We're OK

 So, the south gets hurricanes, and the midwest gets the roulette wheel of tornadoes.  An EF3 hit fairly close to us yesterday.  The community is under some requested travel restrictions and required curfews, so no first hand photos of damage, because I would just get in the way of people who have very difficult jobs to do.  There were a lot of downed trees closer to my dad's place.  He's fine too, but will sorely miss Manderfield's Bakery wheat flax seed bread on Wednesdays.  The basement and the brick entrance are all that remains where it stood.  And Third Street diner, dad's favorite place to meet with friends is also a loss.  So far there are no known human fatalities, and we thank God and good basements for that.  I did have to bury a dead rabbit that I found in the yard, but don't know if it died in the storm or if the neighbor dogs got it.

www.WBAY.com has fairly good coverage that isn't behind a paywall like the Post Crescent seems to have now.  They had a fairly extensive photo gallery yesterday, but I didn't find it when I looked today.

Here We Go Again

So there was a brief respite of a couple days and then the weather got hot again, no big surprise there.  It is still summer.  However, there are now air quality advisories out until Thursday.  Apparently parts of Minnesota and Canada have caught fire again, so we get their smoke - "GAK - wheeze".

Before the smoke arrived I managed to get the main garden half-weeded yesterday.  It is so annoying to leave it looking that way, not quite as annoying as leaving the dog half shaved thankfully.  But clean air is necessary for physical activity.  Guess I have no excuses left to avoid mending projects and cleaning in the basement anymore as outside chores beyond watering the garden are off limits for now.

Go Figure, It's Hot Outside, Because

 It is Summer.  There's no way we as little humans have any control over the BTU output of the sun or our orbit around it.  Most of us are wishing that summer had arrived a little more gradually.  We had a burst of hot weather at the beginning of June, which worked nicely to get the seeds planted in my dad's garden to germinate.  By the time my garden was planted, daytime temperatures had dropped back to the 60's and 70's, and overnight lows were in the 50's.  So far the beans and peas haven't grown very well.  Now it's in the 90's, and I might have to go out and shove some more seeds in the ground to fill in the thin spots.

We had rain this morning, so at least the gardens don't need to be watered today.  Some of the storms caused a lot of damage.  I was merely inconvenienced by having to go out in a downpour and pick up the recycling bin that had been tipped over and put stuff back into it before the garbage truck arrived.

Getting back to the hot weather.  The news has made a big deal out of the hot weather Europe is having, blaming it on global warming.  They've been blaming the deaths from heat in France on "global warming" too, but this has happened before, and will probably happen again unless the French people as a whole check on their neighbors, especially the elderly, and if necessary provide cooling shelters with good air conditioning.  That said, this can easily happen anywhere.  Pay attention, check on friends, relatives, and neighbors and do your best to stay hydrated and cool.

Thank you Lord!

That the rain we've had yesterday and today and the downpour we just had were not snow.

This rain should finish melting the last slush pile from the snowstorm 2 weeks ago that was still perched on the edge of the driveway.

 

Yes, It is still Winter

It is snowing, and will continue to do so until some time tomorrow.  A normally quiet Sunday is even more quiet.  Occasionally a plow truck or someone who absolutely has to get somewhere drives by the house.  The wind continues to blow.  Tonight's weather predictions have it going as high as 50 mph; too bad nobody can give nature a speeding ticket.  The sound of a shovel scraping or a snowblower growling its way through a snow pile breaks the silence as another neighbor attempts to reduce the amount of snow that will have to be cleared tomorrow.

The entertainment industry chose wisely when they centered their business in a warm, sunny place rather than northeast Wisconsin.  The Oscars red carpet fashion show would be way less interesting if everybody showed up in parkas and snow boots.  Well, I'm off to see if the snowblower can hack its way through the pile at the end of the driveway.  Wishing you a warm and cozy Sunday.

Pet Psychology

 So the other week there was a family emergency about which I will not elaborate.  It meant that I spent a fair amount of time away from home and away from my somewhat overly devoted dog Hunter.  Being the object of his obsession isn't always healthy for him.  He worried himself into quite a state during the times I was away.  That combined with a definite need for his spring brushing, bath, and shave caused some digestive issues resulting in no other way to say it "splody-poo".  He did get his brushing, bath, and shave, which reduced his overheating issue.  But not having time to make special food for him (and having bad results with him in the past with lean meat and rice), I have resorted to feeding him canned soft food for a while, which has thankfully cleared up his digestive issues.  I chose a variety of flavors to keep him from getting bored.  Apparently this evening's flavor (ProPlan beef and rice) was not to his liking.  He refused to eat it twice when presented with his dinner.  Knowing that the food is typically good and nutritious, I figured he was just being stubborn.  As a last resort, I gave his bowl to Duke the cat.  Duke started chomping away like he'd hit the jackpot.  (At Duke's last vet appointment the vet had gone so far as to suggest I feed him some miralax.  We disagreed, I prefer to offer Duke some foods that are simply higher in fiber, without the possible side effect of "splody-poo" emanating from the cat too if the dosage accidentally went too high.  A very small serving of soft dog food seems to do the trick, that or a couple spoonfuls of pumpkin.)  So back to the original story - Hunter looked a bit jealous and worried that the cat would eat all of the food in the bowl, and that he wouldn't get any dinner at all.  I took the bowl away from Duke, gave it back to Hunter, and the third time he was offered his supper, he ate it all.  Time will tell if it agrees with his insides, all the way through.  I guess sometimes pets being jealous of each other can be used to their benefit.

Happy Slushy Sturgeon Spearing Season

 The weather has turned warm and slushy just in time for sturgeon spearing season.  Later in the week the runoff from melting snow will probably make the water cloudy, but for now the ice is still nice and thick and the weather is much more conducive to folks having sturgeon parties on the lakes.

Big Turnout on Valentines' Day

Cabin Fever

 Go figure, cats get it too.  That's the only explanation for Duke being so very naughty this morning.  He knows that he isn't supposed to sit on top of the glass fish tank cover.  (It obviously isn't designed to hold a 16 lb. cat; one of these times it will just break.)  Even after being yelled at once, he went back up and did it again.  Being short of patience, I grabbed him, turned on the shower, and tossed him into it.  He didn't stay long, and the only thing damaged was his pride.  Hubby has been reinforcing the discipline with a squirt bottle since Duke has also been cutting his way through the plastic window insulator kits with his claws.  Duke is being a brat today.

Inside the Snow Globe

 Well, it snowed again.  Which means I should get outside and finish the shoveling.  Yeah, I'm stalling.

Now let's move on to a completely different subject.  As an after Christmas, combination birthday, pre-valentines day gift we splurged and got a game camera.  After getting the SD card and the batteries, and the SD card reader because every time I plugged in the USB cord, it wiped the card, it is almost ready to be put outside to see what critters wander through the yard at night.  First I need to get some little padlocks and cable so that the whole thing doesn't disappear in the hands of a lazy two legged critter.  Unfortunately, a truly determined one will merely make sure he or she visits with a saw.  It is still a little too cold at night to put it outside anyhow.  Apparently it is rated to -4 deg. F.  Of course, batteries are notorious for draining really quickly in weather between freezing and the -4 as well, so there will be a delay in setting the game camera outside.  As a test, I set it up in the kitchen and aimed it at Duke's food bowl.  The obscure piece of feline trivia, Duke visited his food bowl 22 times during the night.

It certainly explains why he's such a chubby boy.

How to Tell When It's Really Cold Outside

1.

The water vapor in the pellet stove exhaust is actually visible.  That thing is so efficient that it normally only has visible smoke on startup.

2.

Both the pellet stove and the boiler need to run in order to keep the house comfortable.  (Technically the boiler would do the job just fine by itself, except that family members on the 2nd floor would be wearing shorts while the folks downstairs would be wearing sweaters.  Oh, and I'd have to own a very productive oil well to pay for the fuel oil.)

3.

The dog actually does his business outside in a timely fashion rather than looking like a wooly statue sniffing the breeze for 10 minutes before finally pooping.

4.

Dog poo must be removed quickly from hard surfaces like sidewalks before it freezes in place.  (Although a few frozen turds might discourage the neighbors from dragging sleds down the sidewalk when it snows.  It is quite annoying when they do that, because it glues the snow to the concrete.)

5.

It becomes necessary to knock over the ice stalagmite that forms below the next door neighbor's furnace exhaust before it grows so tall that it blocks the exhaust.

6.

The cars don't start very well, and once they do it takes at least 15 minutes of driving before the heat works.  The heat also gets left on maximum temperature for the whole trip, and passengers suddenly think lap blankets are stylish.

7.

You can make seafood, chicken soup, ribs, whatever you desire without making sure that trash day is the next day.  Trash in the outside can doesn't stink, because it's frozen solid.  However if you live somewhere with bears and other predators, you'd better have tamper proof cans.

8.

Meal planning includes thoughts of which things will take a long time to bake, thereby heating the house some more.

9.

It is really cold outside when the cat is not at all interested in sneaking outside and can't decide whether to sleep in a bed with the electric blanket running, on the hot register, or on the couch in front of the pellet stove.  Poor Duke - so many choices, what will he do?  What am I saying?  He's a cat; he'll try all three, and then try to climb into the clothes dryer just to be annoying.

Lost in Translation

So I made a recipe from hubby's mom.  Her family originally came through Holland, after having left Scotland a long time before that.  The spelling might have changed a bit since its origin.  In the recipe, these are called Smote Ballen.

I tried an online translator, and apparently the second word may have been misspelled with an a instead of an o.

So for your dining pleasure here are some lard balls.

or if you type it in as all one word smoutebollen, the translator comes up with a more polite term beignets.

Smoute Ballen (Dutch Doughnuts)

1 cup scalded milk

1 envelope yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)

1 1/2 cup sifted flour  (Don't forget to sift; it needs to be fluffy.)

2 Tbs. sugar

1 tsp salt

1 egg

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. lemon flavor

1/2 cup raisins

Cool milk to lukewarm, dumping in the sugar, salt, and raisins helps.  Add yeast and mix.  Add remaining ingredients and mix until a smooth batter that can be dropped from a spoon is formed.  Cover and let raise in a warm spot while heating the oil.  Fry in hot oil, and dust with sugar and cinnamon (approx. 1/4C sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon)
 

Sometimes I Wonder

 who all the people are reading this blog.  Or is the blog traffic just all bots?

In case a real person is reading this, hello out there.  Winter has returned and covered the yard in snow again.

The Packers lost the game, but it was interesting up to the very end.  Funny, Amazon had exclusive rights to broadcast the game, but it was actually shown on local TV stations too, probably because of the rule about when the stadium is sold out, the game has to be broadcast on TV in the areas from where the teams come.  The resolution on the computer screen was better than on the old Sony trinitron.  Funny thing though, for some reason the internet transmission lagged what was broadcast on the airwaves by a few seconds.  The announcers were pretty lame too.  Perhaps I should have muted the audio and turned on the radio to get a decent announcer.

More Weather & Stuff

 It's been rainy and warmer than usual for about the last week.  Winter weather will return in time for the Packers vs. Bears game on Saturday.  It will be a snowy mix up here, but probably more rain in Chicago.  (Nobody really wants a repeat of the ice bowl.)  Somehow Prime Video managed to get exclusive broadcast rights, so it is unlikely that the game will be shown on any local stations.  Hopefully the local internet suppliers' servers will be able to handle the volume of traffic they will get tomorrow evening.

Weather - ick

 I'm not sure which is worse, cold and snow or warm-ish and ice.  We're experiencing freezing rain tonight.  It is supposed to get above freezing during the daytime, but I will still probably have to dip into the salt supply to make sure the sidewalks de-ice completely during the daytime.

Last week we had several days with snow flurries, which amounted to just enough snow condensing out of the air to be annoying/require scraping from the public sidewalks - city ordinances and all that jazz.  I didn't clear it all from the blacktop driveway, because it just wasn't enough to bother clearing.  It is one of the few times that I am glad that I didn't shovel most of the driveway, because it is actually less slippery where there is some snow base.  Blacktop with a thin coating of ice is no fun, and ice storms are why the ski poles and the spikey metal strap on shoe cleats are parked in the entry.  Even Hunter the dog was having trouble staying upright on all fours tonight during his evening potty break.  Hot dogging generally resulted in running in place, followed by slipping, and skidding - a look of "You didn't see that; really I meant to do that."  All that was followed by a much more sedate walk back to the house.

Hubby spent some time in states farther south before we married.  He described Missouri's approach to snow and ice as "God put it there; He can take it away... (in His good sweet time.)"  I guess that was how I was feeling about shoveling last week.

Hope you all are warm and well, and that you have a Happy New Year!

Giggle

 Ok, so the mischief is thick with me.  Mid week we had a pile of snow followed by plummeting temperatures.  Saturday I got a call from my dad wondering if he could borrow my old car, because the battery that starts the engine on his fairly new Prius has died.  I had planned to stay inside yesterday and only venture out to supervise the dog Hunter when he had to go potty, but family trumps comfort.  So after getting my act together and dressing appropriately for the weather, I took the old 2005 Civic out for a spin to warm it up before going over to dad's house to switch drivers.  It has been a while since dad has driven a manual.  He has this game with the Prius to see how high he can get the mileage, which involves very slow gentle starts.  Needless to say he needed to wake up his clutch foot and adjust his throttle foot settings and give it the beans so he didn't kill off the engine when starting out.

I couldn't resist.  When he dropped me back home, I suggested that after the battery gets replaced on the Prius, he should drive it in sport mode during the winter to reduce the wear and tear on the gas engine battery and hopefully reduce the tendency of the car to shut down and restart the engine at stop signs and lights.  Toyota engineers really need to take winter weather into account when designing hybrid vehicles, and have an ambient temperature sensor which will keep the engine running if the weather is too cold for frequent shutdown/restart situations.  They should also warn their customers to replace the engine starting battery every 2 to 3 years, because at least dad's didn't make it to the usual 5 years that can be expected for a battery on a non-hybrid vehicle.

The irony is that dad's brand new car with its heated seats and all its bells and whistles is sitting in his garage connected to a battery charger in the hope that the battery has enough life left in it that he won't need to get it towed to the dealership on Monday, because it's still under warranty.  Meanwhile, he's driving my antique 20 year old car.

Thank you HONDA!

Dining Advice from Duke the Cat

 Play with a grasshopper until it has lost all its hoppyness.  Then remove the back legs before consuming the rest, because the legs are just too crunchy.

Self Serve?

 Ok, so Hunter is a fussy eater.  I fill his bowl with kibble in the morning and top it with a few small pieces of cheese and a veggie that if left until later won't get too disgusting.  Typically, he eats the people food toppings and leaves the kibble.  (It doesn't matter what kind of kibble; he dislikes them all equally.)  He tries to mooch people food all day and feigns starvation.  He has plenty of dog food; he's just too stubborn to eat it until I coat it with something yummy like cooked, chopped or ground meat for supper.  While the glut of tomatoes from dad's garden is ripening, some of the totes are resting on the floor.  Earlier today, he must have helped himself to a tomato, because we found a puddle of juice and seeds on the floor.  The rest of the big mama simply disappeared.  I've had to cover the top of the tote where he can reach to prevent him repeating his self serve habit again.  If he wants a tomato, he's going to have to beg for it.  I wonder how many he stole before and managed to eat and lick up the evidence.  One thing for sure, he's not going to be constipated tomorrow.

Reaping What Was Sown

Nope, not politics.  This is all about the garden.

An attempt was made by Duke to hatch a few tomatoes.

Since they were under a towel, he was unable to knock them off the counter, but his chubby behind did manage to pop some of the cherry tomatoes on which he sat.

One weekend's endeavors included marinara sauce, tomato juice, rhubarb juice, beans.  Also shown are the last 3 jars of jelly from the previous week's 4 batches made when berries were cleaned out of the freezer.  Turning the berries into canned jelly merely stalled the filling of the freezer and the inevitable need to switch to canning beans, rather than freezing them.

The next weekend saw the making of tomato soup kits,

canned tomatoes

and you guessed it more beans.

Thankfully the beans have slowed way down.  All the tomatoes were picked at my house and at dad's place.  The green ones are safely indoors away from cold nights, and are ripening at a pace that will require more canning around the middle of next week.  Dad started the summer with the comment, "I'll just plant a few tomatoes.  You can have what I am unable to eat."  Good intentions were swamped by the joy of watching things grow.  My cousin gave him three plants after the family reunion, and he came home and started an entire packet of Burpee Big Mama tomato seeds when the ones he had planted directly in the garden were eaten by rabbits.  About half of the seedlings went into his garden and the others were planted elsewhere where they didn't cause too much trouble.  When we finished picking his tomatoes, there were approximately a half bushel of ripening ones, and another 3 1/2 bushels of green ones.  My garden has hit the scraggly messy stage; the sunflowers are done blooming.  I will give the birds a few more days to strip all the sunflower seeds from the plants before cutting them down and composting the stalks.

The squash have already been harvested, but the pumpkins are still plugging along, ripening ever so slowly.  That's the hazard of planting a variety that grows better in the south of France.  Wisconsin just doesn't really have a 110-120 day growing season.  They'll have to be picked soon before we get a hard frost, then allowed to finish ripening in the house.  Aside from a few cold nights in the high 30's and low 40's that prompted picking all the tomatoes, the weather has been remarkably warm for a Wisconsin fall.  Saturday the temperature is supposed to get up to 72, but then it will return to more normal levels.

Hunter is sniffing the pumpkin.  He's a weird dog.  Unlike Chloe and Ember, he likes a lot of vegetables.  He gladly eats cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, beets, turnips, squash, pumpkin, and apples.  He can be quite a pest begging for produce as it is prepared for freezing or canning.  He's always demanding his "cut".  If he could talk, he'd have an Italian accent and want to be called Don Hunter.  There must be something about carrots though, just like Chloe and Ember, he won't touch them.

Please, Please

 Build some pipelines, so that there isn't more of this.

Derailment and spill

When Will

Canada run out of things that burn?  This is getting really old.  For the better part of the last week there have been air quality advisories.

To top it off, one local municipality nearby still allows burning of trash and brush.  Yesterday evening someone was burning some nasty stuff.  They probably figured everyone would blame the wildfire smoke from Canada.  Last time I checked, Canada's wilderness is not made of plastic.