Sharing a laugh

Rachel and Grandpa sharing a moment.


He must have said something funny...




because they both belted out a good chuckle.



Laughter is the shortest distance between two people. ~Victor Borge

Eggrolls

A former employee stopped by for a visit at the butcher shop. Peou (pronounced 'pow') always kept us laughing with his banter and humor. As in immigrant from Vietnam he introduced us to some amazing authentic Vietnamese cuisine. Our all time favorite were the eggrolls his wife would make. (Jay's doo rag is Thursday attire for the slaughter floor.)

Peou was kind enough to ask his gracious wife to make dozens and dozens of these marvelous egg rolls for a lunchtime treat for the rest of the employees one day.

We only needed to fry them in oil until a perfect golden brown.

Jess was still home that day to provide her services as Jay's long time "A-sistant".

In my opinion these puppies far outway the taste of Chinese egg rolls.

Rachel agrees.

Candy stash

I know where Pappy keeps his candy in his office.


Now I need to find him so he can share it with me.


Can you open this please?


Pappy is always glad to share his candy with me. He has good taste in candy.

Beef cutting 101

Jason is in charge of the cutting crew and is always thinking he needs more help. Experienced help is always hard to find. So he's going to start 'em while they're young.

First step is choosing the correct side of beef for the instruction sheet on the table.


You're going to have to grow a little before you can push that side out of the cooler.


Inside there is a where the yummy delmonica steaks come from.


Thinks she's buying it?

Where did he go?

This happens to me all the time..... I'm looking for something and it's 'right behind me' somewhere.

Isaac was following the dog and it walked under the car. Til Isaac got to the side of the car, bent over to look under the dog had gone around and was standing right behind him.

Snakes

Jess & Jamie are making some day trips this week. She sent me this text yesterday: "Sign at reststop said rattlesnakes have been observed, please use sidewalks". She also said "it makes it hard to squat over a hole after seeing a sign like that".

Hmmmmm ... to 'b'ee or not 'b'ee, that is the question.

EE-GADS! Can't say as these critters would have been on my to-do list on the day of creation but I know for a fact - they most definately would not have been on Jess's. She hates snakes!

Always something new to be praying for, I guess.

Dreams come true

We've been getting phone calls and text messages from Jess & Jamie and all is going well. They hope to finally turn the truck off and sleep in a bed around 10 pm. EST.
Jamie's front truck plate says it all.

And for some crazy reason this song helps calm the ache today - knowing that when Jamie left the ranch to come see Jess for the first time he could only dream that maybe, just maybe, some day over the rainbow, his dream of bringing his soulmate back with him would come true.......

They're on their way

Jess & Jamie were hoping to leave yesterday but decided to allow an extra day to cross a few more things off their list before heading out west. It turned out to be a wonderful, God-breathed choice. It afforded us an unexpected family time without any interruptions. Jay & Jamie have had a long standing tradition of putzing around the shop on Saturday and sharing lunch together. Today they included us all in lunch with a tail gate party. Wasn't that nice of them?!




Strapping down the last few additions to the truck bed.

Jess & I took Bruiser and Bryn to the local pet store and gave them their much needed baths before the trip -- their 'rolled in poop smell' wasn't the desired cologne for the 30 hour trip.

And finally the time arrived - time to give hugs and kisses.

Jay watches Jamie turn this rig around with a very heavy heart.

Rachel is too young to grasp that this is going to be a long good bye but she buried her head in Jess's shoulder when Jamie leaned in for a kiss.

The men of the clan. It will be like an very needed and useful appendage is missing without Jamie. Little bugger wormed his way into all of our hearts.

Handshakes and hugs ......

.....and tears.

A note to Ty: "Our lose is your gain. Jamie is returning with much more then when he left 5 years ago. Thank you for patiently waiting. You have the blessing of seeing the front of the truck pulling in the ranch lane - anticipation is always fun. Take good care of them."

And then it's one last check of the cargo,

tighten the straps and kick the tires.

And then nothing left but the waving and watching....

Watching them go...

Watching them leave.... horns blowing.....

and the final turn around the corner and they're gone.

We stood around and nursed our empty hearts for a while. And then we each went our own separate ways to 'lick our wounds'. No one felt much like doing anything - I went home and took a deep sleep nap and then made another 4 gallon of tea.

Remember, it's liquid of heaven and today much is needed.

The beginning of 'last times'

Jess & Jamie leave this week for Montana. The kids were all home for supper and we took a picture seeing that we don't know when we'll all be together again. This week will have more 'last times' and we'll walk through each of them cherishing those we love.

Meadow Tea

The first batch of meadow tea announces that summer has finally arrived.

To me personally this is 'liquid from heaven'. Nothing beats a cool glass of fresh made tea.
We're the fuzzy leaf drinkers (apple mint) although we also have a little of the pointy leaf (spearmint)growing. Just the smell alone of this tea brewing has orbital qualities. I have a kettle that holds 4 gallon of water and I like to pour the hot tea into glass jars (vinegar used to come in glass gallon jars) rather then plastic - hot tea makes plastic get all soft and wierd. I also sieve all the tea through a Handwipe cloth - don't like to quess at what those little flecks are swirling around. Some folks like to add some lemonade concentrate to their brew but I prefer it just as it is. 4 gallon of tea a week for the rest of the summer - YAY! I babied a tea patch for years at a previous residence but currently have a patch that is happy as a lark and taking over. The bigger the better cuz ya just can't have too much meadow tea. It's simply not possible.