Road Trip to Electric City - at the cabin

Me- "I'm king of the rock, but Andrew you're too tall."

Andrew "is that better?"

We love each other.

Uncle Keith and his wife, Luanna have a big piece of land with a little cabin on it. It's very nice and peaceful. That's Uncle Keith in the cowboy hat. The red house in the background is also theirs but they rent it out because they like the cabin better. Even though it doesn't have a bathroom it has a great view and a nice clean port-a-potty. There were a pair of birds who have apparently been attempting to next on the porch. I think they are Say's Phoebes. There were also the super cute little bunnies. Luanna says they're pygmy bunnies.They spent most of their time hiding under the house due to Micky's enthusiastic efforts to make friends with them.

Can you see the bunny? He's on the wood pile.

We were graced by some pretty amazing lightning storms while we were there, but I slept through the best one. Andrew says it looked like the lightning struck the RV parked right next to the cabin. Everybody went on and on about how it shook the whole house and scared Micky. It didn't even wake me up. What can I say? I have a talent.

Also, one more thing that was amazing about this place. No mosquitoes. Andrew and I slept out on the porch. We got to look up at the stars and we weren't eaten alive. Not even a nibble. I didn't realize it was possible.

Road Trip to Electric City - Soap Lake

This is what the landscape looked like when I woke up.

 Last Saturday morning, Andrew, Mom, Micky and I set off on a road trip to Electric City to visit Uncle Keith. We packed the car the night before and left at 5:30 in the morning. I sat the in back seat with a pile of pillows and coats. Needless to say, I promptly went to sleep. We stopped in hood river at a coffee shop called The Ground. Mom liked their coffee. I didn't want any coffee and went straight back to sleep. I think Mom drove some of the way and Andrew drove the rest. I woke up in time to direct a side trip to look at a project that I helped Uncle Keith with a few years ago. A man named Keith Powell did the statue and Uncle Keith did all the rock work. It's a pretty cool thing. The statue and the ring of rocks around it make a sun dial.

 The shadow that the wing casts points to the time of day.

Micky is dancing.

Micky loves Mom.

Mom-"Mckenzy look at Jenny for the picture."

Mom sure loves her poodle.

Trouble's Recovery

Trouble teaching the ferrets not to stick out their noses.

Trouble has been making an excellent recovery. She taught the ferrets not stick their noses in her cage. When she was loose in the bathroom, she taught them not to stick their noses out of their cage. Any nose that comes to near will get a peck.

When Andrew and I came home from our trip to Electric City on Monday we found that the last of Trouble's scabs had fallen off. She's got brand new skin and her feathers are coming in. Some of the feathers are coming in a at funny angles. It looks silly. 

Trouble's healed wing.

Enjoying some sun. Tanning chicken style.

Trouble and Me chilling out on the front lawn.

Sold the Honda
Sold the truck bed liner
Found a home for the extra chickens

All my craiglist selling is done. No more confusing text messages! Yay!

Strawberry Pie

I am dreaming of strawberry pie

 I remember the first time I had home made strawberry pie. I was maybe eight I guess. My family was visiting friends and we (I think myself and Katie and Sarah) picked a lot of strawberries. Then we took them home and ChrisAnn helped us make a pie. It was so good. I have been looking for a pie to match it ever since. I think to complete the magic, one must be eight years old, but picking fresh berries and making the pie at home brings me close.

Like my rolling pin? It's a bottle.

I got a good recipe for the crust at:
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_pie_crust/

They recommended things like freezing the butter. I didn't do that because I do not have a food processor. I didn't bother with cutting it into 1/2 inch cubes either. However, the butter that I used did come straight out of the fridge. I chopped it in the four with a knife and fork. Chop, chop, chop. It was a little workout. I believe the main the is not to melt the butter of the crust will be chewy.
I kept telling myself. "Arm toning. Making up for some of this tasty butter I'm going to eat." Then I got into a rhythm and my inner monolog just sounded like, "Tasty pie. Tasty pie. Tasty pie." Then I made the dough into two balls and put it in the fridge over night. The website above told me to make the dough into a disk. I should have paid attention because when i tried to role it out the next day it was rock hard. I have to warm it up a little with my hand to get it to role.

 

All Butter Crust for Sweet and Savory Pies (Pâte Brisée)

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
• 1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 6 to 8 Tbsp ice water

Andrew says this filling look disgusting. I think it looks good.

The Inside 
I round this old fashioned strawberry recipe at the website below:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/old-fashioned-strawberry-pie/

I left out the cinnamon.  The crumbly nature of the crust made it pretty hard to flute the edges. The pie was not the prettiest one I've ever seen but I found it tasty.
Yield 1 - 9 inch pie

Ingredients

• 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar (I put in somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 cup of honey instead)
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 cups fresh strawberries
• 2 tablespoons butter

 

 

 

Directions (somewhat modified from the original)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Place one crust in a pie pan.
2. Mix together flour, and the berries. Pour filling into pastry lined pan, drizzle in the honey and dot fruit with butter. Cover with top crust, and cut slits in the top. Seal and flute the edges.
3. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the crust is slightly browned.
   

Pie is good. THE END.

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Headache

I have had the most amazing headache most of this afternoon. Too much sun this morning? Not enough water? Caffeine addict ran out of coffee? Who knows. Not me. Fortunately I have time to rest this afternoon. I self proscribed treatment in order. 
1. Rest and cool off
2. Ibuprofen
3. Water
4. Potato chips
5. Caffeine
6. More Ibuprofen (it's been a few hours)
7. Write in this blog

Playing Mechanic Round 2

Changing the head gasket on the Honda turned out to be a lesson in communication for Andrew and I. We messed up our first replacement gasket because we were out of sink setting down the head. That lesson cost us $23.99. It also forced us to halt our work until the morning. Really pretty cheap when you think about it. Just imagine how much couples pay for counseling just trying to learn to communicate. I was still kinda bummed though. If I had more upper body strength we wouldn't have made art out of a perfectly good gasket.

Other things that I learned from this adventure.
1. It is hard to find machanic gloves small enough for me
2. Working without gloves results in boo boos.
3. Fingerless gloves from the dollar tree work pretty well
4. That one thing is an intake manifold
5. That other thingy is an exhaust manifold
6. Dirty oil stinks. Pew
7. Clean oil smell ok
8. Andrew is fun to work on cars with

After purchasing the second gasket, the head went back on pretty well. We thought the car wasn't really fixed, though. When we started it up, it continued to spew white smoke (really steam) for some time. Andrew was expecting this. The volume however threw him off. We thought we needed a new head until this morning when I went strawberry picking with Nicole.

Well, like a genius, I locked my keys in the pickup forcing Andrew to drive the Honda to come get me. By the time he got home again, the Honda had stopped spewing steam. The catalytic converter (I'm still not quite sure what that is) holds on to the water for a while after you change the head gasket. So until that water has all been heated up and sent out the tail pipe the car continues to "smoke" even though the problem has been fixed. The end result is... IT'S FIXED! IT'S FIXED! heee heee ha ha!
THE END... I hope.