Somewhere over a...

Mo' rain for Phos

Fell asleep to the pitter-patter of raindrops on the aluminum porch roof. Kind of soothing and very conducive to sleep. The morning is nice and fresh, I am more or less awake and ready to clean out the husky pen AKA Tiny House. The fur drifts have gotten kind of deep and there seems to be a new life form taking over the kitchen. I still have to make time for a beer run, want to pick up a case of Fat Tire so my brother and I won't perish of thirst. This should be an exciting weekend!!

Gettin' better all the time

The storms have gone on to pester others and it is starting to dry out a bit here. I am pretty happy we got the rain, but just as glad to see it go. May see another round Wednesday, hard to say at this point.

Five feet high and rising

Still raining but on the bright side the tornado warnings have expired. Arizona doesn't see many tornadoes fortunately, in fact they are quite rare, but with the El Nino inspired weather that has hit CA and our state anything is possible. We have received over half the rainfall that the sate normally gets in the past couple of days and the storms are prognosticated to continue through the weekend. This reallyput a damper (pun intended) on our trip to Tucson thsi weekend. Casa Grande, a town midway between here and Tucson is seeing flooding as I type this - the freeway interchange at that spot is a mess on the best of days, so this will just add to the log job encountered when trying to get past that city (using the term loosely) and on to Tucson.

Five foot high and rising

Bird deflector before complete destruction

Austrella inspecting bird deflector

Everything be wet n' stuff

Wet yard (with bonus hail)




Wet Tree




Wet roads




wet husky

Rainy day chicken

Around the Tiny House grilling and barbecuing are rain or shine events. I've never let the weather get in the way, even if it meant digging the grill out of a snow bank (and I have). Fortunately most grills come with lids so even in a downpour the grillee stays dry and hot.

Storms have been moving from California into Arizona and bringing some much need rain (too much in some places - Scottsdale is handing out free sand bags) so I can't complain about the weather. Tossed some grass seed out and planted another climbing rose in hoping to take advantage of the moisture.

This is the first time I butterflied a chicken and it turned out pretty good. Even the breast was pretty moist and the legs were done. I have been experimenting with some new BBQ techniques in preparation for my brother's impending visit. I expect we'll be doing a massive barbecue tour of the area as well as attempting to scale the Everest of barbecue, the brisket.

Rules of Nature

I often quote the unwritten rulses of nature, things your biology teacher may have neglected. BEsides my favortie, If you taste good life is short," here are a few others:

1. If a creature has fangs and claws you can bet it isn't shy about using them.

2. Bright colors in nature mean leave me alone or else.

3. All snakes, spiders, and mushrooms are poisonous until proven otherwise - don't be the one to offer the proof

4. Don't know what it is, don't fuck with it.

5. Mom was right, starting into the sun is bad

6. If there is steam coming off it, yes, it's hot (this is for the schmucks that simply have to stick their fingers into the hot springs in Yellowstone Park)

7. The "don't feed the animals" sign is there for a good reason.

8. The word "wild" in Wild Animals is operative.

9. All small mammals, not matter how cute, should be considered rabid and given wide berth.

10. Some times stingrays will feel they have to live up to their names, they are not pet fish.

I'm trying to avoid going to the verification route, but I have been discovered by the communist Chinese AKA "Fun 160." Now I love Chinese stuff, perhaps I was Chinese in another life, but those filthy commies can stuff their SPAM where the rice paddy don't shine. If Hong Kong Fooey and his pals keep it up I may have to go the verification route.

BBQ'in Fool

My brother is coming out soon and I am pretty excited about the whole thing. It will be nice to see him and being a fellow BBQ'r see what trouble we can get into with the grill, or at least see if we can cook until the bottom burns out.

Being tried and true Americans it is our duty to cook lots more meat than we could possibly eat and not share with anyone else. Going to give brisket a shot, never tried that, and drop on some ribs. The brisket will take 8-10 hours so we'll have to stand guard over the grill while observing the rule that grill masters must have a beer in one hand at all times. Take a tip from me, invest in Four Peaks Brewery, their stock is about to go up because of the sudden demand for Kilt Lifter's Ale.

When not manning the grill I suspect we'll be haunting various Q' joints around the area soaking up all that smokey goodness.

Doing a dry run with chicken tomorrow, going to stretch the envelope and try a N. Carolina mayo based white BBQ sauce. Should be interesting to see if these here Northern taste buds can deal with white BBQ sauce!!

What dogs do when you aren't watching

Better this than a "shopping trip" in the pantry I suppose.

Requiem for film

I enjoy shooting film, especially 120 but the advent of the digital camera is to film as the asteroid was to the dinosaurs. It is getting tougher and tougher to find film, good film, though it is still available. Processing for 120 is a pain and I expect though it will never disappear entirely, it will become a mere artifact in the photographic world.

Mrs. Phos is happy with the digital because there is no expense incurred once the camera is purchased. Unfortunately, I really love cheap plastic cameras because there is a complete randomness to the process. A push of the button and all control the photographer has over the picture is gone. On the downside one might get one worthwhile photo out of the whole roll if the photography gods are smiling down upon him or her that day. That can become fairly expensive over a period of time.

Never the less I will continue to shoot with my toy cameras and hope that Kodak won't turn its back on film entirely. The corner drug store still carries a few rolls of film and many still offer processing, so I have that going for me which is nice.

Eating 2010

Spinach with pecans

Didn't make any resolutions as such. I recognized how eak willed I actually am and wouldeventually cave. I did set some goals, however. As gate keeper for the food that comes into the house I have opend the gates to more vegetables and partially shut them to meat and cheese. Shocking, yes, less cheese - they'll never let me back across the Wisconsin border. The gate is closed to junk food all together. Read soem interesting books by Michael Pollan concering food and found thme very informative, especially "In Defense of Food."

Pollan stresses making meat a side dish rather than an entree. This dovetails nicely with cooking Oriental stylee, where meat is used sparingly. That being said, there will be special occasions where meat is on the menu. There will never be any "mockmeat" meat substitutes. It drives me crazy when proffessed vegans have to mold some sort of vegetative matter into meat-like shapes. If one is going to go to that much trouble, just eat the damn hotdog and be done with it.

Happy Day

All's quiet on the Western front. The weather is incredible, getting a few thigns done around the house and now sitting on the couch with my grandpuppy watching "Forbidden Kingdom" (kung fu not porn) and all is right with the world.

Hope that all you donw under folks are on high ground, saw there was flooding in Asutrailia. The news tends to over dramatize abit, they make it soudn as though the entire country is under 10' of water, but I hope you all are safe and sound.

Another week ahead and I am excited to see what it will bring. Truth be told I can't remember the last time I felt this good.