Yesterday I came home from work and was pleased to find that the rain, nay the deluge, had ceased. The SB was leaving as I was arriving.. one of those evenings. Too wet to work on the milking cottage or really anything else, so I opted to take the goats out in the yard for a stroll. Their current favorite food is sycamore leaves. They look pretty silly munching down some dinner plate sized leaves. The sky was still overcast and we got one of those weird situations where the sunlight is bouncing off the bottom of the clouds as the sun goes down and everything turns all goldy-green. As I was marveling at the odd light I realized the backyard was full of dragonflies. There was a huge swarm of the swirling around. I didn't get a close enough look to identify them. I wondered if they were supposed to be migrating at this time or if they are all running late.
Then it started to pour buckets. I hung out under the paw paw tree with the goats hoping the rain would slow. The goats hate getting wet more than me, but.... We ended up making a run for it. That is one of the things that I like about the goats. If you run, they will always follow. So they got tucked into their snug little house. Me, by the time I locked up the gate, dumped the wheelbarrow full of discarded goat hay and made it into the house, I was drenched. Happy but totally drenched.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Brilliant
The SB has done it again... solved a problem that seriously needed solving. And I was too in the middle of trying to plow through to step back and see that there might be another way. He is a big picture guy. Mostly, that is probably a good thing.
Without further ado.... Do you live in a place where there are paw paws? We are, we even have a small grove in the backyard. This is helpful as it tells you when the wild paw paws are ripe so that you can go and collect them. The only problem with having a lot of paw paws is that you have to separate the seed from the flesh and skin. It is super duper tedious as there is a LOT of seed in a paw paw. A couple weeks ago, we were drowning in paw paws. Something seriously needed to be done with them or all the collecting work would be down the tubes. In the old style, the processing of the paw paws we had would have taken HOURS and resulted in cramped hands and grouching. But the SB did a little experimentation. Here is the process that saves your sanity.
1. Peel the fruit with a veggie peeler or older fruits by hand
2. Cut the fruit/seed into large ice cube sized chunks
3. Put them in the food processor with the plastic dough blade (not the sharp one)
4. Process briefly until the flesh is saucy and the seeds are seperate
5. Run it all through some mesh or just pick the seeds out by hand.
This is not entirely without some tedium, but it is MILLIONS of times better than the other options I have tried.
We froze about 10-12 cups of paw paw mash. We'll be using it in breads and ice cream. Yum.
You can thank the SB.
Without further ado.... Do you live in a place where there are paw paws? We are, we even have a small grove in the backyard. This is helpful as it tells you when the wild paw paws are ripe so that you can go and collect them. The only problem with having a lot of paw paws is that you have to separate the seed from the flesh and skin. It is super duper tedious as there is a LOT of seed in a paw paw. A couple weeks ago, we were drowning in paw paws. Something seriously needed to be done with them or all the collecting work would be down the tubes. In the old style, the processing of the paw paws we had would have taken HOURS and resulted in cramped hands and grouching. But the SB did a little experimentation. Here is the process that saves your sanity.
1. Peel the fruit with a veggie peeler or older fruits by hand
2. Cut the fruit/seed into large ice cube sized chunks
3. Put them in the food processor with the plastic dough blade (not the sharp one)
4. Process briefly until the flesh is saucy and the seeds are seperate
5. Run it all through some mesh or just pick the seeds out by hand.
This is not entirely without some tedium, but it is MILLIONS of times better than the other options I have tried.
We froze about 10-12 cups of paw paw mash. We'll be using it in breads and ice cream. Yum.
You can thank the SB.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Serves me right
Last night I was having one of those days. One of those days where I don't really feel like cooking anything. One of those days where it really seems like WAY too much trouble to turn on the stove. It would be so much easier to get in the car and drive to our neighborhood bar and get some nachos. And beer. And we wouldn't have to do the dishes or anything. And we could see one of our favorite bar tenders. We would probably end up with beer to take home and stay out too late and not get anything done. But really, the cooking was just not speaking to me. Despite having lots of fabu things around to cook.
So I started hemming and hawing. Then the SB mentioned lentils. I love lentils. Especially in the cool weather. I was inspired..... we had eggplant from the garden. We had smoked sausages from Edward's. We had garden peppers, garlic, parsley and onions and a bit of home made chicken stock. And some cooked fingerling potatoes. And that was sort of all she wrote with a squeeze of lemon on top. The onions were a pain in the butt because all that are left of this year's haul are the tiny ones. But we did it. We made a super yummy fall dinner and thawed some rolls from the freezer and added butter and it was delish. So much better than anything you could pay for and in large part homegrown.
So I started hemming and hawing. Then the SB mentioned lentils. I love lentils. Especially in the cool weather. I was inspired..... we had eggplant from the garden. We had smoked sausages from Edward's. We had garden peppers, garlic, parsley and onions and a bit of home made chicken stock. And some cooked fingerling potatoes. And that was sort of all she wrote with a squeeze of lemon on top. The onions were a pain in the butt because all that are left of this year's haul are the tiny ones. But we did it. We made a super yummy fall dinner and thawed some rolls from the freezer and added butter and it was delish. So much better than anything you could pay for and in large part homegrown.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Not me.
On a night like tonight, many people are probably venturing out for some late evening errand and are greeted by the gentle whiff of woodsmoke in the air. I imagine they stop briefly and think "wow, it really must be fall".
I was on my way to lock the ducks into their safe little house when I caught a whiff of woodsmoke. My reaction was, as always, "CRAP, I hope that isn't our house on fire." Perhaps those of you with old wooden houses can sympathize.
Happy fall.
I was on my way to lock the ducks into their safe little house when I caught a whiff of woodsmoke. My reaction was, as always, "CRAP, I hope that isn't our house on fire." Perhaps those of you with old wooden houses can sympathize.
Happy fall.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Weekends
It is funny, at work, I sass with my co workers and complain about the work week and do the countdown to Friday. But some how, I suspect our weekends have a very different pace. This weekend, for instance, is the second in a row that we have been working on replacing some of the structural members of the back porch. So pretty much for 5 days (we include last Monday since it was Labor Day) I have gotten up, done some errands and then made coffee and breakfast for the SB and I. Then about 1 or so, we head outside to consider the porch. Structure, support, materials, lists, tools, sorting, moving things in and out of the house, supplying sustenance and otherwise working until dark. On the weekend. It is better in the fall b/c it gets dark at 8 instead of 9. For that I am thankful.
Is it true that a lot of people just laze around? Do they really watch movies and attend parties and have leisurely brunches? Because, there are those times, when I do wonder why I am so excited to get out of the office on Fridays.
Is it true that a lot of people just laze around? Do they really watch movies and attend parties and have leisurely brunches? Because, there are those times, when I do wonder why I am so excited to get out of the office on Fridays.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Season of Frisk
So, sorry about those photos, I erroneously thought it would be easy to download the photos to my computer. Apparently I will have to take the onerous step of READING THE INSTRUCTIONS. Piece of crap phone. I don't have that kind of time.
Fall started last Thursday. It was abundantly clear from the moment I walked out the basement door on my way to feed the animals that something had changed. It wasn't the temperature. There had been cooler mornings. It wasn't the leaves falling, that starts around the first of August here with the walnuts starting to go. It was mostly the smell. It was of dirt and leaves and well, the end of summer. And the sound of desperately exuberant insects.
Today though, started the Season of Frisk. The goats are the harbingers of this. They know the exact time when the back of summer has been broken and they began the celebration at approximately 6:43 this morning by tearing out of the open gate and leaping on to everything they could get to the top of. Dashing from wood pile to rock to bench and whatever else they could find. They ate a few walnut leaves in between, but mostly they just frolicked. The celebration continued this afternoon with a little standing head butting and otherwise trotting around an being extra jaunty. I wonder how long this lasts....
Fall started last Thursday. It was abundantly clear from the moment I walked out the basement door on my way to feed the animals that something had changed. It wasn't the temperature. There had been cooler mornings. It wasn't the leaves falling, that starts around the first of August here with the walnuts starting to go. It was mostly the smell. It was of dirt and leaves and well, the end of summer. And the sound of desperately exuberant insects.
Today though, started the Season of Frisk. The goats are the harbingers of this. They know the exact time when the back of summer has been broken and they began the celebration at approximately 6:43 this morning by tearing out of the open gate and leaping on to everything they could get to the top of. Dashing from wood pile to rock to bench and whatever else they could find. They ate a few walnut leaves in between, but mostly they just frolicked. The celebration continued this afternoon with a little standing head butting and otherwise trotting around an being extra jaunty. I wonder how long this lasts....
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Sign of the times
The news of the world has been pretty grim here folks, in case you haven't noticed. Politicians acting like children, youth acting like apes, fear mongering and hysteria all around. Add that to the general pressures of paying the bills and keeping your head above water and you have a pretty bleak picture.
So I thought I would share....
This morning there was a guy on my bus in a wheel chair who I hadn't ever seen before. Maybe it was a temporary thing... His chair still said "Patient and Guest Services" on it, so maybe it was a "loaner" from one of the local hospitals. When his stop came, he was inexpertly maneuvering himself out of the bus and onto the sidewalk, pulling himself along rather than trying to use his hands to turn the wheels the way people who do this all the time do. The guy was about the age of a Viet Nam vet, but I don't know that he was. Just an older skinny white guy who didn't quite have a handle on his new world. When he got to the sidewalk he was trying to turn the chair around and head toward his destination. A middle aged African American guy happened to be walking by with a woman and he seamlessly and graciously got behind the guy in the chair and since they were going in the same direction pushed him along while smiling and chatting. A total random act of kindness. It totally made my day, I can't imagine what it did for the guy in the chair. I hope he saw it as I did.
A month or two a go my great friend P. was in the local bank, standing in line to cash a check. The lady in front of her was asking about the balance in her checking account. The checking account had about $68, and the woman needed $65, but the teller said she had to leave at least $5 in the account to keep it open. So she withdrew the $63 and another $2 from her savings account which was running on the order of $25. P. went home and called the bank and convinced the teller to allow her to transfer $200 into the woman's bank account anonymously. P isn't flush with cash, but she is overflowing with compassion.
Just thought I would share those two small snippets and that they infuse some hope and joy into your life. We need all we can get right now.
So I thought I would share....
This morning there was a guy on my bus in a wheel chair who I hadn't ever seen before. Maybe it was a temporary thing... His chair still said "Patient and Guest Services" on it, so maybe it was a "loaner" from one of the local hospitals. When his stop came, he was inexpertly maneuvering himself out of the bus and onto the sidewalk, pulling himself along rather than trying to use his hands to turn the wheels the way people who do this all the time do. The guy was about the age of a Viet Nam vet, but I don't know that he was. Just an older skinny white guy who didn't quite have a handle on his new world. When he got to the sidewalk he was trying to turn the chair around and head toward his destination. A middle aged African American guy happened to be walking by with a woman and he seamlessly and graciously got behind the guy in the chair and since they were going in the same direction pushed him along while smiling and chatting. A total random act of kindness. It totally made my day, I can't imagine what it did for the guy in the chair. I hope he saw it as I did.
A month or two a go my great friend P. was in the local bank, standing in line to cash a check. The lady in front of her was asking about the balance in her checking account. The checking account had about $68, and the woman needed $65, but the teller said she had to leave at least $5 in the account to keep it open. So she withdrew the $63 and another $2 from her savings account which was running on the order of $25. P. went home and called the bank and convinced the teller to allow her to transfer $200 into the woman's bank account anonymously. P isn't flush with cash, but she is overflowing with compassion.
Just thought I would share those two small snippets and that they infuse some hope and joy into your life. We need all we can get right now.
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