The Farmers Almanac said it's been raining for days.. And indeed it has. It also says it's supposed to clear up quite a bit for the next few days, so I'm hoping for a dry enough Mayday to have our first fire. There's a small cement pad down by the pond, and I plan on snagging some landscaping bricks from around the yard to make some fire ring action. Right now the pad has a heap of seriously soaked chinese chestnut hulls on it. I'm hoping the bags of burnables I've been separating in the garbage will be enough dry stuff. I'm hoping for a Mayday bonfire, and that might just happen if the FA is right and we should have clearer weather for the next few days.
I noticed strolling outside during a brief non raining break that the first of our 10 fruit trees is in full bloom. No leaves really on it yet, just all fuzzy with white blooms with pink bases. I've been told that we have apples, pears, sweet and tart cherries, and peach in our orchard. Not positive what is what though. The fruit will tell :)
Some of the critters are happy of the rain break too. I refilled the finch feeder and hanging feeder. So the American Goldfinches are happy. Tippy, our local black squirrel with a white tail tip, is happily bouncing over the bog under the feeder looking for goodies. Not all the birds are happy though. I haven't refilled the big house feeders- I don't think I'm going to either. Those things seriously need to be replaced, they waste tons of seed.
Haven't seen the neighbor chickens out, but I'm not surprised. Been too wet and not enough scattered seed to interest them.
Made a pretty decent soup today too, a chowder. I sweated a medium onion and 5 stalks of celery in a couple Tablespoons of oil from oil packed green olive mix. Then I added in 3 large carrots and 5 potatoes. Couple frozen chicken breasts went in, and 6 cups of chicken vegetable stock. I seasoned it with black pepper, tarragon, Old Bay seasoning, parsley, and garlic powder. After it was boiling for a bit, I pulled the breasts, diced them small, and added them back in. Let it boil some more, till everything was tender. Mashed it a bit with a potato masher to break everything up into little bits. Added about 1 1/2 cups milk, let it come up to heat, added about 1/2 cup potato flakes in to thicken it a little. Stirred in a bit of nutmeg at the end. Whole thing took 30 minutes or so, yum! It made enough for four big lunch servings.
Super awesome object completed this week off the plastic printer. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:8080
It's a tank, built right here at Growbox Hill :)
No comments:
Post a Comment