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...

And the Winners Are...

JP and I processed chickens on Monday.  We had 8 healthy roosters from the 15 eggs that hatched this spring and they were causing significant strife amongst the rest of the flock, fighting with each other and terrorizing the hens, especially the old ladies.  We decided to keep 2 roosters (an extra in case one was a dud.)  The winners are...

Rusty - he appears to be full blooded
Buff Orpington

Barnaby - (as in "Listen Barnaby..."from WallE) 
who is big and beautiful

The roasters went in the freezer and the old chickens were canned.  The backs went in the crock pot with some veg and herbs and I canned chicken stock the following day.  I had some major fails when canning the chicken, one jar broke in the canner, and one didn't seal.

I hate the whole processing part, but am always grateful to have the meat available for later.  This is one of the parts of living on a farm that is NOT a barrel full of fun.

Falling

Once again, it's been awhile since I last posted.

I have cleaned all the plants out of the garden.  We still need to put leaves and then straw on for the winter.  I pickled the jalapenos, made some enchilada sauce out of the last of the tomatoes, and made a bunch of pesto out of the basil (I freeze this in ice cube trays and add them to hot pasta for a quick meal.)  JP ran out of his favorite sweet relish, and we were almost out of applesauce, but I had to buy produce to make those.

J came home from the city for a day in early October, so we used the tiny pumpkins that we grew in the garden to make mini Jack-o-Lanterns.

I also made a lego Jack-o-Lantern, complete with lights!

We have done some dressing up as well.  J won a costume contest dressed as "2D" from the band "Gorillaz."  I dressed as a Hockey Player to take my mom for testing at the hospital on Halloween day.  L and I dressed as "Lord Gray" for a "Clue" themed Murder Mystery Tea at the Tea Shoppe.

In the meantime, JP has finished working at the location that he has been for the past 7 or 8 years (I can't keep up!)  He will start his new position (which does not require the 45 min commute) in Dec.  My parents have just returned from a week long trip to TX to visit my brother.  They travelled separately - my mother by plane, and my dad by train...it's a long story!  My mother recently had an MRI of her brain as part of a dementia work up, and may have an aneurysm, she has another test scheduled this coming week to confirm.

It's almost Thanksgiving and I'm trying not to fall apart!

Art & Crafts

 I forgot to add these couple photos to my last post...

The last bit of color from my garden in this zinnia bouquet:

This pillow that I made a few weeks back from a quilt patch that my maternal grandmother made, and an old tablecloth from my paternal grandmother:

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!