Not such a good start

in the cooking department that is. When I read the Blogs this morning I read about Janna's plate of homemade beignets. That sure sounded great so this afternoon I decided to make some. I had never even heard the name but googled it and found a recipe on the Internet. The dough went together really well and I kept it cool for 3 hours like the recipe said. I used my cast iron fry pan with enough oil to cover the beignets.  I even had a thermometer to make sure I had the right temperature. In go the first four but I guess the oil got way too hot in the process and they were dark brown quickly but when I took them out and cut one open it was still raw inside. Unfortunately I already sugared them so could not put them back in the oil. I finished them off in the oven. Next I tried to roll the next ones out thinner and at least they cooked fully. I still was not too impressed so I rolled out the remaining dough, added butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Rolled it up like a jelly roll, cut into 16 pieces and they are now rising, waiting for the oven. I think they will be OK. Like the other southern recipe I made awhile ago “biscuits and gravy” I still think one has to be born in the South to make them ☺☺☺
That’s all for the first day of the year.
I hope everybody arrived safe and sound.
Good bye everybody ☺

Happy New Year

I hope everybody had a great Christmas.
Now on to the new year. What will it bring? Nobody knows yet but we will find out in time.
We had a few interesting days. Our granddaughter Rachel was looking for her first car. She got her N (Novice driver) in November and has been looking for her first wheels. Grandpa kept searching on the internet with her and she at dealers etc. where she lives. She finally found one and was soo happy but on the way to finalize the deal the car stopped and would not go any further!! Of course that was the end of that deal. It was a blessing in disguise though since that car did not sound like a good deal to grandpa. Had too many used parts. At first Rachel was very disappointed but found her dream car the next day. A much better deal. She is now driving a 2001 Mazda Protege with a one year guarantee. She is on cloud nine at the moment. It is so nice to see the grandkids happy.

Happy New Year, Everybody

see you next year ☺☺☺

Christmas Eve

We are having a Green Christmas! and that is exactly the way I like it. I hope there will be less accidents on the road.
We have been very busy with appointments for both of us. Finally we could look after our health
The ECO battle has come to a favourable end. You can read all about it here
We now have to wait what will be done with that site. We still have to be quite vigilant.
I did a lot of baking today. Our grandkids and their Dad will come for Boxing Day lunch and after that they will head for Vancouver where they have tickets to see the Canucks in action.
They need to get an early ferry because the other day one of the ferries knocked out the Duke Point ferry docks. The spokesperson said that it will probably be half a year before it will be operational again. Since that ferry line is now unusable the other ferries have to pull up the slack. I am sure glad we did not plan on using the ferries this year.
Last night we went to an open house at one of our new ECO depot friends. It was a lot of fun. They had a life size Santa that dances and sings several Christmas songs and some of us girls danced along with him. Our friend told a funny story about that Santa. During the year it is stored in it’s box. The head comes off and the body is compressed down and to keep it down it has a lever under the box, then the head sits lose on top and the box closes. One year her little granddaughter was going to help put up the Santa, They opened the box and tried to pull Santa up but he would not budge. My friend remembered the lever under the box and pulled it. Up jumped the body but the head catapulted at the little girl. She was absolutely petrified. When the story was told yesterday we really had to laugh. I am sure by now the girl is laughing about that story too.
For now I wish everybody a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Good night everybody ☺

Bad is often not all bad…

If it had not been for the trouble with the ECO Depot we would not have met so many of our great neighbours .
Yesterday we had a bar-be-cue with the group at our neighbours turkey farm. I have never seen so many turkeys at once and the noise they made was LOUD!

This is only part of the turkey group.
We sure had a lot of fun. To keep us warm we had a fire in the field. Later on we had hamburgers and hot dogs.


This morning my brother-in-law came over bright and early and Cliff and he went to get a load of wood. Cliff saw it on Used Cowichan for sale; it was nearly 2 full cords and they had to make 2 trips. Now we need one more cord and we’ll have enough for this year and next. I even helped a bit to unload. When they came back from the first load I had lunch ready. Pork ribs with potatoes, carrots, cauliflower and a green salad with enough leftovers for tomorrow. I always like to have leftovers for Mondays because I am busy with doing laundry.
Last night I was invited to our new neighbours place for a ladies party. Everybody there was sooo young but it was lots of fun. I met the mother of our neighbour and had a good talk. She and her husband are leaving for a month holiday down South with their trailer. It is the first time they are Snow Birds. I hope they are having lots of fun. I sure envy them.
Now it’s time to say good bye and
good night everybody ☺

Last Sign-waving picture

It was a fun afternoon with lots of goodies to eat and lots of friends.

It’s over

or is it? I sure hope so. The Eco Depot was voted down by a large margin at least for the Cameron Taggart site. It was so nice not having to do 3 hours worth of “sign-waving” in the cold. It has been a long time since this nightmare started and hopefully it is over with now but we are still very vigilant.
Here is a video clip I took from the TV about it.

ECO Depot Interview on Shaw TV

We’ll see what the new year brings.
I used to bake lots of cookies to take to the sign-waving and because of baking every week I gained some weight during that time. Now I noticed though that I am so used to eating cookies that it will be hard to break that habit, but breaking it I must!!

We had a beautiful day here on the Island. Lots of sunshine and no rain but it was a tad cool. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain a bit but after that the sun will be out again. In tonight’s News we were told that the winter is going to be colder than normal. I hope they are wrong but if they are not, we have lots of wood to keep us warm in the house.

A few days ago I tried my hand at making biscuits and gravy but I think you have to be living in the South in order to do a good job ☺☺☺, mine sure did not work out too well. So I used the leftover sausage gravy to make it into a pot of soup. That was a success, so all was not lost.
I am looking forward to company on Wednesday. My sister in law and hubby live in Lethbridge and they have arrived in Victoria to spend one month on beautiful Vancouver Island. They like to be independent so they opted for a nice hotel in Victoria. It will be fun to visit often, either here or at their hotel.
Shopping tomorrow morning.
That’s it for tonight…so
Good Night everybody ☺

Long, long ago

I wrote my last entry. I just had nothing really to write about.
It only took a few days to get over my experience in the hospital. So far everything is OK and I did not have a repeat. My hearing is a lot better too so I am a happy camper.
This is the time we used to pull out of our driveway to start the long trek to Arizona. When I read about the lucky people that are on their way now I am quite envious but I am glad that we have had many nice winters in Arizona/California to look back on.
We had another sign waving today. Two more Sundays and we think that will be the end of it. General elections will be held Nov. 19. and hopefully we will be getting new directors. At the same time we will be voting for or against the proposed site for the ECO depot.
 
It really is sad to think that municipal forces want to destroy our rural life and a piece of property that is beautiful. These woods are inhabited by lots of critters including bears, cougars, racoons as well as goshawks, cooper hawks and sharp shin hawks.

We are all for recycling to keep stuff out of the landfills and we have done that for years but we already have two commercial recycling centres close by and two more in Duncan. Why we need another one to the tune of over 2 million dollars - that we the taxpayers have to pay for - is beyond me.
OK… I’m off my soap box now.
When I got up this morning it was raining but around 10 the rain stopped and we were lucky that it stayed dry and even sunny until we finished with the signs at 3 PM.
I have been busy knitting felted slippers. It is amazing to see them turn from something that could fit an elephant to something that keeps my feet so toasty warm. Of course I could buy slippers cheaper than what I have to pay for the yarn to make them but buying them is not nearly as much fun as making them.
Halloween tomorrow but I don’t have to buy any goodies because no little goblins will be coming our way, at least they have not for many years now. If I am wrong then there are always loonies to hand out.
That’s all for now,
Good night everybody ☺