Still recovering!

It's been a week since we returned from Ireland and we are still recovering.  It took us between three and four days on each end of the trip to get to feeling normal again.  That's longer than when we were younger but acceptable I guess. 

We got home to some nice cool weather; about the same as in Ireland as a matter of fact!  Then twice last week it actually rained.  Yep, we get rain here once in a while.  The rain was much harder than any we experienced in Ireland!  There we had light misty rain; this was a regular thunderstorm complete with lightning.  Happily it didn't cause any mud slides. 

I've been going through some of the approximately 600 photos we took during our three week trip.  That's not as bad as the number we took when visiting China last year but it's still daunting.  Our trip started and ended in Dublin.  We wanted to see as much coastline as we could so we traveled in a clockwise direction around to Galway where we drove across the country to return to Dublin.  Originally we wanted to continue up to Northern Ireland but we just ran out of time.  Here is a map roughly showing our route in blue with towns where we stayed underlined in yellow.  A couple of the towns were way too small to be on the map so I just left a yellow line there to indicate the approximate position of the town.

I'm going to add photos is pretty much a random order; there are just so many!  After landing at Dublin airport north of town we took the ring road around town and headed south for Wicklow.  Why there?  No reason; it was just the first largish town in the direction we wanted to go.  We needed to find a place for the night before falling asleep in the car.  Then next day was when we first saw the coastline we'd been looking for.  It was kind of cool and rainy but not bad.

There are a few photos that I'll toss in that typify Ireland for us.  Here is one showing the lovely green countryside and the nearness of the sea.

I don't often think of the ties that bind our two countries but they are certainly there.  We stopped at a hotel/pub/restaurant in the town of Kinsale ssouth of Cork on the seacoast.  As we were leaving I noticed this memorial they created for firefighters lost on 9-11.  There must be some local tie but I found it rather touching to find this in just an ordinary hotel.

I'll end with something traditional:  kissing the Blarney Stone.  We both had to do it.  It was way up in this old tower.  I didn't like those steps and they didn't like me but I got up them anyway.  So now I'm an official silver-tongued devil.

The guy is there to be sure no fat Americans get stuck in the hole!  As my wife says it sure would have been easier to do this when I was 45 rather than 65.  I'll be sharing more photos as I get them resized.  Take care.

Howdy!

Yep, we've been off having fun again.  This time it was visiting Ireland. 

My wife and I both have relatives who left Ireland for the  U.S.  We thought we might get to check up on them but it just didn't happen.  It's along story but basically we just ran out of time.  Here's the 5 cent version of what DID happen. 

We left Las Vegas on March 31 and landed in Dublin on April 1; yep, April Fool's Day.  Happily no one pulled much of a prank on us so we started our journey.  We were going clockwise around the island so headed south to Wicklow.  We had a couple ideas about the trip.  First, it's been 15 years since we visited Europe so we wanted an easy entry into the different cultures we might find.  Ireland is somewhat unique but at least the people mostly understand English as we American's speak it!  We also wanted to slow down our rate of travel.  We thought that limiting ourselves to an island 300 miles long would do the trick.  Well, things don't always work out the way you'd like!

The last 15 years have brought about a lot of changes; like now you have wifi on the bus whereas 15 years ago it was cutting edge technology.  Cell phones have become almost a part of us; not having one makes you one of the invisible people.  Almost every hotel asked for our cell phone number in case they needed to contact us.  Uhh, where did they think we were staying?  But, of course, we weren't always in the room!  Hmmm, guess I'm just out of touch.  Also I can't be contacted!  It was an odd feeling and I must admit rather uncomfortable a lot of the time.

Of course driving on the left has it's own set of problems.  The manual shift wasn't one of them though I have never had a six speed to shift before.  It worked just great.  The first car did have a minor problem:  use the passenger side window and you can never get it back up!  Well, at least the AA (Automobile Assn.) guy could help me get it up!  The rental place, Enterprise, traded in our small car for a much larger one but at least this one worked. 

My wife's screams were probably heard the length and breadth of the country; apparently I got kind of close to things on the left hand side of the car.  Didn't hit anything though and I have the rental receipt to prove it!  The roads varied from absolutely fantastic motorways (M4 and M6) to tiny little roads barely wide enough for our car.  We did have to back up a couple of times and other's backed up for us a couple of times.  There were also many one lane bridges where someone waited for the other.  Interesting stuff.  We left Ireland on the 21st; on a very long flight to JFK then to Vegas.  I'm tired just writing about it!

I'll post a few photos in a few days.  Right now I'm just trying to catch up on my sleep and not do it while driving around in town.  Take care!

Life goes on

We were actually quite prepared for losing the cat.  He was old, not a world's record, but old enough and was remarkably thin.  He was clearly slowing down too sleeping more and more.  So it was his time.  We can all only hope to go so gracefully.

I did manage to find a pork butt to smoke.  No, I'm still way too slow to remember to take photos so you'll have to take my word for it that it was quite good.  The butt is actually the front shoulder of the pig (as if that mattered).  The one I had was sold in a saline solution, 4% if I recall, so I didn't think brining would do much for it.  I simply made up a rub of salt, various peppers, onion and garlic powder and tossed it into the smoker.  Smoked it for about three hours then wrapped it up and gave it another four hours in the oven.  It turned out really good.  Next time I'll try a more sophisticated rub but otherwise leave well enough alone.

We are dreaming up another trip but I'll leave that until later.  Sorry about the short post but life intrudes even upon the internet.  Have a good one.

RIP Scotchie

We took our cat to the vet yesterday for a check and she agreed with us that he was ready to leave this world.  So, of course, we helped him on his way.  The vet has a room especially for people to spend some last moments with their pets.  We were shocked but it was actually quite a nice experience - much better than some sterile exam room.  We came home and had a bit of a wake with both alcohol and tears.  Today we are entering into the next phase:  seeing all the places we used to see him but without him.  We are thinking that he may be our last cat.  We love travel and want to spend more time overseas and you sure can't take your animals with you.  Well, not easily!  One last cat photo and that's over; it's his Christmas photo from a couple years ago.  You can see from his look how happy he wasn't!  Now we have no more cat to make fun of.

My wife's folks are in their 80's and just aren't up for travel any more.  That's embarrassingly close to my own age these days so we want to travel NOW!  We have a trip planned to visit Ireland soon.  Even though we both have Irish roots, we've never been there.  In the summer we hope to spend some time in Alaska.  We visited Anchorage once something over twenty years ago but this time we'd like to check out more of our largest state.  It's just one of those places you have to see.

Anyway, today is going to be quiet even by our standards.  Things will start improving but for the next couple of days we are going to be a bit down.  We are planning a big trip to the shelter later today to donate lots of food, litter, toys, etc.   

Hope you have a good one!

A few interesting things

Life isn't really in high gear but we do have some interesting things going on here in the boonies.  First an update on our cacti; the new parts are coming along nicely (I can't figure out if they should be called leaves or what!).

At any rate we are glad to see them growing.  When you only have two plants in your life any advance by either is great and happily both ours are doing well.  Here's the staghorn.

We did just observe St. Patrick's Day in our own quiet way, no green beer or drunken parties required!  However we did have a lovely dinner of corned beef, new potatoes and cabbage (two ways).

We found this recipe for a 'sauce' for the potatoes and cabbage so tried it.  It consisted of butter, horseradish and mustard and was about a thrid of the way to a success.  It basically melted off the potatoes leaving them pretty much unchanged.  It did sink into the quarters of cabbage (at 10 o'clock in the photo) and pretty much obscured the flavor of the cabbage.  So if you want to eat cabbage but don't like the flavor; it's made for you.  My wife likes a lightly sauted cabbage (1 o'clock) but not 'well done' so she got the one and  I got both.  My wife did a potato bread that was pretty different.  The recipe called for a mashed potato and a raw one that was grated.  It is both dense and fragile.  Anyway, it was pretty darned good!  Pretty too.

On a sadder note, our cat who would be 20 this summer is not doing well.  He hasn't eaten since last Tuesday and is drinking far less than usual.  Here he is just a couple of weeks ago trying to lick up an ice cube that fell from the ice maker.

He's a skinny little guy who has been running about 7 lb for the past couple of years.  It's not like he can hibernate so I'm thinking he isn't long for this world.  If I give him a 'treat' he'll eat it but the regular kibble just sits there in the bowl.  He's getting weaker every day so the end has to be near.  Since my wife and I both believe in euthanasia for people, it's safe to say that we'll be saying 'goodbye' to our kitty before long.  RIP Scotchie!  And yes, we will undoubtedly hold a wake for the little guy.

Off to do exciting things. 

Not bragging but....

Sorry Boston but I've gotta say our average temperture for this time of year is about 65F (18C).  This year we are about 75F (23C) today and the forecasters are talking 80F (26C) by the weekend.  I've got to admit though that it's not real pretty around here.  The mountains are nice.

That photo was take March 2 from our front yard.  We are at 2,600 ft. (790m) elevation so I imagine the snow level is down to 4,000 ft (1220m) or so.  Sorry I don't remember the temp. that day.  The camera captures a lot of information but not that.  Not yet! 

Has anyone checked out the new cameras with GPS built in?  It might be cool for a professional photographer but as a private citizen I'm not so sure I want that information available on my photos.  Say you post it on a blog like this; you would be giving the location of your home to anyone interested.  So if you are blogging from San Diego all a person would have to do is look at an older photo of your home to have the address of your empty home.  Nah, I'm going to skip the GPS attachment.

The weather has been so nice our cactus have decided it's spring so it's time to bud.  We don't have any other plants in our yard but the neighbor's trees are budding out too.  Here's the staghorn buds.  It's the small red mass in between the spikes!

Our other cactus has had a dry winter too but when it is stressed by the cold and drought, it turns red or purple.  Now that it's spring I'll start watering it regularly and it will return to green.  Here the buds are the little round guys in the lower third of the photo.

To get off the weather for a moment let me show you my latest adventure with the smoker:  pork ribs!

I finally found some decent advice on smoking them and they actually turned out quite well.  I made up a rub that was basically salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder then smoked them for two hours.  After that I read that I should wrap them in foil and cook for another two hours.  I figured that they sure weren't going to get any more smoke through that foil so brought them in to finish in the oven.  The final step was to just cook them for another hour but not in the foil.  In the last half hour I did baste them with just a bit of bbq sauce.  They were really pretty good.  The first time I skipped the foil and just let them ride in the smoker.  They got dry and tough so foil is my new friend!  There is a pork butt in the fridge.  I'm trying to figure out what to do with it.  Hopefully I'll take a photo or two of whatever becomes of it.

That's the quiet life for now.  We didn't go out to lunch yesterday so I'm thinking my wife will have plans.  Take care!

Home again...

We decided that since with had the trailer out we'd head out on a road trip.  Not a very long one, just over to San Diego to see Number One Son, Significant Other and the sights.  It was a good week.  Long enough to see stuff; short enough to still be happy in the trailer when we got back. 

What do you think the odds are that in a place where we get maybe 2" of rain a year that it would be raining when we hooked up?  Small odds for sure.  Now what are the odds that it would be raining when we unhooked a week later?  Tiny, right?  But that's what happened.  Rain around here is usually like mist in other places but we had it going on both when we hooked up on the 22nd and when we unhooked on the 1st of March.  Not only that it was really raining (by anyone's measure) when we hooked up to leave San Diego.  Jeez! 

The trip down was pretty uneventful except there was some kind of traffic slowdown on Cajon Pass so rather than worrying about keeping everything down to a reasonable speed we got to worry about getting to the park before they closed.  The GPS estimated our arrival at 15:30 when we set out but we actually made it to the part at 16:55; only 5 minutes before the office closes.  Doing 6-7 mph for the entire length of the pass makes quite a difference!  The uphill side was going fine; it was just the downhill side that had the problem.  We called the California DOT hotline but they didn't know of any problem and we didn't see one.  Who knows; it's just California traffic.  

We got one of our usual spots overlooking Mission Bay. 

It's expensive but we get that water fix whenever we look out the window.  Water, boats, ducks; what's not to like?

We managed to hit Pacific Beach a couple times.  It's fun walking along doing people watching.  We saw this one guy who was shirtless; he must kiss the mirror every time he looks in one.  Then there was the woman who had some obvious help in the bra department who also thought that 5 lb. of makeup was appropriate for the beach.  Wow, some poeple.  Happily they were the minority!  We also went to IKEA.  I know it's not to everyones taste but I like seeing different things and IKEA has it's own style.  I believe they are planning a store in Las Vegas but that's down the pike a ways.  One of the most fun things was going to the Poway Farmer's Market (son lives around there).  It was fun looking at all the stuff and we got a couple little items.  The stalls were really into organic almost anything.

Trip home was pretty much like the trip going except we were spared the slowdown.  Instead we got rain most of the way!  The forecast was for wind and snow above 4,000 feet so I was happy enough with the rain.  We got here to find an entire weeks newspapers thrown in our yard.  The delivery person apparently doesn't read the 'hold' notices.  Needless to say we aren't impressed.  The paper is my wife's thing so she is trying to figure out if she wants to cancel the subscription or if they can manage to convince her to keep them on.  We'll see.

Now that we are home; I can BBQ again so I'm off to the store looking for a likely subject.  Maybe I'll even remember to take a photo.  Thanks for stopping by.

Excitement - over stupidity!

Ok, so my wife and I decided we should get our under-used trailer out of it's parking spot and do a little cleanup on it.  How tough could it be aside from the obvious washing, waxing, etc.?  So we back the big bad F-250 up to it and....  Hmmm,. can't get the tow ball under the trailer hitch!  Hmmmm.  I do remember when parking the trailer that I thought there wasn't much extra that I could raise the hitch.  How the hell do we raise the trailer hitch?  I've got to admit it took us any embarrassingly long time to figure out we needed to dig a couple holes to let the truck wheels down thus lowering the ball rather than raising the hitch. 

ANYWAY, 15 minutes with a pick axe (even the ground is tough out here) and a couple shovels allowed the hitch ball to dive under the hitch and away we could go!  Apparently during the time without the trailer the truck's rear suspension found another half inch or so of height.  Interesting!  So now we have the rig out and are cleaning away.  Not sure yet if we'll go anywhere; My wife isn't happy with the slideout; she is afraid it has gotten crooked in the frame somehow.  Maybe we'll just tow it over to Las Vegas and get the dealer's opinion. 

In my spare time I decided to make hummus.  No photos, sorry.  The recipes aren't tough.  The one I decided to follow included a can of chickpeas (garbonzo beans), tahini, yoghurt, garlic, EVOO, lemon juice, salt and pepper and a jalapeno.  They carefully recommend removing seeds and membrane from the jalapeno first. Then you basically beat everything up in the food processor and there you are.  Well, the jalapeno's we've been getting aren't very spicy so I not only don't remove the membrane, I add a second, quite small, jalapeno.  The first problem was that the food processor would just throw everything off to the side of the container without even mixing it.  Grrr!  Finally I pulled it all out and fed it into the processor a spoonful at a time.  Pain in the ass but it got the stuff to a reasonable consistancy.  Hmmm, I've got to admit, my inner Mexican (I'm from Iowa, German and Scotch-Irish parents, so he's not a big influence) failed me.  Damn, that's hot stuff!  Well, not to some people, but a little goes a long way for me.  Should have doubled up the garlic instead; can't be far enough from the vampires! 

We did have a little rain a couple weeks ago; just enough to wake the weeds really.  So we have to go kill weeds.  We have a fairly large yard and it's all covered with just rock so when the weeds grow they have plenty of room.  So my wife and I load up sprayers with Roundup and go to it.   We get tired spraying after a while so it takes us several days and took 18 gallons (68L) of spray!  We buy the concentrate whereever we can find it (Walmart or Home Depot) and it runs about a $1 a gallon of spray in the really large size and I've got a few more years worth besides.  I'm hoping most of our lawn mainenance is done for the year. 

Otherwise, not much to report.  It's been a REALLY mild winter.  Back in December the bird bath was freezing; not much since then.  The last half of January and most of February have been about 10 degrees (F) above normal.  For example, that means today was 74F (23C),  Not tough to take!  We had our daughter over for lunch last weekend and ate outside; had a hard time not just laying out there all afternoon.  Sorry Boston but there it is.  We'd sure love some of that snow melt though!

I am not dead

Stealing the title of my post from Croft is just one of the things that's kind of lame about these days.  It's being a nice quiet winter with a few bumps in the road.

Like lots of people my wife and I caught the bug that is going around though it was pretty mild for us.   My version included going through about a box of Kleenex a day for a week.  My wife's version was more about coughing her poor head off.  We spent quite a bit of time hiding at home and preparing comfort food for each other.  There are a couple other physical problems we are dealing with but this isn't that kind of blog.  Life in the fast lane!

We did manage to find some salmon that we smoked.  It's not the same as the wild caught Pacific salmon we used to get in the Pacific Northwest but it was pretty good.  This is farm raised Atlantic salmon; it's got more fat but I guess is easier to raise.  We took a filet that was about a pound and a half (.5 kg) and cut it into sections that were about the same thickness.  Then we marinated it for about three hours then smoked it for about five.  Pretty good stuff.

We also had time to do more bird watching.  We bought a new hummingbird feeder; the first one we've ever had that has a perch for the birds.  Amazingly the hummers are happy to sit down while eating.  I never knew!  Anyway now we are sold on perchs for the hummers.  We had a group of six at one point but I was slow; only got three in this photo.  Still, it's a new high for us.

Every now and then I have to get a photo of the mountains around here.  They really make the place special even if I am too lazy to look around for a position without the light pole in the way!

So, you see, you haven't missed much by my lack of blogging..  It's pretty sad when cooking a piece of fish is the big deal in your life.  Hopefully we can get things going here in the near future.  Thanks for stopping by.

Well, this is different!

Ok, how about a kind of dull story?  Usually my wife and I drink decaf coffee because she has a problem with the caffeine.  Today she didn't want any coffee so I decided to drink some instant with caffeine (Starbuck's Colombian) that I bought for our daughter-in-law back in 2013.  Turns out there were six packets left and I've had them all.  I'm actually high!  I'm so wired I can't believe it.  This is like being drunk without the alcohol.  I'm amazed.  Ok, it doesn't take much for me but really this is bizarre.

There is a danger of this becoming a bird blog but I've got to share another bird photo.  Our new hawk friend showed up again yesterday but not for lunch. 

He came by for a bath!  What a deal.  Like I said, it doesn't take much for me these days does it?  LOL  Anyway it was great seeing this lovely creature enjoying himself. 

To balance all the bird photos I've been posting; here is one of a shadow I spotted this morning.  We have this little wooden figure of a coolie carrying water.  It's been in the family for quite a while.  It's just a cheezy souvenir kind of thing but it certainly has sentimental value.  It also casts a great shadow!

Aren't you glad you don't have to earn your living carrying water in barrels?  I am!  Have a good one!

Deja vu all over again!

Happy 3rd day of the new year!  I'm sure most people are like us:  up to their ears in leftovers.  Wow.  Even when you try to reduce the proportions in a recipe there still seems to be a lot.  Of course there are those times when my wife says 'should I make a smaller amount of X' and I say 'no, that's really great.  I can deal with the leftovers'.  Hmmm.  Does the word 'idiot' spring to mind? 

We were happily dealing with some of the afore mentioned leftovers yesterday at lunch when my wife looked outside and saw another hawk-pigeon interaction.  Yep, another pigeon lunch for the hawk. 

This time at least he/she was dining on the rocks so we didn't have a bunch of blood to clean up!  I was shooting through the venetian blinds so that's the reason for the blury parts of the photo.  The hawk was keeping a pretty good eye on me!  Apparently it prefers to dine in private.

It's a pretty bird though.  Because of the varigated chest feathers we assume it is rather young.  After being sure the pigeon was no longer going to escape the hawk took it's prey off over our wall out into the desert to finish eating.  You might think this would give our back yard a bad rep with the local pigeons.  Nope!

This was taken 3 minutes after the previous shot.  Pigeons sitting on the electric line as though nothing had happened.  Hmmm, kind of sounds like some people.  Turn your head and what you can't see didn't happen. 

Can you tell that things are a little quiet around her these days?  My big deal is hoping this old laptop keeps on running for a while.  I'd like to go directly to a Windows 10 model but that might be a while.  As in so many things only time will tell.  Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good one.

Happy New Year!

Here's wishing a safe, healthy and profitable new year for everyone!   2015 sure came around quickly.  It takes me about six months to get used to a year then we have to start planning for the next.  It's confusing sometimes. 

Just in case you saw the post about the hawk and his/her lunch, I'd like to point out that there are plenty of birds left in the 'hood. 

We typically have a pretty low-key New Year's celebration and this year was no exception.  My wife and I celebrate it alone and mostly talk about the past year and plans for the next.  I used to be pretty good at having a 5-year plan; lately that's gone by the wayside but I'm hoping to resurrect it this year.  There are always the lose weight kinds of thoughts but also places to go and things to see.  I'm 67 this year and realistically traveling around for another 10 years is posibbly optimistic.  Who knows.  I had a nephew die this year and it's not like I live such a superior lifestyle! 

Our plans for 2015 include travel of course.  We have tickets to visit Ireland; that's the big international trip.  We've spent quite a lot of time visiting 'mainland' Europe but missed out on Ireland and we each have ancestors who lived there.  That should be fun.  We are also hoping to make visits to some of our 'local' sites like Yosemite, San Franscio and the Grand Canyon.  The last time we visited the Grand Canyon was over 30 years ago!  Not that I expect it to have changed but it is certainly worth a re-visit.  Also we have another one of those 'special' birthday years coming up so that will probably involve travel, maybe even extended travel.  We'll see how that works out.

I don't really have a 'bucket list' but there are certainly places I want to visit and re-visit.  We spent a week in our nations capital back in 2003; we both want to go back for at least two weeks this time.  In spite of living in New Jersey for a couple years, we haven't seen nearly enough of New York City.  All of Western Europe is calling to me.  Australia and New Zealand are on my list.  We talk about Central America but I have to admit the media attention about the drug cartels has us a little gun-shy (so to speak!  Sorry about that!).  A trip to Alaska via the water is definitely on the list.  My wife has known for years that an Alaska Cruise is about the only one she is going to get me on.  Even better, I'd like to visit using the Alaska Ferry system because then you choose the amount of time you stay in various areas for yourself  rather than have the cruise line 'help' you.   We'll see:  there are certainly 10 years worth of destinations.

There are also plenty of things I'd like to do here; chief among them managing to contribute to the community in various ways.  Good thing I'm retired!  I wouldn't have time to do all this stuff if I was working.  Gotta go.  Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Holidays!

Hope everyone is having a great holiday season.  We are keeping it pretty low key this year:  no visitors and no gifts.  Just a lot of holiday music and a little extra care with food and drink.  Not having kids around makes a big difference!

We have lots of wind today with gusts up to 50 mph (80 kph).  We'll be going into Las Vegas to visit our daughter but it shouldn't be a big deal.  The desert is normally pretty windy if it isn't absolutely still so we've plenty of experience driving in it.  There is a little snow on the mountain but not a lot.  California has been getting the brunt of the rain only leaving a bit for us. 

We had some excitement the other day.  A hawk came in and caught a pigeon!  We didn't see the actual capture but he sat on the pigeon on our patio for a while and nibbled on it.  Finally he took it off to the far corner of the yard to complete his meal.  Wild life includes death for some.

Now that I've got that cheering news over; guess it only remains to repeat my wish that everyone have a great holiday season.  I'll try to return before New Year's Day!  Take care.

Well, actual rain!

On December 2, last Tuesday, I looked out the window and saw it!  Rain!  This is what it looked like at first.

It looks like there is more rain closer to the camera because it is splashing off the house.  But then it actually turned into a nice gentle rain the kept going all Tuesday afternoon.  Wednesday was overcast then on Thursday we got more rain.  This is just crazy!  Granted it's probably not going to amount to much but still.  It's been a long time since we had any rain. 

I had to take this photo on Thursday.

The pigeons didn't care about the rain; they wanted to bath anyway!  We started with two bird baths; one deeper and one more shallow.  The shallow one is plastic and decided to crack.  I have been fooling with it for months trying to get it to hold water again.  No luck!  Maybe it's time for a new one.

It's still kind of foggy today so we are enjoying the difference.  This photo of the mountain behind our house  was taken on the 1st.

The following was taken this morning.

Pretty cool!  We used to live in Seattle and it wouldn't be unusual for Mt. Rainier to be cloud covered for a month at a time.  Here it's pretty unusual. 

We are flying the flag today.  It's December 7 "a day which will live in infamy".  Here's hoping THIS December 7 won't be so bad.  Have a good one!

Turkey Day Report

OK, so we did a little turkey for Thanksgiving - a 7 lb turkey.  I didn't know they came that small.  Anyway, it was for just two of us so was plenty big!  We decided to brine the little guy and I have to say it was not a great success but maybe I screwed it up.  The brine recipe called for a gallon of water and a cup of kosher salt for a 12-14 lb turkey.  Since we had half that amount of bird, I cut the recipe in half.  I also added some cracked peppercorns and a few bay leaves which I did not taste at all..  The place where I may have hurt our outcome is that you are supposed to brine for 8 to 18 hours.  Our little guy was in the brine for almost 24 hours.  We did rinse him off after the brining.  After cooking he was certainly moist but he was also quite salty.  He had nice color when he was done and his skin was nice and crispy.  Here he is after resting for about 10 minutes.  I'm not at all sure why the foil that was tenting him is so discolored.  It's just one of those mysteries of life.

You can see his small size by that ordinary table knife that is in the lower lefthand corner.  My wife likes to put a combination of butter and herbs under the skin which really adds a lot of flavor.  She also uses the pan drippings to make gravy.  Unfortunately the gravy ended up REALLY salty without adding any additional salt.  So while the turkey was acceptable, the gravy ended up going down the drain.  Will we brine again?  I doubt it.  We casually watch our sodium intake and this was just too salty.

The day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, was spent watching tv that we'd collected including the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.  It's kind of funny how not having grandchildren means that we aren't familiar with some of the newer balloons.  The Sesame Street float is from when the kids were keeping us up to date with toys!  That's a long time ago now.  We didn't bother with shopping even online.  When we buy we are pretty careful to get what we want; it the hurry to get a bargain it's way too easy to get something that isn't quite the thing.  Well, at least it is for me! 

Man!  December 1st is tomorrow!  It's just a matter of moments until it will be 2015.  Amazing.  Hope things are going well for you and yours.  Take care.

Just a touch chilly!

Here in the desert it does get chilly.  It mostly looks the same outside whether it's 20F or 110F (-7C or 43C)  so you have to look elsewhere for hints.  The birdbath is a great example.

When the water doesn't drain maybe it's chilly out.  After a while it looks a little different.

The melting begins to loosen the grip the ice has on the sides of the bath and the ice starts floating and it just slides out onto the ground.  Pretty cool!

We weren't in Vegas for the release of the Beaujolais Nouveau but we were only a couple days late.  This year doesn't seem to be the best but it's always good.  It's so young and fresh!

Happy Thanksgiving all you locals!  Hope the rest of you have a good day too!

Current Day = Quiet times

Just like the rest of the U.S. we are preparing for Thanksgiving.  It's just going to be my wife and I so we found a 7 lb. (3+ kg.) turkey!  Usually they are at least twice as large.  It should be an interesting experiment.  Happily we have most of the raw ingredients we want; the grocery store will be insane until it closes on Wednesday night.  Hopefully I'll remember to get a photo of the bird before we devour it.

We've had some pretty good weather lately with highs around 70F (21C) so we sit outside in the evening watching the sun set.  The other night we had a hummingbird join us enjoying the sunset.

Here's a shot of the last full moon rising above Mount Charleston just at sunset.

This is a pretty desolate area but it sure can be pretty!  We are agreed that if it weren't for the mountains surrrounding the basin we probably wouldn't be living here. 

Last photo for the day:  we had a young hawk stop by to bath.  The other birds sure stayed away while he/she was around! 

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good one.

China Part 2

This is a continuation of my story about our trip to China last April.  It was a good trip; a bit expensive but we really wanted the hand-holding.  The ship portion was just like any other cruise except it was on a river.  Food was interesting; a combination of Chinese, North American and European.  For example there would be Chinese noodle dishes to which the diner could add various meats and vegies.  For the Europeans, the breakfast bar would have sliced meats, cheeses and various rolls.  For the rest of us, about 95% from Canada and the US, we could get eggs over easy, bacon & all that stuff.  The ship had a large buffet bar with two cooks doing immediate things.  The buffet was surrounded by tables for the diners.  You would help yourself or have them cook something.  It was used for all meals.  Wine and beer were served at lunch and dinner.

To touch on a slightly sensitive subject; did you ever hear of an "Asian Toilet"?  On the ship and in the hotels we  had western toilets; nicer than most here.  Men get urinals.  Handicaped stalls are mostly western toilets as well.  However, most other public places have the Asian variety.  Please note, there is no seat and there  are no hand holds or rails to help one rise.

We got off the boat at Chongquin.  It was a long walk to the bus then we got on a plane for Xian.  It was in Chongquin that I first started noticing the polution.  There was good reason for that; the river is pretty wild and the city is really crowded.  The flight was fine as were all the flights within China.  Xian was just as smoggy though as Chongquin and now my wife started feeling ill as well.  I was coughing a lot so my wife went to the hotel desk to try and get assistance to get some cough medicine.  The young woman at the desk actually took her across the street to buy the stuff.  Amazing service!

We were off by 08:30 to see the Terra Cotta Army.  It is amazing place.  There are three sites where discoveries have been made.  The first was uncovered rather quickly; they are moving more slowly with the other two since premature contact with the air damaged the figures.  It's still just blows your mind.  There are thousands of figures; all different!  Apparently the craftsmen who made them would use each other as a model then make minor changes.  There are foot soldiers, generals, horses - an entire army.  The scale of the place is mind-boggling.  Mostly all you can do is walk around and take pictures so we were ready to leave by lunch.

This is a good time to talk about the meals off the ship.  We typically went to a lazy-susan place for lunch.  Our tour, all seven buses worth, would troop in.  Often there would be several hundred kids there already and even with all them it wouldn't be crowded.  We would seat ourselves at circular tables for eight with a lazy-susan in the center.  Servers would bring four or five appetizers; then they would bring a few entres.  By the time you got food it was kind of cool.  Again beer and wine would be served; large bottles for the whole table to share.  

We had the afternoon off then went to see a Tang dynasty show.  Dinner in Xian was a fixed menu:  shrimp, fish, a packet of steak with vegies; served at the show.  That was nice for a change.  It was just music and dancing; lots of dancing!  Got to the hotel, put our bags out in the hall and went to sleep. 

By the next morning my wife was more ill than I.  Happily the cough medicine worked for her too.  We were taken to the airport and given a box lunch!  LOL  Weird stuff but it worked.  Again the flight, China Eastern Airways, was fine.  This time we were staying at the Regent Biejing Hotel; we got there at 15:00 and were out for a tour of the old district by 15:30.  Part of the tour was via bus; there was a 10 minute rickshaw ride then we got to visit a private home.  This part of town 500-600 years old.  This house is built in two pieces:  a living room and bedroom on one side of a courtyard the kitchen on the other side.  The owners clearly are paid for showing their home but it was still interesting.  These homes don't have bathrooms; there is a public bath down the street.  They are still valued for their history.

Later we went to a place that sells tea; and they take it VERY seriously!  There were little kits of tea and a teapot that were on sale for $100US.  Granted we were in Tourist Central; we managed to not buy it!  LOL  Dinner was the most local place we've seen with actual Chinese people in the place.

Saturday morning breakfast was at 06:00 and we were on the bus at 07:00 headed for the Great Wall.  Traffic is lousy in Beijing and Saturday is especially bad because anyone with a car can drive.  During the week there are rules about only certain license plates can drive on certain days; the weekends are free game.  I took these photo of the corner just outside our hotel; there are lights and lines on the roads; it's just that no one pays any attention!

It took a while to get to the Wall but once there; I guess it was worth the hassle.  Building that thing was certainly an amazing feat and the Chinese people know it; there were visitors all over the place.  Mostly they were civilian but the Chinese Army was around to help out the police should they be needed.  The people from our tour were definitely in the minority.  There was one couple where she was blonde and about 6'2" (1.88 M); quite a few Chinese asked for photo-op with her!

One thing that surprised me was how steep the wall is.  Walking around was anything but easy.  We were is a place where there were no steps which made it either easier or more difficult; I'm not sure which.  There was a handrail but because of the steepness of the wall it was only about 18 inches (.5 M) above the ground.  There were plenty of people enjoying the day. 

We returned to the hotel for a bit of a rest before our "Peking Duck" dinner.  It was frankly disappointing.  Maybe I'd just heard about a 'real' dinner but this was just another lazy susan production with duck.  It was an add-on to the tour and next time we'd skip it.

Sunday is the tour of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  This was quite interesting.  First getting into Tiananmen Square.  We foreigners were lead by our Chinese guide through a door and there we were.  The Chinese people had to stand in line and be searched!  Really?  Well, whatever works for them.  The Square is really huge; you might think so from the tank photos from back in the day.  It is.  Had a huge multi-story tv screen showing I don't know what. 

 Mao's tomb is there.  He didn't want it but when you are dead....  There were tons of people visiting.

Below is a photo of some building on the side of the square.  

This is the same building across the square:  did I say it was big?

There were plenty of cops and police around but they weren't hassling anyone, just standing around.  We had several people from our bus who didn't walk too well and they were falling behind.  We ended up in a line maybe a couple hundred feet long.  Then we got bunched up again when we got to the Forbidden City entrance.

Here there were no gates but there were three pedestrian bridges you had to cross.  Each bridge was being watched by two guys in Army uniforms.  There were also six or eight guys just standing in line on the side of the bridge behind the uniformed men.  In addition there were six or eight more guys just hanging around on the other side of the bridge.  Apparently you want plenty of security but don't want it to look to military.

The Forbidden City was packed.  The buildings in front were all nice and restored; the ones farther back were looking pretty tired.  There really wasn't a lot to see; just the buildings.  We were out and back on the bus by lunch time.  It was still a day when we walked over five miles (8 km)  We had the afternoon off then went to another dinner.  After dinner we attended the Peking Opera at 18:30.  It is kind of a 'people's opera' that wasn't terribly serious but lots of singing and dancing.  We saw scenes from three different operas.  One was a young woman asking a boatman to help her go up the river.  That was pretty funny with the two dodging up and down pretending to be on the river.  They also had tv screens on the walls offering a small translation of what they were singing.  The last was a big battle scene with swords, dancing and all that fun.  We liked it.

Monday was pretty much devoted to leaving China.  Luggage was collected at 09:00 then we hung around the hotel until noon.  The plane left at 16:00 making for a very long day!  We were flying Air Canada and boy is that lousy!  Getting seats together was a major problem.  The cabin attendants were working hard and did everything they could but when you can't get to sit with your spouse for a 10 hour flight; it stinks!  We made it to Vancouver about 15:00 local time; it was already a long day!  However there was one thing that was really cool.  The US Customs office is in the Vancouver airport; you check through without going out of the secure area and hop on the plane as though it is a purely US flight.  The flight to LA was pretty quiet.  We had a room at the Hilton; not nearly as nice as the ones we've had in China but I guess we have to come back to earth sometime! 

You know there are things I've forgotten.  I'll see if I can get some random ideas together for another post.  We'll see!  Thanks for stopping by.