Rainy Weekend

Those are clouds. I haven't seem them since I left the east coast.

But, they made their way up to Pine Cove Saturday morning.

My garden is happy and all the plants and flowers act like a miracle occurred, which of course did. It rained for a whole morning!

We wondered all weekend what could a little baby girl be occupied with.

Grandpa said, she is either sleeping, yelling or eating.

...and then, we got the pictures to tell it all.

Snuggle up and snooze.

I'm a GRANDMA!

Well, I have been for almost 9 months, but this is for real!!!

Here is Dani holding little Tatum.















The proud Brandt Parents. Good job Dani & Greg!!!!


















Tatum was born on August 18th at 10:30 pm.
She is 6 lbs 6 ozs and 17 inches.

















The cutest little girl and I can't wait to see her!


I don't want to snorkel right now...I'd rather have something to eat, please!

Seriously! Anything other than finger food around here?

Still Quilting

This quilt has been in progress for months.

The white fabric with the blue flowers was sitting in the storage room for 4 years.

A day of fabric shopping in Lancaster with Mom Hougton resulted in the yellow fabric.

The quilt was made in co-production with Annamarie Padula of course.

She did the quilting and her free handed floral design is beautiful.

The wardrobe asked for a new look too, so new quilt, new bedroom.

Mark said, his blanket is too short and his feet are out in the cold.

You know what that means. I'm cutting out the fabric for the next one...

The Maiden Voyage

Well, today I took it on the maiden voyage after 12 years of dormancy. The poor 76 CJ5 sat abandoned in garages and in the yard never once fired up or driven. It still had the old 1997 gasoline, oil, filters...etc.

After the last few weeks of changing everything, I installed a new battery, added clean fuel and it fired right up! I did not even have to rebuild the Holley carb. The only problem was the breaks.

Changing out the master cylinder and a good flush & bleed I fired it up again, drove it up the street and back.


















Here we go......


















Holy Cow! What a feeling!
It was like my old pal and I were never separated.
Noted a few things to tweek here and there before I take it out again.
Next time, a short jaunt to the filling station to get a big drink.
AND THEN....with a full tank of fuel, out to the woods!!!!!!!!

Oh happy days are here again!
Now maybe my wife will get off my back about fixing the Jeep.

What? Buttermilk?

These are Emeril LaGasse's blueberry muffins:

I only modified it slightly.

No buttermilk in my house! I'm not one of those cooks that runs to the store in the middle of a cooking show. I improvise.

Here is my buttermilk: third plain joghurt, third sour cream, third whole milk,

mix them up to give a cup, close enough!

The muffins are soooooooooooo yummy.

Click on the title for the recipe.

Can't go wrong with Emeril's recipes.

This is not an advertisement!

Family Sunday

A hot Sunday afternoon, the family is out on a doggie walk.
Do you see the deer in the picture?




















Mark & Spitz are resting a little.


























This groomed dirt road was a narrow trail about 3-4 years ago. We used to walk on it to a creek every so often with the doggies. Buck loves the creek of course.
Now, the trail became a wide road covered with wood chips and the creek is no longer accessable because they gated it off from the intruders like us.


Are you coming????



















Buck is too hot, but the creek will not cool him this time.




















My doggies never look at the camera.




















This is the hill top I would like to put my house.
Too bad the Forest Service snagged all the good land already.




















Always wanted a "Red Fox Boa".

Look at me...I'm riding!

I would like an "Arctic Woolf Boa", but he is too heavy for me.

The Great Wall of Pine Cove

A whole year of hard work and Voilà!



















We hand picked the river rocks from the White Water River.
It took many truck loads to complete this retaining wall.
Mark hand layed by eyeballing each and every rock.


















Now, I can work on my part, the kitchen garden!!!!