Totally E-Wasted

Here is the Microwave that tried to break my leg after I slipped and fell on the pile of decomposing fig leaves. I was only trying to avoid the steps because I couldn't see where I was going with this big heavy 30 year old microwave.

Here is my truck loaded up with all the e-waste from the ranch--3 tvs, 1 microwave, 1 printer, and 1 computer. After I got back home I added another heavy old microwave, monitor, and little tiny printer to the load. Yep, all this taken in to the free e-waste recycle day put on by the tv station. Thanks Channel 3, Love you, but PLEASE bring back DAVE AND LOIS!

I think I will go home and crash for a while! I have one question for the world to answer at this point in the game, why are all the old microwaves heavier that 27 inch tv? Was the weight to justify the ridiculous prices people paid for these things when they first came out. If you buy a microwave now there are a fraction of the size and the weight.

NEW RANCH RESIDENT~DAISY

She is the talk of the stable, beautiful palamino mare, 15 years old, named Daisy. She is truely a sweetheart. She belongs to Chloe, Travis' girlfriend, and she is now a resident of the ranch. Please take notice of her light pink halter, isn't it pretty, on a light colored horse. I set out to be the photographer and of course had to take a picture of myself.

As you can see the donkeys are all perplexed as to what is going on with the new resident on the property. They aren't ready to be friends just yet, but of course don't want to miss out on all the goings on around the place. Just a side note, I can't tell you how hard it is to get all the girl donkeys to face the same direction at the same time. It just takes a common interest in another animal.

I wanted to take a few pictures of her running around the place in full gallop. Here are a couple of shots of her doing just that. I think there is nothing more beautiful than a running horse, unless of course it is a running donkey.

I really love this next shot with the well in the back ground.

So next time you come up to the ranch don't forget to ask about Daisy! Make her feel welcome! Did I mention that she was a rescue animal, I don't know the full story but she was abused by somebody. I can't understand why anyone would abuse such a wonderful animal.

MY FIRST Blanket QUILT

Here is the fabric that I bought last September when I was in Los Angeles. I have been wanting to make a lightweight quilt for some time now. I decided to start small with a two yard limit, and and nice cotton fabric. After a couple of hours of cutting out the fabric, matching up the sides, and sewing the three layers together, I was down to putting on the satin blanket binding. This is the stuff that everybody loves to feel on a nice blanket. I choose the color white because I thought it would look the best with the small two inch blue square side of the blanket.

This is my new little Singer sewing machine that I bought back in May at Sears in Santa Monica. It is a great little machine. Threading and filling up the bobbin are not that hard to do on this model. Don't you just love the fact that Singer went back and curved up the body of this machine in an homage to the Singer machines of yesteryear.. Did you notice the little white cup next to my sewing machine.. That is to catch the pins that I pulled out of the quilt as I was sewing.

I started the process of assembling this quilt many times, but last night I was feeling the need to be creative and pull this quilt together. I started working on it around 7:00 PM and was done by 11:00 PM. I did make a small mistake on one of the bindings at the very end of the project. The last thing that needs to be done on this quilt is placing a few yarn ties throughout the body of the blanket to hold the materials together especially after washing.

Scroll down for the final picture!

Sur La Table ~ Crazy Large Cupcake Cake

I went to LA to see my sister, Isabelle, and she took me to this great store that sells kitchen goods. I was fixated on this unbelieveably cool cupcake cake mold for making personal large cupcake cakes. I bought the pan and proceeded to make myself a sample personal cupcake cake.

I was wondering if one cake mix would be enough because the pan is rather deep. But as soon as I started to pour in the cake mix I learned that one is enough. I used PAM spray, and then put the cupcake cake in the oven. Now I did encounter a problem with the cooking, the small shallow side which is the top was seemingly done before the body section. I left it in the oven while continuing to cook the rest of the cake. It took about an hour to bake clean on the toothpick. I pulled it out and let it cool. I had a hard time cutting off the top of the bottom side therefore the cupcake is shorter than it should be, but overall it turned out terrific. I put little green sprinkles on it and called it done. Yes, It was yummy!

Trish tells me that I should have put a cupcake wrapper around the sides of it, but heck, how would I do that?? any Ideas????

FOLSOM LAKE

Where has all the water gone, at lake Folsom???

Where has all the water gone, it is not there anymore... Somebody needs to start conserving water pretty soon!

Granite Bay beach area, where the water is no where to be found...

Here is Donna working away!

I like to call this today's treasures! $1.59 cash value!

My shot of myself, my tradition!

So, Metal Detecting was the order of the day for this fine new year's day activity!

It was more fun than I expected.. Finding the six quarters was very fun!

Same shot as below except I zoomed in on the Dam.

This Picture was taken at Beals Point looking towards the Dam. But you cant really see any water... Very overcast day!

Well Folsom Lake is not the Folsom Lake you all remember. That darn lake is about dried up--just look at the photos...