About blue flowers

The blue flowers are camas. I just couldn't remember the name when I posted the picture. They were growing in this meadow with the oak trees. There is a creek just over the hill and there once was a huge Indian encampment on a rise across the creek. This meadow is the only place I have seen the camas growing down here. The Indians may have transplanted bulbs from somewhere else to grow here. There are Sego lillies here as well but they will bloom later. I think the Indians ate them too. We have seen Sego lillies up in the Bagdad area. They are profuse in Utah. We have found a lot of arrowheads in this area.

The oaks in this meadow area are small leaf oaks. Some of them are over a 100 feet high and have massive trunks. The burl on the oak is on a large leaf oak down by the creek. Lots of funny shaped burls on some of these trees. Out in the open the oak trees are more open spreading. Down in the washes they grow closer together and get huge.

This is a small leaf oak with a red grass in the forground. Grass is real nasty stuff. If you walk thru it you will find your socks, pantlegs and shoelaces covered with tiny red burrs. Harder than hell to remove.

Just had to get a picture of this oak reaching for the clouds just before a storm started to roll in.

Yeh ! I know my picture composition isn't the greatest but I take pictures of what interests me. Phillip usually takes pics with much better interest but his camera battery wasn't charged enough when he tried to take pictures.

Our Blizzard 2009

As Bill said, we had a couple of nasty storms at the end of December and in early January. In this one Bruce tried to wait for it to quit some what so that he could fire up the tractor to clear out the driveway. He later made the decision to just suffer the storm and went out to start clearing before it built up to the point that it would have taken a couple of days to clear us out.

This shot was taken later after the storm had past by us. Things were looking up..........the sun was even poking through a bit.

More pics

Some kind of moth on a fence post.

Lone poppy by a fallen post.

Desert turtle

Burl on an oak tree. Leaves haven't opened yet...They leaf out later...

A few pictures.

He's getting away...

This time I had the camera with me. .. Caught him hiding in the grass...

This is just a tiny flower with some kind of fly on it.

These flowers have a bulb on them that the Indians dug and ate...

Good Food

And that Chicken recipe sounds good... I'll have to copy it for Phillip. I think I have seen the dry tomato soup here at Wal Mart... I usually get the chicken at Wal Mart because you can get a 10 lb. bag of hindquarters for around 59 cents a pound... I ask for the frozen bags then divide it up into portions... I get chicken and sometimes pork at wal-mart but not beef...As far as I'm concerned their beef sucks...Phillip pounded out some swiss steak and after browning it he put into the crock pot for the day...I'm filled to the gills, it was so good...
Hey Jake!! Do they have such a thing as a laser to cut rocks? If not then they need to peek in on my latest brain echo...Last night I dreamed I had a laser rock slabber that looked like a regular band saw but it was a laser beam that cut the rocks and the cut surfaces were like they had been polished...This saw was weird in that I don't know what contained the beam on the other end and assume it must be something or it would cut right thru past the floor and all...Don't know how lasers work, but this one had a blue light beam...In fact I don't know what produced the beam at the top either, but the darn thing sure did cut rocks...Who said you have to have sensible dreams?
I think we caught the edge of the storm that hit Denver. Having yo-yo weather here...10 degrees above normal or 10 below normal...Garden is at a stand still...Ice froze on the rock washing basins the last 4 nights...Good thing I still have the cukes and squash in pots so I can bring them in at night...Got all 3 tumblers going...I've been making up key chains with stuff I got at the thrift store and crystals and tumbled rocks...Got a gross of key chains and a gross of different kinds of clip back earrings for only 3 bucks...I took the earrings apart and glued the rocks and crystals in them and attached them to key chains...Gotta pat myself for this trick...Should sell I think...
Granny

Blizzard 2009

Yesterday was the biggest snowstorm of the year for those of you keeping up with the weather! We had about a foot and a half of snow within 24 hours! The city shut down at noon and closed many roads and freeways. I was stranded in downtown Denver for the afternoon but luckily Jason came and rescued me (my hero!!) and we both got home safely. My car, however, is buried at the Park-and-Ride so I figure by tomorrow it will mostly melt off and we'll go reclaim it :o)

We found this recipe for chicken breading, it claims to be the copycat of the KFC recipe, I don't know about that but it really is quite yummy. You may trust me on that, the one thing that I am an expert on, is what is yummy. If you ever doubt that you simply have to refer to the picture attached in previous post. [the one where Fuey is sitting on the rented Skidsteer with me] You can tell from that picture alone that I certainly do have a grasp of the yummy.

Oh yeah, we could only find the dry soup [tomato] online, no store had it. We bought it on Amazon, and it pays to look around because we found it for really cheap, where on other sites it was way more.  That reminds me, does anyone know how to get rid of Amazon spam? 

Coating Secret Ingredients

2 envelopes tomato soup mix, preferably Lipton cup-o-soup brand

2 envelopes Italian dressing mix

1 tablespoon paprika

2 teaspoons dried chervil (optional, but makes a huge difference in taste)

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

1 teaspoon instant chicken bouillon powder

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon tarragon

1/2 teaspoon sage

1/4 teaspoon pepper

3 cups pancake mix, preferably Bisquick brand (self-rising flour can be substituted, but won't taste as good)


Instructions for Making the Original KFC Recipe

Blend all of the Kentucky Fried Chicken ingredients for the coating in a blender.
The fried chicken coating is enough for a whole chicken, cut up. Soak the chicken pieces in buttermilk for at least one hour in the refrigerator. Remove chicken from buttermilk and roll in the chicken coating mixture above. Let chicken sit at room temperature while waiting for the oil to get hot.
Deep fry if possible for the most authentic copy of the original Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe. If that is not possible, use a cast iron skillet. Do not crowd the chicken when placing into the skillet. Use lard or shortening if you really want that original Kentucky Fried Chicken taste. If you're making this chicken recipe, chances are you weren't looking for low-fat, healthy recipes. ;)
Brown the chicken in the skillet on high heat. Then turn down the heat and cover the pan. Cook until the fried chicken is done, about 30 minutes. During the last 5 or 10 minutes, uncover the pan and turn up the heat. This will crisp up the fried chicken. Be careful not to burn the chicken during this last step.
Remove the fried chicken and drain on paper towels. Serve while still hot.

We have only tried this recipe with boneless chicken breast, those unbreaded strips that come in 2 1/2 pound bags [Western Family] Thaw and coat with breading mix. Let those sit for about 5 minutes, then dip them in buttermilk, or can milk will do just fine. Roll again in breading mix coating them well, and deep fry. Won't take long to get done if you use chicken strips, they cook in around 5 to 9 minutes. You may want to follow the cooking directions above for chicken with bone.