on making pie

While Grandma was here she took the opportunity to help Leah learn to make a pie. We all love pie and Grandma is really good at making them. The trick is perfecting the crust, learning to work it just enough without over doing it. If done right the result is a flaky, tasty, circle of goodness. As in general baking, the key is accurate measuring of the ingredients and a little bit of practice. And, an experienced coach guiding you through the steps. Choosing the filling is the hard part because, really, there are so many good things to put into a pie crust. In-season fruit is the best. In this particular pie, plump, sweet blueberries were the choice.

They measured and mixed and let the dough chill. Then they rolled and fit the dough in the pie pan. She was taught that working the ball of dough as little as possible is best. They filled it with blueberry goodness and laid the second layer of dough over the top. Experienced hands showed her the proper way to flute the edges, sealing it and insuring that it looked good too. Then into the oven for just the right amount of time to make it golden brown and lightly crispy. The finished product was delicious and she was very proud to have made her first pie. We are hoping she wants to practice a little more.

It is great to have people to teach and guide you through things that only time and experience can perfect. Grandma has made many pie's over the years and now Leah will keep close what was taught to her by skilled hands.

Yesterday, hard work and a lot of practice resulted in Leah having good luck with another kind of ball. The experience and support of another skilled teacher and coach(from Colorado) made an imprint on her that helped her through the process of volleyball try-outs at this new school. Having the ingredients to concentrate and play with confidence resulted in her making the team. In this case, working the ball hard got better results. She made the team and we are very happy for her.

Another sweet victory.

a nice visit

My Mom was here this past week. She drove here from Colorado, her car loaded with two of my big house plants that she has been babysitting and a cooler full of Olathe Sweet corn. We ate corn almost every evening and enjoyed every bite. My plants look right at home in front of our big windows and it is nice to see them again.

While she was here we relaxed a bit, swam a bit (gotta love those floating rafts) and got out and did some exploring. We toured a museum, did some shopping, ate a few lunches out and even got our fill of frozen yogurt. We drove around and got a good look at Scottsdale, Carefree and Cavecreek. And, we drove over to Fountain Hills to see... the fountain.

The sign says it is World famous and I believe it was the tallest shooting fountain in the world at one time. It shoots over 300 feet for 15 minutes at the top of every hour. We had a nice lunch at a restaurant overlooking the lake and fountain. Pizza and salad. Tasty.

We all enjoyed her visit and I think she went home with a little tan.

Thanks for the visit and all the corn, Mom.

back to school

Every year, on the first day of school, we take a picture before jumping in the car and heading out to start a new school year. When Austin started kindergarten, we took his picture in front of the old ice house in the backyard. It started the tradition of always taking the back-to-school picture in the same spot. When Rachel had her kindergarten picture taken, backpack on her back, Leah cried and cried because she didn't want her sister to go without her. She would miss her too much. (She is already teary eyed thinking of this time next school year).

With each of them, on the first day, we would take a group shot and their individual pictures. As they got older, there were some anxious complaints about taking the time for the traditional photo. I remember saying, "someday you will be glad we did this." So, without fail, I would get those pictures in front of the old blue ice house.

When we were flooded with all kinds of thoughts and losses with our big move, one of them was the end of the school picture in the traditional spot. Everyone grew to love the tradition after all. Kindergarten through twelve by the ice house, would not be complete with the girls. Rachel only missing one year, Leah two.

When we were there at the beginning of summer visiting the house one last time, we took the time to get a couple of group shots in front of the ice house. It wasn't a cool crisp August morning. They didn't have on their new shoes or their new backpacks, and the butterflies in their stomach's were for a different reason. But they did give each other a big hug and remembered all those other time's that they stood there before... anticipating a new school year.

This morning, anticipating a new school year, we found a new spot for the picture. One that will show where we are now. No longer in the country living in a farm house, but in the desert surrounded by cactus. We did a small group shot and a couple of individual pictures. They didn't have their backpacks over their shoulders, but I am pretty certain the butterflies were in their stomachs.
I hope this school year will go smoothly for them. I hope that they will meet more new friends and have more new experiences. I hope that they will always think back on the yard with the ice house with fond memories, but be able to look at this experience with excitement and someday have fond memories of this time in their lives.

To them...I hope the butterflies are gone by lunchtime.

To the college boy and to Rachel, SENIOR years baby!

saturday extra

I uploaded some pictures off of my little camera last night. I forgot that I had this one of the Momma. She was laying down in the plants right under the window where I stand to take their pictures. She was sleeping. When I gently tapped the window she looked up. I had the camera up against the glass as closely as I could. No zoom on the lens at all. I think this time, even though I was behind glass, I was a little too close(or perhaps she's the one who was a little too close). She got up and slowly sauntered away. I think she might have been there before because the rocks are brushed away, leaving a little impression of where she had been.

Quite an impression, really.

bobcat week finale

Here we are at the end of the week. Although technically, bobcat week for us has been a little more like bobcat summer, because that is how long they have been visiting us off and on. Oh ya, and that one time in February when one of them surprised me on that early rainy morning. The first time the Momma sauntered across our patio this summer, while Leah and I were in the pool, sure gave us a bit of a fright. It was so shocking to see how perfectly calm she was to pass right by and not run off as we made a little noise. It is hard to tell the size of these cats from my pictures, but really they are rather small. I think that is what makes them feel a little less "scary" to us because Momma is not much bigger than our favorite yellow cat Fidgit.

My sister and her family adopted Fidgit and our dog Jackson when we left Colorado. Fidgit would not have fared well against these neighborhood cats. But, because we miss him, I think the cuteness of the bobcat babies remind us of the time the two stray cats found our house and decided tuna was tasty and they would make our family theirs. This is where I stress that we only think these wild cats are a bit cute and fun to watch at times, but we do not in any way want them to call our yard their home. We do try to scare them off when they are around and we are not feeding them(not even tuna). They have brought their own meals and help themselves (much to our dismay) to the pool water. It has been interesting to watch them and photograph them, which is usually done behind the safety of the windows. We are now in the habit of looking around to see if they are close by before we venture into the yard. So, even though my pictures and stories make it sound like they are welcome visitors, we would prefer them to move on. I think the babies have gotten old enough now and that is what has happened. We are seeing less and less of them and I think we have thrown enough ice, pool splash balls, and the occasional grill scraper, that they are visiting our yard less and less. In fact, we saw them one day in the front of the house this week and that has been it.

So, this could be the end of our bobcat adventure. We do wonder if they are like some animals that come back to the place they were born to have their own babies. If that is the case...the Reptile Wrangler will be a busy guy.

I end bobcat week with a video that Rachel put together of some movie clips that I made of them playing in the yard. You will see the little one with the bum leg and Gus, Molly and the Momma having fun.

Cute. snarl. Fun.

gus and molly

Today I'm continuing bobcat week. But it comes with a warning. The cuteness factor of these little babies has been upped a notch on the wildlife cuteness scale. You might just forget (for a minute at least) that these are wild animals. I will tell you that I have called and inquired about them being in our yard. I did also look at an Arizona wildlife website that explained what kind of things in a yard attract bobcats. Did you know they have a picture of our yard as a "perfect" example of the finest luxury bobcat spa? Well, maybe not a picture but certainly a perfect description.

Mostly, I was told that they are non-threatening, comfortable around people and you can pay to have someone trap them and relocate them. Or, you can try to scare them off. We have found that they don't scare off very easily. I found that the best thing to use is that clump of ice that forms in your ice maker. Give it a big heave-ho towards them and hope that you hit a tree. The ice shatters and scatters in all different directions making it hard for them to decide which way to run. The babies do take off. The Momma sits and watches. Sometimes she gets up and follows the babies. The last time they were here, I watched these two youngsters for quite awhile. The first time we saw this little family, the girls named the feisty one Gus. He and his sibling tend to stick together. I shall name her Molly. The third one, who has the bum leg sticks close to the Momma. I haven't named it.

Gus and Molly.

We like to make our guests comfortable. Our old rocker on the courtyard by our bedroom is their ticket in and out of our yard. They have discovered plenty more ways in, this just happened to be the one for the day. The Momma was not around...these two seemed to be alone.

"I'll wait here while you go first, Gus", Molly exclaimed while patiently waiting her turn.
He scampered up the chair and pulled himself, with all his little baby bobcat might, up and on top of the brick wall.

"Come on Molly, follow me."
"phew, now lets take a little rest."

I was taking some of the pictures through the sliding glass door. The glass was putting a glare on the images, so very bravely, constantly looking behind me, I snuck the door open and stuck my head and camera out to snap a few photos. Gus was very comfortable to just let me snap away.
Molly was a little bit shy.
"Quick Molly, stick your tongue out at the lady." said Gus as he threw a little tongue raspberry my way.
After that Molly disappeared and only Gus was left. He posed quite nicely for me without a care in the world. He was relaxed. For me it went like this. Click. Click. Click. Look over my shoulder. Click. Click. Click. look over my shoulder.
By then, Gus got bored with me. Yawn. "I think I'll take a little nap."
Is that not the cutest little bobcat face ever?

comfortable cats

Our little bobcat friends became so comfortable in our yard. They had everything they needed for an evening picnic. They brought their own food, found a nice grassy area to lounge in, had plenty of shade and nice cool water to drink. Perfect for them. Great photo subjects for me. Not so exciting for the birds and bunnies who were becoming dinner. And a bit unnerving when we wanted to be out in the yard and were unsure of how they would share their new turf. After being around, off and on for a couple of months, it seems they don't mind at all. They are not one bit afraid of us and do not scare off too easily. We are still cautious of how close we are to the babies when the Momma is around. These pictures were from a few weeks ago. I haven't gotten around to writing about them and then we hadn't seen them for awhile. Until this week. They are around again. In fact, I had been hearing a little something on the roof once in awhile and thought it was the birds. However, we saw one of the babies climb the front tree and jump on to the roof and scamper to the other side. One big giant playground. I have gotten some good pictures of these little critters. Again, I will say, they are quite cute.

The momma.

The thirsty momma.
Momma again.

Momma with her three babies. I hadn't seen any of them ever nursing before. This little one is the runt and seemed to have a bum leg. I believe they loved the soft leaves of this plant. They spent a fair amount of time crawling in and around it.

The little one finished it's snack and stayed close to momma while the other two were off playing.

Cute huh?

I'm sure the grass is a big attraction as to why they love our yard so much. Better than the prickly desert ground. How cute are the spots on his belly? Look at the size of his paws.

And then they all just stretched out for a nice little nap.

I'm pretty sure I have a few more photos to share. So, lets just call this bobcat week and devote a few days to them.

If I can share my yard I guess I can share my blog too.