February 12, 2012




Melting snow Down There



Rimed wild flower stalks

 















It seems that some readers are logging on just in case I actually post a photo of a cougar, isn't that right Aunt Nene and Sandy?!!  Well, we're doing all we can to get one, short of putting out a side of beef by the game cam.  JB has seen more cat tracks in the snow on the road by our spring and up the driveway.  We'll see if we actually captured one with the camera when we check the game cam today.  Tune in Monday for the results.

I baked peanut butter/chocolate chip cookies on Friday from one of my Mom's recipes, and I think I have figured out the GF flour ratio to make them just perfect.  As if they were made with wheat flour.  The recipe called for 2-1/4 cups of flour, so I used 1-1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill All Purpose GF Baking Flour and 1 cup brown rice flour with 1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum.  Bob's Red Mill flour calls for 1/4 tsp. xanthum gum per 1 cup of flour in cookie recipes.  Will just have to keep baking different kinds of cookies to be sure I have it right.  Yes, I admit it - I am a sugar addict.  Could be worse.

Saturday the fog/low clouds finally cleared and we had scattered clouds and sunshine.  This morning there is a clear blue sky.  The temperature Down There for the past few days has been in the high 30's and low 40's so, as you can see by the photo above, their snow is all melted.  We, on the other had, received an inch of snow on both Friday and Saturday.  We usually get snow Up Here in the Spring while they are getting rain.  One of our three neighbors in the canyon who has lived here the longest (17 years) has never received snow in March until last year, but we have had it March and April all three Springs we have been here.

I think I mentioned a while back that I was looking for a shampoo that would help my hair seem thicker, as I have very fine hair that is thinning with age.  Around Labor Day I purchased some Nioxin shampoo and rinse.  It definitely made a difference.  Nothing dramatic, but enough for me to detect.  However, I know it is all chemicals and finally confirmed that a few weeks ago when I got up the nerve to look at the ingredients.  Absolutely nothing natural, except water.  I bit the bullet and went back to using Dr. Bronner's castile soap for shampoo.  It is all natural, but doesn't help my hair feel any thicker.  I remembered something about adding baking soda to shampoo and looked at the list of uses on the package.  They suggest putting one teaspoon of soda in your shampoo once a week.  I did, and it worked, getting rid of the fly-away fineness and giving it some body.  I have never been disappointed with any of their suggestions.

A week ago Friday we finally watched "Inglorious Basterds".  I am never quite prepared for Quentin Tarantino films and this was no exception.  But as a WWII fantasy it was very entertaining.  If only. . .   My Mother's Father was a Jew, born and raised in Czechoslovakia.  He had a brother and two sisters, and his sisters and their families lived in Vienna.  My Mother was born there while her parents were visiting them, but she never spoke about them except for that visit.  I only discovered after she had passed away and I was reading some old family letters, that both sisters, their husbands and children were victims of the Holocaust.  I have no idea if his parents were still alive at that time or not.

This Friday we finally finished a project that we have successfully been putting off more more than a month now.  We put the last piece of wallboard up in the bathroom, re-arranged the stacked washer and dryer a bit, and hung up the mops and brooms.  Looks much better.  Now anytime Elsie wants to help me tape and mud is fine with me.  Unfortunately they are going to Mexico for a couple weeks in March, so that project my have to wait til April.  Not like we're in any hurry, since it's been this way for 3-1/2 years. . .

Thought for the day:  The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.  Thomas Jefferson

February 10, 2012



Rabbit tracks coming from the tipi




Dust cover for electronics






















I would like to say "Thank You" to readers who have posted comments.  I do appreciate the positive feedback.  So glad you are enjoying my musings.

Thursday was the second day in a row of being fogged in.  Perfect for doing all sorts of odds and ends inside, and reading.  Wednesday I finished Sue Grafton's book, I is for Innocent and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Was going to start again at the beginning of her series, but I remember too much about most of them as it has only been a couple years since I read them all for about the third time.  On Thursday I started Elizabeth Lowell's Midnight in Ruby Bayou, which is turning out to be a light, fun read.

JB and the dogs went for their daily morning walk on Wednesday to the south and north ridges, then after lunch JB took them on a longer walk down the road.  I, on the other hand, do not like going out in the fog so I pretty much stayed in both days except for getting firewood.  On Thursday JB had to go Down There for a doctor's appointment.  He took three bags of recycle paper since his route for the day took him right past the recycle station.  Larry is having a spate of bad days, so I sent a "Dammit Doll" for JB to give to him.  JB's Mom used to make them.  They are a cloth doll about a foot long with just legs, body and head on which is painted a screaming mouth, and an attached note that reads, "Dammit Doll - Just grasp it firmly by the legs, and find a place to slam it. . . And as you whack its stuffing out, YELL DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT!"

By Thursday morning, all the trees, grass and bushes were frosted in white so you can't really see the green.  With the fog, there is no real color outside except for white and the grey shadows of the trees.  However when JB returned from Down There he said there was no fog by halfway down the canyon road.  So it wasn't fog - we were in low clouds.  This morning it is snowing.  Don't know just when it started but we already have about 1/2 inch.

In the mail on Tuesday was a letter from the Tooth Fairy in which she had enclosed two dollars for my pulled tooth!  Last year she had also sent JB some money for the teeth he had pulled.  Until we received that letter and noticed the return address, we had never realized that the Tooth Fairy lives at the same address as my Aunt Nene.  What a coincidence!

While JB was Down There on Thursday, I finally put up a "dust cover" over the shelves under the TV on which we keep the DVD player, stereo receiver, etc.  Since I am definitely not going to purchase a cabinet with glass doors, I used two valences from the kitchen curtains I had up before Elsie gave me the lacy ones.  I think they look pretty good.  (See photo above.) 

I started on the fourth row of wood in the woodshed yesterday, so now we are into the Douglas Fir from the yard of JB's brother.  It is more than four months' dry and burns nice and slowly.  The third row of wood lasted a month, so this one ought to also, as it is the same length - 12', although each row is not quite as tall the the last one, going down with the slope of the roof.  I will start using the wood on the porch in March even though there are still two full rows of wood behind the one I just started.  Don't want to have to move more wood than necessary from the porch to the shed. . .

The Thought for the Day is one of my very favorites, which I think is from A Course in Miracles:  When we reach the edge of all the light we have ever known and take that first step into the dark unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen - we will have something solid to stand on or we will learn to fly.

February 8, 2012




Tilting the solar panels, before. . .

  

. . . and after.















On Monday it was time to tilt the solar panels to a different angle for maximum power from the sun.  For the winter sun, they are tilted all the way down.  Depending upon one's location, there are four specific dates on which to tilt the panels half way up or down.  For us the suggested dates are the 5th of February, May, August and November.  Tilting them this month makes me feel like Spring is on the way, especially since the days are so obviously getting longer.

Larry and Elsie drove up Monday evening and we played "marbles" again.  The guys are really suckers for that game.  So far the girls have won four out of five times. . .  Lots of fun and a very enjoyable evening.  Plus they brought us 1-1/2 dozen eggs!  With lots of variety in both size and color.

Had to go Down There on Tuesday to get my mouth checked out by the doctor (oral surgeon).  I had referred to him as a dentist but that is a misnomer as he is both an MD and DDS.  Everything seems to be healing just fine, and we had a few minutes to chat about our life on the mountain.  The doctor was very intrigued, and his assistants thought it was so cool that I was wearing my Carhartt winter overalls.  Well, it was 20 when we left Rose Camp at 9:00 am, but 39 Down There by noon.  Did some shopping, picked up the mail, got lunch, and, of course, a vanilla latte.  It was 30 when we arrived home and got an ecstatic greeting from the dogs.  JB had discovered that Fred Meyer had rice tortillas so for dinner we had BLT wraps.  Very good as long as the tortillas stayed warm.

It was a beautiful, sunny day so the drives down and back up the mountain were invigorating and gorgeous.  When we came back up last week after my dental surgery, I barely remembered the ride back up, except for the colors.  Reminiscent of that old Mother Goose and Grimm Sunday comic where Grimm (the dog) is curious why cats get so excited about catnip.  He gets into some and as his eyes glaze over, his comment is, "Ooohh, the colors!"


And speaking of colors (white), I am fascinated with the way the surface of the snow changes with the temperature.  It can be just "regular" snow after it falls, or crusty with ice if it has melted a little.  Or shimmering with little ice crystals like it was on Sunday (see photo below).  Every day seems a little different.  When I let the dogs out at 5:30 this morning it was lightly snowing, but now the fog has moved in.  

Thought for the day:  This history of liberty is the history of limitation of government power, not the increase of it.  Woodrow Wilson

Snow crystals



February 6, 2012



Dinga's snow "angel"



Snow on a dried wild flower





















Oh, my!  GF sourdough flaphjacks have forever taken the place of pancakes on my menu!  They are so much more tasty, with more body.  And with real maple syrup - well, need I say more?

I finished Sue Grafton's V is for Vengence, and was thoroughly entertained as always.  This book was written a little differently, slowly introducing all the characters and setting the scene.  Was a leisurely read until 2/3 of the way through when I simply could NOT put it down, much to JB's chagrin.  A couple hours after I finished it on Sunday, I started G is for Gumshoe which is one of the few books in the series that I was missing.  The third one that JB gave me for Christmas is I is for Innocent which I will read next.  Then I may start at the beginning and read them all once again.  I do that occasionally with my favorites, another of which is The Cat Who . . . series by Lillian Jackson Braun.

I mentioned that I had vacuumed and cleaned house before going to the dentist, which I am so thankful that I had done, but of course I did not dust.  I am sure I have said before that clean Up Here is different from clean Down There, this being a cabin in the woods.  Dusting was done before Christmas and will be done again during Spring Cleaning.  Up Here dust bunnies are considered pets, not pests.  And dust motes in the air are referred to as fairy dust.  However, we do clean the hearth about every other day with all the debris from the firewood.  Just letting you know in case you ever decide to visit Rose Camp. . .

But speaking of pests, since about the middle of January whenever we get a sunny day, we also get five to ten yellow jackets in the loft at the window.  They are still very sleepy so are easy to swat, but I am surprised there are so many of them as I did not see them swarm last Fall.  Definitely have to finish caulking outside this year.

And speaking of Spring cleaning, with my resurgence of energy I cleaned out the bathroom drawers on Sunday.  That sure feels good, especially since I did not find an over abundance of any supplies like I did in the linen closet.

Checked the game cam on Sunday, and once again we had obviously placed it too high to catch any movement.  When we put the card back, we also moved the game cam way down on the tree which sits on a ledge overlooking where the road comes up to our driveway and makes a sharp turn heading up to Erno's property.  Hopefully next week I will have some deer and bunny photos to post.

Thought for the day:  Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.  Albert Einstein

February 5, 2012



From my walk on Thursday



Pine Drops in the snow on
Friday's walk





















My energy level is way up since my tooth was extracted (I say "extracted" because it was not merely pulled).  I think the decay from the tooth was poisoning my whole system, or maybe I'm just so relieved to have it out.  I have read that bad teeth can be a real detriment to your heart health, not to mention your breath. . .

The dogs and I took a long hike on Friday.  We left after lunch, and after JB was done baking bread so he could come with us.  I really enjoy hiking the circle east on our south ridge to the peak and along the ridge where it ends at the top of Erno's property, then down the road to our driveway and back up to Rose Camp.  The views are always phenomenal, and so was the day.  JB decided to turn back while we were still on the ridge so he wouldn't have to hike up our steep driveway.  I should have worn my snow shoes as it had snowed several times since our last sojourn to that area.  The dogs had it even worse than I did, so needless to say we all got our exercise.  I have never seen so many rabbit tracks.  They must be madly procreating this winter.  We even had several tracks in our yard Saturday morning.  And still lots of deer tracks.   Must have been some sort of wild critter meeting Up Here this past week.

Friday morning JB had also made a new gluten-free sourdough recipe that he had found on line.  Unfortunately he had closed the lid on the container in which he made it and set it in the sun.  When the dogs and I returned from our hike, I noticed that it had exploded all over the counter and floor!  We cleaned up the mess - wish I had thought to take a picture of it - and JB made some more.  He plans to make sourdough flapjacks for breakfast this morning.

It was 18 outside Friday morning and a bit chilly inside.  Neither of us had got up during the night to feed the fire.  If it is not in the single digits, I don't set the alarm.  It is interesting that when we lived Down There, I always turned the furnace down to 62 at night, but it never seemed at cold as it does Up Here at that temperature.  Maybe because the forced air furnace was able to heat up the house more quickly than the wood stove does.  However, I much prefer the warmth of a wood stove, and I love to stand by it even if I'm not really cold.

Thought for the day:  The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian state is a matter of time.  Ayn Rand

February 3, 2012

Sculpted snow on bird bath
& stump in background

Wednesday wasn't so bad, still floating.  However on Thursday the melancholia of worn off drugs set in.  Plus my swollen cheek looked like some old man's jowl.  I am developing my own set so I certainly do not need any help in that area.  JB had to go Down There for an annual doctor's appointment, so after chores I forced myself outside for a walk up to the peak.  Was a sunny day with a few clouds and the walk helped perk up my attitude.

I had vacuumed and generally cleaned house on Monday so I wouldn't have to worry about any of that for the rest of the week.  Thank you, Self.  JB had managed to get the snow blower running, having cleaned off the spark plug for the umpteenth time.  Also got another spare axle ordered for MAX.

We think that every deer in the area came up to Rose Camp Sunday night and into early Monday morning for some sort of get-together.  The dogs woke us up twice during the night with their barking, which is very unusual.  Monday morning there were deer tracks everywhere!

Finally finished the fourth book George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones series.  Will now get into the three Sue Grafton books that JB gave me for Christmas, if I can manage to drag my mind out of the Seven Kingdoms.

Thought for the day:   Always read the stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.  P. J. O'Rourke

February 1, 2012

This is where I want to spend today

The dentist has both his finger and my tooth.  The latter having had to be extracted surgically.  It's a bit foggy Up Here this morning, and so am I. So this will be short and sweet today, while I go hold frozen peas on my jaw.

Thought for the day:  Security is mostly a superstition.  It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.  Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.  Life is either a dairing adventure, or nothing.   Helen Keller