Soup Weather!!

At last, it's cold enough for some hearty soups! Howling winds, clouds so low and thick it looked like a rain storm... my kind of weather... at least until I start whining about how much I miss summer! Here's another incredible recipe from Cuisine At Home - Soups, Stews & Chiles. Again, hubby loves it even though there's not a speck of chile powder anywhere near it! I was also surprised at how quickly this went from "I think I'll make"... to "Dinner's ready!! The only mistake I made was in not doubling the recipe...

ITALIAN SAUSAGE & SQUASH SOUP

2 T olive oil
1 lb bulk Italian sausage (I used the hot one, of course!)
1-1/2 cups diced onion
2 T minced garlic
1 butternut squash peeled, seeded, diced into 1" chunks (1-1/2 lbs)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
1 cup diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp ground sage
1 tsp sugar
2 cups baby spinach, packed
3 T brandy
salt & pepper to taste

Brown sausage in 1 T olive oil in skillet over medium-high heat until cooked through. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate; Set aside.

Sweat onion and garlic in 1 T olive oil in large pot over medium heat until soft, 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high, add squash and pepper flakes, and saute 5 minutes.

Stir in broth and water, bring to a boil, and simmer until squash is very soft, about 10 minutes. Puree soup with a hand blender (or in batches in a standard blender), then add bell pepper, cream, sage, and sugar; simmer until bell pepper is tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in spinach, brandy, and sausage, and simmer until spinach wilts and sausage is heated through, about 2 minutes; season with salt and pepper.

Halloween Movies

The Tingler is one of my all time favorite creepy/goofy movies!

"This delightful gimmick film from producer-director William Castle stars Vincent Price as Dr. Chapin, a scientist who discovers a caterpillarlike parasite that grows in the human spine when someone is afraid and that, unless they scream, can grow large enough to kill them. He solemnly dubs this creature the tingler. Philip Coolidge plays the owner of a nearby cinema who befriends the doctor and whose deaf-mute wife suddenly receives all sorts of shocks, like the sight of a bathtub full of blood with a hand reaching out from it. Since she can't scream, she dies, and Chapin gets his hands on her oversize tingler. When it eventually escapes inside the movie theater, the film within the film, and then the film itself, stops for an announcement from Price, out of character, urging the audience to scream their heads off. Castle originally had random seats in theaters equipped to deliver small electric shocks at this key moment, and he hired women to faint and ushers to carry them out, all in his determination to get the audience to scream."

Hocus Pocus is my other favorite - I watch it at least once every Halloween!

Pre-Halloween

Well, I managed to get some more Halloween stuff in place - that's the little sideboard in our entry, and these critters below are my beloved ceramic lanterns which are safe on the woodstove for now - if we get some really cold weather in the next couple of weeks I'll have to move them. All of this came from the now-defunct Illuminations.

Here are my recipes from last night!

HOT CHUNKY BAT PHLEGM

1 lb lean ground beef
2 lbs Velveeta, cut in 1/2” cubes
7 ozs diced green chiles
1 can refried beans
1 med bottle salsa

Fry ground beef until well done. Crumble very fine into large crockpot. Add remaining ingredients and salsa to taste. Heat and stir until cheese is melted. Serve with a zillion chips.

BLENDED FROG

1 1/2 oz Bailey's Irish Cream
1/2 oz green Crème de Menthe
1/4 oz Jagermeister® liqueur
grenadine
rimming sugar

Rim shotglass with grenadine and sugar. Add Jagermeister to Baileys, then add Crème de Menthe drop by drop. These were WONDERFUL!!

BRAIN HEMMORAGE

1 oz Peach Schnapps
1 oz Bailey’s Irish Cream
grenadine

Add Bailey’s to Schnapps, drizzle grenadine over the glob so that it runs down the “brain” crevices. This one did not work as well as the video indicated:

Brain Hemorrhage Shooter Video

CANDY CORN

1 part Licor 43® liqueur
1 part Orange Curacao liqueur
1 part cream

Carefully layer on top of each other to resemble the halloween candy. First the Licor 43, then the orange curacao, then finally the cream. This one I never got to try because not a single liquor store or market up here had either of the main ingredients. But it does sound really good!

The following recipes I did not make, but have in the past and they are QUITE successful... if your goal is taste AND creeping people out!!

HOT CREAMED EARWIGS

Very simple – simply make any version of Thai Black Rice Pudding, which is delicious, and rename it... EEEEEWWWWW!!!!!

BLACK WIDOW CREAM PIE

Another easy one – make a coconut cream pie – just add enough black frosting color to make the pudding part medium to dark grey before you pour it in the pie shell. Top with whipped cream or meringue and lots of black plastic spiders! (frosting color is made by Wilton and available at Michaels)

Okay, somebody stop me – I got a million of these!!

Is It Fall Yet???

Ahhh, fall!! In a couple weeks time we went from 100º days to 27º ice-scraping mornings and then here we are back in the 80’s again. I can hardly keep up!

I spent the last full week of September in Kernville with 40 of my sisters but I took very few pictures – too busy relaxing and having fun! I did some lake kayaking, had a massage by the river (new rule – NEVER have a sister event without a masseuse!), helped a little tiny bit with casting for a beginning fly-fishing class, rode my trout decorated bicycle all over camp, went antiquing, and spent a couple of 100 degree afternoons sitting in the nice cool river laughing so hard it’s a miracle none of us drowned. Kinda scary, my campsite looks like I've been there for a month with no intention of leaving!

A couple weeks ago Lisa, Margo, Debbie and I visited a wonderful holiday store in Canoga Park christmastraditions, and I went nuts in the Halloween section! Found some wonderful additions to my original pile of spooky stuff, most of which came from Illuminations which sadly, has gone out of business. Most of the new items I bought are destined for my Kenskill trailer which I hope will debut at Halloween next year. I did get my office all decorated last week, and the Warners got me a whole bag of Halloween goodies for my birthday. One of them was a “door knocker” that looks like a big electrical switch – when you activate it you hear screaming and 80 gazillion watts frying somebody! I laughed so hard, and hubby just looked at me and said “there is something wrong with you.” Yeah, well. Maybe. I'll get some pictures in here next week.

Last weekend I tortured my poor washing machine with winter horse blankets and dog beds. I need to get the blankets to the repair guy – one truly needs repairing, and all three need to have Kar’s name embroidered on patches and sewn to them – it’s tough to pick out “his” hunter green blankets in the dark amongst a pile of 20 other seemingly identical ones. I ordered some bright gold cordura and am having the patches embroidered locally. My other project that weekend was to carefully scoop out all the mosquito fish from the leaky stock tank. The tiniest of the babies are barely ¼” long – the mama fish are nearly 2”. The babies zip and dart all over the place and accidentally wind up in my net. The mamas sit in one spot and don’t move – that way you can’t see them. Good plan, they were the hardest to locate and catch. The other things I carefully scooped out from the muck in the bottom (over an inch of it – YUCK!!!) were tons of critters that trout would consider, as Cathlene says, “yum-yum-yum, munchie-munchie-munchie!” The largest of these nymphs is a big fat juicy 1”. These will most likely grow up to be those stunningly gorgeous red dragonflies that I see all the time around the pond.

Margo and Debbie are planning yet another one of our wine events, but this one will have a Halloween theme! I have some DELECTIBLE things to bring… Hot Chunky Bat Phlegm which is just that old standby nacho cheese with hamburger in the crockpot, and some very visual shooters such as the Brain Hemorrhage and the Blended Frog. For the faint of heart I am also making Candy Corn shooters! Yes, I’ll provide pictures and recipes in my next post!

Last Sunday we had to drive down to Lancaster to pick up a fender for our ’49 Buick. When we arrived at the big sandy lot, what was the first thing I saw? A vintage Kenskill trailer, but not a cute little 9’ one like ours, but a great big 30 foot PARK MODEL – complete with – brace yourself, slidin’ doors! Oooooo… would I love to get my hands on that one! Hubby's in Buick Heaven and therefore oblivious to this stunning trailer... sigh...

And then...
...on the way home we took Sierra Highway because you can NOT go through Rosamond/Mojave without taking a quick look at living legend Gene Winfield’s shop – any of you with hot rod hubbies – just toss that name out and watch their eyes glaze over! He’s 82, still cranking out masterpieces, winning awards, and is the GOD of the lead sleds – Mercs to die for! Not to mention, he is the nicest world famous person I have ever met. We dropped in one day totally unannounced, and he literally put down his sandwich and offered us a tour! Dang. Well, Sunday happened to be the day of his annual event, and although we did not stop, we sure did slow down to look! Awesome. Here is a link to some incredible photos of the event WinfieldWatsonPhotos

Another cool thing on the way home were these solar towers. On the ground are thousands of mirrors that all direct the sun to these towers for collection of the energy. Pictures cannot do them justice, they are absolutely gorgeous but so bright you can barely focus on them!

Oh, I nearly forgot! One trip to the emergency room in the middle of all this! I got home from work, and ten feet from the front door I noticed this DREADFUL odor – and there’s hubby standing in the garage saying “I don’t feel good…” (This is probably why I don't have kids...) Long story short, he opened two cans of tuna to make sandwiches and ONE DIDN’T SMELL VERY GOOD!! So, what were we thinking? That the good can would balance out the stench from the BAD CAN??? Gotta love these ol’ Marines – they’re tough, they’ll eat it anyway!! He’s fine, but I made him read lots of articles online about food poisening. The botulism one really got his attention – he’s temporarily cured of his “I eat expired food” syndrome. Probably not cravin’ tuna for awhile either!
Check back next week, I’ll have more pictures added... I am so unorganzied…

Done Paintin'

Rats, had to get back to painting! I am so close to being done – this morning I got almost all the remaining trim done – still have the fascia board on the front of the house and the post and beam out by the sliding glass door to do, but that’s it. I applied the new stick-on house numbers – we’ll see how long they’ll last. Wanted to get them somewhat properly aligned, so, I did them first in – you guessed it - a Word document.

Nice new lights are so bright against the light colored house that dining outside at night is a well-lit delight!

Decided that by next summer we’ll have these wonderfully decorative AND shady frames on the other two areas (east, south) of the house where we get blasted by summer sun.

Oh look, isn’t that cute? They painted their house to match their trailer!!! Truly, I was going to go with a darker green for the trim, but every time I thought of matching the trailer it made me laugh, so figured what the heck!

Bottle Cap Jewelry

DISCLAIMER: Any sisters coming to Kernville, STOP NOW IF YOU WANT TO BE SEMI-SURPRISED BY WHAT'LL BE HANGING FROM YOUR NAMETAG! (Which IS still a surprise!) Yeah, that'll work!

Any of you who know me well, understand that when I have a keyboard at my disposal, I babble. A lot. So, if you want to do this “project”, read the whole thing first, because I have included everything that went right... as well as everything that went wrong. I found all kinds of stuff that wasn’t in anyone else’s instructions – at least not in the places I looked!

I first saw bottle cap jewelry when I was browsing through ebay to find some really neat silver earrings to wear to my first BIG Sisters on the Fly event in Arizona in 2007. I stumbled across a bunch of these:

They all had this caption:

“Frida Kahlo is a renowned Mexican painter known for her self portraits and preoccupation with female themes.”

Halfway thought about making something for Halloween, then forgot about it. Then a sister at our Ventura event this year had a bottle cap necklace that I really liked, so that got me all interested again and I thought I’d make some to hang as charms on the nametags for our Kernville event. I found a bunch of how-to sites, ordered my stuff, and I was on my way. Craft-wise? Nothing I start ever seems to be as simple as the instructions lead me to believe. It must be me. But, I thought I’d share what I learned!

First thing I learned was NOT to buy bottle caps that have the little plastic seal in them. Find ones that are plain, plain, plain, unless you want your image on the outside, which I did not. I found them in lots of 50 on ebay, every color under the sun. I had hubby drill holes in the edges with a 1/16” drill. Took him no time at all. I’d’ve needed bandaids and words bleeped out.

There are a zillion places to buy “inchies” (those little one inch round images) but I made my own by finding an image online and then copying and pasting it onto a table in Microsoft Word. Make sure your image isn’t copyrighted in some way. My page had 0.5” margins all around; table had 5 columns, each 1.5” wide, and 6 rows, each 1.75” high. Cells were all centered vertically and horizontally. I then set my “zoom” to make the page on the screen the exact size as a piece of real paper. On my flat screen, with my resolution, that means 62%. Yours will probably be different. Paste your image in the first cell and then resize it to fit your one-inch circle. Print the page, cut it out, and test it in your bottle cap. Once you are happy with it, copy and paste it in all the other cells, set all the borders to invisible for printing and there you go - thirty inchies ready to print!! I’ve printed this one for you to see what it looks like before I set the borders to invisible.

I printed them out on a nice piece of buff colored copy paper, punched them out with my one-inch craft punch, and was ready to start gluing them into the inside of the bottle caps. Whoops! Forget to flatten the bottle caps! I used hubby’s metal work table (really sturdy) a rubber mallet, and a block of wood about 3” x 3” x 1”. I placed each bottle cap right side up on a CLEAN paper towel (work table is not what you’d call “clean”), put the block of wood on it, and carefully pounded until the edges of the cap rolled back and it looked like a little picture frame!! How cute is that? They are not totally flat, but I understand some projects do use the really flat ones.


Untouched bottle cap on left, semi-flattened and drilled one on right.
Inside of same bottle caps.
Next I used a fast drying glue to secure my inchies to the inside of the cap. Seemed to work fine, so later that day I applied a “clear dimensional embellishment” to fill the cap and seal the image in there. 3D Crystal Lacquer in some, Glossy Accents in others. Oooo, looks like it’s going to work!

Came back to semi-disaster.

The images had lifted and warped, the dimensional stuff had permeated and discolored the paper, and they were just ugly. Back to the drawing board. Two trips to the local scrapbooking store and here’s what I learned. Copy paper is too lightweight to stand up to the dimensional stuff. Use card stock. The glue I used was not right, so this time I used ZipDry Paper Glue by Beacon. Note: This would be my glue of choice to effectively conceal fingerprints for a bank job… JUST KIDDING!! Place a few of your “inchies” face down on a piece of I’ll-never-use-this-again paper and smear a drop of glue over the entire back of it. Make sure it is completely covered, clear to and beyond the edges. As I placed each one carefully into the bottle cap, (no rapid assembly line here) I noticed the images were STILL lifting! Oh, wait! When I flattened the caps, they did wind up a little “bowed” in the center which you need to push back down – not unlike a badly sealed canning jar lid. I just did this by hand (50 times) but you might want to tap with a padded dowel, or something else. So, that done, I started over, again, and held each image in place (with the one remaining finger NOT covered with glue…) remember – edges are critical!

Once they are all dry, you apply the dimensional stuff. Crystal Lacquer is thinner than Glossy Accents, but both look great. Carefully cover the image making sure all the paper is covered all the way to the edge of the cap. Keep a supply of straight pins handy; you may get tiny bubbles… (Oh great, now THAT song is stuck in my head for like the next week…thank you, Don Ho…my mother is swooning in heaven, I can feel it!! Pearly shells… from the ocean… aarrgghh! Make it stop!)… which will need to be popped by the pin. I did four caps, and now I’m watching them dry… exciting, huh. Stay tuned.

Woohoo!! It worked!! All four came out perfect! No bleeding, no lifting, no warping, perfect.

I just did the other 46 and this time I did not use the little applicator needle-like tip on the Crystal Lacquer. I just carefully poured a dime sized pool/blob in each cap and slowly moved the lid around until the stuff sealed the edge all the way around. Way faster, no bubbles - and no song! Just be careful not to apply too much. Since the Crystal Lacquer is a bit thinner, you can always go back and add another coat since everything is sealed so nicely. I’ll try the thicker Glossy Accents on my next project – Halloween necklace! Muuuaaaahhhaaaahhhaaaa!!!

You will need:
Plain bottle caps, with no plastic seals
Indestructible hard surface for pounding them flat
Small block of wood for same
Rubber mallet for same
Drill to make hole for your size jump rings. (I had to use 13.5mm ones because I also had to hang 1/8” thick birch plywood nametags on them.)
Cardstock for printing inchies
1” craft hole punch
Zip Dry Paper Glue by Beacon
Scrap paper for glue mess
3D Crystal Lacquer Dimensional Glue Effect or,
Glossy Accents Clear Dimensional Embellishment

Back to That Pie...

I finally managed to snap a couple shots of this pie before it disappeared! Did you see it? Good thing, because it is GONE! Recipe is down there on July 15th...

The End Is In Sight!!

Well, Friday I ran errands and painted nothing. Margo & Debbie BBQ’d our tri-tip for us so we’d have a good supply of taco meat for the coming week, and they supplied us with some yummy chicken. Dinners during this painting marathon have been a real problem. By the time I get done painting and we get all our stuff cleaned up, it’s after nine, I’m beat, and now I have to fix dinner! Although I was planning to paint on Saturday, we had intermittant T-storms all day, so I opted to lay low w/ice packs for another day. Today, Sunday, a lot of the pain in my hands is gone and, even better, Margo’s hubby Gary came over and sprayed the high areas and eaves on my last three sections! Wahoo! I filled in some lower areas, and all that is left is one wall section that might take me all of 20 minutes after work tomorrow. After that? Nothing but trim! I will provide pictures of the finished product – right now the entire yard looks like a hurricane ripped through it!

Why Am I Still Painting???

Oh yeah, I’m not done yet! Drat. Sunday the 16th I was up bright and early at 6:00 a.m., ready to hit to ground… I mean ladder... running, but both of my wrists felt like someone had tried to twist my hands off while I was sleeping. I slogged down a couple sips of coffee, some Aleve, and promptly fell asleep on the couch. Until noon. I woke up in more pain than I was earlier and spent the remainder of the day with both wrists swaddled in ice. Drug my ice packs to work with me and used them in place of the wrist rest at my keyboard. So, needless to say, nothing got painted on Sunday or Monday. I painted on Tuesday night until it got too dark, a little more on Wednesday, and I had to work tonight. The wrist pain has eased up, but I have zero strength and now, I THINK I HAVE KILLED MY TRIGGER FINGER!! It hurts worse than both wrists did together. Good thing I can operate left handed. This weekend I only have three (of nine) sections left to get a 2nd coat on and then I’m done except for the trim, which Sister Debbie has been helping with. We also got the new outdoor lights mounted - what a difference. What have I learned? I should have bought TWO guns like I originally wanted to. Typical hubby response, “yeah, you should have.” Why do they always say that after it’s too late? The Ryobi is really so easy to use and we could have had more help from friends if there had been something for them to do. Another plan that I heard about from a couple of people – you know, when I was hanging out in the paint section at Home Depot – was buying the $500 airless sprayer, painting your whole house, and then selling the darn thing in the paper with the standard “only used once” descriptor. Two different people told me they did this and only lost about $75-$100 of the original purchase price. They could take their time and not rack up rental costs. Not a bad plan! Would I do this again? To save all those labor costs? You bet I would. Will I ever quit whining about it? Probably not.

Painting... still.

Proof I’m over that ladder thing… mostly. Still don’t like it!

My elf bit the dust. He’s been putting off the replacement of the other hip, and all these days of standing around handing me tools did him in. Here’s a picture of my not-so-able and willing pit crew. Inspiring, aren’t they? Good thing I’m not paying either one of them a dime! And, they still want dinner - can you believe that? Still nice to have them out there for moral support - that way I'm not whining and cussing to myself all day long. Note to Connie - this proves I am NOT overworking your boyfriend! Note to J. Davenport - I noticed that the 8-foot ladder I'm using has UC-880 stamped on the side!

Progress

Here's some pics of the new paint... it looks REALLY yellow against that primer, but it is really more of a cream color. I thought I'd try to blend in with all the dried rye fields that surround us.

Fire Control

In the midst of this painting thing, our neighbors behind us had one of the traveling Basque sheep flocks over for a few days to knock down the weeds on their 20 acres. These sheep cover much of the Tehachapi area during the summer months.

No comment on the ugly porch post - I'm all over that!!

House Painting

Dang, still need a picture of that blackberry pie...

Anyway, something we’ve been putting off forever – painting the outside of our house. Truly, it should have been done ten years ago when it first needed it AND when hubby was able to get around better. And yeah, when the "good paint" wasn't upwards of $150 for five gallons! We talked about painting every year, and every year we decided we would definitely do it … next year. Well, that darn blue paint which I have HATED since day one, was now 22 years old. So, “sister” Debbie spent part of a week power washing the whole house for us; then Margo & Gary came over with the BIG ladder and all their painting “stuff” and spent the weekend getting us started with the primer. I bought this really cool Ryobi power sprayer (el cheapo corded version) which was supposed to be way better that the comparable el cheapo Wagner gun. Having never used anything except a two-inch brush, I had nothing to compare it to, but, I LOVED IT!! Very fast, no blobs, and even though you have to refill the little barely-over-a-quart jar about every ten minutes, it covers a lot of area well and quickly. Of course there was that “learning curve” part where hubby was “teaching” me how to use the gun – TOO FAST!! TOO SLOW!! TOO CLOSE!! TOO FAR AWAY!! WRONG ANGLE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING??!! It was almost funny. I told him he was lucky he wasn’t white… as in PRIMER white!! I totally understand how frustrated he is that I am having to do this instead of him. But now, he says I am a way better sprayer than any guy he’s ever seen. Well, of course I am! Now for the bad news. The little atomizer valve? (it comes with two) It has to be replaced after about 5-8 gallons of paint. Okay, I can live with that, but do you think you can find them? Anywhere? Well of course not! Because that would have made sense!!! I was quite angry when I was finally able to talk to “technical support” and they had absolutey no answer as to why these things aren’t available or when they would be. I told them how stupid it was to sell a tool that was worthless within three days. You know what their great solution was? Buy the Wagner ones. Huh??? Fine! So, I am stocked up with Wagner atomizers that spray horribly and spit out blobs everywhere. Very upset. But, I press on. All the primer is done, including eaves and fascia boards. You can see the icky "before" blue if you scroll down to my summer window shade covers.

Primer Over Icky Blue

Update: Well, I’ve been hitting it hard in those few hours of daylight after work, and Thursday I got off at noon, but it was so windy I decided a much-needed nap trumped a couple hours of painting. Today, Friday, I got the second coat on the front of the house which means we can use our front door again and all that is left for the front is the trim and to install the cool new lights I bought.

I am happy to report that I am virtually over my lifelong unexplained ladder phobia – the 12-foot peaks did it! Gary loaned us a 12’ foot ladder and I love it! I’ve never been the least bit afraid of heights, just ladders. Makes no sense. Hubby has been my pit crew/elf – hands me the paint gun when I move my ladder every 40 seconds or so, hands me brushes and guides, and thus far has managed to keep me from tripping or strangling myself on the extension cords. We’ve blown through 13 gallons of primer; and the first 5-gallon tub of paint. I hate to guess how much just the paint is going to cost once we’re done. My normal life is non-existent during this whole project, I’m pretty wrung out and not real sure when I'm supposed to accomplish things like “dinner”, “laundry”, and “shopping”. I need more elves...

P.S. Guess what showed up via FedEx today? Two new atomizer valves and a spare paint jar! Free! I am amazed. Mr. Ryobi is temporarily off my hit/voodoo doll list. Hubby says there is no Mr. Ryobi. Good thing. He’d’ve been in pain these last few days!

Summer Pies

Here are my two favorite pies for summer! One of the best things is that you only have to briefly use your oven to cook the crust! I'll really try to get a picture of the blackberry pie - the whole pie - next time I make it!

FRESH NECTARINE PIE

9-inch baked pie shell
1½ cups water
1 cup sugar
¼cup cornstarch
3 ozs peach-flavored gelatin
3 cups fresh nectarines, peeled, pitted & sliced

Mix the water, sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan. Bring to a quick boil. Cook until thickened and clear. Add the gelatin. Arrange the nectarines in the pie shell. Pour the gelatin mixture over the nectarines and chill. Garnish with whipped cream, if desired.

FRESH BLACKBERRY PIE

9-inch baked pie shell
1 cup water
¾ cup sugar
2½ T cornstarch
3½ T blackberry-flavored gelatin
4 cups fresh blackberries, rinsed and drained

Mix the water, sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan. Bring to a quick boil. Cook until thickened and clear. Add the gelatin, stirring until dissolved. Gently stir in the blackberries. Pour into cooled pastry shell and chill until firm. Garnish with whipped cream, if desired.

Note: I like a thicker pie crust, so I use the 10” double crust recipe and have some left over – and make a couple big fat jam tarts with it – something to hold you over until the pie is properly chilled!! I can also recommend Marie Callendar's frozen pie crusts - and I understand that Trader Joe's makes a pretty decent one too!

Turkey Vultures

Interesting visitor the other morning – a Turkey Vulture! Each spring and fall nearly 40,000 of these critters migrate through here to points south, some as far as Northern Venuzuela. I am just fascinated by so many of them at one time. I was taking a picture of a group of them spiraling up the thermals, when my hubby said “you might want to be careful “looking up”! Yikes! I forgot about that! Anyway, here’s the picture – not very good, they were so high up it looked like black pepper specks on a blue table cloth. (Click on picture for larger yet blurry image) They roost in the big trees around the corner from us along Old Town Road. It is SO creepy – by October most of the leaves are off the trees, but there are so many of them that when you first come around the corner the trees appear to be fully leafed out again… then you realize that the leaves are black and they weren’t there yesterday! One year we hiked across our defunct golf course, and under the big trees there was a blanket of enourmous vulture feathers. Another year I noticed one lone vulture who didn’t migrate. This poor bird somehow spent the entire winter perched on a big boulder outcropping high above Old Town Road. Must’ve relied on the daily roadkill of birds, ground squirrels, and skunks. Occasionally I’d see it on a lower branch of the nearby tree, and by spring it had moved up a branch at a time and then I did see it flying around with a couple large flight feathers missing from one wing. Amazing. I’m guessing the one on our low fence might be in a similar situation.

Light at the End of My Tunnel...

Not just one, but TWO lights!! First, I’ve been wanting to get back to my sewing and crafts for many months now, and I finally got there. Started three things - one, a really cute purse for a “sister” (long overdue Christmas gift), next I'm finishing a pair of knitted fishing gloves for another sister (again, long overdue) and finally a “test apron” of a new pattern for the stack of them that I owe as… uh, yeah, more overdue Christmas gifts! Hey, my heart’s in the right place, I’m just time management challenged! This apron pattern calls for seven yards of bias tape. Well, the ready made stuff was either boring or just didn't match the fabrics I had chosen, so, I decided to make my own. No problem, have made lots of it in the past, but this time I bought a cool little gadget for $6 that makes it way easier. Feed the continuous strip of fabric in -- pull out folded stuff on the other end and run the iron over it! Also spotted a cute little machine that folds AND irons it for you, but it was $99. I like $6 better!! (Yes Catherine, that's YOUR apron fabric I'm using as a background!)

I also need to make “machine rolled hems” on all the apron ties – never done that before, but did lots of it by hand when I was making and smocking baby clothes for everyone. So, found a presser foot online for $23-25, then hit our local sew-vac repair shop and bought a couple of used ones for $3 each. I cannot believe how well these things work! Of course hubby's immediate response was – “can you reupholster my ’49 Buick seats with that?” He’s been asking almost daily for YEARS now. Answer is and will always be, NO. So, here’s the first apron – it’ll match all my black cat décor for the trailer at the vintage trailer rally this Halloween in Kernville!

The second light is the fact that we have a new schedule at work: FOUR TENS!!! Starts on July 20th and it can’t get here soon enough for me. As it is now, my weekends that I’m home have three components: All routine housework and errands one day. Special heavy duty projects one day. Relaxation, recuperation, recreation one day. Obviously I’ve been a day short my whole life, so now, PROBLEM SOLVED!! Thank goodness they got this enacted while the days are long – I am so excited!

Must Try This...

Move over martini, and make room for the BLACKBERRY JULEP! Doesn't that look wonderful? A sister sent me this and I can't wait until the weather warms up again to try it!

1 1/2 oz. Marie Brizard Blackberry
1 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
1/2 oz. Simple Syrup
1 oz. Water

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a Highball 34 filled crushed ice. Stir until the glass begins to frost. Garnish with marinated mixed berries.

MARINADE: The berries can be a mix of blueberries, strawberries, and black and red raspberries. Marinate them for several hours in equal parts of Brandy, Cointreau and sugar, stirring occasionally. For each quart of berries use half an ounce of brandy, one ounce of Cointreau (or a comparable local product), and 1/2 cup superfine bar sugar.

Turtle Update

Well, I came to a decision about my adorable turtle – you know, the “free” pet that cost a small fortune in “habitat development”? I called the California Living Museum Zoo down in Bakersfield, and after a very brief and painless detour through the red tape of the California Department of Fish and Game, she is now in quarantine for about a month at the zoo. Once she gets a clean bill of health, she’ll move into this lovely pond (shown above behind the fence to the right of the Reptile House) with another Western Pond Turtle, a big White Pelican named Betty, a Canadian Goose and some sort of duck. Because she is a protected species, DFG had to approve her being “re-homed” at a licensed facility, and thankfully, due to her tameness, they had to make the determination that she could not be returned to the wild. I am so thrilled she gets to live out her many remaining years being pampered in this wonderful habitat! Also quite thrilled to have all that space back in our bedroom and will be even more thrilled when I unload all the pumps, filters, lights, heaters, chemicals, stock tanks, etc. I will, however, greatly miss her adorable face – she would watch me from her island every morning as I stumbled around in search of coffee, my glasses, and whatever I thought I was going to wear that day. If she saw ANYONE else, she would dive off her island and disappear beneath the water and floating plants. I’m sure my special status was because I was “the lady with the food!” So now I can go visit her at the zoo whenever I am in Bakersfield! Very sad to goodbye, but what a truly happy ending! Oh, she'll be dining and shrimp and trout... wonder if I could join her for dinner one night!! YUM!

Sorry... One More Upside Down Bassett Hound

I just can't stop myself. This dog will sleep anywhere.

Summer Recipe!

Filling the crust...

Adding the cheesy topping...

Right out of the oven!!

Kaarin's hubby Jim is one of those genius gardeners who turns out bushel upon bushel of the yummiest goodies, which means we periodically receive these indescribably wonderful "care packages". Lately we've received a lot of tender little squashes, which I love no matter how you prepare them, but I ran across this recipe and, oh, is it good!

SUMMER SQUASH PIE
1 unbaked 9” pastry shell
1 egg lightly beaten
2½ cups sliced zucchini (¼” slice)
2½ cups sliced yellow squash (¼” slice)
1 tsp canola oil (I use olive oil)
½ tsp salt
¼ - ½ tsp ground thyme
¼ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp paprika
¼ tsp pepper
2 large tomatoes, sliced
1 cup shredded cheddar or mozzarella cheese
(I use the mozzarella)
¾ cup mayonnaise
(reduced or low fat NOT recommended)

Line unpricked pastry shell with a double thickness of heavy duty foil. Bake at 450 for 5 minutes. Remove foil; brush lightly with egg. Bake 5 minutes longer. Remove to a wire rack; reduce heat to 350.

In a large nonstick skillet, sauté zucchini and yellow squash in oil for 10 minutes or until very tender. Sprinkle with seasonings; spoon into pastry shell. Top with tomatoes. Combine the cheese and mayonnaise; spread over the top.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Refrigerate leftovers.

LEFTOVERS? Who are they kidding???

I have to add, I have nearly always made my own pie crust from scratch because I think those rolled refrigerated and/or frozen ones are NASTY and they are way too SALTY, but Marie Callender’s frozen pie shells are really quite good and I keep them on hand now! Woohoo!

I am seriously considering a plan for Kaarin to place a bag (box?) of veggies on the county's "Dial-A-Ride" bus system each week - of course the box would have to be labeled something scary like "medical waste" so that it wouldn't arrive here empty! This could work...

Secret BBQ Recipe!

Okay, here’s my secret – when I look in my refridgerator and notice a gazillion bottles of leftover “stuff”, then it’s time to make BBQ! I take a big ol’ hunk of pork, cut it up into 2” chunks and toss it all in my crockpot. Then, I take all those half-empty bottles, every last one of them, and empty them out into a big bowl. Mix well, pour over the meat in the crockpot and set ‘er on low for 8 hours. That’s it. It’s that easy. The best part about it is that 1) you now have tons of space in your fridge, and 2) it always tastes good because for the most part, you only bought stuff you liked anyway, right? In our house, that generally translates into “spicy!” This makes great shredded pork for sandwiches, and it freezes well. Mine generally has a wide variety of bbq sauces, salsas, marinades, relishes, mustards, jam or jelly, sometimes an oddball salad dressing, and then a hearty splash of Tabasco sauce and a handful of chopped onions. Trust me, it comes out PERFECT every time!

May Wrap Up

Since I'm not sure WHEN we'll get around to painting this place, last summer I figured I'd cheat and spruce up the front with some additional bungalow style window frames. We designed, built, painted and hung them, and they looked great. This year, facing blistering hot weather, I decided to rehang them with easy on/off old fashioned storm window hangers, and then last weekend I made some nursery shade cloth panels that are velcroed onto the back of them. Instant cool house!! Sun can't get in, we can still see out... I love them!

Original window configuration

Cool new frames WITH shade cloth behind them!

Velcro detail...

May... continued!

…and once I was back from Ventura, it was time for the “Mister Sister” trip to Kernville! This is a trip where unlike sanctioned SOTF trips, husbands, kids, dogs and non-members are welcome! It was ghastly hot, well over a hundred degrees on Saturday and Sunday. I planned to do absolutely nothing, and I was quite successful! I did start and complete a craft project - a really tacky hanging lamp for our EZ-Up! Two other sisters had them, the first received it as a very “underappreciated” gift from a grandmother (I think her thoughts were, “Why on earth would you think I’d want this hideous thing?!” and the second sister saw it and had to have one – found it in a thrift shop!The components are nearly extinct, having run their course in oh, the 70’s I’m guessing? But I found what I needed and absolutely love the darn thing... and so do all the night bugs! Once again, my camera was destined to mostly lay dormant in the trailer – here’s a few pics…

Duke trying to read over the deafening roar of the river...

Maryjane's hubby Don provided an incredible breakfast each morning!

The river looked like a jammed freeway all weekend...

Spring Whirlwind!

Well, my major spring events are now in the can, and what a kick they were! Sisters on the Fly California Dreamin' in Ventura was a complete success, and I truly don't know when I've laughed so hard for so many days on end. Oh yeah, the Sisters Giddy Up in Arizona in 2007! I have to admit, my camera spent the entire week sitting on the kitchen counter in my trailer - I totally depended on the photography talents of other sisters! Here's a shot of my trailer...

The Arizona girls totally wowed us at every turn - which is why we ADORE them! I cannot thank them enough for their level of participation! Here's their "festive" beach party attire on the first night!

Then there was the cowgirl prom... again, they are SO all on the same page!

The PJ party...

And you certainly can't "live" in a trailer without having a traditional Trailer Trash Cocktail Party...

On our last night we celebrated Mazie's birthday - she is our 90 year old party girl, dancing, drinking, smoking, singing, WAY past my bedtime, and she is the mother of the two sisters, Maurrie and Becky who started this wonderful crazy group! The Arizona girls dressed 50's style in her honor...

The off-site events included a train trip to Santa Barbara, bus trips to both Solvang and the Reagan Library, surf fly-fishing - yes, 90-year old Mazie did THAT too, and our traditional Rhinestone Cowgirl Bling Cocktail Party at the oh-so-trendy Candlelight Kitchen and Bar...

Sleeping Basset

I'm convinced that sleeping is one of the things that Basset Hounds are exceedingly good at, 'cause I sure have a lot of pictures of it! Trust me, when she's awake, she's like a little short tornado racing around the yard, chasing cats, chasing toys, attacking Happy-hound... but then... with virtually no warning, it's NAP TIME!

A Prom... At My Age? Are You NUTS?!

Nope, I'm not nuts, I'm a Sister... a Sister on the Fly, and we have more fun than anyone! Just ask any one of over 1,000 of us! One of our sillier things is the Cowgirl Prom - these happen at various events, but this will be my first one. I found (CHEAPLY) what I thought was a tasteful, unappreciated bridesmaid dress from the pitiful selection on the sale rack at a bridal shop - it has since been brought to my attention that NO prom dress is tasteful, so, I'll just say this one was one of the "least ghastly". It had to be either brown or green to match my gorgeous Donald Pliner mules (killer find on ebay)... add a couple yards of sparkly bargain basement fabric from Joann's for a wrap, some delightful green Wooly Bugger flies for earrings and this girl ready for prom night! Don't want to give too much away here, but I'll share this one picture... is anyone else suddenly craving CHOCOLATE??

Wildflowers

The novelty of scraping stubborn ice and our very special FROZEN FOG off the windshield every morning has officially worn off. But, hope... whoops... I am SO done with that word... ANTICIPATION of spring is right down the hill. The wildflowers have started their spring show and I can't wait until we can take a day to go enjoy them!

This is the internet-famous shot of the Carrizo Plain between Bakersfield and the coast...

Poppies between here and Los Angeles...

Neighbor's pasture behind our house...

Closeup of Owl Clover from our yard... my absolute favorite wildflower around here!

Inside My Trailer

Well, the other night I was chatting with one of my sisters about trailer decor, and it dawned on me that I hadn’t “shared” pictures of the inside of my trailer! It started out in a “cherries” theme which is SO not me, but I had all this red and yellow vintage stuff that I had collected for the vintage picnic basket for our 1949 yellow Buick. The trailer has turquoise appliances, and one day as I was wandering around a fabric store I spotted some red, yellow and turquoise cherry fabric and was off and running with it! I went way overboard, burned out on cherries, and finally redid the whole thing in trout. Oddly, my hubby said he liked the cherry theme better because it was so bright and cheerful! Who'd of guessed? Here are some interior pictures of both themes…

That was a lot of cherries - nearly made me dizzy!!! The trout theme is much more relaxing...

That photo on the stove is my wonderful stepfather, Jim, who orginally taught me to fly fish when I was a young girl. I didn't have a clue what I was doing, but I sure did enjoy it!! If he could only see me now with all my fly fishing sisters, he would have loved it!!

Sisters take bedmaking VERY seriously. The secret combination in mine is four inches of medium firm foam, two inches of memory foam, another two inches of feather bed, then fluffy flannel sheets and a cozy handmade quilt! I made both the cherry quilt and the trout quilt at the same time - I'm not a really serious quilter, so I use the "Quilt In A Day" patterns and that's about how long it takes. I cut everything out for both quilts on Friday night, made the cherry one on Saturday and the trout one on Sunday. Took another afternoon to tie the quilts using perl cotton. Again, I'm not a "quilter" per se. The darn curtains actually took longer than the quilts! I neglected to line the cherry curtains because I was in a big ol' hurry - I lined the trout curtains after seeing how quickly the cherry ones faded. I also have little specks of velcro around all the windows which hold up cut-to-fit sheets of reflective silver foam insulation when the trailer is not in use. That helps stop all the sun damage. My next trailer is going to be very neutral and generic so I can easily change themes - I so want to do a "tasteful" Halloween theme!!!

Tomatoes in January

Okay, no laughing, but here is 80% of the total crop from my valiant little tomato plant. I know, it's pretty pathetic looking, but considering we keep our house pretty cold and it must depend on the sun coming in that big window, it's done very well. It was comforting to watch them grow while we had a foot of snow on the ground!

October... November... FEBRUARY???

Where does the time go?? Hubby decided that being stuck in a little trailer for days on end in the rain over Halloween did NOT sound like fun, so he opted to stay home and be "productive", which meant I had the trailer to myself! Lots of rain, a daily nap, five books read in four days, lots of hungry squirrels fed… well they acted hungry, even though they all looked plump and shiny!

The rain eased up enough for all the trick-or-treaters in the campground to make their rounds – and it occurred to me - you don’t even see that in most neighborhoods anymore – but that just goes to show how campers are all family. My fake rubber cat was a real hit with visiting dogs! Some barked, some growled, and one marched right around the table to sniff the “information” end - it was pretty funny. Early that morning I had raced back down to Bakersfield to oversee the relocation of my horse from the facility where his level of care and attention had been slowly going downhill. He now resides at a thoroughbred breeding and training facility here in Tehachapi – I am the ONLY boarder, because they are not a boarding stable, but I was desperate and my farrier made the contact and provided references on both sides. It is an immaculate and very well run facility and I sleep better at night knowing he gets the same level of care as all of their horses. As it should be.

Our November trip, again to the Kern River, was wonderful. Good food and good friends – I can’t think of a better way to spend Thanksgiving. Those of us that went fly fishing went for the entire day, and that’s a long day of fishing in all that icy water – it was nearly dark when we headed out of the river. Caught just a couple, one rainbow and one adorable little native, enjoyed every minute of it but could not wait to fall into bed that night!

Miss Libby is very good at this whole camping thing... but I think we need a bigger bed!

December is just kind of a blur, and for that matter so is January even though it only ended uhhhh, yesterday? My horse move paid off last week – the old guy does not drink enough water when it gets really cold. He began to colic, and then started to roll to ease the pain. Well, with all the melting snow on the ground, he wound up sopping wet and started to go into hypothermia, but, they were on it quickly and by the time I got the call and raced out there, the vet was there, my horse was totally looped on several drugs, they had given him a nice hot bath, and he looked ready for a long nap! Everything was fine, but it did mean I was running back and forth for half the night washing and drying a rotating pile of five sopping wet horse blankets in order to get him dry. You don’t even want to know what the inside of our washer and dryer looked like.

I Love October!!

October has to be my favorite month! I love the chilly weather, I love all the fall recipes, and I love Halloween! This year we'll be camping again, so won't get to have all the fun decorating the yard and house, but I will get to decorate our trailer and campsite! How fun is that??? I'll post pictures when we return home! Tonight it is already down to 33 with the windchill - I brought in my tomato plant - pretty sad story, I ordered it online, it arrived in June, I didn't get it planted until July, and it dutifully spent the next TWO MONTHS growing itself the mother of all root systems! It lost every single leaf, and then a couple weeks ago it went "TA-DA"!!! and started growing leaves again. What choice did I have?? So there it sits in a big plastic tub in the middle of the living room with a fence around it to keep out Miss Libby, the "busy basset". A few years ago I had a volunteer tomato plant in the house and by Easter I had fresh tomotoes! Wish me luck with this one! Hubby thinks I'm nuts...

My Aprons from Kernville

Okay, I managed to convert my pattern from Excel (don't ask!) to a .pdf, but can't figure out how to get it to a .jpg, but I'll keep working on it and post it later... for now here's the photo of the two aprons I cranked out the day before we left for Kernville. Margo's has all the cute wine things, mine has leaves and acorns... hmmm... acorns... maybe that's why that little squirrel was so attracted to my campsite... oh, wait, it was the $12 bag of peanuts... I remember now!

Yummy Soup Recipe!!

This recipe is from Cuisine At Home - Soups, Stews & Chiles. Absolutely wonderful! Hubby even liked it which is a miracle considering it wasn't "chile". I simmered the chicken while prepping everything else, and had it done in a reasonable amount of time considering I worked late tonight and still had to run to the market! This one is a keeper. Can't wait to try some more from this book!

SPINACH-ARTICHOKE SOUP
1 cup leek, sliced
1 T garlic, minced
2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
14 oz can water packed artichoke hearts, drained
2 T flour
1/2 cup dry white wine
2-1/2 cups chicken broth
1-1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
6 ozs fresh spinach (I used 8 oz bag from salad section)
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt & pepper (I skipped these and never missed them)

Saute leeks and garlic in oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Cook until leeks are soft, about 2 minutes, then add chicken and quartered artichoke hearts. Saute 2 minutes, then stir in flour and cook for 1 minute. Deglaze with wine and simmer until nearly evaporated, scraping any bits from the bottom of the pot. Stir in broth, milk and cream, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, add the spinach and parmesan, and stir until spinach wilts. Season with salt and pepper before serving.

Serve with:

PITA CHIPS
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp paprika
cayenne to taste
4 rounds pita bread
olive oil

Preheat broiler to high. Combine seasonings in a small bowl. Lightly brush pitas on both sides with oil and sprinkle with seasoning mixture. Transfer pitas to a baking sheet and broil until golden, 2 minutes per side. Cut each pita into 8 wedges. (Hubby doesn't like pitas, so I used sourdough. I also will cut the salt in half - way too salty for me!)

BYE BYE SEPTEMBER!!

Hmmm… long time no post! Besides the usual obligations, I’ve been up to my neck planning for the annual Sisters on the Fly Kernville event. Brought the trailer into the yard to pack it, and the adorable Miss Libby… who is still in puppy mode… decided to tear out and EAT all the wiring from underneath the trailer. Hubby was NOT happy and all the new wiring is now safely encased in conduit. Our Kernville event had 30 sisters and nearly that many trailers. It was so much fun to meet so many new sisters!! We enjoyed lots of fly fishing, antique stores, good food, and I think we’ll have 4-5 new sisters joining who happened across us at the campground!! Perfect weather – about 90 during the day, but that meant we didn’t have to wear waders. Nice and cool in the 50’s at night… ahhhhh!! Today I spent several hours getting my turtle’s indoor winter “pond” all set up – he’s pretty happy to be inside with heated water, but what a messy job! I am the poster child for the “free pet syndrome”…

Miss Libby's Roommate

This is Happy the Catahoula cross. The other half of the cross is Redbone/Black & Tan Coonhound, but he came out looking totally Catahoula. He's a big no nonsense hound, and he also has the Catahoula trait of having a very small circle of "approved" people. Catahoulas are the state dog of Louisana and are used for boar and bear hunting. He and Miss Lilah were both acquired from Beagles and Buddies, a dog rescue in South El Monte. Happy has no ears, at least on the inside. Ear infections were beyond treatable when we adopted him, so many, many, dollars later with a specialist in Los Angeles, he has no ear openings, and most of the interior hearing hardware is gone as well. Oddly enough, the "downside" of this surgery appears to be that he can now hear the UPS truck from SIX blocks away instead of the two blocks before surgery. Which means he starts barking sooner... go figure! His other mission in life is to tree feral cats on our fence.

Passed Dogs...

Turbo & Cameo - Black Lab/German Shorthair Pointer cross brother and sister - found them running loose as skeletons out on the Mojave desert... Turbo retrieved, Cameo pointed... both HATED water! Their markings were absolutely identical, but hers were speckled.

The "dainty" Miss Lilah, 100 lb Bluetick Coonhound - or Giant Blue Gascony Hound as we preferred to call her - she was most definitely from the old original French bloodlines.

Rendezvous

I'll try to keep the details short because I have quite a few pictures. We are members of the Breckenridge Buckskinners, and we host a reenactment of the fur trade, or mountain man rendezvous, in April of each year. Here is our camp on one of the seemingly rare days when it's not raining, snowing, or so windy that it blows tents over! This encampment is ten days of hard work with no electricity, no batteries, no matches, no "petroleum based fuels", just the tools any normal person in 1837 would have had... while living off the land as a trapper. We do, however, manage to live quite comfortably - note the WOOD BURNING STOVE peeking out from the right hand corner of the tent - yeah, I can get it up to ninety degrees in there during a snow storm - no problem! Also means I don't have to cook outside!
Here's Duke conducting some gunsmithing business with one of our Scottish shooters...

And here's son-in-law Bob keeping the cooking fire going... on one of those "cold" days...brrrr! But he's from Michigan - he was in heaven!

Shopping!

Rendezvous generally has a "traders' row" where all the vendors sell their wares...

Rendezvous kids lined up for daily awards in shooting, archery, tomahawk throwing...

We also like to do a summer rendezvous - one where we are NOT part of the working crew! This one was near Johnsondale, CA, but sadly, the landowner made other plans for this gorgeous piece of property along the Kern River... This was our camp in 2001 with daughter and son-in-law, and the picture below that is our VIEW from that camp...

Needless to say, I didn't get much accomplished that year - no beading, no shooting, no hikes, no archery, no leatherwork, no fishing, just sat there enjoying the view for ten days... oh yeah, and making sure everyone had breakfast and dinner!

More Shopping!

In 2002 the big McNally fire swept through there literally a couple hours after we broke camp and headed home. Over 150,000 acres were burned. You can see the bare areas in the background, but the fire went through "our meadow" so quickly that although most trees were lost (note all the stumps), some merely had scorched trunks. We returned in following years, but 2005 was our last year, and instead of hundreds of people, there were only fifteen camps. I have to say, I enjoyed that one more than any other rendezvous I had ever been to. We had an entire meadow to ourselves, and it was just incredible. And no matter what, there is always a potluck!

Hmmm... guess I didn't keep that very short, did I!

Special Turtle

Here's our rescued six-inch Western Pond Turtle. A coworker found him (her?) in the middle of a busy road and, not realizing he was a water turtle, scooped him up, took him home, and plopped him into a tankful of soil and offered him veggies which he could not eat without being under water. Most everyone at works knows I love turtles, so guess what! I brought him home and then spent a small fortune on a 100-gallon stock tank, filter, pump, lights, heater, water chemicals, plants, "companion" fish (he can't catch one to save his life), all necessary components to keep a water turtle happy, but it SO doesn't match our colonial bedroom decor!! The first filter setup I tried was guaranteed to process ONE THOUSAND GALLONS OF WATER AN HOUR and therefore our bedroom sounded like the pump room for the Hoover Dam or Shamu's pool. We had to yell to communicate. That filter, with a somewhat smaller pump, promptly wound up outside at Mr. Spoiled Rotten Pet's summer digs, the 150 gallon stock tank. Gotta love those "free" pets. He is quite cute though - must have been someone's pet - he has the traditional but disgusting hole drilled in the edge of his shell for a "leash", has a white scar on his head from some injury, and does have some eyesight problems which necessitates me hand feeding him the freshly homemade 7-ingredient turtle food cubes every other day or so.

Odd Song...

Anyone wondering what the story is behind that Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep song? That song was played CONTINUOUSLY by a radio station where I was living in Piedmont, KS in 1971. I never, ever, heard it again once I left there. However, that darn song has, over the years, popped into my head and stayed there with far more tenacity than "small world", so I decided to hunt it down and add it. Also found the video on You Tube. Wow. I've only run across two other people who remember this song. Enjoy!

Collections

These are my Indiana Glass Hen on Nest dishes. They are about six inches long. The first one, amber, caught my eye a zillion years ago while antiquing in New Jersey with my dear friend Bonnie. Needless to say, I was hooked. I have other brands, but these remain my favorite. I have yet to see a true cobalt blue or black one by Indiana Glass. To display them, hubby built me a backlit "chicken coop" thing in the kitchen out of a wooden packing crate for a refueling probe for an F-100 jet... okay, nevermind, I'll get a picture of it on here soon!

Then, I ran across these little Boyd Salt Chicks and there are over 200 different colors... must pick wisely!!

Miss Libby

Miss Libby is our newest addition - we have fallen in love with hounds as a group, and have placed Bassets on the top of our list!

Our 1966 Aristocrat Lo-Liner

Here's our adorable little trailer named "Chasing Rainbows". She is the flagship of our fleet of three! More on this whole story later... Sisters on the Fly... that should tell you plenty for now!!

My Blog Project

Well, I've been threatening to do a blog, and have finally gotten around to it. Also have one started for hubby... more on that later. Hard to believe that I have VOLUNTARILY added something else to do via computer - like I'm not on one enough already between home and work?! I have so enjoyed everyone else's blogs, and perhaps with this blog I can keep friends and family a little more up to date than I have been able to in the past... let's see... I'm pretty sure I can see my unmailed Christmas letter from two... or is it three... years ago right over there on that table... yeah, this has got to be better!