Ingenuity ... Not My Forte

Some people just have the knack.  They can figure stuff out ... make things work ... and make do with practically nothing.  I'm not one of them, or at least I sincerely have a hard time with it.  Better to HIRE it done by a pro!  

 Before we go there however, I have an interesting picture of the infamous Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone.  It's kind of funny that back in the old West of shoot'em up cowboys, they would even be the least bit interested in variety shows including comedy, dancing, singing and Shakespeare.  I suppose it was a nice diversion from the depth of the mines swinging a pick ax all day.

I have walked the hallowed halls many times, imagining what it was like.  I can tell you, it's small!  So much smaller than you would expect.  There used to be thousands of items of interest inside, hung on the walls from top to bottom.  Almost all of it is now gone.  I don't know if the owners have sold it off or if it was stolen, but this time I opted NOT to spend the $20 to wander it's stage.

I DID however, take another good look in the front doors when I came across this.  It's a much older image than I have ever seen before.  The catwalk across to the box seats (or cribs as the case may be) on the other side is a new one on me.  

Its really interesting also to see the benches.  There are no chairs as have been portrayed in the past and surprisingly, no piano.  The 24 hour a day poker game continued in the basement, along with maybe four rooms for the "girls".   In case you've never seen it, ingenuity was here.  On the opposite wall to the stairs was a dumbwaiter that hauled food and drink to the "birdcages" up top.

 

 

This is the original bar, although I've never found any old pictures of it.  This is where they collect your money before letting you in.  It's really much smaller than I ever imagined.

 When I got back home in that 106 degree weather, this little piece of ingeniousness came in handy.  I've seen them before, even bought one, but never used it.  This piece of fabric has those gel beads in it ... the ones you usually put in your flower pot to soak up water and release it slowly.  Someone got the brilliant idea to encase it in fabric, get it wet, thereby soaking up lots of water, then wrapping it around your neck to keep you cool.

I'm here to tell you it works.  I've probably used it every day this last month trying to cool off from little things like walking outside.  Who thinks up this stuff?

Here's another one.  On the way back from Tombstone, my brain repeated over and over ... ice cream ... ice cream.  Knowing there was a small shop in Benson, I stopped in.  Their latest and greatest addition to the menu was flavored lemonades.  Wow ... that sounded good!

So here you go .... the latest ingenious drink ... lemonade with flavors, whatever floats your boat.  This one is a raspberry lemonade slushy and I'm here to tell you it is FABULOUS!!  I think it was $3 ... I would have paid $5, it's that good.  So if you're ever driving through Benson, stop in at the Old Benson Ice Cream Shop.

 

 

 

Then comes MY ingenuity.  I have a lovely horse trough, but can't come up with anything to do with it.  I still have scorpions in the house and can't come up with a way to rid myself of them.  Here's another good example.  I decided the way to use up the rest of that smoked chicken was to make enchiladas.

That requires sauce, which I did not have.  I can figure it out I said ... Patty Chance comes up with stuff all the time ... she can make a tasty dinner out of three ingredients.  I found a can of Rotel tomatoes with chilis.  

My plan was for them to break down into sauce.  I don't know what kind of tomatoes they used, but they didn't break down not one tiny bit.  With no food processor in sight, I added them to the rue.  That turned into a big gloppy mess!!  

Good grief!!  I filled the tortillas, plopped them in the pan and poured the gloppy over the top.  Maybe it will dissolve when baked.  Cheese .... just put LOTS of cheese on it.  So much for ingenuity as the gloppy stayed intact.  In the end, they didn't taste all that bad ... it's pretty hard to mess up smoked chicken.

 

 

 

Lastly today I have some sad news.  Some of you may remember the Swanton Ranch our Golden Spike Group visited in the Santa Cruz Mountains.  It was the dream of Albert Smith, President of Orchard Supply Hardware to take the little train and cars from the Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915 and run them again on this property he purchased.  

When he passed away, he gave the land and the four engines to Cal Poly to use in their sustainable farming program.  Sadly, the recent fires devastated the property.  It appears the machine shop survived, but everything else is gone, including some of the original cars from the expo.  Fire cannot damage the boilers however and hopefully the little trains will run again one day.

 

The good news is I have even MORE critter videos.  These guys just fascinate me.  I'm thinking I may get some security cameras just to see what REALLY happens when I'm gone!!