At Work Again

The end of April we were able to get back to work on the house. The rafters weathered the winter better than anticipated; we only had to replace a few. Extra hands were much appreciated for this job, and we prayed everyone working so high up would be safe. Next came blocking the rafters and securing them to the perlins with hurricane straps. Lastly, the leveling of each rafter was a slow and tedious process, but it’s got to be done.

Sheeting the roof, with a pitch of 8/12 at 30 some feet in the air proved difficult and dangerous. We hired a local crew to assist, and again prayed for safety. We rented a fork lift to hoist the plywood up to the eve, and a snorkel lift (also called a cherry picker) to hoist BIG ED. This lift has been really beneficial to help raise the metal up to roof level, ease getting the soffit in, as well as the gable ends framed, and the staining of the logs. The price for a month long rental was much better than that of a weeks rental. So we kept it for the month of May. It has been well worth it.

With a work crew at the building site, and our own tribe of children to feed, we were fixing lunch for 15 every day. That led to some interesting dishes, one of which we call “Dirt Cheap Tacos.” Two trips to Mexico have influenced the way we cook now. In Mexico anything in a tortilla is a taco, so this is how we came up with what everyone declared a delicious meal, and by the way they kept coming back for more, I believe it was.

Dirt Cheap Tacos: (Feeds 15 hungry people)
3 cups dry red beans.
4 cups dry brown rice
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes, with chiles
1 cup sour cream
2 cups grated chedder cheese
2 T. taco seasoning
oil
corn tortillas

Boil beans in water for 2 minutes, soak for one hour, simmer until done, about 2 hours.
cook rice in 8 cups water. This will take about 45 minutes.
Remove excess water from beans, adding 1 T. salt to beans and stirring thoroughly. Mix these with the rice. Also add tomatoes in juice, sour cream, cheese, and taco seasoning, stirring well. You can set this aside and warm it later, or use it while it is hot.
In small frying pan, pour in enough oil to cover most of bottom of pan. On medium high heat, fry tortillas, one at a time, until slightly crisp. Put these into a hot dish with a lid to keep them warm until you have enough tortillas to serve your group. Just a small dot of the rice and beans mixture ( maybe a cup)will be plenty filling for your tortillas. These are good enough plain, but would be wonderful with salsa/ guacamole.