Love and Light from HEALING Creek by kktaylorcc

So many thoughts are running through my head today ...

In no particular order ...

Gustav Passed By New Orleans ...

I am grateful that Gustav has posed as little of a threat as it has ... I know there will be damage, but it could have been so much worse.
I heard a politician on MSNBC politicking that if America doesn't help New Orleans shore up the buffer between New Orleans and the ocean, a disaster is inevitable. I hate to be the one to tell him, but all coastal states are losing shoreline. Engineers have been saying since Katrina that the long-term solution is to raise the entire city 12 feet so that it is above sea level instead of below it. If the Saudis are smart enough to make islands out of ocean sand, then we should be able to do it! We are going to end up rebuilding it anyway. Why not do it right?
Speaking of shoreline, it appears that Hurricane Hanna is headed for the East Coast ... It looks like this will be quite a hurricane season. Hanna will be our eighth and we have about two more months to go!

A Slight Knod Toward Politics

Candidate's kids should be off-limits! As if a 17-year old girl doesn't have enough to worry about, her pregnancy becomes national news! Is that really news? I don't think so. I think Candidates are fair game ... I think their spouses and children should be left alone. Period.

Crazy Laws Still On The Books

I saw this article this weekend and laughed ...
Forget about using a dish towel in the state of Oregon or in Minneapolis. Letting china air-dry is the only allowable way.
In Florida, you're in trouble if you shatter more than three dishes per day, or chip the edges of more than four cups and/or saucers. If you get your kicks tossing plates, don't try it from any window above the ground floor of a house or apartment in Freeport, Illinois.
In Kansas, you can't stack plates more than eight high.
Watch out for gangs of rug beaters on the streets of San Francisco between midnight and 8 a.m, the only hours one is permitted to beat a rug on the sidewalk in that city. You're safer in Port Jervis, New York, where the law prohibits "the spreading of a carpet or rug on any city street," at any time.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, doesn't legislate what you can do with your rug outdoors, but indoors, it's a crime to sweep dirt under it.
California requires "housewives" to boil their dust rags or risk jail time.
Clotheslines are a great way to conserve energy -- unless it's winter in Los Angeles, when women aren't allowed to dry their unmentionables in public.

Just A Passing Storm

A storm rolled through here a few days ago ... a BIG storm. Tornado warnings were sounding and the sky was charcoal gray. Tornadoes usually pass through the western part of the Upstate, but this one was aimed for us.
I looked at the clouds and prayed, "Lord, please protect us. Surround our area with a legion of angels and quiet the storm. In Jesus name, Amen."
A small gust of wind blew through the yard. Lightning flashed in the distance and the rain let up a bit.
I turned on the TV just as the local news station put up a doppler map. The storm looked like a picture of a primitive red bird, but right over our house, looking like the bird's eye, was a spot of green!
I shook my head and smiled.

I remembered a Bible Verse and looked it up:
Matthew 7:7-11 says, "Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For whoever asks, receives; and he that seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, the door is opened.
Or who is the man among you, who when his son ask him for bread, will hand him a stone? Or if he should ask him for fish, will he hand him a snake?
If therefore, you who err, know how to give good gifts to your sons, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him?

Maybe, the reason He doesn't help us more often is because we didn't ask Him to?

A Puzzle At Healing Creek

Joey and I worked in the yard some of the weekend. It looks good! There's still a lot to do, but we definitely put a dent in it!
We were carrying brush away when we walked up on a semi-eaten carcass. It was small and parts of it had been dragged away, but it had horns?
We discussed several possibilities ...
1.   Deer? It could have been a small deer but small deer don't have horns yet.
2.   Jackelope? I teased Joey that it could have been a jack-elope, or maybe, more like a jack-o-deer, since we don't have antelope in the South.
3.   Billy Goat? We have heard that there are wild goats in the area ... but the carcass was pretty small ... We have seen nanny and billy goats the size of dogs, but we don't know enough about goats to be able to tell.
I would post a picture, but it would be a little gruesome in mid-decomposition.
Do any of you have any ideas?

Deer Respond To Guitar Music

Joey relaxed on the back porch with his guitar this weekend. He was playing all sorts of different music when he noticed that during a soft folk melody, a deer actually walked up to the deck, like she wanted to hear more. She hid behind a bush and peeked around the tree several times, moving slowly toward the sound.
Joey came and got me and we both watched the deer "listen" while she got closer and closer.
Out of curiosity, Joey hit a few hard licks on the guitar to see what would happen. The deer reacted the same way I do to that LOUD stuff. Her head jerked up, she stared for a minute in disbelief and then ran off.
Joey said, "Did you see that?" and laughed.
I looked at him and said, "Well, you should have known that she would like softer music. It's obvious she's country!"

From Today's Email ... Did You Know?

Cooking ...

Bananas
Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. That's how the primates do it.

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Peppers

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
Keeping Cheese Longer
Store opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!
Ground Beef

Frying ground beef - add a teaspoon of water. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.
Omelets

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

Garlic

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.
Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works

Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food
moist and help it reheat faster.
Yummy Brownies

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.
Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.
Snicker Bar Treat

Leftover snickers bars make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!
Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water.
Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such
as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Cleaning ...

Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

Flexible Vacuum Hose
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

Clothes Dryer Last Longer ...
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean.
(I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.)
He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material ... I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. Well ... the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit.
You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free ... that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box. well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months.
He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that.
Note: I went to my dryer and tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water and a nylon brush and I had it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it ... the water ran right thru the screen! There wasn't any puddling at all!
That repairman knew what he was talking about!

In The Garden ...

No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

It appears I have LOTS to do today ... starting with washing my lint screen! I hope you are all having a good week!