What is going on with the Chickens?

I have a lot of friends as me about my chickens lately.  No I haven't stopped talking about them.  Actually I have put a tab on my blog to keep an updated account of what is happening with them, please take a moment to look over there and see what those girls have been up to!

Or better yet, looking out of!

Thursday Thoughts.....

You can rise above almost any obstacle if you’re willing to work hard and believe that you can do it….ordinary people can do extraordinary things. —Dr. Thad Bell, associate dean for minority students, Medical University of South Carolina

Foto Friday

Went for a nice walk yesterday and just had to take this picture..this looks like a postcard doesn't it.

Enjoy and have a great weekend.  I am soo blessed to be able to live here and take incredible pictures like this!

Thursday Thoughts.....

You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take. —Wayne Gretzky, former professional hockey player

Foto Friday....

I was at the feed store today getting chicken food and there was a lady talking about her two "babies" that she nursed back to health.  I started listening to her and she said she was from the zoo and she was the care taker of two raccoons, baby raccoons!

She went to her truck and I asked if I could see these babies.  "Absolutely" she said.  Oh my they were precious!!! 

I grabbed my camera (I keep a Cannon Elph in my purse)  for moments just like this!

I love raccoons, however, they are very dangerous and can shred you or your animals very easy, their nails are like razors!  I saw Billy the Exterminator the other day and he was called to get this raccoon out of a trash can, I laughed and laughed.  His mom on the radio "BEEELLLLEY!  It really is a cute show, watch it sometime it is almost like watching Kid Rock  in a kinda sorta way...

Hope you enjoy the fotos!

Awwee how precious!

This little one is saying "Check out my nails!"

Have a great Friday and an awesome weekend!

Hang in there!

Boy do I know this feeling!

Thursday Thoughts.....

Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it. —M. Scott Peck, M.D., author
Find inspiring stories about personal growth at Guideposts.org!

Tortoise or the Hare? Crock Pot vs. Pressure Cooker-Pulled Pork!

This will be going under my Recipe spot, but first I wanted to put it on here.

I love pork shoulder or pork butt, they are both the same thing.  It is really inexpensive and there is a lot that you can do with it.  (Sorry the picture is sideways, I don't know how to change it on the blog now there is another thing for me to work on)

Since it is summer time, we decided to have pulled pork sandwiches.  "How do you want to cook them?"  We both asked at the same time.  Andy wanted to use the crock pot, which he is a huge fan of.  Me personally, I love to pressure cook.

I told him I didn't know how a crock pot was going to do since he couldn't put it on until the morning (it was still in the freezer.  For some reason, things up here in this altitude takes forever to cook like 18 or so hours!
He said he would put it on high and let it cook all day.  I told him I think it would be easier and better to put it on the pressure cooker and let it cook for almost an hour.


So we decided to have a cook off!  I love cooking competitions!  I normally lose but what a fun time I have while competing!  See, that is one secret of life, enjoy the game.

We cut the shoulder in half  and he put his on at 8AM on high:

and I put mine on when I got around to it and set it for 45minutes.  (Get it the tortoise and the hare?)

Well, which one is better? 

After his cooked for 8 hours and mine for 45 minutes we took ours out and both shredded the meat using two forks:

Andy added his special ingredients and I added:

Ok I wasn't having a TASTING contest, it was just to see what would be the best, I guess I should have known he would have done that, always taking it up a notch!



I have to got to tell you, the texture was the same (Andy said it wasn't) but it really was:

Andy's:

Mine:

So my findings:  If you have time then go ahead and crock pot the pork.  If you are wanting to have pulled pork say like after work then put it in the pressure cooker.

Either way, take the pork out ,shred it, pour bbq sauce over it, mix it and there ya go!

Off to make the rest of dinner!

Let me know what you think!

UPDATE:  We took each of the pork and split the sandwiches.  I put mustard on mine just to be able to tell the two apart, which I already knew which one was mine.

Andy's did taste better and his words were "You should always spice up your food!"

But 2-0 mine was more tender!  I won!!!  WHO-A!

Now get in the kitchen and make it in the pressure cooker!

Are we in Kansas?!!

Today was a nice day enjoying the day after the fourth of July. I had just closed the living room window then all of a sudden....

 Holy Moly!!! WOW!!!

You could hear it and see it coming right at the house, at one point I thought I need to move away from the windows. I truly thought it was going to blow the shingles of the garage!  The patio furniture being strewn all about! 

Take a look at the pictures, look what it did to our little shade!

Look at the chairs from last night and then today after the "tornado" a.k.a. dust devil hit:

Before

AFTER!!!

I am so glad that it didn't hit yesterday when I had the table all set up for dinner!  

It was amazing!  Well we live in an area that anything could happen and it does!  

What a mess it was it took Andy and I about an hour to straighten up our porch WHAT A MESS!!!

There's no place like home, there's no place like home.....

I dream of looking out and seeing this beauty

mediterranean patio design by san francisco architect Buttrick Wong Architects

I love this website called www.houzz.com I has really opened my eyes and ideas where people have taken pictures and posted, I like it even better than Better Home and Garden.

Check it out and let me know what you think! Wine anyone on the patio?

Am I confusing you yet?

I bet that in the past couple of days you have been visiting my blog and there are changes, A LOT of changes.  I want to do somethings different and I can keep my stories in categories instead of one right after the other.  It looks messy to me, so for the past few days I have been (unsuccessful) in trying.

It must be amusing at some degree, my blog looks like it is bipolar!!!  I am trying hard to get it the way I want it, but truthfully I have No idea what I want, too many choices!

So, enjoy the ride!