Bits and Pieces of August

The day to day is pretty much the same. 

 Get up, have coffee, see JS out the door, do morning choirs,

then the day is wide open to do the fun things in life.

Irrigate, work for JS, clean house, watch Baby, 

"You get it"

 Most every weekend is spent in the mountains,

working on the cabin/lodge.   We leave here on Friday night

 after work, drive the hour and 15 min. ......  check out the 

progress on the new cabin for that week and kick back with

 a cold beer and take in the view.   Spend all day Saturday 

working and head home at dark.......   By the end of this

 month the whole thing will be insulated and sheet rocked.

I have to admit, I'm looking forward to winter for a break.

We did have some fun this past week. 

Thursday night we attended the Butte County Fair,

Corn Dogs, Cold Beer, took in the Team Roping, visited with

 lots of people, we only seem to see at the fair.  Then a walk

 through the beef barns, spent a lot of years there with our kids.

Saturday I went back to the fair for the Jr Livestock Auction.

JS wanted to buy some of the FFA and 4-H kids animals.

In the middle of all the bids, big smiles, tears and noise,

the Auctioneer challenged our Congressmen Doug  LaMalfa

to kiss a pig for charity.  The local VFW was pick to receive the 

donations and the hat was passed around the audience.

Over a $1,000.00 was raised.  

 LaMalfa even put on lipsticks to kiss the pig.

;D

Pretty Picture Monday

Click on Photo to Enlarge

Rabbit Creek

A trip to the mountains today, was a nice change.

The electricians wanted to do a final walk though on the cabin

and to make sure they had everything we had talked about done.

Daughter Dawn had to drive me,  my truck has been running hot.

I asked JS to check it out for me before I took off this morning.

It had no water in it......   Yikes !!!!!  

Dawn had taken off work today, because her daycare person 

was going to the mountains.   It actually worked out well.

Dawn is my personal decorator. 

 It was nice to be able to run ideas by her.

On our way home we stopped in La Porte for lunch, 

at the Rabbit Creek Deli.  During the gold rush

La Porte was called Rabbit Creek and the 

Union Hotel is one of the few buildings 

left from that time.  Nice Day.

;D

Pretty Picture Monday

Photo Date with Sister Cindy

Sunday, Cindy call to see if I wanted to go with her to shoot the moon.

Heck Ya!   Photo dates with Sister Cindy are always fun.

She picked me up at 7 and we headed out to the After Bay in the valley,

thinking we would have a wide view of the mountains and open sky's.

Once there, the view wasn't quite as grand as imagined.  Plan B !

Took the road north, till we came to the dirt part of Nelson Ave.

Followed it east, to the top of the ridge, overlooking the  Fore Bay,

Table Mt and the dam.  This was a great spot.

Now, where to setup ?

Lucky for us, there had been a fire.  The fence had been cut for the dozer

to go through.   They even had a nice fire break graded, so we didn't 

have to stand in tall dry grass and a flat spot for our tripods.

Thanks CDF     California Department of Forestry 

After the right spot had been marked (a line in the dirt)

we retrieved our gear.  All setup and ready!

and then the moment we anticipated.

"THE SUPER MOON

The truth is the moon wasn't all that super and it didn't take long 

for other shiny things to catch our eye.

Fun night, time with Cindy is always great,

 we learned somethings and had a lot of laughs.

;D

PS...   See the little floating things in my photos?

They're not on my lens    :(((((

Pfriday Photo Play

Biscuit and the Bucket

Biscuit has a new toy !?

Even after Nanna went hog wild at TOYS R US

She has laid clam to the red feeding bucket.

It was in the back of the Ranger during one of our rides

around the farm and a must have,

in a Gals wardrobe.

It is quite versatile, just right height for setting.

Perfect for carrying those girly essentials, cell phone, keys,

sippy cut, rocks.  Rocks are a big thing this week.

Biscuits favorite use is putting her snacks in it.

Yes!  Cheerios, Blueberries, Yogurt chips.

She love eating her little goodies from the bucket.

Your thinking right about now,

"Sam that buckets is dirty !!!"

Yes it is  ...  covered in "dirt", grain , molasses

and God know what else.

But I look at it as a step up.

She was putting them in Ranch Dogs dinner dish.

It's not like I let her drink water out of it .

That's what the hose is for.

;D

Pretty Picture Monday

Not quite what you were expecting ?

It's hot, it's dry and even the mountain flowers 

are gone.

This is all I could fine,  the tall stock on this will 

be covered in little yellow flowers soon and 

will most likely be next weeks shot.

I think this is Skunk Cabbage, not sure.

I know by next week.

;D

Pretty Picture Monday

"I have Naked Ladies in my garden."

Pretty Picture Monday

"I love My Garden"

Just when I think the last blooms of Spring have been 

overwhelmed by Summer's heat, I am pleasantly surprised.

"Come on in, grab a cup of coffee and get caught up"

Glad you came by, hows your summer going?  The heat is unreal, 
even for California.  I've given up on trying to keep things green
and am working on just keeping thing alive.  Don't let the 
color of the orange trees fool you, they're stressed.
Water is my life right now, making sure garden, 
yard, orchard and critters have enough.

The young bull we have, seem to think the big game is to see how

many floats on the water tanks, he can break in a week. 

 Though he was sold ?  He needs some bigger and older bulls

to do some schooling on him.

And speaking of water, JS has announced he is running for a seat on

 our local water district board,  "South Feather Water and Power.

We're in the middle of a campaign !?!?!???

Oldest Son Shane is JS's campaign manager 

(having work in Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Offices)

(Yes !!! I'm dropping names here)  His has experienced as to what 

papers and forms have to be filled out and how this all works.

He's got a tough job in front of him,  he already told his Dad

 and I that the hardest thing about this campaign is "Us"....

"I wonder what he means by that ?"

4th of July was pretty low key.  We spent it in the mountains at the

cabin.  JS's folks and my mom were up and Youngest Son Zach came 

for a day as well.  Had dinner one night with a group of friends, but 

didn't go to LaPorte for any of the festivities.  As a matter of fact 

I unplugged for the weekend, no phone, Kindle, computer or camera.

"Thank God for a deck of cards"

Two days a week the Biscuit comes to hang out with me.

We spend the day, watering the kitchen garden and eating all of 

Papa's raspberries.  Laundry, chasing turkeys in the Ranger, 

checking cows, reading her books, playing in the sprinkler and 

setting in Nanna's lap in the rocking chair watching the Disney 

channel till she falls asleep.  Two hardest days of the week !!!

That's about it around here.

What have you been up too...............  ;D

Wordless Wednesday

Pretty Picture Monday

"Hotter Than a Popcorn Fart"

One of grandpa Lloyd's saying for the heat.

I don't know if it actually got up to 108 or 110 like was predicted,

but I can sure as heck tell you it was 100 and HOT !

 If you'r on Facebook with me, you know I'm outside fairly early,

 but it was to hot yesterday morning to get much done.

I watered what needed to be watered and spent the rest

 of the day in the house.  Ranch Dog wouldn't even

 come out of her hole, she has dug.

Felt a little wussy about it, but not enough to go back outside.

This morning was much cooler, so I worked in the kitchen garden all morning. 

 Weeded the strawberry bed and got everything watered good. 

Inside now getting the house picked up and then headed to town.

Hope it's not to hot where your at.

Pretty Picture Monday

I'm running out of flowers    ;D

Pretty Picture Monday

Pretty Picture Monday

Pretty Picture Monday

"Projects"

Yes! I am so efficient and have so much time on my hands,that I had 

to create work for myself.   In my best Scarlett O'Hara voice.

 "As to not die of sheer boredom"

I've been revamping the Kitchen garden.

Last year I didn't have a garden, that was a first in almost 20 years.

We sure missed it......   Luckily mom puts in a big garden and kept

us in tomatoes, lemon cucumbers  and zucchini.

With all the work on the new cabin last summer, the back and forth

to the mountains several times a week, there was no way I was going

 to be able to keep up with a garden.   The really bad part is that 

I didn't clean it before winter, like I usually do and man!
What a mess !!!

JS has a construction yard where all the odds and end form jobs are stored. 

 I scrounged around and found all these stack stones.They don't all match, 

 but make good planters and this side of the garden needed work. 

 Love the new pavers, that was my Christmas from JS. 

  In April, he asked what I wanted for my birthday?

"Someone to put all those pavers down"

My Mama didn't raise no fool!  

Like my cute little rock bunnies?

Still not sure what I'm going to do here, thinking of making one more 

curved planter. Planing on putting in Blueberries.   It's going to take most
 of the summer before it's done, but it's looking much better all the time.

Pretty Picture Monday