Soup Weather!!

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

ITALIAN SAUSAGE & SQUASH SOUP

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

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

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

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

Halloween Movies

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

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

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

Pre-Halloween

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

Here are my recipes from last night!

HOT CHUNKY BAT PHLEGM

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

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

BLENDED FROG

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

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

BRAIN HEMMORAGE

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

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

Brain Hemorrhage Shooter Video

CANDY CORN

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

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

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

HOT CREAMED EARWIGS

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

BLACK WIDOW CREAM PIE

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

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

Is It Fall Yet???

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Done Paintin'

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

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

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

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

Bottle Cap Jewelry

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

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

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

They all had this caption:

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

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

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

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

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


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

Came back to semi-disaster.

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

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

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

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

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

Back to That Pie...

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

The End Is In Sight!!

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

Why Am I Still Painting???

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

Painting... still.

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

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

Progress

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

Fire Control

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

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

House Painting

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

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

Primer Over Icky Blue

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

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

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

Summer Pies

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

FRESH NECTARINE PIE

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

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

FRESH BLACKBERRY PIE

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

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

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

Turkey Vultures

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

Light at the End of My Tunnel...

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

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

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