Stuffed Peppers

This was my reward for a day spent NOT fishing!

Stuffed Hot Banana Peppers!!!

I wish you could smell how wonderful they were.

And Green Bell Peppers for wifey.

I wish I would have taken a picture before we had supper, then you could have seen the nice big red hot peppers, they were exceedingly delicious and HOT. Real nice sinus cleaners!

I had many left over banana peppers from canning this year, so I cleaned and froze them with this in mind. I am glad I did. And of course we made enough for at least 2 meals. Energy saving and all that.

So instead of going fishing I spent an hour in the afternooon splitting firewood, with the wife stacking the wood and keeping me supplied with wood to split. (Sure was a lot easier 40 years ago) Cleaned out the chimney on the wood stove. And worked on the computer whenever I could. Scaning photo's and enhancing them for a dvd of my Dad's Navy service and looking up photo's and articles about the ship he was on (and getting distracted along the way to other interesting sites).

It was a nice warm morning so Wifey let the chickens out for a run around the yard and shoveled snow to make paths for them from one snow free spot to the next. I should have had the camera out as it was a very comical site as they followed her closely and encouraged her to shovel faster. And later to watch them running along the paths only to meet head on with other chickens, neither group wanting to give way or step off the paths. As the day grew warmer the paths got bigger and wetter as the snow melted in the 50 degree weather. When we put them away this evening we had a whole flock of Mud Hens. Nasty looking critters.

And tonight the days activities are telling on this poor old body, along with the evening rain and cool down ( I do so HATE cold damp weather, it makes all my muscles ache), so here I am, waiting for the pain pills to kick in and me to get drowsey enough to try to lay down.

But now I'm going to have to try to sleep for a couple hours, if I can.

Interview from Lisa

I follow Lisa's blog at Laughing Orca Ranch and a while back she was interviewed and posted a challenge. So I agreed to be interviewed by her; here are the questions she emailed me.


I dared you, and you dared me, and I dare you right back! hahah!



1)Talk about your proudest moment.

Well that is just too hard to choose. The day I was married? The birth of my first born? The birth of ALL 3 of my children? My accomplishments at teaching my Boy Scout Troop gun safety and marksmanship that impressed an Army Major? My work skills?

If I had to choose only one it would have to be the birth of my first child. You can read more about that here.



2)Talk about your most embarrassing moment.

Loosing my swimming trunks (well actually an old pair of my dad’s and they were too big for me) at the beach in Caseville when I was about ten and having to come out of the water naked to get my towel to wrap around myself.



3)If you could travel anywhere, where would it be?

This too is difficult, I would like to visit all of the places my Dad did in his service in the Navy. But I want to visit Ireland and Hungary the most. The lands of my ancestors.



4)Have you ever swam naked? Yes Where? The Cass River, the old Municipal Swimming Pool in town (Five of us guys from the trailer park pooled our money and rented the pool for a private 2 hour midnight swim. We weren’t there for more than a half hour when the much older teenage girl lifeguard came out and told us to leave as she had a date that night. We refused and she kept bugging us so someone took off their swimwear and threw at her. She ran screaming back into the office. Then we all started throwing our swimming trunks at her whenever she came back out of the office. We finally finished our swim and left a very mad lifeguard to go on her date.), the gravel pit behind the trailer park I grew up in, and the beach at Caseville.



5)How many pairs of shoes do you own? 5



6)What is the most daring thing you've ever done?

Daring or Stupid, you decide!
Way back when I was a teenager, fresh out of school and working in the next town, still living at home. On my way home from work one morning, I was jamming to the tunes on the radio, not paying any attention as to how fast I was going and as I came over a little hill I saw a County Sheriff coming at me. I looked down and saw the needle on the speedometer pushing 80. As we passed each other I knew from his look that I was in BIG trouble! Now I have no idea what possessed me to do it, other than thinking about how much trouble I would be in with my dad, but I floored it and headed for the nearest dirt side road. As I made the turn I saw flashing lights about a half a mile behind me. I headed for the nearest State Land thinking I would loose him on the hunting trails. After making a few more turns I hit this old bumpy dirt road and buried the speedometer. Nothing held the road like my '65 Dodge Dart. As I was making the turn I could see the flashing lights just a couple hundred yards behind me. While flying down the road kicking up all kinds of dust, I suddenly realized just what the heck I was doing. I was in deep do-do. Not only was breaking the law, but I was going against everything I had been taught. I was driving a pretty unique car and I was sure that the officer had gotten my plate number. As I was coming to the end of the road I knew what I had to do. I stopped to face the music. I looked in my rear view mirror and all I could see was dust. Fearing a rear end collision, I turned at the intersection and looked back. Nothing but clouds of dust, No Flashing Lights!!! I sat there waiting for the dust to clear and started worrying about the police officer, did he get in an accident trying to follow me? The first mile of this short road was bordered by pine trees, did he loose control and hit one? I backed up and headed back the way I had come, dreading to come upon the scene of a horrific accident. No sign of the police car anywhere. I drove back out to the main road....nothing. I sat there trying to figure out what I should do next, turn myself in or go home? Well I figured they knew where to find me, so I went home, expecting the cops to be there when I arrived. Nope. I told no one. I sat there waiting for them to arrive. They never came. I was harassed by State, County, and local police for a while after that with frequent pullovers to do safety checks on my vehicle, (it had been in an accident before I bought it and the rear end was messed up, but all of the lights worked) and they had told me that they were looking for someone with a car matching my description. Yeah RIGHT, I thought! Until one day when I found this other car and it was driven by a guy who looked a lot like me too, but older! It even had a banged up rear end like mine. As I pulled up next to him at the stoplight, I waved to him and he waved back. I wonder if he was stopped as often as I was?



7)What is the funniest thing you've ever seen?

Well this may not have been the funniest, but it was memorable.
About 20 years ago, I was at work at the grain elevator in Saginaw, running the bean plant, and standing in a doorway about 20 feet off the ground. I was looking out at the road about 100 ft. away, watching cars go by and waiting for my shift to end. Two older teen aged schoolgirls were walking down the sidewalk on the far side of the road, when a teenage boy in a car, pulled off the road right in front of me, to talk to them. They came to the side of the road and talked through the passenger side window. I don’t know what the conversation was about, but all of a sudden there was hollering and arm waving. The guy sped off and the girls walked out into the road screaming obscenities and flipping him the bird. Then one girl raised her shirt and bared her breasts at him. It was quite a show. I was laughing and clapping my hands when they finally spotted me looking down at them. They waved at me shyly and continued their walk.

Now if YOU are interested in being interviewed by Me, just send an email to gary_dillon@hotmail.com and I will be glad to make up some questions just for you.

Domestic Rabbit is Good Food

When we first got these bunnies it was in hope of using their droppings as garden fertilizer.
Now we are thinking of raising meat rabbits. We have been kicking around the idea for a while but after some serious fighting amongst our bucks 3 weeks ago, I butchered 2 of them.
I have raised rabbits as pets before, and never considered eating them. But I decided to try it and see how well I liked domestic rabbit meat. I have eaten wild rabbits and thought they were good, but somehow I had the idea that tame rabbit wasn't as good.

Boy was I wrong.

Since butchering them I have been waiting to cook them, trying to get over the fact of eating a pet. But it really is no different than eating our chickens. And surprisingly, I prefer them to our chickens.


I fried the bigger of the two for dinner last night. It dressed out at 3lbs. 11oz. (the other is 3lbs. 5oz.) and I was expecting it to be tough, as it was a lot older than the usual frying rabbit. I was wrong again.
My first bite was unbelievable. The fine grained meat was about as tender as chicken and had a delicate flavor. So much better than wild rabbit.


Before I did any cooking I went online and found some surprising information and some good recipes. One site was "My Bunny Farm" where I found this:





Domestic Rabbit Meat - Eat Better, Cleaner and Healthier!


Rabbit meat is an all white meat (as in pork chops, not chicken i.e.), fine grained, mild in flavor and can be substituted for any veal or poultry recipe. Rabbit meat is higher in protein, but lower in fat, uric acid, cholesterol, sodium and calories than any other meat. It is easily digested and a lot of doctors recommend rabbit meat when red meat is restricted in diets.

Very good news indeed. I am looking forward to making rabbit a staple food at our house.

So I am now planning on getting some meat breed rabbits, and plan on raising lots of them over the summer. A doe rabbit can be bred about once a month and the rabbits reach fryer stage at about 13 weeks old. I believe they are easier to butcher than chickens too. So look for more information on rabbits as my plans develop. I can hardly wait to try some of the recipes I found for rabbit meat: jerky, smoked, hamburg, sausage, BBQ'd, Oriental style, Creole, etc., etc., etc.

My Next Grandson

Meet my soon to be Grandson.

For lack of a name yet we will call him Vinny (my son wants to name him Vincent by his wife says "NO WAY").

This will be their first child and the first boy to carry on the family name.

My Dad will be very happy to hear this when we tell him Thursday after Eric gets out of work.

My Aden and Ethan extatic over the news and Angie wanted to be the first to blog about it but I stole the rights to that. I mean, after all, Very Happy Grandpa has to have some bragging rights!!!

Andrea and Eric came over last night and showed us these pic's of her 3 month ultrasound.

There son should be born around July 22, which is Eric's Birthday.

Peek-A-Boo Vinney.

Papa will be waiting for your arrival.

Almost-Spring Thaw

This is something you DON'T want to see when you are out driving.

In the field on the right hand side of the van, the ice that formed overnight was hanging about 6 inches up in the weeds. (darn camera was shaking so bad the picture turned out too blurry to post, no more medicine for it) The one below is pixilated from too much enlargement, but you can still see the darkened highwater marks on some of the trees.

The River was running over this bridge on the previous evening.

Turning around.

Let's check out the Park.

There were 2 wooden bathrooms at the other end of this pavillion.

There is a submerged road on the other side of the tree in the center of this photo, that runs to the right back along the river to the right of that cedar tree and into the woods.

Water over the road.

In the summer I sometimes fish from the bank about 15 feet behind this tree. Notice the debris on the 3rd rung of the ladder, that shows you how much higher the water was.

And Friday by 1:45pm the water receeded to about a foot under the bridge.

These pictures were taken early Friday afternoon. They closed the bridge Thusday morning after the melting snow from three days of temps over 50 and then rain all Wednesday afternoon and heavy rain during the night caused the river to flood over the road.

Wednesday I worked outside most of the day in the cold 40 degree temps and rain, Thawing out the septic line to the tank and having the tank pumped and then covering it all back up. Wednesday night I suffered from the consequences with terriffic muscle ache and pain. Thursday I continued to "Rock and Roll" with Mr.Pain and sleep with the help of modern medicine. Friday morning wifey wanted to go to the "Amish" store and in my drug induced hangover I agreed to go. Luckily wifey reminded me to take the camera.

On our way home we had to stop in Cass City to drop off some eggs and came upon this roadblock unexpectedly. We knew from TV that the North Branch of the Cass River had flooded over the road (it has a very short bridge) but had no idea that the South Branch had flooded too until we got there.

So we decided to stop by a few more bridges after our detour here.

These photos will give you an idea of how much water we are talking about. Some of them I took last summer to blog about. So here we go: These were taken at the Dodge Road Bridge about 8 miles from the bridge above;

From this

To this

And downriver

A little zoom

The pylons

And now the Cemetery Road Bridge halfway between the two

A close up looking upriver

and from the bridge

Down river

My Dad was transfered from the hospital in Saginaw Friday afternoon, to a Nursing Home in Cass City for physical therapy. Today he looked good and was in fine spirits. Once they get his medications under control and therapy started, I am hoping things will progress well so he can return home.

Not Ready Yet :{

Well my Dad is still in the hospital. Complications due to age, congestive heart failure, emphazima, Parkinson's Disease, and a urinary tract infection are keeping him from being moved to a medical care facility for physical therapy. And tonight he was moved to the Intensive Care Unit. He will get better treatment there and constant monitoring.

Then there is my DAUGHTER who is keeping me on my toes.

And finally a frozen septic system. Are all occupying my time and mind. Staying worn out mentally and physically seems to be my fate for now. BLACK IRISH LUCK don't ya know!!!

I have had time to butcher a couple of rabbits (1 for me to prepare at a future time when I can PLAN a meal. And 1 for Ang to try.) I had planned on doing this at an earlier date, but somehow never got around to it. The other day there was some fighting between 2 of my bucks so I eliminated both of them, leaving me with 1 male and 3 females. I hope I only need the 1 buck.
We lost one hen earlier in the winter but so far the rest seem to be doing ok, other than a few barebacked hens. The very cold weather has slowed down egg production some but not too bad. Out of 20 hens we get on average a dozen one day and a dozen and a half the next. The warm spell we have had the last couple of days has created another problem....WATER.
It is running into the chicken coop which sits in a low spot, so this summer I will have to do some landscaping to prevent this problem next year. So far the water hasn't reached the chicken's pen yet. But it is supposed to be close to 60 degrees tomorrow and rain.

So wish me luck, and I will try to catch up soon.
Thank you for all of the prayers and well wishes for my Dad and Daughter;
Gary

HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Dad pulled through the surgury very well !!!!
Thanks for all of the prayers, healing thoughts and well wishes, they MUST have helped!!!!
He still isn't out of the woods yet and we are praying for no further complications!!
I am going to crash and get some badly needed rest and relaxation.
I'll be back soon if all goes well, keep your fingers crossed!!!

Blogging Hiatus

Due to my ill health and my fathers ill health and recent broken hip I have been away from blogging for a while and will continue to be away for a little while longer. I hope to catch up soon.
Tomorrow is my dads surgury and he is only given a 50% chance of making it. So please bear with me a little longer. BBS