Rain On The Horizon!!

It's a little late in the year, but the winds are howling around the corners of my house and I can hear the trees whipping back and forth.  A big storm is finally hitting California, as evidenced by the totally black sky overhead.  I actually received a weather alert on my phone, so it's expected to be a big one.  Just in time for my trip to the Magic Kingdom tonight!!

My usual boring breakfast ... NutriSystem-wise ... looks absolutely delicious, right??  The 2-1/2 inch muffin has to be eaten with a large glass of water, by design I suppose.  It's so dense you can't swallow it otherwise!!  

Martha Stewart tapped me on the shoulder again yesterday.  I have too many quilt tops completed, so it's best I slow down on the sewing side.  Trouble is, I just can't sit still!!  To make it a little more interesting, I'm decorating on a budget ... meaning if it isn't below $5.00, I don't purchase the item.  I found the colored chalk for this board on sale for $1.00.

Speaking of chalk, have you ever heard of chalk paint?  It's used on furniture mostly and these days comes in a variety of colors.  My favorite store Vintage Market is having a class in how to prepare and paint a piece, along with the wax coat finish.  Luckily it was on a day that I'm not busy ... like I'm busy at all ... so I signed up.  I have a couple of old pieces in the garage that I can refinish, not to mention finding an old picture, painting the frame with chalk paint, then painting the picture with blackboard paint and VOILA .... you have another cute chalkboard to leave your husband a message, like "take out the trash please" .......

It's almost a treasure hunt ... scouring the shelves of the top end stores for sale items.  We have one top end store here, Pier One, but the low end stores have treasures too.  These plates came from Wally World for $2, the Martha napkins and ring on the cheap from Pier One and the flowers 40-50% off at Michaels.  Hey ... this is pretty fun, to see a picture in a book and then see how cheap you can copy it!!

For dinner I tried to choke down the N-S lasagne, but after reading "textured vegetable protein" ... what the heck is THAT???  .... I quickly learned NEVER read the ingredients.  It went in the trash!  That was REALLY something worthy of a backyard burial!!  I watched Pioneer Woman earlier in the day make meatballs ... perfect portion control ... so I gathered the ingredients, whipped up a batch and placed them on this pan in the freezer.  Once frozen, I transferred them to a zip lock bag and back in the freezer they went, minus three I ate for dinner.  Just take out a couple or ten, depending on how many people you have and drop them in the spaghetti sauce!!  Easy Peasy ... and they certainly tasted better than that lasagne, even if they were half turkey, half beef!!

I should have stopped there, but I have this ice cream machine just sitting in the drawer calling my name!  I think the Devil was on my shoulder for this one, because peanut butter ice cream sounded delightful, so I gave it a shot!  WOW!!!!  It's WONDERFUL!!!  In a short 20 minutes I had three pints of ooey-gooey yumminess.  I was good though ... with just a spoonful taste test, it all went in the freezer for my Saturday night treat allowance!!  It made me swoon it was so yummy!! 

With the wind blowing even harder, there are now rain drops on my windows.  I'm glad I didn't wash them last week!!  I do wish Martha would get off my back however ... since today she's decided to rearrange all my bookshelves!!!  Maybe if I spend more time planning my summer trip, she will disappear ... at least for a time!!

The EASTER BUNNY Stopped By!!!

Funny, I don't remember the Easter Bunny EVER coming to MY house like he came to Central California yesterday!!!  Of course it helps if your Mom is one of those very talented, artistic, creative people who just can't help herself!!  Mr. Bunny hopped on by her house yesterday morning, leaving tracks for Braden, that had to be hand painted around midnight!!

He's a sly little guy, Mr. Bunny.  Not only did he leave tracks, but he whispered in their ear to invite me to Easter Brunch.  Who could turn down an invitation like that when the cook is a Chef??  Certainly not me!!!

Chef Nick pours a pretty mean orange juice ... (a Mimosa to be exact) ... to start the morning.  My good friend Diane and I sipped away as we watched Mom Shelbi hide the plastic candy filled eggs around the yard.  

Last year at one, Braden didn't quite get it.  This year at TWO, it didn't take him long at all to get the hang of treasure egg hunting!!  In no time, his basket was overflowing!!  Unfortunately when the game was over and all the eggs retrieved, he just kept looking!!  It took some convincing before he sadly retreated to the house.  Double the eggs next year, Mom!!!

Brunch was wonderful, to say the least ... and THIS chef shares his recipes!!  Ham and onion quiche with a crispy hash brown crust, jalapeño corn bread with lots of tasty sweet corn, barbecued linguisa and fresh fruit salad.  Yum YUM!!!

I turned out to be the puppy magnet for the morning,  probably from that linguisa I ate.  Chloe and Ollie seemed to know I love puppies, or maybe they were just looking for handouts!!  

After opening four Easter baskets (yes FOUR!!) it was time for some bubble popping.  Braden loves this game and chases down every one, saying pop ... pop ... as they break on his hands.  What a cutie pie!!  I took over the bubble blowing in a slight breeze, that had him running from one end of the yard to the other.  Funny how he went down for a nap so easily!!

And what a great family to spend Easter with!!  I had so much fun ... I think I need to get out more when I'm home!!

Back at the ranch, I rearranged my patio to provide a little more room.  Cooper thought it was perfect ... giving him MUCH more room to roll the ball around and less obstacles for me to trip over while I run after it!!   He has me well trained!!

A little Easter Bunny carrot cake with ice cream was a fitting end to a wonderful sunny day ... except for that part when it started to rain.  Can you believe it??  Rain in California!!  

HAPPY EASTER!!!

I hope the Easter Bunny visited your house and left a plethora of candy and eggs, leaving no bunny skat for the kiddies to track in the house!!  Even if you have to spend it with relatives that aren't your favorite ... like Great Aunt Maude who drinks like a fish, or Uncle Charlie who knows everything ... just enjoy the fact that you actually HAVE family and it's only a day or so!!!

Being invited to a friends house, I thought I would try out this new carrot cake crock pot recipe.  I can hear you laughing .... my cooking skills lack a certain level of competency, but I wouldn't be swayed!!  Crock Pot Carrot Cake ... mix it up, dump it in and leave it for 4-1/2 to 6 hours.  How hard could that be??

Well about four hours later I began to smell the slight hint of burned cake, so I double checked the recipe and finally turned it off.  It actually looked pretty good from the top!!  The part they left out was that you should let it completely cool before disturbing the four inch tall mass!!

Although it looked like something out of a jar of baby food, it tasted pretty good but needed salt.  With no whipped cream as the recipe called for, I tried a little caramel ice cream (left over from pre-diet days).  Not bad actually, but it looks pretty awful and isn't something I would take to someone's house.

I scooped it into a big bowl and left it in the fridge.  Later, another taste test found it to be more cake-like and much more appetizing!!  I think the secret would be to let it cool, turn it out on a plate and refrigerate before cutting.  With these two taste tests I gained TWO pounds!!  RATS!!!

Here's my beautiful chair in the rig.  We had to add the chunk of wood when the cabinets were completed ... which I was supposed to have carpeted ... because the couch here was sitting on a deck two inches tall.  Carpet is the next project!!  Oh ... the drawer handles??  TWICE now I've purchased screws ... all of which were too short to extend through the cabinet and into the handle.  ONE more trip to Home Depot is required!!

Happy Easter everyone ... enjoy your Spring day, with or without family and remember what Easter is all about!!  If you get tired of deviled eggs, just wait until everyone has gone to bed and give them a nice ceremonial burial in the back yard!!

A Little This, A Little That!!

Sometimes you just HAVE to break your diet!!  I've been very good for the last month, so when I saw this weird recipe flash across the internet, I thought I'd try it, since I have one more section of cemetery in the back yard that's still available.   Now biscuits aren't my forte ... my dad made wonderful delicious crispy nuggets of pillowy goodness in his dutch oven.  I make hard as rock, choke you when you swallow lumps of hard tack.  Here's the recipe ... 4 cups Bisquick, 1 cup SevenUp, 1 cup Sour Cream.  Mix it up, roll it out (it will be a wet dough), cut and bake at 425 for 15-18 minutes.  They came out wonderful soft, tender, light puffy morsels of deliciousness.  I ate one ... or two!  Okay, I ate THREE!!!

Here's one for your grandkids if you're getting together for Easter ... a couple banana slices, some blueberries and a little whipped cream.  Cutest bunny pancake EVER!!!  No, I didn't make this one, it was from a friend ... he made it for his 7 year old grand daughter!!

I spent the morning with my gardener, trying to get the drip irrigation fixed.  I heard a strange noise the other morning.  After some investigation, I found a huge geyser in my front yard.  When I fixed that, I still had four smaller ones spouting like Old Faithful.  With those fixed and some fertilizer sprinkled around, we headed over to the ranch to look at the last of the branches to be hauled off.  He said he could do it easily ... YAY!!  One more thing off my plate!

Many moons ago when I ran the cutting horse practice at the Horseman's Association, I met Susan Regert ... artist extraordinaire.  Many of her paintings have been featured in Western Magazines, and one resides in my house, the only one painted on paper she made.  While at the furniture store, I saw her name ... walked over and to my surprise, there were a bunch of metal sculptures.

Seems her son snagged some of her artistic talent.  Although it says these are HERS, word is they are cut with a plasma cutter by her son ... or maybe it was her husband.  At any rate, this is the newest member of my family.  I WANT A PLASMA CUTTER!!!  I've always wanted to do this kind of work ... or craft.  Welding stuff together, cutting up metal ... how fun would that be!!   But alas, I have no idea what kind to get or really how to use it!!  Do the Escapees have welding classes??

I picked up my new RV chair and brought it home.  It's tough when you don't have help moving things.  I was so excited to get it in the rig, that I stuffed, moaned, groaned and squeezed until after three tries, I finally got it over my head and in the door.  Hmmmm a little forethought would have saved me a lot of trouble.  If I had opened the slide and moved the passenger chair back, it would have been much easier.  Oh NO!!!  I forgot to take the other chair out first!!  It took some doing, but I managed to remove the rocker before getting mad and cutting it to bits!!  WHEW!!!  That was hard work!!

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday.  Just for kicks, I tried dying some eggs with natural things like turmeric, onion skins and chili powder.  With no results whatsoever, I checked the internet to find I needed to add salt, boil the mixture, then leave the eggs in overnight.   Oh well, NEXT year I'll try again.   I hope everyone has a wonderful day with their families and grandchildren gathering eggs and eating lots of chocolate bunnies.  As always, please remember the reason for the holiday ..... HE IS RISEN!

Always Keep Your Eyes Open!!

You just never know when ... or where ... things you have been looking for, will magically appear.  Along with the flu bug this last month, I've come in too close contact with the Martha Stewart Virus, a deadly little no-seeum that not only makes you weak and tired, but drains your bank account!!

The first inkling of a problem was when I took the puppies outside and slowly began to wipe all the dirt and dust off the patio set in the beautiful 75 degree weather.  That seems to be when the bug thrives the most!!

I had a very large patio set, coincidentally made by Martha Stewart herself, that I never used.  One of my best friends (we worked together for about 11 years) has lots of backyard parties with no place to sit, so we hauled it over to her house, where it fit nicely on her patio.   THEN ... the bug snuck in through the screen and the open window, biting me in the living room.  A little furniture rearranging was the second symptom, and then it hit me hard!!  SLATERS FURNITURE STORE!!

I hadn't been there in years ... it's been a long time since this Virus has struck!!  The worst part is it makes you crazy enough to take your TRUCK to the store, instead of the smaller Jeep.  I'm just going to LOOK and say hello to my long time friend Diana.  As I walked around, the Martha bug kept biting and gnawing ... it's a good thing, right??

Low and behold, in the back corner I caught site of these familiar looking chairs.  I've been trying to find an affordable one to fit in my rig in the very small space I have ... but these are all too big!!

Diana jumped on that one ..... why we have ONE smaller chair on sale in the back room!!  I sat down, laid back and it was comfortable!!  And it swivels!!  And it's the right color!!  AND it's $300 cheaper than the one I saw in Quartzite!  Who would have thought I'd find this chair in THIS store?

I should have just walked away at that point, but that darn bug was still biting me, when I turned around to find a large leather ottoman with a lift off top (tons of storage) also on SALE!!  I could hear Martha's voice ... "it's PERFECT!"

Okay ... I'm done!!  That's it!!  I pushed Martha from my head, since she will never be coming to my house anyway, and pulled out my credit card.  At least I'll get free Hawaii flight miles!!  Somehow I felt MUCH better on the way home.  I think this session of the bug is finally over and I can recover at home with my feet on the new ottoman.

A slight relapse happened about midnight when visions of this "perfect" Martha Stewart table danced in my head.

It's a GOOD THING, right?????

The Magic Kingdom Overfloweth!!!

Cinderella finally got all her floors scrubbed yesterday in time to head to the Castle.  I'm sure the knee bruises will finally go away, but in the meantime, I won't be wearing any shorts.

With much trepidation, I entered the the castle through the Servants Entrance while the masses thronged (is that a word?) at the front gate.  It's not a good sign when I see lots of new faces.  It being the first of the month when the King's Treasury passes out all that free money, means it's going to be a busy night!

When the King arrived, we went to the dungeon vault to retrieve the dreaded plastic cash register for it's first night's test on the worst day of the month!!  Once set up, I counted out the cash on the abacus, but when I tried to open the cash register, nothing happened.  It just beeped at me.  I carefully perused every key ... then I HIT every key.  NOTHING!!  Where's my Fairy Godmother when I need her??

The Court Jester showed up about then ... you know, the one who thinks he has more grey matter than anyone else ... and HE hit every key.  "Oh just pick it up and hit the button on the bottom ... the drawer will open".  That's nice says I, but I have to get in here 50 times a night for change, etc, and lifting it up 50 times isn't going to work.  I called for the King!!  After HE hit every key, he ran back to the dungeon for the Book of Magic, to see if it might have any spells we could cast on this infernal beast!!

After 30 minutes of looking for spells and AGAIN hitting every key, the Court Jester ran up with his phone, which was smarter than all of us put together, and showed us the NO SALE key.  Bing!!!   That spell worked and the drawer magically opened.  With the masses clamoring at the door, we opened them wide and began collecting all that hard earned cash!!

The Kingdom overfloweth!!!  The final tally on the masses was 149 ... a record since I've been there.  We went as fast as we could and never stopped for 2-1/2 hours.  YIKES!!!  What a haul for the King's coffers!!

At the end of the night, I finally got my hands on the Book of Magic to see just how we were going to final out these transactions.  Honestly, I'd rather be mopping the floors!!!  With six tapes now printed out and only two with similar totals, nothing balanced!!  OFF WITH THEIR HEADS was my thought as I scanned the book for another spell to make sense of this piece of paper, totally unlike anything I'd seen before.

The King and I finally threw away all the tapes that were unworthy of our time, kept one that most resembled the final cash tally, stuffed it in the box and dropped everything back into the dungeon!!  The Book of Magic came home with me, whereupon I tried to figure out all those crazy numbers.  I called for my Fairy Godmother several times, but what with the names I was calling her, she didn't answer!!  FINALLY my little abacus figured it out and the black spell was broken.  The Court Jester hit a few buttons after it was cleared last week, adding to the "Charges" (we don't charge anything ... it's cash or ATM)  and the "Checks", which we don't accept!!

With that, Cinderella crashed with her faithful watchdogs at midnight just before turning into a pumpkin, only to be awakened by the Ogre next door who needs a new muffler on his truck .... at 4:30 am.   Today I will reread the Book of Magic hoping for a black spell to cast on the big mechanical transportation creature thing!!

Spring Cleaning!!

Cleaning is NOT on my list of fun things to do.  Try as my mother might to make me love it, she just succeeded in making me an outdoor girl.  I'd rather clean out horse stalls than my house ... but with not much else going on, it was time.

What actually spurred me into action was a visit to an Open House.  I used to live on a beautiful five acre spread that I sold when my parents passed.  The new owners purchased it, completely gutted the interior, then renovated it into something that should be in a magazine.  My Realtor said to come take a look, since she sold me the house years ago.  WOW is all I could say as I walked around.  I've never seen such an immaculate place.  I thought I was in Martha Stewart's living room!!

Now feeling bad about my dirty house, I got a burst of energy, lots of rags and cleaned from floor to ceiling ... well almost to the ceiling.  Once I get in the cleaning mode, everything's gotta go!!  I loaded up boxes of donations, moved that huge couch out of the living room and called LOVE Inc to come get it all.

I quickly discovered the previous owners had dogs, which they apparently locked in every single room in the house, leaving horrendous scratches on the doors where they showed their displeasure!!  Here's a tip you've probably heard before ... grab a piece of walnut and rub it on the scratches.  It really does work!!  Eight pieces later, most of the scratches disappeared.  That worked so well, I tried it on my kitchen cabinets that were nicked and scratched from wear and tear.  What a difference!!!  They look brand new!!  Not sure how long it will last, hopefully until I clean again next year!!!

In taking stuff out to the garbage can, which was full after the second load, I took WAY too much notice of the dirty patio furniture.  I'm not sure why there's so much dust here, but half an inch thick is pretty bad!!  Six Swiffer dusters later, it was halfway clean as I moved one set out.  When I put the umbrella up, it actually felt like spring!!

Not that I use these pieces much ... I'm not the party girl I used to be.  It's nice however, to go outside in the morning and have coffee and breakfast.  It's really not going to rain ... I took these pictures in the early morning light.  

Sitting at my computer, I felt a nice sunrise coming on, so I opened my shutters to find a broken window in the living room.   Hmmmm wonder which neighborhood kid caused THAT??  The joys of home ownership!!

At any rate, the patio area now looks rather forlorn ... maybe a little gas fire pit like Martha Stewart's house, would warm it up!!!!!  The outdoor kitchen area still needs a cleanup, but the trash can is stuffed to the brim.  The black hole in the cabinet is for a refrigerator, but with no parties going on, it will just remain a black hole!!

More cleaning will go on today.  I really have to learn NOT to purchase momentos of trips I take.   It's just entirely too hard to clean all that stuff!!!   They all hold such great memories that I can't let them go.  Maybe that's why I still have all those boxes of junk in my garage ... I mean treasures!!!

It's Magic Kingdom day, so Cinderella has to get her act in gear and finish cleaning before the Kings Ball tonight!!  Now where did I put those glass slippers???

Art Comes In Many Forms

I've been growing my soul quite a bit for the last year or so making quilts and crafty things.  Some people make jewelry, some people can knit up a storm, some can paint beautiful pictures and some can carve the most wonderful gourds. There's just an unlimited number of things to do that people call ART.  I've never been much of an "art" person ... I think you have to be born with that talent and since we were so far out in the boon tullies when I was a kid, it passed me by!!

In my family, sewing was pretty much mandatory for the women.  My grandmother and mom made all our clothes ... at least all MY clothes anyway.  I never thought of it as art, I just thought my grandmother made me new p.j.'s.   When I asked her to show me how to sew, she sat me down on her machine with some scraps and I went to town.

Here I am 60-something years later, and I still have a pile of scraps I'm sewing, just like I did when I first started.  This pile will become a queen size quilt some time down the road.  I've been sewing these pieces together for a week now and still have a long way to go.  Funny ... I never thought of it as ART.

To me, ART is knowing how to operate this tractor pulling a 24 foot plow across the field.  I ALWAYS wanted to be outside.  Inside didn't impress me at all!!  Finally, when I was maybe 14 years old, my dad showed me how to drive our little D4 Caterpillar, pulling a 12 foot disc across an old hay field.  I left the sewing behind pretty quickly and was in seventh heaven, sitting on that dusty, dirty, greasy tractor all day long, making sure my disc lines were perfectly straight!!

Later on when we were growing rice, I would sit and watch the tractor drivers with envy.  They were operating D9's ... HUGE tractors pulling even bigger plows.  When I got up enough nerve to ask if I could operate one, my dad laughed and said I'd be stuck in the mud in an hour.  I persisted and whined until he finally pulled a driver off, showed me the controls and drove away.

It was the best time EVER!!!  Running that huge piece of equipment across the field, listening to the diesel engine constantly for the lowering of RPM's, which meant you were in wetter soil with the chance of getting stuck.  Using hydraulics, I would lift the disc just enough to hear the RPM's raise back up to normal, letting it down as I passed the muddy area.  Now THAT'S ART in my book!!  I drove that tractor all day and NEVER got stuck.

I was so happy and proud that I didn't want to get off when the sun went down, but all good things must come to an end, as did my tractor driving career.  My dad never did admit that I had a knack for heavy equipment and that I didn't get stuck in the mud.  In those days, women weren't allowed to drive heavy equipment OR big trucks.  So now you know why I'm so happy driving a big rig down the highway ... it's an ART ... just like driving that Caterpillar and sewing that quilt!!

Did You EVER ....... ??

Did you ever get up one morning and find a pulled muscle in your leg that you didn't know you had?  Yesterday was the day for me.  Actually, it's an old running injury from trying to keep up with the pack going up a 45 degree hill.  I'm SURE it was that steep as I limped down the other side.  I guess I aggravated it while working at the ranch, because I could hardly move one leg forward.

Did you ever think you wanted to go somewhere, like maybe a quilt store ... you showered and dressed, fixed your hair and makeup, gathered everything up including your list of material requirements and headed to the truck?  Two blocks away from the house your brain says ... I don't really want to drive an hour out and an hour back ... I just want to go home.  So you turn around and drive home??  Yup ... that was me!!

Did you ever think you wanted to cook shrimp and grits (polenta) because you saw it on TV and it looked SOOOOOOO easy?  Well it wasn't easy at all!!  The frozen raw shrimp from Texas, once cooked, were so iodine tasting and tough that they went in the trash can ... the ENTIRE bag.

Did you ever try to cook polenta??  You shouldn't cook shrimp and grits in the first place unless you are from the south ... and you shouldn't try to cook polenta unless you're Italian.  I'm neither, so disaster followed in Nancy's kitchen, as she turned her head for just a second, to look back and find the entire stove covered with molten lava as it rolled and boiled out of the pot all over the stove!!

Did you ever try to clean up molten polenta from your beautiful gas stove???

Did you ever just leave the back door open for the dogs because you were too tired to get up and let them out?  What happens when you do that is flies come in by the dozens!!

Did you ever spend literally the entire day on the couch because you were achey breakey and just didn't want to move??  It was so hard to sit up and reach for the TV remote that I watched some horrible B-Grade SyFy movies that had me laughing at the acting and movie sets, causing even more pain!!

Did you ever go to bed without making it up first??  I had thrown the sheets in the laundry early in the morning and my foggy achey brain forgot about them.  By 9:00 pm there was no way I could make the bed, so I just threw the comforter on top and rolled up in it like a burrito, snuggled with the puppies and went to sleep ... at least for a little while.

Did you ever dream you were in a vehicle flying through the air about to crash??  It wakes you up REAL quick!!!

Did you ever try to type a blog when you are still achey breakey and your fingers won't hit the right keys so you have to make corrections every other word?  

Did you ever spend TWO days on the couch??  That's were I'm headed right now.  Hopefully sometime today I can get the bed made and kill all those flies!!  Don't worry, I'm done with shrimp and grits!!!

Snaps Can Be Dangerous!!

This is WAY too early for a retired person to be up and on the road!!  Day two of the cleanup began at 0-Dark-Thirty as I drove to the ranch before the sun came up.  I wasn't alone though ... the silage trucks were already on the road as was the local skunk population.

Surprisingly, I moved my shoulders around and discovered I wan't very sore at all.  We are finally in front of the barn and quonset hut, about 50% done.   Cowboy Jaime and I began to tackle the worst part with gusto.  We quickly found out what looked like the ground level was actually two feet deep of leaves, berries, grass and about 30  fence posts.  As soon as I dug up one, I saw part of another ... and another.  Just when I thought I had them all, there were 10 more.  Will this never stop???  We found old saws, pieces of metal chairs, beer cans and harrows (farm equipment).

Today being a new day, there were new people at the County Dump who decided we were no longer dumping wood, but trash.  The trash IS wood, isn't it??  But they weren't having any of it, and each load ran $250+!!  It didn't take long to be over my budget, but what's a girl to do??  It HAS to be cleaned up if the place is to be sold, so I told them to keep on trucking!!

If you're the least bit squeamish, rotten logs buried two feet deep in tree trash won't be your favorite thing to dig up.  There were more bugs than you could shake a stick at ... which I did, many times.  Finally when the truck driver saw me dancing around getting the creepy crawlies off my hands and arms, he brought a pair of gloves for me to wear as he grabbed a BIG bug from my neck!!  See ... there ARE nice guys in the world!!  They're just all married, as was he and my Cowboy Buddy!!!  

I'm not sure what kind of spider made this nest, but it was pretty cool.  My little i-Phone didn't really do it justice, but with so much dust and mold in the air, I didn't want to take my "camera".  When the boss brought out dust masks for us to wear, I stashed mine in the truck for the next trip to Bingoland!!!

I took a couple breaks to rest a little, since it seemed I was wearing out.  That was a big mistake because it was then I found out the time was only 9:30 am and not noon like I thought!!  UGH .... back to raking!!  About that time we were using the chain saw to cut down small branches, which I grabbed, turned and hauled off  to the "new" pile.  Just as I turned, one branch snagged my shirt and before my brain could process what was happening, every single snap on the front ripped apart.  YIKES!!!!  NEVER wear a shirt with snaps when working with tree branches around a bunch of MEN!!  At least I was facing the street, away from the crew, but can you imagine my embarrassment as I frantically tried to reconnect them with gloved hands, while not dropping the tree limb ... acting like nothing had happened??  

This is the BEFORE picture of this area.  By now I was starting to hurt a little.  Those 50 pound pieces of concrete and all that bending over was beginning to get to me.  I headed over to the truck to see if I might have an aspirin or two.  Thank goodness I found a small bottle with five pills, only one of which was recognizable.  I didn't care one bit ... I downed the four remaining with the last of my water and collapsed against the truck.  I don't remember this work being so hard when I was a kid!!!  The truck driver's wife brought a large pizza to the party and I said screw the diet ... I'm eating!!!  It was WONDERFUL!!!!!  Recharged, we were back at it in 15 minutes!!!

Pretty amazing change, right???   There are still many piles left to be hauled off, but we ran out of time and my pocket ran out of money.  What's left is mostly small green limbs that I'm hoping my gardner will haul off.  All the concrete irrigation pipes are gone now and one of the kids that showed up to help us, will haul the metal off ... hopefully today (I won't hold my breath however .. he's a kid after all!!!)

More aspirin last night didn't even touch the sore and achey ... I was awake most of the night.  This morning the sore, achey and tired is all that occupies my mind, knowing that tomorrow will be worse .. it's always worse the second day ... so if you need me, I'll be laid out on the couch!!!

The BIG Clean!!!

Big  BIG  BIG!!!!!  It was the BIG CLEAN day at the ranch.  Big is putting it mildly.  Cinderella put on her jeans and boots, grabbed her gloves and was out the door by 7:00 am!!!  The tractor and truck met me at the gate, as we tried to squeeze them in to the yard between the eucalyptus trees.

This really big tree is over 200 years old, 4 feet deep in trash at the base.  On the far side, was the "post pile" my dad created over 40 years.  Anything that resembled or "could" resemble a post, was saved in this pile just in case we needed it down the road.

Telephone poles counted as posts too, but also count at the County Dump where most of this trash will end up.  They are like gold to the dump because they charged $459 to leave them there!!!  

I have to say these guys worked their butts off!!  One ran the tractor and the other a shovel.  By the way, Cinderella got a marriage proposal from the Cowboy Shovel Guy, right after he asked me if I owned the property!!  Might not have been a bad deal, since he never, and I mean NEVER quit working ALL day ... not even to take a lunch break!!  That's a pretty good recommendation in my book!!

It seemed like everything was in slow motion and we would never see the light of day.  After four loads, we were still cleaning up from the SAME tree!!

I'm sorry I didn't get a before picture ... but here's the after.  It hasn't been this clean since we bought the place in 1954!!!  (Not my horses by the way!)

Finally we finished maybe a quarter of the job and moved up to the pile of concrete pipe we've been trying to get rid of since the 70's.  That was before anyone even cared about recycling ... now a local business takes all the concrete you can haul to them ... and they DON'T charge for it!!  YAY!!!  Cinderella can just feel that glass slipper, covered in dirt and spiders at this point!!

At the end of the day, one of the Supervisors stopped by to check the progress.  He jumped on the tractor and in a matter of minutes, had another pile of tree trash to load ... then proceeded to load up the truck with the old irrigation pipes.

This area is pretty clean, but the entire right hand side of the property is still covered with dead tree limbs.  I sure hope we can finish up tomorrow.  Actually, we have no choice.  The cost of the truck and tractor, plus two men, is $4,000.  Heart attack time!!!  That's not counting the dump fees, which so far have exceeded $1,000.  I know it's tax deductible, but that doesn't hold much water when you have to write that BIG check!!

The time at the ranch did give me the opportunity to talk to my brother's renter who has four horses, two cows, a sheep, a pig, many dogs and this guy ... Mr. Goat.  That's a lot of poop to get rid of, all of which she's been dumping around the trees.  I'm pretty sure after our little talk that she won't do THAT any more!!  The goat is a cutie patootie, about 24" tall ... and he talked to me all day, probably because I stood there for an hour and scratched his neck!!  

All the while we're cleaning, the harvesters are running in the field, followed by 15 chop trucks hauling the silage to a local dairy.  It was literally a traffic jam on our little road all day!!

Cinderella is tired, filthy dirty, hungry and now needs to go figure out why her sprinklers aren't working.  A Princesses work is never done!!!

Another Magical Night!!!

How could Bingo possibly get any worse you ask??  Believe me, it can ... last night was another magical night in the Kingdom and a GREAT example of the Boy Scout motto ..... BE PREPARED!!!

It started off as any ordinary night ... the King who holds the golden key to the safe was 15 minutes late.  You wouldn't think that was anything to write home about, until you drug out all your supplies, the ATM machine and the dreaded  C a s h   R e g i s t e r,  with only 15 minutes to count the bank and get ready to sell!!

This poor cash register has been used and abused in the Castle since about 2004, but none of us expected the giant tantrum it threw last night.  As soon as I plugged it in, it said it was out of paper ... which it wasn't.  Before I could stand up and turn around, it went into a fit of rage and locked up.  Nothing ... and I mean NOTHING was going to change it's mind.  Where's a good ax when you need one??

We have a problem Houston .... how can we possibly handle 115 people buying an average of $50 each worth of cards, give out change, cash back and receipts with NO cash register???  Do it by hand???  You've GOT to be kidding!!  I seriously didn't think it could get any worse ... but it ALWAYS can I guess.  Okay, I've learned my lesson ... can I go home now??

The answer was of course NO ... the peasants were already lined up and banging on the Castle door.  So I grabbed my trusty abacus (little hand calculator) and the cash box and opened about 15 minutes late.  That's not a good thing in Bingoland!!  We closed the door, got a door man to stand guard, and allowed one person at a time in to the table.  My cohort Ann counted the cards and called out the games as I frantically added up the prices, got the total and made change.  It's a good thing I have a degree in accounting, or I think we would have been in trouble.  In over 115 purchases, only one didn't add up correctly!!  Not bad Cinderella ... not bad at all!!  I should get the glass slipper and a Prince for this job!!

In the meantime, the King ran over to Costco and purchased a new cash register, which they spent the rest of the night programming for Bingo.  Every so often I would take a break and go check out the new plastic, flimsy piece of beautiful black machinery and see how it was going.  They couldn't seem to get it to zero out completely, so when they ran off to the banquet table, I ran the tape and it worked fine.  The main problem is that we need five divided sections and it only has four.  That means something has to be placed on the table in a box ... a perfect way to do accounting, right??

The good news is that at the end of the night (thirty minutes past the time I turn into a pumpkin), there was no accounting to be done!!  With no balance sheet to match, we just counted the cash and were done.  Hmmmm this might not be such a bad idea after all!!!  Maybe the new register will get sick and die ... accidentally of course ...........

Alas, I went home with no glass slipper and no Prince in tow ... not even a toad to kiss goodnight!!  I keep kissing Cooper, but so far no luck!!  It's always a fun night in the Magic Kingdom!!!