To be clear this is not a blog about cooking or eating squirrel. While I understand it can be done in a tasty manner it is not something I have yet experienced nor do I intend to catch and cook one myself. Although I do know someone who accidentally discovered that catching a squirrel using peanut butter can lead to squirrel asphyxiation and they are now collecting a number of peanut butter killed squirrels in their freezer for some yet to be determined purpose. Seriously. Instead this post is more about the relationship with squirrels when you have bird feeders and gardens.
In general there seems to be three types of relationships: constant war, resigned acceptance, and loving encouragement. The relationship can transition from status to status so I am not sure if these really are true relationships or just phases like the five phases of grief.
When we were new home owners with our very first yard and the opportunity to finally have bird feeders we started somewhere between war and resigned acceptance. We tried greasing the hooks on which our bird feeders hung but were not in a location where we could hang feeders out of reach of tree limbs so the squirrels either slid down the hangers or simply reached out and pulled the feeder to them. We would bang on the window and run out on the deck yelling only to watch the squirrels return as soon as we came back inside. After a while they simply looked at us with “what you gonna do” looks on their punk little faces.
Then my in-laws gave us a twirl-a-squirrel. It is a device that when the weight on the feeder exceeds a certain level it starts making an alarm noise and spins. It spins in one direction for almost two minutes then reverses and repeats for what ends up being a very wild ride for squirrels. With this device I actually began encouraging the squirrels to get on the feeder simply to watch their skill levels. Squirrel starts with all four paws clinging, then as the rotational force increases suddenly one paw lets go, then another, and so on. I have seen squirrels clinging with two paws on one side, clinging with just front paws and my favorite, desperately hanging on with back paws. Even better is when it stops and the ones who have managed to hold on are then tortured by Brad. He waits till it stops and then yells and runs at them. They are so dizzy you can see their heads wobble as they try to figure out how to run up a tree to get away from the deranged home owner. So this device actually kept the squirrels from knocking down the feeder or eating significant amounts of bird seed.
Well, by this point I felt bad for the squirrels and actually got them their own feeder. It was one of those that attaches to the side of the tree and they have their own perch and can open and close the lid to access the food inside. We had fun with this, too. More than once when going to refill this feeder right as I reached for the lid out would pop a squirrel who had decided to nap inside the bin after gorging. And then there were the really creepy encounters where we would hear a constant banging noise and look out the window to see a squirrel repeatedly opening and closing the lid of the empty feeder while staring menacingly at the house. Pretty sure he was the same one that gave us the “what you gonna do” looks.
So I guess we had actually transitioned to somewhere between resigned acceptance and loving encouragement. We even started naming squirrels for a while based on looks or personality: Patches, No Ears, Psycho Punk, Harold…
All this changed again when we started our first vegetable garden. I had anxiously awaited our very first homegrown vine ripe tomatoes. I picked the very first one so excited to see we had three more that would be perfect in another day’s time. That next day I went to harvest my perfectly grown tomatoes and all three had bites taken out of them! Same thing happened to the very first roma tomato that ripened and I had had enough. It was back to war with the squirrels.
Numerous tips were provided on how to handle the situation. Pellet and BB guns, setting my in-door only cats upon them, using red pepper on everything, and consulting with the animal trapper guru were all suggested ideas. Recall the peanut butter asphyxiated frozen squirrels? I decided I would have to take a more humane approach; after all we had named the darn rodents. So I finally strung a clothes line across the top of my raised bed garden and draped bird netting over it. I then “secured” the netting to the ground with large rocks and tucked the ends of the netting inside itself. I then poured a 3 inch wide border of “critter ridder”, which turned out to be a very expensive bottle of black and red pepper (should have read ingredients and just bought dry pepper in bulk), around the base of the raised bed.
And then I waited. I waited anxiously because worse than the squirrels tasting my tomatoes would be finding some poor critter trapped inside the netting that would end up in traumatizing both the animal and me and likely put me off doing any future gardens. So I awaited and checked the garden every day. No trapped critters and rapidly ripening tomatoes was all I found. Finally, I harvested one, then two more roma tomatoes. I think I may have beaten them for now but until I have harvested more than the squirrels ruined I cannot count this as victory. Time will tell.
Now does anyone have ideas on how to prepare peanut butter stuffed frozen squirrel?
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Sunday, July 22, 2012
One Night in Bangkok - 2005
I compiled this blog about Thailand from records of emails sent to family during my travels.
I visited Bangkok in November of 2005 as the midway point of a two week, multi-country trip (between stops in Hong Kong and Vietnam). I regret that I have only been to Thailand once. Due to anti-government protests during the timing of my travel in Asia we have had to drop this designation from my list. That may change this coming fall. I also regret that my boss was sick for the two days we were there and since this was early on in my travels I was too timid to go exploring on my own.
We stayed at the Bangkok Peninsula and as always in tourist cities in Asia I recall being impressed with the staff and facilities. My room was a luxurious haven that overlooked the Chao Phraya River.
Bangkok from what I saw from the interstate drive to the hotel is a mix of very modern sky scrapers with old mosques and buildings nestled between them. The view from my room let me see that the river was busy with lots of boat taxis and barges would go by every so often.
For dinner we took a hotel taxi to my boss’s favorite eating spot using a business card for the restaurant as directions for the driver and let’s just say I was so glad to be with a male coworker I trusted on that ride. Exhilarating is a nice way to say scared silly. Not only do they drive crazy but there were people out everywhere and there was a big difference between the sights in town versus what I saw on the interstate on the way to the hotel. We barreled past people riding elephants. At one point the taxi was less than two feet from a baby elephant and then a short block ahead there was a full grown elephant toting things. There were vendors and open markets everywhere and lots and lots of traffic and people. I have since learned this is the norm in Asia and with few exceptions today am not phased by hurtling through masses of people and traffic with no apparent traffic laws being used.
The place we went to for dinner was called Ban Klang Nam Fodor's Link (at least the names in Thailand don’t all sound like bad words in English like they do in Vietnam). It was down a long, dark alley but thankfully the taxi drove all the way to the door. Our reservations were for a river side table right on the rail so we ate dinner just feet from the water and watched barges and boats go back and forth. The weather was perfect with a nice breeze, not very humid and thankfully no bugs. This is an open air seafood restaurant where pretty much every table has a good view of the river. Sort of like eating on a very large covered deck right over the water.
We ate crab fried rice, sautéed veggies in oyster sauce, shrimp pad Thai, spicy curry prawns, fried pork, scallops, and had mango for dessert. It was fantastic! I recall loving everything and being thrilled with getting to try a wide variety of dishes. Everything was so fresh tasting. Before this trip I had never tasted mango like it is really supposed to taste - RIPE. It had the texture of butter and was so sweet. Some of the better Asian places here in the U.S. do a good job of only serving mango when it is ripe but it is not the same as what you actually get when in Asia. Think of it as eating a tomato ripened in green house versus tomato ripened on the vine.
Ordering beer was an interesting experience since they had a different girl (dressed in short shorts and tank tops with the beer brand label on their tops) to represent each beer brand to come and pour the beer.
At the end of the meal we had the restaurant manager arrange for a water taxi for us and we paid 800 baht (around $20 at the time) for a water taxi ride back to the hotel. Normally you do not ride the river at night because it is too dangerous but with a private taxi we were safe. The water taxis have Toyota tundra engines attached to long metal poles as the power to run them so they go very fast. We scampered over the rail of the deck of the restaurant and walked across a small plank held in place by the water taxi driver. It was certainly an experience to remember.
I visited Bangkok in November of 2005 as the midway point of a two week, multi-country trip (between stops in Hong Kong and Vietnam). I regret that I have only been to Thailand once. Due to anti-government protests during the timing of my travel in Asia we have had to drop this designation from my list. That may change this coming fall. I also regret that my boss was sick for the two days we were there and since this was early on in my travels I was too timid to go exploring on my own.
We stayed at the Bangkok Peninsula and as always in tourist cities in Asia I recall being impressed with the staff and facilities. My room was a luxurious haven that overlooked the Chao Phraya River.
Bangkok from what I saw from the interstate drive to the hotel is a mix of very modern sky scrapers with old mosques and buildings nestled between them. The view from my room let me see that the river was busy with lots of boat taxis and barges would go by every so often.
For dinner we took a hotel taxi to my boss’s favorite eating spot using a business card for the restaurant as directions for the driver and let’s just say I was so glad to be with a male coworker I trusted on that ride. Exhilarating is a nice way to say scared silly. Not only do they drive crazy but there were people out everywhere and there was a big difference between the sights in town versus what I saw on the interstate on the way to the hotel. We barreled past people riding elephants. At one point the taxi was less than two feet from a baby elephant and then a short block ahead there was a full grown elephant toting things. There were vendors and open markets everywhere and lots and lots of traffic and people. I have since learned this is the norm in Asia and with few exceptions today am not phased by hurtling through masses of people and traffic with no apparent traffic laws being used.
The place we went to for dinner was called Ban Klang Nam Fodor's Link (at least the names in Thailand don’t all sound like bad words in English like they do in Vietnam). It was down a long, dark alley but thankfully the taxi drove all the way to the door. Our reservations were for a river side table right on the rail so we ate dinner just feet from the water and watched barges and boats go back and forth. The weather was perfect with a nice breeze, not very humid and thankfully no bugs. This is an open air seafood restaurant where pretty much every table has a good view of the river. Sort of like eating on a very large covered deck right over the water.
We ate crab fried rice, sautéed veggies in oyster sauce, shrimp pad Thai, spicy curry prawns, fried pork, scallops, and had mango for dessert. It was fantastic! I recall loving everything and being thrilled with getting to try a wide variety of dishes. Everything was so fresh tasting. Before this trip I had never tasted mango like it is really supposed to taste - RIPE. It had the texture of butter and was so sweet. Some of the better Asian places here in the U.S. do a good job of only serving mango when it is ripe but it is not the same as what you actually get when in Asia. Think of it as eating a tomato ripened in green house versus tomato ripened on the vine.
Ordering beer was an interesting experience since they had a different girl (dressed in short shorts and tank tops with the beer brand label on their tops) to represent each beer brand to come and pour the beer.
At the end of the meal we had the restaurant manager arrange for a water taxi for us and we paid 800 baht (around $20 at the time) for a water taxi ride back to the hotel. Normally you do not ride the river at night because it is too dangerous but with a private taxi we were safe. The water taxis have Toyota tundra engines attached to long metal poles as the power to run them so they go very fast. We scampered over the rail of the deck of the restaurant and walked across a small plank held in place by the water taxi driver. It was certainly an experience to remember.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Asheville Brews Cruise Adventure
Asheville Brews Cruise
First a note of caution: if you have never done a Brews Cruise it is nothing like visiting multiple wineries in a given day. We consumed way more alcohol doing this than we ever have doing wineries. The Brews Cruise coordinator comes around with pitchers of beer and will refill your cup so it isn’t like a normal walk-in tasting where there are reasonable limits to what is given to you. My tasting notes go from highly detailed information about the character of the beer to indecipherable nonsense.
The premise is that someone else does all the driving and gives you the inside scoop as to what is going on in brewpubs. The size of the group was about 12 people and we just barely fit into the van. Due to the amount of alcohol consumed we went from being strangers to being best friends to completely forgetting each other’s names in a period of about 4 hours.
First stop on our cruise was Highland Brewing Company. The coordinator of our Brew Cruise was quite surprised to find a major event taking place when we arrived. I was thrilled to see it was a class on fermentation hosted by NCSU. On the large screen I could see chemical reactions of carbohydrates and considered ditching the cruise to see the lecture but since it was the first stop I figured I better stick with the group. We had a really great tour of the place with extensive details on the process and a chance to talk to some of the guys working on fixing the bottling line. We tried:
Asheville Brewing Company (downtown location) was actually the meet up location for the cruise and then the final tasting stop. The downtown spot is a pizza/sandwich spot which serves their beers as well as others. We tasted:
First a note of caution: if you have never done a Brews Cruise it is nothing like visiting multiple wineries in a given day. We consumed way more alcohol doing this than we ever have doing wineries. The Brews Cruise coordinator comes around with pitchers of beer and will refill your cup so it isn’t like a normal walk-in tasting where there are reasonable limits to what is given to you. My tasting notes go from highly detailed information about the character of the beer to indecipherable nonsense.
The premise is that someone else does all the driving and gives you the inside scoop as to what is going on in brewpubs. The size of the group was about 12 people and we just barely fit into the van. Due to the amount of alcohol consumed we went from being strangers to being best friends to completely forgetting each other’s names in a period of about 4 hours.
 |
| Highlands Brewing Company |
- St. Terese’s Pale Ale – light and citrusy, very crisp and mildly bitter
- Gaelic Ale – everyone surely has had this beer
- Kashmir IPA – very light for IPA, British style with light hops
- Oatmeal Porter – light porter, good burnt caramel flavors
- Black Mocha Stout – great coffee flavor, not too much chocolate, nicely bitter
In addition to the above list tasted during the tour we also got one beer at the bar as part of the tour package. I am fairly sure Brad and I tried different things but I neglected to make a note of it.
 |
| Highlands Brewing Company |
French Broad Brewery was the next stop. Much smaller place compared to Highlands but we had a chance to actually talk with one of brewmasters, Drew Barton. We tasted:
- Gateway Kolsh – very light, not bad at all for a kolsh
- 13 Rebels ESB – floral, light and grassy
- IPA - American Style, very bitter, hoppy, grassy
- Weeheavy-er Scotch Style Ale – very smooth, sweet caramel flavors but 7%
Asheville Brewing Company (downtown location) was actually the meet up location for the cruise and then the final tasting stop. The downtown spot is a pizza/sandwich spot which serves their beers as well as others. We tasted:
- Shiva IPA – light and citrusy, very good
- Ninja Porter – very light, very good
And after that I am afraid things digressed. There was a pale ale but I do not know which one. I noted it was “not bad”. And then there was a jalapeno beer which we vividly recall as being absolutely horrible (was not Asheville Brewery beer).
The Brews Cruise was a lot of fun and was a great way to visit multiple breweries without the risk of drinking and driving. Just pace yourself and avoid accepting multiple pours of beer even if it does taste really good!
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Downtown Asheville Spring 2012
Finally, some highlights from our April trip to Downtown Asheville.
I turned in my American Airline Miles to pay for part of our stay at the Hotel Indigo. This is a really interesting hotel within easy walking distance of everything downtown. The mountain view rooms do have a fairly nice view but also look over the highway so we noticed some traffic noise one morning when it was rainy and rush hour was bad. The other side of the hotel looks over the edge of downtown so not as pretty but I think I might prefer that next trip. The hotel has its own parking deck which is a nice perk.
Once again, Barley's Taproom was one of our first stops. This bar was where Highland’s Brewery got started (in the basement) and has a wide selection of local beers. And their pizza is fantastic - so good we never manage to eat anything else when we visit. We shared the All American Pizza with sausage, onion, mushroom, green peppers, and pepperoni. I had the Catawba Valley Brown Beer, which was very good; Green Man Porter, which was like a really good mocha; but my favorite was the Fox Hill Spiced Mead mixed with Original Sin Cider. I tried the Traditional Mead (13%) and found it too be too heavy but did like the Spiced Mead which reminded me of Christmas seasonings. The bartender recommend having it mixed with the cider and I enjoyed it so much we came back to Barley’s numerous times during the trip so I could drink this wonderful concoction. Brad had the Catawba Valley Firewater IPA, which he did not like, and French Broad IPA which was a good “solid 7 out of 10” on his IPA likeability scale. He also had the Dark Horse Double Crooked Tree IPA, which turned out to be his favorite beer of the trip but at 12% he had to limit himself. This is what he chose to have on our repeated returns when I was enjoying my cider/mead.
One of the new to us places we tried for lunch was Lexington Avenue Brewery (LAB). We really liked this bar and think it would be nice to enjoy their "outside area" in pleasant weather. The menu really impressed me as it had interesting versions of bar fare. We split the Beef Sliders with bleu cheese, bacon and truffled frites as well as the Grilled Chicken and Brie sandwich with bacon, brie, ranch, and roasted red pepper jam on house-made focaccia. Both were extremely yummy! To drink I had the Chocolate Stout Nitro, which had a wonderful dark chocolate, bitter but creamy flavor; followed by American Ale Nitro, a pale ale that was hoppy and due to the nitrogen was tight and very creamy. Brad had the Black IPA and was very happy it was the pint special of the day so he stuck with it.
Jack of the Wood was a stopping point so we could continue to try more local beers. It is one of the places to drink Green Man beers, whose main brewery location was not open when we were available, so we stopped into this pub instead. I had the Green Man ESB which actually is not so bitter and I found to be quite nice. Brad had the Green Man IPA and said it was very good. And although we had had a good lunch Brad could not pass up ordering the Scotch Egg as a snack. I think this is one of the Cardinal Rules of pub visits – if they have Scotch Egg we must try it. It did not disappoint.
A funny moment of the trip was at this pub. When Brad was in the men’s room a gentleman came in and sat next to me at the bar. He turns to me and says “Well, HELLLLOOOO there”. Bartender walking by without breaking stride says “She brought her own Sausage”. Anyway, once Brad came back we ended up having a very fun chat with this interesting character.
The Lobster Trap (home of Oysterhouse Brewing Company) was where we ended up for dinner. We started with a dozen oysters on half shell and the fish dip. Brad drank the Oysterhouse IPA, very good, and I had the Oysterhouse Upside Down Brown, also very good. For entrée’s Brad had the special which was trout with pork belly served over lentils and I had the Blue Ridge Shrimp and Grits with side of Lobstah Macaroni and cheese. My food was good but just okay not must order again; however, Brad really liked his. Finally we tried the Espresso Stout but found it to be waxy, peppery, and very bitter so we were not fans.
Going to post next about our Brews Cruise adventures - stay tuned.
I turned in my American Airline Miles to pay for part of our stay at the Hotel Indigo. This is a really interesting hotel within easy walking distance of everything downtown. The mountain view rooms do have a fairly nice view but also look over the highway so we noticed some traffic noise one morning when it was rainy and rush hour was bad. The other side of the hotel looks over the edge of downtown so not as pretty but I think I might prefer that next trip. The hotel has its own parking deck which is a nice perk.
Once again, Barley's Taproom was one of our first stops. This bar was where Highland’s Brewery got started (in the basement) and has a wide selection of local beers. And their pizza is fantastic - so good we never manage to eat anything else when we visit. We shared the All American Pizza with sausage, onion, mushroom, green peppers, and pepperoni. I had the Catawba Valley Brown Beer, which was very good; Green Man Porter, which was like a really good mocha; but my favorite was the Fox Hill Spiced Mead mixed with Original Sin Cider. I tried the Traditional Mead (13%) and found it too be too heavy but did like the Spiced Mead which reminded me of Christmas seasonings. The bartender recommend having it mixed with the cider and I enjoyed it so much we came back to Barley’s numerous times during the trip so I could drink this wonderful concoction. Brad had the Catawba Valley Firewater IPA, which he did not like, and French Broad IPA which was a good “solid 7 out of 10” on his IPA likeability scale. He also had the Dark Horse Double Crooked Tree IPA, which turned out to be his favorite beer of the trip but at 12% he had to limit himself. This is what he chose to have on our repeated returns when I was enjoying my cider/mead.
One of the new to us places we tried for lunch was Lexington Avenue Brewery (LAB). We really liked this bar and think it would be nice to enjoy their "outside area" in pleasant weather. The menu really impressed me as it had interesting versions of bar fare. We split the Beef Sliders with bleu cheese, bacon and truffled frites as well as the Grilled Chicken and Brie sandwich with bacon, brie, ranch, and roasted red pepper jam on house-made focaccia. Both were extremely yummy! To drink I had the Chocolate Stout Nitro, which had a wonderful dark chocolate, bitter but creamy flavor; followed by American Ale Nitro, a pale ale that was hoppy and due to the nitrogen was tight and very creamy. Brad had the Black IPA and was very happy it was the pint special of the day so he stuck with it.
Jack of the Wood was a stopping point so we could continue to try more local beers. It is one of the places to drink Green Man beers, whose main brewery location was not open when we were available, so we stopped into this pub instead. I had the Green Man ESB which actually is not so bitter and I found to be quite nice. Brad had the Green Man IPA and said it was very good. And although we had had a good lunch Brad could not pass up ordering the Scotch Egg as a snack. I think this is one of the Cardinal Rules of pub visits – if they have Scotch Egg we must try it. It did not disappoint.
A funny moment of the trip was at this pub. When Brad was in the men’s room a gentleman came in and sat next to me at the bar. He turns to me and says “Well, HELLLLOOOO there”. Bartender walking by without breaking stride says “She brought her own Sausage”. Anyway, once Brad came back we ended up having a very fun chat with this interesting character.
The Lobster Trap (home of Oysterhouse Brewing Company) was where we ended up for dinner. We started with a dozen oysters on half shell and the fish dip. Brad drank the Oysterhouse IPA, very good, and I had the Oysterhouse Upside Down Brown, also very good. For entrée’s Brad had the special which was trout with pork belly served over lentils and I had the Blue Ridge Shrimp and Grits with side of Lobstah Macaroni and cheese. My food was good but just okay not must order again; however, Brad really liked his. Finally we tried the Espresso Stout but found it to be waxy, peppery, and very bitter so we were not fans.
Going to post next about our Brews Cruise adventures - stay tuned.
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