Friday, September 19, 2008

A Sporktastic birthday weekend!


Okay boys and girls, be sure to wish Spork a happy birthday this weekend. I will leave out the specifics about exactly what year he was born, but let's just say there sure are lots of reading glasses scattered around the stuga and my childhood pictures are in color!

Happy birthday Spork!



Tuesday, September 16, 2008

I don't like Ike

Ike passed right over us this past weekend at tropical storm strength. The original prediction called for a category 1 hurricane level when it hit our neck of the woods, so we were happy with a tropical storm. Here at the stuga, we lost a few trees, one of which took out our power pole and landed on Spork's tractor. I think I'll leave that story for Spork to tell. We all know how he feels about his tractor.

Since we were without power, we spent a few nights crashing at the homes of others. I'm grateful for the hospitality, but I'm also glad to be back in my own world of Tivo and teh innernets.

Overall we were very fortunate. I've been without news since Saturday, but I know Galveston and parts of Houston are in pretty bad shape. I can't imagine what the people from there are going through.



A smote hickory tree.
From Miscellaneous

Poor Tilly the Tractor.
From Miscellaneous

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Bragging on my raspberries

The raspberries we planted last spring are doing great and are producing about a cup (or more) of raspberries a day right now. Yesterday we had so many that I wondered what we should do with them. For about one-tenth of a second I thought, "We should share these." Then I came to my senses and thought, "I should bake something!" As further inspiration, Spork's sister, Becky, sent me an email that it was national eat a second piece of dessert day. That sealed it. I did some googling and the first recipe I found was Chocolate Raspberry Cobbler. Yep, that did it.


From Food


Results: I would call this a crisp, not a cobbler. Not that there's anything wrong with the crisp, it's just not a cobbler. I used semi-sweet chocolate chips for the chocolate and added 2 tablespoons of vanilla sugar to the raspberries. It was still a bit on the tart side for me (I might try 1/4 cup of sugar next time), but Spork liked it tart. The semi-sweet chocolate and raspberries were a fabulous combination, though, and I would definitely try it again, but probably not if I had to buy the raspberries at grocery store prices. I would use that money to buy raspberry plants!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Ellie May's animal-filled Labor Day weekend

Late Sunday afternoon, I let Daisy out to survey her domain and I stood looking through the window so I wouldn't end up doing something productive on accident. After a few minutes, I realized I was staring at a deer and that Daisy, with her superior canine senses, hadn't noticed at all. I went and got Spork so he could see, too, and when we returned to the window, there was an adult and twin fawns. Spork ran to get the camera, but by they time he returned, only one of the Bambis was still in view.


Yesterday morning we took Arlo and Daisy for their daily walk and when we finished, we found out we had been followed home by two dogs. At first we assumed that they were neighbor dogs out for an adventure, but now we're pretty sure they were abandoned. They have that haunted look that homeless dogs get and even though it's been raining all night, they are still sitting outside our door.



The black and white dog is a neutered male of undetermined pedigree. The other dog is a female golden retriever and appears to be fairly old. They are both really sweet and submissive, to the point that Arlo intimidates them.

I understand that sometimes circumstances can force someone to find a new home for an animal, but I have no sympathy for the slimy kind of person that just tosses them out to fend for themselves. I've been taking care of their discards all my life and I am beginning to get bitter about it.

And yes, we fed them. How could we not?