Peggy's Jibber-Jabber: Different

If I had taken more time, instead of trying to write all in one day, the letter blog you read last week would’ve looked a bit different.

“How so?” you ask.

I would’ve told you that I was busy on Saturday and couldn’t spend much time on my letter blog because Mike and I went to the church to help build picnic tables for the pavilion. Then I could’ve told you that while there, I mentioned to Pastor Jay (third from the left in the back row) that Lamar bought Tortured for Christ, a book I’ve heard him talk about.

“Good,” Pastor Jay said. “He’ll learn a lot from that book.”

By the time we got home, I had just enough time to download and sort a few pictures before it was recliner time, a time I take most seriously.

I also would’ve told you that the peepers are peeping!

Our pond is directly across the road from Sally’s pond. When you get between the two ponds the peepers are so loud! People slow down and sometimes even stop on the road to listen to them.

I can’t help but think of my beautiful mother when I first hear the peepers in the spring. She loved them. Once, a long time ago, when my kids were little, she gave one of my kids a cassette recorder and had him put it in a tree next to the pond. When Chris went back to get it the next morning and we listened to it, it had captured a variety of night-time sounds, including what Momma thought was a racoon snuffling around the recorder. She grinned from ear to ear.

I took a short audio clip this year to share with you, but figuring out how to post it is another issue. I decided to do a test run and sent it to my handsome brother David.

“Can you open it?” I asked.

“No. What is it?” he asked.

“Peepers,” I told him and tried a second time.

“Got it,” David replied. “You got a whole herd of peepers😂😂. We have tons here. They get so bad that they lay eggs in puddles on the street and babies jump everywhere, even in the garage.”

Wow! How about that‽

(Here's the link. Let me know if it doesn't work and I'll try again.)

Peepers

And I would’ve shown you the beautiful Easter cross my Miss Rosie painted for me. I just love, love, love this! My picture makes the center piece look pink but it’s actually lavender.

And that wasn’t the only Easter gift I got either. My handsome mountain man got me an Easter bunny, which was no small feat!

“Doesn’t he get you one every year?” you ask.

Yeah. Normally he does. But this year he didn’t think about it until a week before Easter.

“Let’s go get your Easter bunny,” he said Tuesday.

“Okay,” I said even though I’d much rather stay home and work on a porch sign. “I need a couple of things anyway.”

“Like what?” he asked.

“I have a new recipe I want to try and I need a couple of things.”

Before we got to the Rainbow Bridge we passed five semi-trucks, all in a row, hauling big tanks for the gas well pads. I wished I’d’ve gotten a picture of the lineup but by the time I thought of it, I’d only gotten the straggler at the end of the line.

Then when we got to the bridge we were stopped as a semi waited on another tank-hauling semi to cross the bridge.

The forsythia is blooming all along the roadside on the way to Tunkhannock.

And I got a fairly decent shot of a hawk sitting in a tree near the road.

Walmart didn’t have any Easter bunnies with the date sewn on his foot.

I did, however, get the pinto beans I needed to make a cake.

“Pinto bean cake‽” you exclaim.

Yep. There’s a video blogger named Dylan Hollis and he makes vintage recipes. This one is from 1955 and when he tasted it, he said to the cake, “You have no right!” Then to us. “This is phenomenal!”

I was reading through the comments and those who tried it said it was good. I got a kick out of the one guy — er... person who said, “Someone should give half of these 1950’s women a science degree and the other half a death sentence.”

It certainly did take an imagination to substitute beans for flour. And that’s why it piqued my interest. With Miss Rosie on a gluten-free diet, I thought it might be something her digestive tract could handle.

The recipe called for you to put peanuts through a Grind-O-Mat. Dylan didn’t know what that was, so he used his food processor.

I don’t have a Grind-O-Mat and I don’t have a food processor, but I do have an attachment for my blender. I put the peanuts through and it worked well. The beans chopped up a little then just sat there in a lump.

I pushed them down with a spatula and give ‘em another whirl but it wasn’t working. I dumped all the beans into a bowl and used a masher and mashed them as smooth as I could.

I mixed the rest of the ingredients and baked it in a bundt pan.

The cake baked well and when it cooled a little, I cut a slice. It’s moist, not too sweet, and peanuty tasting.

I cut some to take down to the Kipps.

We were on our way out of the driveway when I see a bird head over the bank at the pond. “Is that a bird?” I asked Mike.

He turned the golf cart toward the pond.

“It is! It’s a heron!” I said snapping away with my camera.

I got a nice shot before he flew away.

Miss Rosie tasted the cake. “I kinda like it.”

Me? I’m not crazy about it so it’s sitting in my freezer.

It was pretty nice out so we went up to the well pad before we went home. They’re moving stuff back in.

That afternoon I cleaned the nuggets from the dog run and played ball with Raini. We’ve found a new game she likes to play. I toss the ball on the roof and she tries to figure out where it’s going to come down.

We played for quite a while before she took her ball and laid down in the shade.

The next day, Mike said, “Let’s go get your boards.”

I’d finished the commissioned ice cream sign and had no more boards. A trip to our out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere lumber yard was necessary, especially since I’ve got another commission. This time a double-sided Easter/Patriotic sign.

Mike took a road that we seldom have an occasion to be on.

Can you say, “Road pictures!”

That evening, my beautiful friend came to pick up her ice cream sign.

“The sign will go to my son and daughter-in-law. They have an ice cream shop outside of Grafton, WV,” Robin told me.

Robin also brought me a piece of a Mounds Brownie that she made.

O!M!G! I’m not much of a chocolate lover but these things are scrumptious!

“And they’re so easy to make,” Robin said and gave me the recipe.

I can’t wait to make them for Miss Rosie, I thought.

Mike was still stewing about not being able to get me a dated, stuffed bunny. He got on the internet and searched Walmart.

“I think they have them up in Sayre,” Mike said. “You wanna go up tomorrow and get one?”

“Sure. I wanna make that recipe Robin gave me and I need to pick up a couple of things anyway.”

The next day, heading into Wysox, we see this guy stopped beside the road, adjusting a load of lumber.

I took a picture of the eagle on her nest as we drove by at fifty-five or sixty miles an hour. I’m surprised I got it at all.

Mike couldn’t see how the trailer opened up so I took his picture. I’m thinking it unlatches from the bottom and swings up. What do you think?

I hardly ever see anyone at this compressed natural gas station. When it first opened, CNG was a lot cheaper than gas. Now it’s only about fifty cents cheaper.

Walmart online lied to us. They didn’t have the dated Easter bunnies at Sayre, but I did get the stuff I needed to make the brownies.

On the way home I took another shot at the eagle.

While we were in Sayre we went to Lowe’s and Mike got a GFI outlet. He ran electric out to the back of the mill where I sand my sign boards.

Now I don’t have to run an extension cord and he won’t have to worry I’ll electrocute myself.

“What’s that all about?” you say.

Years ago, when we lived in Missouri, we knew a guy that let a couple of gals park their camper on his property. They ran an extension cord out to it and... you guessed it. After a rain, one of the girls stepped on the cord and was killed.

I also bought a hyacinth plant because it reminded me of Kat. This was one of her favorite flowers.

I made the brownies the next day and Robin was right! They are so easy!

Bake a box of brownies according to the box directions using a nine-by-thirteen pan. Mix five cups coconut with one cup powdered sugar and one can of sweetened condensed milk. Spread on the warm brownies. I actually dabbed the coconut on and stuck it back in the still-warm oven so it would soften enough that I wouldn’t break the brownies apart when I spread it. Then take a can of chocolate frosting and microwave it until it’s pourable. That’ll take anywhere from twenty to forty seconds. Give it a stir and pour on top of the coconut. Let it cool before you cut and that’s it!

Miss Rosie makes a Mounds Cake that’s really good, too. “But I don’t make it very often because it uses a lot of dishes.”

I knew she’d like this and I took a nice big piece down for her and Lamar.

“One of my friends always requests I make her the Mounds Cake, but I think I’ll be making this for her instead,” she told me.

Raini isn’t the only one who has a new game...

Bondi has these little round squeakers that she loves. She likes to chase it but when she brings it back, she won’t let you have it. She’ll set it down teasingly-close and the second you go for it, she’ll grab it again. Not a fun game for us but we play along sometimes.

Bondi has discovered that if she loses her toy under the bathroom sink, sits there barking and crying, someone will come and get the toy out for her. That’s all fine and dandy as long as we’re already in the bathroom but she started taking her toy in the bathroom and deliberately pushing it under the cabinet. For a couple of days I gave in, stopped whatever I was doing, went in the bathroom, got down on the floor, and got her toy out for her.

“Don’t give it back to her,” Mike said.

Bondi’s got about twenty of these things. They come five to a pack and it usually doesn’t take her long to get the squeaker out. Which is why we buy her more. And of all the toys we’ve bought her, she likes these the best.

Running in and getting the toy out for her ten times a day got old. I took Mike’s advice. When I pull it out, I let Bondi watch me put it on the cat blanket on the dresser. Now there’s a collection of four up there and she doesn’t play that game anymore.

So, despite going to two different Walmarts, twenty-five miles in one direction, then thirty-five miles in the other, all in the same week, we still didn’t score a dated Easter bunny.

Mike went online to the Walmart website and ordered one. A couple of days later it shows up at my door. He loves me.

He’s not the only one. Easter Sunday, our dear, sweet, beautiful Joanie made and gave me and Miss Rosie a beautiful centerpiece she made special for us.

I am so blessed to be surrounded by such loving, giving, caring Christian ladies.