Keeping Company with Three Dogs; Report on the Weather.

Keeping Company with Three Dogs; Report on the Weather.                               April 21, 2012

Good Morning, everyone! I am keeping company with three dogs at their house, since Bill, Jennifer, and Veronica went to Nashville to visit 

Jen's parents. They are checking up on the parents. 'S funny, when We Cute Li'l Old Fogies are ''up there”, our children like to check up on us. 

It does make me feel good, though, that somebody cares! 

Bill fed the dogs earlier than usual, just before the departure for Nashville. I surmised that the dogs would want to eat quite early in the morning, like 4 o'clock or so, and I used my “noodle” to figure this out. I gave them each half of a big milk bone treat just before I went to bed at nine p.m. 

That was a good plan, because they were quiet and resting when I woke up at 6:30. Except for 2:20 a.m. when they needed to go out to pee. One of them gave a sharp, high-pitched yelp to notify me that it was necessary. That was almost better than my alarm clock ringing,

it made me immediately alert.

After about three or four minutes the yelp sounded again. I let them in, and they went directly to their sleeping places. It was peaceful for another four hours. 

I am up for the day, fed the doggies, and already, they are settled down for a long morning nap. As soon as I begin to make my breakfast in another hour, they'll get up and be underfoot, because each will want to be the first to see me drop some crumbs on the floor! It's one of their favorite pastimes, searching the floor in the kitchen and around the stove, sniffing and licking. They are, of course, adorable! 

Now for the weather: The thunderstorms that were forecast finally came, after some rumbling off in the distance, and thundering closer and closer. We had lots of rain, enough to satisfy the fields for about a week. 

But, and this is really displeasing, it is very cold out there, only 47 degrees, with the cold air coming down from the far north. The three doggies do not like it right now, because they have gotten used to the warmer temperatures this spring. They'll probably want to spend most of the day indoors, which is all right with me. The high today will be about 67 degrees. 

Are you all having a good time where you are? I hope things are fine and dandy for you.

Now for my breakfast. I’ll write more later…

Love, Mom - Grannamae - Anna Mae.

I’ll see you at the Corner Post…

Church Picnic; Double-Dip Ice Cream Cone.

My mother’s younger sister Mary came to visit us in the coal mining town, Larksville / Plymouth for a few days. She is only three years older than I am. She lived with her parents on a farm near Nicholson. It was summertime, and she was able to come and stay with us. The year must have been about 1939 - 40.

There was a Church Picnic that weekend, and she and I walked the two or three blocks to see it. The festival was held across the street from the church. I do not remember the name of the church, but it was on Chestnut Street. The various stands were set up on a little incline in an open lot with some trees surrounding it.

We walked around and looked at all the different stands they had. I don’t remember if anyone else was with us. We walked over to the ice cream stand to buy some ice cream.  She ordered a double-dip ice cream cone - oh, how luscious it looked. I ordered something else, probably a single-dip cone because I was smaller and younger.

We were so happy with our ice cream, and were walking away from the stand, licking at our dips of refreshing ice cream. When all of a sudden, as Aunt Mary was licking the ice cream, the pressure of her tongue pushed the ice cream off the cone and onto the ground!  It hadn’t been placed onto the cone very securely. We hadn’t gone very far away from the stand, and the lady there said that Aunt Mary could have another dip.

So Aunt Mary and I went back to the stand for the free dip of ice cream for Aunt Mary. That was a kind thing that the lady did. I felt so happy for my dear Aunt Mary!

Oh, just thinking about ice cream makes me want a banana split!

I’ll see you at the Corner Post…

Josephine's Goat; Later On, Our Goat Dandee.

Josephine’s Goat; Later On, Our Goat Dandee.

On the Springville Farm, after chores were done, and we children were at school, my parents worked a few days a week at the local Auction House. My Mom Josephine loved the young goat that was on sale. She decided to buy it. We were glad to see the goat when we got back from school. I don’t remember the goat’s name, but she followed us around, which was quite enjoyable for us.

The goat was white, cute, adorable, frisky, and sometimes naughty, as in ‘being a pest’. She was quite young.

Mom and Dad would be doing the chores in the barn, and we three children would also be in the barn helping. The goat would also come into the barn, and suddenly leap around, having such fun. She was so nice to have around, we thought.

The cow feed was stored in a large chest near the middle of the row of stanchions, in front of the cows, to make it easier to dip into the chest and put the daily or twice-daily ration on the floor in front of each cow while they were standing in their stanchions.

The cute, adorable goat would nibble the food in front of the cow’s mouth and “share” breakfast. She also would reach into the cow feed in the bin if it was high enough for her to reach for a bite, and probably would jump into the chest to get a bigger bite.

If she jumped into the chest for some nibbles, sometimes she would leave those little black pellets from her last meal, and my Dad Joe would scold her to “get out of there!” and she’d quickly jump out of the bin, and race to hide behind Mom’s skirts. This was always fun to see, because she knew that Mom would ‘save her life’, so to speak.

Well, later on, when my husband and I had children, we bought a goat named Dandee, and tied her up to eat the grass and bushes that she liked. She was not a little goat, but a grown one. I would keep watch over her from time to time, and go back into the house to do my household chores, take care of the baby or toddler, and peek out through the window to see how Dandee was doing.

One day, I looked out, and she seemed to be tangled up in the fence separating our yard from the neighbor’s field. I went out to untangle her, and saw that she was really tangled up. So badly tangled was she, the rope around her neck was very tight. Her tongue was hanging out and the tongue was a deep color and not her usual pink tongue. She was trying to bleat for help, but couldn't quite do it. 

I quickly got her untangled, and thank my lucky stars, she was all right. Whew, that was such a scare! I don’t know why she just couldn’t stay on our side of the fence and eat all the grass, weeds, and little bushes that we had!   

I'll see you at the Corner Post...