Silly Old Possum . . .

One of Mitch's favorite books when he was first learning to read was Silly Old Possum by Joy Cowley.  It's a short, simple story about a possum who gets inside a house.  Each page contained no more than ten words - the final three of which were always "silly old possum":

Possum up a tree.  Silly old possum.
Possum down the chimney.  Silly old possum.

We read it to Mitch hundreds of times, and he read it back to us just as often.  Tonight, fittingly while Mitch is home for the weekend, we added the final chapter to the Silly Old Possum saga:

Possum in our yard.  Silly old possum.
Possum meets dogs.  Silly old possum.
Possum plays possum.  Silly old possum.
Possum is dead.  Silly old possum

For those keeping score at home, that brings the total to two snakes, one muskrat, a couple mice, numerous toads, and one poor bird that I actually felt sorry for.   Green Acres is the place to be.   Farm living is the life for me. . .

Six Word Saturday

Son home for weekend. 

Parents happy!

Our son is home for a rare weekend with the parents.  Between college and a medical job which keeps him on call most weekends, we usually have to travel to him.  But this time he got to come to us.  What a wonderful weekend!

Six Word Saturday is sponsored by Cate at ShowMyFace.  Want to play along?  Just describe your life (or something in it) in a phrase using exactly six words.  For more information click here.  You can add an explanation, a video, a song or nothing at all.  Visit Cate's blog to link your entry or to read all entries.

The Perfect Hot Dog

Well said, Clint!  I love hot dogs, but no ketchup for me.  I only want Grandma's Chili Sauce.  It's a memory from childhood that I recreate from time to time when we have a bounty of tomatoes.

I checked several on-line cooking sites for a definition of "chili sauce" and discovered that the recipes are many and varied.  In general, it's a tomato-based condiment which is likely to include onions, sugar, vinegar and spices.  It is also likely to have some form of chili peppers or powder, thus the name - but not Grandma's version.   My family is not big on spicy food (one of the many things I had to learn from Dave) so Grandma's Chili Sauce is basically a home-made ketchup - but much, much better.  I suppose you could add chilies if you want, but Grandma wouldn't approve.

I work in half-batches, because I don't own a pot large enough to hold a full batch.  I can my chili sauce in 12 oz. jelly jars.  Cause Grandma did, that's why.  A full recipe will make 18-20 jars.   If you're not a canner, it is acceptable to put the chili sauce into larger jars and store directly in the refrigerator, if you plan to use it relatively soon.  It will keep for months. I've never tried cutting the recipe smaller than in half, but don't know why it wouldn't work if you don't have that much available fridge space or won't use it up quickly enough.

Also, if you don't own a kitchen scale, weigh your tomatoes by putting them all into a plastic grocery bag and hanging them from your husband's hand.  In his other hand, place a 10 lb. bag of flour and see which way he tips.  It's not totally accurate, but it's funny.

Rosa's Chili Sauce

12-13 lbs. tomatoes (cored, peeled and chopped)
2 c. chopped onion
3 c. sugar
4 c. vinegar
2 T. salt
2 t. nutmeg
2 t. allspice
1 t. cloves

Mix all ingredients and simmer for 30-45 minutes until slightly thickened (barely thick enough to stay on your hamburger).  Pack in pre-heated canning jars, seal and process for 15 minutes.

One of my favorite evening pass-times during cool weather is to build a fire in the outdoor fire pit and roast hotdogs.  With Grandma's Chili sauce - it's even better.  Pass the S'mores!

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up over the weekend. Sponsored by Beth @ Beth Fish Reads

Muskrat Love

Hey, fellow children of the 70's - Remember 1976?  Gerald Ford was in the White House.  The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Cowboys in the Super Bowl.  Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak formed Apple.  The Blues Brothers made their debut on Saturday Night Live.  Charlie's Angels were on your TV and on every teen-aged boy's bedroom wall.  Every girl wanted a Farrah Fawcett hairdo, and this little ditty was on the radio:



Adorable little cuties, Muskrat Susie and Muskrat Sam, jitterbugging, nibbling on bacon, chewing on cheese, rubbin' her toes, giggling and floatin' like the heaven's above . . . Awwww - so cute.

Wrong!  What were these people thinking?  Muskrats are not cute, nor adorable, nor do they giggle.  They are mangy, ugly things that show up in the shelter-belt next to our house.  According to the encyclopedia, they live near rivers and ponds.  Well, I know at least one muskrat who didn't read his Funk & Wagnalls.  He's dead now.  Killed by ignorance.  Well, actually killed by our dogs, but only because it didn't do it's homework and didn't know that our trees are not it's natural habitat.  There is a pond about 250' from the house, but this is one muskrat who seriously needed a Tom-Tom, because that's a fair distance to be off and that last wrong turn cost it dearly. 

That was Monday.  Dave cleared the remains from the yard, the buzzards are full, and it's safe to go back in the yard - or so I thought. Today, I was sitting in a lawn chair on the driveway, feet propped on the fire pit, talking to Amanda on the phone, enjoying the cool breeze, dog's playing nearby.  Sounds idyllic, right?   Wrong again!  Well, actually it was - right up until the moment that I saw Gabby snatch up a pile of fall leaves and trot towards me.  Being a total idiot, I said "Gab, whatcha got in your mouth?"  So she dropped it.  It scurried, and so did I!  I scurried my butt all the way into the house and then cheered from the door, "Kill it, Gabby, kill it."  Oh, if only I had pom-poms, it would have been so much more effective.

I watched the scuffle for a little bit, but I don't know for sure how it ended.  Either there is once again a dead, disgusting thing in my yard (large mouse? small rat? mole?) or it got away and there is a LIVE disgusting thing in my yard.  Whichever way, my shiny vision of Green Acres is beginning to tarnish.   Enough with the ugly, creepy wildlife already! Where are the cheerful cardinals, the dainty hummingbirds, the elegant deer, even a furry bunny (although they should stay out of the garden)?  So, I looked up the muskrat's natural predators and found that they are hunted by the Red Fox (those are pretty, but probably wouldn't get along with the dogs), racoons (got lots of those around, but they're also ugly), snakes (hell, no!), owls, hawks and American Bald Eagles.  Now we're talking!  A pet eagle - beautiful, majestic, killer of vermin.  Yes!  There's the issue of the Bald Eagle Protection Act which prohibits the "possession" of a Bald Eagle, but who can really "possess" an eagle?  I will just be providing it with a comfortable, target-rich environment in which to live.  Where's the nearest Petco?

Needlework Tuesday

It's been a few months since I participated in Needlework Tuesday.  I'm having a hard time finding balance between job, housework, on-line time, tv and reading.  But I am determined to fit crafting back in there somewhere.  I recently got a copy of Martha Stewart's Handmade Holiday Crafts, and there are several ideas in there that got me excited about crafting again.  I'll share some of those ideas later, but for now I have got to get back to cross-stitch.

If you can remember wa-a-a-y back to the last time I posted on crafting, I was working on a Christmas stocking for our oldest grandson. I've been working on it since he was born.  He's 7!  I have completed stockings for Dave, our three kids, and our son-in-law.  I have the patterns and supplies for three more - for our two grandsons and a keepsake for our granddaughter who was still-born -  but I just don't have the enthusiasm for stitching that I used to.  So, in hopes of inspiring myself, I'm putting away the work-in-progress and starting on the stocking for grandson #2.  The design is called Santa's Journey.  So far I have the package open and the thread colors sorted - wooo hooo!

So, fellow crafters, you are my new accountability group.  If you don't read about great progress on this stocking in the near future, leave comments, e-mail, Tweet, call, send out the National Guard - whatever it takes to keep me stitching.

Needlework Tuesday is sponsored by Heather at Books and Quilts.  Stop by her blog to see what everyone's creating this week. 

These Are a Few Of My Favorite Things . . .

The Dusty Bookshelf is a simple holding shelf for a book before someone finds it and allows another chapter of its life to be written. - from the Dusty Bookshelf website

Last Saturday, we went to Manhattan for the K-State/Missouri football game.  Although I was excited for the match-up after all the recent Big XII Conference realignment drama, I was not excited to watch in the rain.  So, I gave my ticket to our daughter, Amanda, and I headed off in search of three hours of dryer pursuits - which led to the discovery of The Dusty Bookshelf.  Heaven!

The Dusty Bookshelf is a used book store packed - and I mean packed to overflowing - with every kind of book imaginable.  In spots there are books stacked on chairs, tables, the floor - every available space is covered with books.  Scattered amongst the titles are cozy sitting spots and a few antique pieces that create a comfy feel.  Unlike most of the used book shops I've visited before, the space is clean and organized, with books sorted by genre.  Hardcover books with dust jackets are even fitted with library-style clear covers for protection. To maintain their amazing stock, they obviously buy from and trade with their customers, so now I know where lots of my books will be heading after they're read.  They also deal in "scholarly" and rare books, if you're into that sort of thing, and sell on-line.

Shopping at Dusty Bookshelf is a treasure hunt.  There are no fancy displays holding fifty copies of the newest bestsellers.  This is more like browsing someone's home library; an eclectic mix of young and old, famous and obscure, that could easily have occupied me for the entire length of the game.  Because my book spending has been out of control lately (Sorry, Dave!) I settled on two paperbacks - one trade and one mass market - which I got for $9.00.

Shakespeare's Christmas by Charlaine Harris - because I wanted to sample her writing without encountering a vampire, and - duh! - because it said Christmas on the cover.
  

No! I Don't Want to Join a Book Club: Diary of a 60th Year, by Virginia Ironside - because one of the blurbs on the back cover says "I'm thinking of reading [it] once a year from here on in to cheer myself up. If you're over 50, you should read it, too."  And because it's just the kind of unexpected, quirky book I didn't notice when it was new and that make used bookstores so much fun.

Where do you love to shop for books?  Are there any interesting or unique shops in your world?

2nd Blogiversary

Can you believe it?  We totally forgot our own Blogiversary.  October 2nd marked two years since we started tossing our thoughts, ideas and opinions into the cybersphere.  While I'm not sure what I expected, I'm sure it wasn't this.  Blogging has been therapeutic, frustrating, gratifying, disappointing, and a lot of fun.  

I love the chance to write, to be creative (or not), to express myself. If nothing else, the blog is my personal journal.  I'm disappointed that we have had very little growth in those two years, but at least part of that non-growth is due to my refusal to participate in blog-hops, challenges, etc that would get the blog in front of more people.  Not that there's anything wrong with any of those things - I read a lot of blogs that participate in them, and enjoy what I read, but they require commitment, organization, and other skills I'm short on.  I've been frustrated when we've gone for days without a single comment, especially when I wrote something I felt especially proud of or excited about.  But, I know I get busy or distracted and miss things, even on blogs I usually follow daily, or rush through the list to visit them all without taking time to comment.  I have been known to wipe out the entire contents of Google Reader and start again when the back-log was overwhelming, so it's not surprising that others do the same.  One of the most unexpected reactions has been how annoying and silly our kids think our blog is. Depending on the day, that's either hilarious or painful.

The thing that keeps me coming back to the keyboard in spite of the annoyances and discouragements is the friends I've made.  There is an amazing sense of community among bloggers - especially book bloggers - and it's comforting to "belong".  Scanning my reader, I quickly picked out eighteen blogs written by people I now consider friends.  People I have come to know beyond just what they post; people who have shared life through comments, tweets and e-mails; people I would make the effort to meet in person should the opportunity present itself.  And there are many other "new acquaintance" bloggers whom I look forward to getting to know.  

Here's to more years of blogging and to our blogging friends!