6/30 Anderson

What a nice pleasant summer week end, the temperature today topped out around 85 and it was the same yesterday. Last week was very different as well with a couple of days with highs at 77. The West is cool and mild and the Rockies are hot and on fire. 3 years ago we had several hundred fires here in Northern Ca which started from lightning on or around June 21 and many of the fires burned for 3 months. The Northern tip of San Joaquin valley was filled with smoke for essentialy the entire time. The wind was our savior as it helped to blow it away and cleared the air. Fires are never a good thing!!??

As I mentioned previously, I was determined to get some of the irrigation water out of the channel that runs across the pasture in the back. My plan was to buy a lawn watering pump - that is what I did and put that puppy too work today. I have been watering the dry spots that the sprinkler system does not cover - that water comes from the well. It work pretty good, not a large pump and I am getting about 340 gallons per hour but that is OK with me. As a side note - last week I searched at the local hardware stores for a device call a root valve which fits at the end of a pipe or hose and has a cone shape with lots of holes. The purpose of this device is to filter out any large items that may enter the line - supposed to keep stuff out of the pump. I did find one but it was too large 1 1/2" which cost $25 - much too large for my operation. I did check on the internet and could order one there for $15 but thought I could get one locally. Then plan B popped into my head - I can make one out of PVP fittings, sure enough found 3 pieces that cost a sum total of $1.50. Took then home drilled them out and I had a home made root valve. The pump will work fine - a small hassle to move the hose but well worth the trouble in the end.

Yesterday, I spent the entire day in the yard. I even got into the pasture and removed the blackberry bushes that are coming back from my irridication last year. Those plants are very hardy - hard to get rid of them and they seem to grow anywhere and everywhere. The berries are sure good though, not ready yet but should be ready in a couple of weeks. Kathy went to town to pick up a shelf she purchased for her studio. It was nice big rolling shelf that will store lots of her small boxes and much of her inventory for jewlry making. Kathy also took on another project - she made a very special necklace for her cousin in Oklahoma. She wanted to finish it up this weekend so it can go in the mail Monday. She had fun with this project like all the others learning more new and wonderful things. During the week she had yet another project - she made a journal. She is taking a class on line and part of the assignement is make stuff. The students make their items them post it on the website for the other to see. She did a very good job and even took it to work for show and tell, much like a 1st grader would do. She did a nice job and should be proud of herself on both items she made. Creativity is the name of the game and provides lots of pride in ownership.

For more pictures of the Remembrance Necklace  click here

For more pictures of the Journal Project click here

There is one member of our family that I have not talked about before -she is a ferrel siamese cat. She has been with (around) us for over 3 years. She sleeps on the patio and in the love seat. We see her in the morning and evening, no clue where she goes during the day. Tessie has not love for cats but she does not seem to mind this one. We call her Sammie - Kathy called her Samentha afterall she is a girl. She is very timid and skidish around others even us some of the time - guess that happen in the wild? We another another ferrel cat called KeeKee up until January of this year. She was a calico not sure what happened to her just came up missing earlier this year? She was very friendly and we miss her allot. That brings you up to date with the members of our family.

Golf was very good last week as well, on Wednesday I played 33 holes. started off with 3 holes (warm up) then played 9 holes with Jerry - total golf fanatic, it is one of the few things that have meaning in his life - he is 86 and still going strong. Then I headed out to the back nice and played by myself. Finished up early then headed back to the front 9 once again, played 3 more holes then met up with some regulars Neil and Barbara, played 9 holes with them and called it a day. Oh ya - I am sure you are wondering how many golf balls I found during the outing, got 55 of those little jewels. Had a great time, good exercise and lots of practice for my golf game.

With the 4th of July in the middle of the week, we will not be able to see the wonderful Redding fireworks display. That has been a treat for us, enjoyed going down to the river and watching the show from ground zero. We may have to check out the the city of Tracy has to offer this year?

Picture of Tessie:

What I'm (Kathy) reading:

Hope you all have a very enjoyable 4th of July and week!!

More later

Ron, Kathy and Tessie

06/23 Tracy

Last week end we started summer early with temps in the 100s. This week we jumped to the Fall with a high of 70 today and yesterday with more of the same targeted for the rest of the week.  With the cooling we get lots of wind, sure makes a mess with the yard and definitely not good for golf.  This pictures below are provided by Kathy - our photographer this one was taken just prior to our date for dinner and golf on my B-day.  She got lots of pictures of course and we had a great time and I had a wonderful B-day!!

This is a candid shot she took as I was unloading the clubs, she got lots of these and felt she should share it with you all??!!

She caught me just left of the 1st hole fairway, I was looking for golf balls.  These reeds (Reed is a generic polyphyletic botanical term used to describe numerous tall, grass-like plants of wet places, which are the namesake vegetation of reed beds) cover the left side all along the fairway.  I usually pull 6-12 balls out of this stuff each day, folks always seem to have more trouble of the 1st hole and if they hook it left it is mine.

This is one of my favorite holes- #5 and on December 6, 2011 I got my first ever hole in one.  This was a pretty good shot - landed about 15 feet from the cup.  Water and lots of reeds on the left - another good place for golf balls, average 4-8 balls each time on this hole.

Not sure why she added this one - it is hole #6 the clubhouse and parking lot are on the right and the delta slew is on the left bank.

This is one of our 2 large trees in the front yard.  I spent most of the morning pruning this critter up.  If you look close there is a face that we added at the bottom left many years ago.  The kids in the hood like the faces.   This Spring I had a landscaper remove two big branches each from both  trees - you can see the cut mark on the right and left.  The branches themselves were about 20 feet long, we had a major mess to clean up to get the yard back to normal.

This is the other tree on the corner - I had two large limbs taken off of this one also.  You can see the tree face and the cut marks on the left and right.  I still need to prune more on this one but ran out of room on the yard waste can - get it next week.

Kathy started her day with a shopping trip to an estate sale.  This is a desk that she grabbed plus a old dictionary - - both items are very old.  She will put her magic touch on these and sell them at the Rose and Rust Show later in September.  I was amazed that Kathy was able to get this thing in her car trunk - - - - she was lucky she did not take the Focus.   

These are other items that she obtained at the estate sale - - don't have much info on this, Kathy may want to add some specifics at a later time?

____________________________________________________________________

In loving memory of Aunt Barb, "I love you to the moon and back!"

Barbara Ann Hampton, 1927 - 2012

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Hope you enjoy these pictures, Kathy sure likes her camera and takes lots of pictures.  Hope you all have a great week. 

More later

Ron, Kathy and Tessie

P.S.  Last week, I mentioned that Tessie had a problem with her blanket, she has worked through that and back in her comfort zone once again!!

6/16 Anderson

Picture of the sunset Thursday evening shortly after we arrived:

Summer has already arrived in these parts - guess we beat it by a couple of days?  We have temperatures at the century mark.  We are fortunate to have a nice steady breeze from the North which does make it seems much cooler?  Summer will arrive officially this week along with the warmer weather. 

Yesterday we spent part of the day at the Shasta District Fair - the folks that use our pasture had a Steer which was shown by the daughter.  They both did great - they ended up 5th place in their class and the steer will be auctioned off sometime tomorrow.  The participants are 4H  members (some are independents) and they had cows, goats, sheep, pigs, and chickens for show.  The kids sure worked hard and the labor of their efforts will certainly pay off for many of them.

I worked in the yard and pasture - we got water last Sunday and the grass is recovering very nicely.  Today, I spent several hours digging up blackberry plants - the root system for those critters is pretty amazing.  I can see why they spread so easy and are hard to get rid of.  We now have 2 horses on the pasture, Bronc and Chuck and behave themselves  - no fence breaking or trespassing into the neighbors pasture.

This is a birthday week for many including myself and twin brother!!  Seems that this one came around much faster than those in the past?  Kathy and I have taken on a tradition for celebration - we go to our favorite restaurant for dinner then we head out for 9 holes at the local golf course.  We walk to get the exercise and burn off dinner.  We have plenty of daylight as this is the longest day of the year and yes the first day of summer.  Like all things, there is a downside to this day.  It is the day that starts the cycle of shorter days - not a good thing.!!  We will make the best of it and prepare ourselves for the reentry into darkness once again.

Kathy has taken on yet another "artsy" project.  She found three pieces of used furniture (table and bookcase) which looked fine but she painted them.  I am sure sure will add more on this topic when she get her shot at this blog - - ??   I purchased them for $15 each from a local thrift store.  I (Kathy) like the shabby chic/rustic prairie look so, for me, the paint is an improvement.  I (back to Ron) am sure she will enjoy the fruit of her endeavors after the pain has worn off from all the work that was required to make it even "more" beautiful?!!    She is very confident that each piece will find a loving owner who will appreciate her hard work and efforts.  Her next big show will be in September so there will be many of "these" projects between now and then - - watch this space.@!??

Last week I created a problem for Tessie our dog.  For some time she has been scratching so I gave her bath then a haircut then doused her with flea and tick treatment.  She immediately burrowed into her blanket to rid herself of the hasty, smelly stuff I put on her.  Herein lies the problem - she dearly loves to be burrowed into her blanket, now that she has contaminated her blanket with stinky stuff  she won't have anything to do with the burrowing and barely wants to lay on it.  I did watch the blanket initially then again after the contamination, still a problem for her.  Bottom line - she will just have to deal with a soiled blanket!! 

For those of you who are interested, let's Tango!
Enough babble - hope you all have a wonderful week.

More later

Ron, Kathy and Tessie

6/9 Tracy

Cool and windy all week, not a typical summer that is for sure.  That is one of the beauties of weather, it is not always predictable even by the meteorologist some of the time.  I heard that we are headed for another La Nena ( the girl)  last big one was in the 1988-1989 time period.  The jet stream moves down and that forces the moisture into the South and much drier for the North and West.   It seems that we have just come off  the opposite which is a La Nino ( the boy).  Wet to the North and West and dry to the South and East.

Just got a call from the irrigator - supposed to have irrigation water starting tomorrow at 10:00 PM then turn it off at 2:00 AM on Monday.  I called the folks that are taking care of the water for the pasture - they were not too concerned with the hours - those country folks just roll with the flow.  I am hopeful that the grass is recovering - no cows that should help alot.  They now have two horses on the pasture and that should be fine for the remainder of the summer.

Golf was fun this week even with all the wind - did not let up all week.  It sure makes the game much more difficult - - harder to score, need to manage your game much more than usual.  Found lots of golf balls, collected about 270 for the week and I think that is about average for me and now I have about 1000 waiting to be cleaned and bagged.  I did not have any sales this week but did have several inquiries.  I did re-grip several of my clubs, taking it slow and easy.  I like the new grips just having a hard time with a complete change over.  I do like the new grips and they be very comfortable.  I was able to work on my swing this week, played with some fellows that gave me feedback on the swing.  For some reason, I have fallen into the habit of making only a half or three quarter swing.  I have great accuracy but have lost the distance.  With their feedback I was able to get back into a full swing again - good results and I will definitely work on it more in the future.

Kathy and I worked in the yard today, lots of trimming and pruning.  The yard looks pretty good, the cooler weather has been great - those 100 degree days sure seem to slow down the growing process.  I thought the process of photosynthesis for plants was to take up sunshine and carbon dioxide and give off oxygen which yields green plants?  Too much sun seems to slow that process.

Kathy and I finally met with our attorney to get our trust and living will finalized.  We have been working on them for some time it will still take 2 months to get the documents  recorded.  The net effect - we don't own anything, it is all in the trust.  Each of us has a living will that gives instructions on what is to be done with us after our passing.  I am glad that we have them completed, we have been putting this off for way too long!!??  For those that are managing our estate  - that process should be much easier and pretty straight forward.

Enough babble already - - hope you all have a great week.

More later

Ron, Kathy and Tessie
 

6/2 Anderson

Summer has arrived a little early - forgot what those century temperatures felt like. We had 102 on Thursday and 106 yesterday and 88 thus far today. It is supposed to be down to the mid 70s later in the week and maybe a little rain, that would be great!!

The new crop of blackberries will be ready for picking in 30 days or so, we have (had) a couple gallons in the freezer so I decided to make up a couple of blackberry pies - big 12".   I ended up putting about half a gallon of berries in each pie.  They turned out great - not sure why ( got lucky)?  I am still getting accustomed to the convection oven.  I cooked both of them at the same time and that worked out great.  We ate one pie during the week and put one in the freezer.  I still need to make a couple of other pies to make room for the berries coming soon.  The fresh berries are also very good on cereal and make great shakes - which neither of us need!!??
It has been very interesting this week, feels like we have stepped back into the wild west. We may have to get re-adjusted to the city life. On Tuesday, I spent 6 hours with irrigation of the pasture, got some great water coverage and am hopeful that it helps the grass. We normally get 4 hours but the irrigater shorted us so he gave me extra, it was sure nice that we were here. I was also able to get the back pasture irrigated as well. The irrigation process does take time and the folks that help us do not have the time it takes to do a good job. We are grateful for what they are able to do!!

As I mentioned before, the cows and horse have consumed all the grass. I also mentioned that those smart animals decided to break through the fence to the adjacent pasture which is filled with lush green grass. The owners of the cows have not had any luck with getting hold of the owners to see if they can use the pasture. That whole issue has some bad baggage so I am not surprised. Two of the cows have calves which stay in our pasture and the moms head out for food. At the end of the day, they start crying to get back together, that is when we spring into action to move them together again. That task got a little tiresome as the week grew on. Mid-week I told the cow owners that they had to so something with the cows. I was not not going to fix the fence until they were moved. They did manage to find another 7 acre pasture and moved them on Thursday. We are now down to 1 horse - guess they will bring another horse back later this week end, that should be OK. With the good water coverage, cooler days and less overgrazing the grass should be fine for the rest of the summer?

Here is a little sidebar story on the cows - actually 1 cow named "blackie". Was picking the weeds in the front yard and put the piles of weeds over the fence so the cows could eat them. I finished up with a small area then moved to another project dam up a section of the ditch. I looked up and blackie was in our yard eating the weeds that remained. I don't really mind that but don't like what she leaves behind so Kathy and I moved her back to the pasture. I watched her for short time and then moved on to my task at hand. Within 15 minutes, blackie was back in the yard. She actually plows through the fence - just pushes the fence to the ground with her massive body. Needless to say that part of the fence does not have barbed wire. We moved her back and now my task is devoted to keeping the critter out of our yard. She was determined - I actually tried to drive her into the adjacent pasture - at the location where they broke the fence previously, that is where she usually goes but she would not take that bait, I ended up opening the gate and she again had wonderful greener pastures!!


Today, Kathy is at the Vintage Barn Show, she got set up yesterday - what a cooker to be out in the open (106). They have 50 vendors and should have a pretty good showing. She and 1 other lady from the Redding Hademade group are teaming up, each has a booth which are next to each other and when they need to go away the other watches - teamwork. That took me off the hook and I was able to spend the morning with my yard chores. We had two weeks of growth - not that long with the hot weather. During the week I changed the belt drive to the deck and blades, probably did not need either yet but it sure cuts nice now. The old blades were pretty dull. bent up and out of balance for sure! It did make a difference, less vibration and running very smooth.

The above are a snapshot of my booth and stagecoach rides, complete with stagecoach robberies!  Ah, the fun of it all!!!  I made back 10 X my booth fee in sales.  That's called a sell-out in this business, so I very happy with that.
No golf for me this week, thought about it but decided to do other things instead. I did order up some new golf grips, I will replace them tomorrow. I have standard grips now and decided to try the jumbo grips. I have tried them in the past and like the feel. I was very surprised that Tracy did not have a vendor for changing golf club grips, we really don't have that many golfers or courses so guess that makes sense. If the re-gripping process goes smooth I may add that to my golf inventory as a service in addition to golf balls. There two ways to install them - one is with double stick tape and resin the other is with compressed air. I will use the tape for starters but the air sounds very simple and straight forward. I am looking forward to see how the new grips work out??

Guess I better get ready to help Kathy tear-down her booth. The set-up is very easy, she goes early, drive up to the booth, unload and the task is done. Vehicles are not allowed in the booth area on show day so the tear down is more difficult, vehicles are staged in a vendor parking area which is pretty close so the task of hauling the inventory should be pretty easy - much easier if all the items are sold. It will be interesting to see how she did? I am sure she will provide pics??!!

Enough for now - more later

Ron, Kathy and Tessie