Paint question, not much help

In answer to an email requesting the name and brand of paint if Jack ever painted some of his furniture in an "Old red".

Hi Lois, Yes many times, however he just mixes a mess up in an aluminum pie pan and paints out of that. He uses latex paints, several reds and a black or brown, and mixes what he wants, trying them out on a scrap of wood. Sorry About that! Exception, for a very light red he uses a color called mayflower red from Benjamin Moore. We keep reds in cans from Old Village paint company, but also from others he buys locally at different times. So hard to be any help! Good Luck, Edyth

Pie in the Turkey pan!

Here is a big one, double the recipe given a few days back. Jack peeled peaches nearly 2 hours for it. The end of the local peach crop is just about here, this may be our last peach cobbler for the year. The pan is about 11 by 17.
Before it went in the oven, you can see how the top is covered with 4 bought pie crusts cut up and layered slightly as needed to cover completely. Some years back I stopped making home made pie crust, but still miss it a bit. With sugar and butter and cinnamon added, this one is pretty good! Serve warm with ice cream.

The next pies we will make are likely pumpkin ones. I am ready for a turn towards fall. The weatherman said yesterday we will have 6 more weeks of this extreme heat and drought! But what does he know anyway? e

We are Incurable collectors and happy that way.

A happy morning at the local yard sales! so many times we buy little or nothing, perhaps some small tool or a few old copies of Southwest Art Magzine, or sometimes do not spend even a dime for an hour and half of driving, having risen and dressed and left home at 7 am or before. Weeks go by in futility and then oh wonder of wonders, we find some treasure...a small oriental rug, or a cache of art supplies including many fine brushes, or a piece of Texas stoneware...and this morning look what Jack found!

It has been years and years since we have bought any of the humble little iron snow eagles, which once sat in rows on the roofs or northern houses above the entrance to hold the snow from sliding down on the unwary. Sometimes on old homes, we have seen ranks of them all the way across a roof, several feet from the edge, in a fashion to keep the whole snow pack on the roof longer. Was this for insulation? I am unclear why they were so widely used, particularly in Pennsylvania, but they once abounded there on the old homes, and then in the antique shops. There were even some later reproduction ones to avoid.

It is fun to find something old mixed in with all the sad and dicarded Beanie babies.

The little iron eagles are in as found condition right now, meaning some aluminum paint and a bit of rust. Jack will work his magic on them and the pretty snow birds will sit among his collection of early stoneware, above our kitchen cabinets. It is Jack's collection of early American pottery than makes our modern kitchen more bearable to us. It numbers over 60 pieces of stoneware, and we never counted the redware. Heaven save us if we ever have to down size seriously! Edyth

My Peach pies, Lots of them lately!

I really never make true cobbler which has cream in with the peaches and is so good and rich. Rather I make a deep dish pie with a lot of peaches in it and a top crust only, and put chunks of butter on the top and sprinkled sugar generously and cinnamon lightly on the crust.

Here is what I do for the peach filling. Peel and slice a nice sauce pan full, about 5 or 6 cups, with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 1/2 cups sugar in the pan, which keeps the peaches from turning brown.

In a small bowl combine flour and a little more sugar and cinnamon and nutmeg and a dash of salt. Anounts below.

Heat the peaches pretty hot, stir in this little flour mixture, add about 2 pats of butter and pour in a deep pan like a 9 x 14 cake pan. Top with crust. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and finished off with small chunks of more butter here and there.

By having the peaches hot when the pie goes in the oven, much baking time is saved, and crust is not burned. Important: make plenty of holes in the top crust with a knife or a fork. Bake at 400 or till crust is done AND pie juice is boiling showing slow bubbles in the exact center of the pie when you punch a hole in it to test. Keep watching this hole, it is not done till it boils. These tend to boil over badly in the oven, messy! I use wide aluminum foil under each pie, cupped up on the edges so the juice is caught.

Fresh peaches or sliced apples or blueberries or apricots all use this same recipe. A general fruit pie recipe. Adjust your sugar amounts by how sour the fruit is. Better not too sweet. Always put in the lemon juice. On peaches only, use one or 2 drops of almond extract if you have it, that makes the peaches peachier. not more almond than this or will ruin it.

Amounts: Sugar in peaches, try about 6 cups peaches with 1 1/2 or 2 cups sugar. The lemon juice and almond extract are very bitter and must have enough sugar. You can taste the whole filling when it is warm in the sauce pan before you bake it. add sugar then if needed. When I bake pie in our turkey pan, I use 8 cups peaches, 3 of sugar plus two tablespoons lemon juice. This makes an enormous pie. And takes a double batch of crust to cover it.

Flour mixture: double these for a larger or for 2 pies. stir till mixed well so no lumps will be in the pie.
2 Tbs flour
2 Tbs sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon

have a Great Day! E

Our back yard is in what should be it’s glory time, the great Natches crape myrtles have quit trying to bloom for the most part, they would in a normal year be in full white crowned show off mode. But their smaller cousins near our deck are still beautiful. We were up to the minute on watering almost every thing when the newly implemented once a week watering was imposed.
That would still be ok, but the water pressure is very low in our subdivision now, and when everyone in the town must use water on the same Sat or Sun, we are out of luck up on this high ridge overlooking town proper. I fear for the 4 young magnolia trees. Two are standards, the Magnolia Grandiflora, and two are “Little Gem”.

The 14 large pots on the deck want a drink each day in this hot time, so the rinse water from the kitchen is caught in a pan and carried out to them through out the day. We have fresh peaches, tomatoes, lettuce, cantaloupe, watermelon and more to wash off before using all day long, so this water is poured on the pot plants. 4 pots are white geraniums, some are white periwinkles, some all green herbs, and a smattering of blue salvia for a dash of color. I step out to enjoy the deck many times a day, and these nights too, the full moon is awesome.

I am glad our yard is small, the back is just what you see in the photos. Garage and parking apron take up a lot of the space beyond the arbor. In this time of drought for our southwest, it is hard to imagine the floods in so many other states! We topped out here this afternoon at 103 in the shade, on the north side of the house. E

Lovely little clothing for my big papier mache dolls.

The heat and drought have been oppressive. So what a happy boost it gave me when my friend Jan emailed about some tiny old clothing in a local antique shop. I rushed right out to see them. Aren't these dear? The fabrics are old and nice and the stitching that I have examined yet is by hand and the condition is wonderful! Regular readers here know how I love browns. I am showing several shots so you can see the construction. The apron/bib on the infant's dress is a near square, with arm holes cut one half way down and little straight strips added. The apron is finished with a tiny rolled hem. Tags on the little dresses said from Maine.

A high waisted infant's dress like this looks like an empire style on a lady doll. Very nice! Of course a lady doll would not wear this type of apron. I do not know the age of the socks, they are like some I have found on very nice early dolls before, so they must be all right to go with. Any input? Edyth

Paradise is parched!

As people move into the wild, the wild things adapt to live among us. Towns are spreading into the countryside here as in other places. We have deer for neighbors and other wild creatures. The most stirring sighting was a fully grown mountain lion seen by neighbors in their yard across the street from us three years ago. A state game man confirmed that the tracks left were indeed just that.

I have been afraid the wild boars will show up in our neighborhood here, drawn by our irrigated lawns. So far so good. They are in our county but not in our town. Last week my friend Ruby Lee showed me the tusks of a terrible wild boar she and her husband had shot on their ranch. Herds of these hogs are tearing up areas of the rural south.

Eden was not without its serpent to represent the forces of evil. Lucifer these days for the wild turkey population in our Texas Hill Country comes in the form of these feral hogs.
Turkeys roost in trees at night as soon as they have a bit of size and enough feathers! But wild turkey eggs and hatchlings are prime food for the terrible pigs. And then there are fire ants that have greatly reduced all ground nesting birds here in central Texas. Three days ago on Loudon road four miles from here, Jack and his friend Bob saw a wild turkey hen with just one chick.

With this as background, mine and Jack’s happy excitement yesterday evening is understandable. In our own subdivision we saw a small family of Rio Grande turkeys.. the tall stately mother and her five tiny chicks were near the entrance from the highway. The chicks are so small as to be hard to see in very short grass, and will have a difficult time surviving the next few weeks. The drought leaves almost no wild grass seeds and no bugs for the little things to discover and eat. The hen likely began with a clutch of ten or more eggs. Now she has these five fragile hatchlings. As I write these words Jack is gone on his bicycle with some of the wild bird seed which we feed in our back yard. He will broadcast a little where we saw the turkey family walk last evening. I wonder where they can find water! I hope they do not try to cross the highway yet! We will be watching for another sighting. Jack will quietly put out another sprinkling of food for some days. e