Second Tree Blog

Don’t MESS with Your Little Bro’ When He Just Got a Mohawk

Tim — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:26:18 +0000

Not posed at all. Carson really was considering decking Benton (he didn’t). What else would a responsible parent do but take a picture?

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Summer Cut — Carson Style

Tim — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:23:52 +0000

Carson opted for a bit of flair with his latest haircut — provided by Julie over our weekend in West Virginia.

© Tim for Second Tree Blog, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: haircut, mohawk, The Farm, West Virginia

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Caption this Picture…

Tim — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:23:41 +0000

We got a handful of photos that really sort of defy description over the weekend. And, we’ve done “Caption this Picture”-type posts before (I’ve actually added it as its own category on the site), and we’re due for a couple more!

Very simply, we provide a picture and see if any of our dozens of readers can come up with a creative caption and leave it in the comments (Dad…really…you can click through to the link and leave a comment on the site. I promise I won’t tell that you took time away from birdwatching-trip-planning to catch up on your grandkids…)

So, here it is:

Any thoughts?

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Pie Just Tastes Better When Cast Iron Cookware and Coals Are Involved

Tim — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:09:59 +0000

We headed to West Virginia this past weekend, which, as usual, should trigger a handful of blog posts.

Benton is a fan of Dutch oven cooking, so we spent 30 seconds while we were planning the food for the trip trying to think what a good coal-fired dish would be. We pretty quickly got to: cherry pie! I’ve made a cherry pie in a Dutch oven once before — it was on a trip out to Big Bend some time BK (before kids), and it was quite a challenge. With that recipe, the Dutch oven itself was the pie plate. This time, we went much, much simpler — just used a pie crust mix, the Cherry Lattice Pie recipe from the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook (our standard recipe), and our regular glass pie plate.

Fueling the oven with coals from a fire in the yard of the farmhouse (my first batch of coals weren’t great, so it wound up taking ~30 minutes longer to cook than the normal oven time):

The co-chef shows off his handiwork:

And…a straight-on shot of the final dish (I actually thought to throw a coathanger in as we were packing up so that I could fashion a mechanism for living the pie plate out of the oven — maybe I am learning a thing or two as I get older):

It tasted great, but, as has been the case the last 3 or 4 times we’ve made a cherry pie, it was rather runny, even after it had cooled for an hour or so. Does cornstarch go bad? We need to do some research and future experimenting.

© Tim for Second Tree Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cherry pie, Dutch oven, The Farm, West Virginia

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

S’mores, anyone?

Tim — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:28:05 +0000

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

A Relatively Plain (City) Fourth of July

Tim — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 03:11:51 +0000

Benton had a sleepover birthday party tonight, so we were down one kiddo. We met up with the Pages in Plain City for fireworks. We realized these were the first professional fireworks that Alana has seen (we think).

Her hand got “stuck” (as in “mouth-open-in-amazement-all-other-movement-ceased” stuck) in that bag of Ritz Bits for a bit when the fireworks started:

A few shots of the fireworks — not bad for an ultra compact, handheld digital camera (semi-handheld, I braced it on the arm of the chair and used a 2-second timer to shoot the pictures).

And…back home a couple of hours after the usual bedtime:

The transfer to actual beds was not pretty, but did eventually get pulled off.

© Tim for Second Tree Blog, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: fireworks, Fourth of July, Plain City

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Elwyn in Memoriam: Take 2

Tim — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:00:19 +0000

The initial “In Memoriam” post was hastily posted with the most readily available photos. I went back through a more complete archive and dug up a few more pictures that go back a lot farther — even to pre- and early Benton days.

Pre-kids. Elwyn was a beautiful lab:

And, he could be something of a rag doll — could happily doze in the oddest positions:

Always good and patient with kids, especially if they let him give them kisses (Benton wasn’t mobile enough in this photo to have much say in the matter):

Benton was the first of many kids — ours and others — who did some full-body sensory play with his fur:

Alana got her share of kisses as well:

And, again with Alana:

As a foundation for a pillow pile (Benton):

Hanging out at Town Lake with Carson (and Garrison S.):

Another magazine-cover-worthy pose:

Still with some puppy-ness to him, retrieving a stick:

But, his most favorite activity had to be anything water-related.

Retrieving a dog toy:

Retrieving a rock:

And, finally, a video of Elwyn actually diving for rocks — the bigger the rock, the better:

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Alana’s Future Career

Tim — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:31:05 +0000

It’s really too early to be pinning down a specific career track, but Alana has been showing potential in a variety of areas.

Soap Box Derby Racer

Baseball/Softball Player

Wrestler

Plumber

© Tim for Second Tree Blog, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: baseball, plumber, soap box derby, wrestler

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

In Memoriam: Elwyn Brooks Wilson 1995-2009

Tim — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:22:07 +0000

Elwyn headed to that great big rocky-bottomed river in the sky last night. He had been heading downhill for a while and just got to the point last night where his quality of life had hit the point of extreme on-going discomfort.

He had a good run for fourteen years and will be missed.

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

My Parents’ Retirement: 44% Ain’t Bad for Five Weeks

Tim — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:46:03 +0000

My parents just returned from their 5-week Alaskan odyssey.

They reported that, between the two of them, they saw 199 species of birds (they each saw 198, and each saw one that the other did not see). Apparently, there are “as many as 450 species of birds” in Alaska, which means they saw 44% of the species that inhabit the state.

I guess they’ll have to go back to finish the job.

The preliminary report of their trip did not include any data as to how many of these birds were new to their life list, but I’m sure that information will be provided in a subsequent report (or at least as a comment on this post).

© Tim for Second Tree Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Alaska, birding, birdwatching, Boppa, J

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh