No Title Today

We had a wet, dreary day yesterday. The rain was light, which is a good thing. Today is cloudy and chilly but no rain.

A dry goods Costco order came  this morning. I needed baking powder and that was the only thing I thought about when I added this to the cart. Never gave a thought to, you know, this is Costco. 4 LB of baking powder. Oh. my.

I'm going to need to up my biscuit game. 

I buy these pappardelle noodles through an online company, Thrive Market. They are about as close to homemade as it can get. They made a really good and quick meal last evening. As long as I have pasta, olive oil, butter and cheese we will not go hungry! This has a little sausage. I asked Mark if he'd like sausage. I got a look. Dumb question.

Otherwise, just another day on the homestead. Mark is busy, I am not. I'm going to do a few organizing things later in the day. It's a place to start. This is the third week on thyroid medication. My mind is clearer, my mood is elevated but my pain and fatigue are still with me. I know, it takes awhile. BTW, arrested and charged! That can lift an American's spirits, an American who believes all are equal under the law. The trial isn't until February, how much you wanna bet he'll claim exemption due to being a candidate? I'll leave it there. Bastard.

Well, my small rant, I guess it needed to come out. Let us all have the best day we can muster.

Home Sweet Home

This house was a disaster when we bought it. This, the kitchen, (photo taken a few years ago) did have the island, a former altar, and a slide-in stove on a pallet where the range is. That was it. I'll go through old photos sometime to show the before.

This is the other side of the pantry/laundry room. The cabinets from yesterday's post are to the left.

 

This is the pass-through pantry from the kitchen to the laundry before the broom closet was made.

I kept brooms, etc. here. Vacuums were in my office closet, along with coats.

This is across from the washer/dryer. I don't know what this room had been once-upon-a-time. This is part of the original house, as is the kitchen. There are three eras that make up the house.

The 1984 addition didn't need much work, but the rest of the place, inside and out, were a disaster. I have always liked flaws! Boy, did I get them here. 2018 was when it finally got brought to a finish, as far as updating the rest of it. We had two bathrooms gutted and redone. Of course everything else is 20-30 years on now!  Our bedroom needs new windows, ah, well.

After my confusing post yesterday I thought I'd give a little tour of the casa. I sure had a lot of energy back then. It was me and two different handymen who did most of this work. Mark was gone earning the money to pay for it. I think if I had been born in a different time I may actually have been a contractor. I have always liked to tear things apart and put them back together.

Out With the Old. Not Me.

Some blog pals have been winnowing and organizing.

My last big clean-up/clear-out was 2018.

We took space from another room to put in a broom/coat closet, something that was lacking in this hodgepodge house. It's a small space but large enough and made a big difference in organizing those useful but cumbersome items. It also got the coats out of my office closet.

The finished project.

This was a purge of the cabinets in the laundry room. I don't know what happened but they are still packed full of things I don't use.

After cleanup.

Frieda adding artistic interest.

I have let things go for a couple of years. That others are working on eliminating and organizing is putting a little interest back into me to clean up, clear out and get out of this period of stasis.

Melting. Melting

Mid-forties and melting. It is amazing how fast it can melt, sunshine in the equation helps a lot.

The mystery I'm reading tells you at the start who the bad guy is. I like that, it's interesting knowing the manipulations and knowing the guy's bad to his bones. It's The Wife Upstairs, by Rachel Hawkins. I picked it because it was available and in the genre I was looking for. I will probably finish it this afternoon. All the books I have on hold seem to be popular as they are weeks-to-months out. I love the digital library.

I watched an interview by Jane Pauly of Senator John Fetterman this morning. The interview took place two days after he left the hospital. I felt so deeply for him. He is where I was after the brain injury I had in 2011. Everything about his continence spoke to me. I moved away from blogging after that. I still did some, but it just didn't work anymore. I had to type everything in advance because when I would come back to it is was a bunch of gibberish. My mind, which had always been quick, was like slogging through tapioca. All creativity and interest had left me at the gate. I saw the look, I understood his feelings. My depression put me into the pit of hell and I saw this on his face. I hope he knows it will likely get better, but probably not overnight. I am not totally me, the me I was, but I have finally accepted the me I am now. He is, in my opinion, a good man. I sure wish him well. And hope he doesn't give up the Senate.

So....moving to another topic. I had a bunch of broccoli that was looking a bit down and out. I decided it would be best served as soup. Cream of broccoli soup is perhaps one of the easiest there is. I used the rest of the veg broth I made last week. Even Mark really liked it, wow! I have four large containers of vegetable broth for my son the next time I see him. His wife is a vegan so I'm sure he will appreciate it. I have so many vegetable scraps frozen. Sometimes I just have to use them solo for stock. 

When life gives you faded broccoli, make soup.

**Mark said the interview of Fetterman was two days before he went into the hospital

April Fools

Yesterday was rain and sleet.

Overnight we had about 8" of snow.

It's not cold. A melt will start today, but we have about two feet of snow to melt and piles up to about eight feet. So, it will take some time. It's really pretty out there. Says me who doesn't have to work in it!

This was yesterday's lunch. Today will be an exact repeat. Snow, soup, biscuits. Perfect.

Cat on a Piano

I have posted multiple versions of this shot. Madam is regal as she poses on the piano I don't play anymore. In this photo her contracted front leg is visible. She was one of the kittens born to a stray in the barn. There were four of them. The mama became friendly, unfortunately she disappeared after they were weaned. She'd been spayed so if she did run off, which I doubt, she wouldn't be reproducing. Three of the kittens were part-time house cats, including this one. Mona had no interest in coming inside. Miss Priss started disappearing for up to a month at a time. The last time, in 2018, she was gone for three months and we didn't expect to see her again. In late November she came limping into the barnyard. She was thin and had a dangling front leg. She became a house cat without any complaining. From the knee down she had no feeling, she was fine from the knee up. I wrapped the dragging foot until I decided what to do. In the meantime her leg contracted and I decided she could stay that way. It's not dragging, she didn't need to go through the trauma of surgery and I think it gives her balance. She gets along well. This is her fifth year as our tripod. Those four kittens will be eight at Mother's Day.

I've got soup simmering, I made tomato sauce for chili yesterday. I realized I have not made chili this year, so I'll make it today and serve it for dinner tomorrow. I think it's better the next day.

We had overnight rain and it's been raining on and off. It's supposed to snow later, so it's definitely soup and chili weather around here. I read two emotionally heavy books in a row. By the time I finished Beloved I was drained. I've read one mystery and started on another. I have always liked mysteries, so it was my go-to for lightening up. I like to guess who-done-it. Fortunately, Minnesota isn't banning books. I can't believe I am typing those words and that it's not conspiracy talk. Banning books is back. I don't bring these things up for my own sake. I spent my adult life engaged in politics, now, I can't withstand the, well...horror. Autocrats don't acquire that total power by themselves. We don't need to go back too far in history to see how it's done.

Okay, that's enough. As hard as I try to tune out, I am well aware and it's in my mind and sometimes I need to open the pressure valve. We will have soup and biscuits for lunch, a sirloin cap roast for dinner, a crackling fire. Red wine for me, rye whiskey for Mark, listen to some music and pet a cat. May you have your own pleasures.

Boil, Boil

While many are having daffodils bloom, grass green and weather warm, we in the Northland are still very much in wintertime activities. Like making soup stock.

Sitting in front of a good fire, reading a book.

 

We are used to it. That doesn't mean that Minnesotans don't complain about the weather. We proudly let the world know it's cold, going to get colder. Then it's hot as blazes and will it ever stop/start raining. I have never complained much about winter, as least by Minnesota standards. Summer.....that's different. The last dozen years have become increasingly warm, but the worst of it is the humidity. It gets downright tropical. I never signed up for the tropics. Unfortunately, my opinion or want doesn't matter, it's happening. It will continue to happen, this seems evident. So, I go back to my motto, having the motto doesn't stop reality, it simply helps shield me from it. I'll eat the food. Drink the wine (or coffee). Pet the animals. Enjoy the beauty. Find a motto, repeat it like a mantra.

Briefly

 

A brief buongiorno to you all. I have things to accomplish but want to read your words and stop by briefly with some of my own. I see many of you have mud and some have Spring. We have winter, it was zero this morning, high of 24F today. It will end. It will.

At this time cooking is my main activity so ..... well, it's what I have. Now that I'm off the Medical Mystery Tour. I thawed shrimp stock and plan to make shrimp risotto for dinner. Has anyone made biscuits with cake flour. I do sometimes and did yesterday. They come out very light.

I finished Beloved by Toni Morrison yesterday. I'm surprised I hadn't read it. I have thoughts, lots of them which I don't have time for now. I will say I still learn and feel shame.

Never Too Old

Food report:  I made fish or fisherman's pie for dinner. My blog friend, Boud, mentioned it and I had to try. I really liked it and so did Mark. It's like a cottage pie with fish and a creamy sauce. I'm amazed at how good it was. Adding horseradish to the mashed potatoes, sweet potato to the vegetables and Old Bay to the poaching milk boasted the flavor.

Other than this, life is rolling along. We are still in winter, it was 7F overnight, will reach freezing today and an exact repeat tonight and tomorrow. We are glad to have a slow thaw, with all the snow we've had it could be a wet mess in three of my stalls. The barn is at the bottom of a slope. We had drain tile put in to stop the water, but decades have passed and it's not working as well as it did. I do have reserve stalls in the adjoining pole barn if needed.

I am feeling better, not my body but my attitude. I am taking more of an interest in life, perhaps it's medication or perhaps it's getting off the medical hamster wheel. No matter, I am more engaged. 

I have a motto I formed over the past couple of years; eat the food, drink the wine, pet the animals. It's what we have control over. I'll add; enjoy the beauty around you. 

Flying Monkey

From the first when Frieda invited herself into the house she had a fascination for the rafters. She jumped onto the dining room table and made like she was going to leap. It took her five months to figure it out and led to furniture rearrangement for me. This is a tree cat. She made a five foot leap from a bookcase to the rafter She used a cabinet as a launching pad to get to the top of the nine foot bookcase. In the photo she was seriously considering leaping onto the fan blade, which was rotating.

We quickly learned she could get up and down from there on her own, this wasn't a one time deal. I had to move her launching pad. She was a real unhappy kitten. Now I have Gatto and he is a wild thing. After Frieda I said no more kittens. Then Gatto was freezing on the porch and somehow ended up inside. After he was neutered it sent the kitten signal through his body. He is a completely obtuse being, seems to have a general lack of understanding 'no'. It is fair to say he does not care that my other name is She Who Must Be Obeyed. Somehow I have become the chosen one for cats who live outside the box, except they are inside a box, my house. The spirits are laughing.