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