The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads!

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Journey to the Cross-roads
The Two Towers Edition

Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)

Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.

[Wneighbor]

Copied and pasted to a word document so that it can be dropped into the next package.

So, any specific ratios of the mix? And it doesn't need to be sealed? Just covered with cloth?

[HairOfTheDog]

Purdy cool!

[HairOfTheDog]

I have been playing all the games I can think of with the hose... or just spraying myself with it.

[Wneighbor]

The universe is out of balance. I had to walk out back and look at my yard thermometer. It's 78 here. What's wrong with this picture?

[JenB]

Well, WN, if I'm still here when you make your trip I'll give you a tour of the nicest bits of the area. And I'll steer you away from the weirder food...

We're going to have movie night. I'm fighting down the urge to write down a new story until I've slept on it. Some issues with it, particularly that it's fanfiction and I've sworn off the stuff. And also because it will probably be completely irrelevant in two weeks' time.

[Wneighbor]

Well, you see my rate of learning on these topics, since my graphics instructor quit last week I was informed yesterday that I may have to jump in and fill in for those classes.

I can handle the Photoshop class. I don't like it but I can do it. I did teach it once last year.

The Illustrator class... I can probably grasp if I have to. I haven't ever done that and I don't want to. But, I could pick that up.

Then there's Flash, Premier, Maya, and Web Design. I don't even want to talk about opening a book and trying to learn those. ACK, who even thinks I can teach them. This college doesn't understand the difference in engineering graphics and just graphics.

[Wneighbor]

If I get up there I'll take you up on the tour. Let me revise that okay? WHEN i get up there..........

I am in discomfort. My desk is on the east side of the house, right by an east window, that is right across the fence from my neighbor's patio. There is a slight breeze from the east. They are over there burning an herbal substance that I don't grow and the aroma is getting seriesly heavy in here. Enough to make me cough and have "that taste" in my mouth.

My neighbors at the old place liked to burn those herbs too. But, their dadgummed yard was far enough away that it didn't fill up my house!

[HairOfTheDog]

The cat is now trying the Gidget approach

[osagebowman]

WN: peanuts in the shell are a great idea, but I'm partial to Chex-type Mix and another type that is similar (it has an Italian type name-sold in the quick-trip type places).

Wonder if Jiffy-pop would work over a couple of fuel tabs, I know it works over a campfire.

[JenB]

Hmmm... warn 'em you can smell it and suggest the cops might hear if they don't take it inside...

[Scott from the Left Coast]

My back yard thermometer now says 97 (in the shade).

[Wneighbor]

Wonder if Jiffy-pop would work over a couple of fuel tabs, I know it works over a campfire.

Good question! I don't know what the fuel tabs are. I have sterno. It works on sterno. Would that be the same?

I sent ziplocks of the chex stuff yesterday so you confirmed me good on that. For the other one are you talking about Gardettos? I know he likes that. And yesterday my decision was between the Chex and Gardettos.

But, Jiffy pop would be great too, if we found he could pop it!

[Scott from the Left Coast]

We fill up a "doggie" pool (it's a kiddie pool from Toys R Us) in the back yard and the dogs walk through it (cooling the pads of their feet and drinking out of it. Emma dips her whole body down in it.

Downside is they can get muddy/dirty if they roll in the bark.

[Wneighbor]

The county law enforcement academy is at the college where I teach. The head of the program is a single guy my age that keeps hitting on me. It might be about time to let him come over.

[Overtaxed]

OK....my Dad's recipe using 1 gallon of grapes

Syrup: Heat 1 cup water just to boiling and add 2 cups of sugar and stir until dissolved. Cool.

Crush grapes. Add syrup, 2 cups of sugar, and enough water to cover. Add yeast. (actually...I get by fine with the yeast that's on the grapes already.) Cover and let ferment 5 to 7 days, stirring daily.

Strain juice (I use an old pillowcase) and put in a container with a water seal. There should be "something less than a gallon". Add 2 more cups of sugar and bring to 1 gallon with water.

To make a water seal I pour the squeezins into a glass gallon jug. (The kind that apple cider comes in works great.) Punch a hole in the cap just big enough for a piece of tubing (plastic aquarium type tubing works) to fit through the hole. The jug end of the tube should be in the air above the level of the liquid, the other end submerged in water. Seal around tube with melted wax. Wait for a few minutes. If bubbles start coming out of the tube, it's sealed correctly.

When it stops bubbling, add sugar to taste. I do this until it will no longer bubble.

[Overtaxed]

OK....my Dad's recipe using 1 gallon of grapes

Syrup: Heat 1 cup water just to boiling and add 2 cups of sugar and stir until dissolved. Cool.

Crush grapes. Add syrup, 2 cups of sugar, and enough water to cover. Add yeast. (actually...I get by fine with the yeast that's on the grapes already.) Cover and let ferment 5 to 7 days, stirring daily.

Strain juice (I use an old pillowcase) and put in a container with a water seal. There should be "something less than a gallon". Add 2 more cups of sugar and bring to 1 gallon with water.

To make a water seal I pour the squeezins into a glass gallon jug. (The kind that apple cider comes in works great.) Punch a hole in the cap just big enough for a piece of tubing (plastic aquarium type tubing works) to fit through the hole. The jug end of the tube should be in the air above the level of the liquid, the other end submerged in water. Seal around tube with melted wax. Wait for a few minutes. If bubbles start coming out of the tube, it's sealed correctly.

When it stops bubbling, add sugar to taste. I do this until it will no longer bubble.

[Wneighbor]

see, universe is messed up!!!

[Wneighbor]

you been samplin' haven't you?

you been samplin' haven't you?

[Wneighbor]

Copied, printed and ready to accidentally drop in package next time.

[HairOfTheDog]

I have a kiddie pool too, but Gidget doesn't voluntarily go in it.... she'll go when I throw something in it to retrieve... It's funny because she is a good swimmer and plays in the water when we go to the beach house. But not the hose, and not the kiddie pool. Those are abuse.