Carnivores!!!!

 Good morning again from sunny California.  I am very happy to be able to say that, having had so many close calls over the years.  I'm pretty sure it's because of my nightmares.  I've had so many weird things happen in my sleep ... mostly bad ... that I have learned how to survive in real life.  It certainly makes me wonder just WHY I can't get through a night without a bad dream.  Last night I escaped my truck that was sinking in a river.  Maybe that's it ... survival.

Anywhoo ... these guys are surviving quite nicely too.  Who knew they were carnivores?  Aren't they supposed to eat berries and fruit?  I knew crows would partake of carrion once in awhile, but Mockingbirds?  

Sadly I haven't seen the fox (nor thankfully the skunk) since that last big party.  I'm thinking maybe they got scared off for good.  I even put out some chicken bits that Cooper refused to eat, just to see if they would come around.  

Nope ... they sat there all night long until these carnivores came by.  I have never EVER seen a mockingbird eat meat.  I suppose they do eat worms, but that's not chicken like this.  They cleaned up every single bit.

With 90 degree temperatures hanging out most every day (95 tomorrow), it's time to do my sprinkler check.  That should be part of the job description for the gardeners, but you now how that goes.  These are turned on so I can throw big rocks at them to see WHERE they are located.  

If you don't dig them out every spring, they won't work at all.  I'm sure you all are aware that this is my favorite pastime, right?  Why in the world I didn't put on Levis, I've no idea.  I now have grass dimples in my knees that will last for the next month.

On the ranch, there were no flowers, although my Mom did get one lilac bush to grow.  Lawn and flowers were a luxury we could not afford.  There was some lawn watering by hand, but it never needed to be mowed.  If it did, we just brought the horses up and hung out for awhile.  

We grew lots of vegetables though ... the biggest and best tomatoes I've ever tasted.  There were lots of green beans and squash, bell peppers and carrots, but NO hot peppers.   No Mexican food was ever prepared in our house, but we always had a fresh tomato onion salsa of sorts that went on the deep pitted beef.

We had a pit built in the back yard, about 4' x 6' and lined with a few scavenged bricks.  Beef was seasoned, wrapped in foil, then wrapped in burlap barley sacks that were soaked with water and tied with baling wire.  After building a fire and letting it burn down to ashes, the bundles of beef were placed directly on top.  

A big piece of steel was slid over the top, resting on the bricks, then it was covered with about 10 inches of dirt.  The next day we dug it all up and OH BOY was it ever good.  If you've never had deep pit beef, it's AMAZING!!  We were VERY good at being carnivores on the ranch!!

I do love gardening when you are growing things to eat, but this ..... not so much.  I put off planting these yellowish bushes ... I've no idea what they are ... for well over a week.  The beautiful little flowers I had here died a horrible death in the frost and rain.  These are good down to 10 degrees, so hopefully they will survive.

With that done, I was back to sewing on binding while this little guy took a nap.  I always wonder if he's really asleep ... I mean look ... his eyes are open!!!  I think maybe he's just fooling me!!

The rest of the day was uneventful, and since it's Sunday, I plan on doing more of the same.  I think I'll be the carnivore I am and have some MEAT (the rest of that leftover steak) while watching the latest Redding Rodeo.  

Thank you for stopping by .... and I hope you have a wonderful sunny day!!

High Desert Ranch

 You know those days when you wish you could just roll over in bed and stay there ... but you ache too much to do that?  That was this morning.  Gosh, I can't believe I'm turning into my grandmother!!

I really didn't do anything, other than sit on the couch all day and sew part of that 400 inches of binding.  It's probably just me, but you know when you are working on something and your brain works overtime remembering stuff?  I can actually remember what TV show I was watching when I crocheted that last blanket I made.  Weird.

Memories of the old ranch pop up too.  My Grandfather and his brothers came from the Isle of Man and drove across Canada looking for just the right piece of property.  Everyone else stayed in Vancouver Canada.  What a nice place to live.  But did MY grandfather stop there?  Heck no!  He came all the way down to the southern part of California, then hooked a left turn into the high desert.

You came from a beautiful GREEN island, through beautiful GREEN Canada and landed in the BROWN desert?  Interestingly enough, his wife (my grandmother) stayed in the Isle of Man for several years before finally coming to California.  She died here before I was born.

I guess that desert property was cheap back in the day.  Where he came up with the money for this operation, I've no idea.  I'm pretty sure I wasn't born yet when this picture was taken.  Notice the dog in the corner?  That's actually a pretty big plow to need five horses to pull it.  And what a nice suit jacket!!

In case you think the Goodwill store is a recent innovation, back then the only way you had new clothes, was to be rich.  When the wealthy bought new clothes, they donated the old ones to thrift stores, which is where my relatives picked up their new duds.  Thus the suit jackets you see in many old pictures.

Here's the old Moline grain drill, or seeder they used to plant the fields.  There was no irrigation back in the day, it was all done on a hope and a prayer that the rain would come.  They planted oats and grass for the cattle, later switching to alfalfa.  

I have no memories of these days, mostly because I wasn't born yet.  Good reason, yeah?  

The very distinct memory I have of this field was when the locust swarm arrived.  It wasn't as bad as the ones that devastated the midwest, but it was enough to devastate us.  I remember walking out into the field and having them jump all over me as I went.  They were big ... like 1-1/2 inches long.  All I could think of was how perfect for fishing!!  I'm gonna catch a BIG ONE!!

Sadly, they ruined the entire feed crop for the cattle that year.  In no time, they had the field eaten down to the dirt.  It made for a bad year of selling off cattle for lack of feed.  But that was life on the ranch.  Back in the day people thought we were rich, but in reality, we were struggling to survive.  

Now all this land lays at the bottom of Lake Isabella.  The government decided to put in a dam to make a recreation area and we were forced to move to my current area.  That is probably why I love the desert so much, though I have to admit, I'm pretty much liking NO rattlesnakes at this new-ish location!!

Back to modern times, here is yet another quilt ... this one called the Pineapple Quilt.  I don't know, but it doesn't look like pineapples to me.  Anyway, the binding is complete and it's ready to keep someone warm in my guest bedroom.  

I'm not sure what I'm going to do today.  I've got THREE more days of nothing on my agenda and I'm lovin' it!!!

On another note, I still have not found the vacuum, nor have the skunks returned!!  Woohoo!!  No stinkys and NO cleaning!!

Shanghaied Again!

You know how someone comes up on you asking for a favor and before you can say NO, you've been shanghaied into working yet another function at the Elks Lodge?  This should be easy, it's just selling $20 tickets for the Cattlemen's Dinner.  How hard can that be?

It's just like Bingo, but without the infernal machine.  Instead I have a mini hand-held machine that's the devil himself!  I quickly regretted my decision.

That old saying ... if it can go wrong, it WILL?  Yeah .... that one.  I arrived early hoping to get a quick session on how to use the little machine.  Previously, I had all of one minutes direction.  I headed upstairs to get the tickets, which had been shown to me previously.  They were GONE.  

Big sigh ... it starts!!  I went to the bar to get the cash bag, and thankfully found it, but still ... no tickets.  Wouldn't you know, since I was actually a little late leaving home, I forgot my phone.  I borrowed one and called the Club Manager.  He was none too happy.  He had taken the tickets and put them behind locked doors, not knowing I would be selling them.  

When he finally retrieved them, he gave me a date stamp to use ... but no ink pad.  Another trip back upstairs.

As people arrived, I sold a few tickets here and there, twiddling my thumbs in between.  When is the last time you just sat at a table for 90 minutes doing practically nothing?  I do like to people watch, and I did a lot of that.  It's interesting to note it's the same as high school ... little group here, little group there.

Suddenly a gentleman slid in the door with a wheelchair.  On the back was the biggest brightest flashing RED light you've ever seen.  Instant headache.  It killed my eyes ... I had thoughts of my brain getting scrambled by the strobe effect ... but eventually the battery ran down.  Thank goodness!!

Then I realized it was 6:15.  If you've never been to an Elks Lodge dinner, let me just say that RAFFLES are the name of the game.  Every group that sponsors a dinner here, gets donations of cool stuff to raffle off.  Ummmm no one is selling raffle tickets.  

I found the head Cattlemen's dinner guy and gave him a heads up.  He finally located two lovely ladies who had never done that before and didn't have a clue.  In less than 30 minutes they turned in their money.  Wait ... you have to keep selling!!!  Nope .. off they went.  So now I'm not only selling dinner tickets, I'm selling raffle tickets and mixing up the money quite nicely!!!  

Once the line was down, I wandered back to get my steak.  Good grief!  Never EVER have they had a steak this big.  I'm guessing it's about 22 ounces.  That's a picture of my plate above.  I had a friend take it for me.  THIS is what I brought home that I couldn't eat.  There's another three meals in this big container.  This steak was SO tender and SO good ... it would have been $70 anywhere else.

At long last it was time to close up shop.  Too bad the raffle was going great guns (SO LOUD) and I couldn't concentrate on ANYTHING.  I probably counted that money four times before I was done.  It took no time at all to figure out there was NO total for the night from the devil machine.  All those dinner tickets ran right into the days lunch totals.  

Thankfully it did print out a receipt for every credit card I ran, which meant I had to add up all those receipts.  Remember no phone so no calculator?  Oh yeah ... I had to do it all by hand.  Thirty minutes later and I had it all wrapped up, balanced and accounted for.

That's when the head dinner guy came over with a check and wanted cash.  NOOOOO ... I just did the bill count and filled out the paperwork!!  Apparently he paid for the steaks, then got someone to pay him back, but they wrote the check to the Elks, and he wanted the cash reimbursement.  

I paid him and just stuffed the check in the bag.  The total is right, but none of the paperwork is.  I dumped it in the safe.  Someone will be none too happy with me, so MAYBE I won't get asked to do it again!!

I was almost out the door when ... wait ... I spotted a phone left on my table.  Obviously it wasn't mine, so I picked it up.  I spent the next 30 minutes looking for it's owner.  Turns out it was the dinner chairman who had already left.  Seriously, someone CALLED him to say he left his phone.  Too funny, so I left it in the kitchen drawer.  Someone will give it to him when he tries to call someone and figures out he doesn't have it!!!

Coming up ... steak and eggs for breakfast!!!

A Ribbon Runs Through It

Still can't find the small vacuum.  How weird is that for something to just completely disappear.  I could have used it on several occasions, so I guess I'll have to find another one on sale at Amazon.  I admit, I was never one to buy much on-line, even if the prices were pretty good.  

Nowadays however, all the stores around here except Walmart have closed down, making on-line shopping much cheaper than driving 35 miles.  In all of my 70+ years, there was ALWAYS shopping here.  Gottschalks, Penneys, Sears and lots of small clothing businesses to go with it.  Even the Mall here has closed except for one business on the end.

Oh you can shop Kohls ... high priced and terrible quality ... or Walmart ... low priced and terrible quality. So sad to see our country come to this.

On a much brighter note .... I finally got the call.  "A Ribbon Runs Through It" was ready for pickup.  Isn't she a beauty?  Every square has 136 pieces I cut and sewed together.  This is the most complicated gorgeous quilt I've ever made in my life.  I didn't really want to ruin it with my non-professional quilting skills, (besides which my machine is a tad bit too small for this one) so I had it done at a small shop out of town ... 40 miles away.

I'm so excited it turned out beautifully.  I spent the next hour scrounging through every box I had, looking for the binding material.  I seem to be losing a lot of stuff lately.  FOUND IT!  I cut and sewed for the next hour, making 400 inches of binding to go around the edge.  Now I get to HAND SEW same 400 inches.  That's going to take quite of few hours watching rodeo on TV.

In the meantime, here's the latest piece on the wall.  This one is called Jacob's Ladder.  Turns out it' a pretty easy pattern to make, but the results are fabulous!  To make it even better, much of this is scrap material I had laying around.

Here's an up close view of the fabric.  It really does have some pretty patterns.  I planned this to be a "guys" donation quilt, but I may have to rethink that.  In person, the fabric looks like velvet.

On the way home from the quilt store, I stopped in for fuel.  It's the cheapest station around, although you always have to jump through some hoops.  The first pump I stopped at, the screen was locked up.  I should have paid more attention.  It took my credit card, but wouldn't pump anything.  I went inside, but the nice Indian lady is VERY hard to understand.  

After six tries, I said I would just go move around to another pump.  I'll have to check my account today to make sure I didn't get charged for someone else's fuel.  At the second pump I filled up for $4.34 a gallon.  Other stations around town are still at $5.69, so it's worth the drive to fuel up here.  Can someone explain that to me?  Why this small station is so much cheaper than the big station in town?

I actually finished yet another quilt binding while watching the Stetson Wright Bull Riding Invitational.  A 17 year old kid rode a bull like I've never seen before ... 17 YEARS OLD ... and got a score of 94.  I think that's the highest bull riding score I've seen in my life, and he deserved it.  He's going to be a World Champion for sure!!!

Cooper was unimpressed.  By the way, he is NOT a love bug.  Do NOT, under any circumstances, try to give him a pet when he's sleeping.  He will growl at you like a lion ripping apart his prey.  No kidding  ... he guards his territory with ferocity!!  Such a sweet little face!

Tonight I've got a big challenge waiting for me.  The King of Bingo is the one who collects all the money for our Thursday dinners twice a month.  It happens he's out of town with all the mucky mucks, so he asked me to cashier for him.  Easy, yes?

That would be a NO.  I'll have to use a new-to-me hand held charging device I've never even held before.  This should be an interesting night filled with lots of confusion and errors.  It's like someone throwing a computer at you when you've never used one before.  

It's Cattlemen's night ... appropriate, yes?  I'm wearing my normal Levis and boots in the hopes they take pity on me.  Wish me luck!!

SING IT!!!! B I N G O ... B I N G O

It was another fabulous night amid the 94 degree temperatures.  There's nothing better than hot sweaty people reaching in their bra to pull out soggy bills and pay for Bingo.   Oh yes, it's that time of year again. In spite of my protestations, I have two women who continually try to pass off their "boob" money.  It's time to put my sign back up on the wall ... not that it helps.  They still try me!!!

The second and third Bingos of the month are usually pretty quiet.  The first Tuesday is a knock down drag out kind of day because everyone got their welfare/retirement check. That means we are slammed.

The next two weeks are lighter in number, including mostly the hard core retired players who live for this EXCITEMENT.  I'm guessing mostly they have nothing else going on.  Very nice and respectful, this bunch, for the most part.  And so although there were no riots, with pitchforks and sticks poking us in the head, there are always one or two who cause problems.

You know how you get grouchy when you get old?  We have the perfect example every Tuesday night.  She's Portuguese and doesn't speak good English.  Well yes she actually does, but she likes to make everyone think she doesn't understand so she can swipe stuff off the table.

EVERY SINGLE WEEK.  I try to be patient, but she makes me crazy.  She knows which debit card to use, but always tries to use her credit card instead.  No credit cards allowed.  I tell her every time.  Then when it comes up credit, I quickly cancel it and we start all over again ... and again ... and again.

She yells at me ... I don't care.  She gives me the evil eye ... I don't care.  To make it worse, she never buys all her cards at one time and rarely remembers WHY she came to the table in the first place.  She comes back throwing money on the table and trying to walk off with more cards than she paid for.

It's always .... oh I didn't know .... or oh those cards stick together.  No they don't, I watched you pick up four cards one at a time, and only pay me for three.  On one game, we have a thing where if you don't like your one card, you can turn it in with $1.00 and get TWO cards in return.  Last night she tried to take four cards, but only paid for two and didn't turn in anything!!  

Her modus operandi is to run away fast and try not to get caught.  She gets caught every time and becomes SO cranky, she yells bad things in Portuguese!!  

At least she's not the one that pulls wet money from her bra.  I hate to say this, but it's always the biggest gals who obviously don't shower all that often.  Yessirree ... it takes all kinds.  I gave them the "if you don't carry a purse, use a zip lok bag" spiel ... and even offer to give them one.  I keep a few at my desk just for the occasion.  They don't get it and probably never will.  Big sigh!!

The night finally ended with the infernal machine balancing ... I love it when that happens ... as I walked out the door smiling.  You would too if you were LEAVING the dungeon!!

As to that lovely quiche that I had for lunch yesterday, here's my tip of the day.  Do NOT use broccoli in a quiche.  I had some left over that was going in the trash if I didn't cook it, so I chopped it up really fine.  Maybe it was a little too old, because it turned into little crunchy raw chunks that ruined the taste of the whole thing.  Too bad I now have to eat it because I don't want to be wasteful.  There are starving children in the world.

I got home to a nice quiet neighborhood while dodging the broken bottles on the road.  This is what I found when I walked in the door.  This kid!!!!!  One of his favorite pastimes is to put the ball in my shoes, then dig it out while slinging shoes right and left with his front feet.  Once he gets it, he does it again .... and again.  

So that's my chore for the day ... clean up all the shoes and plant a couple of plants I bought (once again) to replace those that died a horrible death with only skeletons remaining.  Hope springs eternal that THESE will survive!!

CALL THE SHERIFF!

 Oh my aching back!  Ok, that's just complaining.  I'm actually feeling pretty good considering all the heavy pans I threw around the day before.  As much as I wanted to do SOMETHING, I spent most of the day just telling myself to sit down.

At about 10:30, I slid down off the couch to the floor, literally like a snake, to do a bit of stretching.  That brings on a frenzy of ball rolling from this guy.  If you are brave enough to sit on the floor, you are fair game.

I actually did do a little bit of standing up, but first, let me tell you about the Friday night party next door.  Oh yeah ... here we go again.  See these guys?  Yup ... they are on my lawn.  I admit, I had a moment of stupidity when the UNDER 21 year old came to the door and asked to set up their ping pong table on my lawn.  

I told the kid he could ONLY if they kept the noise down.  "Oh yeah" he said ... "of course" ... liar liar pants on fire!!  I couldn't help but laugh when I spotted them going through ever blade of grass looking for a lost something.  This went on for about 90 minutes.  They never did find it.  

I woke up at 1:30 to hear drag racing in front of my house.  That's it ... you hit my LAST button.  I called the Sheriff, who already had another caller on the phone.  I took a front row seat to watch the fun.  Two cars pulled up in no time with lights flashing!  

Those kids, I'm sure all of whom are under age, ran like rats fleeing a sinking ship.  It was hilarious to watch, and I admit, it gave me GREAT pleasure.  By the way, the Mom was home because her truck was in the driveway.  Suddenly it was quiet ..... ah how I love that sound.  Four people got stranded on the side of the road, sitting in the rocks because their ride drove off and left them.  

One of the deputies walked up to their door, but of course they refused to open it.  Why oh why did they not haul someone off to jail?

It was the last straw.  Apparently it takes a lot to get me mad.  From now on if there is ANY noise after 10:00, the Sheriff will be called.  I now even have their hotline number just for such occasions.  To make it worse, when I left the next morning, there were broken bottles all over the road.  

It's probably a good thing I've calmed down because next time I see them, they are getting a BIG piece of my mind ... not that it will matter, but maybe the threat of jail will help them make better decisions.

Sooooo after all that cooking and NOT burning anything, what do I do?  I make a quiche and burn the heck out of it.  I admit I wasn't very smart here.  The crust was a frozen one, but cracked in six places on the bottom.  I thought it would be okay.  Boy was I wrong.

As soon as I poured the egg mixture into the crust, it began seeping out the cracks, over the edge of the pan and all over my counter.  I threw it on a sheet pan, only to have it keep leaking until the pan got hot enough to cook the lava leaking out.  That a mess I made ... and sadly, had to clean up.  How can I be such a good cook in the ELKS kitchen and so BAD in mine?

That was my entire day.  I opened the door to the sewing room a couple of times, but kept telling myself to go sit down.  Cooper appreciated that because he like to snuggle.

In other news ..... guess who has been asked to cook the FATHER'S DAY BRUNCH??

It Wasn't Me!!

 Mother's Day was a resounding success.  Our lodge now has 1600 members, up quite a bit from the previous year of less than 1,000.  Cooking for that many people can be daunting.  It takes a lot of preparation that never materializes.  Why you ask?  Because ever year there is a new "leader" and a group of people who have never done this before.  Sadly, they don't even know to ask.

So here goes ... the calm before the storm as I wait at 5:30 for Gravy Guy to show up and open the door.  Over the years three of us have done all the cooking.  Casserole Guy, Gravy Guy and me.  First things first, we need food.  It wasn't me that they asked about that important part ... how much to order.  Every year the Manager just orders what he did last year.  THAT was a big mistake.  We have almost twice the people.

We'll go item by item.  The second we get there, I throw out the pans for the Denver Omelette Casseroles to be built.  Done!!  These are eggs, hamburger with taco sauce, onions, rotel tomatoes and cheese.  Doesn't sound too Denver-ish because they didn't order ANY of the ingredients.  We scrambled through the pantry and came up with MEXICAN casseroles instead.  We made TEN big restaurant pans and stacked them up for cooking.  

Next ... hash browns.  They come freeze dried in boxes that you add water to.  Someone forgot you only add water to the line instead of the top of the box.  It wasn't me.  Soggy hash browns are bad.  Although I cooked all TEN restaurant pans in the ovens on high heat, they were still soggy and one by one, had to be finished on the flattop.  Kudos to the guy who got THAT job!!

Next ... scrambled eggs.  We usually cook huge bags of eggs in big pans of boiling water.  They come out perfect.  All we could find from the order was cardboard cartons full of FROZEN eggs.  There was a frantic rush to thaw them out before trying to cook them on the flattop also.  

It was a big failure!!  My quick solution was to put them in ten MORE big restaurant pans and cook them in the oven.  Boy was THAT fun ... anyone ever lifted a huge pan full of liquid eggs into the very tall ovens?  Stir baby, STIR!!

Next ... I threw in the even bigger pans of sliced ham ... always the easiest to heat.  That was followed by 13 restaurant sheet pans full of sausage.  

In the meantime, Gravy Guy forgot to turn the fire off when he made the gravy and it burned.  Thankfully that wasn't me.  OMG ... anyone smelled burned gravy lately??  They put it out on the table, but I made them take it back.  We have plenty of packages ... MAKE MORE GRAVY!!!

While all that was going on, I whipped out ten pans of biscuits, followed by ten pans of waffles.  Unfortunately none of that can be done ahead of time, so I scramble like crazy to get stuff in the ovens.  

It's a balancing act,  making sure something is ready every time they yell from the buffet table.  I had to laugh a couple of times when the dishwashing kitchen crew walked by and told me I need to get all that stuff in the ovens.  No ... this isn't a cook it all at once deal for when you have a party ... this is a FOUR HOUR MARATHON of eating.

And then it happened.  We ran out of sausage and hash browns in the first two hours.  That's what happens when no one asks about how much to order.  I figured they had it handled, but I was wrong.  We sent them running to the store for more while I stirred those eggs-in-a-pan like crazy.  If you've never tried baking eggs, my advice is DON'T.  

Here's the buffet table after the first two hours, just before the local churches let out and the next big crowd comes in.  That's funny ... I smell something burning.  In unison, they said "it's the gravy".

The stats:    10 casserole pans, 10 pans of scrambled eggs, 13 pans of sausage, 4 pans of ham, 10 pans of waffles, 10 pans of hash browns, 10 pans biscuits, 11 pans of fruit cups and 8 platters of pastries.  

We fed 525 people.  Last year we had 300, so no wonder we ran out of food.  But WAIT ... I STILL SMELL SOMETHING and it's NOT GRAVY!!  We have 45 minutes left to serve food, so I go to investigate.  SOMEONE (it wasn't me) did NOT put water in the biscuit chafing dish like I told them.  The biscuits were smoking and literally seconds from bursting into flames.  

GUYS ... THE BISCUITS ARE ON FIRE!!!  Sadly, that was the last pan I had and so the final people coming for those biscuits and gravy were sadly disappointed.  I just shook my head!!

 

Needless to say, I was exhausted and overheated by there time I got home.  I wanted to laugh, but I was too tired.  Those ovens are all convection and HOT!!!!  Amazingly, I didn't get burned this time, I think for the first time ever!  

THIS time I had a nice little talk with the guy who will be in charge NEXT year.   He's going to call me!!!

Happy Mother's Day -- Oops!!

 Of all the National Days there are to celebrate, this one is a biggie.  Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers out there!!  I hope you got a big bouquet of flowers and a nice dinner out.  

Speaking of dinner out, you can attend the brunch at my Elks Lodge for FREE!  To make it even nicer, you will be presented with a beautiful rose when you enter the building.  We go all out for the Moms.

THAT is why yesterday was so much fun.  Guess who has to COOK the brunch!  Lucky for me, there's lots of help this year, but all of them are inexperienced with this spectacular event.

As you know, communication is a must.  We seem to be a little lacking in that department, which as you might imagine, causes a few problems.

The food order was made ... but on the same scale and menu as last year.  Things were supposed to change in that respect, including the fact that we are expecting 500 people instead of 300.  It seems someone forgot to tell someone else.  Oops!

I arrived at the Lodge at 7:30 to begin the prep.  The menu includes pastries, fruit cups, scrambled eggs, Denver omelet casseroles, hash browns, sausage, sliced ham, biscuits with sausage gravy, along with waffles smothered in strawberries and whipped cream.  Add to that coffee, which by the way no one knew how to make, orange juice and milk, followed by CAKE!!!  It's a FEAST!

I panned sausage while the MEN cut and sliced the hams.  I'm allergic to washing that huge slicer.  The hash browns are freeze dried, so we added water and got them in the walk-in fridge.  I had the girls cut up the pastries and start fruit processing.  Wait ... we couldn't find any fruit cups.  That meant a frantic trip to town.

The sausage was cooked for the gravy and the Denver omelet eggs started to take shape.  Only wait yet again ... there was no cut up ham, onions or green peppers for that.  Oops!  I don't know who was responsible for the order, but it wasn't me, so I breathed a sigh of relief.  

The casseroles were instantly switched to Mexican Eggs because we scrounged up enough ingredients for that.  That's when I remembered the Bloody Mary mix for the bar.  Excuse me ... did anyone get that?  Nope ... so there was a frantic search for tomato juice.  Saint Anthony Saint Anthony, please come around.  Something's been lost and can't be found.  There was another trip to the store.

Once we got the tables set up, we moved on to chafing dishes and plates, but forgot the silverware.  This was becoming pretty comical until I remembered the final piece of the puzzle.  Did anyone order the cakes from Costco???  For which you need a two day lead?  This was a BIG OOPS!

A resounding NO was heard across the building.  Oh good grief ... someone run to Costco and pick up three generic cakes please!!

I left three hours later after writing down exactly everything I have to do first thing this morning at 6:00.  Hopefully I didn't forget anything BIG!!

I'm praying the Oven Gods look kindly on me and I don't BURN anything on this beautiful sunny Mother's Day!

Aunts, Uncles and Skunks!! OH MY!!!!

Nothing brings out the bad words in my vocabulary more than these guys.  I guess they're cute if they are a stuffed toy Cooper can drag around the living room floor.  Having them in your back yard every year is a big pain in the you-know-what.

I'm sure you remember big Momma from two years ago.  She's the reason I soon became known as the Skunk Whisperer.  She brought her entire family to the party, digging so many holes in my corral that to this day you cannot walk without taking a chance of breaking your ankle.  I kid you not ... it became a real hazard.

In an effort to stop them, I have spent over $1500 spraying the corrals for weeds and grubs.  I laid chain link fence panels along the entire fence, adding in every piece of pallet and wood I could find.  It didn't matter.  They were relentless.

After I caught and relocated Big Momma, all her aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews started coming around.  I became very adept at my latest occupation, Skunk Trapper.  

It's a very heart pounding operation.  Believe me, they are not the least bit happy to be in a cage.  You have to lay a big piece of plastic in the bed of your truck, followed by a large blanket or sleeping bag.  Then you heft the cage into the truck ... it's harder than you think ... without making any fast movements or noise that will cause them to spray.

Cover up the cage with the rest of the sleeping bag and drive VERY CAREFULLY to your destination. Big bumps will result in big sprays.  Now comes the good part.  Once you get it OUT of the truck you have to lean over the cage and with one hand hold the latch open while you lift the door with the other hand and then flip the lock so the door STAYS open.  

My heat was POUNDING every single time!!  Then you run like crazy!!!  No worries really since they aren't going to come out of the cage until it's dark outside, but that doesn't mean they won't try to spray you!!

 I'm really not looking forward to doing this again.  I found the entry point and placed a grate there.  Then I drug several chain link fence sections back over to the fence.

They tried to dig in here, even pushed that piece of concrete out of the way, but were not interested in digging the additional four feet to get out from under the panel.  Gosh I DISLIKE these guys.

Here's the worst part yet.  This is the second time a skunk family member has showed up on my camera this week.  I thought for sure he was locked out, but looky here!  That little bugger has returned yet again.  

I walked the entire fence and cannot find ONE SINGLE HOLE where he entered.  How could that be?  He did return to the original hole in the picture above and dig out all the dirt on THIS side of the fence, trying to get through the grate to get OUT.  However, he did not succeed.

SO HOW THE HECK DID HE GET IN AND OUT?  I know for sure they cannot climb that fence.  That's when I had the terrible thought ... maybe he was LIVING in my back yard!!!  I grabbed the pitchfork and stabbed every shrub and bush like I was a peasant at Bingo.  Nothing.  No skunk.

I have the video, so I'm not imaging things ... I'm just at a loss to figure this one out.  I guess I'll put on my Sherlock Holmes hat and get to work.  BIG SIGH!!

Sometimes You WIN -- Sometimes You LOSE

 It was an interesting day, even though I started out on the losing end.  One of the all time favorite foods of skunks is eggs, as in they like to break into the hen house.  I guess breaking is the key word because yes, they are breaking back in once again.  I'll report on that tomorrow.

That's weird, the egg was still intact and wasn't I surprised to see this on my critter cam!  Apparently crows will eat just about anything.  This guy very carefully broke into the egg he found for breakfast, but sadly, he tipped the shell too far one way and the entire contents went down the crack.  

I didn't know previously, but crows eat small animals, baby birds and eggs ... they are scavengers like the buzzards.  That's where they got the name "a murder" of crows.  Who knew??

My first order of the day was to hit the grocery store.  Sadly, I can never make it on Senior Discount Day because of Bingo, so I always check their sales.  I was pretty surprised to walk in and find I could barely get down the aisles because of the Mother's Day flowers and balloons.  This is no cheap gift for Mom ... one small pack of roses was a whopping $50.00!

I did find this little gem ... $2.99 bacon?  Yes please ... even if it is only 12 ounces.  I did have a little trouble with this one.  In other stores, you have to scan the coupon in the store in order to get that price.  This one just refused to be scanned.  

I thought I might be on the losing end until the checker said all the scanning does is open the app on your phone.  He gave me the discount price.  

Then it was on to Costco.  I mean where else would you go when it's NATIONAL EAT ANYTHING YOU WANT DAY!  Seriously, there's a day for practically everything you can imagine ... like Lost Sock Day.  Who makes this stuff up??

So I took full advantage!  The pupusas on the top are something I'm trying for the first time.  Back in the days of Giants Baseball, we would wander the streets of San Francisco looking for out of the way places to eat.  One day we found a little Catholic Church in an area we really should not have been.  

On the street corner was a Salvadoran lady selling pupusas she cooked on a hot plate.  Meat and cheese in a corn masa pocket.  They were delicious.  Luckily we made it out alive and didn't get robbed.  I've no idea if these will be any good, but I had to try them.  The ice cream?  18 bars for $10.  The roasted chicken as you know is $5.00.  I bought two.  The raw chicken ... $3.00 a pound.

THIS was my winning choice for "eat anything you want" day.  It looks like a muffin, but really it's the best red velvet cake I've ever eaten, with a cream cheese frosting that is better than anything I could ever make.  SCORE!!!! 

Add to that the TWO dozen eggs for $4.99.  At Save Mart they were $6.99 for 18.  No kidding ... Costco has amazing prices on SOME things.  I got four dozen, putting most of them into a cardboard carton I had left over.  We shall see how long they last.  

Believe it or not, I got out of Costco for $60.00 (there's a few items not in the picture).  That's a first for me!

Back home I finally got my act together and my plumbers hat in place.  I took out the old drain thingy and replaced it with a new one.  Here's my tip of the day.  Never EVER take a picture of your bathroom sink.  It 100% shows just how dirty it really is.  

That brought about a frenzy of scrubbing on ALL my sinks.  Okay, enough of that ... it was time for dinner.

And HERE IT IS!!  This box of frozen goodies was sold at Save Mart for $1.15 each.  Costco had them for 60 cents each.  Pretty big difference!!  What better way to celebrate a beautiful sunny day!!!

Actually I was just gearing up for another round of Elks Lodge meetings.  Sometimes you lose at these things when they last until 10:00 while going on and on over nothing.  Sometimes you WIN when the meeting is over at 8:00, like last night.  I celebrated with ONE MORE Kirkland ice cream bar.  

Anyone know when National Ice Cream Day comes around???

A Hidden Gem

I'm back to cutting up fabric and stitching it back together, but a break was in order.  The weather couldn't be more perfect.  Too bad it's not going to last.  95 is on the horizon, so I decided I better get out while it was still cool.  

You've heard of Chinese Camp?  I think just about everywhere I've gone in California, there are places called Chinese Camp, simply because of the people that lived there.  This was gold country, and between 1849 and 1882, thousands of Chinese immigrants came to the Sierra foothills to look for the rocks that would make them rich, or at least to find a job that would pay them.  That money was sent back to China to feed their families.

They did not come by train because it wasn't built until 1897.  Most likely they rode in wagons owned by local mining companies, to become basically slave labor.  As the excavations rose higher in the mountains, the Chinese were taken from Camp Salvado to Chinee Camp.  Although it is now called Chinese Camp, it has always been known to me as Chinee Camp.

It's not easy to find, which is probably one reason it's still around.  There are a few narrow back roads if you know where to go, that will take you to this hidden gem.

On April 18, 1854, the post office was established in the general store.  At the time, there were about 5,000 people living here.  Along with the Chinese workers came their "protective associations", called Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Associations.  This picture is of the Officers of those Associations in 1890, most of which were ruled out of San Francisco.  There were six associations at the time, and four of them had agents in this Camp.  

Originally they were set up to help the sick and starving Chinese immigrants and to facilitate the dead being sent back to China for burial, which was most important to them.  Separate from the six were secret societies which became the "Fighting Tongs", originally set up to oppose the Manchu dynasty.  Pretty soon they were fighting everyone for their piece of opium, Chinese labor and gold.  The biggest money was made in "protection" or "tithing".  If you didn't pay, you died.

In 1853, James Kerrick came here with nine covered wagons.  He built a restaurant, saloon, boarding house and stable a few miles from town, for freighters going to and from the mines.  It is here in September of 1856 that the first Tong war began between Sam Yap and Yan Woo.  Over 2,000 Chinese were involved.  The gang wars continued until the 1920's.  Sadly, it all burned down in 1949.  Only this monument remains today.

Right across the road were the corrals, which still exist.  Just goes to show what good rock masons they were.  The Chinese were also used to built rock fences, which still crisscross the countryside today.

You really wouldn't even know there was a town here if you weren't familiar with the territory.  Nothing is kept up very well, and even the occupied buildings look abandoned.

Back in the day, it was pretty fancy for a gold mining town.  By 1890 the gold was pretty much gone, but the town continued on ... barely.

We ran some cattle up in this area, or I probably never would have found this almost ghost town.  It's sad that no one keeps any of the buildings up.  

The Post Office is still going strong, kinda sorta.  The building is vacant, but they have rented a space in the neighbor's field to stay in operation.

This is the Saint Frances Xavier Roman Catholic Church, established in 1855.  That makes it the oldest church in the country.  It was renovated at one time, not long after I was born, but has been left in disrepair ever since.  Sadly, that's a big chain holding it up.  Owned by the Archdiocese of Stockton California, it's too bad they don't do something to maintain the building.

The most impressive building you will see is the school.  It was designed and built in 1970 in the traditional pagoda style.   The original school near the church, burned down in 2006.  What a great way to celebrate the heritage of Chinee Camp.

You just never know what you will find in them thar hills, especially in GOLD country.

The Magic Kingdom

 It was a less than exciting day in California at Buzzard's Roost.  In the early morning hours, I checked the critter cam to find some lady with crazy wild hair looking into the camera saying COOPER!!  He knows the boundaries of the back yard and decided to test my eyesight.  Otherwise, there was absolutely NOTHING on the video card.  

That's disappointing and exhilarating.  Sad there were no kitties or foxes, but thrilled to see NO skunks.

I spent some time in the sewing room trying to pick out the next quilt to make.  SO many pretty patterns until you open the package and look at the directions.  What looked easy turned into mathematical nightmares, which turned out to be a preview for the night of bingo.

At the appointed hour when the clock struck two, I was off to the land of grumpy peasants.  I can't blame them, because sometimes I'm grumpy too!!

My Girl Friday and I spent the next two hours setting up and making note of everything we were short of. Nothing brings out the pitchforks faster than running out of Bingo cards or blue dobbers.  It was nice not being serenaded by screaming and banging on the back door.  I guess the players are finally resigned to waiting until the bewitching .... I mean the opening hour.

It went pretty well on this night with a record 20 volunteers showing up to help out.  We usually run at about the number 15.  Amazing, right?  It causes a little fuss now and then when they aren't familiar with the rules and get scammed by a player or two.  They all say if you cheat, you NEVER win, but there are always those who try.  

Here's our first section caller who already has a headache after the first ten minutes.  That's my Girl Friday sitting there.  She's the luckiest person on the planet.  She wins EVERY SINGLE WEEK.  

While some players spend ten minutes at my table going through every single card for the "magic" numbers, she just grabs four off the top .... and wins.  I wish some of that juju would rub off on me.

Amazingly, it was pretty quiet most of the night.  There was only one problem that returned from last week.  There were no pitchforks involved, but if I had looked her in the eyes, I would have been turned to stone.  

If you come in at our regular time, the first two packets are $20.  Any extras are $5 each.  Come in really late and only play the second half, and those two packets are $10 ... half price.  Any extras are $5 each.  This gal caught me when I was busy and insisted she only pay half price .. $2.50 .. for extra packets.  I said no, but the Knight sitting there said "okay, what the heck".   I knew that would come back to bite me.

I checked with the King who agreed with me.  Sure enough, she came back last night for extra cards.  She spent the next five minutes arguing with me and asking ten times if I REALLY checked with the King.  If looks could kill, I'd be dead.

Medusa emerged faster than I could blink an eye.  Off she went to see the King, since I obviously wasn't telling the truth.  She never returned.  You've got to admire their tenacity!!

About halfway through my card counter brought out her grandson's latest math lesson, whereupon we put my old math brain to work.  There were a few cobwebs in there, but alas, I was able to solve some fraction problems for them.  I don't remember doing anything quite like this until I got to college.  I think this is maybe 6th grade?  Show 4.45 as a fraction.  Yikes!!

At the end of the night, the infernal machine tried to act up by saying I was OVER in my cash box by $300.  That's good, right ... but ... well ... not right.  I finally figured out the problem ... corrected it ... and balanced.  YAY!!

And so ended another exciting night in the dungeon.  Maybe one day it will all go perfectly with no problems ... but I'm not holding my breath!!