Around here there's a four-letter word beginning with S that sends everyone into a tizzy. No, it's not that word. It's S-N-O-W.
People from east of the mountains laugh at news stories of western Washingtoners slipping and sliding our way around our streets. But we actually have cause for panic. Snow events are relatively rare around here, so even though most of the state's population is on this side of the mountains, most of the equipment to deal with snow is on that side of the mountains. For example, Yakima County has 32 plows in the unincorporated county servicing a population of around 89,000. Where I live, there are 33 snow plows serving a population of over 300,000. So as you see, we don't get much coverage when it does snow.
So I find the best thing to do is watch the weather reports, and stock up on supplies to get us through until the snow melts. Which is what I'll be doing this week, as there's a threat of snow on Friday and Saturday. Mr. E claims that the "S-word" must be threatened three times before it actually does snow. Personally, I'm not taking any chances. If I'm ready, it doesn't snow, if I'm not, it does.
You see, it's not that I can't drive in the snow, it's that there are so many idiots in huge trucks where I live that think that 4WD means go 50 in a 35 zone on a steep hill. I like my car, and I don't want (another) idiot totalling it. So I'll stay home, thank you, and do my running around on Thursday.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
The weather is gorgeous right now. It's about 60 degrees and sunny, crystal blue skies. It's days like this that make me absolutely love fall.
Today I'm wrangling Thing 2 into helping me bring in the rest of the apples. I took a turn around the garden just now, to see what's left to harvest. It looks like a deer ate a bunch of my carrots, based on the hoof prints in the carrot bed. There are quite a few holes where the carrots should be. There are beets that need to be harvested/eaten. I need to find some recipes to use them up creatively, since my family seems to have an aversion to beets. Not that they've had them that much, and when they're snuck into something, like a salad, they say "Mmm. What's this stuff?" Anyway, the good apples need to come in, the bad ones composted. I should've done it sooner, since we had this good stretch of weather, and it would've been best to get a fall coat of fungicide on the trees. Well, I'll be ready for the next day of dry weather.
Other things in the garden include scallions. They'll survive the winter, and it's nice to not have to pay a buck every time I want a few scallions in something. I also have some parsnips. They didn't really get going until the fall rains came. I'm not sure if that's because they were too close to the apple tree, or if that's just how they grow. Next time we have beef stew, one will get tossed in the pot. The fall planting of spinach was a disaster. It just didn't grow.
I'm going to get a soil test done early next year. Frankly, I'm tired of things not growing, so it's time to figure out what's going on.
Today I'm wrangling Thing 2 into helping me bring in the rest of the apples. I took a turn around the garden just now, to see what's left to harvest. It looks like a deer ate a bunch of my carrots, based on the hoof prints in the carrot bed. There are quite a few holes where the carrots should be. There are beets that need to be harvested/eaten. I need to find some recipes to use them up creatively, since my family seems to have an aversion to beets. Not that they've had them that much, and when they're snuck into something, like a salad, they say "Mmm. What's this stuff?" Anyway, the good apples need to come in, the bad ones composted. I should've done it sooner, since we had this good stretch of weather, and it would've been best to get a fall coat of fungicide on the trees. Well, I'll be ready for the next day of dry weather.
Other things in the garden include scallions. They'll survive the winter, and it's nice to not have to pay a buck every time I want a few scallions in something. I also have some parsnips. They didn't really get going until the fall rains came. I'm not sure if that's because they were too close to the apple tree, or if that's just how they grow. Next time we have beef stew, one will get tossed in the pot. The fall planting of spinach was a disaster. It just didn't grow.
I'm going to get a soil test done early next year. Frankly, I'm tired of things not growing, so it's time to figure out what's going on.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Cleaning House
I know that spring is the traditional time for cleaning your house, and in the days of heating with fireplaces and coal, it made a lot of sense. The amount of dust made by our wood stove is enough to drive me nuts, and it's not running all the time. By the time spring arrived, I'll bet the interior of the house was in need of a major wash.
These days, with central heating and vacuum cleaners, I find that our house rather needs a cleaning in the fall. During the spring and summer, I'm too busy outside in the garden to bother much with keeping the house super clean. With the kids back in school, and the hectic end-of-summer racing around over, it's time to clean up and clear out. Friends are more likely to want to be inside, rather than out on the patio, so it's time to get the dustcloths out!
The other day I cleaned out our big freezer. Boy did it need it. I tried to do a minor cleaning out of old food a few months earlier when my in-laws freezer died, and they brought some stuff to keep in my freezer. But this time I really got down the the bottom of the shelves, finding really old blueberries, and beef stew meat with freezer burn. I used to try to use an inventory list, but inevitably I couldn't find that last package of hamburger.
I'm doing better, I think, to simply keep things in designated spots. The top shelf, for instance has blueberries, bread and cheese. I will not put these items on any other shelf, and since they stack nicely, it's easy to see how much I have left. Other things don't stack nicely, like big bags of chicken breasts, but I find that they will stand up on their side on the bottom shelf. Then it's more like books on a library shelf.
I'm also not stocking too much of anything anymore. If it's more than a couple of months' worth, it'll either get lost, or have yukky freezer burn (if it's meat). DH swears the taste of chicken is off fairly quickly, so I'm not buying too much of that at a time.
How do you keep your frozen food in rotation? Do you prefer spring or fall cleaning? Or somewhere in between?
These days, with central heating and vacuum cleaners, I find that our house rather needs a cleaning in the fall. During the spring and summer, I'm too busy outside in the garden to bother much with keeping the house super clean. With the kids back in school, and the hectic end-of-summer racing around over, it's time to clean up and clear out. Friends are more likely to want to be inside, rather than out on the patio, so it's time to get the dustcloths out!
The other day I cleaned out our big freezer. Boy did it need it. I tried to do a minor cleaning out of old food a few months earlier when my in-laws freezer died, and they brought some stuff to keep in my freezer. But this time I really got down the the bottom of the shelves, finding really old blueberries, and beef stew meat with freezer burn. I used to try to use an inventory list, but inevitably I couldn't find that last package of hamburger.
I'm doing better, I think, to simply keep things in designated spots. The top shelf, for instance has blueberries, bread and cheese. I will not put these items on any other shelf, and since they stack nicely, it's easy to see how much I have left. Other things don't stack nicely, like big bags of chicken breasts, but I find that they will stand up on their side on the bottom shelf. Then it's more like books on a library shelf.
I'm also not stocking too much of anything anymore. If it's more than a couple of months' worth, it'll either get lost, or have yukky freezer burn (if it's meat). DH swears the taste of chicken is off fairly quickly, so I'm not buying too much of that at a time.
How do you keep your frozen food in rotation? Do you prefer spring or fall cleaning? Or somewhere in between?
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