It is too hot to cook inside,

so let's do all the cooking outside on the grill.

Seriously, there was actually no rain today!

The humidity dropped, but it is still quite warm.

A few years ago, hubby's parents gave us a new grill.

(The one we had previously left them drooling

and waiting impatiently for the food to get done in stages

when we had a party in their honor.

They decided that should they ever drive

all the way up here to visit us again,

they did not want to get a lot older

waiting for their dinner to finish cooking.)

The new grill is really big!

I mean you could roast a 20# turkey

with baked potatoes

at the same time - big.

Needless to say it can use quite a bit of charcoal,

so some planning is required to get full use from the fuel.

Have some welding gloves on hand

to use as grill safe oven mitts,

especially if you are using cast iron cookware.

Make the bread dough; let it rise.

When it is almost done rising, light the grill.

Go back inside, punch it down and form the loaves.

Cover, and let them rise.

In the meantime, take the meat

which has been marinating in the fridge, and grill it.

Add a few more coals to the fire, and close the lid.

Take the cooked meat inside, test it for flavor, sample some more,

and put it in a place where the dog can't reach it.

Take the bread dough in the pans out to the grill,

place them on the side of the grill without coals

to allow them to bake by indirect heat, and close the lid.

The thermometer reading of 350-375 on the grill

might be accurate, then again it might not.

Check the bread every 10-15 minutes to make sure it

doesn't get burnt.  The pans may also need to be turned or

switched around because hot spots tend to develop.

Total baking time will be 20-30 minutes for cinnamon rolls

and 30-40 minutes for a large loaf of bread.

Cinnamon rolls with chocolate chips

and fresh hot bread coming right up.

Oops, it is getting dark, but the coals are still really hot.

Might as well make use of them.

Hmm, what to make?

I know, some sponge cake to go with the last

raspberries of the season.

Gee, next time I need to find a spot in the driveway

that is a bit more level.

The cake is a bit lopsided.

Yeah!

"Firewood" hauled!

All six pallets of wood pellets

are now in the basement,

where they are safe and

most importantly dry.
Cause, guess what -
It is raining again.


Hopefully, some scrounger will come
and ask permission to take the pallets,
since they are too beat up to return for a credit.

I think today shall be a day without really heavy lifting.

(Now to catch up on gardening,
laundry, dishes, vacuuming, etc.)

Anybody Home?

Put the cage down!

Let me see! 

Let me play with it!

Oh Rats, It's empty!

But it still smells like a bunny.

Finally!

After much waiting and anticipation,

it looks like we might finally get some food from the garden!

Beans, beans, the musical "fruit"

the more you eat

the more you toot.

Hey, if the government can call a tomato a vegetable

then poetic license can be used

and beans can be called fruit.

The purple ones turn green when cooked.


On another note, I had to move the live trap tonight to a different spot.  It would appear that there are no more rabbits there.
However, in the past two days we have caught one sparrow and a toad.  Both were released to do what they do best - eat bad insects.

It Happens Like this Almost Every Year.

It is hot, humid, and rain showers keep popping up

and pouring down from the sky.

The weather must know that it is time for the

Experimental Aircraft Association Fly-In.

But hey, they can't have the fly-in during January,

because no one would come.

The skydivers and the wing walkers would get horrible

cases of frostbite and hypothermia.

Rats, I'm starting to get cabin fever

after only one day without my car.

We loaned the Element to some missionary pilots for the week,

and hubby is driving my car.

So far, so good, no raccoons or deer played chicken

with him on his way home from work tonight!

Hope the missionary pilots have fun in the Element

and don't spin all four wheels too much.

It is a very fun vehicle to drive,

especially with a manual transmission

and a very sporty suspension.

It also hauls washing machines, snow blowers,

bags of plaster and other demolition debris,

and big boxy stuff really well.

It works great during deer hunting season,

because it is a lot easier to load a big buck in the back than

to try to hoist the whole animal onto the roof.

That can be quite tricky, as a dressed deer in this area

can still have the potential to weigh more than hubby.

The on demand 4WD comes in handy, because sudden slippery conditions normally do not allow you the liberty to stop your vehicle to lock the hubs and put it in 4WD.

When you need the 4WD, it is there!

Yes, that is a buck,

but it was deemed an antler-less deer because it broke them,

probably in a battle with a bigger buck.

Hubby would have liked to have gotten the bigger deer,

but I personally thought the young buck

was likely a lot more tender.

The salesman at the dealership had a good laugh

when we sent him this picture.

Apparently, Honda missed its planned demographic

on the Element.  I haven't seen many unemployed surfer dudes driving them here in the midwest. 

But I have seen a Santa look-alike, music teachers with large children plus brass instrument cases piled behind the seats,

and other folks,

who like us cannot be convinced

by the dealership to trade them back in.

Unfortunately, Honda has decided to ruin a really great thing. 

They will only be producing the Element through 2012,

(probably in an attempt to increase sales

on the more expensive Pilot and CRV.)

If you are in the market for a new SUV type vehicle,

give the Element a try.

My apologies.  I checked on the newer models and some idiot at Honda has discontinued making the Element with a manual transmission.  I still like the vehicle, but you might find it difficult to get all four wheels to squeak when accelerating from a stop.  Sorry.

Updated Garden Score

Garden   5   Rabbits 1

(Ok, I have to admit that fifth rabbit kept eating the beans,

and even started in on the okra in the front planting beds.

So much damage for such a small rabbit!

Maybe something will grow to maturity there now.

Do I dare to plant a late crop of spinach there,

or are more rabbits likely to come and gobble it up?)

It is hard to think of winter

coming back when it is > 80 degrees outside.

But it has returned to my thoughts with vivid reality,

because the pellets for the pellet stove were delivered yesterday.

Well, at least there is no danger of the pipes in the basement

freezing while hauling them through an open back door.

That is six tons (six pallets with 50, 40# bags on each).

Managed to get two pallets hauled to the basement yesterday,

and my everything doesn't hurt too badly!

More raspberries to pick today!

I'll try not to melt.

Wired Dogs

Running errands yesterday,

I stopped at PetsMart for some ich medicine for the fish tank.

Ich is one of those fish diseases

that can quickly decimate an aquarium's population.
It is best just to have a supply on hand, just in case.

While heading for the checkout, I ran across a couple

walking in with a very carefully groomed poodle.

Turns out, they were in the area attending their dog's first show.

He was a 3 year old black, male poodle,

and he was WIRED!

Ever seen a dog with ADD?

He was the poster boy!

The lady asked, "Are poodles always like this?"

I said, "Pretty much, but they do slow down a bit as they get older.

They nap more and then wake up wired,
but it doesn't last as long."

I wished them luck, paid for the medicine,
and left the store knowing that their dog would need at least 10 laps around the inside of the store before the wiggles would be even close to under control.

New Neighbor Dog & The Raspberry Chores

The neighbors have a new dog.

Her name is Casey.

She is a big, clumsy amiable hound dog,

and she is pretty much the opposite of Chloe in personality.

Chloe is rather tightly wound; Casey is anything but.

The neighbors describe her as a large speed bump

on the floor when she is inside the house.

Chloe is not quite sure about her yet,

but she still wags to be polite.

Now, moving on to chores - since mom is getting a bit wobbly on her pins, it falls to me to pick the raspberries at her house-all of them, by myself.  The fragrance of raspberries freshly picked and still warm from the sun cannot be beat.  I must keep reminding myself that they will be delicious on pancakes in January as the red and black raspberry patches loom into view.

Ok, time to bend down and keep picking.

 Approximately 2 hours later, here are the spoils of doing battle with thorny bushes and mosquitoes - two gallons of berries.

There would be another 2 quarts,

but I sent them with mom to Aunt Mouse's house.

(Everybody in mom's family has nicknames, because all but one of her siblings have names of 2 or more syllables.)

I predict the raspberry bushes will be reduced in number after a meeting with a shovel later this summer.  Since mom cannot bear to kill a useful plant, an attempt will be made to find new homes for them.  However, I did not say how big an attempt.

Something Sweet for Hubby

You might ask, "Why are you baking at 11 p.m.?"

And the answer would be that we have a crazy schedule.

Hubby gets home from work quite late.

In an attempt to keep him from waking in hunger at 4 a.m.,

he needs to eat something before bedtime.

The first course of his midnight snack was some potatoes sauteed in olive oil and then steamed until tender.

Then the vegetable/desert course followed.

Rhubarb Crunch

(Recipe is in Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Rhubarb post back in May)

Enjoy and good night all.

Can't do a thing with floppy ears

Ma, put the camera away

and take me someplace fun that has squirrels.

An Afternoon at the Park

Ok, the park does not look like this anymore.

In the name of erosion prevention,

it now has a perfectly groomed shoreline with piers.

Glad I took the picture years ago,

because it is not as pretty now.

Persistence Paid Off!

Remember the tale of the trip to the mall?  Well, the sales manager did not give up.  After another trip to the mall to pay for my purchases, I only had to wait for delivery.  A few days ago the boobie-traps arrived safe and sound on my doorstep.  Many thanks.

Just How Much Do Dogs Understand?

I was standing in the kitchen fixing lunch.  Chloe was sitting in her usual spot looking forlorn and expectant.  Basically she was trying to look as pitiful as possible.  Then I said something like, "I know you've already had your breakfast, and you're not getting any more." She dropped her head and walked out of the room to go mooch some head scratching from hubby.

OK, how big is her vocabulary really?  It was a full sentence, with no simple one-three word doggy commands.  I am glad that she can't repeat what we say.

How Quickly it Grows!

It seems like just a few weeks ago that it was planted.

Ok, so it's been over a month.

The garden is coming along quite nicely.

Somewhere in there are 16 roma tomato plants, three tripods of pole beans, carrots, bush beans, marigolds, Chinese Chrysanthamums, bachelor buttons, and gladiolas.

There are also some volunteers,

chiefly sunflowers, dill, and borage plants.

Things have grown so well, it is getting difficult to find the ground in the walking paths designed to allow space for picking.

 The bush beans are getting bushier than I thought possible.

Hopefully, the Improved Commodore bush bean seeds weren't in Gurney's last year's clearance because of a labeling mistake.

Such as are they really pole beans instead? 

The apples look nice now, but it is impossible to tell what might be burrowing inside them.  Because of rain and wind in June, I have only been able to spray them once so far this summer.

Don't count your apples until they are ripe;

they're kinda like chickens that way.

The Asparagus has gone really wild.

It is heading for 7 feet tall.

The tomato cages keep it from falling over.

It is forming many seed pods.

Know of anyone that wants to plant some?

This is the worst of the rabbit damage so far;

note the dog hair didn't scare them away and the pepper/clove spray must have washed off in the rains.

I'm not sure if these will grow back and produce anything before winter comes back.

The garden score remains unchanged.

There is a large rabbit that haunts our yard.

Unfortunately, it seems to be too smart to get itself caught in a trap, it travels from yard to yard.  Maybe it will get run over while crossing the street.

Yes, I am stalling because it is hot outside, and I should really go over to mom's place to pick the last of the strawberries and the beginning of the red raspberries.

Bye for now.