Almost skunked by skinks

This has been a lovely Easter weekend. Aunt Kathy's daffodils (the white and orange inside ones) are rushing to bloom, hyacinth stems are getting taller, and there is a breeze knocking petals off the fruit trees. The breezes also tip over the heavy flowers, resulting in my picking them for the house.

A while ago, I had decided to create a 'new' sort of burger treat my sister had suggested. Bacon lizards. When I googled to see if they had been made before, I discovered something rather surprising. There are real life bacon skinks out there! They are actually called sulawesi water skink. I'm not impressed with the link I added, it does have a great deal of information on the critters, though. 

So, I decided to make some myself. Turtles are fun, lizards couldn't be that difficult. As Tony reminded me, the creations tend to get better over time. I should have paid more attention to the blog post I wrote when Steve visited AK one May. We made bacon dogs and those were easy and yummy. I anticipated the lizards would be similar. Nope!! 

 The first thing I did was to play with burger. I was going to make one of my favorite meat loaf recipe mixtures and forgot a few things. The most important is that my meatloaf uses a LOT of burger and this was just a little over a pound, so my eye ball ratios were off by a lot. My meat was sloppy. I added flour (it is an approved method of making hamburg more sturdy), but next time, I will leave it be after removing it from the wrapper!

 After mixing the meat, I made appendages. This takes quite a while. These, also, will be done a different way. I think next time I'll get a bun length dog as the core and trim one end for a tail and the other cut for the head. Jon suggested not cutting the legs in half and using a long piece as a 'cross piece'.  I did cut bits out of the inside of the 'leg' to simulate an elbow. Eons back, for fun meals, I would slice a hot dog all along the length almost through. As it cooked, it would curl up and they could be served on burger bungs. So, I knew heated dogs would bend! When I cut the toes on any amphibian, I press down on the meat bit and make triangles  using a sharp knife. The leftover bits can be put inside the turtles, but it is harder to add to the lizard.

 The below lizard was almost the last one, and it was much easier to make than the others. I used a tupperware patty maker to portion out the meat. A bit more than half went into the base and the rest was put on top. They kind of resembled a hamburger twinkie before wrapping it in bacon. The cheese was a sliced piece cut into sections. I had hoped to use quarters of a cheese stick, but it was too much inside with this meat mixture. Messy, messy, messy.

 The lizards were not that difficult to wrap, except when the sections broke apart. In the longer lizards, the tails and heads wrapped in burger broke away as I wrapped the bacon around the meat. Smaller ones were less fiddly.

 I didn't add eyes while they baked. Cloves are a strong spice in one small section of meat! I baked them for almost 30 minutes at 375 degrees F. The bacon wasn't as crispy as I'd like, but the legs were!!! I think I'd cover those with foil to keep them from burning, similar to what you can do with pie crust edges.

I wanted the mouths to open, because the turtles look incredibly cute after baking. However, as mentioned above, they were a bit fiddly. Actually, another difficult part was keeping the heads and tails facing the right way after wrapping. Often, I'd look and discover the tails were upside down or the mouths were vertical! Toothpicks soaked in water and snipped off close were necessary for keeping the legs in place. 

They definitely looked unusual when placed on a hoagie bun!!! Long pickle slices, spinach leaves, and condiments made the little beasts taste stellar! 

Because Janet asked this about the turtles, Jon took some photos, I took the rest. I did not take the photo of the real lizard in this blog post. As a general rule, if I make it all photos are from in the family! My next foray into lizard making should be less work, but it will remain delicious! I'll never get completely skunked by these skinks! 

Sunday in Two Stanzas: First-Adante

We knew Sunday was going to be a fairly pretty day, so Jon suggested we head to the ranch for church. We left later in the morning and bounced our way up Hansell Road to the Upper Place for a sermon on the mount. 

This first one is actually a later pic, but it makes for a good header photo. 

Following Jon. There appear to be a great many little trees that need thinned! Jon had been up here since fall, there were still spots of snow here and there, and tire tracks. We did converse with a couple who drove in to walk around while we were there.

 We walked around just a bit before settling down to Acts and a recorded sermon from 2010. It was a Wednesday night lesson by Brett Meader from Athey Creek. 

Steve and I are not as familiar with this teacher. He reminded us a great deal of one from the Athena church, Dan. Bunny trails and obscure bits of interest were dropped here and there while Brett shared from Acts. It appears it also takes him a while to get through a chapter or book! It was also a good choice for today. This odd virus has sometimes choked hope, yet there is a LOT of hope. Death isn't final and life is hidden inside. We were surrounded by awakening life. Pine cones who hold seeds of tomorrow, crazy buntings (probably Lazuli) who were briefly interested in Jon's Bronco, parasitical ticks who cling and suck life from others (Like Simon the magician), and high flying hawks playing in thermals. What a blessing to be reminded of hope in this time of paying close attention to where the head leads us. Facts, numbers, dying, and fear are all over. The heart leads us to One who is more. The lesson didn't have music, but I'll end this particular post with one that was a favorite when the boys were littles.

Sunday in Two Stanzas: Two-Allegretto

Steve and I headed back to the house and chores after we listened to the sermon on the mount. We stopped for a short chat with Mark and Ryan S coming down Hansell Road, while Jon hung out at the Lower Place for the rest of the afternoon. He brought back dozens of photos of elk and deer. He's not exactly sure why there were so many, but the videos were amazing! Especially when they did  their run to wherever dashes. Crazy animals! 

He did hear shots and saw a sturdy sort of dog chasing deer around. He wasn't able to find where it was, though. 

Deer and elk in the same areas.

This is a wash that has gotten much deeper and wider over the winter. Probably during the Feb flooding. He took pictures of water, too. Soothing scenes as it bubbled over and around the rocks.

Jon decided these look like funny llama.

I love this one. Deer on the horizon at sunset!

I'm not sure if this is this is the doe Jon took a video of. This one has gorgeous ears! The coat is the untidy winter wear, but soon they will look lovely. We hope there are enough males left to help maintain the species. Although deer hunting in this area is still open, Jon has found several dead bucks and the guys aren't going up this fall. The one he recorded was walking towards him, trying to identify the camo creature with the camera. So very cute!!!

It was a beautiful day, I'm glad Jon suggested going up. Ending this segment with  song, too! (this is stunning, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!)

                                                                   

Winter's End

Mark Twain once said, "In the spring, I've counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours." 

 The last weeks we've had about the same amount of different kinds all spread out! Athena area went from stunning sunny days where blooms were popping out like crazy, to snow and below 30 temps. I was concerned for my flowers and crouched in snowflakes to photograph them on Friday. The night photos were beautiful!

 In the morning, it wasn't quite as thrilling. I picked a few of the fallen, but figured they were a loss.

 Even Moses came off the porch for a minute, this is about as far as he wandered!!!!! Less than 2 feet from the last step.

 Everyone on Sunday was starving. This guy wasn't impressed Jon was photographing him while snacking! The squirrel decided to ignore Jon, as usual. There was also one under the front yard bird feeder, we think that is the female.We had so many different birds. The usual junco and assorted finches, but we even had a juvenile red wing blackbird! Those don't often visit. The suet feeder was hung, but they aren't as interested in that yet. Steve saw a round of robins--a bunch of robins is called a round--huddled up with fluffy feathers. The feeders aren't as handy for the bug eaters. Thankfully, the snow is starting to melt a bit. Hoping the feathered friends will be able to find something to suit their appetites out there.

With the melting, my front yard daffodils are starting to perk up. However, the backyard ones next to the house are not as happy looking. 

 The flowers are along the house, which normally is festive. However, they are also under the edge of the roof and  the ice and snow fall right on top of them. Many of the flowers I clipped and brought in to 'melt' in the sink. Some I had to leave because they were so encased, they broke when I tried to free even a portion of the plant. Others were under the snow and frozen daffs on top, those I carefully unearthed and brought inside.

 You can see how tattered some of the blooms are, but you can also see how, especially on the bottom right one, the ice is melting away. I have several vases of blossoms now! The one in bud is open and the house smells delightful! Although, that may be why Jon and I have runny noses!!!

 Last Thursday I took pictures of a giant apricot tree across the road. Sunday, the tree was still white. But not a speck of pink could be seen. I'm not betting there will be much of a fruit crop this season.

Our temps are improving during the day, night has them in the 20's. Most of the rest of the bulbs are green stems or leaves. This is good, tulips are fragile and don't manage in cold like the daffodils.

A Sunday Afternoon in the Woods

Jonathan went up to the ranch this last Sunday, March 8. There were four Canada geese taking a break from migration and at sunset, a couple of deer, the rest of the afternoon was spent doing other things. 

 He was really impressed with the sunset-on some of these he used filters, others are as is.

It was a stunning end of a lovely day!