In My Backyard…Events of the past storm!

Now I haven’t been able to write about all the havoc we  have been here in the mountains.  I knew this year we would have El Nino and it would pretty bad, but I had no idea that it would be THIS bad!

Like I said in my other post, we had a series of storms that dumped over 5 feet of snow in just a couple of days. 

We were out of power for 36 hours due to wind gusts that went over the lake at 80 miles an hour and sheared eight power poles like toothpicks.  Here is a picture of them, if you look at the back of the picture you will see one power pole down,.  They closed the road in order to work around the clock to get them up and God Bless the electric company.

I had to take this with my cell phone after trekking as far as I could before being asked to leave and trek back to my truck.  (hey that was kind of funny).

 

Well that is were funny stopped.  The first night wasn’t so bad with not having electricity, used a lot of candles and fires in the fireplace.  But the next morning, OH MY LORD!  Here are some pictures of what we woke up to:

Beautiful  isn’t it?  Now you ask about the chickens, what happens to them when there is this much snow?

Well, take a look at their chicken run:

What do chickens do when there is this much snow? 

Andy went out there to shovel a path so at least the chickens could get out and when he went to the back guess who was looking right at him at eye level?  Susie Loo Who!  Can you believe it?  She pecked at the snow a little at a time until she reached the top of it!  Aren’t chickens amazing!!!  Unfortunately, since the storm they have only laid one egg, it traumatized them. 

We are having another storm come in tonight and is supposed to last for the next few days, so here we go again, however, I don’t believe it will be as bad or even near as bad as this last epic storm. 

It feels so good to have the internet back, just makes me so nervous to be so dependant on this machine, I don’t ever want to be without it again, I felt I was all by myself on a mountain that was snowed in…wait a minute……..

In my backyard...or actually looking out my kitchen window

Hi y'all!

I have some incredible pictures of the storm we had back a month ago. But since my computer router went out I could not post any pictures. I downloaded a huge amount and wanted to start with this one.

I hope you like it and there will be more to show. It snowed over 5 feet in 36 hours and all I can say, is WOW! It was the worst storm we had had since 1969!!!! Over 40 years ago. This town went into action and with all the work, we were up and running sooner than later.
I have a lot more but wanted to get this one up and on my blog...

Hold the Presses!

Literally!!!

I am being held hostage by my internet company! We have had bad storms and I MEAN bad, over 5 FEET of snow. This was the worst storm since 1969!!!! Well that was 2 weeks today and my internet is down, still!!!!! I am ready to scream! No wifi, so I can't listen to my internet radio on my Itouch! What is a girl to do, however, I sneaked over to a girlfriend's house and wanted to write you a quick note, to say I am still here!!!!

I am one tough girl!!! So, when I am able to get the cable guy over to my house it will be back on board! Until then....

In my Backyard…..Last Indian Fight in Southern California

I am very blessed to live in a very special area.  There is so many interesting points and history in my backyard.  SO, I have decided to write about different things that I find really interesting.  Some things may be corny and something's you may even say, really?
Here ya go on my first one…..
How about the last Indian fight in Southern California, right down the hill in Lucerne Valley…here is a snippet of the fight…

 
Chimney Rock in Lucerne Valley was the site of the last Indian fight in Southern California.....There were many events that lead up to the historic fight.....Indians had used the mountain areas of San Bernardino for many years to supply food for their families.....When the white man began cutting down trees and building their sawmills the Indians felt their hunting grounds were being ruined....This began a campaign to rid the area of the white man.
How cool is that?  Stay tuned for more, silly trivia!

Working full time! There isn’t enough time in the day!

I am back!  I have been trying to think of some great words to put down to say why I haven’t taken time to write.  I have been working full time and that has kicked me in the ???? you know!!!

I also have decided to start putting my pictures from the computer on to a flash drive, well that has been a HUGE undertaking!  I just went through 4 GIG and I am not even half done!  Plus, if anyone of you take a lot of pictures, you start getting into looking at them and POOF hours are gone!!! 

I want to apologize for not having something on my little blog when you visit.  It is like having a friend stop by and not being home, that will only happen so many times, then your friend stops coming over. 

Thanks for stopping by my friend, I will make sure I am home.  Let’s sit and have a cup of coffee and let me share with you what has been happening in my world…

Looking Out My Living Room Window

Andy and I were having coffee this morning, discussing the events of the day to follow.  Watching the last of the storm outside my living room window.  There, I saw him, not only was there one but two!

Aren’t they beautiful!  I asked Andy to hold my coffee, ran and grabbed my camera and took as many as I could!

If you close enough, you can see the snow on this guy’s nose. They were truly the size of German Sheppard's! Look at the tail! 

These beauties have not missed ANY meals and they are on the way up to my chicken coop,
Run girls RUN!!! (would that be a chicken run?)  Look how beautiful his tail is……
Wow, what a site to see, another blessing of living up here, well, to be here IN the house and take photos out my window!
Just happy my windows were clean, ok, kind of clean!
Have a GREAT Sunday!

Really knowing the size of your turkey!

Let me start off by saying, “I didn’t think it was going to be a problem!

Andy and I decided to brine our turkey this year, which is simply putting your turkey in a large container and put about 2-3 cups of kosher salt in it and let it sit then cook it later so the turkey is really moist.

Now, we have been known to do that the night before, but honestly, forgot about it.  No big deal.  So Andy went outside to the garage to get the turkey out of the refrigerator while I pulled out a pot to put the kosher salt, water and turkey into.

He walks in and says “that pot is not going to fit our turkey”.  I said “sure it is it’s only 15 pounds”.  He get the turkey out of its package takes all the stuff out of it and puts it in the pot. 

I just stood there looking at it.  I started laughing and still am writing this post.  Well, as hard as it is to say it is even harder to write HE WAS RIGHT  OMG!  Write that down!

He went outside to my storage area and went and got a HUGE pot to put it in.  Much better!

I just had to share this with you!

OOPS!

Second pictures says it all!

Well that didn’t work well.  As I said in my title I need to really know the size of my turkey or pot!!

Let’s see how the rest of the day goes!  Happy turkey eating!

Happy Thanksgiving my family and friends

Just a special little note to say that I am thankful to have you and you and you too as my family and friends.  We are blessed in so many ways, I just wanted you to know how special you all are to us.

May your day be filled with love and happiness, and most of all, with full bellies.

From our home,

Andy and Jeanine Sturgeon

Make your own Firestarters!

 

For years I have complained, (yes, I do that from time to time) about this one thing over and over again.  It seems that when I go to make a fire in our fireplace we are ALWAYS out of firestarters.  I hate buying them, due to their cost but their convenience is worth its weight in gold. 

So,  off to the internet over the summer to see if I could make my own firestarters, nothing lost, nothing gained. 

This “recipe” is so simple I kick myself that I didn’t do it sooner.  Without further writing,or um, talking, here is the best firestarter recipe I know…..and did I say it is almost free except for the cupcake paper?

A package of small cupcake wrappers (I mean small, they will work great, you don’t need bigger, trust me, you will use way too much wax and the smaller one will do the trick just fine.

Wood shavings ( I gathered wood shavings from Bertha aka the HUGE tree Andy cut down.  You could even use wood shavings from any pet store.

Used candles (See, REUSE, how cool is this? Now I never throw away my candles anymore)

A vegetable can (rinsed out )

A pot (filled 1/3 way with water)

Mini muffin pan (convenient but not imperative)

Now, melt the candle wax in the can over medium heat, remember that candle wax is very flammable, so always use caution, pleeaassee!

I put about 1/3 of the shavings in the cups and when the was is melted I Andy  wrapped a thick cloth around it as to not burn me Andy and slowly pour each cup until they were 3/4 way filled.

Once it dried, I removed them from the muffin pan, that’s it!

To use, just add one to your fireplace and light the paper on top and VIOL A you have a GREAT firestarter!  They will burn for about 15 minutes, plenty of time to get your fire going good!

 

I was so excited about this that I just had to start it while I had my candles in the fireplace.