Beware of Closeups!!

WHOA ... it's a chilly 37 degrees this morning.  Summer lasted forever and Autumn gave it five days.  It's winter time in California!!  There will be no drinking on the patio, even if it is hot coffee.  That was a pretty quick transition into Levis and long sleeve shirts.  The best part is its back to COWBOY BOOTS.

I have to admit, I've discovered it's not all roses and gravy when it comes to photographing wildlife, even if they are just in your back yard.  Something was off ... I just couldn't for the life of me figure it out.  They are definitely curious little guys ... and by little, I mean the size of my Cooper.  Soooo many closeups as they scoped out the camera every single night.

Suddenly, as I lounged on the couch after getting the camera inside and pulling out the video card ... the light bulb went on, as bright as the sun.  NOOOOOOO!!!!

The nose knows!!!  Those little buggers have been scent marking my CAMERA!!  You know, the one I've been touching all over every morning and night.  I wash my hand a lot, but let me tell you I washed them in boiling hot water with lots of soap, followed by alcohol this time!!  EEEWWWWWW!!!  Then I scrubbed the camera with bleach.  

Not that it's any different than cleaning up after horses, or Miss Jessie (bless her little Heavenly heart), but EEEWWWWW!!  BEWARE OF CLOSEUPS!!  From now on I'll be wearing rubber gloves when handling the camera!!

This guy is checking out the egg shell left from a few minutes earlier.  This is the 3rd one I've left for them.  It's not good to feed the wild critters.  I really like the new camera position so I can see them in the pasture roaming about.  I see a lot of fresh holes dug out there, but I never see them digging.  I'm just praying the skunks are not back, although I'm sure I got a whiff of one this morning.  UGH!!

As you know, I'm a big fan of Halloween.  I invited my boyfriend Skinny to come out of the closet to negotiate his part in trick or treating.  You can probably tell I'm a bad cook.  He usually hangs around on the front door next to James the Butler.  

Skinny mentioned he loves donuts.  I do too, but rarely (if ever) buy them.  How coincidental that I saw a recipe for pumpkin donuts on my phone.  I am NOT a fan of cake donuts, but wouldn't you know, I found two pans on sale for $13.  That's worth a try.

I mixed up the batter and stuffed it into a zip lok bag to deposit into the pan.  I was a little taken aback when I saw THIS!  Ummmm doesn't look like donuts to me!!

When baked for a measly 11 minutes, they fell out of the pan perfectly, looking MORE like donuts.  How quick and easy was that!!

When it came time to frost them, things went a little south.  Has anyone ever made donut frosting?  It was a new experience for me.  Always ALWAYS sift the powdered sugar so you don't get white lumps like I did.  I only made half the recipe because the rest of the bakers dozen went in the freezer for later.  Dipping didn't work out so well when it was only 1/4 inch deep.  

Nevertheless, they taste absolutely WONDERFUL!  Who knew?  Of course I flavored this with my all time favorite Canadian maple, in honor of my Canadian friends heading south.

I ate one ... then I ate one for Skinny!  This may not have been such a good idea after all.

I spent most of the day watching the baseball playoffs.  I really wanted the Padres to win because they usually lose.  I've had dealings with the Philly fans when I was a season ticket holder and went to all the Giants playoff games back east.  They were rude, threw food on us, called us names and tried to pick a fight all night long.  When we won the game, the three of us ran as fast as we could to our car to get out of Dodge before they caught up with us.  No kidding ... they are not nice!!

I'm happy to say Houston won, mostly because I would like to see Dusty Baker win a title.  Oh and in case you had not heard, Bochy is back as manager of the Texas Rangers.  It's going to be an interesting year.

By the end of the day I had finished one more Halloween quilt.  This one has probably lived in the box under my table for eleven years, having found it in a quilt shop in Long Beach Washington.  It's about time it saw the light of day!!  I'm pretty sure I even have a Jack Skellington costume in the closet.

Now to find a quilting pattern with creepy spiderwebs!!  I should probably do more scrounging around in the sewing room because I'm sure there are more panels just waiting to come alive.

But first ... let me put on my rubber gloves and go retrieve the critter cam!!!!!