Canadian Crafter

No power, No phone

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:16:31 -0500

My title would have been a bit more colourful but I didn't think Blogger would allow it. The highlight of the weekend was sitting here, getting a blog post ready, and having the power go phsst. Dead. Nothing. Upon further investigation we found this at the top of the driveway:

This machine is known as an excavator, in the bush it's used mainly for building roads, but this one is normally used as a back spar for a yarder. It does not belong to the ranch but rather a company in town who loaned it to my BIL, Hubby's middle brother. Upon moving less than 10 yards down the driveway he apparently forgot to look up. He has been driving under these lines for ohhhh about 20 years or more but on Saturday his head was up his... well you all get the picture.

Another angle:

The very top:

So we had no power from about 4:30 in the afternoon until about 8:30 PM. I immediately put my computer into sleep mode because there was no way I was losing a blog post. Hubby was already on his way to the shop to grab the generator and three extension cords (he does know me :)). One to my satellite modem, the second to my computer/server/router, and the third for the rotisserie on the barbecue for the roast I had to take out of the oven.

I called BC Hydro and they were nice enough to come out and fix it that night.

The next day they were back. They needed to repair the pole as they had only done a temporary fix the night before. When they left we had no phone, but we didn't know right away. I called them when we realized it and after getting the standard "You'll have to call Telus," I informed the man that it was Hydro who took it out and they had best do something to get it back. He then told me that he had spoke with the crew after they had finished and everything was fine when they left. I said "Look mister, I'm talking on my cell phone hooked up to a booster to get a signal in my driveway sitting in my truck! Do you think everything is fine??"
He told me that he would call the crew and get right back to me. In the meantime I call Telus repair (I wasn't holding my breath for Hydro) and they say they can send a repair person out on Thursday, FOUR days! Four days with no phone?? My hands start to shake, I feel faint, my heart is pounding... I feel like I'm in a horror movie!

And then I was even more heated when I called my BIL's phone number and his phone line was still working!! Oh that was the icing on the cake! I really felt like going up there and ripping his phone off the wall. I wouldn't have been so choked but he did the exact same thing last year teaching his ex-girlfriend how to operate the machine!

This morning Hubby went up the driveway to see what he could do, I guess my whining was really getting to him ;). I told him I would go with him but I was up to my elbows in grapes getting them ready for the dehydrator. He comes back and tells me that one end of the wire is wrapped around the pole, and the other end is propped up with a stick. We have an underground wire from the pole down our driveway and I cannot believe that BC Hydro doesn't "Dial before they dig"?? And the kicker is the agent I spoke with the night before said the crew had told him that everything was fine when they left? Apparently hanging one end of a person's phone line on a stick is fine?

Hubby grabbed some wire strippers, black tape, and hustled right back up there. Within 10 minutes we had a dial tone and he got a hug :) I've informed Telus that our line is working but they should still come out and repair it because it's only a temporary fix, it still needs to be buried, and maybe they could throw my BIL in there for fill?

Oh Lord, when it rains it pours!

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 19:17:51 -0500

You all remember I bought 15 new chickens not more than two weeks ago? Well yesterday morning, Hubby and I were discussing three older birds missing from the coop, two just at night time. One of those birds is Mama Banty, whom I'm sure is setting on a massive nest somewhere and will return with bundles in tow. The other one is Cleopatra, she's young and being a banty she will find a tree to sit in at night but she always shows up in the morning, so I'm not too worried about her. The one that I've been worried about is a barred rock that was hatched last year in the baler. Within an hour of that conversation Hubby comes up on the porch and tells me to get my boots on, I have to see something. I ask if it's bad news? He says "No, not really."

He points over to the missing barred rock firmly sitting near my truck, and informs me that there is little feet under her, he thinks there's maybe 3 or 4 chicks. Of course all the other hens followed me over when I came out. One snarky hen grabs the barred rock and yanks her (they certainly have a "pecking order"). She stands up and 16 chicks go scurrying!! Every colour you can imagine! Oh Lord, when it rains it pours!

Here's some of the babies:

Not a great shot but you can see the mixture of colours!

One little gaff wasn't doing too well, it must have been hatched that morning and the walk up to the coop downright wore the little thing out. We brought her in the house, put a light on her, and I mixed up a teeny bit of sugar water. After an hour or so she was drinking the sugar water from an eyedropper and doing well enough that I was able to bring her back to her mama.

We have now gathered up all the babies, and Mama, and they are nicely tucked in the coop nursery. I don't even want to think about how many chickens I have in my coop now....

Stop SPAM on your Telus phone

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:50:58 -0500

I have "Pay & Talk" on my Telus cell phone. Telus has informed me that I will now be charged 15 cents for all text messages. Hmmph, I was NOT impressed. I don't often text, just because I'm more comfortable with a full size keyboard than a dinky little pad to type on, and I don't often receive text messages, other than every once in awhile from my daughter Dallas, especially when we're meeting up somewhere out of town. I didn't think this 15 cent charge was going to impact me too much... until I flipped open my phone the other day and I had my first spam text message. Something about "losing my details online and meet me at date (something) dot.com. (Hubby was standing there when I checked the message!!) I then realized that I just paid 15 cents to read that message. Not happy, especially if I start getting as many as I get in my email. Of course Telus told me that if I bought a feature I would get text messages for free, but like I said I don't use the feature enough for it to pay, and why should I pay to receive spam? I did some searching around online and read this:

Go to "Send or manage text messages" in mytelusmobility.com Select preferences, and then choose the message source to be blocked, either Web-generated or e-mail. (The last two boxes) Once you have used this blocking feature, you will not receive or be charged for text messages sent to you from a PC. You'll still be able to receive messages sent to you from a wireless phone, which are free of charge. (I don't think they are "free of charge" anymore so Telus should update there FAQ). This works for me tho' because Dallas and I can still send messages via our phones.

I told Dallas about it and we both changed our preferences. I then tested out her phone by sending her a message via the web and was told that the client was not accepting web messages. I sent her an email text message and she never received it, I would have expected a undeliverable notice back but I didn't get one.

Upon reading more in the Telus FAQ I spied this:

UPDATE: The following below works! Hubby had a spam message on his phone, I forwarded it to Telus on Saturday. Today (Monday) I checked his transaction history online and he was credited .15 cents :)
SPAM Messaging - This type of messaging is generally unwanted. SPAM messages are sent by companies and individuals to advertise to unwilling participants, on a mass scale. If SPAM is received on your handset, you can simply forward the spam message to 7726 with the word SPAM in the body of the message and your account will be adjusted automatically. A credit will be processed for the spam charges with no questions asked by TELUS.

Sure wish I would have known that when I got the message last week, if in fact, this is still in effect. I'll definitely try this if I receive another one.

If you deal with another phone company you might want to check out your preferences and change what you can, nobody should pay for spam. I think it's pretty bad that Telus can inform me that if I subscribe to a feature I will get "free" messaging but not tell me about the above two tidbits of info. The big question is why don't they charge the person sending the message instead of the person receiving it? That would certainly stop the spammers!

Electronic Buzz

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:05:43 -0500

This past week I have been up to my ears in solder, thermal paste, and screws! I ordered a larger cpu for my HP Mediasmart server and that was the first thing I swapped out this week. It's not easy to rip apart but everything went pretty smooth. I really should have done it when I upgraded the ram but I was too chicken then ;) The baby now smokes along at a good speed and the heat is minimal.

Next up was Sydney's laptop. I bought arctic silver thermal paste for my server cpu and thought it might help with the heating problem of the laptop. It's a big job ripping that baby apart and I wanted no distractions. I waited until the kids left for school and got at 'er. After filling up the kitchen table with parts and pieces I managed to get to the cpu. What a mess! The original paste was dried up, caked on, and generally worn out. I used alcohol to clean the cpu and heatsink and applied a small amount of the new paste. I cleaned up the fans, adding a small drop of oil on both of them. A can of compressed air cleaned up the dust, and a good general cleanup, and I was ready to put it back together. As I got to the speakers I decided to baffle them to help with the tinny sound, so I cut up some gauze and taped them behind the speakers. I got the whole works back together and, darnit all, one speaker didn't work. That one speaker has been a pain ever since the first time I took it apart.... sooooo I took it apart again. Mickey moused the speaker connection and wala it works! Sound good too :) The laptop does feel much cooler and I highly recommend the arctic silver. Heat is the worst thing for computers. I don't know how people can cram their towers into those little cubby holes in their desks, (and they are always near the floor,) and then expect the computer to not overheat?? The computer acts like a mini vacuum cleaner sucking in all the dust and debris from that level, it's even worse when there's carpet! The dust acts like insulation making more heat so even if you can't rip a computer down to the cpu you can blow it out with compressed air and place it somewhere where there is lots of circulation. I blow my laptop out at least once a week, especially because I have waaaaay too many dogs in this house that shed, and shed, and shed.

Okay I'll stop ranting ;)

Finally the last thing on my electronic list is the kid's Wii... and it's not been going well :( I bought a mod chip for playing backed up games. Yes I know it's illegal to download games and burn them if you don't own them, and because I'm on a satellite connection there's not any chance I will be downloading games. I strictly want this for backing up the games we already own. I've already had to replace three games due to scratches and at 60ish dollars a piece it's getting expensive. So I get the Wii ripped down, solder the chip into place, put the thing back together. Doesn't work. Rip it apart again, check to see the led light is green on the chip, yup it's on, the Wii still plays purchased games, just not the ripped ones. Bad chip? Bad soldering? I've checked every connection with the multimeter and everything's good so I can't figure it out. Could be I need to get different disks. I'll keep working it on it but I'm about ready to fork out the money to buy one already modded.

Update: WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO! It was the burn!!! For some reason my laptop didn't do a good burn... on about 6 different disks. I hooked up my external BenQ drive, which is old as the hills, and it worked! You want to see a happy person just look at me :) :) :) So far I've burned two games and they work great, the originals are stored safely in a drawer to stay scratch free forever :)

As well as doing all the electronic stuff, Hubby and I cleaned out the chicken coop. We did a major this time, including building a new roost. I picked up 15 new chickens and they even laid four eggs in the cage by the time I got home. I've been getting about 15-16 eggs per day out of the coop now, much better than what I was getting.

The brown one is quite young and the other one is about two.

Out of the 15, 10 are fairly young and 5 are older. Here's one of the older ones.

Making themselves at home.

I drove down to Hope and met a guy there to get the chickens. If you've never seen Hell's Gate I snapped a picture of it.

Along the way there's a few tunnels one goes through. I wish they'd put a tunnel in at the Big Slide, sigh....

Hubby bringing in wood for winter.

The pool is put away, the garden is overrun with weeds (but that's typical on any day), the coop is clean, and our deck is filled with wood... c'mon winter I'm ready for you now.

It's A......

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 21:05:24 -0500

GIRL!!!

I grabbed a few screen shots while watching Dallas' 3-D ultrasound this afternoon and thought I would post a couple now. I won't see Dallas until tomorrow so I have to wait for the dvd. I'll keep this short so I can blog more when I have the dvd in my hands :)

Her strong and beautiful heartbeat:

Butter Tart Squares, mmm mmm

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:31:30 -0500

Well I'd like to say that I've been awol because I've been on some glorious cruise around the world, but that's not the case. One good thing that has come out of both kids being in school is I was able to clean up my canning room! Yup, totally uninterrupted, wow this was a first for me. I've canned peaches and salmon galore and this week I'll be doing tomatoes and green beans.

Dallas has been a regular visitor, even spending a night here last week. I've been helping her save, format, and backup her laptop to my server and things took a bit longer than we had planned. Rather than drive home with poor headlights through the Big Slide she crashed here.

By this time next week we should know what Dal will be having; boy or girl. They won't tell you in Lillooet or Kamloops (where we go for ultrasounds) so I bought a 3-D ultrasound gift certificate for her to use in Vancouver. It is going to be so cool! They will broadcast live up to four email addresses so my Mom and I will be watching in real time while she's there. The whole thing will be put on a DVD for her to take home, along with pictures.

While Dally was here she made Butter Tart Squares, it's a great recipe if you don't have pastry on hand and need a quick fix for butter tarts. I would have posted a picture but it was eaten up pretty darn fast.

Butter Tart Squares

Part 1
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar

Part 2
1 cup raisins

Part 3
1/3 cup butter (melted)
1 tablespoon cream (all I had was skim milk, worked fine)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg (beaten)
1 tablespoon flour

Mix the ingredients from part 1 together and press into a 9x9 pan.
Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool to warm.

Spread raisins over base (from part 2) and press them in a bit.

Mix the rest of ingredients (part 3) into a bowl and spread over the top of the raisins.

Bake at 350 F for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

Egg Tip

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:43:25 -0500

You know it's been so many years I can't even remember who told me this tip, but I remember showing someone and they were quite impressed. I got to thinking that most of us have little tips we never think to share because we either all think that everybody already knows or they are so silly that everybody should know.

If you think about it how many times have you done something without really thinking? Whether someone shared it with you so long ago you've forgotten who, or you've come up with it yourself, think "would anyone else know this?"

My first tip:
How do you easily get out an eggshell that has fallen into your egg? Way back, I used to chase it around with a fork or a spoon, and when that didn't work I'd plunge my fingers in, until one day someone said to me; "use the eggshell itself." It works! :)

There was crying in the halls

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:16:08 -0500

And thank goodness it wasn't from Jevan, nor me :) On Wednesday Jevan started his first day of kindergarten. I felt like crying but this Mama was able to compose herself ;) Okay I'll admit that I shed a few tears in the truck while I was driving home, but I didn't lose it at the school!

Here's some highlights from the day:
Lunch with a thermos full of hot soup.

We were about 15 minutes late getting into the school because just as I pulled into the parking lot Jevan went for his bucket. As I've blogged before, he gets car sick and I couldn't really give him gravol because I didn't want him sleeping through his first day. When we came in he was immediately hustled off to an assembly. At the beginning of every week the kids all gather in the gym and sing "Oh Canada." I was shocked to see how low enrollment has dropped this year. There are 60 kids in the whole school, four classes, and that's it! Jevan is in a split class; kindergarten/grade 1 and Sydney is in grade 4/5, next year she'll be in grade 6 and that class is the only one that isn't split.

After recess Jevan puts his coat into his locker. And would you look at that, already a girl is talking to him! "Hey Missy there's room for only one woman in Jevan's life right now and that's his Mama!!" Oh Lordy what am I going to do when he hits high school!??

As I was standing in the back I saw Jevan tapping his teacher telling her he was still hungry and asking when was lunch? This was right after recess! She explained that when he went to daycare at noon he would eat there. I don't think he was happy with the answer, mind you the teacher didn't know that he had thrown up his breakfast. I was able to enroll Jevan in daycare until Friday, and come Monday he'll start full days at school, this saves me having to drive in and pick him up at noon. For a mere three days of daycare the paperwork I had to fill out was insane but thank goodness they had room for him. It's great that the daycare is located downstairs in the school, so they just go up and take all the kids down there when it's time.

After all the kids gathered in a circle Jevan wasn't quite sure what was going on. He had missed the "this is what we do speech" when we were sitting in the truck earlier.

When school was over I had a little talk with him about "tapping" his teacher after seeing him doing it numerous times. He doesn't do this at home and will usually say "excuse me" a million times (we're working on the "waiting part").

He finally found a place and settled in... and I was able to say goodbye and head for home :)

Jevan rode the bus home and was fine. No throwing up, thank goodness. He's usually pretty good in the afternoon so Thursday morning was the big test. He did great! With no confining seatbelts, and able to move around a lot more, I think he'll be fine... now if he would just quit eating his lunch in the morning... :)

Chicken Alfredo Sauce, easy recipe

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:49:20 -0500

I was given this recipe awhile ago but quickly forgot measurements and possible ingredients, so now when I make it I'm not sure if it's right but it does turn out great :) One of the reasons I like to make homemade alfredo sauce is I cannot stand the store bought stuff; waaaaay too garlicky for me! I usually have all ingredients on hand for the homemade, and most of them are light or low fat, so this works out perfect for me.

Drop about two tablespoons of butter into a pot:

Add about 1/3 cup of chicken stock. I mix up water and chicken base in a measuring cup.

Butter and chicken stock in the pot, get it hot while stirring with a whisk.

Whisk in about 1 1/2 cups of skim milk.

Add one block, 250 g of cream cheese, I use light. I buy three at a time and keep them frozen, when I need one I nuke it in the microwave for a couple of minutes.

Add to pot, mix with a whisk.

Add about 1 cup of parmesan cheese (light if preferred) and minced garlic (or garlic salt, powder, whatever you have on hand) to taste. I don't like heavy garlic so I add about 1/2 a teaspoon.

Cook until mixture is thickened and just before serving add about a teaspoon of parsley if desired.
Last night we had it over tortellini and it was delish!
You can also add cooked chicken chunks, broccoli, etc., and spoon it over pasta, another great dish.

As you can probably tell my measurements are estimates. One time I added too much milk and rather than wait for the sauce to thicken by cooking it down I added clear-jel to thicken and it was fine, cornstarch mixed with a bit of water would work too. I like to keep the calories down by using the light cheeses and fat free skim milk but if you want to use heavy cream, whole milk, non light cheeses, etc., I say go for it :)

Beef Barley Soup & a Birthday!

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 09:35:00 -0500

Mmm, mmm, mmm... this recipe is so good! I went searching for canning recipes because I was bored (yeah right), actually I was surfing around Paul Noll's site looking for the ratio of water/sugar for canning peaches when I came across the soup recipe. His site is amazing, he's actually kept track of how many pints/quarts of jars him and his wife have canned... since 1966! They truly are expert canners, yet they still have time to answer personal emails (I sent them one last year and within a few days he responded). It's because of his site I bought a steam canner last year and I love it! Very seldom do I use my hot water bath canner anymore because the steam canner is just so much easier to use; less water, less weight, less time.
The only thing I did a bit differently with the soup was add a beef broth mix and, instead of a rump roast, I cut up stew meat from a cow we butchered last year. The recipe says it makes 11 quarts but after hubby came in for lunch and then the kids did their taste test I ended up with 8 quarts. I was a bit short on the barley, but after getting the soup on to boil I made apple and cherry juice, as well as 7 loaves of bread, not much time to run to town ;)

Hubby is off to camp and Sydney will start school on Tuesday, then Jevan starts on Wednesday. I'll drive Jevan in on his first day but I may have to drive him in and pick him up for Thursday and Friday too. For the first week the kindergarten kids only have half days to get them used to school so they won't start full days until next Monday. I'm hoping to talk to the daycare downstairs and see if he can stay there for three hours until Sydney gets out and then the two of them can ride the bus home together.

I've held off mentioning my Mom's birthday, it was August 30th, because my brother and I went in on a gift together for her and she hasn't received it yet. I've told her to expect a parcel in the mail within a few days but I haven't told her what it is. And because she is a faithful reader of my blog I'm not going to spoil the surprise, you really think I'd mention it here Mom?? LOL LOL Anyway, a big birthday hug and loves to you, I miss you and hope you come up soon!

Sydney giving Oma a makeover, aren't Oma's great for putting up with their grandkids? lol

Corn Relish & Company

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:05:49 -0500

Yesterday morning I got a call from my niece Shaylee. She's been in town visiting my sister for the last couple of days and was now at a girlfriend's house. I ran out to Pavilion Reserve, picked her up, and brought her out to the ranch. She had her son Julian with her and he is so adorable! What a great kid; quiet, full of smiles, and an all around happy boy :) He's 10 months old and has just starting walking, that "oh so shaky baby walk" it makes me want to pad him all around with styrofoam!!

Shaylee helped me can up some corn relish while she was here, as a matter a fact while I was running around getting the jars ready and vegetables from the garden she was busy chopping away. Unfortunately we forgot to pack a few jars before we headed to the bus in Lytton and I told her I'd drop some in the mail for her.

Speaking of corn relish... the recipe I use is from HuntressD and long ago she left it in the comment section of my blog. She no longer maintains her blog and I haven't heard from her in quite sometime. I'm hoping it's okay to post the recipe at my blog so people don't have to weed through all the comments to find it. The picture is last years because I didn't have any leftovers and canned exactly 10 half pints.

Corn Relish

Her measurements are all estimates but I pretty much make it exactly like this and it turns out great. I find if you keep it stored in a dark cupboard it won't fade, mind you it gets eaten up pretty fast around here and fading isn't much of a problem. ;)

Yield: About 10 half pints.

9 sweet corn cobs
1 green pepper seeded, chopped
1 red pepper seeded, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 c chopped celery
1/2 tsp table salt
2 1/4c granulated sugar
2 1/4c white vinegar
1/2 tsp celery seed

1 tsp dry mustard powder
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp tumeric
2 Tbsp water

Cut the corn, but don't scrape from the cobs, you should get about 4 cups.

Add the next 8 ingredients and bring to a boil over medium heat, stir lots. Turn down your stove and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring only occasionally.

Mix the last four items into a paste, stir into the simmering corn mix, stir until it boils again and thickens.

Then can; 15 minutes in a hot water bath.

He's not ready!

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:57:54 -0500

I could say "he's not ready" but I really think it's me who's not ready. I'm talking about Jevan starting kindergarten in one week. Just where the heck did the last five years go? Has it really been that long already... whoooooa I want a rewind.

I'm standing in Wal-Mart last Saturday with the kid's school list in my hand. Silent tears are bubbling up in my eyes. I contemplate throwing the list in the garbage and flying out of there, but I don't. I stay and fill my cart with 6 of these, 2 of those, 5 of something or others, and make a mental note of what's not there so I can find it somewhere else. There's mobs of people there, most have their kids with them and everywhere I turn I can hear "Mom...Mom.... MOOOOOM!" as the kids grab for the newest gear they can get their hands on. Thank goodness neither of my school age children are with me, except for my oldest who long ago graduated. This is the first time I've ever had to pick up school supplies for two children, so far I've only had one child in school at one time. This year is different... this year will be the last time I see one of my children start their very first day of school... this year I want to hold on to Jevan and never let him go...

I wonder how many Mom's feel like me? Are you counting the days until the bell rings? Or are you dreading that first day when chaos surrounds the morning? I wonder if next year will be better, when I have gotten used to both kids in school and I finally realize that I have no more children waiting in the wings for kindergarten?

A week today, five years in the making... sniff, sniff.

While typing this post yesterday the phone rings. It's the Kindergarten teacher with Jevan's schedule... Jevan's world just got a teeny bit bigger.

My little man on his first birthday :)

Fillet a fish fast

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:53:33 -0500

Fishing season is winding down and we pulled our nets last week. I've smoked, canned, and dried quite a few fish this year and I finally had time to put together a video. If you have no idea how to fillet, or the thought of filleting a fish makes you shudder, have a quick look at the video. You'll be surprised at how easy it is to do. The way I do it it's less cutting and you can whip through a fish pretty fast. Make sure you have a sharp knife, a fillet knife is best but not necessary.

If you can't view the video at my blog click here.

Dally's Wedding

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:44:54 -0500

Before I am shot I'd best post some pics of Dally's wedding ;)

We were going to be in Kamloops Wednesday attending the Randy Travis show when Dallas called us on Monday and asked if we could stay an extra day... I asked "Why?"

"Because I'm getting married on Friday," she replied.

"Ahhhhh, ummmm, WHAT?" Nothing like surprising her mother!

The hurry? Oh eight, oh eight, oh eight... the date. Well I should say that's not the only reason, they do love each other and have lived together for about four years and she is with child... I could go on and on but in the end they got hitched, and I'm really happy for them. Hubby and I were both witnesses, along with Jevan and Sydney being there (Dallas had brought them over Friday morning).

The ceremony was in the JP's backyard and the weather was perfect.

My daughter, being so prepared like her mother ;) had no bouquet, and when I asked her where her flowers were she held up her feet and said she had even forgot shoes and was being married in her grubby runners. I ran to the nearest grocery store, really I did run across the parking lot because the wedding was in less than five minutes! I bought two bunches of flowers that matched her outfit and, out of breath, we were away!

Jevan was spiffed up with a new shirt, and a promotional 1 dollar hat (looking over my receipt it was actually only a penny!) a saleswoman had sold him earlier at FutureShop. I wish they would have been selling ties because he was a bit miffed that he had to take his hat off during the ceremony.

But then in his usual style he let us all know how he felt about being there.

On Monday, when Dallas called to tell me about getting married, Hubby overheard me saying "Don't you want a big wedding with everyone there?" In the background he's waving his hands at me saying "No, think how much money we'll save!!" Yeah real funny... men!
Sydney and Hubby.

So this year my daughter makes me a MIL (shouldn't that be a four letter word?) and a Granny next year... yeesh enough already! I can feel my age kicking into high gear and I'm heading downhill fast! Although it makes me feel young registering my youngest for kindergarten this year, but I'll bet Jevan has the oldest Mama in the class LOL!

It's really growing!

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:23:54 -0500

After two failed attempts the Luffa really looks great!

You all might remember I was sent a package of luffa seeds from Dora over at Y2K Hippie. If you've never been to her blog check it out, she has some of the greatest ideas I've ever seen and is willing to try anything :)

I started the luffa in the house and by the time I planted them outside they had grown so much I had to transplant them a few times. After planting, our weather got cold, so cold all of them died. I did keep a few in the house "just in case" and I'm glad I did. These didn't look too healthy a few days after planting and I had almost given up hope when I spied a bit of growth near the bottom. When the hot weather hit they really took off, albeit a bit late, but I'm hoping we have good weather right 'til the end of September (finger's crossed). There's lots of small luffas as well as a ton of flowers, although I think it's a bit late for the flowers to produce anything. The few that are large should be okay and I'm hoping the smaller ones will take off and be ready too.

The biggest one.

Some of the smaller ones.

Company, company

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 11:20:22 -0500

On Monday my Aunty Bonnie (my Mom's sister) showed up. She's always great to have as a visitor. Before she had her purse off her shoulder she was in my garden picking cucumbers I failed to find earlier that morning. The woman has an eagle eye in the garden and always has one every year. She made up two batches of her famous "Bread and Butter Pickles" before she left and came down to the river with us a few times. She enjoys cleaning fish (yeah I LIKE that kind of company!) and always is game to do whatever we're doing :)

Aunty Helen, from Hubby's side, has been here for a few days... well not here but over at Grandma's (MIL). Another person who loves going down to the river and loves being in the garden. The woman is in her 70's and she climbs around those rocks like she's in her twenties! If you're a regular reader of my blog you may know her as my "Border Fairy" ;)

And then yesterday Aunty Nan and Uncle Eric (Hubby's Aunt and Uncle) showed up on the ranch. Nan came down to the river with us last night and this morning. She's pretty good at cleaning fish and managed to get two done to my four, but hey that saved me cleaning an extra two!! LOL

St'wan (Drying Fish)

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:11:08 -0500

We made st'wan two years ago and did a pretty good job, but there's a person in town that does it the best and I'm always willing to learn :)

Last Sunday Mary Ann, an elder from Bridge River Indian Reserve, came out and showed us how to prepare sockeye salmon for drying. This woman amazes me with her knowledge and strength. Every morning at 5:30 she walks to the river, catches 3 or 4 fish and then walks home. I'm sure she must be in her 60's but I really didn't want to ask. The speed in which she fillets the fish tells me that she's been doing this for many, many years.

It was great to learn from the best and I appreciate Mary Ann for coming out.

If you can't view the video at my blog click here.

Randy Travis: Still handsome after all these years

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:01:40 -0500

What a great show! Things didn't start out too well when the cab we called was going to take 20 minutes to get us there, and even then I had to call them again. We missed one performer but came in during Kenny Hess' set. I don't know his songs but he was good. After finding our seats, and finding a photographer sitting in them we settled in. I whipped out my camera and instantly saw "No memory card" on the LCD screen! Ack! Then it dawned on me that it was in my computer back at the motel. Luckily Sydney had asked me if I needed my two other ones, whew THANK YOU Sydney! So quickly digging in my purse I grabbed the first card and happily started snapping pics. When I switched to video mode I got less than two minutes and "Memory card full." What the heck?? I usually run a 4 gig card and this was only a two but it should last longer than that! I scrolled through thinking there may be some old pictures on there that I could delete... nothing. I grabbed the other card and everything was good to go. It didn't last throughout the whole show and I ended up deleting some pictures and reducing videos down to standard resolution so I could get small clips of everything. When I got back to the hotel I popped the cards into my laptop and discovered I had three, yes THREE "Winnie-the-Pooh" movies on the first card! No wonder it was pretty much full. The other card had two kids movies on it.... ever felt like you should never have had children??!! I could have formated the cards but I would have lost all the pics up to that point, avi movie files don't show up in my camera unless they are taken with the camera so deleting individual movies couldn't be done. After seeing the pictures I calmed down, made a mental note to never let the kids put their movies on my camera cards again, and decided that I need to buy another four gig card so I'm never without one. :)

Randy Travis pictures from the show:

Of course being my Father's Daughter I just had to take a pic of Randy's guitar. I was worried that I wasn't allowed to have the camera so I took all the pics with no flash and a very steady Hubby's shoulder :) The closer one zooms in the more "noise" in the picture but I could see he plays a Gibson guitar, my Dad played a Martin but he did have a Gibson too.

The song I most wanted to hear Randy sing was "Three Wooden Crosses" and I wasn't disappointed. If you can't see the video at my blog click here.

Spring Salmon

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:26:23 -0500

Fishing has been pretty good this last week. We've been going up and down twice a day and our nets have been pretty much full. I've already smoked 20, have 10 more sitting waiting to go in the smoker, and another 9 in the fridge ready for the smoker tomorrow morning. Now I just have to clear off my tables in the canning room and I can start canning them. We have been talking about putting up st'wan racks but that's a big job so we might not dry any this year.

This morning Hubby went down and along with 18 sockeye he found a spring salmon caught in the net. They are huge compared to what we usually pull in. The net we've been using has large netting so we have been getting pretty big sockeye but look at the difference in the picture. Average size is the top fish, big sockeye is the middle, and the spring is on the bottom.

Don't forget that if you need instructions on quick easy cleaning you can click this link.

My brother is here for the long weekend and here's a picture of him holding up the spring. It probably weighs in at around 15 pounds.

The other night we caught another sturgeon in the net, this one was a bit bigger than the one we had the other day. But, yet again, I didn't have my camera! I really should get a picture because they are the ugliest things I've ever seen. It almost looks prehistoric, yuck. We let it go and it hung around the shore for a bit regaining it's strength and away it swam.

Well I'm off to Kamloops on Wednesday! This time it's to see RANDY TRAVIS!!! I have two tickets for the FRONT row, CENTER seats! I am sooo excited! Can ya tell?

Fishing 2008

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:02:17 -0500

It's that time of year again when we all head for the river to catch sockeye salmon. Grandma and I built a new net last Saturday. Here's Grandma (MIL) sitting on her lawn cutting off the old stuff. It's beyond patching but we still use the lead rope and floats to make the new one.

Our net strung out in the water. Alongside is my BIL's pole net, his is quite a bit smaller with a lot more ropes holding down the pole. Ours is strung out to a line that goes across the eddy.

It works! And don't ya just love my fashionable boots?

Sydney was leading the pack back to the truck. Blue, Teddy, No No, and Yeller.

A different view of the dogs.
Meegie.

Teddy.

No No.

Yeller.

Annie and Jumbo were with us too. And I wonder where all the sand comes from in my vehicle? :)

On the way home we spotted quite a few grouse just hanging about.

Two days ago there was a small black bear right across from us. Hopefully he/she doesn't get any ideas about swimming across and pulling our net!

This morning my nephew Mikey and I pulled our net and there were 16 fish. My BIL's net had three sockeye and one small sturgeon. But, wouldn't ya know it, I left my camera on the table at home!

Shocking news

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:13:00 -0500

Sad but shocking. The other day I felt like I was in a movie. The kind of movie where one is innocently working away and the camera pans to the background and there lies the dead body. I was in the chicken coop collecting eggs when I got to the far box. I briefly thought "Hmmm where's Baby Banty?" Her eggs were there but where the heck was she? I figured she had gone outside to quickly eat and stretch her legs. I turned around and "GASP!" There she was lying on the floor near the run door... dead. I felt as if the Twilight Zone music would start up any minute. There was no marks on her, no feather out of place. She hadn't been acting sick and had even started to set on eggs again after raising Cleopatra. She's really not that old, her Mama is still alive along with her brother Sammy, maybe heart attack? I don't know, and probably never will, just one of those things I guess.
Goodbye good friend, she was a great Mama and one of the first banty chicks I had in our coop.

Famous?

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:05:26 -0500

My kids aren't shy about their body parts. They see so much on the ranch and are quite accustomed to the "natural" ways of all the animals. Jevan has barely worn clothes since he was born and quite enjoys running around stark naked most of the time. On Saturday I was over at Grandma's, making a new net for the river, when I asked Sydney if she would run home and grab me a cold pop. She had been playing with my camera and she decided to video her short jaunt over to the house. On the way back Jevan, who had been at the shop, caught up with her. Hubby and I were roaring hysterically when we went over the video and heard this. Sydney asked Jevan to say "Hi I'm famous Jevan." This is what he said:

If you can't see the video on my blog click here.

Mouse in the House!

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:14:55 -0500

We get lots of mice, especially at haying time, but they are mostly up in our attic and Hubby puts up poison so that thins them out pretty good. What can I say..., we live on a ranch and when the tractors with the swathers, flippers, and balers are all doing their jobs on the fields the mice are running for cover. When they start coming down to our main living area that's when I get a tad upset. A few weeks ago I was giving 'er on the Wii doing the hula hoop thing, and let me tell you once you get going on that thing you really can't stop. All of a sudden Sydney screams "There's a MOUSE!" I look down beside me and, sure enough, there's a big fatty sitting right beside the Wii fit console, a mere inches from my barefeet! It looks up at me as if to say "I'm next, but I'll wait for you to finish." And from the size of him he sure needed a workout.

I still had about a minute left and that darn mouse didn't move, other than watching me. I swear if there was a mini-recliner he would have jumped in there and put his feet up! Even all the screaming, hollering, and commotion didn't budge him. When I finished my hula stint and I ~~stepped~~ leaped off the Wii (onto the couch) he sort of lazily lumbered over to the other couch. I called for Duane (Dally's fiance), okay I may have screamed, and he came hustling in a lot faster than the mouse. This rather lazy mouse toodled around the living room behind the couch, over my Aunt's suitcase, and eventually made his way out to our other living room. I have never in my life seen a mouse move so slow, usually they are zipping away faster than you can blink, and you're left wondering if you really saw one. Duane finally managed to flatten him down with a frisbee and then took him outside... blech. I have no idea where my cat was, probably outside stuffed full of mice still trying to make their way in from the fields... hmmmph.

So everything has been pretty good, haven't seen hide nor hair of any mouse... until last night. Sydney and Jevan are watching tv in the living room and suddenly that "There's a MOUSE" scream again. Darnit! We all bolt for the living room and I see nothing. This one is obviously not related to the last one or maybe it's been working out with our Wii after we've gone to bed. I grab one of those pre-baited mouse traps but it's pretty old so I slap some peanut butter on it and hope for the best. Within ten minutes Sydney comes in the kitchen and grabs a carrot from the fridge, but in her other hand she has one of my tupperware containers. "Whatcha doing?" I asked.
"Nothing." She replies.
"What's with the tupperware container?"
"Well... well.... (voice speeds up) that mouse keeps poking his head out from behind the tv like "Come and get me, nyahhh nyahhh nyahhh!"" Her face and actions were absolutely hysterical! LOL LOL I have no idea how she thought she was going to catch him with a carrot and a tupperware container but I would be amazed if she did.

Between her trap and mine, I won :) The mouse was dead in the trap this morning, let's hope all the other mice heard the SNAP! Now if I could just keep the bees under control at the pool, arrrgh! What's next? Locusts? Yeesh.

To all my regular readers who have blogs: I've been at your sites reading but right now I just haven't have time for commenting, please forgive me. With Sydney home for the summer holidays, Hubby back from camp, garden weeding, pool tending, etc., etc. there's not enough hours in the day. September can't come quick enough for me!

Booooo Costco

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:01:00 -0500

Thank goodness Hubby is finally home! This last trip into camp seemed like forever but it was only 21 days... I guess we got used to the shorter trips and this time it felt as if the time really dragged on and on.

I think I've learned that I can't live without my husband, mind you I truly believe he feels the same about me (or I hope he does). I know that sounds so cliche but when one lives on a ranch there are certain things I just can't do, strength and knowledge deprives me. I guess I could always hire someone to do those jobs but I've learned to wait until Hubby is home and then I know the job will be done, and done right :)

For instance; we picked up a salt water chlorinator for the pool and by the time it got here our new pool pump had broken. I took it apart and all the fins off the impeller had snapped off. I called Costco and after two days (three voice mails) they finally returned my call, "Sorry Ma'am that product has been discontinued (I bought it at the end of May!) and we will not be getting anymore in this year." She gave me a 1-800 number to call that she had found in her documents from her own pool and told me she was "fortunate" that she didn't buy hers at Costco! (Sarcastic: gee lucky her). Why on earth can't Costco call the number and arrange a replacement? So much for the one year guarantee. I told her that was unsatisfactory and she told me that my only option was to return the whole pool, they couldn't even just replace the pump. Can you imagine? I have an 18 foot by 52 inch pool full of water that is 80 degrees (thanks to our screaming hot weather) and she wants me to simply take it all down and return it? I told her I didn't even have the box, she said as long as I had the manuals I could return it. Oh sure, then we have no pool for the rest of the year. You all remember it's also a four hour drive to Costco and back? So I emailed the pool company. Thank goodness someone there has brains. "Fax us your receipt, a brief description of the problem, and we will process your request (up to two days) and have a pump mailed to you within 7 days. NINE days total? My pool is going to be very green in nine days! Of course they are "sorry for the inconvenience" heck haven't they heard of Fed-Ex, Loomis, UPS?? Well at least I don't have to send the old pump in before they mail out the new one.

So this is where Hubby comes in handy :) Before he got home I hooked up last year's pump with a few modifications (okay it looked very hill billy'ish but it worked), what do the kids care about baler twine hanging off a few hoses? But I still couldn't hook up the new salt water chlorinator. Hubby took a few measurements, a hose, I'm assuming some kind of glue because at one point he said he was letting something dry, and a few different fittings and, wala!, we have the salt chlorinator hooked up! I figure that as long as water is going in, coming out, and the little green light is on everything should be okay... it's not pretty but it's working. I still may take Costco up on their offer of bringing the whole thing back at the end of the summer, it will save me having to store the pool in the barn, and the kids get a brand new pool next year. Costco can have their broken pump back, pool and all!

Sydney enjoying the pool :)

Thunderstorms & Lightning

kansasa@gmail.com (KansasA) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:35:34 -0500

After breaking heat records this past week I think we were all in shock over yesterday's weather. Thunder, lightning, and rain! And when I type rain I mean BIG TIME! Wow I haven't seen it come down that hard for a long time.

The sky over Lillooet was quite pink at quarter past nine last night:

And about 15 minutes later:

A close-up:

The gutters on our house looked as if I had laid out garden hoses full blast on the roof! On the plus side everything sure got a good soaking :)