Prologue To The Previous Story

Asleep at the wheel- 
Finding our friend is such great blog-fodder, I thought I'd relate the story of what has become known in our circle of friends as The Party!
Last July, a small group of friends were able to make some time to visit us up here in the foothills.
We'd all worked together in the past, and intended to both eat and drink heartily, and rehash our old "war stories."
"Friend," from the previous story has regaled us with stories from his military past of the antics played on whichever poor fellow was the first to pass out during drinking parties, and the rest of us were dearly hoping we could perform some retribution to him on their behalf.
The majority of the guests stuck with beer, while "Friend" began and stayed with Yukon Jack. I'm also a Yukon fan, but began with ice-water, and some food, before getting serious.
Hallelujah, "Friend" was the first to go down!
We posed him various and sundry ways, and must have taken 15 photos. Props included a beer bottle and a woman, (everyone stayed clothed) as well as the maxi-pad and pink thong shown above.
The rest of the group finally went to bed about 5am.
At 9am we were woken by "Friend" who was walking about, demanding to see pictures dammit!
He received copies, which he took and shared at work.
If I ever run short of blog material, I know who to call...

A Little Something For Bucky (Caverna) Four-Eyes!

A friend- 
An old friend stopped by for a visit yesterday.
During conversation, I mentioned blogger supreme Bucky, and her penchant for the ol' assless chaps...
A bit later, I hear the guys calling me to bring out the camera. Well I scurried, thinking that mountain lion had shown up again...
Nope, no mountain lion, as you can see.
Our gracious guest gave the go-ahead for the picture, and permission to use it on my own (usually boring) blog.
So today's blogsite has become a bragsite! Cheers to old friends!
Disclaimer: "Friend" demanded I inform everyone that what appears to be a thong, or perhaps butt-crack hair, is neither. It is straps (so he says.) Chapstraps?

Redneck Treasure!

A rusted out woodstove- 
I recently Googled, looking for other bloggers in my town. I began with: "Mountain Ranch" + blog, and came up with thousands of hits due to the fact that many cities have names such as Snow Mountain Ranch. By eliminating these similar names, I came across one blogsite which even mentioned my town, and it was not favorable!
Apparently, a San Francisco bicyclist came up to visit friends several months ago and felt the need to blog about it. Now he did mention the wineries, and did remark on two species of local animals- goats and bats... But then he had to go and get my hackles up!
This fellow stated the common way of describing property boundaries up here would be something to the effect of "my property extends from that broken gate to that burnt out truck." Well that really offended me! Sure, there probably are some properties like that, but I haven't yet seen them.
When I calmed down, I thought about the state of our property when we first purchased it... There was a huge satellite dish blocking part of our view, which we were able to give away. There was stuff strewn across a part of the property alongside our barn/garage. We've been slowly dismantling the larger items and taking them to the dump.
We now have the woodstove (shown above) and an old garage door still to dispose of. A friend almost took away the stove, but his wife declined, darn!
Anyway, this San Francisco blogger did make mention of the disparity of the types of people residing in this area... He said "some people hunt deer, and some people make tofu stew." Well, I find myself somewhere in the middle here. I don't shoot deer, I watch them. I don't eat tofu, because I personally think it sucks.
But I do have a woodstove sitting alongside the barn, silently rusting away.

Myself Revealed!

Me, about 1956- 
I was tagged by Cheesecakey, so here goes nothing!
Three names you go by:
Speedy
Grandma
Hon
Three screen names you have had:
Sierrabellissima
Sierrabella
and that's all.
Three physical things you like about yourself:
Eyes
Legs
Boobs
Three parts of your heritage:
English
Scots-Irish
German
Three things that scare you:
Enclosed places
Untimely deaths of loved ones
Bad drivers
Three things you're wearing now:
Tie-dye T-shirt (with straps, not sleeves.)
Shorts
that's all
Three of your favorite bands or musical artist:
Doobie Brothers
Boz Scaggs
Earth Wind & Fire
Three of your favorite songs:
Last Dance by Donna Summer
Every Kind of People by Robert Palmer
I'll Always Love You by Taylor Dayne
Three things you want in a relationship:
Humor
Love
Trust
Two truths and a lie (which one is a lie?)
I'm a female
I'm a female
I'm a male
Three physical things about the preferred sex that appeals to you:
Nice butt
Nice 'other side'
Nice arms
Three of your favorite hobbies:
Gardening
Genealogy
Cooking
Three things you want to do badly right now:
Finish this quiz
Get myself a large glass of ice-water
Get myself some Advil
Three careers you're considering:
I'm retired, so make that a big fat zero careers!
Three places you want to go on vacation:
Beach camping
The East Coast (of the U.S.)
New Orleans (not during Mardi Gras)
Three kids names you like:
Amber
Justin
Natasha
Three things you want to do before you die:
Hmmmm... I've done most everything of interest to me already!
Three ways that you are stereotypically a girl:
Toenails are always polished
I buy handbags when I'm depressed (or just plain angry)
I'm not crazy about watching sports (but I will watch boxing!)
Three celebrity crushes:
George Clooney
Sam Elliot
Sean Connery
Three people who have to take this quiz now:
Christian V.
Squirl
Sylvana

Return Of The Grandson

Calaveras Big Trees Picnic Area- 
Well... I drove my grandson back to the San Francisco Bay Area last Saturday, and it appears he may be returning later today! His mama has finals scheduled this week, and no daycare available.
Since he's almost 3 years old, it's no trouble taking care of him. The only difficulty will be the rain which is expected the rest of this week.
Normally, we play ball on the deck, and sometimes on the gravel driveway. We also have his child-size basketball hoop out by the garage.
We generally take walks around the property. Grandson loves visiting the chicken coop (which is empty of chickens) down the nearby embankment. He always insists we go inside, shut the door, and talk about the absence of chickens. "Did they run away?" "Did they die?" "Did the mountain lion eat them?" I tell him they moved away with the previous owner, but I'm not really sure about that. The chicken-wire at one end of the coop is pushed out, as if something fairly large escaped the structure.
We have plenty of children's DVD's, and there are toys downstairs in the guest room, but this boy needs to expend some energy daily.
I'm desperately hoping to see at least one non-rainy day this week. Puhleeze!

And Now For Some Really Big Trees!

Taken at Calaveras Big Trees State Park- 
Our guests will be leaving tomorrow morning. They are spending this evening visiting with other friends in the area, giving me my first opportunity to blog in well over a week!
My daughter and grandson visited Calaveras Big Trees State Park yesterday, which is where the above picture was taken. The park is about 25 miles from here, so it's close enough for a picnic and a walk afterwards.
My free time (yesterday) was spent putting together a belated Mothers Day dinner of turkey and the usual fixings. Today has been soup day.
Hopefully I can get back up to speed, and some free time will allow me to catch up on my blog reading sometime tomorrow.
I've probably missed quite a lot in this short time , so I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's perusal.

Springtime Means Time To Get Busy!

Scilla Peruviana- 
Beautiful day today. A storm looks to be coming in from the East, out of the higher Sierra.
We've been weeding between the frequent rains.
I'm very surprised at some of my plants which survived winter, especially a deer fern which appeared to have died. I found a new tendril growing just today!
Guests are coming, so I will probably not be posting this week.
But I just might!