Pressure Cooker!

I got brave over the weekend.

A new friend came over and taught me how to butcher chickens.

We were supposed to do the rooster, Fred.

He is ANNOYING!

He is also sneaky.

We took him off the roost Friday night

(after he was asleep)

and stuck him in the rabbit hutch.

But Saturday morning, when we opened

the hutch, he busted out!

Stinker.

Luckily I had a backup plan.

Pearl got to be our trainer bird.

(She lays VERY sporatically, hides them

very effectively,

and when/if you DO find them,

they have a white, paper thin shell.)

We also had 3 rabbits who were at butcher weight.

I've spent hours on YouTube learning how

to butcher and process rabbits.

It was time for the rubber to hit the road.

Thankfully Kyle took care of the first step.

(But we are going to use a different method next time.)

I was amazed how quick and easy the rest

of the process turned out to be!

And then, on the advice of my friend,

I bought a new electric pressure cooker.

I've never had/used a real pressure cooker before.

Oh my goodness!

Turns out rabbit is really delicious!

And easy to cook.

You can brown the meat right there in the cooker
before you even start.
Then add some liquid (I was going to use
apple juice, but forgot to buy it...)
celery, onion, seasonings and a couple strips of bacon.

I should have cooked it for 15 minutes,
but every thing I read/watched said 10.
It was cooked through, but not as tender
as they said it would be.
But still DELISH!

I have 2 more to cook.
I'm thinking I'll freeze them,
practice some with chicken,
and THEN give it another try.


 

What Would YOU Do?

So...

Which would you choose?

This?

Or This?????

Yah.

No contest.

(The woods RIGHT out my back gate.)

(Seriously)

Yup.

I'm SPOILED!

Babies

My neighbor just got a box full of baby chicks.

Kyle takes care of the animals over there on the weekends.

This morning I went over to help with the chores
and check on the babies.

3 of them had a pretty bad case of "poopy butt".

(it has several names, but basically they

get a little clump of dried poop.  If you 

don't do something about it, they will die...)

They need to be "soaked" for about 10 - 15 minutes.

I generally put them in a coffee mug or a small bowl.

But they didn't have anything like that.

Searching around in their cupboards I found

a whole bunch of these fancy candle holders.

PERFECT!

It's kind of like a tumbler.
A little chick fits in there perfectly,
with enough warm water to soak.
But not enough to drown.

This little one didn't "get" the 'keep your head up'
concept.  She got kind of wet.

That little gal in the middle would NOT stay in
her jar!  She kept hopping out!
So I put an upside down strawberry basket
on and had to even add a dish soap bottle!

A couple of minutes later, a good rinse
and dry with a paper towel,  and they
went back out to the brooder to sleep under
their heat lamp.

I came over an hour or so later
(on Andy)
to check on them.
Couldn't even tell which ones they were.

SCORE!

Ummm, No.

The girls in my office have joined me in my

Healthy Eating quest.

We are all enjoying our Trim Healthy Mama

"Muffins in a Mug"

"Skinny Chocolate"

"Egg Roll in a Bowl"

etc etc etc

And then they decided we should get active too.

So one of them has been lobbying for us

to join up as a 4 person team and do

"Run or Dye".

It kind of sounded like fun.

One is bringing a baby in a stroller.

So it would be more like Walk or Dye.

And then I saw a picture.

I don't know.

It just doesn't actually look like fun to me.

I'll be MORE than happy to guide a 5K

walk through my woods.

Or a 5K walk through our local zoo.

Or a 5K walk in the mall.

But people tossing "environmentally friendly"

colored corn starch in my face?

Ummmmmmmm, No.

Happy Valentines Day

I don't know what happened to me.

My Mother LOVES to celebrate stuff.

Birthdays

Mothers Day

Valentines Day

St Patricks Day

etc

etc

etc

She LOVES it!

And she does some really cute, fun stuff

to celebrate.

And it makes her SMILE.

(which means its a good thing)

Somehow,

although we share a lot of traits

we do NOT share that one.

"Special" days are a pain in the neck.

Hopefully over the past 54 years

she has noticed and doesn't mind that I ignore

the majority of "special" days.

Luckily

I married a man who feels the same way.

(Although he likes to do cards)

(Cards make me smile - but then it's over)

(And all that is left is the price tag)

(ha ha ha ha)

Yah

I'm cranky.

Anyhow.

We have a tradition at our house.

Makes BOTH of us happy.

This morning, they said something about

Valentines Day on the news.

Rod looked at me and said

"Oh, Happy Valentines Day!

Wanna go to Walgreens and read some cards?"

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

I LOVE THAT MAN!!!



Forgot One (or two)

I forgot to mention a couple of smiles...

First, the girls.

They are laying all sorts of eggs these days.

One poor darling is laying a MONSTER egg.

(We put it on the kitchen scale - 3.6 ounces!)

And then Bunny laid an "oops" egg.

There's nothing inside but white.

Of course, we get the regular girls eggs

(2.3 ounces)

And then a "starter" egg

(2.0 ounces)

And Bunny's Oops.

(I forgot to weigh it)

Quite the range!

And yesterday, as I was driving to work, I

was running late, missed my turn,

and wasn't really happy.

And then I looked left.

Love me a pretty sunrise!

Put that smile right back on my face.

+++++++++++++++++++++

This morning it was FOGGY!

Like pea soup foggy.

Like the sort of morning I put off leaving the house.

But now that my job doesn't do flex hours anymore

that wasn't an option.

Back when the earth was still cooling

(Rozann was still in high school)

I was living on a farm outside of town with my

best friend (and now famous horse show judge) Trisch.

Rozann came out to spend the night.

We were running late getting her into town for school.

And it was FOGGY.

I tried to pass a slow poke.

In the fog.

And it didn't go well.

We are lucky we didn't get dead.

And ever since, I've been a huge pansy

when fog is involved.

This morning I saw the fog.

Realized I could only see about 10 feet in front of my truck.

And I have to make a left turn at the end of my road.

Yesterday morning at about the same time,

I literally sat there for 2 whole minutes

waiting for a break in the traffic.

You can see left about half a mile and then there's a turn.

You can see right about half a mile and then there's a turn.

This morning I said a quick prayer for safety

and headed to the intersection.

There was literally NO traffic as far as the eye could see

in either direction.

No sooner had I made the turn,

the road was again full of morning folks

heading off to work and school.

Little blessings like that are what make life worth living.

And they make me SMILE.

Smile Some More!

I spend a lot of time smiling.

It's good!

(And gives me an excuse to have wrinkles...)

Smile One:

I woke up Sunday morning in my hotel room.

I always turn on the news first thing.

It gives me some background noise.

And the weather.

The weatherman said to wear a sweater - it's chilly out.

It was 68.

At 6:30 in the morning.

But the day before it was 72.

So, yah, it was "chilly".

All things considered.

Smile Two:

Traveling to and from my school in south Florida

makes me have to drive 122 miles on the highway.

A good portion of which is under construction.

It's AWFUL.

The lanes are all over the place.

There are Jersey Barriers (they scare me).

There are signs that say "Narrow Bridge"

and I drive a big, wide truck.

That scares me too.

And to add to the fun, there's a lip

as you enter and exit the narrow bridge.

You almost get air!

(Which scares me...)

So the smile?

My darling husband drove that highway almost nightly

but in a big, fat, wide, truck full of fuel.

And he never had a problem.

He didn't fall off the road.

Or run into a barrier.

Or fly off into space.

And that makes me SMILE.

He was so blessed while he drove trucks

here and yon for 3 years.

And for that I am so grateful.

And I SMILE.

Smile Three:

After teaching 8+ hours of insurance law (snore)

and then proctoring an exam

and then grading those exams

and then driving another 122 miles on

fabulous highways (see above)

I smile when I see the sign that announces

my exit is only 1 mile ahead.

And of course, Smile Four:

The little girls are starting to come on line

and are beginning to lay eggs!

YEA!

Smile everybody!

It gives you GOOD wrinkles!

On The Road Again

Rod's little Honda got broken.

(I lost my Master Mechanic's designation...)

(When they start talking engine stuff my eyes glaze over.)

Anyhow.

Rod's little Honda got broken.

So Rod and I have been truck-pooling to work for awhile.

It's kinda fun!

He works close to my work.

He works 9 - 5.

I work 7:30 to 4.

But my supervisor graciously let me change to 8:30 - 5.

So he drops me off at my office and then goes on

to the airport.

And then he picks me up when he gets done.

Since it's a Honda, the parts had to be ordered.

And then they had to basically take the entire car apart.

And then fix the thing that was broken.

And then put the entire car together again.

(The same general part broke on Kyle's Ford truck.)

(It took like 15 minutes to fix.)

So Rod and Kyle have been working on this.

Last weekend they worked on it and worked on it.

But it wasn't fixed.

(And the parts weren't all here yet.)

This weekend the parts were finally here.

They spent the entire day on Monday working on this.

And then Rod was sick on Tuesday and they

worked on it some more.

BUT.

IT IS FIXED!!!

YEA!

It's wonderful to live in a house full of mechanically inclined people.

It took them a TON of time.

But probably saved us a GAZILLION dollars.

Teach your children to work on stuff people!

It is such a blessing!



Still Smiling

So this weekend I was teaching down south.

And it was SUNNY!

And HOT!

I was in HEAVEN!

And that made me smile.

But that's not what I'm writing about today.

Saturday, during lunch I went across

the street to Burger King.

In the parking lot was a Dad with his little boy.

They were chatting with a Police Officer.

And the boy was looking up at the two men

with this GIANT grin on his face.

Hero Worship.

Times TWO!

It was awesome!

And made me smile every time I thought about it.

Then on Sunday,

during lunch,

I went across the street to Burger King.

(Seeing a pattern here?)

(in case you are wondering, I have a chicken topped

salad with water when I eat there...)

(I never liked their french fries anyway - so no temptation there.)

Anyhow.

When I sat down, at the next table

there was a Gymnastics Team.

And their two Team Moms.

The team were decked out in all their finery.

Cute turquois outfits.

Makeup.

Hair slicked into ponytails with glitter.

The girls were all special needs.

It made me smile to see them having so much fun.

And then various patrons stopped by on their

way out and asked about their competition

and congratulated them on their great day.

(They won their division and are going to

some sort of championship competition next week.)

SMILE.

It was a good weekend!