Leap Year

Normally I dislike February with the same kind of sinking feeling that I get in my stomach when my husband offers to make me a steaming bowl of oatmeal.  I feel like there are so many other breakfast things that I do like (some of which are also made with oats) so why should I bother trying to choke down porridge just because "it's good for you?"  In the same way, I feel like there are so many other months and seasons in a year, why deal with February when it's always cold and grey and long Long LONG?  And this year, to make thing more difficult, February has to go and add an extra DAY???

This year, somehow, February has been tolerable.  I can hardly believe that it ends this week!!  Maybe it's because of the days and days of sunshine and blue skies that we've been experiencing this year in our neck of the woods.  Who knows?  I'm just grateful that I haven't sunk into the deep depression that I typically face this time of year.

There have definitely been bad days.  L had another low low day last week, but doing better now.  Stella returned to the vet a week after starting treatment for external ear infections because she was doing worse instead of better - vet noted that she now has ruptured ear drums on both sides.  (No wonder she can't hear a doggone thing!)  She is now on both oral antibiotics and new ear drops, and actually seems to be doing a bit better - I think she heard me calling her this afternoon.

We hide her pills in peanut butter...

By the way, one breakfast food utilizing oatmeal that I really enjoy is granola.  I have been making this recipe from America's Test Kitchen lately, that is a real winner with all of us:

Maple Almond Granola

1/2 C vegetable oil (I used 1/4 c coconut oil and 1/4 c avocado oil)

1/3 C Maple Syrup

1/3 C brown sugar

4 t vanilla

1/2 T salt

5 C Rolled oats

2 C raw almonds, chopped

2 C raisens (I used 1 1/2 c craisens instead)

Line baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with vegetable oil spray.

Whisk oil, maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla and salt together, then fold in oats and nuts.

Transfer mixture to baking sheet and spread into an even layer and press until compact.

Bake at 325* for 35-40 minutes, rotating sheet about halfway through.

Cool thoroughly and then stir in dried fruit.

I got a new cookie cutter from an Etsy store just in time to make Valentine's Day Cookies:

Fridge Facts - Valentine's Edition

A week ago, JP & I, and a friend (L was being a butt and backed out at the last minute) drove to Wheeling for dinner and a concert.  We heard Renee Elise Goldberry (Angelica Schuyler from "Hamilton") sing with the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra.  It was a great concert!  JP drove us home in a blizzard that dumped about 4 inches of snow on our town.  It was gone by Saturday afternoon.

We got another 2 inches of surprise snowfall yesterday morning, which disappeared by nightfall.

This week I made 60 newspaper pots and planted 20 different varieties of seeds.  My SIL recently gifted me with this fun container of heritage seeds.  They are packaged in 5 different lots, and I have only dipped into Lot A this year, but from that have planted tomatoes, peppers, winter & summer squash, 2 types of melons, cucumbers, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Swiss chard, eggplants, okra and dill.  I also dipped into my previous stash to plant pumpkins, jalapenos, sweet basil and Thai basil.

Fridge Facts - Gardening Edition

My Lenten Roses are blooming with abandon, and Punxsutawney Phil did NOT see his shadow, so spring is on it's way... hooray!

Aqua

We finally got city water up on the Ridge last week.  It has been a LOOOOONG and expensive process.  JP has been hauling around 750 gallons of water about twice weekly for the last 3 years since our 3rd well failed.  We have amazing water pressure considering that it is coming up the hill about 250 feet in elevation!  The downside (which I hope and expect is temporary) is that it smells and tastes terrible - likely from the water coming through miles and miles of new plastic pipes.  We have installed a new filtration system under the kitchen sink for drinking water and we deal with the rest.  What a relief!!

Once spring has sprung for real, we can work on landscaping the side yard that JP has been driving through with over 6 tons of truck, trailer and water, as well as where the new water lines were buried all the way down the hill.

So, what else has been going on all winter, you may ask?  Good question!  I feel like things got so busy for a while that I didn't know which direction I was going half the time!

J came home from college for about a month.  It was wonderful having her here!  She and her roommate came home with a puppy that none of their parents were expecting!  It sounds like she has been a nice addition to their little "family" in OH.  She and I did some Christmas shopping and decorating together, including carving "Hannukah Lanterns" out of pumpkins from the garden on Christmas Eve (since we never got around to carving Jack-o-lanterns over Fall Break!)  I did a snowflake; J did Gonzo as Charles Dickens from "A Muppet Christmas Carol."

L has stayed very busy with homework - so much so that she doesn't have time to do much else.  She and I did go on some college visits before Christmas, and she has also been working on College Application Essays and some scholarship essays as well.  Right now I believe that 2 colleges not too far away from home are in her #1 and #2 spots:  Chatham in Pittsburgh and Slippery Rock.  She did have time to help decorate the Christmas tree and make Christmas cookies.

Stella was the only one that I could convince to pose in front of the Christmas tree this year.  Very suddenly over the past 2 weeks, she seems to have lost pretty much all of her hearing, so that's been interesting.  We lost all of the other fuzzy pets over the past year - both kitties, and the bunny.  So I finished making personalized grave markers for everyone out in the Pet Cemetary.

We were able to celebrate Christmas with JP's sister, BIL and niece.  We made tamales again for Christmas dinner, which were delicious!  We will be neighbors with these folks in the future in VA, and it's always fun to hang out with them.

My big Christmas present from JP this year was another Lego set - this time Diagon Alley.  I started by deconstructing the Titanic (my gift from last Christmas.)  And then spent evenings building 8 buildings in Diagon Alley from the Harry Potter movies.  I also used some Birthday money to buy another Lego kit, which was a Japanese Garden and Tea Room.

Titanic...RIP

Diagon Alley

We got several inches of snow mid-January that actually stuck around for several days.  It was enough to disrupt school a bit, but L never got time to play in it with me, and J was already back at school.  I basically just enjoyed the beauty of it, and of course, shoveling it!

We have celebrated several birthdays (Mom, J, L, and myself) and 3 holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year) since I last reported, and I already sent out care packages for Valentines Day to the college girls last week.

I have continued to do my refrigerator bulletin boards weekly:

Fridge Facts - Cold Edition

Fridge Facts - Success Edition

Fridge Facts - Darkness Edition

I also managed to finagle a food exchange between myself and a friend who is an amazing pastry chef:  I baked him a quiche, and he baked me a dozen amazing cinnamon rolls!

L is now adding musical theater rehearsal to her schedule.  She has landed the role of Snoopy in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" at school.  Their first show is late March and they still have not received scripts, so rehearsals have been a bit sketchy.

Right now, I need to go make some guacamole and jalapeno poppers for Super Bowl supping.  Hip hip hooray!

Just the Facts Ma'am

It's been a long time since I've posted - it's been a busy season.  I have also been trying to whittle down the 3000 photos on my phone to a reasonable few hundred, but since JP and I share an apple ID account, the ones I have been deleting are somehow being deleted out of the cloud and his account as well.  I ended up putting back almost 1000 pictures and videos that I deleted.  It was super frustrating.

Here are a few pictures that I actually deleted...from my phone AND the cloud:

Fridge Facts - Pets Edition

Fridge Facts - Thankfulness Edition

Fridge Facts - Knowledge & Learning Edition

Fridge Facts - Coming Home Edition

Fridge Facts - Winter Edition

Fridge Facts - Christmas Edition #1

Fridge Facts - Christmas Edition #2

Fridge Facts - New Year's Edition

Fridge Facts - Candles Edition

A Fresh Grave

I dug another grave today out under the big oak tree, where our Pet Cemetary has grown to include 6 of our pets.  We found L's bunny, Chaz, stretched out in his favorite spot in the grass, but no longer living last night.  He was 10 years old, which is at the upper end of their typical lifespan!

He started out as a 4H project for J when she was in 5th grade.  She did show him at the Fair in 2015, but then lost interest first in 4H, and then in having a pet rabbit.  When I finally got tired of taking care of him, J was given the ultimatum:  find a new home for him.  This is how L adopted him, and she has taken excellent care of him for the past 6 years or so.

Chaz was sweet and super soft, but not super smart.  He loved dandelion leaves, carrot peels and apple cores.

He would walk on a leash albeit tentatively.

He was interested in his visitors.

I enjoyed taking him treats and chatting him up while he nibbled.  He will certainly be missed.

Oregano, Rosemary and Thyme

I harvested the herbs from my herb bed near the house and spent close to 3 hours prepping it for drying.  This is the 2nd time I've harvested the thyme this year, and the 3rd time for the oregano.  I am trying to preserve my own herbs ever since I learned from Consumer Reports that there are high levels of heavy metals in many dried herb products, ESPECIALLY oregano and thyme.

Everything is in the dehydrator in the garage, and the whole place smells like pizza!

Over the past couple of weeks I have tackled a few other projects as well.  I made and froze 12 pints of my special ingredient apple sauce (fondly known around here as "Mommy Sauce.")

I stained the potting bench and produce sink that JP built for me.

I put together a couple of Christmas trees, built out of sea glass that I have found (and made in the rock tumbler.)

I painted a new grave stone for Daisy Dog.  The girls and I painted one for her 10 years ago, but the paint has all worn off.  I searched and searched for the photo of that, but couldn't turn one up.  Mom and Dad couldn't remember her birthday, so I had to be vague.  It will join the others out in the Pet Cemetary once it gets a couple more coats of clear sealer.

I have kept up with the Fridge Facts:

Music Edition

Friends Edition

Life Edition

In the meantime, L finished her 1st 9 weeks of school - that was a mess since she left a LOT of assignments until the VERY LAST MINUTE.  Dad was cleared by Neurology to drive again.  They came and buried water lines from our houses down to the road in preparation for the city water that is DEFINITELY coming!  Things are messy and muddy around here now, and my pussy willow bush was an accidental casualty of the project, but I'll deal...as long as we get reliable water out of the whole process!!

I've also taken some time to watch the sun set on Poplar Ridge.

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Closed For the Season

Fall is slowing winding down into winter.  The first freeze is forecasted for tonight.  I think that this is the first year in a very long time that I actually had everything out of the garden ahead of time.  I went down and removed the last few cherry tomatoes and watermelon this afternoon.

I had been trying the give the watermelon extra time to ripen, but even though it weighed in at more than 8 1/2 lbs, it still wasn't ripe, so the chickens are currently enjoying it.

This is the latest that I have gotten the pool closed up for the winter.  The downside to this is that all the wet bits are sitting on the veranda in the cool, damp weather, and will take a long time to dry before I can finally put everything away in the barn.

I emptied out the potted plants outdoors and found this huge sweet potato from my ornamental sweet potato vine.  I am considering putting it in the curry that I have planned for dinner. There are a few of the pots that I bring into the garage for the winter, that will be in and out until it's finally too cold to stay outside, and I have starts of the coleus and silver falls vine in water in the kitchen window that I had outside which I would love to have for my planters next year.

Yesterday, JP and I put together these racks for split firewood and moved the remainder from last year in preparation for receiving more in the near future.  I think we are in good shape as far as winter prep goes.

And finally, the Fridge Facts for this week, the Wisdom Edition:

Almost a Gross...

Yesterday I realized that I had over 11 dozen eggs in my refrigerator, so since this was a cool and rainy weekend, I decided to do something about that!

We started with breakfast burritos yesterday (4 eggs) and then I made a double recipe of lemon curd (12 egg yolks) and a recipe of blueberry scones to eat it with (1 egg.)  I made an angel food cake to use up the remaining 12 egg whites.

Today I made egg salad out of 12 eggs and had another egg for breakfast.

I used a grand total of 30 eggs this weekend and took another dozen over to my parents. (And found this in my flower bed on the way. 😊)

I collected 10 eggs from the hens this weekend, which is actually fewer than normal.  However, I still have more than 7 dozen eggs in the refrigerator...