Cats. Dogs. Birthday.

My Brat Cat

Never in my life did I think I would have a cat perch in my living room. It was this little girl who forced me into it. She was a dervish. She's still a handful. She always looks as if she is contemplating making me into dinner.

Mark made it down safely from the roof. He didn't finish but he did decide today would be office work. Good man. I probably won't be blog visiting today. I'm going to attempt some more cleaning and then dinner prep because......

......today is my birthday! I'm normally not all that interested in my birthday. I think feeling unwell, having a husband with cancer and being a card holding member of the senior society has made me more appreciative of my blessings. 

My German Shedder is living up to the name. Thanks for the name, Pixie. I would like her hair removed from the surfaces, both vertical and horizontal before we sit down to dinner. She's a great dog, but man-o-man, does she shed!

Tip a glass for me.

 

Monday

This is a Romertopf, what I call a clay cooker. The pot I was given is stamped Made in East Germany, so it's been around awhile.

Once I learned how to use it, it became a valued essential. The whole pot needs to be soaked in water for at least thirty minutes. It goes into a cold oven which is the set to 400-425 F and is in the oven, in the case of my pork roast, four hours. I put onions and about a cup of white wine in with the roast.

I made lentils and pork for lunch yesterday. It will be lunch again today. I made a lot. We had a slice of the caraway rye with it. A perfect combination. It turns out son's wife really likes my fermented pickles so I have someone to give part of the huge stash I have, thanks to Bill loading me up with pickling dills over the summer. We like them, too, but about twenty quarts is kind of a lot.

It was 3 F this morning but it's going to reach 31 F. The weather will be moderate all week. A pleasant break in our generally coldest month. Mark has been removing snow from the roof, both from the ground and on the roof. I don't like it, but it has to be done and he's going to do it. He got half done yesterday and plans to finish today. He's rather pleased he can still do these things. I worry he's going to fall. He came home twenty minutes ago from radiation and is outside taking snow from the roof. He hasn't found out he's getting to be an old man yet. If I'm honest, I'm glad, even though I don't like the risks he will take. 

I, on the other hand, am keeping my feet firmly planted on the ground, doing my Monday task of laundry. Woo-hoo. We took the laundry out of the basement twenty years ago and it's a really good thing we did, considering the state of my mobility. That would be another task loaded onto Mark's shoulders. Anyway....I'm caffeinated and ready, if not to rock, then at least to roll into my day. Ciao.

Hay. Snow. Soup.

Someone needs his beard trimmed. Is that the face of an accountant? Lately he's been more of a stablehand.

It does help keep his face warm.

Equines with fresh bales of hay. Instead of that home in the South of France, I have hay burners.

 This is a winter scene if ever there was one. 

I had said in comments that I would do a quick recap of our medical issues for those who don't know. I do bring it up enough! Mark was diagnosed with melanoma last summer and had two areas on his left arm excised, one very large. That, for the moment, is not a problem. He was then diagnosed with prostate cancer in October of 2022. He has started radiation this month for treatment of the cancer. It will go on for six weeks. I have been in a deteriorating condition for three years. I realize it started four years ago, but it wasn't enough to get my attention. I finally got some notice from my primary after collapsing on the back deck like a faint, but not a faint. I did not lose consciousness, I just collapsed, falling face down, breaking my nose. That's when I finally got a medical referral. Of course, appointments are out several months. I could get an in-person at the end of April or a video January 19. I took the video. I won't go into more detail, but I am not in functioning shape. Oh, and Mark knows I bring up his condition and is fine with that.

I did make caraway rye bread yesterday and it turned out very well. Have any of you used a clay pot cooker? I was given one in the early '80s and really didn't know what to do with it. Several years ago a friend told me how to use it and I have found it great for pork roasts. I made a six pound roast for dinner yesterday using it and it turned out moist. Pork roasts are notoriously known for being dry. Some of the roast will end up in lentil soup today. 

It's currently 4 F and heading into double digits. We will be around 30 F for the rest of the week. A nice break from usual January weather. No significant snow in the forecast, so no need to worry about trucks getting stuck! Remember the Rocky and Bullwinkle show? Frostbite Falls? That was based on International Falls, commonly known as "the icebox of the nation". Fortunately, I live in the balmy southern portion of the state!

I think I'll go make that soup for lunch. Pork and lentil soup, fresh rye bread, I don't think I could ask for more.

Sparkly

It was just above freezing Thursday so we had some melting. Then we went below zero. It's -7 F at the moment. The melt/freeze gave us icicles.

Bill's brother, Jim, is here with his big tractor putting round bales into the paddocks for the horses. This needs to be done every couple of weeks. He gets to use my now unused indoor arena as a machine shed in return. Works out for both of us. 

Gatto Report

He moved in like he owned the joint. He is so relaxed about everything. Frieda decided she didn't like him and now she's reconsidering, as long as he knows what's what. She has played with him a couple of times. He isn't sure about that. She can be crabby.

I plan (ha! we know how that usually works out) to make rye bread today and if my body can take it,  an apple galette. I bought apples awhile ago for that and I need to get to it before they spoil. I've got my birthday duck thawing. I usually make a yellow cake with boiled chocolate frosting for my birthday but I don't see that happening. I have a video appointment with a neurologist on the nineteenth. Hopefully I get somewhere with this. It's been three years, I think that''s long enough for proper ignoring. Time to try.

It's a cold, sunny, pretty day. A perfect day to have the oven on. Stay warm.

Winterscape

Not quite Currier & Ives. It would need to be undisturbed.

Mark spent all day either getting a truck unstuck or finishing the plowing. The horses didn't get out until noon. They were rockin' and rollin'!

It's pretty out there. It's even prettier today as the moisture of yesterday's mild weather froze into hoar frost with single digit temperatures overnight.

Mark did get hot soup for lunch. He had two bowls! Over the years he has learned to appreciate soup. He found he wasn't going to change my soup making ways so he might as well change his mind about soup not being food. Weirdo.

I have two separate deliveries coming today; Costco and Chewy. There shouldn't be any trouble. I do most shopping online. I order from Aldi and then pick it up. Mark will be getting the Aldi order today after radiation. He drives past the store on the way to the clinic. It's a great service, especially for people like me with limited mobility.

That's the weather and food report. No cats or dogs today. 

Stuck Truck

What has been happening over the past hour.

I buy bedding for the stalls in bulk. I had postponed yesterday's delivery to today so we could plow. The driver slid to the side of the driveway that slopes. Stuck. Bill's nephew lives down the hill from us and owns an excavating business. He is here right now working on getting the truck unstuck. Mark was just leaving for his radiation when this happened, he postponed it to later today. The horses aren't out yet, that will be a rodeo! Yep, the joys of country living.

Okay, forty-five minutes later from when I started writing this, the truck unloaded the bedding and has pulled out. I am so happy to know Bill and his family. Someone(s) deserves a fruit basket. It's been a long time since anyone has been stuck.

Back to the mundane. I made stock yesterday with a ham bone. I have a pot of sausage and garbanzo bean soup simmering. Mark will need something hot when he finally gets inside. He's getting snow cleared from in front of the barn so he can get the horses out. It's almost 11:00 and they are still in the barn. Yes, we had a lot of snow and it's heavy and packed. It is beautiful. I don't think Mark is seeing any beauty at the moment. It is frustrating that I cannot help. 

Snow. Bourbon.

Mark came home from treatment yesterday and plopped these two items on the table. They may seem complete opposites of one another, but to Mark, they are both life sustaining. He wouldn't want a world without milk and although he wouldn't go that far where the bourbon is concerned....well, he wouldn't be pleased. We have a decades long, I'll call it tradition, of cocktail hour before dinner. He has a bourbon on rocks and I have a glass of red wine. It's the act itself, the unwinding from what used to be long days, catching up in conversation. Our lives have changed, but the habit has not. I, especially, am a person of routine.

Another sustenance of our lives have been dogs. We had, for the first several years here, seven large dogs. Three moved with us, two were left by the prior owner and two others were dogs needing a home that I could give them. Snow puppy is perhaps the last we will have. Unless something happens which lands another one with us. 

Of course, the one thing that is universal: food! I haven't felt like cooking lately. Every meal has been quick and simple. They don't need to look that way to be that. Steaming fish in olive oil and butter is so simple. I put the fennel frond pesto on the fish, put the asparagus in with the fish and pop it in the oven for twenty minutes. Viola! Frozen ravioli and some cheese and it's dinner. Under thirty minutes, no fuss, no muss.

On the weather front. My weather app tells me we've had thirty inches of snow in the past twenty-four hours. Parts of the state, including some in the Twin Cities, had rain mixed with snow. We got all snow, but it is wet and heavy. It's still snowing and is supposed to do so all day and night. Mark didn't go for radiation this morning. The truck may have made it out, but the weather conditions aren't good for driving. I delayed the delivery of horse bedding until tomorrow and I don't expect my Costco order until at least Friday.

So ends today's tales of a housebound cat lady in Minnesota. 

Snow and Stuff

I have posted sixty-year-old photos, forty years, up to about five years ago. This is the current version of me. You can tell I'm of the elder generation in that I never learned how to properly take a selfie. I must use a mirror. I blame it on my short arms, I just can't get anything remotely usable. Thirty years of living on the farm rid me of makeup. I'm losing my hair, I got little reaction from the doctor when I told her it's coming out by the handful. I cut about ten inches off two weeks ago. I had thick hair, not anymore. So, here I am, thinning hair, broken nose and plump! I've never been particularly self-conscious, but losing hair is not something I feel like shrugging my shoulder over.

'Nuff about that. Mark has gone to the clinic for his first radiation treatment. We are in for some weather but it has kindly held off, although tomorrow will be a different picture. At least it's moderate in temperature, mid 20s F.

I have an appointment 2/14 to neuter Gatto. Happy Valentine's, bubby! This was my father's birthday, he would be one hundred. Yikes!

Mark apologized to me last night for the fact I need to make my own birthday dinner and it feels wrong he should be the one looking forward to it! It's my choice, I'm not interested in going out. He'll stop at the grocery store one day next week after a session to pick up a duck. He asked if we could have duck on my birthday. Mark and food!

That's the story from Minnesota today. Stay tuned, there's always more excitement coming.

The Day After the Day Before

 My big boy, Howard, wanted to be an opera star.

I actually had a busy day yesterday. We went to North Minneapolis for lunch with Matthew and Kelley and granddoggie, Homer. We had a great time eating and talking and drinking sparkles. When we got home Gatto had not destroyed the house, so all was well in my world. Now we settle in for three more months, at least, of winter. 

Mark starts radiation tomorrow. We are looking at perhaps a foot of snow overnight. Of course. 

That's all the news fit to print. 

  

Happy New Year

AROOOO