Uncategorized – Page 94 – This Old House 2

Dave’s Mom’s Strawberry Pie

Once Johnny Carson was gone…

(and there will never be another)

I’ve just not been inclined to

watch Late Night TV.

So, I don’t know much about the history

of David Letterman and his Home-cooking Mom.

However, there’s a book out, and I guess

there have been pie contests on his show

which had something to do with his mom’s pies.

I can tell you this….

her strawberry pie is really really good.

Simple and Easy – a recipe for success.

Ingredients

1 9 inch pie shell — baked . I bought a gluten free crust at the healthfood store.

Gluten free does not taste as good as my grandmothers home made crust.

Not by a long shot. Go with grandmas if you aren’t wheat-free.

Just sayin.

1 and 1/2 pts Strawberries, fresh — Washed and hulled, sliced

1/2 c Granulated sugar

2 tb Cornstarch

3/4 c Orange juice

1/2 ts Red food coloring

Whipped cream – the real deal is best.

Mix sugar and cornstarch in medium saucepan, then add orange juice and food coloring.

Cook until clear.

Add strawberries to glaze and pour mixture into baked pie shell.

Serve with whipped cream.

YUM!

He did it again!

I haven’t looked up at the sky yet this evening,

but when I do I’m sure I’ll find a blue moon up there

and three unicorns out in the fields

with purple and green good karma waves buzzing all around us…

…because the Mr. agreed to another kayak ride,

yes he did, no foolin.

..and on a WORK DAY!

OK, it was early evening,

but still.. this is an accomplishment, folks.

I’ll take what I can get.

For those of you who live near the shoreline,

we started at the little launch area near the base of 145(the bridge) in Westbrook

and paddled all the way down to the marina area

next to Bill’s Seafood and the singing bridge.

This is himself, all still and zen-like…

enjoying the osprey and blue heron viewing along the shore…

It rained hard this morning, making the brackish water murky.

There were hundreds of fiddler crabs on those muddy banks.

This is the railroad bridge….

We went under it…and looking back you can see the train coming across…

Now if I had my GOOD camera, this would have been an awesome shot.

In certain areas the water was smooth as glass…

hard to explain the peace I feel out there.

An Osprey nest.. there were several..

this one had baby birds peeking over the side and mom and dad

flying in and out with fish.

It’s a beautiful thing.

My Buddy

Lord, please let me be half the (wo)man my dog thinks I am.

– Russell Friedman.

On Chip and Vick (warning – graphic)

Some of you might remember Chip the miracle dog rescued from a kill shelter in Miami, and believed to have been a dog fight bait puppy. Below is his “before rescue” picture….

His adopted Family sent in this recent picture of Chip

as a healthy adult with his big brother..

It’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it?

For more on Chip’s story, see my labels on the left..

…Chip has his own tab.

M*chael Vick has a new book out and a new clothing line…

He wants to move past his bad reputation

and set the record straight – he’s enjoying his new freedom and lease on life.

The many dogs he had a hand in mutilating have no life. They’re dead.

This man was given a 36 million dollar NFL contract besides

all the endorsements… Please… I beg you..

don’t give him another dime or minute of your time

by purchasing any of his products.

I’ve lost all respect for officials of the NFL as well…

apparently the money a showboat player can bring to the table

for them is more valuable than humanity.

36 Million more valuable.

Disgusting. Just that.

Free to Go

When Frasier adopted us I immediately noticed that he had a cough. Dry, hacking gag really. I googled it and it happens to be a sign of advanced heartworm disease. Ugh.

I had him fully vetted and the test came back positive for heartworm. Then the xray showed some damage already taking place in the heart itself… a sign of advanced disease. There is no specific protocol on treating heartworm… several ways to go about it. My vet and I opted to put him on Doxycyline (sp?) for 30 days to kill off some of the young worms in his system and softens the blow, then give him two intramuscular shots in the lower back of immiticide, which kills off the adult worms that have invaded the heart. Heartworm treatment is costly, and there is some danger. During treatment the dog must rest all the time besides just walking around the house and being walked outside to do his business. The dead worms can lodge somewhere they aren’t supposed to be and cause disaster if you’re not careful. He has a permanent hard knot at the sight of the injection and his back was sore for a while, but the hardest part was the waiting. This means two months of “rest”. HA! Tell that to an active two year old dog…. it ain’t easy! But we did it… and the ban on walking some distance is cleared. An important note: Give your dogs those heartworm chews every month…. the treatment is nasty.

Frasier was “free to go” for walks again last week… and so I took him to the beach. If he hadn’t come with a name that suits him, he would have made a nice “Sandy” too, don’t ya think?

Frasier is the type of dog that bonds very tightly to his human. Nowadays that would be me. If I’m in the shower he’s on the rug outside the glass door. If I’m out at the barn he’s laying on my flipflops in the hall until I come back inside. He sleeps in a bed right next to my side of the bed and if I get up at night to go to the bathroom…. he goes too. My husband says he’s neurotic… I say no, he’s just devoted. …..Or something.

Anyway!… So at the end of our walk I stopped at the waters edge and walked in just to get my feet wet. I didn’t ask him to join me because he looked apprehensive and the leash was long. Then he looked like he couldn’t stand not being RIGHT NEXT TO ME… and was trying to figure out how to do that without getting wet. He looked at the rocks as if he might try to jump, but he saw that it wouldn’t get him to where I was. So he sighed a big sigh, stared at me and waded in ever soooooo slooooowly. Stood next to me shivering the whole time, but damn it, HE WAS NEXT TO ME.

I love my rescue dog.

Morning Light

It’s my favorite part of the day…

when the world is just waking up.

I’m up at 5am, just about always..

for no good reason other than

it is what it is.

When I was young it was the sound of the cicadas on

a summer morning,

or the garbage truck clanking down the road

with the sound of metal pails being tossed aside.

(good ole City of New York sanitation doesn’t care that it’s 6am)

Here on the farm it’s the dew on the grass and flowers..

the restless whinny of the horses

when they spy me ambling up the hill,

chickens clucking for treats right behind me.

Even on the rare occasion that we take a vacation…

I’m always first up.

If we’re on the Vineyard

I walk down Water Street in Edgartown

in search of coffee at Espresso Love, joining other early risers

who are doing the same.

We used to visit my grandmother

on Panama City Beach…The memory

that stays with me the clearest is

the morning jogs up Surf Drive…

listening to pool maintenance crews

and sidewalk sweepers do their thing,

the smell of salt and chlorine and the grind of sand underfoot.

There’s a certain peace in the early hours..

but what I love most …. is the light.

Another peek at the peeps…

I’m just amazed at how fast baby birds mature.

They were bald just last week.

Imagine the energy their body must make to produce all this growth in a week!….

Brownstone Quarry, Portland, CT

This place is just a hop, skip and a jump – literally!..

from where we live.. can’t believe we’ve never been before…

What a great place to take the kids for a day of water fun.

Our Quarry Crew 🙂

You can rent the gasebos for the day for a fee..

They have picnic tables and benches on each one.. a floating “home base”

for your group. I love the idea…

wish we had known that before the day was half over.

A tip: Bring your own food.. it’s allowed.. and it’s much healthier and
more affordable!! Cheeseburgers were small and cost $5.75.
to give you an idea.
We went yesterday ( Monday) – not crowded.
I hear the weekends are mobbed.

Who’s gonna jump in first?

In some places the quarry is 100 feet deep!

There are walls to scale…

..and then a big jump if you’re so inclined…

Trampolines and pyramids, slides and walk-on-water balls…

Most exciting of all are the zip lines…..

You start way up there….

These are our three big kids….

And skid into the water…

You can bet these kids are still sleeping this morning.

For information on visiting the park … click HERE

A little history on the quarry itself…

The Portland Brownstone Quarries are a set of historic quarries in Portland, Connecticut. The brownstone mined from these quarries was an important source for construction in the latter half of the 19th century. The stone from these quarries was used in a number of landmark buildings in Chicago, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, New Haven, Connecticut, and Hartford, Connecticut.

Quarrying on this site began in 1690. Commercial quarrying started in 1783 when the Brainerd Quarry Company began operations. During the peak of the brownstone era, more than 1500 workers were employed by the quarries, which shipped stone on their own ships for eight months out of the year.
Proceeds from the quarrying business were deeded to Wesleyan University from 1833 through 1884, and stone from the quarries was used to build many campus buildings. As tastes in buildings shifted, and concrete became the material of choice, the demand for brownstone declined. A flood in 1936 and a hurricane in 1938 flooded the quarries, ending their operations. All efforts to drain the flooded quarries have been unsuccessful; one theory is that the floods opened some underground springs, making it impossible to effectively drain the quarries.
The town purchased the historic quarries and 42 acres (170,000 m2) of adjacent land in 1999 and 2000.
They’ve been leased for development as a recreation center and are currently being operated by Brownstone Exploration & Discovery Park, with the hope that awareness of the historic landmark will strengthen the local economy.