The Slanty Shanty

We always have a nice breeze blowing here at The Acre, but this past week, mother nature really showed herself. We got the notice that high wind warnings were in place but we don't keep anything outside that would be damaged so we didn't skip a beat and went to bed. We woke up to the sound of the wind hitting the front of the house like a truck.
Uncle Billy built the house, so we were just waiting for the roof to peel off like a sardine can. Just around dawn our back up rooster walked up under our bedroom window and began crowing. We thought this was odd, because we hadn't opened the coop up yet. We have a couple of crazy birds that sleep in a pine tree every night, we thought maybe the rooster spent the night camping with the girls. Until we got up and started our day.

The "Coop Devile" is now the "Slanty Shanty". The wind blew the whole shed off the foundation it was on. The shed must weight over a ton, so the wind was really howling. It obviously blew the side doors open before it came off the foundation, which is how "Joe" got out to come alert us of trouble. He usually comes to the bedroom window when there is a predator in the yard, so we guess we should start paying closer attention to him?
We contacted the shed guy who set it up for us and he's due to come out this coming week so we hope to have the girls back upright and back on the rail to our three dozen eggs a day production.
Last week we said we had a problem with pie, then "The Boy" said he wanted one of our home made pizza pies for dinner. It's a pie, so it still counts.

Home made crust. Home made sauce

We had a fresh lemon pie that we enjoyed while the boy had his pizza pie.

And we smoked a chicken for dinner one night.

Fraidy Mutt got a plate of whipped cream, because somebody spoils her.

Then the week got started with the usual chores. First, more laundry detergent because somebody has a problem.

More work went in on the bee hive, including a tweak Lawman added.

Top bars and lid are done/installed

An internal feeder

Just for show, still some tweaking

Then a double batch of lye soap was made.

Some homemade deodorant

Our last project for the week was plowing the gardens. Our onion sets arrive soon.

Garden #2 of 5

We noticed that our cherry bushes have started to bloom, which makes us sad. We fear we will lose them to frost/freeze.

But our rhubarb is popping out. Freeze/frost won't hurt them.

And for the coming week, we needed a fresh pie. We used fresh squeezed lemon juice for this one and it really made a difference in the flavor.

We ended the week with wings. And oysters.
K&K

Problem with Pie

After opening up this weeks photographs, it seems we have a problem with pies? As we were getting ready to start the week, Cupcake saw a recipe for sweet potato pie. All southerners are supposed to love them some sweet potato pie, and Lawman thought it is something he needs to have in his wheelhouse. We had sweet potatoes, we had pie plates. We had pecans.....

We baked the sweet potatoes until they were tender, then we put them in the mixer and smooshed them up well.

We threw in the rest of the ingredients and baked it.

The topping was just butter, brown sugar and pecans. Easy peasy.

Just to break up the pie post, Cupcake was wanting oysters for dinner one night.

Then it's back to pie.
Cupcake wanted a lemon pie for Easter, and said we should probably make a test run before we served it to family.

One project Lawman worked on this week was the bee hive. He had to make a trip to Blowes for some parts (screen, bolts, and latches) plus some 2X4's for the legs and the new shelving in the pantry that's coming up. After he secured the lumber, he got the legs on and started on the lid.

He made this one a lot taller than the one we bought, to keep skunks from getting at the entrance and to keep him from bending over during the inspections. We hope to have it done by the end of next week.
We ended this week with wings. And oysters.
K&K

Crazy Week

We didn't get many photographs this week, it was a wild one though. Cupcake got the call Tuesday afternoon that she had to travel to Texas for work. The next day. So we dropped everything and scurried around to pack and buy TSA approved travel stuff for her. Wednesday morning we had to have her at the airport in Roanoke by 0400, and that started a six plane, two day, two hours of sleep a day journey that ended Friday.
By Friday evening, neither one of us was feeling a night out, so we picked up some sushi for dinner. When we say "we" we mean Lawman. Cupcake went with traditional chicken and rice, while Lawman tried some new things. Well, new for this restaurant anyway.

Friady Mutt even got in on the action, taking chicken from Lawman's chopsticks. She didn't get any of the rolls, that's all for the Lawman.

This was the new roll he tried, a "Broadway" roll. It had blue crab meat inside the roll with avocado and asparagus, then outside a piece of seared tuna and a jalapeno pepper topping. It's his new favorite.
A couple of sides with that was a seaweed salad....

And a squid salad...

Lawman frequented Tokyo sushi in the people's republic with his partner, T.Marc Colburn (expert witness, deceased) and was familiar with both seaweed salad and squid salad. These were poor substitutes, but he said it was better than no sushi at all.
Saturday is our five year standing "date night" to Dude's Drive In, and we've only missed a handful of Saturday nights in the past five years. This week was one of them. The weather was calling for  rain, sleet, snow, and freezing rain all at the same time, so we decided we could do burgers ourselves and avoid the traffic drama.

We did good. Nothing beats a burger topped off with homemade pickles (them yellow pickles) and onions we pickled fresh from the garden.
We started prepping a brisket, this is a ten day process.

We will probably eat half of this guy on Thor's red meat offering day in a couple of weeks, and save the other half for St. Pattie's day. Plans are still fluid that far in advance, we'll see.
We ended the week with wings. And oysters.

K&K

What's our Vector, Victor?

Lawman thought of this Sunday morning as he was changing the oil in Deathstroke. It was the first oil change for the big guy, and when crawling under the truck to find the oil plug he noticed there was "plenty of clearance, Clarence."

The Deathstroke is pretty straight forward, the filter is right next to the oil plug, so crawling around is not necessary. One thing we did learn today is, when you have this much clearance for the oil to drain out, you probably shouldn't change the oil when it's windy outside. There was some blow back on Lawman.

The other project this week was the oven. The oven is a pretty big part of the house, and we had a couple of burner eyes that wouldn't regulate proper heat. Lawman researched the cause and found the switch behind the knob goes bad, causing it get too hot. Parts were ordered and replaced Saturday while the girls went to town to do some trading.

Most important step. Unplug the thing

Old out/new in

Two screws hold the switch in place

We needed the oven fixed, so "The Boy" could have a homemade pizza pie.

And we had leftover steak from last week. We're not ones to waste food, so Lawman made a big pot of veggie beef soup for dinner one night.

Fresh from the garden corn, canned

With a loaf of olive bread.

There was more pie.

That crust ain't pretty enough to be store bought

We ended the week with wings. And oysters
K&K

A Week of Pie

This week revolves around pie of one kind or another. We started off with chocolate pie, had some pizza pie, made another chocolate pie. We didn't plan it, but it sure happened that way.
Starting off, a picture of last week's pie.

Early in the week we decided to make a homemade pizza. Lawman made the usual pizza dough, but forgot that we always half it for just one pizza. So a regular batch was made.

He thought it sure was spreading across the pizza pan better than it usually does.

We used the home made pizza sauce that we canned up last year, then the usual toppings.

When we brought it out of the oven, we realized what we'd done. So we're calling this "deep dish" pizza.

We made another round of paprika chicken on pork chop night.

Cupcake wanted oysters with her dinner one night.

Then it seems like we forgot to photograph stuff like we're prone to do. We rolled in to the weekend that everyone else will be watching some football game. We always have a feast of Superbowl food, but we never watch the game.
We made a taco dip, along with wings and oysters.

And another chocolate pie.

It's a good thing we like to stay in on Superbowl weekend, because we got a little touch of ice Sunday.

K&K