Forbidden Love

Who Killed the Chickens?

Who done it, who who who who? Or maybe Whooooo?

Today, while helping care for our flock of laying hens, my husband and brother had quite a shock. What they thought was another in a long line of murdered poultry, turned out to be a live predator tangled in the electric fence. How this owl got himself tangled in a 4 inch mesh electrified fence is anyone's guess. There was evidence of another brutal killing on the ground next to the red-taloned suspect.


I grabbed it's talons with my gloved hand and my brother helped untangle the bird's wings. My husband brought a dog crate over from the barn. We managed to stow our suspect inside without injury to either the bird or ourselves. A quick call to the Fish and Wildlife department gave us permission to relocate the suspect miles away from the killing grounds. Upon release, the suspect glared at his former captors, then flew off to the southwest.

The verdict? One Great Horned Owl, ten dead chickens. Hopefully he'll find new territory and the hen house will be safe once again.

How to Annoy a Kindergartener

Step 1: Have the Fed-Ex driver arrive when she is already home from school.
Step 2: Have her watch wide eyed as he unloads the package.
Step 3: Set package on the floor.
Step 4: Tell her it's her birthday present, but she can't have it until October 28th.



This is what is inside the box.



I'm such a mean mom making her wait and be curious. Bwahahahahahahaha!

Knitting and Gore

It's a gorgeous fall day, the leaves are turning, the garden is full of orange pumpkins, a hint of chill is in the air.

Where am I? Well, I'm chafing at the so called bit, sitting in my recliner, wishing I could be outside enjoying fall. Now I'm trying not to whine, this is all for the eventual good. I'm no longer in pain, I can walk without crutches, but I'm still really limited in what my knee can do. I should be happy that 10 days post surgery I'm doing this well, so enough with the griping and on with the rest.

What I am able to do is knit. I grabbed many works in progress and a few other projects and have them ranged round the recliner. All the better to trip up kids who come racing in to use me as a trampoline of hugs. I still give great hugs, but a little less vigorously than in the past. The kids sometime forget.

I had planned this project to be a Christmas gift for my brother. However I failed to take into account my tension when knitting fairisle. Oops. Guess who they fit now? Yep, I'll be sporting them on our trip to the Olympics in February.



I'm also working on the Last Minute Purled Beret, but I have run out of Noro Worsted and am waiting for another skein to arrive via Owl Post.

And last but not least, and I'm warning you guys ahead of time, it's the gratuitous post of the knee. Staples and all! Taken about 3 days ago. The swelling is even better now. Unlike other types of knee surgery where two little scars is all you get, my $31,000 got me two little scars AND a bonus! A big classic knee surgery scar right down the middle. Scars are sexy, right? Well if you don't want to see the photo, stop right here, turn this blog around and head back from whence you came.

Sitting Still

Not too surprisingly, I'm not good at sitting still. Unfortunately, I have to sit still at the moment and it's not easy for me to do. Long story short, back in November, during a karate belt promotion test, I did a flying kick and gravity took over. Bye Bye right knee ACL. Funny thing, the injury never hurt, so the doctors thought I had just sprained my knee. Until it never healed. So after an MRI and postponing the repair until after the kids were back in school, here I am, sitting in bed with a repaired knee.

The surgeon thought I was nuts for refusing narcotic pain medications. Doctors never believe me that I am very sensitive to those meds and would prefer some pain to constant stomach evacuations. A very nice Anesthesiologist gave me Mr. Femoral Block which numbed my leg for 3 days. I would marry the man, but he's already married to a very nice lady and they are expecting their grandchild in December. My new best friend is a cooler with ice water that circulates via a pump through a pad on my knee.

So down to boredom. I'm trying to locate the bevy of scantily clad men who will stand around fanning me while feeding me freshly peeled grapes. If you see them, please let them know where I live. Other than that, I have a wonderful husband at my beck and call, along with a whistle to blow that brings three little kids to my bedside.

I've been passing the time with my Kindle, games on my iPhone, my computer, and of course, my knitting. The hat is for a gift, so I'll just show a photo and say no more.

The sock is the one I started in the hospital and knit on from time to time. Ribbing is very boring and of course I decided to rib the entire sock. It's knit from Liberty's Yarns D. Quixote in the INO colorway. Lovely stuff. I picked up this skein at Sock Summit.

I also have a companion during my convalescence, He Who Guards My Crutches.

Home-Made Pop Tarts Take 2

I'm nothing if not stubborn. I WILL make a decent home-made pop tart. Today's attempt used Hot Water Pie Crust and the same filling as the first recipe. I did add 1/4 cup sugar to the crust for a little sweeter taste. The cinnamon filling still puffed up too high and cracked the crust. I don't know if the egg white is to blame. I know I wouldn't have the problem if I used traditional fruit filling, however I have a child who will not eat fruits or veggies (due to a sensory sensitivity and mild autism). So now that I have a good crust, I'm off to work on the filling.....

DIY Fail

I get teased by my friends, but I really enjoy DIY....especially in the kitchen. So when my kids kept clamoring for Pop-Tarts, I headed to the Internet to find a home-made version.

Not too difficult, I've made pies before and these didn't look much different.

So I followed the recipe and started with my chilled for 3 hours dough.

With the dough rolled out and using 3x5 inch index cards as guidelines, my pizza cutter helped cut out the bottoms and tops.

I used the cinnamon filling given in the recipe, and then a modified version with cocoa powder instead of the brown sugar. The cinnamon filling was very runny and threatened to overflow onto the pan.

Ready for the oven. I made some using a biscuit cutter for smaller appetites.

They took twice the time given in the recipe to finish baking. The tops split despite my fork holes and the cinnamon filling really puffed up (then sank when cooled).

The original recipe stated the frosting wasn't hard like packaged pop tarts, so I used Royal Icing to make a crispy frosting.

The verdict? I am not too happy with these tarts. Tasting one, the pastry overwhelms the filling. Way too rich and buttery. I may try with a more traditional pie crust and add more powdered sugar to the cinnamon filling. This recipe may have to be chucked into the recycle bin if the modifications don't work. Back to the drawing board! At least my kids love my home-made doughnuts. Healthy they aren't, delicious they are.