Rooster Tale

You know you live in the country when a Rooster greets you at the gas station!

This rooster is becoming quite a celebrity in our rural area as he hangs out all day in front of the convenience store, crowing to customers as they arrive at the pump and occasionally slipping in the store.

I had heard about the rooster from friends and Sunday I stopped to get diesel for the tractors, and low and behold if he didn't crow as I pulled in the parking lot!

I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of the red rooster. Now if I could only get a picture of the goat that hangs out there too. Oh yes, I said Goat! The house behind the store has several animals and the rooster and goat like to wander up to the store. I've seen the goat behind the store and eating something off the road, but never in the store parking lot. I'll be sure and share when I get the goat's picture!

I love life in the country and wouldn't have it any other way!

Flea Market Finds



A few of our weekend finds!

A couple a weeks ago, I had the ramblin fever...the need to hit the road for some kind of adventure...the need to kick the everyday mundane and explore some junk. Saturday we explored the Goodwill on our usual grocery/feed store shopping trip and then Canton First Monday Trades Days was that weekend, so we headed out on a Hot Sunday morning to do some exploring.



The road - she was a callin' my name...



Trade Days...How I've missed you.
The parking was remarkably easy. Usually traffic is extremely chaotic in Canton, but I guess the hot weather kept a lot of people at home. There didn't seem to be many shoppers this month.

My Good Will Find from Saturday Shopping.

Just the week before, I decided I needed an old suitcase. We were browsing the Goodwill when I looked around and saw this orange suitcase. I had already passed it once and paid it no attention. The inside was clean and only had one issue were the seem had come unraveled. I fixed it with some Alene's Tacky glue and now all my material is stored  in this super cool storage container! Way cuter than one of those plastic storage tubs from Wal Mart don't ya think and it only cost $7.00!

I found a few baseballs, doileys, and containers on my weekend shopping trip. Look at those buttons! They are vintage for sure - the Wal Mart price tag is printed on the package and they've never been used!

I took the seem out of the baseballs and am going to make a flower accent with the leather shell.

See the flower? I've gotta find a cool button to attach to the center of the flower.

Some of Farmall Man's picks! He always tells a story  about when his Granddad and his friends got a telephone. They would call down to the community store and ask  "Do you have Prince Albert in a Can?" "Why Yes we do", the clerk would reply. "Well you better let 'im out!" and they would bust into hysterical laughter and hang up.

Punky looks like she is ready to hit the road were her over night case!

I must have had a fascination with old suitcases last week, because I bought this old Samsonite case as well. It's not doing too well on the smell test. I cleaned it up and it is getting to spend some time with baking soda and sunshine! I have in mind a cool decoupage project with this case - when it passes the smell test that is. It only cost $3.00.

For $2.00 I found over three yards of burlap. Its had some smell issues as well and is getting the sunshine treatment! I've washed it down with the water hose and am letting it air out for a while. Not sure what I'm gonna do with this just yet, but I couldn't pass up all this fabric!

We had a great time even though it was sooo hot. We walked through some of the pavilions and arbors at Canton, but there just didn't seem to be much exciting in them. When we got "out back" we found all the good stuff! If you've never been to Canton, it is quite the experience. There are thousands of vendors on the weekend before the first Monday of the month. There are lots of covered shopping pavilions, arbors, etc and then there are the outdoor vendors. The outdoor spaces usually have more "junk" and random stuff set up under tents and among the trees. Its were the unique stuff is at and the deals can be found. It was actually much cooler outside than it was under the buildings because there was a breeze blowing . Click here to see one of the maps or here to read more about Canton trade days. There's really no way to see everything in Canton in one weekend, so I hope we can get back on the road again next month! I'll have the rambling fever again by then I'm sure! I think I here the road calling my name.....

Flying traffic cones

Today's word of advise:

Watch out for flying, jumping, crazy, orange, road construction cones.

They will jump up and attack you, busting your mirror.

Guess you now want to know how I discovered this, huh?

Yesterday morning I was just plain sleepy, didn't want to get up, had the blahs, could have kept sleeping for hours, or so I felt. I have no idea why. I even went to bed early the night before because I was give out. Maybe we will just blame it on 114 degree heat. Yeah, that's a good reason!

So, I was droopy as I was getting ready to go to work. Farmall Man even ask if I needed another Dr. Pepper to wake up some more. I said no, that I would be ok. He always walks me to the truck and hugs me goodbye. He usually tells me to "watch out for people, people are crazy out there", but yesterday morning it was "you better wake up and pay attention, don't be hitting anything."

I'm bebopping on my way to work, found a few good songs on the radio, had it cranked up loud, was meeting a car, when BAM. That cone jumped up and smacked me! There is a little ol' strip of road construction on the way to work - maybe a 1/2 mile long, and that crazy cone reach out and smacked my passenger side mirror. I can't repeat exactly what I said yesterday morning. It was something like SHOOT.

My mirror fell out. I turned around and went back and picked up the shattered piece. The main bracket was not broken off the truck, but will most likely have to be replaced because the plastic brackets that hold the actual mirror are broken. UGH.

I went on to work: sad, sleepy, upset, quite, grumpy, scared to tell Farmall Man. Afterall his last words were...wake up and pay attention. I checked on a new mirror at the parts store in town $83.00+. Ebay has new mirrors for $29 and up with free shipping. Gotta love ebay!

When I finally told my co-workers, one of them ask: "Did it fly up and hit you?" Yep, thats what it did! What she meant was did I run over a small cone and it flew up from under the vehicle or tire. No - it was a tall cone, but I'm sticking to the idea that it jumped out and hit me!

All day I fretted over my stupid incident, how was I going to tell FM? Well I got home, he walked up behind the truck as I was getting out of the truck and I showed him my shattered mirror. Thankfully he was not mad. I got more like "I told you, you were a crazy girl, to watch out for stuff." Then there was, "we can fix it, that's what we do, fix things."

So in closing - watch out for those crazy, jumping, flying cones that will reach out and smack ya!

Fireworks on the Lake

Last night I got to scratch two items off my unofficial Summer Bucket List! I don't know what all is on that list, but photographing a fireworks show and driving around the lake were two items on the list!

 

We chose to attend the fireworks show at Lake Hawkins and I loved the reflections in the water.

We are under burn and firework bans, although these professionally choreographed shows, presented by the towns were permitted.

 I had never been to this lake before, so we drove around the lake Sunday afternoon and scoped out the surroundings. We saw where the fireworks were being set up and found the "point" of the lake opposite the dam.

 I studied up on some manual camera settings and we headed back to lake around dusk. We got a spot on the point and I set up my tripod and prepared for the show.

 We enjoyed the patriotic show of fireworks and patriotic music and I am excited about how my pictures turned out.

 My camera settings that were set to f/11, ISO 100, and shutter speed set to Bulb. Some of the pictures were exposed 3 to 30 seconds. I used a few apps on my phone to help determine my settings. One day I hope to figure out all of the settings on my camera. I never knew anything about "bulb" till I got to reading yesterday on a blog.

I hope you are all having a Happy 4th Of July! Are you going to a fireworks show this year (or did you already attend a show)? Have Fun and Be Safe as we celebrate Freedom!  

Bluebonnet trails

So I didn't have to work today, so we decided to head west to Ennis to travel the bluebonnet trails. I always thought I had to go to the hill country to see bluebonnets, but there are plenty to see and some awesome views in Ennis, which happens to be the bluebonnet capital.

I'm blogging from my iPhone in the autozone parking lot! We were going down one of the trails and were pulling over to take some pics when the clutch made a terrible pop. Needless to say, our trip has been cut short and the Farmall Man is trying to rig this truck up so we can make the 100+ miles home. There are no clutch master cylinders in this town and all the shops are closed on a saturday afternoon. But he's good, calm and collected, so he's getting us ready to make the trip home. Just say a little prayer for us, that we Make every red-light on green and don't have to stop much!

As I type, the clutch is some what working if his wedge stays in!
I am so thankful for him and his knowledge of mechanics. I would have panicked by now, if it wasn't for him.

I did manage to take a lot of pics before our troubles, so I will share those with you soon.

Update: We made it home just fine!!!!!!! The clutch master cylinder bracket broke and the master cylinder was held in place by: a pair of chanel locks, a hammer, 2 bungee cords, baling wire, and a piece of cardboard from a clothes hanger! My man has talent!!!The clutch was not used in switching gears on the way home. We only had to stop at a few red lights and made a few rolling stops. The clutch was only used to stop a few times. All of this was on our newer truck I told you about last week. Plastic crap is the reason for this malfunction today - vehicles are not made the same as they used to be! My other, older vehicle has over 250,000 miles and still runs great.