October 21, 2006

o school yesterday, so "Kid" and I went to the next town from here to get some supplies for the magazine, go to the thrift shoppe and went out for lunch. After a All-You-Can-Eat Chinese Food Buffet, which is a good thing for a growing male teenager, we went to the thrift shoppe where I lost track of time as we were having such a good time and we brought home 28 articles of clothing, including jeans, t-shirts, sweaters, and a winter coat, for less than $80. More than half of the things we got were still brand new and no one had ever worn. The good find was a Jansen sweater with all the tags still on it and that silly size sticker which no one notices until you are heading out to a dress up family function, for my boyfriend. I was not quite sure how he felt from clothing from a second hand store, but he is totally into it now after he saw the stuff we got.  I like being frugal.. each article of clothing cost on the average of $2.85... for new stuff.

On our way back, I took him on a side trip to go see the huge buffalo herds. I love watching them, do not get to see them often as it is off the beaten track. I was happy to see them and disappointed that they were not closer up so "Kid" could see them better. This one of 4 herds. We have not eaten beef in the last 3 years, only buffalo until we can start butchering our own beef. 

I am on standby at the moment this morning and going to head down to work on the root cellar door which is WAY behind in getting done. We decided to use the drill press at the shoppe to punch some bolt holes through those leaf springs.. I do not have the back power yet to do all the holes I need to do on the forge. Though I feel ready, in reality, I cannot do everything yet.

There is a 'mysterious' fog surrounding us late morning. We have high windows, so I cannot see out and as I am sitting here,  I do not know if I can see the bottom of the pasture or not. I am guessing "Daisy" will be looking for me soon. She needs her hay.

I stayed up much too late last night (3 am), but I was having an wonderful conversation with a woman who is the chief of a firehouse in New York. She was just too interesting to end it. However, though I do not drink and have never been the victim of a hangover, I think this lack of sleep must feel a bit like it. It is an effort to move *L* and my head is not sitting lightly on my shoulders.

Afternoon Update:

I feel all spry again. It was a very productive day regardless of the slow start.

"Kid" and I went down to the mechanics shoppe where the weekend maintance is done on the logging trucks and we were going to work on the root cellar door (which I am convinced is one of those projects that is going to take forever to get done). When we headed back, "Kid" asked if we could go to his great grandparents graves since we were passing the cemetery. I said sure.. It was actually a peaceful walk through there. I like reading names and sometimes seeing their pictures. I had to stop by a couple people I did not know as they had a little story about them. One young boy, about the age of 17, had a whole list of his likes, dislikes and whatnot. Another woman had her great granddaughter write her a letter and it was proclaiming how she loved her g-grandma and what a wonderful friend she was. I did not get to read all of it, due to the weathering, but it brought a smile to my lips and a tear to my eye. We finally found "Kid's" great grandparents and dusted pine needles from their marble marker and I listened as "Kid" told me a kid's version about them. ...

The garden got tilled under and the soil is starting to look like a great garden soil now. Starting to turn a nice loamy black. I started gleaning the odd potato here and there which did not get dug up previously. While my boyfriend was tilling the garden, "Kid" and I ran at a dead run, just because we could, up to the chicken pens where we had a stack of old wooden fence posts and we selected two. After I convinced "Kid" that is was not the world's most intelligent idea to joust with fence posts down a hill, we then convinced my boyfriend to stop the tilling for a second and push the posts in with the tractor bucket for the raspberries. I thought it was a wise idea to get them in the ground now before it froze and then when the garden was soggy in the spring. 

We finally got the tables out of the back 40, where we had that party last weekend and cleaned up any debris. Just the odd can which someone tosses into the fire and a couple pieces of miscellaneous barbwire chunks.  When the long table was put back into the root cellar, we got the empty canning jars out of various places they were stored in the shop, the shed and the mudroom and got them installed in the cellar.

For dinner tonight, we are having chicken with apples & onions. Then as I was thinking of a side dish, I remembered a dish that my mom used to make, though I cannot ever recall her making it since I was maybe in the 4th grade. Dumplings!!

I put together a pot of organic chicken broth and mixed up these ingredients:

Dumpling Recipe

2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
4 tb chopped parsley or 2 of dry
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk +/- depending on the humidity
2 tb olive oil
A small pinch of sea salt

Mix everything together with a fork and then drop by a spoonful on the top of your chicken or into a broth such as I am doing tonight. Cover, reduce heat .. then DO NOT LOOK  and let simmer for 15 minutes. Then pull out the dumplings and then add cornstarch or flour to the remaining broth to make a gravy to pour over the top. If you are newer to cooking. If you use the cornstarch, mix with cold water and then pour it into the gravy or it will lump. For flour, sprinkle it on top, let it sit for 5-6 minutes.  Then use a fork or a whisk and bring the gravy to a boil.