Missoula Children's Theatre-The Secret Garden

Our granddaughter has been participating in the Missoula Children's Theatre for a few years.  Twice a year they come to Green Lake Wisconsin and audition children for a play.  Then for only one week they practice and at the end of that time put on the play at the Thrasher Opera House.  This year they did The Secret Garden.  It is a wonderful experience for everyone who is fortunate to get a part.  Today we attended the afternoon performance.  It was a good time and we were impressed at how quickly this group learned their lines and the songs.

 The Playbill from the show explains the story and some information on the Missoula Children's Theatre.

 

   Our granddaughter is the spider in the middle.  She had the chartreuse outfit with the orange dots.  She did a great job and had a wonderful time.

Putting a New Addition on a Log House

We hadn't lived in our house very long before we needed more room.  It seems these days everyone wants to downsize.  It happened to us twice.  Once when the kids went off to college and got married, we bought a smaller house.  We didn't realize that we actually needed more room to accommodate spouses and then grandchildren.  When we retired, the same thing happened.  We bought a smaller house.  Soon not only did we need room for spouses and more growing kids, we needed space to feed all these people.  We decided to build a dining room onto our house.  The challenge with a log home is that traditional construction doesn't work.  Fortunately, we found a local builder who had experience.  The first thing that happened was deciding on the size.  From that measurement,  the builder found the correct number of trees we would need in the proper diameter.  He located some trees in our area that had been cut down.  He hand stripped the bark off the trees and assembled the room off site.  It was put together like lincoln logs to achieve the proper size, then they disassembled it, marked it and brought it to our house.

 In the meantime, we had a basement dug.  We have completely sandy soil and seeing the hole dug was an experience in itself.  I was sure the equipment and the driver was going to end up in the hole.

 After the hole was dug, they began pouring the concrete floor.

 

Here they are setting forms for the concrete basement walls.

Next was setting the floor joists and the subfloor.

Starting the building process.  Putting the logs back together piece by piece.

Then the roof goes on.

They cut out for the windows with a chain saw.

The windows are installed.

Making the old and new match is a challenge.

It was exciting when the wall to the new room was opened up from the inside.

They cut that open with a chain saw also.

The finished room.  

 It looks like it was originally built this way.

Eastern Bluebirds Can Stay All Winter in Wisconsin

You are never too old to learn.  I learned that the Eastern Bluebird will not migrate from Wisconsin if they are given the proper conditions, food and shelter.  The other day we took a trip to one of the big box stores.  We were shopping in the birdseed department and struck up a conversation with another couple.  They were buying dried meal worms and I asked them what birds they were feeding them to in the winter.  I feed my bluebirds meal worms but stop feeding as soon as fall approaches.  These people said they never stop feeding and their bluebirds stay all winter.  They said they have three males and two females feeding everyday.  Every year I can't wait for the middle of March to see the bluebirds return.  Who knew that they just lived up the road a few miles.  From now on I will provide food all year. 

These people also explained how they raise live meal worms.  I have done that in the past but gave up because it was too much work.  The method they use is very easy.  All it takes is a plastic container about 4 inches deep.  They get live worms, put them into the container, feed them oatmeal or cornmeal, let them go through the life cycle, take out the adult worms and start over again.  I may have to try this again.  As many of you know, I already have a red worm farm (see blog about Worm Farming-An Unusual Type of Farmer).  If I try raising meal worms, I will blog about it at a later time.

We have the bluebird houses close to our house so we can observe them easily.  Just beware of the House Wren.  Everyone thinks they are such nice little birds with a beautiful sound.  They are mean little devils that will fly into the bluebird house, pierce an egg and throw it on the ground.  I used to like the Wren but not any more.   I have observed their bad behavior in person.  Now we put wren guards over the birdhouse entry.  The bluebirds enter from the side and the wrens can't get in and out by going straight in.  It has been quite successful.

These are the first pair of bluebirds we attracted ten years ago.  Since then we have a couple of pair every year.  By now they are probably the great grandchildren of these two.  They usually have two and sometimes three broods a year.

 

The bluebird usually has 3-5 eggs.  They are light blue and the nest is made from pine straw and grasses.   The female laid one more egg in this nest before she began sitting on the eggs.   The color is a prettier light blue than this photo shows. 

Two baby bluebirds with their dad just after they fledged.  It looks like one of them is mouthing off.

This is the male bluebird that we had during the 2012 season.

Ground Cherries Are All I Can Grow

As I sit here near the end of January, thoughts of spring filter into my head.  I'm looking forward to warmer temperatures and opening up the house.  I realized that I'm not looking forward to planting a garden. It isn't fun anymore.  Our trees have gotten so big we have very few areas that have sun and  we have tried to amend our sandy soil for years but it still isn't very fertile.   I made a decision, I'm not planting any vegetables this year, not even tomatoes.  Between the farmer's markets, friends and family, I get more than enough vegetables and none of the work.  I am going to concentrate on flowers and native plants..  They may look a little messy and not manicured, but the bees and birds love it that way and we should too.  No fertilizer on the yard either.  If it burns up and turns brown as it did last year, then that's how it should be.  I feel so liberated.

For those of you who start seeds this time of year, I have a helpful hint for tomato plants.  If you have a favorite tomato and want to start some plants for the next season, all I do is put the seeds onto a sheet of newspaper.  I spread them out, put them away in a dry location and forget about them.  Although sometimes if the tomato is a hybrid, you may get a very different type.  When the time comes to start the seeds, just get out the newspaper and cut around the seeds.  A lot of seeds can fit on a small piece of newspaper and the drying process makes them stick to the paper.   Plant the seed stuck to the paper by whatever means you use.  I like to plant in a paper/cardboard egg carton.  I punch a hole in each of the twelve sections for drainage, fill each compartment with starting soil, put the piece of paper with the seed, cover with a little more soil and water.  Then when the seedlings are big enough, cut apart the egg carton and plant the whole thing.  No need to disturb the plant.

I do have ground cherries that come up by themselves every year. I have no idea why they grow so well and are so hardy.   I am going to let them take over the garden space this year.  Last year I made ground cherry jam and it was wonderful.

To make the jam, I started out with three cups of ground cherries taken out of their paper husks. It will be the middle of September before they are ready.  You wash them well and them put into a kettle with 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/2 cup water and 1 box powdered pectin.

Bring them to a boil and when the ground cherries start to burst,  I put them into the blender with a two of overripe peaches.  There are a lot of seeds in ground cherries and the blending helps break down the seediness.  After they are blended, put them back into the kettle and return to a boil.  Then add three cups of sugar all at once and boil according to pectin package directions, usually 1-3 minutes.

Put in sterilized jars. Screw on lids and invert for 5 minutes then turn over and allow to cool until the  lids POP! That will mean the seal is tight.  I still store them in freezer and take out one jar at a time.
This recipe will make 3 medium jars or 6 small jars of jam.

Baked Cod for Supper

It was suggested to me that I should post a recipe on here now and then.  I know that recipes are easy to find online, so all I can do is post a meal that I have made.  I made this yesterday.  We usually go out for a Friday fish fry.  Fish fries are popular here is Wisconsin.  Almost every bar or restaurant has one.  I really don't like the deep fried version and it's not very healthy.  While talking to a cousin of mine, he shared with me how they make baked fish where he works.  It is so simple.  Here is the recipe along with what else we had for supper.  I really took it easy, but it tasted good.

Baked Cod

1 lb. of frozen cod fillets (Rogges Alaskan Cod are good and 80 calories for 4 oz.)
Olive oil
Seasoned salt

Thaw frozen fish in cold water and drain water.

Pat dry on a paper towel
Put some olive oil in the bottom of a baking dish
Layer fish fillets
More olive oil on the top of the fish
Sprinkle with seasoned salt

Then bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
Do not overbake.

Fried Potatoes

This isn't rocket science either.  Fried potatoes can be made with left over boiled potatoes, frozen hash browns (I like the southern style squares instead of shredded) or cut up you own potatoes and cube or slice (these are called raw fries).

Just put some olive oil in a frying pan and fry until potatoes are brown.

Then I heated up a can of stewed tomatoes.   

Cost for the meal was $2.85 person.  The average cost for a fish fry is $7.98 and up per person.
The fish was $6.99 a pound and I had a little less than a pound for 3 people.
The hash browns were $1.99 for the whole bag and I used about half for 3 people.
One can of stewed tomatoes were $.69 and that also fed 3 people.

Technology May Not Be Progress

In previous posts I have mentioned my Dad.  He is 88 years old and lives with us.  Almost a year ago my Mom passed away and due to poor eyesight dad was unable to live alone.  He is an easy going man who never talked very much.  My mom was the mouthpiece for the family.  As time goes by, he is talking more and today he told me a story I hadn't heard before.

Kids used to play outside and entertain themselves.  They used to make things and build things to play with.  My Dad told how he had a friend who was interested in airplanes.  They would build airplanes and play with them.  He and his friend once took scrap lumber and made a plane that was eight feet long.  It had a big wing span.  They would sit in it and pretend to fly.  Much later my Dad was in the Army Air Corp (became the Air Force in 1947) in World War II and flew 44 missions.  He certainly had his fill of flying after that experience. 

At the same time they were building airplanes, Dad decided that he wanted to make a kite.  You couldn't afford to just go to the store and buy one.  He said he got some sticks and some brown wrapping paper.  He attached the sticks together and covered it with the paper.  He can't remember how he attached the paper to the sticks, but he must have done a good job.  Then he tied rags on the bottom for a tail.  He said it worked beautifully.  There was a big hill across the road from his grandma's house.  He would stand on the hill and fly the kite.  Sometimes he would stake it out and it would fly all night.  One time it flew for a week.  Then one time he was able to get a new kite from the store.  He put it together but it never flew as well as the ones he would make.

My daughter took away all technology for the weekend and my grandchildren didn't know what to do with themselves.   They call it progress but I think we have lost something in the process.  Kids and many adults have a hard entertaining themselves.

Zote, What on Earth is Zote?

There are some disadvantages to living in the woods.  Even though we are technically living in the city, we don't have city sewer.  We have a septic tank and we have to be careful about putting too much water down the drain.  Therefore, I am not able to do several loads of laundry in one day.  I have to do one or two a day.  Today when doing some laundry I discovered that I am almost out of my laundry soap and fabric softener.

Most people these days are familiar with the homemade laundry detergent recipe.

Homemade Powder Laundry Detergent:

1 5.5 oz. Bar Shaved Soap (Fels Naptha or Ivory)

1 cup of Borax

1 cup of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

Directions:

Stir the ingredients together (after shaving the soap) and use 2 TBS per load of laundry. This method should work well in HE front loader washers as well since it is a low-suds formula.


Instead of Fels Naptha soap I am trying a product called Zote.  It smells so good. It smells like clean fresh soap and not perfume. Zote only costs $1.19 for a 14.1 ounce bar and makes a double batch. Because it comes in a bar just as Fels does, it has to be ground up.  There are many methods to do this like a cheese grinder, knuckle buster or blender.   Zote is a softer soap than Fels or Ivory so I cut the bar up in pieces, put it outside (or in the freezer) to get cold and ground it up in the blender.  I hope I got all the soap smell out of the blender or we will be blowing bubbles from our next smoothie. 

I cut the bar of soap in pieces and then ground the soap up in the blender.

Then I added the Borax and Washing Soda and blended it again to make a fine powder.

Now the fun begins.  I took my newly made laundry soap down to the laundry room and put a load of clothes into the washer.  Then I scooped 1 tablespoon of the new detergent in.  I didn't use any fabric softener because I wanted to see how it was without it.  An hour later I went down to throw the load into the dryer.  Oh my gosh, there was water on the floor, under the laundry tub and it had seeped a little into an adjoining bathroom.  I thought my new soap must be a complete failure but I couldn't imagine why.  I dried everything out with towels and fans.  Then later (remember I can do two loads a day) I thought I would try it again only this time stay and watch.  I loaded the machine and put the soap into the dispenser, turned it on and waited and waited and waited.  Imagine how painful that was for someone with my personality.  Nothing went wrong.  The machine went through all the cycles perfectly.  The clothes had no residue and smelled good when they came out.  I don't know how well it cleaned because most of our laundry isn't dirty, it just need freshening up.  Who knows what had happened but it seems to have resolved itself.  Stay tuned, I will report if this soap turns out to be a failure but it looks and smells good so far.

Homemade Fabric Softener

Ingredients:
6 cups water
3 cups white vinegar
2 cups Suave Hair Conditioner (any inexpensive hair conditioner will do)

This recipe can also be cut in half because it make a lot.
Directions:
1. Mix water, vinegar, and hair conditioner in a 1 gallon container; stir. Do not shake it; it will cause foaming.
2. Use the same amount you normally use in a rinse cycle or spritz it on a wash cloth and throw in dryer.

Celebration of Elvis's Birthday

Last year on January 6 we heard that Dan Sutter was doing an Elvis show at the Senior Center in Oregon Wisconsin.  It was in honor of Elvis's birthday.  We have known Dan for almost 20 years.  We took a little road trip and surprised him for the show.  It was wonderful and we enjoyed it very much.  This January he was doing it again, so we planned to attend.  For many reasons we weren't able to make it.  We were disappointed but that is how things go sometimes.  Imagine my surprise when two Cd's arrived in the mail yesterday.

I found this little youtube video someone did with a sample of last years show. 

http://youtu.be/-b71kzx0mPY

If any of you have the opportunity to see or hear Dan sing you will be pleasantly surprised.  Dan sings and plays in a band called Universal Sound.  They play almost every weekend in the Madison Wisconsin area. 

 

A Day to Remember or to Forget

Well I guess all days living in this nice area with lots of privacy and wildlife isn't perfect.  No place is.  I had quite a day.

In the morning we usually have oatmeal for breakfast, except two days a week my husband makes eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast.  On this particular morning, I made oatmeal.  There is no need to cook oatmeal on the stove or buy instant oatmeal.  It cooks great in a microwave and you don't have a separate kettle to wash.  All you do is put in half as much oatmeal as water and microwave it for a minute or so depending on whether you have quick oats or old fashioned.  So I put in 1/4 cup of oatmeal, 1/2 cup water, a few raisins and some sugar in a bowl and set it in the microwave.  I set it for 1 minute 15 seconds.  Then while that was cooking I cut a piece of bread and put it in the toaster.  When the oatmeal is done so is the toast.  I pour a little pitcher of milk, put some cinnamon on the oatmeal and take it to my dad.  This time when the microwave beeped and I opened the door,  the oatmeal wasn't done.  I tried again and realized that although everything on the microwave was working (timer, light, fan, turntable), the food wasn't cooking.  The microwave is less than two years old and it's broken.

The next thing I do in the morning is go out and retrieve the SD card from the trail camera and replace it with another.  I did this as usual and came in to look at the photos.  The card reader didn't work.  Card readers are such a convenient way of loading photos onto a computer, but not today.

The next thing to happen was my camera.  I always have my camera handy in case I see something of interest either in the house or outside.  My husband spotted either a fox or coyote running across the marsh.  I grabbed the camera and didn't get there in time, but noticed my LCD screen was not lighting up.  I took the battery out and charged it.  This camera has a rechargeable battery and it lasts a very long time between charges.  I put the fully charged battery in the camera and it still didn't work.  I emailed Canon and they gave me a solution.  I tried and it drained the battery.  At that point Canon told me I had to send the camera in.  Now I don't know what to do.  I may buy a new battery to see if that is the problem or else I have to send it in.  My camera is a very good camera and this makes me mad.  It is still under warranty so I guess that is what I need to do.

This is not a good day, but then I discovered the problem.  I was finally able to see the photos on the trail camera and this is what I found.   The Headless Countess Wannabe has struck again (see Critters of the Night blog) and this time she is wearing a gray wig and has stolen my turquoise ring.  She is eating well too.  Look at that double chin.  And her pants don't even match.  She looks a bit like Queen Elizabeth but I'm sure she wouldn't be traveling incognito in Wisconsin in the winter.  Hopefully soon the stars will align and everything will get back to normal.

I can only guess what she is pouring into that dish.  Yuck!

Making an Irish Cable Knit Sweater

By the weekend it's going to be extremely cold.  All summer I said that I couldn't wait for cold temperatures so I can sit and knit.  Here it is the middle of January and I still haven't made much.  Today I took out a project that I had started in the summer but it was too hot to knit.  Especially this year with temperatures near 100 degrees on many days.

The project I am doing is an Aran style pull over sweater.  This is the third sweater I have made with this pattern.  My daughters may have them because they are no where to be seen.  Or I gave them to Goodwill in a moment of haste.  Sometimes I just start thinning out my closets and go crazy.  It doesn't matter where the others are because I'm making another.

I have a good start but I have a long way to go.  I'll post the finished sweater at some later date.

I love making these Irish cable knits.  A few years ago a friend of mine wanted a cardigan sweater for her granddaughter.  I found this Vintage pattern online.  It's amazing the free patterns you can find with a simple search.  I have so many knitting magazines that I don't really need anymore.  Some day I will probably be clearing them out too, but I'm not quite ready yet.

The free pattern is called Child's Irish Cardigan
http://www.knitting-crochet.com/chiiricar.html


This is the photo of the sweater I made.

I have done a few baby items which I donated to a fundraiser.  I made them out of leftover yarn and enjoyed making them.

One Thought Leads to Another-lampshades

The thought process is an interesting thing.  I am probably just like everyone and something that you see sparks a thought that leads you to another totally unrelated thought.  That is what happened to me today.  Well it is kind of related.  I got an email about a craft project.  They took a sweater and cut it to fit over a lampshade.  It was interesting.  I imagine how good it looks depends on the sweater you choose.  I pinned it on Pinterest to remind myself, but I probably will never do such a thing.

While I was thinking about lampshades, I remembered the lampshade that my husband made.  One year he thought he would take a stained glass class.  He went to the first class and instead of coming home with a little suncatcher or ornament, he came home wanting to make a lampshade.  His first project required cutting 204 pieces of glass, putting them together on a foam form and soldering it all together.  I thought he was biting off a lot more than he could chew, but after many weeks, the final product was wonderful. 

Thoughts of this lampshade brought me to another lampshade.  Back in the 1970's, I was a stay at home mom with not a lot of money.  I had a wooden floor lamp that we had picked up at an auction.  We went to auctions a lot in those days and furnished our entire house.  Most of the furniture was oak and we refinished it.  We still have most of the pieces that we purchased back then and most of the furniture store purchases are long gone.  The floor lamp came with a shade and the shape was perfect for the lamp, but it was ripped.  I didn't know where to get another shade of that style and probably couldn't have afforded it either.  So, I stripped off the cover, found some yarn and crocheted a replacement over the wire frame.  This lampshade has been relegated to the lower level, but I have never been able to throw it away. 

 Someday I will talk about some of the treasures we found at auctions and sales.  At least we thought they were treasures, others thought it was just junk.

Several Meals From One Chuck Roast

This is going to be a quick post about a good way to save some money.  Last week I went to the grocery store.  They had an offer which you would get carrots, a bunch of celery and 5 pounds of potatoes with the purchase of stew meat or a chuck roast.  They had this offer in the past that included carrots, celery and onions.  This time I purchased a chuck roast which was about 2 1/2  pounds.  It cost around $2.29 a pound.  Today I put the roast into the pressure cooker with some beef broth and cooked the meat.
 

 In the meantime I cut up the carrots, part of the celery, a couple potatoes and an onion from my last freebie.

When the roast was done which was 50 minutes from being frozen solid to completely tender.  While that was cooling, I put the veggies into the cooker and pressured 15 minutes.  A little too long, I think 10 minutes would have been better.  I shredded half the meat and kept the other half for dinner tonight.  The process for making this vegetable beef soup is the same process as I have posted for chicken soup.  I did add a can of diced tomatoes and a little garlic.  For very little money and a lot of nutrition,  I got 5 quarts of vegetable beef soup, a meal of roast beef, mashed potatoes and carrots for dinner and probably some leftover beef for sandwiches later in the week.  Not too bad.

 

Plus I have all the peeling to feed my worm farm described in an earlier post.

An Old "New" Cabinet

This will be one of the many posts I will be writing about my clever husband.  He has no idea how handy he is or maybe he does but doesn't want me to ask him to do anything else.

Eleven years ago when we purchased our home, it needed a lot of work.  One of the first things we did was on the exterior of the house.  It is a log home but for years it had been left in it's natural state.  Although it had a thin layer of insulation between the logs, it didn't have any chinking.  Chinking is used to fill in the narrow space between the logs.  In the old days they used mud and straw but now there is a caulking material that is strong and flexible.  For an entire summer, my husband chinked the entire house.  We also took down all the old fascia boards and replaced them with new ones.  We salvaged all the wood we could and this is what he made...a small television cabinet.  See, I told you he was clever.  

The inserts in the doors are wall lathe that was salvaged from another house we owned.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      We put a little TV and a VCR in the cabinet.  It's a perfect little area for my dad to sit and listen to the news or a game.  We also store our bird books underneath for quick reference when we aren't close to the computer.  A sample of interior chinking is seen on the wall behind the cabinet.