New Addition

As if we didn't already have enough furry family members, we added 1 more to the brood. Meet Josie, our newest addition, and our first canine.



Two weeks ago, a past co-worker sent an email to me and several other people advising his daughter's dog had a 9 puppy litter. The mom is a 55 lbs. yellow lab mix, and he suspected the father was a heeler/pit mix. I ended up meeting him and his wife at our work parking lot, and felt pretty sad for the pups. They were all bound for the Lancaster animal shelter the following day.

So, that's the story of how Josie entered our lives. I knew I wanted a female, she was the cutest, and had a full tail (some of the others had bull dog or half tails.) :)

When I took her to the vet, he advised she was a Black Mouth Cur Dog

...Glad we have 7 acres for her to roam as the info states they aren't ideal for apartment life. Geesh!

Reflection

After 40 + days of no rain and soaring temperatures, we received a bit of a respite last night and this morning. I woke up early just to sit and watch the rain (from the comfort of my favorite couch that my mom sometimes hints I should have re stuffed...)

Our hummingbird feeder hangs on our back porch and I've already seen 3 hummingbirds come for breakfast this morning...note to self...refill this weekend. Note to everyone else, sugar and water works better than the store bought food and is basically free. :)

When we were in Wyoming last month, we were able to spend time animal watching. This behavior is very normal for the Armstrong family. Derek is used to spending hours at a time watching deer, and we both like to observe our horse and 3 cats play outside in the evenings. However, our normal observations are fairly uneventful in comparison to what we saw in Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park.

Moose calf and Momma Moose (to the right) along the banks of the Snake River




And, just for good measure, the driving dog has to be included!

What a Read!

The only book I packed for our vacation turned out to be a great read and I wanted to share. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford will be a great addition to your reading list this summer.

This book is a well developed tale of friendship, love, loss, and independence. The characters are so easy to relate to, with great dialogue and insight to their internal struggles. Henry is a 12 year old boy struggling to gain independence from his rigid traditional Chinese father. Keiko is a second generation Japanese American citizen from a family who believes in the American dream and whose father is an American educated attorney. The characters paths cross when they are the only two non-white students at Ranier Intermediate in Seattle. The author writes from Henry's perspective and the book shifts between the 1940's and current day (set as 1980's.)

While the author clearly states the book is fiction, he based the story around the events during WWII when Japanese American citizens were 'relocated' to "safety camps" in inland portions of the country.

This book peaked my interest and I followed up with some research about these events during the 1940's.

I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in an incredible story of strength, and friendship, with a realistic taste of bitterness and loss as well.

Grand Indeed

I just returned to Fort Worth after spending 7 nights in Wyoming. We enjoyed a vacation to Jackson Hole, Grand Teton National Park, and Yellowstone National Park. It was an amazing vacation with the perfect mix of adventure/exploring and relaxation.

Needless to say, I took A LOT of pictures and hope to get my "Top 50" list compiled tomorrow for a coffee table book, but in the mean time, here's a few sneak PEAKS.

That was easy!

When we planted the garden in mid March, I took a chance on red potato bulbs. I only had about 8 bulbs and planted them along a two and a half foot space that remained at the edge of the garden. The potatoes sprouted quickly, and the plant tops grew to almost a foot and a half tall, but began to die about 2 months after I planted the bulbs. I decided to cut the dead parts away and realized that the entire 'plant portion' was basically dead.

I googled potatoes online, and of course read about a hundred different methods to grow potatoes. I decided we mine should start digging and see what happened underground over the last 2 months.

Low and behold, A LOT happened! We had about 20 potatoes! It was extra fun because my mother in law and 2 year old niece were over the day we decided to dig. My sweet niece Baylee had a lot of fun and may now think that when she digs in the ground, she will find potatoes (everywhere)! "Diggin for potatoes??..." (phrased as a question) was the quote of the day!

Let me Count thy Ways

...to cook squash. Squash is like a weed. You can pick it on Monday and in just a few short days you have MORE squash! I previously mentioned the many ways I have prepared squash, but included some photos today.

Stuffed Squash:
1. Boil the whole squash for ~ 30 minutes (until you can somewhat easily puncture the skin with a knife)
2. Let squash cool
3. After the squash cools, cut each one in half (I used 4 squash)
4. Use a grapefruit spoon to clean out seeds/middle part

Stuffing:
1. Follow directions to prepare 1 box of Jiffy cornbread. (I used the cornbread mix, skim milk, 1 egg and cooked in an 8x8 pan so it was a bit thin.)
2. Begin a saute with 3/4 stick of butter, diced green onion (fresh from the garden) and celery (which I was out of so I used green banana pepper from the garden) I think bell pepper would be really good, but ours were too small to pick yesterday
3. Add parsley to the simmer with the butter, onion, and pepper (or celery)
4. Break up 1/2 the pan of cornbread with your hands in a mixing bowl
5. Pour in the saute mix and knead together
6. Add Cayenne pepper or red pepper (I added a bit too much red pepper for my taste, but Derek liked it)



Final:
1. Stuff the cornbread stuffing mix into each squash (Note: I added a little bit of the squash seeds, about 2 spoon fulls, to the stuffing mix to make it a bit more moist as well as another quarter of the pan of cornbread)
2. Option: lightly salt the entire squash once they are stuffed
3. Place in the oven for ~ 13 minutes at 300 degrees before you serve

Produce - ability

The garden has indeed grown! We have enjoyed squash, peppers, and green onions so far. We have our first zucchini that I plan to use for dinner tomorrow night, and I picked a coffee can full of green beans on Tuesday! The squash grows like a weed. We've enjoyed boiled, sauteed, and grilled squash in addition to my squash casserole and stuffed squash (Thanks Mom - stuffed is our favorite!)

I am anxious for our tomatoes to turn red! More photos to come soon!