Baby bear - over the far hill

As the bears sat in front of the den last night, baby bear said, " I want to go back to Learning Academy" This will be her 3rd year. Papa & Mama bear don't know what else the old wise bears can teach her. She is getting so grown up. They decided if she is willing to learn, they must let her go. (maybe this year she will decide if she wants to be a public nurturing bear, a medicine bear, Pi-bear, or whatever she wants bear) They decided that they will take her over the big hill and get her settled in to a den with 5 other wild creatures. They don't know who will fix all the evening meals now. They will worry about her all the time. There are stories about those learning academies, and the wild "old honey" gatherings that take place. Well, Papa bear has got to go see what his friends, the bats are doing.
Papa Bear

The Grand Valley

Long before the sun rose in the morning sky, Mama bear rolled out of her cozy bed of goose down and pine boughs & headed for the waterfall to wash off the spores, lint, bugs, beatles, old hair. (you get the picture) She then rummaged around for a nest of ants or some juicy berries before she headed out across the forest. She could tell when she got close to the mail route, because the pony express houses would run faster down the trail. She knew that she was an important part of the fastest mail in the northeast central territory.
Papa bear would amble down to the valley on a totally different mission. He would organize all the creatures he could find, to gather all the poo pies to save for recycling. He also would caution all of them not to pee in the lakes and streams.
When mama bear arrived back at the den, she, Papa bear, home care bear (if she's home) and baby bear would sit in front of the den and watch the scenery across the valley. Tonight they are thinking about their older bear cubs that have their own families and baby cubs. They can't see them because they are past the farthest hills.
Papa Bear

Chestnut Tree

Some day I might suprise everyone and write an interesting blog, but not today.
The chestnut tree is dropping it's nuts. I have been reading about them. This year it has hundreds of nuts on it. Some are double, some are single. The double ones have a chance to be healthy mature nuts. The single ones, from what I understand have not been polinated. We have another little chestnut to plant this fall. When it is big enough it, they will pollinate each other. Chestnuts are the fussiest nuts to harvest and keep from rotting.
The bat house is ready to put up on top of the shop. It hsould be fun getting the bats out of the chimney. I do have a plan. Hopefully in another week we'll have all the weeds and grass out of areas where they shouldn't be. When I find the camera I will post a picture of Jason's old coffee table.
Randy

What?!?

You Are Bert

Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you loveable - even if you don't love them! You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil How you life your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

It sounds so permanent - "You Are Bert", not you are "like Bert" or that you are a "Bert-type".
NOOOOOOOOO! AAAAAAaaaaaGH!

Cec


P.S.
Found the perfect link to a test for Megan to take

http://www.blogthings.com/whatshouldyoumajorinquiz/

Cooking Again

This evening I made Vietnamese cabbage salad to take to Grandpa's birthday party tomorrow.
Megan was shocked when I dumped the rest of the delicious fish sauce she made all over the huge container of salad. I can't seem to get the hang of cooking smaller portions. The salad filled the largest Tupperware container we own. It tastes very good so it probably won't last long.

We've been eating bun with eggrolls for every meal!
You all have the recipes.....

Sunday we will be making 2 to 3 batches more in order to store them in the freezer for the holiday season.

Speaking of holidays.... Now is the time to start shopping for Christmas(or making things if money is in short supply). How about some requests for things you would like me to make for your household? When the weather cools down, I'd like to start sewing again. Just need some requests.(Insert reasonable here.)

I said I'd make blueberry pie didn't I?
Gotta get going, it's awful late to start a pie.
Cec

Aidan Eating Peanuts (NOW WITH VIDEO)

EggRolls

I think the title says it all. Tonight we had bun cha za & egg rolls. It was wonderful. Chris, Megan, Leif, Kyle & Mom rolled & I fried. The plan is to keep making them for awhile and freeze them for Xmas.
The bat house is cut out. It should be glued together by the week end.
Randy

Aidan Eating Peanuts

I am trying to fix this video. It's been deleted and reloaded onto Youtube and still is not available.
The server may be backed up. I'll let it sit and see what happens.

Theo Plays Peek-a-Boo with Marissa

Great Grandpa is 80 years old today!

The great storyteller will be accepting a pie from each family at his party Saturday. Everyone will also bring a dish to pass. All the kids and grandkids and Great-grandkids in the area will attend. We'll probably take blueberry.

Megan has been a wonder to have around. She cooks. She does dishes. She entertains.
Not at all like her stodgy parents.

Last night she made Pad Thai. We have had this dish a few times at Noodles&Co. and loved it. She decided to make it from scratch and it turned out fantastic and surprisingly easy to make.


PAD THAI
8 oz. flat dried rice stick noodles
1 T. tamarind puree' (she used apricot jelly)
1 small red chili, chopped (she used chili paste)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 spring onions (scallions), sliced
1 1/2 T. sugar
2 T. fish sauce
2 T. lime juice
2 T. oil
2 eggs, beaten
5 oz. pork fillet, thinly sliced (She used fried tofu)
8 large raw shrimp, peeled, deveined
3 1/2 oz. fried tofu puffs, julienned
3 oz. bean sprouts (she used alfalfa sprouts)
1/4 C. roasted peanuts, chopped
3 T. cilantro leaves
1 lime, cut into wedges

Put the noodles in a heatproof bowl, cover with warm water and soak for 15-20 minutes, or until soft and pliable. Drain well.
Combine the tamarind puree' with 1 T. water. Put the chili, garlic and spring onion in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle and grind to a smooth paste. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and stir in the tamarind mixture along with the sugar, fish sauce and lime juice, stirring until combined.
Heat a wok until very hot, add 1 T. of the oil and swirl to coat the side. Add the egg, swirl to coat and cook for 1-2 minutes, or until set. Remove, roll up and cut into thin slices.
Heat the remaining oil in the wok, stir in the chili mixture, and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add the pork and stir-fry for 2 minutes, or until tender. Add the shrimp and stir-fry for a further minute, or until pink and curled.
Stir in the noodles, egg, tofu and the bean sprouts and gently toss everything together until heated through.
Serve immediately topped with the peanuts, cilantro and lime wedges.

After Vacation blue's

2 weeks off was wonderful. Cecile called me when she got out of work today to gloat about being out of work before me. Actually I was missed at work, & that was kinda nice. I am going to make some bat boxes. Does anyone want 1? We have to get out bats out of the chimney, because I want their poo for my compost pile.
Megan made Guaq again tonight. It was very good.
We are getting ready to move Megan back to UofM. I got her bike ready to go. Her & I are working on a coffee table that Jason left behind. It will be beautiful when we get done. There are also a couple other projects in the shop that I need to finish, beside the yard. It was wonderful seeing Kara & Joel & the boys. We will have to take a trip down after Megan goes back to college

Megan's home

Yesterday, 8/9/06 Megan & I went blueberry picking. She picked as much as I did. I was impressed. We then went to storage where she picked out her furnishing for her house in Ann Arbor that she will share w/ 5 other students. It will take a couple of trips to get everything over there. We brought a coffee table back to the house & She & I started striping it. I'll keep you posted on the progress. She has been making Guaqamoli (spelled wrong I know, but thats how it tastes. GOOOOOOd) She also made desert last night and did dishes. I think I'm going to miss her when she goes back to college. While Megan & I were out picking and house shopping , Cecile cleaned the carpets w/ a rented cleaner. I think all the spots (who did??) are gone.

Friday 8/11/06 we will be going over to Farmington Hills to visit w/ Joel, Kara, Marissa, & the boys. I have a map of the Detroit zoo & a big park in Farmington Hills.

Standing on a Glacier!

Randy and I are standing in the middle of St. Mary's Glacier. It goes back about 1/2 mile behind us. The snow is dirty with the dust brought in by the wind.
The view from here is fantastic.
Bebo caught 5 fish from this lake and then panfried them for us right there. Yumm!
Randy got to eat steak since he is allergic to fish. Poor guy.
The lake was literally jumping with fish.
We took lots of pictures but none of them do any justice to the beauty of the area.
The climb up the hill was strenuous because the high altitude. 11,000 feet.
We took it slow and studied the pretty rocks that were too big to carry and enjoyed the scenery.
We met a guy at the top climbing down from the glacier with his skis. He said it was well worth the climb to ski the small glacier. No Tbar for him.
The air was so fresh up there cooled by the snow and sweetened with the scent of pine.
Everyone was smiles the whole time because of the beauty.
Maybe we'll hike a 14'er with Melanie next year.

vacation

Where do I begin? We had a great week. We took off saturday the 29th around 4:30 and drove out to Iowa the first night. We made it to Melanie's (Aurora) around 8:00 on Sunday. We went & visited Bishop's Castle south west of Colorado Springs on Monday. We took lots of pictures. Crazy castle and Jim Bishop (the owner) is crazier. "The journey to anywhere is usually what it's all about, not the destination". This is always true in Colorado. We went up to Estes Park Tuesday and took a road up to the gift shop at 12,000', then took 40 & 70 back to Melanie's. You'll have to see the pictures, although pictures do not cut it! Weds. Melanie went with us to Molly Brown's old house downtown & the Byers / Evans house. They were great. Thursday we went back up to Estes Park,but took Route 7. We got a lot of cool things in Estes Park. Cecile got out shopped!! Friday Melanie, Bebo, Cecile & I went to a Glacier. That was probably the highlight of the week. Spending time with Mel and Bebo was cool. We drove straight thru from Denver to G.R. (18 hours) We still have another week of vacation (to work on the yard)