there?

I've also been going to yoga classes again so that takes up some of my free time, too.  It's a good thing. 

I've done a little travel this past week.  Jolea came in to town for Thanksgiving and I took her back to Austin on Friday.  As always we had fun as she ran me all over ATX Friday night to meet all her friends at their places of work.  We had great Italian food, good wine and each of her friends felt the need to serve me one of their very own signature drinks.  Eric (one of Jolea's roommates) served up the best Dirty Martini I think I have ever had.  I had two big glasses of water to dilute that one!

At one point we popped into a place don't ask I can't remember the name of the place, we were moving fast and another friend, a very attentive bartender not just to us, but to everyone, he was really good served up what he called a Skinny Jenny.  This place is famous yet not with me in the ATX club scene for signature drinks using natural syrups and flavored elixirs.  The shelves back of the bar were lined not only with the customary bottles of liquor, but also with jugs and bottles of herb and fruit infusions.  This guy combined Citrus vodka, lime, lavender syrup and ginger beer to make the Skinny Jenny, which i think could be one of the most awesome cocktails.  I'm going to have to try to copy this beverage.  Looks like I'll have to get some kind of frosty tin cup to serve it up in also.

Our main plan for the weekend was to zip over to Fredricksburg for a vineyard tour on Saturday.  Which we did after visiting In.gredients a funky, bring your own containers kind of grocery store.  My review: very tiny, limited amount of goods, but I really like the concept.  Jolea asked them for a bottle of water and they said "sure, where's your bottle?"  Yes, I did have my own containers for peanut butter and coffee and as always my own shopping bag to put my purchases in.

We scooped up Jolea's friend Kristy and off we went to Fredricksberg.  More about that later.

These snow days are rough, time for my nap.

Wow what a week!

I'm almost glad my summer is winding down.  Not really.

Last weekend we ventured out to visit the small ranch of one of Jody's buddies from work.  They raise miniature Hereford cattle, or as Jody calls them, "wee cows".

It's hard to tell that some of them were any smaller than regular cows because there were no standard cows around to compare them to.  Until of course this fully grown year old bull comes up to us to be hand fed by the owner's wife (who was a petite woman of about 5ft tall.)

 This little week old calf was smaller than the dog in the background of the picture above.  I wish I could have picked it up, but it's mamma wouldn't let us near it.

Sunday I spent the day weaving, which meant that I got my money's worth from the Chiropractor on Monday.  Yeah, I'm addicted!

Monday afternoon I met up with Michael and Di at Central Market in Dallas.  They were in town for some medical appointments, they are both doing FANTASTIC, and continue to surprise their conventional Doctors with their success of combining conventional and alternative medicine.

After stocking up on groceries at a REAL grocery store (which they have to travel hours to get to from the ranch) we made our way to the ranch. 

Di led us through the back streets of Dallas, down roads that I wasn't even sure which direction I was heading.  Eventually we went across THE BRIDGE.  More than likely the one and only time I will go over THE BRIDGE. 

From there we hopped on I-30 and were west bound and down in a race to keep $300 worth of food from being cooked by the sun in the back of a pick-up on a 100+ degree day.

Right about the time we topped Ranger Hill this is what we ran into....

the first of two big Thunderstorms.  Not fun in a car like mine that only weighs 2000 lbs and is equally balanced front to back.  Add a lot of water to a hot oily road and we have an adult version of slip and slide.  It can get pretty nerve wracking.  As quickly as these storms pop up, you will drive out of them and back into the blistering West Texas heat.

 

Once we turned off I-20, I put the top down on my car and I flew down the Farm-to-Market Road doing 80 toward the ranch, love it!   We made it to the ranch right about sundown.

It was very cool out by the pool the next morning so I didn't stay out there long.  The 40 degree temperature fluctuation at night is something I miss about West Texas.

Michael and I headed to the garden early to pick some things that  Sebastian hadn't gotten the day before M and D hadn't been home in a week and to check to see what was left by the grasshoppers.

We have been having a grasshopper problem at the house, Gracie tries to get rid of them for us and does a pretty good job even if she brings them in the house to show off.  Out at the Wee Cow place they were everywhere,  but nothing like what Michael and Di have.

Michael is using a paint ball gun to kill a grasshopper.  Yes, a single grasshopper!

Can you see it?  In the center of this picture?  That is a full size broccoli leaf it has devoured!  The largest one I saw this week was about 4 inches long and 1.5 inches wide!  I don't think you could step on them to kill them like we do here, this is why they use a paint ball gun.   These huge grasshoppers are everywhere, not just in the garden.  They eat any and everything, even the cactus!  They will even eat each other!   So, several times a day we'd take a walk around the yard and shoot grasshoppers. 

Shooting sports aside, my trip to the ranch is mostly about the food!  We can get Mexican food here in the Dallas area, but it just can't compare with real West Texas Mexican Food from a hole-in-the-wall diner.  Tuesday they took me to Sweetwater for Chili Rellenos for lunch.  OMG!  These were the BEST, and they had a certificate on the wall to prove it along with certificates for the best in enchiladas, fajhitas, nachos, etc.  I don't know what the name of this place was, but if you were to drive into Sweetwater, Texas and ask someone where you could get chili rellenos they would send you to this place.

After taking care of some errands and a mail run, we stopped to price a chicken for the yard.  Since Jody doesn't want me to get two real chickens, I thought I could just get one of these large economy sized birds.  Look, it even throws shade!

We spent the next two days cooking (I played sou-chef) and enjoying Di's fabulous meals of halibut, salmon, shrimp, salads, veggies, breads with Irish butter, and of course smoothies and freshly made juices.  This is my idea of a spa trip.  Di even treated me to a facial while I was there! 

I wonder if this Skink had a run in with a grasshopper and lost his tail?

Our last 'hunt' down at the Red House.  Michael even wore his 'hemmet'. 

And I wore a sarong....  I prefer to shoot from the hip, but Michael kept telling me 'use the laser sight'!  I'm pretty deadly with one shot from the hip,  I learned from the best... my bubba.

My last night at the ranch, we finished our martinis out in the yard free of grasshoppers watching the sun set behind the mesquite trees.

I headed back to the big city Friday morning.  We've had a nice restful weekend.  I even looked forward to having red meat (tenderloin) Friday night.  Jody looked forward to it too, as he had been on a week long take out diet. 

Gracie missed me,  she was full of stick-tights from chasing rabbits through the alley.

Last night we had dinner with Mike and Dawn and had a pool throw down.  The Chics still rule!!!  Yes we may have to take a shot of courage my shot comes from a bottle shaped like a crown that's kept in a blue flannel bag,  but we still get the job done.  The guys  still drool. 

Have a great week!