PARENTING

     Being or trying to be a real parent is wonderful,frightful,remorseful and you never really know if you got a passing grade cause the quest never ends.

      I have made some duzzies of foul ups and mistakes. We bought a pinata one year, a after the kids beat the shit out of the thing no candy or prizes came out. Nobody told me you had to fill the Dam thing! I am sure the kids thought there father was a little dim witted after that. I rented a guitar one year and bought lessons. When Chris opened the thing I was expecting a wow Dad this is really cool. Instead the look on his face was wow Dad another empty pinata! I bought a soccer ball, baseball and a basketball  for Jeremy hoping to get him interested in sports. You guessed it I got that Dad you bought another empty pinata again look!  I am really stubborn though I keep trying! 

      One Easter Sue and I waited till the kids were bedded and asleep.  We hid THREE DOZEN eggs! Off to bed we went knowing that three little ones would be up before the sun. Well sure enough we awoke to three voices saying the Easter Bunny passed us by!  Oh no as I opened my eyes Three sets of blue eyes were saying!  Dad you bought another empty pinata! Sue looked at me and I at her and we were both thinking we hid THREE DOZEN. We stumbled down the stairs wiping the sleepers from our eyes. We  looked in all the places where we hid  THREE DOZEN eggs. WE could not find a one! We started a second less frantic and through egg search. We began to find very small pieces of colored shell. All the while our faithful Springer Spaniel Annie joined us with the THREE DOZEN egg search. Sue and I looked at each other and said Annie! At the same time as she passed a HUGE rotten egg gas cloud.

       The five of us started a Chinese fire drill Sue managed to open the patio door before she passed through it, the kids crashed through the door to the garage. I holding my breath managed to make it through the front door without passing out. Poor Annie she just stood there and looked at her rear end with that, Dad you bought another empty pinata look!

     WE finally returned to the house opened the windows and put Annie out. She sat on the patio for a while and then disappeared for a couple of hours. The grandparents showed with more eggs and we had a nice family Easter.

      Several weeks passed and Annie got even for missing family Easter. She presented us with Eight puppies, really cute little buggers. The weather was warming by then so we made a nest for the new family in the garage. Soon they were out of the nest and wondering the garage. Upon arriving home I would enter the garage to check on the  puppies. Gosh they sprung up like Jacks magic beans.  They soon began leaving bigger and bigger and bigger and more and more and more piles of pupie SHIT. All with a distinct perfume of rotten eggs, I don`t know how that was possible but I swear it is true. Annie would watch me scoop up the aromatic piles with a smiling look that said I brought home a full pinata! I am really stubborn though I keep trying.

      When Tammy started kindergarten Sue was working days and I was working swing shift. So Dad got to take Tammy to school. This was really a special time for us the trip to school with no boys just Dad and daughter would not trade it for a billion bucks we would talk and make up little things like Tammy, how come your sooooo! cute? Cause my Momma is cute! Tammy, how come your soooooo! tough? Cause I have two brothers! Tammy, how come your soooooo! smart? Cause my Daddy`s smart. A big part of the drive was stopping for Tammies snack. Always in a brown paper bag and inside we would put something wholesome! A twin pack of Twinkies or Hostess chocolate frosted cup cakes or my favorite Snow Balls. I know Tammy liked all the snacks cause usually she picked them! At school the teachers knew that Tammies Daddy brought her to school. I am sure every day when snack time came the teachers thought another empty pinata!  Even now with kids all grown up. I keep trying and buying more pinata`s. Would not want to spoil my repetation the pinata`s are still empty anybody can buy a full one!

Potato Salad

    In my opinion! Potato salad should be a very simple thing.  Seems people put all kinds of stuff in and still call it potato salad. Come on people, filling potato salad with peas,celery well maybe a little celery leaf finely chopped but no mustard. No Miracle Whip. Please no Miracle Whip. Save that stuff for cole slaw. I will get into that at another time, Now back to Potato Salad.

    Here is the million dollar Bar B Q Potato Salad recipe. Wash twelve large Russet baking size potatoes. Do not peal them! Wipe the potato skins lavishly with REAL butter and wrap in Reynolds Wrap. Yes buy the good wrap that cheap store brand will not protect the potatoes and you will notice the difference! Lay the wrapped taters on the top shelf of your Bar B Q and fire it off. Set the flame to low and close the lid ,Bake for forty minutes or until taters  squeeze. If you can`t squeeze them they need more cooking. Now back to the kitchen. Put 13 eggs in a large pot, cover eggs with cold water and put on stove. Set burner to highest setting bring water to a boil reduce heat to next lowest setting and set timer for Ten minutes. When timer goes off turn off burner and let eggs sit for ten minutes. Get out cutting board and chopping knife along with a medium red onion. Slice off the root end and discard in trash OUTSIDE. That will tame the onion and your kitchen will not retain the sprit of the onion till you take out the trash. Now slice the onion in half put on half into a freezer zip bag anything else and your milk will taste like onion in the morning. Finely dice the remaining half and put it into a large Tupper wear bowl. Now dump the eggs into the sink and let cold water run into the pan pick up each egg and run it under cold water and crack it throughly and drop it into pan of cold water . Let the cold water run over the eggs as you peel them. Put the thirteen whole peeled eggs into the tupper wear bowl along with finely chopped red onion. Now gather up six very leafy celery stalks. Chop off the celery and stuff with pimento cheese put these aside. Now chop the celery leaf not too fine, you want to see a little leaf! Scoop celery leaf into bowl with whole eggs and chopped red onion burp bowl and put into frig. Clean up kitchen. Now it should be about time to check on them taters. Pop the lid and squeeze taters with a pot holder wrapped around tater( they should be hot potatoes by now) If they are squeezable turn off Bar Bee and remove taters and set out on counter to cool for 30 minutes. Now go to frig and get stuffed celery and a beer. Sit down put your feet up, pop the beer and eat the stuffed celery celery. After thirty minutes or when your nap is over put wrapped taters in frig.

     Next day! remove wrapped taters and burped bowl from frig along with a quart of Best Foods Real Mayonnaise. Don`t even think about miracle whip that stuff is for cole slaw. Don`t go cheap and buy store brand mayonnaise it just won`t taste the same. 

    Now unwrap all your taters. Next peel all of your russet Bar B Q beauties. Next remove two eggs from the bowl set them aside. Next chop the remanning eleven eggs into quarter inch squares. Put chopped eggs into bowl with chopped celery. Next slice and chop your taters into quarter inch squares, put taters into bowl with eggs. Now don`t get too carried away with measuring the quarter inch squares if you are in a hurry half inch squares will do. The ingredients will just blend better with quarter inch squares. Now get out a rubber spatula and empty THE WHOLE QUART of Best Foods real mayonnaise into your bowl of ingredients. Mix thoroughly you want the mayo to cover everything and everything to blend. When onion seems to be evenly distrubuted  you are done. Next remove one half cup of blended mixture,set aside. Next take spatula and smooth mixture flat. Now slice the last two eggs and decorate the top of your mixture with egg slices. Lightly sprinkle top of mixture with paprika. By now you are most likely wondering why I have been calling my creation a mixture and not Potato Salad. Well now you need to cover the bowl give it a burp and TOMORROW it will be Bar B Q Potato salad. For now you can eat the half cup of mixture and imagine what it will be tomorrow. LOve Dad 

 If you look to the left OK the hummingbird feeder there is a hummer ready to sip from it. This was last year march 17Th it looks like this year will be the same picture. Freezing level down to 500 feet and snow in our future. 

  Sure nice to know spring is just 30 days away. Hope to send early pictures of my latest project. A queen captain bed for my daughter and family. I started assembly yesterday and it looks pretty good if I do say so.

  Still no word from the census people guess I am too dam old for them also. Remember this and put money away in a credit union now. You will be sixty before you know it. I know it seems like forever in your future BUT IT IS NOT.

Bungee Jumping

   Thought                              someone would like to see the bridge construction. The other reason is to announce the I have attached the Social Security Bungee cords to my ankles and have jumped off into retirement! Well at least semi-retirement I can still make about 1100.00 per month and not loose benefits. So I can spend more time building bridges,taking grand children fishing and just being a kid again and doing what i want to do. After all those years working my conclusion is work SUCKS. I really don`t want to say yes sir maser anymore! At last! I am free I am free. Thank you president Roosevelt.

      I had hoped that the sunset photo would be at the end of this note guess i will figure out how to do that another day. Anyway it seems that floating down the Mckenzie is an appreciate picture for retirement. buy for now love you all.

Leisure Suits

   I believe this is the answer to this countries current Depression.  I remember how the fashion police banded together and shamed all of us guys till we sent our leisure suits to the goodwill. I had a navy blue leisure suit the matching shirt had red white and blue shushes it was comfy. For a lot of men it was the first time they had a cordinated outfit even if they still wore white tube-socks. For many men it was the first time they rushed to buy a new outfit in there entire life! Now that ten percent of us have lots of leisure time we need a new suit to uplift our spirits.Perhaps with a made in China label we could get a three pice suit for 59.99 at Walmart and 79.99 at JC Penny. If Obama would give each man a ten dollar economic stimulus rebate most americans should be able to budget A new Leisure suit out of our unemployment checks.Wow with twenty-million american men spending 59.99 or 79.99 that should get the economy rolling again.That is the very reason we need to bring this fashion statements back into our wardrobes. The average guy still has and wears clothes he wore twenty tears ago. This is not good for the economy, guys need to go out there and spend  get the money flowing. The other day I went with a friend to visit to a hundred year old friend of his. We go into his nursing home and Bill that is his name. Bill is waiting for us in a very nice brown suit with matching tie. Bill looked really dapper! On a shelf behind him is a picture of bill when he retired at sixty five. Guess what Bill was wearing the same Dam suit and tie! Don`t you think fashion designers could come up with something new and exciting for us men to wear. I mean really! mens clothes have not changed in over TWO HUNDRED years. So lets all call for the return of the leisure suit and get the economy rolling again. Maybe Obama could send each man a Ten dollar Leisure Suit gift certificate. I bet JC Penny would even be willing to sell Obama the gift certificates at half price. I know you ladies are being left out here but remember! you can go shopping with us. The gift certificate would only apply to men`s leisure suits. However once you were at JC Penny or Wallmart I bet hubby could be persuaded to let you buy something for bedroom wear.

   Mind blowing how my children are now taking care of me as I once took care of then. I love my computer but it really is a love hate thing. I love the way it keeps me in touch with the world but but I hate the way it shows what a dummy I can be.

   If I can find some abandoned cedar logs I am going to try and make a couple of these. One on each side of the driveway would look neat I think.

  Took the Census exam on the 6Th of Jan and got 80%. twenty eight question and only thirty minutes. I hope to get a call from them sometime this month. For some reason I think it would be an interesting thing to do. 

    We are really not football people but we watched the Super Bowl today and the game was better than the commercials. Sue`s mother would have been really happy she was a big Pittsburgh Steels fan.

    Birthday is almost here and I am going fishing that day don`t care if it snows.

  A year ago I built this covered bridge across the channel that runs across our property. Mostly it looks older and not new because it was built from reclaimed lumber. The six by eight beams  are twenty feet long and were abandoned at Belnap hot springs. They are most likely cut in the 1930`s and were taken out when the lodge was remodeled In 1989. The roof trusses are from 2X6 from the same remodel discards. My eighty year oldfriend made the trusses for me and his nephew put the roofing on. I do not do high places well, At my age the ground is just too hard. The rustic lower walls are made from 4x4 posts that I recycled from another location. The lower walls are from recycled fence boards that someone was about to burn. I did buy treated 2x6 for the decking and the roofing is also new material. I really like the challenge of working with recycled wood.

   This last spring I was given a collapsed building behind the Rustic Skillet. The wood was mostly 4x4 and 2x6 lumber  all in really good shape. The building had collapsed with the winters snow, who ever designed and built the thing really needed carpentry school. Sue and I disassembled the thing brought home all the wood and pulled all the old nails. From this lumber I was able to build with help from my wife and friends A garden tool shed for  Sue it is 8x12. I was also able to put a 10x12 covered deck on my shop. Had to get garden tools out of my shop so I could get back to building furniture. 

    I wanted to build furniture in my spare time and when I retire, in four years. Plans change found myself out of work. Needing something to do I started to look for wood to make the Captains queen bed for Tamara. Soon found out that wood is very expensive when you are unemployed. I mentioned this to my friend Ray and he says I have some fifety year old Maple you can have! Wow it is nice wood apparently it was logged locially and stored in a barn for decades and a friend gave it to him for fire wood! I now have all the pices cut and I am sanding the pices prior to assembly and the grain is very pretty. I wiped down everything with water today to bring up the grain after first sanding and it is going to be a keeper.

Jan 19 2009

     Wow! Tomorrow is the day I have been waitung for. The end of the nightmare of George Bush and the Wright wing Ronald Reagan plan. Hope we AS A NATION HAVE THE COURAGE TO RETERN TO A more liberal way of thinking. Hopefully somehow we can retern to a congress that is willing to represent the middle class.