There is Global Warming For You!

Guess who is not going to school today?

Mark did attempt to get to work this morning.

He left at 5:30 and had no trouble getting out of our unplowed street.

Caltrans did not get to plowing the highway yet, so he did not go too far on the snowed in road before he decided to turn around and call it snow day. Safer that way.

It took him an hour to shovel the way back into the driveway though.

Who the heck came up with the idea to live up here?

It is good to have a snow blower, but it helps to have it right where we need it.

Last snow storm, we could not get to it, because it was snowed in.
This time, it is in the desert getting a tune up.

About mid morning, Caltrans closed down our highway.

All right Buck, let's get shoveling!

We have almost 3 feet now and it's still coming down hard. Who knows how long we will be grounded.

Fortunatelly, if the highway is not plowed, the mexicans cannot get up here to trash out the mountain the way they did it in December.

We had tanned people from all over southern california up here playing in the snow after the last storm. The community did not appreciate the garbage they left scattered everywhere, the invasion and distruction of private properties and the unsafe driving and parking they did.

If it's tourist season why can't we shoot them?

Snow Sunday

This looks like inclement weather Monday to me.
Not to Mark! He said that does not pay the bills.
We need a lot more snow than this to call it snow day.
We got about 16 inches today and there is more to come.

Our short and wet doggie walk. Everyone wanted to get back to the nice, warm house.

Spitzers crashed out on the fainting couch and stayed there for most of the day.

He loves Annamarie's quilt. She made this for us as a wedding present.
It will take a long time for me to get near as good as she is at quilting.

























Buck spent most of Sunday near the pantry. He is looking at the pantry door and thinking: "If I look hard enough, something might just come out of there... After all...miracles happen! "

Project

This title is not a reference to our neighborhood.

Not if we don't look out to see the view to the north anyway.

I found a new addiction a few days ago.

It's called quilting. I cannot stop it no matter how hard I try.

It stated out with organizing the craft section of the storage room.

The variety of fabric remnants from previous projects prompted me to start working on my very first quilt.

I called my friend, Annamarie, "the quilting grandma" to find out if there are any rules I should know about before I begin. She was not home, so I started with no rules to follow.

I cut millions of little rectangulars and made bigger rectangulars from them ..... just had a good time.

I use Grandma Houghton's breakfast table for the assembly area.

There is a time in every grandma's life to start quilting.

Next day, Annamarie appeared from San Diego and learned about my new adventure.

She promptly came over to our house with the basic quilting supplies: a cutting board, a pizza cutter like thing, a ruler and some instructions.... like I have to cut all my pieces to the same size. BUMMER!

She ruined my fun! She said what I am making is called the crazy quilt.

I don't care what you call it!

I LIKE IT!

I am already thinking about the next quilt I will make after this one.

Having to do the CAHSEE (California High School Exit Exam) in my school is slowing me down though, but it pays for some fabric.

Mark is loading up the property with more oak still!

We had a clean yard for a minute and then he went to the forest with the chainsaw.

Is It Spring Yet?

We had a yard cleaning weekend. While sane people are taking a day to rest, compulsive ones are raking the yard.
What a mess we had! It took two of us two long days of hard work to get two yards cleaned up.
Two huge trailer loads to the dump....two dogs to watch us slave...two of everything...
The snow storm we had before Christmas caused so much damage, half of Pine Cove collapsed.
My neighbor's hovel is still standing though! Darn it!!!

Really, we lost half of the Manzanitas and all of the skinny, little trees. Many of the pine and cedar branches fell all over our yards and of course some of my wood piles gave up and hit the ground.

Too much work for grandparents to handle!
It was a big mistake to end slavery!

Our reward was that we still got to run the doggies out to the beach on Sunday afternoon.



















Our trail needs some work as well as it has some fallen branches on it and one big pine tree
fell down blocking part of it.
Never a break around here! Now that I am a grandma, I am ready for Country Club living.

I am also ready for some gardening, but the next storm is moving in already by this weekend.
My gardening consists of raking and growing wood piles for now.



















Buck enjoys the little bit of snow left on the beach and he cannot wait to get some more.
Anyone knows how to teach doggies to do yard cleaning?

Life In Pine Cove

If not out playing, we have plenty of work around the house.
Even work is fun around here though! Keeps those muscles toned,
and our elbows hurt, but that's only because we are too old for all
that work. Grandparents after all!

Mark has brought sooooo much wood from the forest lately, we
are lining up the neighborhood with oak.
A couple of our piles collapsed and took the old fancing out.
Looks like a job to me!

Dani!
We gained those 10 pounds during the Holidays, now it is the
time to loose them. I am going to the Pine Cove Gym (my yard).

We have a new video on our website with the above title.
This blog would not load it up or am I a retard?

We Don't Squander Any Time!

We are so proud to be grandparents!

How do you like that?

We just got married in September and the first grandbaby is already
on his/her way.

Now THAT'S what I call speed and accuracy!

Sorry Bruce and Stephany, but we beat you to claim the Grandpa
and Grandma Houghton titles.

I will post pictures of my tummy later.
I think Grams need to do at least 200 situps per day for 9 months.
It's my governer, Arnold's rule or something like that.

Don't Touch My Christmas Tree!

In my childhood, the Christmas Tree stayed up well into the New Year.
It was not decorated until Christmas Eve though.
I enjoy having it as long as possible, so mine is up after Thanksgiving (in order to observe the American tradition) and it stays up until January 6th. Here is the reason why....

The Twelve Days of Christmas, and the associated evenings of those twelve days (Twelve-tide), are the festive days beginning the evening of Christmas Day (December 25) through the morning of Epiphany (January 6). The associated evenings of the twelve days begin on the evening before the specified day. Thus, the first night of Christmas is December 25–26 and Twelfth Night is January 5–6. Twelfth Day is January 6. This period is also known as Christmastide.
Over the centuries, differing churches and sects of Christianity have changed the actual traditions, time frame and their interpretations. St. Stephen's Day (or Boxing Day), for example, is December 26 in the Western Church and December 27 in the Eastern Church. Boxing Day, the first weekday after Christmas, is observed as a legal holiday in parts of the Commonwealth of Nations and was traditionally marked by the giving of Christmas boxes to service workers (such as postal workers and trades people) in the United Kingdom; December 28 is Childermas or the Feast of the Innocents. Currently, the 12 days and nights are celebrated in widely varying ways around the world. For example, some give gifts only on Christmas Night, some only on Twelfth Night and some each of the 12 nights.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!