Loud Screech....Door Opens....

We’ve had a problem with an extremely noisy front door since moving into this rental home.  The door has metal weather stripping.  Our home is constantly shifting due to weather and earthquakes.  Causing the door to slide up against the metal weather stripping, which in turn cause the door to make this extremely loud screeching noise every time it’s opened.   The noisy door opening during the daytime is really no problem, and with this loud screech you know exactly someone has come enter the house by the front door. 

Time passes, and it’s early in the morning, talking somewhere between 1AM and 4AM and the family is sound asleep in their beds…….when all of a sudden the front door comes screeching open.  Not only does it wake you out of a sound sleep, it scares the crap out of you.   

To resolve the issue of the screeching front door, I used paraffin wax on the metal weather stripping, and the door no longer screeches. This paraffin wax can be found at any store that sells the paraffin machines for hands and feet.  It may need to be reapplied after awhile, when the coating of wax has worn off.

Almost a Milky Way :P

Almost a Milky Way Bar

Ingredients

1 (7ounce) jar Marshmallow Fluff

2/3 cup Hershey’s Chocolate Spread

6 ounces Hershey’s Semi Sweet small chips

½ bag of Brach’s Caramels (unwrapped)

2 tablespoons of Heavy Cream

Directions

Take a bread pan and line it with parchment paper (don’t use wax paper it will stick to candy).

In a microwave safe bowl, melt 6 ounces of Hershey’s Semi Sweet small chips.  Remember to stir while melting and not to over process in the microwave.
 

Spread melted Hershey’s Semi Sweet chips in the bottom of the bread pan, place pan in refrigerator while completing the next process.

In a new microwaveable bowl mix the entire jar of Marshmallow Fluff with 2/3’s cup of Hershey’s Chocolate Spread (microwave for 30 seconds this will help so you can mix these two ingredients better in order to make a chocolate fluff for the middle layer of the candy bar).  When thoroughly mixed together, pull out your bread pan and place these mixed ingredients on top of the chocolate layer already there.  Level out this layer, and place the bread pan back into the refrigerator.

Final step, take all the unwrapped caramel candies and place them in a microwave bowl, add the 2 tablespoons of heavy cream, place bowl in microwave for 30 seconds, remove and mix.  If both ingredients have not made a smooth cream sauce, put back in microwave for another 30 seconds.  Remove from microwave and mix (continue this process until the caramels have melted and mixed well into the heavy cream).  Be careful not to burn the caramel.  When the caramel is mixed well with the heavy cream, pullout the bread pan from the refrigerator, and poor this caramel mixture over the top of the other ingredients, make sure it levels out and replace pan in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.  

Remove pan from refrigerator, pull out the parchment paper, remove the candy from the parchment paper, place candy on a cutting board, and cut each piece to the desired size.  Store in an air tight container.  

Enjoy the Almost Milky Way bars!!!

(I didn’t use the extra chocolate to cover the entire bar because it was too rich and sweet.  I left the complete bar uncovered).

P.S. if you would like to have chocolate on your entire bar after completing the entire process melt semi sweet chocolate in microware or double boiler and dip each piece of chocolate to have a complete Milk Way bar to enjoy instead of an Almost Milky Way bar.

Reference/resource: backforsecondsblog.com

Garden Updates, & My 2 Brats

I was able to get the grass completely cut, property cleaned up, and several tree branches cut and ready for removal when it started to rain.

Yeah…..rain, we all need it out in this part of the country.  So there won’t be any complaints from me.

My garden loves the rain, here are some updates and pictures taken before the rain hit.

I have Greek Oregano growing like crazy and I’ll be cutting this off and dehydrating it for future use.

After giving the Pineapple tomato plant a haircut, the birds decided to take advantage of the fact that the bird netting had been removed and targeted several tomatoes.

After pulling all my lettuce, I planted another set of green beans; as you can see they’re growing nicely.

And finally, not part of the garden, a dog and his best buddy, hogging the bed…………….see what I have to put up with every night???

Enjoy your evening……..

Life is Good, Visitors, & Garden

My garden has been keeping me a bit busy with the clipping, watering, harvesting, weeding, and getting rid of bugs.

Today was another harvest of cucumbers, green peppers, and small tomatoes.

Bulldog Man and I decided the Pineapple Tomato plant needed a haircut and some adjustments; to make sure it was standing and getting the appropriate support it needed.  

Here’s the before and after picture……..the plant looks as if it enjoyed the haircut.

 

Before Hair Cut

After Hair Cut

Next to the Pineapple Tomato plant is another type of tomato plant.  My identification stake is no longer next to the plant; therefore, I’m not sure what type of tomato plant this is, but it is producing these beautiful tomatoes that actually look artificial.

The Borage seeds planted have grown nicely, and have produced these beautiful flowers.

We had a couple of unexpected visitors on the homestead today.  While cutting the grass and weed-whacking, I came across a turtle. Bulldog Man moved him out of the way and over to some water and food, while I weed-whacked around the fenced in area where Beans roams.  We both wondered where this turtle came from; being that there’s no pond or river on our property.  Later, we boxed up the turtle and took him over to a nearby park, and let him loose. 

Later in the afternoon, this little bunny came hopping over to the front part of the house and was eating the grass (aka: weeds).  We watched him/her hop off down the side of the house, and into the wooded area off the eastern side of the property.  Lucky for me, our garden is fenced off and on the inside of this fence; we have installed bamboo around the entire fence.  The rabbits have not made it into my garden……………..GOOD THING!!!!  

 I was half expecting the family of skunks to come out next to visit us.

There is a family of skunks living in the wooded area on the east side of the property.  

I’ve captured a few pictures of flowers I’d like to share today.

Instead of heating up the house, I started up our grill, browned ground beef, onions, and celery.  I added 2 quarts of homemade broth, 1 canned jar of fresh tomatoes, potatoes, and carrots from my garden; then some frozen peas.  While I sat outside and enjoyed the cooler temperatures in the shade, I let the homemade ground beef soup cook on medium heat on top of the burner of the gas grill, while Bulldog Man enjoyed smoking his pipe, with some sweet smelling hazelnut tobacco.

Life is good………….