Who Cut The Cheese?

I did! Our little IGA market has cheese on sale once a month so we buy a whole round, cut it up, seal it with a Food Saver and eat cheese to our hearts content. It is really good. It ranges from $2.49 to $2.89 which is what we paid last time. The meat manager told me that cheese as well as beef is expected to go sky high. We bought a bunch of chicken breasts for 99 a pound yesterday and some pork chops for $1.59 and ground chuck for $2.88 a pound. The bad thing is they limit you to 2 or 4 of each so Pa and I buy separately. When you shop once a month, that's what you have to do. We absolutely hate that stores offer one day sales since the major grocery stores are 60 miles away. Of course we can't take advantage of them so we pick out what we want the most and shop on that day. Walmart will price match everything except meat so we take advantage of that also.

Sorry I haven't updated the blog. February was such a cold month, we just hunkered down and burned a lot of firewood.

We started out with this which was 3 rows deep down to almost nothing. Pa and I have been cutting and stacking more as winter progresses. Altho February was cold, we only got a smattering of snow. January was also pretty dry. It was supposed to be 70 today. I bet the trees are totally confused about what time of the year it was.

Another reason I haven't been on the blog is because I've been working on a life changing family matter which I can't talk about right now to protect the innocent. If things work out like I think they will, I'll tell you all about it soon.

 Robins have been hanging around most of the winter. We have 6 of them right now. We've had bluebirds
and a few other species.

 Robins are one of my favorite birds along with humming birds and road runners.

 We are so grateful that we live here and not back east. Can you believe the weather back there?

 Other than being colder this year we've had very little snow and very little rain. We've had a few clouds which produce beautiful sunsets.

 We've seen a lot of new people driving around at the ranch but took a drive a couple of days ago to see if we could find any new neighbors. We didn't see another soul! Where are all these people disappearing to?

 Not much going on in our life at present. Here is a picture of the tomatoes that ate Saint Johns. They are growing pretty fast so I hope they don't take over the house before May when we can plant them outside.
Tom made a little hoop green house to put over his spinach and it has produced all winter long!

My computer has some kind of virus called Idle Rootkit. The only way to get rid of it is to open the computer in safe mode and removing it manually. So I guess that is my next project. Doing things manually when you are not a computer expert could lead to other problems. I had to repair the Start Up the other day but the computer did that on it's own. Always something going on.

I listed some of my rubber stamps on Ebay. Turns out they are collectors items and one of them went for $51.00 including shipping. Are people nuts? For that price, I'd be afraid to ink it up and use it.

Have any of you seen "The Legend of Mick Dodge" ? It is on Nat Geo channel on Tuesday and is so darned funny. It's about a guy who lives in the rain forest in Washington. He lives completely off the land and goes barefoot almost every where. He lives in a tree stump or a cave depending on the time of year. He is the third generation of his family who lives this way. He's quite the character and very entertaining. Be sure to check it out.

Sorry this is so short but I wanted to check in and let you know we are both alive and well. Stay tuned for the next chapter. Until then..........

The Tomato That Ate Saint Johns

 I bought some Vine Ripe tomatoes from Walmart before Christmas and hung them on my banana hanger to get nice and ripe.

 I cut them open to find that the seeds had started to sprout right inside the tomatoes!

Those seeds wanted to grow so bad that they were making their way thru the tomato flesh, trying to break thru the skin! I've never seen anything like it. I needed them to make tacos and they looked kind of other worldy so I scooped out the mutant seeds and just used what was left. Really! They kind of gave me the creeps!  Have you ever seen anything like it? I hope we didn't swallow any seeds because I don't want them to start sprouting thru my stomach wall.

New Years Eve day found me on the road to Flagstaff with Katie. She had two doctor appointments, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We made it about 4 miles from Holbrook and Katie's car blew a tire. She called her dad to come and fix it and while we were waiting, the Highway Patrol stopped to help. It was bitter cold! The cop had no idea how to change the tire on her SUV but luckily her dad got there and did it. Katie didn't feel comfortable driving her car so we drove back to Holbrook and took my truck. We were only 10 minutes late for her appointment. In between appointments, we hit the thrift stores and craft stores. I've been replacing Pa's white t-shirts that are nothing but rags. Goodwill had brand new ones for $2.49 each. Pa likes white ones to work in. It's funny because in the summer, he gets tan thru the t-shirt and you can see white marks where his suspenders are. So now his drawer is full on new shirts. He didn't want to part with his old ones but compromised and put them in the rag bag. (What is it with men that they can't stand to part with raggy clothes? I got him new undies for Christmas and he wanted to save them for later and keep wearing his paper thin ones. No WAY!!!) As I do laundry, the old ones mysteriously disappear. Anyway, I didn't get home till 8 pm. Pa and I stayed up till the ball dropped in New York which was 10 our time. New Years day was very quiet. I remembered to watch the Rose Parade which I've missed since we moved here.

On Wednesday, Pa and I went to Show Low so he could have a minor procedure done. On the way, my truck kept making a weird noise. Pa stopped twice to check things out and couldn't find anything wrong. I dropped him off at the surgery center and then did some shopping. While driving back to the surgery center to pick him up, my front tires started wobbling. I slowly drove to the center and just as I was in front of the center, my truck went  THUMP and my right front wheel passed me , hit the sign to the surgery center and landed in a ditch. Well let me tell you....God had his hands on my steering wheel because the truck didn't swerve at all. I managed to drive into the parking lot and found a parking place that I could get the truck into. There was nothing left of the wheel on the truck,just parts of the brake...maybe. I rolled the wheel out of the ditch, thru the parking lot and leaned it against my truck. I was covered  with grease, dirt and mud. I went into the surgery center and told Pa " Well,I know what's wrong with the truck!" You should have seen his face when I told him the wheel fell off. I called Triple A and explained the situation. The dispatcher couldn't believe what happened and kept asking if I was ok. He said it would be 1 1/2 hours before anyone could get there but after I explained that I was picking my husband up after surgery, he put me on priority and they guy came in 30 minutes. Surgery was nothing serious but ya gotta play all the cards ya got, right?

The triple A guy took an hour to get the truck on his trailer and then dropped me off at Enterprise car rental while he and Pa went to the Chevy dealership to get the ball rolling there. The nice lady at Enterprise told me they had no cars available to rent! What!!!!! What?!!!!   So I explained to her that we were stranded 75 miles from home and my poor husband just got out of surgery and my wheel fell off my truck. Yes, I'm ok thank you but I am stranded! Bless her heart, she rented me someone else's car. (I returned it early the next day so she could give it to the original renter) The guys at the Chevy dealer ship asked Pa if he had an appointment and he said no because he didn't know the wheel was going to fall off. The Chevy guys had never seen anything like this happen. They were pretty dumbfounded.

Pa and I finally made it home. It hit me then how blessed I was by God. If this had happened while Katie was driving my truck to Flagstaff going 65 MPH on the freeway, we might have ended up dead. If it happened on my way home from Holbrook, with me going 85 MPH in the dark on a lonely road, I might have ended up dead. If it came off on our way to Show Low, we may have ended up dead. If the wheel came off anywhere other than in front of the surgery center, some one else might have ended up dead. As it was, the wheel hit the sign in front of the building which was made of bricks. It shot backwards and landed in a ditch. It could have just as easily shot across the road and hit oncoming traffic or a pedestrian. The truck kept going straight and even tho I had no brakes, I was able to slow down enough to drive into the drive way and find a good place to park. When the wheel came off, the truck didn't even lurch to the right. The rim and tire are just fine. Wish I could say the same for the wheel bearings, brake drum and all related parts. The brake line was sheered off as well as other parts of the brake assembly. It is only by the grace of God that every thing and everyone is ok. I even had enough cash in my IRA to pay for repairs. We get to pick the truck up this Tuesday morning. I have thanked God so many times, He probably wishes I would shut up! But I really feel it is only because of Him that every thing is ok. GOD IS GREAT! And don't you forget it!

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!