Sunday, March 29, 2009

About blue flowers

The blue flowers are camas. I just couldn't remember the name when I posted the picture. They were growing in this meadow with the oak trees. There is a creek just over the hill and there once was a huge Indian encampment on a rise across the creek. This meadow is the only place I have seen the camas growing down here. The Indians may have transplanted bulbs from somewhere else to grow here. There are Sego lillies here as well but they will bloom later. I think the Indians ate them too. We have seen Sego lillies up in the Bagdad area. They are profuse in Utah. We have found a lot of arrowheads in this area.

The oaks in this meadow area are small leaf oaks. Some of them are over a 100 feet high and have massive trunks. The burl on the oak is on a large leaf oak down by the creek. Lots of funny shaped burls on some of these trees. Out in the open the oak trees are more open spreading. Down in the washes they grow closer together and get huge.

This is a small leaf oak with a red grass in the forground. Grass is real nasty stuff. If you walk thru it you will find your socks, pantlegs and shoelaces covered with tiny red burrs. Harder than hell to remove.

Just had to get a picture of this oak reaching for the clouds just before a storm started to roll in.
Yeh ! I know my picture composition isn't the greatest but I take pictures of what interests me. Phillip usually takes pics with much better interest but his camera battery wasn't charged enough when he tried to take pictures.



Our Blizzard 2009

As Bill said, we had a couple of nasty storms at the end of December and in early January. In this one Bruce tried to wait for it to quit some what so that he could fire up the tractor to clear out the driveway. He later made the decision to just suffer the storm and went out to start clearing before it built up to the point that it would have taken a couple of days to clear us out.
This shot was taken later after the storm had past by us. Things were looking up..........the sun was even poking through a bit.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

More pics

Some kind of moth on a fence post.
Lone poppy by a fallen post.

Desert turtle



Burl on an oak tree. Leaves haven't opened yet...They leaf out later...


A few pictures.

He's getting away...




This time I had the camera with me. .. Caught him hiding in the grass...


This is just a tiny flower with some kind of fly on it.



These flowers have a bulb on them that the Indians dug and ate...


Good Food

And that Chicken recipe sounds good... I'll have to copy it for Phillip. I think I have seen the dry tomato soup here at Wal Mart... I usually get the chicken at Wal Mart because you can get a 10 lb. bag of hindquarters for around 59 cents a pound... I ask for the frozen bags then divide it up into portions... I get chicken and sometimes pork at wal-mart but not beef...As far as I'm concerned their beef sucks...Phillip pounded out some swiss steak and after browning it he put into the crock pot for the day...I'm filled to the gills, it was so good...
Hey Jake!! Do they have such a thing as a laser to cut rocks? If not then they need to peek in on my latest brain echo...Last night I dreamed I had a laser rock slabber that looked like a regular band saw but it was a laser beam that cut the rocks and the cut surfaces were like they had been polished...This saw was weird in that I don't know what contained the beam on the other end and assume it must be something or it would cut right thru past the floor and all...Don't know how lasers work, but this one had a blue light beam...In fact I don't know what produced the beam at the top either, but the darn thing sure did cut rocks...Who said you have to have sensible dreams?
I think we caught the edge of the storm that hit Denver. Having yo-yo weather here...10 degrees above normal or 10 below normal...Garden is at a stand still...Ice froze on the rock washing basins the last 4 nights...Good thing I still have the cukes and squash in pots so I can bring them in at night...Got all 3 tumblers going...I've been making up key chains with stuff I got at the thrift store and crystals and tumbled rocks...Got a gross of key chains and a gross of different kinds of clip back earrings for only 3 bucks...I took the earrings apart and glued the rocks and crystals in them and attached them to key chains...Gotta pat myself for this trick...Should sell I think...
Granny

Friday, March 27, 2009

Blizzard 2009

Yesterday was the biggest snowstorm of the year for those of you keeping up with the weather! We had about a foot and a half of snow within 24 hours! The city shut down at noon and closed many roads and freeways. I was stranded in downtown Denver for the afternoon but luckily Jason came and rescued me (my hero!!) and we both got home safely. My car, however, is buried at the Park-and-Ride so I figure by tomorrow it will mostly melt off and we'll go reclaim it :o)

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

We found this recipe for chicken breading, it claims to be the copycat of the KFC recipe, I don't know about that but it really is quite yummy. You may trust me on that, the one thing that I am an expert on, is what is yummy. If you ever doubt that you simply have to refer to the picture attached in previous post. [the one where Fuey is sitting on the rented Skidsteer with me] You can tell from that picture alone that I certainly do have a grasp of the yummy.

Oh yeah, we could only find the dry soup [tomato] online, no store had it. We bought it on Amazon, and it pays to look around because we found it for really cheap, where on other sites it was way more.  That reminds me, does anyone know how to get rid of Amazon spam? 

Coating Secret Ingredients

2 envelopes tomato soup mix, preferably Lipton cup-o-soup brand

2 envelopes Italian dressing mix

1 tablespoon paprika

2 teaspoons dried chervil (optional, but makes a huge difference in taste)

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

1 teaspoon instant chicken bouillon powder

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon tarragon

1/2 teaspoon sage

1/4 teaspoon pepper

3 cups pancake mix, preferably Bisquick brand (self-rising flour can be substituted, but won't taste as good)


Instructions for Making the Original KFC Recipe

Blend all of the Kentucky Fried Chicken ingredients for the coating in a blender.
The fried chicken coating is enough for a whole chicken, cut up. Soak the chicken pieces in buttermilk for at least one hour in the refrigerator. Remove chicken from buttermilk and roll in the chicken coating mixture above. Let chicken sit at room temperature while waiting for the oil to get hot.
Deep fry if possible for the most authentic copy of the original Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe. If that is not possible, use a cast iron skillet. Do not crowd the chicken when placing into the skillet. Use lard or shortening if you really want that original Kentucky Fried Chicken taste. If you're making this chicken recipe, chances are you weren't looking for low-fat, healthy recipes. ;)
Brown the chicken in the skillet on high heat. Then turn down the heat and cover the pan. Cook until the fried chicken is done, about 30 minutes. During the last 5 or 10 minutes, uncover the pan and turn up the heat. This will crisp up the fried chicken. Be careful not to burn the chicken during this last step.
Remove the fried chicken and drain on paper towels. Serve while still hot.

We have only tried this recipe with boneless chicken breast, those unbreaded strips that come in 2 1/2 pound bags [Western Family] Thaw and coat with breading mix. Let those sit for about 5 minutes, then dip them in buttermilk, or can milk will do just fine. Roll again in breading mix coating them well, and deep fry. Won't take long to get done if you use chicken strips, they cook in around 5 to 9 minutes. You may want to follow the cooking directions above for chicken with bone.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

More about e-mail forwards.

Our police force hard at work.




Mispelling?
These are e-mails forwarded to me. The sorry puppy was one to. I like the cute and funny ones.
Bill we never get tired of puppies. That's why I included the daily puppy on the side line.
A couple of friends send some real funny jokes as well...
I took some more wild flower pics and will post some of them up when I download them from the camera.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Email Forwards

If you have email then you probably are a recipient of the "email forward" Possibly you are on some one's address list, you know the list they go to when they have something that they want to pass on down the line. I get these forwards all the time, I get them and I send them. I like the funny stuff, and the cute animal pics. and videos as well. Sometimes I will receive an email forward containing something pretty interesting, some even quite amazing. Every once in awhile I will receive some religious or spiritual forwards often containing a message of goodwill . All of that stuff is fine with me. I read them and pass them on, some go to all the folks on my list while others just go out to those I feel might appreciate them.  I think that's the way these things are normally done, with most Internet users that use their email on a daily basis. It's the norm, and I really don't have any problem with that, if I did I certainly wouldn't send out a single forward myself. 
For about two years now my inbox is inundated with these political forwards from just a few people that somehow got the idea that I want to see those types of forwards. You know I have never sent any of these people those types of political emails. I've never sent them to anyone nor will I ever do that, under any circumstance. You have to know what I'm talking about here, possibly some of you have your inbox frequented by the political forward from time to time. I only wish that it happened here from time to time, in fact I get these things every day, several of them, from people that I have never discussed my political views with. One person I know will send 4 to 5 emails per day, and sometimes [not always] they are all the political forward. In all of the cases where I get these forwards I can't simply block them because the senders are friends or relatives and I don't want to hurt their feelings or start trouble. 
Sad thing is, I guess that most of these political forwards are supposed to be humorous and I'm supposed to read them and laugh, maybe even the so called out loud laughing that they subscribe to in the bit of text they type above the actual message. I really can't seem to muster up a laugh, a yuck yuck, or even a simple chuckle or chortle. It's hard for me to get to chortlen' over some stupid political propaganda, that is neither funny nor clever. Man I realize that the country has got some problems, but come on! Where do they even find these things? Is there like a bunch of people out there with nothing better to do than sit around and come up with new ways to bash the opposing viewpoint. I thought that after the last election I would see a decrease of the political forwards, but in the past months it has only gotten worse. 
How do you tell someone that is sending you these things to stop it? Is there a way to do this using diplomacy that they apparently don't practice themselves? 
I've always thought of myself as a free thinker and tried to get both sides of an issue before making up my mind. Well in most cases anyway, I mean I don't need to see both sides on everything.  I wouldn't be able to sit and listen to some pedophile explain why he messes around with kids, without jumping up and wrapping my hands around his neck and squeezing till his blankin' eyes popped out. There are just somethings that you don't need to think over and weigh the points on both sides to determine if you are against it or all for it. That's where my so called "free thinking" really goes for a walk, and I get stubborn, like I do when I get one or ten of these political forwards. I find myself ignoring the message because of the agenda. I gotta wonder if those people sending me those types of forwards are thinking "Gosh, if I just send him hundreds and hundreds of these things a year, sooner or later he will bend to my way of thinking?" Well I'm getting bent alright.
Really, it isn't that great of a mystery as long as you apply the right labels, for instance I'm a "Tree Hugger", I always give a tree a big hug right before I whip out the chainsaw and make firewood out of it. I'm a"Non Meat Eater", until breakfast or lunch or dinner. I'm an "Animal Rights Activist", I give them the right to be breakfast lunch or dinner. After that, my political views  won't show in my emails, so I wish that others would keep their silly email politics away from my inbox. 

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Backs and Bellies



At the risk of becoming a bore with the puppy pics. thought I would share these from new litter.

So sorry!


Now this is what sorry looks like...
I also wonder what happened to the comments to Bills posts...I know there were some because I read them yesterday, and posted some myself...Just goes to show you that if you want to see all the comments, you will have to be fast and check the blog frequently before they dissapear into the sunset or wherever they go.

I just knew it!


Now there's proof for you. The IceAges have past us by because they just don't make Bloomers like they used to.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Just some pics






I Wanted to add more than one picture last night but was doing it wrong. I think I figured out how to add more than one at a time.  These are our Corgis, or ones we sold.  The girl in the wildflowers is Gingersnap, she will breed with Mr. Cool in the shades, sometime in June. We think that they will have beautiful puppies and we are looking forward to that.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Jason's style of ski-jouring

Okay folks...............this is ski-jouring Bull River style!! I don't know how much fun this was for Jake............but the dogs were having a blast!!

Smallest of the herding group


Yeah, Pembroke Welsh Corgis are kinda small. They are classified as a medium size dog, they just have short legs. [A true dwarf] They were bred in Wales but when that happen is disputed, we know that they are mentioned in a book from the 11 century, but the breed may go back to the 9th century. The Corgi was an essential helper to the farmers of South Wales. Although these little dogs specialized in herding cattle, nipping at their heels and then ducking under their kicking hooves, they were almost certainly also used in herding sheep and even Welsh Ponies.
Now days they are used for herding but they excel at agility competitions. 
We decided to get this breed because we wanted an inside dog that was small [smallish] but sturdy. I was afraid that a breed that was too small may be too frail to stand up to the big dog life style that we offer here. We have always had big breeds, and we wanted to keep that big dog thing going, we just wanted it in a small package. A big dog in a small body, that's exactly what we got.
One time a lady came over to look at the puppies, she fell in love with the breed long ago, and always wanted one. She had apparently told her husband about her desire to have one, and when she was here her husband was walking around the yard looking as uninterested as one can be,  he confessed that he wasn't thrilled about the prospect of getting a Corgi. He told me that his buddies at work were giving him the business because his wife wanted a corgi. They told him that he would end up with a dog that would get high centered in the woods. I thought that was pretty funny because I might have thought the same thing once, just looking at the short legged little guys. I called Fuey, our wonder boy, and threw the red Kong, bouncing it on the driveway and over the 4 ft rock wall, Fuey bounded right over the wall after it. He returned like he always does with the Kong, dropped it and I threw it again, this time over the firewood pile. Fuey jumped onto the wood pile and scrambled over the top and returned with the Kong. That man threw the Kong for Fuey for about a half an hour, each time trying to get it into a place where he thought Fuey couldn't get to it, only to have it dropped right back at his feet. The puppy that the man picked out looked just like Fuey, it was no longer his wife's deal, it became his dog, and in the weeks before the puppy was old enough to go home he visited him many times, sometimes with the wife and once with his teenage boy, and several times just by himself.
Sure they really are a funny looking little dog, with no tail they are often referred to as Bunny butts. They are unbelievably smart dogs and can be trained to do almost anything. Below is an excerpt from an email that we received from a lady that got one of our puppies Tessie, she just turned 1 yr old this week. I paste this to show what you can get if you work with a Corgi and show them positive reaffirmation.


So ... some of the things that Tessie will do.  Rather than general dog hand signals for these, I have been teaching her American Sign Language, because my hope is that some day she will be able to do a bit of time as a reading dog, or another type of service work.  So in the chance that she is around a deaf person, I want them to be able to communicate with her. These are things that she knows the ASL sign for:
 
Sit, Down, Stand, Roll Over, Turn (to the left), Twirl (to the right), Stay, Pay Attention, Drop It, Speak, Over (as in jump over an object), Under (go under an object), Come and No, which I don't like to use a lot, but it's there if I need it.
 
Then a few things that there isn't an ASL sign for, or the sign isn't really helpful: Shake, Bang (she falls over and plays dead), Wait (like 'stay', but with 'stay' she remains where she is until I come back to her, and with 'wait', she just pauses where she is until she gets further instructions), and  Leave It.  Also, she knows the difference between Left and Right. This was one of the things I taught her after I had run out of cute tricks.  I hold both fists in front of her and ask 'Which is left?' or 'Which is right?' and she (usually) nudges the correct one with her nose.  I taught her to know them from her perspective, so if she is facing me, then my left hand is her 'right' and my right hand is her 'left'. She's generally pretty accurate, even if I hold a treat in the opposite hand that I am asking for. Heel, although this one still needs work.  When she's focused and we are doing something, she is fine.  But she does need better leash manners, because she is so rarely on a leash. Inside, (when I am going out the door and want her to stay in the house, I tell her 'inside' so she doesn't try to rush out the door.  Also, 'wait' is most used at the door, because for a while we were having issues with her running out, then turning back and jumping on Eifie when he tried to get out the door. So now she waits until he goes first, then she goes). Front, which is a rally obedience command, which means that she comes around to face me. Quiet/Thank you. When she's barking at something, I let her have a few barks, because it's only polite ... she IS trying to alert me to something.  Then if the barking goes on a bit too long, I thank her for the alert and tell her 'quiet'.  Sometimes I just need the 'thank you' and sometimes I have to add 'quiet'.  It works, but with her clever little mind, she sometimes will then bark just so that I will tell her to be quiet, so that she can be quiet and get a treat.  Night-night is when it is time for her to go into her room at bedtime.  It is also helpful when it is the last walkies of the evening, because I can tell her 'night-night walkies' and she knows that whatever she needs to do before bed, she should get done, because she isn't going to have another chance before morning. Walkies/Outside aren't really commands or anything, but she definitely knows the words when I say them.  She has a fairly large vocabulary, but I think those are her favorite words. Also Up the Stairs/Down the Stairs, because she sometimes has a way of being RIGHT under your feet.  I didn't want mom to trip on her when on the stairs, so I taught Tessie those, to keep a path cleared.
 
Two things that she does not yet do without cheater signals are Say Yes (she is supposed to nod) and Bow.
 
Then there are two ASL signs that don't have an action that I expect from her, but that she knows. Good (or 'good girl') and Love You.  I just sign 'good' to her when she has done something correctly, the same way I would say it, or somebody who uses clicker training would click.  Then I sign 'love you' if she's not doing anything particularly good or 'correct', but is just being her loveable self.  The difference in the two is just that when I taught her 'good', I gave her treat rewards and praise so that she knows it means she has done something right. I signed 'love you' before giving her pats and affection, so that she knows it's just an expression of how I feel about her.
 
As I said, she does have a huge vocabulary, so really, there are a lot of other things that she knows, but aren't particularly tricks or specific actions. Or, there are sentences that she knows like 'find the wubba and bring it here' or 'pick it up, bring it here, now drop it'.  I feel as though I am forgetting some things.  But these are the basics.
 
 
The classes:
 
I was so, so lucky to find this place in Bellingham; Tails-a-Wagging.  Thus far, Tessie has had Kindergarten and Puppy Prep School there, and is currently taking Rally Obedience.  I think a lot of people view things like puppy kindergarten as some fancy schmancy useless waste of time for people who want to treat their dogs like children.  I admit I even had a much different view of it before going in.  It's so much more than what the name suggests, though.  It should be called 'Learning how to get the best out of your dog, bond with your dog, plus crucial socialization'.  Of course, that's a long name and doesn't sound as cute as Puppy Kindergarten.  The only reason I signed Tessie up for the class is because living where I do, she just doesn't have a chance to interact with other dogs (other than Eifie), and I know how incredibly important it is.  So while I had this entire 'I've trained all my other dogs and I can train this one as well' attitude, I wanted her to have the play time that they get at the start of each class. 


Some good girl indeed. Below is a link to the winner of the herding group in the 2009 Eukanuba dog show. We are not show dog people but I always notice when a Corgi is featured in them. Even the Queen has Corgis, a bunch of them.

.http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/eukanuba/akcchampionship/vote/vote.html

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Daylight Saving Time

I turned my watch forward about ten days ago, I noticed that my Oregon Scientific thermometer had already changed to the correct time, apparently connected to the Atomic Clock. It got me thinking about the time change, and what day it happens each year. I remember that the date this year March 8th was different than some dates in the past. I looked online and found that it changes a lot through the years. 
I didn't really want to talk about Daylight Saving Time, except that I knew a guy that used to get so bent when someone said Daylight Savings Time. He had a problem with the -S- at the end of Saving. I think it's funny because now I always notice when someone says Savings. I have always had more of an issue with the local weather man saying "The days are getting longer". I hear that every year and I had to wonder are they really getting longer, so I timed it, no it's still 24 hours.
Like I said I didn't really want to talk about Daylight Saving Time, I wanted to talk about April Fool's Day. In particular an April Fool's Day that happened at the same time as Daylight Saving Time change over. I was working as a cook at the Husky Truck Stop [home of the famous Husky Burger], that year when the time change fell on April 1st. That morning I was working morning shift for the first time since I started cooking there, before that morning I always cooked the graveyard shift. The morning waitress came to work that day, and she asked me "What are you still doing here?" She of course wasn't used to seeing me working the morning shift and was unaware of the shift switch that I had made with the regular morning cook, a guy that is also named Bill. [same as me] When she asked me "Where's Bill?" I simply shrugged, and left it at that. I cooked several orders and didn't think about it much at all. The waitress asked me again, "Why are you still here?" "Where's Bill?" And that's when it hit me, what a great time for a practical joke. I told her that the other cook, Bill probably forgot to set his clock forward the night before, and has apparently slept in. She looked at me with panic on her face, " What are we going to do?" "Bill doesn't have a phone so we can't call him!" I of course knew that even if he had a phone, he couldn't be reached because he was out of town, the reason I switched shifts with him in the first place. I played along thinking "What great fun it is to play this April Fool's joke on the waitress. "Yeah" I said "I don't know what we're going to do."  Well here is where the seemingly harmless Fool's day prank gets funny, or maybe it's not so funny. The waitress runs next door to the office and calls the boss, wakes her up, she is still half asleep, probably from losing an hour of sleep that morning due to the time change. The waitress tells the boss that Bill didn't show up for work. The boss knows about the shift change I made with the other cook named Bill, but she assumes that I must have forgot about working the other Bill's shift. She knows that she can't call me because I also  have no phone. So she rushes over to my trailer only to find nobody there, after all I can't be there because I'm at work yucking up the joke I played on the waitress. 
So what are the odds, two cooks named Bill a shift switch, neither  are answering their door, DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME ,APRIL FOOL'S DAY wow really what more do you you need for a practical joke. A waitress in a panic, a sleepy boss lady, and a wise guy like me to watch it all unfold. Well the boss came in the back door to find me there cooking and doing prep just like I was supposed to be doing. The look on her face was,,,,well lets just say that she was not smiling. She wanted to know why the waitress called her and woke her up on her day off, why she said that I hadn't shown up for work. She really didn't get the joke. How could that be, after all the coincidental irony was hilarious, wasn't it? Well I thought it was anyway. 
The Husky Truck Stop was just one of many places I cooked food for hungry folks, I tried to do a good job while having a good time at all of those places. I had a lot of fun while I cooked at the Husky Truck Stop a job I held for about 4 months from sometime in December till April 1st. Damn I love a good joke, I guess that everyone doesn't have a sense of humor like me though.
Oh by the way, do you know why it was called the home of the famous Husky Burger? I think  it's because it would be in bad taste to call it home of the famous German Shepherd Burger. Duh!!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Poor little guy


We have four healthy happy puppies left in the litter, unfortunately the poor little guy that had such a rough time at birth didn't make it. We tried to get him to eat from momma then fed him from the bottle. Every two hour for two weeks, he just never gained the strength to make it on his own like the other puppies. I buried him the weekend before last in our family pet cemetery right along side Precious, Syringa, Cedar, and Hugo. He is in the company of greatness.
The one truly sad inescapable inevitability of having pets, is that you will always [usually] outlive them and it will always break your heart. All the dogs we have had lived into their teens with the exception of the little guy. I wonder sometimes if that makes it easier to feel "Well I had a good long time with this dog and he had a great life with our family" or does having a pet that long make it much harder to deal with them passing. I guess that given the choice I rather have the broken heart and all the really good memories that come with having the pet. 
I still remember Hobo, the German Shepherd we had at home, and King, and Snoopy,,,yeah even Snoopy. I remember Fritz the Shepherd that was the family dog after I was old enough to move out and how dad called me up one morning to help take him in to be be euthanized, because he was old and could hardly walk after suffering some type of a stroke or something. One of the saddest memories I had was that day and it wasn't knowing that poor old dog was gone, it was because the first and only time I saw dad cry was when we left the Humane Society without Hugo. Dad didn't let us kids see that kind of emotion and even though I know that he must of had many reasons to shed tears throughout his life I only was witness to it that one time. For me on the other hand, I've cried many times for many reasons. When I was a kid I was known as,  "The crybaby" and was called this many times.  When I got older and had a family of my own I found more than a few reasons to shed those tears. Each time I have not felt shame nor did I care what anyone thought of my spontaneous display of emotion. I sat once on the porch of my neighbors house and openly wept while I waited for him to find the 22 cal. pistol that I would use that morning to put down Hugo our German Shepherd. I didn't want to do it and it broke my heart, but he was old [13 yrs] and he was ready, and I just felt that I owed it to him. He was a great dog, and I simply couldn't let the last thing that he experienced in his life was the harsh lights and strange smells and sounds coming from some Veterinarian Clinic. I just wanted him to be in a place that he was familiar with and knew he was loved, so he may be at peace.
We have five dogs now, not counting the puppies which will be placed into other homes soon. That's five more heartbreaks, but it is also thousands of laughs and and an awful lot of pride and joy and companionship too. Like I said I'll take the heartbreak and deal with it just to have the other stuff. 
I guess I should give the moral to the story, because there has to be a moral to the story, is that dogs can be wonderful fun and they will be gone someday, and it's perfectly okay to be broken hearted but it's also okay to take the chance of another broken heart and someday gat another dog. In the end you'll be see the joy outweighs the heartache, by a wide margin.
One more thing I know about dogs is if you look like a cow the Pembroke Welsh Corgi will herd you, that's why everywhere I go I have at least two Corgis herding me there. Part of the fun of having Corgis. 

Monday, March 16, 2009

A TRILLION

Can you invision a trillion? Go here and this will help..
http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

Interesting...

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Just a line or so.







Thought I'd drop a line about the desert flowers...Such a big disappointment... It was a beautiful sunny morning yesterday so we decided to go down and take photos of the wild flowers...It seems they didn't get the last few rains we got up here on the bench...Here are a few of the ones I did find and were big enough to photograph...
Since we were already down there Phillip decided to got pick up a few more of the geodes with the fire opal in them... I stayed pretty close to the car and looked for arrowheads...The grass has dried up so it was easy looking... I did find 1 good one and 1 broken one... Saw the biggest rattler I've seen in a long time. I had left the camera in the car since the flowers were not out much and he just wouldn't stay put till I hoofed it over to get the camera and back. He sure made it out of sight in a hurry...
It was a perfect day...Sunny with a breeze so it wasn't too hot...When we got back up on the bench we hit the worst rain storm...Lots of lightning and some snow flitting down with the rain...It was supposed to be sunny here today but we got rained on anyway...Don't have to water the garden as much this way...
Lastly! You know your in AZ when your car is overheating and you haven't driven it yet.
Granny











Thursday, March 12, 2009

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Ok, I think I'm getting the hang of this video editing biz'.  So if any of y'all want to upload videos I'll share some of my struggles with ya.  The key thing is to get the file size down below 100 megs and not make the show too crappy.   I don't know if there is some magic format that can compress long videos (long is anything over 4 minutes) and have nice visual/audio quality AND get the file under 100 meg.  I have tried a few different formats but the only luck I have had is when I use the Mpeg 4 format.

Well there's my two cents for what it's worth.  Ok, so this video here is of the Leadville "Ski Jouring" races.  Ski jouring is sport where cowboys team up with some crazy skiers and go barreling down a track with jumps.  This has been a tradition in Leadville since 1949.  Steph and I first noticed this watching the Warren Miller film "Children of Winter" this past fall.  I guess some guy who is some hot shot downhill skier thought he would give ski jouring a try.  He took a bad fall and nearly broke his nose.  In an interview he said something to the affect that he thought this was some yocal local drunken cowboy silliness, but after nearly getting his face torn off realized that you have to be tough and have some serious skill to try this madness.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Something interesting.

 
 
 
 

the best mom?







 
 


---


 Who is the best mother?
(gotta look at them all to the end! lol...)












A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps!




Frozen Dead Guy!!!

Hello everybody, Steph and I went to Nederland, CO for "Frozen Dead Guy Days."  Check out the link for details.  I brought along the little handheld "Flip" video recorder Steph got me for my birthday.  This video recorder is about the size of a cell phone and although it can't do as good as a fancy expensive camcorder, the video quality isn't too bad.  I've also goofed around with some editing.  Anyway,  here is some video of the "Coffin Races".  Enjoy.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Am I a millionaire?

NO!! I didn't win the lottery, but I have been getting e-mails from so many different people who are wanting to give me millions...Seems like my e-mail address has been drawn for many different lotteries, from so many different countries...All I have to do is claim the prize...Not to mention so many relatives I never knew existed ,from different countries, have died and named me as their heir...I have millions coming to me, only if I hurry and put in my claim...And yes the UPS, Western Union and Fed EX has had people pay my fees for me on millions that came from some where...All I have to do to get this money is reimburse the kind soul for the fees he spent...Gee I don't know how I could be so lucky to have all this money coming and not a dime of it to spend...I think when the tax time comes I will just tell the IRS to take it out of all the millions I have coming...That ought to work, don't you think?...
On a different note, the daffodills are blooming and the Iris are starting to bud up... The muds gone now,and the cottonwood trees out in the back yard are sheding the leaf bud caps...Damn things falling all over the place and they stick to everything...Have to scrape them off your feet or you will have them all over the carpet...When Bitsy was alive she used to get them all over in her fur. If you didn't get all the sticky things out before she came in then she would pull them out and drop them on the carpet...In a week or so they will bloom, then the catkins will begin to fall all over the place...They are sticky too...The buds on the Hackberry tree out front are swelling...Will be a few weeks yet before it will leaf out and bloom...The cactus won't bloom for a while yet up here on the bench...I do have a couple of hollyhocks that came up after the pigs rooted around in them for the roots...About a foot tall now...If the pigs just leave them alone, then I will have some bright red flowers one day...Fruit trees all over the neighborhood are blooming...
Last but not least,...You know your in AZ when you see someone wearing a fur coat in 75 degree weather...Granny

FWD: Killer handbags?

This message was forwarded to you by sknah100@gmail.com.

Comment from sender:
Ever think about this?

This article is from The Star Online (http://thestar.com.my)
URL: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/3/8/lifefocus/3351719&sec=lifefocus

__________________________________________________________________________

I NEVER gave it a thought. Who would have thought? Have you ever noticed girls who sit their handbags on public toilet floors then go directly to their dining tables and set it on the table?

It's not always the restaurant food that causes stomach distress. Sometimes, what you don't know will hurt you.

Mom got so upset when guests came in the door and plopped their handbags down on the counter where she was cooking or setting up food. She always said that handbags are really dirty, because of where they have been.
Have you ever put your handbag on the toilet floor while you answered nature's call?

It's something just about every woman carries with them. While we may know what's inside our handbags, do you have any idea what's on the outside?

Women carry handbags everywhere; from the office to public toilets to the floor of the car. Most women won't be caught without their handbags, but did you ever stop to think about where your handbag "sits" during the day?

"I drive a school bus, so my handbag has been on the floor of the bus a lot,'' says one woman. "On the floor of my car, and in toilets,'' says another. "I put my handbag in grocery shopping carts and on the floor of the toilet,'' says yet another woman, "And of course, in my home, which should be clean.''

We decided to find out if handbags harbour a lot of bacteria. We learned how to test them at the Nelson Laboratories in Salt Lake in the United States, and then we set out to test the average woman's handbag.

Most women told us they didn't stop to think about what was on the bottom of their handbag. Most said at home they usually set their handbags on top of kitchen tables and counters where food is prepared.

Most ladies we talked to told us they wouldn't be surprised if their handbags were at least a little bit dirty. It turns out handbags are so surprisingly dirty, even the microbiologist who tested them was shocked.

Amy Karen of Nelson Labs says nearly all of the handbags tested were not only high in bacteria, but high in harmful kinds of bacteria. Psudomonas can cause eye infections, staphylococcus aurous can cause serious skin infections, and salmonella and e-coli found on the handbags could make people very sick.

In one sampling, four of five handbags tested positive for salmonella, and that's not the worst of it. "There is fecal contamination on the handbags,'' says Karen. Leather or vinyl handbags tended to be cleaner than cloth handbags and lifestyle seemed to play a role. People with kids tended to have dirtier handbags than those without, with one exception.

The handbag of one single woman who frequented nightclubs had one of the worst contaminations of all. "Some type of feces, or possibly vomit,'' says Karen.

So the moral of this story – your handbag won't kill you, but it does have the potential to make you very sick if you keep it on places where you eat. Use hooks to hang your handbag at home and in toilets, and don't put it on your desk, a restaurant table, or on your kitchen countertop.

Experts say you should think of your handbag the same way you would a pair of shoes: "'If you think about putting a pair of shoes onto your countertops, that's the same thing you're doing when you put your handbag on (the countertops).''

Microbiologists at the Nelson Labs said cleaning a handbag will help. Wash cloth handbags and use leather cleaner to clean the bottom of leather handbags. – From <a href="http://www.pursejewelry.com/handbagchat.html" target="_blank">http://www.pursejewelry.com/handbagchat.html</a>

__________________________________________________________________________
Your one-stop information portal:
The Star Online
http://thestar.com.my

Copyright © 1995-2009 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Star Publications is prohibited.

Reminder~~







Now, for your entertainment pleasure:

PSALM 2008-2012: FIRST BOOK OF DEMOCRAT

OBAMA IS MY SHEPHERD,
I SHALL NOT WANT.

HE LEADETH ME BESIDE STILL FACTORIES.
HE RESTORETH MY FAITH IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

HE GUIDETH ME IN THE PATH OF UNEMPLOYMENT.
YEA, THOUGH I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE BREAD LINE,
I SHALL NOT GO HUNGRY.

OBAMA HAS ANOINTED MY INCOME WITH TAXES,
MY EXPENSES RUNNETH OVER MY INCOME,

SURELY, POVERTY AND HARD LIVING WILL FOLLOW ME ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE.

THE DEMOCRATS AND I WILL LIVE FOREVER
IN A RENTED HOME.

BUT I AM GLAD I AM AN AMERICAN,
I AM GLAD THAT I AM FREE.
BUT I WISH I WAS A DOG
AND OBAMA WAS A TREE.

Author Unknown
_____________________________________
Have a good weekend, all
Granny



Thursday, March 5, 2009

More Libby/Grace

http://blog.umt.edu/gracecase/

This is a blog the students at UMT started to follow the trial. It is the biggest environmental law trial in the US ever!! Even larger than Erin Brockovich! I hope they get what's coming to them...

Libby/ Grace Trial.

A link to news about the Libby/ Grace trial.  http://missoulian.com/wrgrace/recent.php    
History, news, photos about the coverup and recovery. The trial underway.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Cool video

I'm glad you guys are enjoying the snow...I'l bet the rest of the family is getting a wee bit tired of the stuff by now... The reason I like it down here in the south in the winter... Actually it was quite warm here yesterday. Up in the 70's up here on the bench and in the 90's down on the desert... I opened the windows and doors and let the house air out while I was outside taking care of the tumblers... It was a hazy day today but still warm at 64... I was able to sit out in the filtered sun and crack garnets to put in acid soak...Gotta get some cut here pretty soon...Granny

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Outdoorsin' in the Mountains

how do I attach an image to a comment

I wanted this image to go along with the last posting but it didn't seem to show up, man I have this all messed up, someone help. [Please]

maybe this will work to get the blog thing started, can't seem to post on your blog without commenting to someone else





SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2009

Long journey

It has been somewhat of a journey, to get here, I have been using a web-browser that is obviously not supported by this site. Ame figured out why it was not working for me and now I am in business.
I have actually been able to visit the site for a couple of days now, but have been very busy with our Corgi, and her litter born 02/18/2009. A very long night, and some scary moments the next day during whelping. One of the puppies, a sable male had some difficulty in the birth canal and wouldn't breath when I got him out. I tried  using the same methods that I've used many times before with puppies that took their time breathing, holding him with a wash cloth his head angled in a downward direction and swaying him gently up and down from my stomach to my knees, and rubbing him, but this little guy was particularly stubborn. After what seem like forever, about 20 or 30 seconds I decided to just give him some help and with my mouth on his I gave a slight puff of air, like a whistle without the noise. I felt his chest rise and he gasped for that first precious breath of air on his own.  He is doing pretty good now but we are keeping an eye on him and making sure that his big brother don't muscle him away from the dinner table. He was holding his own quite well today.  
The puppies are Bingham, Cassia, Franklin, Clark, and Lewis. Can anyone see where we found those names?
A=B+C  is Ame equals Bill plus Chris, yeah I know, but we had to have something to use for profile name so that's it. Ame is our daughter's short name, the first three letters of  her real name, Amelia, taken from her great grandmother Amelia Ramsay. 
I am William, "Bill" of the prairie Hanks', 5th down the line third from the bottom [more or less] My wife is Chris, but she only comes when we call her Sissy. We are in the Bayview, Athol, Belmont area of north Idaho, and we wish springtime would get here soon. Last year we had record snowfall over thirteen feet total. The winter of 96 we measured just over 12 feet, adding up snowfalls we scraped off the water truck. This year was supposed to be mellow, but December had different ideas, and we got a 40 inch storm followed by storms that dumped 28, 24, 30 inches. After December we have not really had much new snow at all, but the stuff from earlier won't leave, we still have a couple of feet. February is the 4th driest month of the year in our area, that always seemed weird to me because we are in the middle of winter.
Well there you go, puppies, names and snow glad were all caught up.