Blogger Headache!!

 Well that was fun.  I just spent 50 minutes trying to log into my Blogger account.  It kept saying I did not HAVE a blog and I should START one.  Twelve verifications later, it somehow pulled up an ancient email account that said I didn't have an account at all.  If nothing else, I am persistent.  At long last, we are back in business.  I mean really, what would I do if I didn't have a blog to write every morning??

This was my SECOND shock of the day.  GIBBS!!  What are you doing on my back patio?  I took a triple take as I finally realized ..... wait for it ...... it's the towel I use to lay out.  Sure looks like a critter to me.

Kitters laying close by got a real kick out of that one!!  This is her new SPOT.  She used to hang out quite often with the goat next door, but has given him up for better pastures.  Mostly because this is where the food comes from.

First things first ... it's been WAY too long since I drove the beast.  I was out the door by 8:00 ... a miracle in my daily routine.  Yup this is farming country.  Our biggest crops are almonds and pistachios, the cause of all the dust and dirt that settles daily over our coffee tables.  

Then there's the dairies ... we have some huge ones ... the beef cattle production, not as big as it used to be, and of course chickens.  If you're going to feed all those critters, especially the dairy cattle who eat continuously, you need lots of land to grow hay and grain.  That equals even MORE dust made by the trucks that lay down fertilizer.

This is the scenery around my little place in the world.  Unfortunately, high tech big companies have taken over the little farmers that flourished when I was a kid.  The tractors nowadays cost as much as our whole ranch did when we bought it.

The days of local farmers are gone, as are the roads.  This is one of the GOOD ones!  I mean really,  it's about 16 feet wide and may have a few potholes, but it still has asphalt in between the holes!!

There are no BIG fire trucks out here either.  This is tiny town country with little trucks.  Even what we call the BIG CITIES around here only have small trucks.  The people have the same small town mentality though ... drive by and they will wave at you like crazy.  Mostly because they don't see too many people every day.

That was it ... I was back home in under an hour.  Time to give the generator a workout with the air conditioner.   Amazingly, it started up in three seconds.  And QUIT 15 seconds later.  Ummm I forgot to turn the gas on.  I'm used to the big rig generator that ran off the fuel tank.  

Gas ON, Generator ON and AC ON!  It all works perfectly when you remember how the heck to do it.  I even turned the inverter on to make sure all THAT was still working.  As you can see, my batteries are 100%. I love that solar on the roof.  Even when under cover, it keeps the batteries in tip top shape.

One last thing to check.  Someone noted their gas lines were deteriorating.  Not the same model, but I thought to check them anyway.  At least as far as I could crawl underneath.  There's not a lot of room to spare.  They looked good to me, so my checklist is complete.

I was done by 9:30 am.  Well that's not good.  It will only end up in a raid on the fridge, consuming everything sweet I can get my hands on.  Getting frustrated by my longarm is probably a better idea.

I loaded up the quilt Kitters had stretched out by sleeping on it.  It actually went back to its original shape.  I've procrastinated, not wanting to have those problems I've been experiencing in the past.  To my great surprise once again ..... IT WORKED PERFECTLY!

This sounds weird, but I think I figured it out.  I'm guessing I was winding the bobbins so tight that the thread would not pull off easily.  I've rewound several a tad bit looser, and it seems to have solved the problem.  I'm still scared though ... when you've heard those crunching sounds once, you hear them every time you LOOK at the machine!

DONE!  Not even a small glitch in this one.  Maybe I should just stick to the smaller quilts for awhile!

Dinner was ... well ... an experience.  I'll have to tell you about it tomorrow, because I'm already WAY past the kids feeding time trying to get Blogger to work.  I'm getting dirty looks as I type.

Here's my TIP OF THE DAY!

LIFE IS SHORT ..... SMILE WHILE YOU STILL HAVE TEETH!!

Blogger Not Working

 It appears Blogger won’t let me in to my account on my computer. 

Hopefully that clears up and I can post once again soon. 

RUN LIZARDS RUN!

Easter could not have been a more perfect day.  I woke up to the snoring of the puppy laying next to me. 

 Why was I not at the Elks Lodge doing SOMETHING?  It's a little know fact that we are actually a Christian organization, and not only do we close on Easter Sunday completely, but we do not have any events on Sundays at all.   Oh the upstairs bar may be open on any regular Sunday, but that's so you can go enjoy all the football, baseball, soccer and any other sport you want, on any of seven televisions.

Easter morning in Central California began like this.  Temperatures are ramping up a bit, just in time for the Easter Egg Hunt.  

You saw that I put the eggs out early Sunday morning, whereupon the kids found them.  How eggciting!  So of course the very first chore of the day was making egg salad.  In my entire life, I have never liked egg whites.  I have no idea WHERE that came from.  If they are invisible and smothered in mayo and celery salt, I will eat them ... and so all but two of these got smashed into smithereens.  Cooper will get the last two.

Since it was so gorgeous out, I went for another tanning session.  Remember in the old days when it was baby oil and iodine?  I think I only used that once.  I preferred the lovely smell of coconut sun tanning lotion.  I can still smell it to this day!!

But alas ... I was bothered incessantly by this creature of the night.  She galavants most of the night, going in and out the doggy door ... then wants to be petted ALL DAY LONG.

RUN LIZARDS RUN!  Why they just lay there thinking they can't be seen, is beyond me.  She scrounged under the rose bushes and brought me another baby.  That was AFTER I found YET ANOTHER ONE under the chair in the living room.  I'm hoping she gets over it soon, like she got over gulping down her food in one minute when she finally realized it would always be available.  

There I was, laying on my stomach reading on my phone when THIS happened.  Come ON!!  I can't get a minutes peace.  She laid down between my legs, causing excessive heat to make me give up.  So very needy this Kitters!  It's okay ... I realize why, but GEEZ!!!!!

I finally gave up and went to cooking dinner.  I had this lovely chunk of ham from Costco.  It has to be good, right?  WRONG!  Apparently I did not cook it long enough.  I LOVE spiral hams, but then I have to eat it for the next three months.  

Note to self ... bake this MUCH longer next time.  An hour just did not do it!  There's that fattening potato salad that I love so much, along with green salad.  Okay, I admit, the salad is FAKE.  It was just there for the picture.  I put it back in the bag, because who wants salad when you have POTATO SALAD!!

As you know, sitting all day is not my thing, so I went outside and moved all the furniture out of the patio area.  I have a plan to buy some NICE furniture and not use our butcher-the-cow table as a centerpiece.  That table is well over 70 years old and still standing on four legs.  One day I'll tell you its story.

I spent the next three hours looking for furniture on my phone.  I found a couple of suitable sets, but REALLY?  YOU HAVE TO PUT IT TOGETHER YOURSELF?  Oh yeah, I can just see me putting together six huge pieces of furniture.  I may have to rethink this project.  I did get my rope lights back on a timer though ... for ambience don't ya know!

Thus ended a lovely Easter with a cloudy sky.  I was waiting for the pretty sunset.

I was not disappointed.  

It got even better right over the top of my house.  I smiled.  Thank you Lord for one more VERY nice day!  Except for the ham!  Could you make the ham better next time please??  Maybe I can get a bag of potatoes and make scalloped potatoes and ham.  YEAH ... that will be PERFECT!  

And so it's Monday morning now, time for egg salad sandwiches while I go on Lizard Watch.  

HAPPY EASTER 2026

HEY ... ARE YOU OKAY???  I couldn't help it, I love this picture!!  Happy Happy Easter!!! 

Aren't these guys just the cutest?  Not so much if you had to raise them.  I don't know how that happened exactly, but in the 80's I ended up with a huge six cage monstrosity on my back porch raising Dutch minis.  Cute little buggers, soft ... but nothing in this world makes as much of a mess as those guys.  STINK!!!  Oowweeee they smelled bad!  I was glad when they all sold to the 4-H and FFA kids.

I started this morning off with puppy snuggles.  Nothing better in my book, and apparently Cooper agrees.

Here's a throwback to the ancient days.  That's me on our original ranch, on our way to church at Easter.  The fence did keep the cattle out sometimes, but that isn't DIRT on the sidewalk.  Mostly the fence just kept me in.  I had a tendency to wander off.  I think I only have three pictures of me when I was little.  Pictures were not important back in our day.

Back to TODAY ... surprisingly, I'm not sore from bed moving ... but there will be NO moving furniture today.  My plan was to make a small potato salad to go with a chunk of ham that will go in the oven shortly.  The eggs?  Well we're going to dye them with that ancient Paas Easter Egg kit.

Salad first, then I took to dying the eggs.  This turned out delicious once smothered in mayo.  It's SO not on my list of approved foods, but it's EASTER ... so I'm splurging.

Here's the thing about coloring eggs.  I remember we had to use boiling water.  Now that's apparently a no-no.  Mix the tablet with vinegar until it is dissolved and add 1/2 cup room temperature water.  I think I destroyed four coffee cups from the dye instantly soaking in to the sides.  

Okay, 1/2 cup of water is NOT enough to COVER the egg, so I had to swirl the cup around the entire time.  Even then, none of them came out evenly colored.  I wrote with the wax pen, but couldn't see where I was writing since they are both white.  

I might have done four more with the sleeves that you slide on, then drop in boiling water to shrink wrap the egg.  Except they would not FIT on these eggs.  

So here's what I wonder about.  How did we not get egg poisoning when we were young?  Our eggs were cooked, then dyed in boiling water, cooled on the counter for an hour before decorating and stuck in a basket on the table while we went to church.  

Two hours later, they were hidden out in the yard, so well that it took us another two hours to find them all.  They were then placed BACK in the basket while we ate dinner.  Anyone think they might have spoiled during all that time OUT of the fridge?  That was my thought when I forgot to put them in the fridge until later in the day!

Here we are ... ready to be hidden for Cooper and Kitters.  The kit came with a sheet of stickers, all WAY too small to peel off and stick.  There were three 1/8" bunny feet stuck to the counter when I got done.  

Once "hidden", like they were toddlers or something, Cooper came running out and went right to them!!  He smelled a bit, turned around and walked away.  WAIT ... these are your favorite!!

Kitters came running up, took one sniff and said NOPE ... doesn't smell like cat food to me!!

Back in the fridge they went, a little worse for wear with puppy slobber on them.  Now I have potato salad AND egg salad for the next few days.  A dieter's delight!!!

Dinner however, was the last of those small pizzas I bought.  I loaded it up with pepperoni (the last of that finally) and cheddar cheese.  Not bad if I do say so myself.

Truly, Easter is not all about the colored eggs.  THIS is the reason for Easter!!  And THIS I will celebrate all day today!

TIME FOR A CHANGE

 Brrrr it's another 48 degree morning.  I actually had to turn the HEAT on yesterday.  Not for long however, since I got completely OVERheated with the exercise of the day.  

Here's the problem.  Mr. Cooper isn't his usual acrobatic self, unlike his Mom who still thinks she can run miles, lift tons of weight and STILL have energy to go shopping at the Mall 30 miles away.  My how things have changed.

Anyway, Mr. Cooper sleeps on the bed.  He always waits for me to lift him down, but on this day, he had a little misstep and fell off, luckily on the ottoman covered in clothes that lives at the foot of my bed.  

It's TIME FOR A CHANGE.  This bed that has lived in the garage since it moved here from Arizona, has a taller footboard.  Let's change it out for the NO footboard bed to be sure that doesn't happen again.  It will be easy, yes?   It took me 45 minutes to get it in the house, and it's the LIGHTEST one.

Next ... clean up all the clothes and take THIS bed apart.  Getting the heavy mattresses off was the EASY part.  After three trips to the tool box in the garage, I finally got the right wrench (after trying six) to take the nuts off.  It took another two trips to find the right Allen wrench to remove the bolts holding the cross pieces.  And OH BOY ... this one weights a TON!

I got out my handy dandy furniture slide pads, but could barely lift the thing to get them under the posts.  I literally manhandled the headboard out the door using my knees to hold it upright while pulling with everything I had.  Good grief ... I thought this was a CHEAP bed!  Turns out it's solid wood.

Over an hour later I finally got the new headboard in place.  I really thought I could skip the vacuuming, but it truly was really bad.  Okay, out came the thing I hate most and I cleaned it up.

Getting this bed together was a lesson in mechanics.  Once again, out to the garage to find an Allen wrench the correct size.  I thought those hooks would just slide in, but NOOOOO!  I finally figured out those knobs could be unscrewed to give me more wiggle room. 

At long last the sideboards were on, but the footboard was the devil in disguise.  Finally, completely exhausted, hot and cranky, I got the thing together without losing even ONE finger.  One more trip to the garage to drag in the SECOND ottoman so if Cooper does fall off, he will have a cushy landing.  What I will do for my kids!!!

The bad part in all this is now I have nowhere to pile all those clothes!!  Guess I'll have to just hang them up.  In the end, it was all Cooper approved.

Now for the REALLY hard part.  This is my old bed that lives in the spare room, which I switched out so Miss Jessie could jump up when she was still alive.  Just the footboard of this one weighs the same as the other entire bed. 

My plan was to put this one in the garage ... maybe sell it ... and make this my BIGGER sewing room.  After all the work it took to move the first two .. I'm having second thoughts!!!

I celebrated with a Pepsi!!!  At least I feel better about Mr. Cooper not hitting the floor.  

Kitters was totally upset the entire time all that was going on.  She wanted nothing to do with being inside.  When it was all said and done, she STILL didn't want to come in, having happily parked herself on the patio chair. 

That didn't last long however ... as soon as the lights went out last night, she snuck in through the doggy door and jumped right up on the footboard of the bed.  She has NEVER done that before.  She never wanted to be anywhere NEAR the bed.  She then proceeded to lay at the foot of the bed for the next hour, keeping me wide awake with her purrs.  Ummmm this was not in the plan Kitters.  I don't need another body on my bed.  You can tell by the look in her eyes that she cares NOT what I think about anything!

The last hours of the evening, I tried another internet recipe so you don't have to.  This is a can of Pillsbury crescent rolls.  You put two rolls of dough in a pan with a little butter and garlic, then bake them as one loaf of bread.  

I had my doubts!  Not having a pan big enough, I used one roll and cut it in half.  I melted butter in the bottom and sprinkled in garlic powder.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  

So yes, this is the easy way to have crescent rolls, BUT I would just butter the top next time.  I'm thinking you could even unroll it, pour on cinnamon sugar and roll it back up before baking.  These were quite tasty and much easier to prepare!!

That's it ... my entire day spent moving beds around.  And I still have one heavy one sitting in my hallway.  I haven't decided if I want to tackle moving the HUGE one, or just leave my sewing room where it is.  In any case, I have one to move to the garage.  

Decisions ... decisions!!!

PRIME RIB BABY!!!

 BRRRRRRR!!  So just WHAT is the opposite of Mother Natures hot flashes?   It's a very chilly 43 degrees.  None of us ... not Cooper, not Kitters nor myself wanted to go outside this morning.  

The moon is still shining brightly as it quickly falls behind the trees and disappears.  Lucky for me, it didn't have much effect on the Lodge dinner last night.

But first .... let's lay out in the sun and soak up a little WARM.  That didn't last long at all.

You guessed it ... Kitters followed me right out, plunked down here and harassed me the entire time.  Meow ... meow ... little pats on the chaise until she jumped right up in the middle of me.  She literally pestered me for 30 minutes before I gave up and went back inside.  It's okay though.  A little chilly breeze came up, which shortly turned into a blizzard.  It was downright COLD!!!

Just to pass the time, I did a little laundry before checking out the astronauts once again.  This looks like pretty tight quarters to me!  Hope those men don't snore too loud!!  

I must have had the hungry shakes when I took this blurry picture of lunch.  Yes, I'm trying to be GOOD, though the leftover chocolate cake is just SCREAMING at me constantly!!!

I finally donned my "garb" for the Elks Lodge Sheriff sponsored dinner.  Literally half the Sheriff's Department showed up to hang out, have a few beers and cook a fabulous dinner for us.  I mean what could be better than a bunch of good looking MEN cooking dinner for you?  The Sheriff, a very good member and friend of the lodge, is one of the best cooks in the country.

The Elks Lodge has a dinner and a raffle twice a month to raise money to pay our bills and donate to charities.  This table of goodies raised over $1500 in their raffle ... and this is just ONE night.  What can I say, Elks are VERY generous!

So here I am with my lone little glass of White Zin, served by the best bartender we have.  She is a sweetheart from Hawaii who has the best attitude of anyone I've met in my entire life.  This girl ... she always has a smile, so I always buy one drink so I can tip her BIGLY.  Yes, that's ice in my glass.  You know I'm a lightweight!!

Dinner was PRIME RIB, scalloped potatoes that were the best I've ever had (and they come from a BOX in our pantry), green beans smothered in brisket, bacon and tomatoes (that's a new one) and a roll, followed up by CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM!!  

This is not the entire meal ... this is my LEFTOVERS!  In case you were wondering, Thursday night meals are $20.00.  Become an Elk and you will get lots of CHEAP amazing meals.

The meeting afterwards was less than spectacular.  The mostly new officers had no idea what they were supposed to do.  The good part is the meeting lasted 20 minutes and we were OUT THE DOOR!!  YAY!

This is a short one today ... I'm off for a haircut at 8:00 in the morning.  Ugh ... I actually have to get myself ready WAY too early.  As you know, I don't leave the house before 10:00 on ANY day if I can help it!!!

But first ...... a little prime rib breakfast!!