February 12, 2012




Melting snow Down There



Rimed wild flower stalks

 















It seems that some readers are logging on just in case I actually post a photo of a cougar, isn't that right Aunt Nene and Sandy?!!  Well, we're doing all we can to get one, short of putting out a side of beef by the game cam.  JB has seen more cat tracks in the snow on the road by our spring and up the driveway.  We'll see if we actually captured one with the camera when we check the game cam today.  Tune in Monday for the results.

I baked peanut butter/chocolate chip cookies on Friday from one of my Mom's recipes, and I think I have figured out the GF flour ratio to make them just perfect.  As if they were made with wheat flour.  The recipe called for 2-1/4 cups of flour, so I used 1-1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill All Purpose GF Baking Flour and 1 cup brown rice flour with 1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum.  Bob's Red Mill flour calls for 1/4 tsp. xanthum gum per 1 cup of flour in cookie recipes.  Will just have to keep baking different kinds of cookies to be sure I have it right.  Yes, I admit it - I am a sugar addict.  Could be worse.

Saturday the fog/low clouds finally cleared and we had scattered clouds and sunshine.  This morning there is a clear blue sky.  The temperature Down There for the past few days has been in the high 30's and low 40's so, as you can see by the photo above, their snow is all melted.  We, on the other had, received an inch of snow on both Friday and Saturday.  We usually get snow Up Here in the Spring while they are getting rain.  One of our three neighbors in the canyon who has lived here the longest (17 years) has never received snow in March until last year, but we have had it March and April all three Springs we have been here.

I think I mentioned a while back that I was looking for a shampoo that would help my hair seem thicker, as I have very fine hair that is thinning with age.  Around Labor Day I purchased some Nioxin shampoo and rinse.  It definitely made a difference.  Nothing dramatic, but enough for me to detect.  However, I know it is all chemicals and finally confirmed that a few weeks ago when I got up the nerve to look at the ingredients.  Absolutely nothing natural, except water.  I bit the bullet and went back to using Dr. Bronner's castile soap for shampoo.  It is all natural, but doesn't help my hair feel any thicker.  I remembered something about adding baking soda to shampoo and looked at the list of uses on the package.  They suggest putting one teaspoon of soda in your shampoo once a week.  I did, and it worked, getting rid of the fly-away fineness and giving it some body.  I have never been disappointed with any of their suggestions.

A week ago Friday we finally watched "Inglorious Basterds".  I am never quite prepared for Quentin Tarantino films and this was no exception.  But as a WWII fantasy it was very entertaining.  If only. . .   My Mother's Father was a Jew, born and raised in Czechoslovakia.  He had a brother and two sisters, and his sisters and their families lived in Vienna.  My Mother was born there while her parents were visiting them, but she never spoke about them except for that visit.  I only discovered after she had passed away and I was reading some old family letters, that both sisters, their husbands and children were victims of the Holocaust.  I have no idea if his parents were still alive at that time or not.

This Friday we finally finished a project that we have successfully been putting off more more than a month now.  We put the last piece of wallboard up in the bathroom, re-arranged the stacked washer and dryer a bit, and hung up the mops and brooms.  Looks much better.  Now anytime Elsie wants to help me tape and mud is fine with me.  Unfortunately they are going to Mexico for a couple weeks in March, so that project my have to wait til April.  Not like we're in any hurry, since it's been this way for 3-1/2 years. . .

Thought for the day:  The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.  Thomas Jefferson