Yard Rage

Texas has lots of symbols and icons… pickup trucks, lone star beer, longhorn steers and armadillos to name just a few. Believe me these are not the warm fuzzies played out in soft plush toys. I am talking about armadillos. This cast iron armored menace can lead to many late night escapades at my house. A single armadillo can totally tear a yard up in one evening. Being nocturnal they attack in the wee hours of the morning, then under the guise of looking for slugs and bugs, they can totally demolish my whole yard. This of course mainly happens when festivities are planned and after all the gardening is “done”.

My ranch in South Texas is run by one amazing lady. Sherry is often my accomplice in various adventures, one of which is armadillo hunting. Lest I offend anyone who is not familiar with an armadillo, this is no easy task. Though not very smart, bearers of bad eyesight and general malaise, they are still very wily. It is true hunting.

We have tried angling wooden boards from their hole into a trap. Nothing will make you madder than waking up the next morning to the boards all over the yard and everything dug up again. Poison, plugging up the homes, but… Plan B….. Sherry sets her alarm to 3 in the morning, gets her AR-15 (a lot of gun for an armadillo, but now she is mad) turn on all the lights in the yard and hunt down that little toot. Sherry is of medium stature with long blonde hair, so you need the picture in your mind of her in her nightgown and cowboy boots, toting that big gun.

Gunshots at 3 am are not the norm at my house, but not unusual either. Annie Oakley of course sent that guy to better yards in the great beyond. So when Melissa Shirley’s Armadillo came into the shop that “gotta have it” fever struck again and now he will be the next project, a memorial if you will. Of course full of Texas icons, I am most fascinate with the monarch ( I think I will stitch him first). We will have to make him pop!

Then I think next will be that large mouth bass. Got some ideas…..we’ll see where it leads.

Full of pecans, horny toads, mockingbirds and bluebonnets I am thinking I can get over the armadillo.

So if you want to follow along please get online to pasttimesneedlepoint.com or call 361.572.0088 or just click here. We would love to stitch along with us! (No guns please).

Afro is Neurotic

But that’s okay he is an emu. Actually I am not even sure that he is a he or a she. Anyway, one day there he was, in the back pasture just kinda hanging out with the cows. Don’t know how he got there or where he came from.

Unfortunately for poor Afro, he is not very attractive, a little on the scary side and generally a ranch outcast.

The cows tolerate him well enough, he eats the feed that falls out their trough and can easily side step an irritated mama cow with a calf in tow. But he and the horses….nope, not a match. I am not sure who is more frighten of who, but it is best to just not keep them together.

Right now he is up in the front of the house in one of the weaning pens. He spends most of his day pacing back and forth (hence the neurosis).

He looks a lot better than when he first arrived, his feathers have calmed down and the little top knot of fluff on his head (Afro) has filled out, so we think he is happy enough. Some of my friends though, have said I should give him to the zoo, but geez how would I get him there??? He is not like the cattle that you just load in a trailer and move on….. Anyway we believe God sent him to us for a reason, what reason, I don’t know….so he stays.

Though not neurotic like Afro, I am obsessed. There are many times (like going to market) that I see a canvas and just have to have it. When will I find time to stitch it is irrelevant. When you own a LNS this can happen daily ( I must learn to pace myself).

Case in point is this amazing Gingerbread Christmas Tree from Shelly Tribbey. Now my whole Christmas decorating theme (yes, of course I have a decorating theme) is based around this piece. Went to market saw it, had to have it, done. I have customers who also have this obsession, thankfully, which is why I am still in business.

Like usual you can buy this great canvas by clicking here, or calling 361.572.0088!

The mule lived

Mainly because everything came together.

Rhonda is a very small red mule. She is not my mule, but belongs to Christine, who helps run things up at the mountain ranch. Late yesterday evening, the Redhead and I heard Christine’s voice come over the radio, the mule was down. She was talking to her husband Mike, asking that he come to the barn to help her. So when we didn’t hear anything for awhile, I called back on the radio to find out how Rhonda was doing. Christine was crying. Rhonda had colic. She had gotten into a patch of fresh alfalfa and eaten too much. So the Redhead starting looking up 24 hour emergency vets in the area. I called Joanne, my housekeeper for about five years, who literally knows everything. We got Christine on the phone with the vet and JoAnne was driving back to the ranch with a shot to give Rhonda to help with the colic.

Today Rhonda is fine and up eating hay. I love a happy ending.

Some needlepoint projects take a lot longer to come together.

I have been working on this canvas for my granddaughter Dylan. At first everything was just coming together so fast, then the pink leaf with the beaded edge wasn’t right and I couldn’t grasp the big flower in the bottom middle.

I tried beading it…..nah, but I do really like the pompoms! Arghhhh, ok take out the beads and walk away. Sometimes they just need a little time to themselves…..

Like always you can get this canvas and follow along in this adventure, just click here or call 361.572.0088 and order directly from the store.