Peach Fried Pies and Oscar the Dog

 I bought fresh peaches the other day, and decided to make peach fried pies.  My mother used to make fried pies when we were growing up and we all loved them, especially my dad.  I have not made them in years--don't even remember the last time I tried.  However, I whipped up the filling going on my memory of how Mother used to make filling for apple pies.  They were not especially pretty, but they were very tasty.  I intended to prepare the pies, and then fix supper, but they were hot, so we sat down and ate pie.  Then, no one wanted supper, so we just had a snack later.  I have cooked more here in the last 2 weeks than in the last 2 months.  Of course, there is not much else to do here right now, so it has worked out pretty well.

I sent a picture of the fried pies to my brother, and he texted back, "that was mean." :)

A few weeks ago, my brother was driving home from work and heard a puppy crying in the bushes by the road.  He stopped and found a skinny, hungry, flea and tick-covered puppy a few weeks old.  He took a pictures and texted it to his wife and said, "What do I do?"  She answered, "Well, you can't just leave him there."  Russ said, "That's what I was thinking."  Meet Oscar taking a nap, now a healthy and happy little dog added to the household.  Three baths to get him clean and fleas and ticks off, and then my sister-in-law wrapped him in a blanket and headed to the vet with him.  He got checked out, got his shots, and has bonded with them and the other two dogs.  My brother is building a larger fenced yard so he has room to run and play like a puppy needs.

After tonight, I have one more day here, and then depart for home early Saturday morning.  While I am always usually ready to get home after a trip, no matter where I am, it has been in many ways and pleasant and enjoyable visit here the last two weeks.  Dad and I have our routine of feeding the horse and mule, taking care of the dog, and me taking care of them while taking care of my knee.

It is the first time in quite some while that I probably have nothing that had to be done other than getting my online class materials loaded last week.  It took 3 trips to town and 3 efforts to get it done as there were problems with the university network system one day, and I couldn't get it to load from out here one day.  Being here is a reminder of how important access is in rural areas--for many reasons, not just the ability to blog or email.  I am woefully ignorant of the news in the world at the moment, without my access to instant news and headlines on the Internet, or my ability to get a variety of news sources to help give a better perspective.  Let's just say the area newspaper (my folks still get a paper newspaper) is rather biased in its view, like most of them in West Texas from my experience.  The local paper at least just deals with local news, and though I rarely know anyone mentioned in it these days, it is a pass-time.

Last week, there was an article about a local student who is going to Africa with one of her college professors on a research team, and I commented on it.  My mother said, "she's not very smart is she?"  I said I thought she was very smart to be doing that at her age, and I was very pleased to see a young woman from Graham heading off to study in Africa.  I might just have to write her a letter; maybe she will want to go to South Africa some time.