1st Annual Pig Roast a la Cas Crew

We'll after much excitement and chatter... and perhaps squealing of the pig, we had our 1st Annual Pig Roast. Don was declared a master griller! and is now recovering from smoke inhalation! We call it the "Kirsty Ally voice" w/ that deep husky bravado that she's got going on... well, that's Don for the time being.

We had 82 ppl show up for the event - 1/2 from church and 1/2 from the community! The pond shore line was filled w/ anglers hoping to catch the "Pig of the Pond" as we fondly call our huge porker of a bass! He and his bros have been caught and released many a times!

There was canoeing and eating and fishing and eating and corn hole (ok all you non-southerners... I hope I got a pix to put up, so you can get a visual on it... nope... so, I'll have to google one and put it up), and eating and basketball and eating and socializing and eating and still having 2 huge pans full of pork... and that was only 1/2 a pig.

Anyway - thx to all who made it a blast... and hopefully more of you can make it next year... we plan to do it in June... when it's cooler!

Blogger won't allow me to put up the last few photos... there's 30 below... so, the newest post will have the rest of the Roast!

Catch of the Day: Part II

Life is busy these days, so I'm just going to throw on some more fish fotos with a couple of turtle shots, too! Hope you enjoy!

And remember, fishing on private ponds is a privilege... always ask the homeowner before wetting your line! (ha - just had to say that because the kids watch the Game & Fish Program every Saturday night, and that's how the program ends!)

Charlie with a box turtle that he found and released in our woods.

Don with a snapping turtle that he caught with his home-made trap! Our friend's mother cooked her up and ate her - said she was mighty tasty! (not too sure about that!)

My dad and his crappie! It was a keeper that night!
It was a fish fry when the family came out! Don, Charlie, Papa, Grace, & TanTan

Here's more pix of the fish that made it to the fryer! Zach, Kellar, Charlie & Tan!

Our Dogs! Head of Ranch Security!

Shadow with our neighbor's dog, Hope. Good buddies.


Shadow and PugPug in the snow!

Shadow with the boys!

Charlie with his dog, PugPug!

So - I've promised a post about our dogs... and today seems like as good as any to post about them. Now, I am NOT a dog person - strictly a cat person! However, I'm wise enough to realize the value of cohabiting with as large of a dog as we can come by! Our first large dog was named Ta-Tonka, Big Ta-Tonka, as in "Dances With Wolves." We shortened his name to Tonka. He was my gentle giant. We got him from the Lab Rescue and only had him for 22 mos. He was geriatric to begin with and died of lung cancer. Broke my heart. He taught me that dogs can be great animals and that they all don't have to smell, jump, lick, and drool! OK - so none of the other dogs we have can live up to his moral ethics!

So, I went back to the Lab Rescue to a Meet n Greet Park Day. Needless to say, a huge yellow lab can bundling out of an SUV. I knew right away he was going to be mine! I rushed over to him and walked him and told them I'd take him! He has a lame name... it's not highly original, but it has a different meaning... his name is Shadow. Basically, it's due to the fact, that wherever I go, even on days when there is no sun, I cast a 'Shadow'. And if I ever stop short, I get a cold nose up the rear... that's not endearing! But he loves me. (not as much as Tonka did... but he still worships the ground I walk on!) Shadow is about 125# of pure shedding material! He's got to have some Akita mix to him, as well. His latest obsession is also not endearing! He seems to get pure delight of chasing skunks... and then wearing their scent for the following month! No - tomato juice does not nix the smell - especially when we're talking a 125# mass of fur with several layers of thus said fur! When we got him, he was 2 - he didn't know how to fetch or catch food mid-air or eat 'gently' from his master's hand! But, he's perfected all of it now! He also loves to swim in our pond and then walk out looking like the swamp monster with mud and gunk clung to his fur... again, not endearing! And where would we be without the gas! Oh my... one of the names we immediately tho't of was "Gas-imus." His are stealth! (ie... silent, but deadly!) Anyway - he does his thing. He scares off the would-be sales ppl by his shear size! gotta love that!

And then there's Pug! We moved to our new state and Charlie wanted a pug. We told our realtor, who also wore the hat of the head of the local humane society. Low and behold, the following week she called us with a Pug in the kennels! So, we go pick up this creature and he's smelly and graying around the face and just so ugly that he's cute. We're told that he has kennel cough... but really - it's a collapsible trachea! go figure! Evidently with short nose breeds with smushed in faces this type of occurrence is not uncommon... and we just got lucky to get the guy who has this! Now, he's smelly, he farts, he moans, he snores and shakes the windows, he whines, he cries, he can't get off the couch by himself in the mornings, and he hacks! If he exercises (ie... walks to the pond with us and back), this will ignite his tracheal problems! He sounds like a cat coughing up a hairball. It's pathetic. These attacks last at least 2 weeks. not endearing! Oh... and he does this 'licking the air' thingy! At random points thru-out the day he'll be laying there licking the air - reminds me of a snake smelling the air... who knows. Originally his name was Smoosh... but now it's just PugPug! He's a big hit with our guests... as he thinks he should be a lapdog! (I don't think anything that stinks that bad should be near any one's lap!)

That gives the summation of our 2 dogs! I'll have to post about Baby, our cat... he thinks he's one of the dogs!

Osprey!

A few weeks back my hubby and Charlie boy and I were driving down our country road. Don spotted what appeared to be a Bald Eagle, but really turned out to be an Osprey traveling on its migratory path back north for the summer. (We looked it up in several of our Birding Books! - we're avid Birders!!!!) It was so awesome to see this magnificent creature hover in place and then fold his wings and dive head first into the pond. We just stopped the car and watched for about 5 minutes until his mission was successful and he flew off at a quick clip. Here are photos of what this looked like! And for those of you who have never seen an Osprey, they're found in the Mogollian Rim and the mountain lakes... we got to see them there, too - years and years ago.

A Horse is a Horse... Unless it's Star!

We received Star from Joy and Brian! Some of the best neighbors one could ever dream of having!

I've been meaning to post about the most awesome Christmas gift we received! We have some precious neighbors who have become like family to us! And they gave of their hearts this year! We received Star from them! She is a pony, as she is only so-high. And she's absolutely sweet! She's great with the kids and me! I never in my life tho't we'd own a horse for the kids and through their generosity, we're now 'horse-people'! Hannah and Grace had taken classes for a year when we first moved here on horse care and riding and tack and triage and on and on. Because of their knowledge, and the fact that our neighbor up the road is an equine vet - we're on our way to perfecting our skills! Before Christmas, I went over to their barn and video'd Joy wishing the kids a "Merry Christmas from KY and oh by the way, we're giving you a gift... Star." We played the video on Christmas day for the kids and their faces were priceless! Joy, awe, dumbstruck! Grace was crying - Hannah couldn't move a muscle - Charlie was jumping for joy - and Kellar - well - he was pretty excited too! Thx a million! Paying it forward!

Down 2 Lives & None to Spare

This past Monday, we inherited a new cat. As most of you know, "Strays R Us!" Our neighbor, Len, realized after 20m that Bubba, the local bully dog, was racing around her pool. She discovered a cat bobbing for life in the frozen iced waters. Fortunately for her, he was too weak to put up a fight during rescue, and fortunately for him, he had more lives to live, as he was down 2 in a matter of minutes: escaping the jowls of Bubba and not sinking like the Titanic. Now Jode, as he's been named, is doing what cats do best ~ catnapping! Our God is good. He knew how sad we've been over the disappearance 2 wks hence of one of our other cats, Ba-Juliet. In recognition of both of these furry family members, I am reminded of my favorite poem in book form... as Ba-Juliet was the best and most creative of cat-nappers!

An Ode to Ba-Juliet and Jode:

CATS SLEEP ANYWHERE by Eleanor Farjeon
~Cats sleep anywhere ~ any table ~ any chair ~ top of piano ~ window ledge ~ in the middle ~ on the edge ~ open drawer ~ empty shoe ~ anybody's lap will do ~ fitted in a cardboard box ~ in the cupboard with your frocks ~ anywhere ~ they don't care ~ cats sleep anywhere! ~