Well the site is down for a rebuilding and it's seems I'm the only one that's smart enough to do it.
patsporch.com will soon be up with a focus on gardening and woodworking in the near future.
In the meantime, take a look at some of the videos I shot out at the farm.
Squeaky
10.11.08
10.26.08 (Sunday pm)
Supper time.
Comfort food tonight, hash.
I've always used an electric frying pan to make this.
Start with a couple of tablespoons of oil or lard.
A handful of chopped onions. (one medium onion...more is better)
Cook the onion for a bit, till transparent.
Toss in a couple of cups of chopped beef or chicken or what ever is still laying around in the fridge.
Fry until the meat starts to brown a bit.
Remove meat and onion to separate bowl retaining leftover oil in pan.
Toss in another tablespoon of oil and turn up the heat to 400 degrees.
Now as to the potatoes. Judgment call as to how much. At least a cup more than the cooked meat.
Easy way...use the frozen bag stuff at the store.
Hard way...peel the tatters, chopped, rinsed and drained. Toss them in the freezer for about 30 minutes before cooking.
Fry the chopped tatters till light brown. This will require several turnings.
Spread the meat/onion mix back on top the the tatters.
Let the meat heat up until the leftover oil is released into the tatters.
Stir and continue to cook till golden brown.
Salt and pepper to taste.
A simple comfort food on a cold, wet windy day. Enjoy life!
10.26.08 (Sunday am)
Our first snow of the season!
Luckily I got the lawn cut very short to discourage the voles that just tear the hell out of the yard and a very heavy feeding of fertilizer for the grass. Winter feeding of the grass is the most important feeding.
This year I didn't water the grass at all. It just seemed like such a waste of time and money. Water, cut it short, water etc.
Once you start watering you train the grass to have a shallow root system.
I still have Brussel Sprouts growing in the veg garden. I'm looking forward to them come Mid-November or so.
On the woodworking front...
Adirondack chair number two is almost done. These two will be for the kids.
Over this winter I intend to make quite a few more, along with a few love seats, side tables and footstools that match.
These will be sold at a local farmer's market.
Things are good here today on the porch. A little cleaning and maybe a little cooking later.
And yes we're ok...thanks for asking. Just doing the stuff that we like to do.
pat
10.25.08
Life just keeps going on...
It just does doesn't it?
Simple things. A clean garage, a good supper. The rain. All good things.
The major things, someone setting a date to get married, Mom in law cleaning out her house and all the stuff and yes that's a major thing.
But let's talk about eyes for a second and how important it is to have your kid's eyes checked.
When Chris, my son was born with an underdeveloped optic nerve in his left eye.
The problem might have been corrected if we caught it soon enough (before five) but we didn't.
Chris would cheat on all the eye tests, the pre-school screening things.
And ya, he's ok with it. He grew up not knowing better.
Mom in law gave me some lighthouse stuff, mostly kitsch.
Cept for one three foot print of a lighthouse off of lake Michigan. A very nice framed print.
That one, I gave to Chris.
It's the little things that count, ya know.
10.24.08
Polls??
Go here...
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/
You are going to vote right?
10.15.08
So ya....
What if....
Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin, what if things were switched around?.....think about it.
Would the country's collective point of view be different?
Ponder the following:
What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?
What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?
What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?
What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe disfiguring car accident, when she no longer measured up to his standards?
What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?
What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?
What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five?
(The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)
What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?
What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter?
What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes? And was never given a command position.
What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?
What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?
What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?
You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?
This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.
Educational Background:
Barack Obama:
Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude
Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)
vs.
John McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899
Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism
Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world. You make the call.