Wednesday, April 9, 2008

How we spent our weekend....

It was a warm, er well 40 ish and sunny Saturday afternoon so I went down our fencelines (we own the property on both sides for now) and cleaned out the bluebird boxes. I don't expect the bluebirds for at least another month, but when they come home for the summer they will want their houses move in ready.... I use a cordless drill with a phillips drill bit, and of course I always carry a refreshment.
We spaced the bluebird boxes twenty five feet apart, but swallows will also use these boxes as nests and usually every other box will have been occupied by a swallow. There is a difference in how they build their nests. The bluebirds fill them fuller. None were empty so I was quite satisfied.




On Sunday my son invited his buds over for a little male bonding. They cooked Gumbo. Someone's mom gave them a recipe and helped them with the shopping (where to go because it is hard to find ethnic foods like anduoille sausage in this area).





They cooked what normally takes about four hours and condensed it into two with tricks like high heat and the boys each did a 15 minute rotation on stirring, like every 15 minutes it was someone else's turn. I offered suggestions like, you should brown the meat first for better flavor but i was over ruled.






The put the minute rice in with the water and then boiled it (sigh).













I think they were happy with the results. I went out before they were done and while the kitchen was pretty neat when i left (they were cleaning as they went) it looked like a hurricane went through after that, even though amazingly all the dirty dishes were in the sink.











8 comments:

blackbird said...

And they ate it?
And it was pretty good?
I'm impressed.

MizMell said...

Male bonding... There is an endless list of things that qualify...

Suzy said...

It looks yummy. Send them over here to cook for me!

Ginnie said...

How cool that the boys thought cooking something would be fun. Both my brothers and three of my nephews love to cook.

Hope it was delicious!

Ginnie said...

I forgot to say that I love it that you have bluebird boxes. Once they come back, do you ever get close enough to get a picture?

Anonymous said...

Hey, pretty cool - I love men who cook! My son has started asking me for recipes now that he's off campus. The other night I walked him through making a lasagna. He even insisted on using regular noodles that you have to boil first.

And the cleaning up afterwards with dishes in the sink - boy, you did something right!

Rick Rockhill said...

I love BlueBirds, they are just such sweet birds.

btw- nice "family photos" :-)

Heidi said...

Your field looks as green as mine. I love seeing the boys in the kitchen, you've done something really right.