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Showing posts from February, 2012

"SAVE US!"

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THIS IS ME, MUFFINY..THEY TWIPPED ME!! THEN MADE FUN OF MY BEWWY..     "Wisten! This is Muffinhead! It is emergancy...don't wisten to the crazy wady! We aren't her muses..Beef and I are her pwisoners!! I dont hab much time..she be back soon...She is WYING! She says we wike famiwy...WIGHT! It isnt wike that at all..She wants world to beweive it is wike this,,,,,,,, Me and Beef, all cozy wike...BUT ITS NOT!! We are tortured wike THIS! WEAK from Hunger! Beefer tortured with water boarding..SAVE US! Made to dwink milk til she wore this!! I must hurry..she back from stowah..Beefer and I beg you..save us from cwazy wady!..she nuts, she COMING NOW..SHE HERE..SHE..GAHHHHHH......................

The Voices in my Head

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    By now, I am sure a good many of you are not the least bit surprised to hear about the voices in my head. The best part? They all talk differently. It would be one thing if the voices I was hearing was just what I think my own voice sounds like. However, and I almost hate to admit this, for fear of men in white coats speeding down Middle Ridge Road at breakneck speeds, probably alerted by a (former!) Facebook  friend, the voices all talk in different ways. This, I have come to realize, is because of my cats.  Let me explain.       I was sitting at my computer, diligently working on my best seller to be, (or maybe playing  spades) when my son Liam and his pal Corbin walked in to see me.       "Mom," said Liam, " we are going to go outside and play for awhile." I told him that was fine, and watched as he stopped to scratch Muffinhead behind her ears. She is our big fat black cat, and she and her pal Stewbeef spend alot of time in my office with me. I like to say

"That dismount was a perfect 10!!"

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      As I mentioned in an earlier blog, (or two), my cousin Zenya and I grew up next door to each other and shared a great love of horses and riding. We spent hours riding on the big power line behind my house, or cutting out new trails in the woods. Not every outing went as smoothly as we hoped it would, as you probably know by now.        One fall day, after my horse Angel had given birth to her foal Flicka, Zenya and I decided to try riding the horses down the road for a short ride. It was Angel's first outing without Flicka following along behind us, and I wanted to see how she would act. I had left instructions for Flicka, who was about three months old, to be locked in the stall until we were out of sight, and then she could be let out into the corral.       We had an old barbed wire corral off the end of the barn, and we were in the process of taking the wire down and replacing it with white board fencing. At the time we went for our ride, we had done three sides, leaving

A Couple things you DO NOT want to see happen at the Supper table..

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     Supper at our house has always been a sit down affair. I truly believe kids today don't get as much out of their home life as they should because it seems the family sit down dinner has become an "endangered species", so to speak. It seems more and more families eat take out, or fast food, or even eat dinner at separate times. I have always tried to have a good home cooked meal on the table at night for my family, and I think my children grew up enjoying that routine. Even today, when they get home from school, one of the first questions out of their mouths is "What's for supper?" Not that I cook every night mind you, I'm not SUPER MOM, after all. We do have a night where it is M.Y.O. as we call it..( Make your own..), but I do try most nights to have a good meal on the table.      There have been a couple occasions where a little "something" happened, and it made the nightly supper a bit more interesting then usual. One instance happened

A Prize Winning Rump

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     Not everyone can say they have a prize winning rump, but I sure can, because mine won a prize one day many years ago. Curious? Let me explain....       Several years ago when Cameron was a young boy, I took him to the biggest and best agricultural fair in the State of Maine. The "Fryeburg Fair" has been held for well over 100 years in the neighboring town of Fryeburg. It runs for a full week in the month of  October, and draws thousands of people every year.        Many generations of our family have attended the festivities, which range from logging competitions to horse and cattle shows, tractor pulls, music and of course a huge midway with games and rides.       As a young farm boy, Cameron didn't really want to spend much time in the barns looking at all the animals, so we didn't linger very long before going out to the midway. The sight of a fair midway is a magical sight for young and old alike...The colorful game booths with their yelling carnival folks

No blog tonight because.........

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    The blog woman has had a busy, long day preparing for her mother's 69th birthday. Here she is after dinner, and maybe more champagne then she should have had...By the way, the dog matched her drink for drink...and Cliffy is in the background thinking.."another night of dragging her butt to bed.." :D

Carmen crashes the church, film at 11...

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       I never seem to run out of places to make a scene. If there is a way, I will find it. And, chances are, it won't be pretty. One time I managed to embarrass myself in front of an entire church congregation, as well as a swarm of "summer folks." I figure if your gonna do it, why not do it big.      I belong to the Methodist Church here in town, and have baked pies for their summer fund raising suppers for many years. I get a periodic call from Joan, one of the original "church ladies", who fills me in on the details of when the supper will be held and how many pies they need.     One day she asked me if it would be possible for me to go in early to help set up for the supper, as well as make my two pies. I said that should be fine, and I said I bet Cliffy would even help  too. I am nothing if not a good volunteer musterer.     So, the day of the supper, I made my pies early and Cliffy and I hopped in the car to drive down and help set up for the suppe

A few more.."Get to know the folks at Homeland Farm" Photos!

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      It has been a long day of  grocery shopping, cleaning, and also my new table and chairs arriving. (thus, the cleaning! I made the brilliant move to wash my kitchen floor BEFORE the guy came to deliver the set, which of course he did with muddy feet.) I then had to wash the floor all over again. I don't even wash my floors very often, and here I was doing it twice in one day! I should be all set until next year now...      I love my new set, and will be sure to put a photo or two on the old blog. It will have to wait until tomorrow night, as I still need to put away some groceries that are still sitting on the new table. It is late, and I am almost ready to crash for the night. Cameron, Bridgitte and Liam went shopping with me, and it always makes me smile to hear them invariably say how tired they are by the time we are done packing grocery bags in the car and then lugging them into the house once we are home. I think to myself try being another 30+ years older and then tal

Our most romantic date

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    Cliffy and I both love to travel, but we seem to have had more time to travel in the early stages of our relationship. Why that is, I'm not sure. Now, I am a native Mainer, but I had never even been north or east of Orono. So, when Cliffy heard that tidbit of information, he decided he should be the man to take me.      Early one sunny summer day, we decided to go to Machias, and spend the weekend sightseeing. We hopped in Cliffy's little car and off we went. We had a nice drive up along the coast, and he told me about the area, places he had fished, and about the nice little motel we would be staying at for our romantic night out.      We pulled into the metropolis of Machias, and drove to a little diner for a late lunch. It was very cozy and we had a great time. After lunch, we decided we would go and get checked into the motel before we did any more sight seeing. It was as if I was Mary and Cliffy was Joseph, because when we went to check into the ONLY motel in town, t

There might be blood...Part One

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    As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I am not particularly graceful. Actually, as my dearly departed Uncle Billy used to say, I tend to be more like "a bull in a china shop". I used to blame all my tumbles on weak ankles, or perhaps Nanny's infamous "McKeen Knees." Apparently my McKeen ancestors were clumsy too, and I guess even back over 100 years ago felt the need to come up with some reason why "things" happened to them. The "curse" seems to have trickled down through the years, and somehow I ended up with a rather large dose of it.        Growing up on a farm, and being outdoors as much as I could, it was just natural that I get hurt, and I did. Alot. I'm not even talking about all the horse back riding incidents that occurred. I am talking about weird accidents, that always seemed to fall under the heading of  "it could only happen to Carmen."       I broke my collarbone as a youngster, getting out of a crib. I somehow

Why No one ever wanted to ride in my car..

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           Hauling livestock can be a really big challenge, especially if you only own a station wagon. Before I met Cliffy, that's all I had to use for transporting critters. It made for some interesting experiences, just ask Zenya. After we graduated from college, we both seemed to migrate back to Bridgton, so lucky for her, she was really close by when I called her up for an adventure one day.              "Want to go on a road trip?" I asked her over the phone. Now, even though her mother had warned her over and over that if she was smart she would say no to my invites, she just knew it was bound to be interesting, so she agreed. I picked her up in my maroon Subaru wagon, we drove an hour and got on the turnpike north.        "What exactly are we going after?" she asked, rather nervously I thought.         "You'll have to wait and see," I said. I glanced over at her and saw her look at me with a look of, oh I don't know..fear? desperatio

Death and the Manure spreader

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      I know that sounds like a very unusual title for today's blog. That's what is so scary about my mind. Like the good Lord himself, it does work in mysterious ways. I have been thinking about the subject of death lately with the recent passing of my cousins father. You remember Zenya, from earlier blogs? She and her sister Natasha recently lost their father, at the age of 81.       So, I started to ponder what will happen when I die, or as I prefer to say..when I croak. Of course, there will be lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth (what DOES that mean anyway??) and I'm fairly certain that the current president of the United States will in fact, order the flags to be flown at half mast. But then what? What exactly will happen then? I've decided I need to think about this and get it down on paper, (or blog) because you just never know when you will wake up and be south of the sod, as it were.       We are fortunate enough to have a family plot on the back forty of

I don't miss the "Dating Game"..

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      I have been thinking lately about how fast time flies. Cliffy and I have our seventh anniversary coming up this month on February 26. I can't believe it has been that long, but here it is. Time truly does fly when you are having fun, and hanging out with Cliffy is a lot more fun then dating ever was. I know everyone has their dating horror stories, and I sure have my share.       I never really "dated" in high school. I remember in Sociology class, we  had to write anonymous  notes to fellow classmates describing them in a short phrase. I got a couple that said "good sense of humor", and "nice" but the one that stuck out at me the most was one that said I should "dress more stylish." I already had 8 different colored chamois shirts, I didn't know what else I could possibly do! Maybe that's why when it came time for junior and senior prom I was umm..lacking in invites. I was eventually asked out for my junior prom by a nice fell

T.G.I.F. and M.B.W.

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     That would be "Thank God It's Friday" of course, and also, My Birthday Weekend. I believe in making my birthday a full three day event. Of course, this year, pretty much the ENTIRE United States will be celebrating on my birthday. No, I'm not famous (yet!), however my birthday happens to fall on SUPER BOWL SUNDAY! So, when I walk into a bar for lunch with Cliffy on Sunday and hear a loud cheer, I will pretend it is me they are cheering for, not Tom Brady and Co.      We ordered Pizza for supper tonight, as, well, I am a firm believer that no one should cook on their birthday weekend. It just isn't right, slaving over a stove wearing the latest in birthday hats. So, we had takeout, and my nephew Nolan joined us as well. When I asked him what kind of pizza he wanted, he said at first 'pepperoni', then quickly said.."Auntie Carmen, make it a cheese pizza. Im trying to cut back on pepperoni." He is 8 years old and so cute. Tomorrow, the entir