What a Duck is Thinking

The sign may say "Please do not walk on dry gravel garden" but that does not apply to ducks. In fact, most rules of civility do not apply to ducks. They are wild, thrill seeking ruffians.

Let me interpret this look for you. It means "What are you looking at!? The sign says nothing about sleeping on the dry gravel garden. You humans are so legalistic."

"Quick! Every duck to the water. A small human has been spotted at the food temple!"


"In the water, out of the water. All day long. Its exhausting being a duck.

Oh and look here's Mr Slow-Poke Turtle come to get food from the Little Human . . . in his dreams!

Mr Slow-Poke Turtle: "I may have a hard shell, but these insults hurt my feelings. Ducks are bullies. Please feed me Small Human."

"Ducks rule! Turtles drool! When will they ever learn?

Now some light preening and back to sleep."

Remember what I said about ducks being thrill seekers? Its hard to see from the picture above but there is a young duck right in the middle looking out at me.

I just know that duck is thinking about swimming as fast as it can and at the last second, taking to flight as the water plummets beneath him. Or her. I can't tell gender from this picture.

Grandma June's Pickles

This Sunday afternoon Cedric and I took a trip to Hermann so that I could sit at the feet of Grandma June and learn more of her craft. This woman takes being a domestic goddess to the next level and when I am her age, I hope that I can be like her.

On this day, Grandma June was making pickles and I brought along my camera in order to document the entire process. Dear Readers, if you like dill pickles you are in for a treat.

Yes there were distractions during the day. Every time Miss Riley June fussed or did something amazing we had to stop, drool, fawn, and "bless ourselves" as necessary. Babies must be respected in this way.

Mr Cedric was very curious about the process and in a few years when he's better at handling hot liquids and knives he will actually get to help. As opposed to sneaking off with spears of raw cucumber.

Here she is, my baby Sis-tah! Its because her that I even know Grandma June exists. Sorry Sister - your last picture was too beautiful, I had to post this one because it puts the Force in balance.

Alright - let's make some pickles!

First you must wash and scrub the cucumbers. Clean cucumbers make good pickles.

Next you need to peel about two heads of garlic into cloves. I love garlic!

You also need copious amounts of fresh dill. Grandma June uses the dill once its bloomed, which is why it looks differently in the photos than when its young and fern-y like in this post.

Once the cucumbers are cleaned, separate them into two bowls, one for whole pickles and one that will be pickle spears. FYI we packed both sizes together.

I love this shot of Grandma June. She's a woman of charm and grace.

Once you have your cucumbers separated and cut. Grab a clean jar and place one sprig of dill and one garlic clove in the bottom. Then start putting in cucumbers. We started with the spears and added the smaller cucumbers to pack the jars tightly.

Once the jar is full of cucumbers add another sprig of dill and another garlic clove on top.

Next sprinkle the tops with black pepper. Grandma June did this and I'm guessing its about 1/2 a teaspoon of pepper.

Then ladle the hot broth into each jar, filling up to the neck. The broth consists of 2 Cups of water, 1 Cup of apple cider vinegar, 1 Cup of sugar, and 1 Tablespoon of canning salt. Dissolve the broth in a pot over medium heat and let come to a boil.

Once the jars are full, wipe the tops with a clean towel and screw on the lids.

Place the jars in a canner and fill with water up to the neck of the jars. Put the lid on and let the water come to a full boil. Boil for one minute and then place the jars on a towel to dry and cool.

And that folks is what Grandma June calls "cold packing." I don't know why because the whole process involves heat, but what I do know is that once these jars cool off your pickles are ready.

Put one jar in the fridge to get nice and cold and store the rest.

I love pickles! I feel so domestically empowered to know how to make these.

P.S. On the family farm the plum tree was ripe and my sister's FIL let me take home two bags full of plums. I think I'm going to take a stab at spiced plum butter. Stay tuned...

It Feels Like Stinky

One afternoon we were building with Cedric's wooden blocks and he was being silly, jumping and climbing; you know, normal boy things. I looked at him and said, "You are being silly like a monkey." He replies that he can do the monkey and gets into this position
.

Don't ask because I have no idea. I'm just grateful that I had the camera handy. This pose is important because Cedric also uses it as his skunk pose.

Yes you can ask about the skunk.

In his Curious George book there is a story where George gets sprayed by a skunk. We also have a recorded TV episode where George is sprayed by a skunk. Cedric knows that skunks spray when they are scared and that it smells really bad.

On Monday, we were having dinner with my husband's siblings and Cedric gets down on all fours, declares himself a skunk, lifts his leg (like in the picture) and goes "Shish, shish. It feels like stinky!" I almost couldn't catch my breath from laughing so hard. I thought some of the adults might need medical attention.

Here it is one more time; in case you need to see it again.

Happy 4th of July!

We celebrated our Nation's birthday with my family out at the farm. It was a great day and the cousins were able to run around and enjoy their freedom to be very silly.

Sadly, this is my best fireworks picture. I had hopes to put my new lenses through the paces and get some better pictures but poor Cedric is still scared by loud noises. At first he was excited to see fireworks but after one or two he declared he was tired and needed his Mommy to sing songs with him.

My family will forever refer to Independence Day as the "Fortune July." This is because when my little sister was young, she couldn't quite say "The Fourth of July." I snapped this picture when I noticed the wind was giving her "model hair." Can you believe she looks this good with 3 hours of sleep and a 7 week old baby?

It was a hot muggy day and we all stayed cool the best we could. Humans had the benefit of air conditioning, but the 7 dogs had to fend for themselves. My dog is a genius.

What's that you say? Why am I showing a dog in a pool when I mentioned a 7 week old baby earlier? Sorry about that. Here's a sweet picture of Miss Riley June.

In other news, Cousin Bradley has lost a few teeth. He now has a nice spot in his smile to wiggle his tongue.

I hope that your Fortune July was a good one! Happy birthday America!