Happy Fourth of July!

Good morning, my friends! And to my American friends, Happy Fourth of July! We'll be spending our Fourth here at home...doing the usual things. We're both having our morning coffee and catching up with anything that happened overnight. After that, we're going to get outside and put up a little border fence on the untamed side of the bee garden. It'll be better explained with pictures after we have it done, and so I'll say more about that in tomorrow's post.

My day kind of went off the rails yesterday when I mentioned the border fence to Mike. He had some things to do in town, and the border fence required a trip to Home Depot. I was able to finish off the 24th Tiny House.

There was no kitty help for this. When we negotiated their last union contract, they gained a four-day holiday for the Fourth of July. This is how Smitty spent his day off.

Sadie joined him in solidarity.

I'd planned to do more sewing after finishing the Tiny House, but ended up riding along with Mike. The border fencing was my idea, and so my presence was required at Home Depot. When we got back, it seemed too warm to be doing any garden work. We ended up sitting on the patio. The kitties brought their lazy bods out with us and cooled their tummy furs on the concrete.

They both refused to look at the camera. It was another benefit they negotiated in their contract. No photography and no autographs on their day off.

I'd postponed my baking project while we went into town, and so I finished it off late in the day. With fresh blueberries in the refrigerator, I wanted to try this recipe for Breakfast Blueberry-Oatmeal Cakes. When they went into the oven, they looked like this:

Coming out of the oven, they looked like this.

I needed to let them rest for ten minutes, and then I used a plastic knife to remove them. They were a little hard to get out of the pan. Every spot where a blueberry touched metal, they stuck. I was able to remove them all in one piece, however. In the future, I'd probably use paper muffin cups for these. They aren't like a muffin, though. They're more like a little cake. They're made from old-fashioned oats, soaked in milk for 8-10 hours. After that, just some egg, flavorings, and maple syrup were added. No flour and no sugar. We each had one before dinner, and they were sort of meh. This morning, though, we warmed up a couple to have with our coffee, and they were much better. They're easy enough to make. If a little snack with your morning coffee sounds good, then give them a try. The recipe suggests freezing them, and then treating them like a grab-and-go breakfast. For that, they would be excellent.

Lately a pair of red-tailed hawks has been visiting our place around dinner time. I suppose it's dinner time for them too. My wildlife photographer friend, Carol from Colorado, encouraged us to look for a nest. I'll probably go out with some binoculars today and see if I can spot it. Our hill is fairly heavily wooded, but our place has a large open field. I'm sure they're finding some tasty furry morsels out there, which is why they are circling around our place. I was able to catch one of them when it landed in one of the fir trees.

Later, I caught them side by side.

Okay, so today we'll get out early and erect our little border fence. Before and after pictures to follow. Also, our neighbor has ripe pie cherries on their tree, and they invited us down to pick today. I'm wanting to try making some tart cherry jam with them. If there are enough, I'll probably make some cherry pie filling too. Either way, I believe I may be getting ready for the first canning of the season.

So, the day is already shaping up to be a busy one. I need to bake a cherry crisp for our dinner tonight. Our born-on-the-Fourth-of-July friend is joining us for a simple dinner of steaks and baked potatoes. He's bringing a salad too. It should be a nice evening. I hope y'all have a nice evening planned for yourselves. Happy Fourth, everybody. Stay sane and stay safe out there today.