BLOGGER WORKS AGAIN

 I can hear everyone clapping this morning!!  Blogger will now let you post comments again.  When it first started happening, it didn't seem to affect me ..... until it did.  I checked first thing this morning and it is working once again.  So please ... comment away.  Those of us who write this crazy stuff every day truly appreciate your words!!  It keeps us in contact with the outside world!

It was a lovely dark morning when I took this picture.  The moon is almost straight overhead.  I'm guessing that sailor's warning thing has to do with the clouds bringing bad weather, but it sure is pretty over here in the valley.  Clouds mean cooler weather for us.

I was off to accounting once again.  I know .... on a FRIDAY?  They were anxious to get on the Bill Pay site and not pay for checks any more.  I had a little trouble getting started, since every bank seems to have a different Bill Pay company with different ways of doing things.  I don't like this one at all.  It's so tiny on your screen that you can easily make mistakes.  PLUS it takes TEN DAYS to get a check out if not done electronically.  We'll see how it goes.

On the way back home, since I have to take the long way around due to repaving our road, I cut through a couple of orchards.  It pays to have been a kid on a horse roaming the countryside.  Harvesting is in full swing, meaning we all try to stay inside so as not to breathe in all the dust from sweeping the sandy soil.

For those not familiar with this, they have a machine that goes down the rows, grabs the trunk of the tree and shakes it to death.  It's kind of fun to watch.  The nuts fall to the ground, but they then have to be swept up and collected by another machine.  Many have tried shaking them into big canvas sheets, but it never seems to work as well.  The dust from sweeping is epic, sometimes even closing down the roads.

The trailers go to one of just a few processors located here, who sell them to Blue Diamond or whoever, for hulling and packaging.  VOILA!!  You get almonds in a can.

Then it was off to the lodge to discuss all things Bingo Kitchen.  We've been having problems getting volunteers to cook.  I wouldn't mind doing it since you get off EARLIER than I do at the cash register, but alas, there is no one to take over the register.  Maybe that's a good thing.  I think we are going to have to actually PAY someone to do it.

By 3:00, I was home again.  I checked on my ant colonies, to find them pretty quiet, so I proceeded to sprinkler MORE of that powder stuff over every ant hill I could find.  They didn't like it one bit.  Too bad, so sad.  Go somewhere else!!!

That's when I heard the doorbell.  It is not a good thing when Nancy sits home for several hours with phone in hand.  There are too many things I find I can't live without, meaning LOTS of deliveries.  Somehow my tire pressure gauges disappeared.  I had not one, but TWO very expensive ones, which are no longer in the vehicles.  I ordered two of these, and they work really well.  Easy to use and no guessing.   I'll use this one when I put a little more air in the van tires.

I have also been noticing the angle of the sun has been hitting my tires on one side.  I know, I should have ordered WHITE.  I wasn't thinking about the sun heating up the black ones.  Will it make it worse?  They don't cover the back side at all and the sun only hits it in the morning.

And then there's the sourdough.  I've picked up a couple of things to make it easier, and hoped this lightweight steel pot would be better than my very heavy cast iron, especially since this is what one of the best Sourdough teachers uses.  

Ummmm that would be a NO.  It's WAY too big.  And it says to use in "moderate" heat, so how is it going to work in a 500 degree oven?  Sadly, this is a return.

That was it ... my entire day wasted on accounting work, with a little Christmas thrown in at the end.  Amazon has turned into Santa Claus for me!!!

On today's menu is sourdough sandwich bread, followed up with bagels.  Not sure I'm going to have enough time to do both, but we shall see.  The best thing about making your own bread is you can slice it thinner ... plus there's that thing about all the preservatives and crazy things they add that I don't.

On another note, I don't think I'm ready for another puppy, so I told my friend I was having second thoughts.  I'm hoping not to offend her, but I'm gone too many hours too many days to be potty training a puppy, let alone the fact that it would be left completely alone all day long and probably killed by the cat.

 Yes, I'm still missing this little face so much.