Perseverance – Finlay
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09, 2021
30
08, 2021
Poached eggs and Pliers
Poached eggs are a frequent treat for breakfast around here.
We could go to a nearby Mickey D’s and buy one, but homemade is so much tastier. I use only half of the English muffin and no cheese so homemade also has fewer calories.
My egg poaching pan is ancient. A wedding gift almost sixty years ago. It’s lightweight aluminum which means it heats quickly and stays hot.
I’ve never understood why the pan has three egg cups. Seems to me, four would make more sense. There are larger pans and smaller ones, but three egg cups work well for us. Two eggs for hubby-dear and one for me.
Besides my egg poacher pan, I also need pliers when I prepare our breakfast.
You see, steam from the boiling water that cooks the eggs to perfection burns my hand and the egg cups get very hot. That little tab you grip to lift the egg cups out is too small to grip barehanded.
A potholder is too large. The egg cup frequently slips from my hand and goes splat on the plate. Not a pretty presentation.
The solution, for me, is to use pliers to lift the egg cup. I can grip securely, slid the egg out, and have a picture-perfect serving.
I do get strange looks whenever anyone watches me use the pliers. Once I explain why most people admit it makes sense.
Okay, not everyone. Some still think poached eggs and pliers are a weird combination. But it works for me.
27
08, 2021
Why teach music?
Chicken Wrangler Sara is on a brief hiatus from Friday blogging. She’s waving, but I’m posting for her. =)
As a former teacher I know, the first six weeks of school are so busy and so chaotic. New schedules, new students, and often new curriculum to figure out. Hardly time to breathe.
Miller farm is also busy (as always) then there’s her piano teaching to organize for the new year and that new grandbaby to love on.
Lots to juggle. She’s sharing a poster that helps us understand why she teaches music. It also explains why we wouldn’t want her to stop.
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08, 2021
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08, 2021
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08, 2021
My Potting Bench Helper
Recently someone offered to let me dig seedlings from their white althea or what my daddy called Rose of Sharon.
The one in my yard is purple .
A white flower would complement it and the pink Confederate roses nicely.
I gathered my bucket and shovel and off I went. When I got home, I immediately potted the seedlings.
This fellow appeared to help me.
He’d been hiding under the potting soil bag and hopped to the wall.
I wasn’t surprised. We have a pond and often see—and hear the croaking. They serenade us nightly. Loudly.
Only those on the back porch and around the flower beds are brown. We call them toads. This was the first bright green I’d seen.
So, was this fellow a young toad yet to turn brown or a green frog?
That question led to a Goggle rabbit hole that consumed an hour. I learned more stuff about toads vs frogs than I will ever need to know.
I’ll save you some time. Here’s a chart explaining the difference.
Upon close examination, I’ve decided my potting helper was a frog. Do you agree?
13
08, 2021
Good Start
A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara.
Teachers went back to work this week. We always have training before the students start. Most teachers resent having to spend their valuable time sitting through training when they would rather be setting up their classrooms.
As a music teacher, the trainings are often irrelevant, and I struggle to find a use for the information. This year the first day was a 6-hour workshop on classroom management – an area I can always improve. I was more excited than usual to start back to work.
Before the training, we were each handed a big tote bag full of stuff. I glanced through it and settled in at the computer for the training.
Partway through the morning, we were instructed to take out a small lunch bag from the larger tote. Within that lunch bag was a harmonica!
I was thrilled!
This particular classroom management strategy uses a harmonica to get students’ attention. The presenter gave all the scientific reasons behind the strategy, but I didn’t pay attention.
I was too distracted by the fact that every teacher was now going to have a harmonica. I was also busy playing the beginning of Piano Man – a song I have been working on with one of my piano students.
This is a very good start to 2021-22!
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08, 2021
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08, 2021
Changing our View
Our back porch is a great place to sit and relax. You can watch the water tumble down the rock waterfall then gurgle along the little creek path to the pond.
COVID and its stay-at-home mandate had us using our porch more. We sit and sip tea or coffee in the mornings or have iced tea in the evenings.
Our view was always the same.
Beyond the creek/pond, we watched the birds feed at the birdfeeders in the middle of the yard, and Finn chase the squirrels. He never gives up.
At the back is a high hedge at the fence. Only the neighbor’s roof is visible. To the left, there’s the canna bed with a birdbath, and to the right a peach tree. No peaches, though. The squirrels and birds eat them before they can ever mature.
Recently, our porch furniture changed, and I discovered different views and things that had always been there but never really seen.
My sister gave us her big wicker porch rocker when she moved out of state to be near her granddaughters. It’s large and had to be angled to fit between the porch supports.
Sitting in it, I see the vintage screen door propped against the fence. I think of all the screen doors in houses where I lived and hear the slam. The new view also lets us watch the dogwood tree blossom.
She also gave us the matching wicker porch swing.
It now hangs at the other end of the porch directly in front of the waterfall. The water up close splatters as it tumbles over the stones.
We can read the garden plaques. One says, “Grow old with me the best is yet to be,” the Browning quote. The other is the Irish road blessing, “May the road rise to meet you…” You know the one.
Finn and I love that swing.
My sister’s gifts made me realize how a simple change of position lets us see things that have been there all along. We never take the time to look.
I think I’m going to change where I sit at meals and at church from now on. I’m sure I’ll notice things my eyes never focused on before.
6
08, 2021
Animal Phases
A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara
When I was growing up, we had cats. There was Snowball who gave birth to Cinnamon who gave birth to Otnot. Otnot is Tonto spelled backward. She was also named because we “ought not” to have kept her.
I remember one of the cats having her kittens in the vacant lot next door. Then there were several nights of feeding kittens with an eyedropper so they would not succumb to distemper.
When I was in high school, my family moved to Texas, and we became exclusively dog people.
Fast forward many years to a new generation and my husband and I have had a veritable zoo at our house. We started with one dog as promised to our three children. That became two dogs when a puppy needed a home.
Then Rachel’s teacher gave her a guinea pig. That became a herd of guinea pigs that numbered close to thirty.
We then adopted my niece’s leopard gecko which quickly became a breeding colony complete with an incubator in the closet. During the reptile period, we also had a bearded dragon and several snakes. This required a steady supply of mice.
Somewhere in there, we started collecting dachshunds with six being the maximum.
After selling the leopard gecko setup, we began our current chicken phase which has included turkeys and ducks.
The
next generation – our daughter and son-in-law, have two cats. When I stayed with them last week, Minnie adopted me.
She sat on my lap while I was working.
Then she climbed into the box I brought.
She might have thought I would bring her home.
However, the “cat phase” of my family ended many years ago. We’ve moved on to chickens, ducks, and dogs.
I don’t think a cat would fit.