Carrot Bounty

The Bag Lady must be slowing down in her old age. She and the Rancher dug carrots and beets yesterday, and she decided she needed to scrub the carrots before she stored them (she knows that isn't exactly the proper procedure, but it has worked for her in the past.) It took her the entire afternoon to clean and bag the carrots! She didn't even get around to doing anything with the beets. Sigh.
She did manage to turn her hands orange (apparently you don't have to actually ingest the carrots, Sagan, to turn body parts orange!) from handling so many carrots. She had a bumper crop this year. In spite of the fact that she had already used quite a lot of the row, and had given away a lot, and had made several jars of dilled carrots .... oops, she promised someone she wouldn't mention that.... sorry, Sparrow! -- she still had a very large pile of carrots to deal with. (Approximately 30 lbs, she estimates.)


She has them all stowed away in the extra fridge, and will be sharing them with friends and family (and perhaps even strangers...) and eating carrots, raw and cooked, or carrot cake, carrot pudding, carrot.... whatever, for some time to come!

Taking It to the Next Level?

The Bag Lady stopped at the General Store on her way home from work yesterday and had a chat with the new owner. He and his young staffer are really starting to play out - the store is open long hours, and he has, unexpectedly, found himself with just the two of them trying to run it. He had a couple of others working for him, but one of them moved away because her husband was transferred and the other left to start her own business!

Of course, the Bag Lady has a very soft head heart, so when she saw how tired he looked, she said that she could probably find a few spare hours to help out. She needs these next couple of days to try to get her garden harvested and the bounty of said garden dealt with, and then she will put in a couple of hours at the store most days in order to take some of the pressure off him and the young woman working for him.

Consequently, she didn't get home until after 5 pm. Imagine her surprise when she carried her load of groceries in the door and saw the table set (for three) and potatoes baking in the oven, corn husked and ready for the pot and hamburgers ready for the pan! The Rancher helped bring in the rest of her purchases, and she asked if the Princess now warranted her own place at the table.

The Rancher had invited his mom up for supper (the Bag Lady had guessed that already) and she and the Bag Lady were perfectly content to sit and watch while he prepared the entire meal. She hopes you all understand how rare an event this was - the Rancher has worked such long hours over the years the Bag Lady has been with him that he has seldom had the opportunity to cook. Fortunately, he hasn't really forgotten how even though he sometimes pretended that he had!!

So the Bag Lady, already very much a slacker in the blogging department, will probably be even worse about getting to visit everyone's blog and make her customary brilliant and witty inane comments, but she will do her best to keep up with everyone and, although she may end up having to read more than one post when she gets there, she will be around to read about what's happening with everyone.

Ramblin'

The Bag Lady had big plans for an interesting post for you for today, but somewhere along the way, she forgot what she wanted to say.

She still feels like she's scrambling to try to get everything done that she wants to do, and finds that time seems to slip away much too fast for her to finish anything! There are still, apparently, 8,760 hours in a year, which sounds like a lot, but there never seems to be enough hours in the day. Not sure how that works.

She got a call from the new owner of the newly renovated old store in her community, asking her if she was interested in coming to work there! She wasn't sure what to say. After all, her present job is only part-time.... She could probably work a day or two here and there for him!

In the meantime, she has to work today, then has a couple days off in which she hopes to finish harvesting her garden - as long as the weather co-operates. She still has potatoes, beets, onions, carrots, turnips and corn to bring in. The tomatoes need to be picked, and there are peppers in pots on the deck that are ready. The weather has turned decidedly autumn-like, and there have been several nights when the temperature dipped below the freezing mark. She has been covering her tomatoes at night, trying to give them a little more time to mature, but that is getting old. It wasn't a good year for tomatoes, and they aren't very big. (Of course, if she had started them a little sooner than she did back in the spring, they'd be further along, wouldn't they?)

This is a bit of a rambly, disjointed post, and she apologizes. She hopes that some day she'll remember what it was she wanted to tell you.

Workin' It

The Bag Lady is off to work again this morning, but she thought she'd share a little peek into her work world with you!

In an effort to encourage the female lifeguards to keep their locker room from... well... smelling like a locker room, the manager had a decorator (who donated her time and expertise) make it a little more pleasant in appearance.

Here are a couple pictures of how it looks:


And here are a few of the towels the Bag Lady makes sure are always on hand:


Of course, on those hectic days when there are lots of swimming lessons, and lots of lifeguards on duty, the place doesn't exactly look this neat and tidy, in spite of the Bag Lady's best efforts! In fact, last night it looked like a tsunami went through - water everywhere and towels piled on every surface!

It didn't take long to put it back in order though, and the Bag Lady is off to do it all again today!

Home-Grown Goodness

As most of you know, the Bag Lady lives on a ranch, raises cattle and has a wee garden. She delights in eating well (as evidenced by her ever-expanding arse) and nothing thrills her more than being able to say that everything on her plate was home-grown.

Well, she discovered there actually IS something that pleases her more than saying that everything on her plate was home-grown. Even better is when she can say that everything on her plate was home-grown, and the Rancher cooked it for her!!


He decided last night that he should barbecue some steaks for supper. Then he went out into the garden and brought in some corn (perhaps he heard the whispering, too!) and some potatoes.

Here is what he put on the Bag Lady's plate:



It was delicious, and the Bag Lady was really, really full after eating most of it! (She couldn't quite finish it all, but the Princess was more than willing to take up the slack!)

After the dishes were done, the Rancher, the Bag Lady and the Princess took advantage of the fabulous weather and went for a walk out in the pasture. The leaves are starting to turn, but the temperature was still in the high 20's (Celsius) (around 80F) at 7 pm.


And the Bag Lady's flower pots are still blooming nicely, too:

The Bag Lady has had a couple days off work, but returns tonight on evening shift. She didn't get as much done as she would have liked, but everyone needs to goof off a little once in awhile and enjoy the warm weather while it lasts, right?

Whispers of Autumn

The Bag Lady was working in her garden the other day, and the corn was whispering to her.

The wind rustling through the dry stalks of corn was saying "autumn is coming, autumn is coming"....

Hard to tell yesterday, though. It was 30C (85F)! And today is supposed to be just as hot. That is a little unusual for this time of year is this neck of the woods.

The Bag Lady is not complaining, though. The weather will be cold soon enough. She has been hard at work on several little projects - she has today off work, and wants to finish up a few things around the house. She also needs to finish harvesting her garden, but the weather is supposed to hold for a few more days, so she'll leave the garden for awhile yet. And do her best to ignore the corn whispers.

Happy Birthday, Little Sister!

The Bag Lady's "little" sister, Reb, who blogs over at Sibu Pegasus Power, is celebrating her birthday today. Scoot on over there and wish her all the best, won't you?


(she's the little cutie on the right!)

Hope you have a great day, sis!

Home-grown Goodness

Does this look good?

It was!!
And all of it was home-grown.

The Bag Lady Needs Help!

The Bag Lady had intended to write a highly entertaining post for you today, but she was so tired last night that she ended up in bed with a good book at 9:30 last night! It is taking her a long time to adjust to working outside the home. She still doesn't feel properly organized, nor has she settled into a routine that allows her time to do all the things she wants to do. She is hoping that will happen soon!

The first week at work at her new job entailed a great deal of walking and standing around feeling a little useless lost. The swimming pool had been shut down for the summer, so the facility was really quiet, and there was not as much to do. That has changed dramatically. The pool opened last weekend, and swimming lessons started this week, which increased the amount of work for the Bag Lady. One of her duties is to ensure that there are always fresh towels for the lifeguards, and that is almost a full-time job in and of itself! The Bag Lady collects the dirty towels from the staff change rooms, hauls them all the way across the facility to the laundry, launders them and hauls the clean, folded towels all the way back across the facility to the change rooms again.

(Oh, and in case you find it a little strange that the pool was closed for the summer, there is an outdoor pool in the city, which took over while the indoor pool was going through some much-needed maintenance.)

During the maintenance shut-down, management also refurbished the locker rooms for the staff and they look really nice; almost like a spa! The Bag Lady will try to remember to take her camera and give you a little peek.... as long as she can get permission from her boss!

One of the Bag Lady's duties is giving her a little trouble, and she's hoping to get some help from some of you! As a lot of you are aware, the Bag Lady has never worked out in a gym, which puts her at a disadvantage. One of her duties is to do walk-abouts in the gym, making sure that everyone is enjoying their work out and that they have everything that they need. The Bag Lady is finding it extremely difficult to walk up to a total stranger and ask if they need assistance! Especially because she doesn't have a freakin' clue how to help!

Her question to you is; when you are working out - on the elliptical, for instance (and the Bag Lady is ever-so-grateful that she has been reading some of your health and fitness blogs because it means she has actually heard of some of these machines!) - how do you feel about being interrupted by an obviously inept, obviously non-working-out person (dressed all in black), asking if you'd like your water bottle filled? Is there a way to do that without being intrusive? The Bag Lady is hesitant about approaching someone who is dripping sweat and breathing hard and perhaps concentrating really, really hard, to ask them if they need water... (Besides all that, some of those guys are really big, and a little scary, and the Bag Lady would much rather be chased by a cow than one of them.....)

So please help out the Bag Lady with your suggestions and opinions about how to offer assistance without being intrusive! How do you, personally, feel about someone offering to refill your water bottle, and do any of you have any suggestions as to what other kinds of assistance the Bag Lady should offer to someone who is in the midst of an intense workout?

(Be assured, the Bag Lady does know enough not to walk up to someone who has 200 pounds of weights held over their head and innocently inquire if they need help.... or want their water bottle replenished!)

Autumn Applause

The Bag Lady is starting to realize just how difficult it is to work and try to keep up with house- and yard-work and try to blog consistently. She is sorry that she has been neglecting some of her blog commenting, but she is discovering that there are only so many hours in the day, and she has to devote a few of them to sleeping!
She has also had a house guest for a few days, which means preparing meals for and visiting with and cleaning up after another person!
She had a day off from work yesterday, and spent most of it finishing up some sewing she had started, and doing a little gardening. Her beans didn't realize they were supposed to stop producing, and she picked another ice cream pail full of beans today. She isn't quite sure when she will find time to do anything with them - her family is clamouring for more dilled beans. Well, okay, maybe not clamouring, but they really liked them, and she would like to make more. If she ever finds time.

(gratuitous autumn photograph, inserted in order to ease the transition to new subject!)

In the meantime, POD, of the ever-entertaining, thought-provoking blog, Thufferin Thuccotash, has an interesting post up today. She wrote a list of all the good things about autumn, and asked the Bag Lady to contribute her two cents worth. Of course, the Bag Lady jumped at the opportunity to share her list of the things she really likes about autumn, but POD then refused to give her two cents because she didn't think "nothing!" qualified as good! So the Bag Lady went back to the drawing board and came up with a list of the least offensive things about autumn. So (click here) to slip on over and have a look at the great list that POD came up with, and the Bag Lady's pathetic attempt at a list!

Whipped Cream and Cucumber Cat

The Bag Lady has been enjoying some lovely sights the past few days, and decided to share them with you. Her trip to town to work takes her through a river valley, and she was delighted to see fog her very first morning on her way to work (well, okay, perhaps "delighted" isn't exactly the word for what she felt when she spied that cloud hanging over the river in the valley, but the word she actually used is not fit for mixed company - and one that her mother would have frowned on!) She wasn't quite fast enough with the camera, so this was taken part of the way down the hill. When she was at the top of the hill, she could clearly see the other bank of the river, with the top of the cloud all puffy and white - like someone had filled the valley with whipped cream!


Yesterday morning was also foggy, but she didn't have to go to work, and the sunrise was really pretty through the trees:

The rays of light streaking through the trees and striking the fog made an interesting pattern:


And, lastly, here is how one of the Bag Lady's cats spent a goodly portion of yesterday, which turned out to be an absolutely glorious, hot day:

Wonder if he felt cool as a cucumber?

Weekly Report

Whew. The Bag Lady has had a busy few days. She worked her first shift last evening after spending a good portion of the day picking over and cleaning huckleberries, then making pastry and pies.

It was worth it. She made 3 pies altogether - two of them went into the freezer for the young fella who picked the berries:




and she baked the other one for the Rancher and herself. It turned out very well.




She also spent more time in the kitchen today making huckleberry jam. It seems to have set properly, and she is pretty sure she heard all of the lids snap, so they are all sealed.


Her shift at work last night was very quiet, but the swimming pool wasn't open. It has been closed for most of the summer for a major overhaul, but was due to open today. She works again tomorrow and expects things will be quite different!

In the meantime, she has been trying to catch up on blogs, and housework, laundry and gardening!

Here are a couple of the peppers she grew on her deck this summer:

Work - Wow!

The Bag Lady is just dashing through, pausing long enough to tell you that her new job seems like it will be great! The co-workers that she has met so far all seem really nice (and really fit! Perhaps it'll rub off on the Bag Lady, eh?)

She is looking forward to her first actual shift today (yesterday was orientation, and filling out forms, etc.) But before she goes to work this afternoon, she has a gallon of huckleberries to deal with. A kind young lunatic neighbour spent hours and hours out in the wilderness, picking them; making up songs about the pies and jam that the Bag Lady had promised to make him if he picked the berries! He was so excited at the prospect that he picked and picked until his hands were stained purple, putting nary a berry in his mouth, telling himself they were for pie!

The Bag Lady is loathe to disappoint him, so off to the kitchen she goes to make her mother's famous pastry (cross your fingers for her that she doesn't screw up!) She will try to post pictures later.

Have a good day!

Why...

... did the chickens cross the road?


Why did it take them so long to cross the road?

Obviously, they wanted to slow down traffic, and get to the other side!

The Bag Lady took a load of garbage to the dump the other day, and on her way home, she saw a flock of about 8 or more prairie chickens crossing the road. Fortunately, she was the only one on the road at the time, and she stopped for them. They move slowly and cautiously, for the most part. The Bag Lady was even able to get out of her truck and take a few pictures. (And to be honest, she isn't exactly sure what kind of birds these are - she thinks they are spruce hens, but could be wrong. They are some type of grouse, anyway.)

Hope everyone (in Canada and the US, anyway) is enjoying their long weekend.

Change is in the Air

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS INFORMATION THAT MAY CAUSE LAUGHTER - PLEASE BE SURE TO AVOID DRINKING COFFEE OR OTHER BEVERAGES ( or eating) WHICH MAY CAUSE SPEWING OR CHOKING

It finally rained!

The Bag Lady actually writes her blog posts in advance, as most of you must know, and there is a thunderstorm raging as she types, and it is raining blessed rain! The ground is terribly thirsty, and the rain is welcome.

The dugouts will be replenished, and the trees and grass and pastures and gardens will get a much-needed drink. (If the Bag Lady wasn't still ill, she would go out and dance in the rain, she is that happy to see it!)

She has something else to dance about, too! The Bag Lady is going to work. She got a job.

(Please make sure you are sitting down, removing all liquids and/or solids from your mouth before reading the next line.)

She is going to work in a fitness centre.

(She warned you to empty your mouths! Go get a towel to wipe off your monitor - we'll wait. Does anyone know the Heimlich maneuver? I think Mizfit is choking on that damned tuna....)

Yes, the infamous A(u)nti-Fit is going to be working in a fitness centre. Oh, stop laughing. It isn't like she's going to be a personal trainer or anything! She's just going to be a sort of combination tour guide/information officer, making sure that everyone knows how to get where they are going, giving tours of the facility, checking to make sure people paid to be where they are, and just generally making sure that things are running smoothly.

She starts her new job after the long weekend, and is not yet sure how this will impact her blogging. She hopes to be able to continue posting fairly often, but is not sure that she can maintain her regular schedule. Sadly, blogging hasn't put any food on the table, so the choice is obvious.

Enjoy your long weekend - the Bag Lady is going to do her best to have a nice, relaxing time before she returns to the working world.

Thursday, Eh?

Thanks, everyone, for your get well wishes - the Bag Lady appreciates them. She is still feeling under the weather (where did that expression come from, anyway? How does one get to be under the weather? And if you are feeling terrific, does that mean you are over the weather? Or would you be on top of the weather? But no, you are on top of things - no one ever says they are on top of the weather.....) The Bag Lady is NOT taking any cold medication, honest, but she thinks she may have to because the Vitamin C and echinacea, although they are probably helping, aren't working fast enough!

The Bag Lady spent most of the day yesterday trying to do some housework, but her energy levels are so low that most of her time was spent sitting and staring at the hell hole that used to be referred to as her closet. Somehow it has morphed into a catch-all storage area for all kinds of things totally unrelated to apparel. She was determined this week to Do Something About That Closet, until she came down with this dreadful illness. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is a quivering, jelly-like mass weak.

So she has managed to weed out a few things (one bag full of clothes to go to the thrift store), but still does not have the sparkling, well-organized closet that she was hoping for. At least she can see her clothes now. And will continue to peck away at organizing the rest of the junk valuable heirlooms she has stashed in there.

And that's all she has the energy right now to share with you. Hope all of you are well!

Pity Post

De Bag Lady begs your fogibness. She is sick. Coffing and congested and has a sore troat. Her head is stuffed up and she can't tink.

Here's a picture for you to giggle at. Poor little calf was having a bad hair day.

Meanwhile, Not Exactly AT the Ranch

You may recall the Bag Lady talking about moving the cattle to different pasture the other day. She thought she'd take you along on the cattle move today. The cattle were brought over in the stock trailer, and put in the corral until the last load arrived. Then they were let out of the corral:



They headed off on the run:

Most of the cattle had not been to this particular pasture before, but the older cows are well-acquainted with it. The younger cows' excitement was infectious, though, and even the old cows were running!


They had to stop at the far end of the small pasture, so one of the old girls took time out for a dirt bath:



And then got into a little tussle with one of the other cows:


By the time the Rancher opened the far gate and let them out onto the big pasture, they had settled down:


The cows will stay here until the snow flies (or the water runs out, whichever happens first!)

The Bag Lady has been enjoying some pretty sunrises in the past few days (probably due to the smoke from forest fires burning to the west of her) and thought she would share one of them with you. This was yesterday morning:


Hope you enjoyed moving the cows with us!