tradition

The morning so far

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So far, so good, I can say!

Heading out to do my morning rounds, I was happy to see the cat with the messed up eye curled up in the cat bed under the heat lamp again. Unfortunately, the garbage can in there got knocked down again, and he didn’t like me picking it up and cleaning around him much, so he moved away. Not far, though. In fact, I had to push him aside to be able to open the doors to go outside!

Because he moves so slowly, I was able to pet his back a few times. Then, when I was finishing up and going through the sun room to go back inside, I found him like this.

I’m happy to see him cuddling with the tabby. He actually seemed to be shaking a bit, as if cold. Definitely not a well cat.

I did get a good look at his face today, though. I was concerned that both eyes were troublesome, but the other eye is a bright and clear golden colour. The messed up eye’s inner eyelids seem to be swollen, so I could only see part of it.

I counted 30 cats in the yard this morning. While feeding them on the cat house roof, I even got to pet one of the tuxedos! I had the usual cats pushing in for attention, and he seemed quite curious about the whole thing. I got to pet him a few times, and he didn’t seem to be sure what to make of it! I even got to pet Caramel a bit, though she’s one that turns around and starts batting at my hand – claws out! – even as she comes closer instead of running away. A bit like how Rolando Moon will come in for pets, then turn around and try to bite or claw the hand the pets her!

After all the outside stuff was done, I got a loaf of bread for our Easter basket baking. I’m trying a new recipe for overnight, no-knead bread. It’s pretty basic; flour, yeast and water, with optional salt and sugar (I used both salt and sugar). I mixed the dough up late last night, then left it the oven to proof overnight. I prewarmed the oven before putting it in, just enough to make it not-cold. This morning, it was all nice and fluffy. It got scraped down and shaped into a round loaf, which got baked in a parchment paper lined cast iron pan. I also had a pan with water in it, on the lower rack, to add steam to the oven. The recipe said to bake at 425F for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. I ended up adding an extra 15 minutes!

So that is now cooling in the cat free zone.

While tending the seed starts and turning on the lights this morning, I shifted things again. The San Marzano tomato seedlings are now in the mini-greenhouse frame at at the window, where they can get a breeze from the fan to help strengthen their stems.

As of last night, the very first of the short season peppers broke ground, as well as our very first Butterfly Flower! Once more seedlings have emerged, I’ll move them off the heat mat to the other side of the tank, then get the luffa, Crespo squash and drum gourds planted and set on the heat mat.

It also seems like we have finally gotten ahead of the game with our slow drainage problem. When we were finally able to flush properly, we’d get gurgling noises from the tub drain, but now even that has pretty much gone away. The regular use of the bio maintenance stuff is really making a difference. We’ll have to make sure to keep a good supply of the stuff on hand, so we don’t run out and suddenly can’t find it again. One thing we hadn’t done since the tank was cleared was use the Septo Bac we normally do. This stuff comes in powder form, in premeasured envelopes. The contents get flushed down the toilet once a week, to inoculate the tank with bacteria and enzymes to break things down, including hair, food and grease. It does nothing for the pipes, though. I’m not sure that we want to use both at the same time. I’m not sure what having too much bacteria in the septic tank would do to it! I’ll have to look that up.

Meanwhile, we are making sure to turn the septic pump on and leave it running for about 5 minutes, particularly when we are using a lot of water at a time, like doing laundry or taking showers. So far, everything is working out.

My mother called me last night and we talked a bit about the plumbing issues. She was wondering why we hadn’t called a plumber yet, and I had to explain that we have to wait until our taxes are processed and I get my return. Getting the pill switch done, I’m going to assume will be in the $300 range, including the labour. Our plumber has a flat rate for drain cleaning that is almost $300 for the work and 1 hour. If they have to replace parts or if it takes longer, that gets added on. So I’m guessing we’re looking at a minimum of $600 for both jobs. My mother’s response was to start talking about how she never had to worry about stuff like this, because she had “the boys” to take care of everything.

That doesn’t stop her from trying to tell me what to do!

I reminded her of how it took us a while to find a plumber that had the equipment to clear the floor drain in the old basement that was clogged with roots and sand. She thought I was talking about the sump pump reservoir, at first, but that’s a completely isolated system. I reminded her of back when we had a wringer washing machine, and she would drain the tub into the hole in the floor, and then she remembered where I was talking about. Then she asked just how there could be roots in there, so I reminded her of how a rain barrel and been left to overflow for most of a rainy summer, before we moved out here. By the time my brother found the damage it caused, the corner of the new part basement it was near had water seeping through and mold growing. Now we can see sand and roots coming from the weeping tile through the floor drain towards the septic tank.

That got my mother to talking about the problem of trees growing too close to the house, and in particular, the one in front of the kitchen window. Shortly after we moved in here, we talked to my brother about the need to get rid of that tree. My mother objected to getting rid of any trees, most of which she planted. She planted that one to shade the kitchen window, because it got so hot in the summer.

I’m not sure why she didn’t just get blinds or a shade.

Anyhow, it’s taken a few years of explaining how the branches are endangering the (now new) roof, and the roots are lifting the patio blocks, plus cracks are starting to show in the basement wall under the kitchen.

Well, suddenly she’s now telling me I should get rid of that tree. We should just cut it down – I have her permission! 😄 I told her, because this tree is so close to the house and has branches hanging over the roof (despite our attempts to cut them back a few times), this is something we need to hire someone for. Someone with all the equipment to do it safely and not damage the roof. We can see where people have cut this tree back a few times, on the yard side, which means the heaviest branches are on the house side. We can’t just cut the tree down from the base, because it will want to fall towards the house, not away from it.

At this point, my mother started giving me instructions on using ropes to keep it from falling towards the house, and so on. Which, if the tree were not so close to the house, might actually be possible. I tried to explain that to make sure the roof doesn’t get damaged, it needs to be taken down in pieces.

That’s when she started telling me that my brother can take care of it!

I said no. Not even my brother has the equipment needed to safely remove that tree, without damaging the roof! I tried to describe to her what the tree removal company did when we had them come in to clear trees from the power lines and the roof on the north side of the house, but then she lost interest and just told me, I knew what to do! She’d leave it in my hands.

Uhm… yeah… that’s kinda why we’re living here! 😄

It’s funny how she will still try to control what my brother and I do out here, even though she made a big deal about washing her hands of the place when she moved away some 10 years ago. I even remember, after we moved in and the property was still in her name, she told me she didn’t want to ever come back to the farm again and didn’t have to worry about it anymore, because we were here! That didn’t last long. 😄 I am so glad my brother is our “landlord” now! She can get so enraged because we’re doing things differently that she did. Especially when it comes to the gardening. If she isn’t angry, she’s mocking. She mocks me for “wasting” money by buying seeds, for example. She never bought seeds, ever! She always saved her own! Well. Except maybe carrots. Or lettuce. I’m not sure where she thought I would get seeds from when there was nothing we could collect them from, but the fact that we bought seeds apparently means we are stupid with money. BUT, we should also have a huge and perfect garden, just like she did, and never have to buy groceries again…

Talk about selective memory! 😄

Now that we’ve got a few years of gardening behind us, she seems to finally be backing off, but she still gives me a hard time for trying to grow things she didn’t grow, or trying new things. Selective memory again. I know my parents tried new crops, along with the staples, pretty regularly! So why is it bad if I do the same thing? Ultimately, it’s a control issue. She just can’t let go of the place, and the idyllic memories she’s created for herself.

Ah, well. It is what it is. I just wish she treated my brother better!

Well, I sure went off topic, there… 😄

Later today, we’ll go through our baskets and decide which one to use. Oh… that was another thing my mother brought up during her call. Blessing of the baskets. She’s getting hers ready today, too, and basket blessings at her church will be at noon tomorrow. She was wondering when it was in the town closer to us, but I have no idea. I told her, she made it clear we and our basket are not welcome, so we’re just doing it ourselves. Her response was to offer to lend us a “cute” small basket (this after I’ve already told her we have a whole collection of baskets in various sizes). Another thing she can’t let go of. To her, our basket is just too big, and that’s wrong. I’m not sure where she gets this from. When I was a kid, sure, our main basket wasn’t quite as big, but it was still much larger than what she uses now. Plus, we usually had several of them. My late brother and I used to have our very own little baskets (I even found those old baskets while cleaning up the house, and we still have the one that wasn’t broken!). I’ve seen other families bring much larger baskets for blessing, too. Why it even matters to her, I have no idea. Just another thing where she’s decided that how she does things is the only possible correct way to do it, and everyone else is stupid and wrong for doing differently.

I’m glad she wasn’t this bad when I was a kid. It would have destroyed any joy in Easter and our traditions that I had. I even told her flat out, after she threw in a few more unfortunate comments, that she has done more to drive people away from the church than anyone I know. I think it went completely over her head. Ah, well.

We will continue our joyful traditions – including traditions we added ourselves – and remember what it is we are celebrating, instead of worrying about impressing other people, or what they think of us!

And that will include a nice big basket with the loaf of bread baked this morning.

I think the shallow round basket with the flat bottom will fit the round loaf and other contents the best. Then we can go through my collection of hand embroidered cloths and decide which to use as a cover this year. 😊

The Re-Farmer

Snow kitties, and that’s how far I got

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The outside cats are quite enjoying the warmer temperatures.

I snagged this picture through our bathroom window. The cats have knocked everything off that shelf, except for an organizer box in the corner that’s too heavy for them to casually push around.

They love this shelf!

They are also loving the paths to the electric meter and burn ring, now clear of snow.

Now that our angel of a neighbour cleared the driveway for us, that’s going to melt clear quickly, too. I just finished going through the trail cam files and took note of the time stamps. He showed up almost exactly an hour after I started clearing the end of the driveway.

This is how far I got in that hour. About 6 feet or so. Maybe 7. Granted, a lot of that time included having to use the ice scraper to break up the plow ridge before I could shovel it away, so it would have gone faster clearing ordinary snow. Still, it would probably have taken almost 2 more hours, just to clear up to the gate, where it was slightly deeper due to drifting. My daughter working at the other end with the little electric snow blower would not have been able to go much faster. It definitely would have taken us all day to get a path just wide enough to drive through, clear.

Which means we both would have been in a world of hurt, today – and we are set to drive to the city this afternoon!

Today is Holy Saturday, After I finish this, we’ll start assembling and blessing our baskets. We’re making a second one as a gift to bring with us this afternoon.

Time to get at it!

The Re-Farmer

First Sunday of Advent: Hope

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Normally, we would have started more decorating for Christmas by now, but none of us it up to it, yet. As of now, I’m the least sick person in the household!

I did want to get our Advent wreath set up, though.

Normally, it would have tiny decorations added to it, and a white candle in the middle, but the ornaments are still in their boxes. So I added its mini light string, and stuck our miniature nativity scene in the middle.

We also usually set it up on a counter between the dining room and kitchen, but for now, it’s on the dining table.

We’ll catch up on the rest, later!

May this first Sunday of Advent see your heart rise up in Hope.

The Re-Farmer

Happy Easter!

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My daughter was sweet enough to take photos of Easter brunch from our basket for me to share.

She even used a couple of the Lavender Rose China we inherited from my late MIL as part of the display. She made it all look so pretty!

Unfortunately, my husband had an unusually bad pain day and was not able to join the girls. In fact, I don’t think he even ate at all until shortly before I got home. :-(

As for myself, I left early for my mom’s to make sure I had time to fill her gas tank first (gas prices have gone down a few pennies to 169.9 cents per litre). We had a short visit before walking across the street with her walker to her church. Having the church so close is one of the main reasons she chose to move to where she is! :-D It was an excellent service, and I quite appreciated the homily. After church, we headed out to my brother’s place.

There are two routes that I’m familiar with to get to their place. Normally, I’d take a more straightforward route on the highways, bypassing the city, to get to the town my brother lives in. My mother, however, insists on a route that takes us through a smaller city, where we have to cross an insanely narrow bridge over a major river. Which isn’t too much of a problem in my mother’s little car, but every time I take that bridge with our van, I feel like I’m either going to hit oncoming traffic, or scrape the guardrails! My mother is so insistent on taking the “right” route (which she thinks is a short cut), that when I got distracted and turned towards the city (my usual route) instead of the other direction to take a cross road to another highway, she actually got furious and started shouting at me for going the wrong way.

It took half a minute to circle around, and I was able to calm her down, but even for her it was a bit much to get so angry, so fast.

There turned out to be an irony about this.

Things were more pleasant as the drive continued. We got to the smaller city and drove through it to the bridge and…

It was closed.

Which… of course it would be. With the snow we’ve recently had, and the bridge being so narrow, now that I think about it, yeah, it would be. In fact, I would not be surprised to learn it was closed through most of the winter.

So we bypassed the bridge and got onto another highway towards the bigger city. However, in taking this route, we were passing through a more populated area, so the speed limits were all much lower. Which means that we probably ended up taking at least half an hour longer to get there than if we’d gone the route I almost took out of habit that she yelled at me for!

The irony was not lost on her!

When we realized the bridge was closed, I pulled over long enough to message my brother to let him know about the bridge, and that we would be a bit longer. As I was getting back on the road, I noticed it was just starting to snow.

The weather forecast for today was for either isolated flurries, or up to 6cm/2in of snow, depending on which app I looked at. Until then, the day had been completely clear. Within minutes, we were driving into ever heavier snowfall. Thankfully, it was warm enough that it melted as soon as it hit pavement, but visibility got quite poor in places.

When we finally got to the last leg of the journey, approaching a road I could have taken for a shorter route to my brother’s, we kept on going because it was blocked by a train! It was quite a while before we finally passed the end of the train, and I was actually starting to wonder if it would be clear of our next possible turn off when we got there. Thankfully, it was, so there were no more delays in getting to my brother’s.

The visit was absolutely fantastic. We had a fantastic time seeing each other, a wonderful dinner and, best of all, I got lots of baby snuggles!

So many baby snuggles.

Unfortunately, the snow did not lessen any and we left far earlier than we wanted to. It’s a good thing we did. While the roads were still good, they were very wet, and would have soon started to freeze. As it was, the further north we got, the snow was less, but I could see it starting to freeze over in places.

After dropping my mother off and continuing home, the highway was actually much better and almost dry, until I got about 5 or 10 minutes from home, when I drove into snow again, but it was just snowy enough to impact visibility a bit, not road conditions.

One thing we did see a lot of was deer! Not often. Just lost of them. On our way out, we passed a field that had maybe 20 deer scattered around it. On my way back, just as I was slowing down to turn off the highway, I saw what had to be at least 30 deer in a field. A group of at least 10 were just lying in the snow! I’ve seen some fairly large herds of deer in the area over the years, but this group was easily the most I’ve ever seen of white tail deer, all at once.

The girls were sweet enough to set aside portions from our basket for me, which was much appreciated by the time I got home.

I did notice that, by the time I got home, the kibble was all gone, so I topped that up before going in.

I saw very few outside cats this morning. As I was leaving, I startled a skunk, and it ran under the cat’s house. As I walked by, I could see it’s adorable, pointy little nose poking out, as it watched me leave. When I got back, there was another skunk – or maybe the same one – poking around the kibble house trays, trying to find something to eat.

Potato Beetle, meanwhile, remains in the sun room, and has his very own bowl of food that he doesn’t have to share with any other cats. Or skunks… birds… deer… When I got home, he actually made a “dash” for the door to get outside. He can’t dash very quickly right now, with his injured leg, so that wasn’t much of a problem.

What is more of a problem is the fact that the litter box remains completely unused. Which means he’s found a corner in the sun room somewhere that he’s using, instead. *sigh* It’s a good thing the sun room has a concrete floor!

Rolando Moon was following me around while I was doing my morning rounds, and enjoys running ahead, then rolling on the ground. I couldn’t resist sharing this picture, when I realized her tongue is sticking out!

What a silly kitty!

As I write this, we’re now heading towards 10pm. It’s still snowing a bit, and gotten cold enough for it to finally start accumulating. It’s not the first time we’ve had snow for Easter, of course, but usually that’s been when Easter was earlier in the month! Last night, we hit lows of -17C/1F, that I know of, and the sun room thermometer actually dipped below 0C/32F. Potato Beetle made use of the warming lamp and was just fine. Tonight, the low is supposed to be only -7C/19F, though the wind chill is supposed to be -14C/7F. Starting tomorrow, however, we’re supposed to reach highs above freezing, and stay there from now on, with lows barely dipping below freezing over the next few days. In a couple of days, we’re supposed to get a mix of rain and snow, but today’s snow should be our last blast of winter.

But then, we thought we were getting the last blasts of winter a couple of times now, only to have the forecast change, quite a lot, over and over! However, looking at our 30 year average, and record, highs and lows, I think we’ll be leveling off and warming up from now on.

Even with the snow, however, today was a fantastic Easter!

I hope you and yours also had an excellent day, filled with food, family and fun!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2022 Easter basket

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Today, we assembled our traditional Polish Easter basked and blessed it. If you wish to learn more about the symbolism of its contents, you may wish to visit this site. (link will open a new tab)

Over the years, we modified, dropped or added items with complementary symbolism. In the tiny jars, we have salt (traditional) red wine vinegar, mustard and olive oil (non-traditional). Normally, we’d have horseradish root, but ours is buried under snow, and we don’t use it enough to warrant a jar, however the mustard we chose this year has horseradish in it. The olives are non-traditional, and while eggs are traditional, this year we have pickled eggs, which is not. The bright yellow and white ones are the turmeric eggs we tried this year; the white spots are from being a tight fit in the jar! :-D The cheese, ham, sausage and bread are all traditional, as is the butter in a small glass. Usually, I put that in a small bowl with a cross made of cloves pressed into it, but it gets hard to fit the containers, so I melted some butter and poured it into a glass, instead. The one concession to a typical North American basket are the little chocolate eggs. The whole thing gets covered with a pretty cloth. I’ve got several hand embroidered, some antique, clothes I like to use. The one chosen for this year is actually under the basket as I took the picture. We skipped the sprigs of greenery because we usually just don’t have any fresh greenery around Easter.

Over the years, we’ve included prosciutto roses (in place of the traditional bacon), marzipan shaped into a lamb and flowers, a bottle of wine, a white candle, and fruit. An apple, grapes or figs would all by symbolically appropriate.

Normally, after the basket has been blessed, we’d put things away in the fridge until tomorrow, when it will be the basis of our Easter brunch. This year, however, it’s cold enough that we can put it all into the old kitchen, which is easily as cold as a fridge!

As I will be out for much of the day, I don’t know when I will have a chance to write a post. So I will take this moment to wish you all a happy and blessed Easter, from the Re-Farmer family to yours!

Watching the radar

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Things are still looking pretty good out there, though the daytime temperatures are definitely on the colder side. The storm alerts remain, with snow predicted to start in the wee hours, tonight. The local “looking ahead” notification on my phone’s app now reads, “A snowstorm from late tonight into Friday afternoon with blizzard conditions tomorrow and accumulations of 40-60 cm.”

That’s 16-24 inches. Yesterday, the high end of the local prediction was up to 45cm/18in.

The main alert has changed a bit. I no longer see the warning for up to 80cm/31in in some areas.

Winter Storm Warning

Issued at 04:27 Tuesday 12 April 2022

Hazardous winter conditions are expected.

Major spring storm poised to wallop southern Manitoba beginning overnight Tuesday into Wednesday morning and lasting until Friday morning. Widespread snowfall accumulations of 30-50 cm accompanied by northerly winds gusting 60-70 km/h giving zero visibility at times in snow and blowing snow.

A Colorado low will move towards Minnesota Tuesday night bringing a heavy swath of snow through most of southern Manitoba. The snow will start early Tuesday evening near the International border then push northward throughout the night. By Wednesday morning heavy snow will be falling in much of the area as the storm continues to push northward. Strong northerly winds will develop with this system and persist into Friday morning as the low slowly pivots through Minnesota on it’s way into northwestern Ontario.

For the City of Winnipeg and points southeastward, a break in the snow may occur on Wednesday afternoon or evening before snow re-intensifies overnight into Thursday. 15 to 20 cm is likely by Wednesday afternoon, with a further 15 to 20 cm likely with the second area of snow overnight Wednesday through Thursday and Thursday night.

By Friday morning, widespread snowfall accumulations of 30 to 40 cm are likely.

Travel will become increasingly difficult as the day progresses Wednesday, with widespread highway closures a near-certainty. By Wednesday evening even travel within communities may become impossible as the heavy snow and strong winds continue… and more of the same is expected on Thursday.

Do not plan to travel – this storm has the potential to be the worst blizzard in decades. Stock up on needed supplies and medications now. Power outages are likely, rural areas in particular should be prepared for extended outages.

Conditions should begin to improve on Friday as the winds taper off and the heaviest snow moves into northern Ontario…although the clean-up after this storm will likely last well into next week.

###

Rapidly accumulating snow will make travel difficult. There may be a significant impact on rush hour traffic in urban areas. Heavy snowfall accumulation combined with strong winds may cause damage to trees or other structures. Poor weather conditions may contribute to transportation delays.

Winter storm warnings are issued when multiple types of severe winter weather are expected to occur together.

As I write this, the main body of the system is over North Dakota as mostly snow, shifting to mostly rain across Minnesota. Though the system is being pushed almost straight North, it’s going East enough that it looks like the most severe weather will pass over the southern border where Manitoba and Ontario meet, with the rain in Minnesota turning to snow quickly, as it heads into Ontario. The system is very wide, from East to West, but it’s now looking like Saskatchewan is going to be spared the worst of it. My nephew and his family are still thinking of making the drive out, but a day later than originally planned.

We’ll see how things actually turn out.

Until then, things continue as usual.

Ghost Baby has been coming out every morning, of late, and not being a ghost at all. My guess is that it’s because she’s pregnant and very hungry.

Just look at those silly kitties, crowding around the one tray on the ground, when there are four other trays inside the kibble house! Altogether, I saw 14 kitties this morning.

While switching out the memory card on the sign cam, I was finally able to find something – it just had to wait for more snow to melt, and the leaf litter to dry before I could see it.

This is one of the closures from the trail cam. I’d been able to find the wire latch, but the black plastic leaver with the hinge were too dark to see on dark wet ground.

Of course, it’s the top latch that broke. The bottom latch is still intact and should be enough to keep the camera closed enough for the weather seal to keep working, but with this latch broken, there is more of a possibility that moisture will get in.

There are a lot of things I like about this camera, but it has one major failing. I cannot handle our cold. When the temperatures drop, the LED screen stops working, and I have to warm it up with my hands to be able to see the settings while changing the micro disc card. Any colder, and it simply stops recording and the batteries freeze. At least it does start working again on its own, when the batteries warm up again. And now I find the plastic becomes more brittle due to the cold, too. At least I hope it’s due to the cold. Otherwise, it’s just cheap plastic.

Ah, well. Live and learn.

I would still recommend this camera is you live somewhere with warmer winters than what we get. For most of Canada, however, I’d say don’t bother. There are other brands with the features this one has that I like. They cost a lot more, but you get what you pay for!

Meanwhile…

We are still working on our Easter preparations. I don’t know if I’ll be able to go to the blessing of the baskets on Saturday, but we’re still making it. This year, we’re doing the eggs differently. Instead of dying them in the shell, we’re doing different types and colours of pickled eggs. Right now, we’ve got pink pickled eggs in the fridge, using the brine from our out pickled beets. We’re also going to do a soy sauce brine for brown, and turmeric brine for yellow. I boiled up a whole bunch of eggs already, and finished peeling the last of them this morning. We have just enough mostly-undamaged eggs to do 6 of each type of pickle… and a bunch of ugly ones for egg salad. :-D After that, the only thing we have left to do is bake our fancy Easter bread. :-)

Easter has always been my favourite Holy Day, and our basket tradition the one I’ve always looked forward to the most!

The Re-Farmer

Happy Easter!

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I hope that your day was full of joy and blessings.

Our favourite tradition is our Easter basket.

The traditional items include bread (I made a challah this year), eggs (half were pickled, half were coloured with beet juice), ham, sausage, cheese (goat cheese with herbs this year), horseradish (we purchased a spread this year, as our ground it still too frozen to dig up fresh roots), butter and salt. In place of the traditional bacon, we twisted prosciutto rosettes. Among the non-traditional items, we have mustard, olive oil, wine vinegar and olives (almond stuffed, this year). Other items that some people like to include are wine, grapes or an apple, a bottle of wine, or a single white candle. Every item has symbolic meaning. It’s not in the photo, but the basket was covered with a hand embroidered linen cloth; a small table cloth, stitched and gifted to me by my godmother, many years ago. I have a small collection of hand embroidered linens that I like to use to cover our baskets. Lots of people cover their baskets with crocheted lace doilies.

Typically, the basket would be taken to church for blessing on Holy Saturday (as my mother was able to do), but we blessed it ourselves again, this year. I’ve seen people with very elaborate baskets, with added decorations on the basket itself, along with sprigs of flowers, greenery or pussy willow branches. I’ve also seen baskets as simple and elegant as a loaf of rye bread in a small basket covered with a cloth napkin.

The basket contents make up our Easter brunch.

It was wonderful.

Happy Easter!

The Re-Farmer

This year’s decorations start: dehydrated orange slices

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For many years, I would craft new decorations for our Christmas tree. It was a good opportunity to use small projects to try out new techniques and ideas. Our tree is basically a mad chaos of different styles and materials, and I love it!

Life got in the way, and I stopped doing this for many years. I was able to do a few last year, and I’m hoping to be able to continue this yearly tradition.

With so many cats in the house, though, we’re going to have a much smaller tree, set high off the ground! We’re still trying to figure out how to manage that, but the cats have inspired ideas for this year’s decorations.

Cats are supposed to not like citrus, so I will be using dried orange slices as the foundation of the decorations.

Last night, I sliced two naval oranges and laid them out on a rack in a baking pan. I set our oven to “warm” (170F) and left them overnight. I did have the opportunity to turn them a couple of times, since I was up anyway, investigating the crashing and banging that woke me up (I found Layendecker on the fridge, and a decorative jar with seashells on it was on the floor in the dining room; I’ll have to figure out how to remove the broken seashells to replace them. :-( ).

This morning, one of my daughters took a dried slice and showed it to some cats.

I don’t think they’re going to work as cat repellent! :-D

I plan to include cinnamon sticks in the decorations, too – something else that cats are supposed to not like. I don’t think it’ll help, since in the past, we’ve had cats try and steal our cinnamon apple dough decorations, right off the tree!

Well, even if it doesn’t work, we’ll have new decorations for the tree this year! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Easter preparations and successful finds

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

I’m happy to say that I was able to deliver a little care package to my mother for her Easter. I called right after dropping off my daughter to see if she needed anything at the grocery store, but she was able to order everything she needed from the grocery store and have it delivered. Which means they were able to accommodate her in regards to her not being able to pay over the phone. I thought that might be the case, as the grocery store near her caters to a lot of seniors in similar situations.

When I got there, she met me at the door, since her building is on lockdown. Technically, I could have visited her and it would have been okay, but the less people from outside come in, the better.

After the drop off, I went to the grocery store near her place and scored big time!

Not only did they have big bags of cat kibble, but they were well stocked in pretty much everything! They even had a big display of large pack toilet paper, though they were selling for over $30. We are fine for that, so I didn’t get any. Their yeast section was completely full, and I was able to get a nice big jar of the traditional (slower acting) yeast. Between this, what we’ve already got left at home (even after baking day, yesterday) and our sourdough starter, we’re set for a good long time. :-)

Finding a candy thermometer was just bonus! I won’t have to make to with a meat thermometer, when I try a new cheese recipe after Easter.

Once home, I got a couple of pots doing with more eggs; one with the tea dying mixture, and the other with onion skins. We’ve been collecting onion skins all year, and there was so much, I couldn’t even use it all. (click here for how we do our three different types of eggs)

Once the eggs were at the stage where they could be left unattended, I got the dining table all pretty.

Which has fascinated the cats.

Cheddar, at least, was polite about his curiosity. He just sat on a chair and rested his chin on the table cloth. I’ve already found Two Face, just sitting on the table, like a bread loaf.

Once the table was cleared of cats… again… I worked on preparing other basket ingredients.

Each of the items has symbolic significance, some of which are old traditions for our Polish family, while others are traditions we added ourselves. Along with the bread, which symbolizes Jesus (the “bread of life”), and the eggs, which symbolize the Resurrection and new life, we have:

  • ham; to represent joy and abundance, marked with a cross made of cloves
  • sausage; representing the favor and generosity of God
  • butter; to remind us of the goodwill we should have towards all things. We like to make different flavored butters. This year, I’ve added parsley, garlic granules and paprika. Like the ham, it’s marked with a cross of cloves, and the fish shaped bowl it’s in is a reminder for us to be “fishers of men”.
  • salt; in one of the tiny jars, it symbolizes prosperity and justice, and is a reminder to be the “salt of the earth”.
  • cheese; this year, marinated goat cheese, but we’ve used many different kinds of cheese over the years, as a symbol of moderation
  • vinegar; the other tiny jar has red wine vinegar, as a reminder of the wine vinegar mixed with hyssop that Jesus was given to drink, just before he spoke his last words. This is one of our own, added traditions.
  • olives and olive oil (in with the marinated goat cheese): this is another of our added traditions, symbolizing wisdom, peace, and hope.
  • Not pictured is the horseradish, which symbolizes the pain of crucifixion. Traditionally, it can be made into a paste with beet juice, with the sweet juice representing the joy of resurrection. We’ve included the beet juice with our pink pickled eggs.

Other items that would be appropriate to add are a candle, a bottle of wine, and sprigs of greenery.

By the time we’re done, there’s enough food in the basket to feed us for a couple of days! Typically, we eat the blessed food as a brunch on Easter morning.

Gosh, I love making these baskets so much!

Now it’s time to check on the eggs, and prep the horseradish! :-)

The Re-Farmer