Junie's Place: June 2008

Monday, June 30, 2008

Goodbye to 'Nighty.'

I'm sorry to say we had to let our little dog, 'Nighty,' go today!





Nighty was very old - almost 18 years - and far too long she suffered . It was past time to let her go...but it is never easy for me.

She was Zach's dog when he was a little guy- so that just adds
to the sadness for me.











I loved her and will miss her very much.






Life is too sad!


Junie

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Sunday, June 29, 2008

Blue tonight!

Do you ever feel blue?

Tonight, I do!


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This Weekend



This weekend has been a strange mix of happy and sad-and a lot of other emotions thrown in all together. Just typical of life in general, I suppose!

The 'sad' was attending the funeral yesterday for a cousin here in Ocala. I hadn't seen her in awhile but had love for her and so the news of her passing was hard. It's always sad, especially with younger people and, to me, she was of the younger generation. (Tho, at age 57, just 10 years younger than me)

...So, yesterday was a somber day, with the funeral service and the gathering afterwards. But I did see some folks I hadn't seen in a long time!

My cousin Inez ( up for the funeral) is at my sister's house until Tuesday. We invited them over today for lunch. (my sis, BIL and my cousin) We had a nice meal and visit!

Tina and Alli came by too, for awhile! (Alli did some stuff for me...she fixed my header on my new 'Farm Life of the Past ' blog! I kept messing up!!!! BTW- I posted more there today!

Here's a pic of Alli and my cousin. Not very good but it's all I got this time! :)









WOW! 9:00 PM already! And I still have my animals to feed! Guess they're wondering if I've forgotten them tonight!

Have a great night!


Junie

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Saturday, June 28, 2008

New Blog~ Old Content!

I have opened a new blog for the Farm Stories of my husband's growing up years in Alabama.

I will be re-posting some/most/ all of them at the new site as I'm able to manage it!

These were mainly popular with some of our family and I thought it would be nice to have them all in one place and easy to find!

Hopefully, Charles will add to his stories, from time to time! :)

Here's what we have moved there ~ so far! :)

'Farm Life of the Past'

Check out the farm stories of the past!


Love,

Junie

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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Monster Bash 2008



My son, Chris, returned last night from his trip to Pittsburgh, Pa. The event was the Monster Movie Bash that they have there each year! This was the first time Chris has been able to make the trip up there and I was happy he did, this time.


He's a big fan and collector of all this kind of thing...has been all his life! :) He has so much already, he's had to put a lot in storage. Still, he managed to find things he wanted! He had a great time and got some cool stuff! Here he is showing
some of it to me last night!

I guess he got that collecting bug from me, as I, too, always want to keep adding to the things I like to collect.
(books, dolls, music, santas are my things! )




Being single, he can afford to indulge himself with his hobbies!




















































One of the highlights of the event was meeting actress Donna Douglas of the 60s, TV sitcom, 'The Beverly Hillbillies.' She had also been in this 'Twilight Zone' show earlier in her career! This autographed picture is from that show!




We always watched these Twilight Zone shows!


:) I remember this one well!!




Junie Rose



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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

If I Had A Hammer





What's General thinking?


************











Junie

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In remembrance of George Carlin



One last post  in remembrance of  a very funny man!

Enjoy!





Love,
Junie

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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Of Fairies and such!



I visited Pea
at Pea's Corner and I found out that today is FAIRY DAY!

Please visit Pea to find out more!

Fairies seem to hang out at Pea's place a lot. I saw several while I was there today! I bet they are still there!

Do you like fairies? I do!










Get your free fairy name here!


~~~ Utt-ohh! Seems my Fairy is TROUBLE!
She must hang out with that mysterious little Gnome lady I have seen in my gazing balls.

~~~

(This is the info they give on my Fairy)



"Your fairy is called Tangle Saturnglow

She is a trouble maker.

She lives at the bottom of tangled gardens and in hedgerows.
She is only seen in the light of a full moon.
She wears tangled dresses of multicoloured petals. She has delicate pale pink wings like a cicada."

~~~

I have no doubts of her being there among my tangled garden. Just last night I was out very late, with my camera - moon gazing- and got a glimpse of those pink wings. In a flash she was hidden from my view and all I was able to get for evidence was this little part of her wings on one side! However~ this picture speaks for itself; don't you agree? She's there!


I DO wonder what sort of trouble, 'Tangle Saturnglow' is likely to cause me!

I'll not worry before it's time, though!


Junie Rose






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Monday, June 23, 2008

George Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008)


George Denis Patrick Carlin

American stand-up comedian, actor and author

(May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008)





I was saddened to hear of George Carlin's death last night!

I have always found his stand-up comedy routines entertaining, if somewhat 'over the top' at times! :) He believed in 'pushing the envelope,' ...to use a popular term...

As I have grown 'older' I've come to realize just how important our freedom of speech is to me - and should be to everyone! George Carlin always embraced this belief and right!

George Carlin looked at the world honestly and gave it all back to us in a no holds barred and very funny fashion... sharp edged at times - but always funny!


~~~

This is an excerpt from


http://ap.google.com/hostednews/img/ap_logo.gif?hl=en

Associated Press~Keith St.Clair

He says in this writing about Carlin...

"In one of his most famous routines, Carlin railed against euphemisms he said have become so widespread that no one can simply "die."

'Older' sounds a little better than 'old,' doesn't it?," he said. "Sounds like it might even last a little longer. ... I'm getting old. And it's OK. Because thanks to our fear of death in this country I won't have to die — I'll 'pass away.' Or I'll 'expire,' like a magazine subscription. If it happens in the hospital they'll call it a 'terminal episode.' The insurance company will refer to it as 'negative patient care outcome.' And if it's the result of malpractice they'll say it was a 'therapeutic misadventure."

~~~

So George Carlin has 'passed Away,' or 'expired,' at the too young age of 71 years!

He will be missed.


Junie

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Sunday, June 22, 2008

New counters!





My back yard today!

I love the way this trellis looks these days, with the Coral Honeysuckle vine on it.
LOL~ but this time I just focused on the sun face and the sky!



~~~~



And...some good news...


Today the guys got our new counters installed! Sooner than I expected... but it worked out good for us, since Charles has less to do on the weekends with the hay hauling- etc- and could be here while the work was going on.

As one might expect, knowing the history of our projects ;) ...we ran into some unexpected problems and extra expense! Turns out, our sinks - which I was perfectly happy to keep and re-install with the new counters - had rusted out because of a leak and couldn't be used anymore. Also the garbage disposal had cracked! Yikes! An extra few hundred dollars added on! :( We also got a very nice- TALL- faucet set-up, which I really like a lot!

I just am thrilled with this improvement in my kitchen! I will show some before and after pics...just so you can see how much better it is! Oh! I still have a lot to do to get things back in order...and I intend to throw out a lot of stuff to make more room in my cabinets- to lessen the junk that tends to accumulate on the counter top!

I really like the extension of the counter where I had a small table before for the phone. It is a big enough space for 2 bar stools- which can be pushed underneath when not in use! We'll have to shop for those soon.

:) I'm happy with this job! The counters are of Corian - a very durable material that looks like marble but much easier to care for.

I love having the brick all level with the sink and be rid of that high wall that separated the 2 parts of the kitchen. It will be an adjustment, not having a back splash at the sink, but I'll get used to that!

Here are some pics- of before- during and after!

You can see in these 2 pictures, how high the brick was, separating the kitchen from the eating area.












Here is the wall after Charles had removed the necessary bricks. The sink is directly behind that small back splash wall.





And here is the counter, as of late today- with the brick level with the sink with the counter on top of it all. This gives me a little serving/passing ledge for food etc- AND- LOL- I don't feel so penned in as I did behind that brick wall!

And I DO love the extension of the counter for the phone.














Hope you've all had a good weekend. I'll catch up with all your blogs ASAP.


Junie

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Our Day~6~21~08


We had a good day with the Orlando kids and Allison...just the 6 of us! :( ... missed the others, though.

We had a good lunch and then 'Gabbo' got a couple more 'Father's Day' Gifts!

Here's what they got for him...

Zach, on his recent trip to North Carolina, found this old bike for his granddad's collection. He knows he likes old bikes/toys - etc! We thought it was a pretty neat gift !

Tam and Terry got him something pretty neat too~ this Sun Jar! :) I had never seen one of these!







OK- My two youngest grands always have fun together...and act silly when I try for a picture of them! :) LOL- Aren't they cute, tho, even when they are being clowns!! haha




Some pictures of all of us!

Zach

Alli

Tammy

Terry

Charlie

Junie

Oh!...And 'Sunshine!'















































































Hope you've all had a good day!


Junie

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Friday, June 20, 2008

Soup's On!

Tomorrow we are having the Orlando kids here. (Daughter-Tammy, SIL- Terry and Grandson, Zach)

It will be a belated Father's Day celebration, since they couldn't come last week. Zach was on a trip to NC at that time! I'm looking forward to hearing about his travels and seeing some pictures! :)

I don't expect my other grand boys (Dan and Brian) will be able to be here as they will probably have to work!
Alli will be here but Tina also will be working. I hope she's able to be off early enough to visit with us for a little, anyway. Marc, of course, will not be here either.

~~~I miss the old days when we could ALL be together at these gatherings ~ but things change!~~~

~~~

My son, Chris, is on a road trip with a friend , to Pa. They went to visit with Chris' cousins and they are all going to Pittsburgh for a Monster Movie Festival event! It's a yearly event which my nephews have attended several times in the past but this will be the 1st. time for Chris! All of these guys (our boys/men) have always been BIG Monster/Old movie buffs! I know they are having a great time!

The link above tells a little about this event!

Dang!!
That's something I'd enjoy, too! How come I never get invited to the fun things! Hey! You
never get too old for Monster Movies!!

(Lol- Maybe next year my sis and I will tag along with the 'boys!' ;)

~~~

I am making a big pot of chicken soup for dinner. We love this, made from scratch,
(lol- pardon the pun!~lol~ chicken ...scratch - Get it??)
Anyway, we DO like this soup a lot...and...since I needed to buy a pk. of chicken for making chicken salad for tomorrow it was more economical to buy a BIG pk. of chicken breasts. Half went for my salad and half for my pot of soup!

The way I make this soup varies according to what veggies I have handy...

I first boil my chicken pieces , with salt and pepper and parsley flakes, until it's coming off the bones. Remove bones.
(and you can use what pieces that you happen to have...even a whole chicken)

Then add, chopped onions, cut up celery pieces, chopped carrots.

I let this cook awhile before adding chopped up potatoes. (these first veggies take longer to cook.)

I add additional salt and pepper to each addition of veggies. Seems easier to get the amounts right that way, for me!

The last stage is to add the canned veggies...

Today I added a can of green beans and a can of corn and a big can of tomatoes! (Add a little extra salt for the tomatoes.) Sometimes I use green peas and/or lima beans instead of the green beans!

Of course, frozen or fresh veggies can also be used, but the canned works fine, too.

...And ~ here it is!! :)
Yummy!
I think the girls will be coming up to help us eat it!



~~~

Later tonight I will be putting together my food for tomorrow!

...just my usual...potato salad- chicken salad and a ham...oh ~ and some deviled eggs!


Got my plan, so I better get on with it!



Junie Rose

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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Alli and The Jonas Brothers

 Cool! 

 A good sign??  Hope so!   :)



Love, 
Ginga


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New Addition

Here's our newest addition to the farm...born just this morning!

The mom of this fine little guy is 'Cloud.' (Cloud is one of only two cows from our original herd . Charles sold all the others when he switched over to the Santa
Gertrudis cattle!)

As I have mentioned before, I sort of lost interest in the cows when he sold all (or most) of our mixed up herd; because I liked seeing how the new calves would look in the varied mix of cattle we had. I found it more interesting to have different colors and markings in our new calves as they came along! And, of course, all the Santa Gertrudis are much the same...that dark red/brown color!

Well, our 'Cloud' is still here - simply because she didn't allow herself to be corralled and hauled away with the rest on that fateful auction day awhile back!

Today she delivered this delightful boy for us! :)



Cattle are very sociable animals with each other, and any new calf is checked out thoroughly and welcomed by all! Especially the younger ones, will welcome the new babies!

Here you see our young bull, 'Rush Baby,' and another young calf, getting to know the new arrival!

I named this calf 'Pippi' because of the long stocking-like markings on all 4 legs! Yah! I know, Pippi Long Stockings was a girl but that's ok! I like that name for him! ;)














( click to enlarge )


This is an interesting old tree in the pasture. I love the way this trunk looks! It's an old Cedar or Juniper. Not sure just what it's true name is- but a Cedar type tree.









All trees fascinate me so I'm always getting pictures, where ever I go! :)


These are Pines and Live Oaks:































Enjoy your night!


Junie

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