OBSERVATION: Stupid chickens!

This picture is just because I have no other picture to share. I have entitled it: :Enough Already".

OK. Here 'tis. BB was not hungry tonight. Didn't cook the fish I had thawed out. Middle child invited me to dinner. Declined. Came home and filled plate with Smoked Almonds, Mozzerelle Cheese Sticks & dehydrated Blueberrys. Very satifying. Sat and watched the STUPID CHICKENS!

OBSERVATION:
The Rooster and the largest hen rule the roost. I decided this a.m. that the chickens WOULD enjoy the new chicken house. I distroyed all the options they had for roosting.

OBSERVATION:
The rooster and the largest hen rule the roost. The rooster and the largest hen decided tha the TOP of the new chicken pen would be the place where they would spend the night, contrary to the wonderful upstairs BB built for them. I sat and watched the biggins run the smaller ones off the top of the chicken house again and again. The poor chickens that were the smaller ones frantically ran around the chicken yard looking for a place to spend the night. One even found a break in the top of the netting and gained the top and had decided to spend the night there. WRONG! I decided that was not a good idea and moved the chicken into the yard again and closed the breach. It finally got too dark to see. I don't know who won. I guess they will work it out. Meantime, I have a Southern Gospel Netflix to watch. See you tomorrow.

PTL

Just a little thanks for your prayers for my friend Roy A. His beautiful wife called yesterday and told me that there is no blockage to the heart. PTL. Now, I am already praying my thanks that they will find no further problems. God made him, God can make him all over again.

Just me and God

Sometimes I am up and about so early there is no one but God about with me at that time. All is quiet. No rumbling on the dirt, washboard road. Sane people are still in bed. Since I was in bed with lights out last night at 9 p.m. I was up this a.m. at 4. Seven hours of good sleep is a very nice accomplishment for an old lady. The rooster has not even made a peep yet.

I have a fan going, bringing in the outside air and it is COOL! Note that word: COOL. I think cool weather is actually going to happen. So nice.

Yesterday, when I got home from church, I met "Da Boys" here in my house. They had installed my new Sony DVD, video player. (HEY, I JUST HEARD THE ROOSTER!) I am so grateful with my very own little support group here in my commune.

BB built a chicken coop for me on Saturday. I helped a little. Sometimes it took four hands. BB & I are such rednecks. True Jeff Foxworthy people. We love to make something out of nothing. BB says there are a group of people who are called "Makers". They even have a magazine. They are people like us who take discarded items and make new, useful items from trash. That is what we did to make my chicken coop. BB brought home some discarded framework, I don't know what it was used for, and the framework was about 4 1/2' - 5' square. He brought home several of those squares. He/we put them together to form a chicken coop. I had some old sheets and curtains that I had made for my patio up in Scottsdale that I had used down here to cover my garden plants in the winter to keep them from freezing (it DOES freeze here in the winter nights) and we used them to make walls for the chickn coop. Note: right now, the only reason the chickens need walls is for shade in the daytime. BB said he will find something more substantual sometime. The roof is made from a huge blackboard. (the roof had not been installed yet when this picture was taken) Schools no longer use blackboards/chalkboards. They use Smartboards. If you don't know what those are, you are in for an education as far as the modern education technology is concerned. Smartboards are wonderful.
So, hopefully the pictures of my redneck chicken coop are still on my camera. I tried to get them on here yesterday and the pictures disappeared. I have taken some old, very large clay flower pots, filled them with dry burmuda grass and made nest for the chickens. BB even affixed an upstairs for the chickens to roost in at night. Now, if the stupid chickens can just find their new home. Chickens are so stupid and such instinct creatures that they just keep scrunching up against the weeds in the puny shade they provide. I guess with such tiny heads one cannot expect much more.

BEHOLD!! THE NEW HOME FOR MY CHICKENS!!

Header picture

Friend Charlotte commented: "Interesting header picture". That picture was taken of me in downtown Tucson about two years ago. My sweet, wonderful, artistic,no-on-else-like-her grand daughter took it along with over 100 other pictures for a project she had for college. When I don't have other things and pictures to share I will post a few other ones.

Dog bed padding

Well! I finished my crocheted sweater of many colors. I am not sure that even if I had a dog it would sleep on it. Sad little thing. I don't have it blocked yet. Perhaps when I get it blocked it will look more appealing. I will still take a picture of it when I get it blocked and have a model available. I promise, even though it will show up my inabilities. It was fun to make though.

Prayer request

Please ask God for the healing of the heart of a very dear friend of mine. His name is Roy A. God know the rest of his name. The bottom of his heart is beating faster then the top of his heart...or the opposite, I can't remember which. He and his wife are servants of our God and very much deserving of a longer life with each other. Please pray with me that God make a miracle and make Roy's heart as new as it was when God make it in the first place.

Y-A-R-G-G-H & JGIDNTKSNG;

All that in the title line is my way of swearing, Christian like. I am making those words and noises because of the computer reception way out here in my desert!!! NO, IT IS NOT THE COMPUTER! contrary to those of you who have advised me to get a new computer. My son-in-law who lives next door and whom I piggy back the internet from cannot get online either and he has a very nice, expensive computer. He pays $??.?? a month for internet service and he cannot get online a good share of the time either.

I no longer have a land line (telephone). I use only my cell phone. Didn't need the land line, or so I thought. Now I almost wish that I was back on the very slow phone line for the sake of the computer because it was always available even though it was very slow. So...if you wonder why you don't see me on my blog very often, it is bacause I can't get online, AND I AM TOO CHEAP TO PAY FOR A DISH!

Hope to see you on a day when I have more success, until then, back to the yarn I go.

Y-U-M-M-M

Last night when I posted something new, I had full intentions of passing on a great recipe and forgot! Here 'tis.

Chile Rellenos Casserole

15-ounce can whole green chiles
(I used all of a 24 ounce can. YUMMMMM)
1 pound Monterey Jack
(I had on hand shredded Jack and Chedder....'Nother YUMMM)
2 tablespoons flour
(Makes it really good. A must use.)
4 tablespoons butter

1 dozen eggs
(I am a chicken farmer now and have them on hand. Gotta use them somehow.)
12-ounce can evaporated milk

Grease a 9X11 inch casserole dish.
(Mine was a bit smaller. I think I will use that from now on,
I liked the way it puffed up and was thicker than in the past)
Remove the seeds
(un-necessary. Green chiles are not hot to begin with and we
never even noticed the seeds at all)

Slice the cheese (if you are not using the grated kind)into 1/4 inch slices. Layer the green chiles, then the cheese in the casserole dish. Sprinkle flour and butter on top then add another layer of green chiles and cheese. (No more flour)

In a large mixing bowl, (I used my blender) mix the eggs and the evaporated milk. Pour this mixture over the casserole.

Bake @ 350 degrees for 1 hour. Top with olives, green onions or avocado slices. Can be served with sour cream, salsa or enchilada sauce. Makes 12 servings. HA!
#1 Child and I were the only ones at my dinner table (A couple of sickies in the family right now) and we ate HALF of the whole thing. Of course, we didn't eat any salad or anything else. Just UMMMed and YUMMed over the whole thing. Little Piggies Us.

I have put this on my table many times and it is alway a hit. When the rest of the gang are here and the egg supply builds up again, I will make two casseroles.

Did I say YUMMMM? Love that stuff.

We are on the other side....of Summer

We are over the hump! We made it through another Summer. We have been having cool mornings and almost cool evenings. Nice.

I was just sitting on my back porch and thinking about you. I have not had anything to share for several days. I have been busy working on a sweater I am going to name: IMAGINATION GONE AMUCK. I have a large wicker basket into which I throw various balls of yarn left after finishing projects and I decided to make a crocheted sweater out of those many colors. It makes me thing of Joseph's Coat of Many Colors or Dolly Parton's coat of the same name. I have had so much fun with it, it is a riot of colors. When one ball of yarn runs out, I simply attach another color, helter skelter. I will take a picture and share it when it is finished. I have enough (more than enough) to make another one and may do that very thing.

While sitting on my back porch thinking of you, I was listening to people come home from work. Living on a dirt, washboard road, I first hear a rumble. Makes me think of the song, "Wabash Cannonball" I hear the melody in my head. I believe the first line of the song goes, "Listen to the whistle, the rumble and the roar". I hear those, mostly pickups, coming nearer and then I can see them over the Creosote bushes and cactus. There are a greater percentage of pickup truck out here than than auto's. It is so nice to think that I also am on the other side of the hump. I don't have to do that commute and seldom ever have to have done it. I have been blessed with a husband who, through God, has allowed me to stay home and just be a home maker. I have always and always will love that title. Home maker. That is me!

OH NO! RATS! STUPID AGAIN!!

My son has at least one day a week off from work. He works at a Marriott Resort and is usually working nights. On the day he has off, I usually have all my family (except the Tennessee family) here at my house for dinner. I like for all of us to keep in touch and we all enjoy each others company.




This is a picture of Bob & Becky who live on the next lot. Becky is my Middle Child. The picture was taken last Christmas.



Michael and Danica. DON'T FORGET TO CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO MAKE THEM BIGGER AND EASIER TO SEE.


Baby Brother Carl (at the airport in N.C. We were on our way home from vacation in June). I cut "Da Boy's" hair (Carl and Boyd) He ask for it to be cut really short. Funny thing, he has not ask me to cut it "really short" since then. Hummmmm.

And then there is me...and BB. That is the seven of us.


Now, on with my story. Last night, as I was preparing dinner. I was making broth from two already baked chickens that we purchased at Costco. We had eaten off them a couple of times and now it was time to finish them off. Make broth for the freezer for future meals, pick the chicken off the bones to make enchiladas for last nights dinner & I thought of a funny story on myself that you might enjoy and laugh at me also.

Quite some time ago I was going through the same process. Making broth for the freezer. I put the chicken under water in the pot, added all the things to make really good broth. Black peppercorns, celery, carrots, onions. All the yummy things for good broth. I simmered it for a couple of hours. Took the lid off the broth. Oh did it ever smell good. Look good. Gonna make some really good meal in the future. Put cheese cloth in the colander AND POURED THE WONDERFUL BROTH RIGHT DOWN THE DRAIN!!!!! I forgot to put the bowl under the colander! Even as I did it I laughed at myself.

Hope you got your chuckle of the day.

HERE I GROW AGAIN

A friend of mine sent me a message this a.m. via e-mail, of course, that tells about two coral beds. One was alive and bright with color, the other dull and hardly any life. She was told that the one that was a bright and living coral bed was on the side of the ocean where it was open to much buffeting by the ocean itself. The bed that had almost no life was where it received no stimulus by the ocean. This dear lady has had much buffeting by life in the last 2 or 3 years, both by loss of a husband and health issues. The comment that caught my attention (hers? or someone else's? don't know, don't care) was this: HERE I GROW AGAIN. If only all of us could face the problems of life as the person that made that quote.

Grateful to be an O.L.

I saw a few minutes of an interview yesterday featuring Jamie Lee Curtis who will be turning 50 y/o soon. She quoted someone else (I don't know who) who said:
"OLD AGE IS NATURE'S WAY OF TELLING YOU THAT YOU DON'T HAVE ANY TIME TO WASTE!"
I feel that way these days and will carry that quote around with me in my Bible so that I can share it at the appropriate times.

Beached Whale

There is a rumor going 'round that I am growing more like my mother every day. (R.B., I know what you are saying about me!!!!) It all, at least I think it all, has to do with my addiction to yarn. So...I decided to plagiarize once again. Almost a plagiarist. My little electric pocket dictionary defines the word as "use of words or ideas of another as if your own" I ask permission of the author of the following words to use them on this blog. He gave me permission. I added a couple of pictures. One is of him that I took from Facebook. The other is of him blowing out candles during his last birthday celebration while two of his four children are sitting on his lap. Even having been described as a "beached whale" (his own description) he would have a hard time putting his other two children on his lap. The other two are a girl who will be 21 y/o on the 18th of this month and a son who just celebrated his 18th birthday on the 3rd of this month. The daughter may be about 5/8" and the son may be about 6'4", maybe, and still growing. He may have topped his dad by now.

In case you might be wondering, this is the family of my youngest daughter. The wonderful "beached whale" is my son-in-law who loves me. I am blessed



FISH TACOS
Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 8:31am
You have no idea of the depth of my addiction. It was

Summer 1994 with a handful of pesos bouncing around

in my working pants' pocket. A warm, sunny day at a

tiny white taco stand during a mission trip. Etched in

the deepest recesses of my mind... this glorious white

shack rocked gently on a small hill at the back of it so

it leaned toward me diagonally caddy-corner on a quiet

dirt yet paradoxically noisy alleyway (as barefoot kids

kicked up dust with a soccer-ball in background) in

Ensenada, Baja. That angle may have called me or

possibly fish sizzling on a skillet with a light white

smoky aroma; I'm not sure, through counseling I now

know that the absolute addictive lock has something to

do with a magic chemical reaction between green lime

juice and a super secret tangy white sauce; it alters the

taste-bud brain-cells permanently. Anyway, nineteen

pesos later into the dusk of that fateful evening the

locals tagged me with a nickname that I'm pretty sure

loosely translated is "beached whale." I was thereby

doomed forever to never have spare change or a

skinny waist again.

I am a plagiarist

Well, not really, but there are several blog that I check almost every day. the name of the one below is "Born to read and knit". I didn't know until today that that name is not the blog address until I copied it to send on to you. Anyway, this lovely lady lives in New Zealand. I believe she may have more of a reason to knit than I do. I am a dunce about geography but my guess that us desert dwellers are much less likely to be amenable to knitted garmets than N.Z. Anyway, this is a good read for those of us who love all things yarn.

http://heygoodbooking.blogspot.com/

Blog for Saturday

Since I will not have anything new to show you tomorrow, I copied this from a lady's blog site in New Zealand. Her blog is called, "Born to read and knit". Now you know why I found her. These questionairs are sometimes fun to fill out so, here goes.

Friday Fill ins:
1. When I'm sick I'm _____
just want to be left alone.

2. When I take a walk______,
now that seldom happens here in my desert, what with the heat and the bugs!

3. Money can't buy happiness but it _____
sure keeps the kids in touch. I found that license plate frame at fair. Loved it, makes me laugh and gets a comment or two by passerbys.

4. Cotton makes me ___
comfy here in my desert

5. The strangest person/character I've had lewd thoughts about was:
never happened. If it did, I would never admit it.

6. My favorite colour these days is
as always, pale coral.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to __
the same as every day. Playing with my yarn


These come by on my computer once in a while. Most of the time they are much longer and much more fun. When the next one comes by, I will pass it on.

A hat for Lily Bird

Occasionally I like to make something that is fast and something just to get away from the larger things I make. It is so satisfactory to get something FINISHED! I will be going to TN soon and have a large suitcase full of things for my TN family. This hat is for my 6 y/o girly girl grand daughter.

I placed the hat on a gallon jar to take pictures of. The first is the front of the hat. Unfortunately, you can see right through the fruit jar to the back. It needs Lily's face so you can't see the curls in the back through the jar. I will take on with her wearing it when I get there and show you when I return.

Latest creation

I still need to model this jacket so that it can be seen in a little better light. This is the second jacket I have crocheted from this pattern. It is so much fun because it changes in both texture and color. Keeps me interested in finishing it. I am making a third one right now. The first one went to Becky, I may put this on up for sale, both at the craft sale and/or on www.etsy.com in my shop. The third one is going to be all in pinks. The first two were made with a denim back but I may crochet the whole thing in the third one. What with all the yarn I have on hand (A WHOLE ROOM FULL) I have many, many options.

A-R-R-R-G AGAIN

I had a blog set up yesterday with more God painted skys and got bumped off. Discouraged, I didn't try again. No pictures today.

I will try to get a picture taken of me today in my newest jacket/sweater. It is the same pattern as the one Danica is modeling but different colors. After two of those, I am very tired of doing that (even though I may make another one) so I am making my Lily Bird a silly little hat with flowers and yellow curls. When I get home from TN I will have a picture of her modeling the hat.

Later................