The Little Round Table: Mellow Yellow Monday

Showing posts with label Mellow Yellow Monday. Show all posts

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Afternoon Delight

More first roses of the season.

The elegance of a vintage bud vase.

Thanks for stopping by again today.

I'm joining:

Mellow Yellow Monday

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Beware of Falling Cows

I think I'll be acquiring one of these cautionary signs very soon.

Who knew living in the country could be so dangerous.

A little background.

It is Spring and the local raccoon population is very active.

After losing $40 of koi food to the raccoons last fall, I now keep the

food tubs close to the house and in raccoon proof containers.

Friday night I heard the clever creatures on the patio and sure enough

they were attempting to open the vaults to the bird seed and fish food.

Lights on, loud noises, stomping feet, it's easy enough to scare them away.

This went on throughout the evening hours and then all was quiet.

Mr. TLRT went to bed and I settled in for some repair work on TLRT after the

recent disruption in Blogger service. Loud noises from outside, lots of scuffling and crashing. Lights on, doors opened ..... nothing. Hmmmm. Lights off, settle in again. This was repeated several times and finally all was quiet.

Within minutes, very loud noises, lots of crashing sounds ..... maybe they are in the garbage cans? ALL the outside lights on surrounding the house and 1 acre garden. Now I am truly becoming annoyed. Nothing.

And then I got scared. Crashing metal, the dogs next door are going crazy, loud

scary hissing noises. All the doors are now closed and locked, all the lights are on, my mind is weaving all kinds of horror movie scenarios, and then it became very quiet. Not a sound, not a breath of air, nothing.

I admit to my mind whirling into an irrational series of "what was that?" speculations. I sure wasn't going to go outside and investigate! The electric meter whirred happily at the unexpected surge of usage over the next few hours as I tried to calm my nerves. Mountain lion? Wild pigs? Aliens?

Morning brought a simple explanation.

There is was a lean-to shed outside the back garden wall that houses the tractor, mower, garden cart etc. Silly cow either fell or jumped onto the roof of the shed from the hillside. Actually I think the raccoons probably pushed the cow over the edge! Cows, sheet metal and tractors aren't a good combination in all circumstances. How the thing extricated itself from the debris will always be a mystery.

A little bit of blood from a cut foot, poor cow. :(

A demolished shed, with 2 inch steel pipes bent like twigs.

A tractor with a crushed hood, broken seat, and a snapped in half hydraulic line.

Was this the culprit? We probably will never know.

The little orange tractor will be fine after some repairs.

The racoons were back again last night, leaving their muddy footprints all over the food tubs. I do love living in the country, except for the falling cows.

I'm joining:

Mellow Yellow Monday

Saturday, February 26, 2011

A Chicken In Every Pot

Suggestive of general welfare or prosperity

First stated by Henry IV of France as,

"I want there to be no peasant in my realm so poor that
he will not have a chicken in his pot every Sunday."

"A chicken in every pot" is a quotation that is perhaps one of the most mis-assigned in American political history. Variously attributed to each of four presidents serving between 1920 and 1936, it is most often associated with Herbert Hoover. Although Hoover never uttered the phrase, the Republican Party did use it in a 1928 campaign advertisement touting a period of "Republican prosperity" that had provided a "chicken in every pot.

And a car in every backyard to boot."

The link between Hoover and the phrase "a chicken in every pot" can be traced to a paid advertisement which apparently originated with the Republican National Committee, who inserted it into a number of newspapers during the 1928 campaign. The ad described in detail how the Republican administrations of Harding and Coolidge had "reduced hours and increased earning capacity, silenced discontent, put the proverbial 'chicken in every pot.' And a car in every backyard, to boot." The ad concluded that a vote for Hoover would be a vote for continued prosperity.

America invented industrial poultry production, but a century ago in the United States, chickens were more prized as showpieces than dinner table centerpieces. Chickens, like many fancy pigeon breeds of today, were bred more for exhibition than consumption. Only around 1910 did raising these birds for eggs supersede raising them for show. When Herbert Hoover promised “a chicken in every pot” in 1928, America’s entire annual per-capita consumption could fit in a pot. Americans were eating an average of only a half-pound of chicken a year. By 1945, the figure stood at five pounds per year. The radical change happened after World War II. Current chicken consumption is around 90 pounds a year, over half a bird a week. Chicken used to be more expensive than steak or lobster in the United States; poultry may now be cheaper than the potatoes with which it’s served.

This vintage tablecloth depicts various pots and pans and other small
kitchen appliances in a homey colorway that says, "warm and cozy" to me.
Both contemporary and vintage pieces are included
for the perfect chicken dinner to be served on The Little Round Table.
Details at the end of this post.