Critters, Crafts & Collections

Summer...

2010-06-27T15:48:00.000-07:00

Oh, look, an abandoned house! Yikes - summer has landed and we were surrounded by extremely flammable vegetation nearly six feet tall in some areas. That driveway was so bad we looked like a “foreclosure”. It just totally got ahead of me this year – fortunately one of the boys next door was for hire, and 11.5 hours later he had weedwhacked our entire property from fence to fence to fence. Wildland fires are beyond scary up here!

We had a wonderful trip to Kernville right before Memorial weekend - 1st camping trip totally in the trailer for hubby since the “lay-up”. He did great!! We had 40+ people in our group, so the entire campground was like our own little village! We had two masseuses, (never camp without one!) a great potluck, Lisa made us an adorable cake, and everyone had a great time antiquing and white water rafting. We were really looking forward to our longest trailer trip yet - to Wenatchee, Washington - but Duke probably spent way too much time on his feet and by the next weekend we were battling new open wounds on his left leg. We saw his doctor in Santa Barbara on Wednesday, June 2nd at 2:00, by 5:00 he was all tucked into his hospital bed across the street going through the “welcome back” routine with half the staff and a pack of his favorite visiting therapy dogs. The doctor gave me an A, a B+ and a D- on my wound care. I question the validity of the D-. I was doing the best I could without my OWN prescription pad!! And yeah, Duke was once again ordering his extra grilled ham and cheese sandwiches left and right. Pretty bad when you have this place so dialed in. So, we get that whole thing resolved and he’s home by the June 7.

June 9. Duke falls getting to the bathroom. Yes, I was helping, but about all I could manage to do was ensure he landed ON the toilet and not IN the bathtub. That should count for something, shouldn’t it? Just the last place on the planet anyone wants to be "rescued" from. The night before we’d had some funky blood pressure readings and had already planned on heading down to the Emergency Room in Bakersfield, but gee, he gets another ride in an ambulance! By the time we get "settled" in the ER they have found that his blood pressure is now 58/30 and his kidneys are shutting down! Excuse me? Could you repeat that because it sounded like you said… anyway, it was because of all the antibiotics that he’s been on and his kidneys had just had enough and were done. Didn’t get his hip put back into place for three days, and had him home by June 14.

So. Where are we? Blood pressure normal, kidneys mostly recovered, leg swelling under control and now we’re just waiting until the end of August when Dr. Bliss will repair the damage that Duke did to the hip during that first bad fall. Then, hopefully, we can start making some forward progress.

During one of these Santa Barabara trips, I had two other things happen. While we were gone, I had the repair guys out to replace the water line to our frig (before it broke this time) and while they were back there they found that the heating unit behind the freezer which keeps it frost free had broken off of its little plastic pegs, fallen down on top of the coils, tilted forward, and melted the whole back of the freezer wall. Great. So that meant a brand new frig as soon as I got home. Same day, I get a call from the barn where my elderly horse lives – he somehow had torn a front tendon, and after x-rays and ultrasound, it appeared he had torn 70% of it and was supposed to be on “stall rest” in his heavy duty cast-like bandages for 30 days to see if it would heal. Owner called me back and said, “You know your horse doesn’t do well in a stall.” Yep, I knew that. Warned them in fact. He’s a total idiot indoors. His favorite “indoor” activity is to yank up all the rubber mats from underneath the two feet of shavings, pile them on top of the shavings, and then stand on top of the whole ugly mess and buck in place. Why? Who knows. So, fearing he would injure himself worse, back outside he went. He’s all mended now, and we’ll get shoes back on him next week. These are the kinds of things that happen the MINUTE you pay off your credit card. Or your car. Or any other debt. Things around you overhear the good news, they break, they pass the news along to other things you own, and CHA-CHING… you’re right back where you started! Do not dicusss financial gains anywhere near your vehicles or applicances. Ever.

So, we missed the Washington trip, but bless those sisters of mine! They have been emailing and posting pictues on Facebook the whole time so I don’t feel quite so sorry for myself!

April Update

2010-04-29T23:26:00.001-07:00

Hey, look! No hospital stories!!! Duke is very carefully spending his upright hours outside or in his shop - all I hear is cutting, grinding, welding … so things are returning to normal around here. I’m trying to get back to my terrifying list of undone things around here - I started with rewiring an outside light. Sounds really small, but it’s a big deal for me - electric stuff scares me silly – worse than ladders did.

I sort of reorganized and staged some sewing and knitting projects that I haven’t gone near for over a year, which involved re-re-doing some shelves. Sewing room is also the office, so the shelves must dual-task. Next weekend I “get” to replace a toilet. How exciting is that? Yeah, that’s what I thought too. But, one of them is too low for tall hubby with this new hip, so…

Remember these? Had one of those silly blast from the past moments and figured since that’s what I wore “way back when” then that’s what I wanted for our beach trip. It was perfect! Unfortunately, Duke thought so too, so now it’s his. But that’s okay, I ordered another one. Can’t beat that much snuggly warmth for about $15.00.

Last week we headed over to Santa Barbara for a couple doctors appointment for Duke. These appointments were originally scheduled for April 1st but it was supposed to snow, so I postponed the trip. So what happened on the new date? Yep, it snowed. Fortunately it was only a couple of inches, and it was that heavy, wet, quick melting stuff that did NOT stick to our scary steep driveway. As tired of snow and rain as I am, I do appreciate how much we need the moisture and this is truly the longest prettiest spring I can recall in the 20+ years we’ve been here. As soon as the Owl Clover comes in nice and thick I’ll take some pictures. Anyway, we spent the night in Santa Barbara and even drove out onto the pier at Stearns Wharf for dinner. Very nice. We also took some time to check out a very old trailer park that we had spotted on a prior trip. It was FILLED with big old vintage park model trailers – single and double wide models from the 50’s! Oh my, next trip over there I’ll park outside and walk in with my camera – there were some beauties in there! Nice people too, everyone waved and said hi as we were carefully trying to squeeze our truck through all the tiny twisty roads in there!

And let's not forget the Easter earthquake! It was felt up here, but I was on the move at the time and missed it.

Lisa is coming up for the weekend – she’s taking me to the Victorian Rose Tea Garden for an early Mother’s Day on Friday – it’s very nice, which is saying a lot because some of you know how so “not me” this whole tea thing is!

On Saturday we’re all heading up to Kernville for lunch at the Kern River Brewing Company and for me, a long overdue stop at the Kern River Fly Shop.

Weekend at the Beach!

2010-03-28T18:24:00.001-07:00

Ooo-rah! I mean... surf's up! Sorry, we were at Camp Pendleton/San Onofre for the weekend and with hubby being a retired Marine... well, you get the picture! That's our "rig" waiting for our campsite. What a wonderful weekend! Brought Duke home from the hospital on Tuesday, and I spent Thursday night – all night - as in we never went to bed – packing, and were on the road by a little after 4:00 am Friday morning. My packing fiasco was just a combination of goofy unforseen issues like trying to install a new battery in our truck that didn’t fit and that the cables didn't reach, and then missing bike rack parts, all of which required some “creativity” and literally took until midnight. Then I couldn't remember what was already in the trailer because it's not here at home. I can't get Duke in and out of the truck with the trailer in the driveway... AAARRRGGGHHH!!! Anyway, once we arrived, the weather was perfect, met lots of new sisters, hubby enjoyed every minute, and so did Lisa - except for her migraine - but what better place to recuperate? Cool breeze, sound of the surf... that'll cure anything! Duke parked himself in a Cabela’s lounge chair that I brought for him – just what the doctor ordered for keeping those feet elevated! (Run, don’t walk to Cabela’s website – they are still on sale for $49!) He got a death grip on that TV remote and he was good for the weekend. Let the pampering begin! Pretty much every time I'd return from somewhere, he'd announce, "Some woman came by to check on me and say hi!" Sisters take very good care of each other!!Next time I will not take my trailer. I set it all up, erected the E-Z-Up for shade, hooked up my cute patio light, unfolded enough patio furniture for a parking lot sale... and walked away. Never used any of it. Lisa, however, did sleep in the trailer both nights, so that was good! The handicapped cottage we rented in addition to the campsite, was in fact a two bedroom single-wide mobile home with ramp access and a HUGE bathroom - all of which worked very well for us. Nice deck out back with an ocean view! We WILL be making this trip again...

Lunch! Duke's very own wine charm...

Adorable Sisters on the Fly "Cupcake" Cake - everyone had blue tongues!!!

Lisa and I hit the MCX on the way out and stocked up some cool USMC doodads for Duke - he was beyond thrilled!!

Back to the Melodrama...

2010-03-21T10:01:00.000-07:00

Oh, look! Another hospital story!! Let’s see…where’d I leave off on this series… oh yeah, March 10th with the pain management appt… so, on Monday night I was bandaging Duke’s foot and it looked WAY worse, as in red, infected, and downright scary. Tuesday morning Margo drove us over to Santa Barbara as I was a complete basket case with intermittent pounding heart and less than normal breathing issues. Duke's primary care doctor sent him packing across the street to the Cottage Hospital emergency room. They started IV’s to pump him full of antibiotics, and after about an hour or so, Duke, being the “fun” patient, asked the nurse “could I get a grilled cheese sandwich?” Huh? Who knew you could do that in the Emergency Room? Well, apparently you can, he did, and he got it! Finally got him into a room, Margo and I hit the road, and we were home by about 1:30 Wednesday morning. Lisa drove up that day and checked into a hotel, I still had to get myself recuperated and organized, and I headed back over on Thursday. I stopped by my favorite computer expert on the way through Bakersfield and he spent a couple hours getting my new netbook all properly set up. Very happy with it, one of my smarter purchases! So nice to be away from home and still in touch with everyone and everything, and not on a dinky little phone screen! Duke had offered to get me an iPhone and I declined ‘cause there’s just not a single thing I want to do on a screen that small.

Anyway, Duke was in non-stop vomiting mode Tuesday night and all day Wednesday, but they finally got that under control. Now he’s in leg spasm hell. Thought they were easing up, but they're every 12-15 seconds and they can't seem to get them under control. During the couple days I was there, they asked me, "has he tried Ativan? Baclofen? Celebrex? Cymbalta? Darvocet? Dilaudid? Flexeril? Lidocaine? Lyrica? Neurontin? OxyContin? Paxil? Ryzolt? Savella? Skelaxin? Valium? Zanaflex?" Sigh. Yes, yes, yes to all and no they didn't work, or not for very long. Hence, the referral to the epidural approach and possible subsequent implant, which we'll have to postpone until he's off the antibiotics. I should be bringing him home on Tuesday, if he can walk, which is scary, because right now he can't walk on that left foot, and the right leg is no sure thing either because of the new twice-dislocated hip which is missing LOTS of physical therapy appointments! Sure glad I bought that nice new wheelchair on eBay… and I still plan on dragging him down to Camp Pendleton for our “sisters and misters” camping trip. Have I mentioned that I need a vacation??? We have, in addition to the campsite, reserved a two-bedroom handicapped-equipped cottage right on the beach, so we should be MORE than good to go, right?? Don’t be surprised if you hear a Sig Alert about a crazy woman headed south on the I-5 hauling a beat up old travel trailer and gurney with some poor retired Marine duct taped to it… there’s a visual for you!

The high points of his stay besides the exceptional care are 1) that he somehow scored a very pretty, private, frou-frou “movie star” room with lovely hardwood floors, highly upgraded guest furniture, and a wall of glass complete with sliding doors out to a private balcony with, if you look between the trees, a view of the ocean. I told Margo that we should have brought a blender and some little paper cocktail umbrellas! And 2) all the visits from the therapy dogs!! So far he’s seen Diamond the Dalmatian (see her on Facebook!) BB King the Australian Shepherd, Buddy the German Shepherd, and a Sheltie whose name I did not get.

Lisa working on her needlepoint...

You can just barely see the ocean through the coastal fog... very low between the trees... honest, it's there!

Lisa and I did get out for a break on Friday – went down and walked along the beach, the pier, and then had Clam Chowder and Fish and Chips at Brophy’s.

One Week of Weather...

2010-03-14T22:02:00.000-07:00

Since it was so warm, sunny, and gorgeous today, I thought you’d enjoy a picture of my big, sleek, shiny thoroughbred. Hey, where’d he go? And where’d this enormous, hairy, prehistoric horse-like creature come from?? What a mess. With all the rain and snow and this three-inch long winter coat, he’s a lost cause until the REAL spring arrives. I spent some quality time with my entire collection of brushes and managed to remove most of the mud and enough hair to make a couple of small yappy dogs!

And then there's this day! I can’t keep track. One day it’s warm and sunny, the next it’s snowing, raining, blowing… I give up! At least the house is a nice color now… oh look, a little travel trailer in the yard! Nope, I do NOT drive down that in the snow!

The Saga Continues...

2010-03-13T08:44:00.000-08:00

Well, this is what I was going to post at the very end of February – before everything took another left turn!

Well, I feel like I’m finally coming up for air. Hubby is doing really well - he’s done with physical therapy, down to a minimum of painkillers, and this week he washed dishes and spent a couple afternoons outside (yes, on his walker) installing new locksets on our front door and putting together the cart for his new welder that just arrived – a Millermatic 211 for anyone that’s interested! This welder does just about everything, hopefully replacing the stable of single-purpose welders he has. It will be nice to be able to repair aluminum window and door frames on these trailers!

I’m anxious to get working on our little trailer, but I’ve so much other stuff to catch up on that I’m not sure when that’s going to happen. On top of all the “routine” stuff that needs doing, I still need to paint our front, back, and garage doors, we have decorative frames to make and paint for the three attic vents, and we’re going to make those cool looking “storm window” summer shade screens for all the windows on the south side of the house, and sometime this summer I need to paint the shed to match the house.

Tuesday, March 2nd 9:30 am, Duke calls me at work to tell me that he dislocated his new hip. Again. Thank goodness 1) I work so close to home and 2) he actually had a phone on him! I raced for home while Margo called 911, and poor Duke, who was outside installing new locksets on our back doors, had to stand there on his "good leg" and his walker until the ambulance arrived. They loaded him up, and off we went to San Joaquin Hospital. Once there, they gave him the "Michael Jackson" special to knock him out. Sadly, the anesthesiologist says, "Hey, I remember you guys!" Well, isn't that just great. Heavy sigh. Duke was out maybe ten minutes – the doctor actually stood on the gurney to wrestle the hip back into place, and me with no camera! Darn! Anyway, we were home by 6:30 that night, with Duke terrified to leave his big ol’ chair in the living room. He did figure out that he may have tripped when starting to come in through the sliding glass door – it’s hard to tell since he has no feeling in his feet. Hopefully it was a trip, and we can maybe avoid a “three-fer” by him being more careful, if that’s possible.

Part of this was kind of amusing - the Fire Dept showed up to help load him, and we knew two of the three firemen - one was the guy that actually built our house back in '87, and the 3rd one (didn't know him), maybe wants to buy Duke's Unimog! I told him to stop by and see me at work later on and I’d make him a deal! It's not like Duke will ever be able to get in the darn thing again, and he’s ready for it to go to a new home where it will be used and appreciated. Anyone out there interested? Buy it now for $10K! Entire box is rebuilt with aluminum, new steel cab, new custom canvas door, and it comes with a additional BIGGER Mercedes engine... you know, more power and all that! EVERYONE needs one of these - you just never know when you'll need to chase down a bunch of military tanks! Uses plain ol' leaded gasoline, can go a whopping 55 mph fully loaded... so long as you're going downhill, mileage... not so great... 10 maybe??? But, you will be the envy of every off-roader on the planet! Can't even being to describe how fun it is - your buds are crawling along in their fancy 4x4's, easing over bumps and ruts, and you, in this, can literally floor it, sail past all of them and not feel a single bump thanks to the type suspension and articulation! Did I mention you can actually drive OVER a Hummer with one of these? And then there's that dinner-plated-size Mercedes emblam on the grill - always a head turner in the supermarket parking lot! Before, during and after pics:

On Sunday, March 7th, Duke was complaining that his left foot felt “stiff”. I looked down and it appeared that someone had placed a half of a grapefruit on top of his foot, inside the sock. I “assumed” it was general swelling which he has a lot of, peeled off the sock and nearly passed out cold. It was a blister. Three inches in diameter, one inch tall. I refuse to post a picture of it, as you will never visit my blog again after seeing. Not even going to discuss the management of it. On to March 10th.

On March 10th Duke had appointments in Santa Barbara with his neurologist, his pacemaker checkup/tuneup guy, and his orthopedist to update him on the latest dislocation. Pacemaker check went well; Duke’s heart just keeps getting better and better with each visit. Orthopedist placed him on a couple antibiotics for the foot thing, and another couple months of physical therapy, and made sure he knows that one more dislocation and he’s back on the operating table. Neurologist determined that all the issues with Duke’s legs (numbness, pain, spasms, swelling, different color and temperature every day) fall under “Complex Regional Pain Syndrome” and referred him to a pain management specialist later the same afternoon. And so will begin the process of exploring various treatments possibly including the “placement of stimulating electrodes next to the spinal cord which provide a pleasant tingling sensation in the painful area and appears to help many patients with their pain.” Yikes. But you get to a point where you will try anything.

Other than that, I’m just trying to get caught up both at work and home – not like I think it’ll ever happen, but I do keep trying! Our weather has been tough to keep up with – one gorgeous warm sunny day, the next day a blizzard, then rain, then wind, back to sun. Tough to plan your outside chores! Here’s Miss Libby enjoying one of those sunny days – she’s planted herself in our dormant veggie garden!

2004 & Now...

2010-02-03T19:57:00.000-08:00

I was reading one of my long lost (and therefore never mailed) Christmas letters from 2004, and I recalled all that we went through with Duke’s repaired neck and the broken hip a month later. Must be selective amnesia, because I’d totally forgotten that I also had a dog down recuperating from surgery at the same time. Geez, what was I thinking??? Anyway, during that time we bought a microwave/hood for over our stove, and it was up to me to install it… NO PROBLEM!!! I just did it the girl way - suitcase, four paint cans, a couple of rugs and a bunch of scrap 2x4s - and we were in popcorn that night!

So, today was Duke’s checkup with his hip doctor. Duke was scared Dr. Bliss was gonna be mad… and he was. But after x-raying EVERYTHING and determining that Duke didn’t do any real damage, Dr. Bliss opted not to beat the crap out of him. This time. On the way out Duke was telling the woman at the front desk that he wanted to file a complaint because his doctor threatened to kill him. She said, “Fine, here’s the form” and without missing a beat she added, “but please note that the comment section at the bottom of the form is where you write something nice about me!” Gotta love that place!! We stopped at the Santa Barbara Chicken Ranch where I picked up chicken, tri-tip, beans, salsa and tortillas to take home – I adore that place!

Safety Segment!!

2010-01-30T16:26:00.001-08:00

Well, I’m sure we’ve all heard the horror stories about those nasty old fashioned road flares exploding in someone’s trunk or glove box – not a good thing to have happen! I found the perfect alternative – PowerFlares!! These things are beyond cool - very safe, very dependable, VERY bright, and virtually indestructible. They are shockproof, drive-over proof, waterproof – heck, they even float!!

They obviously cost more than those cruddy old flares, somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 apiece, but I wouldn’t have anything else in my truck. Being on a “budget”, I buy one every now and again and will soon have a complete set of four in the nice little pouch they make for them. I did not get the rechargeable ones, as I have been very very pleased with the performance of those little kick-butt CR123 batteries!

They have a built in set of about ten different blinking patterns, and they come with different color cases and bulbs. I have the red amber combos in orange cases. Oh my goodness, I just looked at their website and they now have cases in two shades of PINK!!!

Everyone should race right out and properly dispose of their old scary flares and buy at the very least, ONE of these awesome Power Flares!!

Watch this short demo – you’ll be impressed, I promise!! Power Flare Demo

Deja Vu All Over Again...

2010-01-26T07:47:00.000-08:00

Arrived home with my patient (again) just after sunset yesterday. He’s pretty darn sore, not quite able to get up by himself, so I’ll be sticking close to home today. Again. Daughter Lisa is coming up to fill in so I can get back to work. And here I was so excited at work last week to finally be working on DECEMBER stuff! Silly me. That's a shot of our driveway in the snow (back when the house was that hideous blue) which explains why, if possible, we wait to call 911!

Another Patient Update...

2010-01-24T13:13:00.001-08:00

And you're thinking, "Well, THAT's not a good picture to see!!"

Friday, January 22: Hip patient doing very well, zooming right along on his walker and getting …. SCREEEEEEEECH!! SLAM!! (Insert horrid braking and crash sound here)…

Saturday, 1:30 am: Duke, while on his walker cruising for “snacks” in the kitchen, spots what he thinks is a dropped pill on the floor, and in the interest of saving our Electrolux Hound, Miss Libby, he REACHES OVER TO PICK IT UP. Falls. Yells for help. He does not want to move. Does not want me to call 911 “just yet” as we have the steep driveway-from-hell covered with snow. He’s in excruciating pain, and from the ugly twisty crooked angle of the leg, you know, the one with the nice new hip, I’m guessing he’s dislocated it. (By the way, it wasn’t a pill, it was a speck of carrot said hound had been munching on earlier. I suggested that in the future he should seriously consider just STANDING on the “pill” and yelling for me.)

2:30 am: We had him sitting up, leaning against the frig. Miss Libby wasn’t really sure why we’d all decided to try sleeping on the kitchen floor, but she’s easy and plays along.

3:30 am: I had moved every piece of short furniture we own into the kitchen and he finally managed to lift himself into a sitting position onto a 4” thick block of wood.

4:30 am: He had slid himself over in front of the pantry and has the “good leg” (more about that misnomer later…) propped against an adjacent cupboard.

5:30 am: Wahoo! He finally found the “right” piece of furniture and lifted himself into a low rolling office chair and I wheeled him into the living room to await sunrise and hopefully enough heat to melt the driveway.

6:30 – 8:00 am: I take a nap on the couch. Duke sits in the chair, and using a heavy duty elastic leg strap off of one of my horse blankets (hey, it was fresh out of the wash and handy…) valiantly holds his twisted crooked leg in the least uncomfortable position to wait for the morning thaw. ZZZZzzzzz…

8:00 – 10:00: I shoveled snow off the flat part of the driveway. Fortunately, the rest of our driveway faces south and as steep as it is, it melted and drained very quickly.

10:00 – 11:00 am: Called 911, told them what was going on, no hurry, no lights, and no sirens. Just like last time. Yep, they remembered the drill. “Aunt Nancy” next door would look after the hounds and we were on our way. Start the morphine!

12:00 noon: ER in Bakersfield. Yep, nice shiny brand new hip was dislocated, but because Duke is a big muscular guy they had to locate a “bigger” doc to wrestle hip back into place. By now he’d had enough morphine to drop a large circus mammal.

1:30 pm: Dr. Alade arrived. Wow. Yep, big guy. Could probably lift and twirl Duke over his head with one hand. Very kind and soft-spoken man who is on the Board of Directors for the Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas, and, not that this has anything at all to do with Duke’s hip, but I was totally impressed, is fluent in Korean, Spanish, Tribal African, and Vietnamese. One of those language accomplishments that I cannot even begin to comprehend! Anyway, they discussed the situation and x-rays, and Dr. Alade explained that this would have to be done in OR, and that he’d be knocked out and briefly paralyzed in order to do it. And then, Duke totally surprised the heck outta me and says “I don’t deserve to be knocked out, it was my own stupidity that caused this!” Musta been all that morphine! Since there was nothing left but the waiting for an operating room, I ran out for a quick bite to eat, but couldn’t get any food down – only the coffee worked.

Headed back to hospital where Duke had been moved to pre-op. Margo and Debbie arrived for moral support and to drive me & my truck home when all this was over.

5:00-something? All done, Duke was in recovery, everything went fine, and we hung out until 7:00 or thereabouts until he was in his room, charming the nursing staff, settled in for the night, and very happy that The Guns of Navarone was on TV. The man is lost without his wars and westerns.

We headed out for dinner and then the drive home.

End Saturday report.

Sunday: My, I mean San Joaquin Hospital’s patient was chipper and chatty this morning. Not sure if they’ll turn him loose today or tomorrow. (To whom and how much do I have to pay to make it tomorrow???)

Okay, more on that original left hip – earlier this month we learned from the 1st post-op x-rays that his old left hip replacement has, shall we say, rotated.

Here is a generic x-ray of what a normal replacement should look like.

Kinda shaped like the number “7”. Duke’s old hip does not look like that. His replacement does not resemble the number 7, it resembles the number “l”. As in perfectly straight line, no angle out to the side. Which means that the whole thing has rotated either to the front… or the back… NO WONDER IT HURTS AND THE LEG DOESN’T WORK RIGHT!!! I had wondered why when he walked that leg swung in and then out (or is it out then in?) with each step. Now I know. Yikes. Now what? Well, nothing for now, he has to somehow get this newest one all healed and strong, and I have to accumulate more vacation and sick time, and then we’ll figure out when is the least disruptive time for me to tackle this issue. Trust me; it won’t be in the winter! Not doin’ this again.

Our Big New Year's Eve Party!!

2010-01-11T19:51:00.001-08:00

As I mentioned before, I am so not a “night” person, so we were able to celebrate early via satellite TV on an east coast station! With hubby being on all those pain killers, alcohol really didn’t seem like the best plan, so he picked his next favorite beverage… BUTTERMILK!!! No, really, that is his favorite! That goofy hat was a bit much, but he is such a good sport! Then we have our party girl… Miss Libby. She never even knew she was wearing a hat. She’s not much of a night owl either, and by 10:00 pm all of us were tucked in for the night!

Another Thing I Love & New Year's Eve

2009-12-31T18:44:00.000-08:00

How did I manage to NOT put "wine" on that list? I have to admit, I'm a sucker for an interesting label, and my evaluation expertise is pretty much on the "I like this one, but I liked that one better" level. Those first two bottles are what I refer to as our "house" wines. Readily available, taste good, and they have screw tops which are really handy for camping or for say, when you are on the side of the road in Arizona with 10-20 of your sisters with trailers waiting to get into the campground! Big House Wines has a cute and fun interactive website!

I found these two at the market last night - the selections from Wine Sisterhood are very cute, and Purple Cowboy supports breast cancer research. Check them both out!

We have never been much into New Year's Eve partying, and since I am such a morning person, I just love that the east coast feeds on Direct TV mean we can watch all the festivites and 9:00 PM, I can head for bed, and hubby can get back to his movies!

Christmas Update

2009-12-30T20:50:00.000-08:00

Miss Libby counting the moments until I'll let her back in the house. Our entire yard had the same footprint pattern... notice that tail wagging at warp speed. Yes, our dogs wear winter coats, but not those frou-frou "fashion" numbers meant for chihuahuas who never have to walk under their own power... these coats are tough-as-nails winter coats made by the same folks who make equally tough winter horse blankets. This particular one is close to 20 years old, nice thick fluffy insulation, ripstop nylon lining, nearly-indestructible Cordura outside, velcro closures and seat belt webbing for trim.

Hubby a.k.a “my patient” is doing very well. We had a period last week where he was, shall we say, “not himself” due to Valium on top of about a dozen painkillers a day, but I pitched the Valium and he’s now down to a mere five Norcos a day - 10/325’s for all you pill experts – and he’s back to his normal humorous self and therefore no longer at risk of being dropped off at a homeless shelter sans identification! (Just kidding, Connie!) He trundles around on his walker, can relocate himself in whatever room he needs to be in, and has his very own wheelchair (I love ebay!) he parks in front of this computer. The home nurse signed off on him today, but we still have P/T coming in twice a week. He's no longer waking up at 3:30 every morning – life is good! Big ol’ bright light at the end of our tunnel! Note to self: No more planning surgeries during winter! Shoveling snow & ice, managing cold, wet, muddy dogs... too much.

I managed to produce a Christmas dinner for two consisting of grilled ribeyes, baked mashed potato casserole with almonds, fresh asparagus, fresh brussel sprouts, our favorite creamy lime gelatin salad, homemade cornmeal rolls (standard white bread recipe with ½ cup of cornmeal thrown in for interest), a mincemeat pie and a pecan pie. Only managed to get one Christmas cookie recipe made, a macadamia eggnog bar. Very good, but almost too sweet for me.

My Christmas Eve excitement was to make a new batch of homemade dry laundry soap, this time with Zote laundry bars (as recommended by one of my sisters) instead of the Fels Naptha brand. I did something different this time – instead of grating the bar soap with the attachment on my Kitchenaid mixer, I cut the bars into about one-inch cubes, added a cup or so of the baking soda, and just did it in two batches in my food processor with the blade. It worked very well and fast.

Here’s the recipe:

DRY LAUNDRY DETERGENT

approx 4 lb box Borax
approx 4 lb box washing soda
approx 4 lbs baking soda
3 bars Fels Naptha or 1-1/2 bars Zote laundry soap, grated

Mix all ingredients well and store in a sealed tub. Use 1-2 tablespoons of powder per full load.

There are a bunch of laundry soap recipes out there, many of them for liquid, but I love this dry one. Liquid soap takes up way too much room!

Something Christmassy...

2009-12-20T11:58:00.001-08:00

Since I didn’t put up a tree or any decorations this year except for a strand of lights on the outside of the house, I thought I’d share some pics of past years. This little tree sits on our dining room table. On it are the vintage pinecones from my grandmother, and these STUNNING pink balls from my dad and stepmom. My Anna Lee critters fit right in!

The pastel dish is also from my stepmother and I just adore it, so I made a little tree skirt to tie the whole thing together. So not my colors, doesn’t match a single thing in our house, but I love it! And it is so much fun to make cookies to match each section...

Here's an old photo of our POWDER BLUE flocked tree with those PINK balls on our GOLD carpet next to the TURQUOISE sofa. Okay, all together now, oooOOOooo!!! I mean YIKES! That color combo is nearly painful to behold!

This was our tree… we have mostly glass ornaments - fruit, pinecones, nuts, and Victorian “clippie” birds, but storing it took up way to much room in the shed that we “remodeled” and reorganized over Thanksgiving, so, it went to the thrift shop along with the other truckloads of stuff I’ve hauled out this fall. I’ll be looking for a slimmer tree for next year.

Margo & Debbie came by on Friday to visit my “patient” and they played Santa Claus! They brought and decorated a big potted rosemary shaped like a Christmas tree (smells wonderful!), a potted poinsettia, the fresh wreath I had ordered, and the cutest little Santa “blizzard” globe – has a fan and snow that whirls at about F-4 level! Hilarious! Isn’t he adorable?? Can’t you just hear him screaming

“TURN...(swirlswirlswirl)...IT…(swirlswirlswirl)...OFF!!!”

Patient Update

2009-12-18T09:44:00.000-08:00

Breakthrough! Doctor from ER called yesterday to badger Duke - asked him why he couldn't just drive over... is this guy clueless? Duke had to get downright rude to get him off the phone. Then he calls me at work and asks if I had "forgotten" to bring Duke back for bloodwork. I told him I had not forgotten, I just wasn't bringing him over. He finally decided it would be "okay" for the home nurse to come to our house to draw blood and deliver it to the hospital. Imagine that. Still have a few more blisters appearing, but there is no infection, it is merely fluid trying to escape. The physical therapist just left, and she was very pleased with the progress so far. Now I just need to catch up on some of my missing sleep! I am in zombie mode...zzzzz...

Oh, before I forget - yesterday's spontaneous, humorous, drug-induced conversation:

"SIX!!"

"Six what?"

"Six eyes!"

"What in the heck are you talking about?!"

"You asked me how many eyes I had!"

Sigh.

My Elf in for Repair

2009-12-15T19:06:00.000-08:00

Well, we had planned on camping over the long Thanksgiving weekend, but as it turned out we only got to spend the afternoon on Thanksgiving Day at the campground with our friends – probably worked out for the best, as I had a lot to do before hubby’s hip replacement on Dec 7th. Surgery went well, daughter Lisa and I stayed in Santa Barbara four days (ooo, a vacation!) and I cannot say enough good things about our doctors at the Sansum Clinic and the Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara. This is a hospital where a routine part of your pre-op appointment is a warning that YOU WILL GET NO REST! There is at least one person, normally two, every 20 minutes checking to see if you are feeling okay, need something, food, water, nurse, meds, pillows fluffed, whatever. Newspaper is delivered to your bedside table each morning, and the meal bearers are nice young men in dressy black slacks, white shirts, and black ties who merrily say “room service” as they deliver your meal and announce with a flourish what you are being served. And I love their valet parking! This is so unlike other hospitals where I was afraid to leave Duke alone and you could ring for help for upwards of two hours and get NO response! I swear, Duke actually enjoys each visit! He makes the whole experience fun, joking and chatting with all the staff, and this trip they fondly referred to him as their “fun” patient!! His doctor is wonderful, with a sense of humor to match Duke’s. They jumped through hoops to get him discharged and on the road by 9AM (thought there was more snow coming) and we drove the four hours home on Thursday well ahead of the rain. Thank goodness we missed the big snow and ice storm earlier in the week! We had the very best of house sitters, so never had to give a single thought to the house or 24/7 care of our horribly spoiled dogs! It was nasty job getting our perpetually shady lower driveway by the front door cleared of ice before we arrived. Fortunately, our long steep driveway is about the first thing in town that is melted and dry as it faces due south. Duke is doing very well compared to the “other” hip which was broken only one month following the surgery to repair his broken neck. That time he was in the hospital for nearly a whole week and then a rehab center for two more weeks. We did have an issue with some inch-diameter blisters on his foot yesterday, but after conferring with the visiting nurse, visiting physical therapist and doctor by phone, we headed to the emergency room. That too went well, until the doctor called us as soon as we got home and says “I stabbed myself with the needle that I used to drain your blisters and you will have to come right back in to be tested for HIV!” Excuse me?!?! No. You want blood? Send someone over to the house and get it... you know, like maybe the nurse that was just here this morning to draw blood to deliver to you?? They swear… well, the doctor swears… it’s hospital policy to do this onsite. Tough tacks. Duke’s policy is also to do it onsite. Our site. Geesh! Anyway, I made it to work today for a whole four and a half hours, hope to do longer tomorrow. Duke still has to relocate between bed and chair every two hours (even though I had to leave him for five hours today) and he can’t get up out of his chair by himself, and is unable to manage pillows and blankets under and over his various body parts by himself, so I need to work out two trips home during my ten-hour days or do a shorter day and bring work home with me. The only other issue is “someone” hallucinating big time on all the pain meds… no, it’s not me! We’ve had rousing unwinnable arguments about spiders, mice, bats, giant wooden bread boxes and fences that were so NOT sitting in the middle of the living room, but the best episode (so far) was Duke suddenly waking up and yelling “pretty!” while looking at the reflection of our living room lamps in a mirror… sigh… does this qualify me to work in a mental ward?

The “fun” patient!

The fun orthopedist, Dr. Bliss

Here’s a picture of one of the visiting critters - another perk at the Cottage Hospital! Her name is Diamond, she’s 17 months old and her “dad” brings a big selection of homemade jeweled necklaces for her to wear. What a cutie! She visited every single patient and all the waiting rooms – Lisa and I got to see her three times!

GOOEY CHOCOLATE WEATHER!!

2009-11-18T19:29:00.000-08:00

Okay, that was unfair. It's ALWAYS gooey chocolate weather, but this recipe is special.

CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY CRUMB BARS

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups (12-ounce package) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels, divided
(I used Special Dark Morsels for the 2nd cup)
1 can (14 ounces) Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional – I used pecans)
1/3 cup seedless raspberry jam

Directions:

PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease 13 x 9-inch baking pan.

BEAT butter in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in flour, sugar and salt until crumbly. With floured fingers, press 1 3/4 cups crumb mixture onto bottom of prepared baking pan; reserve remaining mixture.

BAKE for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

MICROWAVE 1 cup morsels and sweetened condensed milk in medium, uncovered, microwave-safe bowl on HIGH (100%) power for 1 minute; STIR. Morsels may retain some of their original shape. If necessary, microwave at additional 10- to 15-second intervals, stirring just until morsels are melted. Spread over hot crust.

STIR nuts into reserved crumb mixture; sprinkle over chocolate filling. Drop teaspoonfuls of raspberry jam over crumb mixture. Sprinkle with remaining morsels.

BAKE for 25 to 30 minutes or until center is set. Cool completely in pan on wire rack before cutting into squares.

This recipe is from Nestle. Sadly, I miss getting pictures of some of my recipes because by the time something is camera ready… it is already under attack by hubby! So, picture is from Nestle too!

These are so rich, I could barely eat one of them. Everyone who has tried them swears they are making them for Christmas! I highly recommend cutting your "normal" squares in half!

Soup Weather!!

2009-10-28T20:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-20T21:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-18T10:13:00.001-07:00

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???

2009-10-16T20:38:00.000-07:00

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'

2009-09-13T16:07:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-11T21:27:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-08-26T06:13:00.000-07:00

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!!

2009-08-23T17:12:00.000-07:00

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???

2009-08-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-15T17:22:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-14T19:52:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-14T19:37:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-14T16:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-27T08:48:00.001-07:00

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...

2009-06-20T18:32:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-06-15T19:52:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-14T19:57:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-14T19:52:00.001-07:00

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

Summer Recipe!

2009-06-08T18:13:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-07T17:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-31T15:26:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-05-31T15:13:00.001-07:00

…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!

2009-05-31T08:57:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-19T14:01:00.000-07:00

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?!

2009-03-15T11:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-15T09:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-09T19:42:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-01T23:01:00.001-08:00

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???

2009-02-01T22:22:00.000-08:00

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!!

2008-10-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-06T21:10:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-10-06T20:30:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-10-04T19:01:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-19T21:55:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-08-19T21:44:00.001-07:00

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

2008-08-17T18:05:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-08-05T22:48:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-05T22:33:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-05T22:10:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-05T22:02:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-05T21:33:00.000-07:00

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!