Photo Finish Friday - Almost

The Bag Lady has had a busy week (where the heck does the time go, anyway?)

She has nothing, however, to show for her busy-ness, which is par for her course. Oh, yeah, her house is reasonably clean, and she has paid attention to a few things that were clamouring for it, but really, there is so much more that needs to be done! She couldn't possibly be slowing down a little in her dotage, could she? It certainly does seem to take her a lot more time to get a lot less done. Perhaps part of the problem is her ARADD (age-related attention deficit disorder) - she is starting to get a wee bit forgetful - if standing in the middle of the hallway with a vacant mind expression, wondering why (and sometimes where) she was going - is indicative of forgetfulness. (Where the heck was she going with this story, anyway?)


(imagine picture here)



Blogger would not let her upload a picture for Photo finish Friday, which is why you ended up with this disjointed, pointless little tale of woe..... sigh.

Have a great weekend!

Saucy

The Bag Lady took this picture quite some time ago, thinking she would blog about making salsa with completely home-grown ingredients.... and then promptly forgot to post it. She also forgot to take any more pictures, although she DID remember to actually make the salsa.

She has one last bowl full of tomatoes that are finally ripe, but there aren't enough of them to make a large enough batch of salsa to can, so she will probably just cook them up and make spaghetti sauce. A few tomatoes, some onions, garlic and ground beef will make a tasty sauce, don't you think?

Photo Finish Friday - Lava Beds

Driving from Boise, Idaho to Missoula, Montana, you drive through an enormous lava bed, covering hundreds of miles. The Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve has incredibly interesting and informative displays and pamphlets, and the Bag Lady wishes she had spent more time exploring the park.




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

Kittens

The Rancher decided he needed barn cats. The neighbour had kittens in his barn. The kittens were duly moved to the Rancher's barn, then to the barn at the Rancher's mother's place. There is hay stored in both barns, and the Rancher's mom loves kittens, but the Princess doesn't. Every time the Rancher went out to feed the kittens, the Princess tried to have them for breakfast, so the Rancher moved them for their own safety.



The Bag Lady was on her way somewhere the other day and happened to see this bird on the side of the road. There were actually two, but the one on the other side of the road was quicker at getting out of the way. The Bag Lady thinks this is what is referred to as a partridge in these parts. Or it could be a prairie chicken. It's definitely some kind of grouse.


After she took the picture and went on her merry way, she spied a coyote at the end of the road. She hopes he didn't see the grouse. She is choosing to ignore the fact that later on in the day, traveling on the same road, she spied a pile of feathers.

Photo-Finish Friday - Western Movie

While on their vacation, the Bag Lady and the Rancher drove through a canyon that made them feel like they were in a western movie! You know the movies involving canyons with really steep walls -- either the posse is chasing the bad guys to their hideout, or the wagon train is being watched by Indians lining the canyon walls.



The Bag Lady admits a slight sense of disappointment that there were no Indians in warpaint and a greater sense of disappointment that John Wayne was nowhere in sight.

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

Baggie, Get Your Gun

Yesterday, the Bag Lady came home from work to a bit of drama. About half of their cows are at the Rancher's mom's, still on fall pasture. In the morning, the Rancher went down to his mom's and learned that there had been a couple of dogs chasing the cows.

The Rancher didn't see the dogs but his mom did, and she said they were both really big. Later in the morning, the Rancher took a walk through the pasture and happened to notice that one of the really old cows didn't look quite right, so he took a closer look. He was dismayed to find that the cow had been attacked.When the Bag Lady got home from work, he took her to the pasture to show her.

This is one of the first cows the Bag Lady bought, many years ago. The Bag Lady is inordinately fond of this cow, and has vowed that she will never again know the horror of the auction market.
She is really, really old and slow (the cow is, too) and deserves to live out the rest of her life in peace.


From a distance, her injury is scarcely noticeable


But when you get a little closer, it becomes apparent


Something had her by the ear and tore it




The cow was very nervous when the Bag Lady was taking pictures of her - she kept stepping from foot to foot, unsure whether she should try to run away. Sadly, she is too old to run, which is probably why she is the one who was injured.

The Rancher called the municipal district office and was told that there is no animal control officer (dog-catcher) in our area. He was advised to "take matters into your own hands", which, if the dogs come back, will be exactly what happens.

It's a Wrap

Last week, the Bag Lady harvested her garden, and one of the items was a very small cabbage. She wanted to do something different with it.

First, she cut it up:



Then she mixed it with some ground pork, spices and a few other ingredients, and wrapped it in home-made wonton wrappers:



Fried them in hot oil:


And, voila! Deep-fried wontons:


They were PDG (pretty darned good), if she does say so herself!

A Two-Hour Cruise

On their last day in Coeur D'Alene, the Bag Lady and her party had booked passage on the last dinner cruise of the season on the lake.


The day dawned damp, dismal and dark. The Bag Lady and the Rancher went on a little tour of the city. At one point, they sat in their vehicle in the parking lot of a collection of stores, the rain pouring down so hard that it was almost impossible to see!

Once the storm passed, they went for a walk along the shore.


Several hardy souls were out jogging, walking and generally taking the fresh air. There is a lovely park there, filled with enormous old trees.

There is a boardwalk surrounding the Coeur D'Alene Resort, built over the water.


There is even a little bridge, allowing motorboats to access the harbour.



While the Rancher and the Bag Lady were on the bridge, admiring the view, a pair of Canada Geese flew in, honking in that distinctive way that says "I'm landing, what about you?" The Bag Lady watched as they appeared to be preparing to land on the resort hotel, then changed their minds and flew past. She and the Rancher commented on their strange antics, and were amazed a few minutes later when the geese came back and actually landed on a balcony of the hotel! Neither of them had ever seen a goose land on a building (of course, where they live, there are no tall buildings for geese to land, so, for all they know, geese in the southern parts all live in resort hotels, and only live on ponds while on summer vacation in Canada much like humans, roughing it at the cottage.)


This is the resort hotel (where the geese live)


The weather stayed relatively decent (didn't snow, which for Canadians is still summer) so the dinner cruise was not cancelled. The meal was very good, and after they ate, the Bag Lady's party spent most of the rest of the cruise on the open top deck, enjoying the view.


There was a bald eagle perched on a piling sticking out of the water quite a distance away from the Bag Lady (hence the rather blurry photo)



The Coast Guard managed to get us around the lake and back again to dry land within the two hours allotted for the cruise.

(And yes, the Bag Lady was humming the theme from "Gilligan's Island" while they waited to board. She's old now, but wasn't one of the lines in the song something about a two-hour cruise? Or was it three? Crap, she can't remember.)

Photo-Finish Friday - Autumn

Honeysuckle Clematis, autumn-ized:

From Brothers to Brothels

Whilst on vacation in Coeur D'Alene, the Bag Lady and her traveling companions took a little side trip one day and toured the area. They stopped first at an old Mission that has been restored. It was in a beautiful setting on a hill, and has been well-restored, with informative signs everywhere. Unfortunately for the Bag Lady's party, they arrived just as a group of university students was settling in for mass, so there was no chance to wander through the church and see the artifacts inside.

The Bag Lady did, however, hold her camera above the heads of the people going into the church and managed to snap this picture of the interior.



She also toured the parish house.


The priests had their own private altar for early mass in the parish house.


After an enjoyable hour touring the grounds of the Mission, the Bag Lady's party piled back into their vehicles and continued on their way south. They arrived in Wallace, Idaho just in time for a parade in their honour celebrating the Elks club.


After the parade, they wandered the streets of this picturesque little town, stopping here and there for a beer and checking out the little shops and bars along the way. One of the buildings looked interesting, so they wandered inside for a few minutes. It turned out to be a bordello that has been restored. The Bag Lady spoke for a few minutes to a lovely young woman behind the counter and discovered that the bordello had been in business for many, many years during the "boom time" when Wallace was a thriving mining town. It closed it's doors in the 1980's (1988?) because the FBI had come to town to investigate the crooked sheriff! The girls in the bordello thought they would only be gone for a few days, so left everything as it was and just locked the doors. Unfortunately, the FBI stayed around for three years, and the girls eventually drifted away to other, more prosperous locations, leaving groceries still in the bags on the counters, clothes in the closets, etc. There was an opportunity later in the day to take a tour of the upstairs of the building, but the Bag Lady's party went in search of more beer and did not return for the tour. This was the last picture she managed to take that day before the battery in her camera died.

Rooty Rutabaga....

and his orchestra......


One of the Bag Lady's favourite authors uses the expression "he had a head like a rutabaga" - she wonders if he had this in mind.

Photo-Finish Friday - Hoodoos

These are the hoodoos near Invermere, BC.





Photo-finish Friday is the brain-child of Leah at the Goat's Lunch Pail.