Bag Lady's Blather

Bibbity Bobbity..... BUBBAT

2012-02-10T07:42:00.001-07:00

It's been two weeks since the Bag Lady posted anything?? What a slacker!

Actually, it's because she hasn't had anything very interesting going on in her life. It's been an endless round of laundry, ~~"NCIS",~~ housework, ~~"Criminal Minds",~~ ranch work, ~~"The Mentalist",~~ cooking ~~"Person of Interest",~~ and baking. Chopping wood, feeding the woodstove, taking care of cows and horses and dog and cat and husband.... (Did you know that you can spend almost the entire day, every day, watching re-runs of your favourite shows just by flipping back and forth between Showcase (East and West), Showcase Diva and A&E? For someone who hadn't watch TV for the last 10 or so years, the Bag Lady has quickly become addicted!)... paperwork and taxes and working at the fledgling museum in her little community (did she tell you she volunteered to be the curator? She has since stopped drinking.).

Did she mention baking? A (slightly older) neighbour was rhapsodizing a month or so ago about something his mother used to make when he was young. His heritage was German Mennonite, and his mother was apparently a fabulous cook. He mentioned many dishes she used to make, but the one he missed the most and loved the best was something called Bubbat.

The Bag Lady was intrigued by his description of this dish, so she did some research on the internet and found several recipes. None of them were exactly as he described, but she decided to adapt one of them to his description. She wanted to do a test-run before making the dish for her neighbour, so the Rancher came home from work the other day to this:

Which, when sliced open, revealed this:

The Bag Lady has a special fondness for things with little surprises in them (thanks, Mom! Did anyone else's mother ever bake birthday cakes with pennies in them?) Her neighbour described Bubbat as a cakey bread with a sausage laid in it so that when it was sliced, everyone got a piece of sausage. She served it with Borscht and he and his siblings would drink a gallon or so of milk with it. The Bag Lady didn't have any Borscht, but she did have homemade split pea soup, which worked well.

She found the recipe here, and encourages you to go check it out - there are some fabulous recipes on this blog!

Fly Like an Eagle

2012-01-24T11:36:00.007-07:00

The Bag Lady has been keeping herself busy of late. If watching hours of television counts as busy. Ahem.

She did leave the ranch the other day and when she reached the highway, she saw this incredible sight.....
Not one but two bald eagles, sitting side by side in the trees on the edge of the highway. Fortunately, there was no other traffic, so the Bag Lady was able to scramble around in her briefcase and find her camera. Just as she snapped the picture, one of the eagles decided not to hang around for the photo op., but the Bag Lady caught him anyway. If you click on the photo and enlarge it, you can see that the other eagle is watching his buddy depart. He was perhaps a little more confident that the Bag Lady wasn't a threat because he stayed where he was long enough for another photo. Sadly, it turned out to be quite blurry, but the Bag Lady was happy to have taken the first picture.

Photo Finish Friday - The Good Old Days

2012-01-13T05:35:00.003-07:00

The Bag Lady has been immersed in the past for much of the new year. She is the volunteer (aka unpaid with absolutely no experience) curator of the newly minted museum in her little community, and she and another volunteer have been working hard to accession the donations received so far from community members.

The Bag Lady has also been ~~wasting~~ spending time on Ancestry.com.

She has had this photo for many years, but has really had not very much information to go along with it. Angus was her great-grandmother's brother, and he moved his family away from Nebraska (where much of the rest of the family was residing at the time) in the late 1800's and contact with him was lost.
Thanks to Ancestry.com, the Bag Lady now has more information on that branch of the family!
(At least, she hopes there isn't another, completely unrelated family out there using this picture on their family tree!)

PFF is the brainchild of Leah at the Goat's Lunch Pail. Go check out her photo for today!

Lame Lament

2012-01-08T06:56:00.004-07:00

Is anyone else disillusioned with the direction our society appears to be heading? It seems as though the only thing that rules is greed. Governments give lip service to the public good, but the only reason people seem to go into politics anymore is for the money. A few years in politics and they receive a pension for life, regardless of their actual contribution.

Oil companies care nothing for the environmental damage they do. Money rules there, too. Fracking (blasting the rock deep underground to release the gas trapped there) is very damaging to underground water supplies, but the "greater good" rules - who cares if a few underground water wells are damaged or destroyed? The need to wring every ounce of gas and oil out of the ground to fuel society's machines takes precedence.

So many young people appear to have no moral compass anymore. Cruelty to animals, bullying, a sense of entitlement and their lack of personal connections dominate. They have no idea where their food comes from, nor how to employ the simplest of techniques to ensure life and limb. Take them out of the city, drop them in the woods without a GPS and they would be totally lost and starve to death because they have no idea how to navigate nor what is edible (no, you can't pet that bear cub.... didn't you see the sign saying not to feed the bears? 'Cause that's what you'll be if you get between momma and her cubs - bear food.)

We are constantly bombarded with exhortations to look younger, better, thinner; have more hair, less hair, no grey hair, thicker hair, curlier hair, straighter hair (what is this obsession with hair?); fewer wrinkles, age spots, lumps and/or bumps; better sex lives (partly spent seeking medical attention when your erection lasts longer than 4 hours...); lower cholesterol, whiter teeth, fewer leg twitches, fancier cars, televisions, cell phones, games, tablets.... the list goes on. (When did natural aging become a disease to be cured? Is there an app for that?)

We are admonished to bubble-wrap our children in order that they attain adulthood without scars, disabilities, drug addictions, immunity to disease, common sense, the ability to stand up for themselves, or suffering any kind of negative life experience. This will ensure that they are well-rounded, capable adults who can speed-type (but not spell) with the best of them, but will faint at the sight of a shovel, or a piece of paper and pencil.

Huge conglomerates dominate government to the point where policies are based not on what is good for the people or the country, but for the stockholders. It matters not that one company appears to be in control of most of the seed in the world (and are genetically modifying it for some nefarious reason!), the government made money. (Conspiracy Theory Alert.) If you control the world's food supply, you control the world.

The Mayan calendar ends this year. Did they really know something we don't, or did they just get tired of doing all those calculations? Ran out of room on the tablet?

(Yes, I'm aware that this was rather a lame post.... hence the title!)

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T09:54:00.002-07:00

There is not a lot of snow in the Bag Lady's world..... yet. In fact, she took this picture a couple of weeks ago and the snow is now gone from the old plow.
She had a very busy and fun-filled Christmas season, and is now telling herself it's time to get back to normal. She still has a few decorations to take down and put away, but almost all traces of the ~~wild and crazy~~ holiday are gone.
She hopes all of you have a wonderful year this year!

Holiday Wishes

2011-12-23T04:59:00.006-07:00

The Bag Lady needed to go to town yesterday to finish up her shopping and get a few groceries for the holiday feast she is preparing. She had just finished drying her hair and was about to put on her makeup when the power went off. The sun was barely up, but the day was overcast, so her house was on the gloomy side. She had not yet put any makeup on (which consists of mascara to try to define the sparse, stubby little blonde things that pass as eyelashes, and some moisturizer to try to plump up the deepest craters) and was forced to do her ablutions by flashlight. She scrubbed her teeth with what she belatedly realized was the denture adhesive left in the drawer by a long-ago visitor. It tasted minty, but she couldn't force her teeth apart for the rest of the day.

Her optimistic estimate of how long it would take her to run her errands was quickly revised once she reached the outskirts and saw the traffic. Six hours later.... she was home again, triumphantly clutching a frozen turkey, a bag of cranberries and staring perplexedly at a red felt chef's hat with "Kiss the Cook" emblazoned on it. She's still not sure how it came to be in her possession.....

She spent the rest of the day alternating between worry over whether the Rancher will like his gift, find where his gift is hidden, and whether he will go ahead and buy one for himself when he does his traditional Christmas Eve day shopping.

Today begins the marathon of cooking and cleaning, decorating and wrapping that will consume the Bag Lady for the next couple of days. She has done some baking already, but needs to do more. She wasn't smart enough to hide the first batch of shortbread cookies....

She actually feels quite confident that she is well-prepared this year, which is probably partly due to menopause-brain. If you can't remember what you had planned to do, you can't be upset about not getting it done, right?

She hopes all of you have a safe and happy holiday season, regardless of whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas or Festivus!

Watchful

2011-12-19T07:20:00.005-07:00

The Bag Lady had an audience the other day when she was feeding cows. Of course, as soon as the audience realized that they had an audience, they left.

Added another photo that will (hopefully!) enlarge. (But there's only one audience member left - the other was already gone.)

Another Day, Another Sunrise!

2011-12-08T05:01:00.004-07:00

(Yet more sunrise pictures. The Bag Lady does love her sunrises!)

These pictures were taken mere seconds apart - can you see the difference? (and yes, it's pretty obscure. Try clicking on them to enlarge.)

Can't see it? Here's a hint - he was singing like a mad thing.

Sunrise

2011-12-05T00:01:00.000-07:00

This was taken last year at this time. There is less snow on the ground this year, but the sunrise is still as pretty!

Gratitude Monday - Bounty

2011-11-28T07:46:00.006-07:00

The Bag Lady is taking a page from her cousin Leah's blog today and posting about gratitude.

She is grateful for the fact that she lives a rural life-style and has access to a bounty of all manner of things, but especially home-grown food. Recently, a neighbour pointed out that a fellow down the road from him had raised some pigs that were now ready for sale for slaughter. The Rancher and the Bag Lady were more than happy at the opportunity to buy pork on the hoof.

The neighbour and the Rancher hooked onto the stock trailer and picked up the pigs, then took them to an abattoir. The Bag Lady defrosted and re-arranged her deep freezers in preparation.

Soon there will be a bounty of pork and ham and bacon in the freezers, and for this the Bag Lady is grateful.

(How do you feel about meeting your meat, so to speak?)

Enter at Own Risk

2011-11-18T08:50:00.001-07:00

Winter arrived on the ranch this week. The Bag Lady did not take pictures of the snow. She has taken many pictures in the past, and snow pretty much always looks the same, doesn't it? Cold. White.

She has been pondering and ruminating about an article she read in a "farm" paper recently. Those of you who reside in cities and towns probably don't realize that rural residents receive several free publications aimed specifically at farmers and ranchers. The Bag Lady ~~uses them to start the woodstove~~ doesn't usually read them, but the Rancher does, and he was outraged enough that he had to share this particular article with the Bag Lady.

There is a "movement" sweeping the nation (and probably the continent, too) that has the Bag Lady slightly worried. It takes several forms, and encompasses all of us in ways that are yet to be revealed. She refers to the burgeoning preoccupation with ~~the multi million dollar industry of~~ safety.

Yes, our society has become obsessed with safety. The Bag Lady is uncertain where this obsession comes from - did it start with the infamous McDonald's coffee incident? She has heard that there is a company that once manufactured perfectly good ladders, but stopped because there was not enough room to print all the safety labels that would have been required.

From bubble-wrapping our kids (cutting all the limbs within 8 feet of the ground off trees in daycare centres.... no hard balls such as soccer or basketballs on the playground in schools...) to forcing workers to take a multitude of courses in order to have the required tickets to go to work, we seem bent on completely eradicating risk from our lives. ~~Whatever happened to natural selection? If you're not smart enough to recognize a potential life-threatening situation, should you really be allowed to procreate?~~

How does this affect the Bag Lady, you ask? Well, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture has implemented a safety program. As far as the Bag Lady understands it, currently it is voluntary, but she is sure the government in it's infinite wisdom will soon force compliance. Here are a few of the high points from the article that the Rancher pointed out to her:

Establish clear visitation rules and post the rules in writing in a visible location.
--- This one cracks the Bag Lady up. She is already working on a sign, really.

Show visitors where you keep the fire extinguishers, first aid kit, eye wash station, and other emergency supplies.
---Eye-wash station? Really?? (Do any of you 'city folk' have an eye-wash station? You'd better start planning one, 'cause the Bag Lady doesn't want you to be caught flat-footed when the Safety Police come to your door.)

Clearly establish safe on-farm attire such as shoes instead of sandals, long pants, no loose strings, sleeves, etc. Provide water, insect repellent and sunscreen.
--- If you come to visit the Bag Lady, don't wear sandals. She would hate for you to drop a beer bottle on your toe.

Inform guests of the location of all restrooms and hand-washing stations on the farm.
--- plenty of trees around the Bag Lady's yard, and, depending on how dry the season is, there are a couple of dugouts, a hydrant by the barn, garden hose by the house. You may not want to wash your hands in the stock waterer. There's usually a lot of cow slobber in there. An alternative, of course, is to not pee on your hands. Or..... you can go to the house. It's pretty modern, and has toilets and running water that anyone with common sense could find.

Oh, wait.... there is no common sense anymore. As evidenced by this article, visitors to a working farm or ranch would have no freakin' idea where to find a bathroom.

Yes, the Bag Lady is poking a bit of fun at the Safety Industry, but she is also deeply concerned about its gathering momentum. What ever happened to personal responsibility? She knows in her heart that most adults would be aware of potential hazards on a farm or ranch..... wouldn't they? Stay away from those big machines with all the moving parts (and huge freakin' wheels!), don't try to pet that enormous bull snorting in the pen, and keep your fingers and toes out of places they don't belong. How simple is that?

The Bag Lady worries that she doesn't have enough ink in her printer to produce all the signs she would have to post, so, after much discussion, she and the Rancher have come up with what they think is the perfect solution, and plan to post this at the end of their driveway, right above the box containing the waiver forms.....

DANGER.... EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD..... REALLY.

Introducing....

2011-11-12T00:01:00.000-07:00

The newest addition to the ranch.

Isn't she cute?

Getting Ready

2011-11-02T09:30:00.003-06:00

Winter is coming. The Rancher and the Bag Lady have been getting ready. The Rancher came home with this.....(which is half of the stock trailer, so that pile is about 10 feet long.)

With him splitting and the Bag Lady stacking, they spent a busy afternoon and turned it into this......

(which is two rows deep, although it's a little difficult to tell from the picture)
That pile is now a little bigger, because they weren't quite finished when the Bag Lady took the photo, so she spent a morning splitting and piling the remainder by herself because the Rancher was busy elsewhere.

This will definitely help keep them warm for at least part of the winter!

Autumn Re-cap

2011-10-28T08:11:00.000-06:00

The Bag Lady composed a fabulously witty post whilst lying in bed last night waiting for sleep to come, but now that she's awake, she can't even remember the title. Sigh.

It's been a very busy autumn season around the ranch. Because of the cool wet summer, a lot of the regular ranch work had to be postponed. The last several weeks have been cool but dry, so she and the Rancher have been playing catch-up. On top of the regular fall work, they have been doing some maintenance that could easily have been done earlier in the summer.... if it hadn't been raining.

It's hard to believe that it's almost Halloween! What passed for summer this year passed pretty quickly. She and the Rancher winterized their holiday trailer yesterday, which feels like the day after they un-winterized it.

They sold their calves this week. She marvels at how fast they grew, because it feels as though they were just born about three weeks ago. (Oh, wait, one of them was! And no, he didn't go to the sale with the others.)

Amidst all the work these past few weeks, they did find time for some fun and entertainment. They had an out-of-town visitor who is quite an accomplished musician, so spent a fun weekend making music. Their visitor was even able to teach the Rancher, who has never actually played a musical instrument other than a stereo, how to play a few chords on the banjo!

(And they were having so much fun making the music that the Bag Lady forgot to take pictures, hence the rather odd photo of the instruments that were being ~~tortured~~ played.)
Have a wonderful weekend.

Photo Finish Friday - Firepit

2011-10-21T07:10:00.003-06:00

The Rancher and the Bag Lady were invited to a barbeque recently. Their friend had just purchased a fire surround for his firepit.

Here is a picture of one panel of the surround.

Happy weekend!

(Photo courtesy of Harold)

Out the Kitchen Window

2011-10-12T08:27:00.002-06:00

The days are noticeably shorter, and the Bag Lady has been busy. Even though her garden, for the most part, drowned because of the deluge it received early in the summer, she still has enough produce for a lot of the canning she does. Although she had to buy garlic and onions, her tomatoes and peppers produced very well. She has already made one large batch of salsa, and has enough ingredients for another batch. Unless she decides to do something different..... She grew celery this year for the first time (bedding plants because the growing season where she lives is a little short for celery.) She has been amazed at the hardiness displayed by these plants.
It has dropped below freezing several times in the past few weeks, but the celery does not seem to have been affected in the least. And the flavour? Fabulous!

So.... she has quite a lot of celery to use, and has been pondering canning stewed tomatoes rather than making another batch of salsa. She could still use up the onions, garlic, some peppers, and, of course, all those tomatoes.... and she does already have a lot of salsa.

The stewed tomatoes combined with her home-grown beef would make fabulous spaghetti sauce, wouldn't it? Okay, that's what she'll do. She's glad she had this chat with you!

Oh, and here's the view from her kitchen window this morning!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-10-10T07:58:00.002-06:00

Pretend there is a picture of wild turkeys in this spot....

(Picture would be here, if Blogger would allow it!)

The Bag Lady is very thankful for everything in her life. She is going to spend the day cooking a turkey dinner, then sharing it with family and friends.

She hopes that all of you are having a wonderful day, even if it is not Thanksgiving where you live.

Recipe Day! Who Wants Cake?

2011-10-03T00:01:00.000-06:00

The Bag Lady has been extraordinarily ~~lazy~~ busy lately. Between canning, preserving, gardening, cooking, working, and home renovations, she has scarcely had time to ~~make shit up~~ think of something to post on her sadly neglected blog.

She finally processed the last of the apples she brought home from a visit to her cousin. She ended up with a couple of cups of apple juice and 3 cups of applesauce. She searched the internet for a way to use the applesauce and discovered a recipe for an applesauce cake. She decided that the basic recipe sounded good, but it called for cocoa and she wasn't in the mood for chocolate (I KNOW! WTF??) so she set about making up her own recipe. She left out the cocoa and added some spices and ended up with a fabulous cake. Definitely a keeper.

Of course she will share it with you! Sadly, there is no picture because she forgot to take one and the cake is all but gone now. Two tiny pieces are all that remain.

Applesauce Spice Cake

Step One - pick some apples.
(KIDDING!)

1/2 Cup oil
1 1/2 Cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 Cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp each ground ginger and ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 Cups applesauce

Topping:
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 Cup chopped, toasted pecans

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350F.
Grease and flour 13" x 9" pan or two 8" square pans.
In large mixing bowl, combine oil and sugar and slightly beaten eggs.
Mix well.
In separate bowl, combine flour, spices, salt and baking powder.
Add flour mixture to oil/sugar/egg mixture, alternating with applesauce.
Mix until well-blended.

Pour into pan.

Mix brown sugar, cinnamon and chopped pecans, sprinkle over batter.

Bake at 350F for 30 - 35 minutes until top springs back when touched.

The Bag Lady served it with whipped cream, but it doesn't really need it (and actually, neither does she, but it was darned good!)

Photo-Finish Friday, Sunrise

2011-09-23T07:23:00.002-06:00

The Bag Lady's world this morning. Pretty, isn't it?

Photo Finish Friday is the brainchild of Leah, at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Protectionism

2011-09-19T08:17:00.000-06:00

A neighbour came to the Bag Lady the other day with a problem. The cafe/caterer where she works routinely uses those big steam tables with the trays that hold enormous quantities of food, and they used a double oven mitt for handling the hot trays. The problem was that the double oven mitts were not quite long enough, and the neighbour wondered if the Bag Lady could manufacture some that were perhaps 6 inches longer. And could she make more than one set?

The Bag Lady said she would certainly try because she loves to sew and she loves a challenge. She dug through her fabric stash, considering and discarding several pieces... some fabric was too thin, some wouldn't stand up to the constant washing. She knew she had some batting that would work well - the kind that is quilted, with the heat-resistant silver backing - and she had plenty of cotton for lining. She finally stumbled upon some fabric that she had planned to use for a CartSmart Bag for herself. Of course, she already has several CartSmart bags, so she decided to sacrifice her cute fabric.

Here is the result....

One down, two to go!

Photo Finish Friday - Last Year

2011-09-16T06:55:00.002-06:00

On this day last year, the Bag Lady and the Rancher (and their travelling companions) had arrived in Couer D'Alene, Idaho. This was the lake that day.

Photo Finish Friday is the brain child of Leah, at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Bridge on the Canal

2011-09-12T06:20:00.001-06:00

This is a bridge on the Rideau Canal. Somewhere in Ottawa.

Isn't it a lovely sight?

Jammin' (And Jellyin')

2011-09-09T08:40:00.000-06:00

(Is anyone using the new Blogger interface?
The Bag Lady has been so busy with real life, she wasn't even aware they had changed it (in other words, she's probably the last person in Blogland to even know about it!)
She doesn't know yet how she feels about it, but it certainly is different - now that she's tried it, she is not impressed...... she can't make it do what she wants!
If she could get Blogger to co-operate, she would tell you that these are only a few of the jars of jam and jelly she has produced this season, and that things are almost ready for her to move on to pickling and salsa. But Blogger isn't co-operating, so when she's finished with this post, she's pretty sure she will go back to the old interface, if allowed.)

This is what has been occupying the Bag Lady's time:

Photo Finish Friday - Rainbow

2011-09-02T00:01:00.000-06:00

There's gold in the Rancher's shop?

Garden Report

2011-08-31T00:01:00.000-06:00

The Bag Lady is too embarrassed by the state of her garden to take any pictures to share with you, but she will admit that she is not going to be spending hours and hours harvesting the homegrown bounty. Her potatoes drowned. Her beets drowned. Her corn grew to the enormous height of about 8 inches. Her cucumbers didn't survive, either. She does have bean plants that are producing. The plants are about 6 inches high, but the beans are (seriously, she measured!) 10 inches long! Her turnips drowned, too.

For the first year in many, she has more lettuce than she knows what to do with, but not a hint of spinach. It's been a very strange year. Her peas drowned. The cabbage plants that survived the attack of the wild deer...... drowned. About the only things that didn't drown were the weeds. And the carrots. She has a lot of carrots.

On the other hand, due to the generosity of friends and relations, she has fruit. She has made raspberry jelly. And apple jelly. She made pluot jam. She has raspberry/apple jelly. She has half a pail of apples still to be dealt with, and a neighbour brought her a huge bag of crabapples just last night! So far, she has 42 jars of jam and jelly. If things continue at this rate, she would advise buying shares in sugar.

She heard through the grapevine that the high-bush cranberries are bountiful this year, so she might have to go berry-picking. She really likes high-bush cranberry jelly .... apparently, one can never have enough jelly! But there have been numerous sightings of cougars and bears lately, and bears really like high-bush cranberries, too.

The Bag Lady is hoping she will have enough tomatoes to make some salsa. She didn't plant as many tomatoes this year as she has in previous years, but thinks she will have enough for at least one batch of salsa. Her peppers and some of the tomatoes were in pots on her deck, so they escaped the deluge of rain that ruined the garden.

And she grew celery this year. She has never tried growing celery and is quite pleased that it seems to be doing well. She planted it in the tomato bed, which has better drainage than her garden, so it didn't drown. She may not be able to do much canning and preserving, but she can have salad!

Photo Finish Friday - Racing the Rideau

2011-08-26T07:59:00.000-06:00

Well, okay, hardly racing, but this picture is a little blurry because the Bag Lady took it from a moving vehicle.
She kinda likes the effect, though.

Have a great weekend.

Photo Finish Friday is the brainchild of Leah over at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Ottawa Visited

2011-08-15T08:25:00.001-06:00

In Ottawa, the Bag Lady stayed with her brother in his fabulous old house. The house was built in 1853, and has undergone many changes in its life. It started out as a single-family dwelling, but was eventually turned into a duplex.

The Bag Lady's brother has done many interesting things to it, and it is wonderfully decorated, with all manner of interesting and quirky things.

There's a little room just beyond the back entrance where he spends a good deal of time.....

And a beautiful built-in cupboard holding glass of all description:

Through the dining room to the living area....

And on to the front entrance hall:

Up the stairs to the second floor

past the library:

You come to the stairs to the third floor, where the guest room is located.

As you climb the stairs to the guest room, you pass the "memory cupboard":

Until you reach the cozy guest suite.

The memory cupboard contains, along with many other things, a photo of the Bag Lady's parents...... (her camera battery was dying, so the photo is blurry. Sigh.)

(Blogger liked the pictures so well, it uploaded 4 or 5 copies of each one, so the Bag Lady has spent a lot of time trying to fix this post!)

Photo Finish Friday - Dry Island Buffalo Jump

2011-08-12T11:05:00.004-06:00

Please click on it to enlarge the following picture for an explanation of the above picture!

Photo Finish Friday is the brainchild of Leah over at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Photo Finish Friday - Look Up, Waaaay Up

2011-08-05T06:54:00.002-06:00

(If you aren't Canadian, you may not get the reference to the Friendly Giant)

One of the many tall buildings in Chicago that block the sun (which, when it's 101F, is a good thing!)

Photo finish Friday is the brainchild of Leah, over at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Random Chicago

2011-08-02T07:20:00.002-06:00

Here are more pictures from the Bag Lady's trip. The Marilyn Monroe statue in Chicago.....

She found this store front fascinating - it is completely full of antique sewing machines! The Bag Lady didn't go inside, but she thinks it was a clothing store. (you may have to click on the photos to enlarge)...

There were thunderstorms a couple of nights during the Bag Lady's stay. One of the storms lasted well over two hours! She tried to take a picture of the storm, but it's blurry and doesn't really show the water cascading in sheets from the sky.

The day after the storm, the skies were clear and beautiful, and the Bag Lady took some pictures of the charming little lake at the resort where her conference was held.

There was a fountain....

And a family of ducks.

And the Bag Lady was surprised to see that the resort maintained a "kitchen garden", with onions and strawberries, etc, as well as this one....

The Bag Lady then traveled on to Ottawa to visit her brother. She will share some pictures of that part of her trip in another post.

Canadians Loose in Chicago!

2011-07-29T06:49:00.000-06:00

The Bag Lady has returned from her sojourn to the east. She went on a business trip to Lincolnshire, Illinois, which is a hop, skip and jump from Chicago, so naturally, she had to see the city!

Her first view of the city was out the ~~incredibly tiny~~ window of the airplane as it banked for the approach into O'Hare airport.

After landing and getting settled into her hotel, she made arrangements with a fellow conference attendee to travel into Chicago the following day.
Bright and early the next day (well, okay, 8:30 or so, which is not all that early as far as the Bag Lady is concerned, but....) she and her traveling companion made their way by taxi to the nearest train station.

After an hour or so on the train, they arrived at Union Station.

They made their way on foot across the canal...

And the ~~cowardly, chicken-hearted~~ Bag Lady remained with her feet planted firmly on the ground while her companion rode up to the (glass-floored!!) observation deck of the Willis Tower (previously the Sears Tower).

They then proceeded to stroll (at a rapid pace) to Michigan Avenue, known also as the Magnificent Mile. The Bag Lady snapped a few photos along the way, including this one of the Chicago Board of Trade building....

The woman the Bag Lady was traveling with (tagging along after?) had an agenda, and the next stop was the Art Institute of Chicago.

They spent a lovely hour perusing the art displayed therein (and enjoying the air conditioning) before they continued along the Magnificent Mile.

It was an incredibly hot day (101F, the hottest day of their visit), and the travelers stopped several times along the way to cool off in some of the shops they passed. But the Bag Lady's traveling companion had an agenda and was not to be deterred (American Girl - MUST have doll! Coach - MUST have purse! Another Coach outlet to pick up matching wallet! Must NOT stop and rest, or eat, or chat with the locals! Although the Bag Lady did insist on finding a souvenir shop in order to buy the Rancher a ball cap. She promised! And she is an equal-opportunity tourist - she bought him one of each from both the Cubs and the Sox.)

The Bag Lady was wearing an extremely comfortable pair of sandals, but still developed blisters on the soles of her feet! She and her companion ~~the Dragon Lady~~ finally reached their objective (well, the Bag Lady's objective - the only other thing she insisted upon seeing).........

The Drake Hotel!

From the Drake, they took a taxi back to Union Station and caught the train back to their hotel in plenty of time for the Bag Lady's traveling companion to attend a dinner that evening. (The Bag Lady, on the other hand, collapsed in her room with her feet on a bag of ice!)

Gone For Awhile

2011-07-20T06:16:00.000-06:00

The Bag Lady is going on a journey!

Look out Chicago......

Photo-Finish Friday - Firepit

2011-07-15T05:46:00.002-06:00

The weather continues to be cool and wet, and the Bag Lady fears it may be quite awhile yet before there will be any evenings of sitting around the fire roasting marshmallows!

CherylK, over at Lake Mary Musings recently posted a picture of the firepit they built using large rocks at her home, and the Bag Lady made a comment about using old gravel-crushing cones around here as firepits. Cheryl wasn't sure what gravel-crushing cones were, so here is a picture of one. (This is actually the firepit that the Bag Lady and her nephew built for her mother-in-law - the Bag Lady's own firepit is under even more water than this one!)

Photo-Finish Friday is the brainchild of Leah at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

A River Runs Through It.

2011-07-11T00:01:00.000-06:00

(Warning - long post ahead, with many pictures. Grab a coffee! Oh, and take a pee first, especially if the sight of water makes you want to make some water of your own....)

It's been raining in the Bag Lady's neck of the woods.

She and the Rancher knew they were under a heavy rainfall advisory, but on Thursday they decided to go camping for the night, regardless. They tucked their trailer into their customary camping spot and lit a little fire, roasted a wiener and enjoyed the company of a couple of friends. It rained for a few minutes, but it stopped and was quite a pleasant evening.

Sometime during the night, it started to rain.
And it rained. Hard.

When the Bag Lady got up in the morning, she looked outside and was a little surprised to see just how much it had rained. And just how much water had collected in the spot where a mere 6 or 7 hours earlier she had been enjoying a nice fire..... (click on any of the images to enlarge)

One of their friends arrived in time for breakfast, and it was decided that they had better pull out, mostly because it was still raining hard, and there was more water collecting in their campsite.
While the Bag Lady cleaned up after breakfast and stowed things away in the trailer, the Rancher, with the help of their friend, tore down camp.

It was touch and go, but the Rancher managed to coax the trailer out of ~~the hole they call~~ their campsite and they headed for home (where their rain gauge was registering 1 inch)

It continued to rain the entire weekend. The rivers rose and overflowed their banks. The Bag Lady went out to check cows yesterday morning (in the rain) and had to contend with this...

Fortunately, she was wearing these.....

Sadly, she thinks her garden is not going to produce much this year (why, oh why didn't she plant rice?)

They heard reports that the big river between their ranch and the nearest town was starting to overflow it's banks, so they went for a little drive.
The river apparently crested overnight, but it was still very high.... (it is usually on the other side of that little tree out in the water)

As were several other ordinarily small streams in the area. This is Bald Mountain Creek...

And this is Big Mountain Creek (or perhaps this is Bald Mountain Creek and the other one is Big Mountain Creek.....) Both of them were well over their banks, but if you look closely at the picture above, you can see that it had been much higher)
And this is where Big Mountain Creek and Bald Mountain Creek converge....

It is still raining. The rain gauge is reading 4 1/2 inches (over 3 days).
The drought this area has been experiencing for the last several years appears to be over.
Whew.

Random Photos

2011-07-04T00:01:00.001-06:00

The Bag Lady thought she would share some random photos she has taken around the ranch lately.

Peonies about to bloom in her flowerbed....

Here is a giant puffball growing in the pasture. Complete with a grasshopper. Almost everything in the pasture now comes complete with grasshoppers. This area is over-run with grasshoppers. Of a variety that no-one seems to recognize.

A poppy blooming in her flowerbed....

A little surprise the Rancher found in the bushes when he went to check cows! Momma cow thought she could hide her baby from everyone, but the Rancher found her...

Lastly, a baby Evening Grosbeak hanging out on the deck railing. He was eating sunflower seeds that had fallen from the feeder just above where he was perched. He kept craning his neck to look down at the ground. He finally hopped halfway down the railing going down by the stairs, then launched himself into a free-fall to the ground!

When the Bag Lady went out a few minutes later, he was gone, but he did come back for a few minutes the next morning, doing a much better job of flying!

Happy Canada Day!!

2011-07-01T06:03:00.000-06:00

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe long weekend!

Photo Finish Friday - Solstice

2011-06-24T00:01:00.000-06:00

This is the Bag Lady's favourite time of year. The days are long. Everything is growing.

She took this picture at 11:00 at night on the last day of spring.

She has been busy ~~drinking beer and goofing off~~ with many things recently and hasn't been paying as much attention to blogging as she should. But it's summer! She likes to be outside in the summer. It rained about 3 inches last week, which helped things grow. Especially the weeds. The Rancher ran the tiller between the rows of the garden to knock down a few weeds.... good thing, too, because it's supposed to rain some more!

Have a great weekend!

She blames Photo Finish Friday entirely on Leah over at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Photo Finish Friday - Rhubarb Pie

2011-06-17T00:01:00.000-06:00

The Bag Lady inherited this pie plate from her mother. The Bag Lady's father always teased that it was designed specifically for rhubarb - according to him, it saved time because there was no need to chop the rhubarb!

The Bag Lady was practically a teenager before she realized that most people use round pie plates. She was confused by round pie plates.... where were the special end pieces with the extra crust for the kids to fight over??

Rhubarb Pie Recipe

4 cups rhubarb, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 2/3 cups sugar
1/3 cup flour
dash salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg (optional)

1 prepared 2-crust pie

Mix rhubarb, sugar, flour, salt and nutmeg and let stand while preparing pie crust.
Add rhubarb mixture to pie crust, dot with butter, cover with top crust.
Bake in 400F oven for 40 minutes.

Photo Finish Friday is the brainchild of Leah, who blogs over at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Alberta's Provincial Flower

2011-06-13T05:19:00.004-06:00

It's that time of year again.

The wild roses are blooming!

(This picture is actually from last year - the Bag Lady is getting lazy in her old age and doesn't want to trudge outside to take a picture!)

Goodbye, Old Friend

2011-06-08T20:43:00.001-06:00

I'll miss you.

Driving Ms Bossy

2011-06-06T06:25:00.001-06:00

It's that time of year again.
Cattle-moving time.
The Rancher and the Bag Lady helped a neighbour move his cows from his winter feeding area to summer pasture. There were several trailer-loads, but it was a short trip. In fact, the neighbour had debated about driving the cattle (as opposed to trucking the cattle) but decided that the fellow with the freshly-seeded, un-fenced field along the way might not be too happy if the cows decided to visit that new growth.
With the help of a few friends and their stock trailers, the job took no time at all.
(click on any of the photos to enlarge)

Releasing the first load:

C'mon out girls...

The nearly empty corral...

Later in the afternoon, a little sun-shower to finish the day:

The Rancher and the Bag Lady will be moving their own cattle to summer pasture sometime in the near future as well. But not yet.

Poor Tree!

2011-06-04T07:25:00.002-06:00

This is how that lovely crabapple tree looked this morning! An unseasonal snowstorm went through yesterday and deposited a heavy load onto the poor tree.

With any luck, the temperatures will return to normal today and the tree will recover quickly.

Photo Finish Friday - Bumbling About

2011-06-03T07:37:00.001-06:00

This is the Bag Lady's ~~crapabble~~ crabapple tree. (Spellcheck doesn't like either of those words, by the way!)

If you look closely, you can see a bee or two - the whole tree was buzzing! (for all the good it does - there isn't another apple tree close by, so this one never produces any apples. It's all for show.)

Photo finish Friday is the brainchild of Leah, over at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

2011-05-30T06:29:00.000-06:00

Calving season is winding down around the ranch. There are a few more calves yet to be born, and the Bag Lady hopes the stragglers finish up soon.

This little heifer came along on the weekend...

It was a beautiful, warm, sunny evening and she was up and running around in no time.

The Bag Lady's garden is almost all planted, except for a few bedding plants she would like to add. She hopes to check out some greenhouses soon to find some plants that have already been started, and a few flowers to put in pots on her deck.

She and the Rancher planted 75 hills of potatoes, so with luck, they will at least have meat and potatoes to carry them through the winter!

Tale of a Tree

2011-05-25T07:53:00.001-06:00

Many years ago, the Bag Lady lived a different life in a different city.

She had a little house with a very big tree. She had not planted the tree, ~~if she had, it wouldn't have been so close to the house~~ but she loved it. It was a beautiful tree ~~if it hadn't been so close to the house~~ and it was very large.

When the Bag Lady lived in her little house with the very big tree in a different city long, long ago, she tried to keep the tree trimmed and under control. As time passed, the tree did what trees will do, and it grew and grew.

The Bag Lady eventually sold her little house in that different city because she had moved to the country, but she occasionally drives into that city, and one day she happened to have business in the neighbourhood where her little house was, so she drove past her little house just to see how her tree was faring.

Her tree was gone!

She carried on to her destination, pain in her heart, mourning the loss of her beautiful ~~roof wrecking~~ tree. She had always known that the tree would eventually have to be cut down, but she had hoped that ~~the current owners would just move their damned house away from her tree~~ it wouldn't happen for many years to come.

When she had finished her business in the neighbourhood, she drove back past her little house with the non-existent tree and saw that there was now a vehicle in the driveway. She also noticed that there were suckers growing around the stump of the once magnificent tree, so, on a whim, she stopped. She rang the doorbell of her little house (she doesn't care, it will always be her little house, even though, if she were carried into it unconscious and woke up, she wouldn't know she was in her little house because of the extensive and wonderful renovations they have done!) and asked the current owners if it would be alright if she took a couple of cuttings from the tree.

The current owners were very gracious and gave the Bag Lady a tour of the house to show her all the renovations ("You moved the basement stairs! I always wanted to do that".... "A bathroom in the basement? I wanted to do that, too!" .... "Oh.My.God!! I LOVE that you turned the garage into a family room. That was one of my dreams....") and even loaned her a pair of scissors to take her cuttings from the tree.

She sincerely hopes the cuttings will take root and that eventually she will have a beautiful tree in her yard in the country. In the middle of her yard, where the tree can grow and grow and spread out like nature intended!

Photo-Finish Friday - A Year Ago.....

2011-05-20T07:31:00.000-06:00

... this is what the Bag Lady was looking at!

She is happy to report that this long weekend, the weather is looking much better. The forecast is for some thunderstorms, perhaps, and maybe even some much-needed rain, but the temperature is supposed to remain in the low 20's, which suits the Bag Lady very well. She is hoping to get her garden in before it rains..... if it rains.

Have a great long weekend, all!

Generous Hearts

2011-05-17T08:07:00.005-06:00

The generosity of people never ceases to amaze the Bag Lady.

Some of you may have heard about the wild firestorm that hit the community of Slave Lake in Alberta, wiping out half the town this past Sunday.

Although not affected personally, the Bag Lady has been paying attention as events unfold (the Rancher has a nephew who lived in the little town, and he and his young son are safe, but probably homeless).

The Bag Lady ran across this blog this morning and is so proud of her fellow Albertans, she had tears in her eyes when she read that so many people have donated things, many of the collection sites are asking that people hold on for a few days until they can get what has already been donated sorted out! That overwhelming response was from a single day!

The Bag Lady hopes that it helps those displaced people to know that so many people are willing to help.

Photo Finish Friday - Find the Moose

2011-05-13T13:11:00.000-06:00

Well, Blogger seems to have had some trouble and my last post disappeared. Whatevah.

Here is a photo of a moose and her calf that the Bag Lady spied when she was out checking cows yesterday morning. The photo is not the best because the Bag Lady is fully aware of just how protective mama moose are when it comes to their calves (well that, and the fact that the moose were in the swamp on the other side of the dugout, so this was about as close as the Bag Lady could get without swimming.... and she is not a proficient swimmer!)
(You may want to click on the photo to enlarge - might be easier to spot them that way)

And, if you had trouble seeing them in that picture, this one might help. This is the mama alone.

Oh, wait..... she IS in that one, but even the Bag Lady has trouble seeing her (and she knows where to look!) Try this one....

Have a great weekend!
Photo Finish Friday is the brainchild of Leah, who blogs over at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Ranch News

2011-05-12T06:58:00.000-06:00

More babies have been born on the ranch (the Bag Lady may have missed posting a few pictures, but really, how many calves do you wanna look at?)

Remember the cow that abandoned her calf last year? This time around, she won't let anyone near her baby! Including the other calves. The Bag Lady had to sneak up on her to take this picture.

(Does anyone else think the white mark on that calf's head resembles a bird?)

This little guy is very vocal. He tells his mom when he's hungry, when she's moving too fast, when he's hungry, when he's tired..... when he's hungry!

The Bag Lady can hardly wait to start planting her garden. Her garden is the last place in the yard where the snow melts, so it's still on the wet side. The Rancher was going to disc it for her a few days ago, but it was too soft. Soon, she hopes.

Photo Finish Friday - Lost!

2011-05-06T06:25:00.004-06:00

This is a Steller's Jay.

(Honest, the Bag Lady knows the picture isn't very clear, but that's really what this bird is.)

He is not supposed to be in the Bag Lady's neighbourhood. According to the bird books, he is supposed to be somewhere in the mountains down around Waterton Lakes National Park. About 800 kms away.
It's been really, really windy lately.....

Helloooo??

2011-05-05T07:33:00.000-06:00

Hello? Is anyone there? (wow, it really echoes in here....)

The Bag Lady has been neglecting her blog out of sheer lack of having anything amusing, interesting or remotely intelligent to say! ~~playing Scorpion Solitaire on facebook destroys brain cells!~~

It's that time of year on the ranch when there isn't much going on. There's been a lull in calving, it's too wet and cool to do anything in the garden, and the Bag Lady is pretty sure you don't really want to hear ~~her lousy solitaire scores~~ about washing windows and chasing down and assassinating the enormous spiders that have suddenly tried invading her home! Well, okay, maybe not enormous.... but the Bag Lady doesn't like spiders, so any spider appears huge to her!

The snow is almost completely gone from her neighbourhood, except for a few piles in the shaded areas, and the large pile that the Rancher plowed off one spot out in the pasture as a feeding/calving area. The cows are sick to death of eating hay, so spend a good portion of every day standing over a blade of grass, waiting for it to grow high enough that they can chew it off. The calves are adorable, as always, running and jumping and discovering all kinds of ways to torment their mothers and amuse themselves with mock bull fights. It makes the Bag Lady smile every time she sees them put their tails high up over their backs and take off running at top speed, their poor mothers lumbering along behind, bawling their disapproval, bags swaying back and forth (hmmm.... sports bras for cows? Wonder how that would sell...)

If anything exceptional happens, the Bag Lady will be sure to let you know, if anyone ever comes back for a visit. In the meantime, if anyone is looking for her, a good place to try would be ~~facebook, wasting time~~ outside, weeding the flowerbed. (really)

Happy Easter/Spring Holiday

2011-04-24T07:54:00.003-06:00

So.
The Bag Lady thinks she has solved her issue with her blog.

She now has multiple multiple-personality syndrome. Blogger wouldn't let her change her email address ~~and was really quite rudely adamant about it all~~ so she made herself a second administrator. Or something.

As long as she is allowed to make comments on her own and other peoples' blogs, she's fine with having yet another (but still the same) personality.

In the meantime, she just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter!

Photo-Finish Friday - Another Girl!

2011-04-22T07:11:00.000-06:00

The Bag Lady is pleased to say there is another girl in the crowd. She was born late yesterday, and is very inquisitive. When the Bag Lady went down to the pasture to have a look, the hour-old calf came right up to her and checked her out. This is quite unusual. (And yes, that is a big pile of snow still hanging around. sigh)

Here is what she looked like up close and personal...

The Bag Lady is considering changing her blog. It is really annoying her that she has to switch back and forth between her two ~~personalities~~ accounts when she wants to make comments on blogs. She knows there has to be a way to remedy the situation and streamline the process, but she hasn't had time to figure out exactly how. Any suggestions?

Photo Finish Friday - Peach Upside Down Cake

2011-04-15T00:01:00.000-06:00

The Bag Lady decided to do a little baking yesterday.....

.... and the Rancher couldn't wait for her to take the picture before he took a taste!

More Cow Talk

2011-04-13T08:19:00.000-06:00

The Bag Lady knows she has been negligent in attending to her blog. It partly stems from the changes made when Google and Hotmail combined, and partly from how busy she has been with real life stuff!

It's calving season, so she spends more time outside, checking cows and calves. It's also spring, so she spends more time trying to keep the house clean and free of the mud and crap dragged in by the three critters who live in her house (to say nothing of the crap the humans drag in!).

And she is trying hard to earn a living ~~because there is still no money in raising cattle~~ by selling (fabulous, comfortable, stylish) clothes in a direct sales business.

Here are some reasons the Bag Lady is still raising cattle....

And finally, after 7 boys in a row (10 bull calves in total, in case anyone is keeping count), the 3rd girl.....

The Bag Lady and the Rancher spent the balance of yesterday trying to save a cow who had bloated on the feed they bought. The cow must have hit a pocket of rich alfalfa feed, and, because she is a small cow trying to raise a large calf, she ate too much. Unfortunately, cows cannot throw up, so the gas built up and built up until she was almost to the bursting point. The Bag Lady and the Rancher had to take her into town to a veterinarian. Bloat can kill a cow if unattended. The Bag Lady is not sure you want a blow-by-blow description of the steps involved to save the cow's life, but suffice it to say it isn't something you would want done to you!

The Bag Lady checked the cow this morning and she seems to be doing much better, which makes the Bag Lady very happy, and Hayseus even happier!

Photo Finish Friday - Sparkly

2011-04-08T07:47:00.002-06:00

The Bag Lady thought the sunrise sparkling through her ~~horrendously dirty~~ window onto her ~~incredibly messy~~ collection of vases looked kinda pretty this morning.

Calving season is half over. The Bag Lady has her fingers crossed that the second half goes as well as the first half did. (knock on wood)

Superstitious? Who? The Bag Lady? Don't be ridiculous.

Photo Finish Friday is the brainchild of Leah, over at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Weekend Additions

2011-04-04T00:01:00.001-06:00

It was a productive weekend on the ranch. Saturday morning, the Bag Lady went out to check cows and discovered this fellow had arrived:

And so had this one:

Sunday brought this little guy..... the Bag Lady can't resist calling him Moonie because of the white half-moon spot beside his nostril.

Sunday was a bright, sunny day, so the Bag Lady and the Rancher took a little stroll along the path the Rancher had plowed for the cows to get to the waterer.

And this little guy found a puddle to paddle in. (You may have to click on it to enlarge to actually be able to see the duck!) The ducks and geese are returning, but they aren't finding much open water.

Hopefully the weather will warm up soon for all the creatures (including humans!)

Hello, World!

2011-04-01T11:38:00.002-06:00

The newest arrival (as of yesterday) on the ranch.

And the second youngest, seconds before she bounced high into the air and took off running. (Unfortunately, the Bag Lady was unable to catch her in action!)

Spring is definitely trying to gain a foothold at the ranch, and the Bag Lady has her fingers crossed that the worst is over, especially now that calving season is in full swing.

Have a great weekend!

And Then There Were Two

2011-03-31T00:01:00.000-06:00

The Bag Lady and the Rancher had to go out of town the other day because the Rancher had a medical appointment.
Before they left, the Bag Lady went out to check cows in the morning just as this calf arrived....

He was quite a large calf, and even though he got up right away and seemed strong enough, he hadn't had a drink of milk before the Rancher and the Bag Lady had to leave for their 7-hour drive.

The Rancher was worried enough about the calf that he finally called his brother and asked him to go out to the ranch to check on him. A little while later, the Rancher's brother called back and asked exactly which calf he was supposed to be checking up on because both of the calves he could see were fine..... Apparently, another cow had calved in the interim.

Here is what greeted the Rancher and the Bag Lady upon their return:

The big guy seems quite happy...

And so does the newest addition!

She's about half the size of the first guy, but that's okay. She's alive and thriving and that's the important part.
Hopefully, calving season will be finished by the time of the Rancher's next out of town appointment at the end of next month!

Photo-Finish Friday - Newbie

2011-03-25T07:49:00.002-06:00

Between calving season, running around the country for medical appointments (for the Rancher) and birthday parties, the Bag Lady has been quite busy.

Here is the newest addition to the herd, just moments after she was born.

Have a great weekend!

Calves and Cream

2011-03-22T07:13:00.000-06:00

The Bag Lady has been having a fairly busy time. Calving season has started at the ranch, and it's tax season, too!

She zipped to Edmonton on the weekend to attend a birthday party for her uncle. He turned 90 on St Patrick's Day. It was a lovely party, and she enjoyed seeing some of her cousins and relatives that she hadn't seen for ages.

The ranch is still deep in the grasp of winter, regardless of whether the calendar says it's spring. In fact, it snowed again on the weekend (which made her drive home verrrrrrry interesting) and dumped another 6 inches or so on the ranch. She finally broke down and used the snow for something good.....

Irish Cream Snow Cone! Tasted like ice cream. Fresh snow with Irish Cream Whiskey ~~drowning it~~ drizzled over it. Very tasty.

Here is the newest addition to the ranch....

He was quite boisterous and didn't want to stand still to have his picture taken, so out of the 4 pictures the Bag Lady took, this was the best.
Oh, except for when he was trying to decide if the Bag Lady was friend or foe, and stopped long enough to peek through the boards of the stall.....

The Bag Lady is off and running for another busy week. What's happening with you?

Looking Forward

2011-03-14T07:37:00.002-06:00

This is how the Bag Lady's garden looks right now.

See those handles sticking up out of the snow?

That snow is approximately three feet deep.
It will be a little while until the Bag Lady's garden looks like this again...

But when it does, all that snow should soak in and provide some moisture!

She can hardly wait!

Snowceans Eleven

2011-03-07T06:28:00.003-07:00

The other day the Bag Lady went to the hay-yard to get a bale to feed to her cows. She had known for some time that the security of the hay-yard had been compromised, and had also known exactly who and how the thieves had been accessing the yard.
Yes, the signs were clear, the evidence irrefutable. The only thing she hadn't known was the number of illegal aliens breaching the defenses.....

It's been a long, cold, snowy winter. A winter that makes it hard to find enough to eat through such a lot of snow, if you're a deer.
Unless, of course, you can find a way to sneak into a haystack.... bringing the entire herd with you!

The Bag Lady rounded them all up....

And herded them toward the gate....

Where they made their way to the open fields...

The Bag Lady is sure all eleven of them will return as soon as her back is turned, crawling under the gate to get to yet another easy meal.

Photo-Finish Friday - Winter

2011-03-04T06:19:00.002-07:00

The Bag Lady wanted to show you a comparison between last year at this time and this year. Now that Blogger has finally allowed her to upload the pictures, she realizes they don't really appear all that different.... they both look wintery!

It's winter. That's probably why.

And there doesn't really appear to be an end in sight for quite a long time yet.

Winner!

2011-02-25T06:43:00.002-07:00

Some time ago, Hilary, over at the Smitten Image, held a giveaway on her blog. The Bag Lady earned a chance to enter simply by making a comment.
Imagine the Bag Lady's surprise when she received an email from Hilary telling her that she had won a gift certificate from CSN stores!
The Bag Lady spent much time browsing through the enormous variety of things available on the CSN website. She finally settled on this:

Thank you, Hilary, for holding the giveaway, and thanks to CSN stores for supplying the gift certificate!

Crap.

2011-02-24T06:06:00.003-07:00

(oops. The Bag Lady wasn't done complaining in this post, but hit some wrong key and it published itself!)

The Bag Lady hasn't had much to share with you lately. She's been peeking in here and there, but since Hotmail and Google joined forces, it has created a bit of an identity crisis for her. She blogs in her Hotmail account but does business in her Google account, so invariably she is in the wrong account when she takes a few minutes to visit blogs. Consequently, she doesn't leave comments because no-one would know who she was. She's sure there's probably a way to fix this problem, but hasn't taken the time to investigate thoroughly. She admits she is a little miffed about this situation because it has complicated her life rather than simplifying it. But she finds that is the case with most "improvements" in the world.

Take laundry detergent. "New and Improved!" generally means your clothes are not going to come as clean as they once did. "Phosphate-free" guarantees they won't! The Bag Lady knows that phosphates are public enemy number one, but they certainly helped get grease stains out of clothes. Sadly, they were apparently destroying the environment, so they had to go.

Eye make-up remover is another thing that has annoyed her lately. The Bag Lady doesn't wear a lot of make-up (you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear, as her mother used to say) but she does wear mascara most of the time. She has stubby little light-coloured eyelashes, and without mascara, she looks ...... scary. She has to wear water-proof mascara because that's the only kind that doesn't end up floating down her face to her chin by days end. For years, she used an eye make-up remover that worked wonders - took the mascara off, was gentle and didn't leave a greasy residue to gum up her contact lenses. She can't find that brand anymore, and has been experimenting with all the "new" and "improved" brands. Sigh. Not one of them will take the mascara off, and at least one of them was so oily, she had to use industrial-strength (but phosphate-free) cleanser to remove the oily residue!

Photo-Finish Friday -Freebies!

2011-02-18T05:26:00.000-07:00

The Bag Lady participated in a trade show last evening. It was bitterly cold, so the attendance was low, but it was fun regardless. She entered her name in a draw at one of the booths, and was pleasantly surprised when she won! She is absolutely positive that a lighted cocktail glass will come in extremely handy some night. It has three settings - constant, pulsating and disco! She can hardly wait for the weather to warm up and the snow to melt so she can party 'round the campfire. She will, of course, also serve guacamole dip, made with her other free prize!

Photo-Finish Friday is the brainchild of Leah, at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Greeter

2011-02-15T00:01:00.002-07:00

The Rancher and the Bag Lady took some steers to the abattoir yesterday. They were surprised at the lack of snow on the fields in the area, which is roughly an hour's drive north from the ranch. It was almost as though spring had arrived in that part of the country.

This was the parking lot at the meat shop.

This was the field across the road.

This was the official greeter at the door!

You see the pile of snow beside the table? That is what the Bag Lady's entire yard looks like! But that was practically the only snow around the meat shop, and it was just piled up there from being shovelled off the walk!

It has been mild in the Bag Lady's area, too, but definitely not to the same extent. And the forecast is for nasty weather today - the Bag Lady is afraid to look outside, because the weather was changing last night, with a cold wind blowing, and she is determinedly doing the "ostrich". ("If I can't see it, it isn't there!")

Photo Finish Friday - 6 Months Ago

2011-02-11T05:55:00.002-07:00

This is what the Bag Lady was taking pictures of 6 months ago....

A sight for snow-weary eyes.

Photo Finish Friday is the brainchild of Leah, over at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Hooking?

2011-02-07T00:01:00.001-07:00

The Bag Lady has a project.

She has actually had this project on the go for many years, but she got distracted from it's completion ~~by tucking it away in a closet and promptly forgetting about it for 3 or 4 years~~ and only recently started working on it again.
Of course, her decorating scheme has changed in the years since she started, but, at the rate she's going, by the time she actually finishes the rug, she may very well have come full circle with her colour scheme!

Is anyone else out there crazy about rug hooking (or crazy enough to try hooking a 4 ft x 5 ft rug)?

Photo-Finish Friday - Foot

2011-02-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

Mary Anne over at Living with the Sun has been on a bit of a "kick", sharing feet, which inspired the Bag Lady to share a foot of her own.

These are the Bag Lady's absolutely most favourite shoes in the world, that she purchased many, many years ago ~~when the world was still thought to be flat~~ on a trip to Europe.

Mary Anne's take on feet is slightly different - go have a look!

(Photo Finish Friday is the brainchild of Leah, over at the Goat's Lunch Pail, who just returned from a vacation in Egypt and has a few things to say about that!)

Too Obscure?

2011-01-31T00:01:00.001-07:00

(edited to add link ....)

Waiting for Goodoats......

Photo Finish Friday - What a Difference.....

2011-01-28T11:53:00.003-07:00

.... a week makes!

Remember this (from last Friday?):

The Bag Lady took this picture yesterday:

The weather warmed up and it was very mild all week. (Of course, it is snowing gangbusters even as the Bag Lady types, so it looks very different outside yet again!)

She also took these pictures yesterday. A mini-glacier, slowly inching it's way off the roof of her woodshed!

Here's a closer view. Doesn't it look interesting? The Bag Lady is intrigued by the way it has sagged in the middle, like when the comforter slides off the end of the bed.
(What do you mean, that never happens in your house? She thought it happened to everyone!)

She wonders how long it will remain in this position, now that the weather has turned cold again!
~~She also wonders if she should post warning signs so some darned fool on a snowmobile doesn't try to climb the mountain, triggering an avalanche....~~

I Have Come to the Conclusion.....

2011-01-24T21:45:00.004-07:00

.... that I need to find tall friends. Really tall. So that I have to keep my head tipped back at all times.

How, you might be wondering, did I discover this fact? Well, I decided to pluck my eyebrows today. I have one of those little lighted makeup mirrors (older than dirt) that you set on a table and plug in. It has a magnifying side. As I was leaning forward, studying my rather sparse eyebrows, I noticed the jowls around my mouth were looking very pronounced. Using both hands, I pulled the skin back toward my ears. This resulted in the disappearance of the jowls, but gave me a slash mouth straight out of a horror movie (Attack of the Killer Scarecrow?) So, I lifted the mirror above my head and tilted my head back (fortunately, there is a back on my chair, 'cause I had to tilt back quite a distance!) This gave me the desired result, but sadly means I have to drop all of my short friends. Sigh. One of the problems with being at the taller end of the scale is that most of my friends are shorter than I. Perhaps I should start hanging around with basketball players. It also ruins the chances of ever being "on top" again - at least, with the lights on! If I had known this would happen, I would have enjoyed that position more frequently in my un-jowled youth, let me assure you!

Must go finish my facial. I had planned on using one of those peel-off facial masks until I remembered the last time I did that..... when it came time to peel it off, all that loose facial skin refused to let go, resulting in a look that resembled reverse G-force 3. I swear, if the damned peel-off stuff wasn't blue, I would have just left it, shiny or not.

Oh, and I'd appreciate any hints on getting rid of massive quantities of fine, blonde, baby-hair sideburns that are creeping ever closer to my mouth. (My experience with the peel-off mask has left me rather wary of waxing....) I am sure the plan is for the mutton chops to meet up with the Fu Manchu that has recently sprouted!

One of the blessings of failing eyesight is that one cannot see what all the younger, sharp-eyed folk can see - the evidence that, as we age, we slowly become androgenous. Of course, with men, the hair-creep occurs from their heads down onto their ears, shoulders and backs, making it's way to meet up with the stuff on their butts (turning their heads into shiny bald butts, and their asses into a veritable forest, albeit a gray, slightly curly one. Upside down babies.)

Please don't think I won't miss all you short people, because I will, but in the interests of vanity, I'm afraid you simply have to be replaced.... at least until the inevitable shrinkage stoops all of us to the same height, and we are all peering through our cataract-clouded eyes, wondering whether that's Mr or Mrs Jones hobbling up to us.

Photo Finish Friday - Abandoned

2011-01-21T06:09:00.000-07:00

This is what the Bag Lady used to use to feed cows. She now uses the Rancher's new tractor, so her trusty old loader sits abandoned and snow-covered. This is how much snow fell in the recent storm in the Bag Lady's region.

(Just visible in the bottom of the photo is the bucket for the new tractor. It has a fancy easy-on gadget that makes switching from the bale fork to the bucket a cinch. The Bag Lady is now also able to plow snow off her driveway! The bale fork on the loader in the picture weighed about a ton and was tightly bolted onto the bucket, making it impossible for the Bag Lady to plow snow.)

Heavy Snowfall Warning in Effect

2011-01-17T06:51:00.003-07:00

Also seems to be having an effect on the ability of the satellite signal to penetrate the heavy cloud cover.
Can anyone see the picture, 'cause the Bag Lady can't, even though Blogger assures her it's there.
Sigh.

EDITED TO ADD:

The resolution isn't very good on this first picture, but the Bag Lady forgot to try to fix it.

As of approximately noon, the snow has finally stopped falling, and this is how much accumulated on the back of the Bag Lady's truck over the weekend.

This was plowed out yesterday!

Photo Finish Friday - Sunrise

2011-01-14T05:58:00.003-07:00

One ~~the only?~~ good thing about winter is the glorious sunrises.....

(this was taken awhile back, but the Bag Lady didn't get around to posting it.)

Photo Finish Friday is the brainchild of Leah at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Coping with Cold

2011-01-10T08:33:00.000-07:00

It's cold in the Bag Lady's neighbourhood. Oh, not cold enough to make brass monkeys cross their legs, but cold. The kind of cold that makes you shiver before you go outside. The kind of cold that makes you put on an extra pair of socks. Long-john weather.

This Arctic system rolled down in the wake of a heavy snowfall, which is not at all uncommon. Most of our warm weather comes across the mountains to the west, pushing warm, moist air. What was rain on the coast turns to snow when it meets the cold air here. Eventually the cold air from the north wins and pushes the snow out of the way, freezing everything in it's path.

All of which brings the Bag Lady to the point. (of this post, not the point of despair, although sometimes that happens, too! Especially when it remains cold for weeks and weeks.....)
....err, the point of this post... the point of this post... quick, think of a point, stop wasting these people's time!

Coping skills. That's it! How do you cope with bad weather? The Bag Lady tends to hunker down in the warmth of her house ~~sitting at her computer, playing solitaire for hours, moving very little~~ and attempts to find engrossing tasks to keep her occupied. She will clean closets, re-organize kitchen cupboards, do some kind of craft, read many, many books, or bake and cook. Baking and cooking serves two purposes - the heat of the oven helps warm the house, and the results are usually comforting.

Yesterday, she did a variety of things. She read a terrific, engrossing book ("Alex Cross's Trial" by James Patterson & Richard Dilallo) and cooked. She made cookies to put in the Rancher's lunches, and dessert for supper (a mixed fruit crisp with an oatmeal topping) and she cooked a Prime Rib roast. She also made Yorkshire Pudding and was very pleased that they rose to previously unheard of heights! She remembered to take a picture (after she started eating, ahem) but the angle she used doesn't show the Yorkshire pudding to the best advantage (she was trying to hide the fact that she'd already eaten part of one)

She was so excited about the pudding turning out so well, she forgot to cook another vegetable! (Which was just as well, because she couldn't eat even half of the baked potato on her plate)
And she needs to explain that she cooked the Prime Rib roast, which is ordinarily something she reserves for company, because it is rapidly coming up on time to take another load of beef-on-the-hoof to the abattoir to become frozen beef-wrapped-in-brown-paper, and she needs to make room in her deep freeze.

I Can Haz Box? Photo Finish Friday

2011-01-07T06:24:00.002-07:00

The Bag Lady's old cat spent a very long time sitting in this box. He may have been waiting for someone to remove the boots so he could lie down......

Photo Finish Friday is the brain child of Leah, at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Health Philosophies, Bag Lady Style

2011-01-03T10:21:00.002-07:00

The Bag Lady just read an online news article about a poll that reveals Canadians are deluded about how healthy we are. The article itself made the Bag Lady a little sad (she knows full well that she is overweight and not exactly healthy) but the comment section distressed her even more! So many of the commenters were busy making excuses, or comparing us to Europeans or Americans, or were complaining that the article was outdated/incorrect/something else; they seemingly ignored the whole point. We in the Western World (generalizing, of course) are unhealthy, and most of it can be blamed on over-consumption and inactivity.
The Bag Lady, naturally, has her own opinions on the reasons for the obesity epidemic, and has a myriad of solutions. Wanna hear them? Of course you do!

1. Stop making excuses.
2. Get off your ass.
3. Stop eating fast food, or those frozen things from the supermarket that contain not one ounce of real food, but are "only 275 calories!" Stop with the artificial stuff. Soda pop, artificial flavouring, sugar substitutes (reduce your sugar consumption, by all means, but if you have to sweeten something, use real stuff - not chemicals. You get enough of those in the "fresh" produce and other products you buy!) And reduce your sodium intake while you're at it.
4. Get off your ass.
5. Eat simple, nutritious food, prepared with your own loving hands in your own kitchen. (and NO, it's not more expensive than a burger at McD's - and doesn't take any longer than it does sitting in the drive-thru, choking on the exhaust fumes of the 4 gazillion other people who had the same idea at the same time!)
6. Include a variety of things - fresh veggies, lean meat, whole grains. It doesn't have to be fancy to taste good and be nutritious.
7. Get off your ass. And get your children off theirs, too.
8. Try growing a garden. Even if you live in an apartment, you can grow simple veggies in a pot in front of a sunny window, or on your balcony. There are even urban gardens where you can rent a plot. At the very least, check out the farmer's markets.
9. Yeah, the Bag Lady lives in the frozen north, too - that's not an excuse.
10. Get off your ass.

Now, the Bag Lady also feels that people need to slow down a little, get more connected to the earth and take the time to educate themselves on where their food is actually coming from. She feels great pity for people who live in highly congested cities (which are jungles of concrete with no greenery and all traces of nature erased - in her imagination, of course, since she has never actually been in a really, really large city like New York, or Chicago, or any of those huge American cities..... although she has been in London, England, which qualifies as a really, really large city, doesn't it? But there was greenery there, so she is mostly ~~talking~~ typing just to ~~hear~~ see it herself and is probably pissing off a whole bunch of people who live in those big cities....) and don't get to connect with nature. (if you take out all the digressing in the parentheses, that sentence actually does make sense.)

Move more. You don't have to join a gym, or buy fancy equipment. Seriously, get off your ass, climb up on a stool and clean those damned light fixtures (err, yeah, the Bag Lady is talking to herself, what of it?) or on your hands and knees and scrub the floor. Take a walk, jog around the living room, do some stretching. Get moving. The more you move, the more you'll be able to move and the more you will want to move. The first step is often the hardest - after that, it gets easier. Sorta.

(This post has been brought to you by the Bag Lady's conscience and her unverbalized resolution to be healthier this year. Regular irregular posting will resume..... eventually.)

Photo Finish Friday - New Year's Eve

2010-12-31T08:44:00.002-07:00

Looking ahead to the new year....

... or waiting for the party to start!

Happy New Year, everyone.

Photo Finish Friday is the brain child of Leah, over at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Calf Update

2010-12-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

Hayseus is doing very well. He spent a couple nights in the barn as a precaution, but is now outside in the fresh air.

Oh, Holy.......

2010-12-24T21:46:00.004-07:00

......calf?

Meet Hayseus, our little Christmas surprise!

Imagine his surprise when the Rancher happened to spot one of the heifers lying in the snow, apparently in the midst of calving! He managed to sneak up on her and give her a little assistance, and she is now the proud mama of a handsome young calf. The first-time mom is quite protective of her calf, and will probably make a good mother, as long as she will stop licking him long enough to let him get a drink!
The Rancher gave him a little jump-start, and hopefully he will survive and thrive. It is cold here, and the poor little guy may lose the tips of his ears and tail, so send warm thoughts this way to help the weather smarten up, 'kay?
(Calving season isn't supposed to start around here until the middle of March. Someone must not have told this heifer.)
Merry Christmas!

Photo Finish Friday - Christmas Eve

2010-12-24T00:01:00.002-07:00

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Feliz Navidad, God Yul, Happy Solstice, Happy Festivus!!

Whatever your flavour, all the best of the season to you!

Recipes!

2010-12-21T17:10:00.003-07:00

So.
The Bag Lady is trying to get into the spirit of the season.
She thought that perhaps she needed to do some cooking to spark her Christmas spirit. She has baked Shortbread cookies (they're all gone already..... must make more) and made a batch of chocolates, which have also all disappeared ~~perhaps she started too soon?~~

So she is going to do some marathon baking tomorrow..... shortbread, chocolates, butter tarts (which means making pastry using homemade lard!) and perhaps some snacky things like Spicy Ritz Bitz. She loves these. They are easy and delicious, and disappear like magic!
In the spirit of the season, she is going to share a couple recipes with you. Don't even TRY to count the calories in the chocolates. Really.

Spicy Ritz Bitz

2/3 C olive oil
1/2 tsp dill weed
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp lemon pepper
1 full pkg Uncle Dan's Original South Salad Dressing
1 box Ritz Bits mini crackers

Combine all ingredients, spread on cookie sheet and bake at 300F for 15 minutes.

Butterscotch Peanut Butter Chocolates

Melt together 1 pkg each of
Chocolate chips
butterscotch chips
peanut butter chips
Add
2 cups crushed potato chips (I know, I know, a health food blog this is not!)
Press into mini candy cups (the little foil or paper ones that look like muffin cups)
OR
drop by teaspoon onto wax paper.
Allow to cool (if you can wait that long)

Hoover Deer (edited)

2010-12-20T00:01:00.001-07:00

The Bag Lady is having a terrible time getting into the spirit of Christmas this year! She hasn't put up a tree yet, and has only had the odd twinge of desire to do so. It seems like a lot of bother. Grinchy Baggie.

She did try to take some pictures of her outdoor Christmas lights, but they are blurry and out of focus. Sigh. These are the only ones that aren't too bad, but they aren't very good, either....

She was in her kitchen last night and something moved outside her kitchen window. It startled her, because she knew her dog and cats were all sleeping in the living room. She looked out the window and saw a deer eating birdseed off her deck! The woodpeckers that frequent her bird feeder occasionally go a little berserk and fling birdseed out of the feeder like they ~~paid for it themselves~~ are trying to find the only good one in the bunch! The deer was doing the Bag Lady a favour by cleaning up the mess the woodpecker made. She was hoovering up those sunflower seeds like she was starving.
(edited to add some really poor photos)

This was taken last night.....

She came back this morning with her young'un:

"If I could figure out how to reach that........"

"Uh oh..... busted!"

"I can see you..... can you see us?"

Photo Finish Friday - Bison

2010-12-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

The weather in the Bag Lady's neck of the woods has been decidedly wintery lately, which has made her pine for the long, warm days of summer. She searched through her photos and realized that she hadn't shared this picture with you.

She and the Rancher took a drive one balmy evening last summer, and spied this herd of buffalo, complete with suckling calves.

The Bag Lady feels better just looking at the greenery and sunshine in this picture!

Ode to Old

2010-12-15T22:46:00.004-07:00

Fifty three:

the odd pain in the knee
....
constantly feeling the need to pee
(especially when I laugh or sneeze!)
......
but I can clearly see
---
the alternative, I'd rather not be.

So, okay, the Bag Lady is not much of a poet, but she did survive another birthday.

Edited to add: Thanks, Hilary, for this:

Glad my terrible poetry made you smile!

Visiting Venison

2010-12-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

The Bag Lady looked out the other day and saw she had some visitors in her yard!

She grabbed the camera and took some pictures through the glass (they were so close to her step that she didn't want to spook them by opening the door!)

They snacked on some birdseed that had fallen by the deck, then continued on their way. Fortunately, the Princess was sound asleep and not on guard duty at the time, or the Bag Lady wouldn't have been able to get even these poor quality pictures. There are actually three deer in the pictures, but one of them apparently wasn't interested in birdseed. If you enlarge the second picture, you can see him near the spruce tree in the right rear of the photo.

Fer Cryin' Out Loud

2010-12-09T09:34:00.001-07:00

This is not ordinarily a "political" blog. The Bag Lady usually prefers to ~~keep her head planted firmly in the sand~~ leave politics to people who know more than she does about such things. Occasionally, though, something so ridiculous or idiotic happens that she simply cannot let it pass without some comment. Such a thing happened the other day while the Bag Lady had half an ear open to the television news while she was doing something else.

By now you are all, no doubt, aware of Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks. The Bag Lady has not been paying a huge amount of attention to exactly what his 'leaks' consist of, but she tends to think that a little light shining on some of these documents is not a bad thing at all.

On Nov 29th, Calgary professor (and former advisor to Prime Minister Harper) Tom Flanagan made a tongue-in-cheek comment in an interview on CBC regarding Assange. He said, “I think Assange should be assassinated, actually. I think Obama should put out a contract or maybe use a drone or something.” The Bag Lady heard this statement and dismissed it as a slightly tasteless joke.

Imagine her surprise the other night while listening to the news to hear that Mr. Flanagan was being investigated for "counselling murder"! It was a freakin' joke, people! Tactless, yes. Indictable? C'mon.
The University of Calgary has since determined that Professor Flanagan was expressing a personal opinion and will not be sanctioned.

What bothers the ~~simpleton~~ Bag Lady about this is the fact that it is indicative of a greater problem with society. No-one is allowed to honestly express themselves in public. We all have to be so careful of what we say or how we say it because we may possibly offend someone (or incite an unbalanced person to act on our words). It seems to the Bag Lady that it was a huge waste of resources to investigate Professor Flanagan. She wonders how many people dug into his past and scrutinized his actions, trying to determine if he was a terrorist inciting action. How many humourless people analyzed his words, his body language and his intentions before they came to the conclusion that he just might have blurted out something ridiculous in an unguarded moment.
And how many of us have done something similar? Granted, not on national television, but the Bag Lady is willing to bet that every one of us has said something without thinking.
The Bag Lady is actually quite famous for speaking without thinking. Ahem.

She hopes she can sneak this blog post under the radar of the thought police..... 'cause really, they shouldn't waste a precious second of their time investigating something as negligible as the Bag Lady's thoughts!

Monday Snorefest

2010-12-06T00:01:00.001-07:00

Let's face it, the Bag Lady has been boring lately. She hasn't been blogging much because she hasn't been doing much worth blogging about! She hasn't had anything make her angry enough to rant about (which is too bad - she loves a good rant now and again) and she hasn't won any lotteries, or gone on any fabulous vacations. She hasn't seen anything hysterically funny or even mildly amusing to share with you.

She had a virus or something on the weekend and was feeling poorly enough to spend a day lying on the couch, reading. (That's her excuse and she's sticking to it!) Her computer has been causing her some grief lately - taking forever to load almost every page she wants to look at. Has anyone else been experiencing problems with Google, or is it really just her computer? (Can a computer catch a virus from a human?)

The Rancher went back to work last week and has been working night shift, so the Bag Lady has been spending her days trying to be quiet, and doing her housework in the evenings after he goes to work. She doesn't like the disruption to her routine, but that's the way the mud flops (as the Rancher would so eloquently say).

She has been thinking about decorating for Christmas. She and the Rancher will be going elsewhere for Christmas; and with the Rancher on night shift, they probably won't be doing much in the way of entertaining, so she is thinking ~~lazily~~ seriously about doing a minimum of decorating this year.

The weather has been wintery, but not extreme. There have been some gorgeous sunrises lately, and the Bag Lady has a photo or two, but with her computer behaving the way it's been behaving, she wasn't patient enough to wait for a picture to load in this post. With any luck, the computer will sort itself out soon and she can share a picture with you.

Photo Finish Friday

2010-12-03T00:01:00.001-07:00

As the Bag Lady pulled out of her driveway on her way to work earlier this week, she was pleased to spy a small herd of deer in the neighbouring hayfield.

Movin' On

2010-11-29T06:29:00.000-07:00

The Bag Lady has been having trouble with her internet connection. It has been quite spotty over the past month or so, and she has called her internet provider several times. Sometimes she has actually even managed to speak to someone, rather than just listen to a recording.

The second-to-last time she spoke to someone, she was told they would send a repairman out, but he did not materialize. She was forced to call again on Friday, and spoke to a different person. This one talked to her at length and asked for a description of what was happening. He diagnosed the problem as a faulty radio receiver and assured her that there would be a repairman in her area on Tuesday. Of course, Tuesday is the one and only day she is not at home, but she sincerely hopes that this time around, someone does show up and replace the receiver, because it is extremely frustrating to not be able to access the internet when she needs to!

It has been a very busy time for Baggie lately. She had a table at the Christmas craft sale in her little community on the weekend, so worked there on Friday and Saturday. Then she spent Sunday helping to move her mother-in-law into town to a brand-new apartment in a senior's complex. Her mother-in-law was hesitant about the move, but decided that she would give it a try, at least for the winter. She can always move back out to the farm when the weather warms up, but in the winter, when it's bitterly cold or blizzarding, she thought it might be nice to just be able to go down the hall to the common area and visit with someone rather than having to bundle up, warm up the car and drive somewhere on nasty roads. There are several people living in the complex who are friends or acquaintances of hers; after all, she has lived her entire 82 years in this area, but it was a difficult decision to leave the place she has called home for 61 of those years! The Bag Lady is sure that her mother-in-law will be back out at the farm occasionally, bringing things back that she has decided she doesn't need in town, and searching for things that were forgotten or misplaced, like the remote control for the television that the Bag Lady knows she placed in mother's purse, but appears to have jumped out somewhere along the way!

Winter Pursuits

2010-11-22T00:01:00.001-07:00

The Bag Lady has been playing around with her blog template. She keeps changing her mind about what she wants to use for the background picture (there are so many to choose from!) She tried a winter picture, but it made her want to put a sweater on. Then she tried one with barbed wire, but it made her want to put a bandage on..... ouch! And the picture with rain drops made her want to wipe the screen.

She didn't think a picture of jelly beans really represented her life, and neither did a picture of the Eiffel Tower. She finally settled on barn boards. At least, that's what they look like to her! She couldn't ~~figure out how to change~~ bear to part with the blog header picture, though.

Don't be surprised if she changes it again some day. But don't hold your breath waiting for it to change - she will probably forget all about it. That age-related attention deficit disorder thing again.

In case you were wondering, it's still darned cold at her house, so she's been spending an awful lot of time indoors, ~~playing games on facebook~~ indulging in intellectual pursuits, and cleaning out closets. She and the Rancher spent a portion of the weekend cutting and stacking firewood. The cats have shown their appreciation for all that hard work by sprawling as close to the woodstove as they can get.

If you've suffered through this incredibly boring blog post and made it this far, reward yourself by slipping over to visit the Bag Lady's cousin, Leah, at the Goat's Lunch Pail, and wish her a happy birthday!

Hobby Yarn

2010-11-17T13:10:00.003-07:00

Well, winter has arrived at the ranch. There is a mini-blizzard raging outside and the wood-stove blazing away inside. The Bag Lady thought about going to town today.... for about 10 seconds. There is nothing pressing enough to force her into the cold. She has dragged out some yarn and is knitting a scarf. She is not a very good knitter, but she loves the process, so she has a lot of scarves. Funny thing is, though, she rarely ever wears a scarf. Sigh.

She also knits ~~funny looking, misshapen~~ dishcloths. She uses lovely multi-coloured cotton yarn for her dishcloths. Then, when it comes time to launder them, her brain goes into germ panic and she bleaches them, which ruins the lovely colours, so all of the Bag Lady's knitted, misshapen dishcloths are the same colour.

Beige.
~~At least they all match.~~

The Bag Lady's mother was an expert knitter, and the Bag Lady has fond memories of her mother, sitting in her recliner, knitting and watching baseball. The Bag Lady's mother was not a big baseball fan (actually, the Bag Lady suspects her mother just liked watching all those handsome men running around... ahem), but she could knit up a storm while watching television and never drop a stitch. The Bag Lady, on the other hand, can listen to the TV while she concentrates really hard on finding the stitches she dropped when she actually dared take her eyes off what she was doing in order to peer, blurry-eyed, at the action on the screen for a minute!

Does anyone else have a craft they love to do (but do it really badly?) Please tell the Bag Lady that she isn't the only lousy knitter in the world! Someone else out there must do something really poorly, but love doing it so much, they do it regardless. Anyone?

Oh, okay, the Bag Lady is just plain odd. And if you think her knitting is bad, her crochet skills really suck!

It's Monday, Isn't it?

2010-11-15T07:38:00.001-07:00

The Bag Lady is wondering exactly when winter will arrive, and when it does, exactly how bad will it be?

There were a couple skiffs of snow in October, but it didn't stick around and the weather has been quite mild for this area for this time of year. But that is bound to end. In fact, the Bag Lady thinks it's going to end today.

It rained here yesterday, and of course, the temperature dropped overnight, so it turned to freezing rain. The forecast is for snow flurries - according to the weather channel, it is supposed to be snowing right now. According to the Bag Lady's own weather channel (her kitchen window) it is not snowing, the rain has stopped and the sky appears clear (well, except it's still dark.... but she can see stars and she hasn't banged her head on anything. ~~That she knows about. Head injuries can be tricky, though, can't they? If you bang your head and it causes memory loss, will you remember banging your head? Something to ponder.~~)

And, in the time it has taken the Bag Lady to compose this babbling nonsense, the sky has clouded up, so she thinks there is not much chance of a gorgeous sunrise like this one from a week or so ago....

Photo Finish Friday - Redecorating

2010-11-12T07:57:00.000-07:00

(The Bag Lady's internet connection has been extremely spotty lately, which is causing her great anxiety and inconvenience because of the home-based business she is attempting to start, as well as really annoying her because it's keeping her from the even more important blogging!)

Here is the "before" picture of her bathroom (which she forgot to take until she already had the primer coat on, but heck, the bathroom was white originally, so it's close enough... well, except she doesn't usually need a stepladder to do her business!)

And here is the unfortunate "Creamy Carrot" choice.... (what the heck was she thinking??)

She is very pleased with the end result, even though the process reduced her to tears at the time! (Sanding between coats is not a step to be skipped!)

Well, what do you think? Was she right to switch horses in the middle of the paint job?

Photo Finish Friday is the brainchild of Leah, over at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Remember

2010-11-11T07:21:00.000-07:00

The Bag Lady's father and two of his brothers served in WWII. The Bag Lady has, in previous years, posted pictures of her father from his navy years, and has some of his things from that era. Recently, she was going through a little zippered pouch that belonged to her father and came across some photographs. One of them was a picture of one of her father's brothers in his army uniform.

This was taken in Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC.

The Bag Lady's uncle (who is, coincidentally, the father of Leah, who writes the always interesting blog, The Goat's Lunch Pail) is on the right.

Carrot Complaints

2010-11-08T00:01:00.001-07:00

The Bag Lady has been redecorating. She decided ~~way back in April~~ to paint the bathroom.
It was white.
It was boring.
She thought "Colour! What that little bathroom needs is some colour!"
It is no longer white.
But the Bag Lady is having paint troubles. The paint that she bought isn't covering very well, and the roller marks from the previous coat are showing through the next coat. (Yes, she knows she should have used tinted primer, but she didn't have any and she didn't want to run to town to buy tinted primer when she had a perfectly good can of white primer that had scarcely been used..... just hush!)
She is going to slap another coat on today, and if it doesn't cover better than the first two, she is going to hang sheets all over the walls. Well, maybe not. But she will start to feel a little desperate. You see, she has a party planned for later in the week, so she really wants her house to look nice. What she really doesn't want is streaky orange walls in her bathroom.
Sigh. ("Creamy carrot" looked so pretty on the little tiny paint chip. If you ever visit the Bag Lady, be sure to bring your sunglasses in case you need to pee. Really.)