chicken yard at night

Esme and I went out and tried to secure down the chicken yard a bit more with zip ties and bricks etc et al... two more opossums were in my hen house last night and my big Beau rooster (second in charge, half-blind) did his best to alert me and face them off but they wouldn't leave until I came out. He has a terrible noise he emits when they are out there - between that and the dogs I'm up even if asleep. We'll see if we've managed to close up the places they were getting in at or we'll have another round of checks and fixes. The other bigger rooster, (pictured below, I don't really have a name for him, but maybe Sarge) was on top of the henhouse with all of the hens pushed up under his wings keeping them safe, so both roosters were doing what they could.

mid February tools

 

This is called a 'hoedag', it is a gardening tool that is a hoe on one side and a set of tines on the other.  I have been calling it, in my own mind, some sort of conglomeration of 'hoedak' or 'hoedar' and today, I decided to go look up what it was actually called.  Surprisingly, I have not just made up a name and used it (as I have done with some things all my life, as a way of keeping it organized in my own head) - but it really is a 'hoedag'.  Where did I pick up that name?  It certainly wasn't on any of the tools when I bought them - I remember looking, and even asking myself at the time - what do I CALL this?  Unlike my hori-hori knife, which I also use so often in the garden, and use the name from what was on it when I received it.

It is mid February, and the ice age has ended, at least for now.  I hope for all year.  In those hopes, I put a small patch of turnip seed out in the front garden with this hoedag this morning.  I had given some chickweed that was growing by the front steps to the chickens yesterday and watched them run around and peck at each other to get some.  They looked so miserable and wet this morning in the rain, that I decided it was worth some of my co-op 'old but might sprout' seed even at these temperatures to plant a little something - just to ask Spring to keep rolling along to warm.

 

 Mark had made a good pork roast with all the spices a few days ago (Esme helped grind those up and measure them), and we made stir fry with it.  I bought a new rice cooker a few weeks ago with a gift certificate, and it finally came in the mail.  I think I like it - but I want to see if it will cook lentils as well as rice.  The book has nothing about that - but I've seen some things on line.  I also wonder if it will cook soaked adzuki beans - if so, that would be 'golden'.

 

the sauce for the stir fry, as usual : 1 tbsp brown sugar, bit olive oil, about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water (I often add more later), 2 splashes of soy sauce and one splash of balsamic vinegar, and about a half a tablespoon or bit more of prepared brown mustard - mix that all together and put in with the vegetables and pre-cooked meat, and when it has all come to a good cooked mixture, add the recently cooked (but not just cooked) rice, a bit more water and when that has heated back to sizzling - make a hole in the middle and crack one egg.  Let the white cook for a moment, then drag the egg through the entire mixture and put the lid on to steam while turning off the heat.  Serve immediately.  This had zucchini, red bell pepper and onions in it, as well as the pork roast and rice cooked in the rice cooker the night before.

 

 And before we go out to town today, I am making some soup.  Mark had given me a large rind of fat in the refrigerator off of his pork roast two nights ago, and it was time to do something with it.  I put a pot of split peas on the stove with olive oil, celery seed, and pulverized brown mustard seed in it, as well as the fat rind.  In a couple of hours I can blend it up and put it in quart glass jars to use for the week.  Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old - not quite, in glass jars put up in the fridge shelf :)

This is the little mortar and pestle that my mother-in-law gave me a few years ago.  I use it to grind up seeds like these in small batches to use in cooking.  Whole brown mustard seed, from an Indian cooking spice kit I bought years ago, and did not have too much use for it particularly, until I began grinding it up in small batches. 

for languages lately, I've done Spanish, German, Turkish and Lithuanian.

I had the opportunity to try to speak to someone in Spanish, they asked me if I could say whatever it was en espanol etc...  but all I could think of was half German, half English, and something else in Spanish that had not meant the right thing in the past.  For actual usability, I really do need to take some face-to-face Spanish lessons covering things I actually need to say.  Maybe some day here.

rolling

 Getting back in the swing of things, now that the ice is finally gone.  There was even some still on our road this morning and, taking the back road on the way back in, we saw some even this afternoon at 70 degrees.  I'm very glad I didn't try to take the back road route to the highway that other day - I turned around and took the shorter, more hilly route that I had already been over once in a wild ride, because I knew what it looked like and the back road route is longer, a bit flatter but so narrow there is no place to turn around if you come up on something you can't manage.

 We restocked our feeds, and are halfway through restocking our propane.  It will be tighter this month, especially trying to restock, because of the missed paychecks from the ice storm.  I bought eggs for the very first time in a store in what has to be years - because I was going to make some cookies and our hens haven't laid in months - they were laying one every three days or so before this ice storm but of course during it, nothing at all.  Opossums may be to blame - as well, time will tell.  I'm glad to have the chickens themselves mostly healthy and bumping around pecking in their yard as pets, even without eggs.

 Esme had been very worried about her classes at the trade school with the state of emergency and yet their strange attendance policy.  However, it seems like that will work out - and she can catch up.  It took a lot of reaching out and frustration to get them to actually talk to her before she showed back up at the doorstep - which she wanted to know before she got there etc.. but finally the answer was : 'yes, it will be in a way excused because it was weather emergency, but it will still be marked on the papers absent'... I saw her put her hands out and say 'What does that even mean?' to me in sign language.  I agree, kid.  I agree. 

For languages I have been doing mostly Japanese (at the highest level I have reached) and Turkish (low profile, and vocabulary work) and a little vocabulary work in Lithuanian.

Now to catch up on the rest of the things at work - some chores, restock and pinch our pennies for a few weeks until we know everything will work out better and / or the taxes get done and we see our return. 

january ice storm tennessee 12 days on : we break out finally

   

 

It did not happen early in the morning, but at 1:45 pm we finally made it to the highway.  The postmaster had wanted me to come earlier in the day, if the road was clear, and help with the backup of packages - but I walked the road at 9 and at 11:30, and again at 1 pm.  At 9 it was still a slick gleaming sheet of ice, albeit thinner than it had been yesterday.  There were also more patches in sunny areas where there was no ice at all, including our entire garden area (seen below, ala dogs) but there were still many shaded areas, including on the hills, that were still dicey at 1:45.  

 

Mark got to the end of the road next to the highway and asked if we should turn around and try to go back up what we had just come right away - in case we couldn't get back in when it got colder again.  It was 45 degrees, and the forecast said it wouldn't get colder again for a few more hours - so we got some propane and a few groceries, and then headed back in for another wild ride up and down those hills.  I am very glad Mark was driving for both of those - and I might have turned back seeing the jagged downhill slide that then went into the uphill - but he thought he could make it, actually, it was 'I hope we can make it'.  It was the same on the way back in, with a propane tank, but the few places where the sun had melted down to bare road helped to catch the footing back. 

 

  

 

that garbage can is still trying to get free from the iceberg 

 

 

at 9 am this morning - it had melted another half of this by 1:30 when I made my third walk of the day  - I checked on the mapping app and from our mailbox to the one I was walking to it was .7 miles one way, and that doesn't include our long driveway - so I feel I can say that I was walking 2 miles there and back at the most, several times a day.  I haven't been sitting on my tail for this storm - and my legs do feel it.  

  

 

At 11:30 Grandma's dogs had decided they had to come home with me and hang out with our dogs.  The garden area was entirely sunny and clear - very different than what was happening up the road from there.  After we got some supplies and got back in, I brought Grandma the supplies we got for her in a sled, because it was still slippery on the road up to her house, and carrying it didn't seem like a great idea.  I could have gotten her a few more things - and I'm not planning on going out tomorrow until at least noon - even though it says it will be 50 tomorrow, and overcast.

 

afternoon february 6 - january ice storm tennessee

 I took an afternoon walk at 2 pm, as well - and it was getting better - the creek was roaring with all the runoff - but we're still wondering if it is better to wait until the entire day has had time to clear things.  We aren't at the point where anything is critical, we're just 'out of most things' and finding other things to use, instead.  We have water and power, and Mark has been doing okay with his extra heaters.

 

  

this is still a skating rink down to our house from grandma's mailbox

then it gets pretty clear, up until this point 

 

just past the 800 house 

looking back at the 800 house from the 600 hill

climbing up the 600 hill

at the top of the 600 (911 address points) hill, looking down towards another 90 degree corner, which then goes further down to another 90 degree corner, and then up and down a big hill

 

Do we want to try to get out and then have to get back in with supplies that are going to take us hours to collect, and may or may not be easy to find in the first place?  If everyone else is getting out, as well, the stores may be hard hit and if we have to wait too long anywhere - it will be too late as it will refreeze tonight - it might be a fools' errand to try today, because we are so far from town.

 

The postmaster wants me delivering packages tomorrow, and my office boss said I could come anytime during the weekend and work extra to try to catch up on physical papers. 

 

february 6 - january ice storm tennessee

 I went out at 8 am to see what the weather was like - and how much melting might or might not have happened.  I didn't even go up to the mailbox yesterday, it never melted enough to warrant - and the mail also didn't run to us yesterday, from what I saw.  They already posted in the announcements that they won't run the garbage trucks this week.  It might get up to 50 today, but it said 36 yesterday and it never got up to even 32 before 2 pm in the afternoon.  With the sun setting at 4:30 to 5, we need more than that to melt.

long shadow 

at the top of our drive it is glare ice all the way down the slope but it was white 'zamboni' ice the other day so at least we can see some of it has been moving and the thickness has gone down

this is that big crackly loud ATV (mark says Gator type machine) that ran by the other morning - Mark asks why I would photograph it, I said because that is what I am doing right now, photographing and waiting for the melt

the other hillside on the other side of our driveway - it is a very long way down there but the top has cleared in the sun

skating rink ice looking towards the sun - at least we have sun today, it had been overcast for several of the days when we could have moved some of this frozen liquid off 

looking down between the two ridges

so much is in shadow nearly all the day here between the trees that we are lucky when the sun can melt some

yeast bread

 

I found a recipe that looked similar to what I had on hand - World's easiest yeast bread  I didn't follow the recipe exactly because of what I had on hand - 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour, 1.5 cups of all purpose flour, 1 tbsp dark brown sugar, 1 tbsp of white granulated sugar, 1 tsp of normal iodized table salt, mixed that all together, heated up the 1.5 cups of water it asked for, poured a 4 year out of date yeast packet over the dry ingredients and 1 more tbsp of granulated sugar, and then poured the water on it and mixed, rose for three hours in a 63 degree kitchen, then followed the rest of the instructions about putting onto parchment paper lightly floured, preheating covered Corelle type pot in oven to 450 degrees, put whole thing with parchment paper included into pot, baking covered for 30 minutes, uncovered for 12 minutes, waiting 10 minutes to cut.

Ate it with the soup I made this morning, which was one can of crowder peas with aqua faba included, most of a large frozen sweet potato that was too much for the pan last month so it just went in the freezer and was a bit freezer burnt by now but still souped up really nice, and yellow summer squash along with some maple chipolte seasoning - all well blended after the sweet potato chunks were soft enough

 

and the process:

 at one hour

 

 at two hours - I put it on a pottery stoneware plate that I heated up 25-40 seconds in the microwave a few times along the process, since there wasn't a way to move it to a warmer area

 

and at the three hour mark, before I floured the parchment paper and then scraped it onto it, made it a ball and lightly slid flour over the top of the ball

 It went in looking like this

 

 when I took the lid off after a half hour

 when it came out of the oven and I transferred it immediately to the pottery stoneware plate on the counter, then waited the ten minutes and sliced it (first picture)

 

melted and refroze - january ice storm tennessee - february 4

 

Charlotte and Melody (goat) had discussions with me this morning about the ice still outside, and about food stores.  I am increasingly glad we went for that extra animal feed run last week and bought extra bags while we were there.  And Esme found that gallon of milk, and I keep weird things in the cabinets that I will eat even though they may be time-intensive and I don't do them often.  We had filled ALL of our propane tanks in the days leading up to the storm, standing in line for an hour on the last one (which was when everyone else decided it was time to fill), and still ran out before this ice was done, so that is on our 'to be better prepared' list - another 40 gallon tank to keep full.

They've declared a state of emergency, closed the schools for the same full two weeks I've been iced in, and I do know we're not the only ones - although much of the towns and main highways are clear, there are a lot of people asking for help and also a lot of people getting themselves and rescuers in trouble on the road trying to drive in these conditions. 

It melted some a couple of the 40 degree days and only reformed into harder and tougher ice during the cold overnight temperatures.  It got up to maybe 36 today, and maybe 38 tomorrow.  We still feel lucky to have the electricity fixed (after that outage last Sunday) and the water pipes working.  Although I will admit : my feet are so cold, I've done double socks and slippers and a wool rug under my feet, and been able to work at my desk.   Esme is wrapped up in hoodies and blankets in her room, which is well-insulated and next to the house furnace.  Mark is sitting next to a wellhouse heater just to stay warm enough for his lungs - and I did bump the whole house heat up some.  Our elderly animals are enjoying the heat lamp he set up.  At dinner we pile up under some covers and are watching a criminal investigation show again for a few hours before bedtime.  All of our chickens are winter-type breeds and they are doing quite well, although not laying any eggs (understandable).

I am also lucky I've been able to work from home a little and actually help out with some things that needed to be remembered and/or done at work.  I've been allowed to log a little time on that.  I know I will have stacks of things to do when I can get in - buckle down and power through those physical paper things that I could not get done this week not being there. 

I took a few more walks out today, with the last one being a full two mile walk with the camera and took a couple of videos as well that I posted on FB.  It is still ice out there - even where it melted yesterday, it has refroze.  Just look at that garbage can - with the sun on it and some melting it is now sitting in a hole in the ice berm.

 

in order : our hill going up into our driveway 

 

looking back at our drive from Grandma's house and mailbox 

looking out at the next neighbor's house past Grandma's

Looking down the hill into the intersection with the county road

This is the only place you can see some road, because the neighbor ground the wheels on his very large 4 wheel drive truck on one of the slushy times 

 

 

down and around the first corner 

looking up at this side of the double 'S' hill, there was the sound of water running all the way down into the gullies there - and the sides of the road are clearing up some, which means another couple of days of melting it will maybe be passable (for those who don't have a huge 4 wheel drive truck) - but I think that the neighbors, too, got out at the slush time with that truck and haven't been back in since the melt - and that their relative with the baby had left at the beginning of the storm and is wisely staying in town.

Mark had me looking for the yeast today, which we have some but it is four years out of date.  I made a box of jell-O.  We still have food for dinners that everyone would want for a few days, Mark says 'because we're weird, cook from scratch AND keep a lot of stuff in the freezer / cupboards' - having pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts, peanut protein powder, making pea soup and onigiri and a variety of other things, yes, that's about right, but he is still thinking I might try to make some other bread experiment with Esme tomorrow.

On languages?  I'm studying Turkish on one platform and have kicked into the high grammar Japanese on the other and some Lithuanian practice here and there.  I'm listening to Japanese cartoons and French.

experimental cookies with hazelnuts

 I made an experimental alteration on the peanut butter cookies, and it turned out half alright.  Will have to try that recipe again when we have more eggs.  I used the last one doing this, as Mark had requested more cookie and wanted me to use the nuts for more energy.

This recipe either needs more flour or less butter, or some balance between the two fixed.

 

1 stick softened butter (I'm thinking 3/4 stick now, in retrospect would have been better) 

probably 1/4 cup of cashew butter, softened with the butter

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

 

1/4 cup of granulated white sugar, ground to a nut butter with a quarter cup to a half cup of whole hazelnuts and about the same ofa black walnuts he found in the freezer, it came out to be about 1 cup total 

 in a separate bowl : 1/2 cup of flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt

mixed the nut mixture and the flour mixture into the wet mixture half and half until it was fully combined, even added a bit more flour to the end, because it still felt too wet... but not enough apparently

 

 

350 degree oven preheated, baked on parchment paper (MUST) on metal pan

10 minute cook, then pull out and transferred sheet immediately to a cool surface, because it needed that  

they crisped up a bit but were very buttery and greasy - put them in layers of wax paper on a plate, taste very good 

 

the beginning of the melt - ice storm tennessee january 2026

 

 

 

 It is February 3rd, and the ice has begun to fall off the roofs, but the road is still covered in it.  Yesterday, at the peak of the temperature, an hour before dusk, some bits of the road were slushy.  Other areas, mostly in shadow, were still as slick as the bottom of an enameled bathtub.  Today, at 9:30 am, no bit of the roads are slushy, yet.   And today is overcast, where yesterday had sun.  It is forecasted to rain a bit this afternoon, as well - we will see what happens.  I loaded the propane tanks into the car, and a box of salt and a couple of bottles of water.

I walked out to the 600 hill again, which is halfway to the highway from us, about two miles there and back.  I saw a blood trail where something, perhaps a deer, had crossed the road.  My hound went nose-down into the woods and followed it a bit, and came back to tell me it how it smelled.  I worried about her last night, when she went out at 1 am and didn't return until after 4.  I told her she almost had me planning missing posters with all the melting and falling ice and slick gullies etc, and the coyotes howling and foxes arguing that ring out over the hills.  The geese and turkeys have been loud - and I heard a woodpecker when I was out there this morning.  I saw a murmuration of starlings at the highest point of the hill.  I did not see enough melting to go get in my car and try the hill.  I barely saw any road at all anywhere, only where the one neighbor has had his monster truck in and out to check on his relative and then struggled getting it back up the hill to his house.

 I feel trapped and that perhaps I should be brave and just go for it - but I've also been down in the ditch in a much worse situation than I had been earlier in the morning, for trying such a thing.  And that time it was very difficult to get anyone to  come out and help even the next day - they heard where, and said 'no, not in this weather.'

Mark says 'don't go down the mountain until you know you can get back up it.'  Yes.  The only good thing about that is if these roads become clear, we can be certain almost everywhere else is.  Yes.  He has been cold all night (66 degrees) which is less than he can usually afford with his breathing condition.  We had a wellhouse heater and a heat lamp in there to bring it up to 69 yesterday, but for safety's sake had turned it off and turned the house heat up for the night.  With the propane, we keep it at 72 for him usually.

So, *blow air up forehead*  I'll get my walking in and go back out there again after another few hours.  Sat down and drew a hungry heron looking at a fish in the water before I set out this time. (below) with a bit of gold wishing in the corner for the sun to shine a bit more on this ice and melt it.

 

february 2

went out three times today,

it was still glare ice at 11 am

at 1:45 - it was starting to break a little and the roofs were beginning to drip again

the ice above is from 3:30 pm today, but a small bit of the county road was slushy, will refreeze overnight, but we'll hopefully get somewhere tomorrow as it is set to be as warm as it ever got today a little earlier tomorrow, but then it is supposed to start raining in the afternoon

the propane ran out for Mark's heater last night - I turned up the electric heat and then rigged him up a wellhouse heater and he put a heat lamp out for our little elderly cat who wanted to be warm in his room but didn't like the air blowing out of the heater 

mountain top

side of the road in front of the next gully

It was still zamboni smooth ice at 10:45 - you can see the shine on it

Minerva walking up our driveway

Winter Wise

pens and gold paint 

 

simple onigiri with adzuki bean paste

 

Well, we've been iced in all week, and I have this cupboard of dry foods that I eat, but no one else in the house does, or rarely.  These are habits I learned in Fargo, where we had organic health food and Asian market stores.  The onigiri, though, I only learned the full form of in the past few years.

First : the adzuki beans.  One of my local stores had them last year and I was happy!  I bought a bag and have been using it up.  They require at least 12 hours of soaking, and then cooking for a long time, and then pulverizing and cooking some more, and a little bit of brown sugar (and mirin, which I finally found this year, too - the local stores are carrying more oddity things).  They sell the finished thing in the store as 'red bean paste' or 'adzuki bean paste' but that is even sweeter and would be expensive to buy pre-made.

So I spent the morning experimenting, once again, with the bean paste that I rarely make.  I also ended up putting some baking soda in it at one point and being afraid I had done something terribly wrong ala chemistry.  But, no, that worked well.  It just foamed up and looked odd for a few minutes probably with the bit of rice wine vinegar I had in the water during the boiling.  Anyway, it became success.

Once that was turned off, I started the rice - which I'm pretty good at by now.

1 cup of rice, washed - 2 cups of water, bit of olive oil, bit of salt, bit of rice wine vinegar, boil until it is almost dry, but not quite.

Mix in 1/4 cup or LESS of white sugar, and just enough rice wine vinegar on top of that until the sugar is wet, no more - mix while still hot, over and over, scraping the spoon over and over, until the mixture is soft - then add white sesame seeds, and mix one more time. 

 

At the beginning of learning this rice mixture, I just made rice balls out of the rice mixture itself, and added a little bit of seaweed on top of each one - it was still very good, and easy to bring in a lunchbox. 

Here is the pinch point.  The rice will be hot and doing it by hand is possible but your hands will turn red.  When I did that I put some salt on my hand, made the ball, and then put the ball down in the glass plate, salt in hand, repeat etc.  I bought some little onigiri triangular molds last year and have used them a few times.  The trick is to not put too much rice in the first layer - and then add a tiny bit of salt (shio), then a spoon of the bean paste, then another layer of rice, and press the mold together until it is firm.  Press the mold out on the plate and it should look like the onigiri in the picture below, white rice on both sides, with a bit of bean showing in the cross section.  Take a small piece of seaweed and wrap it around the bottom of the triangle so it can be held easily.  Stand the onigiri up and move onto the next.

This can get very messy.  I probably need more practice.  I end up washing and wiping my hands clean every minute or so until I am done - and end up with a stack of nice snacks.

I put some red curry paste, real mayonnaise and wasabi paste on a plate and eat one with a fork - probably not allowed, but I really like the condiments. 

Time-intensive, the materials were harder to find, but NOT expensive.  

Even the onigiri molds were only three dollars - it was just getting them when we were getting something else and then actually using them that is the kicker.

   

dry goods cabinet - with split peas, lentils, rice, noodles, and dried beans.  There are a few cans of sardines and some more curry paste and blocks behind there, as well.