Farm Doins' : The Remix

Once again it was farm weekend,

and all of the usual suspects were present.

The little junior cows were there...

The more "senior" cows joined in...

Oops! Sorry!  I didn't see the bull in there!  Not just cows...

A big shout out to The Bull!

The Weege, of course, was wherever the action was...

"Mud schlepping"

General farm activity monitoring

Slobbery panting...

And of course truly fulfilling his life's meaning by

Riding in the Mule.

And lest you for a split second

mistake

the white stuff in the above photo for snow,

let me assure you

In no uncertain terms,

that it most assuredly,

is not.

What it is is HOT.

And Dry.

And Hot.

Well really it's white rock on an oilfield road,

but,

you get my point...

And so, because we were melting

and we felt like we should just take the HOT theme all the way,

we decided to get out the boat

and drive around on the lake to get

HOTTER!

Yes, we're fun like that.

So, here we are on the lake

And here's The Chief

looking cool, calm, and collected as always

And here's me taking a picture of my cute green sandals

that had to be "downgraded" to farm footwear

significantly before their time

because of a little "cow manure" issue.

(Please don't ask for details)

Thank You.

And here's The Chief after I

"DECKED" him 

(Tell me I'm not funny)

for continuing to drive the boat at

breakneck speed

over the large wakes of other boats

JUST to see me fly in the air and practically fall overboard.

He enjoys that -

The whole watching me fly in the air thing...

But really.

I didn't deck him. 

He was reconnecting some dumaflitchy thing

that makes the depth finder work.

And to be honest,

I kind of like the whole

flying up in the air thing myself.

Then we came upon this awesome nest

built in an electrical tower right out in the middle of the lake.

The very middle.

Of a really big lake.

It was huge,

and very precariously perched

ever so carefully on the metal crossbars.

And the homeowners were there!

At least one of them was...

And all I have to say is

I hope that these birds

(whatever they are- I'm using my bird field guides to try to correctly ID them!)

are good swimmers,

'cause if they're not, their fledging flight out of the nest could be

a wet one!!!!

All in all it was

Sunny

Hot

and

Hot!

And speaking of the boat,

when I'm really in the mood to be completely humiliated,

for all of you to point your fingers at me

and guffaw.

Yes,

Guffaw.

I will share with you the blow-by-blow account

of the last time I tried to back the boat trailer

down the boat ramp.

The story involves:

-frustration

-crying

-three old men missing most of their teeth

-frustration

-The Chief shouting "helpful" instructions to me from the boat

-crying

And PLEASE EXCUSE the following but,

-me saying the word "crap"  more than

17 times

in less than

a minute.

I'm sorry.

It's true.

But in my defense,

backing a boat trailer

down a

boat ramp

surely ranks up there

in the TOP 5

most frustrating

things

to do.

EVER.

Can I get an AMEN???

And although,

typically,

I am not a user of

such language,

I'm confessing it to you now.

After all,

what good is this blog,

if we can't be honest,

work for self-improvement,

world peace,

and just the betterment of mankind

in general?

Thank you for your continued support.

:)

P.S. And with the help of whatbird.com I've identified the bird as an Osprey!!!!!

Can't Live Without It: The First in a Series

There are certain things I just can't live without in the kitchen.

Well, 

actually,

I suppose I could.

Live without them I mean.

If you look at it literally, I suppose all I need is

water

and

bread.

But let's look at it in terms of what I like.

Yes, those are good terms. 

I'll showcase my favorites in no particular order,

show no favoritism,
no bias.

I like to stay on good terms with all my kitchen items.

Let's start with...

My very favorite cast iron dutch oven.

This picture shows it working hard simmering a spaghetti sauce.

WOOHOO!

And although the pretty red is chipped here and there,

I still talk to it like it was shiny and new.

You've got to treat your pots right.

Next up,

My two very favorite knives.

I'm a Henckels girl myself.

But brand schmand.

I say just find one that feels good in your hand,

and is razor sharp.

Dangerously, illegally sharp.

Makes all the difference in the world.

And the trips to the ER for stitches will be TOTALLY offset by the

wonderful food you'll prepare with them.

Trust me.

I know these things.

TOTALLY offset.

(But do me a favor and don't bring up this topic with

The Chief.

He might

possibly

have a different

opinion)

Thanks.

And then there's this stuff...

This is the best stuff ever.

I get the Lemon Verbena scent.

I'll blog one day about how

smells

trigger memories for me.

But for now just suffice it to say that this makes my kitchen smell

perfect.

Wonderful.

Right.

Next my friends is this nifty little thing.

My clear acrylic cookbook stand/recipe holder.

You could say

that I'm not the neatest girl in the kitchen.

Yes, you could say that and not be entirely wrong.

This thing protects my cookbooks to live another day.

And then the WORK HORSE.

I can't say enough about how well me and this guy get along.

This one has had a lot of rest though lately,

as I placed a moratorium of sorts on

things that made my hips grow

exponentially.

But, the hips have waited long enough,

and I'm about to put this thing in high gear!

And these.  They need no explanation.

I just sleep better knowing they are all in their

proper

spot.

And finally.

What on earth would I do

without my

highly trained

ever motivated

sous chef extraordinaire....

He's always there

to help.

Always.

And it doesn't seem to bother him at all

when I make a big mess.

Especially if it's

on the

floor.

What are your kitchen must-haves??

Your Grandma's aprons?

Your special salt shaker?

The Weege wants to know!!