Locust Removal-part 1

Brian was very careful about my plants. I was glad the daffodil border was pretty much done. He carefully straddled the triangle bed and everyone was happy! 

 This is the 'limb' he wanted to use the truck on. Not the huge limb, but the part over the house. He's sending another guy over to climb in the trees to cut them later this week~

 Meepette was carefully keeping her eyes on things.

 These are most of the photos from this afternoon's trimming session.

 I kept thinking of Shakespeare's Birnam woods as Brian was 'hiding' behind giant limbs as they moved thru the sky.

                       Almost done! This is the litter from step one. Thank You, Columbia Tree Care!!

Happy Birthday, Mum!

Today is Mum's birthday. She is now &% years old. It has been a very long &% years and I can tell you the 50 I have been a part of have been truly different. I don't have too many photos of the two of us.  Probably for the same reason I am not in many photos in my kids 'albums'. 

In the early 70's we moved to Alaska and mom never left. My sister is still there and so is my heart. Mum knows a lot of people on the Kenai. From Homer to Nikiski she has helped change kids lives in so many areas. She has taught in many different venues, volunteered with 4-H, Forensics (which in Ak is public speaking), and a zillion other things. Mum has been a part of the United Methodist Church in Kenai since the 80's and there is a ton more. 

Mum volunteered in my classes starting with Kindergarten. I'll never forget the very cool purple under water finger painting she did one day. The super awesome birthday party she helped plan..and I missed due to the measles. 

Mum worked a great deal. She spent most of her life teaching and going to school to be a better one. But, she started out working in Alaska on the Homer Spit in a cannery. She got to bring home some odd things they found on the line. 

I am always amazed when I meet people that know mom. There was one day I was in a brand new Fred Meyer store in Tillamook, Oregon. It had been open less than a week and I went in to look around. A gal from the jewelry store was outside lurking for customers and stopped me. She stared at me and asked if I was from Alaska. (I cautiously said yes, thinking how on EARTH does she know this. I have NOTHING on me that says 'Alaska') She then asked if I was from Kenai. (this made me blink. NO ONE knows where Kenai is, much less how to say it properly. Although, Nikiski is worse...). She then asked if  my mom was Mrs. Egbert. Turned out this young lady had once been taught by mom and I apparently look a great deal like her.  The kids mom taught are everywhere and they know mom VERY well. I was in the Kenai mall (yeah, AGES ago) with mom once and this kid was being a brat. Mom looked at him and poof. Kid straightened up. The grandma came over to my mom and asked what she had done because 'I can never get him to behave!' Well, obviously, this kid knew mom and knew that when she gives 'that look' you just change your attitude FAST. It appears that knowledge never goes away. When mom was working in the juvie home in Kenai, one of the kids said to her something like, "my parents know you. they told me I better behave, or else." I kinda felt bad those kids hadn't been raised by mom. They wouldn't have been there if she had. 

Mum is always up for a laugh. She embarrassed me completely and totally the summer after I graduated from HS. I was all cool and hotstuff and was in a State Fair beauty pageant. (yeah, it was an Alaskan girl thing to do to get scholarship monies) Mum, bless her heart--now!-- was in charge of 4H kids. I, was out flirting with security guards. As I was watching a tiny television at one of the booths one night, one of the kids came up frantic. It appeared one of the giant rabbits had gotten out and they needed help finding it. Flashlights were trained on the ground as guards and people searched under and around buildings trying to find this bunny. Then, out of the darkness hopped the giant rabbit. It was definitely a one of a kind creature. Yup, it was my dear mum. Dressed from head to paw, in a rabbit costume. I will NEVER EVER forget that. 

I am sure I could blog on for pages about mum, but I'm gonna stop. I'm looking forward to going home this summer where I can experience MORE mum stories. Here's to many more years of adventure, Mum. 

Valentine's Day~

It's Valentine's Day and that means candy, camo, and being in the outdoors. The mountain ranch looks really different with the grass all flat. You can easily see for miles and miles across the rolling hills. 

 We arrived at the lower place and discovered the sign down. Probably from the wind.

 At the lower place, near the bus, there is a crick where the rocks for the fire pit were. It was lovely to see water in it! There were also animal tracks around it. The pond it feeds was full of ducks. However, those are on a different property and we could only see them with binoculars.

 Steve always has more precise methods of doing things, Jon prefers to just get it done. He usually does the job thoroughly, just not quite like Dad would! But, in the end, it worked. The fire pit was dug and there were exactly enough rocks to surround it!

 The reason we went up today was to go shooting. I discovered I need a lot more practice. Or the broad side of a barn. The guys however,  had  a lot of fun!

 I almost deleted this photo, but when I saw it on the computer, I noticed the bottle was 'jumping'. I was pretty impressed to get the almost falling can in the next photo. The last one in these three, Jon liked. It appears that when the bullet went thru the plastic bottle, it exploded the bottom. Physics is very cool!

The other thing I learned is to make sure all containers and food stuffs are put away before shooting. Or you may end up with spent 22 shells in your Bugles.

Happy 21st Birthday~

February 4, 1994. Jonathan Scott was born. 

 

He has had a love affair with chocolate and Fords ever since he was little. 

Jonathan had a lovely head of curls until we cut his hair at about 3, after our trip to Minnesota.

 Jon has always had a sense of fun. Even if it was hidden under his exterior of camo and cute.

Jon participated in Boy Scouts of America from Tiger Cub to Eagle. We are all incredibly proud of his achievements.

 He has played the bari sax since Mr. C suggested it in the 6th grade and in HS played with the HS band and two bands through the Walla Walla Community College. (Jazz and concert band)

Jon is also a volunteer with the Athena Volunteer Fire Dept and has a bit more beard now, than he wore during the academy.

Jonathan created a coat of arms for one of his classes and came up with this-water, mountains, tools, guns, Fords (the Bronco), home, and tops it all off with God.

We are very proud of you, Jonathan, and are looking forward to seeing where you go next!

Burgers and fries for dessert!

I had an idea a while back. I wanted to make Jon a hamburger birthday cake for his 21st birthday. Something memorable. I looked up different versions of it and jumped in with both feet and the mixer running. 

 My first thought was to make the bun out of angel cake. That didn't turn out as well as I hoped, but it all worked out as I purchased raspberries making the angel cake MY birthday cake! The yellow cake ended up the bun. I wanted it larger (I didn't pay attention to the differences in 8/9 in cake pans..I have 9in ones), but didn't have enough yellow cake batter. I shouldn't have worried.  I sprinkled chopped up white chips on the top layer for sesame seeds (cake in the far back of the above  photo) and got a tad carried away. While these were waiting to be assembled, I was talking to Jon's brother and he suggested I needed a ham slice layer~ so that was the last 'cake' I made.

 I frosted the bottom layer with 'mayo' (white frosting). The onions, lettuce, hothouse tomatoes (they aren't red enough for hone grown tomatoes!) were made from store bought Wilton Vanilla Fondant. (I didn't like it, thankfully, it is only on the edges!) During assembly (which didn't take long) I put strawberry jam over a layer of chocolate (the burger) and then the strawberry cake 'ham' slice.The next burger wasn't as flat as I hoped, so I filled in the edges with chocolate frosting.

 The last layer of goo was yellow frosting 'mustard' and more fondant. I topped it with the yellow cake I'd sprinkled with the chocolate chip bits. It didn't turn out too bad, even if I DID forget the cheese!

 The last thing we added were the fries. Steak fries are easy to cut from pound cake. Tasty, too!

                       Here are the two birthday cakes together. It is a tad blurry, but Jon was pretty excited!

 So, if you have a birthday or just any kind of party coming up, this is a very easy cake to make (really, the time was baking the things and playing with the fondant for the first time--eww). Jon thinks there may be 301 cubic inches of cake in this, but am betting he's off a bit. It was 9 inches tall and the cake was made in 9 in pans, but am still unsure of his math! It did taste good and there is a lot of it left. It is not 'professional' by any means, but it was fun and, as I mentioned above, EASY. The latter is very important in my book!

gooey and delicious!

I used to make these years ago and the memory stuck in my head to the point I had to find the recipe again. I wanted to share it and found several versions online. This one is closest to the one I have. Peanut Butter Marshmallow Brownies, easy and decadent. 

 After making your brownie base, you add the marshmallow creme. Or mini marshmallows--about 4 cups--if you don't want to open up a jar of creme. I placed the brownies back in the warm oven to 'melt' the marshmallows and then let them cool completely. The chocolate layer, I added too much of something (PB, probably) and it is still gooey instead of hard. Not really a problem, just messy.

In this photo of layers, it looks as if there is marshmallow on the bottom. Not true. The confection is in a glass pan and when I took the picture, there was a reflection! Jon liked this so much, he ate almost a half of a row before bed! I am glad I dusted it off and made these again.

Just more birds~

After the stormy day and night, puddles were the perfect spot to bathe! 

 Jon and I liked this one in particular. It has the finch (NOT Junco) sitting in profile above the metal cut out Cardinal.