The Dead Space Society

Saturday I purchased the items necessary to hook our oven up. We have been in the house since June 1st with little need for the oven due to summer weather and lack of time. There have been a few occasions where we would have liked to use it however the toaster oven got us through. We are planning on having Thanksgiving at our home so the oven wasn't going to be able to remain stagnant very much longer.I ran the wire from the breaker box up through the wall next to the oven and had the pigtails all set. Fortunately, my friend Mike swung by to tie it all together. Jess and I had plans Saturday evening so we didn't have a chance to try it out that particular day.I've had this idea for a banana roll for quite some time. As my wife discovered, I'm not the first to think of it but neither here nor there, I had never heard of them. Sunday morning I woke up and started getting things in order. I used an existing pumpkin roll recipe however I substituted mashed banana for the pumpkin and omitted the ginger. Other than cooking it a little too long and I would have liked to add some pecans or walnuts, the roll came out very good. I plan on making a few over the holiday season.In the afternoon, I made a loaf of bread. Nothing too spectacular as I had some frozen loaves in the freezer waiting for the oven as well.For dinner, I made two chicken wing pizzas. I didn't have any pizza sauce or canned tomatoes so I used the following which came out pretty good.About 3oz of tomato paste1 stick butter1/4 or so cup franks red hotbasil, oregano, cilantro to taste1 cup boiled chicken, choppedmozzerellaThe children felt it was a tad spicy but Jess and I enjoyed it.

Pasta at home

Jessie has asked me several times as to why we don't have a "normal" lawnmower. About three years ago I became frustrated with our 1987 John Deere and traded it in on a Toro zero turn model. Both are 38" cut decks however my time on the mower was cut in half with the new unit. My wife tried driving it a few times but didn't really feel comfortable on it.So, I was helping a friend unload some projects and he had an old lawnmower that was slotted as a fixer upper. I asked him about it and he said that he didn't have plans for it so I could have it if I wanted to troubleshoot it and get it running. Of course I am always getting my hands into something so I didn't think for long before agreeing to take it off his hands.The unit is a 1967 Wheel Horse Lawn Ranger. The deck is 32" and it has a 3 speed transmission. We did some research and found it came stock with a 6hp Tecumseh engine. After cleaning the carbeurator and checking the oil, we fired it up. It really didn't take much effort and there wasn't anything noticeably wrong with the exception of some bearings on the deck.At this point, we have replaced the bearings and started to paint the entire unit. The deck has been sanded and painted, a few cracks have been welded, and the hood has sanded.I'm sure this isn't exactly what my wife was expecting however she probably wouldn't expect any less from me. Pictures will follow.

After much research and discussion, we decided to try our hand at raising some chickens. I could go on about the difference in the egg quality from store bought to your own raised versions however that is only a by-product of the original intention which was to have a decent garden.We wanted to put a garden in however between building a house, moving, and the addition of our second son, there was little time to play in the dirt this spring. So I resolved to start preparing an area which would work for us next spring. While doing some light reading, I stumbled on an article about raising chickens in a fenced in area that was basically split in half. Chickens ran around on one side while you plant your garden on the other. In the fall, you move the chickens into the garden area for cleanup detail and begin prepping the soil where the chickens had been for next years garden. As you can imagine, the ground receives a nice saturation of fertilizer via chicken waste. I won't really go into much more detail however you can view the article here. So I've read and read and read and read about raising chickens (which by the way is a great sleeping pill in the evening and late night). I had spent plenty of time around horses and cows as I was growing up however never really had any experience with chickens. Fortunately, 3 of my 5 neighbors and several people at work currently have chickens. Additionally, there is a vast well of information on the net on how to take an egg and make it a chicken the correct way.We ordered 26 random chicks from Murray McMurray. (I should add here that I ordered them while my wife lay sleeping and having no clue what I was enlisting our family for. She knew I was going to get a few chickens but when I told her I ordered 26 her eyes flew wide open. God bless her for putting up with my crazy ideas!) Specifically, we ordered the "Special Assorted Bargain" which I thought would be the most fun. There are some really crazy looking chickens out there! Most of my neighbors and friends have the common Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, and Leghorns. I can always fall back on them if I need to have some more incubated which is a nice insurance policy. We ordered them last Thursday and they arrived this morning. We lost one during transit however the rest of them seem to be doing very well.The next venture is to build a chicken coop on the old harverstore base behind our house in addition to the fencing which will keep them in and predators out. I'll update as need be but for now, here are a couple images and a link to more. I'm sure there are simpler ways to develop land for a garden however this way seems to be the most fun!

I have been looking for a recipe application to house my recipes for a while. I looked at some commercial types and also creating my own database. The problem has been that I wanted to incorporate the list into my current website so I could access it at almost any time.In case you didn't know, I have a content management system loaded as my web site. I've always liked this system and have been using it on and off for about 6 years. Well in my search, I found a recipe plug-in and it works great. Take a look on the right hand menu and you'll see Recipe Archive. I was able to take all of my recipes and list them with all the details needed. Now I can add recipes anywhere I have internet access and this includes my phone. Pretty simple and sweet.