Category Archives: Love My Life

Love My Life

Nobbys Beach, Newcastle

Posted on by kathousekelli70

A beautiful sunny day, so we headed into Newcastle to the harbour and Nobbys Beach.

Walking gear on, we walked all the way along the break wall and saw the seals playing in the swell. They were just rolling around close to the rocks, shielding their faces with their flippers and just cruising.

Water was spectacular and clear, a little on the cool side to start with but quickly seemed nice as we ditched the shoes and walked back round along the beach!

Plenty of blue bottles washed up on the beach, you don't want to be getting stung by these that's for sure!

Oh look we were here! 🙂

Back to the lifeguard area and the flags……meant to be swimming between the flags when rips are present or the surf is choppy. The lifeguards look after people on the beach should they end up in trouble swimming.

Soooo, I was getting to the point where you know you are in Australia – over the loudspeaker one of them yells out to two women swimming out of the flags '…..the two swimmers mid way down the beach, you need to move up and swim between the flags, fair dinkum they are there for a reason…' Baaaa haaa haaa!! Classic.

Hope your day was good too!

Kat xo

 

Wizard of Aus

Posted on by kathousekelli70

We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz, I mean Aus.

Yes we are heading back to Australia to catch up with family, friends and sort out a few things we need to do.

At the end of September, beginning of October we have the Australian National Single Action Championships. Plenty of catch up with some great cowboys and cowgirls. More on that later.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here so far. There is still so much to see, do and experience. We are very much looking forward to returning!

We will keep you posted with adventures from there!

Well, better finish packing and get ready for the ride to the airport.

Take care, wherever you may be.

Kat xo

 

A Day Out with Friends

Posted on by kathousekelli70

Yesterday we had rain for most of the day, first time in a few weeks or more. Was nice to be able to have the doors open, air con off and it cleared to a sunny late afternoon in time for drinks!

An early start to the day as we head to Stillwater for the last club match here for a while and it's a clear, cloudless sky!

22 shooters formed up 2 posses for 6 stages. Fast but not clean, a hell of a lot of fun and laughs to go with it though.

When we head to Stillwater it warrants lunch afterwards at El Vaquero, the busiest Mexican restaurant I've ever been in. Most head in there after where we can chat and discuss scores over lunch.

Happy Fathers Day to all the Aussie Dad's this morning, mine especially, love you Dad xo See you soon!

Kat xo

 

Shootin’ In The Shade

Posted on by kathousekelli70

Hot Springs, Arkansas, home of the Mountain Valley Vigilantes and hosts of 'Shootin' In The Shade' Annual match (which was also the 2014 Arkansas State Championships).

Hot Springs is known for it's many bath houses and healing waters, it was developed as a bath house town in the 1800's. Their 8 historic Bath Houses maintained by the National Park known as Bathhouse Row on Central Avenue. (See pic below and bottom right corner is The Arlington Hotel – where Al Capone often visited!)

A few have Native American names I noticed and a little bit of research tells me that they of course knew of and used the healing waters for many years and so some of the bath houses were named after different tribes.

Labour Day weekend is also their Blues Festival so it was a very busy little town! Despite an occasional shower of rain.

Check out this marble statue in the middle island of the street.

This huge hotel, bath house looks like it is unfortunately being torn down.

And I had to get a pic of this cake shop! What an awesome name! Love it.

The MVA's range is set wayyyy out in the forest amongst beautiful trees in the Ouchita Mountains, great facades and facilities. Whilst it was extremely humid, there was plenty of shade!

So we had set off Thursday catching up with our Okie mates along the road in Alma at the Catfish Hole and later for drinks, dinner and stories (lies we would say, hey TR?!).

Friday was the Professionals match which we shot with our usual Wild Bunch guns and then the afternoon was filled with practice, speed events and a ladies 'High Tea' where Velvet Glove, Cheeka Bow Wow, Mimsy and Ima Dunnit shared secrets, shortcuts and ideas for costuming for all ends of the spectrum and budget.

Main match commenced Saturday with 6 stages under our belt and a few misses too!! The targets are smaller than we're used too and you will see by the pic's are out there! So a little more precision was required.

The evening ended with the banquet held in Hot Springs at The Regency, filled with cowboys, Victorian Ladies, Saloon Girls, Silver Screen men and ladies and Military. The band if I recall was called '1, 2, 3' and Fast Fingers Green once again picked a couple of tunes with the band!

Annie Shadows took 3rd Place, Mustang Toni 2nd and myself, Kathouse Kelli 1st Place in Best Dressed Soiled Dove.

A great night of laughing, chatting and dancing.

Sunday morning and a low mist looked like we might get rain today for the final 4 stages (we got some rain during the last 2 nights) but it stayed away until just before the awards where there was a short heavy shower and then it cleared for the drive home.

So times weren't blinding fast for this match but the stages were quite good, a nice mix of transitions and we did have a great Posse. Once again we shot with some familiar faces and met some new people with Boomstick Jay and Elle Wood, Buffalo Bill Matthewson and Longbranch Kitty, Dusty Dee and Rusty Rider, Copper Rose and Printer Doc, Kid Koo, Kowboy Koo, Rotten Shot Laura, South Paw Mike, Yell County Kid, Outrider and our Posse Marshall Dewey Cheatem. Dewey's twin cherubs came and helped pick up brass today, cute and very well behaved kids.

So this is what I remember with awards for us and some of our friends.

Senior Category – Jackaroo 2nd Place, Snake Oil George 4th Place (1st I Reckon, 3rd Place and Arkansas State Champion Just Charlie)

B Western – Flat Top Okie 2nd Place

Wrangler – Scott Wayne 3rd Place (1st Place C S Brady, 2nd Place Slick McClade)

Elder Statesman – Tail N Kid 2nd Place (1st Place Arizona Ranger, 3rd Place and Arkansas State Champ Piney Woods)

Silver Senior – Ambler 1st Place, Fast Fingers Green 3rd

49ers – Naildriver 1st Place and Arkansas State Champ

Frontier Cartridge Duelist – Bois D' Arc 3rd Place

Lady Senior – Tacky Jackie 3rd Place (Copper Rose 1st Place and Arkansas State Champion)

Lady 49er – Missouri Mae 1st Place (Mustang Toni 2nd Place)

Lady Wrangler – Kathouse Kelli 1st Place (2nd Place Ivory, 3rd Place and Arkansas Champion Cheeka Bow Wow)

A few more placed but without scores yet, can't remember their categories.

In closing, Top Overall Lady was Missouri Mae and Top Overall Man was CS Brady. Top Arkansas State Champions were CS Brady and Velvet Glove. Congratulations to all winners for this match and to all shooters in attendance.

Now it's time to head back to Oklahoma!! Night y'all!

 

Kat xo

PS 1st Place in Ladies Traditional for the Professional Match with 2nd Place Garbage Gertie 😉

PPS for more information on the Mt Valley Vigilantes, take a gander at the following. Cheers!

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Springs,_Arkansas

http://mvvcowboys.homestead.com

 

 

Headin’ Out

Posted on by kathousekelli70

Yee haa, car's packed and in the morning we will be heading off to Hot Springs, Arkansas for the annual known as 'Shootin' In The Shade'.

We haven't been to this one before but have heard it's a good'un!

I've got car projects coming out the whazoo so should keep me entertained for the 6hr drive and then some.

Well it's midnight so I'll say goodnight and wish you all a great weekend. Some we will see there and others will just have to live vicariously through another adventure!

Kat xo

 

What’s Coming Up?

Posted on by kathousekelli70

Howdy y'all!

It's been a little slow in the shooting department this month. We had the Territorial Marshal's club match here at OKC Gun club both Cowboy and Wild Bunch, did a Sunday up at Stillwater club and went to Texas last weekend for club match.

We were invited last week to the Friends of NRA banquet and WOW! What an eye opener that was.

625 odd people packed the National Cowboy Museum for this event with raffles, silent auctions and a huge auction to the highest bidder. Love trying to understand the auctioneers and flabbergasted at some of the prices people paid!

BUT it was all for a good cause. The banquets fund program's for youth in various disciplines, as well as women's day program's and other events.

This weekend there is a gun show on at the fairgrounds so we will head out to that and check it out, looks massive!

Sunday we have cowboy club match and then next week we head up to Hot Springs, Arkansas for Shootin' In The Shade. Looking forward to that!

Hope everyone has a great weekend coming up, wherever you may be.

Jack n Kat xo

 

Ohhhh Fudge Brownie

Posted on by kathousekelli70

Now you might say, well it's a 'skinny' recipe but seriously?!

You gotta laugh, I don't have a lot of pans here so thought this would do but now I really DO have skinny fudge brownies!!!

I left out the vanilla – only because I forgot – I'm sure they will taste okay just the same.

120 calories per piece. Would look better thicker but anyway all goes down the same!

Bona petite!

Kat xo

 

 

Have your cake and eat it too!

Posted on by kathousekelli70

Last night while I was meal planning for the next couple of weeks and making the shopping list for today, it was with despair – that the man had no dessert for the evening cup of tea!

We have run out of berries, yoghurt, not even a square of dark chocolate until I realised that I had all the makings for a coffee cake. A recipe I have from one of those fitness ‘things’ I have so many of.

Coffee cake, made with stevia instead of sugar but has a coating of a small amount of brown sugar and cinnamon on top, 20 minutes in the oven and da-dah! Dessert for a cuppa!

AND might I add for 1/8 only ends up being 91 calories. A very nice alternative. Recipe says a portion size is a quarter of the cake (if you were having it for breakfast) but was plenty for us even though we could have quite easily had more!

Kat xo

PS Thanks to the Venus Factor for this little beauty!

 

 

National Corvette Museum

Posted on by kathousekelli70

Time to hit the road and make the trek back to OK and make a stop in Nashville and soak up the country music atmosphere.

Along the way and needing a break we see a sign for the National Corvette Museum, being the rev heads we can be, we decided to go check it out.

Wow! Wow! As soon as we get in the door their are “special orders” sitting awaiting their new owners pick up this next week.

Jack gets to take a ride in one, haa haa haa! Check out some of these prize draws as well and no, we didn't buy a ticket 😦

So we head to the counter to pay and we have to sign some indemnity form for a sinkhole or something. Now not really paying attention and keen to get in and check out the cars we really didn't take in the whole 'sinkhole' thing!

Do you remember on the news in February of this year about the sinkhole that dropped 8 corvettes into the hole, a tragedy we thought and saw it even back in Australia, well this is the place!

The cars that unfortunately went into the sink hole? A classic 1962, one owner – it survived pretty well, “Ruby” the 40th Anniversary edition, not too bad but the 1millionth and the 1.5millionth are messed up and the devastating mess of the 2001 Mallett Hammer is now about a foot wide having taken the most damage from boulders and dirt, the first to go in the hole.

Some will be restored and a couple will be left as is – they truly are a mess.

Harvey Earl was the Head of GM styling. He started toying with the idea of a sporty concept car in 1951, having gained approval in 1952 to make the concept car a reality and be ready for display at the 1953 New York Motorama.

This is when the best engineering help of Maurice Olley came into play as well. Chevrolet employees were asked for name ideas and one of their PR photographers Myron Scott is credited with suggesting Corvette after the British Navy class of fast-pursuit ships. Now, Corvette has long been known for Motorsport and there are many racing and pace cars on display in the Museum as well as all the history – from it's foundation, branding, progress, model changes etc.

The history of the change in Corvette is an interesting one in itself, with Zora Arkus-Duntov (born in Belgium, raised in Leningrad and led a very colourful life) having seen the Corvette on display in New York, wrote the company and came to work with GM in 1953. He was an amazing engineer and had also raced and won in his class twice at Le Mans. He is the man who changed Corvette from something gracious to one of the most respected sports cars in the world.

A fantastic museum, would recommend visiting for sure. If you are into cars and ever get the opportunity it's huge and drool worthy. Rest of the pics will be on Facebook.

Anyway there is so much to learn, go see it! Check out the website below! A visit on your way through Bowling Green, Kentucky is highly recommended and will need a couple of hours at least!

What a ride!

Kat xo

Sunday July 20th

http://www.corvettemuseum.org

 

 

Black Gold Shootout 2014

Posted on by kathousekelli70

Wow! What a sensational weekend.

Thursday started out good, sunny and warm shooting 4 stages of Wild Bunch in the morning before lunch and then the afternoon for speed events and warm up stages.

Into the evening and they held Cowboy Olympics. This involved a whole heap of fun and laughter amongst drinks!

Game 1 – Cans hanging from a frame, shot with a slingshot, now you can choose to shoot Traditional, meaning rocks off the ground or Modern with marbles.

Game 2 – take your pea shooter, a straw, and load Traditional with spit wads of paper or Modern with frogs eyes (the BB gun pellets).

Game 3 – then go a round with Hilary and Obama caricatures. Take your bow and arrow and shoot through their smiles, then ‘chunk coal’ through their smiles. Oh and you had to wear an Indian head dress (feathers in an elastic band, fruit of the loom off yer underpants!) and have an Indian name, so mine was Fanny Fosters Walkabout from the Crackatinni tribe!

Game 4 – was golf with a walking stick and ball pit balls. Hit into a flowerpot or you can try for the mason jar.

Game 5 -the final one you had to lasso a steers head on a bale of hay.

Hilarious, good times and nearly everyone there had a go.

The evening was finished off with a little too much drinking and dancing. The table and I met a few times going by the bruises on my leg and wish I had a picture of Whiskey Creek Johnson and Jackaroo doing a slow dance! Fun in Kentucky!!

Friday, feeling a little seedy to say the least was main match, 5 stages, now it really pays to listen when you don’t have a shoot book in the guncart. I can’t remember the last time I had a procedural but got one today much to my sheer horror! Jack had a sensational run!

The rain set in after we finished shooting and didn’t really let up into the night. That put paid to team shoots for the afternoon and instead we opted for the Motel and a Nanna nap.

We headed back out for dinner and the band. They had 11 entrants for the lying contest, a brownie and cake bake off and side match awards. And then came the band. Wow! These guys are a sensational Bluegrass band (Virgil Abolis?). Duelling banjos style!! Awesome!

A much earlier night getting back around 11.30pm.

Saturday, saw more rain on and off and the final 5 stages. Two train wrecks and a miss for me, shotgun re-engagements, pistol round the world and a miss. Hey! Had fun though! Jackaroo had a great match and finished clean!

We had team match in the afternoon when it wasn’t raining. Our team consisted of myself, Jack and Let’s Go. We shot a few times, switched up with other’s but at the end of the day no one could beat our sensational run! All plate knock downs alternate between static, run tip the other person onto the guy at shotgun and Texas star targets. 24.97 we ran!

Anyway Jack finished 3rd in category, clean shooter and finished 9th place overall! Congratulations to 2nd place Knob Creek Drover, and in 1st place Fast Eddie!

Congratulations to Lady Wranglers 1st Place Sue Render, 2nd Place Anita Margarita and Kathouse Kelli 3rd place.

Overall champions for 2014 Blackgold Shootout were Ladies – Dixie City Gal and Men’s – Missouri Lefty.

Saturday night finished off with Blackwater Desperado and Milkbone, their band out of Nashville. They played Lynnard Skynard, Joe Cocker and a whole heap of other stuff. Opened with ‘who stopped the rain’ seeing as it had been raining a good part of the weekend!

Thanks to the Jarvis family and Ponderosa Pines for a great weekend! To all of those who put in effort before and during, we take our hats off to you!

Kat xo

 

 

 

 

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