picture of the day

Catching Up

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I spent almost no time at all at the desktop, so I only managed to upload the one video from my phone, yesterday.  Alas, I was only able to get a couple of cat pictures at our feeding station with the Nikon before it died again, but I did get some other photos on my phone.  I wasn’t able to process any until today, though.  So I’ll just catch up now. :-)

The big news is that the moving company paid up!  We are now DONE with them!  I’ve sent off an email to the electrician we got the quote from to start arrangements.  I don’t know how often he checks his email, though, so I’ll follow up with a phone call today.  Even if it can’t be done until the spring, we have the money for it now, which is SUCH a relief.

It was another thoroughly entertaining day at the feeding station again.  It started out with Hungry Girl and Barbecue enthusiastically running over, Hungry Girl in the lead.

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It makes me happy to see her increased energy.  I like to think that the food that we are leaving out, in a safe location, is helping her get healthier.  I still wonder about the relationship between her and Barbecue, and why they are pretty much always together, even when Barbecue keeps striking at her with his hooves to drive her off.  At least now, she mostly just moves to another pile of feed.  Another thing I’m glad we started to do – put the feed out in many small piles, instead of one big pile.  Hungry Girl seems to be more comfortable going to the ones closer to the house than Barbecue.

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The next time I saw major activity out there was when there where 5 cats in the feed!  Then I saw 3 of them were after a mouse and was able to get the video I posted yesterday.  There have been a few times when I’ve seen one of the cats bringing a tiny vole with it when I put their food out, or the remains of one by the food bowls outside, but this is the first time I’ve seen them go after something as big as that mouse.

Eventually, only The Hand kept after the mouse.  As I worked in my crochet corner, I could see her sitting there, then start batting at something in the snow.  Then I would see the mouse moving around a bit.  It seemed to figure out that if it didn’t move, The Hand would leave it alone longer.  At one point, I thought she was sitting right on it.  At another, I saw her suddenly leap into the air, clearly having been bit by the mouse.

Then Mama and the twins came by.

As you can see in the photo with the cats, there wasn’t much food left for them by then.  It took them quite a long time to get to it at all, though.

It was a standoff!

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(I look forward to when it’s warm enough to properly clean the windows on the outside!)

The Hand is the cat closest to the trees on the right.  I can’t tell if that’s Butterscotch or Beep Beep beside her.

The deer were all nervous about the cats, stamping their hooves into the ground and throwing their heads.

The cats?

Not the least bit intimidated.

Eventually, only The Hand was there, playing around with the poor mouse, completely ignoring the deer.  Mama and the twins eventually worked their way around to the feed, but it took them quite a long time.  They didn’t stay long.  After a while, The Hand got tired of the mouse and left, then Trüllbus took over, eventually finally eating the poor mouse.

It was quite the thing to watch while I worked.  I FINALLY finished off a double ended crochet potholder I was making.  The stitch I was using makes for a very thick fabric, but it also, unfortunately, stresses the hand and causes pain in the palm under the thumb.  I found I had to set it aside for days at a time.  I regularly do the recommended stretches and exercises to prevent injury (yes!  There is such a thing as crochet injuries!), but sometimes, the only thing that can be done is to put it away.

Among the other things that got accomplished yesterday was to drop our van off at my cousin’s, so he can work on it today.   I look forward to hearing from him soon!  It felt SO good to be driving my own van again, even with the noise the engine was making.

Then I found out my daughters were planning on going into the next town to see The Last Jedi.  The nearest town has a 1 screen theatre, and only 1 showing a night.  Most smaller towns that have movie theatres are basically second run, but this town is considered a resort town, so the owner (someone my husband and I graduated high school with) is able to pick first run movies.

I had wanted to see the new Star Wars movie, too, so I invited myself along.  Unfortunately, my husband’s pain levels were too high for him to join us, too. :-(

We left early, so we could take advantage of the trip into town and run some errands.  My younger daughter and I ran into the grocery store, where I ran into an old friend.  It was funny to hear her describe it to her sister.

“We were walking along when this guy reached out and touched Mom on the shoulder.  I thought it was weird, but then Mom hugged him, so I figured it was okay.” :-D

It was really good to see him again, and I finally got to meet his girlfriend in person, too.  Funny how you can be friends with someone on Facebook for years, without ever meeting them face to face.  Then, when you finally do, it doesn’t feel like meeting a stranger at all.

It turned out to be a really good thing I’d come along for the movie, though.  For all our searched online, we couldn’t find out what the admission cost was (turned out to be $10), but when we got to the ticket booth (with my old Math and Law teacher behind the glass!), we discovered they didn’t take debit.  Cash only!  Which, thankfully, I had, since I’d gotten cash to pay my cousin for the new water pump he’s going to install for me.

Somehow, I thought they wouldn’t have at least gotten a debit machine after all these years!

The movie was quite enjoyable.  It’s our first moving outing since well before the move.

A nice end to the day.

As for today, I’m mostly waiting on word from my cousin to pick up our van.  I should probably move my phone to someplace where I can get some signal, in case he chooses to text me again.

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Meanwhile, we’ve already had a very enthusiastic visit from Hungry Girl and Barbecue again.  We also got a visit from a woodpecker!  A “hairy woodpecker”, I believe the variety is called. No chance of a photo, though.  They’re not attracted to seeds, so it was quite a surprise to see one at one of the piles, even if it was for just a few seconds.

Hmm.  I wonder if Mama and the twins will be back again today?

The Re-Farmer

Five!

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This morning, things were quiet at our feeding station.  Basically, just a few birds.  Then, after I put more feed out, I was able to get this shot…

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Butterscotch, in the middle of a pile of seeds, watching the birds flying in and out around her.

Sadly, those were the last photos our Nikon was able to get today.  Though I took more shots, and some even showed up on the preview screen, as they normally do when they’re saved to the memory card, none were actually there when I looked at the card. So even when it seemed to be working, the camera wasn’t working.

Which left me using my phone for any other shots I managed to get when the deer arrived, shortly before noon.

My goodness, what a show!

I could see some movement through the spruces, into the garden, letting me know that a deer was coming.  Then, as that one started dashing around the edge of the trees by the garden, I could see more.  Soon, there were FIVE deer, all running over around the corner of the spruce grove!

Hungry Girl had been in the lead, but the other four soon drove her off.  She stayed by the compost pile near the garden for a while, as Barbecue, Mama and the twins began eating.  Then Mama chased away Barbecue, who went over by Hungry Girl and stayed.  After a while, Barbecue started come come closer, only to get chased away by one of the twins!  As if that wasn’t surprise enough, Hungry Girl not only stood her ground, but chased the twin.  It worked out to chasing it back to the feed, but still, it was good to see Hungry Girl standing up for herself.

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Farthest away on the left, Hungry Girl, with Barbecue nearby.  At the feed, the twins are in front, while Mama is behind one of them.

Then Mama chased them both off.

Over the next while, there was all sorts of back and forthing, as the deer chased each other to assert dominance (Mama is the Alpha.  No question!).  Then I saw the twins running around, thinking at first that they were going after Hungry Girl and Barbecue, but no.  They were just playing!

Eventually, Mama and the twins left, and Hungry Girl came running in for her turn at the feed.  Barbecue came around, too, and started to chase her off, but she instead moved to another pile of feed, and they ate together.

It was just incredible to watch them!

My husband and I are now talking about getting a motion sensor camera outside, to record some of the activity out there.  It was something I’d considered already; a system something like what my older brother has around his out.  Plus a remote control gate!  If we set one up at the corner of the house by the living room window, we should be able to get all kinds of cool activity. :-)

All in good time.

Things quieted down when the feed was pretty much gone.  The birds still found enough to come back.

Then this guy showed up.

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This tiny little guy was very shy and nervous coming over, alone.  After looking closely at the photos, this is either a new visitor, or one of the twins, come back on its own.

Either way, it’s so cool!!!!

The Re-Farmer

 

 

Old and New

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One of the areas I had on my list to tackle today was my desk.

Yes, the desk I’ve been using for a while now.

I’d emptied the drawers and packed away the contents that used to belong to my dad, but that was as far as it got.  Today, I was going to clean them out, so that I could start unpacking some things into them.

Oh, dear. Continue reading →

Sourdough Bread Variation: Cheese and Olive Roll

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Today, we made another variation of the Quick and Easy Sourdough Bread recipe.

For the last while, we’ve been making a Black Olive and Cheddar variation that has been so delicious.  With today’s bread baking, I did two loaves this way.

The other two loaves were made into rolled loaves.  The other change was that I used the liquid from our yogurt “cheese” making.

I also made another technique variation, by accident. :-D

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As I usually do when using sourdough, I pre-measured all the ingredients, using a doubled recipe.  At this point, the only change is the type of liquid.

Following the recipe, I added the yeast, starter, sugar, salt and 4 cups of flour into the liquid, mixing well.  It’s been a while since I’ve made it, as my younger daughter has been the enthusiastic bread baker for the last while.  The batter seemed thinner than usual, but so was the starter, and that was what the recipe said, so I went with it.  When it was well mixed, I covered the bowl and set it aside in a sun spot, then headed out for a quick run into town with my younger daughter to get some unexpected necessities.

While we were gone, my older daughter chopped up a can of black olives and shredded some Old cheddar cheese for me.

While out and about and chatting, I mentioned what I’d done with the bread so far, then realized…

I’d forgotten to double the quantity of flour.  It should have been 8 cups, not 4! :-D

No worries.  I knew that doing it this way would result in a sponge, and I was good with that variation.

This is what it looked like when we got back, about an hour later.

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Look and that beautiful chemical reaction!  So bubbly. :-D

Normally, after rising, the soda is kneaded into the dough with 1 cup of flour.  Since I was working with a sponge, I stirred in 2 more cups first, then added the soda with the 3rd cup of flour.  By the 4th cup, I was mixing it in by hand and continued to knead in more flour, little by little, in the bowl until it was thick enough to start kneading on the table.

I didn’t add much more flour after that.

After well kneading the dough, I divided it in half and set one part aside.  With the remaining half, I cut it in half again for two loaves.  With each piece, I kneaded them a bit before rolling them out into rectangles.  Leaving an edge all around, I spread out some chopped olives and shredded cheese.

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Typically, I would have brushed melted butter on the dough, first, but I didn’t feel like melting any butter, so I just used the cheese and olives alone.  After rolling the dough up, I pinched the seams to seal them and tucked the ends under before placing the rolled loaf into an oiled baking pan.  I started preheating the oven in between shaping the two loaves.

When the rolled loaves were done and waiting to go into the oven, I took the rest of the dough and kneaded in the olives and cheddar, as we have been doing normally for the past while.  The moisture of the olives does require adding a bit more flour as it’s being kneaded in.

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With these loaves, I slashed the tops so they wouldn’t split while rising in the oven.  I also rubbed the tops with oil (I’d forgotten to do that with the rolled loaves before putting them in the oven).

They took about 35 minutes to finish baking.

Despite my pinching the seams to seal the rolls, cheese still managed to escape and overflow on one side of each loaf, just a bit.

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Oh, did they ever turn out wonderful!

As of this writing, 1 1/2 loaves are already eaten.  It was basically supper! :-D

Oh, they were so good!

My daughters have asked me to keep doing these rolled loaves from now on.  They are liked even better than just kneading the olives and cheese into the dough.

While I was waiting on the loaves to bake, I posted a couple of pictures on my Facebook page.  A friend of mine asked me if I were interested in some whey in the spring, if she has any left over.

Of course, I said yes!

I have awesome friends.

As for the use of the yogurt liquid instead of water, there wasn’t a huge taste difference; the olives and cheese overpower it, really.  The texture was finer, though, and the bread moister and lighter.

This variation was a definite success!

The Re-Farmer

A Good Day

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The winds continued to blow all night; though they died down by morning, that was purely relative, as they were still quite high!

Our deer feed and bird seed had been covered, but by morning, the snow was dug up in each of the spots I’d put them in, and there was very little left.  So we know that we do have deer coming in during the night to feed.

I’ve very glad to here from my husband that the mama and her twins were back this morning, though from the looks of the ground, it was already dug up before they got there.

Even before we had a chance to put more food out, Barbecue came by, soon followed by Hungry Girl, though she stayed away from the feed.  They ran off before my daughter went over with more food, and I never saw if they came back during the day or not.

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The birds and squirrels were sure busy, though!

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The camera still seems to be working fine again, though I’ve cut down the number of photos I take quite dramatically, so no photos of the chipping sparrows, grosbeaks and chickadees today.

I was busy, anyway.

Since we weren’t going to do the trip to the city we normally would when pay comes in, I focused on more unpacking.  Or partial unpacking, as it were.  There were a couple of small book boxes that had been partially unpacked and waiting in the living room, so I cleared out some shelf space in one of the dividers between living and dining room.  That included finally unpacking a curio shelf I have and getting my daughters to hang it on the wall in my crochet corner.  Much of what I had to move still isn’t in their permanent places, but their permanent places aren’t ready yet.

Almost all the books fit into the one shelf I was able to clear, though some had to go into the wall shelf in the master bedroom.  That space is beginning to turn into a catchall space, and I don’t like it.  Not much choice right now, though.

A bit of re-arranging in the bedroom meant I was able to unpack my cookbooks, too.  Again, they are not in their permanent space, but at least they’re out and accessible.

Then there were the big boxes sitting on the piano.

Ugh.

One, I went through and ended up breaking down a lot of packaging from camera and lens purchases for the burn barrel.  We’d kept the original packaging and receipts in storage for years, and there were even accessories in there.  I found the original packaging for one of my husband’s first smart phones, too!  The Treo.  Oh, how phones have changed over the years!  The other box was one the movers packed.  A very strange combination of things from various rooms, inefficiently packed.  There was even a folding step stool in there, turned upside down and used like a basket, rather than folded closed.  Again, it looks like they just tossed things into the box.

And we’re still missing things.  In fact, I just realized we’re missing both our irons.  I didn’t even think of it until I was looking at our ironing board, leaning against the wall by the piano, wondering where I can put it.  That’s when I realized I haven’t seen our irons in any of the boxes.  We pretty much never iron anymore, so they weren’t something we’d miss right away.

A strange thing to go missing.

Now that the movers have paid up for our broken stuff, I no longer need to hang onto them, so that box got cleared off the piano, too.  The only thing in that box we can try to salvage is the latch hook wall hanging made by my late mother in law.  We’ll have to replace the broken wood hanger.  We should be able to remove it without damaging the mesh.  The rest of the broken stuff in the box is garbage now.

But the top of the piano is clear now, so we can hang up that antique mirror of my mother’s, above it, and eventually put some stuff on display on the piano itself.  Like the creepy, creepy baby doll wearing one of my baby dresses that my mom gave me, and has somehow managed to creep its way into our hearts.

The stuff of nightmares, that thing is.  I love it! :-D

The cats, meanwhile, are very happy to be able to go on the top of the piano again.

Altogether, I finished unpacking 5 more boxes today.  A very good day! As of right now, the only things left to unpack are all in my office.

My tiny little office.

I’ll figure something out… :-D

Granted, I still need to deal with our 90 gallon aquarium, which I’ve left wrapped in the foam pieces I’d taped around it to protect it.  The plan had been to set it up at an angle in the corner, then focus on aquascaping, once filled.  My aquatic plants are doing very well in the 20 gallon tank they’re in now, but when I set up the big tank, I also want to get plants that grow a lot taller for the background, and dwarf grasses for the foreground.  I will need to find someplace to get replacement parts and hoses for my brand of filter first, though, and I’ll also need to check and make sure the additional weight once it’s filled won’t be a problem.  If it were just the piano or just the aquarium, I’d be less concerned, but both in the same general area of the living room? I’d rather play it safe!

Little by little, it’s getting done!

The Re-Farmer

 

 

 

Critter Pics and… sadness

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I only have a couple of critter pictures for you today, and both were taken with my phone camera.

I took many photos using the digital camera we keep on a tripod by our living room window, but then the camera died.

Then it worked again.

Then it died again.

Then it started doing weird things, like the viewfinder going completely black and the shutter getting stuck open.  Not being able to focus.  Error messages showing up.

My husband is the camera guy, and he opened it up, did some cleaning and checked it out.  The cleaning seemed to have helped a bit, but then the problems all started up again.

It looks like the camera body is on its last legs.  We hadn’t used it for so long, then suddenly we were taking probably an average of 150 photos a day.  It may not have handled that well!

When I uploaded the memory card onto the computer, there were only a few photos, taken later in the day.  Everything I’d taken before then was gone.

Our older daughter has offered to lend us hers; she has a Nikon D80, too.  I’m now paranoid that if I start using her camera, it’ll end up like ours.

Something else to add to the list of expensive things we’ll need to replace.  As much as I love my phone’s camera, it still can’t do as well as a good DSLR and some quality lenses.

*sadness*

We did get one deer visit today.

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This is Barbecue.  Hungry Girl didn’t show up today.  At least not that I saw.

I later saw that my brother’s dog had come out to check on his van, and that may be what has the deer’s attention in this photo.

The van is parked in front of the main entry, outside the kitchen window.  It was when I noticed the dog that I also saw this…

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Nasty Crime Boy and Rolando Moon were checking out the dog – and me! – through the window.

The Re-Farmer

 

 

Black Olive and Cheddar Sourdough variation

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For the past while, we’ve been using Sir Sour Alot to bake 4 loaves of bread, every other day.  Give or take.  We’ve been using the Quick and Easy Sourdough Bread recipe each time because… well… it’s quick and easy.

When it came to the final kneading of the dough, before shaping into loaves, that’s when we would get creative and start kneading in other ingredients.  Garlic powder, grated dry Parmesan or Asiago cheese, or both together (both from the Bulk Barn), rolled oats, shredded cheddar cheese, etc.  Whatever we have in the cupboard that we thought to try.

Yesterday I needed to make a quick run into town, so I was able to pick up a can of sliced black olives.  I used half the can, chopping the black olives up finer, and kneaded it in to half the dough, together with about a cup of shredded cheddar.  (We kneaded rolled oats into the other half.)

We also used warm potato water, drained from the potatoes I’d made for supper, as the liquid.

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This is what they looked like, by the time the other loaves were done in the oven and I was about to put these in.  When kneading the shredded cheddar and olives into the dough, the cheddar basically disintegrates and gets completely worked into the dough.  So you can’t really see it, but you sure can taste it!

It took all our will power to finish off the last of the previous baking we did before going into the fresh loaves!  Two of which went into the freezer as soon as they were completely cooled.

This morning, we tried the olive and cheddar loaf, toasted.

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It was so incredibly delicious, we’re now thinking of making ONLY olive and cheddar bread from now on!

Since Sir Sour Alot expanded so enthusiastically last night, maybe we’ll do some extra baking tonight.  I even picked up more cheese – old, rather than medium, cheddar, for the extra tang.

So, to summarize, to the basic recipe we made the following changes:

  • substituting potato water for regular water in the recipe.
  • adding chopped black olives and shredded cheddar cheese (medium) to the dough during the final kneading.

I look forward to when we can start making yogurt cheese again.  After draining the liquid off the yogurt to make the cheese, I would use the liquid to bake bread, and it’s even better than potato water.

The Re-Farmer

Our Pot Overfloweth

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We need a bigger pot for Sir Sour Alot!

This is what I came out to, this morning.

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No, that is not a ladybug on the counter in the bottom right of the photo.  It’s an Asian Lady Beetle.  And they are EVERYWHERE this year!

Since transforming Sir Sour Alot, we have been using it about every other day, feeding with just flour, water and a bit of sugar, as usual.

Yesterday, I boiled potatoes for supper and kept the water I drained for bread baking.  Because using potato water when baking bread is delicious.

Since I had as much potato water as I did, after I poured out enough starter for a doubled recipe of bread, I figured I’d use some of it to feed the starter instead of plain water.  I’d measured out 2 cups of starter, which left very little behind, so I added about 2 1/2 cups flour and maybe 2 cups of potato water, with about a tablespoon of sugar, to feed it.

There are pretty standard amounts.  I’ve added as much as 3 cups of flour into this container when there was nothing but dregs left after use.  I’ve had it over flow only once before, when the container was placed on the stove, where it was warmer.

While we were working on the bread last night, we noticed that Sir Sour Alot had started to overflow.  Clearly, it liked the potato water!  I stirred it down and figured it had already reached its peak expansion for the night.

Boy was I wrong!

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Not only did it overflow the pot and the bowl under it, it went down the counter, all the way to the floor!

We need a bigger container.

We don’t boil potatoes all that often, but when we do, I plan to treat Sir Sour Alot with some potato water in the future (not to be confused with “rich potato water”, which is potato mashed into the water).  It obviously really does well with it!

The Re-Farmer

Our Cat is Broken Again

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We have had many cats over the years. At one point, we were an impromptu cat shelter and had a dozen of them at once, but only a couple were ours.

We have never had a cat that liked to do this at all, never mind so frequently. It seems he’s more comfortable upside down than right side up!

The Re-Farmer