anniversary pictures!

The first place we visited:

This monument houses a log cabin that was originally believed to be Lincoln's birthplace...

...but sometime after the cabin was rebuilt inside the monument, it was discovered that Lincoln was not apparently born here. It is indicative of the type and size of cabin Lincoln was born in, though.

Next, we went to:

The cabin you see in the background is about all there is to see there. Next...

... the Maker's Mark Distillery!

Alpine and I dipped our own bottles, and we think our bottles turned out the best of everyone there that day! Alpine got a huge run...

... while mine wasn't as huge, but was equally as good.

Then, it was on to...

Here is the difference in the two warehouses... the Maker's warehouses are dark brown (they appear black), while the Beam warehouses are white-ish. They say that the mold that grows on the bottom of the warehouses is a sign of the right conditions for the aging of their whisky.

I believe that each one of these barrels holds around 53 gallons of bourbon, and each warehouse holds around 20,000 barrels... mmmmm!

Our next stop was the Kentucky Capitol Building. It was HUGE and magnificent:

The House and Senate were located at the top of their own grand set of stairs...

Senate

House

Kentucky Supreme Court Chambers

On the way out of Frankfort, we saw:

And this is the original Capitol Building. I guess this is why they made the new one so HUGE!

And lastly, we saw the infamous Wolf Creek Dam, which very well might burst at any minute. They say that it would flood parts of Nashville if it were to go... and the people just down-stream of the dam would be up shit creek, so to speak.

anniversary trip

(No pun intended...I know, that was bad!)

I'm not posting pictures yet, but wanted to get a "kudos" out there to Alpine sooner rather than later. While we were touring the Jim Beam Distillery, another visitor from Texas stepped awkwardly off the sidewalk and twisted (and possibly broke) her ankle. Alpine came over and assisted the distillery staff in assessing and tending to her ankle. The staff was so impressed that he would assist this lady - someone that he didn't know - as much as he did, they gave him a discount whatever he bought in the gift store. If there's no other reason to buy Jim Beam products, this is a good one. They were sincerely appreciative and repeatedly told us how appreciative they were. Nice people... and you don't have to buy the bourbon - they have an absolutely wonderful candle that is just right for the upcoming fall and winter seasons. It's apparently not on their online website, but you can call and order it, and they'll ship it to you. It's well worth it!

remembering 9/11

I have so much I should be doing, but can't seem to peel myself away from the television... much in the same way most of America was glued to the television seven years ago. As much as I don't really want to watch it again, I also don't want to forget. None of us should. We should always remember that day... the extreme sadness, fear, anger, disbelief, patriotism... not only to honor those who are no longer with us, but also to learn from what happened. Be alert and aware of your surroundings. Always have a plan. Take care of others in need, but be responsible for yourself. Be as prepared as possible. For anything. For everything. It's easy to say, "Ah, I'm just going to (where ever)... nothing bad is going to happen." Yeah - those people that worked in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and those who got on a freakin' airplance that morning, never would have thought anything would happen. Never let your passion disappear... if that happens, you're in big trouble. Add to this whatever you see fit... just don't curl up in the fetal position and do nothing. You know the saying... fool me once... it is the responsibility of all of us to make sure that America is not fooled again.

10th Anniversary!

I got a beautiful deliver today at work... in honor of my 10th wedding anniversary! We're going on a trip this weekend... nothing major, but it will be fun, for sure. We're going to see the Lincoln Birthplace, the Maker's Mark and Jim Beam Distilleries, and the Capitol Building. It'll be nice to get away for a couple of days and see some new places!

american chestnut update

Out of 10 seeds, I had 5 sprout... only 4 of those grew into "seedings." Of those 4, we planted the two best ones out in a field... what you see is a tree shelter staked to the ground. The cows trampled them pretty quickly and ate the leaves on one tree, but I think the trees are still ok. We restaked and put wood around them to try and keep the cows away from them. So far, it's working! We'll hope that these two survive.




The last two I will plant in pots this weekend. They aren't very big, so I hope (thanks to the suggestion of HODAR) this will help them grow stronger before we plant them in the ground.

more canning

This...

...turns into this, with a little work. (Except that the beans don't miraculously come from tomatoes! Those were grown separately.)

That's probably the last of my beans, but I hope I've got more tomatoes coming before the season's through. More later!

scenes of the season

Hay time... for some reason, a field that has just been mowed and baled is just beautiful to me. See for yourself:

Another beautiful sunset, as seen out my front door:

Alpine got this "kite" from Duluth Trading Co, and it actually flew! I have to say, it's probably the first kite I've even successfully flown. And I never thought that kite-flying was fun!

Now, the next three pictures are nearly identical, just with a different tone. Which one do you like best: color, sepia, or black and white?

Last, but certainly not least, my dogs:

There is no scene to go with this story, but as everyone who hasn't been living under a rock knows, Hurricane Gustav hit the Gulf Coast yesterday. Believe it or not, we must have gotten a little portion of that hurricane here in Kentucky! Before you tell me that I'm crazy, let me explain: Generally speaking, weather comes from the west, right? Sure, sometimes warm storms will come from the southwest, and sometimes the cooler storms come from the north. But how often does weather come from the east? That's contrary to the natural flow of things, right? Well, I witnessed with my own eyes (as did Alpine) a nice storm that blew in directly from the east! We heard thunder, saw sunshine towards the west, went outside and saw the low clouds and rain approaching from the east. There wasn't a whole lot of wind, but there was a decent amount. No hurricane forces, by any means, but that had to be the outtermost edges of Gustav. Whodathunkit?!?

my latest cake

The blur on the helmet is supposed to be a bulldog. Yeah, I know... it sucks. I swear it looked better on paper! The cake itself was colored blue... the first time I've colored cake batter! I'll add that picture once I get it.

Go Cocks!

I'm a little late, but we celebrated the 2008 college football season with our own quiet little party! My brother-in-law gave me this chip dish for Christmas last year, and this has been the first time I've been able to use it. Isn't it beautiful?!? The Cocks rewarded our excitement with a win over NC State: 34 - 0! We play at Vandy this Thursday night... once again, on ESPN. Go Cocks!

Some friends, family and I are playing the ESPN College Pickem game. After the first week, my dad and I are tied for 1st! I got lucky, but I generally don't care - it's fun to play, and it's fun to talk about with those who are playing. I'm sure I'll post how well (or poorly) I do each week, so you'll share in my excitement. If you want to play, let me know!

garden update

I canned those Bread and Butter pickles I talked about, and I've started the process for the cinnamon cucumber pickles. I've got 5 pints of beans canning as we speak, will probably have enough over-ripe cukes for more cinnamon cucumber pickles, and I have a watermelon to dry. Oh yeah, and my tomatoes are coming in... I'm not sure I have enough to can, but they've got to be canned anyway! Things are slowing down... pumpkins will be next, and with any luck, some of our watermelons will actually be edible. Then we'll harvest the popcorn and sunflower seeds, and that'll be about it.

I'm getting a chest freezer at the end of the week. My freezer is jam-packed, and I'll need some more space for my pumpkins, when they're ready. Muchless anything else I might buy that needs to be frozen! Garden season is winding down, but there is still much to be done. Not to mention, we'll need to break up the ground again before winter comes, and whatever else we can do to make next spring easier. I'd love to have more of most everything, but I'm not sure that's very manageable. We'll see.

preserving the garden

As much as fresh garden veggies rock, having garden veggies throughout the year that you raised rocks more. And it keeps you from having to buy more veggies, which also rocks. This isn't a complete pictoral essay, but it's close enough. We've diversified a little in our preservation techniques, and so far, that has proven successful in terms of less wasted (ie, rotting) vegetables.

Here is a portion of my shredded zucchini. This is really only about 4 or 5 large zucchinis, but I have about 20 2-cup bags... ready to thaw and make zucchini bread with. I like convenience, and it doesn't get any better than custom-packaged garden veggies!

My corn never does well... I have no idea why. Maybe I plant to few plants? I've tried planting in rows and blocks, and neither seem to do well. Everybody can grow corn... except for me! Here are the first two ears of the year... believe it or not, their appearance is far superior to most of our other ears of corn in past years! These didn't get preserved... but went straight to the plate... yum!

Here's some more of that zucchini. Alpine bought a food dehydrator to try since we had so much zucchini, in the hopes that we would waste less with rot. He should have bought that dehydrator a long time ago... it's the best thing since sliced bread! We sliced the zucchini and gave it a very quick steam blanching...

...then placed the slices on the dehydrator trays, set the temp, and turned it on.

This particular model came with 4 trays, but can be expanded to 30 trays! It does really well... depending on how thick you slice it, the zucchini is fully dried in about 5 to 12 hours.

Alpine has helped me pick smaller cucmbers this year, but we've still got a lot of large ones. So far, I've canned 14 pints of dill pickles with the smaller ones. I need just a handful more to make some bread and butter pickles next. Then I'm going to try some Cinnamon Cucumber Pickles (yeah, yeah... sounds gross, I know!), but I've got cucumbers that will otherwise go to waste!

I've gotten 16 pints out of my beans so far... I'm hoping I can get more out of the garden before they stop producing. At the very least, I'm sure I'll get a few more servings to string up and dry, making "leather britches."

Tomatoes are yet to come... but once they come in, there will be plenty of canning to do!

garden news

I planted my garden late this year because of my trip to Alaska. Normally, my garden should "come in" during that time frame, and I didn't want to lose it all! Alpine helped me a lot this year, and our garden looked really good because of it! Everything that grew has grown huge... some of it is starting to die back now, so it's not as pretty and green, but nevertheless, here's a sampling of our wonderful garden:



It started with a broadfork and a hoe...











... and ended with some good fruit!

beans

pumpkins

zucchini


tomatoes

cucumbers

popcorn and sweet corn

sunflowers

pretty morning glory weeds

a taste of Alaska

No, not Alaska pictures yet, but something I brought back from Alaska: beer! Alpine sampled (ok, drank) them all, and liked the Oatmeal Stout (green label) best, followed by the Amber (red lablel). Believe it or not, I actually drank a Summer Ale at the Red Onion Saloon in Skagway. More on that later...

What's that? How'd I get a six-pack of beer to Kentucky from Alaska? When I bought this beer in Skagway, I wasn't sure how I was going to get it home. I had considered shipping it, but I really didn't have the opportunity to ship it. So, I took it to the airport. Yeah, yeah... I hear you laughing from here. They wouldn't let me carry the beer on the plane, like they used to... so I had to either check it or chuck it (not chug it, as I would have liked to have done at that point). There wasn't enough room in my bag, so we put two bottles in each of our bags... mine and my parents. I just KNEW they were going to get broken, and all our crap would smell like beer! I was so sure that I made a bet with my dad... $10 that 3 would be broken: one in each bag. He said none would be broken, and this is one bet I gladly paid up! So, that $10 basically doubled the price of the beer. At least it made it home. =)

Let me just finish our airport story: We began our air trip home in Vancouver, so not only were we in an international airport, but we were also trying to get back into the US. Yeah, had never done that before. Customs really wasn't that bad, but getting on the plane took forever. After after we checked the beer, we had to call our airline so they could bring us FRAGILE stickers. So we waited, and waited. Finally, they came, we placed the stickers on our bags and sent them down the conveyor belt. Then we go through airport security. My parents bought some syrup for my grandmother... it was taken. We brought a jar of peanut butter with us from Virginia (it was still unopened), and they took that, too. So, no liquids (not even 2 expensive 1-liter bottles of unopened water), no certain types of food... oh yeah, no knives. You'd think that was an easy one, but, in the craziness that was Vanvouver International, it wasn't so easy. I'd bought an Alaskan Ulu Knive and Bowl set for a good friend. It was one of the few things NOT made in China, and I wasn't really interested in going to Alaska and buying a bunch of trinket crap made in freakin' China. I had it packed in my checked luggage, but with the beer emergency, I had to move it. Unfortunately, it went erroneously into my carry on bag. Yep - ooops! Luckily, they allowed me to complete a form, along with my credit card number, to ship the knife to myself. It just arrived this week, and along with the knife, I received a shipping bill that, coincidentally, also basically doubled the price of the knife. At least it made it home, right?

I really do love flying... but this experience was very trying!

one month!

i'm getting bad at this... it's been a month since i last posted, and frankly, tomorrow will make a month since i landed in Alaska! time flies... aren't i supposed to be having fun?!? of course i'm having fun... just busy fun:

• for my friends in "the business", it's registration time. that's all i need to say!
• job changes bring fun times... stretched thin times, but fun times. remember registration time? job changes take me away from the front line periodically. THAT'S all i need to say!
• the fruits of our labor bring a wonderful garden! and a wonderful garden needs to be put up (why am i here instead of at the food processor?). i will soon show you these fruits... just like i will show you those pictures from my trip... and everything else i intend on showing you. =)
• vacations, family reunions, birthdays, anniversaries... i look up, and two months have passed!
• school... i'm in the last year of school, i hope! i need to complete my internship (eventually) and complete two classes, then i'm done! woohoo!!
• relay for life rules... but i'm the county chair this year. i didn't realize it at each individual decision-time, but i've suddenly decided that i've filled my plate too full. i'll just do the best i can and survive it... and be glad this is all i have to survive. i'm lucky to be complaining about a busy life instead of dealing with some major illness. THAT is why i relay.

oh well... at least i'm not the only one who posts few and far between. alpine always posts better than i do... but he always manages his time better than i do. i should take some notes! my other blog friends don't post very often either, so... we either need to constantly one-up each other so we're posting more about what's going on in our lives (which was kind of the intent for this blog, anyway)... or just live our lives and not worry about the blog. i guess i see which way i'm leaning... living is always more important than some dumb blog... but... if i'm not DOING this, then why am i doing this? i'm not sure how yet, but i'll do better.

i'm leaving on a jetplane...

but i know when i'll be back again. tomorrow morning i leave for alaska! don't depair, faithful readers... i'll be back in a couple of weeks. i'll be back the night the x-files opens, actually, but won't get to see it! well, not opening night... but i will see it. tangent... sorry. so... i'll be back with lots of pictures and fun stories. hopefully i'll actually post about them! =)

until then...

Happy Birthday, America!

Happy 4th of July... eat, drink and be merry!

Here's to the REAL National Anthem, individual liberties and this great country of ours. Do yourself a favor: reread the Declaration of Independence... listen to (or, even better, sing!) the National Anthem (the RIGHT way, mind you)... and enjoy the freedoms that we have been given by being US citizens... by birth or by choice.

Declaration of Independence
National Anthem

the WRONG way (if you haven't yet heard it)

I guess I don't understand why some people don't recognize that they only have the freedom to be an idiot BECAUSE they live in these wonderful United States... but you know they won't choose to leave because they couldn't CHOOSE to be said idiot in most other places. People who refuse to show patriotism should be forced to get out. If you don't appreciate your freedoms as a US citizen, then you shouldn't benefit from those freedoms by default. Just. Get. Out. grrr.... I'll stop now.

Happy 4th!!