Dig, Dig, Dig, Dig, Dig, Dig, Dig, Dig.......

Sunny, drier weather.

Come on Ginger lend a paw; you're really good at digging.

Work is still in progress to make way for the new garden spot.

So far there are a lot fewer rocks than anticipated,

but I have found one big one.

Any suggestions on a name for my new pet rock?

Lunker?

Hernia?

Lumpy?

The 101st Use For Safety Wire

It's raining today, so let's rewind to Sunday

and some fun in the yard.

Spring might actually be here now!

Time to get started on garden preparations by moving and turning over the compost bin.  It has been "slow cooking" for a few years now and had become quite full.  So first, cut the safety wire that is holding it together.  Relocate the "cage" and put it back together.  Then dump the stuff back in that isn't quite done yet.

 Two of those 4' x 8' sheets of plastic lattice material safety wired together into a big tube holds a lot of yard waste.

Now what shall I do with all that "black gold"?

Answer, build a raised planting bed,

fill it with dirt & compost, and grow lots of stuff.

There is a reason why the farmer who owned this land many years ago went bankrupt.  If I dig any deeper than 3" in this yard, I hit rocks... big rocks, medium rocks, little rocks, pebbles....  The rock collection to date almost fills a 30 gallon trash can.  I have already broken one shovel.  To add some much needed drainage around the garage, I will need to use the new shovel and a pickaxe.  Then comes the fun of separating the dirt from the rocks, putting the dirt in the planting bed and the rocks back where they came from to make a French drain.  - LATER

But first, a moment to enjoy spring and all the perennials popping out of the ground after a very long winter.

 Italian Parsley

 Rhubarb

And Chives

It is GREAT to see you guys back again!

Chives on Potatoes with sour cream, mmm.

6 Ways You Know That A Haircut Is Needed

1. My ears drag in the food and water dish.

2. I need to borrow a friend's hair scrunchy in order to see out.

3. The cat cannot find my ankles under all that hair to bit them.

4. The bounce has gone from my bungie,

    and the spring has gone from my step.

5. The silly grin on my face is not because I'm happy;

    it's because I'm hot - all the time.

6. I get stuck in tight places because my hair is too big.

    "I'm not fat; I'm puffy."

Ma please make me naked!

 Ok, some exercise first to clear the plumbing.

The Stogie hold.

Then a bath and sun-drying in the kennel while Ma runs some errands.

Some time later after drying and 1 1/2 hours of shaving and cutting, we have a naked dog.

Squirrel ALERT!

Well the bounce is back in your step, but there seems to be an unintended side effect.  You are now deaf to following commands.

If you still feign deafness tomorrow,

you get to wear the ZAPPY collar.

Now the real reason for giving poodles really big, puffy hairstyles.

If they are kept busy panting, they cannot get into as much trouble.

Farewell Pi

Attended the funeral of a friend's mom today.

Her nickname was pi, like the mathematical symbol.

She will be mourned;

she will be remembered;

 she will be missed.

I imagine there will be many more funerals to attend in the future, we're just in that in-between age bracket where we know old people and younger people have freak accidents.  People don't come with visible expiration dates, so that it is always a shock when they leave this earth.

 There will also be weddings of cousins' and friends' children.

Then baby showers, and it starts all over again...

When I shuffle off this earth, strict instructions will be left for the musicians to play the hymns in a key low enough to actually be sung by normal people - not transposed to stratosphere levels so that the organist can avoid playing sharps & flats.  Sorry, I'm being so rude; my throat is really sore from the screechy songs.

Propitiation, the Reason for Easter

Propitiate: to appease (Webster's barely scratches the surface on the meaning of this one.)

Retailers try to disguise a holiday like Easter with fuzzy bunnies, baby chicks, and lots of sugary candy in the hope that we won't notice the real reason for the holiday, a remembrance.  Remembrance can be accomplished without spending huge amounts of cash, but it will still be very costly to the ego.  Easter is intended to be an annual figurative whack in the head to get our attention again.  It is more than just remembering that Jesus was crucified, buried and raised to life again on the third day, but remembering why he had to go through the pain, sweat, tears, and blood to do it in the first place.

The king of the run-on sentence is much more profound at explaining than I, so here are two very long sentences from the apostle Paul to start the discussion.

Romans 3:21-26

"But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested,

 being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe;

for there is no distinction;

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;

whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.

This was to demonstrate His righteousness,

because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;

for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time,

that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

Told you Paul was long winded.  In short, God is a very righteous dude!  He's perfect.  I do not understand why, but He loves us and wants to hang out with us for all eternity.  But He can't tolerate any of the bad things we do, so He had to offer a solution to the problem.

To draw an analogy, we are like a beloved pet dog that comes home after some adventuring.  "Welcome back home puppy.  Heard your barking while you were chasing something.  Did you catch it?  Oh no, it was a skunk, and you caught it alright.  Ugh, you stink, but I still love you!  Sorry dear, I cannot stand to be near you, because your being near me is so, cough, offensive!"  Of course, a thorough cleansing will follow.

God's solution for us was much more costly to Him than a bottle of skunk scent-killing shampoo; He sent His Son Jesus who willingly submitted to being crucified in our place.

Like a dirty, stinky dog, we cannot fix our wrongs by ourselves.  We still need outside help.

Just a reminder and a warning for those considering faith in Christ, once a person accepts God's gracious gift of redemption, he may feel he owes God a huge debt of gratitude.  Hence, the desire to serve as a demonstration of faith, often misunderstood by friends and relatives who are more familiar with the person who behaved like a rotten, selfish bastard before the "conversion".

Of course, people easily forget and become proud of themselves again - even those who claim to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.  Some forget so much, they try to go back to their old master.  That is where guilt comes in - big time.  God is very possessive; He does not let go once He has you.  Hence the need for a regular whack in the head to remind Christians that God is first just, then merciful, and last but not least very, very gracious;  all we did was accept and open the gift He gave.

So it is with a renewed sense of gratitude for what God did for me,

that I wish you a Very Happy Easter weekend!

It is probably good that He doesn't whack us on the head to get our attention; the world would quickly run out of aspirin.

More Thunder Snow!

Guess planting the garden is not on today's to do list.

Just the other day I was thinking of running out

the remaining gas in the snow-blower; glad I didn't.

Well at least it will be put to good use.

First, sustenance.

Orange Venison Stir Fry

Then chores indoors - vacuuming and more sawing.

There is no point in trying to clean up the mess outside

until it is done being made.

Etiquette Lessons

Chloe lay down, Chloe Stay!

(Do not chase the creature with the golden eyes,

because you do not want your beautiful brown eyes scratched out.

A blind hunting dog looks really silly tripping over logs.)

GOOD GIRL!

The Naming of CATS

A history of cats I have known

None of the cats shown were de-clawed.

When mice invaded, they were expected to do

their civic duty and defend the home and pantry.

Each cat had its own unique personality,

and were named accordingly.

Mr. Naughty (grandma's cat)

He was actually very well mannered except for one naughty habit.

He could never resist the urge to knock over vases of flowers to drink the water.

Pooh

She had a noxious flatulence problem as a kitten,

which thankfully she outgrew. Unfortunately, the name stuck.

Curiosity (name speaks for itself)

Nickname - Curie (after Madame Curie)

Least tame, great mouser, played peek-a-boo.

Generally, she was very serious until she was old

and dying of cancer (maybe the name jinxed her).

Then she met....

Gracie,

who taught her how to PARTY.

(Named for Gracie Allen, "Say goodnight Gracie - Meow, Goodnight Gracie - Meow, Go to sleep Gracie - Meow..purr...")

Of course, she inspired several nick-names depending on her behavior - x-games cat, fuzzy buns,

shed-meister, bratsky, and fuzzy brat.

She fetched - meowing with her mouth full.

She played peek-a-boo.

She attacked toes through blankets.

She slid on rugs into walls, whoosh-bang.

 And she threw tantrums when you told her "no".

After Curiosity died, Gracie was very bored,

so we got her a room-mate.

Tigger

Poor, unsuspecting Tigger.

The humane society said you were fierce; they lied.

You're the biggest, fattest, laziest marshmallow we have ever met.

Gracie picked on you,

and you did not have the sense to just sit on her.

Your one redeeming quality is that you kill mice with a vengeance.

Then came the dog, and the news that I am now allergic to cats.

The reign of cats ended.

The cats moved downstairs, but Gracie was very lonely and bored.

She would sneak upstairs and get the dog into big trouble

when growl-hiss met bark-bark and chasing ensued.

My niece had two wishes after her heart surgery.  Make-a-wish funded the trip to Florida, and Gracie moved to her new home.  Now Gracie has an audience of four, and she finally gets as much attention as she thinks she deserves.

Turnabout is fair play.

Tigger now lives alone downstairs

and is happy as long as there is food, water, and clean litter.

She dislikes the supervised introductions to the dog. 

The dog loves the idea, but hasn't quite mastered

the proper etiquette when greeting the cat.

No fetching, chasing, barking, biting, plucking, or eating allowed!

That is the trouble with a hunt-trained poodle;

they don't know when to turn it off.

They are obsessive by nature.

Volume Control

Oh the things I was allowed to play with as a child.

Did you ever wonder where the term "pump up the volume" came from?  Maybe it came from using one of these - a melodeon.

They aren't made anymore.  Piano teachers will refuse to give you lessons if this is all you have for practicing, because it is not a percussion instrument.  It does however fuel the curiosity of the young mind who wonders, "How does it work?"  It is a reed and pipe instrument and operates by pumping the pedals at the bottom.  Unlike an organ, it operates by bellows producing suction rather than pressure.  The knee pedals are for expanding the sound by playing octaves, left knee for below middle c, right knee for above middle c.  It is a bit of a sight to see someone pumping away on the thing while holding knees apart, somewhat like a bow legged cowboy riding a bicycle.  The sound produced resembles a large, anemic clarinet or a chorus of cats howling.  To make it louder pump it faster, or cheat and hook it up to a more modern convenience - a vacuum cleaner (central-vac preferred to limit extraneous noise).  If melodeons were still used, pianists would be a lot thinner.


Enter the "modern" age of recorded sound.  These devices have fallen by the wayside with all the other obsolete technology, and have the misfortune of being much heavier than a walkman or ipod.

They featured a variety of "pop" music from back in the day including classical, marching bands, waltzes, and fox trots.  Then moving on to early jazz of the roaring 20's like the Charleston and the Varsity Drag.  They also featured vaudeville sketches, "Uncle Josh buys an Automobile" and "Uncle Josh Plays Golf" (pronounced gul-uf) will still leave an impression as you roll on the floor laughing.  Volume control was very - well - mechanical.  On the Edison a big puff was attached to a bicycle cable.  For muted tones, the puff was pushed into the sound cone, and for full volume it was pulled out.  The Victrola had three settings involving the doors on the front.  Low was both closed, medium was one open, high was both open.  Volume control has come a long way since then, and music is much more portable.  Here's to enjoying your tunes without the danger of a hernia.

New Tool (and toy)

We bought a scanner with some of the tax return money.  Guess there are a few, very small advantages in having the family income cut in half.  Normally we end up hoping that we don't owe >1000, if I have worked any significant overtime.  It was a pleasant surprise to get some back for a change-even though it was ours in the first place.  Scary to think that the government is basically printing paper with no real collateral, but oh well.
Anyway it scans photos, film negatives and slides as well as paper pdfs.  I tried finding an all in one printer that would scan film and slides, but did not find any.  So now for a step back into history with a couple of favorite old pictures.
Oops, short delay while I rescan at lower resolution for downloading purposes.

Favorite airplane pictures

 Concord & Corsair 1988

Over time the negatives have lost a few bits of color.

Too bad the Concords aren't flying anymore.

Wishing your tomorrow will be sunny and warm.

Have more hack-sawing to do - see-saw-see-saw.

To Do List

1. Fix brunch & feed dog - check
2. See hubby off to work - check
3. Get allergy shots - check
     Ouch, itchy, sneezy, wheezy - why do I do this again?
     (Reminder to self - it should be worthwhile in the long run.)
      Use inhaler - check
4. Grocery shopping - check
5. Fix dinner - check
6. Turn over dirt in raised planting bed - check
7. Pick up winter's accumulation of dog poo in yard - check
     How can a little 50# dog make that much poo?
     You don't want pictures, trust me.
8. Walk dog - check
9. Feed dog - check
9. Stop procrastinating, go downstairs and hacksaw out more of
    those old, abandoned galvanized steel supply pipes
    in the ceiling.
    I know a saws-all would be faster,
    but using electric power saws above one's head
    can also result in a trip to the emergency room.
    Well, off to my real job.
    One advantage is that there is a very short commute.
    Yes, I'm stalling if you hadn't guessed already.

(The picture is from last summer;

we have insulation in the walls now at least.)

Not Much Carnage, But Lots of Shattered Foliage and Random Damage

The Neighbors' Tree Before the Storm

The Tree After the Storm 

Around the neighborhood

It's very hard to tell if a tree has a bad spot

until something like this happens.

You know it's bad when an ice shanty leaves

skid marks on the garage siding.

 The roof peeled open like a sardine can.

 Flown away - landed where???

 The cemetery is closed today for repairs,

but the residents are quiet and hopefully no one is dying to get in.

The neighbors putting their cupola back on the garage roof. 

 Temporary patching as needed;

that landlord will have "fun" shopping for a new door.

Hubby has today off work, so we walked around the neighborhood.

There is a lot of damage, but it is being cleared very quickly.

Best guess is that there were a number of small, fairly weak tornadoes, because the damage is so spotty.

The Red Cross was cruising the neighborhood to assess the damage.

They may find it difficult to help anybody here, because people are busy fixing things by themselves.

There are other communities that were hit much harder, and our prayers are with them.

By the way, Tornado awareness week is April 11-15.

Funny how tornadoes can't read calendars; they came a day early.

Spring has sprung... and then some

Beautiful sunny skies and warm temperatures arrived today.

The first flowers are blooming.

And the tornado sirens are wailing.

I should probably head to the basement now.

Not raining yet, so I

took some lightning pictures before the wind hit.

And it hit HARD.

There is nothing quite like the sound of air being sucked up the chimney and seeing the rain and other stuff swirl outside the basement windows.

One neighbor's tree is much shorter, and their roof is missing some shingles.  Much to their dismay, the top of the tree did not land on anything that was insured and in need of replacement.  A 400 pound metal cupola from one neighbor's garage is in another neighbor's yard now.  A car bumper was found in the street - not sure if the dealership is just missing a bumper, or if the rest of the car is missing too.  Some bits from other people's houses landed in my yard.

On the plus side, I have one more trash can than I had before.

I will put a sign on it.  If no one claims it in 1 week, it's mine.

More carnage pictures tomorrow.  Everybody seems to be safe.

What's for Dinner?

Crispy pan fried walleye, oven baked potato bites,

and garden green beans (from the freezer).

Followed by key lime reduced fat mock cheesecake.

Walleye:

For best results on the fish, make sure fillets are as dry as possible.  Dry them with paper towels if necessary, dredge with seasoned flour (seasoned salt, cayenne, and black pepper to taste), and pan fry with a couple tablespoons of canola oil in a well cured or non-stick pan.  Have patience.  Cook them with the cover off, and only flip them once when they are slightly more than half done.

Oven baked potato bites:

5-7 russet potatoes, peeled, rinsed, dried, and cut into bite size chunks.

Put potato pieces in a bowl with a tight fitting lid.

Drizzle some olive oil over the potatoes, cover, and shake until potatoes are evenly covered with oil.

Drizzle a little malt vinegar over the potatoes, cover, and shake again.

Spread potatoes in two oiled 9x13 pans, and sprinkle with a mixture of  1-2 teaspoons seasoned salt, 1/2 tsp. tandori spice blend, and ground black pepper, toss, & stir to insure potatoes are evenly seasoned.

Bake at 350 deg. F for 20-35 minutes or until done.

Beans:

Microwave frozen beans on high for 5-10 minutes in a covered bowl with a little water.  Salt to taste.

Key Lime reduced fat mock cheesecake:

Reduced fat graham cracker crumb crust:

1 packet reduced fat graham crackers bashed into crumbs

2-3 tablespoons Smart Balance Light or equivalent

Mix spread (not melted) into crumbs with your fingers.  Press mixture into pie pan and bake 10-15 minutes until slightly browned.  Cool.

Filling:

1 8 oz. package reduced fat cream cheese, softened (Do not use fat free cream cheese unless you are one of those people who enjoyed eating glue as a child.)

1 can fat free sweetened condensed milk

1/3 Cup key lime juice

1 tsp. vanilla

Blend sweetened condensed milk and softened cream cheese together with a hand held mixer.  Add key lime juice and vanilla and blend until smooth.  Pour into prepared pie crust and chill.  If you desire a milder lime taste, use less juice or regular lime juice.

Actions & Consequences

All squirrels everywhere are laughing at you Chloe.

You just can't resist their charms.

You saw,

did not pause to think,

and ran fleetly

across the street.

Then you tried to turn quickly

on something that was slippery.

Oh, the depth of embarrassment as you scrambled back

onto your feet with a boo-boo on your chin.

Will you ever learn your lesson as you bleed on your breakfast?

Your wounds are cleaned now, but will they serve as a reminder?

Ok, scabby, remember to behave yourself tomorrow!

Joke From a Friend

Teddy modeling a cassowary bone dagger with arm carrying band.

A friend who works as a Bible translator in the Simbari tribe in the mountains of New Guinea added this to the end of her prayer letter.  

‎Advertisement: Single white female seeking tall, handsome single male with a love for God and the outdoors. Must own a Honda generator with a minimum output of 3kva. Please send photo of generator.

Happy April Fool's Day!

If interested in her work, look her up on facebook.  Her name is Lori Morley.