The Median Sib

Front of the house - Doesn’t it look inviting?

The Floor Plan - my favorite part

I’m so excited! I re-found my all-time favorite house plan. It isn’t a log house, but I love it so much, it doesn’t matter. I wonder if a log exterior could be put on it? Since it was designed to be a brick home, it probably would be better to stick with that - don’t want to mess with something I like so much. And it’s
not huge — a little under 2000 sq. ft. It has everything I want - an open living area that is conducive for entertaining, a great master bedroom suite, front porch, covered back porch, and a layout that isn’t all boxy. I would make some changes. I want a real fireplace rather than ventless gas fireplace. I also don’t have a need for a “summer kitchen” on the back porch. Cooking over a stove outside in the summer doesn’t sound very appealing. A gas grill is all I need for outdoor summer cooking. I’m not a big fan of hot tubs, either. By not having the hot tub on the back porch, it’ll provide that much more room for things such as a hammock or a recliner.

I found a 5-acre lot for sale today that looks like a possibility. I have an appointment to walk around it tomorrow. It doesn’t have any trees to speak of, but Joey has a landscape business. So I figure he’ll take care of that.

A back view of the house

I forgot to mention that when I visited Tims Ford State Park yesterday, there was one very noticeable addition to many of the campsites. Some people had brought a satellite dish that they set up on a portable stand. During our stroll around the camp area, we saw one family with four children. All four kids were sitting on a bench mesmerized by the TV that was on the picnic table. It was still daylight, it was a beautiful day, there was a playground within sight, but they were sitting there like zombies watching a TV show. What’s the use of going out to enjoy nature via camping if you’re going to bring a satellite dish and watch tv while you’re there? Don’t get me wrong. At home I have a satellite dish, along with TiVo (a truly great invention!), but I don’t want a TV with me when I go camping. Reading by lantern-light, hiking, napping in a camp chair with the breeze keeping me cool, watching the campfire, simply thinking. That’s what I plan to do when I go camping.

Changing topics briefly - I saw another family who was cooking dinner on a green Coleman stove — very similar to what I remember my parents using on our camping trips when I was a kid. It made me feel rather nostalgic.

A few weeks ago in the grocery store I saw some heat ‘n serve containers of “rice bowl” dishes. It seemed like a good way to have a quick lunch at school, and so I bought two of them - teriyaki chicken and sweet and sour chicken. Not good. Bland, very little besides rice in it, and the sauce was yukky sweet. Worse, I couldn’t positively identify a single piece of chicken. Maybe they used chicken broth. Who knows? I liked the idea of a rice bowl lunch, though. Thus my project for today is to come up with my own rice bowl recipes to make and freeze. Hopefully by the end of the morning I’ll have 8-10 containers in my freezer. Then I can grab one on my way to work and have a home-cooked meal that tastes much better than the commercially prepared ones and is much cheaper, too. I’ll report back if my recipes turn out well.
Later Note: Yum Yum! Here’s what I did. I cooked 2 cups of brown rice. Then set that aside. In another pan with a little extra virgin olive oil, I sauteed about 2 pounds of boneless chicken cut into tiny pieces, along with diced onions, diced red and green peppers, and shredded carrots. Then I added soy sauce, stir fry sauce, and teriyaki sauce. I measured nothing except the rice. Then I mixed a little water with some corn starch to thicken up the sauce and added that to the chicken mixture. I let that simmer awhile. Then in my individual containers, I spooned some rice, topped it with the chicken & sauce, and then I added a little chicken stock to each container so it won’t be too dry when I re-heat it later. Voila! Six containers for lunch, and a large container for when I need a quick meal for two or three.