Squirrelly Adventures

Ripley the wonder dog let us know there was a critter in the basement in no uncertain terms: pacing back an forth, staring at the ceiling, racing to and from one room to another and panting excessively. 

We have an unfinished basement, and living in the country creatures can sometimes make their way in through cracks, crevices and doors that get left open when they should be closed. I suspected that we might have a squirrel down there given Ripley's behaviour as he generally demonstrates the above behaviour when the squirrels in the yard taunt him from their lofty perches in the trees just beyond dog reach.

I could not see or hear anything, but with Ripley's far superior sense of smell he was in the know. We went to bed that night and woke up to crashing and banging in the basement as bottles and cans from the recycling were tipped over. The dog flying down the stairs whining and barking and the scolding chitter of an upset squirrel added to the general chaos. 

Long story short, we cleared out the dog, opened basement windows and hoped like heck our squirrelly friend would take the easy way out.  A few minutes later, I saw a small furry body come flying out of the bush near our bird bath for a long drink and was hopeful that was our guy. 

Ripley the wonder dog agreed. A last tour and sniff of the basement confirmed that the adventure was over, and we quickly shut the escape hatches. Adventure over for the day, Ripley spent some time holding down his bed, making sure "it" did not get away.

July 14th, 2014

Back from summer holidays and thoroughly enjoying hanging out in our yard. The strawberries are bountiful this year, so naturally I had to make some Strawberry Rhubarb jam. The following recipe is by far one of my favourite. This recipe comes from an old Agriculture Canada publication that was revised in 1976. Not sure when it was initially printed. ;0)

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam (the old-fashioned way)

6 cups of crushed strawberries
4 cups of chopped rhubarb (1/2 inch)
6 cups of sugar

Wash, hull, crush strawberries one layer at a time. Cut rhubarb into 1/2" pieces. Combine fruit and bring to a boil (uncovered) and pre-cook for 15 minutes, stirring regularly. Add sugar and bring to a boil again (uncovered) for 10 to 12 minutes until jam stage. 220 degress for those of you with thermometers, but I do the "drizzle the jam onto a cold plate" routine until the fruit looks like it is setting. This makes about 6 1/2 cups of jam, but if you are using 250ml jam jars you will get about 9-10 jars.

On a crafty note, I have been having far too much fun with Simon Says Stamp July card kit. Here

are a couple of the cards that I have created using patterned paper and stamps from the kit. Kristina Werner always creates these wonderful stamp sets for the SSS kits and they are awesome.