Rex Visits the Shop

The youngest visitor to the shop & home display area!   

Smile! Show us your teeth! Skull is from a 10 foot alligator,
usually kept on a shelf, not on the sofa. 

 Earlier this month our youngest grandchild, Rex, came to visit with his parents from California. He's not even 2, so we thought he might be afraid of some of the animal mounts, especially the huge caribou head in the living room, but he wasn't. He knows many animals by sight, learned some new ones, and had fun in Grandpa Garry's Museum of Natural History. 

Growling like a bear for Dad & Grandma,

Meeting the Silver Fox - just my size! 

Lion Mount in Progress
We'll post more photos when it is done, and on a base. 

Petting the Mountain Goat
We'll have a full post on the goat mounting process later. 

Happy Grandma, having all 4 kids in the same state for a few days!
Lily, Rex, Sierra and Justin

Grilling Salmon on the Salt Plate

Grilling Salmon on the Himalayan Salt Plate

We received a salt plate as a gift and were anxious to try it. For once, I actually READ INSTRUCTIONS before using something new. I found that it is only to be used on a grill or gas range (we have electric), not in the oven. So, following directions, we slowly heated the salt plate on our gas grill on the deck. 

Garry had been fishing with his friend Scott Kelly on Lake Michigan out of Port Washington in July. They caught their limit of 10 fish by 6:45 a.m.  They caught Coho salmon, Chinook salmon, and steelhead trout. 

We tried fresh Coho salmon on the salt plate that night. Here's the fish seasoned with lemon pepper, on the heated salt plate. We didn't oil the plate and the fish came off easily. 

Our tasty meal! 

Camping in Cassville, WI

Camping - Nelson Dewey State Park 
Garry and I took a long weekend at the end of July and camped for a few days in Nelson Dewey State Park, near Cassville, WI, on the Mississippi River. The park is small and the campground wasn't crowded. There were a few short hiking trails. The scenery was beautiful and we learned more about Wisconsin history by taking a tour at the Stonefield Historic Site, including the Dewey Mansion. We thought it was rather funny that Governor Dewey wanted to make Cassville the capital, since it is basically at the end of the state. 

We only saw one deer - I think this is Bambi!

River view from the park

View of Stonefield Site from Nelson Dewey State Park

The river was high and there was some flooding.

I had to ask my botanist coworker what this thorny tree was -Honey Locust 

We tried to get to the river from this road 

OK, we turned around. 

Cool web in the woods! 

Quiet, shady campsite on the hill above the railroad tracks and river.

Grilled Portobello mushrooms with crabmeat

I love cooking while camping, but it was very HOT on this trip, so we didn't cook a lot. This isn't a great photo - but they tasted good! I took 2 portobello mushroom caps, scraped out the gills, and stuffed them with a combination of crabmeat, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese and basil. Then I wrapped them in foil and grilled for about 15 minutes. Yummy! The original recipe called for shrimp, not crab and we'll try that next time.