T Stands for Tuesday-Photos

   Joining T over at Bleubeard and Elizabeath's-just share a drink related photo to join in, link in my sidebar.

   I am sharing a few photos this week.

 Some  of you may remember from last year a visit from  the "deck duck"  I had just been wondering if she/he would visit us again and the duck arrived the next day. Larry thinks this is the same duck just more mature.

   This was taken early morning, full sun with steam from the lake. We are dropping into the low 50's and high 40's F at night for several days now. By 11 am it warms up to the high 70's and low 80's F during the day so really perfect weather for this long weekend.

 

 Friday I baked up yellow angel food cakes for the both of us to go with the lovely fresh strawberries and blackberries I had picked up at the grocery store. They came out so good even the gluten free version. 

     The first photo is the wheat cake and the second is the gluten free version. I had extra egg whites after separating the eggs so added them to the gluten free cake-gave it the extra volume it needed.

   These rose so much this time I had a bit of difficulty getting them out of the pans.

Gluten free cake below. I froze most of mine in single servings, as gf baked goods will dry out faster than the wheat cakes do.

 Of course the lake was totally bonkers with many many  boats of all sizes. I am writing this up early Sunday evening and the lake is still full of boats going every which way.  I only got a couple photos, as I pretty much "hid" in the house with all the commotion. lol  I did get to enjoy fireworks from the neighbors Saturday evening. Am hoping the one straight across from us will display more fireworks again tonight-he is a professional so the show is amazing. I have such an amazing indoor view of his fireworks show.

This photo below is taken looking to the right of the deck-where the lake really opens up for a bit and where lots of boats come in at. It is fun to see all the different types of boats-all sizes and some very very expensive ones too.

   We had friends that came up to go fishing for a bit Sunday morning off our dock-In a couple hours they caught a large bucket full of crappie, bass, and catfish-good eats. The grandfather lives in Colorado and he loves to fish when he visits his family (our friends)

   I forgot to take photos but I did finish up the limincello recipe on Wednesday. I divided it into two gallon water bottles and stored them in the freezer. Each bottle was about half full-for expansion. Will be better tasting in another month or so.

  For my drink share-a cup of white tea that I had picked up at the Amish food store

and I will close  with this surprise-This really nice bird feeder was gifted to us by our lake friends for Christmas. Told us it was squirrel proof. I had to laugh at that because I have yet to find a bird feeder that is squirrel proof or raccoon proof.  Over this busy weekend-the new squirrel youngsters have been a handful, that I have had to bring in the seed feeders so they don't destroy them Sometimes there 6-8 youngsters eating all the bird seed.

  Yep this squirrel managed to get through the cage area that is suppose to protect the seed feeder. I don't think an adult squirrel could get in though.

Happy T and new week

T Stands for Tuesday-Ice Cream

  Hello Friends,

This will be a short post this week. I am linking up with Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T for Tuesday where we also share a drink related photo in our post.

This past week I did get everything planted that came up from seed in my greenhouse bottles. I pushed to get it all in the garden with the forecast saying rain for several hours-We got missed-again sadly. A few sprinkles is all and then strong winds which pushed it all away from us-and no rain in the coming forecast. Typical Missouri though.

A few weeks ago we finished up the keto ice cream I had made back in the fall-that ice cream holds up really well in the freezer. The recipe I had been using is a long process. One makes a thick base first that takes 30 minutes of constant stirring, add the rest of the recipe. Cool for several hours,  and then put it in the ice cream maker. 

Today I decided to try a simple vanilla recipe that came with the ice cream maker and just substitute Splenda for the sugar. I almost thought of  using half Splenda and half keto powdered sweetener but decided to see how the Splenda would work out. Much faster for sure, just mix up the base and put it right into the machine. I churned it the full 25 minutes and it came out a bit over churned but tastes good.

     I did get my wool sock slippers mended with that little loom I shared. Sorry didn't get photos. The video I had shared was excellent for setting it up-I wanted to use wool threads for this to mend that large hole, but since the bottoms of the socks had little rubber alpacas that was hard to set up so the wool threads on the loom would seperate out to weave-so I gave up on that and used cotton weaving yarn instead-that worked out well. The one thing I did not care for, on the bottom of the patch are lots of loose strings from setting up the loom-when finished weaving the patch those all need to be brought to the back and then woven in. with the big hole in the socks that I was covering that was a challenge.   I don't wear shoes in the house, instead wear socks or I love these thick wool socks. Will see how long the mend lasts

   In the garden the bee balm started blooming Sunday morning

   This is my cup of tea Sunday morning while making the ice cream-my Ticket for T    I had picked up this large mug one year at the Fiber U event I used to attend classes at in July.

Here is one of those smaller ocean boats that are taking over the lake-too large for this lake but they allow it for some reason

Sunday morning early--we have dropped into the low 40's F this past week in the evenings-so quite chilly in the mornings

Happy T and new week

T Stands for Tuesday-Lake Photos

 Welcome Friends to T Stands for Tuesday where we share a post with a drink related photo over at our host-Bleubeard and Elizabeth Link in my sidebar

  Thought I would share lake photos this week. For some reason the lake was beyond crazy over last weekend. Figuring maybe because we are into August, weren't in the 100's-although that does not bother the younger generation, and many on the lake for their vacations.

These were taken on Saturday-I felt bad for this sailboat-he was surrounded earlier with more boats than this photo-he finally managed to get off the lake til it cleared and then ventured out again

speed boats were here too Last weekend one of these going too fast crashed and died injuring many-sad

Photos during last week

We were sitting at the table eating our breakfast, when we saw this heron walking along the bank of the lake-fishing-I didn't want to stand up for a better view as it would have scared him off

So these are peeking through chairs and the railing

Sunday sunrise

For my drink share while I am typing up this blog I am drinking a glass of strawberry keifer-It's almost gone Behind my glass is a postcard my long time friend from North Carolina (USA) sent me waterfall postcard-she knows I love waterfalls. It is sitting on my computer desk so I can enjoy it-and imagine the sounds

Happy T and new week ahead everyone

and for Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date this week, I will share another bird video, my chocolate popcorn and fajitas

T Stands for Tuesday-Mostly Lake Views and Henry

 Welcome to T Stands for Tuesday and our new month of August.

  I am so happy to see August has arrived as next month brings us closer to Fall-I am soooo ready. This has been such a hot summer for us. 

  Good news though, last week was much cooler with lots of rain, but no flooding here at the lake as in other parts of Missouri.

  To cut down on my blogging time I am considering  linking up to T once or twice a month going forward-will see if I like that or not. 

    I am enjoying Rains Thursday Art and Dinner date since she took over my Food Wednesdays-lots of lovely art and good eats there on Thursdays. I posted early today again as Tuesday I will be at the polls voting, if I post early gives everyone the chance to visit early so not so many links to visit in just one day.

  We did get our new lift put in. So happy with the company we chose, very professional and courteous staff. Haven't gotten help to get the boat on it yet. I am not a strong driver especially a big vehicle with a boat trailer on it so we are still waiting for help with that. What Larry liked about this lift no metal moving parts sitting in the water. Also the boat will sit up out of the water on this lift. This lift is designed to move with the waves. from HydroHoist

This was a two brothers team

Lake photos over the weekend

   Pre sunrise

 Fast boats too close to the docks on Saturday

Haven't seen the pirate ship going by in awhile, an adult red headed woodpecker

For my drink share I had a mug of hot decaf black tea and also a peek into a watercolor I painted with stamps, early Sunday-if interested will post the finished piece on Thursday

I also bought some new coffee for us. This company uses the profits to help veterans and also RSBN network (which is privately owned with no corporate investors) It is one of the few networks I have found that shows the truth live-I watch them on Rumble This one is a bag of decaf for me and I bought two of their dark roasts (lots of caffeine) for Larry

and Henry visited my mailbox all the way from Germany-thank you Iris-love him

Happy T and new week and new month

T Stands for Tuesday and Landscape Project Continues

   Wow can you believe it? Our last Tuesday and T for the month of July. I had a feeling when May for me just zoomed on by that the summer would go fast too-and it has so far.

   We are still into some projects, the dock is not finished due to workers not showing up-sigh, we so need to sort things out at the woods house so it can get on the market to be sold-but too hot this summer, I think we will wait til things cool down.  Speaking of hot we are in for another very hot week-closing in on 100 degree f a few days. So thankful we have air conditioning here, I never grew up with it-the price was a luxury back then. and I know many countries do not have air conditioning so I am always so grateful to have it.

   If you enjoy camping recipes or using cast iron-you may enjoy my recipe share for Cast Iron Saturdays. (previous post)  I am making this a weekly post as long as there is an interest. 

    And just for fun and since it's T Day,  I love to follow John Townsend-18th century cooking and baking so wanted to share his recent post-roasting and brewing coffee in the 18th century.

  A couple posts back I shared a couple videos of our landscape project. In the front, I am working on changing all the grass over to flower beds for the hummingbirds and butterflies especially.  Since that post I have worked around 3 hours every day, except Sunday, very early before it gets hot and before the sun reaches this area. I am sorting through rock and concrete. The concrete chunks (from the brick sidewalk project) will go into two areas to help catch rain water and to eliminate weeds in those areas. The rocks will go on top of the concrete. I also want to cut down on grass. I will need to find someone new to cut lawn next year as we are not happy with who we have now. Which is always difficult to find someone.

  A couple photos 

      As you can see I am working on a hill, the last couple days I have been sitting down and using a short handled shovel to dig through the piles. Much better for my back and more comfortable-not trying to balance myself on the hill. It slopes quite a bit beyond the front of this photo.

  I love this old tree stump for character Will set up something for water for the butterflies here.

I use my cleaning bucket for the small pieces. These two piles are rocks, interesting an hour south where our woods house is we had mostly really pretty and textured rocks. These rocks are not very interesting at all-but will cover the concrete chunks.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the plants I bought online. I knew they would be small but they are a little bit smaller than I expected. Very healthy and professionally packed though-netting on the roots-in the first photo.

   These plants-bee balm and lavender were suppose to arrive on Monday but surprise they came in on Saturday. I had called the post office if I could come and pick them up when they came in-otherwise the carrier doesn't come til after 2pm. So I was happy when the post office called me early Saturday morning.  These came from New York which I hadn't realized when I purchased them-a long time in the mail for plants. I ordered one of each color of bee balm and she sent me two plants each which was a nice surprise. The bee balm colors are red, purple and blue.

This is the medicinal echinacea which came from Missouri-they were packed very well too. I just ordered another set of three plants. Thought I would plant this clump all together and then the next plants same way

Here are the bee balm plants and lavender. I am excited to grow more lavender plants too.

  I have them in a spot outdoors where they are in the shade all day til late in the afternoon-I needed to bring them indoors once the very hot sun hit them as the leaves were drooping. Don't want anything to happen to these plants. (smiles) Update: I looked for a shady spot in the late afternoon today and found one-now can keep these outdoors.

  I also found goldenseal plants on Ebay-I was amazed at all the plant choices there-I had checked out a few online nurseries but I got twice as many plants for the same money from these Ebay sellers.  I have a shady spot that will be perfect for the goldenseal I want to eventually get. I love goldenrod (no this has no allergens like ragweed) so may look for a spot for that too-great dye plant for yellows, and makes a nice tea as well. I am mixing in useful herb plants with the perennials that will attract butterflies, hummingbirds, bees. Once things are set up to plant I would like to order ground cover thyme-it is so pretty and I can harvest the thyme as well-and should keep weeds down. I may wait til next spring for that or see if I can plant it in the fall. Zinnias really bring in the butterflies too-so will scatter these seeds around-and then in the fall collect the seeds for the following year-and there are sooo many kinds of zinnias too.

  Over the weekend I wanted to make a zucchini bread-I found a keto recipe that I changed up a bit. It baked up really well-I had used half gluten free flour blend and half almond flour-I don't care for the taste or the bake using only almond flour. I used a keto sweetener but I took notes that it needed much more. My husband doesn't care for breads like this at all, and he for sure would not like this one-flavor pretty bland even though I added extra cinnamon. I liked it though-now it is getting a bit dry so will toast it in a cast iron skillet to finish it up. Makes a nice break with coffee or good for breakfast.

The recipe was using keto chocolate chips, I changed that to raisins that I soaked first so would be moist

I fixed the not sweet enough-haha-with spreadable honey with cinnamon You can just see my water glass in the back left.

A few lake photos

    Those little tug boats move docks around on the water

A sailboat-the first one we have seen this summer so far

This is a huge dock getting moved and it has a wood roof.

Sunrise

A storm coming in

Another Sunrise-this more was a bit hazy

   Oh and the poison ivy saga is almost over. It took a week for me to stop being super nauseated from the steroids after I stopped taking the last two pills. My worse arm still burns-strange, but I am almost back to normal finally-this has taken a month so far to get over this bad case. I hope I never get into poison ivy again-I am spotting it here at our lake home in several areas.

Happy T for Tuesday and Have an awesome new week everyone

PS here is a photo of the creeping thyme