Febru-Scary

February always FEELS like the longest month of the year, likely because by this time I am longing to see green things growing and sunshine again!  I must say that 2026 has sped by so far, so I am willing to have it slow down for February!

January 19th was Popcorn Day, so I tried out this Popcorn-on-the-cob in the microwave.  It turned out pretty well!  I also ended up making caramel corn TWICE, because the first batch disappeared in about 36 hours.  My baby brother gave me this recipe:

D's Caramel Corn

8 c popped corn        1/4 t salt

3/4 c brown sugar     1/4 t baking soda

3 T corn syrup           1/4 t vanilla

Cover cookie sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.  Spread popcorn on sheet.

In a small saucepan, combine brown sugar, corn syrup and salt and stir until mixture boils, continue to stir and simmer for 5 min, then add soda and vanilla.  Pour caramel over popcorn and toss to cover most of kernels.

Bake at 300* for 15 min, remove and stir.  Turn oven off, but return caramel corn to over for an additional 5-10 min.

JP gave me these fun socks for my birthday, and the day ended with a sunset that looked like fire in the sky.

The weather then turned bitter cold.  I decided to do some baking to help heat up the house, so I made a fancy apple pie (and baked a blackbird in the center!)

Following a few days of cold, we received about 9 inches of snow over the weekend.  Luckily, none of us needed to go to work on Monday, so we were able to spend that day digging out.

It has stayed below freezing, so even though it's been almost 2 weeks since the big snow, most of it is still on the ground.  The sun has been shining brightly for several days, however, and started to melt the snow on the barn roof.  Now we have some pretty amazing icicles!

You can see that the deer have been visiting the barn!

This one is over 4 feet long!

The forecast is calling for another 3-6 inches of snow starting tomorrow. 

Even though the days are dark and cold, L and I enjoyed a salad of fresh, homegrown lettuce this week.  JP got me an AeroGarden for Christmas, and I grew these beauties.  Currently there is some parsley and thyme growing.

I also finished building my Lego Milky Way, including some complimentary lights.  It was an unusual project, using many interestingly shaped and colored blocks.

What have you been doing to pass the long dark nights of January and Scary February?

Keepin' Busy

We are well into winter, with its short daylight hours and long nights.  I start getting more depressed this time of year - especially after the abrupt halt of fun activities leading up to Christmas and the New Year.  One thing that I typically do in the (long, long) evenings this time of year, is puzzles...or if I get a new set for Christmas...Legos.

Luckily, I did get a new Lego set for Christmas, the Himeji Castle.  It is already finished, but it was fun to do and fun to play with the lights now that it is finished.

We have had snow on and off for the past few weeks...about 4.5 inches of snow for New Year's Eve... requiring L's party guests to spend the night.  Following that, we had a big thaw, with temps on Friday topping out in the mid-60's.  Today it is cold and snowing again.  We are getting whiplash around here!  While walking in the snow last week, I found this interesting print in the snow.  It looks to me like a bird of prey (likely a red tailed hawk, as we have lots of them around here) caught a tiny beast in the snow!

The other after Christmas activity that always happens is the Putting-Away-of-Christmas-Gifts, which occasionally requires the Clearing-Out-of-Old-Crap activity.  I had actually done a bunch of the second activity well before Christmas, and stuff had been sitting around in boxes in our storage area for a couple of months, making it difficult to get to the wrapping paper!  In addition, I could no longer close the door to the garage closet where we keep the recycling and burnable trash.  So last week one day became the Getting-Rid-of-All-That-Stuff day.  I took 4 boxes of stuff to Goodwill, and dropped off the recycling on the way, since we no longer have a recycling facility in our area, and also burned the burnable trash in the incinerator.  I put all of the seats in the Highlander down, and the back was completely full!  So.  Much.  More.  Space!

Of course, since I was at Goodwill, I had to look around a bit.  I came home with a complete set of "Planet Earth" DVD's that looks new, a 3 disc set of "Finding Dory", and a brand new puzzle for a grand total of $11.38.

It came in a cute little box that looks like a book!

Currently, I am waiting for JP and J to let me know that they are on their way home from the city so that I can start dinner.  J is coming home to have a combined birthday celebration for L and me.  L slaved all evening yesterday baking a Turtle Cake for the occasion.  

Tomorrow, L heads back to work.  JP and I will take J back to the city, but first will take her and her roommate to pick up a second hand kiln that we will be storing here until they have space/need for it.  We already have J's used pottery wheel in the barn.  They are gradually acquiring the things they will need for their own studio one day.

L and I also put together this puzzle.  It was also thrifted, and was missing a piece.  😞

I'm staying busy enough lately that I haven't yet sunk too far down into the doldrums.  Let's hope it stays that way!

Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal

The above quote is from "Home Alone 2" - the first "Home Alone" movie is in our regular Christmas rotation.  Another favorite of mine is "A Christmas Story."  I just finished reading the book that the movie was based on, In God We Trust:  All Others Pay Cash, by Jean Shepherd.  I was disappointed that the book did not include the famous tongue on the flag pole scene, or the swearing during the tire change scene.

It has been very cold again, temperatures in the teens, and we got 3-4 inches of snow last night.  The chickens are doing fine, although they do not like to go outside in the snow.  They are not particularly filthy animals, but they are pretty dirty.  We get 7 eggs from the 7 hens on most days.  We have these very nice and clean nest boxes that 6 of the hens always lay in, but one lady insists on creating her own nest on the floor!

J was able to come down to help decorate the new Christmas tree the Monday before Christmas.  Stella was obviously NOT in a holiday mood at the time!

My parents and J's friend, P, were here for Christmas dinner, which was delicious.  JP did a strip steak roast in the sous vide and then grilled the outside for a nice crunch, which we devoured with a bit of compound butter, along with melting potatoes, and asparagus with hollandaise sauce.

Shallot and Parsley Butter (Recipe from America's Test Kitchen)

- 4 T unsalted butter, softened                

- 1 small shallot, minced                         

-1 med garlic clove, minced                   

- 1 T finely chopped fresh parsley leaves

- 1/4 t table salt                                        

- 1/4 t ground black pepper                      

Mash all ingredients together with a fork in a small bowl, then dollop onto wax paper and roll tightly into a cylinder and twist the ends closed.  Store in the refrigerator but remove it to soften slightly about 10 min before using.

J had to return to the city the day after Christmas, and JP had to work.  I drove J back to her apartment and then visited the nearby Oriental Grocery where she used to work.  I had a short list of things I needed, but browsed for a while, wondering about some of the more unusual items, such as these:

L's 20th birthday was 2 days after Christmas.  JP was supposed to be off, but got called in for 4 hours as the clinic was super busy.  I made L's favorite cake, Tres Leches Cake, and we had a small celebration so she could open a few of her gifts.  We will have a combo party for she and I when J can come home again later this month.

We have still been in party mode this week, as it is New Year's and work schedules have been a bit more lax for some of us.  L invited several friends over for a New Year's Eve party, and they stayed overnight due to the above mentioned snow.  This made it a good time to stay in and enjoy some of my Christmas gifts:

Cocoa with cookie man

I got these fun glow-in-the-dark plant magnets!

Cozy socks by the fire...

So here is wishing you all a warm and happy New Year!

After All, There's Only 5 More Sleeps Til Christmas

So, Holiday season is upon us.  It has been pretty busy since I last posted...party, party, party.

J came home for Thanksgiving, and we also hosted JP's sister, brother-in-law, and niece.  I decided to make use of the wood stove to bake the sweet potatoes.  The remainder of our feast was prepared in the customary way.

While J was home we had a quiet, little birthday party for her - # 23.

That weekend, L and I went up to the city to see "Les Miserables."  This was part of her birthday gift.  It was great!

Several days later, at my office, I was finishing with my last patient when the fire alarms went off.  We evacuated the remaining patients and staff and waited around for the Fire Department to arrive.  In short order, they determined that a water line had burst in the ceiling of one of the staff offices, and caused an electrical fire in a ceiling light, setting off the alarms.  The water and smoke damage was pretty much limited to that office.  While restoration is ongoing, I am sharing my office with the providers who are currently "homeless."

I attended the retirement party for the Executive Director of the Library last week.  I worked with her for 12 years on the Board of Directors, but have seen her regularly since J was a toddler and we attended Story Time at the library.  L is currently her employee, so she was there as well.

L had her office Christmas party last week and is currently at another Christmas party with her friends.  I had my office Christmas party on Monday.  We did a White Elephant gift exchange, so I made some "Emotional Support Chickens" to exchange.

Last weekend, we got about 7 inches of snow Saturday into Sunday.  It was beautiful but too cold to appreciate!

L and I had tickets to see "The Nutcracker" on Saturday night, but it was postponed to the following evening due to the weather.  JP got our drive cleared, and the Township got our road cleared just in time for us to get there!  It was a very good show.

We decided this year that our old Christmas tree had seen better days and could retire.  We took advantage of a 50% sale at Balsam Hill, and purchased a new pre-lit tree, which arrived this week.  We are waiting to decorate until Monday, when J can come home for the day.

JP has started his new job this month and is enjoying the fact that he can get home in 20 minutes after his shift ends!  He is working his first weekend this weekend.  L and I worked on baking cookies and other Christmas treats today.

I'll leave you with one last picture of a gorgeous sunset that we witnessed this week on Poplar Ridge.  Only 5 days until Christmas, and much to do...

End of Summer

We have been having cool nights for the past several weeks.  It was lovely to leave the windows open to get the fresh air, until the minions arrived, those nasty stink bugs that swarm in absolutely EVERYWHERE!  So, the windows have stayed closed for the past week, and we gave in and had the house and garage sprayed last weekend.

The garden has a few more things growing, especially tomatoes.  I cooked a bunch of them up into pasta sauce today.

There are still pumpkins and butternut squash growing, along with kale and chard as well.  The pumpkin plant must be a pie pumpkin, as the squashes are fairly small.  In fact, I wasn't sure which would give me more space to carve, this little pumpkin or my giant tomato?

I had disappointing harvests of apples, pears and green beans this year.  I'm not sure what happened with the apples.  Most of the pear blossoms froze, and the rabbits are still getting into my garden somewhere and eating off my beans.

Just this past weekend, I was surprised to find a rose blooming in my flower garden!  This bed has been completely devastated by the deer this summer.  I didn't have any flowers after the spring ones.  You can see that everything behind it is eaten off.  I brought it in for safe keeping, and to enjoy its lovely fragrance.

Over Labor Day weekend, J couldn't come home, so we went up to Pittsburgh to spend the day with her.  We got to see her throwing some clay mugs at the studio she is interning at.  She also took us to both of her workplaces - an Asian grocery (where we used her employee discount to stock up our pantry) and a tea shop (where we enjoyed a pot of Moroccan Mint Tea.)  We went out for dinner and hung out at her apartment for a while.  It was nice to get a little glimpse of her life right now.

Early Fall is the time that I have to clean up the black walnuts out of the chicken yard.  We bought a used John Deere Trail Gator ("Ally") this summer, which made disposing of the walnuts super easy.  I just parked it outside of the chicken yard, dumped buckets full of the nuts into the bed, then backed it up to the woods and dumped it.  The young hens are still not laying, by the way.

This is also the time when I spray and weed around the house and the pool for the second time.  Here is before and after:

We never opened the pool this year and have decided to take it down next Spring.

And finally, for fun, I attended the Great Gatsby Gala Fundraiser at our local library with a friend.  I decided to forgo the gown from last year that made me somewhat uncomfortable all night and went with men's wear this year.  It was a fun time out with my friend.  AND I won another basket of goodies!

Happy Fall, Y'all!