Wednesday night Husband and I were talking about a recent complaint that my regulatory board received about a licensee, as Husband is the new Board Investigator. It is an unpaid position that I volunteered him for because he is semi-retired and very fastidious in his work and there wasn’t anyone else to do it and he is my spouse.
He said we would need to finesse the written response to the complaint. I thought he said defenestrate the response. I was confused. Once we got that cleared up, we had a good laugh and both did some research on The Defenestration of Prague. What a strange word and even stranger concept!
What have you been “volunteered” for something by virtue of being related to someone? Have you ever wanted to be an investigator? Who or what have you wanted to throw out of a window?
The regulatory board of which I am a member has had the same attorney for the past 11 years. The Board attorney is provided to us by the State Attorney General’s Office. He has been very helpful. We were sad to learn at our most recent meeting that he is leaving to be the executive director of a medical practitioner regulatory group. We will miss him.
I am happy to say that my experiences with attorneys have been pretty limited over the years. I mainly interact with the local county attorneys in my capacity as an expert witness and when I am the expert examiner for mental health commitments. I get along quite well with all the county attorneys and district judges. We used to have a quite inept local attorney who everyone referred to as “The Dumb Swede” to distinguish him from “The Big Swede”, a very tall district judge. I keep waiting for the retirement of another local attorney who must be in his 70’s and who has had the same really awful toupee for the 35 years I have known him. The toupee looks like it is being devoured by moths.
The other day in the grocery store, Husband and I ran into one of our district judges (not the Big Swede) who also attends our church. The judge made a comment about a rather flamboyant older member of the congregation who had recently died. Husband told His Honor in jest that he really needed to stop judging people like that. The judge thought that was pretty funny.
What have been your experiences with attorneys? Any good lawyer or judge jokes?Any stories about toupees?
Husband and I have an extremely loving relationship, but we have never been able to agree about toothpaste. I find Colgate toothpaste too chalky. He doesn’t like the way my Crest toothpaste tastes like fluoride. Neither of us will change our toothpaste preferences. I guess that is what you might call brand loyalty.
I am the most fussy about food ingredients, so that I try to bake with King Arthur Flour products and cook with this Turkish olive oil we get at the Syrian grocery store in Fargo. We also buy Barilla or De Cecco pasta, organic cream, and Land O Lakes butter.
I wonder if the days of exclusive brand loyalty are over for marketing agencies, or if they still try to make people exclusive Ford purchasers, for example.
What brands are you “loyal” to? What are some “off brands” you would recommend? What kind of toothpaste do you prefer?
There is a Beast in my kitchen. It’s been there all along, ever since I moved here. Black and huge, it sits in the corner, humming to itself and sucking up kilowatts of energy all day and all night, every day. It causes me to use “22 percent more than efficient nearby homes.” I glare at it and sometimes curse it. Then it builds up frost in its bottom compartment and forces me onto my knees to clean it. Then it resumes humming and sucking up kilowatts, contributing to climate change and irking me even more.
I didn’t buy this Beast. I wouldn’t have even looked at it in a store. Black appliances just don’t look right to me. I guess I wouldn’t like the old shades of olive or gold these things once came in either though, so I just try to get along with it. Plus, it’s a huge thing. I have no need for that much refrigerator space.
Yesterday the inevitable happened. A cutting board slid down into the narrow space between the kitchen counter and The Beast. My favorite cutting board. I had to move The Beast to retrieve it.
The Beast has wheels in the front but it just drags along in its rear. The wheels don’t engage unless you use a ratcheting tool to elevate its footrests. I have to remember these steps as I struggle with it. Finally I got it raised so that the wheels were on the floor and ready for action. Inch by inch, back and forth, I coaxed The Beast out of its corner.
Did I mention that my kitchen is just 3 feet wide? So once I got The Beast out of its corner, I had to move it all the way across to the other counter before I could even see behind it, and still there wasn’t enough room for me to squeeze my shoulders through the gap. I shouldn’t have looked… Out came the homemade cleaning solution and the vacuum cleaner and the rags. I had to use a reacher to get some of it done, and to grab my cutting board, as well as a beloved picture that had also fallen back there. I got it clean though, and I eased The Beast around to line it up a little closer to the counter so that mishaps like this don’t happen again. Gradually I got The Beast back in its clean corner, steadily humming and sucking up kilowatts.
I need new appliances. Most of them are well past prime and not functioning properly, except for The Beast and the stove. It works as it should as long as I keep its voluminous doors closed. I’m not at all eager to buy new appliances.
Do you have any appliances you’d like to vent about? Describe an experience moving something huge in a small space.
This week has seen warmer temps, snow melting, mud coming, and more daylight!
It has also seen a loss of some ducks. February 5th, we were missing Rosencrantz, one of the new ducklings from last summer. The next day, the two older black ducks were gone and there was a pile of feathers just off the pond. Next day the white poufy duck was gone. The next day three mallards were gone. And the next day, another mallard. There are only 2 left, a male and female mallard.
Shucks. It’s really kinda sad… This happened late February last year too; lost several ducks then. The pile of feathers would indicate an owl (just because it seems to happen at night). I’ve only seen a hawk attack a duck once, and that was middle of winter and the pond was iced over and the hawk had it right there. Possibly bald eagle, we have them flying around, but never seen one try to get a duck, and again, not sure they could carry it away. So, we always assume coyotes when our critters are ‘gone’. But we don’t understand: the mallards can fly! Why don’t they fly away?? Are they sleeping that hard? To lose two or three in a night, is it a pack? There doesn’t seem to be any disturbance; Bailey isn’t raising a fuss, Humphrey isn’t trying to get out. One night, just as we went to bed, there was a fuss and Kelly went out with the flashlight and she could see some ducks flying around. I still hope those are just hanging out somewhere else for a while.
I did find another pile of feathers up the road, but that seemed to be a pigeon. I just hope these two ducks survive. Our ducks have never learned to come in at night. You may remember when they were little, the trouble we had trying to get them inside. And then once they’re older and out on their own, they just never have come in. Some stay closer to the house, and you’d think this batch would have figured that out by the second attack. I hadn’t seen the flock of wild ducks flying around lately, but then Thursday afternoon, eight of them were here. It was so interesting to watch them circle. First one came down by the other two, then two more came down. Then 3 went over by the barn and the corn I spread over there. And another with the first ducks and the last one back by the barn. “You go first!” I don’t know, but once the ducks are gone, we can only assume the predator will move on to the chickens.
I walked back to the pole barn one morning and all those pheasants that had been coming in and eating corn were back there in the barn. Sure surprised us when they came flying out, goodness.
As we’re all dealing with ice, our driveway has become an issue.
Those of you that have been here may remember how long and twisty it is just before the house. We joke it keeps the riff-raff out. It also keeps us home when the weather is bad. As we’ve all been saying, the multiple snows, some rain, some packed snow, it’s all combined to make ice on the entire driveway. A few days of sunshine and nice temps this week helped a lot, and I used the loader bucket on Monday and managed to scrape a lot of ice off. Bet you didn’t know I had a sun screen in the tractor. It was an extra.
But it was also extra slippery, and I almost got myself into trouble on one of those corners. We call it “Above the barn” and we mean it literally. There’s a good row of oak trees along the fence line, and then a 30’ drop down to the barn and cow yard. The trees are there to stop you going over. More than once I’ve been in a tractor that has slide over into the fence and trees. Once I broke the entire glass door of my Deutz tractor. Once I ripped out a fence. This time I didn’t hurt anything; just had to stop, and catch my breath, and make a game plan. Took two tries, and I was out. No issues.
The snow melting off the shed roofs either makes a frozen lump on the ground or puddles up until it comes into the shed. I’m hoping next year, after the concrete project, I’ll get some landscaping done enough to prevent this.
Sometimes the entire side of snow will slide off the roof and then I have a huge pile of snow to move. Thank goodness for tractors and loaders.
And as the ice melts, the mud isn’t necessarily better. I’d venture it’s slipperier. And I’m not sure how well zak-traks work on mud.
It’s gonna get better. Another few weeks, and it will go fast and soon we’ll be smelling the rain and seeing the grass greening up.
EVER BROKEN A WINDOW IN YOUR HOUSE? NEIGHBORS HOUSE? CAR? STORE?
I played the bass clarinet in the concert band the four years I was in college at Concordia-Moorhead. One day during my sophomore year, visiting high schoolers considering attending Concordia observed a band rehearsal. I had an odd sensation of being observed, and noticed that one of the visitors was staring at me with what I could only interpret as intense loathing.
The following fall, the staring girl showed up at Concordia as a declared music major who played the bass clarinet. To her dismay, she was offered a spot in the band as a contrabass clarinet player. I was the better player, so I got the bass clarinet position. I spent the next year sitting next to her in band, and she continued to treat me with loathing, since I, a non-music major, had the chair in band she wanted. Nothing I did was was right, and she sure let me know that. She mercifully transferred to Arizona State University the next year.
I have been careful in the ensuing years to treat my fellow musicians well because there is nothing worse than sitting next to someone in a musical ensemble who is mad at you. There is often a lot of emotion in musical ensembles. I have been challenged lately, though, by the antics of a newer member of our church choir. She is a lovely person in her 50’s who is probably someone with ADHD who has never been treated for it. She was sitting next to me until recently. She sways when she sings, which absolutely drives me nuts. She doesn’t read music very well. She sways out of time. I was able to cheerfully tell her that I was going to tie her to her chair if she didn’t stop moving. She was gracious enough to accept this with some humor. She stopped swaying, but moved away to the end of the row. That makes me a little sad, but at least I am less annoyed, and she isn’t afraid I will assault her.
When have you had towork with someone who loathed you? What musical ensembles have you performed with? What do other people do that drive you crazy?
Our winter has been quite septic this year, with far more ice accumulation than we have ever had before. There is a 4 inch thick layer of ice on our driveway, with lesser amounts on the front stoep and sidewalks.
Since Husband hurt his wrist we are very wary of walking on the ice, and for the first time we bought a container of Ice Melt to help with ice removal. The temperatures have been in the 30’s and 40’s, and that has led to a gradual melt with refreezing at night when the temperature drops. Although it works well, I hate to use the commercial Ice Melt too much since it is mostly salt and I don’t want the salty ice that I manage to remove with the ice removal blade to get into our garden beds. That means pushing the salty ice chunks to the end of the driveway. That is very tiring.
I am the primary ice remover in the family right now, and I am really stiff and sore from the ice removal process. I think of creative and probably illegal or impractical ways of quickly getting rid of the ice when I am out there in the driveway, but I am afraid we are stuck another month of this nonsense. Bring on the Ibuprofen!
What are some creative ways you would get rid of ice, legal or otherwise? How do you manage sore muscles? What are your remedies for cabin fever?
Husband remarked the other day that in the almost 40 years we have been married, we probably only watched the Super Bowl twice, both times at a friend’s house.
Neither of us follow sports, college or professional. In the last few years I have only been glad there was a Super Bowl because it was a good day to have our church annual meeting right after the last morning service. The annual meeting is a tedious affair, especially if there are contentious issues to discuss. People are far more willing to compromise when they want to get home for the pregame show. Things have simmered down over the last 15 years with the deaths of many of the more iconoclastic church members who would get up in arms about important theological issues like being opposed to installing air conditioning even though it would insure that the service committee ladies didn’t swelter in the kitchen while preparing the funeral lunches, and brides didn’t faint in the heat in the sanctuary during summer weddings.
When I was a girl we would usually go to my paternal grandparents’ home when there were important games to watch on TV. I always enjoyed listening to my dad and his brother, both high school and college sports officials, call penalties before the TV officials would. Our plans for this Sunday are to sing in the church choir and head home to take naps. Salmon and mussel stew with harissa are on the menu. The annual meeting was two weeks ago. Life is good.
How will you spend Super Bowl Sunday? What are your favorite things to eat when you watch the Super Bowl? Any meetings you dread having to attend?
The Bismarck Tribune had a fun story yesterday about a 34 year old oil worker from Minot who went fishing early in January in the open waters in the tailrace below the Garrison Dam Power plant on the Missouri River and caught a State Record setting 20 lb, 42 inch long Burbot on an 8 lb test line. Burbot are freshwater fish in the cod family. It was the only bite he got all night. Burbot are sometimes referred to as “poor man’s lobster. That was a huge fish.
I was really tickled by the fisherman’s plans to have the enormous fish “fully encased in a coffee table or display case ” in his living room. This guy is evidently not married, as he was out fishing at 11:30 at night when he caught the fish, and I don’t know many women who want something like that in the living room. It also made me think about what his heirs plan to do with the fish 50 years from now when he is gone and they have to figure out what do do with Grandpa’s fish coffee table.
What are some “interesting” family heirloomsyou have had to contend with? What do you have that your heirs have will trouble finding a place for? What would you do with a stuffed and mounted 20 lb, 42 inch Burbot?
Should be warming up by the time you’re reading this. My mom’s mother’s birthday is February 8, 1899. (She died on February 8, 1990.) and mom always said, by her mom’s birthday you could tell spring was coming and the days are getting longer.
But boy, the wind on Thursday. Blowing out of the North and it’s COLD, yet the sunshine is so nice.
15° but there’s mud on the south side of the shed, and that’s what’s so cool about the weather. The sun sure is getting powerful as we move toward spring and April showers and it will be here before you know it.
We were at supper with friends the other night and comfort food came up. I hadn’t thought of an actual food to call comfort food and I was kinda stumped. Popcorn was a big one though. Lately I’ve been making coleslaw at home. Met a friend at the grocery store one day and he had a bag of cabbage mix in his cart, and I thought that sounded good. A little vinegar, sour cream, mayo, pinch of sugar, some salt and pepper, garlic and onion, and Kelly and I are really enjoying it. I can’t figure out why. I think it’s such a good mix of crunchy, creamy, with just a little ‘zing’ too it. Some of you that know your way around the kitchen better than us; should we replace the bay leave that’s been in our flour container since 1997??
Egg production is down a bit with these temps, but everyone is surviving. I’ve got my new hooded jacket, zak-traks for my new insulated boots, and wearing nitrile gloves under my regular gloves and were doing fine.
This cold weather has me thinking of watering calves when I was growing up. Baby calves were kept in the barn with the cows. (Which is frowned upon but now; too many germs spread from cows to the calves that the calves are not old enough to handle yet.) They were warm and I had a simple float on a bucket for their water. When they were about 3 months old, I moved them up to the other barn. They’d be about 300 pounds and boy, that was a rodeo. It’s only 50 feet from here to there, but they didn’t know where they were going, and after burning the horn buds off they were all riled up and it was all I could do to get them up there. It was uphill. Both ways. I just hung on for the ride and tried to head them in that direction. Course once in that barn, I still had to get the rope halter off them. I was younger then thank goodness.
And in this barn was an old metal water tank. 400 gallons or something. One of those galvanized oval metal tanks you’ve all seen. In the summer it was outside with a hose and a float to keep it full of water. In the winter, it was inside. Dad didn’t believe in electric waterers nor was there an outlet in the barn and the calves would have gotten into it and that would be a whole big thing.
Sometimes I would use a hose to fill the tank. And then drain the hose and it hang inside the feed room door, so it was on the warm barn side. But if I didn’t want to use the hose, I used 5 gallon buckets. Carrying those buckets of water built muscle and character. Carrying 2 did it even faster. Remember it was uphill. Depending on the weather, it might take 4 or 6 buckets to fill it. When it was this cold it all froze solid except maybe a depression in the middle so it would only hold 5 gallons. Eventually I’d have to knock out the ice to make more room. The calves, like any outdoor animal, is fine in the cold as long as they can get out of the wind, and they have enough food and water to keep their energy up. When it got to the point they couldn’t drink I could bang on the outside using the backside of an old axe, then chop out a bunch inside, then pound some more on the outside. Mind you, eventually I’d cut a hole in the metal. Sooner if I forgot to turn the axe around. Then it held less water…
As the weather got warmer, eventually Id be able to get the water tank out of the frozen manure, and flipped over all ALL the ice knocked out of it and those ice chunks would last a long time.
So now in winter I haul water in 8 quart buckets to the chickens. It’s downhill all the way to their pen. And a longer walk of 150 feet. (summer we use a hose and multiple buckets) I can carry two buckets in one hand, and corn and water in the other. I have strong fingers. Maybe from all those 5 gallon buckets?
Chickens don’t like bread crust either. But they didn’t eat the cantaloupe, which is weird. We’ve always said we have fussy chickens.
I’ve mentioned we have electric heat. When its below zero, it might cost us $12 / day and I have to think, how much is heat worth to me? Do I want to be cold or do I want to pay the $12.
Good thing this cold spell didn’t last too long.
What Is your favorite cabbage recipe? What is the longest cold spell you remember?What is your ice removal strategy? What do you do with old spices?
Trail Baboon 