We Got Nuthin

 This week we had a hitch in our giddyup. A gremlin in the wires. Ghost in the machine. By the time we got back up and running, we got nothing for an update. But, big week coming this week, so check back next Monday. Same Bat time, same Bat channel. 

Cincinnati Orgy

 It rained all week around here, so getting out and doing things was kind of hampered. Lawman worked the trap line but all he had to show for his efforts (besides an out of season thumb) were two raccoons, one possum, one skunk and one crow. 

The thing we enjoy about being rained in the house is cooking. Cupcake found a recipe for crock pot Cincinnati chili. We're not sure on the levels, so Lawman just called it orgy chili. But the rules, according to Charley Harper are: Two is just sex, three is a threeway, four is two couples swinging, five is two couples swinging with a 'looky loo' and six gets you into orgy territory. 

She also found a recipe for white bread that Lawman whipped up while she was making the chili. Another recipe she found was for a pecan toffee pound cake. It just so happens we had pecans and toffee at the house, so it was an easy fix.

We didn't think to get a shot of the finished product. Our bad.

Lawman found a recipe for sour cream biscuits and gave it a try for dinner one night. It was good enough to make an appearance for Sunday breakfast.

Cupcake took the lead again and whipped up shrimp fajitas with homemade fried apple pies for dessert.

And even "The Boy" got in on the cooking action to make a personal pan pizza.

Somebody got a shot of Cupcake going all glam

To end the update, we share mother natures sense of humor. One week in to deer season, and not one deer has been spotted in the happy hunting grounds. But walking outside one morning, the neighbor's yard was full of them. Well played...

We ended the week with a couple of naps.

K&K

Do You Smell What's Cooking?

 We did a lot of prep work this week. We prepared for bow season, we prepared to rid The Acre of predators, and Cupcake made baked sketti. But first off, it appears "The Girl" wanted to show off her new nose piercing.

Last weekend "The Boy-in-Law" brought his bow out to fine tune the sights.

Augustus kept an eye on Lawman while he was shooting his bow.

We got him all tuned up, but opening day brought no joy. We are still gonna fill the cooler with meat, just wait and see.

We have a coyote or a fox snatching chickens again. This guy is making it personal. 

He snatched a chicken right in front of our back door and made good his escape. So Lawman put out a couple of traps he had out in nature. He figured there wouldn't be any scent on them but apparently he was wrong. The fox not only dug the trap out without tripping it, he took a poop on it. Then, to make it very personal, he came to the front yard and laughed at the bedroom window until we woke up, but was smart enough to be gone by the time Lawman got up. Lawman has named him "Nelson Muntz."

So Lawman went old school. He watched his grandfather boil his traps in black walnut husks. We have an abundance of black walnuts laying about, so into the pot they went.

The traps boiled black, he ventured out into the wilderness to take the fight to Nelson.

But at the time of this update, all he has caught is his thumb.

Martha hooked us up with more pond flowers. She showed us the trick to keeping them around, a kiddie pool nursery.

The ducks ate all the ones we put in last time. We hope to get them started before winter sets in. Augustus kept an eye on Lawman while he scaled the banks.

And the special treat this week, Cupcake made a baked sketti for dinner with this years sauce.

We ended the week with a nap. And a thumb bandage.

K&K

Now We're Cooking

 Seems like all our pictures are food related this week. 

We started the week out by smoking a deer leg to appease the hunting gods. Seems like every week before deer season, we smoke deer meat. Might be coincidence, might be part of a larger plan. Either way, deer season opens next week and we ate well this week.

We sliced up the leftover meat and planned on having deer gravy on Sunday, but Cupcake had better ideas.

Now we probably think you're looking at these fine plates and thinking "human dinner?" But you'd be wrong, it's doggy breakfast.

We did have deer gravy on Sunday, with what was left.

Cupcake did whip us up breakfast too. We had 'frogs in the hole' a couple days this week.

Cupcake found a recipe for chocolate chip pumpkin bread and requested it be made, so Lawman made it for her.

And over the weekend, we pitched in together and made a couple dozen cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting.

Funny story that's food related. Over the winter we would eat quite a bit of fruit, and we took the guts from the honeydew melons and toss them out in the yard for the birds. Turns out, some of them came up. We mowed around the vines all year, and this week we cracked one open. 

We tossed the seeds back out in the yard for next year.

Next we picked a bucket full of apples from our trees and made another crockpot full of apple butter.

And sort of food related, we cut the dried corn stalks for decorating this weekend and spruced the place up a little.

We also picked the gem corn. Well, some of it anyway. We might have overdone it just a little bit.

And once again, Cupcake wanted oysters for dinner. And once again, she told the story of how "The Outlaw" would ruin a whole jar of oysters when he cooked them, and she never thought she would want to eat them on purpose, but here we are.

We ended the week with a nap.

K&K

Grape Big Time

 We started the week out with more grapes. Cupcake picked a canning jar case full of grape clusters Sunday afternoon. Lawman took Monday morning and picked them off the clusters and sorted out the 'not quite ready' green ones.

Both of us had grandparents that would make grape juice in the fall, but all the recipes on the interwebs called for smashing/boiling the grapes and straining the juice. We both remember whole grapes in the jar down in cellars, so Lawman took quart canning jars and measured two cups of fresh grapes into each jar, then added 1/4 cup of sugar and boiling water to fill the jars. 15 minutes at 10lbs in the pressure canner, and we have home made grape juice.

We're going to let is set a few weeks before we crack one open. Maybe break out a couple in Gettysburg?

And prepping for our trip North, Lawman started working up the neighbor lady's broken tree for campfire wood.

Lawman says he sure does wish these were a thing when he was in his teens.

We think we are all set for campfire wood now. Miss Willow approved.

One other chore we had this week was measuring ranges for "The Boy-in-Law" 

He wants to take some of our deer with his bow this year, so we cleared a few brush limbs from lanes and measured distance from the top of the stand.

With any luck, he will remove a few of our garden wreckers for us?

Funny story from the tree stand. The DT's were running/jumping/playing when Lawman climbed up, so they didn't know where he got off to. While up in the stand, Lawman would call out to the dogs, who were really cute trying to find him. Willow finally spotted him and came unstuck. She whined and laid down on her belly to "pray" until Lawman climbed down. It's almost like she knew no good would come from him being up in the tree.

We spotted some leaves turning while we were down in the happy hunting grounds. We love fall.

Our big mum is showing off some color as well.

And the DT's still look pitiful when they're on the porch looking out.

We ended the week with a couple of naps, to make up for lost naps earlier. We like to balance our lives like that.

K&K