Morning cats (videos)

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The outside cats have been quite entertaining, the last couple of days.

Before heading out to do my rounds yesterday morning, I saw Beep Beep going up one of the trees outside my window – soon followed by Slick. I figured they were heading for the roof again.

When I got to the feeding station, I found Beep Beep, out on a limb. :-D

I think this was her way to get away from the boys!

Now I know why I’m finding small branches where the path I made around the house turns. She’s directly above that spot! :-)

Then, this morning, I went to the feeding station and found the platform feeder occupied.

Ah, Rolando Moon. So violent in her friendliness!

Not all in the morning rounds is fun stuff, though.

Normally, when I do my rounds, Butterscotch comes to join me. The last couple of days, I never saw her at all; not even curled up in the sun room. The last time I’d seen her was when I took her picture, in this post. When I didn’t see her at all for so long, I feared the worst.

This morning, while I was putting food and water out in the sun room, suddenly she was there! She is still not looking good. One eye had been leaking, and it was stuck shut. She seemed to be cough-sneezing a lot, too. But she was eating and drinking, and moving around more sprightly than the last time I saw her, so that’s encouraging. I do hope the warming weather we’re supposed to have is a help to her. According to the long term forecast, we’re supposed to be just below freezing in about a week, then actually go above freezing!

We’ll see if that actually happens.

The Re-Farmer

Prepping the fire pit

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I was able to head out and work on the fire pit area, including getting a fire going to clear the pit out for a future cook out.

I ended up being out there for about 2 hours!

After getting as much snow out of it as I could with it full of wood, I made use of the fire starter cubes I picked up while in town earlier. I figured it was the most efficient way to get a fire going, with all that snow.

I was right. :-D

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All set, and checking things out

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Yesterday was a fairly long day, as the girls and I made another trip into the city. Which should be the last supply trip needed. From now on, anything we’ll need over the month can be picked up locally.

Of course, before we headed out, I fed the critters. As I was putting food and water in the sun room, I discovered I had some quiet company.

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Critter of the Day: Cold Redpoll

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Finally starting on February critter pictures!

For the next few days, it’ll be birds, birds, birds. :-)

First up, a chilly little redpoll with her chickadee buddy.

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She looks like she’s even squinting from the cold!

Getting Steamed

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We got to try out the new bamboo steamers last night, and these are the results!

First up; pork and mushroom bao.

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I was sure I’d bought some frozen bao, but I looked at so many things, I think I actually bought the in-house made bao at the same counter I got the dumplings. Either that or the buns were completely thawed out by the time we got home. Since the other frozen food wasn’t, that seems unlikely.

They were the first things my daughter prepared in the steamer. The instructions I found suggested putting something as a liner in the steamer, such as cabbage leaves or parchment paper, so food wouldn’t stick. These already had their own little parchment papers under them, so no extra liner was needed.

The dough was satiny soft and tender, and they were delicious. They did tend to stick a tiny bit to their papers, which is much better that than sticking to the steamer tray! :-)

The variety tray of dumplings I got had so many that, even with 3 steamer trays holding 5 dumplings each, they had to be cooked in batches. These also did not need anything to line the trays, since they are each wrapped in their own little cabbage leaf.

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The first batch was pork dumplings.

Definitely my favourites. I realize these are just “grocery story” dumplings, and I’m sure purists would be quite unimpressed, but boy did they ever hit the spot. Meaty and juicy and full of flavour!

The tray also included seafood dumplings; about half as many as the pork ones.

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Personally, I found them too strongly fishy in taste; something my daughters did not find at all. There isn’t a lot of seafood I like, so the girls happily ate the rest of my share! :-D They preferred these to the pork ones. The dumplings were big, heavy and dense with seafood. No skimping, here!

The store we got these at have other varieties that were not included in the mixed tray I got, and we look forward to trying others the next time we shop there!

Now that we’ve broken the steamers in and have an idea of how to use them, it’s time to break out some of my cook books. I have dim sum recipes that I would love to try out!

The Re-Farmer

On Ice

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I took this video a few days ago, while my daughter and I were out playing Pokemon Go (Clamperl is adorable!). We were parked by the lake, which was busier than usual.

Yes, that is open water at the front! There is a storm drain where the open water reaches the shore. Just up the street behind us, there was a major water main break, so lots of flowing water at a time of year when there is normally none. The side of the street, completely engulfing what is normally the parking lane, was a river of water stretching the length of the block. No surprise that much water did this to the ice.

This is also where vehicle access to the ice, with an ice road to the ice fishing shacks, is. It was blocked today, for an event. A track is cleared on the ice, and people get to learn how, or practice, driving on ice.

The ice fishers don’t have much season left. The official word is that it all has be cleared off by March 10. Counting today, they’ve got just 12 days left. With the bitter cold we’ve had this winter, I would not be surprised if the ice were still safe to drive on, even after that, except for the fact that they will be going out with ice breakers after the 10th. This lake is big enough for tides. Without breaking up the ice first, as it weakens and rots in warmer weather, the tide will break it up and push it in, damaging docks (the permanent parts that don’t get taken ashore in the fall) in the process.

The Re-Farmer