Stuff

Just a few things .....

Ken and I were noticing today that Muggins is calmer. Now, she's half poodle, hence, genetically predisosed to being high strung. For the last month or so, we've been feeding her raw meat, and I've noticed a calmer dog, who's less prone to barking at things like bluejays that have the nerve to fly past. She hasn't gone to have her anal glands "expressed" yet, so I can't comment on that for another couple of weeks.

I've fixed the soapmaking blog, but meanwhile, I've made some pretty funky soaps. I'm binge soapmaking. I made a fresh ocean scented soap with pumice in it to give a nice gentle scrub. I made a delightful one I'm calling Pink Silk that has a lovely girlie scent, is coloured pink and I added shea butter and silk powder to it - yum! Yesterday, I made the coolest seaweed soap, with tiny peices of seaweed in it, which is awesome for your skin and it smells just like the beaches by the ocean. Today, I made cocoa butter soap and scented it with chocolate. (ooooh!!) and a coconut cream soap that's got shea butter and is scented with vanilla and coconut. (aaaaah)

Anyway, I've just finished making a turkey soup and some vanilla bean and orange peel ice cream. Now I think I'll go and practice my fiddle ... and my flute, we have a concert on Friday.

Yet another blog has been created

Ok, so I've started another blog. I figured it was a good way to keep in touch with customers about soapmaking. It will mostly be soap related, but you're welcome to look at it. I did some fancy stuff ... like a recipe file at the bottom of the page and a notice about the recipe file on the right hand column above the links.

Anyway, check it out. The current post is the one I put on here yesterday.

Soapmaking Adventure

So today I decided to make some luxury soap and created a de-lovely recipe. I put in about 50% olive oil for conditioning, 40% coconut oil for a fluffy lather and a hard bar, and 10% palm oil for moisturizing and a stable lather. I decided to add mango butter at the very end, so it acts as a moisturizer, mango fragrance and some paprika for a pretty orange speckled look. One thing I didn't add into the equation was that I have made exactly the same recipe for hundreds of test batches of soap, and this is nothing like that simple, basic coconut oil and Crisco recipe.

I stirred and stirred, but it looks different in the process than my usual test recipe ... panic sets in "Did I screw up the when I weighed the ingredients??"

As I approached the end, I thought, oh, okay the olive oil is making it look different, I didn't screw up. I added my paprika and fragrance and the grand finale was the mango butter. My soap was at the point where it must go in the mould NOW and I realized "Yikes ... I forgot to melt the mango butter!!". I quickly popped it in the microwave for 30 seconds, trying not to let the batch go past the point of no return ... 30 second wasn't enough!! Another 60 seconds .... Finally I got it into the waiting soap pot and stirred it in. My beautiful soap had gone from a lovely yoghurt texture to thick mashed potatoes. Instead of pouring it into the moulds, I scooped it in.

It looked yucky and I couldn't get the top to a smoothe flat surface. So, got lemons, make lemonade, I swirled the heck out of the top surface and I guess I'll call it Mango Souffle Soap. The top is all poofy looking.

It should be a really pretty bar of soap when all is done.

Gourmet Supper

Well last night we had our French theme gourmet supper and it was great. We sent 48 people home absolutely full. It was a terrific fund-raiser for our group. We made just over $400.

This is the third international gourmet supper we've done. The first was Italian, the second Greek. They both had seating for forty guests, but this one we increased it to forty eight guests. That's as many as we can comfortably fit in the room. The tickets sold out well in advance.

Aside from the up-beat social atmosphere, the decor was very French. The tables had candles, little flags of France, and flowers with ribbons on the vases in the colours of the flag, there was also a menu on each table tied with ribbon the colours of the flag.

Here's what we served:

Appetizers
Paté - made with chicken livers sounds gross but totally awesome !
Quiche Lorraine - little tiny quiches
Camenbert Normandie - cheese with a red pepper jelly & crackers

Soup
Crème Vichysoisse or Bean Soup

Entrée
Boeuf Bourguignon
Pasta with a Butter Sauce
Green Beans with Roasted Red Peppers and Almonds
Baguette


Crème Brulée

People are already asking about the next one. We haven't decided on the theme yet though.

My Surprise Party

Well Friday my friends had a surpise party for my birthday. They really tried to pull it off, but I guess I'm suspicious. I told Ken last week that I suspected that it, but he denied any knowledge, as he should have.

There were seventeen people there and a ton of food ... pot lucks here are awesome! I got a bunch of cards and several really nice gifts and lots of hugs. What a terrific group of people.

Tonight is our gourmet french supper. Thre will be 48 people there and five of us have made all the food and we'll have four servers helping today.

Should be fun.

Colours

Having just read my last post, I'm trying to decide which colour looks best with this particular colour scheme. I kind of liked the blue, but it's a bit harsh with the lovely pinks. The palette is limited, I thought this might help me to see it in place. Comments?

Gourmet Cooking

So, tomorrow we start. Five friends and I are cooking a gourmet supper for 48 people. We've done two in the past each for 40 people, but the tickets have been in high demand so we increased the number.

The first one was an Italian Gourmet Supper. No holds barred, we had every little detail covered. The second one was a Greek Gourmet Supper. Same thing, flowers and candles on the tables, international flags on the tables - awesome. This time it's a French Gourmet Supper.

It's gonna be great. Everything fome little tiny quiches, to beef bourguignonne, to crème brulée. It will be trés chic.

So tomorrow the cooking starts. I'm looking forward to it.

Motherhood

Kids. When do they stop being your kids? When they were little I remember thinking about how when they got older, this problem or that problem would go away. I was right, they did go away, but there were always new little ones to take the place of the old ones. They seemed to get bigger along with the kids.

I’m writing this from a mother’s perspective, I can’t speak to that of a father, but, I’m thinking it can’t be very different. Under the umbrella of the mother’s perspective is step-kids, grand-kids, and similar, but not quite as strong, siblings kids, and friends’ kids. I suppose that at 50 years old, with kids 30 years old, who have kids 10 years old, it just goes on and on. And backwards too, I forgot to mention the parents of 70, who are just one generation back with exactly the same perspective.

I see my adult "children" as they experience some of the really tough things life has to offer and I want to fix it. As I watch them struggle, I want to take it away, give them a cookie or put on a band-aid and have them smile and forget about it. Life is trickier than that.

I want to tell them what they "should do" according to my thoughts and perspective, but they have their own thoughts and perspectives and they need to be happy with their own lives and choices. They know their personal situations, children, spouses intimately, while I only watch what they allow me to see. I only hear what they want to tell me. That’s as it should be. They are adults and if I’ve done my job of raising them to be adults, they can take care of themselves. They have to answer to themselves as they lay in bed at night thinking just before they go to sleep. But I still lay in bed at night and worry about them as if they were in the next room in a crib wearing diapers. That never goes away.

The flip side of the coin is that I cannot express my joy as I see them experience some of the wonders life has to offer. Like seeing them having their own children and watching this same feeling I describe today in them. Like seeing them watch proudly as they speak of their own children’s newly learned skills. Like seeing them achieving their goals and finding personal fulfilment in their education or their jobs.

I remember when I was in my teens and suffering the heartbreak of a break-up. There was a man who at that time seemed elderly, who worked with me. He told me that the road of life has ups and downs. You need the downs to appreciate the ups. How can you know what joy is if you don’t know sorrow? I have never forgotten that wisdom.

So as I helplessly watch my kids travelling the hills and valleys of life, I know the sun will come up tomorrow. Things will get better when they’re in the valleys and things look impossible, but they can expect a wonderful glimpse from the tops of the hills. They can anticipate the surprise of the curves and excitement of forks in the road on the way too. As a mother, I can only hope that I have taught them how to travel the road of life.

Rawfeeding dogs

We have a cute little cockapoo (cocker-spaniel poodle cross). She's the blonde, her best friend Sammie is a Lhasa-poo. I might have mentioned before that she's probably the cutest and smartest dog that ever lived. Recently she had an abcessed anal gland. Nasty stuff. Anyway, I thought what Socrates said makes sense for dogs too. He said, "Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food." It seems to me that over the past hundred of so years, we've started feeding dogs non-food. They are the same species as wolves, should they not eat the same?

Have you heard of wolves eating corn, wheat, veggies in the wild? Do they sit around the fire turning little pieces of meat on a spit? No they are carnivores. They eat raw meat and bones. Their digestive system is designed to handle that. Do they sneak up on the farmer's cornfield and hungrily tuck into an ear of corn? They can't digest vegetables or fruit, the intestine is too short. Cattle even have two stomaches to handle that. Canines have no worries about salmonella and e-coli, that's a human issue. So I thought, I'll check into rawfeeding our little wolf.

I've ordered a book from amazon.com to read up on it. I've started using a dog-food that you serve mixed with raw meat. I joined a Yahoo list group on rawfeeding. Now I'm pretty open-minded about things. However, I'm having some difficulty with some of the food choices on this list.

Raw ground beef, chicken, pork, lamb, stuff like that, not an issue. Raw eggs with shells, easy. Raw chicken legs with the bones - I'm working up to that one. Even raw beef ribs with the bones - not quite there yet. Buy a frozen rabbit and let them have at it in the back-yard, ok that's starting to push the edge of my comfort zone. Then they started to mention mice. Whole mice. Ok, I know that dogs are carnivores and that means eating prey, but I just can't go there. Call me squeamish if you like.

I think that feeding kibble is not really natural, even when they are made with human grade wholesome foods. When I see the gusto with which Muggins is now eating raw meat, I believe it's the right thing to do. It seems natural. There are no chemical additives. However, while I'm adjusting to this new way of feeding her, I add some stuff called Urban Wolf that has some fruit and veggies finely ground up and added. I do this for myself, it isn't a dietary requirement for her according to all the research I've read so far.

So as this all settles in, I'll keep you posted on how it progresses. I'm watching for two things. She consistently has dark tears in the corners of her eyes that seems like it shouldn't be happening, but the vet and the groomer say, don't worry about it, lots of dogs have it. Back to Socrates quote again. Is it our interfering with their food that is the root of the problem?

The other thing I'm looking for is the anal glands to clear themselves naturally. They are part of the digestive system so the food has to be an issue. Again, the vet says, it's common in small and overweight dogs, just bring her in every six to eight weeks and we'll force what's plugging them out. I have never heard of a wolf having to go to the doctor to have the anal glands "expressed" on a regular basis. What's different with them ... back to the food.

Here ends my rant. As I learn more and watch for the results, I'll keep everyone posted. Muggins, Bon Appetit.

AdSense revisited

I'm curious. I've been watching the ads they put up on here. There have been some good ones on violins and fiddling (I'm thinking about eventually getting a Coda Bow so it's good to know who's out there). I've seen some on other topics of no interest to me. On Jan 28th weekend there's the dogsled derby in Haliburton. The have dogsled racing and other activities. Susan (see link to Mushing Mum) has dogs and a dogsled. I'm wondering if mentioning that will get some dogsled ads on my blog. Just curious. Do you think I've mentioned dogsledding enough to trigger it?? Check out Susan's blog for dogsledding pics. http://mushingmum.blogspot.com

Devon's Blog

Great blog Devon. You always were a social bug, what a list of people! I didn't realize till I read your blog, how long-winded you are!

I do have to set the record straight though. Let me tell the "story" of the camping a little more accurately. First of all, all morning long Cam, Devon and Jen are at the beach, at the tent, at the beach, at the tent. Fianlly, we stayed at the campsite for a while to have lunch then they headed back to the beach before I did. The three of them were in the water as I approached, hollering, "Hey Ma, c'mon in, it's great!" People are all staring to see who is the target of their yelling. As I'm crossing the beach, I whip my t-shirt over my head and when it's up around my elbows, realize that I had taken off the top of my bathing suit at the tent. I pulled my shirt back down and beat it into the water accompanied by stares, gasps and laughter. I thougth the three of them would drown laughing.

After I got in the water it occurs to me that I'm wearing a white t-shirt with nothing under it, so I sent Devon back to the tent to get my bathing suit top, which she reluctantly did. As she came back on to the beach again, she waved my top over her head hollering "I've got your bathing suit Ma!" much to the entertainment of everyone. Once again, stares and laughter.

That's what life is like with Devon. Doing anything with her is an adventure. I won't go into the night I worked at the bar with her and the some of the comments she made.

There is no question in my mind that I'm as proud as hell of you Devon and I'd pick you for a friend in a heartbeat.

Love, Mum

The blind leading the blind

I got a phone call yesterday from a man who lives in the area. He has been given his great grandfather's violin and wants me to teach him to play it. Me!?! I explained that I'm self-taught, except for three lessons and I've only been learning since July. I told him that I could teach him what I've learned about holding the fiddle and the bow, and maybe we could work on a couple of songs together. but that's the extent of my expertise. He was ok with that and is quite happy that I'm going to help him.

Fortunately, he's away till the end of January, so I have some time to get ready. I guess the good thing is that it means I have to put some thought and effort into what we'll do and how to go about teaching the little bit that I know. This means I will end up learning from the experience too.

Did I mention that I'm also helping a close friend learn to play the flute? At least I've got a year and a half of experience with that and I've been playing it with the concert band for most of that time, so I feel as if I have something to offer.

My Profile

I have yet to figure out how to add my picture to my profile, so I'm gonna try this one. We'll see if it works. This is me and Muggins the day we got her, She's a little bigger now, by 12 1/2 pounds. I just really like the picture. So here goes. Watch for it in my profile.

AdSense

Well, they've gone!! All the kids have left. No noise, no wrestling, no teasing, no stealing GameBoys, no playing Pit or Balderdash, but most important of all, no food left! Hokey Dinah, can that gang eat! So, that having been said, I decided I needed to make some money to pay for all the food they ate, so I signed up for AdSense.

You see the ad at the top of this page? Well that's gonna make me rich! People will click on the advertisements and Google will pay me money. Gotta like that, eh? I don't know how they decide what ads to put there, but I'm guessing that if I say something about our skating rink, they'll put up ads for skates or hockey sticks or if I talk about music, they put up ads for musical instruments.

Now I just have to blab away and then sit back and wait for the bucks to roll in. Life is good! Good thing I just have to sit back, I'm suffering a Balderdash injury. Not an easy thing to acquire. While playing Balderdash, I bent over to pick something up off of the floor and apparently I pinched a nerve in my lower back. Aging sucks.

So now I've mentioned hockey sticks, skates, games like Balderdash and Pit, back injuries, aging, GameBoy, music and musical instruments, better toss in my Selmer Bundy flute, Wildwood Troubadour banjo and my Ifshin violin with Dominant strings (or fiddle), oh hold on, did I mention my GoldTone Banjola? We'll see what ads they pick to put up and make me one of the wealthy dot com people.

All for now.
Let the earning begin.

Things settle down

Ok, so Christmas and New Year's is behind us. Two of our grandsons have been here for the week along with our two step-kids ... well adults now. Can you say step-adults?

This is a picture of my daughter and two grandson's ... I love this picture it was taken Christmas Day. What a bunch of hams.








On New Years Day the boys came to stay with us for a week. Since then we've been playing games, doing sudoku puzzles and hanging around outside. The weather was lovely, sunny and right around 0 degrees C ... Here's a picture of Grandpa making a rink and one of the boys playing in the snow. .












This is the other three hanging out after using snow skates, a toboggan and a flying saucer.












Tomorrow it's back to real-life. They all go home and our normally quiet life resumes till the next visit, well quiet except for fiddlin' pickin' and tootin' that is.

Hooray!!

Ok, I did it ... I'll add the others later. Maybe I'll go and have a glass of wine and thing of something clever to post for all the world to read.

Fiddling Granny throws in the towel for today.

OK Susan, I can't figure it out .... I can't get the link to your blog. You'll have to tell me how to do it. I've at least figured out that if I want the text blue and larger, I have to do it every time.

Fiddling Granny has trouble figuring stuff out

Ok, so I'm having some trouble figuring out how to put links on to Susan et al's blogs. It looks as if it's supposed to be really obvious. Hrrumph!

I'll dig deeper.

Fiddling Granny

Ok, so Susan, Laurence, Megan, Thomas and Hilary have blogs, so now I do too. This is a dark and scary adventure 'cause I dunno what I'm doing. I'll go play with the rest of the settings and see what happens.

Here's our little dog, Muggins. She's probably the cutest and smartest dog that ever lived. Well except for the part about chasing cars ... so you can see her radio collar.