What The Hay?????

Or Ya-ta-hey ... actually that means all is good in Navajo.  It's our standard toast to our 100 year old Apache Indian Veteran at the Elks Lodge.  Don't ask me why it's Navajo, it's what he told us to say.  

As I was walking by my breakfast table yesterday, I spotted THIS!!  What the hay?  You mean after 20 years of orchids I'm FINALLY getting one to bloom?  That's a miracle.  An outright miracle!!

I was pretty sure it was just a root starting out, but it's done this in the last five days.  It must have been Dan's presence.  Why?  Because Patty and Dan have several fabulously beautiful orchids that bloom like crazy every single year.  I have had NONE.  I hope I didn't jinx it by putting in the stake.  It looks like a snake, no?

What the hay #2.  I'm finally using up all that fabric I've had laying around for years, but I required one more big piece of white.  That required a trip down the highway to the next town.  How does this happen???  

Obviously they've got some crazy contraption hooked up to make their fifth wheel horse trailer (and a gorgeous one at that) a bumper pull.  Who does this?  Certainly not any horseman I know.  And how in the world did he get over the K-rail?

That prompted me to take the back roads, certainly a plus when they have the entire freeway under construction with the narrowest of lanes.  This is my country ... acre after acre of orchards.  I felt a little weird about trespassing, but I know the owner.

Do you know what these are?  Yup ... pistachios.  I've never seen them growing on a tree, and these trees are covered!!  Here's another interesting fact.  These don't blow over in the winds we have like almond trees do and they will produce for three or four generations, meaning his great grandkids will be harvesting from these trees.

I made it to the fabric store and back with a huge SCORE!!  When they handed my receipt to me, what do my eyes see but a $25 coupon for my next visit.  Oh gee ... I have to go back!!!

In the meantime, I haven't been able to get the camera gear to work, so I met with my photographer friend for some instruction at the Elks Lodge.  Some benefits of being an officer ... I get to eat the occasional dinner for free.  The downside is it's always steak ... and if you ate as much beef on the ranch as I did, you would rather have a cluck cluck dinner.

It was orientation night for the new candidates being initiated next week.  What the hay?  They made me sit at the front table!!  Do you know how uncomfortable it is to eat with 80 people looking right at you?  Oh my goodness ... mind your manners, take small bites and sit like a lady.  It was stressful!!

Tonight is night #2 ... meeting after meeting after meeting.  While I usually fill in for the Inner Guard who hasn't been found yet, tonight I'll be playing trustee.  It's a tight rope to walk.

And so I'l leave you today with a picture of my sweet shadow Cooper.  I made a big mistake yesterday and played that video of Jessie where he could hear.  He went ballistic, running around looking for her.  I won't make that mistake again.  He definitely recognized her growl!!  It took a bacon strip to occupy his little head and change the tune.  And I thought he had forgotten her.  Look at that little face ... that's why he's so spoiled!!

I CAN SEE!!!!

Thank you everyone for the nice thoughts about Miss Jessie.  She was definitely like no other dog I've ever owned ... and there have been a lot!  This hind leg caused me grief for awhile.  She had a large growth on her hock that was removed, stitched up and of course bandaged.  She wore the cone of shame for days.

Finally, since she didn't seem to bother with it, I took the cone off and stepped outside the rig for about 60 seconds.  Upon my return, the bandage was gone and the wound wide open.  Some may remember advising me to cut up tape to make butterfly stitches.  

Trouble was, I had to leave the campground the next morning ... they refused to let me stay one more day so I could get her across the river to a vet.  Thankfully, the park I was going to, let me go in early, and so she got re-stitched and wore the cone until I took the stitches out.  What a kid she was!!

This is her best impression of Captain Jack the pirate.  She did this constantly, but to my surprise, never bit anyone.  She DID bite Cooper on numerous occasions since he resided in her territory.  At least once a day I had to break up a fight.  I got bit by COOPER all the time ... by mistake of course.

He seems to miss her when we hit the hay, walking to the end of the bed to see where she is ... otherwise, it's throw the ball and he's happy.

SO ... Dan made it to Modesto to get the bike checked out before heading back to Arizona.  Can you believe it?  That thing even has cruise control and a stereo system that should be in my truck!  There was one last trip to Habit burger for dinner, which you KNEW would happen, right?  Included were my all time favorite sweet potato fries.  YUM YUM!

In the meantime, here's my latest and greatest tip.  I haven't washed the windows of this house in probably four years.  It's just not a happy adventure in my book.  One day while scoping out new camera gear, I spotted this recipe.

1/2 gallon of warm water

3 tablespoons of laundry detergent (preferably liquid)

1 tablespoon Finish or whatever the name is of the stuff you put

    in your dishwasher so your glasses come out spotless.

Take your hose and rinse the window.  Now scrub it with your RV brush using the water mixture.  Rinse with the hose again and you are DONE.  No wiping with towels or running inside to see if you got it clean or not.  Just let it dry.  Magically, I CAN SEE out my windows, and it only took about ten minutes.  Do you think this might work on an RV???

I can't believe how easy that was.  Yes I still do have a few barely visible (only if you get up close and personal) tiny water spots because I have hard well water.  I could care less.  Too bad I can't do that on the INSIDE of the windows.  

It should be an easy day today ... although I have Elks three nights in a row now.  I'll tell you tomorrow what camera equipment I acquired on my walk through internet land.

My Sweet Jessie Girl

Into every life some rain must fall.  This is my Jessie girl you've seen on and off over the years.  She was approximately five when I adopted her, a Jack Russell Terrier.  They are generally one person dogs, so it took almost a year before she would sit on the couch next to me.

She was not a "pet me" kind of dog.  Very standoffish, but sweet none the less.  As terriers go, she was one of the best at catching gophers.  She could smell and hear them going through the tunnels, then jump up, dig like crazy and come up with a trophy.  

Little did she know she was NOT supposed to chase horses the way she chased kitties.  She got stepped on, breaking her foot in several places.  She was tough though ... that bandage last about two hours before it was found on the floor.

This was the second day when we tried the splint again.  It didn't take long for it to be completely gone.  She chewed it off and I gave up.

Not the hyperactive terrier that most are, she was happy to sleep on the couch most of the day, whether in the motorhome or the real home.

We did have our problems since she hated dogs.  If there was one anywhere in sight, the AAARRRHHH came out in her as she imitated the pirates of the Caribbean.  This girl could growl with the best of them.  The problem was, she would make a run at them, hitting the end of the leash with me trying to hold on to Cooper and rein her in.  

That is what got us on the early morning "chicken" schedule.  I started getting up at 4:00 am to take both pups outside while all the other dogs were sleeping.  Not such a great solution because I truly liked to sleep in late, but it worked.  

She has been around the world, this little Miss Jessie Bell.  Her original name was Jezebel, but I slightly changed it to Jessie Bell.  She, Cooper and I traveled all over Alaska and from the West Coast to the East Coast, Bangor Maine and back.  What troopers they both have been to let me drag them all around.  

I don't have lots of pictures of them on the road.  As you can imagine, handling two dogs just getting in and out of the RV door was a challenge.  With her not being dog friendly, I carried her quite often.  She did get in a spat or two when people would walk their dogs right up to her in spite of my warnings to please stay away ... "oh my dog is friendly" they would say.  

That's nice, but mine is NOT.  It took three times for the people at one park tie their dog up (like the rules say) because it kept coming over where Jessie could attack it.  Some people don't follow the rules until you scream at them ... your dog may be friendly, but MY dog will kill it if it comes over here!!!

Sadly, she acquired cancer which grew in her leg until it almost burst open, along with no hearing and little eyesight, not a bad thing when we were battling the skunks.  She thought they were just another kitty cat she needed to rouse out of the back yard.  Yes, she got sprayed, not a full blown event, but enough to make me throw up as I scrubbed her in the bathtub.  

Like all us old folks, her arthritis got the best of her too.   She could jump with the best of them when it came to food ... as high as the countertop.  Sadly too, doggy dementia settled in and she walked the edge of whatever room I was in.  It was a hard thing to see.

 So yesterday my sweet girl passed on at 16 years of age, to meet up with my black schnauzer Mandy in Heaven.  I'm sad she's gone, but happy she's no longer in pain.  Until we meet again Jessie Bell.

Putting Some Electricity In Life

It never fails ..... we run out of power sooner or later.  I'm talking about my Jeep Liberty that I towed all over the U.S. for so many years.  Amazingly, its battery has lasted its entire life since 2012, until I decided to take it to town.  There was nothing.  Dead as a doornail.

I charged it up twice, but it just didn't have any life left.  Dan took the old battery out for me.  Time for some fresh electricity.  I stopped in at Napa for a new one when I discovered there was a Pop-Up Vendor sale just around the corner.

That meant lugging the battery from the back of the truck to inside the back seat.  No use taking any chances.  The FOOD ... oh my goodness the food!!  THIS is white chocolate covered English toffee.  Let me just say that nothing was cheap, but I did help the economy at a couple of nice tables.

I bet you can guess the name of this one ... SUGAR RUSH.  Truly not as sweet as I expected, but only because there are mini pancakes underneath all that caramel, marshmallows, strawberries and whipped cream.  

There was a little more electricity in that wedding on the cruise ship.  We met these two guys in the first 30 minutes.  As it turned out, the entire week was a murder mystery cruise.  How fun is that?  All the characters were dressed up, walking the decks and blurting out lines here and there.  It was our job to figure out who-done-it from the clues we heard them whispering.  These two come into play later.

Surprisingly, the old get-married-by-the-Captain trick doesn't work since this ship never got out of sight of land.  Somehow Patty and Dan found a minister to perform the ceremony.  He was a real kick, not ever having done THIS kind of ceremony before.  There are lots of hilarious tales about this, but alas in today's atmosphere, I'll keep quiet until I see you in person to relate them.  I kept in touch with him for years.

So here's the final wedding party.  We had no idea who the two interlopers were, but invited them to join in the champagne.  Obviously, they didn't want their identity known (just part of the schtick).  We laughed SO much over these two.  By the way, my husband could talk anyone out of anything.  We came home with the red FEZ he was wearing, traded for a Harley ball cap.  There was some T-shirt trading going on in the background also.

As for ship electricity, there was lots of it on the Lido deck.  I think Patty and I were the only two wearing one piece bathing suits.  All we had to do was lay there and the crew brought us drink after drink.  As with any cruise ship, the food was fabulous!!  Even better, since it was all Harley people, we had something in common to talk about.  

The entertainment provided even more laughs.  You may not recognize this guy.  His name is Dennis Miller.  Yup, that's him, the one you see on TV all the time.  He was just getting started in the business.  Here's the laughable thing .... we went to the show and he was hilarious.  A really good comedian.  So good that we went to the SECOND show.

No one laughed at all.  Why?  Because he told the exact same jokes.  Finally he asked what was up and realized it was the same audience ... we had already heard these jokes before.  Boy was HE surprised.  So he ad-libbed the rest of the night, doing a pretty decent job.  

And there you have it ... just another of the crazy adventures I've been on.  Dan is due back some time today, then it's off to the Harley shop to check everything out before he heads back to Tucson.  I can't wait to hear how the bike performed.

It's A Habit ...

 My garage has been blessed with the presence of this beauty for an entire day.  There were a few things Dan wanted to add to her before taking off on its break-in trip around California.  Thank goodness the heat has eased up a bit to make riding more comfortable.

Before he took off though, we went to Habit Burger for dinner.  Dan is an aficionado when it comes to hamburgers.  You want to know where the best ones are, just ask him.  I think In and Out rates pretty high, but it just got outvoted by me.  THIS is a Habit Burger.  

Sorry, I stole the picture from the internet because mine didn't last two minutes after that first bite.  The bun was toasted crispy (unheard of in Burgerdom), with a char grilled hamburger patty, loads of cheese, bacon in every bite ... I mean this burger had it all!!

This is definitely going to be a habit at my house.  Best burger I've ever had!!  No wonder the place is packed every time I drive by!!

Dan made a few adjustments here and there, packing up stuff just like you and I do with our RV.  The best part ... he left the keys to the BIG TRUCK!!  Of course I probably won't be able to figure out how to start the thing.  It's one of those you-have-to-have-the-key-fob to start the engine type.  Gosh, it took me three tries just to make sure it was locked up.  

At any rate, here's the new Harley engine for the viewing pleasure of the guys.  Yes she sounds just as good as she looks.

And so, after double and triple checking everything, Dan was on his way out.  Lots of nostalgia here ... I sure wish we were all still riding.

Off he went into the wild blue yonder, or at least the smoggy west side of the valley!!

Back to normal things ... my Jeep battery died, my windows need washing (I'll have a tip for you soon) and I'm going back to HABIT BURGER!!!

Those Infamous Words .... I DO

Have you ever heard of the old saying "rode hard and put away wet"?  It's a cowboy thing.  If you rode hard causing your horse to sweat a lot and then put them in the corral while wet, they always looked terrible in the morning.  That was us back in the day.  Not many people still alive know about this story.

It's how I came to meet Patty and Dan Chance and become lifelong friends.  It all came about because of motorcycles.  So when Dan called to say he was coming down to trade in his older bike on a new one, the Kissack Hotel opened up wide. 

Dan and Patty built Jamestown Harley Davidson up in the mountains.  Obviously he has connections, which is how THIS beauty landed in his trailer.  This thing has a better stereo system than the one in my house.  

She's a beauty, to say the least.  He unloaded it into my garage for some added necessities.  SO much bigger than my Harley I sold a couple years ago.  This thing is a thoroughbred compared to my pony.  SO many buttons to push!!  It would probably serve you a cold soda while going down the freeway.

Dan is taking off this morning for a thousand mile ride, then returning for all the necessary oil changes and adjustments before heading back to Arizona, so there will be more pictures to come.

In the meantime, here's the backstory.  Very few people alive today know about my heydays riding motorcycles.  Yup ... that's Dan on the left and Patty in the middle.  Can you believe we were that good looking and SKINNY???  Not to mention all the hair we had.  The guy on the right?  That was my husband.  

Yessirree ... see that bouquet?  It's a long story.  Harley Davidson came up with a cruise to the Caribbean for its dealers and owners.  Weird for a bunch of motorcyclists akin to the Hell's Angles, but we all signed up.  That's when someone ... I think maybe Patty and Dan ... came up with the idea we should get married on the ship.  

I don't know how they pulled that one off, but when we arrived and went to the upstairs bar ... come on now, this was a MOTORCYCLE group ... there was a minister ready to marry us.  Sadly, my expensive wedding dress was in my lost luggage that never got delivered to our room.  So here you have it, my official wedding photo after saying I DO with best man Dan, Matron of Honor Patty and us, just before the ship sailed off into the sunset.

By the way, the minister said I shouldn't worry about my wedding attire since you should never be dressed better than your guests (as he looked around) and you seem to fit in just fine.  I think I still have that T-shirt somewhere.  The picture above was AFTER my luggage was finally found.

So there you have it ... we went on to ride hard and get put away wet for years.  It's amazing we are still alive considering some of the stuff we did, including sleeping next to Hells Angels and partying with the roughest of them.   Unfortunately, my husband and I parted ways down the road, but my love of motorcycles has lasted forever.

I'll post a few more pictures tomorrow just for giggles.  

Short Day, Long Night

It was one of those survival days, an adventure in how to stay cool when it's heating up.  I thought I might have been transported to the Sahara Desert by mistake.  Beam me up Scotty and send me someplace cool!

It really wasn't all that bad, but I did unfold my wallet and let the AC flow!!  Life's too short to be hot, or something like that!!

The big news of the day is I have company!!  YAY!!  Does this Big A$$ Truck look familiar?  Yessirree Mr. Chance stopped by on his way to his newest adventure ... a brand spanking new Harley Davidson motorcycle.  

You can't see it, but his old one in the trailer is being traded in.  Did I ever mention that his wonderful (my best friend) wife and he have been good friends for over 35 years?  I just happened to have found a photo album of pictures from way back when.  We had a lot of laughs looking at all those skinny handsome and cute people who had loads of hair.  What ever happened???

We visited for a bit, before I had to put on the latest and greatest "ElksWear" for a formal visitation.  It's all about pomp and circumstance.  Under the circumstance, I tried to opt out, but too many others beat me to it.  

I'm wearing the elusive navy blue jacket that's one size too big.  The good part is it is thin, as in not near as hot as everyone else's jacket.  At least there are two window ac units in the library where we met for the audit.  AUDIT?  Yes, apparently we were ceremoniously audited by the upper level of Elkdom over Hawaii and California.  It's all Greek to me.

The bad news is the lack of air conditioning in our Lodge Room.  After all, the building is over 100 years old.  I said a silent thank you for the thin blue jacket.  I was quite comfortable.  The visiting dignitary read a five page letter, after which we raced through the meeting to get out of the sweatbox.  

Dinner was a New York steak with scalloped potatoes.  Sorry, there are no pictures.  I was busy updating the Castle Lawyer on all the recent happenings.  She and I will resume Bingo ... I know you are just so excited about that prospect .... on June 29.

In the meantime, I was up for about three hours trying to get the Charlie horse in my leg to be quiet and go to sleep.  Neither rain nor sleet ... oh wait, that's another story ... nothing I tried helped except to walk around my bedroom the entire time.  At long last it snoozed enough that I could get to sleep.  

I'm excited for Dan to get back this afternoon so I can see his newest adventure.  Pictures to come.

Such A Sweet Kitty Kitty!!

The weather guessers were close, but no cigar.  It got up to 103 yesterday in my back yard, but not the 106 predicted.  That's a good thing, since I didn't think of this project until after 1:00.  My friend Cyndae is better at landscaping than I.  Such a sweetheart, she went off one day and came back with six plants to go between my neighbors and I.

Sadly, after consulting with the landscape guys, they would completely block my lawn sprinklers.  Moving sprinklers is a pricey matter, so I've been finding the perfect spots to place the growy things.

With two left over, I thought maybe in a pot on my patio.  There's one tool I've gotten more use out of than anything ... my battery powered drill.  I do love my drill!!  I went right to work drilling holes in this fake pot ... you know, of the heavy styrofoam variety.  Although those look like worms, that's pieces of the pot.

Time for dirt!!  Except now it's 2:00 and I'm really hot.  Cooper came to help.  He was quick to point out that along with the dirt came ants ... hundreds of ants.  PLUS, even though I put rocks in the bottom, the sand quickly began to pour out the little holes.  See, I told you I wasn't good at this stuff!!  Hopefully a little bagged mulch that I have yet to purchase, will fix the problem.

I have checked the critter cam twice now to find the big yellow kitty jumping, or rather crawling up the side of my fence to get to the neighbor's house.  He never comes near the trap since he was caught that one time.

Yesterday however, there was a surprise!  Ahhhhh such a sweet kitty kitty!!!  Thankfully NOT the black and white kind.  I caught this guy once also.  Kitties seem to have very good memories, because I've never caught the same one twice!!!  Isn't he sweet??

Time passed slowly as it does when it's hot-hot, as I gathered all the stuff for the latest "outfit" I have to wear to the Elks Lodge tonight.  I finally found the elusive navy blue jacket.  Sadly, it's way too big.  Since that discovery, I've purchased three more from the internet, and had to return every single one.  All too small.  It's amazing how someone's size 12 is another's size 8 that you can't even get your arm into.

I have truly tried on three occasions to get out of this one, but alas, my replacement is not forthcoming.  Grey pants (Levis in my case) with a blue jacket is not my style unless I'm wearing cowboy boots.  Hey ... that may just be an idea!!!  

Dinner wasn't well planned.  I hit up the grocery store for wings, only to find one small package for $4.69 a pound ..... FOR CHICKEN WINGS!!  After walking around for ten minutes debating on whether I really wanted them or not, I found another package for $4.39 a pound.  Gold I tell you ... they are made of gold!!  In the end, I found a small bag of wings in my freezer and defrosted those instead.

I savored every single bite!!  Marinated in Italian salad dressing for a few hours, then air fried in 20 minutes.  No, they didn't taste the least bit burned ... although I'm not sure why, because they were dark.  They were SO delicious!!!  Next time I find wings on sale, I'm loading up.

Really ... how can you justify chicken breast for $2.99 a pound and wings for $4.69 a pound?  Don't they have that backwards??  Maybe it was a Memorial Day thing.

In the meantime, I'm looking for Hawaii pictures.  At least it's cooler inside.

Getting Crafty With It

With the weather heating up to simmer, that's just before BOILING, which is what I felt like most of yesterday, I pretty much stayed inside.  Not that my house is much cooler, because I'm cheap.  

This comment has been removed by the author.  Don't you just hate it when people do that?  There's no use complaining about the heat OR PGE.  It does me no good ..........

SO .... I spent the majority of the day playing with Cooper and working on this new crafty project.  Many probably don't know I used to spend a lot of time in Hawaii.  That was Pre-Cooper time when I had no responsibilities.  I could live there!!  

Many hours were spent on the beach with butts in the air.  Why you might ask?   Because we were always bent over looking for sea glass.  There's a lot of it for the taking if you know where to look.  Best kept secrets and all that.  Give me a sieve on a beach and I'm in heaven!!

Over the years I've collected glass jars full of shells, sea glass and trinkets.  These jars are stashed all over my house.  It's time to do something with them.  After doing a little research, wasn't I surprised to find you could glue them on glass with what else ...... those half used tubes of silicone I had for the motorhome.  That's a win-win!!

I've no idea where I found this window frame.  It's pretty old and probably came from someone's kitchen cupboard.  Now to find a place to hang it in my cowboy/rustic lodge house!!  It will match the decor, right?

While retrieving a Fed-Ex package which turned into a lesson in concentration, I almost stepped on this big guy.  What the heck is it??  It's well over an inch long ... looks like a honey bee, no?  I've never seen anything like it.

As for the package, I purchased a flash trigger for my camera, but it turned out to be the wrong one.  I stuffed it in the box and mailed it back.  Trip 1.  They called to tell me I didn't send everything in the box.  I scrounged around the other things that go with the trigger and I found the cables.  I mailed them back.  Trip 2.  They called to tell me I didn't send everything in the box.  Get the picture?  Grumble grumble ... I scrounged around the other things that go with the trigger and I found the adapter.  I mailed it back.  Trip 3.

On the third trip, I spotted this guy.  Ooh la la Mr. Truck Driver.  You should have just run that yellow light instead of parking on the tracks.  I stayed WAY back so I would be out of the way of flying debris.  Lucky for him, the light turned green before he got hit by the train that was madly blowing his horn!!!

The rest of the afternoon was veg out time with the puppies.  Every time I sit down, I become a dog sandwich.  I love them dearly, but long for the days of Hawaii.  I'll post some pictures when I get a chance.

In other exciting news, the trap is set again.  In case you were wondering, TUNA is the magic word when it comes to skunks.  The cheaper, the better.  In fact, I've come to discover that those 50 cent cans of tuna can be cheaper than canned dog food!!  What a revelation!!  Cooper may have a new favorite!!

103 and Rising!!!

Good Morning California!!  I'm surprised just how similar the weather is in central California as compared to southern Arizona.  It was 103 here yesterday, while Arizona was mid 90's.  Today will be another scorcher before it cools off a tad.  That means I try to stay inside, or at least in an air conditioned building.

Thus the trip to Michaels.  That resulted in this ..... a million piece storage chest on wheels.  The box was pretty small, meaning I didn't think there would be so many pieces!  It was daunting when laid out on the floor.  I have to say that THIS cardboard box was MUCH stronger than the red cart box.  It took a box cutter to get it open.

YAY!!  I get to use one of those 28 screwdrivers ... or maybe even THREE!  It wasn't my fault.  I quickly discovered that all screwdrivers are not created equal.  Some have big tips, some have sharp tips and some basically don't have a tip at all.  It took three tries to find one that would work with the screws.

Of course there are no directions, as in put screw A into hole B, but only pictures so small you need a magnifying glass.  I was cruising along quite nicely when I realized the backer board wouldn't fit because I had the bottom on backwards.  Big sigh ..... as I disassembled the entire thing and started over.

Time for a break, as this assembling stuff can be hard work.  Let's give Cooper a B A T H.  You have to spell that word because it's his least favorite thing in the entire world.  Although he loves to get wet if it's a big puddle in the yard, or maybe even the ocean ..... getting in the bathtub is a big NO-NO! 

Once clean, the scary blow dryer comes on, along with a comb or two.  Next up, the noisy thing worse than gunshots .... the deadly ELECTRIC TRIMMERS!!  Of course Mom really doesn't know how to do this correctly, so he always comes out rather rough looking.  

Yes he is a classy registered poodle, but I dislike the poodle cuts.  We would rather go with ranch rough and tough to impress the ladies.

Back to the box.  Once the outside was done, I had five drawers to assemble.  Good grief ... this turned into a much bigger project than I expected!!  After installing ten railings for the drawers to slide on, it was finally complete.  It even rolls around for ease of cleaning up my messes.  Now I have a place to store all that leftover fabric that I will use someday ... hopefully before I die.

While all that was going on, I defrosted the next bag-o-dinner in the microwave, then dumped it in my preheated crock pot.  I'm still a little leery of that frozen raw meat thing.  This SHOULD be Black Bean Turkey Chili.  My local Mexican store, not having any ground turkey EVER, only had ground pork.  

I set it on high for a couple of hours before turning the knob down to low.  Gosh ... it smelled wonderful and actually looked pretty tasty.  

The good news is I'm still ALIVE!!!  No food poisoning like I expected!!  And SO TASTY!!  Who knew freezer meals could be this easy to fix and so good?  Honesty, I would even feed this to company!!  It needed corn bread, but I'll fix that next time.

The background on this freezer cooking comes from seeing a demo on Facebook.  It looked easy and was CHEAP ... my favorite description of dinner.  The delivery meal programs average $6-9.00 a serving.  This do-it-yourself is $2.89 a serving!!  It does take a bit of organization, but was really easy.

Here's the recipe for this one in case you are interested.  One recipe is a serving for six, so I decided it into two bags for the freezer.  I think you can make it with just about any kind of meat and it will be good. Always add the meat to the bag last, so it will hit the bottom of the slow cooker and cook first.  I did add one teaspoon of sugar to balance out all the tomato acid.  As you can see, they also work great in an instant pot.

At the end of the day, I gathered up my supplies for the crafty project that sent me to Michaels in the first place.  I'll explain this one later.

In the meantime, my 100 mph throwing arm is getting better.  I'm maybe up to 15 mph now, throwing a tennis ball at the darn pigeons!!  My neighbor and I are at WAR with these critters!!  I chase them off, they fly to her house.  She chases them off ... well you know what happens.  We need a plan!!!