Muscatine, Murals, Time Travel and Cat Swappin'.

I guess Lots of People have cats that
are not theirs...

I imagine Leo. the "part-Timer"
cat will be in one of these
photos some day.

It has been a few days since my last blog post, and not much has happened since then.   I have been trying to keep busy with my chalk drawings and stay cool at the same time.   A heat advisory has been in effect for most of last week, and Leo the "Part-Timer" cat has not shown up for three nights in a row.   Cheryl suspects that the "Other Family" is keeping him inside during this little bout of heat.  I certainly hope he is staying cool.  

This is Rocket.  He is NOT our cat. 

But he is acting as a temporary
replacement for Leo, The "Part-timer."
Cat. 

As it is,  we have been taking care of Rocket, the neighbor's cat for the last two days.   This is not by our choice!  He simply walks inside and makes himself at home.   His stays have been getting longer and longer.   In fact,  I practically have to kick him out at night time... I don't know how "Cat Swapping" became a thing in these small towns...but it seems to be happening on its own without any Human Influence!

Cheryl and I traveled to Muscatine yesterday and discovered that the air along the Mississippi river is slightly more tolerable than the air around Wellman.   I blame the Humidity.   The heavy humidity seems to make the air difficult to breathe.  Cheryl had dropped her daily runs to about 5 miles.   She tries to run 7 miles along the Kewash Trail, but usually ends up walking about a half mile of it in total.   Better to take a walk break than to actually break because she wanted to be "hardcore". 

The cooler/ milder weather was not lost on other folks either.   The Muscatine Bike Trail was very busy with walkers, runners, and cyclist galore!  We also visited the Farmer's market and bought some more Wild Local Honey.   The Bee Keeper is From Wellman and his honey is one of the tastiest I have ever had.   Mild, sweet, light color.   It is milder than Clover Honey, but still has that honey flavor that is lacking in "Wildflower" or "Goldenrod" honey.   He says he just lets the bees do their thing, so there is no specific flower they are most attracted to.  

As mentioned before,  I have been working on the chalk drawings when the hot weather allows it.   I went down to the Park and fussed around with a Dragon near the Lion Mural I did a few days ago.   Without a reference, I had to do the drawing from memory,  so it was not turning out as I had originally planned.   Add in that I worked on it for 2 hours and finally called it quits after my chalk supply began to run low.   I was considering working on it later this afternoon, but I have been getting a headache from my Time Traveling and I doubt I will be tackling it for the rest of the day.  ( I always get a headache when I travel back in time...  Unfortunately,  I lose my memory of the future, except for moments of Déjà vu.   And the headaches are always a side effect and sign that I have been traveling...  I should write a paper about it someday...) 

But back to reality!  I figured I would stick closer to home and fill in the small section near last week's cat mural.  Three singing mice seemed like a good fit.   Perhaps they are serenading the cat.   

And lastly,   I have finally been working on the Root Beer  recipes.   I was held up for a while because we could not find any Sassafras root.   However,  I discovered StringTown Grocery has Sassafras Tea Concentrate!   

I set out to boil and simmer the other root combinations.  There are LOTS of different combinations of roots,  so why not just experiment for the first batch.   I was missing the Sarsaparilla root for this attempt, but figured I would compensate with some pumpkin pie spice.   ( This recipe did not call for Cinnamon....  Most other recipes do.)

You add the Sassafras root ( concentrate) last because it will boil/simmer off if you add it too soon.  Then add Sugar,  let sit for several hours and add the Bug ( Wild Yeast).  Mix it up,  add to bottles and store for two days.   Today will be the second day and Cheryl does not want an explosion in the kitchen...  so I will be moving the three bottles to the refrigerator later this evening.  I will have to blog about the flavor later, when I finally open one of the bottles up.  

There are many things I did not add,  Lactose sugar for the creamy mouth feel that Rootbeer is famous for.  There may be other spices I should add or subtract  for taste purposes.   For now, I'm keeping the batches small,  mostly because I do not have a very large pot to do any of the steeping.  When I  finally DO get a recipe I like,  I will upgrade to more bottles and a larger pot.   Wish me luck! 

Hope everyone is having a fine weekend so far.  There is a prediction that it will rain tomorrow.  Lord knows we could use some water here in Iowa.  It has been a  rather dry month this month.   I did manage to find a mushroom in the yard yesterday, but it was very dry.  I doubt much of anything is popping up in the forest.   Maybe the rain will trigger a few late fall mushrooms to make an appearance.    We shall see.