Another Recipe You'll Never Know

Another recipe you'll never know!

Pork and dehydrated vegetables from our garden.

 It's actually a very sweet dish, 

you'll soon see why.

My husband is a great cook

(I used to be thin)

but he doesn't use recipes.

He says he can taste the dish "in his head"

so cooks by feel alone.

I can let you know some of the ingredients though,

quantities are anyone's guess.

 One pork loin

LB Jamison's ham flavored soup  base

celery- dehydrated

onions- yellow, chopped

tomatoes- dehydrated

green/red peppers - dehydrated

kale, dehydrated

apples- dehydrated

(there may have been an odd strawberry mixed in)

 butter

balsamic vinegar

garlic, chopped

 brown sugar

salt

pepper

cinnamon

Topped with biscuit type dumplings.

Serve hot and great for leftovers.

Soup Base link

A Pumpkin Picking Princess

 Pumpkin picking time was here,

one down, several to go.

Taylor chose her favorite of the bunch.

This one is to take home,

the rest are for cooking!

Not a large harvest,

but as some of you know--

a surprise patch of pumpkins

that I thought would be acorn squash!

 I can't complain.

Grapes Be Gone

Now I've been giving this a lot of thought.

Are these boys playing with toys?

or

Seriously hard working guys on tractors?

Hard to say.

We are scrapping the grapes.

While the foliage is beautiful and we get huge bunches

at the start of the season,

the black rot is just out of control

and we don't want to constantly spray. 

So, out they go.

But wait- there's a  problem.

 The T-posts are embedded in our rocky soil, 

and in there pretty good too.

We don't have have a T-post puller so

after my husband pulled out the grapes

the guys got working on removing them.

After much thought and a few beers,

they formulated a plan and the T-post are gone.

He's building a shed for the tractor, lawn tractor

and whatever else will fit in there.

The area the grapes were gets lots of water runoff

so he may rock that portion in.

That will be more fun on tractors.

Blame it on Tonka! 

Pick A Pumpkin

It's almost Pick A Pumpkin Time!

This year's garden was no 

winner, winner zucchini dinner;

however,

We got Pumpkins

Not many, but pumpkins nonetheless

Who do you think will be picking these pumpkins?

Miss Taylor of course.

Grandma will need to help with one of them . . . 

It was a little too late by the time I noticed this,

now it's nice and orange.

By this time the wire is surely embedded in the fruit

hopefully I can get it out, even in pieces, for the oven!

The Pumpkin Pete sign hangs in the hallway by the garage door.

It was simply a coincidence that the hallway paint matched it perfectly!

It's Alive !!!!

It's Alive!

What was that thump in the night?

That creaking, squeaking of cabinet doors,

the feeling that something was not right.

and you were not alone.

  

What lurks in the depths?

In the cover of darkness?

And it's big!

A mere sweet potato in its prime.

Now, not so sweet anymore.

It's a terrible shame 

 Potatoes gone bad!

 When did this happen?

It was a rock hard sweet potato the other day

and then there it was

 hiding behind the flour

 growing like crazy.

 I wonder if it will " take" if it plant it?

It's a (Bottle) Blast

 We're having a Bottle Blast at the Fall Festival

Our church has one main fundraiser each year, 

a good old fashioned Fall Festival

with home cooking, games, silent auctions and a country store

along with the meat shoot.

Parishioners are asked to sell raffle tickets:

the quilt raffle

the prizes raffle

and pot shot cards for the meat shoot.

I've  been collecting some bottles and decided to have

some fun with it. I picked up some shave preps at work

from my company store - I'm sure they won't reject a can or two.

They are sort of bottle shaped.

Then I added a couple of drink mix shakers

I found up at the liquor store in town.

They look pretty neat with mixes all around.

Again, not really a bottle but the adults

can aim for these guys.

Along with this classic brand from my early years.

I thought it might get a chuckle or two.

Remember Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill?

Well, this is Blue Hawaiian.

I just might aim at this one-

a blast from the past 

and I'm even legal now!

We live in wine country.  They discovered our area

has soil very similar to the vineyards in Germany.

 Any given weekend in May or October will find

 the roads from Herman, MO to Washington, Augusta to

St Charles and down to St James jammed with winery

visitors drinking their favorites while listening to 

good, live music and snacking on fruits, crusty bread or 

finely seasoned sausages.  

 I love the cow on the Country White!

I added some nice non alcoholic drinks, soap and cleaners too. 

 Just for good measure!

Bird Finds Her Own Perch

From my Facebook Post:

LOOK! Bird found her own perch! 

I walked away for just a minute and when I returned, I couldn't find Bird. 

I called out and could hear her little whistling 

but still, no Bird prancing around the floor. 

Then I saw it- she found her own perch! Good Bird!

(Enacting Jedi Mind Trick--

disregard the dusty table- 

there is no dusty table in this photo)

Seriously, this won't be the perch of choice

I'll still bite the bullet and learn to use the saws!

Gotta Build a Perch

Bird wants a perch 

so it looks like I have to build a perch for her.

That means I have to learn to use some tools

that are really scary.

But I'll do it for Bird.

My husband is going to see what scraps he can gather

and then teach me to use saws

and drills and MATH!

Oh No!

MATH

Poor Bird tries to perch on the edge 

of her plastic tubby,

it works, sort of, but not well.

She falls off.

So this perch will be Inside the house

and only a few inches off the floor,

just to make her comfortable

when she isn't sleeping on my lap.

 Image Credit

Bird Takes a Walk

7

Bird Takes a Walk

We've had some pretty scary moments with Bird lately.

She had another seizure the other day after

being free of them for quite some time.

Everything was going along just as normal

then I put her in the utility sink for her regular

after dinner drink but she couldn't maintain

her balance.  She would lift up her wings,

sort of like you were holding out your arms to balance,

and then she would shake continuously.

Her non-eye, the one that was never there,

opened!!

Well, not the eye itself because I don't think one exists.

But the thing that looks like a little bone is actually

a teeny tiny eye lid!

And it opened.

Just a speck. About the size of a pin head.

I wrapped Bird in a towel and my husband and I 

took turns holding her over the next hour or so

until she was calm enough to go into her tubby for the night.

The next day she was fine,

as fine as Bird can be considering her unusual condition.

I got all sorts of prayers through Facebook

and they seemed to work.

Here she is today taking a stroll around the living room.

PS-- for some reason Facebook shows a preview of a

dumpster for this post instead of Bird.

Strangely enough, there is no dumpster in this post.

 So, that being said, I am going to load a photo on 

top of the video so no one thinks Bird took a stroll

in the dumpster!!!!

Linking to The Chicken Chick Clever Chicks Blog Hop

I Have an Owie!

 I have an Owie!

I had a little scratch on my pinkie finger.

It never bled, I didn't even know it was there.

Then it started hurting ????

Huh?  

Oh no!  There's a bump and it hurts to touch anything.

My husband thinks I should cut it open and let it drain.

I think I need FMLA leave,

a trip to the emergency room,

  a stint at a rehab center,

occupational therapy

and probably a cast.

Do you think I'm overreacting?

Seriously,

Any suggestions?

I don't really want to go to the doctor.

Seven Things

 I received the
One Lovely Blog Award

from Lisa at My Ordinary Country Life

(You need to pop over to her place and check it out!)

As a recipient, I am supposed to tell you

Seven Things You Don't Know About Me.

Hmmm, what have I NOT mentioned? LOL

I guess I'll just go over my life before blogging.

1. I am an only child raised in Creve Coeur, MO

or sort of between Creve Coeur and Chesterfield, MO.

This is part of St Louis County which is not part of the city,

but rather its own entity.  

We moved there when I was in 2nd grade

and I lived there until I was married in 1982.

This is a fairly current photo, it was a bit different then.

My room has the two front windows on the right

near the pine trees.

The two on the left were the dining room,

foyer in the middle flanked by bathrooms (1 full & 1/2)

The house was great, a big circle and in the 

middle was the formal living room

and it was sunken!

So was the master bedroom.

2.  I was oh, so very elegant!

And sort of laid back too!

3 .  I  grew up and graduated from Parkway North Sr. High 

 in Creve Coeur, MO 

 where I was the editor of our high school newspaper.

I attended William Woods College (now University) in Fulton, MO

where I was the editor of the college paper as well.

I interned and then worked for The Kingdom Daily News in Fulton

(where I struggled with the Ag report- I didn't know a barrow from a gilt!

I was much better editing the business page or writing features)

 In the end, I ended up as a Personal Lines insurance underwriter

after I discovered how much time it would take to

be a journalist and how little it paid!

4.  After marrying Tom, my high school boy friend, 

we lived in an apartment in Maryland Heights, MO

(still St Louis County) for about 6 months until we

purchased a house in Eureka, MO.   This is near

Six Flags, in fact about 3 miles from it.  

My family thought they needed to get shots and 

 apply for a passport to come visit.  I'm surprised

that they did not pack a lunch!  

Eureka, back then, was a town full of pickups and

  metal fishing boats not the high end community it is today.

 I got out of a ticket in (real) St Louis when I made an

illegal left turn.  I explained that I was new to the big city.

We didn't have all this traffic and any of those 

fancy-dancy stop lights back home!

It didn't hurt that my friend's little girl came up behind me and 

completely uncharacteristically hugged my legs, 

giving the city officer that cute little girl look!

 5.  After living in Eureka for about 20 years we moved even further away,

out to unincorporated Franklin County, MO between Catawissa and Robertsville.

My friends said one of two things:

Catawhatta?

or

Oh, I have an aunt that lives in Catawissa !

Our place is five acres on a ridge top sandwiched between my

father/mother in law's five acres and my brother/sister in law's property.

It's very rocky, not at all flat and full of wonderful woodland things:

animals of all sorts, reptiles, trees, bugs but most importantly

it's peaceful.

 I started collecting stray cats!

And learning to drive things that were not cars!

 6.  It was out here that I realized I didn't really know how to do anything!

I made a list of important things to know

Sewing, cooking,  canning, survival skills, first aid, etc.

When I started doing these things my family thought I had been captured by aliens, experimented on and returned to Earth.

 In my younger days, I used to have my friend, Robyn, come over

 to tell me when my canned ravioli was heated through.

I wasn't much of a cook.

Don't let my brother in law tell you about my 

first dinner for him after he returned from the Navy.

It wasn't pretty.

I had to force them to stop trying to choke it down.

We ended up having take out!

Due to this, we are still alive today.

7.  That brings us to big number Seven.

 What's left that you all don't know?

Oh, how about this- I struggle with MATH! 

I can't do math in my head, I have to write it down

or use Excel, like I do at work.

I'm good working in the millions at work

but don't ask me to add up the price

of three or four products as we walk up a store aisle.

Unless we're at the dollar store!

( and assuming we are not buying more than 20 items)

Because of this I struggle with recipes so,

if I have to triple a recipe I put the ingredients in three times

or I might make a mistake and ruin it

and that HAS happened!

So, now you know stuff you may not have known before.

So it's my turn to nominate some blogs.

I hope they haven't already been nominated:

 The Way Grandmama Does It

Cottage Tails 

Missy's Homemaking Adventures

Sparing Change

The Locust Blossom

Me

 Thoughts from Taylors Outback

 Measuring cup link

Our New, Old Tractor

Introducing our new, old tractor!

My husband has been watching tractor sales in the area

and came home with this beauty the other day.

It's a 1951 Ford 8N and has a beautiful look to it.

  The N series started back in the 30s 

and was designed to be a tractor the average guy could work on.  

The 8N was the last of the N series.

It has a 4-speed transmission and multi position 

hydraulics.  The clutch is on the left with independent

brakes on the right.  These are used for complete stopping or brake steering.

I love the classic look

but it will need  some touch up painting since it is not a very good paint job.  

Perhaps they intended to paint around the letters but never finished ?

 This is where the oil filter goes.

The  tractor seat and gear shift.

 Our friend wanted to try our his new truck so he towed it home for us.

It started right up and was ready to take a spin.

Up to that point we've been so very dry,

there's always dust floating in the road

after a car goes by.

Tom started grading the road, getting all those holes smoothed out.

It came with the orange, slow moving vehicle sign.

This is the three point hitch.

There is also a power take off (PTO), 

a shaft with splines on it which 

will attach to a drive shaft on an implement 

so you can use the tractor to power things

 like bush hogs, balers, etc. 

There can also be a belt drive that connects to the PTO

which will run things such as a saw mill.

I had my driving lesson yesterday.

It is much easier to shift than a car; however,

I was a little thrown by the brake-steering system,

thinking that I was doing something wrong

based on the feel and sound of it turning.

 No, I was doing just fine, it was doing exactly

what it was supposed to.

These things can really turn on a dime!

Funny how a day of work always ends up 

with friends gathering for a beer or two!