Lordy, lordy, but I'm tired tonight. I felt like I could have crawled into bed for the night about 6:00 tonight. VERY unlike me! But, I worked hard, too, and got a lot done.
In preparation for it maybe going to The Peanut's house for a while, I had to access the portable sawmill built and shared between Swamp River Ridge and The Peanut and Bunny's family. It was parked in the Back 40, and the amount of weeds and saplings growing around up and through it aren't even funny! But, before I could even think about trying to pull it out, I had to do some logging.
When I went to jump into the truck, I found this:
I bought a chocolate milkshake on the way home the other night, and this is what the heat in the cab of the 1-Ton (and direct sunlight) did to the plastic! Hot, eh?
Back to the work at hand, I put the truck into reverse and headed up the hill from the parking area, backwards. Suddenly, I felt a . . . well, it's no better described as BAD . . . jolt and sound.
File this under Stoopid. You can't tell at ALL in this picture, but that rear tire is dangling about 4" off the ground!
I remember that the ex once ran over a chainsaw with this truck, and I couldn't understand how he could have forgotten that it was sitting in the driveway. Kind of like . . . how could someone forget she'd left a couple huge, honkin' logs in the middle of the driveway from mowing the day before? Logs that were invisible as she drove backwards with the high tailgate up? Until 1 of the 4 wheels was off the ground. Yup, NUTHIN' BUT talent! Geez, what an idiot.
After I took care of THAT little problem, I was at the Y in the driveway where the road to the trapper cabin splits off. During one of the summer's big storms, this poplar had gone down, effectively blocking the road.
Here's the 'Before'.
And, the 'After' - the branches loaded into the truck to haul to the burn pile, and most of the rest of the tree cut into smaller lengths waiting to be cut again into stove-length pieces.
After I'd unloaded the branches onto the burn pile, it was further up the trapper cabin road to this tree that'd been hung up on others for an age. In order for me to pull the long length of the sawmill out, this had to come down. So, I hooked up the steel cable, and . . .
The bugs are still bad, and any work outside still requires head-to-toe coverage . . . which is oh, so fun in the heat. (Mama & Papa Pea don't have any more bugs at their place which doesn't seem quite FAIR! But, I do live in the woods . . . .)
See what I meant about the area being overgrown?! There's the top of the blade / engine assembly. Beyond that is a car, a pick-up, AND a Suburban!
Here, when I was turning the truck around, you can see how tall the fireweed is: 2-3' higher than the hood!!
Now I've trampled down the undergrowth (OVERgrowth?!) enough that you can see the tongue end of the trailer at the left side of the picture.
I'd hoped I'd be able to lift the trailer into place by hand, but that body is made out of STEEL (which is good)! So, I had to resort to the oh-so-handy jack.
It didn't take me too many tries to get the truck lined up and the trailer hitch on. I helped / watched Papa Pea do it SO many times when I was growing up!!
And, there's the sawmill at the bottom of the trapper cabin driveway. GEEZ, I need to mow that road! Can't even tell it IS a road! Maybe I'll sneak some breaks away from the computer today to do so.
It's now Wednesday, the 17th, and it's taken me this whole past week to finish the above post! But, now that this is done, I can update you on some of the other stuff that's happened since then.
The sawmill was hauled away on Saturday although I wasn't around to see my friends take it. It was a busy, busy in-town at the office or nannying weekend. On Monday, the first day of my weekend, I was SO exhausted and grumpy that I couldn't even see straight. I even snapped at the dogs - a sure sign that I'm not in "a good place". I didn't get much done that day but a 1/2 pint of jam made from some leftover blueberries and raspberries that weren't enough to do much of anything else with. Got a big batch of dishes done, too, and more dog food made up. (HOW does a single person end up with SO many dishes??!! I guess that's the down side to making food - including the dogs' - from scratch.) Then I finally gave the rest of my day over to my current good audio book ('Hard Truth' by Nevada Barr) and stayed up WAY too late rolling a hugely jumbled mess of yarn into a compact ball. You "yarnies" know what I mean: the fine, expensive skein of wool that your mother offers to help you roll when you first get it . . . to which you reply, "Oh no, I'll be able to keep it this way." HA! I ended up cutting it into a million sections and then tying and rolling those.
I wasn't in a much better space, mentally, yesterday although I did get a lot of work done at the computer. Of course, today is fairly mild with a blue sky and super high winds: the perfect weather to get stuff done outside . . . and I am stuck to the computer with necessities, once again. No outside work for me these past days . . . which I don't like AT ALL. Grumble, grump. But, at least my bad mood and aching neck are a million times better today, so that's a HUGE somethin'!
Hope YOU are having a good day today . . . and not stressing about seeing the first of fall's colors begin to appear. ;) WHERE . . . has the summer . . . GONE?!
I'm in the process of getting my New Year's Resolutions, Part II post written, but in the mean time . . . .
The chickens are FINALLY laying again! They went through the worst molt I've EVER seen this fall, and I haven't delivered eggs since October 28th! (Insane!) So, now that we have fresh eggs again, I took six of them to make ourselves dinner last night.
My mom always made this when I was growing up, and it's called Pancake Fluff. As a child, we ate it with maple syrup, but Tom and I have been taking to eating it as is . . . or maybe even with some salt & pepper. It's very light but also rich. Almost all protein. I think that, in the future, I'll spread some mozzarella & chopped ham (or some such thing) on the top & then put the broiler on for the last two minutes or so. At any rate, we're moving away from 'pancake', and so we need to think of a new name! Anyone?
Mixed up and ready to go into the oven.
It rises like a soufflé!
Side view. Maybe I should have put it on the bottom shelf!
I added roasted pecans in the last minute or two. I didn't want to add anything while the batter was still soft because I wanted the pecans (or cheese & ham) to decorate the top and not sink in.
Voila! A side of homemade cinnamon & brown sugar applesauce (from my folks' trees!), cooked spinach (already on our plates), and it's a meal! (AND there are leftovers for today!)
It is a frosty, foggy morning today. We got down to 22 degrees last night, but we're up on top of the ridge. I know that lower-lying areas had colder temps.
This morning when I stepped onto the front porch / entrance to grab an apple for Tom's lunch (freshly picked from my folks' orchard), I came in with my nose wrinkled and exclaimed, "Pee-uuuw! Low pressure today, and I smell the paper mill!" Tom asked, "Are you sure it's not the septic tank again?" No, given the thick fog, I was pretty sure it was the result of the air pressure. But, there was no smell outside when Tom pulled the car out of the garage, so now I'm not so sure. And, BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY (ah-hem!), my second guessing is going to make me unscrew the top of the tank today to take a peek. Keep your fingers crossed!
My broody hen is still sitting, BUT she was off the eggs long enough the other day for them to feel pretty cool to the touch. So, I'm worried that they've gone bad. And, I think it was my fault that she was gone so long: I was holding out for Tom to drive the 3 1/2 hours south to pick up more feed last Friday, and so, aside from scratch, she didn't have anything handy to eat. So, I think she went out foraging. If this is the case, it's my bad and the loss of 11 eggs. :( But, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she knows what she's doing, and that there's at least one viable chick in there that's causing her to keep setting.
Along the same line, I FINALLY found an egg yesterday! Yes, AN (as in, singular) egg. Aside from the eggs in Mrs. Broody's box, the chickens have been going thru the WORST molt I've ever seen them have, and I haven't seen an egg in over 2 weeks, I'll bet. (I wish I'd kept track.) Maybe it's just that they have really good hearing, though, and needed some incentive: it was just yesterday morning when I said to Tom, "If those chickens don't start laying, we're gonna do a massive butchering right after the busyness of the holidays! I ain't feedin' all winter if they're not layin'!" ;)
I need to take pictures of my latest batch of hats. I have the 5 hats for that set of grandchildren 90% done. I finally got all their measurements, so now I can finish the bottoms, make & add tassels / pompoms, and sew up all the loose ends (no pun intended). In between my work on those, Tom asked for a black hat with purple accents, so I whipped that up. As it was progressing, he said that it needed some zip and requested the addition of a bright, spring green. I asked, "Are you SURE?"
I'll have to post a picture of that one. Personally, I don't care for it. I think it looks too immature for a 55 year old man to wear. And, he's only worn it once. And that was here, at home. So, I think he agrees with me. It may just disappear one of these days and reinvent itself as just a black & purple hat!
And, I'm finishing a floppy red-with-red/pink-accents hat right now. It's sitting here on the chair arm right next to me. I really love it, but I don't think they are "my" colors. So, it will go into the Gift or To Sell pile.
I got 19 pints of Cinnamon & Brown Sugar Applesauce processed yesterday, and that felt good to get done. I really enjoy "putting up". There's such a sense of satisfaction that comes from it. ESPECIALLY when the food is free, save your time. I can't imagine NOT doing something with it! Now I'm on to an attempt at hard cider . . . but I don't have a cider press (nor a juicer). I'm going to put it thru a meat grinder in the hopes of squeezing enough liquid out that way. And, if that fails, no worries: more applesauce! :) (I put the applesauce in such small containers because they will be Christmas presents for the babies / parents-of-babies I know. And, the last thing you want is for something to spoil before it gets used up!)
I know I haven't posted much lately. No particular reason - just haven't seem to have found the time! So, here's a little catch up.
On Monday, September 7th, I nannied. When Baby Girl was having her afternoon nap, I was able to clean and cut green & wax beans for freezing.
On Wednesday, September 9th, Maisy (and Tucker) and I nannied one of my other charges.
With the peanut's help, I also got the beans blanched, packed, and frozen.
On my way to deliver a special order of cottage cheese on Thursday, the 10th, I found two weary hikers sitting at the bottom of our driveway - the husband having twisted his 68-year old ankle - and drove them the 16 miles to our little general store on the highway where they planned to hitchhike (!) the next 60 miles or so to their car left in Finland, MN.
I also picked up our mail. We get so much and are able to pick it up so infrequently that, instead of using our physical post office box to file it in, they just throw it into one of these big bins!
On Sunday, the 13th, dear friends arrived for a full day of house cleaning for the girls and standing-dead tree felling for the guys.
(And it was a hot, miserable day to spend logging!)
Thank you, thank you, J & H!
That evening, two other mutual friends joined us for a good dinner and great company.
The waning moon was a tiny crescent in the sky as I waved Tom off to work last Monday morning.
On Wednesday evening, Tom loaded the truck up with wood when we were in town. A good friend put up a couple of cords in expectation of a pig roast that never happened, and we get to reap the benefits!
Before I headed back into town to meet visiting friends Thursday afternoon, I unloaded the truck. This was the first of two loads we've gotten so far, and there's more yet to be had!
Another fun day with Baby Girl came on Saturday. She has the most beautifully colored blue eyes I've ever seen . . . they are the color of the acid-wash jeans that we wore in the 80s!
Finally, we finished off the week with a visit from new friends who came all the way from southeastern Minnesota and stayed at our little Håfweh Haus. They ventured "into the woods" to have dinner here at Swamp River Ridge last night and enjoyed the double bonus of following a moose for nearly 3 miles on their way home last night!
