Our Septic Is Good To Go

When you live in the country, you can't just rely on the city for some of your services.

 
When you live in the city, you just flush the toilet and that's the end of it.  When you live in the country, you flush the toilet and it travels to a holding tank and a drain field.   There is a requirement that households must have their septic inspected every three years and if necessary, have the sludge pumped out into a big stinky truck.  That's what we had done today.  It has been 2 1/2 years since we had it done.  During that time I have converted to using my homemade laundry detergent and soap nuts.

http://www.thecabincountess.com/2014/03/soap-nuts-for-your-laundry.html

http://www.thecabincountess.com/2013/01/what-on-earth-is-zote.html

We also changed to the toilet paper Consumer Reports recommended for septic systems.  It is White Cloud 3 ply Ultra.  We were hoping it was a good choice because that is very important and the last thing we wanted was a septic problem.  We were pleased we made the changes.  The person who pumps out the septic tanks said we were in such good shape that we probably wouldn't need to be pumped out yet.  He was very impressed with how the toilet paper and the no suds detergent broke down.  As long as the truck was here, we decided to go ahead and have it done anyway.

 
So for the next three years we should be good to GO.  Although I think having a cute little decorative outhouse would be fun, but not for me.  I prefer indoor plumbing. 

Salmon Patties and Creamed Peas

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I really like Aldi's grocery store.  They have changed so much in later years.  The first time I went a long time ago, I thought it was a little tacky and didn't have very healthy food.  They always had good prices but I wasn't thrilled with it.  Fast forward years later.  They have come a long way, and it is my store of choice for many things.  Some of you may not know that Aldi is owned by Germany’s Albrecht family.  It is the same family that owns the very popular Trader Joe's.  Aldi now has gluten free items as well as organic fruits and vegetables.  I still don't buy meat there, but perhaps that will come in time.

For those who know that this is my recipe Tuesday and wonder where I'm going with this story, I will tell you.  Today I went to Aldi's.  I bought some groceries.  As usual, I don't know what to make for dinner.  Every night I manage to come up with a meal, but it isn't fun.  The food the men in my house like and what I like are two different things.  I thought today I was going to cook something I like.  I bought a can of pink salmon, a can of petite peas and a bag of frozen biscuits.  Some of you will read no further, but maybe a few will like my meal.

Salmon Patties

1 can of Pink Salmon (red salmon is good for sandwiches and salad, but pink is fine for this)
1 egg
1 small chopped onion
1/2 cup of bread crumbs (I make my own crumbs and keep them in a jar in the freezer)
Salt and pepper to taste

This isn't anyone's favorite part, but open the can of salmon.  Pour it out in a pie plate and carefully take off the skin and the bones.  My grandma just mashed up the bones, but I take them out.  Then crumble the meat in a bowl.  Add a slightly beaten egg, a finely chopped onion and the bread crumbs.  Mix completely and then salt and pepper the mixture.

Heat some oil in a frying pan.  I used about two tablespoons of grapeseed oil but any oil will do.
Form the meat mixture into patties and place into the pan.  Fry until brown on one side, turn over and brown the other side.  This doesn't take very much time.  Five minutes at the most.

I got seven medium sized patties from one can of salmon.

Creamed Peas

2 cups of milk
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons butter

Make a white sauce.  There are a couple ways to do this.  Some people melt the butter and stir in the flour.  This is called making a roux.  Then cook the flour and butter together a little and add in the milk.  Stir until the sauce is thickened and season it to taste.  I do it a little differently.  I just put the milk, flour and salt in the sauce pan and use the immersion blender to completely blend the flour lumps out.  Then I add the butter, bring to a boil and cook until thickened.  I'm not a chef, just a home cook so any way to get the job done is what I do.

When the white sauce is finished, I stir in a drained can of petite peas.

The peas can be put on top of the salmon patties or on mashed potatoes.  I made biscuits and put the peas on the biscuits.

I haven't heard anything from the guys as to how they liked this meal,  but it made me very happy.  I am sure my youngest daughter is very happy that she doesn't live at home any longer.  Canned peas and canned salmon are right on the bottom of her list of favorite foods.  There is a lesson here for all the parents who forced their children to eat certain foods.  Some kids have to sit at the table until they throw up or it is bedtime.  That won't make a person like certain foods.  Just ask my daughter. Although it never got to that point with her.  She thinks I didn't know she hid the peas in her napkin and pushed the other food around the plate until it looked finished. 

Banana Peel Fertilizer

Lately I have been seeing a lot of posts about the value of banana peels for a natural plant fertilizer.  I don't really know if it works, but I thought I would try it for myself.  We eat a lot of bananas and a lot of eggs.  I started saving the banana peels and egg shells.  I put them on an old cookie sheet and set them outside in the sun.  In a couple days the peels turned brown and dried up.

When they were ready, I put everything into the blender.  They turned to a powder resembling dry dirt.

Banana peel and egg shell fertilizer

I sprinkled this mixture on some of my plants and now I have to wait to see how they grow.  I did buy a bare rooted rose bush at the home improvement store.  It had a super rebate and was very inexpensive.  If it doesn't make it, I'm not losing much.  I planted it and it started to slowly die.  One stem turned brown and then another.  The only stem left is green but it looks pretty sad.  I read that banana peel fertilizer is good for roses.  I took a whole peel and buried three sections around the perimeter of the bush.  I watered it and within a few days I was seeing new growth.  It might have happened anyway, but this is what it looks like today.

If anyone has any experience with this natural fertilizer, please let me know.  I will update this blog one way or the other.  Hopefully the rose bush will grow and bloom and be beautiful.  If not, it wouldn't be the first time I lost a planting.

A Dream Home In The Making

About a month ago, my son in law was coming home from work.  I'm not quite clear how this happened so fast, but he had learned that there was an old farmhouse for sale about half way between work and their present home.  He took a little detour and drove by.  Before we knew it my daughter called and said they found a house they wanted us to look at.  I think they had already decided to buy it.  When we met them to look, we recognized the place.  Our other daughter had almost bought this home more than ten years ago.  This new house has been empty for two years, and it needs a lot of work.  It has tons of charm.

Dining room with tin ceiling.

Open unpainted staircase

A giant sized pole barn for all my son in laws hobbies.

 
To make this long story shorter, they made an offer and two weeks ago they closed the deal.  Then the work began.  They are an amazing energetic young couple and in a short amount of time they have a great start on fixing this house.  Fortunately for them they have a lot of friends who are helping and of course the family.  We aren't as young as we used to be, but we are doing our best.   My husband has a remarkable amount of patience fixing drywall and getting rooms ready for paint.  So far they have
finished painting both boy's bedrooms.  They have finished the dining and living rooms.

Dining room painted.

There is still a lot to do.  The carpet for the bedrooms and new kitchen cabinets have been ordered.  There was wallpaper in the kitchen and the master bedroom.  That has been removed, and those rooms will be painted soon.

This kitchen will be gutted and all the cabinets and flooring will be replaced.

Master bath needs some tile.

The previous owners really liked pink.  Most of the rooms have shades of it.

The yard has many huge trees, flower gardens, fruit trees and nice stone work.  Hours have been spent so far pulling weeds.  The previous owners had horses so all the fencing has been removed plus they have already planted a garden.  It will be a wonderful home once the projects are completed.  Then hopefully their present home will sell fast, and they will be able to have many wonderful years in this home.

The Late Spring Flowers In The Garden

There hasn't been a lot of things going on the last couple of days on the home front, so I thought I would show you around the yard.  It is so nice to be able to see the yard come to life.  Our winter was so cold that I was sure everything would be killed off.  A few things didn't come back like one Endless Summer hydrangea and the boxwood bushes, but most didn't suffer at all.  Here are a few blooming right now.

Yellow Iris

The irises are in full bloom in different areas of the garden.

Viola's that reseeded themselves from last year.

The wiegela bush is almost in full bloom

The blackberry bushes are in bloom.

A Pink and a White Poppy

The regular lilacs are finished blooming but these rather odoriferous ones are just starting.

There are flocks, dianthus, solomon seal and many other blossoms right now.  I'm sure I missed a few.  The early spring flowers are finished and in a week or so these late spring flowers will be done.  We will have the summer flowers taking over the garden then.  There is always something to look forward to.

Snapping Turtles

The snapping turtles are on the move again.  They are in the road and on the yard looking for a place to lay eggs.  I have written about them before so I won't repeat myself.   I took these photos today so I am sharing them.

http://www.thecabincountess.com/2013/06/turtles-are-finally-laying-their-eggs.html

Snapping turtle laying eggs in the yard.

This old girl has algae or moss growing on her back. 

Gluten Free Strawberry Pie

I can't believe it is after nine o'clock pm, and I haven't posted my Tuesday recipe yet.  My days are getting the best of me.  I don't know where the time goes.  I mentioned last week that I want to learn how to make gluten free food because some family members can not eat gluten.  I saw this recipe and it sounded very good and easy to make.  I make strawberry pie often in the summer, but this one is wheat free.

Strawberry Pie

For the crust:

1 1/2 cups unsalted almonds
1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup honey
1 egg
2 T softened butter
pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla

In a food processor, add the almonds and oats and pulse until ground.  Add in the remaining ingredients and pulse until everything is combined.  You should have a soft dough.  Butter a pie dish.   Put the dough into the pie dish and, using your wet fingers, press the dough into the pan, up the sides, etc., until it is evenly distributed in the dish.  Take a fork and prick the bottom and sides and make a decorative edge if you like.  Don’t press the edge too thin with the fork or it will be easier to scorch.

Bake the pastry in a 325 degree F oven for about 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.   Remove from oven and allow to cool.

For the filling:

2  cups of sliced strawberries
1/3 cup honey
3 T cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
1 T butter

In a blender or food processor, puree the berries.  Remove about a half a cup to a small dish and add the cornstarch.  Pour the puree into a medium saucepan, blend in the cornstarch mixture and honey and place over med-low heat. Stir the mixture until it has thickened and begun to boil.  Add in the pinch of salt, vanilla, and butter.  Stir to melt the butter and combine and remove from heat.

Once the filling is cool, mix 2 more cups of sliced strawberries into the filling and spread the filling into the cooled crust.

In an earlier blog I showed how to easily take the caps off of the strawberries.

http://www.thecabincountess.com/2013/06/strawberry-season-in-wisconsin.html

I also have a little trick for slicing the berries.  After the caps are off the strawberries, I place them one at a time onto an egg slicer.  It slices the berry either lengthwise or widthwise into perfect slices.

One of my favorite strawberry deserts is one I blogged about last year.  This recipe could easily substitute the crust from this recipe.  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2013/07/danish-junket-dessert.html

The Little White Tail Deer We Call "Limpy"

Although not as dangerous as hunting season, this is a very dangerous time of year for the white tail deer in our area.  It is the time of year when the female deer sends their yearlings off into the world to take care of themselves.  The females have to prepare to give birth and raise the new fawn or in some cases fawns.  We see a lot of twin deer in the summer, sometimes we even see triplets.  The deer aren't paying attention and so it is a bad time of year for deer/car crashes.  It was almost a year ago that I hit a deer.

http://www.thecabincountess.com/2013/06/the-time-of-year-for-deercar-crashes.html

I have written about our resident deer we call Limpy.  She was either injured at some point in her life, or she was born with a defect to her right hind leg.  All winter she would show up.  We put out just enough corn to help but not enough to have the deer totally depend on us.  Limpy would either tag along with other deer or just show up alone.  We worried about her all winter because she wasn't as agile as the rest.  Somehow she made it through the brutal cold temperatures.  This is a short video of her from last winter.
http://youtu.be/Zm22ZV5Wpiw

On the last few trail camera pictures she appears to be pregnant.  We will be watching carefully for a baby.

This is Limpy about 4 days ago.

This view you can see the belly but most of all you can see her malformed leg.

Last night she appeared quite a bit thinner.  If the baby survived it is probably tucked back in the trees.

Our Load Of Wood Pellets Have Been Delivered

I try to post positive things showing the beauty of nature and all the happy times we have as a family.  However, it isn't always peachy out here in the country.  Sometimes the personalities don't align.  That's what happened yesterday.

This is not a happy face.

I should start my story from the beginning.  For those who don't know, we burn wood pellets for our heat source.  We have a gas furnace but it very rarely runs.  Every year at this time, we purchase a years supply of pellets.  Last year we got them in July, but they came ahead of schedule this year.  This is the link from last year explaining the delivery.

July Pellet Delivery

On Wednesday we received eight tons of pellets.  They came on eight pallets of fifty bags each.  Each bag weighs forty pounds.  Last winter was brutal, and we burned almost all the pellets we had purchased.  We usually have a ton left over, but not this year.  Because we have a pellet stove in our lower level, we need to have some available for use downstairs.  Usually my husband carries each bag down the stairs and stores them in our furnace room.  This year he decided to store two ton in a small area under our deck.  The problem was getting down a steep hill or walking all around the house with each bag.  Being a clever man, he devised a system for getting them down the hill.  Initially he thought he could just slide the bags down using these rollers he borrowed from our son in law.

I think these are from a grocery store roller system.

That didn't work because the bags molded themselves around the roller and wouldn't budge.

The first attempt didn't work.

Next he went in the shed and hauled out an old wheelbarrow.  He had taken the wheel off for another purpose.  He attached a rope and proceeded to lower the bags down to the bottom.

The old rusty wheelbarrow.

It held 4 bags and was gently lowered down with a rope.

It looks like we have a plan.  The only problem with this is that my dad wanted to help.  He couldn't understand why just putting it on the rollers wouldn't work.  He thought he could catch the bags and stack them.  He is almost ninety years old.  We weren't prepared for him to hurt himself.  He wouldn't take no for an answer.  Finally I explained to dad that Mike thinks things through very carefully and analyzes the situation.  Just like my dad, I tend to jump in with both feet.  Generally my husband shakes his head no before I even finish presenting my idea.  Dad finally agreed to help wrap the plastic around the bags after they were lowered but he didn't like it that we wouldn't let him risk his life.

Dad looking over the situation.

Then he thought he could help from the top.

Making me very nervous.  He thinks he is forty.

He managed to get up the hill.

Discussing the options, even though Mike had already decided.

I know dad wants to help.  He feels that he should be helpful, but geez sometimes he is like a dog with a bone.  Sometimes his ideas are just not feasible, and he gets his feelings hurt very easily.  We have to walk a fine line sometimes.  On the other hand, how many almost ninety year old people can climb a steep hill in sand without a cane.  Not very many. 

This storage place is pretty ugly but fortunately it is hidden from view, and it will be much more convenient for us this winter.

Today is Amish Ascension Day

 
It is already the end of May, and we still hadn't purchased our flowers to plant outside.  Somehow the month just got away from us.  There is always something to do or the weather doesn't cooperate.  My husband had some things to do this morning but around noon we decided it was time to go to the Amish greenhouses.  We thought they might be picked over, but we wanted we would try them anyway.

http://www.thecabincountess.com/2013/05/amish-greenhouses.html

As we pulled into the first place, everything was quiet.  There were no customers and there was a sign in the window that said they were closed.  That seemed strange on a Thursday afternoon.  It crossed my mind that they were sold out.  Luckily there are several other greenhouses in the area, so off we went to our next stop.  Hmmm, they were closed too.  Then the next also had a closed sign on the door.  We thought there may be a funeral in the Amish community or something else was going on.  The fourth place we stopped at answered the question.  The sign said it was closed for Ascension Day.  I admit, I'm not a very good student of religion.  I thought Christ ascended into heaven on the third day.  I had to look it up.  I found that "The Amish Ascension Day is celebrated each year in June. It is celebrated to signify the day that Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven, and is observed forty days after Easter Sunday."  Now I know and that it is a very special day for them.  In this area, all of their businesses are closed.

I really didn't have time to take a leisurely drive in the country, but we had no choice.  I asked my phone to take us to a greenhouse.  Siri directed us to a very large greenhouse about 10 miles away.  I didn't know where to start.  The Amish greenhouses are small and easy to maneuver.  This one was huge and a little pricey.  I settled on a flat of wax begonias, and we decided to go home.  On the way home, I saw a hand written sign saying "hanging baskets for sale".  We decided to check it out. As we pulled up to the house,  an old couple were hoeing their garden.  They had some hanging baskets and individual plants for sale.  They were quite nice.  I felt I should buy something.  I bought a small basket, and some perennials. 

Shasta Daisy

Pink Dianthus

Hen and Chicks

This day was a little confusing and the day didn't go the way I thought it would, but it ended well.  The plants are planted and it isn't June yet.  I need a few more, but it is a good start.