Beauty in Your Own Back Yard

I was experimenting with the family camera and finally figured out how to use the "macro" function. I was doing this because I had some very pretty wildflowers growing around our house and wanted to take some close-up pictures of them. I didn't want a little speck of flower in the middle of a large picture. I probably looked rather silly to the neighbors as I lay in the grass in the middle of the yard taking picture of some of the smaller flowers.

I like how the pictures came out and told my daughters. One expressed an interest in seeing the little beauties so I decided to post them and share them not only with her but with you. I had reasonably good luck scouring the Internet for pictures and have tentatively identified all but one flower. If my identification is incorrect, I welcome you to correct my error.

Red Clover

Stargazer Lily

Cow Vetch

Queen Anne's Lace

Chicory

White Hibiscus

Pink Hibiscus

Daisy Fleabane

Daylily

Scarlet Pimpernel

White Clover

Common Thistle

Bittersweet (Creeping Nightshade)

Soapwort

Birdfoot Trefoil

Yellow Hop Clover

That's all there is for now. As I get more pictures, I'll post them on this blog. Enjoy!

What happens when you mow cat mint on a windy day

Well, I just had to share this with everyone. I went outside to trim prior to cutting the grass and accidentally mowed down some cat mint growing under one of the pine trees in our back yard. The wind caught what I thought were grass clippings and blew them into the side of my pants. Boy did I get a surprise when I went inside to cool off !!


Each of the cats, one after the other, suddenly became very affectionate. If you watch the videos, you will see that I was hung on, chewed, licked, pummeled and layed on.


Some of their kitty affection actually hurt, especially the teeth and claws as they hung off of my pants trying to get to all of the cat mint.


I'm thinking that maybe I'll try and remember to stand upwind the next time I mow under the pine trees.

Pumpernickel Bread Recipe

Every once in a while my wife decides that she wants to make something different. She adapted a wheat bread recipe that she and our daughter came up with and Voila! Out comes a new pumpernickel bread recipe. The first loaf to come out of the oven smelled absolutely heavenly! The ones that followed smelled and tasted even better after she tweaked the recipe. It is so good that I decided to share it with the rest of the world. So here goes.



General
This recipe makes either two loaves of bread (free form or loaf pan) or 24 rolls. It requires either a 1/2 sheet pan or two loaf pans for bread or a 9 x 13 pan for the rolls. If you have a stand mixer (KitchenAid or the like) it will take about 15 minutes to prepare the dough. Mixing by hand will take a while longer.

Ingredients
1t. yeast
2 1/4c. water
1t. salt
1/4c. dark molasses
1/4c. dark brown sugar
4oz. (4 sq) unsweetened chocolate, melted
1/4c. olive oil
4T. orange zest
3T. gluten
2T. powdered cocoa
1/4c. orange juice
1/2c. ruffage (rye seeds, caraway seeds, etc.)
2c. whole wheat flour
2c. rye flour
2 1/2c. bread flour

Instructions
Place the water, yeast, dark molasses, melted chocolate, dark brown sugar, olive oil, orange zest, orange juice, salt, cocoa and gluten in the mixer bowl. Mix by hand until all of the ingredients are combined. Add the rye and whole wheat flour and mix by hand until combined. Place the bowl in the mixer, run on low and add the ruffage. Add the bread flour, 1/2c. at a time, until combined. After the last 1/2c. is combined, run the mixer on medium until the dough is of uniform consistancy.

Remove the dough from the mixer bowl and knead for 3-5 minutes, sprinkling with bread flour, until dough is no longer sticky.

Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with a warm, damp towel. Let the dough proof for 2 hours or until it has doubled. Punch down the dough and remove it from the bowl. Knead until it is smooth. It it happens to be a dry day, you might have to sprinkle a little water into the dough to remoisten it while you knead.

For loaves: Form into two loaves and place on a greased or corn mealed 1/2 sheet pan or in two loaf pans. Cover the dough with a warm, damp towel and let rise for 45 minutes.

For rolls: Separate into 24 pieces, pinch round and place in a greased 9 x 13 pan. Cover the dough with a warm, damp towel and let rise for 45 minutes.

Uncover and place in a pre-heated oven at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until done. Remove from the oven and let the rolls or free form loaves cool. If you are using loaf pans, remove the bread from the loaf pans and set them on a cooling rack.

Note: For a harder, crunchier crust, put a pan of water in the oven while things are baking.

Results
Now you're ready to eat. Don't hold back... you know you want to try that delicious pumpernickel bread!

WeeHelp Tree Lighting Services

Well it looks like another job for the WeeHelp tree lighting techs... The Christmas Star on the top of our tree quit working today so we decided to send in the calvary. Our junior tech climbed the tree and made a quick assessment of the situation.



Yes, the center blinker bulb needs to be replaced. As soon as she determined the correct bulb number she came down, retrieved the correct bulb and headed back up for the swap. We managed to capture some great footage of her performing her duties.



As you can see, she is quite nimble. The bulb has since been replaced and the Christmas Star is working perfectly now.

The New Addition

With the passing of our previous black cat, we found that we had an empty spot in our hearts. We miss this lovable, old, grumpy cat whom we called Tigger Too. Her namesake was my first black cat, Tigger, from the days of my youth.

As it turns out, this past week, the universe in all of its infinite diversity intertwined our fate with the fate of another employee of my work place in a very rewarding way. This particular employee had three black kittens that she and her brother found as strays. When I found out about the wee ones, I immediately made inquiries as to the age and gender of these stray black kittens. Two were male and one was female. I texted my daughter and she came bolting into my office with all due haste spouting, "Can we see 'em, please, please please?!!" How could I refuse such a request?! I called the other employee and made arrangements for my daughter and I to go see the kittens.

As soon as my daughter saw the kittens she fell in love with them, especially the female. She was very soft, cuddly and very laid back. Almost the exact opposite of our previous black cat. This was just what my daughter wanted in a kitten. Needless to say, we brought that little black bundle of joy home with us that night. Since then things haven't been the same.

The first night she was home with us, she was very reserved. The wee one was content to huddle under the futon in my Den. Today, however, is another story. Now that she has gotten over her initial insecurity at being in a new, strange home, she has been getting into everything. I think nothing of walking down the hall to the living room only to stop and wait for a small black streak to bolt headlong at breakneck speeds across the floor only to stop in mid stride, skid to a halt and bolt back the way she came.

She is very curious about what people eat, especially pancakes. At breakfast this morning, we couldn't keep her from scaling pantlegs and bathrobes in an effort to get to the dining room table. The only way we could keep her off was to feed her (wait for it...) pancakes. That's what I said, pancakes. I'm beginning to think that she's part mooch.

Enough said about our new addition. I would like everyone to meet our latest family member, Jade Ember (Jem for short).

Welcome

Welcome to the first post of the new Martinsburg McIntyre's blog. After watching the blogs that my daughter "enlethe" and her significant other "banik" have been posting, I finally decided that blogging was a decent and reasonable way to keep in touch with family when they're so far away.

It looks like I'll be the only person blogging for a while until I can get my other half up to speed on how to post. I'm sure it will be a learning experience for all of us. So here goes...