Mi Casa de Pollo

May 23rd, 2009
The chicken house is in place & the girls seem very happy in their new home. It’s tucked into the corner of my garden, fits right in & I can see the girls moving about in the run while I’m standing at my kitchen sink. Love that!

See more photos of the girls!

Chicks in the City

May 14th, 2009
This was taken on Saturday and is our first egg!
 
Here are my new girls. They’ve been here almost a week now and I’m having so much fun watching there goings on and listening to their sounds. So far we’ve gotten 3 eggs, all from Lucy, the biggest hen. She’s an Athen’s Rare Breed. I actually witnessed one of the eggs as it was being laid and that was pretty cool! The coop is in place but still needs a bit more work and I’ll be posting pictures as soon as it’s complete. The other two ladies are Bubbles, a Lakenvelder and Buttercup, her name and breed. (Newsflash!!! Soon after I wrote this one of the smaller girls laid their 1st egg, didn’t want to be outdone, I guess.)
Lucy has been my layer. She’s a sweet girl who is easy to hold, fun to watch and can really kick up the dirt. They’ve had a hay day scratching around where my compost bin used to be!

Bubbles is a Lakenvelder and boy does she make a racket when you pick her up. Missing some feathers but hoping she’ll start filling in soon.

Buttercup. See her comb? It’s a cupshaped crown with a complete circle of medium sized regular points. Not too crazy about being picked up (yet) but a very pretty bird!

A Dirty Little Workout!

April 29th, 2009

Do you workout on a regular basis?
At home or a gym?
Solo or with a buddy?
Do you walk or run? wii fit, treadmill, swim, bike?
Having been a personal trainer and an aerobic instructor, worked full time in the fitness arena (YMCA!) for years I know the importance of cross-training, varying the mode of training. Also important when trying to lose weight is understanding calories in vs calories burned. One of the BEST training tools is a Polar F4. The great little device lets me know when I’m in my training zone, keeping me working out hard enough, not too hard, keeping track of calories and I’m writing down the summary at the end of the workout. Keeping a notebook or workout diary helps me with motivation and accountability.

This morning I went to the park with Cesar, walked and ran 3.75 miles. My journal entry for today:time, 52 minutes, time in zone, 50 minutes, average heart rate 136 bpm, highest heart rate 156 bpm, calories 346. (I still have my core workout to do!)

My daily workout goal has been 500 workout calories a day. The workouts vary from walking & now running, solo or with one or two dogs, wii fit, Fitness Coach (another wii game workout) pilates, Reebok slide, stability ball, hand weights and bands. Lots of variety!!!
So why did I call the “A Dirty Little Workout”. Saturday was a great day for gardening, my favorite activity and I was curious to see how many calories I’d burn during this activity. On this particular day I was making digging up grass, making a new bed and transplanting 2 rose bushes. Summary: time 5 hours, time in zone, 3 hours and 28 minutes, average heart rate 117, highest heart rate 145, calories… drum roll please…..are you ready for this? 1484!!! Ok, maybe it wasn’t so “little”!

Letter from a Law Student

April 21st, 2009

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters,

We’ve stuck together since the late 1950s, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know that we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot and just will not ever agree on what’s right. So let’s just end it right now while we can do it on friendly terms. We can smile, shake hands, chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and each go our own way.

So here’s a model separation agreement.
Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by land mass, each taking a portion. That’s going to be the difficult part, but I’m sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy. Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate taste. We don’t like redistributive taxes so you can have those. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. And since you hate guns and you hate war, we’ll take the firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnell. But you are going to be responsible for finding a biodiesel vehicle big enough to haul them around.

We’ll keep the capitalism, the greedy corporations, the pharmaceutical companies; we will keep Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have the homeless, the homeboys, the hippies and illegal aliens. We will keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, the greedy CEOS and all of the rednecks. We’ll keep the Bibles and we’ll let you have NBC and Hollywood.

You can be nice to Iran and Palestine and we’ll retain the right to invade and hammer anybody that threatens us. You can have the peaceniks and the war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we will provide them with security. You won’t have to worry about it. We will keep our Judeo-Christian values. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley Maclaine. You can also have the UN, but we will no longer pay the bill.

We will keep the SUVs, the pickup trucks and the oversize luxury cars. You can have the compacts, the subcompacts and every Subaru station wagon you can find. You can give everybody healthcare, if you can find any practicing doctors. We will continue to believe that healthcare is a privilege and not a right. We will keep “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and the national anthem, and I am sure you will be happy to substitute in their place “Imagine.” I’d like to teach the world to sing “Kumbaya” or “We are the world.” We will practice trickle-down economics and you can give trickle-up poverty your best shot. And since it so offends you, we will keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along other like-minded liberal and conservative patriots. And if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the friendly spirit of parting, I’ll bet you ANWAR which one of us will need whose help in about 15 years.

Sincerely,
John J Wall
Law student and an American

P.S. You can also have Barbara Streisand and Jane Fonda.

In a Happy Place!

April 9th, 2009
It’s been one of those glorious spring days here in Georgia! (This after cold & snow flurries Monday & Tuesday.) Easter is just around the corner …my white azaleas in FULL bloom.
The “Mother’s Day Red” variety is just beginning to open.
No make-up! Work clothes, garden gloves and sunscreen were the order of the day. Knees are the color of our Georgia clay but are oh-so-happy! Tomato plants, 5 varieties, have gone into their 4′ x 4′ raised bed along with some sweet banana peppers (seeds). Bush beans & squash are in another box. Those I started in my kitchen in peat pots.
The perfect ending to a perfect day? Watermelon I picked up yesterday! Watermelon stains will go perfect with my dirty hands & knees!
 

Oh Bother! April Freeze in Georgia

April 7th, 2009

Calendar says “spring” but thermometer screams winter. Drop cloths, old sheets & table cloths, up-turned emptied storage bins & trash cans, even a rain slicker surrounds a near blooming rose. What lengths will I go to to protect the tender vegetation! Peonies have buds waiting to burst. Same with roses & azaleas. Hydrangeas have their leaves and are subject to damage if not protected. Lots and lots of hostas up and unfurled.

 

Cherry tree has already bloomed but Mr. C doesn’t seem to mind.

 
The 2007 Easter freeze reeked havoc on all of the above so I’m not about to let it happen again!!! This too shall pass and the temps should rise during the day tomorrow. Yee-haw!!! My sweet hubby has made me boxes for raised bed vegetable gardening. Two are in place and half filled with some black gold from my compost pile. The back of my workhorse Suburban is filled with bags of soil conditioner, garden soil (the good stuff!) ready to worked in ASAP!
 
My kitchen has become my make-shift greenhouse with starter peat pots of vegetables getting a head start with some shop lights. Scott set up the video camera & got a bit of time lapse photography of their growth!

Design Sponge meets (my) Designer Daughter!

March 19th, 2009
Sara is having a RED letter day with a feature post on her favorite blog, Design Sponge. Their table, before and after pictures AND their wedding are highlighted today! You go girl!!!

Teflon Pressor Foot to the Rescue!

March 4th, 2009

 
Dotty Diaper Tote Bag made of canvas and a similar tote in oilcloth.

My first three oilcloth bags! Two totes and a lunch sack. 

On my long list of projects has been finding and making some items out of oilcloth. In the “old days” is was a canvas that was painted with linseed oil to give it a durable, waterproof finish. Now the products that I’m finding are more of a vinyl cloth…not the same as the tablecloth with the flannel on the back but not a linseed oil finish. Finding it locally proved to be impossible so I ordered some on-line from another etsy shop, oilclothshop.etsy.com. My first attempts at sewing on this material were rather frustrating as the stitches skipped & made an awful mess! I read several suggestions about tape on the presser foot, sewing between tissue paper, between notebook paper but none did the trick. My hunt was then on for a Teflon presser foot for my little Singer and it made all the difference in the world! So what’s next on the list of things to sew? Another rabbit pillow! The one shown in the previous post has already sold! Yeah!!! Time to make another….thank you Sara!

Grand Slams

February 27th, 2009
An index and links to more recipes at maryhanks.com on my Food For Thought page.

These mouthfuls get their crunch from a trio of pantry ingredients-cereal, coconut and nuts.

Grand Slams
1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup crispy rice cereal
1 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans

BEAT shortening at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy. Gradually add sugars, beating mixture well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well.
COMBINE flour and next 3 ingredients; gradually add to sugar mixture, beating until smooth. Stir in cereal, coconut, and pecans. Cover and chill 10 minutes.
DROP dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. (I like to line with parchment paper.) Bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool slightly on baking sheets; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Yield: 6 dozen

Another cookie recipe that I had to pass on comes from a Southern Living cookbook, Homestyle Cooking. It made it’s way to Southern Living after being published in Bully’s Bet Bites, a cookbook from The Junior Auxiliary of Starkville, Mississippi.

Food For Thought

February 20th, 2009

In an effort to put the recipes that are favorites on-line my posting began with a “non-blog” website, before I tried my hand at blogging. It was a way to post pics of faux finish, mural & etsy work plus some gardening pictures. Sort of an on-line portfolio, maryhanks.com.

I’ve added recipes to this blog but starting to feel like it’s been too hard to find & wanted them in one place, to be easier to get to. So, the Food For Thought page now has links to any and all of the recipes.

Let me know if you find something you like!

I’m in my happy place when my hands are busy; creating in the kitchen or garden, sewing or painting, even occasionally sculpting this and that.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart.” Colossians 3:23

Recent Posts

Meet Jonas
March 30, 2010
By Mary Hanks
How do you do, Granola?
March 7, 2010
By Mary Hanks
Early Bird Cafe’s first month
February 17, 2010
By Mary Hanks
Adding some cookies to the menu
February 1, 2010
By Mary Hanks
Chicken Salad Supreme
January 27, 2010
By Mary Hanks

My Heart’s Desire

Early Bird Cafe

« Later Posts | Earlier Posts »