Yard Art and More on Sunday Drives

Hope you all don't mind.. I'm just goofing around a bit today and thought I'd add an "official" blog post..

Almost every Sunday, my brother, my mother and I get in the car and go for a drive.  We're not picky about where we go, we pick a direction and find some back roads and see what's out there.  We do lots of U-turns to go back and look at and take pictures of things we see..  We've found some restaurants that are out of the way and are well worth a trip back to sample more of the food.. All in all, we enjoy a day out being silly and seeing what we can see.. Here's just a sample of some of what we see:

We've found some really beautiful and creative pieces of what we call "Yard Art' sitting in people's front yards.

Yard art!

We've also found some old cars, trucks and other vehicles that are neat to look at as well as puzzle over.. There have been a couple that we still don't know what they were.. lol.. We still don't know what this one is.. Do you?

Mystery ? Couldn't get closer to it.

Back end of Mystery ?

We look at the crops growing alongside the roads and most we can identify, but we occasionally come across some that we have absolutely no clue what they are.

Mystery crop... Purple?

We'll stop to look at buildings "going back to nature" for one reason or another..

This poor house is slowly falling apart. Sad, isn't it? We loved the curved stairway in the "living room"..

Not really sure what this building used to be. A small barn, maybe?

Or we'll stop for wild flowers or other interesting plants and flowers..

The cattails are "Okay"!

I may do this again one of these days.. We'll see what kind of interesting things we see this coming Sunday...

Taco Pie

Taco Pie

5 8" flour tortillas
1 lb. ground beef
1 16 oz. can refried beans
2 T. taco seasoning
1/4 C. water
1 jar salsa (I didn't really measure, just used big spoonful's)
2 C. shredded Colby jack cheese
2 green onions, chopped
1 tomato, chopped

In a skillet, brown the ground beef, breaking it up as it cooks.

Drain the grease, add in the taco seasoning and water.

Combine well and remove from heat. I used an 8" iron skillet for mine, but use whatever you have that might work...

Place a tortilla in the bottom of your pan, spread a couple big spoonful's of salsa over the tortilla, spread some of the refried beans over the salsa, then some of the meat and top with some cheese.

Repeat the layers ending with a flour tortilla on top (save some of the cheese for the top).

Cover the dish with tinfoil and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and top with the remaining cheese.

Return to the oven, uncovered for 6-7 minutes or until cheese is nice and melted and edges of the tortilla are crisp.

Remove and top with the green onions and tomatoes before serving. Slice it like you would a pie.

Courtesy of JanetsAppalachianKitchen...

I wanted to hang on to this recipe for a bit, so I'm putting it here on my blog.. lol.. Anyway, I'm still alive and I still follow trials and such, but I don't watch the streaming stuff any longer due to the restrictions of my internet provider.. I'm limited by the data they allow.. Videos or streaming stuff just eats up the data allowed so that I'm cut back until the next month rolls around.  The hazards of living in a rural area where there's few choices in internet providers..  For the last year or so, my main public contributions (uploads) to the internet have been photos from Sunday drives that my Mom, brother and I take almost every Sunday... Lots of photos have been uploaded to Facebook.. Perhaps I'll try doing a post or two on here with some of the more interesting or odd things we've found on those Sunday drives..  Hmm.. Need more coffee....

Lemon Cream pie filling? Angel food cake? Together?

Ok.. I know.. I don't usually post about cooking and recipes and all that... But, I’ve been having fun with a recipe I found a while ago on Pinterest.. The original recipe called for a box of Angel Food cake mix and a 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple. It’s got to be one of the easiest recipes ever. Just mix the two together and it does something startling.. It foams up! lol.. Anyway, once it’s all mixed together, just pour the mix into an ungreased baking pan.. I used loaf pans so I could share with my daughter and her in-laws easier. Anyway, the cake(s) turned out delicious.. 

Here's a "before and after" shot that I put on Facebook the
day I baked the pineapple cake..

I had read that other types of canned fruit would work as well as the crushed pineapple, so the next experiment used peach pie filling. Again, a winner! My house smelled so good while these cakes were baking, it was sheer torture to wait until the cakes were cool! The two cakes I kept ended up looking a little bit mangled because I had to fight to get them out of the little loaf pans.. lol.. I took the "pretty" ones to my daughter and her mother-in-law.

Yeah, I know.. I didn't get a good before and after shot of the peach cakes.. lol..
I nearly forgot to take any pictures at all! 

Last week, my friend (and my daughter's mother-in-law!) brought over a bag containing 2 angel food cake mixes, a can of lemon cream pie filling and a can of apple pie filling. So, today I decided to do the lemon cream pie filling.  And, this time, I decided to "document" the whole thing.. Here we go.. First of all, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.. Then get a large mixing bowl down and mix together the cake mix and the pie filling...

This shot is after it sat a few minutes while I went and got my camera..
The batter has started foaming up..

Then, divide the mixture into whatever baking pans you've decided to use..9x13, regular size loaf pans or the individual loaf pans like I used.  Do not grease the pans!  The original recipe I read emphasized that, so I figured I'd add in the caution here too...

Batter in the pans and pans in the oven ready to go!

Bake the cake(s) for 25 to 35 minutes... (If you use different pans from what I used, use the instructions on the back of the cake mix box..)  They're done when they're a golden brown on top..  The other cakes (the pineapple and the peach) cracked a bit on top like normal angel food cakes do, but for some reason, the lemon didn't crack.

Fresh out of the oven.  The instructions on the box say to put loaf pans
on their sides to cool off, but I just turned them upside down..

When the cake pans were cool enough to handle, I turned them back over so I could get the cakes out of the pans..  One of them dropped out all by itself! I just ran a knife around the sides of the others and then used a small spatula to break them loose and put them on the cooling rack.

All done and ready to taste and to take across the street..

Next time, it'll be apple pie filling.  Then, maybe I'll go back to the pineapple one and add some shredded coconut to the mix..

Recipe:
1 Angel Food cake mix 
1 20 oz can of fruit or pie filling

How easy is that? lol

Bad Words... Again!

A friend on Facebook messaged me and told me that she was reading the blog.. She asked why I had stopped posting and my answer was that life had sort of gotten in the way.  A poor excuse, I know, but that's all I've got right now.  I promised her that I would do some thinking and see what I could come up with to post about..

I'm still watching trials, but I'm trying not to get completely tied up with them, so at this point I'm only and observer of what is happening with a couple cases.  I'm not completely up to speed with the evidence for either one, so I don't feel qualified to post a lot about either case.. Or even some of the other ones I see in the newspapers around here. I'll keep the blog in my mind if I feel like ranting about any of the cases..

I'm not traveling as much nowadays, so there haven't been a lot of spiffy photos from places other than my own home.  But, my friend on Facebook told me to just post whatever about the area I live in. She's on the East coast and has never been to California, so she enjoys seeing the flora and fauna from here.  I might have to see what I can do about that.. Maybe I can enlist my 9 year old grandson in a photo project of some kind.. Or maybe I'll dig around in my photo files and see what kinds of things I've shot and think about what I could write about them..

Anyway, when I got on the blogger dashboard, I discovered a couple posts still in draft form. This one and another one that has the pictures missing. I'll have to do some snooping around on my computers to see if I can locate the missing pictures for the other one.  So, this one will get published.. Only 8 months after I started it...

Bad words and some groans?

I have a feeling the crane operator had a few bad words.. Or his boss did. I'm sure neither one of them said "oops!"..

Who do you think had the most bad words? The fellow we see talking on the phone?  Or maybe the person on the other side of that call...

Lets see... I think the guy in the cab of that pickup truck is praying that the trailer hitch holds until they get him back up on flat ground!  He'll have the bad words when he gets the repair bills..

Uhh.. Oops?  Wonder if his insurance went up.. lol

Ok, now... I don't know about you, but if I opened a bag of bread and saw this, I'd have a LOT to say.. Some of it might be "bad" if my grandson wasn't in the same room... I probably wouldn't be buying that brand of bread again!!  Ewwww!!!

Now this guy is probably holding his breath if he's watching that wheel fly away.. The bad words will come after he hits the ground, I'm sure...

More Bad Words?

Happy Saturday! Here's a few more of the "bad word" pictures...  A couple of them, I'm sure were worth a lot of "bad words".. lol

 I see what looks like one lone person standing there looking at this ship that capsized with all the cargo still aboard... I'm sure this is one of those events that earned a lot of bad words... lol

Lets see... The driver of the pickup would have had a few bad words for the driver of the dump truck.. Whoever owns the pickup (if it wasn't the driver) might have had a few choice words.. Hmm.. What about the driver of the dump truck?  Think  he might have had a few once he realized what that "bump" was?

 Oops! Mechanical failure!  I'm pretty sure there were a few bad words floating about after this failure..

 Mama duck wouldn't be expressing any bad words, but I'm sure if she could talk, she'd voice a few...

 Another one of those pesky cargo container failures... Bad words all around here.. The crane operator that knocked things over, the owners of the cargo in the containers, the guys who are going to have to spend hours and hours trying to fix the mess... Yup. Bad words....

Someone forgot to put the wet cement signs out?  Oops..

~~~
Enjoy!

Bad Words...

I'm sure we've all used a few here and there.. Some more than others, I'll bet... Just reading the newspaper or watching the latest news on your favorite channel on TV can sometimes give you a reason to use a few bad words... Right?  A friend sent me an email with some pictures of some very good reasons to use a few bad words... I'll share a few today, just to let everyone know that I'm still alive and kicking.. I'm still paying attention to live trials and following current crimes but I just haven't felt compelled to blog about them.. Yet. I'm sure something will come along one of these days that I'll blog about.. But for now... Here's a few examples of times when "bad words" would be very much excusable..

Now, I'm not a drinker, but I'm sure there are a few folks out there that would think this "tragedy" is worthy of a few "bad words"...

I'm sure the owner of the boat had a few "bad words" once he sobered up or got out out of the hospital.  How'd he manage to hit that post dead on like that? LOL

Do you think the home owner had a few "bad words" to say?

The farmer probably had a few choice words... Either for the employee to sunk the tractor or for himself while he dug the thing out..

Lets see... Lots of possibilities here for "bad words" here.. The crew in the plane.  The guys in the trucks and tractor.  The boots on the ground... RUN!

I've got questions about this one.. Did a worker back the thing into the mud hole?  Or did it just sit there and sink when the water level came up?  Either way, I'm sure there were plenty of "bad words" spoken about this situation.

I have more of these and will probably post a few more in the next few days... Have a great day, all!

A Sad Obituary

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

- Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
- Why the early bird gets the worm;
- Life isn't always fair;
- and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason.

He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers;


I Know My Rights
I Want It Now
Someone Else Is To Blame
I'm A Victim

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The above was found in a message board devoted to true crime, namely in a forum dedicated to the Caylee Anthony case, but.. It fits so many other cases we hear about in the news... The poster said she'd recieved it in an email and the obituary was said to have been originally printed in the London Times.  I have no idea if it actually was.. Perhaps later today I'll do some googling and find out where it came from.  Someday it would be nice to see common sense make a come back... :-/

Found on Facebook: 23 Adult Truths

1. Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize that you’re wrong.
3. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.
4. There is a great need for a sarcasm font.
5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
6. Was learning cursive really necessary?
7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5.  I’m pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
8. Obituaries would  be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
9. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind-of tired.
10. Bad decisions make good stories.
11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you konw that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.
12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray?  I don’t want to have to restart my collection… again.
13. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.
14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Light than Kay.
17. I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.
18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
19. How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you  just nod and smile because you didn’t hear a word they said?
20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front.  Stay strong, brothers and sisters!
21. Shirts get dirty.  Underwear get dirty.  Pants?  Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.
22. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey ~ but I’d bet everyone can find the snooze button from 3 feet away in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.
23. The first testicular guard, the “Cup”, was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974.  That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.

**Ladies… Quit laughing.

Identifying the Unknown ~ w/Update X2

I’m still packing up and moving, so pardon if this post is rather short.. It’s going to be short on a lot of information as well because that’s what I’m finding in my local newspaper’s website.  The authorities in this area are in search of information about 2 people in 2 separate cases.

This morning, I read about an accident that happened late last night where a woman on a bicycle somehow crashed into some trash bins and landed head first on the road pavement.  She was unconscious when found and was not carrying any identification.  The authorities are seeking any information about the woman.. Somewhere a family is missing someone or there are some friends who can’t contact someone..  The article on the newspaper’s website gave very little identifying information about the woman; “The woman weighs 120-130 pounds and has brown hair. She was riding a gray Talera bicycle.”  She was taken to a local hospital and is in critical condition with a brain injury.  Hopefully she’ll be able to recover enough to at least tell them who she is soon… Barring that, then I hope that someone who knows her will report her missing…

The other story popped up in a “Breaking News” banner at the top of the paper’s website a little while ago… A body has been found in the Feather River by a fisherman this morning.   The article says that it is the body of a white male, no other identifying information, so I’m guessing that this victim had some kind of identification on him.   An autopsy is being conducted today so that the cause of death can be determined.  The authorities are treating the case as a “suspicious death” at this point… With the high water we’ve been having, I have to wonder if the person in the river had been one of the homeless people who camp out in the river bottoms that got caught in the rising water…

A lot of the stories that I follow in the news are about missing people.  Children, adults.. It doesn’t matter.  The people who are found but not known are as tragic as the ones who disappear.  Someone out there knows these two people.  Someone out there somewhere is missing an acquaintance, a friend or a loved one. Hopefully as the day goes on, more information will be found out about these two.  I know one thing though, from now on when I go out bicycling, I think I’ll put my ID in my pocket…

Hopefully I can come back later today with updates… Or, if not today then tomorrow.

Update:

(Friday evening) The Appeal Democrat has updated their story about the man who's body was found in the Feather River.  He was identified today as Zeke Malone McGuire, 41, according to the Sutter County Sheriff's Department.  It also said that he had been reported as missing to the Yuba City Police Department.  The story also says now that the man's body had been found yesterday (Thursday) afternoon around 3pm instead of this morning.  The autopsy determined the cause of death as drowning and there were no signs of foul play.  So, I suppose they now have to determine if the man's death was accidental or suicide.  So sad for the man's family and friends. 

There are no additional updates on the injured unidentified woman yet.  I'll update the blog if the newspaper updates again tonight.

2nd Update:

(Saturday morning)  The Appeal Democrat revised the story about the injured woman this morning.  They have a name and age for her now, but the article still mostly reads the same as it did yesterday.  The California Highway Patrol says that she is Melissa Joyce Procopio, 44 of Olivehurst.  No news yet about why she crashed her bicycle into the trash bins, nor any update on her condition. 

Sources:
CHP seeks help in identifying woman
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/highway-105333-woman-identifying.html
Body found in Feather River  /  UPDATE: Feather River drowning victim identified
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/feather-105334-body-river.html

The Water is Still High…

Just sharing some pictures we took today... Click the pictures to see an enlarged version....

My Mom came by this morning to visit and drop off some things that I’m borrowing for a bit to help me with a move I'm making.  After showing her the place I'm planning on moving to we decided to take a drive up the river to see how some of the marinas are faring with the high water. My daughter and grandson decided to come along too, so we all piled into my car and headed up river on the levee road.  The first marina upriver from Meridian is Lovey’s Landing.   All that area you see under water is normally filled with trailers and campers.  Fishermen and women usually live there year round to be close to the fishing.  One of the folks who has been living at Lovey’s is now staying with a friend across the street from me here in Meridian.  From what he told me and another friend, he's planning on renting a house here in town rather than moving his trailer back up to Lovey's when the river goes down.

One of the trailers didn’t make it out of the low area before the water level came up...

Most of the rest of the RVs and trailers got pulled out of  the low area to the levee road.. They'll sit there until the water goes back down and the ground dries a bit..

The next marina upriver is Ward's Landing, and as you can see from the picture, they've got the river in their yard too.

 Check out the angle the ramp to the dock is at.. The ramp normally follows the slope of the levee down and across to where the docks usually are, but with the high water, the ramp goes up, bends in the middle and then down again to the dock which is almost at the same level as the higher part of the parking lot.

Just upriver from Ward's is what is usually a dirt parking lot where folks store their boats, RV's and other equipment... All we saw was one lonely sunken boat trailer.

As we drove up the levee road, we looked out across some of the farmland that is underwater... It's not deep, but there are acres and acres under water right now.

The water fowl in the area are loving the high water.  We saw dozens and dozens of snowy egrets wading in the shallow water or flying away from the noise of my 4x4 on the road.  My daughter got a few really nice shots of the birds out the passenger side window.

The trees in this orchard must be terribly confused.  They're in full bloom and absolutely flooded by the Sacramento River.

See that long black thing out beyond the small trees on the "shore"?  It was rushing downriver with the current.. Tree?  Long support beam from something?  We don't know, but after seeing lots of trees, limbs along with that thing floating down the river, no one needed to wonder why there aren't any boats in the river.

The next marina (and the last one we drove past today) is the Colusa Landing.. Just a couple weeks ago, my Mom,  my granddaughter from Utah and  I were there for lunch.  They had sandbags at that time, but not like they have now.  And there wasn't water in the parking lot beyond the restaurant then, either.

I walked down near the water to get a picture of the deck on the river side of the restaurant so my granddaughter can see what it looks like now... When we were there, the water wasn't even close to the restaurant.  Today, however it's close.. And there's evidence that the water has been even higher.  The spot I was standing to take this picture was under water just a day or two ago.

 There's no access to the docks at Colusa Landing right now.. The water is just a wee bit deep...

Well, that's the end of the "tour" for today... After leaving Colusa Landing and the Steelhead Lodge, we headed on in to Colusa in search of a late lunch, which we found... And then back home for all of us...  Hope you've enjoyed the tour of our flooded river!  I may have to do another tour once the water goes down and life returns to normal... Hmm.. Yeah, that might be a nice thing to do with my granddaughters when the granddaughter from Utah comes back to visit this summer.

The Water is High………

Living alongside the Sacramento River is pretty good most of the time.  Until we get a wet winter like this one.  The streams and rivers are all running high right now..  Today, I took advantage of a break between storms to walk over to the levee to see how high the water is with my own eyes.  And to take a few pictures.. Of course.

And.. Yeah.  The water level is pretty high.  Flood stage on the Sacramento River in this area is at 70’ and according to the California Department of Water Resources website, right now the river level is about 67’.   Thankfully, the water levels are supposed to drop a little on Monday or Tuesday..  So far, from all reports that I’ve heard and read, the levees along the Sacramento River are holding up pretty well.  When the water is high like it is now, the levee districts have people patrolling the levees looking for any problem spots..  The reason the river is running so high right now is that Shasta Dam is dumping lots of water because Shasta Lake is uncomfortably close to capacity and the snow melt hasn't even begun yet.  It's the same situation on the other rivers in the area.  The Feather River is running high because Oroville is dumping water.  The American River is running high as well because the dams upstream are also making room for the snow melt.  Last week I read in one of the Sacramento papers that the summit of the Sierras had received something like 57 feet of snow and it was still snowing.. Hard.  Well, it's still snowing up there today and has been almost constantly for the past week.

Anyway, I thought I’d give you a couple pictures to compare.  Keep in mind that the photos are taken from opposite sides of the bridge and during different seasons…   The first picture was taken this afternoon and the second one was taken last June when CalTrans did a test of the mechanism that opens the bridge.  (Yes, it's a "draw" bridge, it just happens to be on a turntable.)

 As you can see from the pictures, the water level is pretty different between the two.. Be sure to note the difference on the bridge support below the up-rights on the structure.  (Sorry about not getting a shot from the same side of the bridge today.  I tried to go up on the South side of the bridge, but it was too muddy and too slick.  I didn't really feel like crawling up the side of the levee on my hands and knees.. So I used the access road on the North Side of the bridge.. You can see it in the picture below that shows both the river and the road.)

As I stood there watching the water flow past, I spotted a tree (Or the remains of a tree that fell in the river somewhere upstream.) coming down towards the bridge so I waited a bit to see where it was going to go... Under the bridge or get caught on the bridge supports.  This one went under the center span, but it's common for trees, limbs and other debris to get caught on the supports.

It's hard to tell in this image how much higher the water is than the road.  My estimate is that it's about 10 to 12 feet above the road surface.  All over town, the low areas have become pools of water that are seeping in from the river.  Including my own yard.  The back yard is mushy and I don't live right next to the levee.  The "joy" comes this coming week.  The sun is supposed to be out and the weather is going to warm up.  The river level will go down a foot or so, but the seepage puddles are still going to be there.  What does that mean for the little town of Meridian?  Mosquitoes!  It only takes a few nice days to hatch out scads of the pesky insects.  Oh "joy".