Alan at Yellowstone

“What ever happened to Alan?” some of you who know us may be wondering.  It has been awhile since I’ve focused on him, so this little entry will get everyone updated.

As you know, Alan returned to work his second season at Yellowstone National Park.  While last year was “okay”, it really was just “okay”.  This year, I have been informed by Alan that he is having the time of his life.  A large part of this is due to the fact that he really has the hang of everything now, plus there is a certain status that is afforded the Yellowstone “sophomores” that just isn’t held by their “freshmen”.  On top of everything else, he got a promotion from being a sales clerk at the Old Faithful Inn Gift Shop to someone who does more with inventory, etc., and I am very proud of him!  The only down side of all of this good news is that the first year he was gone I received a LOT of phone calls, but this year I only hear from him now and then.  However, he’s busy working and having fun, and I can’t be too sad about that.  Therefore, I am left with downloading pictures from his Facebook page and telling as much as I know about them.  I had wanted Alan to write a blog (“Alan at Yellowstone”); however, the internet there apparently is mind-numbingly slow, and uploading a picture here and there is all that Alan feels like messing with.  I guess I will do my best to include him on our family blog.  So here goes:

There are quite a few activities for the workers, both company sponsored and non-company sponsored.  I’m not really sure what this picture is about:

I am amazed at how many pictures there are on his FB page with Alan and all kinds of girls!  For a guy who used to be a wallflower, he sure has a lot of girls around him!  Here is one of the few pictures that his mother feels comfortable showing (I think this may be “Toni” – she’s the girl who introduced Alan to camping and she actually chops wood for the Inn at times – what a woman!  Too bad she already has a boyfriend!  I was also intrigued by how much they seem to resemble one another):

Alan has been artistic ever since he was old enough to hold a pencil.  His bosses at the gift shop have called on him regularly to decorate the store windows.  Here is one of the windows from the 4^th of July weekend:

It appears the theme for that week had something to do with the 1970’s because he had several pictures of workers dressed in 70’s garb:

The gift shop itself seems quite cozy and quaint.  (I sure wish I worked there!):

Alan has applied to stay during the winter season, but since the number of available spots is much more limited during the winter, he has not yet heard if he will be staying.  He and a couple of friends have actually discussed getting an apartment together and getting jobs in Bozeman and just staying there.  His mother is waiting anxiously to hear!

Paisley in Wonderland

Yesterday we attended a birthday party for the most beautiful child ever born:  Miss Paisley Grace is turning one!  Her parents put together an absolutely beautiful and thoughtful party.  The theme was “Alice in Wonderland”, and it truly was wondrous!

Although they had a lot of help setting up (Jeromy’s family can move so fast it made me feel like I was standing still at times), Alice’s – I mean Paisley’s – parents did all of the prep work, from concept to execution.  Mandy made scads of paper “pinwheel-flowers” for the tables and a pretty good number of tissue paper pom-pom things.  Mandy and Jeromy also scoured the area thrifts stores, buying them out of mismatched tea cups and saucers for all of the place settings.  The tea cups were filled with little bags of chocolates and became the party favors for the adults.  For the kids there were little headbands with white rabbit ears, crayons, and an “Alice in Wonderland” coloring book.  I loved the photo tree with pictures of our girl taken over the last year.  There were quotes from “Alice in Wonderland” on the tables, and guests were encouraged to wear their craziest hats.  From invitations to decorations, it was all things Wonderland.

Here’s a peek at the décor:

And there was some food, too:

Paisley was dressed in a petti-romper – blue, just like Alice, to be sure!  (Although she looked a little like Miss Kittie from the old western, “Gunsmoke”, if you ask me.  Just sayin’):

She had a great time with her Grump-Pa while waiting for the festivities to begin:

There were lots of gifts to open.  Good thing her Dad was there to help her:

And of course, you must have cake:

I didn’t know how much I could love someone until I had my children.  And I was totally unprepared for how much I would love a grandchild until Miss Paisley Grace came along (that little stink pot!).  And now, I can’t believe it!  My baby has a baby who is turning one year old!

Why it seems just like yesterday that Paisley’s mother was turning one, celebrating with her grandmother and mother:

My, oh my!  How the time does fly!  I’m feeling a little more like the White Rabbit every day!

A Favorite Party Recipe

I attended a birthday party for the most beautiful child ever born today (more about that coming in a future post), and once again I was asked to bring my old standby, the “cheese ball”.  Actually, I have made this thing for all sorts of occasions, and it is so easy it’s almost embarrassing because people like it so much they think I slaved away or something.  I thought I would share my recipe with you.

“Party Time” Cheese Ball!

2 packages of cream cheese

1 8-ounce package of shredded cheddar cheese

1 package of Hidden Valley Ranch dip mix

Chopped pecans

Let the cream cheese sit out and soften for about 15 minutes or so.  Then mix the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and dip mix together (stirring with a fork or spoon until thoroughly mixed).  Form into a ball and then roll the ball in chopped pecans.  Store in a covered container in the refrigerator until ready to serve.  So stinking easy!

Baked Chicken

As everyone in the country knows (except maybe those lucky enough to live in Seattle), it’s been hot!  I must say that when I hear the reporters squawking about it on the news, I find myself thinking, “That’s not a story – that’s just summer in Texas.”

I was hoping this year would be a little milder, but no such luck.  Our yard has certainly suffered.  Even though we have been diligent about watering, everything in our yard has struggled.  Our garden burned up to the point that we just tilled it up:

We are ready to give up summer vegetable gardening altogether and just try our hand at fall gardening.  Hopefully that will work for us.

Suffering even worse than our yard are our poor girls, Opal and Ruby.  I go out to check on them every chance that I get, hoping that I won’t find baked chicken.  At least they’ve been able to move into their new digs.  You may remember the “temporary” shelter that we made for them:

Robert did not build the new “chicken palace” from scratch.  We had a storage shed that had a greenhouse on the back of it that had fallen into disrepair.  He decided to do a three-for-one and fix up the shed and the greenhouse, making it one part storage shed, one part greenhouse, and one part chicken coop.  He replaced half of the clear roofing on the greenhouse with some colored roofing and placed a reflective tarp on the part of the roof that still has light coming through for good measure.  We don’t want them to roast!

The green part is the coop and the cream-and-brown part is a storage shed.  He also has another storage shed that he built (but we can talk about his hoarding tendencies some other time):

He made me a potting bench and placed it just outside the door.  I’ve always wanted a potting bench on which to stack my hoard!

He made a covered run directly behind the coop:

And he made a covered run that runs beside the coop:

Here is a picture taken from just inside the front door:

I was concerned about having too many things (such as cords and miscellaneous junk) that they could get into, and I nagged him a little (okay, a LOT) about it, but Robert reassured me that they would be safe.  Sure enough, so far they have no interest in anything but the floor, their food, their boxes, and their water.

He made a covered compartment in which to store some of his classic car parts:

He also made a little door for them (which can be closed up at night).  This little door allows them to enter the run whenever they wish:

Now, here’s where it really gets interesting.  I have been running a variety of fans in various locations in order to keep our girls from being totally miserable.  Robert (who was an engineer at heart before he ever went to school) decided to make a home-made swamp cooler.  It is made from two 5-gallon buckets, some tubing, plastic mesh, a water circulation pump, and an old blower from our fireplace (which he had hidden among his hoard in Storage Shed #2):

I don’t know how he did it, but this thing actually blows REALLY COOL air.  He put a metal hose on the vent so that we can direct the air to whatever area the girls seem to be hanging out.

He also mounted some kind of exhaust contraption near the top of the coop, designed to carry the really hot air that collects in the top of the coop to the outside:

We do all that we can to keep them from roasting (short of bringing them in the house – my preference).  Still, the girls say that nothing beats strutting and clucking in the yard, eating my blueberry and raspberry bushes:

May you and your feathered and furry friends survive this summer heat!

Faces

I see a squirrel... I see a squirrel... I SEE A SQUIRREL!

Where did it go?

I see you are sitting in the chair...Does that mean you are ready to cuddle?

Lolee...Just how many plants do you need?

Stands, Cans, and a Brand New Plan

I have been working on a food storage plan for a while now (half-heartedly, anyway).  There are many reasons that people undertake a food storage program.  If you are a Latter-Day Saint, then you know that your church leaders have been encouraging and counseling members to do so for many, many years.  Some people get into food storage as protection from economic or natural disaster.  (Sometimes the economic disaster is personal.  Most of the people I know who actually have lived off of their food storage did so after one or more family members lost a job.   All of them have said that not having to worry about feeding the family helped a lot!)  Some people use it as a hedge against inflation.  Some people simply like having a large supply of the basics on hand because for those who do a lot of “home” cooking, it makes it very convenient.  Some of us get into food storage for a combination of the above reasons.

My original approach to food storage was to simply store A LOT of the foods that we use on a regular basis.  I soon accumulated an incredible amount of cans, and keeping them rotated and organized was quite a chore.  This is when I originally became acquainted with a company called “Shelf Reliance”.   They sell a wonderful food rotation system.  I was able to catch them when they were having a sale and order the size and configuration that was perfect for my needs.  It has become my very favorite item in my kitchen (even better than my polka-dot bake ware):

It’s very simple to use; you load the new cans in the top of the row and take cans from the bottom of the row.  That way you are always using the oldest food first, saving you from having tons of stuff expire because it got pushed to the back of the shelf:

The company offers other sizes and configurations, including small, single-row units that will fit on your existing kitchen shelves.  The one I got just happened to be the one that was perfect for all the stuff that I had (plus, it holds around 400 cans!).

For my staples, I frequently went to the LDS cannery near me.  If you want rice, flour, powdered milk, etc., their prices are really good (as long as you don’t mind canning it yourself).   In just a few trips, I was able to add lots of #10 cans to my stash!

I also have been trying to learn to garden – my dream is to someday live in the country and grow a lot of our own food.  We even bought a dehydrator so that we could have the option of dehydrating all of the wonderful things that we would be reaping from our garden.  There’s just one little catch:  I just can’t seem to get the hang of the whole gardening thing.  Granted, each year is a little better than the last, but there is still much to be desired.  (I have chronicled this whole sad affair in my gardening/emergency preparedness/food storage blog called “The Gan-Green Thumb”.   I must say that I read many wonderful blogs with interest and amazement, and I find so much inspiration there.  For example, just the other day I was so very impressed (and just a tad envious) when I read about the harvest of blue berries that the maven from “Bee Haven Acres” enjoyed from her 100(!) bushes (to see for yourself, click here).

To make matters worse, in addition to my poor gardening skills, we live in the city, on a typical city lot…eighty-percent of which is totally shaded by two huge oak trees in the front and two huge oak trees in the back. Even though I am not going to give up on gardening (I will conquer!), I know that if we are going to live off of what we grow any time soon, I think we will be pretty hungry.  Therefore, I recently decided to really get with the food storage program.  After taking inventory, I found myself thinking, “I sure hope we like beans and rice and apple chips”.  Yep.  Variety was not abundant in that pantry.  Well, if I can’t grow it and the LDS cannery doesn’t have it, I was just going to have to find another source to get a better variety of food into my storage program.

I will tell you that there are other companies that offer food storage products, but I remembered the “Shelf Reliance” company and decided to check them out.  To supplement the items that I already had, they feature a whole line of freeze-dried fruits, berries, vegetables, dairy, and other products.  Did you know that there is such a thing as powdered eggs and powdered sour cream?  Yep, there is!  You can also buy a #10 can of the powdered cheese that is similar to that found in macaroni-and-cheese dinners (although a lot of people like to sprinkle it on their popcorn for some cheesy goodness).  One unique feature of “Shelf Reliance” is that if you buy at one of their home parties (or through an independent consultant), you are able to not only purchase the #10 can size, but you may also buy a size called the “pantry can”.  About three pantry cans fill a #10 can and it is perfect for smaller families or those with limited space, or to use as a “try me” size for an item with which you are unfamiliar or unsure.

Even more exciting for me was the Shelf Reliance automatic home delivery plan called the “Q”.  There is a feature on their website that will help you figure out how much food storage you need for your family based on the number of adults and children, plus their desired daily caloric intake.  Or, if you know what you want, you can go through yourself and make a list of items that you want in your food storage plan.  It will then ask you for a dollar amount that you want to set as your monthly budget, and using that budget, it will pull from the items that you have listed in your plan and set up automatic monthly shipments.  It is my own understanding about the following points:   The minimum dollar amount for your budget has to be enough to cover whatever is the most expensive item on your plan.  Another thing that you really have to consider is that once you commit to set up a plan, you are committed for at least three months.  After that, you are free to suspend shipments or leave the plan.  Also, once you commit to a monthly budget/dollar amount, you are not able to change the amount during the first 3-month trial period (although after that, it can be adjusted).  However, you are free to adjust which products you want with each shipment if you do not like the order of items the plan has set up for you.  Once you are set up on the plan, you will receive a shipment automatically each month.

Therefore, this is something to not commit to lightly, but I was ready!  I was so tired of saying each month, “I really need to order some butter powder and vegetables or something this month,” only to have the end of the month sneak up on me with no food storage ordered.  This plan was made for me!  I will always budget for something for which I am committed, and sometimes I just need a little kick in the tail to get me going.  I am so excited to have a plan and actually be working each month toward my goal!

In fact, I am so taken with this food storage program and the “Thrive” line of food products that I just signed up as an independent consultant.  If you would like to learn more about Shelf Reliance, you can visit my personal website (click here).  Also, I love teaching others about food storage and emergency preparedness, so if you are interested but not sure where to start, feel free to contact me with any questions you may have!

Have a wonderful week!

Lori

Oh, So Temp-ting! (More Silly Little Things)

As I have stated before, I have the ability to become excited over things that others might consider small or even silly.  The latest installment in my “silly little things” saga is actually due to a quality that I inherited from my mother.  My mother’s family was quite poor when she was growing up, so poor in fact that for much of her childhood they did not have a set of dishes that matched.  Her mother’s dinnerware was a hodgepodge of various dishes, and they used Mason jars as drinking glasses (although I purposefully have used Mason jars as drinking glasses – I think stuff tastes great from them!).  My mother swears that these early childhood experiences are what have fueled her incredible obsession and LOVE of dishes.  And when I say that she loves dishes, I mean that we would have 75 different sets if our kitchen was just large enough to hold them all.

I’ve heard that as a woman gets older she often turns into her mother.  Yep.  That would be right.  I, too, love dishes;  they don’t even have to cost very much.  Through the years a dish or set of dishes from Wal-Mart or Dollar General have thrilled me to my toes.  And so, I proudly present my latest treasure:

Most of the items in this display are from a line of ceramic bake ware called “Temp-tations” that is designed by a woman named Tara and is offered exclusively on QVC.  I love them because you can bake in them (up to 500°), and they are dishwasher and microwave safe.  Most of the pieces come with wire baskets and glass trivets making them so cute that you can serve right from the baking dish (although some sets come with extra serving bowls).  They also come with snap-on plastic lids, and even though they don’t give the perfect seal that you get with some plastic storage stuff, it has done an adequate job for me when it comes to stacking and storing left-overs in the refrigerator.

My original set was in a pattern called “Old World” in the color choice called “Confetti”.  Here is a serving bowl to give you an idea of what that looks like:

I like the “confetti” color because it incorporates most of the colors available in the Temp-tations line, including lilac.  I have never seen a kitchen done in lilac before, but the more I think about it, I bet that would be really pretty!

Well, it just so happened that I was watching a presentation on QVC one day when Tara showed a set in a pattern called “Floral Embroidery”:

Apparently, it was one of the very first patterns in the line and had been discontinued for quite some time.  Due to customer request, she was bringing this pattern back in this one set for a one-time offer.  “That’s really cute,” I thought.  Mom agreed and so I ordered it.

When it arrived and we first saw it, Mom and I squealed like pigs.  It is so cute!  It's even cuter than the picture because there are flowers on the inside that are raised/embossed.

Somewhere along the way I remembered that Tara had shown just how great this set looks with her polka-dot dinner ware.  Curses!  Now I was going to need that dinner ware!

The dinner ware is sold in sets of service for 4, and since I needed enough dishes for 12, I ordered one set in yellow, one in red, and one in green, all with white polka-dots.  I still smile every time I open the cabinet and see them all stacked there:

I especially liked the yellow set, so much so that I just KNEW that I needed to order the square bake ware in the yellow with white dots.  When I got that set, it was SO bright and SO cheerful that I needed something else.  I was over the moon when the little canister set arrived:

Adorable!  Still, there was something missing.  Oh, I know:

The tail feathers in this little chicken are no ordinary feathers – those are measuring spoons.  How stinking cute is that?!

So now you know my dark, awful secret:  The sight of floral and polka-dot bake ware can turn me into a giggling school girl, as I continue to find joy in silly little things!  Like a moth to the flame I return to QVC for more stuff for the kitchen!  (Dear Tara:  I haven't decided if I really love you or hate your guts for sucking me in to your Temp-tations web!)

If you would like to see this cute bake ware, I feel that it is my responsibility to warn you that one set is not enough.  It is very easy to go from being someone who simply bakes with ceramic bake ware to someone who collects ceramic bake ware (the path to the dark side is short, indeed!).  However, if your restraint is greater than mine, you may examine it at your own risk:  If you wish to enter into "Temp-tation", click here.