Happy Birthday #3 Oscar and Dixie

Today mark's Oscar and Dixie's third birthday. I can't imagine my life without them. They've taught me so much in such a short span of time.
They've taught me:
Wag your butt every time someone comes home, you're together again-it doesn't matter what kind of day you've had. All that's really important is here and now.
Give kisses often and for no reason. It's fun to see how people react.
There's never a bad time for a nap.
Sharing is an important part of life-it might be your sandwich or your chips or even someone you love, but you'll be better for it.
Play often and play hard. There'll be plenty of time left for chores.
I'm sure there's lots of other things too and I hope to write them all down one day. But not right now. You see I have some doggie ice cream to serve,

Sweet Tea Please

It's summer in Arkansas. That means it's hard to breathe in the heat of the day. The dogs look like they've melted. The air is so humid you can cut it with a knife. I know you're supposed to drink lots of water and I do, but every once in a while you need a little something different. It's so hot that soda doesn't even taste good, and one beer will leave you woozy. Which brings me to Sweet Tea. The only acceptable tea in the South during the summer. I make good sweet tea-it's not hard so I have to wonder why the local restaurants can't master the simple task of making sweet tea. It should be sweet, but if sugar is the only thing you taste it's too damn sweet (got that McDonald's). Really it should have a hint of the tea taste (got that Sonic-it should taste like tea not soda). I prefer that it not be so strong that it would put hair on your chest (Hardee's this would be you). As far as the bottled crap goes, I wouldn't give Lipton to my plants. Red Diamond would have a customer if they served it in glass containers and not plastic-the plastic does something to the taste. All things considered, it's just easier and much more cost efficient to boil the water and make it myself.
I'll be in front of the fan with my tea. Ya'll have a good day.

A ride...163 miles

Sunday, the hubster took me out for a 163 mile motorcycle ride. We've done longer rides and much shorter ones too, but Sunday's ride really felt great. It was the kind of day that felt good once you got going. Stopping for any long period of time made the air almost suffocating. The sun was shining so much that you looked forward to shady patches, but no one got sunburned. The wind just felt good.
Along the way we saw a hound dog really enjoying his swim in the Little Buffalo River-I swear you could see the dog smiling. There was a beautiful doe. The funky town of Eureka. Every time I visit Eureka, I see something new. This time I located the Abyss Tattoo Shop, the Humpty Dumpty, and the grotto-all of which I plan to visit again soon.
Driving back, we stopped at The Mason Jar restaurant in Berryville. A first for both of us.
I can tell you all this and maybe you can picture it in your mind, but that's only half of the experience. You need to smell the fresh cut hay. The rose garden in Kingston. The wild flowers along the road to Alpena. The rasberries in Ponca. You need to feel the cool air hit you when you cross the river or top Sherman Mountain.
You need to feel your worries fly to the wind and your blood pressure drop. There's nothing like it.

Fun with laundry

Do you remember studying Pavlov's dogs? He was the man that discovered that if he rang a bell each time he fed his dogs, they would water at the mouth whenever they would hear the bell.

Now, Dixie has a thing with the laundry. She loves pulling it out of the dryer and dragging it down the hall. She's never torn anything up, but underwear has made it all the way to the living room. You can never leave the dryer door open because she will pull everything out. Lately, when the dryer buzzer goes off, Dixie runs to the dryer. She'll even come and get me if I'm somewhere else in the house.  Man, if only she could fold!

Telling on my youngest sister

Sometimes life is so busy you forget the little things that happen. Unfortunately, some of them are funny and shouldn't be forgotten because you can learn from the past. So I'm writing this down before I forget.
I had taken my youngest sister out in Ponca to look for elk. They were no where to be found in the fields and so I thought maybe they might be in the woods by the river access.

They were! Out of the car jumps my sister Lee in search of the perfect picture.  She's feeling really good headed down a little path-after all she spent most of the previous day in this area swimming and chasing bull frog tadpoles. The elk meander over to the river and she cautiously follows behind them snapping away. Here's one of my pictures, but hers were really a lot closer.

And all was going good until something upstream startled the elk. They turned around and headed back. Lee moved as quickly as possible and stepped  onto a bank and one of the largest snake skins I have ever seen. Luckily there was no further sign of the snake and my sister made it back to the car before the elk did.