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.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
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
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
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
Wednesday, August 7, 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
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