One more week and I'll be in SoCal for my birthday weekend...

In the meantime I chase "park grackles" out of the chicken pen (they are eating the organic kibble for the hens...who only want to eat the fatty scratch) and watch the squirrels steal the bird seed from the song bird feeders. Someone sent me rainbow flame pinecones????? No card, just like the mysterious Xmas Jam.

pepper seed or gravity feed

Feeding the birds is fun. Feeding the squirrels? Not so much! The hot pepper suet and feed assuredly works well, but is so pricey! One squirrel braved the flavor but then tried to clean his whiskers on the picnic table. The gravity feeder we bought recently also works but it is so small the bluejays don't fit. Need to get the big one.

Trying our best...soylent green

The whole fam has embraced eating less red meat, despite only one of us actually identifying as vegetarian. I found a line of products (fake meat) that are slightly healthier choices than IMPOSSIBLE and BEYOND. They are so delicious and 97% believable because of the high amounts of fat and sodium. So...we tried ABBOT's chick'n today in a "chicken salad" ciabatta for lunch.

Not bad, from frozen to food in ten minutes, believable shaped chunks that browned up nicely. This would be good in rice bowls, tacos/burritos etc...discusssion of how to bread it ensued. 8/10.