The Pumpkin Pie Nearly Fatal Disaster

 Just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I spent this morning getting everything ready for tomorrow's Christmas feast. I went to check on the pumpkin pie in the oven and pulled out the cookie sheet the pie was sitting on. The cookie sheet tipped over and spilled pumpkin all over the oven door. I stood there horrified with my mouth open in shock, my mind going 60 MPH wondering what to do next. The pumpkin wasn't burning so I got a spatula and a spoon and scooped everything up, plopped it all back in the pie crust and baked it for another 10 minutes and called it done. The oven door was clean and I will tell my guests what happened so they can decide between pumpkin and Pa's made from scratch chocolate pie. Plus whip cream will hide a lot of the defects. I made potato salad and Mama Linda's famous baked beans and we will have a spiral ham.

I made these little Santa in the chimney thingies and filled them with candy and they will be the place setting name tags. Next is mopping the kitchen floor since I cleaned the house yesterday and made some Christmas Crack candy to go with the other goodies I baked. The radio on the TV is playing Christmas music. I'm not expecting any gifts tomorrow since Santa already bought me my high rise commode. My mom sent us a huge Figi's box filled with cheese, candy and meat sticks

 I made these floating frames for gifts for our guests tomorrow.

 I love working with vinyl. Too bad it is so expensive.

 I cut Native American symbols to put on Tom's coffee mug. If you use outdoor vinyl, it will stick when you hand wash the item.

I think he will like it. So "have your self a Merry Little Christmas" and don't forget the real reason we celebrate at this time of year.
But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. "This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."…
 Isaiah 9:6
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

For Sale by Owner

Our friend, Nick, is selling his place due to health issues. If you know of anyone who is a prepper or just wants a nice get away, please have them contact Pa and he will fill them in and make arrangements to show them the property.
Like ours, it is 40 acres at Woodland Valley Ranch,
 minus easements. It has two seasonal ponds, a 36x36 metal barn with loft,
40 ft 5th wheel with a 16x16 room addition with a wood stove.
8 solar panels and 8 batteries.
2 water storage tanks, 1100 and 1700 gallons.
2 corrals and a horse trailer.
Fruit trees
A small trailer for storage.
Very secluded with a long winding driveway.
Asking price $75,000 and it is move in ready.
He also has a 34 ft toy hauler for $6,500
We hate to see him and his family leave. They are so nice!

 34 ft Toy Hauler $6,500

 Car port frame that could be used as a green house.

 16x16 room additon

 battery, storage shed

 solar panels

 36x36 metal barn

 1100 & 1700 water storage tanks

 little trailer for storage

16x16 room addition with wood stove. Very sunny and bright!

 room addition

 Loft in barn

 View of the barn

 View of the 40 ft 5th wheel with room addition

It also has some fruit trees. Down by the ponds you will see deer and antelope wander by to get a drink. It is so quiet and peaceful. Nick said he never sees anyone. He isn't too far from Main Street but his property is on a dead end. It's really a nice set up. It's move in ready and you wouldn't have to do another thing unless you wanted to.

So spread the word !

The 500 Mile Toilet Caper

    The other day, I told Pa that I wanted an old people toilet (the ones that sit higher) for Christmas. Pretty romantic gift, huh? We were in Lowe's on the 2nd of the month and lo and behold, they had some Jacuzzi brand on close out sale. Pa knew we would have to get a longer water line so the salesman found us one. (120 mile round trip). A couple days later, Pa decided to install the toilet ( does commode sound better?) Anyway, he discovered the water line was the wrong one! My feelings were "oh well, it will have to wait till we make another grocery shopping trip to Show Low. The next day, Pa said he didn't want to wait so he decided to go to Springerville to the hardware store there. I decided to go along to pick up a few things at the grocery store that were on sale. NOT that we really needed anything except milk but darn it all, when something is on sale, and we live so far away, may as well take advantage of it, right? (110 mile round trip).
Oops! wrong water line! Next day Pa goes to Show Low back to Lowe's. They don't have the right one but Home Depot did. (120 mile round trip). Back home and we proceed to take the toilet out of the box. Are you ready for this? The stupid toilet is broken!!!!!! A big chunk is broken off the base. About this time, I am ready to forget the whole thing.  The old john is already sitting in the front yard. ( Should I plant flowers in it?)I called Lowe's and explained my problem to Bernie/Sonny/(turns out his real name is Tony) Of course all the toilets are sold out and they aren't getting any more. I told him I'd be happy to take the floor display but that's not possible because they glue it together so no one will steal parts. After a bit of conversation, he said he could get the base apart and if we wanted, we could exchange it. Or he would give us a similar one for their cost. Off we go again to Show Low (120 mile round trip) . We ended up buying the other commode for cost which was $88.00 ( Ah Ha, now we know how much they mark up stuff). At check out, Pa asked if  they would take his VA discount which they did so we got an extra 10% off an already great deal. 
  Today was the day! The toilet/commode/john is now installed and works like a dream. There are two flush buttons, one for liquid and one for solids. The most it uses is 1.5 gallons of water. But it's best feature is that it is easy to get off of. The old john was only 13 inches tall plus the seat. Good grief, you felt like you were squatting behind a bush using that short thing. The new one is 16 1/2 inches tall, plus the seat. I love it!

Isn't that just a thing of beauty! I will have to admit, it is a strange Christmas present. Maybe I'll put a big red bow on it for Christmas day so our guests will know what I received from Pa.
    We've had some strange weather the last couple of weeks. We had three days of fog which is unusual for this part of the country.

 You know how I feel with out a bright sunny day! Give me a pillow and a blankie and I'll sleep till it's over. Pa said Tom was going on and on that no one told him we would get fog here. Maybe he wouldn't have bought his property if he had known.

 Then we got 1 1/2 inches of snow. At least the snow is bright and doesn't last long.

 It was gone the next day.

   We've been having issues with our instant hot water heater. For the first two years, it worked perfectly. Now we have water pressure everywhere but the showers! It takes forever to rinse shampoo out of my hair and in the guest bath where I take my shower in the winter, I have to dash all over the place to get the water to hit my body. Pa thought the impeller might have gone bad in the water pump so he installed a new one. Made no difference. The other problem is, you have to set the water heater to the temperature you want to be using. If you even think of adding cold water to the mix, the water turns icy cold. Pa has to have hot water running in the sink and shower both to keep the water from getting cold while he takes his shower. I keep suggesting he call the company and talk to the technician to see if they can figure out what's going on. So far, he hasn't done that. I guess he needs a few more cold showers.
    Every year, the Coronado Power Plant hosts a Christmas dinner for the senior citizens of Apache County. We've never heard of it but Wayne's girlfriend told us about it and invited us to join them. We only knew 4 people out of 200 but we had a great time. One of the vice presidents and his wife sat with us. The dinner was really good! They had a raffle with about 80 or so gifts to hand out. Wayne's girlfriend won some slippers and cash. I kept saying I wasn't lucky and never win anything. After coming close a couple of times it was time for the last draw. Lo and behold they called my number. I was so surprised that I whooped out loud. I won a $25.00 gift certificate to our local IGA super market. I also got to take home the poinsettia plant sitting at our table because Wayne had no place for it and the vice prez and his wife flew in for the dinner and had no room in the plane.
 

 I brought a bunch of plants inside for the winter. This had a tiny bit of green when I brought it in. After I started watering it, all the petunia seeds that the mother plants had thrown off started to come up. There used to be more babies but I drowned them when I watered them. Our neighbor Nancy said she had no idea that petunias reseeded themselves. Before the freeze, I had a huge row of them under the window. All grown from seeds from the hanging basket. Too cool!

   The blue birds are back. They seem to like cold winter baths. You should see the Robins take a bath. There is water every where! Our Red Shafted Flicker has stopped by a few times. They are so beautiful! We also have Juncos, house finches, sparrows so far this winter. The Ravens never stop by for a drink but they do stop by if they see rabbit remains.
   My poor BFF injured her knee at work. She hasn't told me the details yet but she is on crutches and wears a knee brace. Just as I decided to go to the Dr. about my knee, it stopped hurting! Mind over matter? It's still tender and I have to be sure not to let it twist. So we shall see how it goes.
   For Thanksgiving we had Tom and our neighbors Don and Nancy over for dinner. Pa was such a big help with condiment trays, slicing the turkey, mashing the potatoes. Tom stirred the gravy. We all had such a good time. We are doing it again for Christmas. I'm the only one who has a kitchen. Tom lives in a 5th wheel and Don and Nancy live in one room in a Quonset hut and cooks on one burner of a camping stove. She has done that for 7 years! They are building a house inside one of their huts. It's been slow going due to health issues. I told Nancy, I'd hook up a 5 gallon propane tank to the big stove and cook there. Pa has helped them quite a bit, putting in gas pipes and doing what he can to move them forward.
  I'm working on some Christmas gifts and am trying to think of something for Pa and my mom. My mind is coming up blank for the both of them.
  Well, I've run out of pictures to share so I've run out of stories to tell. I hope you all have a blessed Christmas season and if I don't chat with ya soon, have a safe and Happy New Year!

Life at Hell N Gone Ranch

This is a typical night at our house. I'm all alone on the couch and Pa is buried under a dog pile. At least they keep him warm! Tilly, the black dog, likes her perch because she can look out the window and watch TV at the same time. I've never seen a dog who watches TV as much as she does.

When he's not piled on top of Pa, you can find Harley zonked out on the couch. These dogs don't do a darned thing all day and they sleep all night so what the heck are they doing sleeping during the day?

 Pa made two trips to Reserve, NM to get wood this month. The first time he got a truck and trailer filled with short logs.

 Can you believe $40.00? We love the guy in Reserve!

 The last trip he and Tom got a truck bed full of split wood and a trailer full of 1 inch slabs with the bark still on them. About 12 feet long. He is going to use them to shingle the outside of the room he is adding on to his travel trailer. He's only been working on his room for 3 years. About time he got it done!

 There's a new pest in town! We kept seeing little tunnels here and there around the house and garden. When we dug them up nothing was there. Now we know. I told him to enjoy his meal because he wasn't going to last long. I don't know how many of these ground squirrels are around the place. We hadn't seen them for the past 3 years. They must have heard that we serve gourmet meals and put the word out. I'm thinking the only way we can get rid of them is to buy one of those animal cages, trap them and let them go at Tom's. (Just kidding!)  We don't see them often enough to shoot them with the pellet gun . I haven't been able to hit the broad side of a barn ever since the sight broke off. Pa does pretty good tho.

 Here is our winter stack of wood. Plus we still have lots of logs we can cut and split.

 This is more than we had last year so this should hold us over.

DOG FOOD AT OUR HOUSE:
Cooking all those rabbits for the dogs to eat gave me a great idea. A can of dog food costs close to $1.00 to mix with the dry dog food.

 IGA in Saint Johns had chicken thighs and legs on sale for 69 cents a pound.So we got a couple of bags and cooked them up to use when we don't have rabbits to add to their food. I know, spoiled rotten. and to think of all the starving people all over the world. I usually pressure cook them so I can ground up the bones to add to their food but today I just baked them in the oven. They smell so good, I think I'll have two of them for our dinner. Hopefully the dogs won't mind.

I'm having the neighbors over for Thanksgiving again this year. I found these cute cupcake holders so bought the cut file. They didn't have a bottom so I had to make my own file for that. I'm going to put our guests names on them and fill them with candy and use them for name cards. Not that we care where people sit but I thought it would be a nice little addition. I have some santa ones I will use for Christmas. I sure hope someone gets a house with a kitchen some day out here. Ya know how much I hate to cook!  But we love our neighbors so it is worth the work.
Still no snow, knock on wood. We had some rain Friday night and it is supposed to rain this coming Friday.  Even tho we've had freezing weather, I'm still getting a little broccoli off my plants. They aren't even covered. Tom is still growing lettuce and spinach under row covers. If we ever buy a tractor, I'm going to make me an under ground green house so I can grow some things longer. Yeah, I know, don't hold my breath!  Our freezer is full so I'm waiting till the last minute to buy things for Thanksgiving dinner and then today I read that Butterball is going to have a shortage of turkeys! I haven't heard of any mass die offs of turkeys this year so I think they are saying that so they can hike up the price.
All righty then. That's it for now!

A Rabbit in Every Pot

Two bunnies are currently in the pressure cooker. Pa saw a bunny in the garden this morning so I grabbed Tilly and  let her have at it. When I went to let her back in the  house, there were two dead rabbits and another one running around. It got out before I could shut the gate. Don't feel sorry for the rabbits...for everyone Tilly kills, 20 more take it's place. There are millions out here.Anyway, Tilly has been providing meat to mix with the dry dog food. The dogs love it. I cleaned my first rabbit while Steve was visiting Tom. He was surprised when he got home because he didn't know I knew how. (There's a lot of things I know how to do!) I figure if he knows I know how to do something, I'll end up doing it every time.

It has been freezing in the morning but warms up to the 60's or higher during the day. We've had a few fires in the wood stove. Pa had been saving/hoarding old financial records so I convinced him to shred them and to use them as fire starters in the stove. Works like a charm. He went to Reserve, New Mexico a couple weeks ago and got a huge load of logs. They filled the trailer and truck. The guy charged him $40.00. Such a deal.

Obviously the garden froze to death, pretty early if you ask me. The tomatoes never got ripe so I brought them into the house to ripen in a box. They never got ripe at the same time so I froze them as they ripened. I made salsa and froze it and will cook the others down later. I ended up throwing a bunch away because they were rotting before ripening.

We met with our health insurance man a couple of Sunday's ago. Wayne set up the meeting so the three of us plus Wayne's girlfriend met the guy in a little restaurant in Saint Johns. Due to Obama care, our insurance isn't offered anymore. It was perfect for us since we rarely go to the dr. Now we have to pay out of pocket for 2nd coverage and drug coverage. Luckily Pa gets his one medication from the VA at little cost. I haven't seen a dr. in over 5 years. If it ain't broke, don't fix it is my mantra. After the meeting, we went to lunch at Wayne's place. He is now living with his girlfriend at another ranch just outside of St Johns. I really like his girlfriend and we had a great time.

Not much has been going on. I've been playing a lot of Scrabble on the computer since Pa won't play with me. It's a good way to pass the time while he watches his political shows on TV. I get so tired of all the talk on those political shows. Don't know what he would do without the TV since he isn't a reader. I do enjoy a couple of shows, The Black List, Scandal, Person of Interest, Unexplained Files, and some on the travel channel but give me a good book and I probably wouldn't miss them.

 I made this floating frame as a wedding gift for my grandson and his new wife. I should have found a better place to take a picture. You can see the sand outside thru the frame.

I made this charger plate. I had planned to take it to Show Low to a vinyl business to ask them if they had any scraps of vinyl I could have. If they said yes, I was going to give them the plate. Of course we went to Show Low and half way there, I realized I forgot the plate! I am living proof that as you get older, you memory fades into the background. I always take a list when we go to town but now I'll have to make a list of what I want to take with me.

 I've been working on some under the sea cards. No particular reason, just something to do.

Made this scarecrow to use as a center piece for Thanksgiving. It's made of cardstock. I forgot to look for some miniature hay bales when we went to Show Low. If Walmart doesn't have them, I'll have to go to Flagstaff. I guess if there is a downside to living in the sticks, it's that everything is so far away.

The backspace button fell off my laptop. I found instructions on line on how to get it reattached. Can't get it to stick for the life of me. I had no idea how often I hit that button until it's gone! Luckily there is a little nub sticking up that will work.

Ok, short but sweet. I'm thinking of discontinuing the blog. I have no idea if anyone other than my brother in law reads it. Pa and I have settled into a dull routine so there isn't much to blog about. So let me know if you are interested in the mundane and if you are, I'll post once a month unless something exciting happens.

I heard they caught a serial killer in Saint Johns. Supposedly killed 12 people over a period of time. The local Justice of the Peace got canned because he hid that he had a drunken motorcycle  accident where someone got hurt. The cop who helped him hide it got fired also. That left one cop for Saint Johns so DPS took over the police station until they could find more cops who want to work for peanuts. Even our little towns are as corrupt as the big city.

Bye bye!~

I Got to Pet a Wolf !!!!

 Yesterday we went to a Fall Festival and Farmer's Market in the little burg of El Morro, New Mexico. It's about an hour away from us. Home to El Morro National Monument which was closed due to the government shut down. Which was one of my goals to see this year.....

All in all, there wasn't a whole lot to see but everyone was so darned friendly, we had a blast! There is a wolf sanctuary not too far away in another little burg Candy Kitchen, New Mexico which is just outside of Ramah, New Mexico. Which is another little burg around there. I fell in love with the countryside. But back to the wolf. The sanctuary brought this white artic wolf to the festival. OMG, it was so beautiful!!!!  It's coat is double layered and really thick and it  has huge feet. It's pretty skittish around people so you have to let it come up to you. The lady said not to bend down toward it because it sees that as a threat. Well of course I wanted to bring it home and let it sleep in bed with us along with our three little bed huggers. The name of the sanctuary is Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary. They have various wolves, some dog/wolf hybrids, 4 or 5 dingos and 4 singing dogs.
They are from New Guinea and are related to the Dingo of Australia. Yes, someone thought they wanted them as pets and ended up with 68 of them. I don't know what happened to the rest but the sanctuary took 4 of them. Same thing happened with the Dingos. The sanctuary offers tours for $7.00 each. You can make arrangements to have a photography tour and actually go into some of the pens of the friendlier wolves and take close up and personal pictures. Don't know what that costs but it is now on my bucket list.
While at the Farmer's Market we talked to a lovely Indian couple who grow various melons. I was telling them about the seeds I took out of a Tuscan Cantelope from Safeway and grew my own. Pa told them about trying to grow Oklahoma watermelons in our climate. We ended up getting their address and I am going to mail them both kinds of seeds. We bought a huge cantelope type melon from them . Looks like a watermelon on the outside but a cantelope on the inside. Tastes like a mild cantelope.

 Isn't that huge?

 It smelled so good in the car on the way home.

Of course I scooped out the seeds to save for next year. Pretty yummy!
Tom went with us and luckily there was a lady who kept bees and had a easy home made bee hive. They must have chatted for 20-30 minutes. Tom says he doesn't like people but once he is around them, he never quits talking. That's one of the reasons it takes him all day and half the night to grocery shop. He strikes up conversations with every one. We won't mention that he has to compare every price on every thing. He hates to shop with me because I zoom in and out of stores like a bullet. He is fun to shop with tho because he likes to shop just like a girl. Very rare in a man.
Across the street was an old school house that is now a local art gallery. These were on the out side of the building.

 Aren't these cool? Pa could make things like this if only he wanted to. Not that I would want hands

 sitting all over the ranch but he could make other things.

 I wonder if that white streak in the sky is a flying saucer.
Back to the country side around Ramah, NM. So beautiful! Red sandstone mountains that the wind has carved in to beautiful shapes over the centuries. Little lakes here and there, pine trees, red dirt.

  Imagine seeing this out side your window every day.

 Bet the land around here is expensive.

 So beautiful!

 Wish you could see this closer. That formation in the front looks like a Chinese sentinel watching over the landscape.

I cropped the picture so you could get a better look.

After our day  at the festival, we headed for Gallup, NM to have dinner at Golden Corral. Everything was so delicious. They have the best fried fish! We ate some really good Honey Sesame chicken too. After waddling out of the restaurant we browsed Big Lots and then stopped at Home Depot so Tom could get some shingles for his roof. I can tell I'm getting old because I was exhausted! Good thing Pa was driving or else I would have fallen asleep at the wheel. Pa is just like a Timex watch, just keeps on ticking! I don't know where he gets his stamina. But he isn't carrying any extra weight around either, nuff said about that!
Earlier this week, Pa came in the house and said he got scared to death. He went to get something out of a box in the semi trailer and saw a rattle snake. He back tracked out of the trailer so fast, he fell down the step ladder. He grabbed some heavy gloves while I grabbed the camera.

 That sucker didn't want to come out of that box!

 He's going in the right direction

Whoops! There he goes right back toward the box.

Finally tossed him to the ground where he went under the shed. It turned out not to be a rattler but a bull snake but he wasn't the same color as our usual bull snakes. This was more weedy brown like you would expect a rattle snake to be. Our bull snakes have a lot of yellow on their bellies.
What else happened exciting this week? Oh, I almost ran over someone. Missed him by a gnats @@s. I was taking the back road to St Johns. Off in the distance there was something in the road. I thought it was someone on an ATV stopped in the road. As I got closer, it was some guy, sitting in the middle of the road on a box, talking on a cell phone. I slowed down and as I got closer, he stood up and started to head toward the right side of the road. I went to the left side of the road and almost as I got within touching distance of him, he spins around and dashes to the left side of the road. I slammed on the brakes and skid sideways. I had Tom and his dog Max with me. Max was in the back seat and hit his chest on the dashboard. Tom was yelling obscenities. I may have yelled one or two myself. You should have seen the look on this kids face. I bet he soiled his pants. Tom said he almost did. Everyone was ok. I asked Tom if he thought the kid did that on purpose but he said the kid was so intent on talking on the phone, he probably didn't hear me approach, saw me out of the corner of his eye and panicked. Thank you Jesus that you were in control of the truck  .
   After night time temps in the 20's, our garden is just a memory. I have a box of tomatoes ripening in a box in the kitchen. Today I made 6 jars of salsa using Mrs. Wages salsa mix. I put it in jars but will freeze it instead of can it. Easier that way. As the tomatoes ripen, I'm just washing them off , putting them in a bag and freezing them till I have enough to can or freeze as stewed tomatoes.
Ok, I'm tired of typing and can't think of much else to say. Taters till laters!