Not too
much to report this week… At the moment, things are a bit slow and peaceful in
our household. Luckily for us, we live
about 70 miles away from those terrible fires in East Tennessee that were
centered in and around Gatlinburg.
Gatlinburg will be open for business by this coming weekend and we’re
planning to go over there to do some shopping, visit the aquarium and have a
big lunch or early dinner. To keep folks
employed during the expected long term recovery they need customers…
Visit and Shop in Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville Tennessee!
In the
meantime, here are a few photos that we’ve taken in the last month or so that
really didn’t fit into any single blogging category.
Howdy! This is one curious donkey… We ran across a
group of donkeys in a field not too far from our home. We both love donkeys. They’re especially smart and curious, plus
they all seem to have lots of personality!
She seems to be getting a little excited!
What has stirred her up?
Donkey
Factoids:
· Donkeys have been used as a working animal
for at least 5000 years.
· There are more than 40 million donkeys in
the world.
· A male donkey or ass is called a jack, a
female a jenny or jennet and a young donkey is a foal.
· Jack donkeys are often used to mate with
female horses to produce mules.
· The biological "reciprocal" of a
mule, from a stallion and jenny as its parents instead, is called a hinny.
Doesn’t
this donkey have the sweetest face?
Despite the calm, something has drawn her over to the fence by the
road…
Factoid:
· In some areas of the world, including parts
of the western USA, populations of donkeys have reverted to their wild form. Australia alone may have a population of
5,000,000 wild donkeys!
Ahhh! There’s the reason all of those donkeys are
so interesting in us. Laurie discovered that
she had a bag of peppermints in the car and donkeys, like horses, love
peppermints! She only gave them a couple
each before we escaped from the growing crowd…
Change
of topics… We love a good chicken pot pie, especially if someone else makes
it! Good commercially made chicken pot
pies are hard to find. This one from
Fresh Market was actually pretty darn good.
I should have taken a photo of a serving of pot pie on a plate. We did cheat in the sense that we heated up a
jar of chicken gravy and Laurie spiced it up as an accompaniment to our pot
pie.
Remember
this beautiful standing beef rib roast that we had for our Thanksgiving dinner? I’d posted this photo along with the rest of
the meal. I had some serious leftovers
to consume…a ‘tough’ assignment to be sure.
I had a roast beef sandwich, I gnawed on a meaty rib bone, I ate a slice
of beef cold with a little horseradish…but still we had leftovers! What to do?
How
about finishing that rib roast off the old fashioned way…with hot open faced
prime sandwiches on crusty bread with enhanced beef gravy? Yum!
It’s
going to be a rack of lamb for Christmas when Dawn Marie is here…followed by a giant beef pot roast
with roasted potatoes and vegetables when our son and his family arrive after
Christmas. Mac & cheese too for the grandsons! Back to the gym in January…
I haven’t
published any breakfast creations recently either… Just the other day I toasted
an English muffin, slathered it with Amish butter, added 2 slices of sharp
cheddar cheese and microwaved the combo for 20 seconds to melt the cheese. Then I added 2 warmed up sections of a
leftover split smoked sausage and topped each of the muffin halves with an
over-easy fried egg. Then of course, I
had to splatter this very satisfying breakfast with a bit of Tabasco sauce!
To end this
post with a note of change… This house is nearing completion just 2 lots up the
street from us. We’ve been told by the
builder that starting in January he’s putting a house on the lot right next
door to us! Yikes! So much for the woods that the local deer and
turkey love to roam… Plus we’ll have noise for 3 or 4 months too! The good news is that the woods across the
street and on the master bedroom side of our house is still going to be intact…for
now!
That’s
about it. Just click on any of
the photos to enlarge them…
Thanks
for stopping by for a visit!
Take
Care, Big Daddy Dave
So now I know where the term "jack ass" came from - being called a male donkey is not nearly as derogatory as I always thought.
ReplyDeleteAll of the food in your photos and text look and sound delicious, Dave...and a roast rack of lamb is something I truly love, as lamb is one of my favourite meats! And the donkeys are absolutely delightful. I love them! I find them intelligent, curious and sweet. I also appreciate all the information you are sharing about them, I didn't know this. Thank you so much for sharing!
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