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.