I'm still here

I've been neglecting this blog the last couple of days but I'm still around.   I've been spending pretty much all day everyday at the pumpkin stand.   That leaves me with precious little time to do anything else. 

I did, however, manage to find enough time to make some dinner and to make "mushrooms in the field" for dessert.  If you've never heard of "mushrooms in the field" then let me enlighten you :)
It's really simple.  You make your favorite fudge brownie recipe.  Bake it as you normally would.  Then you place some marshmellows around on top of the brownies and throw it back in the oven long enough for the marshemellows to "roast" aka get brownish on top and ooey gooey in the middle.  Take it out, let cool, eat it up.

Here's a picture.

Ok...so it's not the most appetizing looking stuff in the world but it does taste good.  My children had already devoured some before I could take this picture.

Who me?

 This was my view this morning.

It seems as though he REALLY enjoyed that garden vegetable puree.

Unfortunately for me that wasn't the only mess I was privileged to deal with this morning.    Nope.  I was also presented with the gift of dachshund pee on my kitchen floor.

Yes...you.

Now, we love Chandler very very much.  But I don't love mopping the kitchen floor two or three times a day.   Owners of dachshunds understand my pain.  They are notoriously hard to housebreak.   Add that to the fact that Chandler was adopted by us at age 2 and his previous owners never completely trained him to go outside and we find ourselves with a near impossible challenge. 

I even called in a professional, a friend of my who trains dogs for a living. She almost laughed.  She agreed to come out and give it a try though, bless her.  But alas, she gave up.   Wished me the best of luck even though the odds were against us.

Well, this morning I vowed to fight back.  I may have lost many battles but I refuse to lose the war.

So, I attempted to make a belly band.  If I couldn't get him to stop peeing in the house, I was going to at least stop it from hitting the floor.

I dug out the cute cotton flannel fabric I bought a few days ago.  See previous post here.  I measured around Chandler's "waist" and used that measurement to determine my length.  Then I cut two sections that were 9in wide and long enough to fit around his...nether regions.

I pinned the two sections right sides together.  And proceeded to sew a 1/4in seam around, leaving a 1" opening on the side to pull through.  I sewed the hole shut then I cut two lengths of velcro about 1 1/2 in.  I sewed one length of velcro to one side of the bellyband and flipped it over and sewed the other length to the opposite side.

Viola'!

It was too small.  Silly me, didn't take into account the 1/4" seam.   Chock it up to a craft fail.  I'll be revisting this though and lengthening it but for now, it was back to the ol' drawing board. 

I cut two lengths of a different flannel fabric this time (accounting for the1/4" seam)

Pinned right sides together.  Proceeded to sew along to Freebird playing on the radio. 

And....SUCCESS!

And all it cost Chandler was some of his doggy dignity.

Just for the heck of it....

I've been reading Proust: Portrait of a Genius and thought I'd do my own Proust Questionaire just for the heck of it.  So here goes:

1. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
- Living a life devoid of freedom.

2.Where would you like to live?
- I'd like to have a large farm someplace warm.   But, really, I'm fairly content on the relatively small farm where I am now.

3. What is your idea of earthly happiness?
- To live a life I can be proud of and share it with my family and my friends.

4. To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
- I get so excited about doing so many things that I usually end up trying to do to much.


5. Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
- Ragnar Danneskjöld from Atlas Shrugged.

6. Who are your favorite characters in history?
-Jesus Christ, Mohandas Ghandi, Einstein, Thomas Payne, Hannah Arendt (if you haven't read The Human Condition. The Origins of Totalitarianism you really should), Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and many others.

7.Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
- Joan of Arc, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Marie Curie, Mother Teresa, Indira Ghandi, Coretta Scott King,


8. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
- Fantine, Edna Pontellier, Scout Finch, and Meg from a Wrinkle in Time that used to be one of my favorite books growing up.

9.Your favorite painter?
-John William Waterhouse, Caravaggio, Delacroix, many others.

10. Your favorite musician?
- I can honestly say I don't have a favorite musician.

12. The quality you most admire in a man?

- morality, intelligence, and a sense of humor.

13. The quality you most admire in a woman?

- same as I admire in a man.

14. Your favorite virtue?
- Love and maybe humbleness.

15. Your favorite occupation?
- Being a mother and crafting (of course)
16. Who would you have liked to be?

- I don't know that I'd do very well being anybody but who I already am.

That's it folks, that's the list.   Feel free to take the time to consider how you would answer each of these questions.  You might learn something about yourself, I know I did.

Pumpkin Patch

We set up the pumpkin patch today for the first time this year.

We hauled about 58 pumpkins, 10 large gourds, 20 pie pumpkins,

50 hard shell pumpkins, 25 small/decorative gourds and about 12 ears of indian corn

out of the fields.

We had really a pretty good turnout despite the threatening rain clouds and chilly weather.

We sold about half of our lot and will have to haul some more early tomorrow  morning.

Free Food Friday!

Beef Biscuit Bake

1 lb lean ground beef

1 cup peas or corn

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup milk (soy or rice milk are okay)

1 cup shredded American cheese

1 1/2 cup biscuit mix

3 tablespoons parsley (chopped)

1 can cream of celery soup

Cook beef and onion, drain excess fat. Stir in cheese, parsley and milk. Prepare biscuit mix according to package instructions. Divide in half then roll into two 8 inch circles. Press one circle into one well greased (use Pam or the equivalent) 8 inch round glass baking dish. Spread meat mixture over biscuit. Place other circle over top, press edges to seal.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 to 24 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve with vegetable sauce – heat celery soup with 1/3 cup milk – serve hot.

Messsage in a bottle

I sat down at my computer today and began looking through the news as I do everyday.  I was shifting through endless headlines of political lies and bickering, "he said, she said" nonsense, another murder, more celebrity sex scandals, the same old stuff when I came across this headine...."Her message finally got across"  It's a story about a lighthouse keeper who would send out messages in a bottle every year around her birthday since 1991.  She was hoping that one of the messages would find it's way to some exotic location.  Finally, and against almost unimaginably slim odds, it did.   One of her messages found it's way to a small fishing village in France.   The couple who found it sent a birthday card back to the woman at her year round home in Illinois, but, tragically, the woman had passed away around Thanksgiving a year earlier.   But the story had forged a friendship between the couple in France and the people closest to the lighthouse keeper.  

This was such a touching and romantic story that I felt compelled to share it on here.   The bottle traveled more than 3,000 miles over the course of 6 YEARS!   Seems like a miracle to me :)

Swine Flu 2: Panic Season

Swine Flu 2: Panic Season
Originally uploaded by The Searcher

I've been going back and forth over this whole "swine flu vaccine" issue. I'm in the midst of trying to decide whether or not to get myself and my children vaccinated. On one hand, this flu really doesn't seem all that terrible and I'm not entirely convinced of the safety of the vaccine. On the other hand, I have a 6 month old infant and am not sure I want to risk him getting ANY kind of flu if I can help it. I don't know. So far, I'm leaning towards the old fashioned route of strict hand washing and just keeping any of us who may get sick away from the baby as much as possible. I guess I'll just have to keep mulling it over. Hopefully, whatever decision I end up making will be the right one. If any one out there in cyber space who happens to stumble upon my blog would like to offer advice, feel free to comment.