HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms, Grandmas and Fur Kid Moms out there.  Time to lay around and be waited upon!!  Cooper isn't so good at that, so if I want dinner, it's on me!!

I'm off to the Elks Lodge ... have to be there by 6:00.  It seems there was a big party last night and we have lots to do this morning.  Add to that the fact that our usual supply of eggs didn't come in, so I'll be cracking fresh ones all morning long.  Luckily I don't have to cook them.

I've got ham, sausage, hash browns, biscuits, waffles and Spanish casseroles to prepare for 250 people.  It's going to be a baking frenzy!!  We panned nine sheet pans with sausage, filled seven more with cups of fruit filled by moi, sliced and panned eight huge hams, whipped up orange juice and eventually located everything else we need.  It was a treasure hunt!!

Here's wishing Mrs. Fox a happy Mother's Day.  I thought I would catch Mr. coming through the fence, but the camera was too slow.  As you can see, he's just passing through at a fast pace.  He's probably on a mission to find dinner for the missus, maybe a nice dead mouse!

In case you missed it, the Kentucky Derby was one of the craziest ever in history.  This horse that won, Rich Strike, only got in because someone else dropped out at the last minute.  Rich Strike had only run three races prior and was listed at 80-1.  If you get a chance, watch the race.  This horse ran through the pack like everyone else was standing still and STILL had enough strength left to outdistance the leader, beating him by half a length.  One of the most amazing races in my lifetime!!!

I'm off to play Chef of the Day!!  Keep your fingers crossed I don't burn the place down!!

Oh LOOK .... CAKE!!!!

Eeehawww .. RIDE 'EM COWBOY!!!  Oh, sorry, I was reliving that 91 point ride I watched on Cowboy TV yesterday.  I do occasionally have dreams about rodeo, but I'm always the one eating dirt on the ground while the bull gives me a big whack on my head.  Bulls are like bears ... they chase you when you're sleeping!!

It's a two cup of coffee morning, but I don't have time for that.  I've been summoned to the Elks Lodge to cook Mexican hamburger (yes that's a thing), slice ham, plate pastries, cut fruit, pan sausage and otherwise pretend to be busy while sipping a nice coke.  It's prep time for the Mother's Day Brunch on Sunday.  Therefore, this will be short, but not as short as tomorrow's when I have to be there at 6:30 am.

Square TRES is now complete.  It seems to be easier to get the pieces done, but harder to iron with a million seams on the back.  Gee ... I'm almost caught up with January's blocks.

Here's some of the mucho (must be left over from Cinco de Mayo) trimmings I throw away.  No Cindy, I'm not making ANYTHING out of these teeny tiny pieces but I can save them for you!!

Lunch was leftover Mexican dinner ... oh dear, I ate WAY too much.  I tried to walk it off by going to the grocery store for Jonathan supplies.  I walked right into the largest display of Mother's Day flowers I've ever seen!!  Apparently flowers are not in short supply.  The colors were amazing!!  

As I was walking the aisles, I happened to run into someone I used to work with at the County.  It took me 20 minutes of conversation to remember his name.  I worked with his girlfriend for ten years.  It was disheartening to see he had not aged a bit.  Somehow during that conversation, a box of spice cake got into my basket.  How does that happen?

Back home, it magically turned into a carrot cake.  It's in the fridge because the frosting is a little soft since  I tried to lessen the calories by not adding quite so much powdered sugar!  Jonathan will have to be happy with his Cole slaw since his carrots disappeared.  

Not being the least bit hungry for dinner, I passed and went straight to dessert!  Forget the peasants and letting THEM eat cake ..... I chowed down!!!   It's certainly a balanced diet ... vegetables (carrots), fruit (pineapple), dairy (cream cheese) ... all the food groups!  This makes me forget the garbage guys, the gardeners and my neighbors La Bamba music, as I savored every bite.

I'm off ... hoping I can remember everything I'm supposed to get done.  With four new ovens, I'm a little nervous about actually cooking all that food!!

And Then There Were TWO!!

Can you believe it?  Another beautiful morning without the heater or the air conditioner sucking cash out of my wallet.  Although it's been windier this year than I can ever remember, I rather like the spring.  The fact that the gardeners actually fixed that broken sprinkler yesterday made it even better.  Now if the trash pickup guys would do their job, I'd be in like Flynn.

So far I've placed two orders for them to replace the lid they ripped off the recycle bin.  Not that I have much to recycle, because I don't.  But when I do ....... I at least would like it not to be spread all across the country by the wind!  Both times they have not showed up.  Although it used to be a local company with good service, they are now owned by a company in Phoenix Arizona.  It took three transfers to find someone to talk to, and they were STILL a no-show!!  Ahem ..... Arizona!!!!

It also seems that my videographer skills have gone the way of my cooking.  It was really late and I was in a hurry.  Even I laughed at this one.  If you've ever had a kitty kitty, you'll see why.  She's sitting on the Route 66 Off Ramp, daring the foxes to knock her off!!

 The man of the den did make a quick appearance, but didn't hang around.  Just passing through!

And then there were two quilt squares.  This one went a little faster because I knew how to sew each piece, but the color selection took twice as long.  The sheet only shows the first square.  You have to figure out which color goes where on the next one ..... and they are ALL completely different!  The first one had letters ... the rest have only numbers.  My brain was fried by the time I got done.

The good news is if I mess up, you probably won't be able to tell, because I couldn't tell myself!!!  In fact, I may have to swap out a couple of colors since I did make an error or two in cutting.  We shall see if I have enough of the right color left.  Complicated this one is!!!!

One thing for sure, it's keeping me out of the fridge.  I mean really, I almost missed lunch and never once opened the door for candy or ice cream.  That's saying something!!!

Last night I got dressed up in the "required" uniform and headed out to the Elks Lodge.  It was Cinco de Mayo night, along with voting for the open trustee position.  The meeting was late on the opening, then they have decided to do the LONG opening and closing from now on.  I'm uncomfortable as it is and they make it last even LONGER!!!

Then I had a moment ..... what are they going to do if I wear something comfortable?  Two others don't wear the "outfit" so why should I?  I know that's the Black Sheep in me talking up a storm.  Hee hee hee!  I'm doing it!!!  By the way, our dinner of carnitas, rice and beans with REAL tortillas was delicious!

I got home late and I'm rather groggy this morning, faced with a really early 8:00 appointment tomorrow morning to chop and hack stuff for the Mother's Day Breakfast at the Elks.  That will be followed by a 6:00 Sunday morning appearance where I will pretend to be Chef of the Day!  Yup .. I'm cooking for the Mother's Day Brunch again.  Scary, right???  I'll let you know how that works out.

There's Small And Then There's TINY

It was another beautiful sunny morning in California.  Happy Cinco de Mayo!!  Today we all get to eat tacos!!!  

I was early to rise, but somehow time got away from me yet again.  I had plans, but cancelled them as I have so many other days.  Instead of driving out of town to find the clothing stores closed, and emptying my wallet at the gas station, I stayed home and went bananas in my closet.  

I'm donating two huge garbage bags full of stuff I never wear, or things that I love but were way too small.  At least those shirts weren't as old as the Levis.  I admit, in some cases I don't know what possessed me to buy them.  

The ruffled mini skirt was the first to go, along with six more pencil skirts I used to wear to work.  That was before I began the protest by wearing Levis with suit jackets and high heels.  At least I was half dressed to the nines.  

Oh look ... now I have room for more clothes!!!!  No worries though, if Prince Charming shows up, that closet will be cleared out in ten seconds to make room!!

I checked the critter cam to see if Foxy stopped by.  Sure enough, he came early for a nice chew bone on this morning.  There were six other videos where he just passed by.  I must be the Highway 99 to his house, maybe Route 66 to his hunting grounds, because they pass through here many times a night.  Last night I moved the camera to see just where they are coming in.  Tonight I'll move it again to see where they are heading.

And then I did THIS!  It's always a danger to go to the quilt store for a small piece of binding fabric.  Binding is like socks around here.  I buy it when I buy the fabric for the quilt, I pin a note on it saying exactly what it's for ..... and just like my socks in the dryer, it magically disappears.

The danger comes in when I spot something hanging on the wall in the store.  WOW!!!!  Look at THAT!!!  One of the most amazing quilts I've ever seen called A Ribbon Runs Through It.

The block-a-month pattern is actually two every month, ending in December.   My mouth watered, my adrenaline shot up like a zip line ride ..... I'LL TAKE IT!!!  Of course I'm 5 months behind, so they gave me all the packages required to date.  I spent the first two hours just cutting fabric for one square.

Little did I know it also required all kinds of chatchkeys in order to make the cutting and marking easier.  Add another $40.  If you didn't know, quilting can be a VERY expensive hobby!!  I quickly finished up the one I had on the wall and started on this one about noon.  It took me an hour just to figure out what to cut. The directions are good, but a little hard to figure out.

I cut and sewed, cut and sewed until my back was cussing like a sailor.  Okay ... time for a little food.  I opened the fridge to find eggs, half and half and cheese.  There was plenty of Cooper food, but nothing easy for me.  

I defrosted some more of those pork cutlets and got out the last package of Knorr parmesan noodles.  Let me just say do NOT buy any Knorr noodles.  If this wasn't the last package, I'd toss them in the trash.  I even used a REAL plate, hoping that would make it taste better.  It didn't

THIS made up for it.  The plan was to take this lovely Marie Callendar chocolate pie to the rally for happy hour.  What could make you happier than chocolate pie?  Not so sadly, there was no room for that big box in my fridge, which means I get to eat the whole thing!!

Back to sewing .... I literally spent the entire day cutting and sewing this one 12" square.  There are over twenty five 12" squares in the entire thing, not counting the edging and borders.  Me thinks I got in a little over my head.

Why you ask?  Because there are 117 ... yes 117 not small, but teeny tiny pieces in this ONE square.  It took me almost an entire day just to put this together and I've got SO many more to go!!  

SO ... I dedicate this one to Cindy Warner, who makes amazing quilts from teeny tiny pieces.  I don't know how you do it girl!!!  This will probably be my once in a lifetime quilt.  One thing I can say about quilting, it keeps me out of the fridge!

I'm guessing the next square will take more than one day, since it's Cinco De Mayo night at the Elks Lodge, followed by a long meeting.  Yawn ..........

The Screaming ... The Yelling!!!

 How can I not be happy when I wake up to this little face every morning, trying to dig a hole under my arm?  Come on Mom ... it's time to get UP!!!  He let me sleep in all the way to 5:00 this morning, then made sure I did my morning downward-dog-yoga getting his ball out from under the bed.  After the third time, I confiscate the ball.

Between that and my morning cup-o-joe, I'm ready to begin another day of I-really-need-to-get-rid-of-stuff.  Yesterday it was another journey into the land of Levis.  I've had most of these for at least 25 years because some day I'll fit in them again.  For whatever reason, "some day" has alluded me.  It's time for them to go.  No worries though, I still have 36 pair left that all fit!  What can I say ... it's the cowgirl in me.

After discovering a nice geyser in the back yard, I checked all the sprinklers and called the gardener to make repairs.  His guys did the damage, they can pay to fix it.  Finally ... it was on to BINGO!!

It was a two glass night.  For some reason I was pretty tired, so TWO glasses of coke it was!  It being the first session of the month, we were expecting a crowd.  We were not disappointed.  The peasants are allowed in the building, but have to remain behind the line.  It's like herding cats ... trying to round them up and keep them in the ante room.  

I was wondering if it was a full moon after the fourth problem solving incident.  Luckily my girl came in early.  We had the wrong box of cards, the infernal machine wouldn't turn on and the biggie ... the cash box didn't have the correct amount to start out.  In the end, it was correct ... it was the ledger paper that was wrong.

With things sorted out, we were off to the races.  I mean we were screaming through the line for a solid two hours, trying to get everyone taken care of before the games began.  I rang up 138 people this time, which would be much easier if we didn't allow THEM to pick their cards.  

Bingo players are SO superstitious.  They have to have the exact numbers in the exact spot on those papers or they just can't win.  They spend WAY too much time looking for that specific card.  In the end, it doesn't matter .... they still don't win!!  But they keep trying!!!  That slows the line down considerably.

Everything went pretty well until the back room became very loud, meaning the peasants were fighting over something.  The SCREAMING ... the YELLING!!  The King and his men surrounded the peasants creating the noise.  It seems someone got a bloody nose (not from being hit) that incensed everyone around.  The smell of blood can do strange things to peasants.  

The F-bomb name calling became prevalent before three people wanted their money back because they couldn't hear the Bingo caller.  Since one was the bloody nose, we complied.  I returned half the cost while the guy demanded we tell the peasants to put away the pitchforks and remain completely silent.  This is Bingo I said, and that's not happening.  At least there was no hair pulling or rolling on the floor.  He left in a huff.  It happens, these fights .... and it will continue since we can't have the Police at every door.

In the end I gave out another $5,500 and made some extra for the charity account, along with about $4,000 in winners from the back room.  The peasants were happy ... at least those that won!!

Today I'm determined to fine some new shirts to replace my holey ones.  So far I have driven up to 30 miles both North and South, only to find the stores out of business.  Clothes from the Dollar Store and Walmart are not my bag and I'm determined NOT to shop on Amazon.  They have enough money ... they don't need mine too!!

Thanks for stopping by ... I'll be back tomorrow!!!

Can You Smell THAT?

Some days it just pays to stay in bed.  If it paid a little more, I might just stay there.  The sun seems to be coming up earlier and earlier, shortening my peaceful coffee hour.  That's when I discovered my sprinklers have not been coming on for several days and my lawn is turning brown.  Investigation will begin after everyone in the house is fed. 

For the moment, I'm back in Jackson, heading to Sutter Creek for a look see.  As many times as I wandered up here when I was much younger, I never made it to Sutter Creek.  I don't think I even knew Sutter Creek was there.  All these little towns have now become tourist attractions.

In the meantime, the Golden Spike folks rode this train pulled by Old Number 28.  They were also regaled with stories of how many movies these trains were in, including Go West, Bound For Glory, Young Dog and Something Wicked Comes This Way.  

It is no longer the ride it used to be due to track maintenance.  It's very hard to keep these tracks in "official" working order.  If they aren't certified, the little train can't go far.  Honestly though, it's the click clack and the chunking noises that make for a good train.  This one has it in spades!!  These two pictures are from Patti Painter.

I was off to check out Sutter Creek, but 9:00 was just a tad bit too early for this sleepy little town, even though it was Tourist Saturday!!  Luckily I found a parking spot right on Main Street, making it easier to dump all my purchases.  

That's my white truck on the left ... barely fitting into the parking lines.  Town was silent.  I headed up the hill, paying more attention to the architecture of the buildings than the store contents.  Not that it mattered, because every single store was closed.

This General Merchandise store (now museum) was my goal, but alas, it too was closed, not to open it's doors until 11:00 am.  The inside looks to be original with floor to ceiling shelves and long counters.  I'll just have to come back!!

Brick walls are always a draw, looking for old wording and advertisements.  Even with computer enhancement, I couldn't find anything on this wall.  About here though, came the wafting smell of FOOD!!  Can you smell that??  Oh my gosh ... breakfast was being cooked in two of the tiny restaurants!  I wish I had not eaten earlier!

This image looks a little weird because I messed with it in Photoshop to be able to read the sign.  Brignole Estate Co. General Merchandise.  Part of the store was built by a man name Molinari in 1859.  Brignoli (spelled two different ways) purchased the building and added on another structure made of greenstone from the surrounding area.  This he turned into a store to mine the miners of their gold without all the hard work.

By the way, any store on this street would make a good quilt store.  I did stop in one open shop to try on some shirts.  It was a tight squeeze to fit in the old metal telephone control box changing room (smaller than my shower) without hitting your head, then closing the steel door and sitting down to check out the look in the mirror which was at five-year-old height. 

I was pretty shocked when I saw the price tag.  $228 ..... FOR A SHIRT!!  I gingerly took it off, backed out of the changing room and put it back on the rack!

As you come into town, you cross Sutter Creek, well known for it's gold.  Now THIS would be the perfect spot for a cup of coffee.

I have to say there were more wine tasting rooms than I've ever seen in one spot, none of which were open anyway.  If you come here on the weekend, make it after 11:00.  Next time I'll partake of what was causing all those smells to make my stomach growl!!!  I'm not kidding, it was a total distraction!!!

Sunday morning we all packed up and headed out.  I made sure to hook up my rig early when no one was watching.  It went well!  After saying goodbyes, I was heading off back home.

I am having a tad bit of trouble adjusting the brakes however.  If I slow down, then lift my foot off the brake, then slow down again, the trailer tires will lock up.  I was adjusting like crazy driving down the road and every stop sign was a trial.  

Luckily at this moment it was better since red lights were flashing everywhere.  Apparently there is something going on in Jackson ... a pioneer gold rush of horses and wagons heading into town.  What a nice way to end the trip.

I made it home with no problems, by-passing all the freeway construction as best I could.  Backing into my driveway was a disaster!  You should see all the black marks on the concrete.  I got her in after several attempts however.  Seems I'm getting worse at that rather than better.

And so we are back to normal, or as normal as I can be .... it's BINGO time!!

Bull$hit, Aw $hit and Bad Ass $hit!!

Does this not look like a magnificent day?  The weather could not have been better.  Although I would liked to have sat on the patio and sipped my coffee for hours, there was no time to be wasted.  By 8:30 the troops were off on their foray to Jamestown to ride the steam train that lives there.

Every day we drove out and every night we came back, these wild turkeys greeted us with gobble gobbles. The males were showing their stuff like I've never seen.  There was LOVE in the air!!

One last very interesting thing about the gold mine was the gorgeous building on top of the hill.  I was sure it was someone's mansion.  I practically ran up the stairs when our guide said we could go inside.

It turned out this beauty was made of poured concrete and used as the assay office and accounting headquarters for the mine.  I had no idea so much went into deciding what little section of dirt would actually be sent to the stamp mill.  Ten or twelve little samples from one small section would be tested for gold content.  If it wasn't enough, they quit digging there and moved on to another section.  

There were no big chunks of gold, this was all tiny stuff.  One ton of rock had to be crushed to get a thimble full of gold.

After receiving the go-ahead from the assay office, the next section of ore was sent to the stamp mill where the rocks were crushed and mercury was added.  It would bind to the gold and form amalgam.  That would be brought to this room in the building and burned, causing the mercury to vaporize.  

The vapor went up and through a big pipe where water was added, which caused the mercury vapor to turn back into a liquid.  It was captured in the bottle you see here, then reused in the stamp mill.  I had no idea!!  The remaining gold was then melted in these cylinders and poured into 60-70 pound bricks.  Imagine how many thimbles that took!

Upstairs was the payout office.  Miners came here to get their few dollars for all that hard work.  

The view outside the office was amazing, but the miners were not allowed to dally.  The Kennedy Mine, the deepest on the Mother Lode, and the Argonaut Mine next door closed in 1942.  There is still one more story about this mine, but I'll relay it tomorrow.  

While everyone else drove down to Jamestown for the train ride, I chose to wander the streets and alleys of Jackson and Sutter Creek.  I've ridden that train many times and these antique stores were screaming my name.

But first ... I bet you know where I am here!!  I forgot all of Cooper's blankets, so I hit up the fabric store for two big pieces of flannel.  Okay, I admit I got two SMALL pieces of quilt fabric.

That's when I ended up here ...  at The Biggest Little Kitchen Store.  I used to drive two hours to get here just to purchase kitchen stuff you can't find anywhere else.  They have it all!!  Including $hit!!!  Although Bull $hit is good, Bad Ass $hit is the best, and a big jar came home with me.

As for the antique stores, they were a bust.  What I consider antiques have apparently disappeared.  All I could find were everyday things I have in my house.  So just when did I become an antique???

When the RV group returned, we all wandered down to Strings Italian Restaurant for dinner.  The service was very fast considering they were serving 23 people at once, and the food delicious!!  My chicken parm was the size of an entire dinner plate!  Too bad I didn't take a picture!!  

As you can see, Cooper was pretty happy with his blanket.  He spent an hour hiding his ball and digging it out before we hit the bed.  

Next up, Sutter Creek, down the long skinny streets into the land of antiques and wine tasting.  Luckily I was early and found parking, but boy were those spaces tiny!!  I'll post those pictures tomorrow.

How To Mine For The Yellow Stuff!

The roar of jet engines!!!!   Oh wait, that's just the RV three doors down!  It's a good thing I have ear plugs, otherwise, this place is SO nice and quiet!!  

Back to the gold mine!  Probably the most important building on the property .... the 12-holer.  I know you're just on the edge of your seat hearing about this one.  They dug a big hole and placed the building over it, teetering on the edges.  Sometimes it fell in, but mostly it stayed until the hole was full, whereupon they dug a new hole, moved the building over and used the dirt to cover up the last one.   

This one moved quite often because there were three shifts of men working the mine.  Two shifts dug for gold and one for water.  I'll explain that below.  Way in the far back there's a tiny yellow thing ... a dead canary.  Just for show of course.

The head frame still stands since the frame is all steel beams now, having been rebuilt after a fire.  It's standing directly over the hole that goes straight down into the ground.

They required electricity to turn the wheels moving people and rock up and down the 5000 feet to the bottom.  It was provided by nine wood fired ovens, which completely wiped out all the trees around this area.  So many mines ate up every single tree, so eventually they had to change over to oil burners.  Those trees that are here now, have grown since the mine closed.  

These two images are looking at the hoppers, one up top and one below, along with the framework that held the cables that ran the skips (buckets).    

That lighter colored thing at the bottom is a skip, used to haul ore up through the mine shaft to one of two big hoppers.  The skip could be dumped into the first hopper if it was plain rocks that didn't assay out, or in the second bigger hopper above.  The skips were about 3.5 feet wide and open on one side if it hauled men or mules.  Yes, mules were taken down in the mine to move big rolling carts of rock to a holding area so it could be taken out later.  All that rock was moved by shovel and muscle.

Since we are not allowed to go into the mine, and truly, who the heck would want to go down a 6' square shaft to anything over ten feet, the museum built a mine shaft inside one of the buildings for us to walk through. 

That huge pile of cable on the right was attached to the two big wheels, one going each direction so as one skip was going down, the other was coming up.  

The other ends went around these wheels at the top of the head frame.

Rock dumped in the lower hopper is the fill dirt we were all standing on.  The second taller hopper was the ore (rocks and dirt) that was hauled off to the stamp mill to remove the gold.

These doors were opened loading big carts with the ore, that were then moved over to the stamp mill to the right .... wait for it .....

On this flimsy trestle BY MULE!  The mules walked along this walkway pulling the carts which rode on rails.

Those were dumped into the stamp mill below, the remnants of which can be seen on the left.

I think he said there were ten 1200 pounds stamps that crushed the ore.  With so many mines using stamp mills, the noise level was deafening day and night.  Using a sluice box system, the gold was gathered up and the waste water run into the nearest creek.  Farmers complained loudly.  The silty runoff filled in the rivers and streams and ruined their crops.  

Way off in the trees the mine built four huge water wheels they used to raise the sluice tailings 45' high, up and over the hill to a pond on the other side.  One water wheel remains today.

As I mentioned above, two shifts blasted and dug for rock (by hand) and one shift mined for water.  The water tables were so high at the time that the bottom of the mine filled up.  One entire 8 hour shift was spent each day removing water with this and one other skip.  

With all these skips running up and down constantly 24-7, you sure had to know what you were doing, what skip to get on and how to get OUT of the hole.  The only light inside to see came from small carbide headlamps they wore on their heads and a candle or two.  

These men ..... they were something else.  I couldn't even go 50' down a fully lit walkway in a cave down south.  There's no way I could ride a skip down into the pitch black to swing a pick and shovel. 

There's more, but I'll finish it up later.  The troops drove down to Jamestown and rode that steam train while I checked out Sutter Creek, then we all met for dinner at Strings Italian Restaurant.  SO MUCH FOOD!!!  

As for now, we are all headed back home this morning.