I hope that as this post is read, I am on the road to Brookings, SD. We have had days of “halfway weather” lately, a phrase I coined to mean weather that is nasty, but not nasty enough to make you stay home.
Last week there was an ice storm that closed the interstate 20 miles west of here after 27 semis couldn’t make it up the hills. There was freezing drizzle predicted northwest and north central here yesterday, and by Sunday afternoon there was no travel advised on the the roads to the north of us. The two counties just east of us that we need to drive through today were also expecting a “wintery mix” last night. We may slip and slide to Bismarck, but after that we should be ok all the way to Brookings. Driving on icy roads are my worst nightmare. Being the anxious person that I am, I also have been obsessively looking at the long range forecasts for next Sunday, when we are slated to drive home. Like my mother, I worry about the weather and many other things that are totally out of my control. I don’t imagine I am going to stop any time soon, though. Old habits die hard.
What bad habits would you like to stop? What bad habit did you stop, and how did you do it ? Ever slid into the ditch?
Well, we finally got measurable snow. Maybe 5” for us on Thursday. One benefit to it being so cold before it snowed is that the ground is frozen hard and I’m not ripping up quite as much sod as I generally do. Oh, I can still rip some up if I do it right, but certainly not as much as I would if it the ground wasn’t frozen before it snowed.
Bailey, my tractor buddy and I, spent an hour re-learning how to blade snow off the road and clear the yard.
I realized I forgot to put markers at the corners of the shop concrete, and I haven’t gotten the snowblower in the shed yet, but really, I don’t know where I’d put it anyway. I still gotta get the four wheeler in the shed, and the trailer for the lift I’m borrowing (and that I also don’t know quite where to put). Once the shop project is fully finished, I’ll have a bit more room; right now I’ve still got 14’ sheets of pole barn steel laying in the way. And once I get the tools and extra crap sorted out, then I can rearrange better for next winter. Heck, maybe by next winter I’ll have the lean too done on the back side and some of this stuff can go in there.
As I write this on Friday, my car is getting an oil change and tire rotation and I’m watching the snow melt and drip off. What a yucky job for the techs. Everybody has to start somewhere and presumably that’s doing the sloppy messy jobs.
We’ll be having the longest night, and shortest day this weekend. The days get longer from here on out and there’s light at the end of the tunnel!
The other morning as daughter and I were headed into town during the snow, we saw a box truck struggling and I commented that those kinda vehicles have terrible traction and don’t do well in this kind of weather. I was about to launch into a chronicle of rear wheel drive vs front wheel drive, and wheel base length, and how those things impact winter driving, but I stopped myself, and I asked, “Do you want me to keep talking about this or should I stop?” She gave it some serious thought and finally said “Naw”.
I’ve always appreciated her brutal honesty.
Do you all have that magic ten minutes in the morning? As we’re trying to get going in the mornings, I think we’re just about to leave and suddenly it’s ten minutes later and she doesn’t have her shoes on yet. I don’t get it. Where does that ten minutes go? This has been a thing since the kids were small. We’re almost ready to go and then it’s ten minutes later and now we’re late. It’s a magic ‘time hole’.
I hope you all have magical Christmas’ or Solstice events. Remember to spend a little time being grateful for what you have one way or another. Take some time to ponder.
While my parents have predominantly British and German ancestry, you wouldn’t know it from my upbringing. No culturally relevant foods, no traditions, no nothing. It wasn’t a void that I ever looked to fill, but it does mean I’m a bit of a tabula rasa where culture and tradition are concerned.
There are just a few things that I’ve carried from my childhood to my adulthood; most of the traditions that YA and I observe are things we made the decision to do, not things that I did growing up. I was going to list a bunch, but the list is too long!
I’ve lived in the heart of Scandinavian culture here in the Twin Cities for 44 years. I’ve taught myself how to make aebleskivers and Swedish pancakes, visited the Swedish American institute. One year we did a Saint Lucia observation at our church (UU); I made YA a white dress and we fashioned the candle wreath for her head, although none of the kids actually had their candles lit (phew!). We have a nisse watching out over our garden and I have a few heavy Scandinavian sweaters.
But for some reason, I have never gotten around to making a kransekake, the stunning tower of cake/cookie rings that you see on the covers of many Scandinavian cookbooks. It’s called a crown cake and sometimes a wreath cake as well. Well, this turned out to be the year. I knew our Anna had the rings/pans that you need to make the individual rings/wreaths and she graciously offered to let me borrow them. I found several recipes and decided on one that I could pipe out of a bag rather than roll out the dough in log forms. It turned out to be ridiculously easy… truly the hardest part was figuring out which of the two largest pans was actually the biggest one. My recipe made way more dough than I needed… next time I attempt this, I’ll have a plan for this. Maybe save it until after the first batch is baked and make a smaller tower. I know purists would not have added sprinkles but I just had to.
It made a lovely party centerpiece and if I do say so myself, tasted really good. The only problem is that people were afraid to mess with it. I’ve had this problem before with pretty cakes or rice krispy trees; I usually end up cutting them up so they don’t look too daunting. I did this with the kransekake as well. About ½ of it got eaten at the party and I’ve been nibbling away at it since then. This turned out to be a fun attempt for me; it may get added to my stable of traditions.
When was the last time you pushed yourself to try something new? How did it turn out?
Our scale is broken. It doesn’t show the weight we want it to show. Especially after a day of wandering around the shop trying to find my tools. And swearing. Evidently swearing isn’t an aerobic activity no matter how loud or flowery I get with it. Humph. Who knew?
How many rings have you got? They weren’t always a big deal. 1886 is when Tiffany and Co introduced the popular diamond setting, then after WWII, De Beers created the ‘Diamonds are Forever’ slogan and now I have 4 silicone rings. My everyday ring, two middle ground rings, and the dress ring that Kelly gave me which says “Adventure is Out There”. Sometimes I wear it so you can read it, sometimes so I can read it. Depends how I’m feeling. When we got married in 1990, we had the real gold bands with diamonds. Kelly had the engagement ring plus wedding band. I have a silver band with tiny diamonds in it, but I wouldn’t wear it farming. So, then I got a plain silver band. And I wore it for a lot of years, and I put it in my pocket one day while working on some machinery and trying to fit my hand up in a tight spot and I didn’t want to get my hand stuck up in there by my ring. And then I forgot about it for a few days and then it wasn’t in my pocket anymore.
I’m still hoping to find it someday.
My brother-in -law wore his ring on his pinky, snagged it on a railing when jumping off something, ‘degloved’ his pinky (peeled the skin off, right down to the bone) and then had to get his pinky amputated. And that’s why we wear silicon rings now. Plus, they’re cheap and come in fun designs. Kelly has several as well.
HOW MANY TIMES DOES / DID YOUR PHONE RING BEFORE THE MACHINE ANSWERED? DID YOU DO FUNNY MESSAGES?
My mother told me more than once when I was young that I shouldn’t get married until after I was 19. She was likely to say that after my father did something exasperating. It was no secret that she was 19 when she married my father. They were married for more than 70 years and were very happy together, but I took her words to heart and waited until I was 25.
Husband stands by his assertion that if we are going to do much traveling in the fall, we better have it done by Veterans Day, because you can’t depend on the weather after that. He is usually correct.
I stand by the assertions that lefse needs to finished and in the freezer by Christ the King Sunday, that pepper seeds should be started by March 15th, don’t plant your garden here until after Memorial Day , and Montana is not a sane or reasonable place to live, so don’t even think about moving there.
What are your words to live by? Any words of wisdom that you remember from your parents? What words of wisdom would you like to impart on young persons?
Today is our agency Holiday party. I wrote last year about the festivities and “planned” fun. This year the powers that be had the sense to scrap the door decorating contest, opting for a noon potluck, trivia game, and white elephant gift exchange. I am bringing cookies, and cranberry-orange glazed chicken thighs.
I am too burned out to come up with a white elephant gift. We found out yesterday that a beloved extended family member is probably going to be placed in Hospice care, which makes holiday festivities seem somewhat more frivolous than usual. I see, though, that the weather may be good when we travel Monday to Brookings, SD. It will be healing to be with family members.
My mother always had a hard time at Christmas, having lost a 7 month pregnancy in 1949 when her appendix ruptured. She did her best to keep Christmas cheerful, but it was hard. Tragedies are bad enough, but seem worse during the holidays.
What would you try to get rid of at a white elephant gift exchange? What holiday tragedies, frivolous or serious, have you had to contend with?
Yesterday was tiring but satisfying. We played in the bell choir at both morning church services, came home and packed up seven boxes of Dresden Stollen and cookies (one box had a Bremer Klaben instead of a stollen) and got them to the UPS store. We then played bells and sang at the annual Lessons and Carols service at our church in the afternoon. I got to read the Bidding Prayer again. By 5:00 PM we were done and free. We are heartily sick of being town musicians at Christmas.
By town musicians, I mean some of the few people who are active in the musical community in our small town. The majority of town musicians are affiliated in some way with our Lutheran church. Our local college had a vibrant and active music department with a band and a choir. They had music festivals for high school students and hosted lots of concerts. The recent college president decided that the music and theatre departments didn’t have enough student majors, so he closed them down last year. The Education department has enough music education majors and they need to have some sort of music going on, so they have a band of one person and a choir of six singers. Our bell choir played with them two weeks ago at a Christmas concert in the college student center. Had our bell choir not been there, it wouldn’t have been much of a concert. I should add that the decision by the college president was so unpopular he quit. I don’t think they will reinstate the music department, though.
The Lessons and Carols service was lovely, and our church music director had a local classical guitarist, someone I had never heard of, play the following piece.
The guitarist appears to be Spanish. I have no idea how he got to North Dakota, but it was delightful to hear him. We have only one more vocal choir performance next Sunday, and no rehearsals this week, so we are free to relax and chill. Christmas hysteria is over, at least in our house. I may need to order more classical guitar recordings, though.
What musical instrument would you like to hear more of? How is the Christmas hysteria at your abode?
I got a lot done this past week. Last Saturday I finally got the snowfence up. You know, I can’t figure out why 100’ this year, doesn’t fit the same posts as 100’ did last year? Which didn’t match the posts from the year before that! Sometimes I think I’d like to put wood posts at the ends of the sections, but seriously, it never lines up the same way two years in a row and I just don’t get it. We put in 500’ this year. Plus, another twenty feet in a different location that can drift. I guess I am expecting it to snow this year.
Sunday, I moved a bunch of equipment around; I got the lawnmower cleaned up and put away (I used it to mow a path for the snow fence. It wouldn’t work when I tried a month ago, because the grass was too green and wet. But now it was all brown and dried out and cut much better). Moved the scrap metal tote inside the shed, and stuff like that. And then I finally built a little door for the chickens, so I don’t have to leave the big door open six inches for them. Ready for winter!
On Monday, the contractor showed up and started tearing out trees and reshaping a waterway. It’s not the best timing for dirt work, but by spring either I’m gonna have the gully in the field where it’s been running, or in the waterway where it’s supposed to be. To fix it, they had to tear out a LOT of trees. Tree’s that have come up in the last 60 years. Which meant the area didn’t drain properly. It looks a lot different.
Before :
After:
There is one GINOURMOUS brush pile!
This photo doesn’t give you any perspective. It’s HUGE This whole project came about when I hired the contractor to bury the ash from an area where I’ve been having brush piles for years and years. And then I asked if he could reshape the waterway, which turned into tearing out trees IN ORDER to redo the waterway.
And I finished the steel inside the shop. It turned out really well. I have a few details to finish yet, and the outside steel, and the electrician will have a lot of work to do, but it really is a functional shop area. I don’t often think about if my Dad would like whatever it is I’m doing. But the shop and the waterway, I really think he would approve of those things. Friday night Padawan, still in shorts, was able to put his car into the shop to work on it. I’m kinda glad I can offer him a place like this. I have been spying on them with the shop camera. My goodness, two teenage boys can be so annoying to be around.
I’m beginning to clean up the shop area. I don’t need the scaffolding anymore, and I need the room, so I dragged that outside and disassembled it. PHOTO
Holiday concerts at the college this week too.
Pretty soon I can get the 40’s station back on my car radio. The one they take off in November to play TWO MONTHS of Christmas music. Bah.
PICK A HISTORICAL FIGURE TO BE ANNOYING WITH. WHAT ARE YOU TWO UP TO?
When I was growing up, we were not a poinsettia household. I think a lot of it stems from money; my dad didn’t really come into his own, career-wise until I was almost out of elementary school. There are plenty of memories of my mom saying “don’t ask for that in front of your father” kinds of things. We weren’t destitute by any means, but there wasn’t a lot of disposable income for seasonal house decorations. We always had a tree and a wreath on the door, but no little villages, no strings of lights on trees in the yard, no dishes of holiday candy and no poinsettias.
I’ll admit I’ve gone a little overboard in the other direction, but I never thought much about poinsettias until I was working in the bookstore and came across The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola. This book became the first in my collection of children’s holiday books.
When YA was little, I would bring them all down and we read at least one a night during December. And it was then that I first added poinsettias to my holiday décor.
But red is really the only color for poinsettias in my book. I have a close friend who adores all things pink and she would always have a pink poinsettia on her desk during the holidays. Bleech. I do own a silk white poinsettia; I probably got it back when I had quite a few silk plants – a very silly phase I admit. I still put it out although YA doesn’t like it and it’s not my favorite either.
We usually get two big poinsettias for the mantel. Some years, if the spirit moves us, we get another one for in the dining room. AND for many years we got a teeny one for Nimue. She would happily munch her little one and leave the big ones alone. Not sure why. (I DID THE RESEARCH… a cat would have to eat hundreds of poinsettias to be affected by the toxin. We’d ALL have to eat hundreds.) This year, since Nimue has slowed down a bit as she ages, she no longer jumps up on the mantel. Since the big plants are safe, we skipped the kitty-poinsettia. She gets enough treats.
Poinsettia shopping happened at Gertens this year; YA has decided she really likes Gertens. As we were walking through the greenhouse, we came upon some truly hideous specimens. Purples, pinks, turquoise, blue. And glitter. Ick. YA knows I don’t like these so she has to tease me. This year she suggested we get one of each color to “celebrate the rainbow”. I’d have to be sedated every time I came into the room!
Poinsettias? Yes or no? Red? White? Pink? Colors of the rainbow? Glitter (I promise I won’t judge)?
Earlier this week, my son texted me to say that he was home with our grandson, who had a sore throat, and had just cleaned up after his West Highland Terrier, who had brought a very large, very dead, cottontail rabbit into the house. The dog caught it in the backyard. Our son put it in a garbage bag and threw it in the trash can outside.
This is the second kill Baxter, the terrier, has under his belt. Last year he caught and shook to death a squirrel at my son’s in-law’s house. Baxter is a senior dog, about 10 years old. He is in good physical condition, but I am surprised he was fast enough to catch a rabbit. He was pretty dirty when he came in with the bunny, so Son had to give him a bath. Son is very grateful Baxter didn’t try to eat the rabbit. In true terrier fashion, shaking something until it is dead is reward enough. Had he chewed on it, Baxter would have needed medicine for tapeworms.
Our Cesky Terrier has great hopes of catching and shaking one of the rabbits that infest our neighborhood. His favorite pastime when we sit in the living room is to play tug of war with some of his floppy dog toys and then shake them violently when he gets them from us. No rabbit would have a chance. I am happy he hasn’t brought anything dead into the house. Many years ago one of our cats caught a bird and brought it, still living, into the house. it looked as though someone had been plucking chickens in the dining room before we were able to get the bird away from the cat and release it out of doors.
Trail Baboon 