February's Gone?

OK, who stole February?

Seriously.

Where did it go?

Wasn't it January just a coupla' days ago?

I also can't believe it's been almost a week since my last post.

What in the world have I been doing?!

Not much really.  Although, I have been tackling some paperwork that needed my attention and was very time consuming as well as doing a lot of knitting.

I can't wait for the day when I truly know how to knit.

What I'm knitting now is quite simple and even though I'm using knitting needles I'm not sure it should really be called knitting!

Oh well.  CountryBoy calls anything I do with a needle or hook knitting.  Even cross-stitch, ha!  So, in his mind, I've been knitting for years!

We've had some chilly, windy, rainy days during the month of February.

The higher elevations even got some snow.

This has been the view for several mornings during this month...

... a fine mist sweeping across the desert.

The snow, the clouds, the mist... all are so beautiful!

(I could do without the 25-30 mph wind though.)

I hope February did not pass you by.

If it did, well, we're just that much closer to Spring!

Till next time,

Pouch or Diddy Bag?

Since I started crocheting a couple of years ago I've acquired a collection of hooks and a container of stitch markers.

I purchased a  quilted roll-up bag to store my hooks in but had nowhere to keep my little container of stitch markers.

This was really no big deal as I didn't use them that often so I kept them in my yarn tote.  (That's full.  Because of my yarn fetish, smile!)

I've also wanted to learn how to knit so I purchased a knitting starter kit that came with an instruction book, a DVD, and lots of little doo dads to keep up with and nothing to put them in other than more containers that I've scrounged up to contain the smaller of the doo dads!  Got it?

By the way, I was not the least bit impressed with the DVD.  The camera angle was not that good and she went too fast.  Just so ya' know!

I've not been able to find anything suitable to hold everything so I decided to make my own with a remnant that I found at, guess where... Joann's!

My friend/neighbor/fellow road-wife came over yesterday to help guide me in putting all the pieces together since I've never tackled a zipper before.

After much pondering and figuring, this is what we came up with...

I was quite pleased with how it turned out.

It's large enough to fit all my doo dads (with room for more if necessary) and my crochet hook bag yet small enough to fit in my project travel bag, yay!

I showed it to CountryBoy when he got home.  He liked it so much he wants a smaller one for his precision tools.  Go figure!  All though, I kinda figured he'd want one for some reason.  "I need a pouch with a zipper to hold my precision tools."

He calls it a pouch.

My friend/neighbor/fellow road-wife calls it a diddy bag.

What would you call it?

Till next time,

Rural Antiquities

It's a cold, rainy day here in the Mohave Desert.

A perfect day for staying indoors, sipping on some hot tea while reading a book.

The problem, with me, in sitting down to read a book on a dreary day like this is that I tend to get sleepy and want to take a nap.

So, instead of reading, I'll be knitting some scarves and helping my neighbor friend do some sewing on my machine and doing laundry.  If there's time, I may sew a small bag to contain all my small knitting and crochet goodies.

CountryBoy called on his way in to work and said it was snowing a few miles down the road which means it will be snowing a lot more at the job since they are several thousand feet higher than us.

No snow here though.

Since I haven't been out and about lately to take any photos I thought I would revisit my photos from the old mine we toured several weeks ago in Nelson, Nevada and share with y'all some of the treasures that were lying around...

Such great stuff surrounded by such beauty!

One day I would love to go back to the mine and just spend the day shooting all the goodies out there.

Linking with

Till next time,

Closet Redo

Our closet in the 5th wheel was having some issues and looked as though it would collapse at any second.

I held my breath every time I hung something up hoping that whatever I had just hung up would not be the straw that broke the camels back so to speak.

We decided that fixing it needed to be a priority rather than waiting until it became a necessity.

If you look to the left in this photo you'll notice the shelf dipping and twisting a bit and 'leaning' forward...

A closer view...

There was also some water damage to the shelf at the far left.

This one doesn't show the twisting, leaning and dipping so much but you can see the typical closet rod for 5th wheels & travel trailers...

... a real pain when trying to hang those thick, chunky, plastic hangers into those little slots or when trying to get your clothes off said hangers.

I started purchasing felt hangers that had small metals hooks to replace those plastic ones but because of the expense I was purchasing only a few at a time.

Ah, there's the culprit (sorry it's so blurry but the closet doors weren't off yet and I was using the Auto setting and couldn't get the camera to focus where I wanted it to)...

... a knot smack-dab in the center of the board that had split.

After deciding what all he needed, CountryBoy and I headed to town to get what was needed.

He bought a piece of trim to attach to the existing naughty knotty board (pun intended!) that would firm it up.  It also would allow a 'lip' to extend above the shelf so that whatever's up there won't fall off as easily.

We also decided a 1 inch piece of metal conduit would be perfect to use as the rod.

Here's the closet redo...

No more saggy, twisty shelf and rod!

I am really pleased with how it turned out!

 We can also hang and get our clothes much easier now.

And, I'm not afraid to hang the clothes up anymore on laundry day!

When starting a project like this in a small living space, it really needs to get done in one day.

Seeing as we had to get the supplies the same day I am thankful that CountryBoy did not run into any snags while doing it.

This is why it had to be done in one day...

... so that we'd have a place to sleep that night!

While CountryBoy was tackling the closet, I was tackling the rest of the handles in the bedroom.

I took the doors off as well as the handles and hinges, spray-painted the handles and hinges, cleaned and polished the wood, put the hardware back on and hung the doors back up.  I managed to get the bedroom handles finished and the doors above the washer/dryer.

Since it's not windy today and should be a nice day I am going to attempt to finish up the cabinet doors in the bathroom.  That will leave me with 16 more to do in the living room and kitchen.

I'm really pleased with how well they're turning out too.

It seems that no matter where CountryBoy and I live or what we live in we will always have a project or two to work on.  That's just the way we are I guess.

I'm not sure if having two creative and capable people in the same vicinity is a good thing or bad, ha!  Sure keeps us out of trouble though. Usually!

Next up, will be a custom spice rack that will hang in our limited kitchen wall space to free up valuable kitchen counter space.  Of course, I'll let you guys know how it turns out when it's finished!

Till next time,

Happy Valentines Day

Wishing you and yours a

Happy Valentines Day

from the Mohave Desert!

CountryBoy and I will celebrate Valentines Day tomorrow evening after he gets off work by going out to eat.  Since we do special things for each other all throughout the year, we don't make a big deal out of Valentines Day... he bought me some Reese's heart shaped chocolates and I bought him some body spray that he likes. Good, practical (and yes, chocolate is VERY practical!) gifts and a good dinner that I didn't have to cook, woot!

How do you celebrate this day of love?

On another note, I've joined the 1st Annual Valentines Day Boost Your Blog Party!  I'm really excited about this event!  Yes, I'm hoping to gain a few more followers but I'm also looking forward to checking out the other bloggers that have joined up.  I'm planning on spending the majority of my day browsing the other entries.  Fun, fun!

If you have some time, hop on over there yourself and check them out.  You might just find a new, favorite blog!

And, I'm also joining up with 

Till next time,

I've Got Nothin'

This week it seems I don't have a whole lot to say.

I don't really know why some weeks, it seems, I can't shut up and other weeks, it seems, I don't have much to say?

I'm sure CountryBoy would beg to differ on the above statement though, ha!

Anyhoo, here's a short recap on what's been happenin' round here...

Remember this yarn I bought a couple of weeks ago?

I made a scarf out of the top skeins...

It's bamboo.  Can ya believe it?  It's so soft and luxurious and quite warm too, I might add.  It has been a neck saver these past couple of very cold, windy days here.  (I can't seem to get LizzieBelle to hurry up and do her business so we can get out of the cold and wind, sigh.  WAY too many smells out there to sniff and reclaim!  "Stop rushing me, Mom")

Happily, or not, Precious is modeling the scarf for me...

Yea, maybe not so happily, huh?  I think I'm getting 'the look'!

I wanted to get some more of the bamboo yarn yesterday while I was town but I managed to talk myself into NOT stopping at Joann Fabrics.  What, you say?   Yea, I know.  I'm not sure what came over me, sigh.  Even CountryBoy wondered what was wrong with me, heehee!

I have quite a few projects already in the works so I decided that I needed to finish a few of them before I bought anymore yarn.

That was yesterday's decision.  No guarantees that the decision will be the same if I find myself in town in a few days...

...because I REALLY like this yarn!

While I was in town yesterday, I picked up my engagement ring that had to be sent out to be re-soldered.  The diamond setting is soldered at the base in two locations.  That's all that holds the setting in place.  Thankfully, I noticed that one of the spots came un-soldered so I took it off and put it in my jewelry box for several weeks until I could find a jeweler.  Boy, did I feel naked without it.

I guess after thirteen years of continually being worn while building our barn, working in the garden, gathering eggs, cleaning chicken coops, etc., it finally showed some wear and tear.

It's all better now and looks new again.  (I should've given them my wedding band too so they could clean it up real good!)  Oh, and please ignore all the wrinkles, ugh.

I hope y'all are having a good week so far.

Will you be celebrating Valentine's Day tomorrow with your sweetie?

How will you celebrate?

Till next time,

Expectations

Saturday CountryBoy and I headed west to California.  Oh, and LizzieBelle came too!

He wanted to show me the job site where he works and then check out the neighboring towns.

It was a cold, brisk morning as we headed out after sharing a pot of coffee and a yummy breakfast.

OK, so he drank most of the coffee but we shared nonetheless, hahaha!

It's just under an hours drive to the job site with gorgeous views along the way.  It's too bad it's dark most of his travel time.

The job's on the other side of the mountains up ahead.

This road we're on is appropriately called Joshua Tree Road.

They don't look much like trees to me compared to the trees back home but there are quite a few of them around these parts.

You can read more about them HERE.

From this point, we had to turn back around because my camera battery was very low and I forgot to pack the spare battery in my camera back.  Sigh.  I was expecting to take a lot of photos and knew that the battery would not last.

We eventually made it to the job site.

It's an old mine that is being restored and expanded.

The place is huge as you can see in the above photo.

CountryBoy is working as a Millwright installing and aligning large machinery.

He says that there is always a cloud over this mountain to the left of the job...

From there we went on to Baker, California where we ran into some very interesting specimens...

Yep, aliens.  Parked right next to us.

Hmmm, just where is Area 51?!

In this store (it's an Alien Fresh Jerky store), along with Alien Fresh Jerky are lots of strange sodas to choose from...

Here's a closer look...

Anything suit yer fancy?!

We stopped to eat at a Greek restaurant that's supposed to be really good but we didn't see anything on the menu that was suitable for our diet other than a $12 Greek salad.  Yikes!  I guess we'll never know how good it is.

After our alien encounter and deciding not to eat Greek we headed to Barstow, California.

It was a bigger town, city actually, but we didn't see anything that struck our fancy or any suitable photo ops.

We did stop to eat at a Mexican restaurant.  Lots of Mexican restaurants to choose from around these parts.

It was time to head back home so we took a different route making a giant circle and hoping to see some different landscape.

We came across a section of Route 66.

Since we've been on Route 66 in Nevada and Arizona we thought it would be cool to be on a section of it in California.

So, we hopped off of I-40 and hopped on Route 66 that ran alongside of the highway for the most part.

It became so bumpy that we hopped back off it at the next ramp.

Here we are traveling alongside Route 66...

We were in need of some fuel so we got off the Interstate and bought a few gallons of ridiculously priced gas at $5.25/gallon at a gas station that was on Route 66.  It was the only place around.

Since this section of Route 66 was smooth we stayed on it and discovered a nice short-cut to home.

It was an enjoyable day but I was expecting a lot more photo ops that just weren't there.

That's the trouble with expectations.  I think I would rather expect less and be pleasantly surprised rather than expect more and be disappointed.

Next time we head out, I'm not going to have any expectations that way I'll be pleasantly surprised!

And, by the way, since there were so few photo ops I didn't need the spare battery after all, ha!  Oh well, better to be safe than sorry.

Till next time,

Sunday Blessings

Till next time,

Ever Have One of Those Days?

Yesterday was that kind of day for me.

I woke up feeling good.

I had a mental list of things I wanted to do.

Some necessary things like laundry, balancing the check book, paying a few bills and writing a thank you note.

And some fun, relaxing things like finish crocheting my latest scarf (before another cold snap hits this weekend), deciding my next crochet project, begin sewing some quilt pieces, and whatever else hits me.

Instead, I did two loads of laundry, wrote a blog post and started balancing the check book.

That's when it all went down hill.

The check book would not balance.

All morning I spent trying to figure out the problem.

It's in our favor, but still...

I was a bank teller, I should be able to figure this out.

Nope.

I stopped long enough to go have some lunch with my sister-in-law.

I wanted the soup of the day and a baked potato.

Nope.  No baked potatoes until after 4:00.

At least the soup was good.

After lunch, I checked my figures again in the check book but found nothing amiss.

I finally put it away but by then I was frustrated.

And, it seemed, whatever else I touched turned into a problem.

So, I decided to touch nothing except the current book I am reading.

Which, happens to be a book by Beverly Lewis, a well-known author of Amish fiction.

That's where I needed to be for the rest of the afternoon.

Caught up in the Amish lifestyle.  Ah.

I did manage to cook supper without incident and CountryBoy and I had a relaxing evening.  (Everything's always better when he's around!)

I'm not touching the check book until next week.  I refuse.

Maybe it will fix itself.  (One can only hope!)

And, today, I intend to do what I didn't do yesterday.

It's going to be a good day.  Yes, it is!

Coffee's on board, blog post is being written, gluten free English muffin thawing for breakfast with butter and homemade strawberry jam, birds are telling me it's time for their breakfast, yep, a good day!

You can also probably tell what kind of day it was yesterday because I have no photos for you today.

Yea, I know, for shame!

I'll see if I can remedy that this weekend for ya...

I will show you my thrift store finds from the other day.

I went to Goodwill and a Hospice thrift store when I went to town.

Here's what I found...

Napkins (six total), a thick book on digital photography (since I left all mine at home), a cool cake decorating thingy with all kinds of attachments that I have no idea how to use them all, and a bottle opener.

All for around ten bucks!

I've already used the cake decorator thingy to add avocado mocha frosting to some gluten free chocolate cupcakes.  It worked really well.  And the cupcakes were good too!

I hope y'all have a fantastic weekend!

CountryBoy and I are hoping to explore a bit of California on Saturday.  He wants to show me where he works and the surrounding areas.  I'm crossing my fingers for some good photo ops.

Till next time,

More Techatticup

I took tons of photos (as usual!) the day CountryBoy and I visited the old mine just outside Nelson, Nevada.

Here are a few more for ya...

The mining town and surrounding mountains...

Beautiful, rugged landscape.

As I mentioned in the previous post, you could spend all day meandering around this place and still not see everything.  Such fun!

Today, I'm linking up with Madge at The View From Right Here.  She is hosting a Rurality Bog Hop and this is the fist one.

I haven't participated in many Blog Hops lately since there have been so many changes in our lives here recently but I'm thinking it may be time to start participating again.

So, stop by and check out the other participants and see what's happening in their little piece of the world.

Till next time,