Tuesday, July 30, 2013

"Our Marriage Is Like JS's Truck" By Sam Starr


Yesterday was our 35th wedding anniversary.
JS took me to Chico to Sierra Nevada Brewery, our favorite restaurant. 
 Fish and Chips and a cold beer, then a stop at Ron's Drive Inn
 for a ice cream cone.   Of course a date night with JS wouldn't be complete with 
out a stop at Meek's Lumber the the welders.

I was trying to think of some clever way to sum up our marriage.
All I could think of was JS's truck?      Romantic no.....   but it fits.


"Our Marriage Is Like JS's Truck"
By Sam Starr

Not flashy or much to look at, but runs good and dependable.
Built before GPS, it's taken a few wrong turns, back roads and 
has passed up it's destination more then once.
Scratched up, no major dents and still has both bumpers.

The guy driving has his ass on fire, running up and down the road
with no seatbelt, yelling on the phone "I'll be right there in 5 minutes"
reinsuring his passenger that he's slowing down and getting better.
The gal in the passenger seat is just trying to keep the load from falling off
and pedestrians from getting ran over, all the while looking for the door handle
to get off this wild ride, so she can put the fire out and catch her breath.

The windshield's impossible to see out of and the dash is covered with Taco Bell 
and Jake's Burgers wrappers.  Odometer turned over twice, mirrors are never
 adjusted so you can see what's in the other lane, back seats full of baggage
and the brakes are hot !

But it keeps rolling down the road. 
 Few close calls with the ditch but not wrecked. 
I don't think we'll be trading it in for a new model.
"It's Built Ford Tough"

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

A Cool Place To Land



Monday is always irrigation day in the big orchard.
I go out early turn on the water and let it run for a couple of hours.
That way,  when I go back out to walk the rows, I can tell right a way
 the trees that are getting water and the ones I need to work on.


Usually I jump on the quad, ride out, turn on the valve and head bead
 to the house to do morning chores.  Yesterday I walk, taking the camera
 along to get shots of the turkey babies.


After the turkeys got fed up with me stalking them and flew off,
I started back to the house and came upon this young hawk.
It was surprising that he didn't fly away and actually set there for quite awhile.


At first I thought he had caught breakfast, as he 
kept looking down at the ground.   Then realized, there was a pin hole 
in the water pipe and he was standing in the mist of water spraying out of it.
With all the extreme heat, he managed to fined a cool place to land.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

July on the Fly



Fourth of July weekend came and went so fast.  It was fun having all the kids in the mountains, just enjoying each other company.  I must say their a fun bunch to be around and The Biscuit had no shortage or attention.
Lots of food and laughs  ( no photos ?)   Can't believe I didn't take a single shot of Baby in her cute little Red, White and Blue out fits...... Shame on Nanna !!!  We had the crew working at the new cabin and it was all I could do to keep up.   The kids even did the cooking a cleanup all weekend, thank you, that was a treat



New cabin is all framed, holes drilled for the utility pipes (power, gas, septic, water) Holes are dug for the septic thanks and the propane tank to be buried.   The roof is being cut and stacked this week and concrete for the frond porch poured.  A lot done in three weeks time.  Besides weekends, JS has only run up the mountain two (three) time in the middle of the week?  Not looking forward to the fuel bill.................


A mile stone this month, Daughter Dawn has gone back to work, leaving 
The Biscuit in the hands of grandmas and daycare. Last week was pretty rough....
."On mama, baby, grandmas and daycare lady"but The Biscuit is now bottle broke !!!
( some what )
  I don't know if it "Takes a Village" but a few bottles of wine sure helped......... ;D


The heat wave is over, the orchard got a little stressed by the endless heat, 
been double irrigating and the trees are looking good. 
 What else can I say ....... It's summer !
 Days are to long, nights are to short, it's hot, the year is half over and on it go's.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Cabin Update, One Floor At A Time


Work started on the cabin again this last week.  The downstairs,
basement has been framed for awhile and then we had to pull the 
crew off to do the paying jobs... got to pay bills and eat.
We're fortunate that our company has a good amount or work 
for the summer, so much so, that JS and I even talked to some framing
 contractors to do our cabin, but decided against it....
"quite frankly we have the best framing crew!!!!"

Being it was a Holiday week, the crew didn't want to 
lose hours and after the heat wave the week before they were
 plenty glad to work in the mountains.


They started Monday and JS and I came up Wednesday Night after
 work.  They had the second story ( the main floor) all framed.  
 The next step was to put up the floor trusses for the third story. 
"Third Story ....... JS doesn't do small".


They'll be working on the cabin all this week to get as much done as they can,
like I said, got to take care of the paying jobs.
They'll be back, we have a truck full of windows setting in Sacramento
and this things got to be closed in by winter.

"Please No Early Snows This Year"

Monday, July 8, 2013

Pretty Picture Monday


Good Morning!

These beautiful Foxglove grow wild along the road to our cabin
 in the Sierra Nevada's and I love taking pictures of them.
I hope you enjoy then also.