Tuesday 4 ~ Cowboys

Cowboys

painting by Mark Maggori

 It's time once again for Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.  We're talking about cowboys this week.

1.  Do you like western style chuck wagon cooking?  Stews, chilis, beef steaks, BBQ  etc.?

I like these kinds of food in moderation. I especially like stews with cubes of beef.

2.  Do you make a good chili or do you know someone whose chili is the best ever? Beans, meat or both? 

I used to make a great chili but it seems I've lost my touch. The last few times I've made it it wasn't that great. I use beans and meat, usually beef. Sometimes cubes of beef and sometimes ground beef.

3.  Who is your favorite cowboy movie star?

I can't say I really have a favourite cowboy movie star. I liked almost all of them except Clint Eastwood.  For some reason I didn't like him in cowboy movies but I did like him in other later movies. John Wayne was the actor who seemed like he was in almost all the cowboy movies that played on our two television channels growing up. 

4.  Do you have a favorite western TV show or movie

I liked all of them. I'm not sure why because I never was really into rodeos, horse riding or living on a farm. I attended the rodeo every year because virtually everyone in the family and community did.  The Fall Fair happened at the same time and that was more my idea of fun. The one movie that sticks out in my memory is The Big Trail featuring a young John Wayne. It's about hundreds of settlers in covered wagons moving westward from the Mississippi River. You can watch it on You Tube for free. I did also enjoy all the western shows on television like High Chaparral, Big Valley, Cheyenne, Bonanza among others. I also enjoy Kevin Costner in the movie, Dances with Wolves. 

It Snowed, Again!

 Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

I hope you are doing well.  It snowed again and has been quite cold since Thursday or so. We had a big dump of snow on Saturday night so I've kept indoors and worked away on decluttering.

I made excellent progress over the past few days and got to sort out a lot of smaller nooks and crannies.

All month long I've been participating in something called a daily declutter challenge.  The challenge is to let go of at least one item each day so the decluttering habit is formed and it doesn't take hours to accomplish.  I have a lot of small items to get rid of because I'm down to the fine-tuning of the major decluttering project I've been working on for awhile. In the fine-tuning stage, it takes me a lot longer to go through every area of clutter and make the decisions as to what to do with things. I tend to collect a lot of paper items and a lot of little things that don't seem to 'fit' into any category of items, a hodge podge, if you will.

I've been surprised to find so much junk in all the places that I decluttered. I suppose it's understandable since some of these small areas haven't seen the light of day for decades.  Literally.  Anyway the month will end in a few days and I'm trying to get as much done as possible. The below items are much of what I've offloaded since Friday.

I've been decluttering something every day this month but I've also been crocheting so I can have a break from the task.  Thursday night I ran out of yarn for the blanket I'm making and I'll need time to go to the craft store to buy at least one more ball to finish the project.

I haven't had time to delve into the books I picked up recently at the library or to finish listening to the audible Spare.

In March, I look forward to getting into these books and planning the community garden for this year.

What plans do you have for the coming month?