Tristan and Caleb's pine wood derby cars

These are the pinewood derby cars that Tristan and Caleb made for the derby coming up this tusday.  They asked me to do my majic to make them go fast----I have just finished polishing the axels and puting on the wheels and we hope for the best.......Tristans is the silver one and Caleb has the blue one.

I have included a picture of the red truck called BIG DADDY.   This truck is still talked about today at the church in New Jersey from the ward pinewood derby---Jason and I both built cars and both had much success beating the crap out of every one in the ward--as it ended up jasons car beat BIG DADDY by about an inch.......I have repolished the axels and it should improve even more and I will have Chad run it at their derby this Tuesday......

The end of the tomatoes....

As most of you know, we have a garden each year----Well, LaWanna has a garden each year and I get elected to help  YUK.....She does good but I am afraid if we had to depend on our garden for survival-----we would starve.     I think she does it because the profit tells us to.......ANYWAY, last year all thru the growing season we harvested very few totatoes but had large vines--about the end of september the tomato plants started putting on tomatoes, tons of them, but, in october when the growing season ends, we had tons of green tomatoes.   So we used an old indian trick (learned from Monna) and we picked every dang green tomato and ended up with 4 buckets full and we put them in used cardboard fruit separators, "from the produce section of Stater Brothers market. then we put them up in several closets where it is dark and cool and waited for them to ripen-----these are the last of  LAST  YEARS  tomatoes--pretty good huh. I guess they lasted for about 8 flapping months......WHAT A SAGA.   anyway, these are them---we have been eating last years tomatoes they ripen for months.....   

Moms sewing room tour---

What a fun day for LaWanna---She has worked for a couple weeks on making decorations and planning this sewing room tour to make it a special experience for all attendees.  And I could tell she was in her element.  She was having the time of here life with her friends in the sewing guild.....She made cookies that look like spools of thread and buttons and canvas bags that she embroidered on and filled with stuff and she made place settings with a piece of material, sisors, 4 buttons and some rick rack--an assignment came with this place setting that each person was to make something out of it and bring it to the next guild meeting------all the women loved it.  There was a total of 5 sewing rooms that they traveled to and then ended up at our place for the luncheon--LaWanna made home made rolls and potato cheeze soup and the others brought salads and deserts.   Here are the pictures that I took of the event--Take a look at how clean the cutting table is-----not likely to stay that way. ha ha  

#7 gopher and I think the last---

Well with the help of Ethel (bloodhound) I think I have cleared my place of all the gophers that have in the past caused much grief in my beautiful yard......This is number 7 and the meanest one--I had to use the winch on my quad to pull his carcus out of the hole---- I think they are all related because they all have a remarkable resemblence--ha ha
My neighbor has affectionatly called me "G O P H E R  K I N G" because this is the 7 gopher that I have caught in the past 3 or 4 weeks.......Looks like gopher gravy and biscuits for breakfast--Y U M    ha ha

I am anxious to see the results of the PINEWOOD derby tonite for Blake and his hotrod......I will post another blog with the results.......

More road side treasures

What a find!!!  here are a couple more road side treasures for Danny's mail box across the street the top one is what we called it at Edison, a cowboy nail----and the other is a piece of guy wire that has been cut when a new guy wire was installed.----------------------------When I think about it, both of these COULD be a valuable part of a robot.  ha ha

 

doug

Moms picture

Hope this comes out better for you Mindy--

dad

B L A K E' S pine wood derby car

Well I was lucky enough to be able to help blake cut out his pine wood derby car---I really like to do this and wish I could have helped Lincoln with his.   Maybe next time-------this is the design that Blake sent me so I hope he likes it----It will look much better with some paint and wheels-----

Time to make Chilli--

DOUG’S SECRET CHILI------MMMMMMMMMMM

2 tablespoons chili powder

2 tablespoons paprika

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon oregano

2 tablespoons black pepper

2 tablespoons granulated garlic or 4 cloves garlic (minced)

put all this into a bowl with 1 cup hot water and set aside—

4 lbs chopped or coarse ground beef—or combination of beef, pork, elk, deer, rabbit or chicken—also you can substitute some kind of MYSTERY MEAT—ha ha

1 large onion

1 14oz can whole tomatoes (can use cut tomatoes)

1 quart V-8 juice

¼ cup masa flour

1 7oz can diced green Ortega chilis

½ lb. mushrooms (chopped)

3 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

1 or 2 tablespoon cayenne pepper (optional)

brown the meat in a skillet and discard the juice—dump the meat into a pot—dice onion and sauté the onion and mushrooms in the skillet and dump them in the pot with the meat—add the tomatoes, juice and all, the V-8 juice and the diced Ortega chilis—add the spices to the meat and simmer all this for about 30 minutes—take out about ½ cup of the chili juice and mix it with the masa flour to make a rue and dump it into the pot—add pepper flakes and cayenne pepper to taste……..

I thought I would sent this recipe because I am getting a lot of   MYSTERY MEAT------(hate to see it go to waist)

In this case the MYSTER MEAT  is gopher-----ha ha     I did catch my 6th distusting gopher today, as you can see he is a handsome critter.....ha ha      Altho I don't really think  gophers are fitting for MY chilli....ha ha       

more roadside treasures--

Well, today was a very fruitful day as far as finding roadside treasures is concerned----these are the findings from todays 2 mile walk.....a 11/4" used PVC cap----a gas line marker brush---and a slightly bent up door nob striker plate........I think Danny will be getting the gas pipe location brush on his mail box tomorrow......ha ha

Roadside treasures

As most know, for the past 26 years mom and I have walked 2 miles every morning to the tracks and back.  We find things along the way--most things we find are parts of something and most broken and to some just worthless things----B U T, I have made it a practice of putting these roadside treastures on Rhonda and Danny's mail box in an effort to share the treasures of the road with our great neighbors.  Thsi is the latest of these treasures for Danny----- What a treasure, wouldn't you agree?  It looks like a large washer with a nut welded on to it----a true treasure that Danny will love.......ha ha ha

Moms wooden thread spools.....

Mom is doing a sewing guild sewing room tour this month--they will end up here for a luncheon and of course mom wants to decorate really cool----she hasn't got any old wooden thread spools and wants some to do    S O M E T H I N G   with.  Sooooo she asked me to make her some spools..........

I know that there are some spools inside these 2" X 4" s somewhere--I just have to find them................I took cut them and put them on the tayth and what do you know?  I found  them.....................................and here they are-----------------------ha ha

My sweet old Jeep---

Well this is  my cheep jeep that I drug out of a field that it was sitting in for 10 years----with a little work I was able to kill 43 black widow spiders, a saquirl nest, 23 pounds of leaves and some other unidentified crap and get it running pretty dang good and everything works well on it........thought you might like to take a peek at it before I paint it with spray cans and maybe "when you all are around" a little jeep ride........ha ha

Dougs secret backed beans---

Well, this is my first attempt at blogigng------hope you try these beans and enjoy them as much as most people that have been here for a BBQ......

doug

                Dougs Secret Baked Beans

6  16oz cans pork and beans (drained)

1  lb  bacon

½  onion

1/2  cup molasses (preferred black strap)

 2 tablespoons yellow mustard

 1 tablespoon dry mustard

 2 tablespoons worchestershere

 2  cups dark brown sugar

Fry bacon and dump grease—chop and sauté onion---put all this stuff in crock pot till all is hot and stirred together.