Oh, right. Actually radishes and beer don't sound too bad. Neither do Oreos and champagne - but I would never admit to consuming that combination.
winter is here on the Homestead...
Oreo's go with anything, but I prefer a glass of cold milk.
cold beer goes with anything - after a few you can even forgo the anything part.
Dyson... you're alive! We've missed you.
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy
Benjamin Franklin
I pray everyone has had/is having a very Blessed Christmas. Santa Claus brought me a complete gourmet chef set of Orgreenic cookware, and left Debbie a Pandora bracelet with a pair of sissors charm. Even the dogs got new collars and pig's ears to chew on. I hope everyone's Christmas is at least as good as ours.
Merry Christmas everyone!!
Sounds like great gifts for both of you, Nik. Christmas is very low-key here, and no gifting. Santa didn't miss us, we just decided we have most of what we want/need except expensive items best bought for ourselves as money permits.
Biggest gifts throughout the year were getting some needed house repairs done. There are more to do in 2014 but I'm taking a month off to do a few things for myself.
Merry Christmas everyone. Nothing much happening here today. We called home and talked to the folks. Read the Christmas story over the phone with our daughter and grandson. Then we opened our gifts. Just had a few but they were nice. The people here are good, thoughtful and kind people. I got Steve a day runner and case for his reader. He got me a shirt and a throw. We will have Christmas with the family when we go home next month for the baby.
Daikon radishes are what my gardening neighbor is planning to plant as a cover cropb to break up our clay soil and enrich the soil. He and I are co-conspirators in some gardening ventures. It's nice to have somebody nearby who is enthusiastic about gardening! He's been a market gardener, selling at the farmer's market, but now finds himself being stretched too thin, and has decided to concentrate on his garlic crop. He can harvest the garlic, and plant the radishes, then put the new garlic in different ground.
I received a popcorn popper for Christmas. Not one of those stove top things, this is a mini of the theater kind! It has a square glass area with a heat lamp where the popcorn lands when you tip the popping pot which hangs from above. The front is two glass doors. There are holes in the bottom for the unpopped kernals and a tray below them for easy disposal. Now I can make serious amounts of popcorn! What fun!
I think I have seen those poppers. Is it on wheels?
No wheels on mine, but that type is available. False wheels, just for show, or even a with cart like a street vendor might use. Mine sits on a counter or table and is electric. I first saw one for sale at a discount store, so check someplace like Walmart. Like a big coffee pot, it would be a great thing for a church or other group to have. "Take me out to the ball game...." Mine measures about 18 wide x 24 high. Easily moved! If you do an online search you will find a lot of them available, in all price ranges.
A church we pastored in the past had one. We don't eat much popcorn at home. I don't eat it at all but Steve pops a bag in the micro now and again.
We raised multicoloured popcorn this year. we bagged up about 400 ears. We don't shell it until we use it. It's good.
I went to Lowe's today and splurged on a new planer, and a versacut skillsaw. I had been saving for the planer. Debbie told me I had to pay off the Lowe's card before I got it. So, the card was paid off this month. I shopped Menard's (you can save big money there) and Home Depot, but they all had the same price. I was hoping Lowe's would cost more, so they would do the price match then discount it another 10%. But when I got to Lowe's they had marked it down $150.00!!!! So, I got the planer, and the saw. Then after they rang it up, I whipped out my Military ID (I'm a Navy retiree) and got another 10% off of everything. What would have cost me 930 bucks actually cost me a shade less 700. And if I can pay it off by June there won't even be interest to pay.
Still need a new tablesaw, though.
Cool deal, Nik!
I'm thinking about selling off all my construction/shop tools since I don't use them anymore.
Multicolor popcorn sounds interesting. What is the variety name and does the popped corn stay colorful?
It's just an amish strain that the local Anabaptists have been passing down for a few centuries. It is very susceptible to corn smut, and other diseases. Burpee, or some other seed company was going to market it about 20 years ago. But decided not to. No, it pops out white.
What all kinds of tools will you be selling?
Nik, Everything to build a house... 2 Nail guns (one gas framing nailer, one finish nailer), small compressor for the finish nailer, chop box, portable bench saw, drywall screw gun, hammer drill, recip. saw, elec. drill, palm sander, laminate trimmer, router... gads, I don't even know what all I have anymore since most of it is in my storage unit.
Too bad you are so far away.
I have been toying with the idea of getting me a few small tools I can do some projects with. They will have to be light and I see they are coming out with some new ones all the time. Even a light weight saw that looks like it would be good. Are the friendly tools any good?
The versacut saw is an awesome little machine. A good circular saw (skilsaw) will run upwards of $150.00. A really good one will cost close to $400. Way more than I can afford. There are cheapos that can be picked up for 75 bucks or even less. But I think that is throwing money away. The versacut only cuts a bit over an inch deep, but most of what I want it for is plywood and sheet goods. I have a reciprocating saw and various Japanese style handsaws to cut 2x4s at the site. Most I like to precut in the shop with the sliding compound miter saw.
Used the new versacut to slice up some 3/4 inch plywood for shelves in a tool cabinet I am knocking together and it works like a dream! I actually cut the first couple shelves from a sheet laying on another sheet without marking the sheet below. I hope to finish my cabinet today.
I'm not familiar with a versacut saw but I haven't looked at or bought new tools in ages, other than a couple of Japanese hand saws that I dearly love.
After I went through several cheaper circular saws I finally bought a good (but certainly not cheap) Bosch circular saw. I refuse to let anyone else use it, and it has provided years of service.
It's still very dark here, with stars, with 15 degrees, without wind. This morning it's the sound effects that are special: a pair of Great Horned Owls hooting! It's the first time I have heard a pair in over a year, so that has me excited, feeling sure now that we will have baby owls again this year. I have been seeing one owl, and it's been quiet, until 2 nights ago when I was sure I heard the familiar who who who. At that time I opened a window enough to put my ear next to the opening to listen. Who who who. The same voice several times, and no answer that I could hear. Now there are two voices, one pitched a bit higher than the other, and at times I can hear them both, excitedly getting acquainted!
Our son and daughter in law will be coming today for a mid day dinner. Their several years long remodeling job is still in progress, as time and money permit. Son is applying multiple coats of finish to a floor, and can apply another coat when it has dried to just right, without having to sand it between coats if he gets the timing right. During that interval, we will have our visit and dinner, then they will go back to apply another coat, then one more early Sunday morning which will dry during church.
My Christmas cactus is covered with blooms and buds of all sizes. More buds are forming all the time! It's a very happy plant! Last year it only had 3 blooms. I repotted it in June, from a 10 inch pot to 12 inches when I put it out on the porch for the summer, rinsed it off with a spray of the hose before bringing it inside when we were about due for our first frost, kept watering it with a weak fertilizer solution about once a week or so, and it started to bloom just before Thanksgiving. It's gonna be pretty for at least another month! I need to take pictures. The original owner will be happy to see it. Or maybe she isn't the original owner, so she could pass the picture along to whoever had it before. Pass along plants often have a lot of owners.
How exciting to have (or hear) a pair of owls!
I used to get eggs from a nearby school teacher, and then they had no more eggs. Turns out they had a nesting pair of red tailed hawks in their woods, and the hawks were getting their chickens. They were so pleased over the (rare) nesting red tailed hawks that they didn't mind the hawks getting the chickens. I lost touch with them and never heard how many offspring, only that none came back the next year.
When I lived in Boone, I had a big sloping pasture, part of it running between the house and the gravel road. One year a groundhog took up residence right in the middle of the lower pasture. He'd stand upright beside his den and sing, calling for a mate (that never came). It would make me cry for him.
Mary, I was on Google maps looking at Baker City, Oregon. I didn't realize there was so much irrigated ground there. Is that a valley between mountains ?
What direction from town do you live ? Always fun to see other parts of the country.
Bernie - if'n you like Google Maps - try Google Earth !
Bernie, I also love looking at maps. Baker City is in a valley with the Powder River running through it. I live about 20 miles NE of there, in the dry, grassy, sagebrush hills. We can see the Elkhorn Mountains (highest is over 7,000 ft) on the west side of the Baker Valley from here, but not the valley itself. We do see part of the Keating Valley from our house. The Powder River runs through it as well, and eventually empties into the Snake River. Our view to the North and Northeast is of the Wallowa Mountains, which has a few peaks exceeding 9,000 ft.
Sounds like a pretty country. I'll check it out.
Yepper Darius. I'd probably buy as much of your stuff as I can afford and don't have.
We have had a plague of raptors here in this part of Ohio the last few years. I have a Cooper's hawk that has set up housekeeping in the area. I don't worry about him/her as they aren't really big enough to bother the chickens, and a redtail will usually respect their territory. Usually being the operative word. They will attack pigeons, though. I had to shoot it 2wice with the pellet gun as it got into the dovecote. I don't want to kill it, but the game warden says I can if it is attacking my birds. A neighbor up the road a few miles blew a redtail out the sky this past summer after it got into his open topped rabbit colony and took off with a young bunny.
A couple years ago I heard a commotion out in the chicken yard. I had barred rocks at the time. I got out there and there was a couple out there rolled up in a ball and rolling around. I reached in to separate them and grabbed hold of a barred owl. I spun in a circle and threw it off into the night before it could get beak or talon into my flesh. But, it scared the bejesus out of me. Just one more adventure here on Wolf's Rest farm.....
Several days ago, I looked up from my comfy seat in the living room to see a Cooper's Hawk gliding toward the window. Bam! He glided right into it at a slight angle which probably saved him from breaking his neck. He stood in the flower bed below the window for a couple of minutes, then flew away. We think he was seeing the reflection of the rail fence and might have intended to land there although he showed no sign of slowing before he hit the glass. We often have smaller birds hit the windows, but this was the first that I know of for anything so big.
I rescued a huge red tail hawk a couple years ago from the side of the road. It was kinda banged up and I figured it was from thrashing around on the ground. It had somehow gotten the tall grass wrapped around it's foot. Looked like the grass had been braided and tied to it's leg. I figured it had gone after a mouse or some other small prey in the high grass. A rehabber picked it up at my house and took it to a person who had a licensed raptor program at a high school. It was going to be used to education. It was a beautiful bird as long as it was not in my chicken pen. :)
I hear owls on the mountainsides around our house a lot. I had some chicks in a cage on my porch and had an owl light on top of the cage. Took the pellet gun to it and it never came back. I was surprised I never lost any chickens to owls. My pen had no top.
We have a lot of wild turkey right around the house too. A neighbor shot into a flock and seemed like turkeys flew for 5 minutes. We can stand on the church steps and call to them and they will answer us.
We have tons of deer in our area. They are always getting hit on the road. Nearly hit two in one night on my way to the barn. You learn to look out for them. One night I was taking the wheelbarrow out the manure pile to empty it and two deer stood next to the pile.
We have had bear in our yard but they have not hurt anything. Makes it sketchy going out at night to feed. LOL It will put a zip in your step for sure.
We also have coyotes here. They are a menace. Took somebody's little dog from their yard in broad daylight. I nearly hit one on the way to the barn. It was so big I thought it was a small deer. Had I realized it was a yote I would have hit it.
Scariest thing in the woods here are the mountain lions. People are seeing more of them. I hope as long as we have abundant deer in the woods, the lions will stay out there. But anything can happen. You just have to be vigilant. I keep Max in an electric fence.
Happy New year to all my friends. May you all be blessed with health and prosperity even as your souls prosper. Appreciate you all.
Happy new year, everybody! Let's fill it with praise and appreciation to God for his wonderful gifts to us, and with expressions of that by helping those around us.
It's foggy here this morning and 24 degrees. We have just enough new snow to cover the bare spots, and the ice. I'll use my yaktrax when I go out to do my chores. We have no plans to go anywhere today, so it is a good day for making bread and reading while my hubby watches football games. The Rose Parade should be on tv before the games. It's always fun to watch. The floats in the parade are all decorated with plant materials, so besides the obvious, roses, there will be a lot of seeds, grains, leaves, flower petals, etc. So much work goes into them, it's just amazing!
It was beautiful here today but the forecast for the next week is bad.
I pray everyone had a happy new year. New year's eve was nothing here; we were in the sack by 1030. We lead such exciting lives.
New years day was a different story. We went to my sister's place and had homemade sauerkraut ( we fermented it here for 6 weeks) and ribs. It was a good time.
Thursday I ad to drive a load of chicks to Greenville, Oh from La Rue. A trip that is normally about 3 1/2 hours round trip. With the roads and the winter storm it was almost 5 hours just to get there. I didn't get home until almost 900pm. It was an exhausting day.
Yesterday was cold, but beautiful. The Ranger wouldn't even turn over it was so cold (-6 according to the weather channel, - 9 on my digital thermometer) The Mercury started right up, but all the tires went flat in the cold and I couldn't get the left front to take air. Finally, after being out in the weather for about 4 hours, I decided to try the truck again and it fired up. I went and got some cracked corn to give the birds. They need the extra fats and sugars when it's cold like this. Today is a little warmer, and sunny so far, but really windy as the next cold front rolls in. The next few days are not going to be fun, weather wise.
Cheerios has switched back to all non-GMO ingredients. I imagine other General Mills cereals will be doing the same in the not too distant future. Pretty good news on the health front.
Nik, that's good news about Cheerios, not so good about your vehicles and weather.
If this is "Global Warming" we are in trouble...
When we lived in New England, we used to hang a 100 watt bulb under the hood - just enough heat to keep the cars starting in the winter.
I had Cheerios for breakfast this morning - good news!
I don't want to start on GMO's, but all this is, is a way for General Mills to increase sales!
I had a diesel engine and had to plug it in when it got this cold.
Bernie, you are such an optimist.
I just see things as they are.
Cars start way easier than in the past. I lived in Twin Cities in the 60's.
There were many people making a living, it seemed, driving the streets looking for cars to jump start. We were making like $3 an hour then & they would charge $20 to start your car!
That was the Good Old Days!
Our neighbor has lots of ice. A pond above the house, fed by underground springs is still producing water and overflowing. A small ditch is supposed to carry the water through a pasture, under the road through a culvert, past the shop, and into another pasture that is lower. The ditch is frozen solid, and the water has to go somewhere, so it has flooded the first pasture, and the neighbor's yard, and is now overflowing across the road into a different pasture. I need to take some pictures. He said a few days ago that it was almost up to his porch, and the floor of his house is only about 4 inches above that! I think if it keeps flowing across the road, their house will be ok. This is the first time I have seen so much ice there in our 20 years of living just down the road from them.
Yep, global warming! Consider one mighty big snowstorm effecting 23 of the midwestern and eastern states, with another winter blast on the way, and the research vessel plus an icebreaker stuck in the ice near Antarctica! It's summer down there, or maybe autumn. I wonder if they'll ever get it out?
I was wondering the same thing. It should be equivalent to July 1 here.
Maybe it will be getting warmer.