Almost spring

Although it is only 4 days to the first day of spring, our yard looks like the middle of winter. If only it were at least above freezing, those 30-40 mph winds would do some good in getting rid of all that dirty snow. Just too depressing to include any photos of the flowers that have not emerged today.

The frame of the green house withstood all the winter storms, and the door that was installed is intact.. but... still waiting for DH to put the panels on the roof and side walls. This is the 3rd year since the project was begun. After all these years living with this kind man, I would think I would get used to his procrastination.  Maybe, just Maybe.. we can move the potting bench into the green house this spring. It is stored in the garage and I heard talk about needing the garage for the '65 ElCamino. Yup, they will have completed the restoration of that pickup this spring... and it CAN NOT sit out in the weather when it is completed (so they say).

Our goose and gander have done an excellent job of protecting the chickens. Racoons have moved into our farmstead by the dozen. When we are late shutting the chicken coop door, those 2 geese are sitting on the step filling the door opening. Nothing can get past them.

We've had to trap the racoons to get remove them from the outbuildings. Now we have bald eagles visiting every day to see if we have provided dinner.  Wish our guys would serve the dinner a bit further from the chicken pen.  At least 150 yards out from the chickens, please.  I'm afraid the bald eagles will think chicken would be pretty tasty.

Mma Potokawne's bribery fruit cake

Recipe time

The cold weather has been almost unbearable this winter in our area. Not just wind chill but actual temperatures 25-30 below zero. Then have a brisk (read hard) wind blowing at the same time, it caused us to want to crawl under the blankets and .... read. 

My choice of a book was NO. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. It was set in a small country in South Africa. Just reading about the hot dusty dessert helped to make me feel a bit warmer.  The book is like a potato chip, you can't read just 1. There is a series of 14 .. and thanks to Paper Back Swap on the internet, I will soon have them all. Waiting for the last one to arrive in a couple days.

One of the characters bakes a fruit cake that she uses to bribe workers to fix things at the orphanage. I became curious about that cake. Finally I used duckduckgo.com to find a recipe for it. Aha!! There it was.  The first cake was so good I baked a second one before going to bed. It is NOT like the fruit cakes you receive near Christmas.  More of what we would call a coffee cake but different. It really goes better with tea. And- Red Bush Tea is the choice in the book. I checked the Frontier Herb catalog and they have it!! In many varieties. I am ordering the plain red bush tea in the morning. 

Hope you enjoy the cake as much as we do... and don't skimp. When it calls for butter, use butter!! Not margarine. Calories are the same in butter and margarine, but there is a BIG difference in texture and taste.

Mma Potokawne's Fruit cake

Long Cold Winter

Barn Cats 

Our outdoor cats have made their home in the horse barn this winter. Unfortunately wild animals have discovered their food dish in that barn. If only... DH would finish putting on the doors ... and building the tack room ... and ... well, you get the idea.His little hiatus to get his new hip installed this winter has put everything off schedule. He should be released to quit using the walker in March. THEN he will have at least one hand free to work on some of those jobs that never got completed.  However it will probably result in me spending time looking for where he left his cane.

Looks like Half and Half and Buttermilk are enjoying one of our rare sunshine days. We have had more then 35 days of below 0 temperatures. It might get up to 10 above 0 today.  Looking for my swim suit!!!

Surprise Surprise Surprise

Sure didn't expect to find a guest for dinner at the feed pan for the cats.  Opened the door to the horse barn to check on the cats during this stormy time, and there sat a possum in the middle of the feed pan with the cats back aways but surrounding the pan of food, watching.

The possum was as surprised as we were and ran right into the biggest cat in the bunch when it jumped out of the pan to get away.  No wonder the cat food was going down fast, and the cats always seemed to be hungry.

Since our experience a few years ago with rabies, we prefer wild animals to NOT live in our our buildings. We make sure all our outside cats have rabies shots, but because cats are nomads, there will be a feral show up now and then at the dish.  If it stays it gets caught and hauled in for a vaccination.   We've had some interesting adventures trying to catch wild cats and feel very fortunate the vet is willing to work with them to get the shots.

Snow!! Lots of it!!!

Cold!! Snow!! Wind!!  I am ready to be done with winter.  Another blizzard is on the way this afternoon. We get plenty of warning with all the weather channels, and it started in Western Iowa last night.. and here comes the wind... full of snow... with a promise of 16 below 0 for tonight with winds up to 50 mph. Only thing to be thankful for, all that furniture on the patio that we neglected to get put away will not get blown away. It is buried in snow and can not move. Boy! are we going to have a clean-up job in the spring.

Report from the sickroom

 

 Don is doing well after the new hip installation in December. Donya and I thought he was not walking as much as doctor ordered, so slipped the FitBit in his jeans pocket one night. It is so tiny he did not notice it. About noon the next day we told him about it cause we wanted to check how he was doing. First he was mad, a guy has no privacy at all!!  Then he started to like it and checks it himself. If there are not enough steps logged on for the day, he actually gets up and walks to bring it up. That little piece of equipment sends the data to Donya's computer, then resets it's self for the next day. Great little tool.

Chocolate cake with Red Beets

My family is not eating vegetables as much as I would like to see them eat. They'll eat plenty of dessert, though. So.. I feel they need to eat more red beets. I froze lots and need to move them into the 'eat now' category.  I found this recipe for cake. heh heh heh   Let them eat cake!!!

Ingredients

• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup butter, softened, divided
• 1-1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups pureed cooked beets
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Confectioners' sugar

Directions

• In a microwave, melt chocolate and 1/4 cup butter; stir until smooth.
• Cool slightly. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, cream the remaining
• butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs.
• 
  
• In a small bowl, combine the chocolate mixture, beets and vanilla.
• 
  
• Beat into creamed mixture (mixture will appear separated). Combine
• flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture.
• 
  
• Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at
• 375° for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the
• center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a
• wire rack to cool completely. Before serving, dust with
• confectioners' sugar. Yield: 16-20 servings.
• 
  

© Taste of Home 2014

Frozen@ Ionia

Holy cow it's cold

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all!!!  5 days with the temperature (real) 20-25 below 0. Add the wind with gusts to 30 mph and the wind chill temperature is 50-60 below 0.

That cold wind found a tiny opening in the siding between the kitchen and silo room. Did I tell you that DH hasn't gotten around to finishing off the silo room to make it into a mud/laundry room? The silo is like a huge open chimney from that room. If there was any heat in that room it would soon be pulled out through that huge hole.  Anyway, over the door to that room the old barn siding let a tiny sliver of cold air find the hot water pipe going across the door. The wind let up just long enough one night to let it warm up enough for the water pressure to shatter that pipe... at 3 AM. We have 60 pounds constant pressure from our well, so all 10 showers can be used at one time without dropping the pressure.  It didn't take long to move LOTS of water through the ceiling. Lucky for us that Don and I had taken up residence in the 2 handicap rooms on the first floor, and I was sleeping lightly while listening for him to need some help since he was just a few days out of the hospital. The water sounded like Niagara Falls coming through the ceiling and out every opening it could find. Light fixtures, furnace duct, and down each side of the old barn beams that look so good holding up the second floor.

 Ladies, make sure you know where the switch is to turn off the water for your whole house. I did not. I opened the door to the mechanical room and was confronted with lots of switches and knobs. I had to wake DH to ask, and he was still so out of it from his recent surgery that time was wasted repeating my request several times.  I will be getting a new kitchen ceiling as soon weather permits a trip to the lumber yard and Fred is available. Dear Hubby will be NO help.

  

This bench near the front door will not be very welcoming to come and sit a spell for a while. One of my favorite spots to take a break from working in the flowers in the spring.

 

Alfie had very little interest to go outside in the cold. Today the cold spell finally broke and we got up to 28 degrees. It is a heat wave!! Donya took Alfie with her to see how the pine trees and arborvitae are doing. We are all getting cabin fever. Way too cold to even think about doing anything in the green house... but we can dream.

Long Hard winter

Winter came early this fall. Frost in early October and then got cold.. and colder.. and coldest. No Indian summer.  Garden was not worked to be ready for spring. Plants on the patio not attended to. Chairs and tables left where we used them last.   Not a happy state of affairs.

DH was suffering terribly with his hip and unable to help. BUT!! he gave in and we set the date and ordered his new hip.  The replacement was scheduled for January 17.  On Dec 19 the surgeon called and asked if he could come in early Dec 20 instead. Wow!! No time to fret and worry. He had it done with the Mayo team in Rochester MN.  He is one tough farmer. The nurses and Doctors at the hospital said he was their star patient. I had a cot put in his room and stayed the 3 days he was there. Nurses liked it because I took care of little things, like fetching something he may drop on the floor. Help him get a drink. Nothing technical, but enough to let the nurses attend to more important things.  He is doing very well since coming home 2 weeks ago. I stay nearby in case he needs anything, but as soon as he can climb the 2 sets of stairs to get to his room on the 3rd floor, I will go back to work at the upholstery shop.

Fred put together a hay bale shelter for the geese we bought last fall. It is open to the South, guess which way the wind is coming from today!!  I want to put another bale in front to give them a place to hunker down when the wind blows from the South. Maybe tomorrow we will get that done.

We added a goose and a gander, a runner duck, a mallard duck, a polish rooster, and red silky rooster and hen to our flock this past Fall.  We had a guest at the barn that gave us lots of advice on poultry. He advised us to get a gander to protect our chickens from predators. Hawks were one of our worries. It works. I watched a couple hawks fly right on by when they were searching for dinner. That gander stretched his wings out and started flapping when he saw those hawks. He runs at the fence and hisses if he thinks our dog, Alfie, is too close.  A bonus is the goose has started laying eggs. They are huge.. one goose egg equals 3 large hen eggs.

I must write on this blog more often, so I will remember how to get in to write on it. Lots of fun things going on, but I forget how to work the blog. So this is it for this time, and will try to do it more often just to keep the memory of how to do it.