Last of the Cedars Downed

Upon moving in, the cedar trees numbered 11. Arborgeddon (in 2023) wiped out maybe five. The last cedar became weakened maybe a year later; it could fall and harm or worse in a bad moment. Got it cut and removed mid-September. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Revisiting Lemon Poppyseed Mini-cupcakes

 

My first batch of lemon poppyseed mini-cupcakes was in June 2012. Coincidentally, I used the same lemon cake brand and poppyseeds. This time, I tried using silicone pans with square wells. I also enriched the recipe with an extra egg and used milk instead of water. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Betty Crocker Butter Pecan Cake Mix Cookies, MImicking La Moderna Marianita Cookies

It'd been awhile since I'd baked cookies using cake mix. Betty Crocker caught my eye with the Butter Pecan cake flavor. The sale price of $1 was compelling. I tried to duplicate La Moderna Marianita pecan flavor cookies, cheap at about 68 cents for a roll of 28 cookies (6.5 ounces). Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Get the Most Out of Shampoo/Lotion Bottles, Etc.

Got frugality inclinations? How about extracting the last of shampoos and lotions near the bottom of their bottles? How about some ideas and suggestions? Read the entire article and comment there, please.

See Dere Cedar Stumps, Plus One, Sizing Up

 

This topic is a followup to March's "See Dere Cedar Stumps" (article, video). ... During a recent backyard weed-pull session, I saw that I overlooked yet another cedar stump. I took a new set of pix. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

April 8 2024 Total Solar Eclipse (44-sec capture)

Why only 44 seconds instead of reported totality of 2 minutes and 35 seconds? Clouds interfered with and distorted the capture, eventually totally obscuring the corona after ~43 seconds. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

See Dere Cedar Stumps

 

While recently pulling out spring weeds, I noticed some of the cedar stumps didn't have round, smooth perimeters as I'd expect. Turns out that all nine stumps looked different from typical cylindrical tree trunks of live oak and Spanish oaks. Read the entire article and comment there, please.