Again Maggie??

Again, Maggie?? Lonnie and I were getting the other two horses ready for an evening horseback ride. So as Rebel & Nitro were tied up OUTSIDE the entrance of the corral gate, Maggie was just inside the gate area. We were n where near ready for the ride & Maggie was already mad that she wasn't on the outside of the gate. She knew that we were leaving without her, again. As Lonnie was putting the bridle on Rebel, I was giving him a treat to open his mouth & Maggie's face was nose to nose with him. I wanted to be fair so I gave Maggie a treat too. Just then, she slammed her nose down on my forehead, on purpose! She lets me know what she wants & it wasn't the treat. She wanted OUT! That HURT!! Well I had to let her know that she was invading my space, so I had to tap her nose firmly, as I yelled NO!! Back up Maggie, but she only took one step back. I swear she acts like a typical female with PMS. As Lonnie and I mounted the horses and began to ride down the driveway & onto the dirt road, she whinnied & neighed while running all around until we were out of her sight. Three and a half miles later when we arrived back home she was happy to see her friends return but I have a major head ache. Note to self, don't stand next to Maggie if she's not invited to ride.

Ear washing after a good meal

ROTFL. Does anybody remember my post on July 10th about Lonnie leaving used Q-tips in any given room and at any given time ? When you marry a man in his fifties , some habits don't change.....................so fast forward to tonight. As we just finished a nice pot roast, potato, corn on the cob dinner. Ok the next thin to do for some people, where i come from, in the subur...bs,some people might get up and get themselves a tooth pick and clean between their teeth. Right? (I'm still laughing as I post this) Picture this scenario.......we are all chatting and kind of leaning back in our chairs because we are so full. Then Lonnie reached into his right side shirt pocket and pulled out a Q-tip and proceeds to clean his ears, right there at the dinner table? He looked at me as I was staring at him and at something That i have never witnessed before in my life. For a second, it just wouldn't register in my thoughts. THEN, I spoke, and said, " that's not the same Q-tip that you used this morning......is it???" His answer was simply a huge smile, silence, not a word, which indicated that, YES it was the same Q-tip from this morning!! He then said, " at least I didn't leave it laying around somewhere." As he continued twisting the Q-tip in his other ear. Which goes to show you, that sometimes, fifty something men CAN change in a new marriage, albeit a slight change, but never the less, a change. I'm still hoping that eventually he will pick up a clean Q- top with every episode of ear washing in the future. Like I said before," he has the cleanest ears in town!!! And he still is a country good 'ol boy. Thanks for the laughter Honey, it's good for the heart!! Xoxo

Wild Turkeys Too?

Out here in the country, it isn’t uncommon for my husband to point out a wild turkey in the far distance while he is driving. His arm has flung across my face many times with an urgency as he pointed out, my side of the car window, and said ”LOOK, A TURKEY”. Of course, by the time I looked in that direction, as the car is going 60mph, I never could spot the wild turkey that he wanted to show me.

Since he is an experienced hunter, I just had to believe him. If he said that he saw a turkey, then there was a turkey in range of his sight.

Today, I got into my car and started out to do my daily routine of errands, with my son Quentin in tow. I was enjoying the peaceful scenery of the quiet dirt road and going 45mph, with no other traffic around and looking at how beautiful the blue sky bordered the green crops in the distance of every surrounding farm property as I passed by.

Suddenly, as quick as a flash, a flock of about 20 wild turkeys that were hidden in some crops next to the dirt road flew straight up, and over, then straight down into the middle of the dirt road,  right in front of my  car.

I yelled,” OH MY GOOSH!” simultaneously as Quentin yelled ,”WHAT THE HECK?” I slammed on my brakes swerving the car from side to side, so that I didn’t have to cook about 20 fresh turkeys for the Holiday Dinner Buffet. Unbelievably, they all scattered across the road and flew upward again into the air, without me hitting one of them! PHEW! That was to close for my comfort.

In the suburbs, I never came across a wild turkey in the road or anywhere within sight. All my Holiday Turkeys came from the freezer section at Kroger.

 Oh well, I can tuck that into my pile of country days in the “life of country living.”

August 13, 2013

Just As I Thought I Might be Getting Settled

Just as I thought I might be settling in a little bit to this country living………….

My husband Lonnie came home from work, walked into the room where I was working and asked me if I would like to go to the 4-H County Fair here in St. Johns. I thought about it for a minute. It was the last day, and when I have been to the 4-H County Fair, the suburbs of Oakland County, I had a lot of fun. I reminisced about all the fun carnival type rides, the game booths with the fast talking money makers that talked to me as I was walking past them clearly saying, "No Thanks, don’t want to play that game right now”, and they won’t stop their sales pitch at all until the next victim walks by. The Elephant Ears that tastes so good only at the “fair” and of course, the featured attractions going on each day, like the monster truck event, or the rodeo with the true cowboys roping the steer.

So I said, "That sounds good, I’ll meet you guys in the car after I changed my clothes”. Of course, upon exiting the house my son says, “Come on Mom, you don’t need to look good in order to go to a fair”. That’s true, I thought, but as a suburban girl, we always fix ourselves up a little before going out in public.

Well, to my surprised, when I opened the back porch door, there were chickens and roosters walking all around the porch steps, pooping everywhere. Now, in the past, they would come up onto the porch and poop all over our porch. I said to Lonnie, as he was about to sit down in the car, "Why are the chickens and roosters out?”. You know they are going to poop all over the porch, and we’re going to step in it and bring poop into the house. His reply was, “I felt sorry for them”. I said, “WHAT, are you kidding me?” and he proceeded to seat in the car and leave them out. We do not leave chickens out and drive away in the suburbs. We don’t even have chickens, for that matter. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper.

When we arrived at the 4-H County Fair, I was expecting to have some fun to cheer me up, but when I got there, were no rides, no games with pushy sales pitches, and not an elephant ear in sight, only FARM animals! I could have stayed at home for that show.

Wouldn’t you know that the first huge circus type tent we entered was full of goats and every kind of chicken breed you could imagine? I was so bored, but Lonnie and Quentin had to stop and look at every one of them, OMG! Then we visited the cow and bull tent. As we approached the pig tent and I stopped dead in my track before entering. Something awful smacked me right in the nose, the Stench of PIGS. I couldn’t move another step. It smelled to high heaven. YEP, I had to draw the line right there. That was my fill of the “country” county fair.

OK, let’s go home to see how much chicken poop is on the porch. :-/

 

Clobbered in the Jaw by My Mare Maggie

Now I know what it feels like to be clobbered in the jaw.

My son and I were inside the horse corral watching my husband Lonnie and my daughter Ashley, riding side by side or one behind the other at times, on two of our horses Rebel and Nitro. I was also taking a video of all of them. . It was such a beautiful day, the temperature was in the comfortable seventies and the sun was slowly going down.

Then Maggie, my mare, feeling a little left out would walk along with them without a rider. Well she was a little jealous of all the attention Rebel and Nitro were getting. A few minutes later, Ashley and Lonnie took the two horses they were on and left the corral to ride freely. I put my video camera down and walked up to the gate that my son Quentin had just opened and closed for them. I didn’t realize at first how upset Maggie was when the other two horses left the corral .I saw her run up to me and I fully expected her to stop when she reached me, but as I looked up, our faces met. Then she made a quick left turn and her nose smacked my jaw. My head had an unnatural chiropractic like twist. In a split second, my son Quentin yelled, “MOM, Jump over the gate, Maggie is going nuts!” I leapt up a five foot metal gate, and swung my legs over the top and jumped down in 3 seconds flat, so I wouldn’t get trampled on by a much stressed out, 900 pound mare that had turned around and was heading back towards my direction. Quentin was so impressed by how quickly I jumped the gate, and said, with a huge grin, “Mom that was a pretty fast jump for an old lady.” As I reflected back on the whole scenario, at what had just took place, I smiled, and said ”Thanks”. I guess this “not so young chick”, has acquired some pretty quick reflexes living, at the ranch, here in the country. I felt like a real country cowgirl, making that leap. OH noooooo, does this mean that this country living is growing on me?

Empty Horse Trailer Passed Me

I forgot to mention in the previous post that while I was walking Maggie back home, a car drove by with an empty HORSE TRAILER, and didn't even stop to see if he could help!! What’s up with that?? I thought country folks were a lil more neighborly then that, since Lonnie Buck waves at everyone driving by and they wave back too. Is this a test??

Yep, I Met a Few of My Country Neighbors

YEP, I met a few of my country, 1/2 mile away, neighbors today.

 At 6:30 a.m. while sitting on my couch sipping my morning cup of coffee, a man in a van pulled in the driveway, I made a bee line into my bedroom to get a robe onto my scantily clothed body, (wearing only a t-shirt and underwear), before he could look in my windows without curtains.( Lonnie Buck, had said to me in the past, WHY do you need curtains, there is nobody close enough to see inside) Ahh, yeah, unless they pull into your driveway, get out of their car and knock on the door, to tell me my 3 HORSES are out and they are about a mile down the road.

 OMGosh, I said,"okkkk, thank you, by the way, where is Grove Rd?". He said "bout a mile down the road at the first corner ma'am, just thought I'd let you know". Instantly, I panicked because I am all alone again, Lonnie is at work, and Quentin isn't home. So I ran to my room to get dressed and in a full state of concentration on a plan to get them back home, I walked out o the door, into our closed in porch,

 looking down to put my shoes on, and I heard a voice of another man at the screen door, trying not to startle me, say "ahemm, morning." I jumped and looked up at a 6 foot man standing there, and said, "Horses out?" He said " Yep." OK, I said, Thanks.

 I ran to the horse trailer to get grain and I filled their bowls in hopes that they would simply mosey on back home, but that thought was dismissed. Then I grabbed a lead rope and jumped into my car to drive over to the horses that were indeed about a mile down the road. I just parked at the corner where all the other neighbors were gathered near my horses waiting for me to retrieve them from their planted fields, that they had helped themselves to eating.

 When I got out of the car, I called Maggie, my mare, over to me with a treat in my hand and she came over to me and I roped the lead around her neck because she didn't even have a harness on her head and proceeded to walk her back home. The other 2 horses sort of followed us but in a fashion of running around us, and back and forth down the road in a very disorderly way. I had to stop several times in order for Maggie not to run with the other two and it caused her to rear up in front of me trying to free herself, but I managed to still hang on and stay far enough away so I didn't get trampled on.

 I finally arrived back home with them and 2 of them willingly went into the corral and the other one, Rebel, whose name suits him, decided he would stay outside of the corral, so I bribed him with a treat in my hand while I stood inside the corral and he surrendered and walked back in with the others.

 NOW, I had to walk all the way back to my car, a mile away , and being that I was all sweaty, from the adventure, the horse flies were swarming around me, at this point, I had wished I had my long hair back in a "pony tail" to swing my head from side to side and swot them off of my face. I reached my car, jumped back in and drove home, all before 7:30 a.m. and the day has only begun, what is next?? ;(

Becoming A Walmart Person Living in the Country

I have become a "Walmart" person out here in the country, I jumped in the car with Lonnie Buck & Quentin Littleson With curlers in my hair and We are on our way to a barn sale. I have sunk to new lows. O m gosh. The odd thing about is that I thought nothing of it until I got in the car

Hello, my name is Marie, This website was created for your enjoyment as well as mine. Join me in blogging and posting your own comments, stories and photos of your country experiences.

Here's the cowboy that inducted me into country living, my husband Lonnie Buck, whom I dedicate this website.                                                                If it wasn't for him, I would be, well,........back where I belong, in the suburbs.

Water Shut Off In The Electrical Box

Well,  today I have no running  water coming out of any faucet in this OLD farm house. I had water earlier this morning to make my coffee...thats good.

 As I was sitting in my room, at my computer desk working, I heard my son say "Mom, could you come in the kitchen?" in a very urgent tone. So, I rushed in to the kitchen and Quentin was standing next to the kitchen sink, with one hand on  the cold water handle of the faucet, with it fully turned to the open position. He was about to cook some rice on the stove which required water, and said, "Have you used the water today?" Yes, I said, and we both did a quick eye contact stare at each other that was quickly followed by the sound of gushing water coming from the basement.. At the same time we both ran to the basement door, opened it and lept down the stairs as quick as possible to see the absentee water from the kitchen,  all over the floor in the basement and witness it rushing out from a brown cylinder shaped container.I started raising my panic stricken voice and said,"Where's the water valve turn off handle?" Well when I saw Quentin reach above the brown cylinder container and opened the electrical panel box while saying that Lonnie had shown him where the shut off switch was. I excitedly say "NO, it cant be in there". But Quentin opened it, with his own intent, and didnt listen to me, as usual, but this time Im glad he didnt listen to me because he flipped a switch which turned the water off. Phew!!  

In the suburbs we don't keep our main water turn off valve in the ELECTRICAL BOX??? We keep it with the Plumbing !Thank God he was home this time! I contacted Lonnie at work and he asked serveral questions and determined that we will just have to wait until he gets home from work so he can assess the problem and repair it, before we have is running water coming out of the faucets. There goes my morning shower until this evening

Mouse in the Horse Grain

Today, when I walked outside to feed our 3 horses their morning hay and grain, they came running over toward the pasture gate, and paced back and forth, neighing for attention to be fed. As I opened the door to the horse trailer, where we keep their grain in a large 30 gallon trash can, I reached in to grab their individual 3 cup containers. I SAW A MOUSE, running around the inside of the trash can as if it were in a circular, caged, circus type bike riding ball. Of course, I yelled and slammed the trailer door shut, ( nobody was home to replace me of the feeding duty) and tried to run away, but I couldn't because I was wearing my son's size 12 cowboy boots,( you know , I just slipped them on for temporarily walking out to feed them and back to the house.) I turned and looked at the horses and thought, "Sorry, no grain for you this morning", BUT they were making their neighing plea's for their grain treat and all standing in they spots to eat while looking at me with 3 sets of big brown eyes. So, this suburban girl, grit my teeth, turned around, opened the trailer door again and sheepishly peeked into the grain container. Yep, mouse still there! I reluctantly tipped the almost empty container toward the opened door and quickly stepped back, and watched the mouse, eewwww , jump into the grass/weeds outside the door. Once again thinking to myself, " What am I doing here, living in the country, feeding horses and dealing with mice????." Wishing we still had those 20 barn cats that were living here last year. This is sooo not me!! Then I filled their grain cups and walked over to the horses and poured the grain into their bowls. At least THEY are happy! Three out of four of us is not a bad statistic. Now I'm taking off to buy more horse grain and chicken feed .

I'm not a farm/ranch kind of girl. Give me the suburbs. It's nice to visit but I don't want to live here......... its dusty with the dirt roads that everyone, in these here parts, rides down at 60 miles an hour, where is the cement? There are many huge horse flies that bite me when I feed our horses. A skunk and her babies were crossing the road this evening, my husband suggested that he shoot them?? Then my husband caught 3 bees flying above our dinner table, and threw them outside?? I would have killed them with the fly swatter, and ignored the skunks, that's what we do in the suburbs. I swept and washed all the floors and vacuumed the carpet yesterday and today I sweep up a dust pan full of hay pieces and dirt from my once clean floors 24 hours earlier, that my husband and son dragged in. They both politely took their shoes off before entering the house but the hay was stuck to their socks and pants and shirts due to stacking bales of hay in the old barn that feeds the horses.  I like sodded grass with nicely trimmed bushes, not knee high grass/weed growth that our horses graze on when we take them out of they 2 1/2 acre pasture and into the portable, temporary pastures ,either in our front yard or side yard, then they leave huge piles of horse poop to look at  and that's the reason I never wanted a large dog, large poop in the yard, but horse poop is 10x larger.  Don't get me started............ I want to go home. Maybe if I close my eyes and click the heels of my ruby slippers 3 times and repeat," There's no place like home, there's no place like home", then maybe I'll wake up back in the suburbs