Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
Senior Member
Joined: 10/29/2004
View Profile
 Offline
|
Autumn just might be making its first appearance here. We turned off the air conditioner and opened up the house. There's been just enough breeze to feel cool on my legs. I think bacon fudge is in order.
MDL and Leoghaire came up early for breakfast. Haven't seen the herd since.
Alex barfed up breakfast, ate the rest of it, then barfed that up. Spotacus came inside early from his post-breakfast patrol and laid on the bed as though he didn't feel well. Then he slept the rest of the morning on the south porch glider. I'm guessing that can of cat food was bad, since they both ate lunch without incident.
Got confirmation that Mom, eldest brother and SIL will all be here for Christmas. Looks like the RV will be a spare bedroom. With our friends here in their fifth wheel, and sister's family coming up for Christmas dinner, gonna be quite a crowd.
It's time to warm up the leftovers (crockpot roast with carrots, onions, and Spätzle, all cooked in dark beer with seasonings) and make that bacon fudge.
Later, y'all.
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Czarny, black cat
Rainbow Bridge: Spotacus, Alexander the Grrreat, and so very many more
|
KLO
Southern OK
Senior Member
Joined: 09/17/2003
View Profile
Offline
|
Bacon fudge, did you say bacon fudge? Please share that recipe with us, pretty please!
|
Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
Senior Member
Joined: 10/29/2004
View Profile
Offline
|
KLO wrote:Bacon fudge, did you say bacon fudge? Please share that recipe with us, pretty please!
Take your favorite dark chocolate fudge recipe. Add chopped crispy bacon. If you really feel daring, substitute bacon fat for a portion of the butter. Try not to eat it all in one sitting.![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/biggrin.gif "biggrin") I'll be making this several times over the holiday period -- my family is big on bacon and chocolate, so the combo will be quite popular. Sure beats all heck out of divinity...
A cold front came through yesterday, which was great for the humans, not too hot, not too cold, albiet windy. We were trimming lower limbs off the live oak trees beside the RV hookup where our friends will be spending the winter in their fifth wheel, so they could have a nice sitting/picnic area under the trees.
Alex found sunny spots in the house; didn't want outside. Spotacus had to see what we were doing, crawling under the piled limbs to see if it was a decent cave. Nope. Came back out to wind around his humans' legs, until we fired up the chain saw again. Then he retired to one of his favorite sunny spots.
We got about two hours' worth of firewood out of the trimmed limbs, and about two hours of limbs to burn, when the burn ban is off again. Between working out at the gym, then sawing and dragging limbs, made sitting in the hot tub under a 3/4 moon a very nice experience. I only do the hot tub when the air temps are below 65, preferably in the 30s and 40s. It was around 60, still quite pleasant to sit on the porch to air dry after getting out.
We had to close up the house, but not turn on the heater, for sleeping. Both cats tried to sleep on me, rather than beside me. The low was in the 40s. When WLToo got up, they ate breakfast, then spent less than five minutes outside before joining me back in bed.
They're still asleep, and it's time to work on the tree beside the gate. The RV will be right handy today; we'll drive it to the gate, fire up the generator, and use that power to run the electric chain saw, since both gas powered saws are on the fritz. Again.
Later, y'all.
|
KLO
Southern OK
Senior Member
Joined: 09/17/2003
View Profile
Offline
|
Thank you Wanderlost,I have a good recipe for dark fudge so will give this a try at Christmas. I think a sprinkle of sea salt would be good to!
|
magnusfide
On the Road Again and Again and Again...
Senior Member
Joined: 10/30/2009
View Profile
|
Spotacus: great name for a cat! Glad he kept you.
"The only time you should fear cast iron is if your wife is fixin' to hit you with it."-Kent Rollins
First law of science: don't spit into the wind.
Magnus
|
|
|
Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
Senior Member
Joined: 10/29/2004
View Profile
Offline
|
Don't know what it is about going off Daylight Savings Time, but I never do get that extra hour of sleep. Nope, instead I wake up several hours early.![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/rolleyes.gif "rolleyes")
There's a small possibility of rain today and tomorrow. Hope so. We trimmed two more trees and made a rather large pile that will need burning.
Also need to mow the King Ranch Bluestem, which is a bad invasive species. Sure is pretty, but nothing eats it and it takes over meadows unless it's mown down before it seeds out. Unfortunately, that means we'll have to mow the wildflowers, too, but they're more likely to come back stronger after we reduce the amount of KR Bluestem. We're going to replace the KRB with side oats grama and other native grasses that the deer will eat.
That means we have to figure out how to get under the Deere lawn tractor to sharpen the blades, plus get the push mower fixed, plus get more batteries for the weed whacker -- just one dern thing after another...
Then we'll need some crushed granite to put down everywhere we intend to toss bluebonnet seeds. This autumn is shaping up to be right busy, gardening wise.
Spotacus woke me up this morning, rather insistently. Normally, Alex gets us up, but Spotacus was very hungry. Then he piled back into bed and didn't wake up until we got back from the gym and fed them lunch. Well, he did pee in one of the bathroom sinks while we were gone, but that's almost normal now, and they're easy to clean.
I'm fairly sure that something got one of Gimpy's fawns. We only see the one with her now. She, Lassie, and their fawns were the only ones in the meadow this morning, instead of a big herd. Maybe rutting season is beginning to wind down here.
Break's over, time to saw more oak. Later, y'all.
|
Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
Senior Member
Joined: 10/29/2004
View Profile
Offline
|
So the trees look much better, and the hot tub helped get our muscle kinks out. Then it rained for two days; we got over 4 inches. The temps have dropped into the highs in the 60s and 70s and lows in the 40s and 50s, with sunny skies again. The humans love it.
Spotacus is not happy about it. He's spending much more time in the house, and when he is outside, he stays on the south porch chairs. This is kind of surprising, since all last winter (which was pretty harsh for this location) he was happy to be outside on sunny days. As thick as his fur is, I'm surprised he seems to be feeling the cool weather.
Alex, of course, would sit on a human lap all day long, if we'd stop being so inconsiderate as to stand up and go do stuff. If this winter gets bad, I'm seriously considering trying to put a sweater on him, so he doesn't feel so cold. WLToo will have to stand by with the video camera, though, as I'm sure it will get very exciting. Alex tore off every collar we ever put on him, and freaked when we put the walking jacket on him, so a sweater might not work.
Leoghaire's daddy (LD) came up twice today. The first time, he stood by the flag pole and watched Lassie, who was patiently waiting for a handout. Instead of putting corn into her dish, which would have brought LD right up, I fed her some corn tortillas. She didn't finish them before she startled and left. LD immediately went downslope to follow her. The second time, LD strolled across the pool deck and appeared to be heading between house and garage. I quickly ran to the south door to warn WLToo not to come toward the house, as an 8-point buck was coming his way. Luckily, LD decided to go the long way around the garage. He was in full sniff and grunt mode, and we didn't even see any does around. WLToo noted that he's the only buck we've seen lately, too, so I guess the dominance battles are over.
Leoghaire and Lassie showed up later and got their corn.
WLToo just named LD Goggles, because he has white rings around both eyes. I'm still going to call him LD - it's easier to type.
It's very pretty tonight, and the meteors are abundant, so I'm going back out to sky watch. Later, y'all.
|
magnusfide
On the Road Again and Again and Again...
Senior Member
Joined: 10/30/2009
View Profile
|
Wondering if Spotacus has a spot of arthritis? We all get to that point in life.
|
Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
Senior Member
Joined: 10/29/2004
View Profile
Offline
|
magnusfide wrote:Wondering if Spotacus has a spot of arthritis? We all get to that point in life.
No sign of it at his last checkup. I think he's made the weather adjustment. Today he was bouncing around outside on driveway patrol, even though the wind made it feel a lot cooler than the 50s it was. While he was napping on my chest, I did find some dings that are pretty typical of cat fights, so I checked for small abscesses and did not find any. I honestly believe Alex gave him the dings; he's really tired of Spotacus jumping him and I've seen him lash back.
Leoghaire came up by herself this afternoon. She stayed about three feet away as I poured some corn into the dish, then walked right up before I'd even backed away. Bold and beautiful, she is.
Washed the shorts and put 'em away. Won't need them for at least a couple weeks, other than at the gym. Still not cold enough to turn the heater on, thankfully. Over the next couple days, we'll have to winterize the garden, but everything else will be just fine. It is nice living where we don't have to use the pink stuff in the RV...
Time for Alex' heart meds. Later, y'all.
|
Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
Senior Member
Joined: 10/29/2004
View Profile
Offline
|
Well, brrrr. It was 23 at 0530 this morning. Good thing WLToo remembered yesterday that we needed to blow the RV water lines. Also discovered that all the RV batteries have died. Dead. No returning therefrom. Great. More expenses during the most expensive season.
We got the 50 amp hookup installed for our friends. Had to bring in a Ditch Witch to cut the asphalt from the hookup site across the driveway to the garage. Of course, they cut through the water line, so that had to be fixed before they could finish the electrical installation. Now we have to find an asphalt repair guy to fix the 60' trench. Can't just pack the dirt back in there and call it fixed, because there's a slight slope, just enough to erode the dirt out in a good rain.
Our planned RV trip the last weekend of this month is now out. No money for the funnie. Sigh. Guess we'll just stay here, drink cocoa and watch bad movies.
Leoghaire came up by herself this morning, right onto the porch, and stared in the window just like Lassie does. She's so cute. A bit later, one of our roadrunners decided to hang out on the porch. Convinced Spotacus he really needed to go outside. That lasted almost five minutes before he noticed it's cold. He's currently curled up under my flannel shirt and is not disposed to share my shirt with me. Bummer - it's my favorite flannel shirt.
We went to Wurstfest last night. Several new features, including a craft beer site. But it was much too cold to appreciate a good craft beer, and they didn't offer a sampler. I'll make that recommendation to the Wurstfest association. I'd like to try more than one, but not by having to pay for/drink an entire beer. Couple ounces each, not to exceed one beer, would be plenty.
As ever, there were all kinds of foods on a stick. But the most interesting was not edible - it was a "selfie on a stick." Yep. The Lufthansa table had a bunch of folks gathered in photo formation, with a smart phone attached to some contraption on a stick, so they could look like it was someone else taking the photo. I admit to standing there in amazement for a few minutes, and never once thought to bring out my own camera to snap them snapping themselves. ![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/doh.gif "doh")
Then there were the fried foods. Deep fried Oreos (no, thanks), funnel cakes, potato fries of all kinds, and chicken fried bacon. I had to try that, after eating my standard Kartoffelpuffer mit Apfelmus (potato pancakes with applesauce). I'm sure my cholesterol level spiked after the bacon, but it was interesting. Think I'll stick with bacon fudge in future, though.
We had our Trachten (German traditional clothing), but it was way too cold for me to consider wearing a cotton dirndl, even under a heavy cloak, so we went for warm clothes in traditional German colors. It was still pretty chilly to me - after four years here and losing a few inches of fatty insulation, I just may be starting to acclimate to the local climate...
Time to figure out some dinner. Later, y'all.
|
|
|
|
