Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

  We all love a good sunset, and the one the other day was very nice.  It had been overcast all day, drizzle off and on.  It wasn't until quite late the sun managed to drop down from behind the clouds and gild everything.  I was out walking the dog and managed to catch this shot looking up K Highway.  The picture isn't as lovely as in person, of course, but still, you get the idea.   But as with all lovely things, the sunset gilding is quite brief.  Here is a picture just a few minutes later. The sun sets fast.  We don't realize it in the moment, but time is fleeting.  Make the most of life.

 Yesterday morning the dog and I went for a walk down over the hill to the creek bottoms.   This is a photo of the creek bed.  We went quite a way down it.  It is always sort of sad to see it dry like this, but it's interesting to see the bottom as well.  You can see how the water carves its way around the big boulders and forms the sand and lighter rocks into berms and banks.   I didn't get pictures of it on this walk, but there are a couple of large trees fallen across the creek bed, which totally changed it, as the water, when there IS water, has swirled and carved out the gravel under it. This is something that never gets old to me; that the creek is never the same from season to season.  Even now, after a drought all summer, it is filled up with fall leaves and brush and dead limbs that have fallen from overhead.  The wind shapes the leaves into clearings and piles where you have to watch your step.  I am probably risking a twi...

Well, I am not doing well at blogging every day, am I?  If I don't get it done almost first thing in the morning, I just don't get it done. Yesterday we went down to Branson to take in the lights and a show or two at Silver Dollar City; all 4 of us; Gary, Ellen, Gail and myself.  My phone camera is pretty pathetic so I'll have to post some of Ellen's pictures, if she shares them.  It was cold last night, but it only got down to about 40 degrees; so not as cold as they predicted.  We came prepared with multiple coats, hats, mittens, scarves...etc.  We ate lunch before we went into the park, then we came back out at about 4 pm, went to the car and ate supper, then went back in to catch the lights.  Food in there is so expensive.  I am sure you can imagine.    We managed to get in to see their version of Dicken's "A Christmas Carol."  Of course they had to edit it down a great deal to fit it into an hour's show, but it was great; the sets...

 In the early 90s, I even forget which year exactly; I moved from California to Oregon.  I stayed with my brother and his family for a year or so. I remember the first shopping trip my sister-in-law took me on was to Fred Meyer in the Gateway district of SE Portland.  Having come from a teensy town in CA I had never been to a super and was fascinated with everything.  For some reason I was taken with this set of melamine (I think) tableware; little plates and bowls...etc.  The fact that it was black was enchanting to me for some reason that escapes me now.  But for my first purchase in Portland I bought a little plate and bowl.  This was back in 1992 I believe, which means it has been 31 years.   Nineteen years ago Gary took a fancy to it and has eaten his cornflakes out of this little black bowl.  (I hauled it out of the dish drainer for this picture; that is why there are water drips on it.) I don't know what happened to the plate....

 OK  Well, the coffee itself isn't exactly archaic, although I do buy it at the discount grocery store, so it might be a smidge past the sell-by date.  I refuse to pay $10 for a bag of coffee.  I think they charge about $3.50 for a bag of Starbucks coffee grounds at the discount grocery store.  And since I like it black that is what I get.  Some people say Starbucks tastes like burnt beans, but that is what I like, so that is what I enjoy every day. In any case; this is how I make it: I have no clue what the correct coffee terminology for this is; drip?  I heat water, not quite boiling, then pour over the grounds.  I do have the Keurig I used at my mom's when she was still around.  She loved her little coffee maker, when she was still able to remember how to make her own coffee. I don't use it though, the pods are super expensive, and wasteful.  I have tried the reusable pods, but they just got grit into the coffee, and that is even gros...

  I have blogged about Gary's sawmill before; quite a few years ago.  He doesn't use it actively any more; just fires it up occasionally to cut stuff we might need, or he might just want. He had bush-hogged down around there and it was looking very picturesque when I walked by it a couple of weeks ago.   And having gotten this far with this blog post, I can't think of another blamed word to write about it.  Haha...  Well, let me ramble around a bit I guess. Gary worked this sawmill quite extensively back in his younger years, even before he did dairy farming, I think.  He might have  had a few cows and still worked it at the same time, but I can't recall if he has ever mentioned it specifically.  At any rate he has many memories from when he was sawmilling.  It makes me remember my dad and how he was a lumberjack back in Northern California in the 40s and 50s, I think.  He never did own his own sawmill, but he sawed down many a tree...

Yesterday evening we had a Fall Festival for the youth at our church.  It was fun.  We had different activities set up in a few different Sunday School classrooms; arts and crafts, a cake walk, apple bobbing, a photo booth,  and a Christmas Card-making stop (the cards will be handed out to residents of the local rest home.).  There was also the S'mores-making campfire out at the firepit (bless the hearts of the ones running that station...it was COLD last night), and the evening culminated in a musical bingo game. The children all had a great time.   I signed up for the apple bobbing activity.  There was more than one person surprised, and relieved, at how I did this because due to COVID-19, and a general overall enlightenment about germs in general, people were grossed out about allowing their children to bob for apples like we did back in the day.  I remember bobbing for apples in a huge tub of water at school, no less. Things are a bit differen...

 Quite a few years back a lady from church brought a few plant starts her daughters had won at a 4-H event.  There were several different types, one of them being a Christmas Cactus.  I was enchanted, because while I had heard of them and my mom actually had had a gorgeous one in California, I had never had one.  So I brought it home and pampered it.   It got quite large and unruly.  The kitten knocked it over several times and broke large branches from it.  And finally this past summer I got exceedingly tired of it and several other plants I had.  I chucked some out the back door, gave some away and gave the original plant back to the mother of the girls who won it in the first place.  Haha But before I gave it away I took the above starts off of it.  I can't remember when that was; mid-summer maybe, I don't know.  In any case I stuck the above leaves into potting medium and kept them warm and moist.  It has taken them th...

 This seemingly Holstein heifer is fondly called "The Sheep."  She is one of our 4 beef/Holstein cross offspring from a couple of years ago.   The last bull Gary had for the dairy herd was a Beefmaster.  He sired some interesting calves.  Two of the heifers were quite black, and fit in with the Angus heifers we purchased awhile back.  Two of them were black/white like this.   "The Sheep," when she was a calf, did indeed look exactly like a sheep.  She was the cutest little thing.   She had a little heifer calf here a few weeks ago.  I am not sure which calf is hers.  All the calves have been quite black; even from the Holstein cross heifers.  They are so cute to watch out in the field. 

 Here is the official definition of where the term; "catty corner", or "kitty corner" comes from per Google: "The term 'kitty-corner' has nothing to do with cats. Instead, it stems from the expression 'cater-corner,' which is derived from “quatre,” the French word for “four.” The term was used to describe the way the dots are placed on a dice positioned at number four, diagonally from one another."  I find this term to be singularly uninteresting, as most word origins tend to be.  Our cat has her own definition.   Smudge has certain places in the house where she likes to sleep.  Those are HER places and if you should be in HER place, woe be unto you.  She will sit and stare at you with an insulted expression on her furry face.  Sometimes she will jump up and try to squeeze you out of the spot. She has several places in the house that she considers her own, and she switches them out every few weeks or so.  In Summer she likes to be on the co...

 This is Ellen with the quilt my friend from the Ukraine sent her a bit after she was born.  It is lovely, definitely one of the things I hope Ellen will treasure for the rest of her life.   That is all for today. 

  It has been a bit over two years since we retired the dairy farm.  Things have changed for sure since then.  Some things stay the same; the dog and I love our walks.  What's changed is that we are able to take walks earlier in the mornings than before when I had calves to bottle feed and grain to toss out for the cow critters.   The dog and I enjoy our early morning walks; though I haven't taken an early morning one recently.  Seems like there is always something else that needs done in the morning; errands to run, laundry, whatever.  Now, for the next two weeks it's gun season so we stay out of the woods.  I keep her on the leash and we walk around quite close to the house. But I love foggy mornings down in the creek bottoms.  Bella loves them, too.  Well, she loves walks any time of the day.  But in the mornings the fog and mist make it extra special for me.   

 If you have been a long-time reader of this blog you will know that Bella is TDIDW; the dog I didn't want.  She is smarter than she ought to be, and she can be an absolute idiot....at least in seeming.  For instance, she doesn't know when to leave well enough alone.  She adores the cat.  But she makes a complete nuisance of herself; just hovers over her, nudges under her, paws at her, and generally just won't stop aggravating her.    Smudge puts up with it for a bit, but then wants to be left alone.  Therefore when they are together, Bella is always on a leash and I am always hanging on to it.   Smudge is a self-proclaimed touch-me-not.  She is not a cuddly cat.  She tolerates being held for a bit, but will switch her tail the whole time, maybe 3 minutes, then start squirming to get down.  It's kind of sad because she is so fluffy and cuddly-looking.  But no.  When she gets tired of you she will bite. ...

 It is early Sunday morning.  I am having trouble thinking of something to blog about, though the world is full of subjects.   What, I wonder, has never been blogged about?  Very little, I suppose.  Anything and everything seems to be fair game, and the wilder, weirder and more bizarre, the better.   Well.  Never fear, I am not going to blog about anything too terribly strange.  Let's find a photo from this laptop and see what it has to tell us.   There you go.  It's a terrapin shell in a tree.  No, the terrapin, or box turtle if you will, isn't alive.  It was just an empty shell I found whilst on a walk a few years back.  I wedged it up in this tree, a dogwood I believe, and took a picture of it to post on Facebook for some black/white picture challenge.   My neighbor-across-the-river, Mary, said this is a very good photograph because it involves a great deal of interesting textures.    ...

 A few of us ladies at church have formed a wild crafting group and meet periodically.  Since COVID-19 and the complete lack of any sort of remedy against it, I think the concept of wild crafting has skyrocketed. I must admit I am somewhat skeptical of wild craft, but I know there is much natural medicinal knowledge that has been lost over the years. On the internet I frequently see articles hailing the benefits of different weeds from the backyard; usually plantain or mullein.  Our lead wild crafter has made salves from plantain and tinctures from mullein, and she sings their praises and I don't doubt her.  My problem is that I cannot, for myself, justify the expense of all the supplies and organic ingredients you have to purchase (olive oils, coconut oils, containers...etc) to make them yourself.  I can just go to the pharmacy, plunk down a couple bucks in exchange for a tube of cream that works as well.  If the economy goes south and we wind up in a re...

Is there anyone else who does this?  I know there is one lady from my Facebook friends list who does, at least.  I guess even at my age I enjoy recording times when everything lines up.  I think our brains tend to want things ordered, in sync, symmetrical; so we notice things like this. These are from two different vehicles. Occasionally I pulled off the road to get the picture before the numbers changed.  The last instance I actually drove the car up and down the road for about a mile and a half to get it to the correct number.  The first one was taken in May 14, 2022, in the Toyota Yaris.    This next one was taken in Ed.  Ed is our Kia.  We got the car from our neighbors, Ed and Linda, so we just named the car Ed.  It's a good way to tell the cars apart.  Ed, the neighbor, passed away soon after we bought the car from them and Linda moved.  Ed, the car, has been through the ringer, but he's automatic transmission so he's Ell...

 Here several years before COVID, which is how we seem to be timing things now, at our ladies group at church a lady taught us how to loom knit hats.  For some reason this activity charmed me.  I was astounded that I could actually create something usable from simple yarn.  I did some research and discovered there are jillions of patterns and projects on YouTube so I had a family member get me a set of looms, for Christmas I believe, and I took off looming. I wish I had kept a picture of my first couple of hats. For a long time my hats were fairly plain, with maybe different patterns in the looming. I also did dish cloths and scrubbies...etc, and would set up at different vendor events around.  I discovered that quite a few other people did hats and scarves (I have yet to even attempt to make a scarf, I don't know why.) to sell, so I wasn't doing very well at that, though I'd sell other things.   After a year or two I discovered faux fur yarn ...

 This past summer was full of adventures.  It seemed like a whirlwind.  Ellen went to FBLA nationals in Atlanta.  That was exciting for her, and for Gary and I in a different way.  Worrying about your child is always exciting...not always the excitement that you want. In late June Ellen and I packed up and headed for California to visit family.  It's too long of a story for a quick blog post, but here's the gist.  We flew to Portland where Dan, my brother, picked us up and we drove down to Redwood Valley in California and camped for the weekend with the family down there. That was fun.  From there, Dan drove back up home and Ellen and I stayed a week with Leslie.  While we were there we filled every day with some sort of adventure.  Here is Ellen standing in front of a redwood tree and its burl on the skywalk at the Dickerson Park Zoo in Eureka, CA.  We went with a friend, Doris Foss, who was (still is) the on site manager of the se...

Most every fall the dog and I make it over to the back ridge to the old homestead.  The original house, built back in the 1800s when the property was first homesteaded, is no longer there, of course.  But this little house is there.   In front of the house is the fallen pecan tree.  When I came here 19 years ago the pecan was standing proud and tall, but about ten years ago it was blown over in a storm.  This half of the tree, which had roots still in the ground, survived and has produced pecans every year without fail.  This year I noticed the leaves look diseased.  That may, I hope, be due to the drought and insect damage over the course of the summer.  We will see how it does this coming spring.   The house itself, probably built in the early 1900s, is over 100 years old, and has become more and more dilapidated over the years.  When I came here the doors shut semi-securely and the siding was still attached.    The barn...

Quite a few years back during NaBloPoMo I did a post here with that same title, I believe.  It involved a grocery shopping trip and coming home to chase a cow or calf.   Today the grocery shopping was the same...with the exception that I am likely paying three times as much per item than I did back then.   But today I came home, put the groceries away and was able to putter in the house.  It is hunting season, so I avoid long walks in the trees.  The dog and I will stick close to home for the next few weeks.  It is nice to not have bottle calves before dawn and after supper.  Such a relief.   So today was a typical Friday, post dairy.   And that is a good thing.

 Today I processed a couple of pumpkins that grew from a volunteer vine in my garden.   Last fall I bought a pumpkin and a couple spaghetti squash.  I tossed the innards, as it were, out into the garden area.  The seed sprouted.  Except from the way the "pumpkin" looked inside after they were cooked, I think they were crossed with a spaghetti squash.  Wherever they'd been raised there had been a crop of both and they crossed.  But whichever the case, it cooked up pretty good.  I made some keto pumpkin quick bread with it.  I got about 8 cups altogether.  What I didn't use I froze.    I just whack in half and bake.  I saw one recipe where they just tossed the WHOLE pumpkin in the oven and baked it.  Gary wondered if they had to pierce it somehow, or take off the top, to prevent it from exploding.  Once it's baked, I take out of the rind, put in a bowl and use my immersion blender on it.  You have to...

It slipped up on me.  I have intended on doing NaBloPoMo all year, but one thing or another drove it out of my mind. Anyway.  Here we are.  I guess today will be a random post. I am not sure how to insert a photo from this phone.  I'll keep working on figuring it out for another day