Waking Up From Winter

Today is the Saturday before Easter.  It is one of the warmest days we have had in a long time.  Everything is waking up and getting active.  I get up pretty early.  Today I was up by 6:00.  I paddled into the kitchen and warmed up a cup of the bone broth I drink first thing in the morning.  As I sat down to drink it, I saw all kinds of activity.  The wood ducks were in the trees again.  It must be part of their breeding ritual.  The tree swallows were busy examining the birdhouses to determine which one they want to nest in.  I have only seen two bluebirds this year.  It is very late for them, and I wonder what is going on.*  So far, the tree swallows have whichever birdhouse they want.  For the past several days I have seen a Red Fox in the morning and again at night.  I hope she will raise her pups nearby.  She is very timid.  I can take photos of the deer through the window and they don't even notice, but the fox notices every little movement.  She hopped up on the table where I usually feed corn to the deer.  I don't know what she thought was up there, but as soon as she sensed me in the window she jumped down and hid.

A little later I saw a sandhill crane walking near the waters edge.  I notice that this one had preened herself with mud.  When they first return in March they have gray feathers.  Then after they preen themselves with the sandy mud we have around here, their feathers turn to a reddish brown color. 

Next I saw a Pileated woodpecker.  It was making a loud racket so I followed it outside and saw it up in one of our tall trees.  It has been here a lot today.

By this time my husband had gotten up.  He usually sleeps in a little longer than me and misses all that goes on in the early morning.  It's fortunate I take a lot of pictures for him to see.  Then he lounges around and has to read all the depressing news that happened.  By this time, I am getting antsy.  I have been up forever and want to go somewhere or get something done.  Finally after walking into the room several times and sighing, he gets the message.  He asks where I want to go and naturally I don't know.  I just know I don't want to stay home.  Next thing you know, he is heading out to the car and we have a little outing.  Sometimes it's only the grocery store or gas station, but it's a change of scenery.

Today we found two new places to go.  Just like the animals coming out of hibernation, we got our Jeep out too.  We also need to get moving after a long winter.  We are getting old and who knows how long we will be able to be active.  The first place we went to was a boardwalk through a marsh to Norwegian Bay on Green Lake.  Green Lake is the deepest natural fresh water lake in Wisconsin. 

At first it didn't look like much.  The trail looked a little muddy, and it looked like the trees and brush were removed and shredded,.  The marsh had been burned off and was just showing signs of green returning.  We aren't sure if it was getting too overgrown and they are trying to restore things to how they should be.  Hopefully we can find some answers.  Once we got onto the boardwalk, it was very nice.  The boardwalk ended at the lake.  The view was beautiful.  There was also an osprey nest nearby.

Since this boardwalk wasn't very long and we had only put on 1700 steps on our fitbits, we moved onto another trail we hadn't walked on before.  This one was called the Sunnyside trail.

The woods next to this trail were also cleared and the ground was cluttered with shredded wood from the tree removal.  We didn't know how long the trail was, but we went anyway.  We thought it would make a big U-shape and come out at another point on the road.  We were wrong.  It made a huge circle with no way out except the way we entered.  We saw lots of birds including a big eagle that flew over.   The turtles were out sunning themselves.  They were all lined up on some logs.

We were pretty hot and tired by the time we found our way back to the car.  We hadn't taken any water because we didn't think it would be that far.  My husband wanted to ease into this exercise thing gently, but as it turned out he got a good workout.

Now we are home and it's time for me to prepare for tomorrow.  We are having brunch at our daughters house, but I volunteered to bring a few things.  Tomorrow is supposed to be another beautiful day.  Perfect for an egg hunt and brunch.  We will probably eat all the calories we burned today plus a few more.  My husband, being the competitive person he is, is outside raking.  He can't fool me.  He wants to hit 10,000 steps today because he knows I won't.  He's right, with all the walking I did today,  I still only have 8,255.  Oh well, it's still pretty darn good.

*Update:  Early Easter morning, a few hours after I posted this blog,  the bluebirds returned.   They are busy looking over the birdhouses.  Why they were delayed, I will never know.  I'm just glad they are back.

Dutch Oven Crusty Bread

Recently I shared a bread recipe on Facebook.  I hadn't made it yet, but it looked good.  Here is the link.  It is from This Old Gal again.  It seems that she is my go to for air fryer and pressure cooker recipes.  https://thisoldgal.com/instant-pot-yogurt-whey-dutch-oven-crusty-bread/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SocialWarfare

As I have mentioned many times, I make yogurt.  I have for many years.  In order to get a nice thick Greek yogurt, I strain the liquid whey out of it.  For every quart of yogurt, I get 1 1/2 cups of whey. The internet tells many ways to use this product from feeding plants to using it in other recipes.  Up until now, I never liked it in other food.  It is very sour.  Then I found this bread recipe which is really good for those who are lactose intolerant.  There is almost no lactose in the whey.  All the details on how to make this bread are in the "This Old Gal" website or click the link above.  I changed the process slightly, but I still give her credit for the recipe.

The whey is the clear liquid drained from the finished yogurt.

 This Old Gal mixed the dough by hand, but I used my bread machine set on the dough cycle.  The only ingredients are:

1 1/2 cup of whey
3 cups of flour
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
3 1/2 teaspoons yeast

That's all there is to it.  The dough is pretty soft so I was worried it would be sticky.  I dumped it out of the bread machine pan onto a floured surface.  As I folded it over and punched it down, it became very smooth and manageable.

At this point you let it rest for thirty minutes.  At the same time, you pre-heat a cast iron dutch oven.  I imagine you could just put it on a cookie sheet and bake.  However, baking the bread in the dutch oven works very well.  For the first 25 minutes of baking time, you cover it.  Then finish baking with the lid off for an additional 15 minutes, or you can bake it completely with the cover on.

I am writing this blog to share the recipe, but also to save it for myself.  I will be making it over and over again.

Here is is right out of the oven,  It is a very crusty bread with a soft center.

It has a great texture and I love it toasted.

Poor Bandit

Our youngest grand dog is a cockapoo named Bandit.  Bandit came from the same breeder as his cousin Piper, but he only weighs 14 pounds.  Piper is almost twice as big.  Bandit is a lively little thing, but is also sweet as can be. 

Yesterday wasn't a good day for Bandit.  Our grandson brought a dish of semisweet chocolate chips into their computer room.  He was snacking on them.  When he left, he forgot the chips.  Yes, you guessed it.  Bandit climbed up on the chair and ate the remaining chocolate chips.  Chocolate is toxic to dogs and the darker the chocolate, the worse it is.  It was only a half hour or so before they discovered it.  My daughter knew she had to make him throw up.  She talked to a neighbor who had recently had a similar experience.  She told her to give him hydrogen peroxide and how much to use Within a short period of time, Bandit threw up a lot of chocolate.  He seemed ok, but then threw up again.  We all thought that would be the end of it.  It was not.  By 10 PM, the dog was starting to tremble and wasn't doing well.  Since it was so late, they had to call an animal hospital about an hour away because all the local veterinary clinics were closed.  The veterinarian told her to bring him right in.  When they got there, his heart rate was at 170, and they admitted him to the hospital.  He had a rough night.  They gave him sedatives, fluids and monitored his heart rate.  They also gave him charcoal.  By the middle of this morning he was doing better, but they wanted to keep him for a few more hours.  Now he is home.  He has to be on a special diet of chicken and rice and has to have probiotics.  We checked on him this afternoon, and he seemed pretty much himself although he was a little tired. 

We are all so relieved that tonight he is almost normal, but last night was a long night of worrying.  The vet said if they hadn't made him throw up, it may have been a very different story.

This is cousin Piper.

Making Kindling With A Kindling Cracker

Today was finally a lovely day.  We have had day after day of cloudy weather, but we saw the sun today.  The temperatures were pretty mild depending on who you asked.  We saw people in shorts and short sleeved shirts, and we saw people in parkas with their hoods up.  The people in the heavy jackets probably returned from a winter in the south and weren't prepared for a temperature under 70 degrees.  Soon it will be warm enough to have our first fire in the fire pit.  In preparation for our camp fire season, my husband made some kindling to start the fires.  For Christmas this year he got an awesome gift called a Kindling Cracker.  No it isn't something to eat, it's a way to easily turn a firewood log into pieces of kindling.  This device was invented by a school aged student from New Zealand.  He made it for a science fair project, and someone decided to market it.  It is a solid piece of cast iron with no moving parts so it's safe and easy to use.

You just place a piece of firewood inside the safety ring and strike it with a blunt instrument, such as a hammer, mallet or even another piece of wood. This forces the wood down onto the splitting wedge.

This Kindling Cracker eliminates the need to swing a sharp axe which can be dangerous and hard to do.  The axe requires good aim and some strength.  The cracker doesn't require as much force.

Hit the log with a mallet.

It splits the log in half.  If you want smaller pieces just split it again.

We now have a pile of kindling.  Hopefully we can have a camp fire soon.  The weather report looks like a wintery mix in a couple of days.  Maybe we will have to have a fire in the fireplace until this nice weather is here to stay.

A High School Play Called Arsenic and Old Lace

Spring is always a busy time for schools.  Most of them have a lot of concerts and activities that showcase what they have learned throughout the year.  Since we live near all of our grandchildren, we have attended many of their activities.  We have missed a few because we either didn't know about them or they overlapped with each other.  We try to make it even, which isn't always easy.  This weekend our oldest grandchild Melissa was involved with her Spring high school play.  The Fall play is always a musical and in the Spring they do a drama.  This following blog includes the Mary Poppins play they did last Fall.  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2016/11/high-school-plays-are-best.html  Our grandson is the opposite, the Fall is a drama (included in the blog above) and Spring is the musical http://www.thecabincountess.com/2017/02/ripon-high-school-musical.html.  This year Melissa's play was a dramatic comedy called Arsenic and Old Lace.  The cast was pretty small with only three female characters, so our granddaughter played two men.  One she was cast to play and the other she filled in for someone who quit the play.  She was also the student director.  It's too bad they didn't choose a play where more kids could participate, but it was still good.

The first character she played was Mr. Gibbs.  For those familiar with the story, the two main characters are sisters who have rooms for rent.  They save lonely old men by giving them Elderberry wine laced with poison.  Mr. Gibbs inquired about a room only to be chased out before he drank the wine.  She did a German accent with this character.  It was so funny.

The second character was Lieutenant Roony.  He is Columbo type police lieutenant who comes in to investigate.  She did an awesome Brooklyn accent for this one.

 

I think it was kind of fun for her to play these parts.  She really got into it.  She even had to learn how to hold a cigarette.  I am grateful that she didn't know how.   

The day after the play we were at the library.  We noticed they had a DVD of the old Arsenic and Old Lace movie from the 1940's.  It starred Cary Grant and Peter Lorre.  It was equally chaotic, but I think I enjoyed the high school production more.  They did better accents, that's for sure.

In order to see how Melissa really looks, here is a picture of her from a recent solo ensemble performance she did.  She sang a song from the Secret Garden.  

We are really proud of her and hope she continues to be involved throughout the rest of her high school years. She is just a sophomore so she has more performances ahead of her.

Lemon Cream Pie

I make Greek yogurt every week.  It is creamy and wonderful, but it is unflavored.  Purists can eat it plain, but I am not one of those people.  It is wonderful in smoothies, but I don't make a smoothie everyday.  The recipe for the yogurt I make is included in the blog.   http://www.thecabincountess.com/2017/01/passing-time-during-doldrums-of-winter.html

I recently found a way to make Lemon Curd in the pressure cooker.  The recipe came from the This Old Gal website.  I have gotten many great recipes from her site including the pressure cooker cheesecake recipe I made a few weeks ago.  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2017/02/pressure-cooker-new-york-cheesecake.html

This lemon curd is a good way to flavor the plain yogurt.  It's quite tart, but really good.  You can find the recipe at  https://thisoldgal.com/pressure-cooker-easy-lemon-curd/  A little of it goes a long way which is good because it certainly isn't low calorie.  The recipe makes three cups which fit into three one cup jelly jars.  They seal after coming out of the pressure cooker, so the curd lasts a couple weeks in the refrigerator or you can freeze it. 

It looks like creamy lemon pudding.

The recipe calls for mixing in a food processor.  I did it in my vitamix blender which worked great.

I was trying to think of other uses for it.  I think putting it on top of a lemon cheesecake would be good.  Today I made a batch in an oven proof bowl instead of three canning jars.  When it was cooled and set up, I stirred in an 8 ounce container of Cool Whip and put it in a graham cracker crust.  Just what we need, another quick and easy desert.  No wonder we each gained ten pounds this winter.  It is certainly time for Spring so I can get outside and out of the kitchen. 

Mr. Leprechaun's New House

Every year I write about our annual St. Patrick's Day celebration.  In light of my new found knowledge of being 20% Irish-British, this was even more special.  This year we celebrated a few days early because of scheduling conflicts.  Even with all the planning, our granddaughter Melissa couldn't come.  She is sixteen years old and has a job at a mom and pop type drive-in.  Surprisingly they opened in February.  Looking out the window today at the snow makes me wonder if the drive-in owners made the same mistake as all the migratory birds.  Our early tease of warm weather did not continue, and summer temperatures are not in the immediate future.

I usually report about our big meal.  I won't do that this year because it is always the same except this year I made three racks of ribs and four corned beef briskets.  As amazing as it seems, we were left with not that many leftovers.  After everyone took home a little care package, very little remained.  That's a good thing.

What I do want to write about is our youngest grandson's search for the elusive leprechaun.  If you follow this blog, you will know about his love for leprechaun's.  Every year before we eat, we have to look for the leprechaun.  Ewan's theory is that Mr. Leprechaun, which we call Shamus, has to return to Wisconsin from his winter home in the south by St. Patrick's Day.  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2016/03/st-patricks-day-celebration-2016.html

Our family arrived a little before noon all decked out in their Irish finery.  Ewan was anxious to get started, so before everyone had their coats off, he was leading the parade to the woods.  When we arrived, we noticed a disaster had happened.  A week earlier we had a lot of wind, and a big tree had fallen on the leprechaun's house.

Upon arriving at the scene, we noticed the door of the house was open.  Inside was a note written by Shamus Leprechaun.  It was rolled tightly and tied with green yarn.  It was a little hard to copy, but this is what it said.

After looking at the compass and analyzing the clue, Jack (our second youngest grandchild) and Ewan ran to the spot.  There, lo and behold, was another clue.

The clues took us to the food break down bin (compost bin),

clue #3 to the cooking place (fire pit),

clue #4 to the rabbit's hiding place like br'er rabbit (brush pile),

 
clue #5 following a deer trail to a house on a pole (birdhouse),

clue #6 across a big gravel path (driveway) to a prickly bush.  The last clue brought them to the new leprechaun house.  There was a basket of candy with this final note.

So much excitement at the sight of the new house.  Ewan dove through the all the branches and sticks used to camouflage the house from view.  Jack ran around and grabbed the basket of treats.  I hate to see them grow up and lose the wonder of it all.

This is Shamus Leprechaun's new house.  There is a story behind this house.  We knew we wanted to have Mr. Leprechaun move.  My husband was going to build a new house from scratch, but one day we went to the Restore Store.  They had a stack of dog houses in cartons ready to assemble.  The houses only cost $10, but all the writing and instructions were in Chinese.  We thought it would be a good base.  We brought it home and remodeled it a little.  Mike cut windows and put in plexiglass.  He sided it with wood lath and put chinking (like we have in our log house) between the boards.  He made hinged doors to cover the doghouse opening.

The beginning of the remodeling process.

I made a bed in a small orange crate.

We added a few clothing items.

 I even made coat hangers out of paper clips.

The inside of the house.  If I were ten inches tall, I could move right in.

We brought all the furnishings inside, but I will have to set it up again when the kids come back out for a visit.  I can probably leave it set up when the weather improves, but for now I have to hope they don't just "drop in" to see us.  Ewan would be very sad to see this house abandoned.  I don't know how we will top it for next year although we realize the days of "believing" are numbered.  Great memories for us as well as the kids.