The cold front arrived last night but
so far is showing 28° on my thermometer. We are north of I-44 so
could miss the entire precipitation thing....time will tell.
The Thanksgiving holiday is over and I
have been in a resting up mode since the last left on Sunday.
All the family was here which was
wonderful; it is rare that both can come at the same time. Our
granddaughter stayed with us the whole week (her BF lives
nearby.......) She may join us over winter break (for the same
reason).
DH has been busy getting ready for the
possible storm by putting out bales of hay and moving the cows to the
field with the in ground waterer that doesn't freeze. He also put a
bale of straw in the hen house and filled the nest boxes (I have
still been inside in rest mode). I did make oatmeal bread yesterday.
I was not happy with the recipe so will keep experimenting until I
find one I do like...may go back to some original Hogsdon Mills ones
that I began with.
I had a mini disaster in the kitchen
yesterday. I was getting something off a pantry shelf when the
overloaded shelf slipped off one of the little shelf brackets and
dropped down on one side to the shelf below! Nothing broke but some
oil spilled. DH came to my rescue and we unloaded everything from
that shelving section.
I took advantage of this to get rid of
some very old jars of pickles that had gone bad. Now I have the
counter top covered with clean canning jars that need to be
transported out to the Milk Parlor (I knew I should have bought
another shelf!). I had three dishwasher loads of jars.
This clean-up led to redoing the entire
wall of cabinets...I have more to do this morning. I also redid a
section of the cabinets where we keep coffee, tea and cereals. Be
interesting to see how we like this new arrangement.
Next is organizing the freezer portion
of the new refrigerator which is already a mess. Having all the
company didn't help. I found a bowl I use daily at the top of the
pantry.....bet my nice son-in-law did that. He was in the kitchen
helping a lot. He and our daughter were both a tremendous help in
after-dinner cleanup. The grands were attached to their
phones................except the older one and she was studying
almost the entire time here. I couldn't believe the amount of
homework assigned over the break.
I made DH a half-gallon batch of
yogurt. He has now become addicted to a dish a day with fruit, mostly
blueberries. This is a man who a year ago wouldn't even taste it!
I am guessing he saw or read something about the health benefits. I
had been buying it for him when I finally decided I could save tons
of money doing it myself. I have made yogurt before. I think my
last batches haven't been as thick as I would like. I need to
research that. He is happy with it though. I will also make my own
fruit for it. I bought a jar of Duncan Hines blueberry topping and
it is 80% thickened juice with just a bit of whole fruit. I can do
better.
What did I learn from my cleaning
pantry project? I will never can pickles again....just tomatoes and
. maybe salsa and ketchup. DH has been telling me for a few years
that I should stop. I will be working on my garden plans
accordingly this winter. I am the only one to eat pickles; Vlasic
can surely work for me.
I will be milking this morning. My
steady girl, Willow (the milk cow) returned to a very vocal heat
yesterday and we turned her to the field and saw her bred by one of
the senior Angus bulls. The Jersey heifer, Jewel, still hasn't
calved. I am sure she is waiting for the zero night due in a few
days.
Random Cat Picture
Prince come down with our granddaughter. It was time for his surgery. He paid his way while here!
