More Pies!!

Last night, I made the first apple pie I had ever made. I had a piece, Chris had a piece, Jamie had a piece, I sent a large piece home with Beth and girls, Ambre and Haley had a piece and there was one piece left for my hubby of 39 years ( that's a long time to wait for an apple pie).


Anyway, by the time the pie was done, he was already in bed asleep. He said I'll eat mine tomorrow when I get home from work.


Well, I told Jamie and Chris (who was already in bed) not to touch the last piece, it was for Poppie.


When Chris and I got home today, I went down to Ambre's to watch the kids while she went to school. Chris came up to the house and was going to come down later and spell me while I cooked supper. When I got up here, he had eaten Danny's piece of pie. I just about had heart failure. He said, he didn't remember me telling him not to eat the pie. So anyway, Jamie and Chris took off for Teresa's and got more apples and I made a couple more pies. Not too bad!!



I think I'm gettin' the hang of this! It's not that difficult. Now I wish I had tried it sooner. I still need to work on my edging though. Anyway, I made sure Danny got a piece of one of these. I cut one and put him a piece in a container for his lunch. Nite Nite!

Apple Pie!!!!

Hi! Everybody! You know, ladies are supposedly not supposed to divulge their age, but this one time, I am going to say that I am 57 years old. I hate to cook!!!! No doubt about it!!! I hate to cook!!!!. I used to love to cook but somewhere down the line of preparing meal after meal and being told that " you know what would have made this a lot better?", I kinda lost the desire to try and create anything in the kitchen.

Now don't get me wrong. I do cook and feed my family everyday, but I despise it. Anyway, a few weeks ago, the Pioneer Woman, Ree, was visiting her sister and her mother made them a blueberry pie. Well, it looked so good that I decided to make one. About that same time, my niece, Becky, posted a pie crust recipe that I thought maybe I could handle. You see, that is about the only thing that has kept me from making pies throughout my married life, was the pie crust. Well, I tried it with Ree's Moms BB pie and WOW was it good.

Everyday I pass by Danny's cousins home and she has two apple trees in her yard and I have been watching them turn red for awhile. I stopped by on Friday and asked it I could get a few for a pie and Chris and I went and picked some. At the ripe old age of 57, I made my first ever apple pie. I must say it turned out pretty good!

So, what do you think? Chris said it was just right. I thought it tasted pretty good too!

I Hap'd Upon A Fairy Ring!

On my travels to and fro

Not traveled once but time and agin'

not noticed when passed by before

I hap'd upon a fairy ring.

My poetry is really bad I know, but I couldn't resist when I looked up information on fairy rings and found out how many time they had been mentioned in literature through the years.On my way home the other day, I passed by the hospital and noticed an unusual phenomenon.A beautiful fairy ring of mushrooms in a spot that I had passed by many time before and not noticed. According the information, they don't just pop up all of a sudden they are formed ove many years and can grow to great widths. The oldest one known to exist is in England and is over 800 m across and 700 years old.

In the photo above you can see the ring as it appears during the normal season. If you look real hard you can see an even larger one in the background. The dark grass is formed on the outside perimeter of the ring and is called the death ring. They are usually formed during a very dry season ( which we have had this year). The inside of the ring contains the mycelium which is the fairy fungus that spreads out like long tenticles underneath the ground ending at the necrotic zone or death ring.

The ring above is found in Namibia in Africa. These are fairly new occurences which scientists are trying to figure out their causes. Some have even suggested they were caused by radioactivity but soil sampling have proved negative. They are still trying to figure it out as we speak.
This is a forest fairy ring. I was just reading about a fairy ring in the state of Oregan that is believed to be over 2200 years old and could cover over 1600 football fields. But with the intrusion of logging and homes it has all but disappeared. Sad!!
And now, this is my fairy ring. If you look real close you can see the dark ring, just inside the mushroom circle. The mushrooms are a fungus which grows mostly on dead or dying things, hense the death ring. Sadly, the next day it was gone ( they cut the grass). Fairy rings are mentioned numerous times in European literature and lore. It was believed to step inside a fairy ring brought certain death in some form or another. But I just think they are a phenomenon worth a few words of mention. Thanks for stopping by. Jen

Maiden Voyage

Well, today we took the new, slightly used boat out on Lake James. After trying for several days to work on the motor, Danny finally took it up to Green Hill to see Tim Garner. Tim found the problem almost immediately and fixed it. Tim is Mike Garner's brother and for those of you who don't know, Mike is probably Bo's best friend from forever. Anyway, we took Jamie and the girls with us.

Here's Jamie bringing the boat into the dock so we could all get on. Look at that water! Man, I just couldn't wait to get in it. We went over toward where Danny's jobsite is at and anchored for a little while and did a little fishing. Then after much pushing we finally convinced Danny to travel around the lake a little ways. Don't understand why but he wanted to load back up and come home right after we fished for about 30 minutes.
Here we are tooling around the lake. Gabby took this pic. Don't be concerned about the foul look on Danny's face. He was scowling because Gabby stood up the take the pic and it kinda scared him.
Gabby and Annabelle had a great time but all they wanted to know was when I was gonna get off the boat and go swimming, so they could too. Well, shortly after this pic was taken, I finally convinced Danny to stop and let me swim in the middle of the lake ( the fish finder depth goes to 120' and there was no bottom on the finder, so we were in deep water). I dove off and then Jamie put Annabelle in and she freaked. Then he put Gabby in and she freaked even worse. Needless to say, they were both scared of the water. When we got back to the dock area, I took both of them over to a little swim area nearby. Annabelle actually went out over her head ( with a vest on of course), clinging to one arm and was laughing and having a good time. Gabby was still afraid. I'm gonna have to work on this one a little harder. But we still had a great time and are looking forward to a lot more. I have to go now. It's 1:30am and I have church in the morning. Good night all. Jen

Is it gooses or geeses?

Every year our little Lake Imogene at ICC college is invaded by Canadian geese. They have started coming in early this year. Before it's over they will cover every inch of spare ground area around the lake. There will be thousands of them. They have started already.

This picture was taken from the car in front of the foundation building. There are already hundreds of them. I really need to load a shotgun and have it handy so I can shoot one as it flies over the house. They sometimes fly over our house on their way to the pond. Goose for Thanksgiving, UmMMM!!!.
Not to worry, my family probably wouldn't eat it anyway. But I would. So they're probably safe from my gun. But they are beautiful and sound wonderful when they honk. I love it!

The New Toy

Poppy and I bought a new boat ( well, not new but new to us ) a couple of weeks ago. We are really looking forward to taking it up to Lake James and doing some fishing. Poppy and Jamie have been working on it this weekend. It hasn't been cranked since last year but had just had the motor overhauled. So far they have not been able to get it cranked but getting pretty close. It has sputtered a little. I think Danny keeps flooding it. Anyway, here is a picture of our new slightly used boat.

We installed new seats on the front and back pedestals and recovered the inside driver and passenger seats. Next we are going to install new carpet. Everything works, the fish finder, the trolling motor. We just have to get the big motor to work. Wish us luck. Bon Voyage.