PINNING- AM I THE ONLY ONE?

Those who know me know that I usually am all over any new social media that pops up.

I love to use different gadgets on my site and can actually understand the html code. I love to help other bloggers with their questions and problems with their blogs.
There is one area where I feel completely in the dark and that is Pinterest.

I have an account but I don’t know what to do with it. I have looked up some pictures on topics that interest me and they have been great.

I follow some people and some follow me although I have no idea why they would since I really haven’t done anything on there to follow.

I think I need to figure this whole thing out especially because in that big heart that you see on my sidebar Pinterest is one of the choices for you to use.

For bloggers when you Pin an image from your site the Pin will link back to your site no matter how many times someone re-pins it. When I tried this no image showed up. That may be because I have code on my blog that stops people from doing copy & paste of my work/pictures. Will have to look into this one further because I recently heard from a well known blogger who said the traffic to her site from Pinterest is amazing.
There is code you can add to your blog so that your images cannot be pinned. This can be very important to maintain some control of your images etc. although where there is a will there is a way to copy our work.
If someone likes what you have put up they can “re-pin” it and the source code from your site will follow it. Hmmmm that is good right?

Now I see that you can’t pin anything from the button on my blog but if you have the Pin it button on your toolbar for your Internet Browser. It grabs many photos from the page you are on and you get to decide what to show.
If any of you know what I am doing wrong let me know and I will see if I can fix it. Kind of silly not to be able to Pin right from the post even though I have added the code to my template.

 

 

UPDATE: TYPICAL B.C. INGENUITY, MARIJUANA GROW OPS

UPDATE: THE PERSON WHO KEPT THESE BEARS AND HAD THE GROW OP HAS BEEN FINED $6,000.

 

It is a well known fact that in British Columbia we grow a lot of marijuana. It is known by many as BC Bud and is world renown for its potency and quality. 

Image by Stephen Dyrgas via Flickr

Try as they might the authorities are fighting a losing battle in trying to shut down all the grow ops. They are set up everywhere. They are in family neighbourhoods, they are in rural properties, they are in industrial parks. Some are buried underground in large semi trailers.. 
These grow ops are run by every level of society. Seniors, teens, families and organized crime. Some are for personal use but most are for profit and boy is there profit in it.
Well today on the news there was a story that really caught my eye. There was a rural property in B.C. about 350 kilometers outside of Vancouver that had about 1000 plants growing in a fenced off area. So what is different about this story? Well this grow op was being guarded. Well guarded and not by Pitt Bulls. No, no. In B.C. we have a lot of ingenuity. We march to our own wilderness drummer. This grow op was being guarded by about 10 black bears that had been habituated by the property owner who fed them and took care of them. My question is how much junk food does a  bear with the munchies eat? 

 DISCLAIMER: NOT A PICTURE OF AN ACTUAL GUARD BEAR. THIS BEAR HAS NO KNOWN CONNECTION TO THE MARIJUANA TRADE AND IS INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. 

IF A TREE FALLS IN THE FOREST….

There was a tree at our cabin. There was a tree at our cabin that was quite close to it. There was a tree at our cabin that was about 124 feet tall. There was a tree at our cabin that was upright.

WAS!!!!!

There was also a bit of rot and a bit of a wind a week or so ago. The tree is no longer upright.

It fell down without hitting the cabin, shed, boat, or much of anything except a fence at the end of the property. We were very lucky. The rhubarb had to go when they pulled out the stump but it wasn’t very good anyway.


We got some good firewood out of it though.
And when you live with Fred Flintstone you need lots of firewood. Quite the benches my BB Guy made eh? That fire pit is about 5 feet across.

MORE LUNCH IN A JAR

I have a different salad in a jar for this week. You can read my original post here.

I have cooked up some Quinoa (keen-wah)grains for my salad. Quinoa is an ancient grain that is a complete protein and has a very low glycemic rate. It is very good for us and curbs your hunger for a long time.

It doesn’t have a lot of flavor so you need to jazz it up a little with your favorite herbs, spices etc. I toasted mine in a tiny bit of butter first then cooked it with garlic and a dash of salt. This week I used grapes and strawberries as well. I love fruit with feta so that is the white you see in the jar. My usual dressing is EVOO and balsamic vinegar.

 
So have you tried this yet? It is so awesome to grab a healthy lunch right out of the fridge ready to go. Let’s hear your own “recipe” for a jarred salad.

ME EITHER

A STORY OF MY MOM

This was written some time ago but I am reposting it for Mother's Day.
_____________________________________


This is a story about my mom. Although parts of this story may seem sad it is actually isn't. I learned a lot from my mom. She died when I was 25, before my kids were born. She had always had a pretty rough life and seemed beaten down a good portion of the time. We will go back to the year 1969, Christmas time. I was 13.


One of my sisters and my brother chipped in their money to send my mom and me from British Columbia back to Ontario to visit our eldest sister who lived there with her husband and kids. They didn't have enough money for a plane so we were traveling by train. They also didn't have enough money for a berth so we were going to sleep in our seats. For 3 nights. 
The food at the diner counter was pretty rough looking. The only thing they had that seemed decent was some pea soup. Breakfast, pea soup. Lunch, pea soup. Dinner, pea soup. My mother finally had enough of this but had such a tight budget I didn't know what she could do. 

image courtesy of J E Matheson

She brought me through the train cars, past the luncheon counter further and further until we got to the dining car. Train travel back in those days, when you had the money was very elegant. The tables were set in a fashion that would give Bill or Susan a run for their money on Tablescape Thursday for sure. 
She hustled me over to one of the beautifully set tables. The table was set with icy cold water filled crystal glasses, crystal dishes filled with olives and celery and other tidbits to nibble on. White linen napkins starched into perfect folds.  A silver basket lined with a white napkin held some yeasty warm breads and the butter pats were close by molded into shells on their silver plates.


"Quickly" she said. "have some bread and butter" She tore some bread and managed to get the crumbs on the tablecloth. On purpose. 
"Have some olives and celery" she said while drinking from the crystal glass. 
Slowly down the aisle way came the conductor. He was chatting with the patrons. I ate some olives. Closer he comes, I drink some water. Finally he reaches our table. He asks my mother to see her ticket expecting (or not) to see a first class ticket which would entitle us to be in the elegant dining car. 
She hands him our tickets and he says, of course, that we are not supposed to be in the dining car.
 
Really? she asks. Oh my I didn't realize that. The conductor eyes the table in front of us. They would have to completely redo the table if we left. He decided that we could stay and we ordered our dinner. I think the only thing I recognized on the menu was a steak so that is what I had. I don't remember what my mother had but she enjoyed every bite of it.


Well this story almost has a happy ending. Remember this was the first solid food I had eaten in a couple of days. The train was shaking back and forth. I could feel it slowly coming back up and I excused myself quickly from the table. I raced out of the dining car and into the first bathroom I could find. I threw up my entire dinner as the train jolted me from side to side. It was a colossal mess and I took off back to our car as fast as I could. I was so embarrassed. 
The next morning I went to get some pea soup from the luncheonette and they were all out.

(I have also posted this on my other site:Stories of My Ancestors)

THIS JUST MAY BE A PERFECT DAY.

This is it. This is what I think is going to be a perfect day for me.

For starters it is Friday and I have a huge love affair going on with Fridays. My BB Guy knows about us and he really doesn’t mind a bit.

I also have the day off work. Made the 4 X 10 shifts I worked all week so worth it.

IT IS SO SUNNY HERE. BLUE SKIES!!

BB Guy will come home a little early from work today and we are going to a riverfront pub for dinner. Can’t stay to watch the sun go down though because…..

We have tickets to see BB King tonight. We will be riding with the King.

(it just occurred to me that my BB Guy and BB King have almost the same name.)

I am so excited. We saw him several years ago and loved the show. This is something we didn’t want to miss.

Oh how I love Fridays.

THE TEST RESULTS ARE IN

I have my test results in for the jarred salads I took to work all week. Read that post here.

I had 4 jars ready in the fridge and the lids were kept on. There was some discussion about it needing to breathe in the fridge but there were no problems with wilting at all.

The ingredients stayed fresh and crisp. I look forward to changing them up with different ingredients but one thing I don’t think would be a good idea is using any meat products in there. If you want your boneless chicken or some tuna please keep it in a separate container as I think there is too much of a risk of spoilage with those products.

Let me know if you try this and what layers you came up with.