Christmas Tour

Second stop: The Village. Don't feel bad for us, we are building from scratch and that takes time. We're keeping it real by starting off with The Paddle Shop, just across the bridge from the Y Knot Bait Shop. It is not clear how they can possibly be Up the Creek with so many paddles at hand, but we digress. We still don't have a lake, in no small part because it would be constantly occupied by a giant sea monster (aka Amadeus, the cat).

Next up is the Dairy, rather self explanatory, but in no way resembling our milking parlor, or what remains of it anyway. After that it's just some Targets and the Facilities ( much more civilized than the Facilitrees)...took awhile to find the feral hog looking statue though:

A Christmas Tour

Our first stop: Obnoxious ChristmAss Bear. This is our replacement bear, the first having been buried at sea in the Great Swirly. In some ways this fellow is more socially acceptable, but let's not get into the weeds here. He looks pretty cute in his festive holiday garb, doesn't he?

His sign is a little hard to read but I think you'll be able to figure it out. The Kilted Scot (in the Scotch bottle) actually dances a very nice Highland Fling when he's properly wound up:

It's Beginning

To Feel At least a bit like Christmas! Mistakes were Made; happily the resulting guilt ridden hangover resulted in even Princess Jay helping out with the Lighting of the Tree.

A Word of Advice: Never mix The Squid with The Green Fairy; thank FSM that the Crystal Skull of Valu-rite (Vodka) didn't find it's way home...we may have run out of porch cots!

The random shot of Rufous is just there to lighten yer spirits:

The End is Near

It'll happen on Sunday actually, in the afternoon. An Ice Age; it'll be 35F by Monday morning here in the Great State of Confusion. This has dire implications for the tomatoes, basil, and pole beans, as well as the hibiscus. For the broccoli, cabbage, and cilantro, not so much.

Oh, and there still haven't been any good pictures of yesterday's meteor; feel free to use yer imagination.

Strange Lights in the Sky

A Sign of the Apocolypse no doubt, as personally witnessed and interpreted by myself. It happened rather late this morning - a good thing, wouldn't want sleep through something like that - during morning chores. It was rather foggy but otherwise normal. There was a faint, far off rumbling that really didn't give much pause honestly. Seconds later, walking to Cluckingham Palace, I was preceded by two shadows. While pondering this unusual occurrence I looked up just in time to see the Great Green Flash. And the fireball. Horizon to Horizon.

This surely portends the Zombie Apocolypse; fortunately we've prepared. As any reasonable and prudent Redneck would do, I've opted to carry the Zombie Special (Glock 30 with a double stack) rather than the Judge today; at feeding time it'll be the AR with an extra mag or two (it's hog season anyhow). Guess we should have bought a few thousand more rounds (or not burned up so many shooting full auto last weekend), but who knew? The Mayans? They certainly didn't mention it if so.

The pictures were taken from news sites. Hopefully some better photos will turn up, as they don't really reflect the sheer awesomeness of the event. There's some less than tasteful Zombie Hunter and weapon shots too. In the wrong order of course.

How To make a Window AC Unit, Cheap

For yer Chicken House: buy lots of Gatorade. Fill the empty bottles and freeze; when it's 100F the girls truly are appreciate the effort. It wasn't used this year at all, but worked well during the record hot Summer 2011.

Cooking Team

Fried Turkeys, courtesy of Daddio and Jake. The best part: little mincemeat pies fried in the spicy turkey oil, didn't even get to take pictures of them, they went so fast.

A Rare Sight

The kitchen, clean.

It won't last though, thus the pictures. Our very first ever Thanksgiving for six is now off the table, rather literally. Things sort of snowballed and we're up to about twenty; the feasting will of course be on the porch, where there's almost enough seats to go 'round. So far we're only frying four turkeys, but it's early yet.

Got Oranges?

We have lots! And lemons and a few cumquats as well. The oranges are Marrs, and much tastier than expected. Sadly, no bananas this year due to freezes last winter. There's lots in town, and down near Occupy Workplace though.

Cheese Bread

We're having Mexican West Virginia hot dogs and Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with homemade ice cream tonite, but here's a great little recipe for a quick loaf of bread to go with that pot of soup you are making. No yeast, and you probably have all the ingredients on hand; the 'seasonings' can of course be adjusted to suit your cuisine of the moment. The recipe doubles well; I am not sure how well it keeps as there's never any left.


Cheese Bread

4 oz grated Parmesan
3 cups AP flour
1 TBS baking powder
Cayenne pepper
Salt
Black pepper
4 oz cheddar, cubed
1 1/4 cup milk
3 TBS melted butter
1 egg
3/4 cup sour cream

1). Heat oven to 350F;

2). Whisk flour, salt, peppers, cheddar, and half the Parmesan together in a big bowl;

3). Whisk up the melted butter, egg, milk, and sour cream in another bowl;

4). Fold the wet ingredients into the dry, just until combined;

4). Scrape into loaf pan and sprinkle with remaining Parmesan; it's okay to use extra, go for it!

5). Bake, about 45 minutes;

6). Cool about five minutes, invert onto a rack, turn right side up;

7). Slice and enjoy!

Pecan Season

Is nearly upon us, pretty much on the same schedule as the election. One of Higher Ground's many past incarnations was as a pecan orchard and a lot of the old trees are still standing (and dropping enormous branches). We'll have a couple tons of nuts on the ground, the vast majority of which will stay there. The local farm stand folks will sell them but that would be a huge effort; it's like haying, one must have the proper equipment to make it worthwhile.

Myself, Granny, and Princess Jay will fill up a cooler, hook up a trailer to the golf cart, take a couple of picker-uppers (they look like a slinky on a stick), and pick up pecans till the trailer is full or the cooler is empty, whichever comes first, The nuts will be spread out on a big screen for a few days to dry out and provide our resident squirrel population a veritable Bonanza. The next weekend we'll shell out whatever the squirrels leave for us, bag them up, and give away most for Christmas presents. I keep about ten pounds for our use; there's lots of nut allergies in the family or we'd easily double that amount.

Pecans generally bear biannually. They are the last to leaf out in the spring, and flower around May. They like a lot of water, and most of the fancy cultivars require lots of special nutrition and frquent spraying. Fortunately these old, unimproved natives are very low maintenance.