SALTY BISCUITS

Summer has arrived in Central Cal.  It was a too warm 92 degrees yesterday, almost forcing the use of that energy sucking device called air conditioning.  I just can't tell you how thankful I am I finally came to my senses and got solar.  My neighbors bills are up to $800 a month with only two people living there.  They say they keep the temperature at 80 degrees.   Of course we ARE paying for the fire damage from PGE's equipment failure burning down the town of Paradise.  

Anyhoo ... MY morning always starts with Cooper rubbing his face on my arms.  That is followed by this little troublemaker.  There really is nothing wrong at all with her mouth, but the coloring of her fur makes her look like a Halloween character!   She sits quietly waiting for pets, purring up a storm.

That's when THIS starts.  Sorry for the blur ... it's hard to hold your arm still when she is reaching for your face.  Very tenderly I must say, but if you don't participate, she gets a little more aggressive!

And the next thing you know, that little paw snags your nose!!  PET ME ... PET ME PLEASE!!  She wins the game every time!!  Lots of pets, rubs and grooming brush scrubs are provided, hair flying in the air.  From the plethora of purrs, I think she likes it!  

That's when everything went completely off the rails.  What got into me, I've no idea.  I've been looking out these windows for a month now, thinking about who I might con into washing them for me.  I even went so far as to look up Window Washers on the old internet.  $50 per window was a little too much for my bank account.  

I remembered way back maybe four years ago that I actually did wash them myself with an internet recipe that surprisingly worked very well.  Half a gallon of water, 1 tablespoon dish soap and 1-2 tablespoons Finish Jet Dry dishwasher liquid.  

I mixed it up in a dish tub, wet the windows with a hose, and used a vehicle windshield washing brush to clean the dirt and grime, one window at a time.  That's because you want to rinse it off quickly before it dries.  That Finish makes the water just slide right off.  No drying required.  Almost anyway.  I did take a paper towel and wipe down the lower ones.  The uppers are still a bit wet.

I even did the door with all the puppy slobber and nose prints on it.  I probably could have done a tad bit better job of it, but it was FREE LABOR, so I'm good with it.

When lunch came around, I was ready to experiment.  Miss Terry, of Miss Terry's Kitchen fame, has helped me with my sourdough starter, and suggested sourdough discard biscuits.  There can be a lot of waste with sourdough ... you basically feed half to keep it going, and half (called discard) goes in the trash.  There are recipes using discard, but I have never tried them before.

Today was the day!!  Let's make biscuits for lunch!!  It all went pretty well, except for that part where I just dumped the discard into the bowl without actually measuring it.  Oh well ... it will be fine.  It called for 8 tablespoons of butter to be mixed into the flour, making a crumbly mixture.

I had a thought.  That is not always a good thing.  I will grate the butter so I don't have to work so hard at the crumble part.  Here's my tip of the day.  That only works if you FREEZE the butter first.  Next thing I know, I've got butter from one end of me to the other, and all over the counter.  Small pieces of soft butter melt VERY fast.

I was however, rather pleased with myself by the time they went in the oven.  They look good, yes?  Sadly, that didn't last very long.

If these look a little over baked, that's because they are.  They just were not browning up, so I left them an extra minute.  It's okay ... I like my biscuits crunchy on top!!  

Time for the taste test!  You can imagine me putting a big bite, smothered in butter, into my mouth.  What could be better than the lovely taste of SALTY BISCUITS!!  Oh my gosh ... TOO MUCH SALT!  I reread the recipe, to find it called for UNsalted butter.  I checked the butter box.  I had grabbed the SALTED butter and ADDED additional salt.  

Other than that, they STILL didn't taste very good.  I don't know what I expected, but this was not it.  No one ever said I was a good cook.  I'm not sure what I will do with them, but they went in the freezer.  Maybe make some NO-SALT gravy or smear on a huge tablespoon of JAM.  

With that, I skipped dinner altogether.  Those biscuits are still rolling around in my stomach.  

I spent the afternoon hand sewing the binding on this quilt.  It's one I think I started well over a year ago.  I had a hard time finding the border fabric when I ran short.  It's a good feeling to have ONE complete.  In looking for the binding for this one, I discovered THREE more quilts in the room that also require binding.  I guess I have my work cut out for me.

Though I'm not thrilled about it, Bingo is yet again on the schedule.  There have been some happenings that may be the Universe telling me to take a break.  My armor just doesn't seem to be thick enough to deal with the crazy personalities that have been added to the mix.  

The good news ... Mr. Cooper actually RAN to the yard this morning and RAN back to the house.  He seems to be feeling better, and I don't notice as much as far as the leg goes.  We may get to go on a short trip this summer after all.

  

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!

 Just look at this beautiful moon from last night!!  Not really ... this is so weird.  The moon came up WAY after dark, past my bed time .... and set this morning an hour earlier than they said it would.  I saw nothing ... nothing but streets lights.

This is what it looked like in REAL life on the other side of the earth.  Yup ... that's the moon alright.  Another one bites the dust ... it's a NEW month yet again.  How this goes so fast, I don't know.  

I left Mr. Cooper early in the morning to head out for a run.  You can see the booty I try to keep on his foot now.  It's a pain.  Just big enough to come off quite often, but so tight it's really hard to get ON his foot.  The inside looks like a rats nest and it's hard to get over his claws.  The good news is it works for the most part.  AND he seems to be getting around a tad bit better each day, that is for being almost seventeen.

Apparently summer is here.  This usually green and gorgeous field is now brown and drab.  Hopefully they disc it soon to keep the fire hazard low.  They have been trying to sell this for 15 years to become another subdivision.  Just what we need.  More traffic and noise.

On the other hand, the flowers are in full bloom.  These are the infamous oleander bushes that California planted as barriers in between the freeways.  They worked great and were very pretty, until they upped the speed limit and folks crashed through them.  For the past fifteen years or so they have been taking them out and replacing them with concrete for a more scenic view!  

It was a slow run ... more walking in fact.  If I don't go often enough, I run out of air pretty fast.  When I got back, I was confronted with this guy!  Mr. Cooper wanted his breakfast ASAP.  That's a VERY heavy rug he just threw back underneath himself.  

I'm still trying to get used to the new routine ... do all my outside running around in the early morning while he sleeps, then spend the evenings in the sewing room to lesson the random walking.

This girl ... Miss Kitters ... was waiting on the patio when I returned.  She is spending more time outside these days, lying in the sun.  You would think she would want to be in the cool shade.

HOWEVER ... we all know WHY she's outside, yes??  Big sigh ... I've lost count.  I think this is the one from her morning bedroom run.  Poor things .... I wish she would leave them alone.  They eat lots of nasty critters outside.  

I parked him out front under the bush, and he ran off, though slowly.  I doubt they will survive after being mauled by the great tortie hunter!!

After all that, it was time for breakfast.  So just what do you do with those three cans of crescent rolls you bought to make a loaf of bread?  They have been hanging out in the fridge since I got the sourdough to work.  So I followed an online recipe.  Spread it out, smother it in sugar and cinnamon, roll and cut into ... you got it, cinnamon rolls.  I even made a not-so-delicious frosting from powdered sugar and milk.  

Don't bother my friends ... just throw that can right in the trash.  They were TERRIBLE with a capital T.  I probably should have used BROWN sugar rather than white.  Either that, or something is wrong with my taste buds.  Surely it cannot be that it was TOO SWEET!!  Yes ... yes it was.  It's history in the making.  This is the first time EVER something was too sweet for me to eat.  Another recipe bites the dust!

On the other hand, shake and bake chicken for lunch was MUCH better.  I think air frying would have been even tastier, but I can only fit three pieces at a time in the basket.  Oh yay ... chicken for the next four meals!!

Of course there was dessert!  It's mostly required in this house.  Here's the spice poke cake with caramel sauce.  You're not going to believe this.  It too was just too sweet.  How could this be??  I'm hoping that's just a fluke and tomorrow I will LOVE it!  Mostly because I have an entire pan to eat over the next month!!

That's when I got hooked on this interesting program on TV.  It's all about CIA operations that went both good and bad.  Let me just say we have some BRAVE folks in our midst.  Both men and women have put their lives on the line for this country.  If you get a chance, check it out.  

On the other hand, this is my television ... the cheap $250 one from Walmart that I got for the Arizona house.  This is why I loved my old one so much.  Every night I get this distortion when the sun goes down.  Maybe a nice decorative piece of reflectix in the window will help.

When Mr. Cooper gets to wandering, I head for the sewing room.  Maybe I will actually get some of MY quilts done.  I cut the binding for this one and stitched it on.  The rest will be hand sewing.  I think I started this one over a year ago, so it will be nice to have it finished.

And so ended another wonderful day.  They are all wonderful at my age!!  On the schedule this week ... smog the van, find navy blue material at the quilt store for the embroidered quilts, scan the horizon for lizards and love on my Cooper puppy.  What could be better!!

IT'S DIRT TIME!

This has become our every morning picture.  I've never had a kitty so demanding of attention as this one.  She came in the doggy door at 3:45 this morning and jumped on the bed with a meow.  I laid as still as possible.  That MEOW means PRESENT.  I have a PRESENT for you Mom!  

I got up, grabbed Cooper and out the door we went.  NOPE, I have not looked and I don't want to know.  I can only hope she removes whatever it is VERY soon!!

Yesterday was another of those "I should  DO something" days.  Alas, it was time to bite the bullet and get fuel in my truck.  This Friday I have a long trip with my longarm.  Better to fuel up now and get over the sting of fuel prices in California.  Gas right now is $5.79 a gallon, with no sign of going down.  Add to that, our lovely governor signed a bill making it a crime to investigate fraud.  If that doesn't tell you what's going on in California, I don't know what does.  It just blows my mind!

At any rate, off I went 10 miles down the road for the least expensive diesel.  No surprise, the freeway was empty and the gas station like a ghost town.  It ranges from $7.59  to $7.79 a gallon in my town.

Is that close to Canadian prices?  Here's it is ..... $245.69 to fill my truck.  Normally this would last a long time since I have a 50 gallon fuel tank, but that trip to take my longarm for repair is going to cost me $120.00 just in fuel alone.  I may have to get a third job if it stays like this for long.

There was one big development on the way home.  BIG I tell you!  You know how sometimes you think WOW I actually figured that out!  Maybe I'm kind of smart after all!  And then there are those times when you think ... GOOD GRIEF!  I'm dumb as dirt!  

Well it's time for some dirt folks!!!  I was thinking all the way home about my AC and how a couple of years ago ... one day it worked and the next it did not.  It was out of freon.  So when it happened THIS time, I thought that was the problem.  Even so, I tried it all the way home.  No cool air at all.

Suddenly it dawned on me.  That tiny little AC button that is completely hidden behind my steering wheel ... I WONDER!  Sure enough, when it was in for the injector fix, they had hit the button and turned the AC off.  I NEVER turn that button off.   DUH!!  I'm dumb as dirt.  I was on the verge of making an appointment to get it fixed.  Now THAT would have been embarrassing.  AND SO ... my truck AC works just fine and I'm rolling in the dirt once again.

Back home, happy I had saved some bucks on AC repair, as I brushed the dirt off my jeans, I admired the sun that was out in full force.  The guessers are at it again with 85-92 every day for ten days.   

Lunch was once again birria tacos.  If you thaw it out, you have to eat it for three days.  I have to admit however, that there is not much better than fried corn tortillas.  This adds so much flavor to them that I may have to fry my regular tacos from now on!

  That's when I went completely off the rails.  Why oh why would you make a big cake like this when you have to eat the entire thing yourself?  Because it's spice cake with sweetened condensed milk and caramel sauce, smothered in cool whip.  No worries, I made sure there was room in the freezer before I baked the cake.  

It will definitely help me forget the truck AC.  I'll give it a try today for lunch!

In other news, this says the Blue Moon was last night.  You know, ONCE IN A BLUE MOON, meaning this rarely happens, two full moons in one month.  

Alas, it's so rare, I missed it altogether.  Apparently there are dust particles in the air the make it look blue.  The Indians called this the flower moon.  I guess I have to agree since many of my flowers are starting to bloom.

On the other hand, my Moon Calendar says the full moon is TONIGHT.  So maybe I will get another shot at taking its picture.  

Today I will try to get information on my four Veterans, to have embroidered on panels, so I can get those quilts done.  

When I was volunteering for all this stuff ... well not really volunteering, it kind of got dumped in my lap ... I didn't realize the amount of work involved.  As much as I love doing this, I may have to scale it back to just four for next year instead of making twelve.  

As for TODAY, let's hope there are no more DIRT times.  

RV FIRES!

 Apparently Mother Nature is off enjoying the Caribbean with her sunshine.  Or maybe she's in Arizona?  She is definitely NOT here in central California since we had overcast rainy skies all day long.  Though I do like the cool weather, it is rather depressing.  I suppose I should keep my mouth shut, because in a few weeks, I'll be complaining about the HEAT!!

Mr. Cooper and I went for a quick walk.  This time we went out the back door, but didn't make it even halfway to the street.  Not helping the matter is his weight gain ... two pounds because of the gabapentin.  How could that be when he's eating less?

At least my flowers think spring has sprung!  They are putting out buds like crazy!!

This was not a happy face when he parked all four feet and said I'm not going an inch further.   I faked him out ... I carried him another 20 feet before he could walk back to the house.

That's when this happened.  I live not too far from the Hwy 99 freeway.  This appears to be a fairly new rig that caught fire.  Maybe the air conditioner?   Or maybe they forgot to turn the gas off?  The two gentlemen inside got out safely, but the rig burned completely to the ground before the fire department could get there.  How sad is that!  Be careful my RV friends.

Lunch was getting rid of leftovers.  Though it doesn't look like it, this is taco soup with chips and guacamole on top.  Mostly I was getting rid of canned goods in my cupboard, but it actually came out quite tasty.  

After lunch, I got all gussied up to go to town for groceries.  That turned out to be a wasted effort.  I just could not get motivated, so I went online instead.  I'm betting they make a LOT of money off the bag charges.  I ended up with 12 items in FIVE bags, at 10 cents each.  No kidding ... this Mac & Cheese was all by itself in this bag.  How ridiculous is that?  Did I mention we are back to killing trees here?

My next delivery was the Van wash soap.  GOLD CLASS it says!  This is what the local hand car wash guys are using, which is also why they are charging $50 just to wash a car.  Vans run $100.  Good grief!  I'm pretty sure this stuff will last longer than I will since it's concentrated to boot.

I also picked up some special scrubby things on a stick so I can reach the windshield.  We are going to be PURDDDDY!!!

I should have tried to get out of the house, but keeping an eye on this guy has become my new occupation.   I took away the steps up to the couch, but then he just walks around and won't lay down.  I would feel much better when I'm gone if he did.  Jumping up can be dangerous at his age.  If I could find a 3' wide long ramp to set up, I would feel better about leaving him alone, but so far I've had no luck.  The last time I tried that, he just jumped off the side.  YIKES!

Instead, I hit the sewing room about 3:30 so he would just sleep on the floor, which he does when I'm in there.  I'm almost done with the generic quilts, so I decided to work on these four which will have names embroidered.  Trying to make them each a little different is a challenge.  The colors should match a little bit, but FINDING those colors at the quilt store is a challenge too.

These will have borders top and bottom before I sew on the embroidered name pieces.  This was actually a lot to get accomplished in one night.  The center pieces are not the same size, so getting the outside pieces to fit can be a trial. Besides that, I ran out of white and red fabric.  Oh darn ... back to the quilt store!!

And so at least I accomplished SOMETHING on this day!!  

I did check on the in-dash AC filter for the truck.  There's no way I can change that out.  It requires tools I don't have.  I guess that's going to be yet another trip to the repair shop.  But NOT until fuel prices go down below $7.00 a gallon.  We are still at $7.69 here.  Besides that, I have since lost confidence in my truck. I'm afraid to go out anywhere and end up stuck on the freeway again!

That's it for today.  Here's hoping things look up a bit!

  

HERE'S THE NEWS ......

 The weather guessers missed it once again.  It was an overcast gloomy day, making it difficult to be hopeful.  Then the rain began.  How could they get this forecast so wrong?  It didn't bode well for my baby boy.

My little guy is 16 years 7 months old.  That's getting up there for such a tiny puppy.  He's been the love of my life all those years, following me everywhere I went from Alaska to Maine and back, living in the RV for up to 8 month a year.  

He's looking a little worse for wear now, but he's still the best companion a girl could have.  He loved everything I cooked for him and said yes to every adventure.

The problems are numerous ... mostly all involving the wart-like growths that cannot be removed due to his age.  For the most part, they do not bother him, but that one on his foot causes lots of licking and chewing.  Add to that the problem with him doing the splits on the hardwood floor, hurting his leg, not to mention his eyesight and hearing ... and he has become a sweet little old man.

So off to the Vet we went, with me crying most of the way.  I just did not think it was time ... and when the vet came in, I told her so.  It's interesting that our LAST visit resulted in nothing.  This one, she seemed to be on top of it all ... with it, so to speak.  

After a good checkover, she agreed.  I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief.  They say you will know when it's time, and I just did NOT come to that conclusion.  Neither did she.  So here's what we are trying.

After a close inspection of the x-rays, Cooper has two vertebrae with little to no disc left in-between.  That's why he doesn't want to walk any more.  There is a new drug out, a once-a-month shot just under the skin, that has had amazing results in dogs with osteoarthritis.  DO IT I said .. I have plenty of room on my credit card.  Turns out it was the cheapest of the meds!  He will stay on the gabapentin also which helps the same problem.  

Add to that an antibiotic that MAY help with the growths and an allergy med which may or may not help the itching.  Sounds like a lot of drugs, but the alternative is worse.  

I swear when we got home, he was better already.  He has not wanted to walk outside at all, not even to the end of the driveway.  I set him on the ground and he took off trotting clear out to the street and back.  THAT'S MY BOY!!

I can't thank everyone enough for all the prayers and good thoughts.  IT WORKED!  He's no spring chicken, but he's certainly not THERE yet.  He just needs a little TLC, which I'm happy to provide.  I just didn't feel it was time ... and I was glad I stuck to my guns, when the Vet agreed with me.  

With a big sigh of relief, I whipped up some birria tacos for lunch.  Cooper got boiled chicken and a treat for being such a good boy.  I have to admit, frying tacos makes them much more tasty!!

Then it was on to my longarm.  This monster has to be lifted off the frame, along with the platform it sits on, and loaded into my truck for an hours trip South to the repair shop.  I spoke with the head repair guy ... a very nice kid ... and discovered I have to take EVERYTHING in.  Cords, computer, the entire shebang.  

If I'm really lucky and there's not a lot of parts to be ordered, it should run around $500 for maintenance and repair.  Seriously, I have thought about going to their school in Salt Lake City Utah to become a maintenance tech.  It would probably save me money!!  Next Friday is the day.  No telling how long it will be there, but I hope only a week or so.  

Today I'll check on the truck AC.  Someone said I needed to replace the in-cab filter, because if that's plugged up, it won't work.  I've never heard of that before.  So I guess I'll be googling that one this morning.  I'm thinking however, that it needs AC fluid instead.  Plus I'm going back to my mechanics with the Jeep since every time I start it up, it says I need an oil change.  I just HAD an oil change.  Apparently my mechanical things are up in arms!!!  Maybe it's just the weather.

At any rate, Mom is a happy camper.  Cooper will be around a little while longer and I haven't seen a dead gopher or live lizard in two days!  Thank the Good Lord for small favors!  And thank you again for all your prayers!!!

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE WEATHER

 This has been the weirdest May I've ever seen.  It's still snowing in the mountains with road closures right and left.  Lucky for us down in the valley, it's been beautiful with only two hot days.  I'm enjoying every minute of it, though they are predicting 95 degrees in a week.  It's actually quite nice to get a little heat followed up by cool.

Kitters can't decide whether to stay inside or out.  If it's not cold, she's outside most of the day and night.  Here she is praying for some rubs and brushing.  She starts out with a pat on the shoulder, followed up by getting her claws caught in my hair.  Now in trouble, she sits quietly until the chin scratches begin.  Yes, she too is spoiled!

Accounting went okay I guess, though it took lots of investigation due to a letter from the BIG accountant who does the taxes.  This is such a big operation, they will be doing tax returns until December!!  That digging through on-line info, along with the paper copies filed upstairs in a mega-file ROOM, just takes up way too much time.  Add to that coordinating bank accounts with OTHER offices and it can be frustrating.

The good news is all the questions were answered and the bills paid before I snuck out the back door.  It's always a good feeling to get that behind me for the week.

Nothing much else happened.  I spent the rest of the day keeping Cooper from chewing on that leg.  According to the Vet, there is nothing that can be done about these things.  It makes me incredibly sad.

It didn't help that dark clouds began to arrive, although that means cool weather.  It rained right over the house for a bit, just enough to make everything a muddy mess.  

Here we are THIS morning, completely covered in rain clouds with drops falling from the sky.

I'd show you pictures of all the fabulous food I ate yesterday, but alas, it was just another meatloaf taco.  

I apologize for the crappy blog today .... I'm just completely in the dumps about my Cooper boy.  We have a vet appointment today to see what the future holds for him and I.  Wish us luck!!