Hup Two Hup Two, Just Steppin On

Selling 'da Farm'.  Organizing Chaos.  Hanging In, Out, and On for dear Life.

Only Bitching about it once in awhile,   HERE.   See ya.....!

Is It Really Hard? Or Really Scary?

Nope.  It's mostly just really Lonely,  selling my home.

I have to ask myself,  is this what I'd hoped for, or planned on?
And I have to answer myself, 'Nope.  It's just the Way It Is.'

As far as hardcore Real Plans go,  I don't exactly have one, yet.  But 'Facts iz Facts, Ma'am',
and my Home is in escrow.  I'll be outta here on or before January 30th, 2011.

In the end all and be-all of things?  We play the hands we're dealt, hehe.

Doing The Done Deal..

Alternate Title  'Made It So'

                                 Sunrise Over Maggiez Farm  12/17/2010

This is one of the last 'scenic' shots I'll take from the front door of the real 'Maggiez Farm',
for I'm signing the papers tomorrow to put 'da Farm' into escrow.

Yes,  you heard me correctly,  I've 'Sold The Farm'.  Me,  the Magz Herownself is off on any
number of new adventures,  and will settle back sooner or later into another version of the same ole
Maggiez Farm.

I will continue to write my life, my feelings, and my experiences,  but not exactly as they happen.
(Life is going to be Goofy Enough,  without leaving a record of just how Goofy I get whilst dealing
with the day-to-day stuff-  thank GOD for a little 'maturity' in my life!

See ya round da Innerwebs-  my email, IM contacts, and phone # will remain the same.  I'll keep this blog, and update it as often as possible!

                                                               Curls  12/17/2010
                   This is Curly Joe,  Mighty Mouser Cat.   Be vewy vewy quyatt... he's mousing!

Buckle Down, Suck It Up- DEAL

Since it seems that I'm only talking to myself,  I can get real Real here.
The post below this post titled "I Am Ashamed' refers to my shame & my brokedness,  trying to pay my taxes.  (Yes;  Broke-edness, not Broken)

What it didn't delve into.. was just how tough this process is really going to be.

I sold my Best Friend,my Horse, and gave away his best friend, The Other Horse
on account of the fact that I needed money.  Cash,  to pay taxes.  So I could KEEP
this place, even if it has no horses.  (My  Good Neighbor didn't want me to sell The Other Horse,
since she still technically Owned him.
So I gave that horse back..  the day I sold mine, 8 days ago.   She's
subsequently managed to find a Home that would feed The Other Horse,  and has given
him away.  To a (hopefully) Really Good Home.

I think I Sold mine,  to a Really Good Home (hopefully).

Whatever...  it's a Done Deal.  Leaving me horseless,  and pretty lost.  I miss my friends,
they were my Family.
I wish things were different,  but accept the fact that this is Reality.  I have most of the money I
need to keep this farm, and a few deals in the works to sell it once my tax bill is paid.

It just doesn't feel like Home,  without my family.

I'm angry, and butt-hurt.  I'm a little lost, a lot heartbroke, and I just 'Haz A Sad'

(Also OUTTAHERE.. before I start cussing and throwing things)  Peace, Out.  Magz.
.

I Am Ashamed. Also Broke.

And owing a large amount of Back Taxes!!  The Farm, Maggiez Farm, is in Danger.

The good news is,
Compared to many many folks losing their homes,  It's cheap taxes!
The bad news is?
It's totally beyond my financial ability to pay today, as they want it in Entirety.

The no news?  Is that I either beg/borrow/steal/grovel or do my very best Schmoozing, or I lose my home.
Stay tuned for the next Exciting Episode of Maggiez Farm!

   ************************************
UPDATE:   Several emails,  phone calls, and mad scramblings  later,  I have a lot better understanding,
of what's actually going on with the Great County/State Bureaucracy called Home Ownership.
And a little reprieve.  The situation is by no means Resolved..
But it's a lot more Manageable.

I'm still a lot ashamed of myself for letting it get this far, but also slightly encouraged about
Just what I can accomplish.. when I have to.
I haven't (quite) lost it yet!  Either my mind, my talents, or my farm, hehehe

How Did I Miss ???

Everything I've missed,  while I wasn't paying attention?

Like the fact that Chris LeDoux  is dead???  (Where was I,  huh??)

I hate hearing that;  it makes all my lightweight fun posts  become Meaningless.

I'm sorry:  I will return,  when I have something Optimistic, or Nice..  to say,


Meanwhile I must listen to everything that man ever did.  I owe it to him.


He.
Was.

BRILLIANT.

(I'm not even sure where I found him for the first time,  he's tied up in my mind with the first song Garth Brooks ever made a name with)
I just know that I loved his music, and  introduced his music to my Hip-hopping Rapscallion of a Son,
Danno.  Who proceded to 'HEAR' it.. and was the one who told me that we won't be hearing anything new from Mr. LeDeaux for some time now.


Goodnight Chris;  Even Cowgirls Get The Blues Sometimes

Some Things That Make Me Smile

Lots of things make me Smile!









My favorite chair in my backyard always
makes me smile when I sit down in it.



My Dad made that chair, that makes me smile.






This is NorMee, a small but loved guinea chick.


He's one of the 'kids' I'm raising this year.

Little baby birds growing up in my garden make me smile.





Puffy SHOES! Totally Irresistable!

Brand New Puffy/Fluffy Flip-Flops from the
Dollar Store!

(It felt like I had pillows tied to my feet all day today, and THAT..
made me smile.)









BeLoved Family, whatever shape they wear.

I asked the Dawgz
Blanche,(L) Holly,(R) and Marshall (Foreground) to think
'LOVE', and this is what they said to send you.
I love them a lot; they make me smile.

And Flowers, because they always make me smile.
Flowers and Gardens and Scenery and Animals
(oh always Animals) and yes,
even Puffy Shoes know how to "Share The Love'.

This post is from my Heart, and sent to my friends Stacey & Jake.
(There's a lot of Healy Vibes in this, just ask the critters!)

Much love, and some brand new pix taken today,
And aimed your way.

A Place To Put My Stuff

All the good and bad,
Things I've Learned From Everyone! Like Jeff Bridges as
The Big Lebowski..

To John Lennon as himself:

To all the Lessons Learned, right here on the Farm.

It's really all just different parts of Life, you know?


What's got me going today is the Thank Yous that I owe some very good Internet Friends!

Really: I've been offline for a long time, and when I got back Online?
I had some Major Problems, and still do, tho it's working out thanks to the help of some friends I've never even met in person.

I spent nearly 2 yrs offline, looking for and asking from
Everyone I've ever known for some Help.

I got it from my Neighbors, who had no reason to help atall: they just heard me when I asked. They made me Work for their help, and I thank them every single day since then for making me work to help myself.

When I got back online? I took it real easy... working my way back towards where I'd left off,
Thinking I was an Internet Cool Chick.

And I found the Help I needed, from old friends that I'd never asked for help from before. TY, my very-most helpfuls!
Dave from St Louie? You ROCK, dude. Levi from Texas? You're the Son I almost had.
Mike from Michigan? You're helping me more thaN YOU KNOW!

aND THERE'S MORE FRIENDS, MORE people THAT i HAVEN'T EVEN TAPPED INTO YET!

This is my first (of what's bound to be many) real Thank Yous.

Between you, and you, and you and me... we're bound to get me totally straitened out back here on da 'Net...

And I Thank You. I, Maggie Baker thanks you, and Maggiez Farm thanks you!

I really love how this works. Fuck the Flowers For Algernon, here's Flowers For All.

Time Passes. Magz Gets Over Her Beef(s)..

And Starts cooking!  Like real  Food!
That's kind of an unusual ocurrence nowadays,  since I just don't get all that motivated anymore to actually build good 'Home Cooked' meals from scratch,  for a couple of reasons.

Reason # 1 is simply that I live alone and eat alone,  so snacks or instant food meals are just (like they say)
More Convienent.

Reason # 2 is a bit more 'involved',  since it has everything to do with the fact that after my last BIG wreck-on-horseback almost 4 yrs ago now,
  I Lost My Sense Of Smell,  and Taste.

Yeah, I worried about it, a lot.  I did beaucoup Research both online and off,  trying to re-connect  my
nose to my brain, and I failed all the way around.
That was sad,  and it still sucks if I think about it much.

So I don't, mostly.  Think about it anymore.
  Still?  It left me at a loss,  and actually mourning my poor old, good old, TRUSTED  3rd and 4th senses that got wiped out in an instant.  It's changed my entire perception of Food,  and  other scents.  It's changed all of my Habits about eating,  though it didn't happen all at once.


 (See Above:  Cooking, and Real Food)

  Hehehe,  the whole point of this post is to tell anyone reading about how today turned into a 'chef's special' day.
I KNOW y'all like recipes, and juicy details about food so I thought I'd share mine!

  Today was a total 'Foody' day, and it started when I browsed my refrigerator and realized that I had way too many fresh eggs, compliments of all my chickens.  I hard-boiled 2 dozen,  and then made a pretty good egg-salad mix with ranch dressing, sweet pickles, onions, and celery.  (I left 8 hard-boilies for later, when I feel like making Deviled Eggs.)

Then I started frying chicken.  LOTS of chicken parts,  all coated in my own mix of herbs & spices, and perfectly fried in 100% fresh corn oil.  (I have cold chicken for DAYS now!)
I make good fried chicken, if I say so myself.

That motivated me to dig deeper, deep into my own refridgerator.  I found a large package of high quality
Bratwersts that I'd bought and frozen awhile back,  so I defrosted them carefully..
(I actually didn't particularly enjoy eating the 1st one as a hot dog kind of thing on a bun,  so I studied my pantry,  fridge, and freezer for another idea of how to prepare them)

I came up with a really great idea!
 It started with raw rice laid on the bottom of a large baking pan.  With butter, and a little water.
Then a big layer of Bratwursts-  must be 15 of them fit in that pan. A healthy squirt of Honey BBQ sauce on top, a layer of fresh Hatch, New Mexico Chilies, then a half pint of my Garden Fresh HomeMade Salsa, Hot Style.

It looked pretty juicy, and weighed about 4 lbs so I put it uncovered into the oven at 325 degrees,  thinking it would take awhile to blend and mix and cook down.  45 minutes later, it seemed to be drying out too fast so I added some of the homemade Marinara/Spagetti sauce I always have hanging around, and spooned some of the salsa/BBQ sauce mix over the top. 


Shortly after that, an unexpected drop-in buddy came by, and the first thing out of her mouth was "OMG!!
What's cooking?  Smells GREAT!" 
(I had to tell her I didn't think it was ready yet,  and served her some fresh fried chicken instead)
I wish I could smell it,  but I'm here to say that another hour later, after my buddy had left,  I finally sat down and served myself a heaping helping of whatever-ya-call that Bratworst dish..  and It Was Good.
So am I,  and now I'm full.
Stop by tomorrow,  there's LOTS of leftovers!

Oh, God Damn

Sorry, those of you who believe that Maggiez Farm Blog is always 'friendly'..

I'm truly pissed off today.

I've been trying ever since I got back Up on da 'Net to resolve my hardware issues, and today I dedicated most of the day to research, reading, and asking every geek I know questions about how to fix this.

I've read till my eyes bled, really.

I've asked my geekiest friends to step in and DRIVE this HellDell via Remote Access!
Sadly, that doesn't seem to be working either; despite my best efforts to configure my own system to accept another driver-person, administrator wise.

It's not working.
Neither my own efforts, or getting someone else to Remote Drive
(Since I surehell CAN'T find a live human to come into my own living room and show me how!)

I'm pissed.
I'm pissed enough to get RIGHTOUS Annoyed, for

I paid a Local Geek-Type a lot of money to get me up and running last month.
He did- sort of.
He wiped my entire Drive, and re-loaded about 75% of what I originally had on it

He loaded XP Pro, registered to me. I'm beginning to wonder how he did that, and charged me beaucoup bux for doing it, without leaving me the disk that he used.
I got no stinking disk, and before he touched my computer the first time, I had a copy of Windows XP Pro tucked snug inside my partition.

I Think It Was MY Version of XP that he loaded.

Oh hell this is stupid. Why Rant about something that I AGREED to pay for, eh?

I'll take just a little more time..
And do a little more Research..

Before I name this Kid, and Out him in public.


I don't know who's Dumber: Him? For trying to Jack My Bill...?
Or Me:
For Being Stupid Enough (and Grateful Enough!) not to Call him on it at the time.

SURE!! BRAG ABOUT THE WEATHER,

Because the weather is usually always AWESOME here during Monsoon Season. Unfortunately, my house has been leaking during the rains, and I've failed to Fix It All By Myself.

I needed Help. I said so,

HERE

I finally Got Some, YAYYYY!

That was this morning.  This afternoon?  I got some buddies!!

These are the Guys... (or at least the kind of guys) I've Been Waiting For!!


They worked Hard. It looks much better!

DAMN I'm Tired! Between working myself, bitching about Everything, and finally babysitting/appriciating these guys who DID work today, I'm Whupped.

(And waiting for the Next Big Rain, to see if this PatchJob works hehe)

Life. (It's Real, If Ya Got Pix )

Yeah.
I think I have more to say,  but Loud Music & Beer are telling me to just stick this batch in Facebook, haha.


Truth?  Uh-uh,
This is Bloggity, not Facebookish.
Live With It:  I Do.

 It's Monsoon Season.
Click these pix to full screen,  if you like.




 I like,  and I like putting them here.

Damn.

Arizona, Don't Ever Change, OK?

This summer has been some very Strange weather.
Monsoon Season here officially starts around July 1st, yet last night's storm is the 1st real Rain of the season, here at 'da Farm'.

What made it oddly memorable, was the fact that the Sun shone through this entire storm!

The wind blew HARD, from the Northeast! The rain came from every direction at once,
leaving little doubt that 'da Farm' was right smack-dab in the middle of a strange & powerful storm cell.

I took a lot of pictures of it.

My horses were soggy, even on their own front porch under shelter.
My chickens were seriously soggy, but thrilled by the bugs washed out by the rain.

This all happened within 40 minutes, just Sunset time. It dropped over 2 inches of water, blew down a couple fence panels and a bunch of tomato plants
(No Biggie: I've retied tomatoes, and dug several postholes today fixing fences)

It ended up looking like this:

I really like where I live, despite the fact I've announced in no uncertain terms that I'd move if I could..
Southeast Arizona in Monsoon Season.. just rocks.

I need to get back into the habit of Blogging, since I truly enjoy reviewing what I saw/thought/wrote in some detail.
I don't see that 'detailin' in much of Facebook or Twitter tweeting, yanno?

Facebook? Cool. Blog? Say It Ain't Passe, Jefe

 

These people are some of my Family!

Most of whom I haven't seen in 20 or 30 years. The Big Guy in the middle is my older brother John. aka JP.
He's flanked by his sons, my nephews Michael (on the left) & David, on the right.


I wouldn't have a CLUE who these 2 handsome young men were, if not for Facebook.

(And, an uncommon last name. It was once MY last name, till I married, divorced, and decided that the name Baker was much easier to live with.)

I posted this picture just because I'm stumbling upon folks that I never-ever would have found or re-connected with, had I not gotten back on the 'Net, just in time to Facebook.


For an Ole Country Broad.. this shit is awesome.


Life here at 'Da Farm' doesn't seem to change much..
But the rest of the world does!

Sometimes? I Like Being Me

Like today; yeah I know that Blogging is 'passe' and that the Internet World has gone and passed me by in some ways..

But I'm happy to be here. Really Here! At the same ole Farm, with many of the same ole Critters, and much of the same ole Weather that we get here in SE Arizona.





















It's pretty out here in this Almost-Monsoon Season, and sunsets still get loud and proud.





















I just keep on doing what I always do, like Gardening.



















And loving my life with my Critters, both new and old.







This is my Old Horse. IB. Aka Bubba. As you can see, he's busy. Eating. Still, great (horse) butts, drive me nuts.


This is my New Horse, Sliver. (As in 'Hi-ho, Sliver not Silver) He might actually be IB/Bubba's Horse, and is know affectionately as The Big Mamoo. He's a Missouri Foxtrotter, and a fine and stylish ride.
Also a great addition to the Family here.


















I still have and love the Rott(on) Sisters Blanche and Holly, who grow ever so much more sedate as they're 'maturing' mostly gracefully.


























There's also this new dawg, Marshall. Marshall Mathers.
AKA the Real Slim Shady.










He's a whole 'nother tale (tail?), for a whole 'nother post. He's Good.



Meanwhile, it's good to be Me. I'm still catching up on a lot I missed here in Cyberland, so bear with. (I'd rather Blog, than FaceBook so far)

I Can Hardly Believe It MyOwnSelf

I never really left, (the farm at least) but just last night I got back onto the Internet after a loooong and involved effort to do so.

Just like myself, the farm has been thru a few changes. We are genteely aging together, yet the potential for renewal is always there.

New garden in the backyard.

A few new critters. I now have TWO horses, or as I like to say, my horse has a horse. One new ultracool dog, 2 new kitties, and an endless supply of new chickens and other assorted foul fowl.

I feel like a total 'Babe In The Woods' back here in Computerland.. I've forgotten half of what I knew and am dealing with a brand new operationg system, missing programs I used to use, and enuff hi-speed to totally tangle myself up with if I don't take the time to read and re-read everything.

I have so much to learn! And it's so deliciously exciting to relearn it all.. feel free to email me and fill me in on all I've missed so far!
I'm around- same ole gmail or yahoo mail.