(If the Player Won't Start... Hit your Refresh Button) ~ My Page Number Five ~
~ Wednesday May 26, 2009 ~

~ Sanctuary Committee Meeting at the Train Station ~

Another committee meeting Tuesday night at the train station.. I had several DVDs of the cook-out to give to the members... These meetings may be tedious but you would be surprised what these people do to maintain the Sanctuary




Discussion was on the Nature Sanctuary Director's Report on what was done in April and what will be done in May, mostly all by volunteer effort

~ Ever Onward and Upward!


~ Tuesday May 26, 2009 ~

~ I Got Peppers! ~

Lotsa blooms and now I have three little peppers on my Jalapeno plant... Lotsa blooms on my Mariachi pepper but don't see any on there yet...


And the Better Boys in the Bed, and the one in the Pot and thee peppers alongside... About 6 weeks from planting and all looks pretty good...

~ Ever Onward and Upward!


~ Friday May 22, 2009 ~

~ A Walk in Sullivan Nature Sanctuary ~

Nothing much going on Wednesday and a nice day so I headed down to the river and decided on a walk trhough the new Sullivan Sanctuary, developed and maintaind by Parkville Nature Sanctuary after a gift to the City of the land by the Sullivan family... I hadn't visited this project since the early start on the project and some work session after that...

So, this was the firt video walk for me and the project is pretty well now developed now and a lot of new growth is evident... With the trail signs and the bridge at the North Entrance, the only major plan left was to have a swinging bridge across Rush Creek, but that project is on hold because of the great expense involved in erecting a suspension bridge, the only type being considered by Director Jim Reed...

I was interested to see several hikers while I was taking my tour, this area now being an extention of the 3 mile river trail walk in English Landing Park, ajacent to the Sanctuary... Another valuable addition to the outdoor activities available in Parkville...

~ And another long boring video if anyone wants to see ~

~ A Walk in Sullivan Nature Sanctuary ~


~ Thursday May 21, 2009 ~

~ That Sanctuary Cook-Out ~

Well Now... Don't time fly... That cook-out was last Saturday... And may I say a good time was had by all? Well, it doesn't take much to keep us old folks happy

So I was up early Saturday to trim, dry, paint with mustard and then dust those pig ribs good with BBQ rub... Cover and marinate until about 10 a.m. Then with the smoker heated up and smoking nicely, in with the spare ribs and smoke merrily away until about 2 p.m. Lookin good then and so, painted good with BBQ sauce, covered in foil and into a 250 degree oven for another two hours...

Cook-Out was at 5 p.m. so better get with it... Took the ribs out at 4:00 p.m. and got out my largest Pyrex dish and sliced those ribs into individual portions and stacked them up in the dish, quite a plie, covered with foil and ready to go... Into the back of the van about 4:45 and headed over to Jim's [lace...

Only Jim, the Director and Lewis, his right hand man were there yet, sitting by the fire they just built up... I got Lewis to video me bringing in the ribs and then I poured a glass of wine and jusr relaxed until the guests started showing up...

They started filtering in, bringing salads and drinks and the table began filling up, later more late arrivals but not as many as expected and invited... The early group started on the goodies before the late arrivals began showing up, the food being diminished and the fire being replenished as the evening wore on... But soon apparent we had way too much food, those two huge slabs of ribs, lots of specially ordered Polish sausage, salads, hot dogs, drinks and some luscious fudge brownies...

One member brought his guitar and made music most of the evening by the fire... Some good talk and good times, I tried to capture some on video... Finally the fire burned down and the evening chill began and the party tapered off... Overall, a good time... Thanks Jim and Dianne and all...

So, my ribs went over well, but I had way too many for the size of the party, received several compliments but have to say I was disappointed in the results this time... The slabs were unusally large, very lean and meaty, were well smoked, sauced and done... but not the falling off the bone juciness the best attempts produce... Well, you can't win 'em all but I did want to impress them... (and all that sampled them, said they were good)
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So, worked the next couple days editing and recording the video... I made a DVD and added a few minutes of a Committee Meeting at the Train Station, then the Fiesta at Pat's place and finally the Cook-Out at Jim's place... This video is of little interest to other than the Sanctuary Committee members but here it is anyway...

~Parkville Nature Sanctuary Cook-Out~


~ Thursday May 14, 2009 ~

~ Casino Again? ~

Well yeah... I got bored some on Monday and headed over to the Casino... Not that I had any spare cash to waste... But what the heck.. You can't take it with you... So I took $40 out of the ATM and headed over.. A good day or what? I wasn't there 10 minutes and I hit a RED Bar.. a WHITE Bar and a 5 Times... A Red White and Blue bar gives you 40 credits, but with a 5 times it comes to 200... that's $50... HAH... So I still had about $40 in the machine so I cashed out QUICK for $88.25... A nice profit...

So what else... Yesterday, bored again, got to do something about that.. I had that $250 of Obama money sitting in the bank so I drew out $50 and headed back over... Same machine, my favorite one, stuck in the $50 and away we went... Played darn near an hour before getting down to One credit.. a quarter... Well, that ain't gonna do, so I stuck in another $10... for 40 more credits... Played a few more rolls and then lookee there >>> ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding and on and on... Stopping at 600 credits.. a $150 win!... Two red sevens and a five times! Three Red 7s give you 120 credits and the 5 Times makes it 600.. So time to get outta here.. Cashed in for $170.75 with a $110.75 profit after my $60 investmnent... Back to the ranch after a stop at the bank to add todays loot back to my Obama money...


~ Them Peppers and Tomatoes! ~


~ Better Boys in the Bed ~


~ Better Boy in the Pot ~ Jalapeno Pepper ~ Mariachi Pepper ~

OK, time for a catch-up on the plants... BB in the pot still looking better than the two in the bed.. and I have blooms on the jalapeno bush.. And the Mariachi looks good too... A little warmer weather and we will be in production!

And next... a Cook-Out at the Sanctuary Director's place on Saturday... Gonna have hot dogs, the ladies bring the salads and whatever... so, for a surprize I decided to smoke some ribs for them... Got two HUGE slabs at the Price Chopper yesterday, look great! So lean and meaty... So early tomorrow I'll trim them up, on with the marinade and dry rub and into the smoker about 10 a.m. I hope... Then smoke with hickory wood for maybe 4 hours, then sauce with KC Masterpiece and foil covered, into the oven a couple more hours... to juice up and tenderize...

Then.. I'll slice into individual portions and into my BIG Pyrex dish and off to the Festivities about 5 p.m.

~ And Yeah! How sweet is IS! ~




~ Saturday May 9, 2009 ~

~ ¡Guisado de Carne de Vaca! ~

Hey DUDE! Talk about some good eatin! This is IT! What is it? No habla espanol? Well that says "Stew of the Meat of the Cow"... Mexican beef stew... AHA! Saw some English arm roast on sale at the Chopper... Got me a little one.. English? They send beef clear over here?

Well I had the idea for guisado before I went to the Chopper and found that on sale, rather have a nice chuck roast but maybe I can make that do... Arm and rump roast are a bit harder to tender up in a roast or a stew

What's the difference between guisado and beef stew?, well mainly no carrots or tomatoes... Just beef and potatoes and onions, a little garlic and this time a little diced celery I had left over...and of course a thick gravy... Can add a little extra heat like a bit of jalapeno, but this time I did not...

First I floured the beef, and browned it good in some bacon fat... Then into a Pyrex dish with sliced onions and a bit of garlic in the bottom, covered with foil and roasted that maybe a little over an hour, look at all that beef and onion juice in there now...

Next let that beef cool, then cube up into nice sized little chunks and back into the Crock Pot slow cooker with that beef and onion juice... Let that simmer away for an hour or two to tenderize some... Then in with some cubed potatoes and diced celery... Let that simmer some and finally add a can of chicken gravy, I had some beef gravy but had already opened the chicken so I used that... Doesn't make a lot of difference... Ok, that is about done. lower the heat some and let the flavors meld.. and then at the proper time CARAMBA! Carne Guisado Perfectamente!



And Now Jose... That was some GOOD COW STEW!.........

~ Saturday May 2, 2009 ~
~ ¡Pollo Ahumado Otra Vez! ~


Can't pass this one up... I got some chicken quarters a couple days ago at the Price Chopper for 68 cents a pound and oven fried them... Turned out real tasty... So a nice Saturday again so let's go get some more, and smoke them this time...

Still on sale, got two packs of four, that will last awhile in the freezer, stil have a couple of those oven fried in there, and had another last night with some BBQ beans and a biscuit... Back at the ranch to trim them up good, this time painted them with plain old yellow mustard and dusted good with BBQ rub, they look pretty good here, prepped and ready for the smoker... Now in the smoker with a hunk of pecan wood, smoking away, and will be ready in about three hours...

~ YEAH AGAIN! How Sweet it Is! ~

(Oh yeah, went over to the Casino again yesterday.. But I don't want to talk about that...)

~ Saturday April 25, 2009 ~
~ Them Tomaters! ~



Well now, I am not going to do a weekly tomato report like last year, that gets OLD... But this Better Boy tomato has been going for just a little over a week and really seems to like the Big Pot out there in the sun...

So... First pic at planting and then a week later.. away we go.........


~ Friday April 24, 2009 ~
~ ¿Mi Nueva Casa? ~


Well now, nice warm sunny Friday and warm... I dropped by the complex office to get caught up with Boss Bob... He was in a good mood... So I brought up a few subjects, forgetting to gripe about that dog next door again... But we had a nice little chat... about this and that...

So then noticing that a house was on sale down around the corner and that Bob was interested in buying houses around here.. I asked if he was going to buy that ugly little house for me to rent... Well, he says he already had a bid on it, how much rent was I willing to pay.. Not much I says... but he quoted a figure that I might be able to handle...Of course house heating and cooling expenses would be higher there than in my present place.. But would be nice to have my own house again... And room for Herr Wulle when he comes over to stay...

So... anyway... He said he thought that his bank had the loan on it and he would check on it... So.. Maybe I will be eine haus meister again? Something to look forward to anyway...


~ Monday April 20, 2009 ~
~ ¡Las Flores son Bonitas! ~


Nice day, sunny but windy.. now about 65.. really nice... I did my chat, did my clean-up, a piece of spice cake for breakfast and then set out to cash in my winnings from yesterdday... I tried an experiment, bought 6 Bingos for $18, see what happens... Well, first two no go, then won a $3 and then another bust and then two $6 in a row, can't beat that.. unless it was for more anyway... I traded them in at Kicks 66 for two more today... and zilch... But the day before I won a nice $50 on a Crossword scratcher, that was a nice one...

Then I headed over to Larry's Nursery in Riverside to look for los flores bonitas, settled on these nice healthy looking Salvia, a three pack for $1.05

Then next door to the Riverside RED-X and bought another Crossword and Bingo, you keeping track, I don't bother... I don't ask questions, I just have fun...

So then, back at the ranch, worked my two new cards for a $3 and $9 win... Then headed back to Kicks for $6 cash and two more cards.. AHA! One was another $3 winner.. Now just where are the BIG Ones? Anyway, I started out with $14 in my pocker, ended up now with $21 and a $3 card to cash and my flowers to plant... I am still ahead anyway...

Then... Went out to plant my flowers in my planters and get a pic for a blog.. NOW, what to do with the rest of this bee yoo tee full day?


~ Saturday April 18, 2009 ~
~ Sopa Vegetal! ~


Hey, that's some good soup there!... I made it a few days back but it seemed to be lacking something.. headed up to the Price Chopper for a head of cabbage, chopped about a quarter of that and simmered it a bit in some of the soup.. Then dumped it all together.. YEAH! That did it.. Some GOOD veggie soup with a little corned beef in there, just an experiment but it sure turned out scrumptious!

~ Bueno... la Sopa Excepcional!


~ Friday April 17, 2009 ~
~ Parkville Hot Legs! ~


NO! NOT Buffalo Hot Wings... I wanted a little more meat on those bones... So I checked a recipe online, then headed for the Price Chopper for a family pack of chicken legs and found some on sale... Then I picked up a bottle of Tobasco hot sauce and headed back to the ranch... Got those legs cleaned up, some garlic salt and black pepper and into the oven for an hour and a half while I argued with Can in IM... Sometime in there I made some pickled beets and sliced up a big cucumber in a sugar and vinegar vinagraitte...

Then about time the legs were done I mixed up the sauce, which is just vinegar, hot sauce and butter... Piled the legs in a bowl and poured on the sauce... Later sampled a few at TV time along with some cucumbers and crusty Italian bread with butter...

And the legs were tasty and certainly spicy hot.. But have to say, not the best attempt at chicken I have made...

But Still... It was Sweet Enough!


~ Wednesday April 15, 2009 ~
~ Garden Time again ~

Nice day yesterday so I tilled up my tomato bed a little and filled up some pots... A couple moderatly warm weeks coming up so we might not have a freeze again...

But they said it would be in the high 30s last night so I covered them for the night, I'll watch the weather in case we do get a chance of frost


My Pepper Plants ~ Jalapeno and Mariachi


My Better Boy Tomato in the Pot


My Two Better Boy Tomatoes in the Bed

~ NOW WHERE ARE ALL THE PEPPERS AND TOMATOES? ~

~ Tuesday April 14, 2009 ~
~ Demolition of a Landmark ~


Well, this event happened a couple years ago.. in 2007... So I am a little late adding a page for it... Well, I have been busy.. Haven't I?

Anyway, I just came up with the idea a couple days ago and so here it is... another boring web page... how many now anyway?... lemmee take a quick count...

~ OH WOW! NOW OVER 90 PAGES! WHERE WILL THIS END? ~
Oh BTW... The Page is at: Demolition of a Landmark


~ Monday April 13, 2009 ~
~ My Garden ~ 2009 ~


That time again, first thing on a cool wet morning I headed over to Riverside to Larry's Nursery... No one shopping but me... They had last years 3 for $1.00 plants but at $1.05 now... But the 3 inch pots at $1.79, looked so good I bought those this year... Three Better Boys tomatoes and a Jalapeno and a Mariachi pepper... I got all these for less than $10...

So, rainy, cool and wet today, two weeks of 60s coming up now.. 62 tomorrow, 68 on Wednesday, maybe plant these on Wednesday if the ground dries up some... Two weeks of 60s coming now they say.. so maybe we are on the way!


~ Tuesday April 7, 2009 ~
~ Apfelkuchen! ~


So.. fuji apples on sale at the Price Chopper for 99 cents a pound, so let's make a pie... Back at the ranch to peel and chop the apples and thaw the crusts, I cheated on a prepared crust.. I like to pre-cook the apples a bit so I did that and poured them into the bottom crust... And put the other frozen crust on top... But the apples kinda melted the crust and it sorta fell apart... But I rearranged it some and into the oven... Came out kinda UGLY!

But I let it cool, later cut a slice after dinner and scooped it onto a plate... And though it was an UGLY pie, it was the best tasting of any I have made lately... Just what did I put in there anyway?

~ Anyway... How Sweet it Was! ~


~ Friday April 3, 2009 ~
~ Roast Chicken! ~


Nothing going on on a cold, wet, dreary day between paydays... Wednesday the First and Friday the Third, so what's for dinner? Still some stuff in the fridge and freezer but how about something different? AHA! some dressing still in the freezer from when? Last T-Day or Christmas? Anyway, a nice roast chicken would go with that, huh?

So up to the Price Chopper and they had a nice fat one on sale, that should do... Back at the ranch... Trim that baby up some, brush with melted butter, sprinkle with poultry seasoning and into the oven for an hour and a half, sipping a glass of wine, catching up on the brainwashing on MSNBC...

Later, a good hunk of that chicken with a large serving of turkey dressing, gravy of course and a side of buttered whole grain corn.. How Sweet it IS!... YEAH!


~ Wednesday April 1, 2009 ~
~ First Garden Project ~ 2009 ~


April First.. All Fools Day, but I didn't fool anyone.. too busy... Pay Day.. and an expectation fulfilled... More money! I got Obama's projected Income Tax cut, I don't pay ANY now... It wasn't much before but I can use that $29 a month for something else now...

So chat some, pay some bills, then headed out to get a haircut and buy a few things... And as it looked like a fairly nice day, I buzzed up to Lowes and bought some screws and some 1 x 2 slats to brace up the tomato trellis that fell forward last year, all the weight was on the front... Now that's done, in a couple weeks if the weather warms nice, then in with the tomato plants and off we go again.. Tomatoes anyone?


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