Applesauce & Anniversaries

In our travels the other day we ran across a neigborhood sign...'Free Apples'. Cue Bat-Turn onto the street to follow the signs!

The man handing out the apples had two trees that had produced a truly gargantuan number of apples, he had them in large brown grocery bags lining his driveway--Red and Yellow Delicious varieties. Most were smaller because he said he hadn't gotten to thinning the fruit off the trees that year (been there, done that), and combined with a bumper crop year he was anxious to get rid of the things while they were still good.

After we got done petting his cool old Basset mix dog and visiting with him, we bagged up a bunch in exchange for a promise of more bags (he had run out and still had a ton of apples to bag up) and some eggs from our hens. So we trucked home the apples and ran back over with the eggs and bags...

Next was to set to work making applesauce! It came out great--I peeled and cored the apples and popped them into the slow cooker for about 6 hours with a few spices and a bit of vanilla. The house smelled wonderful! We kept some of the finished products out to eat and froze the rest of it, applesauce is terrific for adding to cookie dough to sweeten and moisten it. Yay for neighbors who share their windfalls!


Also this week was the 20th anniversary with that darling husband of mine, double yay! I wanted something a bit special and unique for an anniversay gift this year (anyone who hangs with me for that long deserves a prize) so the kid and I went shopping and found ourselves at Cheshire Antiques, a cool multi-seller antique shop here in town. After wandering around the store a bit I got an idea--to create a '20' out of various objects, kind a build-it-yourself 20th anniversary gift!

I scavenged a large number '2', a road sign number set with reflectors...but could find nothing to serve as a '0'. The staff pitched in to help me--the store has a second story that I cannot access since I can't climb stairs due to chronic gimpiness. Two employees went up there and one of the ladies came back down with several objects and I settled on a HEAVY glass and brass porthole cover.

Great, I've got my 20!  Hmmm, now for something to mount it on...a bit more prowling and I discovered a box full of fruit crate end pieces, including one with a 'Pure Gold' paper label on it--perfect! To top it all off I had a gift certificate in my purse that I'd been hauling around for about 5 years--in the past everything I've wanted at Chesire has been either $4 or $400 so the certificate had gone unused. Today was it's day to shine, and I ended up paying 35 cents out of pocket. Thanking the store staff for their awesome service we left.

Now off to Meek's hardware store, also here in town, to put it all together! Luckily the number 2 and the porthole cover already had perfect mounting holes in them, I figured if I bought the hardware, the folks at the store might be kind enough to drill a couple of holes in the fruit crate box end so that I could take the parts home and assemble them. Figuring out the hardware we needed was a bit tricky since the '2' was MUCH thinner than the '0' so would require shorter bolts. And the brass-and-glass porthole cover for the '0' was MUCH heavier so would need beefier hardware to hold it on...The kid and I were standing in front of Meek's wall 'o hardware bits juggling parts when one of the employees happened by and asked if we needed help...boy did we ever! I knew what I wanted but couldn't reach some of the stuff--their display had been designed for people taller than I so OF COURSE I couldn't see the exact parts I needed...ain't that always the way?

It was a slow time for the store, so by now several employees had appeared. One of the guys kind of took over the project and hauled all my stuff to the front of the store where he spread everything out on a worktable so we could assemble everything. I'd asked if they could just drill three holes for me, but the guy ended up actually building my 20th anniversary gift to completion! Once they started and ran back and forth getting the right hardware they got so enthused I didn't have the heart to stop them, they got so into it...plus they know their products best so I went with their recommendations. They even had lovely brass hardware to match the porthole cover! The Meek's folks were so kind, I explained that because my hands were messed up I couldn't hold a drill any more so they just charged me a few bucks for the hardware--small towns are wonderful!

But damn if between all of us if it didn't work out, go together in the end and turn out AWESOME!
And here's the finished gift!

It was just one of those times where fate smiled on me, people I didn't even know went above and beyond the call pitched in to help me and everything just kind of weirdly fell together.
J. likes it, now to hang it on the wall!

Let's Go For A Drive!

So today we decided to go out and find the kid some snow to play in, since yesterday's storm kinda skunked us here on the valley floor.  We tossed the sled into the car and off we went, decided today to aim for the Pine Nut range across the valley--we hadn't been out there yet and wanted to explore anyway.

Unfortunately, the storm hadn't cooperated and there was no snow to be had.

But we had a nice drive anyway and got to explore a bit, which is always fun!  Down one of the roads we found a cool old barn--around here you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a cool old barn--that was tantalizingly close to the road yet fenced off.

Just as well it's fenced off since the dry stone walls were falling apart.  I *think* this was a dairy barn with animals below and hay storage above--note the hay loft carrier arm sticking out on the left side and the lack of windows in the second story.  There is also a very small house to the left of the barn, it was so overgrown with trees I couldn't get any shots of it.

But the barn was fascinating!

 There is some kind of machinery on the left, it appears to be a large green tank. The entire lower floor almost looked house-like.

On the top of the barn is this decorative vent.

Down the road a little ways and we come upon this massive old cottonwood tree.

It honest to God looks like something out of a Tim Burton movie.

Haha...naw, it doesn't have eyes.

it's got eyes it's got eyes it's got eyes--!

I think this tree had a starring role in 'Poltergeist'.

Alongside cool old tree was a nifty, but puzzling, bridge arrangement over a creek.

There are a total of THREE bridges over the creek--the wooden one, the fixed metal one and the metal two-part drawbridge. The area was fenced and posted against trespassing so I couldn't go over to get a better look, so I can't for the life of me figure out why three bridges are needed--I could see two, if you needed to lead an animal over one bridge while you used the other--but the wierd low-mounted drawbridge is perplexing.

It's actually probably gonna kinda bug the crap outta me until I get it figured out, truth be known...
Oh well.  Back down the road...

Where we suddenly come across some cool yard art!

This guy had a gigantic steel dragon, bottle trees, old farm equipment, metal sculptures...

All kinds of cool stuff!

I liked the dragon best.

The artist was smart enough to guy-wire the thing down so he wouldn't fly away in one of our epic Nevada windstorms. I can just imagine the frantic 911 calls if that happened...

I especially liked the dragon's head.

Great, now *I* need a giant dragon for *my* yard.

Despite the snow in the background of all these pictures, we couldn't get to it in the amount of time we had, so instead we stopped off at the park around the corner from our house to visit the resident ducks and the non-flying Canadian Goose (he has a wonky wing) who lives at the pond.  For some reason the goose looked like a 'George' to me, so that's what I've decided to call him.

We hadn't thought to bring any bread so they pretty much snubbed us.

After this it was time to get home and feed the chickens before they snubbed us, too.

Awesome Find...

...this guy, Jaime Mantzel! He lives on his own land in the woods, built his own sawmill rather than buy wood and is currently building a giant robot. Also, he has world views that mirror my own nearly identically, and thinks the same thing I do: if you need something done, do it yourself. If you don't know how, learn about it--and in so doing it will lead to more things and you'll always keep learning. My dad used to tell us, 'If you don't know how to do something, someone, somewhere has written a book on it.' Of course, this was in the days before the Internet, but it's something I still tell my 11 year old daughter. Also the way he just kinda digs around his house/shop and finds stuff to reuse/repurpose is exactly what I do, hah!

I really recommend that you sit down and watch a few of his videos, you'll be hooked. If the guy ran for President tomorrow I'd vote for him. His energy is infectious. I wish he'd travel around to middle schools and give this exact same talk, he'd absolutey electrify those kids to get off their asses and attack the world's problems. He reminds me of one of my older sisters and her husband. When we were kids, they would swoop down and take us out for the day, or even just a few hours. Where to? Didn't matter, where EVER you went with them you'd have an awesome adventure, a no holds barred, high-energy time that would stimulate your brain and creativeness, and was a blast to boot. We thought they were amazing and in addition to our parents, were a huge influence on forming a 'get it done and HAVE FUN!' mindset for us. They lived in Idaho out in the woods in a house they had just gone and built themselves...did they know how? No. Did that matter? No. They got it done. They were everyone's favorite people no matter where they went.

Jaime reminds me a lot of them. It's nice to see someone younger than me that has a true 'Get it done' attitude without that overreaching fear of defeat, laziness, apathy, ennui and timidity that is SO prevelant these days.

Damn...! Awesome, there's hope for the world yet.

Hunting And Gathering...

Yesterday was only partially successful. Took Mini Me and went to look for somewhere that carries colored plastic straws in bulk to try and make her lampshade...easier said than done! Smart & Final had ONE box of 600--I need something on the order of 1500--and the colors were a bit disappointing. Online searches revealed either individuals selling cute lil' boxes of 25 or nameless, shapeless terrifing Chinese overseas suppliers with web pages in Chinese. Even ebay failed me. I'll have to undertake further digging.

The Renaissance Faire costumes came out of the closet yesterday for inspection--mine has a bit of unraveled, but still there, gimp cord on the bodice that I need to reweave and sew back into place, but other than that looks OK, as does J's.

I also had the kid try on her Renaissance Faire costume. What a hoot.

*sigh*...my old chemise that I'd taken in and secured by basting a few years ago, and which had also served as one of her underskirts, had the basting stiches removed so she can just wear it as a top. That was the ONLY part of her costume that isn't going to be a major undertaking. She needs three new skirts (hello, thrift stores my old friends, I've come to shop with you again...), and her existing overskirt/bodice I'm going to have to entirely take apart and redesign. I can recut and crenellate the bottom and recut and reshape the bodice to look more like a 17th century bodice. The sides of the bodice, top of the shoulder and front of the bodice all need to be slashed and grommets installed so they'll lace up. Once I do all that it should last her a couple of more years, which I like because the faded purple corduroy it's made of looks charming on her and is just getting that comfortable 'worn-in' look & feel to it. I also like keeping and reusing elements of her very first Ren Faire costume in it. :) Besides, Faire costumes only look good if they look like REAL, worn-in clothing, even better if they look like nice hand-me-downs since it better fits the 'middle class' look we're going for. That's why the 'lovely but a bit faded & worn' look works so well.

So off to Michaels yesterday for leather lacing (pretty faded sage green) and grommets. No gimp cord found for the bodice, but then again we don't have ANY fabric stores in our area, which is stupid.

Today will be foraging in the thrift stores for skirts, pieces I can take apart and repurpose for her costume and any random bits that may work into our costumes as-is.

We're aiming for going to the Faire maybe next weekend, hopefully it won't be raining!