Hammock House

WOW… holy cow, I cannot believe that it has been 5 months since I updated my blog. I knew it had been a while, but geesh!

Life has not slowed down one iota, if anything it has moved faster, to understand what I mean, check out Three months, gone, in a blink..

Actually, I really don’t have time right now to update, but, just wanted to say what I’ve done so far this morning…

Am on second load of laundry, bread doing their second proofing in the oven, dishes from getting bread ready for proofing cleaned and drying, dishwasher that ran in middle of night is now empty. In the dehydrator we have 3 trays of carrots, 3 trays of bananas and 3 trays of apples, all happily having all their moisture sucked out of them! Last, but not least, so far, all the prep stuff that went into getting food ready for dehydrator is also clean and drying. :-)

Whew… I’m tired and it’s only a little after 8 AM!

Aha - timer just went off, so 2nd proofing complete, not to mention a very unhappy rabbit who is thumping very loudly in her cage, because ‘Mom’ has not uncovered her.

Is it nap-time yet?! :-)

Teaser is uncovered and fed, bread is baking in the oven, dogs have been potty and now to make out the grocery list. Damn, I hate shopping.

Have a wonderful day…

Oops! Almost forgot to show some of our friends that have visited, and just to get your mouth watering even more… 2 loaves that I made about a month ago, and remembered to take a picture of. :D

It really is hard for me to believe that it is already May. It just does not seem possible, I mean just yesterday it was February, wasn’t it?

To catch up with what has been happening, you need to understand when it all started to go awry, and this was last post on it: If it weren’t for bad luck….

Since that post, I now have my laptop hooked up to one of my old 19″ monitors, so that I can use it, which kinda messes up that whole, just grab the laptop and go thing that it had going for it, but hey, it works this way. Still don’t have cellphone fixed, but, found out that if I take it in, they will put new cover on it! WOOT! I’ll get to that in the next week.

Finally, got some rain last night. Yes, I know, we had gotten our 30 drops, but then, in the afternoon/evening, the skies let loose. It was wonderful, fantastic, and coming down so fast that… much didn’t soak into the ground. Yards and streets were flooded. Oh well, at least it rained. I was thrilled. Didn’t get out camera to capture the awesome lightening that was going on, but I did get to enjoy it without worrying if shutter was open long enough to capture some photons, or if it was open too long, which would overexpose that same photons.

Okay, so, let’s catch up, now that you know it rained here, and no I am not making light of the storms that have been happening all over - for those that they are adversely affecting, my thoughts and prayers go out to you, and to those chasers that are following them - Godspeed and don’t forget to just enjoy Mother Nature, without all the gizmos and gadgets.

Here we go…

I posted about MiMi passing away in April, April 15th to be exact (I’m not looking forward to Friday), what I haven’t said, and it is NOT because I didn’t think it was important, is that my great-aunt also passed. My Aunt Norma, my Pappap’s sister, passed on April 27th. We are still trying to deal with that, and how it is effecting my Pap. :( Prayers for him, would be awesome, he is the last of that line.

I want to take the time here to say that corporations that don’t take care of their obligations, like paying their rent, greedy money-grubbing corporations, SUCK!! What on earth am I talking about? Well, let me tell ya our tale of woe.

Way back when, my family owned a “Mom and Pop” type grocery store, everything from extra hoses/belts for your car to groceries and fresh meat and produce. This was back before chain groceries stores moved into Miami. Then big chain store moved in and after 30 years, the store had to close.

Skip to present time, a time when apparently honesty is no longer a quality in people and doing business. You see, the company that rents our land (where the store used to be), is playing games. They keep subletting and not telling us, they refuse to answer their phones, oh, and let’s not forget, they haven’t paid rent in 3 months, are not keeping up the property according to Miami-Dade County code, AND, here is the biggie… have not paid the property taxes. Yes, per the antiquated contract (which we have been trying to get updated), they are supposed to pay the taxes. But they haven’t. Which means… if anyone cares to GIVE us money, that would be awesome, because on top of the economy which sucks, and stock plummeting which has made it harder, what little stock we had left, we had to sell, to come up with $20,000. Yes, you read that correctly.

So, that is what we have been dealing with down here, on top of all the normal crap… plus, trying to get some veggies going, which took longer than it should have because items I ordered, they were back-ordered and didn’t come in on time, making our own bread, butter, jams & jellies, candles (wow, do they smell so much better than store bought), slipcovers and more!

So, if any of my rich friends wants to just give out money, free and clear - call me. *laughs*

Would it be selfish to pray to win the lottery or powerball???

Mock Ham Salad a.k.a. Poor Man’s Ham Salad

Hopefully I will start getting images again soon, and make the blog a much happier place.

To leave you tonight, I’ll end with a recipe, a simple recipe for sure, but it really is oh so good, this is what my great and my great-great grandmother’s used to send with the ‘men-folk’ when they went down into the coal mines of Pennsylvania:

Mock Ham Salad a.k.a. Poor Man’s Ham Salad

1 lb chunk bologna (not beef)
6-7 sweet gherkins (with about 1-2 Tbsp juice reserved)
2-4 Tbsp (depending on your taste) salad dressing (Miracle Whip type)

Modern day - cut bologna into 1 inch pieces, cut gherkins in half, throw into large food processor and blend to puree (consistency of a spread). Add enough salad dressing to moisten and bind. I don’t like a lot of dressing, other members of family do, so they add more to theirs.

Blend all together, spread it thinly or thickly, depending on your liking, on bread, roll or crackers and enjoy.

I’ll try and grab some shots of the new self-watering containers that we put together for the veggies - they are really cool, but really ugly. *grins*

Be well, be safe, be happy!

Thank you to everyone for thoughts about MiMi. Yes, she was my baby, no doubt about it. These last three months have been, well, a whirlwind of stuff going on.

I will post an update later tonight - but did want to send a quick thank you.

For your thoughts, for your words, for your… caring. It truly is and was appreciated, even if I did not get back to anyone while still trying to deal with her death. You’ll understand why after the update…

I’m back, still a little sporadic, will be trying to get some much need imaging time, and trying to pick up pieces from the last couple of months.

On a good note - we got about 30 drops of rain today! WOOT! Dropped over 10 degrees, which was awesome, because it has been damn hot here!

Take care, I’ll post later, and know that you are in my thoughts, my heart and always my prayers.

Now…. let’s see some more weather, dammit!! :D

Camille “MiMi” Hudnall
February 3, 1987 - April 15, 2009