Spring Flowers 2

Spring is back. I have better proof this time.

Daffodils and white tulips are blooming in the windmill lot, but the other tulips are either way behind this year or the moles found them.

My Dutch boy and girl are in need of a touch up paint and the girl seems to have settled, but it makes it cute that he is kissing her forehead.

Middle of a white tulip.
Yellow fringey flower.

Nice mixed group in the triangle flower lot. This bed will be over run with Aisatic Lilies very shortly. I had to be careful of them when I was pulling weeds.

Purple flowers.

Several years ago I planted some daffodils, tulips, and other flowers in a bare grass spot created by a car that notsoFabHub left in the lawn a long time ago. I built a frame around the bare spot and filled it with dirt. When the dirt finally rotted out the boards I got rid of the flower bed and moved some the plants to other places. The bulbs didn't all get moved though. So every year I have daffodils and an occasional tulip pop up in the grass. This big frog keeps an eye on them. Later in the year he will be surrounded by daylillies and some other random flowers that show up. He is one of the "mow arounds" in my yard. Those hibiscus stalks behind the frog are another. I need to get out there and cut them off. Or mow over them like usual.

Daffodil bloom.

One of these two will be my computer wallpaper tomorrow.

That is all the posting I have today. I hope you enjoyed.

Moving the Herd

Cows need help with bugs every now and then, so we round them up and spray them with some stuff that helps. Saturday was round up day.

We don't have a bunch of horses to saddle up and go after them with, but luckily we do have a good group of cows. Make them think it is dinner time and they will get up from their afternoon naps and come running. Follow up behind them pushing the stragglers with the four wheeler and they come along nicely.

The only thing is they want some results from that deception so they can get kind of pushy and insistant when they start to figure out they have been suckered into something they didn't expect.

Sometimes that can be just moving to a new hayfield, sometimes it means it is time for weaning the babies from their mommies, but today was for bug spray and splitting the group into mommies and babies in one field and the rest of the cows with the bull in another field. That all makes them more careful and wary about what we are doing moving them around.

Of course they aren't the only ones being careful about what is happening. Jake likes to stay in the truck when the cows are getting close. We like him to be there too. The rest of the dogs leave when the cows come around, but Jake likes to stay close, too close. Right under your feet if he can't get under the four wheeler or truck, but that means the cows can see him so they come sniffing. In the truck is better, they can't see him.

So the cows are sprayed, well most of them anyway - one crazy cow went through the fence - the calves are with their moms and here come the rest of the harem herd heading to the spa with their king.
So that was our afternoon of cows. Lots of up hill and down hill jogging in the catch lot. Next - Flowers.

Baking Cinnamon Rolls

I mentioned somewhere last week that I was making Cinnamon Rolls. These are the result. Well one pan of them anyway. They were tasty, but I have had better. I will have to try again one day.

Making them involved mixing up the dough and letting it rise. Then I rolled the dough out and spread melted butter on the dough. I sprinkled cinnamon and sugar all over the dough and rolled them up for slicing. I put them in the refrigerator over night to rise and be ready to bake in the morning. The house smelled really good.

My sister said her recipe is a bit easier. Remove frozen rolls from freezer, put in pan, bake, and pour on powdered suguar glaze. I bet her house smells just as good and no mess.

I would try her recipe, but we all know I like to do things the hard way, no matter how messy it is.

That was post one for the day. I have cows and flowers to come.

Spring Flowers

Flowers for those of you feeling a little deprived.
Sorry they are kinda dark, and the flowers are sleeping, I took the pictures in the evening.

I will try harder next time.

Storm Damage Cleanup Starts

A couple of weeks ago there was a wind storm that blew through here. It took the roof off of my brother-in-law's porch (pictures below) and made a mess of some trees.
The trees in the pictures below are from our property. I wanted to show the progress of cleaning them up.
There was one big oak that caused most of the damage.




This is the rootball of that tree.










It landed on another oak that was on the edge of the creek and lifted the roots out of the ground. That tree is the big one leaning to the left in this picture. The creek runs left to right directly under the rootball of the tree.
Then after pushing the second tree that first oak slid all the way down to the ground and smashed the boundary fence.
The second oak stayed leaned against another tree after the storm.






We went out there the following weekend and cleaned up as much of the fallen tree that we could, which is why you see all the cut ends.
The dogs and I went out after that around the 19th of February and got these snowy pictures.

I took this one on the 8th of March while we were cleaning up. Lots of wood to pick up. FabHub is working on replacing the fence.

The big log on the ground (not the one above the ground) is from the one falling in the coming photos.

There is enough wood in those two trees, besides all of the other ones that got damaged to make it worth the effort to hire a contractor to bring his bulldozer out and build a road to them. There has been a need for a road back there for a while, but it was never a priority. Since we aren't going to waste all of that good lumber and firewood, it is now time to get it the road done. The contractor came out on the 5th of March and we started cleaning up that evening.

Here you can see the wood pile I made while FabHub was sawing up branches from the first oak that fell. You can begin to see the amount of clean up we need to do and the drain we put in so the creek can run under the new road. The main purpose of the road is to be able to get back there to pick up firewood or feed the cows in the sheltered woods sometimes.

The leaning oak is really big! Here they are using a chainsaw to notch the tree, which should help it fall in the correct direction.











Standing straight up.

Starting to lean left.

Starting to fall.

On the way down.

Crash landing.

Here is the cut end.

Some of the upper branches broke on other trees on the way down. One little tree is trying to hold it up.

That whole mess will have to be cleaned up.

Back to March 8th again, this is the base of the big tree by the tractor and truck. The top of that tree is cut up, some of it is still on top of the hill and the rest I had started throwing down the hill in front of the truck.

Guess who gets to carry and stack the wood?

It is a good workout.

This is where it all ends up.

We had the pile down to just the rack on the right by the fence and part of the one next to it. Now we have enough for next winter too.

We hoped that the big log would turn into boards, but the middle is rotten and not worth the trouble of putting on the mill. More firewood.

This is from the other side of the lower part of the road.

The road goes straight out of the woods in the back of the picture and up the hillside to the left.

The bulldozer couldn't pull this one out of the mud because it was hung up on another stump, so he pushed it to the left in order to get it out of the tree it is leaning on.
The guys can cut it into smaller pieces and pull it out with the tractor. Safer than leaving it hanging there.

This is from the top of the hill. If you look close you can see where it runs out the left of the picture down by the creek.

Bulldozer man did a really good job. The road even tilts toward the hillside. There are parts of Route 20 and I-77 that can't manage to do that right!

That is our adventure in the woods, so far anyway. FabHub got the road he's always wanted. I got a big pile of firewood for the stove. The dogs have fresh cut earth to explore. All is well.

Mardi Gras Dessert

We had a Mardi Gras inspired lunch at work last week.

I looked at the list of things people had said they would bring and then did some research into what is really considered Mardi Gras food.

What I found first was King Cake. I also discovered that there are lots of different ideas for how to make a King Cake.

I went with the breadier version and started by mixing up dough for a loaf of bread.

Then I mixed up the filler, made of raisins, pecans, cream cheese, and cinnamon.

Once that was spread out on the dough I rolled it up jelly roll style and then formed it into a ring.

Since the pan was greased the elasticity of the dough ring wanted to slide into a smaller ring. I had to get creative and put a mixing bowl in the middle to keep it formed while rising until it went in the oven.

Right before going in the oven I cut the top to mark the pieces.

Once the ring was baked I mixed up the Mardi Gras colored powdered sugar icing.

Putting that icing on gave me some pretty pools of color.

The slices show how the filling rolled up in the dough.

Looks good and tasted great, if I do say so myself.

This is what went to the office with me. I had to slice it before I left because the full ring was too big for the container. So I tightened up the ring a little bit.

You might notice that once again there are pieces missing.

I wasn't allowed to leave the house with the whole thing, if you know what I mean.

The cake didn't have the traditional baby doll baked inside. Mostly because I didn't have one to put in it, but partially because besides the "Good Luck" that it is supposed to bring the one who finds it, the finder is also supposed to bake the cake next year. I didn't figure they would do that and I didn't want to mess up their Karma that way.

Someone did ask about it, and I had to explain the whole thing to the few people that were standing there. It was like trying to explain Christmas without Santa Claus, there is a purpose behind the symbolism. Then I was told "it would have been more fun" if I had put the baby in the cake - but whoever found it would not have known why it was there, or would have almost choked on it, so the whole thing would have needed another explanation.

The lunch would have also been more fun if everyone could have enjoyed it. There are never enough seats so I went back to the table in my cube. Then I saw people walking around with beads - I don't even want to know what they did to earn those, they probably don't know what that means either. Somedays it is annoying to live in cornbread land. Or maybe I am just having a bad day.

Today I made some more Pepperoni Rolls and a loaf of Sandwich bread for our lunchs next week. I think I will go make some wheat bread too. It is hard to believe we are still loosing weight, but it is all about portion control and awareness of the calories we are eating.

The next story ought to be about the bulldozer and cutting up storm damaged trees. It was supposed to happen this weekend, but it rained. We will have to try again next week sometime.

I've Been Cooking - Doughnuts

I was reading one of my new favorite blogs and there was a recipe for doughnuts on the site.
I got a hankering to have a couple. Problem is they don't mix up too well in 2s so I ended up with a few dozen. Good thing I know people who like to eat.


First thing you have to do when making these doughnuts is to mix them up and roll them out.









I used my handy, dandy biscuit cutter to do the outside edge and a simple bottle cap to make the hole.





Only problem was I rolled them thinner than I should have so they were kind of thin and the holes were small.

They fried up nicely though.

I got some nice doughnuts out of that old deep fryer.

Somebody seems to have noticed that too, this rack of chocolate dipped doughnuts was full!

They might have disappeared when FabHub came in for a minute. He and the guys were out cutting up storm damaged trees.
I am sure they went to a good cause. Lots of energy in a chocolate covered, deep fried doughnut you know.

Now this sneak went for butter cream covered doughnut, dipped straight from the container!

It was tasty too! Tasted like a crueller.

They were good while they lasted. I dropped a bunch off at the neighbors and took some to work.

Any attempt at homemade goods are easy to share around here.
Next up is the King Cake I made for Mardi Gras.

Catching Up Again

We have had a bit of excitement around here lately.
There was a big wind that came through about 10 days ago, it took of the brother-in-law's porch roof. The whole front was ripped off down to the bottom of the nails.











The whole thing flew over the peak of the roof and chimney. The side piece went over the powerline, we don't know how it missed. That piece didn't miss the garden shed though. A post went right through the wall and the whole thing had to be destroyed during clean up.
There were shingles and gutter pieces imbedded in the hayfield.











Look how far it flew! The tree took a hit on one side.
The guys were up fixing the roof the next day though.











On our property we had a big tree take out some line fence and the power was out for about 46 hours. I was home for the second day so I had generator duty. We had to make sure the freezer didn't thaw, we recently put both a pig and half a beef in it! All was good though. I didn't suffer too much with no TV or Internet.

Our next adventure is remodeling the basement.
Good progress on that this week included the removal of the Pool table. It was taking up too much space in the basement and not being used for anything but a place to set things.



It is a full slate table.
It is heavy and it is now gone.






Next step is figuring out where to start. The walls will be covered with moisture proof materials. A heat pump is going in. The lights will be being reworked. And after last week - a generator switch will be installed. The floor in the back will remain foam squares, but the front will get something new.

Next weekend we are putting in a road to the big tree. That should be fun. Check back later for that photo log. I have also been cooking. Pepperoni rolls, doughnuts, all sorts of things that I will blog about later. See why the pool table was in the way? The fitness equipment needed space to counter balance the cooking.

A Project Deadline - Oh my

Over Christmas we found out that my sister and her husband have had some success at starting a project of their own. YAY! Congratulations are in order. Expected due date is August.
So I do have the request 6 months of notice on a project that I started a few years ago. In fact I posted a progress photo of this item in May of 2007.

If you look into my archive photos of that year, you will see I have made some progress since then.
Ok, not much, but you can tell what it is supposed to be, sort of anyway.
Well, I need to get this thing finished before our summer vacation to Iowa. There is a possibility that we might have to adjust that trip to Kansas, which will really mess up FabHub's plan to never return to that place, but things will turn out the way they should.
Later!