Stuff
I suppose there’s one benefit to going out early to do my rounds this time of year.
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Found the spot
It’s been a busy couple of days, and any time I’ve gone to town during daylight, I’ve been trying to spot where I went through the ditch. I only had a vague idea of where it was, since I was a little too distracted to notice landmarks or anything. ;-)
It was the only area with tire tracks through the ditch, so when I did spot some, I knew it had to be ours.
I found more things to be thankful for and surprised about.
One was the location. It was farther away than I thought it was. I was able to drive quite far before that tire went completely flat!
The other was the ditch itself. I was heading towards a marshier area, and the ditch on that side of the road became wider and shallower, instead of being the deep V earlier in my drive, or farther down the road, past the marshy area. Another reason I was able to get out of the ditch at all!
Also, what I had thought was fence posts in my headlights, wasn’t.
They were trees.
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Fantastic news! also… what?
First things first, I got fantastic news this morning!
I came in from doing my morning rounds to find my husband on the phone; the garage had called about my mom’s car.
There is no damage.
None.
Not even the flat tire!
They pumped it up and checked it, and there’s not even a leak. It looks like the seal got broken at the rim and the air just leaked out. The tire and rim are just fine.
He did suggest an alignment, considering what happened, which I was planning to ask for already. They were already putting the tire back while he was talking to me, so the alignment is all that will need to get done.
Now I have to figure out when I can come pick it up with a second driver. :-/ He said there was no hurry on that. They’ll have it ready and waiting for me whenever I can.
So that is a HUGE relief!
Then there was the weird thing.
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Mead Baby 2.0: second fermentation
First, the back ground, for those who are new to this blog. (Welcome!) All links will open in new tabs, so you won’t lose your place. :-)
Mead Baby, redux
Mead Baby 2.0: active fermentation
Mead Baby 2.0: it’s a temperature thing
Mead Baby 2.0: temperature success
We’ve been keeping a close eye on our baby mead, keeping the temperature at the warm end of the temperature range recommended. If it dropped to 16C, I would turn on the electric heating pad to the “warm” setting, and that would bring it back up to 18C.
We could see bubbles inside the airlock, so there was still active fermentation – something we’re pretty sure had stopped completely well before this point in our first batch. The “burp” had dropped to about 23-27 seconds apart and seemed to be staying there for the past few days, so my daughter and I planned to transfer the must to another 1 gallon glass carboy for a second fermentation today.
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How things are this morning
After our adventure last night, I’m rather impressed by my current lack of pain this morning! :-) I expected to at least be stiffening up by now, but at the moment, there’s just some minor tension in my neck and shoulders. I’m taking pain killers, anyway, but that’s really more for my arthritis.
I really don’t know a whole lot about my mother’s car, but my older brother had tried to help her with it a lot over the years, and knows it a lot better than I do. I wasn’t able to fill him in on what happened last night, but he was able to take a few minutes from work and call me this morning.
I was reminded of another reason it’s a good thing this happened in my mother’s car, and not our van.
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Thank you, Jesus!!
Okay, so the adrenaline rush is over, and my hands are no longer shaking.
What a rush!
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Bonus pictures: sleep cuddles
I just had to share these pictures of David and Cheddar. So adorable!
Dave, in mid yawn, looks like he’s telling me off!
So many teeth!
That black blur on the bottom?
That’s a cat tail photo bombing me. :-D
The Re-Farmer
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On Ice
I was able to swing by the lake this morning. I’d been able to swing by yesterday, as well, and saw that the first few ice fishing sheds were being put up. Today, there were a few more.
I stayed nice and warm in the car to take this photo – I wasn’t about to walk to the beach just to get pictures in this cold! LOL
To the left of the photo is a large mound on the beach. That is sand that was dredged out of the storm drain, after the blizzard we had in early October.
The ice is now thick enough to be safe to drive on, so ice fishing season can start. The “road” to this area is cleared of snow.
I wasn’t able to get pictures, but on the other side of the ice road, I could see vehicles in the distance, and snowmobiles pulling loads across. This is the area where a track has been cleared and people could get lessons in ice driving. Police and ambulance drivers also used the track to practice on. It looks like the organizers are starting to set up with that. No track is cleared yet, but that didn’t stop one car that I saw from going on the ice and spinning around through the loose snow.
That brings back memories! As a passenger, though, not a driver. :-D
It’s interesting to think about how there are entire industries and businesses that rely on ice like this!
The Re-Farmer
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Fermented vegetable sauerkraut, take two: four week taste test
Well, today is the day!
It’s now been 4 weeks since I put up my second attempt at these. If you missed the earlier posts, you can click here, or read about our 2 week taste test here (likes will open new tabs).
Since the recipe I got from my friend said 2 – 4 weeks fermentation, I wanted to see what difference the extra time made.
I continued to monitor the jar over time, and did end up adding some water once, as the brine evaporated enough that the top was no longer covered. Both jars had been topped up in the previous two weeks. In keeping with the changed made after our first, failed, attempt I only used either water that had been previously boiled, or bottled water, just to be on the safe side in regards to our well water.
As you can see in this picture, the brine was no longer quite covering the cabbage leaf, even after being topped up. The leaf itself had floated out of position, though, so I wasn’t too concerned. The main thing is that there is NO sign of mold!
Here, with the cabbage leaf removed, you can see that the vegetables were still covered with brine.
Once again, no sign of mold! Yay!
Then came time for the taste test! After digging some out (and I do mean dig! The contents were very tightly packed. :-D ), I put a regular lid on the jar and refrigerated the rest, which will stop the fermentation.
So… how did it taste?
To be honest, I’m not sure I can tell what difference the extra two weeks made! It still had a nice crunchy texture, and didn’t seem to be any more sour. If I really had to come up with something different, I would say that perhaps the flavours were a little more blended, but even that would be a stretch.
I am also still getting that hint of after taste from one of the ingredients that I don’t really like. I wonder if it’s the ginger? Or maybe the parsley? Definitely not the garlic. Hmm.
I definitely will be doing this again, though I think I will modify the recipe and simplify it. Maybe keep the carrot and garlic, but drop the ginger and parsley, and see what difference that makes.
Altogether, this batch was definitely a success.
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 