Walnut Spinney: How about a little ice for Valentine's Day, honey?

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

How about a little ice for Valentine's Day, honey?

To some that question might give rise to expectations of diamond-encrusted gifts but when DH looked out the window this morning he was referring to the beautiful but dangerous stuff coating everything outside.

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Homesteading updates

2015-07-09: 17 newly-hatched guinea keets followed their mama across the front yard to the guineas' feeding station under a crab apple tree.
2012-07-26: Two young raccoons came to the backyard chicken's feeder at lunchtime. One removed, one left. (The third one was found, struck on the road in front of the sheep field, Monday a week ago.)
2012-07-25: Put up 21 quarts of Helen Witty's extra crisp bread-and-butter-pickles.
2012-07-22: Put another 1.5 gals of sour pickles in regular 2-gal crock. Tested first batch--they're getting there but not quite yet. Put down a 5-gal bucket of sliced cukes in lime water for bread-and-butter pickles.
2012-07-15: Put 1.5gals of "Bubbies pickles" in water-lock fermentation crock.
2012-07-13: Put up 24 pints of Amish canned coleslaw. Saw 3 young racoons climbing fencepost in backyard. Jim noted they were "cute and purred" at him when he approached them. That diversion saved them, they escaped before he could get back outside.
2012-07-09: Caught a full-grown racoon in trap set with marshmallows(!).
2012-07-06: Lost all 5 of EB's 2-mo-old chicks to a racoon that got in the chick pen around 1am. Ordered Little Giant live animal trap.
2012-06-17: 7 quarts of brown beans, 3 quarts of beef broth and 7 pints of spicy pineapple chicken -- done.
2012-06-16: Old votech shed moved, set-up near garden, re-roofed and painted.

Homemaking Projects - Completed

2011-07-22: Applied double-fold bias tape to sides of fraying bath towels.
2011-07-18: Cleaned out linen closet.
2011-07-14: Added curly pink pig's tail to thrifted pajama bottoms. Part of DS's HP 7, Part II costume for midnight showing.
2011-01-30: Two Undercover Crate liners sewn and put to use.
Embroidered tea towel - rooster iron-on.
Finished hooking mat. Now to bind it.
Two more Undercover Crate liners cut-out and ready-to-sew.
Two more Market Skirts for grandneices.
Re-covered and added padding to ironing board
Patched more of DH's flannel pajama pants - no more wearing them for outdoor chores, remember?!
2 Market Skirts for grandneices
Finished chulo for DH
Wool socks finished for me
Cleared out a dozen well-worn t-shirts by cutting them into Tarn and rolling into balls
Sleep boxers for DS - cut out, ready to sew

Currently Reading

The Guynd: A Scottish Journal - Finally getting around to reading this work by Belinda Rathbone that I requested thru PaperBackSwap. It's a memoir of courtship and marriage to a modern-day Scottish laird -- the Guynd is where they end up living, the property that's been in his family for 400+ years. Finding it pretty interesting as it's part guidebook, part history, and part bio that's presented pretty evenly tho the reader is always aware it's written from Rathbone's sometimes one-sided perspective. The progressive telling of the poignant yet wry personal relationship dovetails nicely with the story of the ancestral home.
There Will Be Dragons - First in a series by John Ringo, this one is SciFi plus Fantasy and starts with earth several thousand years in the future where humans have become so satiated and complacent without strife, famine and crime that the population has been in decline for years. The ruling Council finally splits on the question of how to deal with the problem and the result is the world is thrown back to pre-industrial days when the previously limitless power supply is cut-off. Combines a little bit of survialism relying on medieval recreationism (think SCA) and some mythology with just plain fun (read good) human drama and characters worth knowing. Well, some, anyway.
The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family - Reads almost like a novel tho I know it's not. Came to this after running across Debo Mitford's recent "Counting My Chickens." I remember vague mention of one or other of the family in my reading over the years but Lovell's book brings it all together. Much better than my lamentable memory especially since I never knew half of their story. Making notes for more reading as I go. Good footnotes and bibliography. I like that in a book.
Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province - Good looking recipes and the couple I tried so far taste good, too.
Sauce Book - Straightforward recipe book -- but what solid recipes. Basics to more refined. Liked this one so well I ordered a used copy (OOP) for myself.
American Prince: A Memoir - A bit of whine shows thru and he always seems to be fighting an inferiority complex but I generally like Tony Curtis. The Persuaders are still a favorite, Spartacus wouldn't be the same without his pretty-boy self, and a few of those old movies (comedies mainly) are keepers, too. So the book held my interest for the most part -- lots of skimming, tho.
Alt Fiber: 25 Projects for Knitting Green with Bamboo, Soy, Hemp, and More - Hmm, worth picking up at the library. Wouldn't purchase a copy -- perhaps if I didn't have so many other sources of info, this one would appear more important?
The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life - Taking notes with this one. Just the sort of guide I needed right now. Lots of ideas for reading and makes me feel like I am not alone.
How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way - Good how-to video. Lee and Buscema keep it light and entertaining. Worked well for our homeschool drawing class intro to drawing comics. There's a book of the same name that adds a bit more detail, too.
Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book - More than I ever knew about comic books. And that's more than enough.
Storey's Illustrated Breed Guide to Sheep, Goats, Cattle and Pigs: 163 Breeds from Common to Rare (Storeys Illustrated Breed Gde) - Always interesting topic for me and Storey invariably does a good job at this sort of book.
Home to Roost: A Backyard Farmer Chases Chickens Through the Ages - Ugh. Too hard going for such an interesting subject -- trying too hard?
Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945 - Interesting. Either I became adjusted to writing style or it evened out after first couple of chapters.
Absolutely Organized: A Mom's Guide to a No-Stress Schedule and Clutter-Free Home - Um, not a lot here for me. Perhaps I've read too many of this type of book?
The Best 30-Minute Recipe/ by the editors of Cook's illustrated - Cook's Illustrated books are interesting but sometimes more than I want at the moment. Good recipes.
Mark Bittman's Quick and Easy Recipes from the New York Times: Featuring 350 recipes from the author of HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING and THE BEST RECIPES IN THE WORLD - Several worthy recipes but didn't go into book too deeply -- just flipped around thru the recipes, stopping at ones that appealed in the moment.
Coming Home - Another Rosamunde Pilcher story to lose myself in -- in this case just right for after-surgery reading except that the book was too thick to rest on my tummy!

2008 Food Preservation

	Net Amount
Food	Frozen	Canned	Dried yield	Root cellar
apples				2.5 bushels
applesauce		15 pints
beans, green		167 quarts
beets, pickled		34 qts
broccoli	32 lbs
cabbage, green			4.5 qts
cabbage, red			3.5 qts
cherries, sweet		46 pts	4 lbs
jelly, grape		6 pts, 10 half-pts
jerky			3 lbs
juice, grape		72 qts, 27 half-gals
meat		7 qts
mincemeat, green tomato		7 pts
mustard, cranberry		4 half-pints
mustard, nectarine		21 pints
nectarines	40 halves		3 qts
peach nectar		18 pts
pear honey		6 pts, 1 half-pt
pears			6 qts
peppers, green bell			1 pt
peppers, hot banana, pickled		24 qts
peppers, pepperoncini, pickled		5 qts
pickles, bread and butter (cucumbers and onion)		24 qts
potatoes		11 qts	5 bushels
preserves, peach		6 pts
preserves, rhubarb-strawberry		11 pints
rhubarb, chopped			3 qts
salsa		33 qts
sauerkraut
spaghetti sauce	2 half-gals
spinach	3 lbs
taco sauce, green tomato		7 pts, 1 half-pt
tomatoes		28 qts	6 qts
zucchini and spaceship squash, sliced			3 qts
zucchini chips			4 qts
zucchini, shredded			3 qts
zucchini, sliced lengthwise			2 qts

Walnut Spinney

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

How about a little ice for Valentine's Day, honey?

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Last blooming poppy...

My Christmas present, immediately claimed by the cat

Happylamb giving the look that says "give me my treat -- now!"

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2008 Food Preservation