Christmas Santa Bag

I had this great idea to create a Santa gift bag out of red canvas material that I got from Joanns fabric store. I didn't want to buy a plastic bag to take gifts over to my brother's house. I purchased two yards of red canvas fabric with my 50% off coupon, for a grand total of $4.00. I thought about how I wanted to sew it on my new sewing machine that I bought way back in May. I already had put in the red thread, now I just needed to change the needle. I pinned the fabric and started sewing away. Within 30 minutes I had a bag done, except for the rope that I needed to purchase at the hardware store. I bought 8 feet of 1/2 inch rope of white nylon rope, took it home and threaded it threw my bag. The rope only cost me about $2.50 so my bag was made for $6.50, not too bad if you ask me.

Fresh and Sweet WALNUTS!!!!

Every Autumn for that last two decades I have spent my weekends gatherning many of these delightful little nuts. People just love walnuts, and puchase these nuts without hesitation. The nuts are organic, holistic, fresh, & hand picked and process from hull to half. Here is a picture of the nuts laying about awaiting my arrival to pick, clean, dry, shell. Already have about 38 lbs worth of nuts to shell and sell. This year there was a late frost that really impacted the crop. I would say we are running on 1/3 of the usual amount we would process in any given season. These are English walnuts, and yes we have some black walnut trees but too hard to process. The squirrels have been a huge problem because they steal and eat the nuts all day every day while I only can get up there on the weekends. As for cracking and shelling the nuts, my sister Isabelle got me this great device that helps me crack away with out too much hassle.

School Jog-A-Thon

Today was the school jog-a-thon and here is my class just before the official jogging at the starting line. My class brought in $328.80. We had a fun time and the majority of my students made it around the track six times.

Here is our pre-jog group photo...

My Bulletin Boards

Hello Presidential Race! Here is my board to decribe the race without showing any favor to either side. I especially like the middle posters that describe the process.

This is three different art projects, first the pumpkins sitting on the fence, then the scarecrows and lastly the trees turning color and losing their leaves. My friend and fellow teacher, Daphne, helped me put these up in this particular way. I think it looks great although if I had to do it differently I wouldn't have an orange back ground color. I had a hard time figuring out a title for this board, so I went all minimalistic.. If you have any suggestions let me know, plus Thanksgiving is coming!

Bathroom is done!

This is my new bathroom, looks kinda like it has an Island theme, but in reality, I just like the light colored wood and the nice blue/green color paint. The shower curtain ties it all together I think.

Hay Helpers

Saturday Nick and Logan came on up to the ranch and helped cover the hay. Those agile boys can get work done quickly. Thanks again Nick and Logan.

Pears gone bad! :>(

There are times when you want to can up that lovely fruit, but your schedule keeps you from getting to that fruit until you wait too long and the fruit is no longer able to be enjoyed. Well, I believe that the said fruit should be returned to the land, by way of the cow. I took the fruit back up there and gave it to Nellie and Molly and several other cows. They happily agreed to eat and enjoy the fruit.

Funny thing is there are still pears available to eat up there, just yesterday I picked two really nice pears. The third pear that picked was being enjoyed by a wasp and I made the mistake of trying to steal his fruit. Well he came right down stung me on my chest then proceeded to go down my shirt. I panicked, screamed like a school girl, then I untucked my shirt, he flew to the ground where I proceeded to step on him. Yikes!

LABOR DAY

This is how I spent my Labor Day Monday. Donna and I canned up 24 pints of fresh O'Henry Peaches. We bought them up in Auburn at Machada Fruit Stand. They were firmer than expected but sweet and delicious. Looking forward to enjoying the peaches all through the winter and spring. Also, picked some fresh Bartlett Pears up at the ranch, planning on canning those beauties during the week. Special thanks to Trish for help with the cell phone pictures. Thanks Trish- I got all of them.

Bathroom Remodel

Okay, this is only partly done, watch for more very soon!

I don't know how to turn the top picture the correct way.

Isabelles Visit To Sacramento

Hello AUGUST!

Summer is in full swing. This weekend Isabelle, Karl and Sean drove up from LA and we all got together for a BBQ @ the ranch. Bob, Karen and the kids came up too and we had a blast. We took turn riding the quads, picking fruit, playing with the animals, and generally just getting dirty. I have some fun pictures of the occasion compliments of Bob's Awesome new camera.

Greeting from Glass Beach in Fort Bragg

This is me having a blast sorting through kelp looking for little pieces of glass. The blue one are the hardest of all to find. But I found several mid-sized blues, and one really nice cranberry red piece half the size of a nickel. There is something really enjoyable about sitting on the beach sorting through rock and brushed glass pieces that look like little gems when they get wet. I even learned how to read the tide schedule, did you know there are two high tides and two low tides every single day. Low tide is the best for finding treasures.

Vacation is now over for me, back to work. School starts on Monday so it is time to set up the classroom and prepare for a new bunch of little learners, year-round school is crazy. But it works for us out here in over-crowded west coast suburbia.

Yummy Black Berries

Yesterday at the ranch I was off looking for my donkeys, and I got distracted with finding ripe black berries. So I pulled over on the quad and started picking and eating black berries. I also found some type of little yellow/peach colored plums and was eating those also when my little donkey girls, Sydney and Sierra, came running over to see what I was doing. So I started feeding them these yummy plums. It was funny because they were eating the pits and all really crunching on the pits. Next thing I know the mom donkeys were over with us all eating this wild fruit. It was really funny.

Glass Beach

Wow, Fort Bragg was a great place to go to escape the heat, smoke, pollution of the Sac Valley this last week. I spent some time sifting through the sand at Glass Beach. The beach used to be the city dump 50-60 years ago. The glass that people threw out with their trash ended up being tumbled with sand for all those years and now it pretty little pieces of sea glass. They are so fun to pick up and collect. Good luck finding any shade of blue.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

Hey, I am cool too! I did what you did Trish, do you like? Happy 4th of July from your cranky sister Marg!

Smoke filled air

Greetings Ya'll, Donkey news is slow. We are having a bit of a heat wave up here in the foothills of California and the smoke filled air isn't helping us out at all. The girl donkeys are roaming about the pasture looking for the spots of grass that the cows might have overlooked in the daily graising cycle. The Jack donkey's, Hershey and Snoopy, are locked up in their pens awaiting their next visit from the girl donkeys. The garden is growing up crazy, and zucchini is the most prevelent crop so far. Weeds are everywhere, and some serious time is needed pulling those darn weeds. I am off work as of Friday, and I will be on the hunt for some tree riped Peaches to can up for the winter. I have a lock on Pears, shouldn't have any problems getting those pears away from the cattle. No pictures today unless you want them of me sitting with my students. :>)

Spring is turning into Summer

I went up and saw the Donkeys yesterday, no pictures, and they were a little distracted they just wanted to eat their dinner. So after they had their favorite mix of 50/50 I decided to let them out for a few days. They, the four girls, had been cooped up and needed to stretch their hoofs. They made their way up to speed bump hill in my opinion to get away from the cows.

Breeding Season

We'll the ranch is in breeding season. The three year olds Sydney and Sierra are expected to produce offspring next year. They are being bred to the shortest mini-donkey, Hershey! Hershey is about five years old and acquired specifically because of his short height and dark brown color. However, Sydney is darker brown than Hershey. It is very difficult to tell their color this time of year because donkeys roll in the dirt to keep the bugs from bothering them. Pearl and Miss. Lily are due in December '08 and May '09 Respectively. Once the little ones come just expect your heart to melt once you see their pictures. And if you ever have the pleasure of picking up and holding one, consider yourself a lucky person!

Hello World -- Are you ready for some Donkey Talk?

Greetings world, prepare yourself for donkey adventures! Okay, this is a cow, but not just any cow this is CLARABELLE the great!