Smoked Turkey

John smoked the turkey on the grill today, it took about eight hours for a 17 pound bird. It's cooling on the stove, the juice will soon be poured off and the fat removed for tomorrows gravvy, the bird cut up, deboned, and ready for tomorrows dinner and for a large batch of turkey and noodles!

Thomas Again

Barely a year old.

Thomas

Summer coat, no bib, no mane and no ear tufts, almost a medium haired cat at this point. August of 2010

Winter coat, mane and bib and all fluffed out.  February of 2011.  He did grow his ear tufts back in and longer, much longer ear hairs, but alas the little bugger won't sit still for photos.

 

These are his feet in August, they are way hairier in the winter!

Thomas

What do you mean you can see me??? 

Pepper

Pepper being himself~!

Ranch Dressing

My first ever attempt at making ranch dressing.  I used the recipe from All Recipes

It's in the fridge chilling!

Pepper

Pepper and his chair! Right now I've parked my bookwork in the chair, on which he's decided to sleep.

House Redux 080512

And an hour later it looked like this!

The Gate Keeper

Angel keeping me company while I work on a painting out on the front porch.

The Scaffolding Shuffle 072912

Trim colors, finally, on the east windows!  Now to move the scaffolding so that the lower portions of the windows can be finished and the remaining east windows can be painted.

Dinner 072712

Another hybrid dish somewhere between ragu and colache!

Horseradish and mustard encrusted baked chicken served with quinoa. I've taken some notes on tonights dishes for future changes for instance there wasn't near enough mustard on the chicken!  Oh and don't forget to salt the chicken next time.  I'm still getting used to quinoa, it's wonderful but my brain keeps telling my tongue that it's cream of wheat when in fact it is not.  Next time I'll add some fresh herbs to the quinoa at the very end.

Salsbury Steak

Salsbury Steak - well sorta since it's made with ground beef is it really salsbury steak???

Wind Damage 072612

Bye bye redbud tree!

House Painting 072112

John - painting the trim over the upstairs window.  We're back to working on the east side of the house, up until today he's been working on the soffit and the trims way up there where you see the pale blue.  This afternoon we took the storm windows out and now the task of repairing the wood, priming it, and the painting it and all of the window trim colors and then onto fixing the storm windows themselves. 

Inset Panel for Window

Had to wait until the sun went down but here's the inset panel, I covered it in a natural cotton muslin on both sides.  I plan to paint some fabric tomorrow for the next inset panel that will be going into the dining room window.  After we finish that window we have one more window, an oval window, to work on and we are done.

Window Insert

John is on vacation this week, for the rest of the month actually, and we are working on some projects around the house.  Here he is measuring the window in the stairwell to make a frame for an upholstered insert, when it was finished the temperature of the stairwell dropped a good 15-20 degrees right away!

The frame, was made with the intention of being upholstered and then fitted into the window using friction fit method.  Frame was made out of reclaimed hardwood from an abandoned futon.

First layer of muslin stapled to the back side of the frame.

Second layer of muslin, on the face of the frame, is layed on the table and the back side of the frame is up.  Lots of stapling and pulling is needed to make the piece look professional!

Fabric is folded under and pulled over to the back side and stapled into place.

Here it is snugly in place!  Now to get some fabric painted, dyed, and other wise surfaced, drapes made and those installed!

Bird Bath

I put a fat brick into my bird bath so that the smaller birds could have a place to stand and still get to the water.  The crows just stand on the board and lean over into the pan, but the smaller finches now use the brick as a perch for drinking from.

Making Hamburger Patties

John making hamburger patties using our LEM hamburger press, I really prefer my mom's old three piece tupperware press but alas that was the one thing I didn't get after she passed.  Dad says he has no idea where it made off to as  he really liked it as well.

Waxed paper is a must or you'll never get your patty out of the hamburger press.  John makes 6x6 inch pieces of waxed paper, he says it also helps to keep them seperated when frozen, and he's right they are WAY easier to seperated.

Thirty one five ounce meat balls waiting to be pressed into patties! A ten pound tube of 85% yields about 32 patties more or less.

And this is what they look like before they are put into freezer bags.  If you wanted to keep them a very long time then I recommend vacuum sealed bags, instead of freezer bags, to prevent freezer burn.

Dog Gates

This

Keeps this...

Confined to the front porch!  She weighs 12 pounds and unlike most dogs she hasn't figured out that she can actually move the gate out of the way.  Tis ok we like her dumb that way, likewise she hasn't figured out that she can actually get onto one of the kitchen chairs and then onto the kitchen table.  Yes there IS a place in this world for clueless dogs!

The neighbors keep commenting on my gate, they like it which is good because Angel sure doesn't like it!  Actually it's NOT really a gate it's my fleece skirting table, that I built back in 1996 for sorting and skirting fleeces on, but I needed a gate for the front porch, so that Angel could go leashless but not have access to pedestrians, etc.

Make sure you put the zip ties every six inches or so so that  your pet doesn't get caught up and strangled in the netting, and make sure those zip ties are on there and really tight!  Also I used regular mesh netting NOT the wildlife netting which is much thinner and easier for a small dog to break through.  Finally I don't recommend this type of gate for agressive dogs or for large dogs.   This type of gate really works only for dogs that are totally clueless, like mine!!! VBG

Redneck Bird Bath

Or shabby chic bird bath either way it's WAY hot outside right now so don't forget to water our feathered and winged friends along with your plants!

Clematis

My clematis, it's a bit thin this year due to lack of rain.

Garden Update 060912

Praying for rain!  Just finished watering the garden, by the time I was done it looked as if I hadn't even watered.  Tomorrow I'm putting down the final layer of heavy mulch along with the seaper hoses!

My grapevine has grapes on it for the first time in 8 years, mainly because the neighborhood thief didn't shear it off to the quick this past winter!!!  Yes I actually have someone who has been coming into my yard and cutting back my vines, and then stealing them!!! 

Anyway, we'll be putting netting on the arbor this coming week to keep the cardinals, and other birds, from stealing my grapes.  Mainly it's the cardinals that have been causing problems, they did a pretty good job of stripping the cherry tree that's just behind the grape vine, and the cherries hadn't even turned red yet.

New Raised Bed

I need to edit the photos and post them here for this particular bed.  John has been experimenting with several approaches to the whole sustainable garden, one of those is the back to eden method.  In this new bed we layered composted wood chips and leaves on the bottom and then some good soil on the top.  I've planted lettuce in this bed and then once it's up I'll layer in leaves atop the soil in between the rows.

John will build the lid for it tomorrow, this will ensure that the rabbits don't eat my baby lettuce plants and the neighbors cat cannot use it as it's litterbox.

Reindeer

Reindeer display at Scandinavian Days in Story City, Iowa.

It's Clean!!!

Looks like the other photo doesn't want to upload... oh well.  My studio, aka formerly known as the dining room, is now cleaned and organized, I'm showing a view of the path from the main studio, aka formly known as the living room, into the kitchen.  It was inhabited by a very large dresser taking up most of the path space, the dresser is now living in our guest room, that is in serious need of organization!

Garden 051212

Taking a break, spent most of the day outside finalizing garden plans, planted cucumbers, helped John to unbury our stash of wooden fence posts (for my new fence) and retrieve old decking material for constructing more raised beds.  Above: John tilling the north garden with our trusty tiller Rotilla the Hun! 

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm

When I woke him up and asked him if he wanted me to move Pepper so he could go to bed, all I got was "ummm". Needless to say they are still sitting in the chair, both sound asleep.

Seedling Protection

John made this "cage" for me, it has screenwire mesh for the sides, to protect my seedlings from the chipmunks, mice, and birds.  He used reclaimed cedar, from a fence we salvaged, for the structure. 

Garden 050612

Yeppers I have a big ole crab apple tree smack in the middle of my garden, and a grape vine on the west side of the garden.  So far I've planted peas and pole beans, the biggest obstacle was getting the fence set back up.  Looks like it'll be dry enough, late next week, to plant my cold crops and cukes.