Weird Mushrooms

Found in Arlington, Tx

Oh My Gosh - A Double Rainbow!!

My mom just emailed this photo, made me kinda homesick for Animal House...

They've Been Working on The Railroad

A Little Birdhouse In Your Soul

The chicks have all flown the coop and Jeff is plugging the holes the swallows, nuthatch, flickers and woodpeckers inhabited in the walls of Animal House. To welcome them back in the spring, I built six birdhouses. Why build houses for the birds that peck holes in ours? One because if we just plug the holes they'll do it again, two because swallows eat mosquitoes and three because I like them! The swallows have entertained is all summer with their aerial antics. They even catch objects tossed them.

Railroad Coat Rack

When life hands You RR spikes, make a coat rack! My own idea, design and construction.

Modified Thrift Shop Art

Before...

After: The Isle of No Return!

Close up of the Frogfish Isle, complete with palm tree lure 

What do you think? Better with a mudskipper monster?

Lexi sent these thrift store seascapes for me to modify for dad's birthday. I added a mudskipperesque sea monster to one. To the other one, entitled the Isle of No Return, I added an oscellated frogfish Island, complete with a palm tree lure.

Smoked Trout- Today On Mountain Kitchen

In our last episode of Mountain Kitchen, I made everyone a delicious plate of poison mushrooms, this time I'll show everyone how to ruin fresh trout. 

Okay, in all honesty, I had some help in this culinary misadventure. My dad and I were excited to smoke our trout and he was particularly excited to use a vinegar marinade. It seemed unusual to me but I decided to go along with it. So we popped two fish into a ziplock with rice vinegar and three into apple cider vinegar and left them in the fridge overnight.

 In the morning I was surprised to find that the fish looked like they'd been cooked already. Then I remembered the ceviche I'd had on the beach in Peru. Acid cooks things. Undaunted, I dragged out the smoker and wired the fish up by their heads like my dad had envisioned. This, too seemed a little iffy but I pressed on, loaded up the smoker, popped in a pan of hickory chips and plugged it in.

 

I was dismayed, yet not surprised a few hours later to find a mass fish decapitation on my hands. I scraped apart the pile of fish, installed the smoking racks, replaced the fish and refreshed the hickory chips. Two hours later, I pulled what remained from the trout crematorium and sat down for a taste test. After the mushroom incident, I was shocked when Jeff joined me. I wasn't surprised however when Zilla the cat joined us. Each of us took a small piece - mmmmm... smoked trout pickles! Note to self: no vinegar next time!

Catch of The Day

I went fishing with my dad On South Boulder Creek and had a great day. It almost made up for my book printer woes, but that's a different story. I caught a rainbow, two nice sized browns and a mystery fish that must be a cutthroat. For once My "fish that got away" story isn't as good as what I brought home. The big rainbow is my dad's catch. We are marinating them for smoking.  The last picture is of a bizarre lure I found next to the river.

Aw Hail!

My Wildflowers Grew!

I was wondering if they'd ever bloom.