When Wally asked what I wanted to do for my birthday I told him I wanted to get a cheese burger at the Diner and get my drink on at the cabin with him. That's it. He said he would make the reservations...lol!
I remember fondly those birthdays spent over at Ernie & William's house. William would build a bon-fire in the back yard and folks would stop by with wishes for a Happy Birthday. Ernie would always fix way too much food but somehow it always got eaten... :) LOL for her and I it was usually after the party was over, hello..she even made me a taco layer dip instead of a birthday cake the one year...yummy!!
Ernie always offered to drive us wherever I wanted to go for my birthday but then she couldn't really party with me AND drive us back home so it worked out better that we just stayed at her house for the duration. A good time was had by all and it kept us off the streets! lol!
A better porch party there never was...than those over at Ernie and William's house. My goodness I couldn't tell you how many times William threatened to call the cops on us for our porch party goings on... we were really quite well-behaved so I'm not sure why he said that lol! We were the best at people-watching, never letting William trim those bushes so we could see but not be seen (at least we thought so...). We had our seats and when people came over, they let us have them. No questions asked. If someone didn't know the seating assignments, they would be ever so politely educated and with the knowledge, they too would move to a new chair :) ha ha ha ha ha those were some funny situations. We knew every vehicle that turned onto the street and we even knew when one would be a turner-rounder... We had a fan for the hot, sweltering evenings of summer and a heater for the chilly (ha!) evenings of "winter." We knew which kids were hoodlums and which ones eventually would become one... We made plans for all sorts of things to do on Saturday and eventually had to agree never to hold each other to any of them until we sobered up... lol!
There's so much more to be told of those days but I'd have to change the names to protect the innocent and then what fun would they be?? lol
Back on the farm... the snow is melting away although it's a much slower process than when it piles up I must say. When I walk over to feed the horses, it's now hard and crunchy instead of the powdery soft stuff that first fell. There were many, many snowmen on display as I drove to work last Thursday and Friday...all to be headless and fallen over on my way in this morning. Their hats and scarves and noses being the last of the display and they were on the ground at that. One family got very creative and built what looked like a makeshift igloo - come Sunday, it was just a few strange looking snow something or others...
The puppy poo is much easier to watch out for if that's any consolation :) LOL that doesn't mean I didn't step in any, because I sure did...but it is easier to spot now that the snow is gone. I just have to remember to look for it. Colt is still being stand-offish and Ruger is soaking up all the lovin he can get. He still sits up when he gets fed and now he's taken to giving us his paw as if to shake hands. We didn't teach him either of these two things, he just came up with them himself - smart lil' feller :) With the weather warming slightly we might have a chance to get outside and spend some real training time with both of them. They're doing pretty good on their own but they still need to learn some manners. They both got lessons on trying to steal bones from the big dogs... we heard a couple of yips and yelps when they tried it!
It seems they might be putting themselves on a new schedule. Their breed is supposed to stay awake nights and protect the farm then sleep during the day. Up until this weekend, they were sleeping when everyone else did and waking with us too. Saturday they got up early and played hard for the better part of the morning. I told Wally I think Wesson was trying to lure them away much like the Hansel and Gretel story...he headed off down the driveway and both puppies went running after him. I thought he would turn back or cross over to the other side by the outhouse but he just kept going. Before too long, they were all out of my sight. I thought to myself that he must be trying to shake them and there they were with no bread crumbs to drop...lol
Apparently he's not so good at shaking them because they all came back together some 15 minutes later...lol I guess the big dogs are stuck with them after all...lol! Anyway, so they played and played and then they crashed out for almost 3 hours! That was a long nap. I figured they had either been up most of the night or they were trying to get themselves on a night schedule and needed to get as much daytime sleep as possible. I don't know but when I left at 5am this morning - they were both up and outside the dog house running around playing already. Oh to have some of that energy :)
We went to Pee Wee's for a little while Friday night. We didn't want to stay long because it was forecast that freezing rain would be moving in. Well, that never happened but since we were already home I made us some sandwiches and we finished off the macaroni salad and went to bed. The night before I had decided that we needed a summertime dinner instead of all the wintertime comfort food we've been eating. Comfort food is good but I wanted something a little lighter and "summery" feeling - you know what I mean? Well it ended up being lemon-pepper chicken breasts and macaroni salad :) Even though it was barely above freezing outside, it was 70 degrees in the cabin and reminiscent of summer picnic with the lemon-pepper permeating through the downstairs and the mac salad chilling in the refrigerator.
It could only have been better if I'd served it on paper plates with plastic forks and a pickle...lol!
The freezing rain never came Friday night, nor did it come as forecasted Saturday or Sunday night. We're still waiting for it today...lol I did have some rain on my way in this morning but not even enough to keep the wipers on. It'll probably start the day I forget my umbrella at home...:)
So after breakfast (cube steaks with biscuits and gravy) Saturday morning I had a list of things to get in Fairview and Wally decided to come with me. We started at Food Lion where we picked up some B1G1 free Shrimp, some milk and some yogurt for my breakfast at work. We fueled up my car ($2.91 a gallon!!!!) and then went to Tractor Supply. We got sweet feed, dog food (we seem to be going through it pretty quick these days...), some parts that Wally needed and a long sleeved t shirt for me. It's plum colored and it was $6.00. That's it. Nothing fancy. If they had more of them in my size, I'd have bought a few of them but they had just the one. We got a nozzle for the hose that was on clearance and then we were done.
We stopped at the post office and cleaned out the box then headed back to the cabin. With everything unloaded and put away we had plenty of time to relax. We watched the playoff games and played with the puppies. Before long it was time for dinner - shrimp on the Bar-B! It had been marinating in garlic, butter, hot sauce and seasoning salt so all I had to do was put it under the broiler and let it go (too cold to fire up the grill...). mmm mmm good!!! It was salty, garlicky and just a little crunchy on the edges... we ate two pounds between us...lol!! I usually wrap it in bacon with cilantro but we wanted it to be simple and quick so that was out :) It was still very good!
I cleaned the kitchen and organized the pantry and then settled down with a cookbook, a cold beer and football on the tv. We had a perfectly relaxing Saturday.
Sunday, not to be outdone, we drove over to the meat-getting-place so we could get some bones for the dogs. Of course there's no point driving all that way if I'm not going to get any meat... sooooooo I got some ground beef, a beef roast and a rabbit. No, Kat, the rabbit is not alive - it's dressed like the first one I got but that doesn't mean it's in a tuxedo or anything...lol. It is cut up and ready to braise in Riesling wine with shallots and winter root vegetables but I'll go there when I actually cook it so you can see pictures that'll make your mouth water - promise!
We fed the dogs their bones and broke the ice in their water bucket. We fed the chickens some scratch and I filled my new bird feeder - I forgot to mention that I picked up another bird feeder at Fred's. The one bird feeder just wasn't enough with all that snow on the ground. Now that it has started to melt it seems the little birdies don't need me anymore...they have been busily pecking up everything on the ground they can get their little greedy beaks on. LOL
Oh - breakfast on Sunday you ask? Whole wheat pancakes with honey and butter and spicy, warm sausage patties on the side. We chased it all down with some iced tea. I figure there's a balance between the not so healthy sausage (although it is without hormones or any additives or preservatives since we made it fresh ourselves) and the very healthy whole wheat pancakes. Honey - all natural and harvested from a guy down the road from us. Butter - real butter with no trans fatty acids to clog our arteries. Yeah there's a little cholesterol but our bodies do need a little bit of that - it's been proven! So there...
Sunday I cleaned the living room floors - ahhhhhh! They look so nice! As you can see from the photostream I accidentally took a picture of them so I went ahead and posted it. lol I was coming back from taking pictures of the puppies and meant to push the off button...well, you see how that worked out for me...lol With the dogs all enjoying the bones, the roosters pecking at the pieces that go flying, the snow beginning to melt away and a 4 lb pot roast in the oven, our day was once again all about relaxation.
The roast was grass fed beef that was truly a splurge as it was quite expensive but as soon as we took that first bite, we realized that the cost was worth it by far. This roast doesn't cook down to nothing like the roasts you buy in the store. Indeed it stays as big as when you first put it in the oven. I sprinkled on some garlic powder and some fresh thyme that Teri brought (sorry Teri - it never rooted so I figured I should use it before it goes bad...) up New Year's weekend. I poured some Dale's (low sodium) marinade and a 1/2 a Corona beer into the roasting pan. I emptied a packet of Lipton Onion Soup mix over top of all that and covered it with foil. The oven was set to 325 and I timed it for about 3 hours.
About every half hour I basted it with the juices from the bottom of the roaster. Talk about making the cabin smell good... I've said it before but they really should make that scent into a candle...lol! It was all I could do not to try it but as with all roasts, it really does have to cook for a long time in order to be tender. After three hours I still wasn't satisfied with the texture so it went back in for another half hour. Meanwhile, (you knew there'd be a meanwhile...) I made Italian green beans with beef bouillon and garlic powder and I made the honey-buttered carrot recipe that I learned last spring. I should have taken a picture it was such a pretty dinner. We savored those juicy morsels and talked about the next time we would be having a roast - we plan to make it exactly the same way. Maybe just maybe you'll be here to enjoy it with us :) Ernie - I think even William would like this one... lol
Well the games were all a surprise to me - I don't know about y'all but I never expected the Jets to beat the Patriots. Of course, even though Green Bay is my team, I surely never expected them to beat Atlanta. This Sunday coming up should prove to be very exciting the in way of football. With the end of football season slowly closing in on us and the racing season not set to begin until Feb. 20th, what will we do to fill our weekends???? ha ha ha - I'll be browsing through seed and plant catalogs, I know that much :) This year will be much more productive in the garden now that I've learned a little more about this climate and this gardening zone.
Now that the snow is melting, the dirt road is just a little bit sloppy...okay, it's real sloppy! I have the sloppiness all over my car but not to worry - remember that rain that's supposed to be coming? Surely if we get what they say we're in for, all that sloppy stuff will wash off. The last time it happened, I had a dirt ring around my car in the work parking lot...lol! It was like the chalk outline the police make of the murder victims. ha ha ha
So our winter weekend mornings are spent considerably more lazy than those of the spring, summer and fall. We watch the weather forecast while we have our breakfast. We feel the animals and give the old dogs their medicine. We play with the puppies and sometimes we actually get some chores done. Mostly we relax and enjoy the beauty of the woods. With the trees void of leaves we can see far and wide. Across the hill the snow still hasn't melted. In the sky the hawks soar with the wind. The squirrel nests are abundant and the squirrels run back and forth across the drive way and up and down the trees like there's some sort of race that only they know about. When the sun goes down the colors are striking. They go from a dusty blue-ish gray, to purple-ish pink, to orange, and then only the darkness littered with stars above. It's beautiful.
Just this morning a huge owl flew in front of my windshield as it swept down to catch its morning prey. Fortunately it wasn't headed in the direction of the puppies or the roosters... I'm pretty sure it was big enough to try and take one or the other. While I was fixing dinner last night I saw a little deer crossing the driveway. She really should be bigger than she is but maybe she's the dwarf one we've noticed lately. She was a taunter as she hid behind the trees and wood piles only just peeking out to nibble the grasses where the snow had thawed. Little did she know I had already taken out my contacts and could barely see her with the binoculars let alone look down a rifle sight at her...she got another day.
The weekend came to a quiet close and we were sleeping soundly by 7pm. I almost nodded off during the game but somehow managed to make it until the end. whew - that was tough. I hope you did just what you wanted to over the weekend and I hope it was relaxing. There's plenty of time for an honest day's work come spring :)
"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?" ~Satchel Paige
I know the porch was a blast, We had some really great Birthday parties, Christmas eve parties, and just all around police is gonna be called parties but the only one that was gonna call them was William, Remember the one time the cops came over to the neighbors and William came out and started yelling you went to the wrong house. I thought Susan was gonna have a heart attack,
ReplyDeleteI Love You and miss all the parties time and just hanging out with you, and my brother "Please don't tell him that" I remember when you told him I missed him last time. He came to my house after a night of drinking about 2am and came in my room and woke me and William up to HANG OUT. William told me I was the one that missed him. So up I went and we drank and talked to 5 or so. That is when I learned BECAREFUL what you wish for, We had a blast though I always do with him and you.
LYMI 4ever