Turkeys on Parade

Aren't we handsome? Who do you think is the best? I'm sure they all think they will win the heart of the lovely ladies below. Yes, Wilma Wildbird is still hanging around. She is actually getting quite tame now.

Whoever asked for this White Christmas should be shot.

The day after Christmas was my turn to deliver mail again. It is not my favorite job but it does pay very well, especially for a part time job in this area. In the spring and fall it is actually kind of nice as the color and shape of the landscape changes weekly. I hate driving the route in the cold, and even more in the snow.

The trip was a stressful event. I knew with the snow it wouldn't be fun, but I did think I could accomplish it. That was BEFORE I got stuck in the Post Office Parking lot before I'd even started driving the route. I called home and ask them to bring the truck and a tow rope. Then I remembered Earl was here for Christmas and he had the 4 wheel van he bought which was previously a postal carrier vehicle - still complete with the red and blue striping.

(I would insert a picture of it here, but he hasn't sent me one in spite of my requests.)

So, to make a long, tedious story short, I had him drive me on the route. We did quite well on the first portion until we came to a drift that was nearly 3 feet high all the way across the roadway and about 15 feet across. Not even the BIG 4X4s could traverse that. We detoured back to town and approached the route from another direction. Fortunately, the other drifts we came across were smaller, but the van still effectively became a snow plow. It took nearly 2 1/2 hours extra to finish delivering the mail on Saturday versus a "normal" day.

As much as my brother irritates me at times (lots of times, actually), I'm still grateful for his help. He was a lifesaver. And every once in a while he does things that make up for all the times he as really ****** me off. Thank you, Earl.

My New Toy

This is the new toy/Christmas/Birthday present which I gave to me. It was a great deal at 30% off (Thank you, Jan, for friends and family night at Bed Bath and Beyond.) Then there was this great deal with a $50 rebate so I have no buyer's remorse for the purchase.

The first thing I tried to make with it was Divinity. I probably should have started with something simpler which I already knew how to make. The beast is too big to make small batches of anything. In order to get the egg whites to whip, I had to use my small hand mixer to start them. Then I could finish off the product with the big dude. The divinity was divine, but the process will need some work.

I made some brownies, cupcakes and other miscellaneous things throughout the holiday season, most of which turned out fine. I decided I was ready to graduate to bread making. The first batch of plain white bread turned out simply ok. Today I made Honey oat bread. With no artificial preservatives or other nasty stuff in it, I was quite pleased. Next time I'll add a bit more oil, but it is definitely something I'll make again. The great thing about making your own bread is that you can adjust the size of the loaves. I made a regular sized loaf and 4 small loaves like you get at those upscale, expensive restaurants. I may make them all the small size in the future, as they freeze nicely and when you warm them, the defrosting process makes it just like fresh bread warm from the oven. It doesn't give the house that comforting fresh baked bread scent however.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all the Prairie House Chronicle readers.

I hope you have all had a joyous and blessed Christmas season and may the new year be prosperous for each of us.

Jalapeno Brittle

Remember those bushels and bushels of Jalapeno Peppers? Well, we put lots of them in the freezer for use in Hot Pepper Jam. Many of them also made it into Jalapeno Peanut Brittle. I offered it on the High Plains Food Coop starting in November. So far this season we have sold over 15 pounds of it. I am debating whether to leave it on the site for January or put it in the archives to be retrieved next fall.

FOOD?

I really like cheese. Most kinds of cheese. Since I don't drink milk, it is a good alternative for my dairy rung on the food pyramid. One of the main items in the cheese section of the grocery stores lately seems to be something called "processed cheese food". If you ask me, anything that has to *tell* you it's food in the name should not be allowed to BE considered food.

quite a shower

My sister came to my house offering to help sanding the floor upstairs to get it ready to become its destiny of a bedroom and sun room. I had been having trouble getting motivated and hadn't even showered yet. She went upstairs and started the sander while I got in the shower. I had just gotten my hair all lathered up with shampoo when the water started sputtering and air came spitting out of the pipes. This cannot be a good thing. My thought is the new furnaces are sucking all the water and I can't even get a shower. I called to my sister, but she was busy pushing the sander around the floor. I climbed out of the shower and put on my robe. Heading upstairs, I was pretty frustrated and borderline angry with the suds still clinging to my hair. She went to her house to check on the water situation there. When she came back she informed me the electricity had been turned off at the pole for the electrician to work on it. That electricity runs our well pump. On the plus side, we aren't out of water. On the minus side, we are out of water for me to rinse my hair! She valiantly went to the well out front on which we spent a fortune to have it pressurized and hydrants added after the incident with the flying truck. After heating half the water on the stove and blending it with the cold water I had enough to rinse my hair the old fashioned way...in the sink - one cup at a time. For today I'm glad I didn't live a century ago after all. Oh, yeah. She did get the floor sanded.

Psychogenic Alopecia

Sounds terrible, doesn't it. Betsy the cat suffers from it. It is an OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). When she is nervous or upset, she pulls her hair out. She was doing quite well for a while and almost all of the fur she was missing had grown back in. Now she is pulling it out again. She won't sit still long enough to get a picture, but she looks really sad with a nearly bare bottom and a ring of missing fur around her tail. Otherwise, she is a really pretty calico cat.

Pete is Found

The big stinker Pete Cat was under the house in the insulation all along. It took some doing to get him out, but he (and the new insulation) are none the worse for wear.

Pete is missing

Evelyne and Rick had the insulation under their house redone when their new furnace was installed. We found Slippers under the house and coaxed him out, but we cannot locate Pete. Pete weighs over 18 pounds, so we are pretty sure the owls didn't haul him off. He generally stays close to the house, so we are hoping the coyotes didn't have him for (a large) dinner. We have checked all the places we can think of that he may have gotten stuck to no avail. Keep your fingers crossed that he shows up again. He was Dad's favorite kitten. Hopefully he will make an appearance in less than the 2 months it took Slippers, his littermate, to reappear after Dad died.

Oh, Blessed sleep!

Either I was VERY tired or the drugs were really good or a combination of both, but I slept from about 8PM last night until after 9AM this morning. Yes, the drummer is still there, but I think I'm starting to get used to it. I'm trying to convince myself it is the sound of my mother's heartbeat and I'm just an infant with my whole life ahead of me. How's that for imagination? The coop delivery went very well yesterday. Both my sister and brother were at the distribution site to help with orders in Denver. It really helps when there are enough bodies to get everything accomplished in the allotted time. The animals faired well while we were gone. The English lady with whom we went apple picking/mud bogging cared for them while we were gone. It is nice to have someone who cares enough about animals and has had experiences herself with bad caretakers to watch them when we are away. Although we rarely are gone at the same time, it will be easier now that we have a back up!

How long before sleep depravation causes total insanity?

I've managed an average of 4 hours sleep for the last 3 nights. I didn't get home from Denver until after 9:30 PM and still had coop orders to fill for delivery to the drop off site this morning. So after getting to bed after Midnight I was up again at 5:30AM to get things organized for the Coop's trip to Denver with orders to be delivered today. The bass drum is still announcing the upcoming parade with the furnace in the lead position. Something will definitely need to be done about that. I am taking a sleeping pill tonight and going to bed early. Hopefully I'll get right to sleep and not wake up until the sun comes up tomorrow.

Furnace-more buyer's remorse

You know how when you move into a new house you have to spend some time recognizing and identifying all the strange noises.  That was how I spent last night.  When the water goes into the furnace it makes a recognizable sound; when the fan comes on, another recognizable sound.  When the pump to remove the condensation came on I got a little nervous wondering what that was for sure as it was a different sound than the water intake. But worst of all is this annoying thump=thump=thump much like the sound of the base drum in a marching band about 1/2 block away.  It thumped the whole time the furnace was running.  Since my bedroom is directly over the furnace it is especially annoying and needless to say I got very little sleep last night. The plumber says it is a quirk in the air movement system.  He didn't offer a solution.  There is no way I can continue to sleep in that room with that noise without some serious drugs.  I guess I will need to relocate my bedroom. We are off to Denver today to celebrate the two December birthdays at a restaurant in the Cherry Creek Shopping Center.  Fortunately, the weather is pleasant.

Furnace-buyer's remorse?

The geothermal furnace is finally hooked up.  It isn't any less noisy than the previous one.  It is a different kind of heat.  A more constant temperature with less extremes.  The drawback is the air which does come through the vents is not as warm.  So much for putting my pjs over the register to warm them up before putting them on for bed. I think it will take some getting used to, but it will be nice to have air conditioning in the summer.  Strange thing to be thinking about when the temperatures haven't been above freezing for the last week.

What a difference

The geothermal heat isn't hooked up yet, but along with the new furnace came 3 additional heat ducts in the house.  One each in the dining room, living room and hallway by the extra bedroom.  The plumber has them hooked to the old furnace until the new one is operational.  I can't believe what a difference that has made in the comfort level of the house.  Our temperatures haven't been above freezing for several days and the nights have been well below zero.  In times past I would have had to have numerous layers to be even close to warm in the house.  Now, all the cold spots and drafts seem to be gone.  If it stays that way after the new furnace is hooked up I will be one happy camper and the dent the upgrade makes in my checking account will be a whole lot easier to handle.  I don't think it will be as good as the hot water heat I've had in a couple of other homes, but I'll bet it is close.

Happy Birthday, Sis

Today was my MUCH OLDER sister's birthday.  I tried to call her a couple of times to wish her Happy Birthday, but she apparently was out partying and didn't answer the phone.  At any rate, I hope that was what she was doing, but you never know with those older women.

At any rate, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Lois.

A little glitch

The electrician came to do his part in installing the new furnace.  He indicated the breaker on our main electric pole may not be big enough.  He called the electric coop to ask for an upgrade to a breaker with more amps.  Their comment?  "It hasn't been tripping so I don't think we need to install one."  I guess their theory is that it is best to inconvenience the customers by having them traipse all the way out to the pole in the middle of the freezing night to reset the breaker several times before it is worthwhile for them to upgrade their system. 

Apparently we have new management/officers at the top of the electric cooperative now.  When I first moved here, and even when the neighbors moved in, they were really easy to work with and very accomodating.  Now everything is a battle with them and they have raised their rates nearly 25% since I moved here in 2000.  Someone said it was called 'Progress".  Yeah, right.

Prairie House Goes Geothermal

Both houses at Prairie House are getting geothermal upgrades.  We are scrapping the old propane furnaces and going green. 
I thought my timing was perfect....I would run out of propane in the tank just as the plumber finished hooking up the new furnace.  I had it calculated just right.  Then Murphy stepped in.  The plumber had to move his daughter and her stuff to D.C. which put his schedule back a week.  I probably still could have made it, but with the temps dropping into the single digits for the week, I ordered another 100 gallons.  Since then I've had the furnace cranked up on high so I can be really warm.
My new furnace should be up and working on Tuesday.  Then the installation starts next door.
I'll let you know how I like it once it has been up and running for a while.