CoTT 2 House of Cards

[Headstall]

5 minutes ago, dughlas said:

It's become very pleasant here. The sun is quite warm, hot actually, it's 88/31° but there is a breeze and the dewpoint has dropped into the mid-50's/13° making for very comfortable humidity. I'll shut off the AC and open the house once the sun has gone down.

I have my air off, and the breeze through the house is awesome. I had to block my bedroom door because it slammed shut a few times.   I was going to (carefully) paint the bottom of my dining room window today, but it's been one thing after another. I went to the drug store, and my prescription, which was supposed to be ready yesterday, wasn't, so I had to make two trips today. The kittens got into my work stall, and knocked everything off a top shelf, including four open containers of different sized screws. OMG! 

I had to email back and forth with Bitdefender, because they double charged me...

I received a vet bill in the mail for Cookie's Nexguard-Heartworm pills... I already paid. So I had to go through all my invoices with the girl on the phone... arghhhh

And so far, I've had three phone calls from friends... and one of them could talk the color off a peacock.   Okay... it was nice to hear from them, but there has gone my day. Hotter and possible rain tomorrow... 

Now I need to feed, take the laundry out of the dryer, and see about supper.   Oh yeah... my grass grew a couple of inches when I wasn't looking....  

[Valkyrie]

41 minutes ago, dughlas said:

Gee that sounds like every other Friday ... well, actually most days that you work.

Hey!    I resemble that remark   And yes, it's true. Some days more than others.  Especially days when good friends are due for a visit.   

[Valkyrie]

37 minutes ago, dughlas said:

It's become very pleasant here. The sun is quite warm, hot actually, it's 88/31° but there is a breeze and the dewpoint has dropped into the mid-50's/13° making for very comfortable humidity. I'll shut off the AC and open the house once the sun has gone down.

It's beautiful here.  It was sunny all day, but now there are some dark clouds moving in and the breeze has picked up.  It's in the low 70s, so absolutely perfect.  I actually have the windows open, which the cats love. 

[Valkyrie]

24 minutes ago, Headstall said:

 I had to block my bedroom door because it slammed shut a few times.  

[dughlas]

2 hours ago, Bucket1 said:

I am reading a book on gourmet camping food and in the forward the author describes how she refused to go camping because of the terrible food. Friends showed her the way to have “proper” food while camping and she has loved it ever since.

Growing up my family along with friends spent most summer weekends camping on some wooded ground my folks owned. We cooked over a wood fire supplemented by a propane stove. So I learned how to prepare a variety of foods.

I spoiled the boys in the scout troop. On one of our campouts to Cape Henelopen in Delaware I maded pineapple glazed baked ham in one of the dutch ovens. My own homemade baked lima beans in another and pan roasted potatoes in my two 12 inch cast iron skillets. The boys had spent the day from mid-morning until dinner time playing on the beach and in the surf. They were hungry. I fed them. One summer campout I made grilled strip steak (the local butcher sold them to me at cost because it was for the scouts) fresh grilled corn on the cob and parsley potatoes. If it was a winter campout and they were gonna be outdoors in the cold they got things like homemade baked chili, fusili and cheese casserole or homemade chili over cornbread. I was known to chase them out of the campsite for a night time hike in the falling snow and then serving fresh hot homemade apple crisp with vanilla ice cream when they got back. They learned how to make foil baked apples or bananas. They ate warm peach crumble made with fresh peaches. Not all meals were extravagant. There were plenty of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, hot dogs grilled over the open fire. They learned how to make foil pack meals with ground beef or ground chicken or turkey breast and sliced potatoes, onion and carrots. We usually served a cooked breakfast, bacon and eggs or hash made with homefries, sausage onions and eggs. Sometimes they got french toast or pancakes. Occasionally, I would surprise them with grilled stickybuns. The first thing they did after setting up their tents and my chuckbox was to mix up a five-gallon cooler of Tang and fill the other five-gallon cooler with drinking water and ice. Surprise the Tang cooler was orange and only ever used for Tang or lemonade. The water cooler was blue and only used for water. I always started the morning with a pot of fresh perked coffee for the adults, those guys would have drunk ditch water not me, I like good coffee so that's what they drank too and a second larger pot with hot water for tea or instant hot chocolate for the boys. Mocha was a popular morning treat for the older boys, 16+. That was typically made with a spoonful of instant coffee added to their hot chocolate but sometimes they got it the way I made it for myself, cocoa, milk and sugar stirred into fresh perked coffee.

Yep, I spoiled those boys. At one meeting after a campout one of the leaders told me I wasn't very popular with his wife. I served the boys my homemade potato soup on the campout. Seems that the first meal she prepared when they got home was potato soup. Eleven-yearold Greg took one taste of the soup and said "Mr. Frank's is better".

Edited August 9, 2019 by dughlas

[dughlas]

33 minutes ago, Headstall said:

The kittens got into my work stall, and knocked everything off a top shelf, including four open containers of different sized screws. OMG! 

Oh yeah... my grass grew a couple of inches when I wasn't looking....  

You have a clowder of kittens in the barn and open containers of screws?

My grass has grown too. I know this because I've been watching it.

[Page Scrawler]

2 hours ago, Valkyrie said:

There's nothing better than food cooked over a campfire.    

Even hot dogs taste better. I think a wood-burning fire gives them a smoky flavor. Smoked hot dogs...that would be something new to try.   

[Albert1434]

19 hours ago, Headstall said:

Oh oh... I think Albert's head just exploded... or something.  

[Valkyrie]

50 minutes ago, dughlas said:

Growing up my family along with friends spent most summer weekends camping on some wooded ground my folks owned. We cooked over a wood fire supplemented by a propane stove. So I learned how to prepare a variety of foods.

I spoiled the boys in the scout troop. On one of our campouts to Cape Henelopen in Delaware I maded pineapple glazed baked ham in one of the dutch ovens. My own homemade baked lima beans in another and pan roasted potatoes in my two 12 inch cast iron skillets. The boys had spent the day from mid-morning until dinner time playing on the beach and in the surf. They were hungry. I fed them. One summer campout I made grilled strip steak (the local butcher sold them to me at cost because it was for the scouts) fresh grilled corn on the cob and parsley potatoes. If it was a winter campout and they were gonna be outdoors in the cold they got things like homemade baked chili, fusili and cheese casserole or homemade chili over cornbread. I was known to chase them out of the campsite for a night time hike in the falling snow and then serving fresh hot homemade apple crisp with vanilla ice cream when they got back. They learned how to make foil baked apples or bananas. They ate warm peach crumble made with fresh peaches. Not all meals were extravagant. There were plenty of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, hot dogs grilled over the open fire. They learned how to make foil pack meals with ground beef or ground chicken or turkey breast and sliced potatoes, onion and carrots. We usually served a cooked breakfast, bacon and eggs or hash made with homefries, sausage onions and eggs. Sometimes they got french toast or pancakes. Occasionally, I would surprise them with grilled stickybuns. The first thing they did after setting up their tents and my chuckbox was to mix up a five-gallon cooler of Tang and fill the other five-gallon cooler with drinking water and ice. Surprise the Tang cooler was orange and only ever used for Tang or lemonade. The water cooler was blue and only used for water. I always started the morning with a pot of fresh perked coffee for the adults, those guys would have drunk ditch water not me, I like good coffee so that's what they drank too and a second larger pot with hot water for tea or instant hot chocolate for the boys. Mocha was a popular morning treat for the older boys, 16+. That was typically made with a spoonful of instant coffee added to their hot chocolate but sometimes they got it the way I made it for myself, cocoa, milk and sugar stirred into fresh perked coffee.

Yep, I spoiled those boys. At one meeting after a campout one of the leaders told me I wasn't very popular with his wife. I served the boys my homemade potato soup on the campout. Seems that the first meal she prepared when they got home was potato soup. Eleven-yearold Greg took one taste of the soup and said "Mr. Frank's is better".

I grew up in the Girl Scouts.  I started as a Brownie and went all the way through Seniors.  I even earned my Gold Award, which is the equivalent to Eagle Scout.  A big part of that was camping and learning how to cook using a campfire.  A lot of what you describe sounds quite similar to what we did.  I'll never forget a camping trip I took in college with my roomie and a friend of hers.  We hiked up and down one of the Adirondacks (the name escapes me at the moment) and camped along the way.  The first day was rainy and drizzly and cold and just generally miserable.  After almost a full day of hiking, we encountered a scout troop who had already set up camp.  The leader offered us a hot beverage and we gratefully accepted.  It was some sort of hot apple cider drink and it tasted like heaven.  I wish I had the recipe, although I suspect it wouldn't taste as good without the specific circumstances we were under. 

[Albert1434]

Aloha All 

[Albert1434]

It was funny I was in the cub scouts and my mother ran the group because no man would do it 

[Page Scrawler]

Those both sound better than what I went through at Cub Scouts. Never went camping or did any "projects" with our Scout mistress, unless you count the Popcorn Drive. Yeah, you heard me right. Our BOY scout troop was led by a WOMAN. I'm not saying that a woman can't lead...it's just that boys would relate better to a man, and maybe they'd have more respect for someone who doesn't sound like a nagging mom. As for the Popcorn Drive, I'm not sure what the money went towards, because we never seemed to see much of anything besides the occasional merit badge for some small "deed". Then she and her family moved to Wyoming before 4th Grade. I think she was replaced by the Pastor for a year or so, and it kind of turned into more of a Bible study group. By the end of 4th Grade, I was completely burned out, and I quit the whole mess. I think I learned more responsibility and discipline by cooking in the kitchen than I ever learned from Scouts. Ahhh, the joys of $h***y private schools....

[Page Scrawler]

9 minutes ago, Albert1434 said:

It was funny I was in the cub scouts and my mother ran the group because no man would do it 

It was someone else's mom who ran our Scout troop. The irony is, maybe having a man to relate to and keep things organized would have actually made it fun.

[Headstall]

1 hour ago, Valkyrie said:

  I'm not scared.  

[Headstall]

1 hour ago, dughlas said:

five-gallon cooler of Tang

OMG... Tang... my stepfather mixed up a pitcher of Tang every morning.  

[Headstall]

1 hour ago, dughlas said:

You have a clowder of kittens in the barn and open containers of screws?

My grass has grown too. I know this because I've been watching it.

Silly me... I thought putting them up high and keeping the door closed was safe.  

[Headstall]

17 minutes ago, Albert1434 said:

It was funny I was in the cub scouts and my mother ran the group because no man would do it 

Hey, Albert!  I was in cubs too, until we moved. 

[Valkyrie]

1 minute ago, Headstall said:

Silly me... I thought putting them up high and keeping the door closed was safe.  

[Albert1434]

Aloha Gary 

[Headstall]

1 minute ago, Valkyrie said:

Ahhh... that's what those flashes of light in the barn at night are.  

[Albert1434]

8 minutes ago, Headstall said:

  I'm not scared.  

But yes you are omg

 

[Albert1434]

Later I was in the 4H

[Albert1434]

Aloha Page 

[Albert1434]

Aloha Dughlas hope your well today 

[Albert1434]

Aloha Val