Monday Musings.

I am so glad that I have practical skills.  I have a heck of a time in winter with my hands, so I go through any number of combinations:  thermal gloves; silk glove liners with thermal gloves; mittens; thermal mittens - you name it, I've tried it.  The best combination seems to be silk glove liners (heavy version) with wool mittens.  So, I just whipped me up some nice, toasty wool mittens!  It also helps, of course, to have an embarrassingly large stash of yarn.



This is my 10th headband/ear warmer.  I'm addicted to cables thanks to Melanie.
It's actually a leaf green and the mittens are bittersweet-ish.  Go figure.

 While I was at it, I also whipped up a nifty little woolen sock for my iPhone.  With an equally nifty little front pocket for its new friend, Bluey.

Bluey is now safe from the Catz.

Wet wool always invokes my childhood in Ohio, right near the southern shore of Lake Erie.  We sure got winters!  We would be swaddled, bundled, wrapped, zipped and buckled into an array of woolen garments (yes, I was a child in the Stone Age before fleece...), then we would catapult out the door and play until we were blue-lipped, our mittens sodden, covering wet, wrinkled fingers - and we would still drag our feet toward home - after the appointed mother on our street gave the "Lunch!" call.  This was usually Mrs. S, as she had a voice that could reach Canada.  I swear we could have stayed out for days in the snow.

As I was schlepping through the slush and muck of our early January thaw yesterday (48 degrees!) trying to find patches of snow in order to pull my hay sled, I was thinking of creating the "Homesteader's Alphabet".  I was actually trying desperately to ignore the incessant clanging of the Guineas...  Here it is:

A is for Animal Husbandry - which you better learn fast
B is for Billy Goats - of which I am glad I ain't got any
C is for Carpentry - a skill which you will develop for better or for worse
D is for Dragging - your sled or your sorry butt out of bed
E is for Energy - you'll need A LOT
F is for Fun - harder to come by than you'd think
G is for Goats - small milking animals that unlatch any gate known to man/woman
H is for Horses - which I wish I had
I is for Ignorant - you may start out that way, but you'll learn fast...
J is for Joy - if this lifestyle doesn't bring it, it's not for you
K is for Kevetching - we don't blame you if you do
L is for Love - I love this lifestyle, no matter what and you better, too!
M is for Manure - learn to love it - you'll be dealing with it 24/7
N is for Numb - as are my fingers as I do chores in winter
O is for Optimism - a necessity in homesteading
P is for Perseverance - you'll need this in a truckload (see O)
Q is for Quiet - Those precious moments when the Guineas are mute
R is for Resilience - Another necessary ingredient (see O and P)
S is for Sleep - which you'll fondly remember
T is for Tired - your normal state of being
U is for Unglamorous - that would be your wardrobe
V is for Vivacity - you may have had it in high school, but 7 years of homesteading will take care of that
W is for Work - 'nuff said
X is for eXcellent food - okay, it's a stretch, but there's nothing like that which you raise yourself
Y is for Yodeling - just checking to see if you made it this far
Z is for Zen - mostly, my life is just that - a rythmn and connection that you can't find in most places.  My little piece of Heaven.  My Little Lucky Farm.

Soup Sundays

Dust off your can opener or reach into the dark recesses of your canning cupboards!  This recipe is a family favorite and is gar-un-teed to warm you from your toesies northward. 

Excuse the oatmeal and red lentils waiting to be dry canned.

Kit's Ski Country Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

2 lbs stewing beef, cut into 1-inch cubes*
1-6 oz. can tomato paste
1-10 oz. can condensed onion soup*
5 Cups water
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 Cups sliced carrots
1 Cup sliced celery
1-1 lb. can green beans*
1-15 oz. can kidney beans
1/2 Cup grated Parmesan cheese

Combine meat and tomato paste in Dutch oven or large, heavy soup pan.  Stir in onion soup, water, salt, basil and pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer about an hour and a half, or until the meat is tender.  Add carrots, celery, undrained green beans, and kidney beans.  Continue simmering 30-40 minutes or until all vegetables are tender.  Stir in Parmesan cheese.

*Things I have changed when needed:  Ground beef also works.  No beef?  Double the bean content - mix and match your beans.  Just mix the tomato paste with the soup, water and herbs.  No canned onion soup to be found?  Use dry onion soup mix and toss in an additional cup of water.  It goes without saying that you can substitute your home-canned green beans, too.  I have even substituted a jar of Dilly beans, but I drained and rinsed them and then added them to the soup with a little extra water as needed.

This soup is even better the second day.

From blah to Bling!

While I was flinging myself around my living room, ripping things down, taping, sanding, swearing....my eyes alighted on the dismal little chest that acted as the base for my television and DVD player.  I rooted around in my laundry/tool/feed/gardening/storage room and came up with a small can of paint.

Figuring that we were already suffering through the dust, I also subjected us to paint fumes.  Even Scrappy left the room!  (Note to self:  Next house will have a garage/workshop.)

Before:

After:

In its new place:

Monday Musings.

Do doctor's offices consciously put you in an examining room to wait instead of the 'waiting' room?  Why call it a 'waiting' room, when you can't even read the first paragraph of that magazine you've been wanting to get your hands on?  Instead, they shuffle you off to a cold, sterile room with NO magazines (or heat) and leave you there for an eternity, clad in the equivalent of a large paper towel, trying to think warm thoughts.  Maybe they figure you'll be less able to complain about the wait through chattering teeth? 

It's amazing how often I function by rote.  Twice, I have turned onto my mountain road without thinking - only to have to turn around and go the safe route.  The mountain road itself is fairly clear, but the road down the mountain is now treacherous - accentuated by a fatal accident on Christmas Eve.  My mind is often elsewhere (home way ahead of the physical me), or I am arguing with the radio.  Time to tape on the seasonal notation to my dashboard:  WINTER!!  I'll tape it right next to my "BREATHE" note.

I may be enjoying winter a little more this year, thanks to Marianne.  I say this, as I gaze at January's Men in Kilts.

Our family is a small one, and it recently got smaller.  My uncle passed away on New Year's Eve.  He had been ill for a long time, so it was a blessing of sorts, I suppose.  Rest in peace, Big Daddy Uncle.  It got me thinking about my cousins and how interesting it was that we are all spread out over the country, with little contact if any.  I adore my aunt, my mother's sister, and have a very fond memory of the one and only time just the two of us spent together:  my uncle was out of town and I was living on my own, I believe in my late 20s.  My aunt invited me over for dinner - lamb chops!  She loved them, but my uncle did not, so this was a special occasion.  We had the best time!  I spent the night and I awoke the next morning to her beautiful, melodic voice telling me to "rise and shine".  She has the kind of voice you should bottle and open when you need comforting.

My other memory involving that side of the family was from way back.  We were all over at their house when we were kids.  While the adults were doing their adult things, the kids were in the family room poking around for something to do.  Not surprisingly, I took charge - although my cousin was older by 15 minutes, I was the bossy one.  My uncle was a golfer, something alien in our family, so I decided to investigate the anatomy of a golf ball.  My cousin (who was reliable and trustworthy from birth, the rat) had a pen knife.  I made him hand it over and I cut off the covering.  Then I proceeded to start unwinding the rubber band ball.  I am sure you can see where this is going.  Never being known for my patience, I took the knife and sliced through the ball.  And hit the pressurized liquid center, which exploded into my eyes.  Which temporarily blinded me.  Which sent all the cousins and my sisters screaming upstairs for reinforcements.  There was much hysteria, except for my uncle, who calmly led me to the sink and rinsed my eyes.  I was soundly punished and, if I remember it correctly, the self-same cousin (my age almost exactly - born on the same day, 15 minutes before me in another state - and there the similarities ended) spent quite a long time gloating.  I believe he always held it against me that I would snap his plastic pants when we were tots just to torment him.

Soup Sundays

Since Mama Pea is such an inspiration - and the soup she posted last Sunday was DELICIOUS! (Even though I forgot the tomatoes...) - here is my Soup Sundays offering.  It is a beautiful soup, to boot:

Red Lentil Coconut Soup
(stolen borrowed from Kim, who borrowed it and adapted it)

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups red split lentils
1 onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, cored and seeded and cut into 1/2 inch dice
1 fresh jalapeno or Serrano chili, finely chopped (with or without seeds, depending on your tolerance)*
1 tablespoon fresh peeled and minced ginger
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup tomato paste
7 cups water
1 can unsweetened light coconut milk
1-15 oz. can chickpeas
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
fresh cilantro and lime wedges for serving**

Heat the tablespoon of o/o in a dutch oven or large soup pan and add the onions, bell pepper and jalapeno and cook for 5-7 minutes until the vegetables have softened and start to take on some color.  Add the garlic and spices and stir well.  Add the tomato paste, stir well and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes until the mixture is toasty and fragrant.  Add the water, coconut milk, lentils and chickpeas and cook uncovered for 20-25 minutes, adding the lime juice at the end of the cooking time.  Taste and adjust seasonings.  Serve the soup topped with a sprinkling of fresh cilantro and some extra limes on the side.

*I used a frozen jalapeno, but I have also used cayenne pepper.
**I rarely have fresh cilantro and, while it's a nice touch, the soup doesn't suffer from the lack of it.

Baby, it's cold outside!

No pictures today!  Too damn cold!  For the second night in a row, the temperatures plummeted below single digits.  When I awoke at 5 this morning, the thermometer showed -10 degrees, and it dropped another degree and a half the next half hour.  My cold-meter is how long Bernice stays out.  She did her business in record time and was bounding back up the steps to the door in under 3 minutes.  We don't count Scrappy because he wimps out if the temps drop below 40.

When I kicked open the coop door this morning (ice dam), the Pearlies came streaming out, stopped and wondered what fresh Hell I had led them into today.  They immediately went back in, trampling the hens in the process.  I am sure the chickens are looking forward to Spring with renewed vigor - the Pearlies will be outside, instead of in.

Trotting into the master bath to get my shower going, I found...no cold water.  Frozen pipes.  The hot water pipes ran, the kitchen water ran, but no sink or tub.  Plan B.  Cold water splashed on face and cool/rad/neato spiky hairstyle for work.  Thank goodness no one pays any attention to me.  I stopped and picked up a small room space heater so that I don't have to repeat this experience.  It is odd, however, that this is happening at all. I've gone through colder periods with no problems.  My thoughts (dark as they are...) is that the upsurge in the rodent population may have inflicted itself on my insulation on that end of the house, baring the pipes.  Little buggers.  I am NOT crawling over there until well into the Spring - at which time I will either re-insulate or wrap the pipes with a heating tape that I can connect up into the bathroom.

Luckily, the weather has hit its nadir and will be heading in the right (upward) direction starting today.  Good thing, since I am due to go get a load of hay with my farmer this weekend.  Break out the Carharts!!  Wintah has arrived!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today, for the first time in YEARS, I am doing just what I want.  Nada.  Nuttin.  (Except for more sanding, more vacuuming of dust, some painting, some cooking, some reading, some crossword puzzles, some shoveling - heeheehee.)  The problem with having a birthday on a holiday is that no one forgets it.  How am I supposed to ignore it when everyone from my parents, sisters, friends, dry cleaner, and Starbucks is trying to help me celebrate?  Oh, poor me...*snort*

And this is really so not me:

My Muck Boots, which I have been wearing for years (not the same pair, but the same brand) have let me down.  After having to superglue the front sole flap back on more than six times in less than two years, the back heel flap gave way last Saturday.  It was the last straw.  So I threw them in the trash bin and headed up to Bennington to find new boots.  I ended up with Bogs - with one hitch.  They did not have plain ones in my size.  I sidled around these for a good 15 minutes before deciding to get them.  Needless to say, they shocked the livestock.  Sage and Chickie slammed on the brakes at the sight of them, and both fluffy sheep had to thoroughly examine them before letting me through the gate.  I will have to say that they are the best-fitting barn boots I have ever worn.  And they have good traction and seem to be warm enough.  I am still startled when I look down, but they're growing on me.

I also got a very nifty handbook on how to tie knots (seems that someone actually was reading this blog....)
and, voila!:

A True Lover's Knot!  Now I just have to find me a true love that I can use it on.... :)

AND I must have been on Santa's "Good Beyond Belief" List, because I got a CAMERA for Christmas!!!!  Of course, it's like going from 0 to 100 from my old model to this one.  I am gingerly learning what all the dials and doodads are for.  But it does allow me to take much better pictures.  Such as:

My handsome boy.  Yes, he is ALWAYS around.  I have been using the fireplace a lot this past weekend, so Bernice is nowhere in sight.  She is, unfortunately, afraid of the fire.

Blip! Blip! Blip! (my happiness meter....)