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2025-06-01T23:20:05Z

Happy June, I hope everyone has a fun and safe summer!

May 23

I hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday weekend!

I am headed to my daughter's school to move her from her dorm room into her on campus apartment later this morning. She will be spending the summer there. About 1.5 hours away.

May 4

A shiny new month!

I am enjoying the May flowers!

April 28

I like the idea of no mow May, but probably not a good idea given all the rain this past week.

April 13

I'm sorry to hear of all the weather related difficulties. Take care out there!

April 6

Hoping for some more April showers here.

March 29

Happy Spring!

March 18

On 3/13/2025 at 10:23 AM, Gator Pam said:

Ouch. Is he OK?

Did the deer run off? Or do y’all have venison to look forward to?

Tonight starts the festival of Purim, with Shushan Purim following on Shabbes. It’s not in my tradition to bake cookies for the winter festivities, but I do make hamentaschen for Purim.

This year I kept the count of each kind between a half a dozen for each of fruit filled, and closer to a dozen for the specialty ones. So we have:
6 fig
6 apricot
6 prune
7 espresso martini
and
10 s’mores

That’s still nearly three dozen for the three of us. That will definitely see us through the festival, and then some!

Since each kind of the traditional fillings made about a dozen, I have enough to deliver them to some friends as well. Hopefully it will make their Purim, or at least their weekend, merry.

Yummy!

Hubby opted to not process the deer, and went to work instead. He is okay.

March 12

March is flying! Hubby hit a deer this morning in our 2005 Prius with 400K -200 miles on it. We need to have a look and see if it is reasonably fixable; crazy thought I know.

March 2

Happy March! I guess March came in like a lamb here. I wasn't outside much.

February 23

On 2/17/2025 at 12:13 PM, Gator Pam said:

I have a friend who is planning to move across the country at the end of next month. She has a lot of canned goods she’s not planning on taking with her. I saw a photo the other day the free pantry at one of the churches in Kirkland showing it could use some donations.

I also went through some of my shelved food stuffs I wasn’t using, packed them up and picked up some goods from my friend. I then made my first donation at the pantry. Here’s hoping I did it right.

I’ll probably make a stop once a week until my friend’s back stock is diminished.

The outside of the pantry at Holy Spirit.

What I found when I first opened it.

And a few non food items on the bottom.

After I added the items I brought. I hope some of these items will fill needy bellies.

A lot of these foods need a can opener. Not that I can afford it, but if I could find a deal on bulk inexpensive manual can openers, like at least 100 but no more than $20 for them, I might order some to donate along with the canned goods.

That is a nice size food pantry! Do you live somewhere where it won't freeze?

Here between President's Day and the snow and cold weather a lot of kids only had one day of school last week. Starting to feel like spring now though!

February 13

On 2/8/2025 at 11:27 PM, Gator Pam said:

I just returned from the Galentines Day bake off competition where I entered the Meyer Lemon Cheesecake with Blueberries that had the lumpy batter. Long story short, I didn’t win my category, even though I had a 50/50 chance as there were only two entries.

Read the captions on the photos for details, including what the head judge told me as to why I didn’t win.

As a reminder, here’s the practice cheesecake I made last week.

This is the entry cheesecake immediately after decorating it. I tried a different method of piping the lemon curd which worked even less well, so I won’t do that method again. However, I think increasing the size of the heart definitely helped to define its shape better than the smaller one.

Because the piping was so terrible, I decided to dress up the sides by adding miniature candy hearts to the sides. I think it definitely looks pretty…

FullSizeRender.MOV 20.54 MB · 0 downloads

Here’s how I displayed the cheesecake at the competition.

We had to display our cakes by 12:30 PM with the winners scheduled to be announced at 3:00 PM. I used the lid of the inexpensive Dollar Tree cake carrier to hold ice so the cheesecake could sit out without being refrigerated.

My only competition in the cake category. Obviously a carrot cake by someone much better at decorating than I am.

This carrot cake won my category. It definitely looks luscious!

What the head judge told me “off the record” after the competition ended was that the flavor and texture of the cheesecake itself was spot on. There was no evidence of the lumpy batter (yay!). If I had left it at that, I would have edged out the carrot cake to win.

However, while the judges appreciated the color and look of the candy hearts on the sides of the cheesecake, they said the candies did not soften at all and that the crunch detracted from the smoothness of the rest of the bite. For that choice, they awarded it to the carrot cake.

I had fun preparing, entertaining, and attending this event, though. I appreciate everyone’s input on the flavor choice and decoratingg ideas. I think I’ll definitely enter again if it’s held again next year!

I'm glad you got feedback and plan to try again, it looks delicious!!!

February 1

Happy February, I hope everyone has a great month!

February 1

Yeah, it was a long month here. On to the next soon.

January 19

On 1/14/2025 at 1:57 PM, Gator Pam said:

So, if one were to be considering entering a local amateur baking contest with a cheesecake, what flavor cheesecake would best appeal to a variety of judges one knows nothing about?

Stick to the basics and do a plain New York with a homemade fruit topping?

Freshen it up a little with a Meyer Lemon Cheesecake served with homemade lemon curd?

Go indulgent with a white and milk chocolate peanut butter cup cheesecake?

Maybe add a touch of coconut with a Samoan cheesecake?

A childhood classic of a Cookies and Cream cheesecake?

(no photo at this time)

A Pumpkin cheesecake?

Chocolate cheesecake with fresh strawberries?

Possibly a savory Smoked Salmon Cheesecake?

Or maybe a flavor I haven’t considered that would earn the judges accolades?

(all of these were made by me in the past)

Let us know which one you picked and how it went! They all look amazing. I would personally prefer a chocolate without peanut butter or lemon.

January 7

Happy New Year! We are digging out after the weekend weather. I've heard 16 inches here.

December 29, 2024

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I'm enjoying the "what day is it again" time of year.

December 2, 2024

End of the year is coming up quickly. So true when they say the days are long but the years are short.

November 30, 2024

I hope everyone is having a good weekend, doing what they enjoy! A special thanks to those who are working or have on call duties and are keeping things running doing whatever it is that they are tasked with!

November 6, 2024

Happy November all!!!!

October 26, 2024

On 10/15/2024 at 1:22 PM, Brad said:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/true-value-chapter-11-do-it-best-bankruptcy/

True Value hardware stores files for Chapter 11, will be sold to Do it Best.

Our small town has a Do It Best hardware store as well as a True Value. I wonder if they will both stay open. They are each other's biggest competition. The only other similar store in town is more of a farm store.

October 6, 2024

Thank you for the prize Brad!!!

September 30, 2024

Almost October!!!

September 19, 2024

Still in the 90s here. I want to divide my coral bells but I'm afraid it is still too hot for that. Maybe this weekend. I just don't want to wait too long as I know they need time to develop their root systems after I move them, before it is too cold.

September 10, 2024

9 hours ago, Gator Pam said:

Tomato harvest has continued since September 3rd with two more Mortgage Lifters. I gave these to a couple of friends, so I didn’t weigh them. They were a bit smaller than the first one.

On September 4th my first San Marzano-style Roma and some Sun Gold cherry tomatoes.came in.

September 5th saw two more Romas and the first Purple Bumblebee cherry tomatoes.

September 6th is when things really started to roll in.

Saturday, the 7th was a quiet day harvest wise, but I added two more Mortgage Lifters and several Romas and cherries yesterday.

The first Mortgage Lifter weighed about a pound and a half:

The second weighed about a pound and a quarter.

The rest of yesterday’s harvest came to just over half a pound.

All told cherry tomatoes totaled about a pound over the five days.

The Mortgage Lifters and Romas totaled about four and a half pounds over the five days.

All told five and a half pounds over pretty much my first five days, plus the slightly over a pound Mortgage Lifter in August and the two more I gave away which I didn’t weigh.