Droopy sad

Heavy rains make for sad puppies.



Sad puppies make for sad xmas trees.

Cosmetic tree surgery

All the citrus trees got haircuts today. Preston is staying away because haircuts are somewhat related to baths.



This year's blood orange harvest. Woo hoo! Each year I get more and more blood oranges. I must be doing something right. Feels good to rescue this old previously fruitless tree. Like helping a sixty five year old woman give birth to children.

Botanical potential energy

Cranberry tangerine muffins. It uses a scant two teaspoons of tangerine rind. I think I'd need to make another five hundred and thirty two dozen muffins to use up all the tangerines I have.



Little wittle itty bitty piggy faces. Curry flavored.



And at the bottom of the package of animal face instant noodles, I find out that there may be doggie and panda versions! Why did Nancy not get me the puppy and panda instant noodles? I'm all about the puppies and pandas. Does she not know me at all?



Wheels of pasta. It is possible to make a covered wagon using the pasta as wheels, the turkey as the base, the stalks of braccoli rabe as the axles that hold the wheels together, and the broccoli rabe leaves as the fabric cover for the wagons. I did not do this, as I am content to know it is possible, and do not require proof.



Carrots look like flames.



Vegetable lasagne. With crunchyness topping made from wonderful no-longer fluffy bread. In it's next interation, I will use a mandolin to make the veggies paper thin. The texture of this first pass is too chunky. But the concept has potential.

Strength to live

Embiggen'd by Hamachi's will to survive, I introduced some friends. This time, 10 cents per fish instead of 12 cents. What a bargain!



Moving boulders today. I have the strength of Hercules, though I look nothing like Kevin Sorbo.



Dead ferns. They did not develop Hamachi's will to survive, nor the sheer muscle power of Hercules. The ferns have succumbed to the freezing cold. Wussy wimps. Fear not, their girly-man-ness will be recycled into compost.

Painting with food

Snack sized cup-o-noodles with fish cake kitties. Cute and edible. Winning combination.



This week's farmer's market treasures. I got suckered into colorful foods.



Colorful roasted vegatables, but totally nearly albino Jewish chicken. It's kosher. It needed some tanning to be appetizing.



Seed trays multiplying. The backyard farm is on it's way.

Hit the bullet

No Trespassing sign. 99 cents at the General Store in Cataba Virginia. I spent 10 minutes staging the sign so it looked like it fell down all by itself. I'm going to the autoparts store to buy those fake gunshot stickers to put on the sign for authenticity.



Woo Hoo! Perfect fluffy bread with crispy shattery crust! I don't suck at baking!

Rock'in cheesecake

Trees and shrubs anal retentively labeled with friendly "Hello, My Name is" Blackberry stickers. I want friendly happy plants.



Preston can't wait until the new Buddha's hand tree bears fruit, so he can bitch slap me for buying more trees.



Weeds cleared and mulched. Rockwork still in progress. Each time I go outside, I nudge a few rocks and adjust the shape. Eventually, I'll be happy with the positions and then set them in stone. So to speak.



Marscapone almond cheesecake with chocolate hazelnut topping. Delicious!

B-limey

Hannah's diaper rash is getting worse.



Lime harvest season. Lime-oncello.



Key lime pie.



Lime jelly.



Miso, lime, and chile glazed salmon.

Easy like Sunday morning

Replacement Pope plate! With a sturdy $1 plate hanger from Roanoke Virginia. This new Pope plate is quite an upgrade. Gold edging. Porcelain. To commemorate Pope John Paul II's visit to Canada in 1984. Miracles welcome!



You start by pulling one weed, and before you know it, half of the front yard is in shambles.



Now that my spiritual bases are covered by Pope Plate, I decided to give my love life a nudge too.

Fish sticks

I was enjoying balmy 75 degree weather in Virginia while L.A. was suffering from a series of freak freezing storms. Here is a visual dramatization. Only one fish survived. I think it's now safe to name it. Fishie, you are henceforth known as, "Hamachi."



Split pea soup tonight. I didn't have bacon or a ham hock, so I used pancetta. Is delicious.

Choked arms

West Virginia visitor's center looks like a giant artichoke. The roof is made from metal from trailer parks after a tornado.



What if my own freakishly strong hands are classified as a deadly weapon?

My bleating heart

Meet Hardee the baby goat. He followed me around and tried to eat my clothes. Hardee was my inspiration to have lamb chops for supper.



Staying at Leenord's farmhouse in rural Virginia for a few days. Them nights are dark and full of bleating and mooing.



And I split all this firewood all by myself. And cut down the tree all by myself. And dried the tree with my super breath all by myself. And hauled the lumber to the house with one hand tied behind my back, all by myself. And then I stacked it all by myself because myself didn't do a good job the first time. Lazy Leenord watched from the treehouse.



My super breath was so strong that I destroyed the barn. All by myself.



Leenord communing with the cattle. He's thinking, where is the cute little chocolate calf? Davy was thinking porterhouse, medium-rare. With side of baked potato and fried green tomatos.

Must acquit

A week's worth of sweeping, raking, and fishing things out of the pool. Finally back to some semblance of normal.



Enough debris to fill three of these ginormous compost piles.



Please don't go. I miss you.



JetBlue's Directv has the Animal Planet channel. I stared trancelike at the screen in front of me for wholly 2 hours of panda programming. I like pandas.



Just to prove to Nancy that, yes, those switch covers DO fit. Me with my amazing out of this world spacial recognition skills.

Building blocks

Sigh. I'm putting my lego collection into storage. Sad. Bye bye childhood.



Door to the guest bathroom with it's new Craftman style moulding. Much more in keeping with the architecture of the house. The melon green walls, not so much.



Mushrom and onion quesadilla. Yum yum.

Limey pirates

De-nuded tangerine tree. To take the weight off and hope it returns from it's horizontal position. But alas, we may have to chop down this tangerine tree. It may be too far gone. But new ones are $20.95 at Home Depot. It's scary that I have that memorized.



No scurvy for me! I was researching recipes that involve citrus, but nearly all of them call for a scant teaspoon of zest or a quarter cup of juice. None of them scale to gallons and gallons of juice.



Mango lime gelato. Trying to work through all the citrus harvest. This is hard work trying to use all of this season's lime harvest. I may have to make lime-oncello and a lot of margaritas.