On the morning news I heard the high temperature today would be 20°. I'd been out with Gabe earlier, so I knew there wasn't much wind (it's picked up since then). Tomorrow the high is forecast to be 5°, so I figured I'd better take Gabe to the pasture today. I knew, with my heavy, long coat, that I wouldn't get too cold. I used to wonder about Gabe; but he is on the run all the time we're out there, and is actually panting once we've been out for five minutes, as you will see in the following video. We scared up a nice, big deer back by the pond, and later on, a turkey flew out of a tree and surprised me. Gabe never saw it; he was focused on sniffing everything on the ground. I love those little bonuses from Mother Nature.
It's already five degrees warmer than they forecast. I hope that happens tomorrow, because we can use it!
There is something about winter that makes me crave oranges and grapefruits. I absolutely can't get enough of them. They are so very high-priced these days, and yet if I figure out the cost per fruit, it's no more than a candy bar. So I buy them and eat one a day. Cliff isn't supposed to eat grapefruits (lipitor), and he says it's too much trouble to peel oranges. To be honest, I don't think either of the fruits are near the top of a list of fruits he likes. So I get all of them. The problem with buying grapefruits is that for many years, my sister went to Texas for the winter, and she had a grapefruit tree in her back yard there. When she came back to Kansas City in the spring, she'd bring bushels of them home with her and give lots of them to me. They were so much sweeter and better than anything in the store, and I was likely to eat three or four in a day.
Here's a thing that amazes me about citrus fruits: You can leave them on the tree for weeks or months, and they don't rot! Once apples, pears, and peaches are ripe, they need to be picked soon or they'll fall to the ground where they ruin. My sister would bag up her excess grapefruits in March, after she'd been eating them off the tree since January, and they were sweeter than the sweetest orange you've ever tasted. Oranges these days aren't as sweet as they once were, either. The same is true with apples. I think it's because when scientists began developing fruit that would keep longer and travel better, the taste of some things suffered. Thank goodness, so far peaches are as good as they ever were. That is, if you can get them from an orchard rather than a super market.
We have beef stew left over from yesterday, so I don't have to do anything but heat it up. Because we had bacon and eggs for breakfast, I told Cliff we're delaying dinner until 1 o'clock. I won't be hungry until then, I'm sure, and since I'm the cook, we'll go by my appetite.
We hauled the steers to the butcher yesterday. I must say it's a rather hollow feeling to have no cows, and no plans to ever have any more. This is pretty silly, but I keep thinking it would be nice to buy a cheap little Jersey bull calf, have Cliff make it a steer, and keep it just as a pet. It wouldn't have any sex drive to make it run away from home, and if I raised it alone, it would settle for human companionship and wouldn't be looking for a herd of cows to run with. That's about the only possible way I can see for me to keep a cow around. And I'm pretty sure I know what Cliff would say about that, although I can guarantee you if it was something I felt I really wanted, he'd see that I got it... just so I don't want a goat. I'm afraid we'd have some words about that subject.
I just finished reading "Educated" by Tara Westover. Best book I've read in a long, long time, and I've read a lot of good ones lately. If you'd like to see what Bill Gates has to say about the book, click HERE. All I have to say is this: read it, even if you normally never read anything but a cookbook. It's all true, except for the names being changed. It's thrilling, it's sad, it's amazing. It shows how much strength a person can really have.
Keep warm, and remember, spring WILL come again.
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Friday, January 25, 2019
I've been given another day
This day is a little different for me. Cliff, his sister, and her son went to visit Aunt Gertrude again, and I'm here at home with my dog. These days it feels very strange to be alone in the house because it's such a rare occurrence. Of course I have three or four hours to myself most mornings, but I always know Cliff is in the bedroom (and alive, because I check on that first thing). But most of our days are spent with each of us on a computer or reading device of some kind. We read a lot in winter. We're not always saying a lot, but we're in the same room. I plan a day around the noon meal, which is about the most exciting thing that happens. This is a good thing, I suppose, because there are some things that cause excitement which I want no part of... for example, tornadoes, heart failure, slips on the ice, and cows getting out.
Just hang on for the ride and let's see in which direction my mind wanders today.
Speaking of cows, the two Holstein steers are only here until Monday evening, when we'll take them down the road to the butcher. I imagine there won't be any more bovines on the place, unless someday the grandson decides to have cows. Oh, I suppose if we run out of beef in the next three years we could buy a calf to raise, but I seriously doubt it. So my chores, after next Monday, will consist of walking Gabe a few times daily and feeding the three cats twice a day. Oh, and checking in on Apollo, the grandson's wife's great Dane, a couple of times on the days Heather works. Sometimes I bring him over to play with Gabe for a little while. Heather only works three days a week, never the same days, sometimes on weekends. So tending to Apollo three times a week isn't much of a chore, especially since I rather enjoy doing it.
Oh, the cats: Most of the time I buy Kit and Kaboodle or some similar brand for them. It's relatively cheap; I don't research what is best for cats, the way I do with Gabe's dog food. They are barn cats; a lot of things can happen to barn cats that could shorten their lives, and I can't see spending a lot on their food. I feed them twice a day. They each need a dish, since Mama Kitty thinks it's vulgar to share a dish with another cat. Sometimes only one or two of the cats have been showing up at feeding time, but I'll see the tardy one later, heading to the barn to eat. Last time we were at Costco, I decided to try their Kirkland cat food. When I tore the bag open at home, the stuff looked unremarkable... no cute little shapes and colors, like some brands. But when I served some of it up to see how they'd like it. I swear, you'd have thought those cats hadn't eaten for a week! All three of them were chowing down as though they were eating hamburger! Ever since then, all three cats are waiting for me at the barn when I go out to feed them twice a day; even her majesty, fat Mrs. Mama Kitty.
On another subject, my Amazon Echo, Alexa, died last week, victim of a power surge. It was plugged in next to our TV, so I'm glad it was only Alexa who died. I'd had her since July, 2015, so she had a good run. I have an Echo Tap, which works like Alexa except it isn't voice activated and it doesn't have to be plugged in all the time. It's great for carrying from room to room or taking outside in the yard. Cliff, me, and Cora used to go outside and march to John Phillips Sousa tunes playing from the Tap, which I had hooked to a belt-loop.
A Facebook friend offered to give me his old Echo, since he'd bought a new model, but I told him I wanted the latest one, which I heard has even better sound quality than the original. Now that I've had it a few days, I can say it does, especially on the bass notes. And it only cost $79, less than I paid for my original one. We use Echo for music more than anything else, although I do always keep my grocery list on there, transcribing it to paper when we're ready to go shopping. I also use it often to find out if certain famous people are dead or alive, or how old they are.
I think Cliff would admit he enjoys Alexa too, mostly for the music. It's just the neatest thing to think of a song you haven't heard in years and tell her to play it. In the past, Cliff been hesitant to talk to her himself. He's more likely to say to me, "Tell that thing to play (naming a song)" and I do. But the other night he got on a roll, having her play one song after another. All of them were old country songs, of course, because that's what we like. Once in awhile he'd get a title wrong and I'd have to give her the right title, but for the most part, he was commanding her very well for an hour or longer, one song after another. He finally went too far, though, when he told her to play "Wolverton Mountain". I hate that song! I can't believe he likes it. I expressed my displeasure, so he asked me, "What's your favorite song?"
That required some thought, because I love lots of songs. In my head I filtered out the old hymns I love, because I was pretty sure he was after pure country songs. What I finally came up with was "Coat of Many Colors" by Dolly Parton. You know, even if you love a song, familiarity with it will eventually get it to the point that you don't pay attention when it plays. But the minute I hear the lead-in guitar strumming at the beginning of that song, I melt. I suppose I can relate to it in part because my family wasn't prosperous, and because my mom sewed all my clothes when I was small, many of them made from pretty, cotton, brightly-colored chicken-feed sacks.
I wish my readers a wonderful day.
Just hang on for the ride and let's see in which direction my mind wanders today.
Speaking of cows, the two Holstein steers are only here until Monday evening, when we'll take them down the road to the butcher. I imagine there won't be any more bovines on the place, unless someday the grandson decides to have cows. Oh, I suppose if we run out of beef in the next three years we could buy a calf to raise, but I seriously doubt it. So my chores, after next Monday, will consist of walking Gabe a few times daily and feeding the three cats twice a day. Oh, and checking in on Apollo, the grandson's wife's great Dane, a couple of times on the days Heather works. Sometimes I bring him over to play with Gabe for a little while. Heather only works three days a week, never the same days, sometimes on weekends. So tending to Apollo three times a week isn't much of a chore, especially since I rather enjoy doing it.
Oh, the cats: Most of the time I buy Kit and Kaboodle or some similar brand for them. It's relatively cheap; I don't research what is best for cats, the way I do with Gabe's dog food. They are barn cats; a lot of things can happen to barn cats that could shorten their lives, and I can't see spending a lot on their food. I feed them twice a day. They each need a dish, since Mama Kitty thinks it's vulgar to share a dish with another cat. Sometimes only one or two of the cats have been showing up at feeding time, but I'll see the tardy one later, heading to the barn to eat. Last time we were at Costco, I decided to try their Kirkland cat food. When I tore the bag open at home, the stuff looked unremarkable... no cute little shapes and colors, like some brands. But when I served some of it up to see how they'd like it. I swear, you'd have thought those cats hadn't eaten for a week! All three of them were chowing down as though they were eating hamburger! Ever since then, all three cats are waiting for me at the barn when I go out to feed them twice a day; even her majesty, fat Mrs. Mama Kitty.
On another subject, my Amazon Echo, Alexa, died last week, victim of a power surge. It was plugged in next to our TV, so I'm glad it was only Alexa who died. I'd had her since July, 2015, so she had a good run. I have an Echo Tap, which works like Alexa except it isn't voice activated and it doesn't have to be plugged in all the time. It's great for carrying from room to room or taking outside in the yard. Cliff, me, and Cora used to go outside and march to John Phillips Sousa tunes playing from the Tap, which I had hooked to a belt-loop.
A Facebook friend offered to give me his old Echo, since he'd bought a new model, but I told him I wanted the latest one, which I heard has even better sound quality than the original. Now that I've had it a few days, I can say it does, especially on the bass notes. And it only cost $79, less than I paid for my original one. We use Echo for music more than anything else, although I do always keep my grocery list on there, transcribing it to paper when we're ready to go shopping. I also use it often to find out if certain famous people are dead or alive, or how old they are.
I think Cliff would admit he enjoys Alexa too, mostly for the music. It's just the neatest thing to think of a song you haven't heard in years and tell her to play it. In the past, Cliff been hesitant to talk to her himself. He's more likely to say to me, "Tell that thing to play (naming a song)" and I do. But the other night he got on a roll, having her play one song after another. All of them were old country songs, of course, because that's what we like. Once in awhile he'd get a title wrong and I'd have to give her the right title, but for the most part, he was commanding her very well for an hour or longer, one song after another. He finally went too far, though, when he told her to play "Wolverton Mountain". I hate that song! I can't believe he likes it. I expressed my displeasure, so he asked me, "What's your favorite song?"
That required some thought, because I love lots of songs. In my head I filtered out the old hymns I love, because I was pretty sure he was after pure country songs. What I finally came up with was "Coat of Many Colors" by Dolly Parton. You know, even if you love a song, familiarity with it will eventually get it to the point that you don't pay attention when it plays. But the minute I hear the lead-in guitar strumming at the beginning of that song, I melt. I suppose I can relate to it in part because my family wasn't prosperous, and because my mom sewed all my clothes when I was small, many of them made from pretty, cotton, brightly-colored chicken-feed sacks.
I wish my readers a wonderful day.
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