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Published: July 31st 2011
Bluebonnets
One of the many fields of bluebonnets we saw on our ride.April 5—Drove back to Dallas today, just a short drive from Austin, so arrived early. Parked, as usual, in Danette's driveway. Bootsie is glad to stop riding for awhile and very glad to get into his leash and harness and go for a walk!
April 6-22—I spent this time with my sister Joyce and her family, getting to see Reese again. He is six months old now and our prime source on entertainment. On Friday, the eighth, the women of the family plus Reese, toured the rural areas to see the bluebonnets in full bloom. I had heard from others that the season wasn't going to be good this year due to lack of rain last year. Danette knew where to look, though and we saw field after field of gorgeous flowers. Truly the bluebonnets are spectacular when in bloom and I encourage anyone to try and see them at some point in their life. There aren't many blue flowers, so it is awesome to see whole fields of them! I took hundreds of pictures and spent many hours going through them afterwards.
On the sixteenth, the ladies had another special time together as we went to an art
Texas Scene
Bluebonnets and horses in Texas in April festival in on of the suburbs of Dallas. Wonderful painting and sculptures to view. I especially fell in love with some colorful scenes of Tuscany in Italy. Looking at all the great paintings inspired me, so I spent the next couple of days painting my own stuff. Right now I am working on three pictures of Aspen trees to give to my daughter, Jacque.
Speaking of art, Danette had seen some “yard art” on the internet and was interested in making some of that. She and I went to thrift stores and bought a bunch of dishes, etc., to put some together. We spread everything out on her living room floor and I put several different ones together. She is supposed to find a way to sell them after I leave!!!
April 22—I left Dallas and headed to Tahlequah, OK and my next NOMADS project. This time we will be working at the Methodist Children's Home, helping to repair and paint dorm rooms and offices and cooking for their annual fund raiser. The Home has several cottages and buildings on grounds with a small creek and a lake. There is also a barn and corral with horses, which
Barn and Bluebonnets
More of the beauty of these flowers. the girls can ride. The overall setting is like a tranquil countryside.
Bootsie--Hey, I like this new place. There is lots of activity to see from the window and Marty takes me outside just about everyday. (Unless it's raining, which it did a lot at first!) I watched some great big animals Marty calls horses, but I didn't like getting to close to them. I also explored some big hay bales. When I got on top of one, I see all kinds of things. One day while we were out, I took off at a run and jerked the leash out of Marty's hand. I knew she would chase me, but I had to do it! I took a flying leap and managed to hang on to a tree trunk and maneuver my way up to a fork. I climbed a tree!!! Yea!!!
On another day, I was checking out a tunnel and this thing reared up in front of me. It had two little claw looking hands and kept poking them at me. I sniffed at it and pawed it a little but it didn't back down. Funny little thing. I decided to leave it alone and Reese and Flowers
My great-great nephew enjoying the bluebonnets. looked for something else to explore. Marty's note: The "things" was a crawfish, very determined to protect its home! And I didn't have my camera for this confrontation!!!
April 23-May 12—The project here at the Children's Home is one of the hardest I have worked. There are four couples and me. The women started painting some of the dorm rooms, while the men tore down some closet walls, put together bunk beds and installed showers. The bunk beds are made of wood, so after they were put together, we got to paint them! This pretty well took care of the first week.
On the first weekend we did some sightseeing, driving to a nearby lake and dam, visiting a small church and eating at a great bar-b-que place. The dam was something to see, because it has been raining cats and dogs all week and the rivers are at flood stage. All ten of the gates were open and the sound and mist of all the falling water was incredible.
One evening the staff and the girls at the Home hosted a wiener roast at a gazebo on the lake. It was a good evening and
Paintings of Tuscany
I really liked these colorful paintings of Italy at the art show. a fun way to get to know some of the residents and staff.
The second week of work, we continued painting—this time in the main office and more bunk beds. Much of the week, however, the women planned the meal we were to cook on Saturday for some of the young people and staff. The fund-raiser included booths from various agencies in Tahlequah and an auction of donated items. As NOMADS we had a booth and also collected money for the hamburgers, hot dogs, fries and drinks sold. Most of the women made items to sell at our booth, in addition to our other work. Still bitten by the “yard art” bug, I put together a couple of pieces from dishes I found in some of the kitchens at the Home and donated these to the auction.
For the meal, we decided it would be easiest to bake most of the food. We planned chicken quarters in a terriyaki sauce, roasted quartered potatoes with onions, corn and cauliflower with cheese. We also prepared pans of cherry and apple cobbler. We were told to cook for about 70 people. I have never cooked on such a large scale before,
Indian Paint Brush
These flowers usually bloom about the same time as the bluebonnets. so it was quite a new thing for me.
Of course, Murphy's Law set in. Just about everything that could go wrong, did. The rains stopped, which was good for the problems with floods, but the days heated up. Unfortunately, the huge kitchen in which we worked did not have air conditioning! We took the chicken out of the freezer on Wednesday, but it did not thaw enough to work with, so we had to put it in water. Then we discovered that the “quarters” were not really quarters, but huge pieces of chicken cut every which way. That meant we had to recut it to get it to cook thoroughly. Nothing like cutting up 40 pounds of cold, wet, raw chicken to makes ones day!!
We had planned everything for the two ovens in the kitchen, but one decided not to work at all and the other worked at varied temperatures, sometimes high, sometimes barely warm! We found two other ovens in one of the dorm buildings. While they both worked, they were smaller and meant carrying pans of food back and forth to another building! I helped peel 20 pounds of potatoes and a huge sack
Bluebonnets and Indian Paint Brush
These two wildflowers are beautiful together in a field. of onions. (Don't know how many pounds.) Preparing the food took up most of Wednesday and Thursday. We cooked just about all day on Friday, served and cleaned up all day Saturday. Our normal 6 hour days turned into 8 and 10 and our four day week went to six! There were no complaints, however. We all felt it was for a very good cause, plus we were there for the love of God and His children.
In spite of Murphy, it all turned out amazingly well. The Home earned about $2,000, for which they were very grateful.
In the third week of the project we took it easy, finishing some of the things that had been started before the big cook-off. We also took a couple of days off. One day we drove over to Muskogee to see the USS Batfish Memorial Park and Military Museum.
The Batfish is a submarine which was launched in 1943 and served in the Pacific in World War II. It was decommissioned in 1946 and brought to Muskogee in 1972 by a veterans organization. The Batfish is credited with sinking 14 ships. It also has a war record of sinking three
Yard Art
One of several "yard art" creations made from odds and ends of pottery and dishes. subs within 72 hours in February 1945.
We had a great guide to take our group through the sub. He was quite a talker and full of knowledge about not only the Batfish, but submarine life and service in general.
After leaving the Museum grounds we drove through Honor Heights, a beautiful garden area maintained by the city of Muskogee. This park is known over the state of Oklahoma for its azaleas and people come for miles to see them bloom in the spring. Unfortunately, the blooming season had just ended a few weeks before we visited.
May 13—Yesterday all the NOMADS team had loaded up and stowed things away, so we were all ready to leave Tahlequah this morning. Once again, it was time to say good-bye to some wonderful new friends and head our different directions. I'm headed west to Colorado to see my kids.
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Brenda Metzinger
non-member comment
Long time since I've heard from you.
Was so good hearing from you. Lookd like your life is full. For sure not boring. Be safe and Blessed.