Sweep the Kitchen Granola

My recipe for Sweep the Kitchen Granola:

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups Old Fashioned Oats
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1 cup sweetened coconut
3/4 cup dried blueberries
1 1/4 cups dried cranberries
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (1stick) salted light butter
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a large bowl, mix together the oatmeal, pecans, coconut, blueberries, cranberries, and cinnamon. Feel free to add more or different nuts and dried fruit. (I used up small packages in my cupboards.)

Then heat brown sugar, butter, and water in a small pan until mixture begins to bubble. Take off stove and add salt and vanilla.

Stir butter/sugar mixture into dry granola until everything is good and wet.

Let the mixture rest for 10 minutes. Then spread granola on baking paper covered cookie sheet.

Bake for 25-30 minutes in a 350 degrees F oven until brown.
(Mine was still too moist, so I "teased" it with a fork and shoved it back into the oven for 5 more minutes or maybe do that a couple of times until it tastes the way you want it. It continues to brown on the bottom after leaving the oven, tho'. So beware.)

Then let it cool and store in a sealed container. Mine is going to the freezer, since this is a lot of granola. Won't it be yummy on my homemade Greek yoghurt? Maybe I will not need too much honey!

Yielded exactly 8 cups/2 quarts granola.

What Do You Like The Most?

My title today sounds very childish, but the humorous article on Huffington Post is even more so. Read it and have a good laugh this cold, wet winter morning.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/01/08/1416271/americans-prefer-cockroaches-traffic-jams-and-nickelback-to-congress/?mobile=nc

Tribal Feeling

Several times since we joined this community we have been invited to participate in a local church's celebrations. Every single time I have left these "events," I have asked myself, "what was that?"

Last night was not an exception. Our neighbor's son and wife are leaving next week for a two year missionary stint in eastern Africa. The event last night was their commission. For a couple of weeks my Dutch hub has been asking me what this means to have a "commission." As a long time Christian, I guess I should have known. But as usual the locals always either prove me wrong or surprise the heck out of me.

Most of the ceremony was churchlike, and the young pastor, as usual, showed us all how sharp and knowledgeable he is about "The Bible." In fact, his interpretation of the Old Testament reminds me of my favorite childhood minister. We also learned all about the two year challenge from our friend who is leaving in one week. So that was informative.

Then it happened! A mass of deacons and pastors of other churches (all men) crowded around the missionary couple and prayed. From where we were sitting, I could not see my former tutoring colleague and her author husband. They were surrounded by mostly elderly men. All at once I felt that I was transported to a village tribal meeting in Africa where only the "elder" men participated.

Not a good feeling for me.

No Chicken Coop Today

My hub, our dog Flip, and I took a short drive today in the pouring rain to see a chicken tractor.  Actually it is a chicken coop with two wheels.  Five good looking chickens were picking the grass while enclosed in the wooden and wire cage.  A few "free range" fowl were enjoying the damp grass and mud outside the pen.

We had seen this particular chicken tractor for sale on Craigslist a couple of nights ago.  After emailing to determine if it was sold yet, we were contacted by the owner that we could come out anytime and see it. So in the downpour of rain this midday, we went out into the "real" country to see if this was what we are looking for.

This morning before I even phoned the young man for an address and a definite appointment, I began to think about how I sometimes do not even want to take care of our beagle.  What would it be like to take care of chickens?

But we went out to see it anyway.

Last evening before bed, my hub and I had discussed that the asking price was about $100 more than the coop was worth.  You could tell from the photo on Craigslist that the coop was bought as a kit, and we could do that! Then our chicken tractor would be new. Poop free!

But we went out to see it anyway.

The rain came, the ground was sopping, and the young man was full of information and very nice. But the moment my hub mentioned that the price was too high for something he could put together himself, the young man said he stood by his price of $350. We reminded him that he had advertised it for $300 on Craigslist. So, I guess he wasn't really trying to sell his chicken tractor anyway.  I thought that when you are dealing, you try to get close to the bid, not farther away!

No hard feelings on either side, but we did not purchase the chicken tractor. No worries for me, and I hope the young man finds a buyer.

Somehow I do not think he learned much about making business deals from us. Or is that the modern way?

Sharing

Our adult son shared the following blog post with us.

It is an iPhone contract for a teenage son. Actually it should apply to all of us!
I am sharing it with my followers.

Thank you, Janell Burley Hofmann

http://www.janellburleyhofmann.com/gregorys-iphone-contract/

Bricks in Order

To say that we are busy with bricks is an understatement.

Remember I scrubbed the bricks on the floor.

Today my hub stacked other bricks around our live oak trees. We both had to do a lot of stooping and squatting, but he worked mostly on his knees. Thanks to brick layers' kneepads, he may have saved his knees.

He plans to "ring" both trees, so he is at the halfway point.

Maybe tomorrow? That is, if he can still move ;)

The first photo is the tree to do tomorrow.
The second is the professionally completed job of the first tree today :))))
What a great job!

Frogs on High

It rains. It rained. It will rain.

We are high and dry, and so are the frogs. This morning I saw the cutest frog clinging with his little sucker feet to the glass on the porch door. He was high up, since we have had almost constant rain since midnight.

After  4 1/2 inches of rain, everything is drenched. And our pond is now up onto our yard.

Global weather changing or just Louisiana New Years?

This is a shot from the levee overlooking the flooded pond and our house in the distance.
Our walkpath alongside the pond is completely covered with water. Immediately in the foreground is the spillway, and normally it is dry.

The second photo is NOT the pond, but the overflow pond on the "landing strip" between our new levee and the old drainage pipe (camouflaged middle left in photo). So actually we have two ponds.

This third photo is on the paparazzis' land. Now they have a pond, whether they want it or not! Thanks to lots of taxpayer money!

Best Wishes in 2013!