Few local scenic spots ..... view of the dam and the snow.

and the river

This is Dalton Mountain, most people think of the Dalton Gang in Kansas, but for a time they were train robbers in the San Joaquin Valley and this was their hideout.  

Saw the clouds on my way home, didn't pull over to take a picture ... this shot is from my front gate.

And around the house ...

Dollar all curled up on my right on the sofa napping

Bella napping on my left side

Bella telling me she is bored and wants attention, you can't see her paw

on my shoulder, telling me to get off the computer and play with her.

'Twas the night before Christmas ...................

And all thru the house only creatures a stirring are Dollar and Bella, but we are here to wish a very Merry Christmas to fellow bloggers and their families.

Have a wonderful and safe Holiday

Green grass and Mountain Snow

Happy sheep the grass is here.  The green trees in the middle of the picture and the rows behind them are all oranges.  This little valley smells wonderful in April when all the orange trees are in bloom.

I took a little detour on my way home to get a better picture of the snow in the Sierras, this is the Highway on the way to Kings Canyon National Park.

I have taken this picture before but the grass was all brown, the white building bottom right is home, love my little valley here (except when summer days are over 100 degrees)

Wishing everyone in blog land a very Merry Christmas.

Who is at fault ?????

It's a long, long list.  And, it starts with all the people that want to get as many $$$$$'s as they can.  I just heard on the news one of the gun shops in Fresno will give a discount to any teacher coming in to buy a gun. There are already enough people in there buying guns so let's seen now they are going to target a specific group of people so they can sell more, while all of this is still being hyped on the news.  Kudos to Dick's Sporting Goods that said they would stop selling assault rifles.  Now that is a step in the right direction.

There are the gun manufacturers, let's see, let's make guns where you can insert a clip with several bullets, ok, let's make the clips bigger, then it will hold more bullets, and let's sell spare clips. How can it be fixed when the Barn Door has been opened ..... not many people will turn in assault weapons they have, and the bad guys certainly won't.

Then there is the news, they descended on a small Connecticut town, got to be the first with the most news.  Every TV station had to send all their top reporters, camera men, sound guys, broadcast trucks to talk to anyone they could.  It was so sad to see the school buses going by banks of news cameras and microphones along the side of the road for the students that went back to school today.  Makes it hard to get kids back into the normal routine they say they need.

Fresno County News broadcasts are full of shootings on a daily basis, last week a 12 year old boy was sitting inside his home when hit by bullets from a drive by shooting, he was not the intended target, he was taken off life support this week.  This was thought to be a gang related shooting.

And then ... we cannot leave out Hollywood and the violent movies, or software companies that create violent video games under the ruse of entertainment.  It's hard to believe Road Runner cartoons were thought to be violent.

I know the list is a lot longer, we all need to work at improving things unless the Mayan calendar is right and we won't be here after next week.

I do believe in our right to bear arms ... tonight someone on the news was blaming our founding fathers for not being able to make predictions beyond black powder and muskets when they wrote the 2nd amendment.  Wish we could turn back the clock and shut the barn door tight.

Now where did I leave my musket.

Pink Snow and Wood Stove

Fantastic sunset created pink snow in the Sierras

Looking west to the sunset

Bought 2 pickup loads of firewood over the weekend, the last 4 days have been

ok to burn days so I have been enjoying staying toasty warm by the wood stove.

Not much else going on but watching the grass grow.

With a very heavy heart ...........

prayers to all the residents of Connecticut that have to deal with today's tragic event.  To think that elementary schools would even be a target is unbelievable.  I am a firm believer in one's right to bear arms, but, that amendment was written in the days of one shot black powder rifles.  There is no reason John Q. Public should have access to assault weapons.

Happy 12-12-12

Not much going on here, just day to day regular chores, grass is growing, been really foggy, supposed to get more rain today .... not whining 'yet' just cold, I know to all you in the northern states would think 40 degrees is tropical for this time of year, but I'm cold.  Today is finally an OK to burn day so I will bring in some wood for the wood stove tonight.  Trying to not run house furnace any more than just short periods to take the chill off, so I can hold off buying more propane til next month, tank is still half full but it can go so quick

More crazy, depressing news on TV again today, take care, stay safe, stay warm, Christmas is almost here and the new year 2013 ........... no 13-13-13 next year.

There is some snow up in the Sierras 

Interesting clouds 

 

 

Been watching the grass grow

 

Sheep look so much better on green grass

But no water in the creek yet, so far the last few days have brought an inch and a half of rain

Can you see it ... Dollar can

Blogger is making me frustrated .... don't know if it's my computer or Google ..... trying to post, not showing pictures, just boxes.  When I leave comments on blogs I follow, some fall into a big black hole somewhere, some show up.  Some blogs comments box show on bottom of blog, others separate window opens, both to write and to view.

It is finally raining in California enough that I can sit by my window and watch the pasture grass grow.  There was a little sprouting/wilting grass before it rained and now with this rain it will really help.  Went to the feed store yesterday and the price of hay was up $2.00 a bale from last week so pasture will really help cut back on costs.

Now I just need some ambition to go dig out some sort of Christmas decorations, have about one half of my Christmas cards addressed ... that's a start for now.  Maybe a cup of Egg Nog will inspire me.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's so foggy this morning ... that fig tree in the pasture is about 150 ft from me.

Brock and Buster discussing how happy they are that they are not Turkeys today

I hope Bella and Dollar will share part of the sofa with me after Turkey Dinner, looks

like they already had dinner 

Wishing you all a Very Happy Thanksgiving Dinner with your Families.

Finally something to Post ..... RAIN

Not much compared to what other parts of the country get, but hopefully enough to get the pastures to sprout some green grass.  Since it has only sprinkled a couple weeks ago this is the first rain since last April.   This picture is out my front door looking east towards the Sierras.  I think the least amount of rain here since moving here in 1999 was about 6 inches and the most was about 18 inches .... for the year  .... I know there are areas that get that much or more in a day.

This is Mr. PIB I told my sister in law if he was a girl I would have named him PIA for Pain In A... instead he is Mr. Pain in Butt  .... I think he is trying to tell me that I need to get the Mulcher/Blower out and clean the patio for him.

He is kinda good looking for being such a pain.

I just looked out the window ... it is not raining right now but there is a big rainbow .... going to see if I can find that pot of gold.

Need to do a better job of counting

If I am home all day I turn the Dorper Ewes and Lambs out into the pastures.  In the evenings, they have biological clocks that tell them it is feeding time or if I am early the sound of the mule brings them all to the pen.  They will either be standing by the feeders or next to the gate, waiting for me to fill the feeders.  I make sure to count all the lambs (several times sometimes) to be sure they are all in the pen before I close the gate.  Tuesday night all the lambs were in the pen, no problem.  The dogs were over at the falling down barn barking which they usually do when the cat is in the rafters, didn't think a thing about it.  Well Wednesday morning when I went out the let the ewes out one of the was already out ... must have been her hiding out in the barn .... and she had lamb number 14 by her side, a little ram.  Need to count ewes and lambs when I close the gate.

Neighbors trees are finally getting their fall color

To every one on the east coast suffering from the weather, it was 83 degrees here on Wednesday and in the 60's yesterday, cooling down really fast, sunny today with big white clouds over the Sierras.

Twelve and Thirteen ..............

... Thirteen is a lucky number, right?

I have lost count on boys vs, girls so far, but these 2 are both ewe lambs, now 

if we could just get some rain so the grass will start to sprout, really going to need

pasture to start producing to cut down on hay bill.  There are still 6 more Dorper ewes some look close to being due and one or two don't even look pregnant, but give them time, LOL.

At least there is still a few more months before the Shetlands start lambing and I still have 3 more 

Shetland ewes to put in with the rams next week.

While feeding a few days ago I saw a dead bird on the other side of the fence in

neighbor's field, looked a little bigger than a dove, so I went and looked at 

it but did not have camera.  It was missing the head but looked like a young

hawk.  Well now there is just a pile of feathers and yes it was a young red tail.

Lately the news has been hyping up that California is due for a BIG storm, well I am a little

better prepared than some of those on the east coast, just because I don't live near the grocery store I am

used to stocking up.  Matter of fact last week when I went to the store it had been 2 weeks since I went to town.  But it is now time to keep the diesel can full for the Mule and I think if the price of gas goes down a bit more I will fill the tank in the truck.  I never let my tank in the truck go below a quarter of a tank because I don't want to have an emergency and have to go somewhere at night a search for an open station.  But with the prices lately I don't fill it up either, just $20 - $40 depending on my plans for the week.  If I filled it up all the time I would probably be found out joyriding taking pictures everywhere.

Have a good day, stay safe,

Bought another pumpkin on Halloween ...

On my way home from having lunch with one of my daughters yesterday I stopped to see a friend at her little   store .... she had wheelbarrows full of all kinds of pumpkins outside ... so I bought this one and plan to save the seeds .....

Lamb update .. now there are  11 

Today I took some fleeces to the a local yarn shop  to sell and I bought some more bobbins for my new spinning wheel, there are several antique stores along the streets by the yarn shop, ever have a day when you feel like something is calling you ... this is what I found way in the back of the antique store.  I saw this on a plaque in a catalog year or so ago, but must have thrown the catalog away, because I could never find it again.  When I saw this old rusty skillet I knew it was coming home with me.

Hard to believe it is November already, and this year is coming to a close ......

Happy Halloween

Wishing everyone a Happy, Safe Halloween, and for those on the east coast have fun whatever day you get to celebrate.

Hug a Sheep Day .... 2 more to hug ......

and now there are 10 ..............

Brock came to the fence today for his hug ...........

And his twin sister Brandy likes to have spots scratched .....

And by the look of the wool on several of the Shetland ewes I think C'Oso has been doing his share of  making sure everyone has been getting "hugs"

And Bella wants to know why it's hug a sheep day and not a hug a Bella day

Here is hoping everyone in Sandy's path on the east coast stays safe and their critters too.

Have you Herd I took a road trip today ...........

I took a trip up to the Mill in Oakhurst today to pick up all my Shetland and Angora Fleeces.  I saw this interesting rock on the way up so I had to stop and take a picture on the way home.  Lighting is not great but there was only a narrow spot on the road to get out and take a picture, and I did not feel like crawling thru a barb wire fence to get better lighting.

Kinda filled up my truck with bags of fleeces, stuffed in everywhere but the drivers seat .....

 

 

I know the correct spelling for this title should have been "Have you Heard" but here is the Herd, 4 goats of one breed can be called a herd .... right?  Stopped on the way back from the mill to pick up these 3 girls and 1 guy from friend selling her house and livestock to move out of state.  At the price of gas I like to combine my errands and she was only a couple miles from the route to the mill.  I did not want to see them end up at the auction so I now have a 3rd breed of goat here now.  These are registered Pygoras.

 

 

Don't forget "Hug a Sheep Day"

Don't forget tomorrow is "Hug a Sheep Day"

Another Lamb and a little rain ...................

 Another single lamb

And now there are Eight ......................

Checking out the tree, this is one of the objects in there obstacle course they run around ...

Finally  .... a quarter inch of rain ... it's a start ...