Christmas Time and I'm a Scrooge

So it is about Christmas and here I sit watching cheesy Christmas movies. I have no idea why I watch these things, some I’ve seen every year. I always know what the end will be but I still watch and get all mushy are the sad parts.

I haven’t bought any presents yet as I’ve spent every spare cent on the cookie business. I’ll give out smoked almonds to mine and Dale’s siblings. As for the grandkids I have no idea what they will get. Something small I suppose.

Fortunately no one will be here at all this year. We will all meet at my brother Mike’s for Christmas Eve and then go our separate ways. I don’t need to buy a tree or extra fresh decorations, thank goodness. What a scrooge I am!

37 Years and Counting

Yesterday was our 37^th wedding anniversary, hard to believe that it has been that long but it does seem like forever in another way. But actually we did get married on a Saturday night.

We’d wanted to go away for a change and had thought that a place with a campground nearby would be perfect. We had some great Iron Horse Champagne and BV Cab that we wanted to drink with our dinner but didn’t want to drive anywhere after drinking.

Looking at our finances over the weekend I found that we really didn’t have enough money to do much extra. With starting up the cookie company recently all of our extra funds have gone to the start up costs, hence we were going to need to stay around here and make the best of it.

I took an inventory of what we had on hand: fresh brussel sprouts with fresh lemons and butter, celery and the makings for Celery Soup a la Julia Child and Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and some instant vanilla pudding.

Visiting the local butcher was my next step. I was thinking about smoking a nice piece of meat as without an oven that works the smoking was the next best way to cook. The butcher suggested a N.Y loin roast and I had him apply a garlic rub.

So I smoked our meat, made the other dishes, got out the silver, lit the candles while Dale poured our champagne. Ah, a wonderful dinner with the man I love.

A Halloween Wedding

I saw yesterday that I’d never written about Justin and Jenavieve’s wedding. The wedding was so much fun, just a fun, fun wedding.

The wedding took place on Moonstone Beach, this is in Northern California, on Halloween. The beach is at the bottom of a bluff with boulders along the bottom edge of the bluffs.

The day was rainy but by evening the rain had stopped. We arrived at the beach after sunset with fog settling in.

The person to officiate the ceremony was dressed in a dark brown hooded robe. He stepped out of the foggy shadows into the area the guests were in giving an air of mystery.

A circle had been drawn in the sand that would enclose Justin and Jenavieve. Justin 1^st walked into the circle then Christabel, the flower girl, came along tossing her peddles on the sand. Christabel was dressed in a black dress with some sparkles, black tights, shoes and black feather wings.

Jenavieve was wearing some beautiful shear colorful wings that matched her green dress and she entered the circle to join Justin.

As the mother of the groom I laid a broom across the place Justin and Jenavieve entered the circle. This is called “closing the circle”.

The ceremony fit Justin and Jenavieve and fit with the entire location.

We Made the Newspaper

At Sunday’s farmers market I was working alone as Dale was working at his nursing job and the Silva girls were not able to help out. A man came along carrying his camera; he looked like a news person. This is nothing new as journalism students regularly take photos of us for one assignment or another.

This man introduced himself as David Karp, writer for the food section of the L.A. Times. He’d met Nate at the Thousand Oaks market but was covering the Santa Clarita market this time. He wanted to feature our products in his article.

During our interview Bekki arrived with Christabel and Zaya in tow so he snapped photos of them as well. I wish that he would have put their photos in as they are the ones who can really sell for the business. Everyone loves these darling girls.

The article is in the Times on-line but I think it might be in next week’s actual paper. 

This is so great for Nate and his Fat Uncle Farms. He has worked so hard to make this business work and we are so happy for him. It wasn’t that long ago that we would try to go on Dale’s days off and whenever I could otherwise, just to help out. Now he is truly on his way and we are so proud of him.

http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fow-marketwatch11-2009dec16,0,7291917.story

The official launch

Instead of blogging about cooking I’ve been living cooking. I’ve been so busy that every night I try to blog but fall asleep with the computer on my lap. Fortunately the computer has not fallen on the floor yet.

Christine’s Almond Delights has been officially launched and orders have started coming in!

Jenavieve works in the deli of a grocery store, one of a small chain. She had spoken to one of the owners who expressed an interest in our cookies. Dale and I flew up to Justin’s and Jenavieve’s last weekend to give a presentation to the owner with samples. One carry on was full of samples and the other contained all of our clothes.

On Sunday Jenavieve and I went to a wine store in Arcata and then on to Eureka. We went to a large natural food store and a co-op there. Managers were not in so we left samples, brochures and business cards. People seemed to be fairly interested.

On Monday we made our presentation to Murphy’s and received an order on the spot for 2 cases of cookies; 1 crunchy and 1 chewy, plus a case of nuts.

On Tuesday I called Wine Wisdom, a wine shop we’d gone into while in San Francisco International Airport. The manager ordered a case of my smoked wine nuts on the spot. Now today I returned a call to the candy manager at Eureka Natural Foods and they want 4 cases. They have never tasted anything like the cookies I make. 2 cases will go on the shelves and 2 cases, individually packed, will go by the registers.

Nate and I think that at some point we will move the baking to his kitchen but for now I bake, Dale and I package and then ship. This is a true mom and pop operation for today.

Getting ready for a Wedding!

Between working at claims, receiving packaging samples, smoking more almonds and working the farmers market I’ve been swamped.

Justin, my middle boy, is getting married on Saturday in Arcata, a 10 hour drive from here. It will be a Halloween celebration and should be fun but I’ve only started on getting ready.

Dale and I are hosting and catering, with help from our 2 other sons, a pre-wedding dinner Mexican style. I made the Posole last night and it is in the freezer. I’ll get a pot of beans going after I write this blog and tomorrow I’ll make a tray of enchiladas. The vender next to me at the farmer’s market gave me 15 corn on the cob that we will bbq. I’ll also get chicken breasts marinating in some olive oil, lime juice and Tequila to bbq with the Carne Asada. What a feast!

I think that I’ll wear my “Spider Woman” mask, a mask made by a company in Nola that specializes in masquerade masks along with a silk ball gown. Can’t wait it should be lots of fun! I suppose I should try on the dress because it is about 20 years old. lol

Fall Day in the Western Sierra's

Last week was one to just be glad it was over. We were working a ton of hours and then got sick with some type of flu or another. So forget last week and start with this one!

Today we had 2 claims, one of which was in the Western side of the Sierra’s just past Sierra Summit. We have skied at Sierra Summit since the kids were young and have recently taken the grandkids there. We looked forward to seeing it before winter.

When we left this morning the skies were clear with some clouds. I’d looked on-line at the weather and saw that rain was forecast for the valley this afternoon and tonight for the Sierra’s. I figured that we would make it to the valley before the rain hit so would not have any weather.

We made it up to Huntington Lake by 11a.m. as projected, looked at the claim and started the trip back to the valley. I’d noticed on the way that the flora by the stream at Sierra Summit was so spectacular on our way up so we stopped on the way back. The sun was out with huge clouds but dark clouds were in the background. We stopped and I jumped out with camera and tripod in hand.

I first ran down to the stream and started shooting then up to the 1^st bridge and shot in each direction from the center of the stream, then the right side then the left. The aspens were bright yellow and another plant red with the green pines along side.

The sky became darker and darker until it started to sprinkle. We walked back to the truck afraid that it might start to storm on us but then as we started to drive back I saw one set of aspens that were off of another bridge. We stopped and I ran with the camera. The sky was dark but the colors were vivid. I shot from one side of the bridge and then the other but just wasn’t felling like I’d gotten the one photo. Finally I was about to give up when the light changed slightly, I shot the photo in Auto mode afraid to lose the light and the photo was so beautiful.

Now my camera battery is dead so I must charge it before looking at today’s photos. I’m looking forward to seeing what they look like tomorrow.

Memories of The Grand Canyon

Of all the parks, Grand Canyon has been so meaningful to us. I’d been there as a child; we never camped there but had stopped on our way to and from family reunions in Oklahoma.

When our boys were young we stopped at the Canyon when driving to Oklahoma. My parents met us there and camped with us. We were also there on one of our youngest son’s birthdays and ate dinner at the El Tovar. We really liked the El Tovar for breakfast, pancakes were cheap and the view of the canyon so inspiring. The boys would order hot chocolate and the waiters would refer to them as “the young gentleman” as they served the kids using silver pitchers.

One year we hiked with our boys down the Kaibab trail, spent the night at Phantom Ranch, hiked up the Bright Angel to Indian Gardens and then out the following day. Boys would hike ahead then be yelling at us “what took you so long?” We’d stop together and enjoy a view or an interesting formation. What a great way to spend family time.

In the late 80’s our farm was going downhill fast. Dale was always worried about keeping the farm afloat, creditors were calling and crop prices dropping faster than a lead ball.

We went on a trip to the Grand Canyon for several days. The first day we walked and talked, not paying much attention to the park. By the 2^nd day we were actually looking at the park, appreciating the Grand Canyon for its beauty. By the time we returned home Dale was more relaxed and actually smiling, something he hadn’t done in some time. The timelessness of the Canyon made us remember again how insignificant that our problems were in the grand scheme of things.

A few  years ago we hiked across the Grand Canyon with some friends. We carried some Dom Perignon and several bottles of red wine in our backpacks. Our friends brought the glass wine glasses. We also carried some fresh food for the 1^st 2 nights. Our packs were so heavy but the food was so good and in an environment so cleansing!!!! What a way to backpack.

Now we have taken our grandkids to the North Rim. Continuing the circle.

Memories of Yosemite

Tonight on the National Parks special, the last night, someone was talking about visiting a park when they were young and then taking their children to that park.
One of my earliest memories is of Yosemite and the fire fall. I have a clear memory of the call “let the fire fall” and then fire falling down. Quite a few years ago I asked my mom about this memory and it was then she told me we’d been in Yosemite National Park and about the fire fall.
Dale and I were married in the little chapel in Yosemite Valley in the ‘70’s. I really don’t remember why we chose Yosemite but we did and the wedding was so beautiful. I just don’t remember that we went there as a couple before we decided to get married there; I just know that it is a place that I’ve been to throughout my life. There was about 3’ of snow on the ground, but the chapel was warm with little wreaths in the windows.
We took our boys to Yosemite when they were growing up but we also took the boys to many parks. One favorite trip was to Tuolumne Meadows where we met my brother. Boys played in the river finding a favorite place to jump in. A hike to Nevada Falls was memorable.
We took our grandkids to Yosemite last spring. We took them to the little chapel where we were married. We hiked to some of the more accessible falls, visited the visitor’s center and walked the meadow.
We shot photos of half dome at sunset; my grandson won an award for his photos in the park at our local fair.

Grandkids trip to Mesa Verde

As I was thinking about our National Parks and the series I started thinking about some of the more memorable visits. I realized that the visits to each park have been memorable in their own way.
One park visit which we may not ever get to repeat again, hence, an incredible special visit was to Mesa Verde in July 2006. Now we have been to Mesa Verde before but this trip was different.
We’d originally planned a grandkids trip to the Southwest, exactly where I don’t even remember any more. Then my dad, who was very ill with cancer, told me that Mesa Verde was going to celebrate the 100th Anniversary that summer by opening up 2 sites: Mug House, never opened to the public and Oak Tree House, closed to the public in the 1930’s. From Memorial Day to Labor Day the park service was offering a hike every morning to the Oak Tree and each afternoon to the Mug House. Only 14 persons would be able to join each hike, 1 per day.
The prospect of visiting 2 sites 1 of which had never been opened was more than we could bear so I got on-line immediately. We were so lucky, we got into Mug House on one afternoon and the Oak Tree the following morning. The Oak Tree hike only had 6 openings left and that was just enough for Dale and I and the 4 grandkids.
Christabel turned 6 on our way to Mesa Verde when we stopped at Canyon de Chelly, Elias 8, Taylor 9 and Sunny 10. They were young but old enough to appreciate the incredible places we were about to visit.
On one of the hikes we had to cross the face of a cliff using ropes across the face. We had to use the toe holds made by the Native Americans while holding the ropes. Needless to say we were very concerned about the grandkids and especially Christabel crossing as we could not help them cross. They were great troopers crossing like their American Indian ancestors before them and had bragging rights for some time.
We do have an appreciation for those early settlers climbing up and down the cliffs with only toe holds. Yikes!
Fortunately our kids do not read these blogs. They have never heard all of the details that we conveniently left out!

Visiting the National Parks

After a week of the family drama and lots of hard work we are at a standstill with the cookie business. Mostly I need some money to get to the next stage, but I also need to do some footwork too on marketing and so forth. In the meantime we watched the Ken Burns special on the “National Parks” in order to escape the drama.

Dale and I have visited many of our nations National Parks and guessed all of the parks in the introduction because we have visited them. We have been lucky in that we love the parks system; we even were married in Yosemite.

So after watching the 1^st episode of the special I told Dale again, (I had this idea before) that our goal should be to visit every National Park. We have visited nearly every park in California, many in Arizona, NM and other states so it shouldn’t be that difficult to attain the goal should it?

The photo is of Nate and I on a hike in Bristlecone Pine Forest 8-08. I believe that one tree has been dated back about 10,000 years. The more narley the tree the older it is.

Boxing up the almonds

I had to just quit blogging for a few days. There has been lots of family garbage drama for the past few days and every time I’ve set down to write the words just flow about this situation. Who wants to read garbage? Well, probably everyone, but at this point I think that people would be hurt so it is best to put that writing aside for awhile.

Last week Dale and I met Nate at his father-in-law Allen Townsend’s house. Allen had picked up 3 boxes (about 4’x4’x4’) of raw almonds with each box holding 1 ton of almonds each. He had also picked up cardboard boxes and the plan was that we were to fill the boxes ourselves.

My job was to tape the box together at the bottom so that Nate, Dale and Allen could fill it with 50# of almonds. I then taped the box along the top and the guys stacked the box on a pallet.

It took us several hours of working but we were able to get everything boxed up by 8pm or so. We are now using the almonds to sell at the farmers markets. I smoked 4 trays today: 2 salt and pepper and 2 soaked in lime. The almonds are packaged and ready to sell.

p.s.: photos are by Emily Townsend

Photos for the County Fair

When I was a child my grandmother gave me a “Brownie Hawkeye” like hers. Like my grandmother I’ve loved to take photos.
Nearly every year for the past 8 years or so I’ve entered photos at our local county fair and as the grandkids have gotten old enough I’ve encouraged them to love taking photos. I'll attache their photos posts to come.

We have taken our grandkids on the “grandkid” trip once a year and of course all of the cameras come along. One weekend trip to Yosemite was called the Photo Shoot trip.

So it is the time of year for the County fair again and 2 of the 4 grandkids had photos that they wanted to enter. I took the photos in on Sat and read that judging occurred on yesterday. I’ll go to the free entry on Wed. the opening day between 3-5 and will see what, if any, awards that we got.

I'm attaching two of my 5 photos: one is of the Great Wall and the other Death Valley at dawn

Done please with this oven

Me, the person who has baked since I was a child, have confirmed that my oven is a piece of crap. This oven has been my bane since moving into this house 12 years ago.

The oven, in this house, is a built in style but the smallest one that is put into new homes. The oven consists of a microwave on top and electric oven below. They are wired together and are as one unit. This I learned when the latch on the microwave broke. The only place that would work on it would charge $80 to inspect and $80 min to repair and verified that we can’t replace one without the other.

Now I tried to bake some cookies and bars. Some over baked and most under baked. I bought a thermometer which showed that the temps ran from 325 to 360.

About 30 years ago I discovered the Viking brand range and have collected info on them since. This is my dream oven, although I’d take a Wolf instead if need be. I need only to find $9,000 to buy my dream oven.

Consumed with food

My life is consumed with food these days. I’m thinking about what to cook next, the cookie business, making and mailing the icing. I forgot about laundry and poor Dale was left with no clean clothes.

The house is getting dusty, stuff is everywhere but I don’t care, I just want to get these cookies off to market and cook more food from “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”.

In the meantime the backyard needs to be cleaned up and landscaping in the front weeded. Maybe tomorrow.

Home for September

For the 1st time in 12 years I’m home during Sept/Oct. There has been a hurricane every year during this time so I’ve always been working in the south or east coast.

Since I’m writing a new blog, for those of you who don’t know, I work as a claims adjuster estimating property damage from storms (cat adjuster). Last year when I started blogging I actually was driving away to work Hurricane Gustave in New Orleans.

There is always a charge when I get the call to deploy for a storm; new place, new adventures. It is strange to be starting a new business thinking that I may have worked my last storm. I’m afraid that a part of me will have that tug to get out of here when another storm hits no matter where this cookie scheme takes me.

Preparing for the Farmer's Market

The two granddaughters, Sunshine and Taylor, plus the neighbor girl Kristin and I spent the early afternoon preparing for tomorrow’s farmers market in Santa Clarita. We’d picked up the entire product from Nate last night.
He remembered the Almond Butter this time; he had forgotten it for the past two weeks and people were asking for it. But he did forget to bring the Roasted Almonds. They will keep but there are people who only want Roasted Almonds.
So tomorrow we have Blister Almonds, Almond Butter, Smoked Lime Almonds and Smoked Salt and Pepper Almonds. We also have raw almonds, some right off the ground still in the hull and some already shelled. We had to pick thru the shelled almonds as water had gotten to some and caused them to spoil so we had to remove them. The girls found some bugs as pointed them out, poking on them and yelling EEWW.
We’d hoped to have our cookies there this weekend as we had obtained the product liability insurance as required by L.A. County but now they have added another requirement to the list.
Now I’ll try to get our evening going as we have a very early morning.

New Possibilities

Over the last couple of days I’ve called every bakery nearby and a kitchen rental business trying to see if anyone would rent some space to me. All I heard was NO, NO, NO. And the kitchen rental didn’t even answer. I was really discouraged.
Well yesterday late afternoon the owner of the kitchen rental business called and we agreed that I would come by today.
My inspection of the kitchen indicates that they have all of the equipment that I need. As compared to the kitchen in S.B. the oven is very new. There are 3 Hobart’s with the smallest being the size we have in S.B.
After inspecting the kitchen I went back to the front office where both owners were. They told me that they made cookie dough for fundraisers among other things. The man told me that they are interested in carrying our cookie dough for their fundraisers. WOW!
I must get this thing on the road.

Not a Good Time in the kitchen

Sunshine needed to make some money so I had her make almond meal and help with other products. We made another batch of bars but after they were baked I thought that they looked funny. I lifted them and the whole thing was like one large cracker. UGH. We’d forgotten to add baking powder. Everything went into the trash.
I ran to the store to purchase more egg whites but once home I decided we’d quick mix up some cookie dough to get into the freezer. After getting one long roll in the freezer I thought I’d just bake one sheet for us. A timer went off and I glanced at the oven and saw flames in the oven. I opened the oven door and the paper under the cookies was on fire with ash throughout the over. Of course there were no oven mitts available but I did find some and sent Sunny out to get Dale. I got the cookies out and as they had only been in the oven about 3 minutes I sent them with the neighbor girl to finish baking them at her house.
Dale is cleaning the oven now so we will see if that takes care of the problem.

Labor Day Weekend, Part 1

The Labor Day holiday is this weekend. Dale doesn’t work so we will miss the extra money that he would normally bring home. He will still get an extra day off, big deal, there are no extra days off anymore, they just add on to the others days he has coming.
I’ve wanted to stay home for some time now but every weekend has been booked up so I have insisted on staying home this weekend. There is grass to trim; the patio is totally dusty and we can’t use it at all so needs to be washed down; some neighbor trees have roots that have traveled and are coming up in bad places and need to be cut down.
I’m actually quite anxious to get some projects done around here. I’ll take a before and after photo and post it.
I also plan to smoke some pork ribs, a pork roast and some salmon. We will BBQ a bunch of marinated chicken breasts, potatoes and veges that we pick up from the farmers market on Sunday morning that we will work.
We will be laboring on Labor Day.

The New Family Doctor

I’ve already written about our family doctor leaving us with no doctor and the hassles which have ensued. Well I’d called the insurance benefits people and they led me to the list of approved doctors in our insurance plan.
Now our old doctor is a D.O. which means that he is Osteopath, these doctors go to medical school but learn a more holistic approach to medicine.
I found a new doctor with the D.O. designation and set an appointment for today for each Dale and me.
We were both a little concerned today, we are seeing too many people our age and younger in the Obits. Not Good. Then I was looking up the address of the new Doc and saw that he had 4 comments; 2 bad and 2 great.
We were actually so impressed with the new doctor. For me he was very concerned about the lung problems I’d had in ’84 so ordered up some x-rays for a baseline. He read them while I was there and found nothing wrong. Also did the EKG for a baseline since heart disease runs in the family and read the results while I was there. He sat and answered questions and just discussed our general health much like our old doctor did.
So finally we have a new family doctor who seems to be good. The only problem I have is that my arm is sore from the flu/pneumonia shot they gave me.

Dale's Birthday

Today is Dale's birthday, 65 years old. Gosh he is really getting old, like I tell him, "years older than I am".
We’d driven from San Diego to Santa Barbara to bake but then it didn’t work out. Yesterday the kitchen wasn’t available to us so we headed home.
I washed a huge load of Dale’s whites as he was out of everything. As I opened the washer door I was horrified to see that the entire load was now PINK. Not just pink, but a hot pink. I found that my red Bejing Olympics tee had been included in the wash.
I was so upset but then started laughing at the site of Dale wearing a hot pink t-shirt, undies and socks. Then laughed so hard I couldn’t stop. I went outside where Dale was washing the car and between laughing told him about his new clothes for his birthday and we both had a good laugh.
He refuses to wear his hot pink socks though.

Food Expo, Day 2

Wow, day 2 of the food expo and we are charged up.
We had signed up for 3 workshops but only two were offered after all; e-mail 101 and advanced e-mail. I wasn’t sure how e-mail would be involved with business but decided that these were necessary workshops.
The speaker owns a business that organizes e-mail clubs for large businesses. You may ask what an e-mail club is. This is a “club” or group that one may sign up for and receive special coupons or information on new products via e-mail. I get e-mails for specials from Rubio’s and Dave’s BBQ.
The 101 class was to introduce us to the basics and Dale and I were amazed at the possibilities for Nate and me. Here we learned how to start an e-mail club and the basics on how to run it. In the advanced class we learned more details on what we need with the startup and what the site should look like.
Between classes we ran into the speaker in the hall and started talking. I told him how we could apply his ideas to the cookies and almonds. He immediately took an interest in our business and gave more tips. He gave me his card and said to call with any questions. I in turn told him I’d send some cookies.

1st Day of the Food Expo

Today was the 1st day of the Western Food Expo. OMG!!!
I left Bakersfield at 7am, picked up Dale and headed down to San Diego. After a stop to drop stuff off for Nate at the farmers market we got on our way.
I was not entirely happy to be driving the Mazda with no AC in 100+ but lack of $$ this week made this a necessity. As it turned out we could not have made a better choice. The parking structure was very tight and we were able to park close to where we wanted to be with the Mazda. The truck would have been impossible.
As for the food expo: there are 100’s of exhibitors there. For those of you who have never been to an expo the point is for exhibitors to sell their wares. They exhibit all or many of the items they sell but only one of each item. Buyers come and place orders for the items. At this expo many exhibitors are selling food products, hence the food expo, so they give samples of the foods they produce.
When Dale and I walked into the expo we came into the Mexican Food area. We didn’t really know what to expect but found people picking up food at nearly every booth. We got immediately into a line and picked up food then went on to have every type of Mexican food that is made.
After walking to the end of the expo we started back the other way sampling every flavor of smoothie, beers, wines, martinis, yogurts, beef from Canada and Montana, BBQ and an incredible salmon salad.
I’m stuffed. Like Julia Child said, “I’m growing right before your eyes”.
For 5 hours we sampled food but did manage to find some containers for the cookies. We have a ton of samples being shipped to our house in all shapes and sizes.
Tomorrow we will attend our workshops after 2 hours of eating. The expo opens at 11 and our workshops start at 1. We wouldn’t want to attend a workshop with our stomach growing now would we?

Hot, hot, hot

It has been hot here, over 100F, but thank goodness it does cool off at night.

We belong to a special program with our power company PG&E. On very hot week days PG&E may call a Smart Day and then we must turn off our AC from 2-7pm. We try not to use the washer/dryer, electrical appliances and leave the computers unplugged. If we use much electricity then we pay a very high price for usage.

Yesterday was a Smart Day. I knew that it was near 2pm but was busy working on the computer. Before I knew it the time was just after 2pm. I quickly turned off the AC but by the time it shut down the time was 2:06. Then both laptops ran out of battery so we had to plug them in. Then I needed to get Dale off to work so I had to heat up some food in the microwave.

Fortunately on Sept. 4, PG&E is installing a free programmable thermostat. The hitch is that they can remotely turn off the AC during a smart day but will only turn if off for 15 min increments. With PG&E having control over the thermostat then we will not be penalized for going over.

Last month we paid $140.00 while our neighbors paid over $700. Good reason for us to stay on the program.

Organizing my life

I’d planned to go to Clayton’s yesterday and help with their new house. I think that Jen and I were going to paint the great room and I was to paint the deck.

Unfortunately I was not able to go at the last minute and was really disappointed. Worse I had to miss a BBQ at Skywalker Ranch with Clayton.

I’ve been gone so much that I’m actually glad to get back home. Weeds are back in the landscaping so that needs to be worked on early in the morning when it is cool. The house needs some attention but really I need to start organizing all of the businesses that I have going: Petits fours made Easy, Petits Fours Cut Easy, Siemens Family Farm and the newest Christine’s Almond Delights.

I’m supposed to get everything out of my head on what I have to do with these businesses and put it on paper. I’ve started to do this but it is easier said than done. I’m really overwhelmed with all of this stuff.

Siemens Family Reunion Day 3

Since Dale and I were not going to attend the family church stuff we were nominated to take our nephew Paul to the airport in the morning. We visited with him on the way as it was too busy to talk much during the reunion.

Paul is an incredibly great looking and smart guy working in Colorado. (Nothing to do with the fact that he is my nephew) He is also a marathon runner and planning to run in the New York marathon. I’ll be in Chicago the day before the race and am going to see how much extra it will cost to go on to New York. I’d love to see him race and shoot some photos.

We arrived back in Dinuba in time to meet the family for lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. After lunch it was back to Carolyn’s where the remaining people sat around eating more food and visiting. We finished packing our RV and left; actually we really wanted to go see Julia & Julie in the evening.

We left on the high note, while every one was having a good time. That’s the best time to make an exit.

Siemens Family Reunion Day 2

So we have finished our 2^nd day of the reunion.

Yesterday we arrived early evening as we had other things going on during the day. We did eat dinner with the family and visit for a little while then everyone wanted to go off to bed.

Carolyn was making breakfast and coffee was made by the time we got up this morning. She had cut up some fresh peaches which were so good and juicy.

Nate and Bekki arrived late morning and the grand kids were able to meet their 2^nd cousins. Sunny had already gotten reacquainted last night so she set out to help Elias and Christabel. Elias finally had some other boys to play with.

Clayton and Jen made it here around noon and the 1^st cousins looked like they were having fun. There was lots of talking and laughing. Elias announced that the younger talking cousins were talking too much!

After a lunch of Jiazoi and dinner of pie and ice cream the festivities died down although we did have a small party in the RV at one time. We filled our fridge with wine and beer before leaving home so some came in for a little drink between visiting.

Now all is quiet. Apparently people must go to bed early in order to be ready for their church stuff. We will sleep in!