Biking & Kayaking This Week

Dan was on vacation this week - but not a family vacation type week..  we had football and school work, band practice, and even farm work to accomplish this week.  Dan fixed the pond bank out back, built a new goat shelter, repaired some fences...

Mixed in with that work, we took a day to bike part of the Pine Creek Rail Trail

and kayak from Montgomery to Watsontown, where we spotted a golden eagle on the railroad bridge.

The details of both trips, with lots more pics, can be found here:

It was a great week- with a busy week-end ahead!  Next week will be a bit of a struggle to catch back up on everything I pushed aside this week..  but it was worth it.  :-)



salted caramel butter bars


I made these for coffee connection at our church, and so many people asked for the recipe that I posted it on facebook.  Just now moving it over here where it is easier for me to find it when I'm looking for it next time.  :-)

Salted Caramel Butter Bars

For the Crust:
1 lb. salted butter room temp
1 cup sugar
1½ cups powdered sugar

2 Tbs vanilla 
4 cups flour

For the Filling:
1 bag (14 oz.) caramel candies (about 50 individual caramels), unwrapped
⅓ cup milk or cream
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 T. coarse sea salt (optional)
To make the crust:
In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugars. Using mixer on medium speed, beat together until creamy. Add the vanilla and beat until combined. Sift the flour into the butter mixture and beat on low speed until a smooth soft dough forms.
Spray a 9x13 inch baking pan lightly with non-stick cooking spray. Press one-third of the dough evenly into the pan to form a bottom crust. 

Preheat to 325F. 
Bake until firm and the edges are a pale golden brown approx 20 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool about 15 minutes.
While the bottom crust is baking and the remaining dough is chilling, make the caramel filling. Place the unwrapped caramels in a microwave-safe bowl. Add the cream. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Remove from the microwave and stir until smooth. If caramels are not completely melted, microwave on high for 30-second intervals, stirring after each interval, until smooth.
Pour the caramel filling over the crust.  If you are going to salt the caramel sprinkle it on caramel layer now. 

Remove the remaining chilled dough from the refrigerator and crumble it evenly over the caramel.

Keeping Finn Company...

or trying to steal his pillow, I'm not really sure which.  :-)

Last week Finn had emergency surgery to remove his eye.  He's around 10 years old, as near as the vet can tell, and both of his eyes have (had) severe cataracts.  One of his popped out last week.  I admit, I was hyperventilating pretty good.  There was severe clotting behind his eye, and it could not be saved.

Because his remaining eye also has a severe cataract, he is mostly blind.  We think he can see some light and shadows, but he has been running into things the past few weeks.  It's much worse right now with the cone on, I think the cone gets in his way, and hope that when he gets it off next week it will be easier for him.

Poor guy.  Dan hopes Daisy will become a sort of seeing eye dog for him...  but I'm not sure.  Right now she just seems confused.


Booking Through Thursdays - QUICK!

btt button

"Quick–what are you reading right now? (Other than this question on
this website, of course.) Would you recommend it? What’s it about?"


Most currently would be Sweet Revenge by Diane Mott Davidson.  My favorite cozy mystery series, I'm catching up on the ones I had missed, and yes, I would definitely recommend them!  This is not my favorite in the series, but it's still a nice, cozy, read.

I'm also avidly reading A Year In The Life Of William Shakespeare in 1599.  So far I love this book - but it's an actual BOOK, not an ebook, so I don't have it with me as often, and it is not exactly light reading, so it will take me awhile.

The other books on this list?  I WILL finish Walden.  But with so many other fun things to read, I forget about this one.  And I've misplaced Retracing Our Roots and No Longer a Slumdog.  They are both on bookshelves around here somewhere, I cleaned thoroughly last month and I am sure I put them away...  I need to dig them off the shelves and finish them!

Summer Reading 2012

It's hard for me to define "Summer".  Technically it is June 21st (roughly) to September 21st (roughly).  For some it is from Memorial Day to Labor Day.  For others it is from the last day of school to the first day of the next school year.

For this summer, I am going to define "Summer" as the day after Memorial Day, to September 15th, because that is today, the first chance I've had to look over what I read this summer.  :-) 

my read shelf:
Heather Truckenmiller's book recommendations, liked quotes, book clubs, book trivia, book lists (read shelf)


Books I Read This Summer
(38 total)

My Favorites This Summer (4-5 Stars)
  1. Lady Bug Farm Series (3 books) by Donna Ball.   Perfect light summer reading!
  2. Born to Run - Nonfiction, and one of the best books I have read this year.  It's not dry at all, extremely interesting
  3. The Dirty Life  - by Kristen Kimball - definitely one of my best reads this summer.  (think Farm dirt, not shades of grey dirt..  And no, I did not read Shades of Grey this summer. )
  4. Only Time Will Tell -1st in the Clifton Chronicles series by Jeffery Archer
  5. I, Michael Bennet by Patterson.  My favorite Patterson series, but not my favorite book in this series.  It was really good though!
  6. The 7th Month by Lisa Gardner  - I'm really enjoying the DD warren series by Gardner
  7. Come & Find Me by Hallie Ephron
  8. Never Tell a Lie by Hallie Ephron - new to me author, but I enjoyed both these books enough to watch for more by her
  9. Whose Body by Dorothy Sayers  - my first time reading Sayers, and I will definitely downlod more by her!
  10. The Devil & Sherlock Holmes  - Short stories, some were better than others
  11. Amazing Grace In the Life Of William Wilberforce - great story!
  12. 11th Hour (Womens Murder Club #11) - love this series
  13. Under The Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes
  14. Heather Wells series by Meg Cabot  (4 books) - my guilty pleasure read this summer.  Light, silly, but I enjoyed them
  15. The Mysterious Affair At Styles - Agatha Christie.  The First Poirot book - I eventually plan to read this entire series.  :-)
  16. Tigers in Red Weather - a book I thought I would not like a few chapters in, yet ended up really enjoying.  Not my normal read, and a lot that bothered me, but it was interesting and made me think, but not think to deeply.  A really good summer read.
  17. Tough Cookie by Dianne Mott Davidson  I read most of this series years ago, and just recently realized I haven't read the last few by her. Cozy mysteries, one of my favorites.  I'm really looking forward to catching up on the books I have missed!


Good Reads (3 stars)

  1. 2BRo2B by Vonnegut - My first sci fi read, and I really did enjoy this one.
  2. XO - Kathryn Dance series by Deaver, I prefer the Lincoln Rhyme series, but this was good.
  3. Blindside by Cathrine Coulter - I liked this enough to look by more from her.  I don't think she will be a favorite author, but I did enjoy this one.
  4. The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks (Sparks is always a great summer read)
  5. Living In The Light Of Eternity - Yohannan (Christian Living)
  6. Snatched  - A novella.  I don't remember liking this quite as much as 3 stars...
  7. Never Look Away - would have been much better if it was much shorter.  Drug on too long.
  8. Stately Pursuits - Katie Fforde.  This is on the lower end of 3 stars for me..  it wasn't good enough for me to want to read anything else by her, but I think that's more of a genre thing for me.  I'm not a huge fan of love stories
  9. Bones Are Forever by Kathy Reichs.  I like this series (the series that the tv show Bones is based on) but they are kind of technical and dry in places. Still a good book.


Books I Did Not Enjoy (2 stars  or less)
  1. Come Home by Lisa Scottoline The second of her books that I got sucked into..  she has great plot lines, but her books are a lot of tedious, stiff, dialogue, making them not so great to read.
  2. Wild (Life On the Pacific Trail) - when will  I learn to never read anything Oprah recommends?
  3. Wicked Business - Book 2 in the Diesel series by Evanovich.  I normally love her (non romance series) books, but just didn't care for this one
  4. Snowhite & The Huntsman  - book written based on the movie. Bad idea
  5. Gone Girl  - one of the worst I read this summer
  6. Summerland - looked like an idea summer read, but it just wasn't good.
  7. Here's to Not Catching Our Hair On Fire - probably the worst book I will read all year.  Along with Oprahs suggestions, I also rarely like the free books through Amazon.. 



Top 10 Tuesday - Books That Made You Think

This weeks Top Ten Tuesday Theme is:
Books That Made You Think


A book about the beginnings of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture - you buy a "share" of the farm or gardens produce for the year) and the difficulties of farming in general. 
Think: Buy Fresh, Buy Local. 
My Take Away: I'm so lazy - I could do so much more with our farm!  


Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
2. Born To Run by Christopher McDougall
I've struggled so much with running over the years, yet it is something I really want to do well.  Just for a bit - just to prove to myself that I CAN.  This book was amazing - one of my favorite reads this year.  It's a story of the authors journey to run with a hidden tribe of super runners, but mixed in between the chapters of the story are chapters of in depth research (not boring facts) and stories of super athletes accomplishments.  
Think: We were born to run.
My Take Away: I want to try running with LESS supportive shoes  - maybe the toe shoes that have become so popular...  (the book talks about how Nike started - and it wasn't based on how to make people run better...)

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris The House I Loved
I'm really glad I read these two back to back.

David McCullough is one of my all time favorite authors.  His books bring history to life, in great detail.  

Think: About History - Artists used to actually set up easels and copy the great works in museums in Paris.  

I read shortly after The Greater Journey, and although I may not have loved The House I Loved all that much on it's own, reading to the two back to back was awesome.  After being immersed in the old Paris in McCulloughs book, it made the story in The House I Loved so vivid and real - as Paris was being modernized, and homes were being torn down to widen streets.

Take Away: I want to go to Paris.  But preferably in a time machine.  :-)  More realistically, I want to try my hand at charcoal drawings. I don't expect to be really good at it - it's just something I want to try.


I try to read the bible in 90 days at least once a year.
Think: Reading the bible in this time frame gives me such a context of how everything fits together.  It really surprised me how, after reading the bible many times over the years, I had missed by reading it piecemeal.
Take Away: I can read this book 10 dozen times, and still learn something new, usually lists of something new, every single time.  It's amazing.

Reshaping It All: Motivation for Physical and Spiritual Fitness

The best diet book, ever.  Because it's not really about a diet.  It's about our choices.
I read this last year, and I know I need to reread it this year...
Think: We are who we choose to be.  One tiny choice at a time.
Take Away: I can lose this weight.  I can. It will not be easy.

One of my favorite books, of all time.
To describe it would take up too much space here - go to the goodreads page above.  It's basically about how one college kid volunteered for something he knew almost nothing about, mainly to make his actual goal sound more impressive to others,  and how it changed his life forever. It changed his life, because he changed others lives.   
Think: This life is so much more than our bubble
Take Away: When I grow up (inside joke) I want to be more like Mr Grennan.  In the meantime, I can do more, with my checkbook.
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

I almost didn't include Wild, I skipped over it when going down my list.  Because I didn't really like this book.  Bill Bryson wrote about a similar journey, hiking on the other side of the United States:

I loved Bryson's book.  Maybe I loved it because he didn't even finish the hike.  And he was so honest - it's BORING.  I love to hike, but the Appalachian trail is, for the most part, all about looking at one very narrow path at your feet.  There are some amazing views, but mostly, it's about looking at where you are going to step next.  He's honest, and funny, and at the end I wasn't inspired to tackle the Appalachian  Trail.  (I have hiked very small sections of it here in PA)

Strayed's book made me shake my head the entire way through.  I raised two eagle scouts, with a 3rd working on his Eagle project this summer. That made reading  her exploits with too heavy backpacks, the wrong footwear, and hiking alone as a woman...  painful.  But it did make me think. In the end I did appreciate that with all the ways she could have handled her messed up life, she chose to go hike for weeks on end.  She knew she was a mess, and she took steps, literally, to make a change.  That is awesome.  Even if she was an idiot, she recognized that she was an idiot, which I guess, makes her a lot less of an idiot than I often am...

Think: Nature is good for us.
Take Away: I should hike more.  But not on the Appalachian trail  :-)  I should definitely hike the Ricketts Glen trail more often...

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
This book is similar to #2, Born to Run.  Different themes completely, but the same journey, and same style.  In Born to Run, McDougal is struggling with his running and ends up running with an unknown tribe of superathletes in a once in a life time race.  In Moonwalking With Einstein Foer starts out a normal guy with a poor memory, and ends up competing in the World Memory Championships.  Both books weave old stories and facts into the story of their journey.  I would love to fill my bookshelves with books just like these two.  They make you think, without making the thinking tedious.

Think: All of our electronics have cheated us out of learning old, valuable, skills for making our brains work.
Take Away: Find more books like these!

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An Index Of My Bookish Posts & Lists
https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/p/reading.html

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Baking Eggs for breakfast sandwiches

I saw this online somewhere..  probably on Pinterest.  Today while I had the oven on, baking up a storm for Coffee Connection & Youth Group snack, I decided to try it.  It makes a thicker egg than I think is ideal for breakfast sandwiches, but it works really well!  It might fit a biscuit better than the bagels and bagel thins I used...

The eggs on the right are just cracked into the muffin pan, the ones on the left I scrambled - I like scrambled eggs on my breakfast sandwiches.