Ruth Haffly wrote to Dave Drum <=-

We've got lots of squirrels. The deer are there but we don't see them
that often. The town keeps clearing out their habitats to build more
and more housing so it sort of surprises me that we don't see more than
an occaisional one.

Tree rats are like mice - they breed quickly and often. I'm fighting a battle with mice right now. I discovered their entry point and got
that sealed off. Traps and D-Con baits are thinning their numbers. But Mickey and Minnie are stiil with me. Fortunately the dogs don't eat
mice so I don't have to worry about second hand poisoning one of them.

We've only had a mouse problem once. When we were in HI, we had an
inside unit of a 4-plex. The outside neighbors let their back yard grow out of control and mice moved in. When the neighbors packed out, the
doors were open and shut quite a bit, allowing mice access to the
housing unit. I'm not sure how they got into our place but we ended up dispatching 3 or 4 to quickly solve the problem. Their back yard was
cut, finally, just before they left HI.

If it was only a few it wouldn't have been a problem. Got the (known)
entry point sealed up. But mice breed quickly and their "cycle" is kind
of short. I flush three or four per day from the traps. Another one or
two from the dog's water bucket. The best control device seems to be
D-Con bait stations and bait blocks of Bromethalin poison which causes
Mr Mouse to bleed out internally and dehydrate. (and not stink as the
corpse mummifies)

Deer seem to adapt to urban living. I remember a picnic at the late
Dale Shipp's place in Columbia, MD and watching a doe and her fawn
grazing in Gail's flower beds.

We've seen quite a few in WF, including an albino one, but not that
many in the last few years. Steve did see a couple a few weeks ago
cross the street just below our house but they were gone before he
could let me know.

Fortunately our cell phones let us snap pixtures - if we think of it in
time. Bv)=

8<----- CLIP ----->8

Count up how many pairs of scissors/shears you have for normal household/shop use; you might be surprised at the total. Some years ago
go thru them. I found another pair of scissors but didn't tell him. (G)

One big "tin snip", one set of kitchen shears (big scissors), a beard
trim scissors in the bathroom and four scissors from 6" length to 10".
Not to mention an old (and unused big pinking shears that I inherited
from my mum.

I've got my grandma Weiss's sewing scissors; Mom had them but Dad told
me to take them when Mom went into the nursing home.

Weiss is the brand on the pinking shears. The other scissors are
newish enouogh the they're probably from the land of dim sum and pork fried rice.

You sure it's Weiss, not Wiss? The latter is a known name in scissors/shears manufacturing.

Goes and looks. And, you're right. It's Wiss. Bv)=

Saw your shrimp recipies. Last night we made a shrimp, pepper, onion, tomato and garlic stir fry from a Junior League of Rocky Mount cook
book I'd picked up some time ago. Directions were to serve it over
angel hair pasta but we subbed soba (buckwheat) noodles. It's something
we will do again.

One reason to raise your own tomatoes:

Title: Green Tomato Pie DD> Categories: Pies, Pastry,

Fruits, Citrus DD> Yield: 6 Servings

Looks interesting, might try it next year.

In normal years my 'mters produce right up to frost time. But the last
few years we've not had a killing frost until sometime in December.

errrrmmmm .... Ground Control to Donald Trump - That's climate change!

I think we had our killing frost a couple of weeks ago.

We've had the one frost that signalled the grass to quit growing. And
let the trees know it's Fall so they can go all orange, yellow and red.
And cause the yard rakes to appear.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

Title: Airline Chicken Breast
Categories: Poultry, Herbs, Chilies
Yield: 2 Servings

3 lb Whole chicken
Drizzle olive oil
Salt & ground black pepper
2 pn Herbes de Provence; to taste
1/4 ts Cayenne pepper; or more
1 tb Olive oil
3 tb Butter; divided
1 Sprig fresh rosemary
2 Sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 c Chicken stock; as needed

Slice off 1/2 of each chicken wing by cutting through
the joint where the wing meets the drumette. Slice
through the skin between the thighs and breasts. Make a
shallow cut along the breast bone and 2 deep cuts on
either side, separating the breasts.

Slice each breast off the carcass using the tip of the
knife, keeping the blade pressed against the bone. Cut
through the cartilage to remove breast with the wing
attached.

Remove the tenders and trim as needed. Season with a
drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, herbes de Provence,
and cayenne pepper.

Push your finger gently under the skin of each breast,
right next to the wing bone, to separate it from the
meat. Slide 1 tender under the skin, center it, and
smooth over the skin. Sprinkle salt over breasts.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet over
medium-high heat. Add chicken breasts, skin-side down.
Cook until bottom is browned, 6 to 7 minutes. Flip,
reduce heat to medium, and cook until no longer pink on
the inside, 7 to 10 minutes more. Add 1 tablespoon
butter, rosemary, and thyme. Baste chicken with the
butter. Remove chicken from the skillet.

Pour stock into the pan; increase heat to high. Boil
until reduced to desired thickness, about 2 minutes.
Turn off heat and whisk in remaining butter. Slice each
chicken breast into thirds and spoon the pan sauce on
top.

NOTE: Since food for air travel needs to be prepared
far in advance, airlines back in the day created a
special cut of chicken breast that wouldn't dry out as
much as normal.

Chef John Semanik

RECIPE FROM: https://www.allrecipes.com

Uncle Dirty Dave's Archives

MMMMM

down to 31.F Friday night the back to the low 40s at night thru
Turkey Day weekend. My phone told me when I plugged it into the
charger that snow will start here in 30 minutes (05:30) but the
outside temp is currently 34.F - so it will just be messy and won't
stick. (I hope)

And, that came to pass. We got a trace of snow that melted as it hit
and it didn't screw with travel.

Steve is outside working on our leaves again. He ran a mulching cycle
with the mower a couple of weeks ago but I hear the blower now. Still
have some on the trees, but probably not enough to worry about at this stage.

I see lots of bags of "yard waste" lining the curbs around town. They
will be picked up by the city and sent to b big compost facility on
the north side of town, near the areo drome.


... Useless Invention: Flashbulb tester.
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