The Lyon, the Spectrum, and the Teacher

Last night was our (Dad and I) first guitar class of the fall term. We'd taken the class last fall, but then got too busy to take the next terms until this September.

Anyway, I was glad that we'd been practicing, and didn't have to struggle with trying to relearn the the chords and strumming patterns. Luckily, from all the practicing, our fingers had the beginnings of tiny callouses on the tips of our fingers. They will get thicker from playing longer, but it's nice to have that little pad to keep your fingers from getting those huge dents in your fingertips that hurt so bad.

Over all, it was good, and I had fun. Can't wait for next wednesday!


Left: my guitar, a Spectrum, Right: Dad's guitar, a Lyon by Washburn


Trace is curious to see why I was staring at an odd shaped wooden box, through the camera.

Wordless Wednesday

I'm feeling squirrelly...

Found this cute little guy in the walnut tree on the south side of the driveway. When I'm sitting at the computer, I can see him making trips back and forth about six or eight times a day.

He was very tame, he let me get within five or six feet of him and he just kept nibbling on his walnut, and sorta keeping one eye on me. He didn't care if I moved around, either.

Had to stop and scratch on his way back to wherever he goes.

This is his route. (click on the picture to see full size)

Wordless Wednesday

Site meter...

Threecollie at Northview Diary, wrote a post about the new changes to Site Meter. I couldn't have said it better.

My mom and I are both Site Meter users and we have a love/hate relationship with it. The passwords are so annoying. It would be easier for everybody if they let you pick your own password, than trying to remember some letter combination that has to be all capitals. I don't know if Blogger has it's own web stats or not. If it does, I haven't found it yet. I think I would definitely switch if there was.

Last week Site Meter sent out an email to all of its users, saying that the site was going to be down on the weekend of September 12th - 14th, so my mom and and I stayed out of it. But as you can read in Threecollie's post, they made some major changes: all graphs and microscopic print. They must have gotten so many emails to change it back, that now it's back to what it used to be. Luckily, I missed all of this!

It drives me up a wall when someone changes where all the buttons are when they were just fine the way they were. Seems like they just let you get used to where everything is, and then it's time to change everything again.

**Comments will be answered tomorrow**

A year ago today...

Photo credit: keithurbanfans.com

Do you recognize this face? If you are a country music fan, or happen to live with a country aficionado, then you probably know that this is Keith Urban. Keith has played guitar and sang his way into the hearts of millions, not just nation wide, but world wide.

Last year, on September 14, my parents took me to see him when he came to Portland, as a reward for all my work over the summer.

He put on an amazing show; I had a blast. I even converted my dad into a fan after seeing his mind-blowing guitar skills. I only wish that we had the digital camera then. Oh well, there's always next time...

The Wreckers opened. Their acoustics were so bad that you could hardly hear them singing. Luckily Keith had much better sound, and you could actually hear him talking. Gotta love a Australian accent!

Oh, did I mention that he had a 50' x 20' plasma LCD screen behind him? That he did. Which was great, because our seats were up in the back and he was about a foot tall on the stage.

In 2005, Keith won the CMA Entertainer of the Year award. After seeing him in concert, I can see why. Keith's a true entertainer; he puts on great show, and he genuinely loves his fans and very interactive with them at a concert.

Here's a video of him singing the song that got me listening to his music, "Better Life." This was in Sydney, Australia, 2005.

D.L.B. award

I received this award from Notshy over at Just Another Day on the Prairie. Thanks Notshy! Trace was so excited when I told him that you bestowed the award to him.

I would like to pass this award on to Kiera at Author Mom With Dogs. She is a very beautiful dog!

Wordless Wednesday

A gathering of days

This is my favorite summer or hot weather snack. This would also be good as a desert, too. All you need is some yogurt, and thawed raspberries. If you do use fresh ones, crush them a little, so that you will get some juice without having to put sugar on them. Then mix it together, find a good book and curl up in your favorite spot!

As you know, we spent Saturday cleaning out the shed on the Horse Barn, that the milk cow's yearling calf will live in during the winter and early spring.


It was deep - up past my knee! I'd say that it was two and a half to almost three feet deep in some places. Despite that we finished just after quarter to six in the evening. It's amazing how tightly packed it gets in the corners. For the last three or hours of the cleaning, I took a pitchfork and dug out the corners and then forked it into the bucket.


Afterwards, my hands were so sore from the seven or eight water blisters that I got from not wearing gloves (I caught heck about that), that I could hardly type.

Then after that was done, Dad hauled a few bucket loads of sawdust and spread it in the shed for the first layer of bedding.


Yesterday afternoon, Dad started baling the "wet" hay. Despite being lighter than the previous bales, we got less by about twenty. I forgot until I heard it, how much I like the sound of the baler and how much I had missed it, though I am glad to be almost done with the hay. The picture above was not loaded last night, it's the last load we hauled from that field until now, we just never unloaded it.



When I was reviewing last night, the pictures I took yesterday, I was looking at that field and thinking how long ago that we cut it and how nicely the grass was coming back. We were done with it by the twenty-fourth of July. That seems so long ago, but it's really only a month a half or so.

Cleaning the barn...

Well, today we're, actually Dad is, cleaning out the Horse Barn today. Finally! We were going to clean it last week, but we got that big downpour, soaking the ground again, so we had to postpone it until today.

Paula and to everybody else who commented on my last post; I promise that I'll answer your comments tomorrow, 'cause I don't have time to answer them today, please be patient. Have a great weekend! :D

Colors of Fall

Photo credit: M.O.H

"These are the days we will remember, These are the times that won't come again, The highest of flames become an ember, And you gotta live 'em while you can, These are the days we will remember." - These Are The Days, Keith Urban

It seems like fall is already already upon us, even thought it doesn't officially start until the twenty something of October. It's barely the fourth of September, and already the temperatures are dropping and the night air is turning sharp. The last four nights, we have had to light a fire in the furnace, using up some of the precious fire wood, just to stave off the chill.

You know it's getting cold when you can build a fire at six or so o'clock in the evening and the house doesn't get too hot. When I was writing this post down in a note pad because the computer was busy, I was sitting out on the steps in the sun, wearing my sweat shirt over a medium thin tee shirt and I didn't get too hot.

Every year, it's agonizing waiting for the raspberries, the blueberries, blackberries and the apples to be ready. In March or April, it always seems like the above mentioned gets ripe in late July, early August, when really, it's late August on.

This year because of the spring rains, everything is later. Our Transparent apples, they are the earliest in the orchard, are two or three weeks late. We just got them picked a couple days ago, so the others are going to be a few weeks behind them.

This morning I was looking at the chestnut trees and noticing how small their prickly burrs - that we cuss when we try to sit down under the tree - are, and how far they have to go before being ready. The blue jays are in a flurry of activity, with the filberts (hazel nuts) and the walnuts being ready.

Oh, I don't know if Mom mentioned this already, but on the twenty-eight or ninth of August, she saw a flock of geese flying south. They were really high, but still, the idea of them leaving so soon. At least the leaves aren't turning yet!

I'm not ready for summer to be over! Or for it to be pitch black when I get up, or when you constantly have to wear at least two shirts. Soon we will be in frenzy to get all the apples and pears picked up, the squash in to cure, the beans put in the green house to dry.

** Hay Update **

Finally got that troublesome hay raked today! If this spell of good weather that we have right now holds like the weathermen are predicting, we should be able to get it baled and in the barn before the next rain. *crosses fingers*

Wordless Wednesday/ snail mail can be so annoying sometimes

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I'm sure that you are wondering what our dog is doing, carrying around a huge broccoli head.


Well, here's the story. Yesterday morning, I took the harvesting basket out to the garden to cut the broccoli heads - mine and my mom's row.


Most of the heads were just right, but some of them had been left too long, and now they were enormous, and starting to bloom. I was told that if I came to any of those, just to cut them off and set them in a nice, neat pile and they would be taken to the pigs the next time she (mom) walked by garden that day.


Okay, that would work. Naturally, the dogs went with me to help, and keep a weather eye on things. I found five or six of the above mentioned blooming heads, and set them in a pile.


I finished, whistled for the dogs, and carried the nearly heaping full basket back to the house with the dogs trotting ahead. A couple hours later, my mom and I happened to look out the kitchen window and see Trace carrying around his prize.


Logically, I grabbed the camera, ran outside and snapped pictures of Trace and huge broccoli head that he had stolen out of pile for the pigs, when we weren't looking.

Oh, and I picked the first cauliflower yesterday! This variety is called Cheddar, I've had amazing results with it. The seeds are very strong and always comes up, it grows really well here in the Pacific Northwest, and the color doesn't bleach out when you steam or blanch it. I like Cheddar waaaaaaay more than Graffiti, another one that I grew for a few years, but quit growing this year. The seeds were so weak that maybe you would get two starts out of a six pack. Once they were in the ground they did okay. When steamed, the head bleached out and turned this kind of unappetizing blueish color. With seed so expensive, it just wasn't worth it.

We had this head for dinner, steamed, slathered with butter, along with our fettuccine. Delicious!! I wish I had thought to take a picture of it steamed.