Wind Farming

 I traveled with my brother's family to the Texas State Swim meet in Corpus Christi. On our way home, their oldest son wanted a closer look at the Wind Farm near Taft, Texas. We were able to pull over and get a fairly close look at one. They are HUGE! There are nearly 196 wind turbines on the "farm".

 All turbines are approximately 262 feet high and have 2 blades. They have a maximum rotation speed of 22 rotations per minute.  The majority of the electricity is sold to the Lower Colorado River Authority and CPS Energy which is owned by the  City of San Antonio.

They were interesting, but I am glad that I don't have them lining the horizon near me. 
Y'all come back, 
Lorilee

Wine Bottle Torches

It rained all day last Sunday. It was a perfect day for working on torches on the patio. I robbed the bottle tree for a few choice wine bottles. We bought the supplies at Lowe's.(The ceiling flange, split ring hanger, cap, reducing coupler, and teflon tape were all in the plumbing department.) Not shown is the torch fuel and spray paint we used to paint the ceiling flange and the threaded rod. We also needed a hacksaw, screwdriver, and pliers. You can find a full tutorial here. It would have been nice to have a bench vise to hold the rods while cutting them with the hacksaw. (That was definitely my husband's job.) He did most of this project. I wrapped the reducing couplers with the teflon tape for a snug fit in the wine bottle and filled them with torch fuel.

So far, we have two on the patio and one on the front porch.
Y'all come back,
Lorilee

Beach II

 This house has always fascinated me. Well, most old houses fascinate me, but this one is definitely a favorite.  This is Oakhurst, now known as Fulton Mansion located in Rockport/Fulton.

 It was built in 1877 to withstand hurricanes with 8"  thick wood (constructed by stacking and spiking pine planks) and shellcrete walls. The kitchen was in the basement. It was the only house in the area to have gas lighting, central heating and running water. The water was stored in cisterns in the basement. The water was hand-pumped into a cistern above the tower room. Gravity took it to the bathroom that included a flush toilet.

 I highly recommend stopping by for the one hour tour when in the area. My family, however, is not as enthusiastic as I am. They took their time walking to the entrance!

 They sat on the porch and waited for the tour to begin. I wandered around looking into the basement windows!

 THEY were anxious to get to the water. Floating was their goal! I floated, but discovered that I feel the effects of the motion negatively! I did OK as long as I floated on the boogie board on my tummy facing the waves. Pretty pathetic!

Of course, the laughing gulls had to be fed. Brian had to demonstrate for his Dad how the gulls would take the bread from his hand or the top of his head. The beach wasn't as pretty this trip. There was lots of seaweed washing ashore. Of course, that is preferable to tarballs or jellyfish!
Y'all come back,
Lorilee

10 hour power outage and Salsa Verde

I sure wish I could keep up and post in REAL time. I seem to run days behind. It seems there is either nothing worth mentioning or no time to mention it! Also, I returned home from clogging practice last night to find that my garage door opener didn't work. I left the trailblazer on the driveway and went inside the front door. It was sure dark and warm. I was informed that there had been a lightning strike VERY nearby, and we lost power around 5:45. I had left around 5 and it was now after 8. David and I had leftover potato salad and coleslaw for supper while sitting outside on our front bench! When we still had no power at 9:30, David pulled the generator out of the garden shed while I gathered the extension cords, fans and a floor lamp. We ran an extension cord through the window and fixed ouselves up with a lamp and fans so we could go to bed. David got up for work at 2:30 a.m. and still no power. There were trucks on our street. I went outside to look for myself since I hadn't been sleeping well anyway. The men climbed the poles and did something around the transformer behind our house and the one a few houses down. That did the trick. TEN hours later power was restored! I returned inside and turned off all the lights that were on when the power went out and went back to bed!
So, that said, I will backtrack and attempt to catch up through the next several posts. Last Saturday, I finally made the Salsa Verde that I had been contemplating. All the ingredients were finally gathered, and I learned some new things in the process. For example, I learned that long green chilies is another name for Anaheim peppers. They are also milder than jalepenos. I also learned how to roast them. After much googling I found a recipe here http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/harvest/msg0712353015673.html that sounded good.

Then I found great instructions for roasting the peppers on the grill here. http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2009/09/how-to-roast-anaheim-green-chiles-on.html

Here are my Chilies all roasted and readied to be covered with plastic wrap.

I removed the husks from the tomatillos and washed them. They tend to be sticky.

May the chopping commence! I had never seen inside a tomatillo before!

All of my ingredients-tomatillos, Anaheim chilies, jalepenos, onions, and garlic were combined and simmered. I did not use oregano, but I did add plenty of fresh Cilantro during the last minute of cooking.

MMmmmm good!

The recipe!

5 cups chopped tomatillos

1 1/2 cups seeded, roasted and chopped long green chilies (Anaheim)

1/2 cup seeded, finely chopped jalepenos

4 cups chopped onion

1 cup lemon juice

6 cloves garlic, minced

3 TB oregano (I used lots of fresh cilantro instead)

1 TB cumin

1 TB salt

1 tsp black pepper

Combine all ingredients (except cilantro) in a large pot and stir frequently over high heat until mixture begins to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring often. Add the chopped fresh cilantro at the last minute. Ladle hot salsa into jars, leaving 1/2 " headspace. Add lids and rings and process in boiling water canner for 15 minutes. Yields 3 1/2 pints.

Y'all come back,

Lorilee

The Beach or Bust!

My 16-year-old decided he wanted to go to Port A. Of course, HE wanted to drive himself and his girlfriend in the jeep. NOT. Even with a GPS I wouldn't trust him not to get lost. Actually, I JUST wouldn't trust him! That frontal lobe is still lagging in development. SO, I took the two of them earlier this week.He had been there before, but he was too young to remember! I am more of a freshwater kinda girl! Give me the lake any day! (He is chasing a laughing gull-above)We were just down from the ship canal. I think it is neat the way the ship looks "beached"!

I told him not to toss a bread crust to the one gull that was hovering nearby, but he didn't listen. Within seconds they were surrounded by gulls!

AWWWW, young love!

They had to give sandcastle building a half-hearted try!

This was my "home" for the day! Not much shade there. Luckily, the seabreeze kept us cool.

My self-portrait. This is ALL I'll show in a bathing suit! haha

Heading home on the ferry, we saw a dolphin.

Good-bye sand, waves, gulls, ferries and Port Aransas.

Y'all Come Back,

Lorilee

Daylight shortage!

I recently made my first Etsy purchase! I got this sweet apron that converts into a bonnet from Paula's Fraker Farms Etsy shop. Here is her post about it.
Receiving it in the mail was a highlight of my week! Otherwise, life is busy, but daylight is short! Our central air/heat had major issues. Now we have a new unit. The teenager is down with an upper respiratory infection and on antibiotics. Not good material for blogging about with accompanying photos anyway! So I searched the archives for some "sunnier times".
Definitely sunnier here. I see the sunburns. (This was building the playset in the backyard)

Oh, sweet summertime. There's nothing like mud between your toes and pond grass wrapped around your body while taking a dip in the catfish pond!

More sunburns! My youngest and his cousins loved to pull a wagon full of big buckets up and down the street and collect toads.

Yes, they are wearing rollerblades that are much too large for them.

Cupcake time.

One of the trips to Goose Island State Park! The boys love crabbing.

Mmm watermelon that Paw Paw and Grandma grew!

The watermelon after the raccoons reached into the ice chest.

A last photo before saying good-bye to that camping trip.

I'm kinda wishing for summer right now!

Y'all come back,

Lorilee

To Grandmother's House we went

Brian (teenager) and I went to my Grandma's house to help clean inside her kitchen cabinets. It has been awhile since I've helped with that job, but it was a summer tradition when I was growing up. She was in a "cleaning out " mood and gave me several boxes of dishes, AND she still has LOTS in her cabinets! Above are some Fire King saucers.

-glass coasters,

Forest Green glasses and pitcher,

Queen Mary bowls, (Grandma used these for homemade icecream!)

Old Cafe bowl,

Queen Mary divided dish,

Forest Green, but I don't know the pattern...

blue cups and saucers, another pattern I can't identify...

more bowls, this time I think the pattern is Burple,

A bowl marked "Maddux" and 1959...

Opalescent Hobnail dish,

Jelly or jam serving set,

Covered Compote.

I think I inherited my love of dishes from my Grandma Bessie! If I have any patterns incorrectly identified or you know a pattern that I didn't identify, please let me know.

Y'all Come Back,

Lorilee