Chapter 419

When we get rain in the afternoon followed by sun, we get beautiful rainbows and glowing trees. I never get tired of looking at the rainbows...I figure one of these days I'll look out there and find a pot of gold sitting right there in the yard. Even if it's a teeny-tiny leprechaun pot, I'll take it!

We needed to get the finishing touches on the porch before we left it for the winter to ravage. I made new package delivery stickers since we repainted...

and Bob painted the new boards he'd put in the porch railing. Nothing like team effort to keep the ol' homestead going!

Ya'll know how I like miniatures and sewing stuff.  Well, Chris brought me the cutest little Air Force sewing kit made out of the Air Force camo fabric.

Now next time Chris needs me to work on his uniform, I'll have the right color thread and buttons, in theory. It seems that no matter what I'm asked to fix around here, I never have the correct color thread!

My winter crop of radishes, turnips, and beets are coming along nicely. Now if I'd only paid attention to where I planted what. I have no idea what any of this is. I don't have any faith in this winter crop thing, but we'll soon find out.

Nitro likes his to roll up in his basket on a cool evening. It's quite a production for him to get all bathed and turned around just right in his creaky old basket for him to get settled in but once he does, he's there to stay.

Speaking of cats, Bob has the hood off the Jag to do some work on the engine. It doesn't even look like the same car without the hood.

 We decided we'd try deep-frying a turkey this year. We already had the equipment since Bob needed it for beer brewing. Being our first attempt at deep-frying anything, we decided a dry run was in order. We bought an unsuspecting chicken as a guinea pig, needled it with marinade, 

dropped it in and let it bubble away while Bob sets the timer for 18 minutes, the prescribed perfect amount of time for amazing chicken.

Oh boy, the chicken looked great and smells amazing! Too bad it wasn't done on the inside too. We had to microwave it for a few minutes to finish it off. I guess the lesson here is to take it's internal temperature so we don't either end up with another raw fowl or a Griswold Family deflated turkey. Maybe I should take a pre-cooked turkey breast along just in case???

Last year Kurt found an opportunity for a $10,000 Ingersoll Rand automotive grant. Since our budget was cut $6,000 this year, it was something we needed to do. Neither Kurt nor I knew anything about grant writing and, like most things involving writing, this task landed on my desk. I answered this question and that question using all the fancy educational jargon I have accumulated. I must have learned the right fancy jargon because we got the grant! This is our morning class holding their banner. We also took a tour of the Ingersoll manufacturing plant in Kent. It was a great opportunity for the kids and fun for me too since we missed the earthquake drill at school. Check out the article here.

And in the goofy kid department, Reagan entertains herself in front of a mirror in a department store. 

Carissa is amazing at planning activities for Reagan. Today's rainy day painting activity was a giant piece of paper for making a giant-sized mess!

Here's Mozzy giving his approval of the kid's new sofa. It's nice they got it in a color that matches Mozz...well, the top side of Mozz anyway.