Arachnophobia

Our home happens to be a nursery for black widows. They got here before us so,
we have had a hard time convincing them that this is our house. While Joe and I were tearing off siding on our recent repair job we found this big mama. I had seen one living very near here last summer. I had attempted to kill it but it escaped under the siding. Joe killed this one shortly after I took the picture.

Later that night, almost dark really, Ruth and I were out cleaning up the broken pieces of old siding and trim. We were very near the spot where the large spider had been found earlier. Ruth started to pick up a board next to the house. I happened to be closer to the wood that she was picking up, saw some movement out of the corner of my I and said “Whoa!” Another huge black widow in virtually the same spot!
That was a week ago.
Today Ruth was headed out the door with the kids to go shopping. With two kids ahead, two behind and one in her arms, she steps out the door and with a scream of horror she comes face to face with this:
So you can gauge the size of this one the trim the spider is on is about 3" wide.

Ruth told the kids to stay where they were, not to touch the spider, then went to get the camera. This spider was dispatched with a flip-flop.

We often find juvenile black widows that have two gray stripes running from the front end of their abdomen up over their top and down to their spinnerets. They also have a gray hourglass on their underside, not red. I wish I had a picture for you.

I have gotten really cautious about moving stuff outside and going under the house. But you can usually tell when you are in their neighborhood. Their webs are extremely strong compared to other spiders, which can alert you before you run into one.

Come Watch Our Grass Grow!

I'm sure you all aren't as excited to see our new grass as we are but I'm posting this picture anyway!!! We are so happy to finally have a lawn! So come enjoy it with us! (In a couple more weeks that is) We love to have visitors!

This was taken before the sprinklers were in place (a little over a week ago). We'll be sure to keep posting our lawn progress.

It's so amazing to watch thing grow and to beautify our home. It sure needs it!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I hope you're having a great time in your favorite World Mark resort! Have a wonderful week! We love you!

Just want to say...

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful Mom's out there! I hope you all have a great day!

Wanted: Lawnmower

No, not somebody to mow the lawn!

Our grass is coming up! We're so excited. Another month and the kids will be able to play in the front yard again.

Reality Check

Last night I attended our Stake Women's Conference. It was such a wonderful night! Not only did I get away for a couple of hours with Sarah, but I learned so much! The program consisted of spiritual musical numbers, preformed by some very talented singers in our stake, along with some wonderful words of inspiration. Pondering the words of the music I realized a few things that I already knew but hadn't thought about enough until last night.

Things I learned:

1. I really do LOVE the sisters in our ward! They are some of the sweetest people around and I am blessed to have them in my life! It feels like my children have 10 sweet grandmas that they get to see every week at church.

2. I also realized that I need to focus more on my children than on what my house looks like and the things that I want. I feel that I have been a little bit selfish with my time lately, trying to lose weight and keeping the house clean and laundry done just in case someone wants to walk through our house (on the market, for those who don't know). My children are very important to me and I want them to know I love them not just by the things I do FOR them, but by the things that I do WITH them.

3. I realized that Clear lake isn't such a bad place to live and I need to enjoy the time I have here and not dwell on the fact that I want to live closer to my own family. We are like family to some of the members here.

4. We are very blessed! Jason is finding work and the bills are getting paid somehow!

All in all I realized that I need to be happy with my life the way things are right now and just keep dreaming. So in my quest to become a better mother, wife and daughter of God I have added these goals to my list for this year:

1. Read the whole book of Mormon again.
2. Better support Jason in his responsibilities as YM President.
3. Write in my journal and blog more often.
4. PLAY with the kids more!
5. Take good care of myself.
6. Get Jason to take me rafting this summer!
(That's a fun one I just thought I'd throw in there!)

I hope I can be a better person and be a good example for the lovely children Heavenly Father has blessed our lives with!

Goofy kids! Aren't they great!?
Someday I'll get a good one of them all together! Ooh, there's another goal!

Playing in the dirt.

It's spring at our house! Lots of stuff to do. We started preparing our front yard for grass two years ago. When we moved here the lawn was pretty weak with lots of weeds and not a lot of grass. Most of the open space was landscaped in white gravel. Much of the gravel has been relocated, the yard tilled by hand, topsoil added, seed spread and more topsoil placed to hide the seed from the birds. We've actually included part of the right-of-way in our lawn. So the city could decide to take that part back at some point. In the meantime, I will soon need to acquire a lawnmower.

It's so exciting watching sprouts and seedlings appear after planting and waiting through the winter! I have a love-hate relationship with spring this year. I love the blossoms and new growth. I don't like the continuous work we are having to do and knowing we have to wait for weeks or months to see the fruition of our labors.

This year's new plants include two peach seedlings, a white onion, and a chestnut oak, not including the veggie garden. Last year's silver maple and cherry tree are in full leaf and very healthy looking. Our grape vine is also promising a great harvest. The new growth on it has many clusters of baby grapes, some branches have five little clusters! Were looking forward to the juice this fall.

Click here to go to a slideshow of some of our work.

Catching up

First of all, I want to apologize to all my avid readers (if there are any of you out there!) for not posting for a while. :) I've actually written about ten blogs over the past few weeks but they get away from me every time I step out of the shower.
Excuses are as follows:
1. Wife and motherly duties. Man, it's hard to keep up with five kids and a husband at home all the time! We started Aaron on solids about a month ago and he's finally got it down! That takes a lot of time too! His face doesn't look very dirty in this picture (click on the image) but Jason IS feeding him and he's loving it! I'm actually afraid that he might stop nursing just to eat more solid food!

2. Working hard with the help of the Lord as Primary President in our small Ward to keep everything working well and organized.

3. Getting small projects around the house done. Taking advantage of Jason being home, due to lack of work. Also because I can't go anywhere or spend any money.
A little over a year ago our neighbors down the street moved leaving a bunch of stuff on the side of the road for trash. Driving by the pile of "junk" I noticed a Queen-size head board and foot board, something I have wanted since we got married almost nine years ago! It wasn't in the best shape and I thought for sure we could fix it up and make rails for it to fit our bed! We brought the boards home and they sat in Christopher's room until about two months ago. I put Jason to work at our house if he wasn't going to work anywhere else! He sanded the headboard and footboard a bit and bought wood and hardware for the rails. We painted them and he fastened it all together! So we finally have our bed done! check! Now if only we could get the lawn in and the fence up!


4. Last but definitely not the best reason for me not to blog, I have found a new way to waste time on the internet. Becky sent me and the girls a Webkinz pet (about a week ago?) and I have been playing games and trying to earn Kinz cash to furnish the room of our Love Frog named Lovely Sally. For all of you who don't have a clue about anything I just wrote, I'll tell you. Webkinz are cute little stuffed animals that come with a code that lets you log onto a make-believe world on the internet where you can play games with other Webkinz and earn Kinz cash to buy things and food for your pet and their room. It fun to see the girls get excited to help out around the house so they can earn time playing with their virtual pet! Thanks a bunch Becky!!!
Here are the girls with Lovely Sally.

Turkey Hunting

This one is not a joke.

Turkey season opened Saturday, March 29. I looked and looked for public land, checked out satellite images, and found a likely spot. The Cedar Roughs area at the north end of Lake Berryessa is BLM land. Lake Berryessa is to the south of Clearlake about 50 minutes. The most northwest corner of it has a good sized creek through the middle with lots of oaks and some brush.
So Saturday I got up early and drove to this place, parked on the roadside where there was already another vehicle, and started my hunt. I got there a little after sunrise (6:59 am), so I was later than I had planned. I immediately had to cross a creek, thankfully not to deep. Thanks, Dad for the waterproof boots.
I heard a gobble right away but nothing for the next hour. Walked up and down some small slopes, saw one beardless hen, and got to the end of the area. Lots of No Trespassing signs so I knew it was time to turn around. Then I heard a "cluck-cluck-cluck". So I sat and waited for a few minutes and watched as ... a hunter walked out off the private property, stepped over the fence, and proceeded hunting back to the road, turkey-calling loudly every few minutes after that. His calling technique needed some improvement and was probably chasing the toms out of the area.
At that point I headed back to my car. After the hunt I removed three ticks from my skin and clothing. After I got home Ruth found one in the house where I had set down my fanny pack.
So I'm thinking that turkey hunting in the spring, isn't really worth it. You can only shoot one a day, three per season, and you can't shoot anything else but rabbits and squirrels. At least in the fall you could shoot doves (could have shot two +), duck (again, at least two), or quail, which I could hear calling. All that, the long drive, and the ticks just don't add up to a positive experience. Maybe if I'd had a deer tag at the same time and was just hunting deer...

milestones

Almost there! Aaron almost has intentional forward motion in his skill set. He rolls over at will either direction and pulls his body in circles to face a different direction. He loves to put things in his mouth, of course. But he is more interested in interacting with people than with objects. This evening he finally started moving forward to go after some blocks. With a look of desperation he pulls himself up on his knees and, if they don't shoot back out behind him again, they propel him forward towards his goal. He hasn't quite got it down, but he's not far off now!

Aaron has also started sitting up. We have to stay close and keep an eye on him though because he can't catch himself when he loses his balance.

Cuts, Easter Eggs, Spring Break, Family Fun, Exercise, Temple, Birthdays, Music, ER

Last week the girls had their spring break and we headed to our families for a week of work, family-time and fun! After church on Easter Sunday we went to Grandma and Grandpa Mavy's for our monthly family get together. We didn't make it in time for the easter egg hunt for the kids, but we had one for them on Tuesday to make up for it. My Dad also shared his birthday with Easter this year so we got to eat birthday cake with some of my family on Monday evening.

Thanks to my sisters in-law and Carolyn (Jason's Mom), I got to go walking outside twice! I usually don't do any kind of exercise when we visit family unless we stay with my parents and I walk with my mom in the early morning. It was so nice to feel like I haven't fallen "off the wagon." Also, thanks to Sheila, Jason and I were able to attend an endowment session at the Sacramento Temple. I can't remember the last time we were able to do a session together. It was so wonderful!

The kids had so much fun spending time with Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles, and Great Grandma's. Not to mention Aunt Joy, Uncle Kent, cuz Tonja, and Adrianna. Jason got to play the piano with them one night. He had fun but said he wasn't good enough to keep up.

The Friday evening before Easter we were all outside playing. Christopher took a short dive in the dirt and cut his head open on a piece of gravel in our yard. It didn't bleed much. But it looked deep so Jason took him to the Emergency Room for stitches. The hospital is less than a mile away so it is a short drive. After waiting over four hours Jason had had enough. It was 9:15 pm, Christopher wanted to go home and was getting restless and cranky and tired. He kept saying he was ready to go home, so they went home. We cleaned Chris' head, cut the hair and shaved his head around the wound, and applied some butterfly bandages. As you can see he toughed out the treatment pretty well.


Here's a shot of his head 10 days later. Click on the picture to see a large image.

You can just make out the smile shaped cut in the formerly shaved patch of his head. On the plus side he has a positive attitude about getting haircuts now. We kept feeding him while treating his head to draw his attention from the electric clippers, which he doesn't like at all.

Moose Hunting

A dentist and an accountant went on a fly-in moose hunt to Canada. The pilot flew them into their hunting area and told them he would be back in 5 days to get them. The two guys spent the next 5 days hunting and managed to get 4 moose.

The pilot returned on the appointed day and, upon seeing the moose, informed the hunters that he could not fly all 4 of them out because of the weight. The hunters informed him that they got 5 moose the previous year and the pilot didn't balk on them.

Not to be outdone by their previous pilot, the pilot helped the hunters load the moose and, engine straining, managed to coax the aircraft off the ground. He was unable, though, to gain enough altitude to clear a nearby mountain range and they crashed.

Luckily, the pilot and two hunters all escaped without injury. "Where do you think we are," asked the dentist. The accountant replied, "I'm not sure, but we can't be far from where we crashed last year."

Avocado Update

I decided I would look up how to grow an avocado tree on-line (duh! why didn't I think of THAT before?) and I have learned so much! First of all, I had the pit in the water upside down. I also learned that it takes almost a decade for the tree to produce any avocados and when it does they don't taste as good as the ones we can buy at the store. I read that most people just grow them to have as decorations in and around their home.
So I flipped the pit and we'll see what happens! Since I know now that we probably won't be able to reap any benefits from my efforts with this, I'll do what I can and maybe we'll enjoy another tree in our yard! I'm definitely not going to worry about what becomes of it since it was more of an experiment anyways.

Last year we grew Tomatoes, Corn, Tomatoes, Zucchini, Tomatoes, Radishes, Tomatoes, Sage, Tomatoes, Cucumber, Tomatoes, and a Maple tree. Oh yeah, did I mention that we grew Tomatoes? Yeah we had those coming out our ears we had so many! I loved it! Tomatoes are my favorite! So, do you know of anything yummy that will grow well in beautiful California weather? I'd love to hear your suggestions and maybe try something new and exciting! What will you be growing in your garden this year?
Edit by jase:
You can see the diminutive corn is less than two feet tall yet already the tassels are developed. Gotta fertilize the corn with some nitrogen next time. We will have to use the space between the corn stalks too.

Emily's New Do

Emily came to me a few weeks ago and told me that she wanted her hair cut short again. I finally got to it about a week and half ago and thought I would show you all her new cute look!


Doesn't she look adorable! I love her with short hair! Not only is it easier to brush but it shows off her pretty face more! What do you think?

Avocados Anyone?

Recently I read about how to grow your own avocado tree. I followed the directions I found and it said that something would sprout in about three days. It has now been five days and still no sprouts of any kind. Am I doing something wrong? Has anyone ever grown an avocado plant successfully? If so HELP! Any and all tips would be greatly appreciated!

Our goal for our garden this year is to grow most if not all the ingredients for our favorite salsa. Plus any other veggies that we enjoy eating.

Weekend In Windsor

So as some of you know, my birthday is on February 4th. My parents asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I told them to get me something they thought I needed. So, last weekend my parents treated my family and I to a weekend away! It was AWESOME!!! We met them at a WorldMark timeshare in Windsor (About an 1 1/2 drive from our house) on Friday evening and stayed until early Sunday morning.
Friday night we went to dinner at Round Table Pizza (My favorite, of course!) and then went for a night heated swim with most of the kids. Saturday we tried to visit a redwood forest but the park we went to was closed due to the forecast of rain and high winds in the area. The kids were happy to swim instead! We spent a combined total of about two and a half hours in the pool while we were there! The girls didn't want to get out! We had so much fun swimming in the rain. We didn't get any pictures of us swimming because of the RAIN, but Kaitlin and Christopher are naturals and Rachel can swim without floaties now, although she prefers the extra buoyancy they provide. Emily was a little scared at first but once she sees Rachel and Kaitlin doing something she wants to try she really gets into it and enjoys herself. After swimming the kids watched some cartoons on cable (a treat for them since we don't have TV at home), and the adults got a little R&R. That evening we watched "Shrek the Third" and enjoyed pan popped popcorn and yummy ice cream. Sunday morning we awoke early to head home in time for church (9am Sacrament meeting). We were only about 15 minutes late! We had so much fun! Thanks Mom and Dad for a wonderful birthday present!!!!

On our way to the woods!
You guys are the best! Love you!

Messy shelf

This is a picture of the bookshelf in my dining room where the girls put ALL their art and school stuff. As you can tell it is such a mess and I don't know what to do about it. And this isn't even as bad as it gets! I'm planning to move this whole bookshelf into my bedroom so it won't be seen by visitors, but I'll still have to look at it! Any suggestions on how to get it organized? Or how about getting the girls to KEEP it tidy? (She types hopefully) I love to encourage their creativity and let them make pictures and crafts for me and for others. But it drives me crazy looking at the mess all the time. Maybe I just need to take the time to explain to my 4 year old how to put things in properly?! That will be an interesting talk! I'd love some ideas!
Until next time, Happy Blogging!

Best Salsa Ever!

I got this amazing recipe from a friend in our old ward and I just love it! It was a big hit at our family get together this last weekend, so I thought I would share it with all. If you like salsa, you'll love this! The hotter the better! I never buy salsa in bottles anymore because it's that good!

FRESH SALSA

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. oil
8+ or - chiles de arbol (whole, dried)

1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp. salt
2-3 cloves of garlic (minced) I use my Pampered Chef Garlic Press for this.
1 can 32 oz. crushed tomatoes

1/4 cup lime juice (about 2 whole limes)
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 small onion
1/2 cucumber
4 radishes
1/3 bunch of cilantro
1 avocado

In blender combine water, salt, and garlic. Brown chiles in oil, add to blender. Blend for about 20 seconds, or until combined. Add crushed tomatoes then blend another 20 seconds, or until combined. Pour in to large mixing bowl. mix in lime juice, and cumin. Chop the onion, cucumber, radishes, avocado and cilantro, add to salsa. stir it all together and enjoy! Using just 8 chiles makes this salsa mild. If you like it HOT add more chiles. I personally like to put in 11 or 12. I've never tried more then 13.

Let me know how you like it!

Our family

So this is our little family! I thought this slide show was too cute to not share! We're all on tv!

It's Too Quiet!

Wow! I can't believe it! My house is so quiet right now! Rachel and Emily are at school. Kaitlin went over to Sarah's to play with Alaina. Christopher went with Jason to the store and Aaron is sleeping! I don't know what to do with myself! I'm sure I have a million and one projects I could work on or I could clean a little, but I'm sure I won't. I'm pretty sure it won't last too long either. It's so rare I might just have to sit here and enjoy!

Whistle, Whistle Who Has a Whistle?

Our family had a white Elephant gift exchange on Christmas day and one of the gifts that my family contributed was a bag of whistles. Yes Megan it was us. It turns out that I put every toy whistle that we owned in that bag and I am in need of a whistle for a primary activity tomorrow. Isn't it funny how you never need some things until they are gone?! I hope your girls are having fun with them Megan!

Oh the Places He Goes!

Let me just say that having boys is Soooooooo much fun! Our pantry has been finished for a while now and it's a favorite hide and go seek spot. Christopher was hiding from us before breakfast. We've also woke the last few mornings to find Christopher in bed with Aaron. He sure loves his little brother!

Where's Christopher?

Having fun with brother in the morning!

Silly Boys!

A Most Welcome Visitor!

I love to have people visit! Especially family and close friends. I love to be able to catch up with friends, share a meal, play games or just visit. Having people over also gets me to clean my house! A chore I despise since I know whatever I do it will be just as dusty and cluttered one hour later, if not less. This sort of thing happens when you live on a dirt road and have five young children!

Well anyways, whenever someone special is coming over we like to keep it a surprise from the kids if we can. This last Friday afternoon Grandma Mavy came and stayed with us until Sunday morning! The girls were so happy to share their room and bed with Grandma! We all enjoyed the special time with Grandma. It was such a busy weekend! She watched the kids for Jason and I so we could have a date Friday night! Saturday we made Swedish pancakes for breakfast! (yummy) Then we went to Sarah's house to watch President Hinckley's funeral broadcast. After we had lunch, Jason and I went to a baptism while Grandma stayed home and rested with the kids. When we got back Grandma took Rachel to the store for some Grandma time and when they got home we had some yummy potato soup! Perfect for the rainy day we were having! That night we played games made doughnuts/twisties and had baths. The kids got to stay up way past bedtime! Sunday morning Grandma got to see me run around trying to get all the kids ready for church while Jason had gone to his early Sunday meeting. Needless to say it was great fun to have her come and share in our little piece of crazy! We can't wait to have her (or anyone, hint hint) come again! We love you Grandma!

Grandma with the girls and Aaron.

Christopher was being too cranky for pictures! He didn't want to sit with all those girls!

My Crazy Family!

First of all I must say that I have a very talented family! My brother Mark likes to make short videos. He created a character called Uri Miller. Uri Miller is a scientist who has a super scientific video blog. In this blog he tells interesting facts about things like the creation of the earth. When Becky came out for Christmas Mark made this cute video about Uri Miller's family. Starring my sisters Becky, Liz, Mary, my Mom and Dad, and Becky's kids Josh, Nathan, and her new baby Katie. Take a look! I think it's hilarious! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikvmbTLqJnU

Slowly getting this Blog thing

As you all may be aware, Jason signed up for this blog quite a long time ago, and until recently he was the only one of us that knew how to get to this page. I finally got him to help me log in for myself and I just now figured out how to put a title to each blog entry! Maybe I'll find out how to add more cool things to our blog page soon. This may take a while, but I'm sure I'll get it!

Too Cute!!!

Christopher is now at that age where he is learning how to say what he needs to to get what he wants. He lets me know when movies are over and tells me when he's "stinky."

Tonight he said a few things that I just had to share! I put a load of laundry in the wash and asked him if I could clean his "buh-buh" he said, "No, it's clean." Then he went and got his spare buh-buh for me to wash. After he finished his dinner he brought his empty plate and empty cup to me and said, "Mommy, dinner's not workin'. I'm still hungry."

This is Christopher with both of his buh-buhs.

MMMMMM...Potato soup!

Since the weather has been so cold, I decided to make some yummy potato soup for dinner one night this week. But for an added touch I also made some bread bowls to eat it out of for those of us that would enjoy them. They turned out so good and the girls loved being able to eat their bowls once they had finished their soup. It was so fun and easy to make I think I might have to make bread bowls every time I make soup.

Rachel's 3 cars in one

For Christmas, Santa brought Rachel three cars! Pretty lucky kid right? I didn't get my first car until I was almost eighteen! But I guess I should mention that there was a catch. Yes, she had to assemble them herself! I'm sure you've all guessed by now that Rachel got her first set of Legos. It was a set that came with instructions for three different cars. She had so much fun putting all three designs together mostly by herself.

Ruth's new hobby

Before Thanksgiving I started to go to a Relief Society Quilting group every Wednesday morning. I have enjoyed learning how to quilt. When I realized how much fun it was to put different fabrics together to make something pretty, I was hooked. I decided to make a quilt for my sister's new baby. Then I made one for Emily for her birthday. After that I decided that quilts would be perfect gifts for the siblings we had to shop for for Christmas. So I made one big one for Timmy and Kimmy and three smaller ones for Dan's two little boys and foster daughter. I also put one together for Kaitlin for her birthday. The blanket she kept carrying around with her was too small for her and I thought she might like a bigger one. Let me just say that she didn't. Oh well, I still put it on her at night. Anyways, it has been a ton of fun! I hope I can get better at it and maybe I'll have more space to quilt at my own house someday. :) I'll take pictures and post them later. Who knows, maybe I'll have another quilt to show off by then!

Fluoride, Foam and Fwoh-upp

So I, Ruth, took Rachel and Emily to the dentist for a cleaning today. Rachel, being the oldest, sat in the chair first while Emily watched from the side. Rachel commented about how she didn't like the flavor of the cleaning paste and gagged a couple of times. They used some foamy fluoride that also made her gag but she did what she was told and kept it in her mouth until they told her to spit. So Rachel was done and the girls traded places. I stood beside Emily to help reassure her that everything was cool. She actually laughed while they cleaned her teeth, but when it came time to rinse she too started to gag. So when they squirted the foamy fluoride in her mouth she gagged one last time and lost her lunch on the poor dental assistant. Luckily she was wearing a face shield and a smock. Oh, the joys of Motherhood!

Christmas

Christmas came a day early at our house. We called Santa and asked him to come the night of the 23rd so we could visit family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Santa ate snickerdoodles and chocolate milk Sunday night while he filled the stockings and placed some gifts on the couch since there wasn't a lot of room under the tree.

Watching the kids open their gifts was fun, especially Christopher, who showed a look of utter amazement as he opened each gift.


While at grandma Christensen's, we decorated graham cracker houses. Rachel was so proud of her house. She decorated it all by herself while Ruth was busy with her two-story mansion. Emily obviously couldn't wait to dig into her yummy house. We had to convince her to wait until we took some pictures first.
Ruth tried her hand at some yummy Christmas goodies this year. They included: caramels, fudge, peanut clusters, and peppermints. They were all very tasty and we were lucky to have enough to share with most of our family!

Ruth also made her first pecan pie to contribute to our family Christmas dinner! It' was sooo good! One of her favorites for sure! Of course she had lots of help from the girls! they all love to bake together.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

Not long ago I picked up The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe for the first time. I have heard of it since elementary school but never before touched it. I've always had an aversion to following the crowd and the crowd seemed to love this book. It is one the first in The Chronicles of Narnia series.

The author, C.S. Lewis, has been quoted here and there by Church leaders, which finally piqued curiosity about the nature of his works. The Lion... happened to be readily available, although I have no idea where it came from. It's possible I stole it from my parents.


So I read the book and was thoroughly delighted with the story, the Christian overtones and allegory. For Christmas we bought Rachel (the family, myself?) a softbound copy of The Chronicles of Narnia. I have now read The Magician's Nephew and The Horse and His Boy. I'm still entranced by these stories, mostly with two things:

1. Aslan's (the Lion) interactions with the characters and the similarities between him and Christ.
2. The comparison of myself to protagonist and antagonist in each story, which shows how excellent a writer Lewis is.

I'm trying to entice Rachel to start reading the book. I got her to read Fantastic Mr. Fox one day. It took her three hours but she enjoyed it. Unfortunatedly The Chronicles is a little beyond her right now. I'm sure she will be ready for it in a couple years.

Grilling

Grilling-

It’s taken me quite a while to become comfortable in front of the grill. I grew up using a gas grill, cooking whatever meat I was told to cook: hamburgers, hot dogs, elk, sometimes some trout. I never really learned anything about grilling when I was young, but I got a lot of practice overcooking meat.

My first barbecue after getting married was a pancake-shaped charcoal grill. I tried but couldn't get things to work out very well with it. I couldn’t seem to get enough heat to cook the food as fast as I wanted.

Then we got a gas grill. Things went a little smoother. I had some experience with one of these. Cheap ($99) gas grills are a little picky. They have hot spots and cold spots. It can be tough to get the burners at the same temperature. The gas tubes below the burners can get full of crud. The grill racks usually don’t sit flat and will rock. One of the biggest problems though is you can’t turn them down low enough.

The biggest problem with a gas grill is flare-ups. Once the grease starts dripping its going to burn no matter what you do. Then you have to move the meat away from the flames. Usually the flare-ups start where your hot spots are, which is where you want the food because it doesn't get cooked over the cold spots. If your grill is covered with chicken then you don't have a place where you can move the meat. No flare-ups with charcoal! It’s so easy!

Summer of 2005 our gas grill developed a leak in the hose because some hot grease dripped on it and melted it. I didn’t realize I could fix it so I bought a new grill. This time I got a charcoal grill with an offset firebox for smoking. I didn’t feel very confident about using charcoal, but I had high hopes. I fixed the gas grill and gave it away.

Food cooked over charcoal tastes better that cooked over gas. There are a couple reasons. The first is the fuel. Burning propane doesn’t have a smell. Charcoal is made from wood. When the charcoal is burned the food absorbs some of the smoke, which is much more fragrant and pleasing than not having it.

I can’t say this without stereotyping so this isn’t totally true, but people who cook over charcoal probably pay better attention to the grill than those who cook over gas. I believe this because #1, they are cooking over charcoal so they really want the food to taste good and the cook’s time investment is bigger when cooking with charcoal. This means that they are going to watch the meat carefully and make sure everything is as close to perfect as possible. I must say that this argument isn’t 100 percent true. I know several people who cook over gas and do a great job with the meat.

I have learned to love the charcoal grill. I’ve picked up some skills from others and from reading on the internet.

1. Practice. The more you use the charcoal grill the more you will learn from your mistakes and learn how to:
2. Use the right amount of charcoal and get it burning. Knowing how much will only come from experience and is also determined by the size and shape of you grill. When you are starting the charcoal use a chimney-type starter and don’t be bashful with the lighter fluid. Soak the top coals and make sure some fluid runs down on the coals you can’t see. Then light ‘er up! The lighter fluid will have all burned off by the time the coals are ready.
3. Turn the meat often! Except for hamburgers, all the meats need to be turned often to keep the juices from boiling/evaporating out the top. Try turning every seven minutes.
4. Use a thermometer to know when the steak/chops/roast is ready. Some people can tell when a roast/steak is done by pushing on it. Thermometers are for sure. I love reading anyway. Go digital.
5. Don’t overcook red meat! Don’t undercook white meat! Follow this rule and dinner will turn out great.
6. Don't put barbecue sauce on until the meat is almost done. If you sauce the meat before you cook it the sauce will burn before the meat is fully cooked.
   

Our grapes are growing great this year. Maybe double last years yield!