In This Issue....
News of interest; Paul is almost potty trained!!! Mom will be giving details at a later date.
Articles and Links....
Phillip the Fireman
Erupting volcano cake
I have to EAT this??
Whatchoo talkin' 'bout Willis??
Summer poll
The Wilkinson Chronicles Part III
Who's yer Caddy?
Phillip and Paul swimming pictures
Back Issues
Phillip in between fire calls; he's calling his fire captain
Grabbing something to eat before the next call
All ready to go on the next call
Phillip the Fireman Phillip had a pretty eventful 4th of July weekend.....
July 2nd (or 3rd; Phillip cannot remember): Phillip went on a medical call, an old lady had some chest pains, that was the only call .
July 4th: At about noon, Phillip got a call for a possible drowning at Avocado Lake. Phillip waited around with some sheriffs and ambulances, the people turned up safe. When Phillip was paged for this fire, he was on his way home with mom and Paul after going into Clovis for some shopping. He dropped them off and left for the fire. As mom was taking Paul into the house, the birds that built their nest above our door decided that Paul’s head and shirt made a good target and he was pooped on.
That afternoon there was a small fire at Winton park (this park is about 1/4 mile from our house) that Phillip responded to. The fire was pretty much out when he got there, but he helped with the ‘mop up’ where he went around spraying the ground with water.
“....Fresno Fire Department investigator, said most of the complaints in Fresno started about 9 p.m. Friday and did not end until about 2 a.m. Saturday.
During that time, he said, the city had about eight structure fires and many more vegetation fires.
At one time, he said, the city had no fire trucks and very few engines left to respond to other calls.”–July 6th edition of the Fresno Bee
Because some many stations were on fire calls, Phillip was sent all the way to Fresno at about 10:00 p.m. with his company to cover another station. Before he was sent, mom and him were listening the scanner at home and it was so busy that Phillip heard the dispatcher tell firefighters not to use the radio unless it was an emergency, that they were being slammed with vegetation fires.
On the way to Fresno, they got a call for a fire, they drove for a mile or so then the call for the fire cancelled. After the fire was cancelled, they went to a station called station 87. They spent a little time at Station 87 and then got called to another fire. That fire call was cancelled before they got there also. At 12:00 a.m., Phillip actually got to go home.
“California Department of Forestry-Fresno County Fire Department officials also reported a busy shift with a total of 104 fireworks-related complaints, including one major structure fire.
That blaze, at 6833 E. Lowe Ave., just east of the Sunnyside area, caused an estimated $80,000 damage to a house and contents and destroyed two cars and damaged another.”–July 6th edition of the Fresno Bee
Phillip was a little upset that he didn't get to fight the fire on Lowe Ave. If his company had stayed on at station 87 for a few mintues longer they would have be called to this fire.
Most of the 4th of July, Phillip spent driving to and from calls.
6 8-inch baked round cakes
Brown and green Frosting
1 fresh egg
2 to 3 drops red food color
1 1/2 ts sugar
1/4 lb dry ice
1 To 2 oz hot tap water
Make six 8" round cakes using your favorite mix or buy cakes from a bakery.
Buy two or three dollars worth of dry ice from an ice cream store the day you will need it. Keep the dry ice in freezer. Be sure to handle the dry ice with gloves or tongs just to be safe. If your ice cream store doesn't have dry ice just look in your local Yellow Pages telephone directory under "Dry Ice".
Now use your juice glass or cookie cutter and cut out a hole in the center or the top two layers of cake. This hole will form a well in the center of the cake and hide the special effect.
Now construct the Volcano cake, round pyramid style, on a cake platter or large dish. Trim each layer into successively smaller rounds and stack and frost them into mountain shape using the last two layers with the holes as its top.
With a small piece of aluminum foil, line the well in the center of the volcano cake. Use the juice glass as a mold and form foil around the glass.
Now frost the cake, smoothing out the small step-like ledges. Use chocolate frosting for the whole cake first. Then use green frosting as highlights around the mountain to resemble vegetation.
When you are ready to serve the cake, make the "lava". Separate the cleaned egg and discard the yolk. Put the egg white in a small mixing bowl with 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar and 2-3 drops red food coloring.Beat until the egg white starts to thicken. You don't want stiff peaks to form, just a thick, foamy texture.
Now place two or three small chunks of the dry ice into the foil-lined well of the cake and pour in the red egg mixture. Nothing much will happen yet. Now fill your juice glass with hot tap water and take the Volcano Cake and water to the table where your guests are. When you are ready to produce the Special Effect, simply pour one ortwo ounces of the hot water into the egg and dry ice mixture and your realistic Volcano Cake will erupt large quantities or orange, foamy "lava" and white "smoke" for several minutes while you serve your delighted guests pieces of genuine Erupting Volcano Cake.
Alternate Foam Generating Technique: If you can't find dry ice in your area, you can still produce the foaming "Lava" effect. There will be no smoke, but you will have plenty of foamy lava. You will need a small, short juice glass or a shot glass that will fit snugly in the center of the Volcano Cake (a glass 3" tall and 1 1/2" in diameter would be perfect). You will also need one small box of Jell-o, one small bottle lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda. Make Jell-o according to package directions. Let cool 15 minutes. When Jell-o is still (not hot), fill juice glass 1/2 full with the warm Jell-o. Pour in enough lemon juice so that the glass is almost full, or about 1/2" from the top. Place glass down into hole in the cake so lip of glass is flush with top of cake. You are now ready to produce the effect. When ready, put 1 tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda into the glass and briefly stir (1-2 seconds). Jell-o foam will immediately pour out the top of the glass and flow down the sides of the cake.
And here's the Jello recipe......
1 box orange cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 1/2 cups water
1 small box orange Jell-O
1 cup boiling water
1 cup milk
1 small box French vanilla pudding
2 tsp orange extract
1 small tub cool whip
With a fork, mix dry cake mix, eggs, 1/3 cup oil and 1 1/2 cups water in bowl. Pour into ungreased 13x9x2 cake pan. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.
As cake is baking start to boil water. When cake comes out, mix Jell-O with the 1 cup boiling water. Poke holes into top of cake, all over. Pour Jell-O mixture over top of cake. Refrigerate until cool.
Prepare icing by mixing 1 cup milk, the box of pudding, orange extract and cool whip together. Frost cooled cake and keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
Wilkinson Chronicles Part III
Wow, it must be hard to not take showers.
Yeah, we totally stink. And everyday I walk down here to the Internet and get practically coated in mud from my knees down... The roads are so muddy right now, that Ryan almost got the car stuck yesterday.
How many neighbors do you have?
Well, we share a fence and gate with our next door neighbors, one house. There is the dad, Seraphin, his wife and four kids. They have another son but he has moved out already. Rowan loves to play with the kids next door. We have other neighbors, but they are much farther and we never really see them.
How dirty is Rowan since you guys aren’t taking showers?
Dirty. We sort of sponge bath him, but he is getting a shower today too.
How? Is the water pump fixed?
We got some city water from the hose this morning. But the water was not warm yet. Our hot water heater sucks. The water always goes cold in the middle of the shower and then it takes all day to warm back up again.
How is the food over there?
Awesome. I love it. We eat tons of corn: Tortillas, tamales, popcorn, etc. Everything here is some kind of dish made with tortillas and sauce. Imagine enchiladas made with like ten different sauces. We eat a lot of chiles, avocados, tomatoes, limes, homemade Oaxacan cheese... There are tons of yummy tropical fruits, too. Our favorite is Mango. We eat mango everything, mango juice, mango baby food, mango yogurt, mango pie, mango bread, they even have mango bran cereal. That reminds me of all of the trees on the coast. I have not told you about that yet.
Are there any resteraunts where you are living?
Not really what you would consider restaurants. Mostly just taquerias. They usually have only tacos. Lots of places serve tacos al pastor. They have this spit that has chunks of meat on it (usually pork and pineapple) and they make tacos from it. One day, we were hungry and we decided to check what the taqueria nearest our house had. I went in to ask and on the grill there was half of a pig head and its jaw and teeth were just sitting there. That was all they had, pig head tacos. Today, we went to one of the closest real restaurants. It is too far to walk. I did not know what something on the menu was, so he brought me a sample. It was goat. I also tried rabbit. The rabbit was better. There are tons of excellent restaurants in the city center, just not much out by us.
Can you tell me about your house?
It is small, but very nice. There are two bedrooms and one bath. A living/dining room and a small kitchen. We have a tv and vcr and even a microwave. The house sits on an acre or more. Almost the whole acre is landscapesd. Up by the house, there is a big filed of flowers, gerbera daisies, sweet allyssum, marigolds, cosmos, etc. There are lots of trees, avocado and orange, mostly but also .date plams, loquats, pomegranates , and even a black pepper tree. There is also lots of grass. Everything was dead and dry when we moved in. Then, the rainy season started in June an now everything is green and blooming.
Do you actually use the pepper?
It does not have fruit right now, I would though.
What is the inside of your house like?
The floors are all tile and the house is made on cement. It looks nicer than you probably imagine. It is the perfect size for us. It is fully furnished. Mostly with wicker furniture. We hate wicker, though. I almost had to get stitches the other day because of a run in with a wicker chest. The front porch is the best part. There is a table and chairs out there and Rowan and I love to sit out there and watch the birds and butterflies. It is especially nice to sit on the porch and watch when it is dumping rain and there is thunder and lightening.
Has Rowan hurt himself on the wicker yet?
He has been scratched a little by the broken pieces. But not really though. He likes the find broken ones and break them more.
What was your trip to the beach like?
Well, it was a long and slow drive. We had to go from Oaxaca (5000 ft) up this narrow windy road to like 8000 ft. or so and then all the way down to the coast. Rowan got carsick and puked three times. On the way there, we passed through a bunch of ecosystems. Valley, Pine forests, and at the top of the mointains/pass there is what they call cloud forest. It is always in cloud. It was like driving in thick fog and rain at the same time. The temperature was cool and it made us kind of sleepy. Then we crossed to the ocean side of the mountains and it was all jungly. There were mango, banana and coconut trees everywhere. It got hotter and hotter the closer we got to the beach. I was soaked in sweat by the time we got to Puerto Angel. The coast is very hot and humid and the sun is very powerful here. It is like impossible to move in the middle of the day when it is the most hot, unless it is raining. Everyone either spends the whole day in the shade in a hammock (it is the best way to sleep too) or in the ocean.
Did you guys need to use a lot of sunscreen?
Tons, but we still got sunburns everyday. Except Rowan. He never went in the ocean. He stayed in the shade the whole time. He liked to watch the waves, but was terrified to get too close. He would sit in a chaise lounge all day and watch the ocean and never get bored of it. He loves hammocks too. We all swam a lot. We even rented some bodyboards and tried them out. Our friend Ritch even went surfing, not at Playa Zicatela though. That is where they have the massive and dangerous surf.
Since this interview is very long, I will make a third installment.
Unfortunately, I chose to wear flip-flops that day instead of tennis shoes and I either got really, really cold feet (the ground was kind of wet and cold) or my feet hurt because of a scratch on my foot that was rubbing up against the strap of my shoe. ,p> Before we went to the golf course (it was an 8 hole course), they taught me how to hold the golf club and how to hit the ball. When we got to the golf course I practiced putting and learned about teeing off and some of the rules of golf. To make the game simpler, they made it so the lowest score is 6, even if it takes 6 or mores strokes to get the ball in the hole. The first hole was kind of hard be cause there were little hills and I would hit the ball and it would roll back down the hill, after a little while, I eventually got the ball into the hole.
On the second hole I had the misfortune of hitting my ball into the sand trap. It took a lot of tries because whenever I hit the ball it would roll right back down into the sand because of the slope. There were also some holes that I would not do very well on because I would keep missing the ball with my club.
On some of the last holes we had to walk through the sprinklers (which was actually mind of nice) and I was barefoot. That water was really cold! After the last whole, I was very grateful to be going home because my feet hurt. My score for the entire game was all 6’s.
Soooo cold!!
Father and son bonding. See how talented Phillip is? He can suspend a rubber ball in mid-air!
Phillip relaxing after a long day...
