January Round Up

Check out the new blog I've launched that is more essay style, more words, less pictures. As with this blog, there is a subscribe option if you want updates later. 

https://parkviewpenciling.blogspot.com

As winter hobbies and reading/writing projects begin to take root after holiday activity, I'm going to try to record this as I go, rather than trying to pull it all together at once. 

So let's start with New Year's Eve, we had steak, bread machine onion rolls and this wonderful from scratch, lactose free real cheese macaroni and cheese. I did the least labor intensive onion rolls, and I'm lucky Andrew will put in the research and time to bring some true dairy favorites back into my life.

This was a ton of mac and cheese, and I'm just finishing up the leftovers a week later. 

I also cleaned the chicken coop on New Year's Eve and boy did it need it. The weather was the best of the week, dry, windless and not terribly cold so I could really just focus on the job at hand at a nice pace and let the ladies out so they wouldn't be underfoot.

It really wasn't that cold despite the last snow on the ground. Much better than the day before when I had planned to clean it and it rained all day. 

You would think I would be tired of posting pictures of chickens in wheelbarrows, rummaging around their own used litter like it's the Target dollar section...

and yet I am not. 

I made a new necklace out of these lovely apatite and farm cultured pearl beads.

And I made some moisturizing salve with some things around the house; coconut oil, some essential oils and a chunk of beeswax. It's not the most chic product, but inexpensive. 

I have a vintage enamel double boiler, which is especially important to use with beeswax rather than a single pot/direct heat. 

The coconut oil melts fairly quickly.

After a few minutes of sporadic stirring though the beeswax begins to melt. 

And once it is mostly melted I add the essential oil and stir but I don't keep it on heat very long after than because I don't want to deteriorate the essential oils. 

It's a nice golden yellow thanks to the beeswax. The first night after it had cooled to room temperature it was very much a salve consistency, but later it firmed up a bit, but still melts very quickly when used as coconut oil usually does. 

I have a chicken update since when I posted the previous pictures, this is a running draft blog during the month of January and as I write on the 9th, I made a sad discovery in the pen  When I went down to collect eggs and care for them I immediately noticed the shape of the flock was wrong I did a quick count, and then a slower one. It was late enough in the day to know the tenth and missing hen probably wasn't laying and I noticed that for the past couple days I wasn't getting quite as many eggs as usual. 

I opened the coop and looked at the empty nest boxes and then with a a heavy heart looked around the rest of the coop and laying n between the roost and the wall, was a dark lump One of the new Blue Rock hens, just a chick in April had died Her head was tucked against her wing  Maybe an egg broke inside her. None of the other chickens showed anything amiss 

I got a trash bag to collect her. Dead chickens always feel so heavy and I disposed of her far away to not bring the fox's attention closer to the pen. After chicken care I took Tutu for a long walk in the sunshine in her winter coat and it was quite nice. Tomorrow we will go for another walk this weather can't be beat for January, first 20 degree day is more than 10 days a way so they say.

January 10, 2021

Andrew and I went on a nice 90 minute winter hike at Davey Woods state nature preserve.  It was nice enough weather and we were surprised that the small parking lot was full and we had to park along the side of the road. I took my Canon camera with me with the zoom lens attached thinking I might capture blue jays and squirrels but the trail was very quiet and I didn't see hardly any squirrel nests. The most notable feature was the dozens of huge grapevines growing 70, 80 feet and in the strangest shapes. I have my fist pictured for scale. 

The grape vine to the right actually grew out of the ground and back in again just a foot apart making the loop you see above. It was as tall as me. As you can see, I have not escaped the "pandemic 15."

Check out this grapevine growing through the fork of this tree. 

And this curlicue of three distinct loops of grapevine.  

The zoom lens was not the best choice for this walk as there was lots of interesting macro shots of fungi and tree features but most of the pictures didn't turn out. The raccoon tracks along the bank were the only sign of life aside from a deer trail. 

The stream was pretty, with lots of frost and free slowing water around every bend.

Reading books from the private library continues. This was a quick read about a lady in the 60s and 70s who tended wounded birds from her home in Queens. This was largely before wildlife rehabilitation centers and the gentle tone of the book does not dilute the facts about the different bird species or how to treat them including which birds get what kind of food and shelter. 

Also, the illustrations while photographs, are translated into this interesting almost dot matrix/pixelated style. 

January 15th

I took Tutu for a walk in the late afternoon. It wasn't super warm, just at 40 but there was no wind and we did about 30 minutes of walking. It would switch between bright and overcast and then I realized winter really was coming!

By the time I got Tutu in and changed into chicken care gear, in the span of 10 minutes it went from the scene above to completely gray, and soft nickel sized snow flakes were falling and the temperature had dropped considerably, just like that. I got the chickens done and we were in for a while until we took a short, masked visit to Maw Maw and Paw Paw's where the walk clearly tuckered Tutu out, using her stuffed snowman toy as a neck pillow.

January 24

A nice day of staying inside, reading, writing, and cooking. 

Andrew made apple cider pork roast with apple butter and chives from a recent Cooks' Country.

I flipped through some cookies in the Dorie's Cookies book, but they all sounded like too much work so I made Andrew's favorite, the chocolate chip cookie recipe from the butter flavored Crisco sticks. 

These moist and chewy cookies can last for days if packed air tightly. The secret I think is there is only brown sugar...keeping them from getting brittle.

Sunday, January 31st

It sounds like my friends in Columbus have more rain than snow. Here, while we watch 60 minutes we have 6 inches going on 7 with at least one or two more inches to go. We had a mostly cozy day in, although Andrew worked on clearing the driveway and I took care of the chickens. The wet soft snow was easy to hoe rather than shovel. The hens were confined to one dry area of the pen and had cabin fever so I gave them some extra treats. I had to dig my high top Vasque boots for the snow, that reach mid-calf.  I had to carry Tutu to some of her potty zones as the snow is so deep. 

Yesterday Andrew  and I went to Mad River Mountain for our first lesson of the season but second of our lives. I love skiing and am thrilled to learn I can use the student slope to practice whether I am taking a lesson or not. I hope to go again soon, all those years roller skating and roller blading have carried over quite nicely for the skis. 

I have finished my second John McCormack book of collected stories from his first year as a veterinarian in rural Choctaw county Alabama. I adored it as much as the first one, I read, Friend of the Flock.  I was actually getting depressed about getting to the end of this book. The only copy in the Central Library Consortium was this large print copy and I have the other two collections on inter-library loan. 

See you in February.