Happy Birthday Bambino Bean

The Bean is 5 years old today. This is what he would called a "handsome" day.
This is my oldest Grandson and I love him so much it makes my eyes leak and my nose run.
(He would think this was silly, gross and funny.)
I'm going down to spend the weekend with the Birthday boy and his family.
See you on Monday.

Bathroom, from a Corgi Perspective

...sorry, I'm kind of busy today. I have a lot to do.

Do You Want to Buy An Easter Basket?

Thank you Monica at Expressly Corgi  for tagging me to become part of the Hershey's Blog Hop to benefit the Children's Miracle Network. Hershey's will donate another $10 to CMN for each blog post -- and they'll keep on donating as long as the blog-hopping continues, up to $5,000 to benefit kids. What a wonderful thing for Hershey's to do for the children! Thank you Hershey's!!!!!

The rules are easy:

HERSHEY’S BETTER BASKET BLOG HOP RULES

~Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.

~Create a blog post giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger – you can give as many Virtual Baskets as you want.

~Link back to person who gave you an Easter Basket.

~Let each person you are giving a Virtual Easter Basket know you have given them a Basket.

~Leave your link at BetterBasket.info/BlogHop comment section. You can also find the official rules of this at betterbasket blog hop, and more information about Better Basket with Hershey’s there.

~Hershey’s is donating $10 per each blog participating to the Better Basket Blog Hop to Children’s Miracle Network (up to total of $5,000 by blog posts written by April 4th, 2010).

~Please note that only one blog post by each blog url will count towards the donation.

Now, I need to pass this virtual Easter basket on to others:

I would rather offer this to anyone who reads my blog and say that this is a wonderful cause and a very easy way to make a difference.

Thank you, Farmlady

Wordless Wednesday

Bless you Firefox; I did it without you

Sometimes I'm a little overwhelmed by friend's thoughtfulness. In the course of their everyday lives, filled with busy living, problems and their own maintaining of some kind of balance; they leave a message and say, "Hey, I'm sending you something I thought you would like."

Jan Ely of Little Pink Houses took a trip back to see her sister in the southern states. She was in Louisiana and New Orleans. While she was there she sent me a baby gourd that rattles. It's the cutest little gourd you ever saw. It's completely dry and has lots of seeds in it. I'm not sure if I will decorate it as is, or make a hole in it and retrieve the seeds so I can try to plant more of these cute little guys. I will do a post on it when I decide what to do. Thanks Jan. With all your coming and going... this was very sweet that you sent me a gourd.
Then I received a package from Helen, the Reddirt Woman from Oklahoma. She sent Guniea Hen feathers for The Bean and I. They are really beautiful. I had no idea what a Guniea Fowl looked like so I "googled" this bird and learned something new. They are meat fowl and provide an excellent income for some breeders. They are plump little birds( I like them already!) and have these amazingly beautiful feathers.

Wait until The Bean (my oldest grandson) sees these. He will probably want to hang them on the wall over his bed or paint with them. He will be 5 yrs. old on Friday. I will take some to him for his birthday. Thank you Helen. You're a sweetie.

My friend "C", who had the knee replacement a few weeks back, is really doing well. In fact she is coming up to see us tomorrow. Her daughter is here again for a while so they are going to drive up and see the beautiful spring foothills..., and the PUPPIES.., and us...., and the PUPPIES. So, to thank me for keeping her company during her recuperation and because we watched a PBS program on Dolly Madison and I said I was sorely lacking in my American history facts, she sent me a wonderful book on called A People's History of the United States..., and a new Aerolatte frother for my lattes. Oh, yes! She had one of these at her house and I went crazy for it. It makes the best foam for lattes ..ever.

The Howard Zinn book is really great. It makes HISTORY very interesting and keeps me turning the pages, which is sometimes hard to do. All of this was not necessary but, gosh darn girl, it sure was nice of you.

Then, as if this giving would never end, I get a package from my Uncle, in Susanville. He sent The Prospector and I some packs of seeds that he dried from last year: Some Zucchini seed that he has dried every year for a very long time. They were growing on the ranch, in Napa, where he and my Mom grew up. Also a package of Roma pole beans from the ranch. Can you imagine?.., propagating seeds for over 70 or 80 years, or more. He also sent instructions and a small packet of sun gold cherry tomatos. Wow! We are set for the summer.
I went up to visit him a few years ago and you should see his garden. It's big and beautiful..., and all natural. He's 85 and he does all the work himself. I think I will see him this summer. My cousin, who lives in the Bay Area, and I are planning a trip up there. I haven't seen him since Mom's funeral and it's time for a visit.
Thanks Uncle Jimmy. See you soon.

So you can see why I'm a bit overwhelmed. I just don't get things in the mail a lot but this has been a banner week or two.
The last photo collage was added because these are three things that I'm also thankful for. I not sure who to thank.., Nature? God? Our knowledge of how to live within the constructs of our life here?..., or just the existence of small creatures that do great and wonderful things here on Three Dog Farm. Whomever it is that I should thank... I'm, again, overwhelmed. I am in a constant state of joy for all the good in my life. Whether it's the first Ladybug that has came to eat the aphid on the roses, or the worms that made my household leftovers into "black gold" for our garden, or the sleepy puppy that has found a happy, trusting home with us and will never be hurt again..., I am touched by the caring people in my life and the beauty of my existence.

A Good Day for Two Old People

It's garden project time. The first project is to get rid of something that we planted and is, now, taking over our garden. This is a warning to all of you who want to cover a big area of ground fast. DON"T PLANT VINCA MAJOR~!! It's common name is Periwinkle. It really pretty with it's little "lavender-blue dilly, dilly..." pinwheel-shaped flowers and it's "green all summer" leaves but, oh my gosh, this stuff is so invasive. It's coming up everywhere. It is what my cousin, who was a biologist in Oregon, called a "noxious weed". I can remember her talking about people who plant things and let them get out of control. I can hear her voice shouting at me, as I stand and look at this pretty stuff that is taking over my garden..."Didn't I tell you about this? What were you thinking?". I guess I wasn't . I was trying to cover a rocky hillside.  I've seen it growing wild in the creeks around here. Vinca thrives with just a small source of water. It seems to survive our horribly hot summers here without water at all. So we are on a mission to eradicate as much as possible and take back the gravel walk that is in the front garden.
I started Saturday morning, with my two little canine helpers. They don't really work very hard but they come cheap and they give me lots of moral support. I cut down as much Vinca as I could and then I raked and pulled, ripped and tore, trying to get as many roots as possible. The Prospector will use weed killer to get what I didn't. Sorry if I have offended anyone but sometimes you have to use tough love in the garden. It would be worse if this plant got out of control. We will try to be as GREEN as we can be. Then we will cover the whole area with riverbed rock and gravel.

We are also building a inner fence to confine our two little dogs this summer. We only need a short fence for our short dogs and we found this really amazing fencing at LOWES that comes in 3 ft. sections and has a two piece gate in the same design. It went together so easily. It has posts with a spear like attachment that goes into the ground first. Then, you put the post through the extensions on each fence section and hammer the post into the piece that is already in the ground. It's so easy my grandkids could do it. and it worked really well in our rocky soil. We got everything done except the second gate going down to the vegetable garden and when we finish we won't have to worry about the puppies running into any RATTLESNAKES down the hill or behind the house, in the summer. It's doesn't guarantee that a rattletail won't come waltzing into the lawn area but it does improve the odds of an unexpected encounter with one..., and it looks great. I will take some finished pictures tomorrow.

This morning we took a break for a few hours and went down into town. Jackson was having it's big Dandelion Days celebration. It's a street fair. They close down Main St. and all the parking areas, for vendors that sell just about everything and music, singing, rock wall climbing, good food and all sorts of activities.
We left home early and went to the pancake breakfast at the Police station. Filled ourselves with good food and then walked up and down Main St. looking at all the things that were for sale and all the lovely people. People watching is one of my favorite things to do. Someone had a gourd booth with birdhouse gourds and craft/holiday gourds. They were cute and very inexpensive. I bought a pair of gloves, two drill bits for my Dremel, two wire brushes, a charm for a friend in Michigan and two little porcelain dolls (without arms) that will be used for artwork.We had a great time.
Then we headed back home to work on the fence and garden all afternoon. This weather is so wonderful right now. I could do SPRING forever.
Tonight we are two tired, old people. Sore?.., Oh yes. Sleepy?.., absolutely, but feeling a sense of accomplishment. I'm quite sure that neither of us will have trouble sleeping tonight.

For Jan, who's always asking about Squeeky

Hey! Who let the chickens out? They are in my garden again. Look at this. Dirt all over the place!

Napoleon? Can you please keep your girls in line? Do they have to make such a mess. I know you're a bantie rooster and most of the hens are twice as big as you ,but you've got those big spurs on your feet. Do some serious @$$ kicking and get them under control.

...and where is Squeeky? My little bantie who always thinks the sky is falling? She's all broody again, but this time she's "setting" her own eggs so I guess I will leave her alone and let her try. Last year she just wanted to sit on all the big eggs and would never leave the nest. What a problem child she is. Why wouldn't she want to be outside, in the beautiful weather, with the rest of the flock. Look at her! Such a pretty little, confused chicken, but I love her.

And I leave you with this...

Why did the chewing gum cross the road?
Because it was stuck to the chicken.

It's that kind of day....

California Groovin'

This is Bart. He is one of our four Nubian wethered goats. He's quite the gentleman. When I stop to see them, usually every evening, he's the first one to come over and "talk". He was being exceptionally sweet yesterday. We always say "Hello." by touching noses and then he starts sniffing me. It's his way of making sure that I am who he thinks I am. It's like he says...
"Ah! It's farmlady. She's wearing that wonderful shirt that has the shinny buttons and the Jessica McClintock perfume. I know her. She is...(sniff, sniff...) my favorite person besides The Prospector, who feeds me. I like Farmlady very much." Then, I start rubbing his neck and tell him what a wonderful goat he is and, for once, I caught the "look" with my camera. When I start rubbing and talking, he closes his eyes and gets all groovy. It's so cute. He's such a lady's man.

The garden looks so nice right now and I haven't had to do anything. Spring is just a wonderful time of year. We don't have to water or prune. We don't have to fertilize or plant anything..., yet. It's a time for enjoyment. We watch the bushes and trees bud out and the bulbs that we planted in the fall push up through the damp earth and blossom into lovely flowers, some of which, I had forgotten I had planted. Bulbs are like "surprises" in the Spring. I have white tulips that I didn't remember planting..., but here they are, opening up in the wine barrels and looking all lacey and lovely.
The French Pussywillow is ready to be picked and the alyssum is all over the place. Some of the alyssum has grown down onto the walkway. Cutter has decided to use these soft fragrant flowers to rest in after he wears himself out running around the yard with Carl. He look so cute sitting in this shady spot watching Carl. He waits for a sign that it's time to play again. Carl thinks it's funny that Cutter is sitting in the flowers, but he forgets that he use to get a drink in the birdbath and then lay right down in the middle of my flower bed when he was a youngster. He prefers to sun himself on the porch now that he's a big, grown up dog. They are both enjoying the beautiful weather.
As I sit here in the warm California sunshine and think of all the beauty around me, I remember Robert Louis Stevenson's small poem that says....
"The world is so full of a number of things,
I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."

I think that sums up how we feel, here, today....

Vintage Thursday

Both of these plates are Bavarian. The yellow plate above has hand painted yellow roses on it and gold trim. The mark on the back says Rosenthal. There is a signature on the front, in the drawing, but I can't read the name. The plate is in beautiful condition and has no crazing or chips.
The plate below is dark orange fading to yellow in the middle with hand painted daisy like flowers . It has a gold trim around the scalloped edge. The mark on the back is a circle with the letters JHR inside. The words Alice and Bavaria are above and below the circle . Another word , in script, "Favorite" is on the back but stamped in a different place.I cannot find any information on this mark.

Both of these plates are 8" in diameter and in very good condition. I bought them this week at our local thrift shop. They were $3.50 each. I wanted some plates to use in the plate rack on the wall in my livingroom. Something more like Springtime. These seem to go well. They should carry us into Summer. Sometimes you just need a little change to make a room look brighter. Old plates are wonderful for this and often very inexpensive,especially if you find them before they get to an "Antique" store.
Please go to Colorado Lady's blog for a list of other folks who love vintage or antique things. Some come with interesting stories too.

The Irish are Laughing Today.

Some may say the glass is half empty...


Some may say the glass is half full.

But the Irish will forever say...

"ARE YOU GONNA DRINK THAT?"

An Irish Wish
May there always be work for your hands to do,
May your purse always hold a coin or two.
May the sun always shine warm on your windowpane,
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near you,
And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone.

Thanks to Rick Luquette for his collection of Irish sayings.
 

Two books and a Clipboard

I was thinking that I have been "puppydogging" all of you to death lately, so today will be a "no puppy" picture day.
Yesterday I had some errands to do in town. I have been looking for an old Johnson Bros. bread&butter plate for a friend ,so I stopped by the thrift stores in town to see if I could get lucky and find one before it got to an antique store and the price quadrupled. No luck with the plate but I did find a few cool things.
The Elbe clipboard is in perfect condition. I may just keep it for it's intended purpose or I may "alter" it. The Masonite board is dark and very beautiful, no chips or marks, and the clip works great. I don't know why but I LOVE CLIPBOARDS. Call me crazy. They are so useful and some old ones are really beautiful. This one was $1.50.

This book was in it's third printing in 1946; the year they made the movie with Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones. It's a Forum Book Motion Picture Adition( Yes, that's how they spelled "addition".). I can't wait to read it and compare it to the movie ,to see if they did right by Niven Busch's book. The book doesn't open with the same words as the movie.... Do you remember?...
"Deep among the lonely sun-baked hills of Texas, the great and weather beaten stone still stands. The Comanches call it 'Squaw's Head Rock.' Time cannot change its impassive face nor dim the legend of the wild young lovers who found heaven, and hell, in the shadows of the rock. For when the sun is low and the cold wind blows across the desert, there are those who still speak of Pearl Chavez, the half-breed girl from down along the border, and of the laughing outlaw with whom she had kept a final rendezvous, never to be seen again. And this is what the legend says:'A flower, known nowhere else, grows from out of the desperate crags where Pearl vanished...Pearl, who was herself a wild flower, sprung from the hard clay, quick to blossom...and early to die."
Oh it's all so romantic and tragic. I love stories like this.

The other book is by one of my favorite poets. This book is older than me (being published in 1941) and in better shape. It's not antique but it's definitely VINTAGE. Ogden Nash was a very cleaver and funny poet who told folks things that they didn't want to hear in a way that made them listen and laugh. He made up words so they would rhyme and he wrote silly two line poems that , I thought, were hysterical.
"God in his wisdom made the fly
And then forgot to tell us why."
This was a man who said "Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker." I would like to have met Mr. Nash. I have to imagine that he was as funny, in person, as he was with his verse. If you need a good laugh, buy yourself one of his books of poetry. It will make your day.
Both of these books cost me $2.00. I'll keep looking for the plate but I thought this was an inexpensive and successful trip to the thrift store. What do you think?

I told you so.

Did I not tell you what the really motives were for my sister's visit?

Was it the wonderful new restaurant on Main Street with the great homemade salsa and chips? The Antique stores? The laughing over how we seem to make shorter trips downtown and how the menus have "smaller" writing? How life is going by so fast and every morning wakes us with a new ache in our bodies?..a new hitch in our hips?

Was it the beautiful walk Sunday morning in the warm sunshine and a cat named Annibel, who followed us up to Maggie's resting place? The green, grass covered hills and the loveliness of a California Spring?
Probably, all of this. She left with a bigger smile on her face and a promise to come back soon...
...but mostly ,that first photo says it all.

Sister Visit

Sis came up for the weekend so I will make this a short post. She didn't come up to see The Prospector and I. She says she came to see us, but we all know what she really came up here to see. So, we will let her pretend she is here to visit us when we know her true intent. She is getting her "Corgi pup" fix and, if I can drag her away from all the puppy love around here, we have plans to do some antique shopping this afternoon.

Why the Bread Pudding? If you have been reading my blog for very long you know it's all about the bread pudding with the two of us.

Do you think the pups are happy? Do you think Carl is adapting? Is this the sweetest photo of them or what?

Oh I Do Love To Bake

Yesterday was our Gourd club meeting. I love to bake something for the meetings when there's a reason, any reason at all. Let's bake a cake for your birthday. Let's bake cookies for someone who has won an award. Let's make pie for no reason at all...
I decided to make cupcakes. I couldn't find my other regular cupcake pan so I did some small ones. This worked out great because some folks like "just a bite" and some want a full portion. This gave everyone choices they could live with.
This was a white (cake mix) cupcake with a buttercreme frosting. Very simple and tasty. The white frosting turned pale yellow with the (what else would I add) orange zest in it. The flecks of orange peel added to the "homemade" look and tasted wonderful.

I had some batter left over so I pulled out a pan that I hadn't use yet. I bought two of them at Ross or T.J.Maxx a while back and they were very inexpensive. They are called Petite Muffin Pans. The heart shape is so cute and my only advice is to not fill them very full. The directions say: Fill each cup 1/2 to 2/3 full. DO NOT OVER FILL. This is really true. I would only fill them 1/2 full. The heart shape bakes nicer if the pan is not too full.

These are the "Petite Muffins" with just a sprinkling of powdered sugar. I kept these just for us. Wait... There are only 9 muffins on this plate. What happen to the other 3. I know I baked 12 of these little guys. Who ate the mini muffins?..."WHERE IS EVERYBODY?" The Prospector was no where to be seen. The dogs were not talking.
"Well, I guess I will take that one in the middle, on the right.", I thought to myself., "It looks a little out of shape. Too much batter in the pan. I'll taste test just one. The rest will be for after dinner.
As I popped it in my mouth Carl barked at me. Who does he think he is..., the kitchen watch dog.

Cutter; our New Pembroke Welsh Corgi

His eyes are brown and he has more dark color on his face than Carl does. He's 5 months old. He's been to Oregon and back. He is cautious and smart; two Corgi traits. But this little guy is a lover and when he gets in your lap he wants to hunker down and put his head under your arm..., or he leans back and puts his head up and licks your face. He is just a sweet little dog.

When we got Cutter home, he and Carl played on the lawn and ran around the yard together. They wrestled and growled and stared each other down and then wrestled some more. Cutter is going to be so good for Carl. When Carl wanted to play with Maggie she couldn't do it. Now he has met his match. They play hard and then they rest...

...and then they go at it again. All the posturing.verbal exchanges, snorting and heavy breathing starts every time one of them looks at the other. It's hysterical!!
By today they seem to have come to some agreement. They sit together and watch the activities around them, pretending to be fierce watchdogs. I shouldn't say "pretending". That will hurt their feelings. They really are good watch dogs, as long as an intruder doesn't see them first. They can look really mean (upper right photo) in their own Corgi way, but they are the proverbial "bark is worse than their bite" dogs.
Carl is being very good about all of this. He has become the "uncle" and I think he rather likes the title.., until, of course, Cutter takes the BIG WHITE BONE and starts chewing on it. I can see the dilemma in Carl's eyes. Should he let this new friend play with and chew on his favorite bone or attempt to take it away? Some things are sacred. Some things shouldn't be shared. I'm sure that they will work this out. In the meantime we have given Cutter some other toys to play with. He seems to be OK with just about anything.

It's livelier around here. Two young pups keep us hopping and when summer comes it's all about the Rattlesnakes again and we will have to confine the dogs and restrict their movement around the property but, for now, it's OK. We love these little guys and we know we made the right decision to bring Cutter home. Carl is not sure.., yet but I'm sure he'll be fine. He just needs a little time.