Buried in Snow Part 2

As if we didn't have enough snow, last night we got another 16 inches of snow!! On top of the 3 1/2 feet we already had!  We also lost power for about 3 or 4 hours.   During that time Harold and I got out the oil lamp, and a few tall candles and played card games and ate mixed nuts.   A person has to make the best of things, right?  The road grader/plow came up part of our driveway, which helped a lot.   I just got done shoveling for about 45 minutes and I'm already sore.  Harold got up at 2 a.m. and took the snow off the roof of the greenhouse because it was already starting to cave in from the heavy load of snow.   He spent an hour out there with a snow rake.
     Here are some pictures I just took:

Any bets on how long it'll take to get my car out of here?  The poor cat house is almost completely buried.  Harold dug out small space for them around 2 a.m. so they could get out.

It's a scary world for the cats right now.

After a lot of shoveling we managed to get a path.  This is not a good year for the snow blower to be broken down!!

Look at my poor greenhouse now!

After hours of shoveling four "little helpers" came out to play!  Harold managed to get the 4 wd pickup out, so at least we have a vehicle to use.

Do I dare say that on Wednesday the weathermen are predicting MORE snow?  This time it's only supposed to be a few inches.    Hey - what's a few more inches when you have this much already?  I don't think we're going to have a spring this year.

Buried In Snow Until July?

Oh! - it's been such a long, tough winter!  We haven't had this much snow since 1996.  We currently have 3 and 1/2 feet of snow on the ground, with 6 to 8 MORE inches of heavy wet snow predicted for this weekend!  NO!!!!  Not only have we had way too much snow, it's been way too cold.  On Monday and Tuesday of this week we had minus 20 and minus 25 degrees F.  This isn't normal for March!  However, today it got all the way up to 25 above zero, and we all "went crazy" enjoying the warmth.   I got outside and shoveled snow, and took a walk, and even my cats have been running around all day long playing and following me and 'helping' me shovel. (not).   But tomorrow the temps are supposed to get to 32, and we are supposed to get a very heavy dose of wet snow followed by high winds and then sleet, rain,  and more snow for next week.    I think this is the never-ending winter.

Standing next to my greenhouse.  The snow slides off the roof and piles up on the sides.  This pile is about 6 feet high from the ground level.   I'm standing on 2 ft of snow with another 4 ft of snow piled behind me.   Today we are going to try to shovel some of this away so the sides of the greenhouse don't cave in.

I finally got a path shoveled going to the greenhouse, and one of my cats (Bobbysox)  just had to see what's up in there!  It was nice and warm in there with the sun shining, almost 90 degrees!  No garlic is coming up yet under the straw cover.

Everything is so drifted!

Harold's sawmill is buried.   It'll be a while before he can saw wood again.

I took a walk down the road to take pictures, and several of my cats followed me for the walk.   They love to go on walks with me, just like a bunch of dogs.   We have all been cooped up for too long.  You can see how deep the piles of snow are on each side of the road.    The photo doesn't do it justice, but these piles of snow are about 5 feet high.   I dread the mud season when all of this snow melts.

I doubt we will be doing maple syrup this year unless the snow melts quickly.  This pile of snow is blocking the path to our sugarbush.  Harold needs to get his tractor fixed to move snow before we even attempt to start tapping trees.   This pile is almost 6 ft high.

Even the deer are having a hard time this year getting around in the deep snow.   For some reason they can't seem to walk in a straight line - note the crooked path they have made.

A couple of our cats decided to soak up the warm afternoon sun on the porch.  You can see how drifted the snow is all against the house.   

Hopefully this weekend and next week won't add too much snow to our already deep piles!  We are truly sick of winter.   In a couple weeks the calendar will say that it's "spring", but I think actual spring will be a couple months away for us.

Getting a Head Start on 2019 Gardening!

In February I always start the plants that need a 10-12 week lead time.  It's been so cold and snowy up here in the north country, so playing in potting soil and starting plants has been like therapy for me!  Yes!  I can "dig in soil" even when it is 25 below zero.  I have already started leeks, Walla Walla sweet onions, geraniums, petunias, pansies, statice flowers, straw flowers, and 10 different varieties of peppers.  This year I am trying my hand at growing pepper varieties that quickly turn yellow, orange and red, and also those sweet non-bell types.  I am also growing a larger variety of Jalapenos and small Jalapenos.   And plenty of Anaheim chili peppers, as I like those for making queso sauce to go over burritos and enchiladas.   I am not a real big fan of super hot peppers, but Jalapenos and Anaheim chilis sell well at our market booth.   The statice and straw flowers I grow to make dried bouquets that I will sell this year at our booth.
     In a couple weeks, in early March, I will begin several varieties of tomatoes, herbs like oregano and lovage, and probably more sweet onions.   I April I will begin about 90-100 plants of small one lb cabbages called Gonzales cabbages.  Those little cabbages sell like hot cakes, and are perfect for making a bowl of coleslaw for 2 to 4  servings without a lot of leftovers, and they are also perfect for cooked cabbage dishes and stir fries.   I will stagger the plantings so that I always have a supply of these well loved cabbages to sell at market. 
     I already have my gardens drawn out on graph paper, keeping in mind crop rotation, and I have the greenhouse all planned out, too.  As soon as I can get into the greenhouse in April or late March, I start planting things in there that can take a little cold - like spinach and bok choy and snow peas.
     I can't wait for spring!!

Here I am pouring some water in the bottom of a tray of geraniums and pansies.   To my left is a flat of Walla Walla sweet onions.   When all of these plants are a little bigger, I will transplant them into larger trays and containers.

Feline Food Line

This morning I took a cute photo of my farm cats as they were waiting for their morning chow.  I took this picture through the kitchen window because I knew if I went out the front door they would all come running to me.   They were all lined up intently staring at the front door, waiting for any sign of movement to indicate that it was chow time! (Except for one cat that had his back turned, and one cat staring off elsewhere).   My poor farm cats are having a tough winter!  It's been very cold, and next week looks to be outrageously cold.  Tonight it will be almost 29 below zero, Monday 31 below, Tuesday 40 below!, Wednesday 37 below and Thursday 33 below zero.  It finally "warms up" to 0 on Friday.   We have a small heater in the cat's house to help them out.  They sit in front of the heater for most of the day and night.   The deep snow around their house helps, too, to keep things warm.    Without the heater I am sure I would lose some of my farm cats.   All year long they are excellent hunters helping to keep things mouse-free around here, so they are important.

Ten of my farm cats patiently staring at the house, waiting for their morning chow time! When this photo was taken the temperature was 15 below zero F. A couple other cats decided to wait inside for mealtime, and sit by their heater.

I sure hope the cats...........and us!............can survive the big cold snap coming this week!  We are going to have some dangerous temperatures out there!

Cheering Myself Up

So this morning it was minus 25 degrees F (or -31 Celsius).  Too cold to do much of anything outside.  We've had a string of cloudy, cold winter days.  And I'm feeling stressed out over my husband's heart issues lately.  We have several doctor appointments for him next week.   He is not feeling the best right now.   Whenever I feel stressed out and start to feel sorry for myself, I like to get into the kitchen and find something interesting to do.  "Kitchen therapy"  - yep!  I decided it would be a good day to make a batch of Swedish Flatbread.   I wrote up a post on this back in 2017 (see the Dec 22, 2017 article in older posts).  Making flatbread kept me busy for an afternoon.

A nice batch of 16 Swedish flatbreads.   They will keep for a long time in a tin (broken into pieces), and make a good snack with a cup of coffee, tea, or hot cider. 

After making the flatbreads, I decided to sit down with a cup of lemon zinger tea and a couple pieces of the new flatbread.  Using my fanciest cup and saucer, and my favorite tea pot, cheered me up, too!

A few sections of flatbread, some tea and a good book go a long way to cheering a person up on a cold winter day!

I bought a new book the other day - a very nice book on gardening.   It's a great reference, and I am learning plenty of new things to try this year in the gardens.  I already have my gardens planned out, seeds ordered and bought, and now I'm ready to draw up some diagrams of where I will put crops this year.

My new garden book.  By the end of February I will be starting some flower seeds inside, and in early March quite a few other seeds will be started.  

I feel better already! 

A Favorite Salad

This is a recipe I got from my mother about 8 or 9 years ago.  It's a favorite to take to pot lucks and picnics, especially in summer,  because it doesn't have anything that would spoil in the heat.  But this salad is also good in the winter when fresh lettuce isn't readily available.  It makes a good sized bowl full, and keeps well in the refrigerator for several days.  You can vary the veggies used in it, according to what you have and what is available.   You need about 4 to 6 cups of chopped veggies.

VEGETABLE PASTA SALAD

One 12-oz box of bow tie pasta 

4 to 6 cups of chopped vegetables:  choose from cucumbers, green or red peppers, zuccini or summer squash, green onion or red onion or sweet onion, radishes, cherry tomatoes, carrots, broccoli or cauliflower. 

1/2 tsp salt

pepper to taste

Cook the 12 oz package of bow tie pasta until tender, but not overcooked, about 13 or 14 minutes.  Drain and rinse pasta in cold water, and drain again.  

Chop up the veggies into small pieces, or thinly slice.  (If using cherry tomatoes add them the next day.)  Mix the cooked pasta and veggies with 1/2 tsp of salt and some pepper in a large bowl. 

Make the following dressing: 

1/3 cup white vinegar

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup salad oil

1 T. regular yellow mustard

     Put all in a jar and shake until sugar is dissolved and dressing is well blended. 

Mix about 3/4 of the dressing with the veggie/pasta mix and cover and set in the refrigerator overnight.  Reserve the remaining dressing in the jar.   Next day, see if the salad needs a little more dressing and add some more and mix.   If you are using cherry tomatoes, cut in half and add at this time.   The recipe will probably make about 8 meal sized servings, or about 16 side dish servings.

Here is the salad I made today for a church pot luck.  I used broccoli, red peppers, green peppers, red onion and carrots.

The New Book Is Here!

Harold and I consider ourselves to be "Scrabble Aficionados".   That's fancy talk for "we really like to play Scrabble and think we're pretty good at it"!  We play Scrabble almost every night, mostly in the winter and late fall.   Of course we use the Official Scrabble Dictionary as our authority.  Since 2008 we have been using the 5th Edition dictionary, but we just found out there is a 6th Edition, so we ordered that and it came the other day in the mail. 
     We make a big deal out of playing Scrabble.  Quite often we have a "Scrabble supper", which means we set out cheese and crackers or chips and dip or veggies or some other simple supper.  Sometimes we just have popcorn and cider or water.   But we always have to have some kind of Scrabble food - helps us to think, ya know!  In the summer and spring we are too busy with outdoor chores and gardening, so Scrabble takes a back seat then.   We have learned so many new words and all the weird words, too.   Nobody likes to play Scrabble with us anymore - we have outplayed everybody.   But Harold and I can still challenge each other.   It's fair to say we each win about 50% of the time!
     So during the long winter evenings we put on some music or listen to old time radio shows, get out the snacks and get down to the business of playing Scrabble.  We are using the old game I bought in 1978.  It is on a turntable which makes it great for holding the letters in place.  Years ago my kids sat on the board - thinking they were using it for a "sit and spin" toy (remember that toy fad from the 70's?) - and put a big crack in the middle of the board.   But it still works and that's all that counts.   The crack is a reminder that kids will be kids, I guess.   In the 41 years I've had this Scrabble board, I wonder how many games were played on it?  I have sewed many cloth bags for the letters over the years, and we have gone through several official dictionaries.   Amazingly enough, we have never lost a letter tile!
     Anyone for a challenge against us?

Our new official Scrabble authority!

Lots of new words to learn!  The new Scrabble dictionary is thicker than the old one - plenty of new words.

Here's the crack in the middle of the board that my kids caused back in the 1970's, when they tried to make a "sit and spin" toy out of the board.

The game begins - it's my turn next after Harold started the game.  I don't have very good letters!  All I could make was 'hats'.

As the game progresses, things get harder!  Not many places to make good plays without setting up opportunities for the other guy!  The object is to ensure that you don't make it easy for your opponent to use the triple word feature.

Happy New Year 2019!

Happy New Year to everyone!  Can you believe it is really 2019?  For old people like me, I can remember a time when the year 2019 seemed like it was so far into the future it was unimaginable.   And yet, here it is.   As you can tell from the looks of this blog, I have changed the theme and the general appearance.   I always like to start off a new year with a fresh format.  Somehow looking at the same old same old every year just doesn't seem right.  A new year deserves a new look! I will be starting my 7th year of blogging.  The past 6 years have been very enjoyable writing about stuff here on the farm.   I never seem to run out of ideas because life is always changing.   While some posts might seem the same from year to year, they are really different.  One thing we can always count on is that change always happens!  Harold and I look forward to 2019.  The past year has been a very good year for us, and we hope for more of the same this year, too! 
     I encourage my readers to comment on the blog.  You can post comments under  "name/url" or simply "anonymous" and then sign your name or not.   I especially encourage my foreign readers to comment!  Let me know who you are!  I have blog readers from all over the world, and I am flattered that you find my blog posts interesting.
     This morning it was very cold here in northern Minnesota.  We woke up to -24 deg F, which is -31 deg C. That is cold!   We put a heater in the cat's shelter to help the kitties out, as this kind of cold is quite tough on them.   We have about 7 or 8 inches of snow on the ground.  Here is a photo of the view from my kitchen window:

As I stand at the sink in my kitchen, this is what I see every morning in the winter.  I think it is a lovely view!   Sometimes I watch herds of deer walk across the frozen lake.    In the summer, the trees are thick with leaves and underbrush, so my view of the lake is gone.  But in the fall, the beautiful colors make for pretty viewing.   Living in an area with 4 seasons, makes for constantly changing scenery.

This is the beautiful and peaceful looking view from my computer desk!  As I sit and write blog posts I often gaze out across the lake.  In the summer I watch the trumpeter swans and ducks.  In the fall there are lots of migratory birds.  In the winter I see deer, the occasional fox or coyote, and the other day I watched a mink "hop" across the lake.  I found out that mink don't really run, but sort of 'hop'.  I thought the animal was wounded until my husband and the neighborhood guys around here set me straight on the movements of mink. In this photo you can see where the deer have made a path across the edge of the lake.

 We built our house in such a way that this would be our view of the farm every day - trees, a lake, and plenty of open spaces.  Our home sits on a slight hill, so we have a wonderful view of things from a higher perspective.

     I hope that this will be a good year for everyone!  Let us enjoy every moment of the year, and walk with the Lord every day!