Another Day Another Dollar

Bright and early, I was up and over at the Pumpkin Patch getting ready for the school kids to come in.  Only 250 this particular morning.  Scary, right??  We shipped half off to the Time Travel Tractor (dinosaurs) and the rest to the Magic Oven show.

Farmer Scott spends about 20 minutes teaching kids before sending them over to me for Seed Planting 101.  I'll try to get pictures, but I've been so swamped, I've barely had time to breathe!!

Only four classes for me today, along with a MOMS group of littles.  Maybe 3 out of 12 listened, so I figured we would feed the goats, as I've done with other classes.  Much more fun!!

Once done, they all hit the bounce pillow.  This thing is HUGE and a kick in the pants!!  Even the adults have a blast.  It's actually held up by something akin to a leaf blower.  You could easily hit the overhead shade cover if we let you!!  I think the kids like it the best of all the attractions.

I loaded kids on the Time Travel train, drove the Hay Wagon tractor and sold snow cones and pumpkins most of the day.  By the way, every school kid gets a free pumpkin.  That's how they roll.   If your school can't bring you to the patch, they will take the patch to you with a truckload of pumpkins to hand out.  The morning flew by.  When lunch time came around, this was all I had time for.

As much as I THOUGHT I was volunteering, I ran into two guys more stubborn than me.  Their excuse?  I was working too many hours (which they were highly appreciative of) and making them feel bad.  I'm now on salary.  I feel okay because it's not hourly, and they feel better because they are paying me.  It's a win-win.

It was a horribly windy, smoky day at the Patch.  You couldn't see anything all morning from what the wind blew in all the way from Santa Rosa and Napa fires.  Finally the smoke cleared enough for the evening visitors.  I continued to drive tractor, but to be honest, every time I came around that corner, I was praying there was no one in line.  Unfortunately, there was a group every time for another two hours.  

One last look at the barn as I finally headed home about 7:00.  The puppies were happy to see me.  Especially Miss Jessie who got sick all over the bathroom ... and I mean ALL OVER.  I've no idea what caused it.  I'm sure she didn't eat any of the same cookies "I" had!!

So I'm off again today, looking forward to an early return home.  I haven't gotten a single thing done around here and it's starting to show.  Happy Fall everyone ... it's finally cooling down!!

Long Hours Equal Happy Customers!!

Wow have I been putting in some long hours.  I just love interacting with the kids that come here on the buses.  It certainly would make things easier if they came on time and stuck to the schedule, but as you can imagine, it IS a bus load of kids.  The 8:45 group never showed up, the 9:00 group came at 10:00 as did the 9:30 group.

We were running around like chickens with our heads cut off.  With everyone so late, I had to jump on the Hay Ride tractor for most of the morning.  In a ten minute break in the action, I gave my Seed Planting Class to a group of disabled youngsters in wheelchairs.  It didn't go over so well.  I've never had so much respect for teachers who work with these kids.

So I finished in a flash and decided we would feed the goats instead.  They were a BIG hit!!  Everyone got to hold grain in their hands while the goats licked it up.  The kids were happy campers!!  Once they come out of the barn area, most all the classes stop here for a picture.

As the day wore on, it got even worse.  Although the kids finally found their way back to the buses and left, the second tractor driver forgot to read the schedule.  He left at noon instead of sticking around until 4:00.  That left me with TWO tractors to drive, running back and forth across the yard, along with giving lunch breaks to three kids.  

In the middle of all this, I'm always trying to teach the teenagers how to relate to the customers and not just stand there like a lump on a log.  Have fun ... talk to people ... be nice.  So far it's working pretty well.  I've heard MANY comments from the public about how nice the workers (14-17 year olds) are and how they've made it a much nice experience than some of the other pumpkin places they've been.  YAY!!

Those of you who wear Fitbits tracking your steps, mine were over 13,000 for this day.  Six miles to be exact.  I'm going to be back in marathon shape in no time!!

Here's another of the "kid" attractions.  In fact, it's one of the most popular, because what could be more fun than digging in the dirt?  There are dinosaur bones buried here for the kids to find, along with paintbrushes to be sure they don't damage anything.  Not really, these concrete bones aren't going anywhere and can't be damaged unless you have a big hammer.

I finally got off early enough to hit the Magic Kingdom of Bingo for a night of fighting and ugly looks.  One of our workers has become a problem, causing lots of discontent among the people of the village.  On the other hand, one passed out lovely chocolate chip cookies.  I passed ... no use tempting fate after my last cookie encounter!!

I'm off for a KID class (not the goat kind) again this morning with 73 seed planters coming to see me at 9:00.  Let's hope they are on time today!!!

Aliens In The Sky

Now THAT was a busy day ... Monday that is.  We all forgot it was a holiday!  I started off with 12 kids who were a joy to work with ... the kind that actually listened to the teachers.  In fact, their teacher was so good, I watched him take individual time with each and every student before buying them all a snow cone and cookie out of his own pocket.  That was not an inexpensive deal.  It was so nice to see someone go above and beyond!!

The sky began to get a little weird by the time I hit the tractor.  The crowds piled in at 3:00 and continued up until dark.  At least driving the tractor, I got to enjoy the weird formations.  One young gal told me we all needed to hit the casino.  WHAT??  She said in her culture the fish scale clouds meant it was a lucky day.  I'm guessing maybe that meant the fishing would be good, but she said her Mom makes a beeline for the casinos every time!!  

All of a sudden, this one small area opened up into an alien bug, complete with feelers and large eyes.  Kind of looks like a grasshopper to me.  At any rate, it stayed there for almost thirty minutes before being eaten up by the clouds.  

I'm pretty sure I'm up to 65 laps around the corn maze and I could do it in my sleep.  The Patch was so crowded, I hated to just leave, so I stuck with it until 7:15.  That's pretty close to a twelve hour day.  In spite of my willingness to continue, I know I better scale that back a little.  It's only going to get worse as the month goes on!!

This morning I have the best assignment yet!  Critter Corral!!  Some of the schools signed up for a tour of the animal pens.  Course the tour only requires I get them TO the pens.  It's pretty self explanatory!!  I wonder if baby goats can be RV trained??  

My Stomach Has A Headache

I know I've shown you the goats before, but they are just too cute!!  As soon as they see you coming, they all jump up and head straight for you, like kids looking for candy.

I crashed big time Sunday, having been up sick most of the night.  There's nothing like having a headache in your stomach all night long.  The morning didn't bring any relief, so I curled up on the couch with the puppies, where I slept on and off for about four hours.  Nice!!!  

Still not feeling up to par, I tried something bland, like toast, followed by half of a homemade Snickers candy bar.  I never said I was a nurse.  In the late afternoon it got a little better.  The only thing that sounded good to eat was the second half of that candy bar.  Better minds prevailed as I grabbed a water bottle instead.  

Catching up on the previous week, I hauled four quilts to my quilting lady, where I found her making pillow cases.  What in the world?  She had about 30 of them.  Come to find out, her grandson had just been diagnosed with leukemia.  The good news is that it's the curable kind, thank goodness.  He will however, undergo treatment for a total of three years.  I had no idea.

That's three years living at home, or at Grandma's.  Having spent a lot of time at Children's Hospital, she discovered the kids would just LOVE to have something of their own during their time there.  Pillowcases and soft fabric masks (which they have to wear all the time) are on their top list of needs. 

I stopped on the way home and purchased over $100 worth of material to make pillow cases for both teenagers (shown here) and little kids (full of kitties and bunnies).  It's a simple pattern.  Too bad it wasn't that easy to change my embroidery machine into a regular sewing machine.  

I picked up enough fabric for 38 cases, all of which are cut out and ready to sew.  Since my stomach wasn't feeling up to par, I only got a couple completed.  I'll probably have to wait until after October 30th and the end of the Pumpkin Patch to continue this project.  It's for a great cause!!  

Her neighborhood is having a potluck and auction to help the family defray expenses.  I'm sure I've got a couple quilts around I can donate to the cause.  

In fact, I like these pillowcases so much, I think I'll make a couple for myself.  Nothing cheers up your bedroom like beautiful fabric on your bed.

I'm off early to the Patch this morning, facing 300 cups that need holes poked in the bottom.  Four at a time with a thin screwdriver seems to do the job.  Do I have seed classes today?  I have no idea.  There is a big book with every days schedule ... I just can't seem to get access to the book.  It's okay, because if there are no classes, I get to drive the tractor .... my FAVORITE!!!

What Went Wrong??

I was a little tired Saturday morning, but promised a trip to the Elks Jamboree in beautiful downtown Merced.  Okay, not so beautiful since it was held in the parking lot.  It had a 60's theme, making it impossible to recognize anyone with their crazy hair, tie-dyed shirts, daisy dresses and peace sign jewelry.

I'm pretty sure I went through the 60's and I don't remember ANYONE looking like that.  I should have taken pictures, but honestly, all I wanted to do was get home and rest.  I begged off all the crazy drinks, like Manhattans and Jello Shots and snuck out the back door unnoticed.  Bad Nancy.

A quick stop at the grocery store, of course paying for grocery bags since I had none in the Jeep, and I was back home.  Time to whip up a little pumpkin bread from Once Upon A Chef.  There's some good recipes on their site, including this yummy one.  I altered it a tad since I'm not a big fan of cloves.

I paid some bills ... the biggies from Oregon for tires and repairs ... which caused me to lay on the couch for an hour to recover.  With absolutely nothing else going on, the thought of dinner creeped into my head.

I had chicken and a bag of mushrooms.  What to do, what to do.  I found an Instant Pot recipe for Honey Sesame Chicken.  I probably didn't wash it as good as I should have before slicing and dicing it into small chunks.  I'll use that leftover rice, although I can't really remember when I cooked it.  I'm thinking it came from the freezer maybe three days ago?

In less than 15 minutes, I had dinner ... and it was DELICIOUS with a capital D.  Soy sauce, ketchup of all things, honey and a tad bit of sesame oil made the sauce mighty tasty.  

I don't know what went wrong.  It was either not washing the chicken sufficiently or the half baked soft chocolate chip cookie I ate afterwards or maybe the rice.  Either way, I got sick ... and I got sick ... and I got sick again.  I tend to blame the cookie for the stomach cramps since it was the last thing I ate and the first to immediately bother me.  I can't tell you where the homemade cookie came from ... I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

I will be spending the entire day on the couch hoping it goes away before tomorrow morning when I'm back on duty at the Seed Planting class.  Sadly, I'm throwing away everything even remotely related to what I ate.  Pepto Bismol anyone????

Hats Number Two and Three

Sneaky Pete needs someone to look after his gold mine when he's gone.  When I'm not driving the tractor or helping in the Snack Bar, I'm Pete's right hand man (or woman as the case may be).

From the tank above, water cascades down the sluice boxes to a diversion valve that sends it streaming along the long sluice box, complete with gold catching riffles.  If you want to give it a try, you are provided with a big bag of pay dirt and a wooden screen.  Pour your pay dirt in the screen and move it around in the water to expose gold, silver, turquoise and gems of all varieties.  You might even find an Indian arrowhead.  Actually, I guarantee you will.

You have to become pretty animated ... in character so to speak ... if you want the kids to have a good time.  Ooohing and aaaaahing over their finds brings out the excitement.  After all, they are just colored rocks, but the kids love it!!  Most don't even know what an arrowhead is.

Hat number three involves these guys.  Every morning I clean the pens and feed the babies.  I would almost adopt a goat, they are so darn cute.  Probably not the best of house pets but every time I enter the building, they all come running, crying up a storm.  I'm thinking they would be much better gardeners than what I have now!

The two calves ... not so much.  They did put on a show yesterday, playing race horse around the pen with the goats, just like Cooper does around the house.

After feeding everyone, I set up seed planting for 250 school kids, seven classes of second and third graders.  No big deal you might say, unless you have under two hours to teach them all, one class at a time.  My oh my oh my!!  I ran through my spiel as fast as I could, leaving out half of it ... handed out cups which they wrote their names on, then placed small containers of soil on each of six tables.  

They filled their cups half full, all of which I had to check, then demonstrated dropping in two seeds.  Keep it fluffy, but you KNOW they didn't.  Some packed it in so tight I couldn't get it out of the cup.  Now cover it with more soil, place your cups in this container and I will water then.  Finish the spiel and the next group was already waiting.  

I've never worked that fast in my life!!!  Finally done, I breathed a big sigh of relief.  I did get several compliments from the teachers about how organized I was compared to previous years.  Made me feel pretty good since I felt like a complete wreck!!

Occasionally one of the dinosaurs escapes, catching a ride on the Time Travel Tractor.  T-Rex picked up some chips, cookies and a snow cone as he was ushered back on the ride.  You can't say they don't go all out around here.  

It was a slow afternoon, so I tried to keep the workers busy doing something ..... anything .... to keep up their moral.  There's nothing worse than taking a part time job and being bored to death.  We arranged pumpkins and cleaned everything in sight while I talked about smooshing (that's not really a word) the customers.  It makes it so much more fun for them AND you if you talk to them, "did the dinosaurs try to bite you?" rather than being a bump on a log.  

Friday night was their first movie night.  That's right, they play movies on an outdoor screen.  Everyone brings their chairs, buys hotdogs and nachos and gets to watch Goose Bumps or maybe Hocus Pocus.  It was last call for the Hay Ride thank goodness, because it was getting VERY dark and I couldn't see.  I'm sure that tractor has lights somewhere, but I couldn't find the switch.  Thankfully, I didn't lose anyone.  It was a twelve hour day for me!!  YIKES!!

Today I get my first day off.  It's not that I'm tired, but those first few stiff and sore steps in the morning are becoming harder and harder.  I might just turn on my jacuzzi tub for the first time in nine years!!!

I Wear MANY Hats!!

Wouldn't you like to have this for a view every day you went to work?  It's really not work.  It's a LOT of fun.  Seeing these zinnias every day however, reminds me that I'm not really good at growing things ... and they have ME teaching the seed planting class!!  The road between the flowers and the corn is one I travel MANY times a day while wearing my FIRST hat!

Tractor Driver, pulling a 40 foot long used-to-be cotton wagon.  Now it holds hay bales for the Hay Ride adventure.  Load 'em up, move 'em out!!  There are three rules:  please remain seated the entire time the trailer is moving, count the scarecrows, find the skeleton (okay four) and wave at the goats for me 'cuz I LOVE those cute little goats!!  The more animated I am, the more the kids seem to love the ride, so I kind of yuk it up, so to speak!

The Scarecrows were made by the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts from the surrounding area.  I'll try to get a better picture.  The skeleton with red eyes is hiding in the drivers seat of the excavator I drive under.  As easy as it sounds, it's a rather dicey trip for the driver.  You think you make wide turns in your RV ... you should try driving THIS thing in an S curve through the corn!!  My goal every day is to NOT knock down any corn stocks.  So far I'm up to TWO.  

This is a short one today .. I'm off to teach 250 kids how to plant a corn seed.  Lucky for me, I get weekends off unless someone doesn't show up.  I'll be sleeping in tomorrow ... GUARANTEED!!!

From The Knees Down

Working a Pumpkin Patch has been a real experience and we haven't even gotten started!  I gathered all my supplies for my very first Seed Planting Class, which was nine developmentally disabled children.  Basically I gave the class to the parents who accompanied the children.

It's sad and eye opening, to say the least.  Possibly two children knew what I was saying.  Most had to be held to keep them from running off, and one little boy cried the whole time.  It breaks your heart.  We planted the seeds, I gave my little spiel and I escorted them them to the goats.  Goats are MUCH more interesting than seeds.  The kids agreed.

After helping shuttle 450 students around the Patch from activity to activity and 18 tractor driving trips around the Corn Maze and the Time Machine, I finally got to sit for about fifteen minutes.  My legs were definitely talking to me.  Hush up ... I'm busy and I can't be bothered with trivial things like muscle spasms.  I ate my salty/sweet snack bar and they became quiet.  Just in time to help make 65 snow cone slushes for one class.

This is the water tank for the gold mining.  I'll try to get pictures of all the attractions.

After adding cookies to the sale basket, I kept watch on both tractor rides and the Bounce Pillow, running back and forth between them and keeping all the kids smiling.  Finally, as my feet began to holler my name, the next wave of teenagers showed up to help out.  Maybe eight more times helping people up and down the hay wagon stairs, not to mention climbing on to the tractor and my shins began to complain.  What's up with that?  The best part is I've already lost three pounds!!  YAY!!

Alright ... alright!!!  I'll sit for a bit and have a cookie.  I've no idea what the pink ones are, other than not very tasty, but I ate it anyway.  Sugar seemed to give me a burst of energy to set up my Seed Planting Class for 80 students at 8:45 today.  I hope they are late!!

Before I run off again, I have to tell you about the cutest little girl, all of three years old, who picked up one of the tiniest pumpkins on the place.  Off she ran to show her bestest little friend.  She dropped it and of course it broke.  She immediately turned around and ran back to me, grabbed my hand and told me "the pumpkin ... we need another one".  Well my dear ... you actually are supposed to pay for those.  I took her pumpkin and taped it back together, which made her give me the biggest smile I've ever seen.  

I found out later she is a foster child.  Sadly, she was rather ignored by the entire family she was with as they took photos of everyone but her.  I finally had to ask and discovered they are not allowed to take ANY pictures of her, nor can they post anything about her being with them.  I thought they could at least let her join in the activities, like the bounce pillow or the tractor ride, but what do I know.

The Pumpkin Patch provides lots of smiles and good times to lots of people, and every once in awhile one little girl will give you the biggest, cutest smile ever, even while being kept on the side.  It's just a little taste of what goes on in the world I suppose.  Maybe some day she will remember the lady who taped her pumpkin back together!!

So with shins screaming from the knees down, I hit the sack early with my bedfellow Advil.  It was all worth it ... and this is only day 3.  I'm thinking it may be a tennis shoe kind of day.

Can You Believe I Forgot???

Okay, okay ... I'm up.  Zzzzzzzzzz!!!   Much as I LOVE my cowboy boots, they probably weren't made for walking twelve hours.  My feet are killing me!  Again, my Seed Planting Class cancelled.  No biggy, but I really would like to get a chance to practice on a SMALL group before the big hit!

No matter, I got to play with the two baby goats for about 45 minutes before 400 kids came into the pumpkin patch.  Can you just imagine??  Thank goodness each class had at least two teachers, along with the ever present parents that want to ride everything free.

Believe it or not, it all went really well.  We didn't lose a single kid, only the medical kit/backpack that the parent was supposed to be keeping an eye on.  They came, they conquered and they left after lunch.  First graders I think.

During the four hours of dead silence with maybe eight customers, I watched the Bounce Pillow, drove both tractors around and sold snacks until I had a rude awakening.  I FORGOT THE MAGIC KINGDOM!!!

It was Tuesday, right?  So around 3:30 when my Snack Bar replacement showed up ... give it up for Abigail ... I made a beeline for the boss, followed quickly by my truck, which still doesn't want to start very easily.  

After a mad dash home, I watered and fed the poor puppies who were locked up all day and changed my dirty levis.  THAT was a bad idea!!  Once those boots came off, my feet instantly became two sizes bigger.  I spent the next ten minutes trying to get them back on!!  Good grief!!!

I arrived at the Magic Kingdom of Bingo just in time for a coke before heading downstairs looking like the great pumpkin who just rolled around in the dirt.  I warned everyone to keep their distance, because like Pigpen, I'm sure dirt was falling off everywhere.

Amazingly, it was a pretty good night, with over 110 in attendance, none of which tried to steal a single Bingo card.  The trouble was, it went on FOREVER!!  With a new phone line, which shouldn't make any difference at all, the debit card machine refused to work on the first try EVERY SINGLE TIME!!  By 8:30 I was dying on the vine with seven more games to play.  

I begged and cajoled the caller, to no avail.  He kept calling at the same speed ... SLOW!!  At long last the night was over, we literally threw everything back into the safe and I was off for home ... and my BED!!  

I'm hoping the class of 13 or 14 doesn't cancel today.  I really don't want to give my first class to over 100 kids on Thursday.  Maybe you can help me out.  So kids, what does it take to make a seed grow into a plant?????  You're right ... DIRT!  So lets go play in some!!

Multi-Tasking!

I don't think there is a job description that covers what I did yesterday.  I arrived to a ghost town because the "scheduler" told me to be there at 7:30 a.m.  At 8:15 the boss finally showed up.  It started out nice and slow.  I followed him over to the critter corral where hay bales were set up for the seed planting classes.

First off ... how are you at cleaning calf pens.  Yeah, done it all my life.  While you're in there, can you feed them please?  Sure ... nothing is more fun than feeding the goats and calves.  With my boots sufficiently broken in, I spent thirty minutes scrounging through the barn trying to find all the cups, trays, soil and seeds for the class.

The 34 kids never showed.  Instead, Scott gave the class to seven littles, while I ran around putting soil in the cups, getting more dirt on me than I thought possible for such a simple task.  We planted the corn seeds and set about watering them with a regular garden hose that sent the first cup sailing across the barn.  We might want to get a watering can.

Thirty minutes later, I had the cups loaded in a box and headed out to the front gate on the four wheeler.  By the time I got to the entrance, driving SO carefully, I found every single cup had fallen over.  Seeds and wet dirt were everywhere.  Thus the big brown streaks on my nice used-to-be-clean apron as I quickly stuffed everything back into the cups so no one would notice.  I need something to stick in the box to keep them stable.  Like a pumpkin!!

With that over and the kids out playing, I was immediately dragged to the Time Tractor.  Jump on ... lets go.  NICE TRACTOR!!  I frantically searched my brain for the up-hill/clutch/emergency brake gentle takeoff.  Surprisingly, it just came naturally and we were OFF!  Into the land of Indians, Miners and Dinosaurs I drove, being sure not to hit any of the irrigation valves or dinosaurs ... in other words, like RV driving, I made WIDE turns.  My brain was working overtime as I tried to remember those valves.  After one more run by myself, I was deemed a driver.

Since there's another tractor ride ... using the exact same kind of tractor ... you can guess where I went next.  The hay ride is even dirtier than seed planting due to the dusty roads.  The old cotton harvesting trailer is LONG .... make REALLY wide turns.  I passed the driving test in that field and was on to the next feat.  

The Snack Bar gal had an emergency.  Here's the money ... here's the charge card thingy and I was in business.  I mean how hard can it be to sell candy and cookies?  Thank goodness the County won't let them sell hot dogs every day.  I have NO idea why, but it was one less thing I had to worry about!!

Turns out it was VERY hard!!  This is a snow cone machine.  Wait ... I've never done this before.  She showed me in ten seconds and she was gone like the wind.  I was desperately hoping no one would come by, but of course the very first customer wanted a snow cone.  I got set up and stepped on the floor button, shooting ice straight at me and down my shirt.  Yes, it's awfully cold!!!

They have a contraption that dispenses the syrups, but unfortunately for us, it was covered with a million honey bees, cleaning up every single drop of sweet yumminess and trying to climb into the dispenser.  Tiger's Blood, Bubblegum, Sour Apple ... they were after it all.

After washing six bottles, we filled them with syrup and topped them with dispensers so the bees couldn't get inside.  They went ballistic!!  Luckily I didn't get stung!!

I don't have time to explain everything else I did ... yes, there's a LOT more!!  You've got to be multi-talented around there!!

It was a pretty crazy day!!  This morning is my first solo seed planting class with seven kids.  Easy peasy.  Wednesday, only 13 kids.  Piece of cake.  Thursday, ONE HUNDRED kids.  Won't THAT be fun and exciting!!!  

I'll explain more about the rest of the jobs I had to take over tomorrow.  It seems I'll be busiest during the week and may even get weekends off.  I'll need it to rest up!!

I'm On A Roll ... Temporarily

You may or may not have heard about the recent happenings in Yosemite National Park.  Pieces of El Capitan, the rock climbers paradise, have been calving off the face of the rock wall.  Water seeps into cracks, freezes overnight, and causes the cracks to become bigger.  Pretty soon the rock face breaks away and falls to the rock piles below.

Unfortunately, there were climbers staging at the bottom.  One was able to escape with injuries.  The other was not so lucky.  Since then there have been several more calvings, including this one as seen by two climbers who just topped out at the summit.  You can see their ropes hanging over the edge on the bottom left side of the photo.

No one was hurt in this rock fall, but the roads on this side of the valley are now closed.  The rock slide was so huge, it went across the road into the meadow beyond.  Nature can be amazing and devastating.

My cooking .... not so amazing.  This pulled pork didn't turn out too bad however.  Chop up a pork loin in three inch pieces, dust it with onion and garlic powder, then place in your Instant Pot.  Pour in a cup of Dr. Pepper soda.  Personally, I prefer Pepsi, but Dr. Pepper it was this time.  Mighty tasty after 50 minutes on high, natural release.  I've got lunch and dinner all week long.  YAY ... I think!  There's only so many ways you can eat pulled pork.

You can't do anything around here without Cooper's ball appearing somewhere close by.  I whipped up a batch of peanut butter cookies, which quickly let me know my oven needs adjustment.  It was a close one, but when I discovered they were cooking so unevenly, I turned the pan around, saving the day.

Next up ... flan.  I love this Instant Pot version.  The hardest part is finding a trivet that fits inside to set the bowls on ... making a two story stack of goodness.  I'm on a ROLL!!

Or at least I was.  I finally finished the last two squares for this quilt.  I carefully laid it out on the bed for a picture, only to discover I'm STILL missing two squares.  RATS!!  I thought I was DONE!  Back to the sewing machine, I completed the bear to fill in the blanks.  Once it's all sewn together, I'll take another picture.

So this morning, I'm off to the Pumpkin Patch to play teacher.  Kind of nervous ... I have no idea how many kids or what age they are, not to mention I have no clue how much or really what kind of TEACHING I have to do.  I'm truly going in blind, mostly because of that orange T-shirt.  I'll let you know if I survive!!

It's Officially HALLOWEEN!!

You all know how I LOVE Halloween.  It's my holiday of choice, for sure.  Not that I want to scare the little kids, returning the favor for their scary demeanor when I'm in RV parks, but it's just FUN!  Hopefully I'll be able to set the front porch up again with headstones, my creepy dead butler, my fog machine and THIS!  My newest acquisition.  Oh ... and don't forget my LOUD music!!!

I finally figured out how to get mail at my house AND the post office.  My local government mail handlers have stated I cannot have two addresses, so they refuse to send anything with my name on it to my house since I have the post office box.  My solution?  Start signing up and ordering things as NK-Photography.  Take THAT Post Office!!!

With that in mind, I made a beeline to Lowes for a box.  Good heavens ... who would have thought there was so much involved with a simple mail box.  The only suitable one was $110, with the post being extra.  Since my original metal post is still standing (and can't be used with the only locking box I found), I'll leave it as a barrier post and install my new box next to it.  Least that's my plan.

While wandering around Lowes, what should appear but this really cool sign, complete with a red lightbulb.  All the lighted portions flicker ... making it even more spooky.  It just jumped in my truck.

Speaking of my truck, my friends have lightened my load.  Dave Burdick and Nick Russell told me they make some kind of a battery minder or disconnect switch I can put on my truck, kind of like I have on the motorhome.  Another perfect solution.  Now to find one for my side post batteries.  

Just so you know, I didn't completely forget about QUILTS while in Eureka.  They have TWO of the best shops in California with all the colors of the rainbow.  

They both had big sales going on ... how could I turn THAT down!!

And so the fabric for these two came home with me.  Amazingly, they HAD the fabric for the quilts hanging on their walls.  I usually discover that the one quilt I love has been around too long and all the fabric to make it has been sold out.  At least on this one I scored the last panel and there was just enough fabric left to make it exactly the same.

Finally back with my Instant Pot (I ordered another for my rig), I whipped up a batch of green beans. I think this device will save lots of room in my backyard cemetery.  So far everything I've made has been edible and cooked to perfection.  Where have you been all my life??

Since I needed bacon, I decided to try the latest and greatest recipe ... cook the bacon on a sheet pan in the oven.  Use foil so clean up is a breeze.  Don't believe that part.  Trouble is I really didn't have any racks that fit the pan.  Second problem, the bacon was too thin.  You definitely need the heartier variety for this.  

Stick it in a cold oven set to 350 for 20 minutes.  It took 20 minutes for my oven to get up to speed, so 40 minutes was more like it.  Actually, the bacon was delicious.  The recipe didn't say to watch your self control because you're going to eat it all.  At least it made my house smell wonderful!!

The clean up started out okay until I wadded up the foil and walked to the trash can, dripping grease all the way.  Apparently there was a big hole in the bottom from the rack.  The dogs thought they were in heaven.  With the floor finally clean, I went for the pan.  That hole let a LOT of grease through to the bottom.  Another big mess to clean up.  I ate another piece of bacon to make me feel better!!

I'll try thicker bacon next time and maybe let it freeze a little so it doesn't stretch so far when I peel a piece off.  

I'm getting nervous about tomorrow morning's teaching assignment.  Maybe I can figure out how to make that brilliant orange T-shirt look cowboy-ish.  That way I can pretend I'm Annie Oakley when I give my little spiel.