Lot's O' Stuff

Hope everyone had a great Christmas, wishing everyone a safe and happy and prosperous New Year! Now with that done, here's an update on things. Last Monday, I did something I haven't done in a coon's age, (and just how long IS a coon's age I wonder...), anyhow I went to the big, big town, about 3 hours away, with a friend. My friend had a doctor's appointment about an elbow injury and didn't know if she would be able to drive home, so I went as a potential surrogate driver. Turns out that they didn't do anything on this trip, just x-ray'd her arm and told her she had bone spurs, her choice is to have surgery or live with it, she has to think about it and decide what she wants to do. Before we went to the doctor, we hit Pizza Hut, did the buffet, it's been so long since I've eaten pizza that I didn't make. Mind you, I make a pretty mean pizza, but getting to eat pizza from a restaurant is a major treat for me. I ate until I was absolutely stuffed.

After the doctor visit we went to Wally World, a super one, haven't been to one of those in a long time, I couldn't find anything! Oh I could see the signs everywhere for this and that, but I still walked around almost in a daze, all the people, all the cars (in the parking lot), it was almost too much for me to deal with, though I will say that for the most part I didn't run into any majorly misbehaving children. The adults were a different story, at least when I was in line, this goth-looking girl/woman was standing behind me, about 6 inches from me, I could see her out of my peripheral vision, she never actually touched me, but I could almost feel her breathing. Every step I took, she mirrored me. Eventually I started playing with her, I would move my cart a couple of inches and step up the tiniest step I could, she would step the same. Maybe she was trying to make me feel uncomfortable enough to find a different line, didn't work though, I finally stepped from between the baskets so that she would have to make some major moves to stand that close to me, problem solved.


While at the store, I decided to buy a comal, this is a flat, cast iron pan mainly used for cooking tortillas and doing things like pancakes, grilled cheese and such. This is something we eat several times a week, I have wanted a comal for a long time, so I took advantage of the situation and purchased one. This particular one is made by Lodge Logic, it's also pre-seasoned, this is important as seasoning a new cast iron pan takes a lot of time, effort, work and in my case, propane. Not to say it's not worth it in the end, but not something I relish doing, so the pre-seasoned pan is a major bonus for me. Of course it worked perfectly, I rinsed it with hot water, placed it on the burner and rubbed it with a light layer of Crisco, the first tortilla tried to stick, after that one, it worked like a charm. We ate tortillas, refried beans with a little cheese, hot sauce and sour cream, it was a good dinner.

I made my tortillas a little different this time, on occasion I add yeast, it makes a slightly puffier tortilla, depending on how long I allow it to rise. It also adds a yeasty flavor (which I really like), I just have to remember to proof the yeast before adding it to the flour, there isn't enough moisture in the dough for the yeast to really dissolve and develop if it's put in dry. This time I did it, but I didn't allow the dough to really rise very much, we were hungry and wanted to eat soon. The last two tortillas I rolled out, they had had more time to rise and develop some extra flavor, I made this thicker than all the rest, made it more like a flat bread than a tortilla, those were for me, LOL!

I also purchased more yarn, I have really gotten into this loom knitting thing, even though I have only made 2 hats to date, the hats turned out great and I want to make more. My MIL sent yarn for Christmas, she did a great job picking out the colors and yarns I like, but like any yarn addict, you can never have too much yarn, so I purchased more yarn, another set of knitting looms, Knifty Knitter Long Loom Set w/Hook &; Yarn Needle, 4/Pkg. and a pattern book called  More Knitting Wheel Fashions. The yarn that works best with the knitting loom is the thicker yarns, referred to as chunky, it's possible to use thinner yarns if you double or triple up on the yarn, (use 2 or 3 strands instead of 1).

My new favorite yarn is called bouclé yarn (pronounced boo-clay), it's a curly, fuzzy yarn, not necessarily thick, I use 2 strands instead of 1, that's what I used to make our hats. I'll post pictures of my hats and any other items I make soon. I am working on a new hat, just like the first 2 hats I made, this one will be for Bob, the only difference is the color, the first hats were made from a variegated bouclé in greens and other earth tones. This one is made from bouclé but in a charcoal gray color. Once I have that one completed, I'll make another for myself but with a little different look, yeah I know, pictures! I'm charging my camera as I write, it was dead or I would have pictures already.

It's been pretty cold, had wood fires every night, can't take the chance of breaking the water pump again. We have also had some big winds, as big (if not bigger) than how it was the first year we arrived here. It's been pounding everything, last night I had a hard time sleeping because of it, about the time I would be almost asleep, another gust would blast us, shake & rattle everything and wake me up. Once I heard something heavy fall over, it turned out to be a door that is propped up outside, I'm happy it wasn't part of the roof or worse, one of the solar panels.

Speaking of solar panels, for the last couple of weeks, we have had more cloudy or mostly cloudy days than sunny ones, it's made things a bit spare around here electric wise, we have enough of a system that if the batteries are full, we can go a day or two without sun, after that we have to really have to be careful about how much power we use for things besides lights. Having 1.5 watt LED lights really make a difference though, we can run them with little concern about how much they are drawing. (Thanks K!, You know who you are!).

I know this is a long post so I'll cut it off here, hope everyone has a safe and prosperous New Year! Oh it just started snowing with sleet mixed in, after such a sunny start to the day, oh boy, this is going to be an interesting rest of the day and night!








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Wretha,
properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader),


Thanks for visiting!

Going to town...

02-27-08

Pizza night went very well, the dough I made rose very well, I love a happy dough! I used spaghetti sauce for the pizza sauce, I cooked some ground beef, I had some left over(cooked) deer sausage, but it smelled a little off, I set it outside well behind my cabin for the wild animals to eat. I used fresh spinach, chopped onion and mozeralla cheese, it was very good and quite fun, everyone enjoyed it.

Today was a good day, we drove into town in the bug, we left out about noon, it is the first time in over a month that we went to town on our own, I have gone to town with our neighbor many times, but this time Bob and I went together, it was quite fun. To my knowledge, we have the only VW Bug in or around town, we are getting to be known a little, I believe people are beginning to recognize the little blue bug, it's fun! We went to the resale shop, the sales here benefit the local animal shelter. It was full of lots of fun things, I got a couple of shirts (for $1.00 each), Bob got a pair of shoes, and we got a few other misc things.

02-26-08

The month is almost gone, time goes by so fast here, it seems like we just got here and it also seems like we have always been here, I can't say that I have forgotten my life before this, but it is fading. Before we moved here, I didn't know how I would be able to leave all of my responsibilities, I felt a great responsibility to do the jobs I had, both at Best Buy and at Curves. I did a lot of key things at both places, things that no one else did for the most part, and I enjoyed working at both places. I enjoyed the people I knew there. I know that I did a good job at what I did and I cared about it, I am afraid that things aren't getting done as well as I would do it because I did care about what I was doing. The few weeks (or was it months?) that I was still in Irving after I quit both jobs, I felt like a fish out of water, I felt like I didn't have anything to do, in reality there was lots to do with all the last minute packing and keeping the items on the trailer safe from the weather... well, once we got here, that all changed, I do not worry about things back in town like I thought I might, I do miss everyone I knew there, but I am pretty busy here, and what I do is so much more enjoyable and rewarding, I do not regret making this major life changing move.

Tonight is pizza night, I am making the dough, I make a yeast dough and right now it's rising on the wood stove, the stove is still warm from this morning and it's the perfect temp for the dough. I have some hamburger meat that needs to be cooked and I have some left over deer sausage that needs to be eaten, that will go good on the pizza. I am making the dough here in the cabin, but I'll cook it at our neighbor's house, it's pizza night for him too! :)

Bob just scared me to death! I am inside the cabin, he is outside on a very narrow scaffolding attached to the house, he is putting up more siding, he is up pretty high, I heard a crash and other sounds that you don't want to hear in this situation, I had a vision of him falling, I jumped up and ran to the door while calling out to him, he answered that he was OK, I still went out to see what happened, he had nearly fallen, the scaffolding he is using is a ladder with some boards on it to walk on, he said he was focused on what he was doing with his hands and took one step too many to the side and stepped off into the air. I heard him scrabbling to catch himself, he dropped the board and the drill he was holding, that was the crash I heard. So far we have done very well not to get injured, just a few minor bruises, scrapes, cuts, blisters, splinters and the occasional cactus thorn. We have to be and have been very careful here, there are no doctors or hospitals very near by, there is a volunteer fire department, and I understand they are in the process of training EMTs as well, the little community here is trying to be as self sufficient as possible. Our neighbor has some medical training, so if anything bad happens he will be our first stop for help.

Yesterday was a good day, our other friends out here just bought a property just around the mountain from us, there is a mobile home and a travel trailer on it, both were fully furnished, everything was from the 70s, and in pretty good shape, they allowed us to go through some of the kitchen stuff and take what we needed, we got a small 3 burner stove with oven from the travel trailer, it's so cute, it's turquoise blue, and it should be set up for propane already, if not, Bob can change what needs to be changed to make it run on propane. We also got a lot of other misc kitchen stuff, one of my favorite things is a set of coffee mugs, bright orange, made by Fire King, I love free stuff! :)

Well, I think I'll go back out and see if I can help more, at least try to get Bob to knock off for the day and get cleaned up to go eat pizza.
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3 Comments

Anonymous said...

Have you considered cooking in a solar oven? From what I understand, they're pretty easy to make and use.

TheMajor'sLady
lornkanaga.livejournal.com

February 27, 2008 12:48 PM

Oldman in the Boonies said...

I hope your Pizza night went well. It sounds like you still need to work out an oven. Well I am sure you will. Nice of other folks to help you guys out.

Just a short story here. When We were building our house 24 years ago, I was putting up the steel beam in the basement. My son was 14 at the time and had an 8 ft section of the beam on a chain hanging from the tractor bucket. Well it slipped, he yelled and I looked up. Good thing I did because all I got was a bad cut instead of a smashed skull. 3 stiches but no death..... Be thankful and BOB BE CAREFUll !!!!

February 27, 2008 3:23 PM

Wretha said...

TheMajor'sLady, yes, I am familiar with solar cooking, it's something I have been interested in since I was a teenager, (that's a LONG time... grin!), check out my earlier messages on the blog http://wretha.blogspot.com/2007/12/solar-cooking-first-attempt.html, you will find what I have done so far, not much, but it is a start, and I have heated foods in it. My hubby used to own/run a restaurant equipment repair business, he is well versed in cooking equipment, with his knowledge about that, and my knowledge of solar cooking, we plan on making several solar ovens, I'll write about them as it happens... thanks for your comment, keep them coming! :)

Oldman, scary story! I do worry about Bob, but he is careful and so far, so good, no injuries or problems, we are both very careful, we know there's not much help if we get hurt or sick out here. Oh, and pizza night went very well, thanks! Keep the comments coming, I appreciate each and every one!

Wretha

February 29, 2008 12:14 PM