Merry Christmas everyone!

 Rick, Pam, Dublin and Max!

Remember the days....

My cousin brought me this picture a few weeks ago. This is me around 10 or 11, 1977-78? (Yes I am dating myself LOL Could be a little later, but then I started riding our gelding.) gaming on our old mare Silky. She was a pretty one, had all the chrome! Four white socks and full blaze.

I have no idea what obstacle it was. We used to go to game shows all the time. Obstacles were, Poles, Barrels, scuries (two jumps and run around a barrel and back over the jumps, its not done anymore.) figure 8, and a few other ones I am not remembering. My Mom and I used to both ride Silky, so she would compete twice. She was a good horse.

Spam

Sorry I had to turn on Word verify for a little while.
Getting a lot of anonymous spam.

Sorry Karen

My first Gumdrop cake!

I have very fond memories of the Christmas box my Grandparents would send, when I was little.

My Grandma would bake Gumdrop cake, and put one in the box with Christmas presents for all of us.

The only changes I made to the recipe was to soak the raisins in Captain Morgans Spiced Rum, I remember Grandma doing this) and a cup of hot water, may leave out the water next time. I called my Mom to consult with her about the recipe too.

Should have used more Rum! LOL can barely taste it. But it turned out wonderful!! Raisins, spiced gumdrops (no black ones) and walnuts. It is basically an applesauce cake.

 Smells great! Very thick.

 Full pan! It bakes for 2 hours!

 Looks good! Colorful! It has always been my favorite Christmas, and after Christmas breakfast!

Gumdrop cake

Ingredients
2 lbs gumdrops (mine came in a 1.8lb package, that was plenty)
1 cup of butter
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 1/2 Cups sweetened applesauce (I used unsweetened)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 lb light or dark raisins
1 1/2 Cups chopped nuts (I would love to try hazelnuts)
4 Cups flour

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 300* Dissolve baking soda in 1tsp hot water.
2. Cream butter and sugar in mixing bowl. (large one!)
3. Add applesauce, dissolved baking soda and eggs.
4. Add 2 C flour, cinnamon, cloves, salt.
5. Mix nuts, raisins and gumdrops in separate bowl. (here is one change I made, I didnt mix in the raisins because of the liquid, just added them after.)
6. Sift remaining 2 C flour over gumdrop mixture then add to the creamed mixture.
7. Grease and flour an angel food cake pan. ( I used a bundt pan, cuz thats the shape I remember as a kid!)
8. Pour batter into pan and bake 2 hours.
(next time I will check after about 1 hour 45 min., I have a convection oven and although it seems done perfect, it is a little crunchy on the bottom(top in pan). The only other thing I want to try is, well, more Rum! and adding some vanilla.
Prep time: 15 min    Total time: 2 hrs 15 min       Servings: 8-10 (a lot more than that!)

This recipe is one of my most favorite Christmas memories! Much better than fruit cake!

Belles Journey, book purchase

I wanted to share this book with my horse friends. I read the review and the story touched my heart. I have been collecting horse books of all types for awhile now. Garage sales, thrift stores, Amazon, where I found this one. The price was $1.00, plus $3.99 shipping and it came from a Goodwill store in Connecticut. Its about an old horse, that saves her little girls life in a snowstorm on the Canadian Prairie.

 About the author.

 The girl wished for a new younger pony to ride back and forth to school and piano lessons.

 Until Belle brought her home that day.

 She gets a stall in the barn for the rest of her days after getting her girl home. See she was frozen to Belles back and Dad had to cut her skirt to get her off.
It brought tears to my eyes when I read it. I hope to share it with grand kids someday.
Published in 1993, there were a few more available cheap on Amazon if you are interested. I think its kind of interesting it found its way back to Washington, where its US publisher is.

I love horse stories and I have a few old books that are in great condition, by C.W. Anderson, Margeret Henry, etc.  And a lot of newer ones.
I hope you like this story as much as I did.

A new endeavor!!

I have finally decided to take the plunge and open an Etsy shop!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/RedDunDesigns

I have named it Red Dun Designs, after my favorite critter Emma.

Wish me luck! and stop by and check it out! I will be adding more things soon.

So far it is Christmas ornaments that I have painted, the ones I have blogged about
a few times.

Here is my last booth at The Fern Prairie Grange Bazaar.

 I still have most of these left! ( I have a lot of inventory! I have been painting and storing for a year!)

 The Cowboy Santa at the top middle is on Etsy. So is the same shape Santa on the left of the Cowboy.

 I have listed the two sleighs on the left on Etsy.

 Most of my $2 gift tags are on Etsy too, the ones top left. Next I will be taking pics and posting some of my memo clips, like the Hope snowmen, upper right.

I will be listing the ornament on the left too, it takes awhile to coordinate items and pictures, and get them posted!


I hope this works out!!

Been busy

I have been busy finishing up my last minute projects, getting ready for my big bazaar day!

The night before, Fri., we went to the Turkey Carnival at our local Fire Station. Alas we did not win a turkey this year, although many folks did! We will try again next year. They sell a cup of chips for $10, 20 chips. There was roulette, craps, and bingo to play to win prizes donated by local businesses, or a frozen turkey!! We tried but didnt win anything! LOL It is all for a good cause, these guys have saved my life!!

 Hubby while we were playing bingo, boy was it packed!!!

 The games went really fast!

Saturday we got up at 5:30 am, showered and left home at 7:20 am. Got to the High School and packed all my stuff in and set up!! Here is my booth! Did OK, would have liked to sell more, but dont we all want that! LOL My booth was packed, I could have used two tables!!  Hubby stayed and helped me all day! He even ran home to let the dogs out, and came back.

 I took these pics with my Iphone so they are dark, there were carolers from the school choir, dressed in period costume! Long dresses, hats and tails for the men. They were beautiful to listen to.

So now a short breather. Meg and I will be cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year. About 6 weeks ago my Mom had to have emergency heart surgery, she had an aortic aneurysm. Not fun, they caught it just in time and she is not slowly recovering!!
Meghan is coming over the day before to help me start the cooking, we are going to do most of the baking, then she is coming early on Thanksgiving to help too!! Buying the fresh turkey on Monday and a few other things and we will be ready!

Sunday Stills

I am still reading! Although not posting that often!!
I have a wonderful picture for the "Yellow" Assignment!

Two perfect Maple leaves on the forest floor.

Proud

Proud of my two older kids on this Veterans Day.

I want to thank my Son John, and my Daughter Sara, for serving in the Air Force.
Sara was in for 5 1/4(correction) years, working as a weather forecaster. During tech school she went through hurricane Katrina, we didnt hear from her for 5 days!!
John is still serving, he has been in for 6 1/2 years, he is in Maryland. He has until March to decide if he will re-enlist. He just recently made Staff Sargent (E5)  in rank. (Correction!!) (Thanks to my wonderful Daughter!)

Both of them have served one tour in Iraq.

Seems like an eternity since these pictures were taken.

So sad!

So sad!
In all the years I have had a bird net over my pond, I have never caught any birds (only the occasional Starling that has gotten under it)
When I took the dogs out, Max showed me about a dozen juvenile Gold Finches that were caught in the net!!!!
I spent the next 20 minutes cutting the little tiny things out of the net carefully making sure there was none left around their necks.
Lost 4-5 of them, ones already dead, I killed one trying to pull the net off of it! I ran in and got scissors after that and lost no more.  They are so tiny!!!
I dont know why they were in the net! or if they went under on the side where it was open about 6 inches? I fixed that now.
I hope it doesnt happen again!

Update!
The little birds that died in the net didnt go to waste.
This guy found them and made them breakfast!

I believe it is a small Red Tailed Hawk. According to my birder friend, this is most likely a Sharp Shinned Hawk.  Cool!!!!

Birds around the place....

A Thrush was busy looking under leaves for worms.

 I tried to catch him in the apple tree, he was eating the apples left on the tree. A Stellers Jay.

 Lots of busy, busy Robins.

And this isnt a bird, but he has the funniest sleepy faces! LOL Had to share!

Hope you had a great day!

RV'in and mushroomin!

My cousin Liz, after she sold us the travel trailer, got a Pay-it-forward motor home! LOL Yes she got if free, from her boss, with the stipulation that when she is done with it, she give it to someone else. She is and oldie! Circa 1976, but in really good shape, it is a tank! but runs good!

LOL She is so happy with it! LOL Trying to do" YMCA" letters for RV'in! LOL

 On the road to go find some Chantrelle mushrooms.
 We drove through the Government Mineral springs, because Liz and Deann have never been there.
It is so beautiful up there. I love it!

 The girls exploring!

 A trail head marker, alas these are for foot traffic only, no horses.

 Liz and Deanne in front of their new rolling house!

 I have blogged about these little cabins before, they are so cute and you can rent them from the Forest Service.

 It was vacant, so they had to go and peek in the windows!

 Closeup of the sign out front.

 At our first place we wanted to mushroom hunt, the mushrooms were not poking there little heads up yet! But I did get a pic of an elusive mushroom hunter! LOL LOL

We walked down to the Wind River, after we didnt find any mushrooms. I spotted these perfect Maple leaves.

 The river.

 Love the sound of the rushing waters.

 A Woodpecker stump.

 We finally found a few mushrooms at our second and third stops. I forgot to take pics of one in the ground!
Then on the way home we stopped here to eat!

 This modest little restaurant, has the best food!!!

 Hubby and Liz.

 On the way home I spotted this cloud. It looked like it was on fire! This is in the Columbia Gorge! Near Bonneville Dam.

 Beacon Rock.

 Beacon Rock can be rock climbed on this side, they have to suspend climbers during the mating and chick raising season of the Peregrin Falcons. The Falcons dive bomb people and make it very dangerous. There is a walk way all the way to the top on the other side. Beacon Rock is a cinder cone, a plug out of a volcano.

 View out the rear view mirror, why? Just because! LOL

 They are widening and straightening the highway here! Will be a big change, and make a much safer corner here!

 The road is moving to the right and will have a much gentler curve.

 And the view coming into our little town on the way home. The smoke plumes are the Mill where Hubby works.

Here are the Chantrelles we found after all our searching!! Liz and Deann found most of them.

It was a great day!!