Uncategorized – Page 120 – This Old House 2

Needing a home

Hilary over at Crazy as A Loom – see link below – takes in stray cats who wander on to her property in Upstate, NY. She feeds and care for them, and then if they aren’t neutered or spayed, they take a trip to the vet for that too. This little girl is the newest to arrive and Hilary knows she wants to be a housecat, not a barn or porch cat. She is a love and would prefer to crawl into your lap than up in a hayloft. In the next week or so she will be spayed. If you or someone you know might give this girl a loving home, contact Hilary through her blog. If you live in Connecticut and want to adopt her but don’t want to drive that far, I will personally go pick her up for you.

http://crazyasaloom.blogspot.com/2011/09/trivial-but-necessary.html

Is it just Me?

In an Article from USA Today, Arizona News – by Bruce Horovitz

“The economy may be in the dumps, but don’t count out bargain-priced luxury items for the holidays.
That has to be the lesson learned by Target — and its biggest competitors — after a shopping frenzy more typically seen around Thanksgiving repeatedly crashed Target’s website on Tuesday and sent shoppers by the hundreds waiting in line for sales on limited-time offerings on its Missoni for Target collection of clothing, housewares, luggage and even bikes.

“This talks to how people still have a taste for luxury brands, even if they can’t afford them,” says Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of Putting the Luxe Back in Luxury. While most folks might not be able to shop on New York’s Fifth Avenue or at Neiman Marcus, she says, who can’t afford a trip to Target?”

I love Target, I do. The fact that it’s still an American company thrills me to no end. My daughter and I were going to take a little trip to Target yesterday to stock up her dorm room on stuff she was running out of. One can never have too many buckets of Twizzlers, power bars and bottled water. Turns out she had too many things to do on campus so we nixed the trip. It’s a good thing, because apparently it was a mob scene for the above mentioned reason.

I don’t get it. Is it me?.. or is it kinda outdated looking. The Mod Squad comes to mind. No offense if you really like this stuff, inquiring minds would like to know.

Is anyone really getting excited about this bike?

Misty Morn

knock me over with a feather

As you already know, I eagerly anticipated our first egg. When we collected three, I scrambled them up so we could get a taste of what everyone has been raving about for years…. “home-raised eggs are SO much better tasting than the ones you buy in the grocery store.” Honestly, I used to think… an egg is an egg, how different can it be?

The difference is amazing… as the post title says, you could have knocked me over with a chicken feather.

The shells are thicker and right now the egg is smaller, as is typical in the first weeks of laying.

Look at the color of those beautiful yolks…

And the eggs as they appear on the plate, such a rich yellow. These are fully cooked, this is not raw yolk.

Since we only had three little eggs on Sunday morning, I had to scramble up a batch of regular store bought eggs (free range organic! which doesn’t really mean much)… and the taste can’t compare. Look at the color, even!

*Something I learned from another blogger… the simple act of how you scramble your eggs can change your dining experience. I no longer break them in a bowl and scramble until fully mixed before placing in pan. I butter the pan, heat it, and break eggs in the pan… let the whites solidify some, and then take a spatula and begin breaking up, or scrambling ( not completely though) . I throw in cheese if it’s requested. They come out looking like this, and the taste and texture are so much better!…. go figure.

The reason local farm raised eggs are so much better? Diet and living conditions are the simple answer. While commercial chickens might be given a good quality feed, they don’t get anything else.. like yogurt, lettuce, raisins, tomatoes, apples, sunflower seeds, Cheerios! All of which my hens enjoy. They also get to roam around a little in their chicken yard, instead of extremely cramped quarters or NO MOVEMENT AT ALL… see below.

This is what one company considers “free range”, not caged.

*sigh*

So if you are lucky enough to have access to purchase local eggs,
I highly recommend it.

oooh, those shoes!…

This baby girl came to visit This Old House with her momma and grandma a few days ago. I remember when her mother was just a little older than she, building kitten corales out of twigs and planting daffodils on the trail between our houses. Her grandmother and I spent a long chilly night sipping Irish Coffee up in the hayloft of their newly built barn, a “hayloft sleepover” for our girls. There may have been a few tipsy trips down the hayloft ladder in the middle of the night to relieve ourselves of all that irish coffee. Just keeping it real here.

Liz, you may have noticed who bid highest on your quilt for the Dog Days Adoption Event

Thank you again for your generous donation 🙂

For Arthur

I was folding clothes on the bed watching the morning news. Then the phone call from my sister as we watched the events unfold in horror. We knew some of the responding crews would be old friends and neighbors of our childhood home – but the fate of the boy next door surprised me. Arthur was always the scrappy one.. the tough guy who could get himself or you out of a jam, the survivor, sometimes even the savior. This time he gave all.

Photo I took from his brother Bert’s facebook…

The following is a write-up that appeared shortly after 9/11.

By Frank Williams
Staten Island Advance staff writer
Wednesday, 10/10/2001

This is the street behind my old house, where Arthur grew up.

He would get a chuckle out of this street sign, I think.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Firefighter Arthur T. Barry enjoyed his freedom. The 35-year-old spent much of his youth zooming across the American continent on many road trips, all the way to California.

Last year he took a 10,000-mile motorcycle tour diagonally through Canada to Fairbanks, Alaska, and then returned across the northern United States. It took him about a month to eat all that road.

But Mr. Barry’s triumphant adventures came to a tragic end on Sept. 11. The lifelong resident of Westerleigh, a member of Lower Manhattan’s Ladder Co. 15, was on vacation that day. Mr. Barry, who was a handy mechanic, rode the Staten Island Ferry into the city just to drop off a heavy-duty machine at his firehouse near the South Street Seaport.

Arriving after the company had responded to the attack on the World Trade Center’s Tower 1, he found a friend, Firefighter Eric Olsen, and the two of them walked to the scene of the disaster.
Mr. Barry, who remains among the missing, was last seen entering the first tower that was struck.
His sister, Dr. Patricia A. Barry Cosgrove, and her husband, Dr. John Cosgrove, also responded to the tragic event by administering to the survivors and the rescuers.

Mr. Barry joined the Fire Department in 1993 and was first assigned to Ladder Co. 118 in Brooklyn. He transferred to Ladder Co. 15 a year later. Before the Fire Department, he worked as an elevator mechanic for Advance Elevator, New Brunswick, N.J., and a machine-tool technician for A-1 Machine and Tool Co., Elizabeth, N.J.

A graduate of Blessed Sacrament School, West Brighton, and Susan Wagner High School, he attended New York City Technical College, Manhattan. Mr. Barry was a member of the Fire Department’s Holy Name Society, Emerald Society and Viking Association.

He enjoyed swimming and not only went on road trips, but often flew to many destinations all over the country. Mr. Barry was a parishioner of Blessed Sacrament R.C. Church, West Brighton. In addition to his sister, Patricia, surviving are his parents, Audriene and Bertrand F.; his brother, Bertrand A., and two more sisters, Dr. Kathleen M. Poss and Clare E. Skarda.

Are you a Serial Decorator?

I come from a line of women who take decorating for the seasons very seriously. My grandmother Elsie got so into it, at christmas time there were little red bows on the family photos, let alone the tree and trimmings, etc. I don’t go bow crazy, but I have inherited the decorating gene.

Over the years I have visited homes where there is no evidence of the season or the impending holiday, and I always find that sad. Not that there is anything wrong with not decorating… heck, it’s work, it’s clutter, it’s a dust collector. But there’s something about the “stuff” that warms the heart and hearth. During one very stressful year a while back, I let the decorating take a back seat to more pressing needs. Immediately my family started in. “When are you going to decorate? How come nothings out? “….. “Where’s the stuff?”

I whipped the stuff out for fall today. Halloween stuff comes out October 1st. Am I nutz to start this early? Lakeside Feed in Guilford doesn’t think so. I went there to inspect some hay today and was delighted to see all their pumpkins. For those of you who are local, this is a wonderful family business to buy your hay, grain and pet supplies from. They’re located in beautiful North Guilford, farm country.

My new runner,which I adore. Some of you might have ironed it before putting it on the table. That’s where I draw the line. Or leave them in the cloth. 🙂

In the mancave I can’t get all feminine, so just a little happens there.

Outside on the front step, I’ve planted chocolate leaf coral bells and vine that will withstand some colder temps, and stuck fake paper lanterns in just because. I’m not particularly fond of fake flowers, but sometimes they do the trick where you need one.

Have you gotten your stuff out yet?

Mom Truths 101

Our First Egg!

We’ve had a small horse farm for 22 years… but This Old House is the first homestead of ours to have a chicken coop. Last night when I brought the chickens in for the night, I found our first egg! It’s on the small side, but just the cutest thing. Here it sits next to a standard sized egg.

Judging by the color, I think one of the Buff Orpingtons left it.

More rain today, thunder and lightening last night.

Surely this is a record year for percipitation.

For those of you in Texas and the South, I wish I could send some of this your way.

Random & the rain

Two dreary days we’ve had here – and the house is so quiet. Everyone is off to college or back to school and I am not enjoying the silence. But there is something about the rain, cleansing. Certainly a new season has arrived.. early!…. When Irene blew out of here, it seems as if she sucked the summer right out of the trees. They’re all turning already, or at least dropping leaves. So be it.