Number 79

This is posting number 79. It will be the last post for awhile, other issues are taking priority right now. I will continue to read the blogs I have as favorites.
Oh, and the little dog we were going to adopt...her owners finally showed up and took her home.

Smelling the country

Monday I took a goat and five ducks to the auction in the back of my Jeep Cherokee. I keep a plastic tray under the duck cage but sometimes they squirt. The goat, it wasn't mine, left some little presents. Suffice it to say the Jeep doesn't smell exactly fresh. So this morning I went to the feed store, stopped by the little grocery store and got some powdery air freshner and country pork ribs for supper tonight. Then went to the feed store. At the mill picking up my order, you could smell IT. The sheriff's department had just been there and disposed of a Skunk. I didn't really notice it until I got home and was emptying the hen scratch into the storage bins but the skunk smell was on the bags. Bff Magie uses the feed bags under her poultry cages. I don't think I'll be taking these bags to her.
Today is school volunteer day. Tonight we are having the ribs. My grandma used to boil them for hours with bay leaves, peppercorns and potatoes. I'm going to use the crock pot.

Come on Saturday

So this Saturday, if all goes well, this little lady will be coming home with us

PetHarborPet

We've (meaning me) have decided to name her Ruby, after Barbara Stanwyck's real name, Ruby Stevens. We used to have a Keeshond named Katie after Katherine Hepburn.
Ruby has been at the shelter for two days, way to long for a little dog to stay there without her people coming to get her. There are a number of dogs needing homes. Older dogs who need a last home, a few younger dogs who can spend a long time with you. A large number of pit bulls. Labrador Retrievers are in abundance. My dad had one, Duke, when I was a kid. He was named after John Wayne. I can never volunteer at the Humane Society. I'd be bringing so many animals home. There is also a red slider turtle for adoption. And a black and white rabbit.
I think that Ruby will make a nice younger sister for Eliza (see picture of Eliza to the right).
And I bought a new camera today so hopefully I'll be able to add pictures to the blog now.

Teachers

So I have added another blog to my list. Coffee Tea Books and Me. I think my mom will like this one. She reads my blog but never comments. She should start a blog. Mom was a first grade teacher for (many) years. She retired a couple of years ago. Maybe because she was starting to teach the children of some of her earlier students. Incidentally, my mom was my Kindergarten teacher when my regular teacher was out on maternity leave.
One of the teachers that I had that I will never forget was Miss Cooke. She was my fourth grade teacher when we lived on the Army base in West Germany. She had previously been a teacher in Bermuda. My grandmother had gotten me interested in collecting stamps and Miss Cooke gave me some from Bermuda. I remember she used to read aloud to the class every day. One story we read, that I still love to this day was "Harriet the Spy." I think it was Miss Cooke who got me hooked on reading.
One of my other favorite teachers was Mrs Sorenson, fifth grade at Park Middle School in McPherson, Kansas. She took me as her guest to a mother-daughter banquet once.
In high school my favorite teacher had to be Jackie Engle, journalism teacher extraordinaire. It was her teaching that enabled me to later be the managing editor of the college newspaper and a professional newspaper reporter.
At Bethany College, Lindsborg Kansas, far and above would be Dr. Joyce Pigge. She was my political science prof and for awhile my advisor. But then I decided to be a probation officer and switched majors. Never did probation but I did spend a lifetime in social work.
So now my boys are in elementary school. Doing quite well. I'm wondering who will be their favorite teachers. In a small school, they will have the same teacher for each grade.

Parent teacher conferences

I don't worry about P/T conferences. Andy and Alex are both doing so well, makes me so happy I could just cry. And yes I take credit for their intelligence, after all, they are my babies. So their father's genetics had a little bit to do with it, but mostly it's mine.
Andy's in the third grade and is doing, according to the tests, the school work of a fifth grader. But I'm not going to move him up. I really don't want him in the upper grades with some of those students. The only suggestion his teacher had was to get Andy to read more fiction. He reads a lot of non-fiction.
Alex is a first grader in a second grade classroom. But he has the academic skills of a third grader. This one, no concerns. Doing well. Makes a mom proud.
On a really sad note, bff Magie's Min-pin, Penny, died today. Magie found her several years ago, half-starved, along the road. Penny was very protective of "her" family and loved the baby kittens, goats, whatever needed mothering, Penny was right there. She will be missed.

My friend Magie

The new picture at the top was taken by Magie about a year ago. The highest peak you see is Pike's Peak.
Now that the situation has been resolved I can let you know what has been going on.
On December 22, 2010 Magie and her three daughters took some Christmas presents to a family that they have been friendly with for FIVE Years. There had been a disagreement between this mother and the school over a religious presentation at the school, basically the school said the mother could not give a religious presentation at the school. Magie was trying to explain this rationally to the mother and make things "right" between the school and this particular parent. So when Magie takes the gifts to the family the mother hits Magie in the face breaking Magie's nose and glasses. Because Magie wanted to know why the mother was acting so irrationally, Magie went into the house. Magie left soon after and went to a friend's house who called the paramedics because of Magie's injuries. The assaulting mom called the Sheriff's department, wanting Magie arrested. Supposedly this mom was also under the influence of "medical marijuana" but let's not get into That Issue.
So Magie was arrested and spent several hours in jail. What does my best friend do while in jail? She is singing Christmas carols to the other inmates. Magie does have a wonderful voice, she's one of our church's soloists.
Magie gets released on bond. My seven year old money hungry son, Alex, offers all of his money to get his Aunt Magie out of jail. It wasn't necessary but it does go to show the level of caring that people out here have for Magie.
So after several court appearances, making a long and suffering story short, today Magie accepted a deal which lowered her "crime" from a class 5 felony to a petty offense. Instead of facing 1-3 years in prison, Magie received 18 months unsupervised probation and has to complete a mental health exam. Around the issue of why she's such a nice person and takes presents to someone who doesn't want them. A large number of people wrote letters of recommendation for Magie. I did. But then she's my bestest friend and will be taking care of Andy and Alex if for some reason Peter and I cannot. Unless the mental health exam says that Magie is a deranged lunatic, then I might have to rethink the care plans.

Hot Chicken Salad

This is my version of Paula Deen's recipe.

2 cups of cubed cooked chicken
2 shredded carrots
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. hot pepper flakes
small diced onion
3/4 c mayo
can of cream of broccoli soup
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
juice of one small lemon

***crushed Ritz crackers

Spray 13x9 pan with cooking spray. Mix all ingredients except crackers together in large bowl. Put mixture in pan and spread. Crumble Ritz crackers to lightly cover top. Bake 375* for 25 minutes or until bubbly.

Peter and Alex liked it, even with the carrots in it.

Another Snow Day

The superintendent called board members at 5:45 to see if we should close school. Knowing the temp was like one degree and I could hear the north wind battering the house, I readily agreed. So did the other members. No school.
So I spent the day making brownies and revising a Paula Deen casserole, since I didn't have all the ingredients. If it turns out alright I'll post it.
No chicken eggs today but I did find one duck egg. Frozen.
I have been feeding the horses extra rations of hay lately. In addition to their grain ration. This keeps up, they will need a diet in the spring. But they need the hay to generate body heat.
The chihuahuas left yesterday for their new homes. Soon Virginia will have her new house and can take Libby and maybe Lucy, they've been together so long. Which would leave us with three dogs. Danny is on his last days. So that leaves Eliza and Mischka. And...um...a new golden retriever puppy. There was one advertised on Craig's list but I couldn't get a response.

Fire starters Version 2

Last winter I posted about making fire starters. For starting fires in your fireplace. For a reminder- Melt old candles over simmering water. Use a metal bowl you don't really need anymore for the candles. Put dryer lint into each egg cavity in a cardboard egg carton (Styrofoam doesn't work well). The new version involves putting a teaspoon of old dried coffee into each cavity. Pour the melted candle wax over the lint and coffee. Let the wax solidify. Tear apart the egg carton. I usually use two cavities for each attempt at starting a fire. You can also add herbs and spices to add fragrance. Thanks to my mom for providing candles and dryer lint (our lint is too sandy, but what do you expect when we live in Desert). And thanks to Cheryl for suggesting the coffee addition. Cheryl makes her fire starters with coffee and shredded paper instead of lint. She's been shredding the really old papers at the school that we don't need any longer.

Easy Buffalo Wings

This is our traditional Super Bowl dinner.

3/4 c. Flour
1/2 t. cayenne pepper
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t salt
20 chicken wings
1/2 c melted butter
1/2 c hot sauce

Line a pan with foil and spray with your favorite non-stick spray

Mix flour, cayenne pepper, garlic, salt. Add wings and toss to coat. Place on pan and refrigerate for 1 hour. Whisk butter and hot sauce together. Dip wings into sauce and put back on sheet. Bake 400* for 45 minutes.

And Spring will be here when...

So the groundhog saw his shadow and we will not have 6 more weeks of winter. I would like the exact day Spring will be here. Granted, we haven't had the snow like a large portion of the country, but the last few days of sub-zero freezing has been enough. The birds are tired of the cold, the horses are tired of it and I'm tired of it. I have friends who have no water because their well froze. Other friends have frozen pipes. We were very lucky this time. We keep the water dripping in both the kitchen and bathroom. And Peter installed a pipe heating tape when we moved in. The one time that the tape fizzled out, our pipes froze. Didn't break that time. There was one time when the tape wasn't plugged in and the pipes froze and burst. He had so much fun crawling in the crawl space in the muck and water fixing it.
Even with a two hour delay, the boys are back in school. I'll be heading that way in a little bit for an afternoon of volunteering.

No school today

At 7:30 am it is negative 10 degrees and that's without the wind chill. They are saying that it is very easy to get frost bite right now very quickly. So we are not having school today. It's nice being on the school board, the superintendent calls the board members personally. There's no need to watch the announcements scrolling on the bottom of the tv or wait for the radio to announce the closure.
In some places in Europe the house and barn are attached or the people live above the barn. Right now, I'm wishing that were the case here. It's going to be a long walk to the barn and chicken coop. It's supposed to be even colder tonight. Libby and Lucy have dog igloos stuffed with hay but tonight they are coming into the laundry room. That should be fun.