I've Gone Country A blog about a city girl learning a whole new world

When I was a little girl I always checked the coin return at the pay phones in front of stores or wherever we were.  Mom would get tickled, because I would often walk away with a dime.  That was a nice find for a little girl.  That was also when penny candy was a penny.  So you know what that meant.  Ten wonder pieces of candy at the U totem store.  That was the name of the little convenient store.

Pay phones are almost impossible to find now days, but I do not hesitate to pick up a coin off the ground.  It seems like I can spot a coin a mile away.   Ok…well maybe not really a mile away….but I always keep my eyes peeled.

I really get amazed when I see someone drop a coin….and they know it….and they just walk off.  I am in shock…..why not pick it up?

I decided about a year or so ago to start saving the money I find on the street and or parking lots and see how much I accumulate.

This is the label that I put on my used Cranberry juice bottle.  I try to keep the change I find in my pocket until I get home and put it in the bottle.

This is $14.33 so far.  Not too shabby.

The ten dollar bill you see there was a “REAL”  find.  The first week I decided to start my little adventure I found this ten dollar bill in a Lowes Parking lot.

That however, is not the norm.  It is usually pennies.  I am alright with that.  I still get excited when I see one on the ground!

Billy thinks I am just a little nutso.  I am and I am not ashamed to admit it.  One day I was so excited I was finding a quarter here and dime there every few feet while we were taking a walk.   Now I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I did figure that one out…..Billy was dropping them without me seeing…just to watch me get all excited.

Well…I had to laugh….that was a pretty good one.  But I did not put that money in my jar.  I am trying real hard to be as accurate as I can…so I can just see how much I accumulate strictly from what is laying around.

Most of the time the money is really banged up.  This is a penny…but it sure has a lot of dents and dings.

Sometimes you can’t tell what it is until you feel the weight or wipe it off a little.

On occasion I find a nickel or a quarter, but a lot of people will pick up a quarter they drop.

I was at a drive through restaurant window the other day.  The cashier gave me back my change.  You know most people do not count back your change anymore like they used to.  So she hands me the change inside the folded bills.  Since I was in a car, she tilted her hand down towards the car and the change went on the ground between my car and the building.  Oh….sorry she says, and hands me my food.  She just expected me to drive away I guess.

Bless her heart, she didn’t know I was a nutso….so I put the car in park…opened my car door and picked up my change.  Besides it was more than just a penny.

So this weekend I found .51 cents and tonight I found another penny.  Which I deposited into my street money jar.

For a grand total of $14.85.

Some days I find more than others, but hey….every penny adds up.

So it doesn’t take much to amuse me and Billy.  We like to stop and look at stuff on the side of the road as we travel.  When we go to Talladega sometimes we take part of a day to look around at this metal warehouse.  We hang out there and look at everything they have.  I know crazy huh.  This is by the way,the same place that we got the Boon Docks sign last year.

They have a lot of different stuff.   We refrained from buying some really neat items…but it was hard.

Like this Billy goat…..

It was so cute….

I couldn’t help but think about my cute Billy goat Jed at home…..

Oh….. and then I saw these….

A Nanny goat with her kids….awww now you know I needed these!

But they didn’t look as cute as Jethro and Violet did this Winter.

But then I saw this and I really wanted it….

Well… now there were a few really good reasons why this didn’t make it home with me…..it was toooooo expensive and it was like  6 feet tall.  I have no idea how much it weighed…but it was more than I could handle.  I just kept thinking….” it sure would be CUTE in the front of the pasture”….But then again….how much cuter can you get than the REAL thing.

Ahhhh….this is Clementine….the first year in our pasture.  It has been fun watching her grow.  Now she really is the biggest cow we have…

I think the biggest thing about her is her heart though…..she is a real sweetie.

As we continued to look around, we did manage to find a few things we really needed.

Like this cowgirl….

for the girls restroom door at the cabin.  I love that she is wearing an earring.

And we got this cowboy for the boys restroom door.

It is really cute…..

Just not as cute…..

as the cowboy I already have!

So Miss Ellie and Billy have been really close through the years.  He often takes her with him when he goes places.  Especially if he hasn’t been able to spend much time with her.

We have this little white Ford Ranger truck.  It is a really great truck, but it is not the prettiest thing around.  Garrett had one when he was first learning to drive it was a green one.  He came home one day, he was 16 years old, he said…Mom….my windshield wipers just come on out of nowhere.  I said….well you must have pushed something you didn’t know you pushed.  He said no…it has done it several times…and then they will go off all by themselves.   Hmmm.  We laughed.  It was a used truck when we bought it with a good many miles on it…so we marked it up to that.

Years later we bought another used little Ranger, well…I’ll be dog gone if the windshield wipers don’t come on out of nowhere.  The first time they did it…it startled me…then I just started laughing.

One of the things that made this truck …not so pretty is that it had a dark window tint on the windows.  Some of the tint had peeled off on the back window, which gave it a really used look.  But the tint helped keep the car cool on the inside.  This truck has an air conditioner that can turn the cab into a meat locker in a matter of seconds.  When you are working, you can really appreciate that on a hot summer day.

It started out as our work around the land truck.  We haul bark chips in the bed of it, rocks, firewood and I usually haul all my little discount plants in it.  It has been on all kinds of building mission trips with us and has never given us a bit of trouble.  It probably is one of the most reliable vehicles we have ever had.

Here is Billy and Ellie on one of their days of hanging out together.  She cracks me up with the way she sits up like a human.

Billy has gotten to where he drives the truck a lot lately.  The gas mileage is great and of course with the air conditioning….that is a real plus.  The other day I took the truck up to the Feed Store.  I needed to load some fencing and things in it.  As soon as I got on the main road a police officer pulled me over.  I wasn’t speeding…so I didn’t have a clue why he pulled me over.

He comes to the window and informs me that my tint is in violation…and so I had to show my license and then he runs the information and ask for my proof of insurance….which of course was not in the glove compartment box, because we forget to put it in there, because we had not been using the truck every day…until recently.

Thank goodness he was nice enough to write me a warning about the tint but I did have to go the court house and show that I really did have insurance on the truck.  I suppose I looked like a thug in that thing.  It did have the peeling tint on the back and the little dents and dings on the truck and of course it was dusty dirty from the back roads.  I had those dark tinted windows rolled up nice and tight so I could thoroughly enjoy my air conditioner and I’m pretty sure I was rocking to some country music too.

I can’t blame him for stopping something that looked like that.

So Billy and I had a job to do that evening…we armed ourselves with razor blades and  window cleaner and scraped all the gross tint off the windows.

He found the proof of insurance in his brief case and we placed it in the glove compartment like it should be.

And I will have to say….I admire our police officers.  If my son was one, I wouldn’t want him having to stop people and not be able to see who was in the vehicle…for his safety.  Soooo as aggravating as it was…it was my own fault.  It forced me to fix the problems and it does look a little better now. I kinda chuckled to myself thinking  it would have been really great if Ellie and Billy had gotten stopped.  That officer probably would have thought…. man that guys wife looks like a real dog…. HA.

Anyway, as far as the windshield wipers….well, they still come on whenever they want.  Looks pretty crazy when it is 90 degrees outside and not a cloud in the sky…and there you are going down the road with the wipers just a going.

Occasionally I see Garrett’s old truck around town…..it is still just chugging along.  I laugh…because that person knows how I feel when the wipers do their thing!

I have always been a little bit country, but I have never lived in the country.  Even now we do not live that far out of the city, just far enough to enjoy the things that country life offers.

Like the soft cackle that our neighbors hens make as they go about their day.  And looking at the chickens as they get ready for bed.

I didn’t know they like to sleep like this….

Seeing wild flowers regularly— like this beautiful Queen Anne’s Lace.

Watching the animals interact with each other…no doubt in my mind they communicate in their own sweet way.

Enjoying fresh produce, like this cabbage, straight from the neighbors garden.

Using Mason Jars for many other things besides canning…..like for iced tea, flower vases and…..even candles.

Having the animals greet me when I come into the pasture.

Just wanting to be petted and talked to.

Then not wanting me to leave…..as they follow me toward the gate.

Watching the different generations of neighbors exchange stories and ideas.

Each learning new things from one another.

Seeing beauty and resourcefulness in things that grow from the land

…like these dried gourds, now used as bird houses for the Martins.

Seeing all ages of our family enjoy the land and animals.

Walks with my husband in the cool of the day and being able to fish whenever we want.

Oh..and….I don’t always look this good….Billy caught me on a good day.

I think Ellie likes living in the country too!

So little Mabel developed another lump on her side two or three days after surgery.

We went back to the Dr. and they had to open her back up and put a drain in due to a pocket of infection.

They kept her overnight.  So the next morning I went to pick her up.

She had three different kinds of bandage wraps on.  They were trying to keep her from pulling out the drain.

The doctor said if she left it alone she wouldn’t have to wear all that stuff.

She acted like she felt really good, but I took her to work with us so I could keep on eye on her.

She kept going back to the water bowl.

The bandages were not staying in place.  Kinda hard to wrap a FAT puppy tummy!  You know that fat belly they get after they eat.

So….Billy and I got creative and made two leg holes in this bandage so it would stay on.  Looks kinda like a dog sweater.

Is that CUTE or what…..  We are working on Potty Training soooooo….there have been lots of trips outside.

Especially after drinking all that water!

She was so tired when we got home she crashed pretty early.

She really is like a baby.   I picked her up and put her in her crate and she hardly noticed.

She has been a real good patient.  So far she hasn’t bothered her boo boo.  She did get pretty tired of the bandage today so I took it off.  But it sure looked cute on her…Blue must be her color!

Ellie has been sweet.  I think she might have even missed her the other night while she was at the vet.

Well….maybe not….but she has still been sweet to her.

Hopefully they will really enjoy each others company in the days to come.    I guess we will see.

I still can’t believe we have another dog.