photo of the day

Working on the cat house

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Today, the ceramic terrarium heaters we ordered came in, so when we had the chance, my daughter and I opened up the cat house to put it in.

For some reason, I thought the light was mounted on the frame, not the roof! This is a waterproof light fixture of the sort that’s meant to be around pools. My brother had large dogs, and these made sure they couldn’t bang into the fixture and cause problems.

When we opened it up, I found it had an LED light in it. I was sure my brother had said it was a 100W incandescent bulb, that could add some warmth to the interior. There would be no warmth from this! But that’s okay, because we now have this!

It is ever so slightly wider than a light bulb. We can put the cage of the fixture back on it, but would have to add a spacer for about a quarter inch, so the metal cage won’t touch the heater.

While my daughter was fussing with the cover and putting in the heater, I did some clean up inside. The straw is covered with a large, heavy crocheted blanket – and the cats pooped on it. After getting that out, I decided there was just too much of flax straw in there for my comfort, so I took most of it out, pausing only to help my daughter set up the extension cord to test the heater.

After removing most of the straw, we also cleaned the windows, inside and out. They were looking pretty cloudy! :-D

Then my daughter spotted smoke.

!!!

Just a little puff.

She saw it again, several times, but as hard as I looked, I just couldn’t see it.

However, we also noticed that this thing was a lot hotter than expected! This is designed for reptile terrariums. I know reptiles like their heat, but not this much! With the heater being so close to the wood of the roof, this was definitely a concern.

So, we took it off – once it was cool enough for me to touch it with my gloved hands. That thing retains heat a long time, too!

For now, there is nothing there, and the cords are put away. My daughter lent me a lamp that I could use to test the heater and keep an eye on it while I worked on the computer.

Oddly, it doesn’t seem to get as hot inside, as it did outside. There is much less heat from the sides, while I could hold my hand a couple of inches from the flat surface for about 10 seconds before it got too uncomfortable. The base of the lamp is metal, and after it had been going for a while, I touched the base, and it was just a bit warm. I don’t know why it was so much hotter when we first tested it out.

Also, no sign of smoke.

With the way the fixture is oriented, the heat would be directed at the back wall of the cat house. I am thinking it might be better to orient it so the heat would be directed downwards, instead. There is a LOT more space under there, than between the heater and the back wall. Especially after having removed most of the straw, which is once again covered and weighed down by the blanket.

This is something that is intended to be left on overnight, so we really want to make sure it is safe.

Meanwhile there is something that I notice whenever we open up the cat house roof. With two people lifting, I can hear and feel how it is stressing the roof, as it twists and flexes. If I try to lift it by myself, I can fell that flexing so much, I stopped trying. I’m afraid of breaking something!

Because the roof is so heavy, my brother designed it so he could add a counter weight to make it easier to lift. He never added one, though.

Today, I did.

I dug up a cinder block and, with the crate to support its weight, tied it to the support, which runs the entire length of the roof.

Of course, I had to remove the crate and test it out!

It works quite well. I was able to lift the roof easily myself, and only when I first started to lift, did I feel that twisting that concerned me.

It could actually use a bit more weight, though, but it would be a simple matter to stick a couple of bricks into the openings or something.

The crate will stay under the block to support its weight, and we can just pop it out when we need to lift the roof.

Oh, that reminds me. Our plans to replace the skid under the cat house will not come to fruition. I found a steel pipe and tried to see if it would work as a lever by trying to shift the cat house on the skid.

Not only did it not move, but the pipe bent! The wood at the bottom edge, which is starting to rot a bit, was also crushed where the pipe was. The old skid is just going to have to stay.

The extension cord we have now is juuuuuussstt long enough to reach the cord on the cat house. I will be getting hold of a longer one, so that there is some slack, as soon as possible. We have also ordered a cord protector case – they aren’t available locally – to protect them when they get buried in snow!

Once we are set up to leave it plugged in all the time, I will be plugging in the heated water bowl in the second outlet inside the cat house. It has a long enough cord for the bowl to be just outside the opening. We’re expected to warm up again over the next week, but it won’t be much longer before the water will start freezing – and staying frozen!

I had really hoped we could use the ceramic heater in the cat house tonight. Ah, well. It’ll get done, soon enough! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Forgot about that…

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Yesterday, while working on the squash beds, I was thinking ahead to working on the beet and carrot beds today.

Braveheart (front) and Nostrildamus (rear) both allow me to pet them, and even skritch their ears now – but only after I’ve provided them with kibble in the morning!

Forgetting completely that today was our day to do our monthly shop.

Which turned out to be a good thing, since it also turned out to be a day of intermittent rain, so I wouldn’t have been able to get much done outside!

Rosencrantz (eating by herself) eagerly let me pet her this morning, but her babies and grand-baby won’t let me near them!

So my younger daughter and I made the trip into the city with our itinerary. It’s taken almost three years, but we’ve got the routine for ordinary stocking up down to a pretty efficient routine that also ensures the least amount of time for frozen and refrigerated items to be in the van. Ice packs and insulated bags are good only so far! We didn’t have any unusual things to get this time, so it was just breakfast (drive through, then eating in the parking lot) and the three regular stores we go to.

I was a bit concerned this time around, since the city’s “casedemic” resulted in mandatory masking, with fines, beginning rather arbitrarily two days ago. My views on the usefulness of masks aside, I really can’t wear one. (My daughter wears a home made cloth mask.) I’d heard some people had been given a hard time already. With medical exemptions, we should be able to just say we can’t wear one and that’s it. I’d heard that some people had letters from doctors demanded of them, which is ridiculous. For starters, as far as I know, doctors have been instructed not to give those out. Plus, it’s against PIPA to ask that information. Not all employees are told this, though, and some are are… shall we say… far more aggressive about it then they should be.

Thankfully, I had no reason to be concerned for the places we went to.

The first stop was Walmart, which is where we get some of our cat food. They have more flavours than Costco does, and we like to give the cats some variety. The last time we went there, there was someone at the entry that tried to offer me a mask, but was okay when I politely said I couldn’t wear one. This time, there was no one at that station at all. The sanitation station was still there, so I used some on my hands, but there wasn’t anyone at that station, either. Almost everyone in the store had masks, though I did see a few without. I might have gotten some startled looks from other customers, but with only half their faces visible, I’m not sure. :-/

The next store was a local international grocery store franchise that carries a few things we can’t find anywhere else. It’s also where we get our fresh produce in smaller-than-Costco quantities. This place has always been awesome. Aside from some signage, nothing had changed. I wasn’t really paying attention, but I think I only saw a couple of staff without masks, and that’s it.

The last stop was Costco. The last time we were there, there was someone at a booth offering masks. Again, there had been no issue with me saying I couldn’t wear one. Just a rather startled response. I think. Hard to tell behind the mask. In spite of all the booths, counters and cash registers being shielded, all the staff had to wear masks, though I did see a few face shields, instead.

Today, the woman in the booth with the masks, who had both mask and gloves on this time, immediately started using some kitchen tongs to pick up a surgical mask to offer me. I just told her “I can’t wear one, thanks”, and that was it. I think I saw maybe one or two other people without masks. I saw no staff wearing face shields this time.

In each place we went, things went smoothly. The only hitch was at Costco. The section where the toilet paper, facial tissues and paper towels usually are, was empty. Not a single product! Just a couple of pallets! I’d heard that people were starting to panic buy toilet paper again, but really? I wish I’d thought of it earlier and picked some up while we were at one of the other two stores. They had plenty of inventory. We have enough to last us a little longer, though. We’ll see if we have to make a second trip into the city later in the month. That partly depends on when we can get a plumber in to switch out the well pump, and how much that ends up costing.

Still, we managed to get pretty much everything we needed, and it was all nice and quick. No one gave me a hard time, which was greatly appreciated.

As we started heading out of the city, though, I did have to pull over and get my daughter to drive. My mystery pain in my side decided it was a good day to kick in. While shopping, I can use the cart as a walker, but it was getting difficult to sit up straight while driving.

The drive home saw us going through several downpours along with way, with wind gusts trying to push the van off the road. !! It sure felt good to get home – and to be restocked for at least most of the month, again.

Oh, I did have one splurge while at Walmart. I found and picked up a package of fermentation lids. I’ve never seen any other store with fermentation lids! These have a cap to fit a wide mouth jar, with a build in airlock and, instead of a fermentation weight, it has a spring to push things down.

Too bad we didn’t have these when we were pickling our squash! :-)

I’m thinking maybe we should pick up another cabbage and try making small batch sauerkraut again. :-)

Meanwhile, it looks like it will continue to be wet, chilly and unpleasant outside.

I think it’s time for a nice big pot of tea!

The Re-Farmer

Crab apple cider vinegar: straining day

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After three weeks (and a day) the crab apple cider vinegar has been strained.

For those new to this blog, you can catch up on the process by clicking on the following links. Each should open in a new tab, so you won’t lose your place.

Part 1: getting started
Part 2: oops
Part 3: progress

While I have not been checking on them every day, I have been checking regularly, and the last I did, it they still looked like this.

So it was a bit of a surprise when I brought the jars over to strain them, and saw this.

Oh, dear.

Both jars appeared to have mold at the top.

Now, part of what we’re doing this year is seeing if there’s a difference using cheesecloth to cover the top, or an airlock. Theoretically, because the cheesecloth allows oxygen in and an airlock doesn’t, the one with the cheesecloth should have been worse.

When I opened them up, though, there really wasn’t much difference. They both looked like this.

Yeah. Gross.

It seems the glass weight I used was not large enough to keep all the apple pieces below the level of liquid. Why it was enough to do so for almost 3 weeks, I don’t know.

On taking out the glass weight, I found that the pieces still immersed looked fine.

After scooping out the pieces at the top, the ones below all looked fine. The photo on the left is the jar that had the airlock, the one on the right had the cheesecloth.

I see no difference at this point.

After straining the pieces out, I checked them, and everything still looked fine. It was only the very top pieces that showed mold.

Took keep the experiment going, I made sure to do each jar from start to finish separately, cleaning and sanitizing the jars (and the airlock with its lid) before pouring the baby vinegar back.

The vinegar on the left is from the airlock jar. The one on the right is the cheesecloth jar.

Again, I see no difference between them.

Both of them also resulted in 2L (about half a gallon) of baby vinegar. If I weren’t testing the two different tops, I would have poured it all back into just one jar.

One thing I noticed very quickly when straining them, is that they both have a surprisingly strong alcohol smell. A rather pleasant one! I might have a bit of hard cider going at the moment!

No, I didn’t taste them.

The question is, will the mold that was at the top be a concern? Will the continued fermentation – which is really just controlled decomposition – eliminate any potential problems?

There’s only one way to find out.

Back they go to the old kitchen, for another three weeks. Then it’s tasting time before deciding to let it ferment for longer or not.

These are supposed to stay out at room temperature. Room temperature in the old kitchen is a fair bit lower than the rest of the house – which isn’t particularly warm, either! When I brought the jars over to strain them, I used the temperature gun and they were both at 12C. If we were wanting to make an alcohol, that would be too cold, but is it too cold for a vinegar?

Well, we’ll see how it is in three weeks!

The Re-Farmer

Crab apple cider vinegar, fermentation progress

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Today has been one of those write-off days.

Yesterday, we hit 27C/80F. An unexpected result of that is, all number of house flies and other flying insects emerged from wherever they were slumbering in the previous cool, and got into the house.

Which meant a night of cats making a ruckus while chasing bugs all over the house.

I got very little sleep.

Today was much cooler, but rather than being outside, taking advantage of it, I ended up passed out for a couple of hours.

Cuddled by a couple of cats, of course. The buggers! It’s a good thing they’re so cute.

Anyhow.

While puttering about the house, trying to get at least some productivity in, I was in the old kitchen and checked on the apple cider vinegar. It’s been a couple of weeks since I started – or should I say, restarted – them, so I figured it was time for a progress report.

For my new followers (welcome! Happy to see you here. :-) ), you can visit our first making of apple cider vinegar with our crab apples here. This year, we decided to make a larger quantity, with some experimentation. You can read about our first attempt here, and after discovering I made a really silly mistake, the reboot is written about here. (All links will open new tabs, so you won’t miss your place. :-) )

Here is how the jars look now.

The old kitchen is a very dark room. The south facing window has the sun room in front of it, so it doesn’t get any direct sunlight. The west window, which would normally provide a lot of light at the end of the day, is covered with aluminum foil (which predates our moving here), so there is zero light coming through there. The north facing window is what’s providing what light you can see in the above photo. Without turning the light on in the room, it was too dark to get a photo without moving to the window side of the jars.

This is a good thing. The instructions said to put the jars in a cupboard, and we just don’t have any with the space for these jars, so a room that never gets bright works just fine. The concern I had was how cold this room is. Fermentation requires warmth.

As you can see, there is no activity in the airlock at all. If there had been, the plastic cap on the inside would have been pushed to the top as it filled with CO2.

However, this is not the same as fermenting alcohol, so not seeing activity in the airlock does not necessarily mean nothing is happening.

And things are most definitely happening in there!

Both jars look the same. At this point, I see no difference between the one with the airlock and the one with the cheese cloth. Both have this layer of bubbles at the top, and when turning the jars to check them, more bubbles enthusiastically make their way up the jar. There most definitely is active fermentation going on.

One good thing about doing this in the larger jars like this: it’s nowhere near as messy as our first attempt! The fermenting vinegar had bubbled up enough to reach the coffee filter covering it and leaked a bit, inviting all sorts of fruit flies to check things out. This year, had I not had to throw away the first batch, with the its very full jars, it may well have bubbled up, and the one with the cheese cloth, at least, would likely have had a mess. There may be more headspace than needed in these jars now, but it seems to be better that way.

There also doesn’t seem to be any sign of mold or rot or anything of concern. The glass canning jar lids being used as fermentation weights are doing the job of keeping the floating apple pieces submerged.

So far, everything is looking good!

Next week we’ll hit the 3 week mark and, according to the instructions I’m following, that’s the time to strain out the apple pieces, return the vinegar to the jars, and let them sit for at least another 3 weeks.

I’m very curious to see if there will be a noticeable difference between the two jars.

The Re-Farmer

I am such a goof: crab apple cider vinegar reboot!

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Today, the girls and I worked on juicing apples and getting some hard crab apple cider started (which I will post about next). While I was de-stemming the crab apples and cutting off any nasty bits, they took care of sanitizing the gallon jugs and the various items that would be needed.

They usually did the sanitizing part during our few beginner attempts at making alcoholic drinks.

That’s my excuse!

You see, when I used sanitizer to start the crab apple cider vinegar a couple of nights ago, I made a mistake. A silly, forgetful mistake. A laughable mistake, even.

But for the cider vinegar, it was a deadly, disastrous mistake.

As I listened to the girls chatting while using the sanitation solution, then rinsing everything off and setting it aside on a towel to drip dry, I suddenly realized my horrible mistake.

When I sanitized everything for the vinegar, I set everything out to drip dry – but forgot to give them a final rinse, first. Which means, when I made the vinegar, everything had dried sanitizing solution on them.

There’s no way they’d be able to ferment at all!

Later, while my younger daughter and I were juicing apples, I mentioned it to her. Oh, my, the look on her face!

Sweetheart that she is, she took over the juicing while I went and got the jars.

There was, of course, no sign of bubbling in the air lock, but after only 2 days, would there have been any? I don’t know. However, when I opened them up, I could see they were already a loss. There may not have been any fermentation happening, but decomposition had already started at the very top. :-(

Thankfully, since I had prepped all the other apples for juicing, I was able to wash, sanitize and RINSE THE HECK OUT OF everything, then quickly chop apples into pieces for a new batch.

The only thing different from last time, aside from actually rinsing everything after sanitization, was to not fill the jars as much as I had before. The recipe had said to fill the jars 3/4 full. I think I was still over that, but the first batch was full almost to the top. Here, you can sort of see through the container they are in, that there is a fair bit of space under the floating apple pieces.

I foresee only one problem right now.

These are in the old kitchen and, right now, it’s pretty cold. It was cold enough today that the furnace actually turned on – and the thermostat was dropped quite low over the summer! As I write this, it’s already dropped to 4C (39F), and we have frost warnings for tonight. Amazingly, we’re supposed to go above 20C (68F) in a couple of days, but for now, it’s downright chilly! The old kitchen doesn’t have any heat going into it. Back in the day, with the wood stove going, it was a source of heat for the rest of the house, not the other way around! I don’t even know what the old kitchen has for insulation, if anything. It stays cools in the summer, and in the winter, it gets pretty close to freezing in there. We can actually use the room as an extra refrigerator in the winter.

The cider vinegar should be done well before we reach those sorts of temperatures all the time, but the next couple of days might slow things down a bit!

We shall see how it goes.

I still can’t believe I made such a silly mistake!

The Re-Farmer

Just One

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This year, I’ve been allowing various things to come up in between the sidewalk blocks by the sun room, instead of taking the weed trimmer to them, to see what is there.

Quite a lot of flowers have come up through the cracks and crevices between the rain barrel and the clothes line platform. Most of them are either the purple bell shaped flowers we’ve got all over the place this year, or a taller plant with bright orange-yellow flowers.

Then, there is this one.

And it is just one. A single stalk with a single flower! I can’t see any other part of the plant.

I don’t know what this is, other than something from the allium family.

What a beautiful little surprise. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Forget a post, getting one from the City Mouse

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So I am chatting with Re-farmer, old school on 2 landline phones. She has asked me to let you all know that her internet is not connecting with the rest of the world. A healthy, leafy tree is in the way! It will be a day or two to fix, and thought she would let you know she didn’t fall into the outhouse! So she will post as her connection gets fixed or when she goes into town for free wifi! Signing off, The City Mouse

I hope this works

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Posting may be sparse for a while. We have no internet. No signal, all day. I am currently writing this on my phone, while sitting in the corner of the living room that gets enough data signal to send and receive text. Barely. So I hope publishing this post works!

The Re-Farmer

Recommended: Dianxi Xiaoge

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Welcome to my “Recommended” series of posts. These will be weekly – for now – posts about resources and sites I have found over the past while that I found so excellent, I want to share them with you, my dear readers. 🙂 Whether or not I continue to post these, and how often they are posted, will depend on feedback. Please feel free to comment below, and if you have a favorite resource of your own, do share, and I will review them for possible future posts.

I hope you find these recommendations as useful and enjoyable as I have!

In the past, I’ve recommended a couple of Chinese YouTubers, Liziqi, which has been around for less than 3 years, and XiaoXi’s Culinary Idyll, which is only about a year old (at the time of this writing).

Today, I’m recommending a third Chinese YouTube channel I’ve been following; Dianxi Xiaoge. This channel, like the others, is a young one, and has been around for almost 2 years.

This channel has some similarities to the other two, in that it basically follows along as the host does various things. She does sometimes talk directly to the camera, but otherwise, there is only ambient conversation. The focus is on showing what and how she is doing various things, most involving the growing, harvesting, cooking and preserving of a wide variety of Yunnan food.

Dianxi Xiaoge’s videos do show a lot more other people, with various family members and others included.

There is another big star in these videos! Dawang the dog!

What a gorgeous, gorgeous animal!

While most of the videos are centered on food, there are a few exceptions, such as this video, on weaving a stool out of grass!

This one even includes text that explains what’s being done.

New videos are posted weekly, which is pretty impressive, considering the scope of some of them.

It must be so remarkable, to live in a place where such an astonishing variety of foods and spices grow.

It’s a bit of a thing to watch a pig’s head being used like that. When I was a kid, we sometimes had pigs. When we butchered them, we gave the head to the dogs.

Also, I totally intend make myself a cutting board out of a slab of tree, like the one she uses. :-D

As a resource, there really isn’t a lot we can recreate ourselves, but I still find them inspirational, and the videos get me thinking outside of what I’m used to. I’m fascinated by the tools that get used, whether it’s the big cleaver she uses for everything from chopping up bones one minute, to making delicate slices the next, or the specialty blades and tools used for harvesting various plants, fruits, roots and more, to the various crocks, pots, baskets and more.

I hope you enjoy these videos as much as I do!

The Re-Farmer