Some things I have discovered in the past 24 hours that made me smile:
This crawdad in a very special place!
These 10 Rhode Island Red Pullets because they are going to be the best hens EVER!
This old house because some day I want to have one just like it!
And this video of Perrin jumping about 4 feet into a ditch by a creek!
BAD quality because it was from a cell phone seen HERE!
Life is good!
Last year we took Perrin to Santeetlah for the first time. He has no fear and as soon as we made our way down the trail to the creek, he did not stop. He kept going, head first into the cold water. Of course he fell and guess who had to go in after him. LOL I ran across this picture tonight and thought I would post it as I will never forget the horror on his face when he realized the water was so cold and he was in it!
Well I will be heading to bed soon and I have to say I have had a fantastic birthday. The dinner with the family yesterday was great and I got super cool gifts. Today at work my supervisor/friend made me a cake, got me a bag of chick feed and a gift card for a dozen Rhode Island Red chicks from Tractor Supply! She and another co-worker bought my lunch, a tasty grilled shrimp and spinach salad from Applebee’s. I got lots of cards and an office full of clients singing to me. I then went to the gym and two guys down there sang me happy b-day as well.
After leaving the gym I came home to share birthday cake with Perrin. Me and Chris went to get the milk at the Amish and took a drive through the country. We picked up Lakota and went to my favorite restaurant for dinner and had a very good time there. I got hugs and kisses from Devin and he sang Happy Birthday to me again. Got home in time for Cletus to wish me a Happy Birthday and spend some time on the computer before bed. I did not get a chance to upload the pics from the party yesterday, but Chris took this one tonight with his cell. I think it could have been much better if I had not just worked out at the gym, LOL, but oh well…cannot really offer many excuses as it tis me in a bad cell pic.
Regardless, I have had a great birthday, feel fantastic and am so looking forward to this year! Thanks for all the e-cards and snail mail cards, calls, emails, notes, posts and all those wonderful things that have made my birthday so perfect!
Today we went to Gee Creek Wilderness Area and did a little foraging. With it being the end of Winter, there was not too much to find, but we did luck up on a few things. I know exactly where to go from now on if I need a close place for Partridgeberries. They were everywhere near the creek and I managed to pick quite a few and got them all home safely…thanks to Chris’ pocket! I will upload more pics tomorrow when I have access to high speed. We also got some polypores, wild ginger, mountain mint and Sweetgum Balls. I will add pics and details about them tomorrow. I am working on an article on foraging as well.
Here is a pic that Chris took this morning as I was picking partridgeberries.
When I was doing Environmental Programs for the Forest Service, I use to have an Interpretive Hike that I added to the program. There were times I had 150 nine year old kids on a 2 1/2 mile trail at one time. No matter how often I said at the beginning of the trail “if you are queit, you will SEE more, HEAR more, LEARN more, ….” I can honestly say, there are very few ways to keep that many people quiet on a trail. So I devised a plan.
About halfway through the hike, at a beautiful spot beside the Ocoee River, I had them all sit down for a “break”. THEN….I pulled out paper and pencils from my backpack and passed them around. The 1st 5 minutes I had no rules other than write down everything you hear. The lists were short and contained nothing but coughs, talking, laughing, etc. Then the rules changed. The goal was, for 15 minutes, no one could speak. They were told to write down everything they heard in that 15 minutes.
Not only did this give me a needed break from all of the noise that many people can bring to a trail, it gave them a chance to SEE through HEARING. It made a difference in each of them. I always noticed the next mile of the hike was much quieter!
It was amazing what some of the kids would write down and the conversations that started when we all read our lists out loud. Discussion about the wind and hearing the results it causes. Trying to determine WHAT kind of bird and not just “bird”. The different sounds the water makes on various rocks in the river.
When we shut our mouth and open our ears, the world can change so drastically for us.
One of my groups doing the exercise described above.
about 6 jerusalem artichokes, cooked and mashed like potatoes
1/2 cup acorn flour
1 cup self rising flour
1/4 cup lard or shortening
1 egg, beaten
1 cup buttermilk
Cook artichokes and mash, you should have about a half a cup when done. Preheat oven to 400F. Sift the flours together and add lard or shortening. Mix. Add jerusalem artichokes. Mix. Combine egg and milk and then add to other ingredients. Roll out (a little thinner than a regular biscuit) and cut. Bake on ungreased baking sheets for about 10 minutes, until brown.
1/2 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1 cup acorn flour
salt and pepper to taste
10-12 puffball mushrooms, sliced
butter or olive oil for frying
Mix milk and egg together. Mix flour, salt, pepper together in seperate container. Put butter or olive oil in skillet and turn on medium heat. When butter is hot, dip mushroom in egg mixture, then in flour mixture and place in skillet. Fry until brown, turning once.
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 cups ramps, thinly sliced (best if using white part only)
3 cups sliced apples
salt if desired
1 tablespoon honey
(a little water if needed)
Put oil in iron skillet and fry the ramps until tender. Add apples, honey and salt if desired. Cover and steam for about 10-15 minutes. Stir this every once in awhile and add a bit of water if it begind to stick.
This dish is great with any wild game like racoon, possum, boar, deer or bear.
