Forsythia

I covet my neighbor's forsythia bushes. They have about 6 huge bushes that one doesn't notice throughout the entire year until spring when they are a huge wall of yellow flowers.

Because the house has been vacant for a few years, and because the bank is clearly taking over ownership from the latest house flipper that has tried to rehab it, and because I walk on the wild side (I'm practially a CIA operative. I'm surprised they haven't contacted me for a mission yet.) I went over and "borrowed" about 8 shoots to "recycle" in our yard.

My heart was almost to my throat the whole time. Judging by the tingling in my right ear, someone was staring right at it. I have an uncanny way of sneaking around an area the exact minute that the owner shows up. Anyway, the mission was successful. I am safely back to base camp. The shoots are in a bucket of water right now.

I'm going to try to emulate that row of forsythia bushes along the side of our yard. Success is not imminent, but when you are basically in the black ops nothing is for sure.

Elk

We went to the animal enclosure at Lake Jacomo a couple weeks ago. It is a huge area, which is divided into a couple sections. One section has elk and another section has bufflo. Even though they are fenced in, they have a lot of room to roam, shelter from harsh weather and good feed. They even get CARROTS on occasion. These noble creatures are crazy for carrots.

Turkey in the backyard

We have about 17 wild turkey that cruise through the neighborhood eating corn that most of the neighbors toss into their backyards. This glamour girl had just finished a little corn in our backyard when she saw me. The breeze is blowing her little beard, or necktie, out to the left. She is positively windswept. Like the Farrah Fawcett of the turkey world, really.

Fleece blanket

I have one craft that I am pretty good at...making these little fleece blankets. So everytime someone has a baby, I make them one. They are so cozy and soft. Babies seem to like them. This one was for a co-worker.

I have a big one. It was the first one I made. My mom bought the fleece for me. It has rosebuds on it. Since Rose was my maiden name, I like it alot.

Crocus

The crocus begin to bloom in our yard each March. Even though there is usually a lot of cold weather left, it is a big relief to see them. Makes it seem like Spring might actually arrive one day after all.

Old Faithful

Check out this new webcam, hosted by Canon, at Yellowstone National Park.

www.nps.gov/yell/photosmultimedia/yellowstonelive.htm
Click on "Launch Old Faithful Geyser Live!—Video WebCam"

It shows streaming images of Old Faithful and the surrounding geysers. It is actually operated by a person, so if not much is going on with OF, it will pan over to show another geyser erupting. If you didn't already know, the area surrounding OF is some of the most geothermally active territory in the world, rivaled only by parts of Iceland. So there is plenty to see from just this one webcam

I know OF is considered cliche by snotty intellectual types, associated with throngs of tourists, who talk loud, litter and allow their spoiled children to kick wildlife, but I think it is one the coolest things I have ever seen. Even with the tourists, it is cool.

The great secret of Old Faithful is that you can watch it with noone around, even in high tourist season, if you just go toward the end of the evening or early morning. This is easy to do if you stay in the geyser area. After nightfall, you can't see it erupt at all even though it is only a couple hundred yards away. For something that seems so familiar, the darkness of night is a reminder of how remote it really is. For a large part of the year it is only accessible by snowcat vehicles, park staff, snowshoers. It is really only visited by large crowds for 3 months of the year.

Davinci Decoder Jones

My husband is the coolest! He has created a DECODER on our computer! If you can show me a person, who hasn't at some point in life wanted a decoder of their very own, I'd be shocked.

You might have noticed my previous post on geocaching. To find some of the caches, you have to decode a message. It is a simple code. For instance, G's are always T's, U's are always H's, and R's are always E's. So GUR is actually the word for 'the.'

It is a complete pain, and frankly a little too Boy Scouty for me, to go through and substitue all the letters, especially when there are a lot of words in the clue. Mike created a program in Excel that automatically makes the switch. We just type the whole code into the program, and the translated clue is revealed.

We are on the fast track to a life of intrigue and espionage. Stated another way . . . JR NER BA GUR SNFG GENPX GB N YVSR BS VAGEVTHR NAQ RFCVBANTR.

Pie Addendum

My niece, Abby, was born last year on 3.14.07. If you can reach back through the dark cobwebs of your mind, as I had to, you might remember from junior high math that 3.14 is called pi, pronounced 'pie.' It is a standard number used in calculations regarding circles (area, diameter etc). My husband noticed this connection. Now we remember Abby's birthday as Pi Day. Seems cosmically fitting.

Pie

Pie is a part of my family tradition. My grandmothers were excellent pie makers. They passed their knowledge on to my mother, aunt and uncle, who added their own techniques. Flaky homemade crusts surround sweet fillings throughout the year, especially when fruits are in season. In the summer, they make cherry, peach, berry and rhubarb pies. In the fall and for the holidays, we have pumpkin, apple and mincemeat pies. On occasion, banana cream and lemon meringue pies have been known to be tossed into the mix.

Their adept hands make these pies quickly. They typically frown upon any type of cooking which requires, “too much messing around,” as my grandma says. The process still takes a couple hours, which makes each pie seem like a gift, but the pie is just part of it.

Cinnamon and sugar crisps are made with leftover pie dough and toasted in the oven. Luckily, they are done long before the pie, and can be eaten as soon as one’s fingers can pull them off the pan. It is always fun to see the design on the top of the pie. Sometimes it is a few quick pokes with a fork, or a letter indicating the type of pie. Other times, my mom will cut out a little dough shape with a cookie cutter and lay it on top. Some of my favorite memories are of the times I got to try to cut out the design.

When the pie comes out of the oven, it is placed on a little elevated cooling rack. It stays in this position of importance until it is cool enough to put into a pie container where it awaits serving. While cooling, we all walk by to check it out. If the design on the top is a letter, my brother likes to ask if it is a M or a W. He hopes it is a W, even though we don't make pies with any significant ingredients that start with W, because if it is an M that means it is probably mincemeat pie, his least favorite. The letter A indicates his favorite pie, Apple.

Even if it isn’t a holiday, the first slices of pie are usually not eaten until they can be shared; say, after a meal. Then, all other slices are eaten when one has the urge, except for the final piece. The last piece is not just eaten, but is awarded with some sort of determination through official channels that you deserve the last piece, either because it is your favorite kind of pie, or you didn’t have a piece after dinner.

When my father was a boy, he actually knocked a pie out of a window on two separate occasions, because he was trying to examine it while it was cooling. Even though it is a hilarious story, I think we are all still disappointed that noone got to eat those pies. Each time it is told, I feel my own eyes bug out as I imagine what a predicament it would be to wreck the fresh pie, and then you'd also have to tell someone you did it. Then I look around the room and everyone else has the same expression on their face, or a smile acknowledging this rascally moment in time which probably marked my father for life.

Although the phrase ‘as American as apple pie’ still evokes images of wholesome, family tradition, pie-making has become old fashioned. Store-bought pastries or easy-to-use mixes for brownies or cakes are more typically seen as desserts at social gatherings. The fresh pies that used to be spin prominently in restaurant display cases have often been replaced with trendier sweets that stay fresh longer and can be made at offsite production facilities such as cheesecakes or tortes.

I cherish my family’s love of pie. It is a simple metaphor for the way we live. Family is special. It is warm and comforting. It doesn’t require elaborate expressions of commitment or thanks, but it is a gift built upon a framework of tradition, respect and love. Above all, it makes you feel good on the inside.

Hope

A seedling from my father's beautiful 2007 garden. Good gardeners, like good cooks, always make things look easy. I hope my garden turns out this year, but I am inexperienced and apparently being good at gardening is neither easy nor geneticly inherited. It is still fun to try. Time to start planning.

Yellowstone Surprise

Our trip to Yellowstone was full of natural wonders, but we had no idea that park would have its own yard gnome.

Any ideas?

Winter: You Can Enjoy Cold Weather Too

I went to Yellowstone National Park on vacation last summer. When the Travel Channel did a special on it, I tuned in. It was so exciting to see all the places we'd been. Then the program turned to a description of Yellowstone in winter. I was intrigued. No tourists, pristine landscapes filled with steamy springs, buffalo and other wild animals; who wouldn't want to go!?

All of a sudden a chipper, young blonde came skiing out from some bushes wearing a svelte, all-black, outdoor outfit. Even when I was twelve I wouldn't have looked that skinny in outdoor gear. Not to mention outdoor gear fit for sub-zero climates. I'd probably be mistaken for one of those buffalo.

As time goes on, I keep thinking about her talking about the "crisp air" and "invigoration." Apparently one can enjoy the world when it is cold outside with the right gear. It looked liberating to be comfortable in your environment even though the conditions are extreme.




In the spirit of liberation, I found this Eddie Bauer jacket on sale for $50! Look out Hen House Grocery. I could feasibly park in the farthest spot and still be warm when I make it into the store. Let's just be glad that this activity doesn't require any type of complex coordination as is associated with skiing through a forest.

Easy Chili

Here is a super easy chili recipe. If you are looking for fast and hearty chili, this is the recipe for you. If you are hosting a soiree with several members of the royal family, please keep searching, or, heck, they'd probably like it too.

1 pound ground beef
1 small onion, diced
16 oz. can Bush's chili beans
10 oz can Rotel diced tomatoes & green chilies
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
15 oz can tomato sauce
Salt and pepper
Chili powder
Grated cheese
Sour cream

Brown ground beef and onion over medium heat in a pot. Season with chili powder, salt and pepper while browning. When browned, pour off any liquid. Add chili beans, Rotel, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Don't drain any liquid from these cans. Just pour all contents into the pot. Heat it up. Serve with grated cheese and sour cream. Serves about 4.

Geocaching

My adventuresome husband has introduced me to geocaching. I think I am addicted! Basically it is a worldwide treasure hunt. "Geocaches" are little containers hidden throughout the countryside in parks and natural areas, and in what would seem like totally obvious places such as the Ace Hardware parking lot. The GPS coordinates for the location are posted on geocache.com. Once you find the cache, you sign the log book, take a little treasure, and leave a treasure. There are tags and coins that are tracked from cache to cache all over the world.

The surprising thing is - it seems like you are in a place that noone could possibly know about but then you read the log book and several people have already been there that day! After you find your caches, you log the sites you've found on geocache.com. You can also view comments from others, who have found caches and see profiles of their finds.

There are literally sites everywhere from Kansas to the Czech Republic. The sites are placed by fellow geocachers. Anyone can place them.

We went to one site in the middle of nowhere in Blue and Gray Park on an abandonned road and there were two other groups there looking for it (pic above)! These folks were clearly adventure types as evidenced by their sporty fleece jackets and trendy cowboy hats.

Sturgis Geese

This time of year thousands of geese migrate through our area. I love to see them fly over in their lopsided V formations. They particularly like a cornfield a few miles down the road and tend to land there each year. It is a bit like the goose version of Sturgis. Only, no Harleys and they are probably less drunk and sweaty unless corn does something to birds that I am unaware of.

For my next exhibit, a truly silly goose in Cody, Wyoming around Sturgis time. Many of the bikers extend the trip to Sturgis into a vacation during the week before and after the event. This man was sauced in a way I haven't seen since some unfortunate frat parties in the early 90's. Apparently his Harley was in a bad location and he was forced to move it. He hopped on with the haphazard agility of the very drunk, fired it up, parked it a block down the road and was back at the party faster than you can say Jack Daniels. Just another day in la vida loca.

He looked like a scruffy miner from 1850, but with a Harley like that he is probably an investment banker. Now, I am imagining him behind a mahogany desk with a neat stack of paperwork and one of those fancy pens making important executive decisions. Little does the random business associate know of those crazy days in Cody.

Sleeping In

It is my day off. On work days, the alarm goes off and I am sure I will die a slow death due to exhaustion over the course of the entire grueling day if I can't sleep just 5 more minutes. This morning, my eyes spring open when it is still dark outside. I am so excited that it is my day off that I immediately formulate a list of things I want to do. Essential things like online shopping, making coffee, and dusting. I try to go back to sleep, but no luck. I am up. Yahoo! It's my day off! Argh, what a frustrating phenomenon. The picture is my cat, Ethel. She is the queen of finding soft, warm places for napping, a trait I envy this morning. Well, more later. I'm off to shop for cabinet hinges at homedepot.com.