A couple of weeks ago, I made a new Thai dish that was a huge hit; the bad news was I didn’t make enough, so there were no leftovers; Sam was beyond disappointed. Lol!

I actually make pretty tasty Thai food, as good as any of the places we have around here in Southern Vermont, which isn’t many. We literally live in a food desert; if you want something different or ethnic, you must drive at least an hour away.

I found a recipe for Thai Coconut Grilled Chicken when I was menu planning. I read through the blog post, then the ingredients and recipe. I’ve never used a few of the Asian ingredients the writer used in her recipe. Typically, I don’t add soy sauce or oyster sauce to my Thai food; I use traditional fish sauce as the umami.

Umami? If you have watched any cooking programs over the last 5 years, you must have heard the word umami at least 1000 times. For those who don’t cook or watch cooking shows, umami is considered the fifth sense of taste after sweet, salty, sour, and bitter.

Here is what Wikipedia says about Umami:

Umami (/uːˈmɑːmi/ from Japanese: 旨味 Japanese pronunciation: [ɯmami]), or savoriness, is one of the five basic tastes.^[1] It has been described as savory and is characteristic of broths and cooked meats.

Foods that have a strong umami flavor include meats, shellfish, fish (including fish sauce and preserved fish such as maldive fish, sardines, and anchovies), tomatoes, mushrooms, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, meat extract, yeast extract, cheeses, and soy sauce.

I followed the recipe exactly, except I used boneless breasts of chicken instead of chunks of chicken on skewers. I also followed the recipe for the peanut sauce even though I have one that I’ve been making for years, way back to our catering days. I like this one perhaps a little better; it has a deeper depth of flavor and is brighter than mine.

I owed my family a good meal after the disastrous shrimp skewers from last week. This time I doubled the chicken and coconut rice, leaving plenty of leftovers. Sam already had me pack his tv dinner type to-go dish for work on Monday; he wasn’t taking any chances that there wouldn’t be any left. A chip off the old block!

Sam loves food and looks forward to it as much as I do. He has learned from Mama Julz how to hide things you love and don’t want someone else to devour. For years I was able to hide good chocolates in the produce drawers of the refrigerator, God forbid someone looks for a piece of fruit or vegetables as a snack, so it was a perfect hiding place until Sam found it.

One of my favorite hiding spots is in a huge pot high up on top of the pantry. Sam found that one too. I cry laughing when I see some of his hiding places for his favorite snacks. Sam and I don’t eat each other’s hidden snacks; we hide our snacks from Marty and when Noah lived here. They can have their own snacks and hide them if they want to. Food is serious business for Sam and me.

What led up to this over the years is looking forward to eating a leftover or snack all day, and it isn’t there. Someone ate it, not out of the love of the food, but out of boredom or just because. OMG, I used to lose my shit, “Who the hell ate my whatever? Are you kidding me right now? Is nothing sacred? I’ve been looking forward to this all day! Son of a bitch!” And so on and so forth. It became easier to hide what I wanted to eat later, and it saved a lot of me bitching about it. As I said, food is some serious shit here at the Irion place.

After making the Thai coconut grilled chicken for the second time, I have to tell you it’s a winner of a recipe. Kudos to the woman Prasanna whose website I found the recipe on. Here is a link to the recipe. If you like Thai food but don’t have all the ethnic ingredients, I urge you to pick them up and not start substituting or leaving them out. Each ingredient is important I found after making and tasting it for the second time.

https://www.savorybitesrecipes.com/2021/05/thai-coconut-grilled-chicken.html

Happy Friday! It’s almost the end of another week that has flown by this summer. Have a great weekend, everyone; I’ll catch up with you on Sunday. Goodnight!

This is my 200th blog post! I started my blog on January 24, 2021, unsure about everything…who, what, where, when, how, or why. I can answer some of those questions now. 

Who…what to name the blog and under what category. It took a while, but “Julzie Style’s A Journey of Cooking and Living” felt accurate, falling under the lifestyle blog category instead of a food blog. 

Who is going to read my blog? I knew my Facebook friends who have been pushing me to start a blog would; I wasn’t sure who else though. 

I picked up quite a few subscribers when my friend Jon Katz an award-winning writer, author, and photographer, gave my blog a plug on his called The Bedlam Farm Journal. 

I also picked up some other readers on my Julzie Style Facebook page when my friend, Jon’s wife, and belly dance student Maria Wulf mentioned my blog in one of her blog entries. Maria is a successful artist with many followers. Her blog is called Fullmoon Fiber Art. Check it out it’s fun to read and see what she’s working on or what’s happening on Bedlam Farm.

Over time I’ve picked up a few new subscribers and lost a couple. At first, I panicked about why someone unsubscribed to my blog; then, I realized I am not everyone’s cup of tea, and that is perfectly fine. 

What…Ok, so I wanted to write about cooking, belly dancing, travel, food, family, and business. A food blog alone would have bored me to tears since there I more to me than cooking. 

Where…I am not sure how to answer this one. 🤷🏻‍♀️

When…this can mean a couple of things; when do I write, and what time in my life would I be sharing. I like to write about some of my favorite memories growing up in NJ or whatever is happening right now.

How…how the fuck should I know? Seriously, I am one of the most ignorant people when it comes to technology. I don’t have the brain to compute how to do it or the patience to figure it out, back to me being a right-brained thinker.

Marty and Sam helped me set up my blog. My blog is straightforward, and I wanted to make it better as time went on. I also didn’t realize that the blog easily cost about $400 to get up and run. I needed to buy a domain name, find a hosting agent, and some programs I wanted to use, like Grammarly. 

Marty bought me a laptop so that I could work on my blog anywhere inside or outside. If I had to sit upstairs in our tiny office at our desk computer, I wouldn’t have liked it at all. Ah-ha! This falls under the where category!

Professional food bloggers use professional web designers, fancy and expensive recipe programs, real cameras and filming equipment, and lots of other bells and whistles. They rely on pop-up advertisements to get paid for their work, blog expenses, and then some. 

These ads and videos pop up multiple times whenever I read a food blog or a recipe. This makes me insane! It’s so hard to keep X-ing out of the videos and ads. After I click out of the first one and another one pops up, I am out of there. Before I started my blog, I knew that I didn’t want my readers to put up with that annoyance. 

I have support my blog button on my homepage that I felt uncomfortable putting there in the first place. I want to thank all of you for your donations to my blog. Every little bit helps; I have all my donation money in an account to put towards all the fees I’ll have to pay again when the blog’s year is up. 

I know that I should ask or remind people how important it is to support someone’s work. I want my blog to be free to everyone, but I have asked if you were enjoying my blog or recipes to consider a small donation. 

Whenever I receive a $2 donation from someone because they loved how my recipe came out makes me so proud and happy.

I recently looked at recipe programs that would help me with serving sizes, a jump to recipe button, a print button, nutritional counts, etc. Those programs start around $200 bucks, so that will not be happening anytime soon. 

Why…I used my personal Facebook page for 10 years as a cooking and lifestyle blog. I wanted to start a blog but didn’t know literally where to start. I read up on Blogging for Dummies and watched YouTube videos. The actual writing part came; naturally, the rest of it is still hard to figure out. 

My blog started during the pandemic when my life and our business wasn’t nearly as crazy busy as it is now. At least I had some extra time to figure out my voice as a writer. I was excited when I received my first donation because it meant I was a writer since someone paid me to write. Yay! 

My blog has had many ups and downs depending on what I was writing about. I didn’t expect my writing to become so emotional, bringing out good memories and, unfortunately, some awful ones that I had hidden deep inside me. 

My blog has introduced you all to some of my family, friends, and a list of regular characters I encounter. I have more people to introduce you to and, unfortunately, some that I can’t. I always respect anyone’s wishes who don’t want me to write about them. 

What do I want for the next 200 posts? I want to continue to enjoy writing and sharing myself with you. I want to stay honest and authentic as promised. I want my blog posts to keep jumping right from my brain to my laptop, with the words flying out easily and naturally. 

I am open to suggestions, comments, recipes, or how-to requests. I still have so much to share with you guys, and I look forward to writing, which I’ve done almost every day. If you don’t see a post on a certain day, my day was nuts, and I ran out of time. 

Thank you, Jon and Maria, for inspiring me and for all your input. Jon spent endless time with me, shaping me into becoming a better writer and to always think about my readers. 

Thanks to Marty, Sam, and Noah for being open to me and including them in my daily posts and for their continued support. 

I appreciate all of you for taking the time to read my blog. I love reading your comments that encourage me and help me not feel alone when struggling with emotional issues. When I read comments cheering me on, well, this makes my day a whole lot brighter.

Finally, thanks, guys; from the bottom of my heart, there wouldn’t be a blog if no one read it; psst…tell your friends about it, too I would love to pick up some new readers. ❤️

Last night as I was going to bed, Sam started getting things out to make biscuits…delicious flaky biscuits loaded with gluten. He had the same look in his eyes that I get when he starts imagining what he will make. Sam said goodnight to us at 10:45 pm and told us he was making breakfast. 

This morning when I went into the kitchen, there was no sign of any cooking or baking. The kitchen was cleaner than when I went to bed. The dish drainer and dishwasher were empty from last night’s dishes; the only clue he left behind was a ziplock bag with biscuits in it. 

After looking around at my sparkling kitchen, I knew I had to make us some gluten-free biscuits. I decided while I sipped my coffee that I would also make sawmill gravy & scrambled eggs. 

Normally, we have a quick bowl of yogurt while gulping down our coffee, but I had time since today wasn’t a production day. 

If I had to choose two of my favorite breakfasts, they would be biscuits & gravy or eggs benedict. I really miss ordering those in a diner or restaurant; luckily, in our town, we have a new place called Bonnie & Clyde’s Corner Market where I can safely order my third favorite breakfast thing a pork roll, egg, and cheese sandwich. Yum! 

So, to be honest, I used a store-bought gluten-free biscuit mix which I wish I hadn’t because they were very dry; it’s a good thing the sausage gravy was going on top of them. While the biscuits were baking, I started my sausage, aka sawmill gravy. I’ve been called the “gravy master,” yes, a shameless pun on the meat browning product.  I make really good gravies and sauces. If I could go back to my younger days, I would have loved to have been a Saucier Chef. 

From Wikipedia:

A saucier (French pronunciation:  [sosje]) or sauté chef is a position in the classical brigade style kitchen. It can be translated into English as sauce chef. In addition to preparing sauces, the saucier prepares stews, hot hors d’œuvres, and sautés food to order. Although it is often considered the highest position of the station cooks, the saucier is typically still tertiary to the chef and sous-chef.

My sausage gravy starts with browning some bulk sausage in an iron pan. After the sausage is nicely browned, I remove it from the pan. Next, I melt a dollop of butter and whisk in some potato starch after the butter has melted. Once the butter and potato starch are bubbling, I add whole milk, kosher salt & black pepper. I add more milk a little at a time if I need to loosen the gravy up a bit. I add the sausage back to the pan and simmer. The gravy is done when it a spoon leaves a separation trail but fills in again. Finally, I taste the gravy to check the seasoning. 

I wrote about mother sauces in my veloute post during the wintertime. To make a basic white, gravy, or veloute sauce, the ratio is always 1:1:1. One Tbsp of pan drippings, butter, or other fat. 1 Tbsp thickener of choices such as flour, cornstarch, or my favorite old standby potato starch. Plus 1 cup of milk or broth/stock if making gravies or veloutes. When you need to double or triple, use the same ratio…2:2:2 or 3:3:3 and so on.

When the sawmill gravy was ready, I made some soft and creamy French-style scrambled eggs. I plated our breakfast at the last minute to keep everything hot and yelled to Marty outside, “Breakfast!”

I made enough sausage gravy that Sam could have some for his breakfast before his overnight shift; I know he will be super happy. Yay!

Yes, the biscuits were dry as hell, but it satisfied the craving Sam left me with right before I fell asleep. Dry biscuits aside, it was yummy!

Fridays are Broadway show tunes day in our spätzle production kitchen. Marty and I both love Broadway show tunes, and listening to them at the end of the week pushes us through production quickly and with tons of fun, lots of singing and dancing on my part too!

We all know the oldie but goodies musicals, but we tend to listen to the more modern ones. Of course, our favorite musical is Hamilton, which took the place of Jesus Christ Superstar after decades of being our # 1 pick.

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We also love to belt out tunes to Rent, Six, In the Heights, Dear Evan Hansen, The Book of Mormons, Mean Girls, and The Greatest Showman, which technically isn’t a Broadway musical but was a movie. This is the shortlist because there are so many wonderful musicals to listen to.

My love of singing and dancing started when I was two years old. I took ballet, toe or point, and tap dance private lessons for about 8 or 9 years. I took classes at Miss Joyce’s School of Dance in Elizabeth, NJ. I loved dancing and went twice a week. I was good at ballet, but at tap dancing, I could keep up with my teacher Miss Joyce from the time I was 5 on.

I looked for more of my dance photos this morning, but there is a box of photos somewhere in our house that I can’t find. So many photos I want to share with you are in that box. It may be a wintertime project to find those photos.

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After we moved from Elizabeth, NJ to Iselin, it became an ass ache for my parents to bring me to dance classes. At some point, they made me choose between cheerleading and dance. Since all my friends were on cheerleading, I chose that one. I am sure my parents let out a big sigh of relief. I remember thinking since I was a “tween,” if I wanted to take dance seriously, I would have to take classes in NYC, and that wasn’t going to be an option. My parents hated New York. I loved and still love it.

All my life, I’ve been some type of performer and quite a bit of a ham. Even as an adult, I love being a performer. When I started belly dancing, they asked me if I was interested in performing. You bet your ass I was! Three months later, I started my belly dancing career as a performer, teacher, and always a student.

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When my sister Jennifer found me through Ancestory, I started to learn things about the paternal side of my family. It seems that many of my family members were performers; they sang and danced…some professionally. Many grew up and lived in NYC; they also loved to cook and were pretty good at bartending. Sounds familiar, right? So weird that things like that are in my genes.

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When I was growing up with my adopted parents, my love of music came from my dad. My father always had music on no matter where he was. I remember being in the back seat of his car singing also to 50s music with Cousin Brucie. We also listened to ethnic music in our kitchen on Sunday mornings. I knew every Dean Martin and the Rat Pack songs by heart.

I have music on all the time; while cooking, cleaning, working, driving, etc. Listening to music in the production kitchen helps keep me focused, even though I know some people may think music is distracting. Music helps me focus when measuring ingredients because I am not thinking or, deep in my head, losing track of what I am doing. The few mistakes I’ve made over the last 4 years happened when we didn’t have music playing.

Until 2 years ago, I attributed my love of music to nurturing. Now I found out that it also came from nature. Nurture vs. nature is pretty interesting stuff. I count myself lucky to have had both shape me into the music-loving performer I am today.

I can’t tell you how amazing it feels to be sleeping soundly finally. I started taking Midnight Drops, a combo tablet of CBD: THC that I got at the dispensary last week for my insomnia.

I take a tablet an hour before I want to fall asleep, and boom…I am asleep sometimes beforehand. Even if I get up to use the bathroom, I go right back to sleep; I’ve never been able to fall back to sleep easily until now. 

I bought one bottle of 20 tablets Midnight Drops and found out they are super popular, and they sell out every time they get a shipment…crap! I’ve been checking their website daily to see when they come in; I can order online and pick them up. Needless to say, I’ll be buying more than one bottle even though they are $45 each plus a significant MA state sales tax. A good night’s sleep is priceless.

Getting a good night’s sleep is something to be cherished; take it from me. I used to wake up exhausted, think about napping all day, wanting to lay down. I was literally dragging myself around all day long. I wanted to be able to focus on things, and I was forgetful. Being tired mentally and physically really takes a toll on you and those around you.

After production, I made us lunch, then was off to make a delivery and run 5 errands all around Bennington. On my way to Bennington, I heard on the police, fire, and rescue scanner that a vehicle was flipped over in a ditch and took down electric and phone lines, snapping a telephone pole in half.

I heard Marty on the scanner; he was on the scene as a first responder. The good news is the driver wasn’t hurt. His trailer he was towing caught the wires and pulled them down while snapping the top of the phone pole. The trailer disconnected from his truck and rolled down the ravine. 

The bad news was that the accident took out power for hours. I know we are a spoiled society and count on electricity, but we NEED it to keep the spätzle we just made nice and cold. Our walk-in refrigerator is insulated very well, but we had no idea how long the power would be out. The freezers would be fine for even a day before we would need to panic as we did with the walk-in.

I got home from my errands at the same time Marty did from the accident scene. We didn’t open any refrigerators; we made a plan. We have a couple of generators for emergencies, but we didn’t have the right plug for the walk-in. 

Quickly, Marty hooked two empty refrigerators up in the production kitchen to the generator. We waited a bit for the refrigerators to come back up to the proper temperature, under 40-degrees. When Marty finally went into the walk-in it was still very cold and under 40-degrees, but we still had to get the spätzle transferred to the other refrigerators just in case power was off all night.

It’s a good thing I had tons of energy because we worked together like energizer bunnies moving the product from one place to another. Luckily, the power came on a couple of hours later. Marty did the opposite, waiting for the walk-in to get back to the “safe zone” temperature before transferring everything back. 

People in the foodservice industry know how important electricity and properly running refrigerators and freezers are. If food gets out of the “safety zone,” it has to be thrown away, resulting in staggering losses.

When we were both school lunch directors, we held our breath going through our kitchens every day. It’s a total and complete nightmare when there is an issue. I still will never get the smell completely out of my memory cleaning out a freezer because someone unplugged it over the summer, and the food rotted. It was fucking disgusting! I was dry heaving the whole time. It was the grossest thing I’ve ever had to do. It’s funny now, but it wasn’t then. 🤮

I am glad the driver was ok and gave a big round of cheer when the Green Mountain Power guys turned the electricity back on the right by our house. If I had been exhausted as I had been, this would have made me very irritated and nasty, but instead, it was a snafu in our day that was resolved quickly. 

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We ended up making a New Haven-style white clam pizza on a cauliflower crust and making a campfire. It was the most gorgeous sunset we’ve witnessed in a while since we’ve been so busy. We relaxed by the fire with a couple of cocktails and had a great night. Our friend Martin and his son Luke stopped by for a drink and sat around the fire with us. I wasn’t tired one bit until I took my Midnight Drop and fell right to sleep! 😊

When I had children, I wanted to have a Sunday dinner every week like growing up. When I was little, we ate at Mema’s house, at one of my parent’s friend’s houses, at a restaurant, and on occasion at home. Very occasionally…

I remember looking forward to Sunday dinner because it was usually a prepared meal from scratch with thought and care. I loved Sunday dinner at Mema’s house because we played cards after dinner. Family members would come over, and suddenly it got very loud with talking and singing to Italian music playing in the background. 

I made Sunday dinner almost every week when the boys were young and living at home. I missed our Sunday dinners when we were still vending at the Schenectady Farmers Market. Taking Sundays off was the best decision we made to recharge our batteries; being home for Sunday breakfast and dinner is priceless. 

Yesterday, I was craving a comforting rainy day dinner even though it is summer. I ended up making roasted pork tenderloin with a pan sauce, mashed potatoes, and caramelized maple carrots. 

Pork Tenderloin is my go-to protein of choice if I am looking for a comforting flavor but roasts in less than 40 minutes. I remove the silver skin from the pork, rub it with olive oil and sprinkle it with some kosher salt, freshly grated black pepper, granulated garlic, onion, and paprika. 

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I roast the pork at 400-degrees for 30 minutes and check the temperature. I roast my pork tenderloins until they reach 145-degrees, remove them from the oven and cover with foil. 

When people hear pan sauce or gravy, it sounds intimidating and fancy. It isn’t hard to make and adds a home run to your meal. When I make a pan sauce or gravy, I remove the protein from the roasting or sauté pan and let it cool covered in foil on a platter. 

Next, I use a wooden spoon to scrape up the pan juices and bits in the bottom of the pan. I add a cup of hot water and scrape some more, making a broth right in the roasting pan. I give it a taste to see if it’s too salty; I add more water a little at a time until it isn’t anymore.

I melt a tablespoon of butter in a small saucepan or the saute pan I used and add 1-2 tablespoons of potato starch, depending on how thick I want my sauce or gravy. For every cup of broth or stock, I use 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon of potato starch. 

I add the brothy water with the scraped-up bits and pan juices to the butter and potato starch and whisk. It will start to thicken as soon as it comes to a simmer. I give it a taste and season as necessary. That’s it. Done! 

Dinner last night was delicious and was exactly what I was craving. It was pouring rain, and the meal really hit the spot. I always make more than we need because Sam takes leftovers to work the next day. He works the overnight shift and doesn’t have the time to get anything. He usually eats his “dinner” around 2 or 3 am in under 2 minutes because it’s so busy. The smells coming from the microwave in the ER make people drool sometimes. Lol!

When we were clearing the table, I put together his leftovers. I like using the Tupperware-type containers that are like TV dinners. While I was filling the container, Sam said, “Throw one of those cheddar bay biscuits in and pour that maple sauce on the carrots.” He smiled and was licking his lips, looking forward to his leftovers. I can’t tell you how much I love this. 

We still have more leftover pork which will turn into Cuban sandwiches for us, and bbq pork sliders for Sam for his Tuesday night shift. Planned leftovers are not only delicious but make quick and easy lunches or dinners. 

Today, I turned the leftover mashed potatoes into gnocchi. Making potato gnocchi is super easy to make and requires adding only 2 ingredients to the mashed potatoes; an egg and potato starch. 

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Egg and potato starch are mixed with the mashed potatoes to make the gnocchi dough. The dough is then kneaded until smooth and rolled into ropes. The ropes are cut into half-inch pieces. The pieces are rolled down the tines of a fork, giving the gnocchi the traditional ridges. 

The gnocchi is lowered into gently boiling saltwater. The gnocchi is simmered until they float. They are drained, and I place them on a baking sheet pan and coat them with a little butter or olive oil, so they don’t stick. 

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Tonight, I pan-fried the gnocchi with brown butter and sage, finishing it with some cream and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. I am served the gnocchi with steak Florentine. The steak is prepared how they make it in Florence, Italy, not with spinach. 

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When I was packing up Sam’s work leftovers last night, I knew that I would be making gnocchi today. It takes some practice, but if you can get at least one more different meal from your leftovers, you are great at menu planning. If you can get two meals, you get a gold star for the day.  ⭐️

On Thursday here in Arlington and the surrounding towns of Manchester, Sandgate & Sunderland were hit with flash flooding from all the torrential rain. 

Thursday evening, it was raining so hard I didn’t think it could have rained harder. We received flash flood warnings all day, but they never prepare you for when it really happens. 

On August 28, 2011, Tropical Storm Irene ripped through Vermont, leaving parts of our state totally devastated. Floods washed away roads, bridges, farms, homes, people’s personal items that can’t be replaced and changed some of the Vermont landscape forever. 

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The storm left people stranded and took 56 people’s lives, along with so much destruction that it took 18 months in some areas to recover. People were without power for days on end. Some areas will still never be the same. 

The flash flooding that occurred here on Thursday night was a scary reminder to many people. I read on Facebook that a friend could hear boulders rolling down the river like during Irene. That’s a sound you never forget!

In this storm, many roads were completely washed away, basements and businesses flooded, and items from people’s back yards were swept away by the strong currents of the raging river that crested on properties along the river. 

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My friend Ann from NJ was camping right here in Arlington was told they had to evacuate to higher ground at 11:30 pm. She told me how scary it was with no plan in place or how to move everything so quickly in the pitch dark. It was a complete “shitshow,” she said. Can you tell we are friends? Lol!

Families with children were breaking down their campsites in water up to their knees and were worried about the electrical hookups at all the campsites. I’m told the electric hookups have GFCI meaning the power will shut off in emergencies; all of the electrical at the campground had to be redone after Tropical Storm Irene. That is indeed terrific; however,  the poor people who were panicking while packing up didn’t know that at the time…plus, as I mentioned, they were doing this in the pitch dark.

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The thing that always makes me proud of our community during disastrous situations is that everyone helps each other any way they can. Marty helped pull a friend’s camper and van out of the rising floodwater on Friday afternoon. He saw our friend Jeff needed help on Facebook and didn’t think twice about racing down there. 

After the storm, we had gorgeous weather on Friday night, Saturday, and Saturday night. We took a walk yesterday to see how high the water still was; the river started to recede. Our little golf course in town looked like a lake on Friday, but yesterday the water was gone, but the area was wet and muddy with a few trout that washed up on land. 

This morning we received more flash flooding warnings. My sister Jennifer and her kids, who were visiting for the weekend, left early because more heavy rain was heading our way. It was a good idea she left when she did because she hit traffic on her way back to NJ. A real shocker, I know! Sundays are usually a mass exodus out of VT and down the NY State Thruway as it is, but people were heading out sooner than later. 

Right now, we are sitting on our front porch while it’s raining again, listening to thunder off in the distance. Poor Otto is scared, shitless, shaking uncontrollably.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the rain isn’t as bad as the other night; everything that has been temporarily repaired would get washed away again.  My friend Ann and her husband, who were camping, just drove by with their camper and decided to cut their losses and go home a day early. They wouldn’t have gotten any sleep if they stayed, and it’s supposed to rain more tomorrow anyway.

Nature’s fury is no joke and scary, especially when you already know and have seen how ravaging it can be. 

I slept great last night. Thank you Midnight Drops! That is all! 🤗