GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

Here is Christmas dinner.  With the holiday (and New Year's) falling on Sunday, we saved the pictures for this for this post after things calmed down, ha.

It's become sort of our traditional dinner at Christmas. 

We got a carver ham (we LOVE them)...

And then we make some broccolini sautéed with onions and bacon...

I missed the picture of it in the pan but 2nd Man made a batch of macaroni and cheese...

And then we put it all together into one glorious plate!

It was cold that weekend (record breaking) so Hobart stayed snuggled up in our his blanket for the better part of two days.  This picture was funny because his head was sticking out one end, a leg out of the side and the tail out the back end.  Feline equilibrium?  Because...

#notspoiled

CHRISTMAS TREE SCORE TRASH TO TREASURE

Regular readers know that I have a favorite place to look for bargains...our downstairs trash area!  Our building has trash chutes on every floor and they feed into a separate room, but for boxes and other things that people can't put in the chute, there is an area (indoor) near the loading dock where people can put the things they don't want.  I've found quite a few cool items over the last few years.

Here's another one (and several of you have wondered if we might find something like it again this year):

It finally happened, we scored another Christmas tree.  Here it is when I saw it just laying in the recycle area.  It was in sections so I had to find them all and carry them over to the loading dock to make sure it would all go back together.

I assembled it and it's all there.  It's not pre-lit but that's OK (we'll need white lights on a white cord).  It does need some fluffing, you know, the folding/bending branches were smashed up when whoever took it down tossed it in the trash.

I did bend some of the branches out and move them around a bit and it does fluff up nicely, ha.

Here it is outside our storage room.  Looks pretty good.  Now we know what you are thinking, another tree?  Well, if we had found another standard, green Christmas tree, we are going to give it away to a friend who asked for any we found.  We have enough of those and will gladly share the love with our finds, BUT... this is a WHITE tree.  

We have wanted a white tree for a long time.  Not as our main tree of course, but to put special ornaments on.  We're thinking this could be the "farm tree" for our farm themed ornaments.

Or maybe a food theme tree in the kitchen/dining room.

Or maybe we can start a Dia de los Muertos tree.

Someone else tossed it because they didn't want it after Christmas and now we'll gladly give it new life for many Christmases to come.

MY NEW ZEN MACHINE HAT

Here is another one of my Christmas gifts.  2nd Man found this great hat for me.

It's got a wide brim and the part that your head goes into is ventilated.  There is even a drawstring to hold it in place on windy days.

The cool part is on the back, it has this long, wide flap that completely covers the neck and upper shoulders.  2nd Man always worries because I get the back of my neck sunburned while mowing or working outside.

Of course, when I first put it on, I was reminded of this classic scene from Titanic:

OK so I won't be THIS fabulous while working outside at the farm but I'll give it a try!  😂😂

NEW TRAILCAMS FOR CHRISTMAS

This was my big present...

A set of two new trail cams!

The other one we have was starting to wear out, probably just being exposed to the elements for a few years finally took a toll.  These have much higher resolution, have the ability to do time-lapse photography, better night vision and will even pick up sound.  There's also an optional solar panel so it can be battery free.  For now, we're OK with batteries.

I put one up on the porch where the other one was and the second one will go near the back to see what's going on in the orchard area and the big empty land behind our house.  Of course, I didn't have enough batteries to get the second one up so that will be turned on next weekend. 

Stay tuned, hopefully we'll get some fun stuff.  Maybe the ever elusive bobcat?

 

NEW YEAR 2023 AND HOBART SUNDAY

Here's to a new year, out with the old and in with the new.  2023 promises to be an interesting year for us as we embark on some new projects at the farm and work toward getting something new out there.

Since the holiday falls on Sunday, we have to have some Hobart.  So here he is, in a post-New Year's Eve catnip hangover.  He got some new catnip at Christmas and he loves it.  We put it all over this striped sock toy, one of his favorites, and then he falls into a deep catnip sleep.  Because...

#notspoiled

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

NEW YEARS EVE FUNNY

Today is New Year's Eve but for us it's just a regular weekend day mostly.  We don't go out and fight the crowds.  Our thinking is that nothing good happens on the roads after midnight when you're out.  Too many crazy drivers.  Plus, we feel we're past the age limit for partying until all hours of the morning to ring in the New Year.  We'll leave that for the younger crowd, ha.

Much nicer to stay in with some good food, we'll still have some bubbly and then just watch the festivities as they unfold on TV.

We saw this the other day and were cracking up:

This sums it up perfectly! 😂😂😂

Enjoy the evening have fun and be safe whatever you do and wherever you go!

CHRISTMAS KINDNESS

When we went to the farm the weekend before Christmas, we found this in the mailbox...

An envelope with a sparkly snowflake ornament and a card.  Turns out, it was from the "mail lady" as she called herself in the card.  She does this every year when she works the route at Christmas and leaves a handmade ornament.  We hung it on the tree and last weekend, we left a card with gift card for her to thank her for her work during the rest of the year.

Then, for the first time, our local John Deere dealer sent us this Christmas card with Santa riding a tractor (a "reindeere"? ha).  We're keeping this one for future decorative use, it's just too fun.

And finally, you all may recognize this picture, it's our lucky "trailcam deer in snow" picture from a few years ago.  Ironically, one of you said it would make a great greeting card.  Well, one of our fabulous, super talented blog readers, took the picture and made it into a card.  She added 3D puffy white snow that sparkles and then colorful, raised snowflakes on the front.

It's beautiful and we are honored to have our picture as a greeting card, even if only for a few or one, ha.  

HOMEMADE SNOW AND ICE

Well, even though we had a burst pipe, there is some beauty to be seen.  2nd Family has one of those septic tank aeration sprinkler systems.  You can see our barn and shed in the background of this picture.

It created its own snow.  We didn't have any rain or anything, this is just from that system.

It's amazing how water and freezing temperatures can create such amazing things.  Now, it's not always nice to look at of course, but in moderation, it's pretty. 

This one is so cool.  Much like the process of candle making, where a wick gets dunked over and over while it builds up laters of wax, so do these grasses with ice building up on them until it creates this.

It's like an art installation, ha!

WELL WE TRIED

Well...

14 degrees...

Wind chill of single digits...

Heaters on in the kitchen/bathroom/mudroom kept the inside temp in the low 50's...

10 lights strung under the house with 150 watt incandescent bulbs for heat...

But it was all for naught:

Stepped out of the car and the yard had standing water.  I knew what that meant.  We had burst pipes.  I looked under the house and there was water pouring out.

I called "R" from 2nd Family and he said the valve should have shut off all the water.  I called a plumber (all closed Saturday/Sunday for Christmas) and left a message. "R" called back and suggested turning the valve on and off a few times, there could be debris or corrosion keeping it from completely shutting off.  So I tried that, sticking my hand down in a tube filled with near freezing water, ha, and turned it as hard as I could. It slowed to a trickle and stopped. Phew. Crisis (temporarily) averted.

We don't need water at the house right away.  We're not out there in the Winter and I'm only watering so we'll deal with the pipe later.  We still have January and February to deal with potential arctic blasts.  I can turn it on, water the plants on the porch and turn it back off.

In GOOD news...

Here are the avocado trees, cherry bush and one of the banana plants in the kitchen, doing great and looking healthy, enjoying their "spa week".

And here are the other bananas and the "yesterday, today, tomorrow" plant in the mudroom also doing great and enjoying some warm spa time.

At least we saved those.

So 14 last Thursday, 75 this Thursday.

Gotta love Houston weather!

We crawled under the house to check and I told "R" that I tried but I guess it wasn't good enough.  He said "well, look at it this way, you only had a one foot section of pipe freeze, everything else, all the other pipes, including the pipes under your sinks, were OK so you did do something right.  Replacing a one foot section instead of ALL of it is way better".

OK, I will accept that victory, ha!

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2022 AND HOBART SUNDAY

This picture is not this weekend, though with a little moisture in the air, it could have easily been!  This is from 2017 when we had some snow at the farm on Christmas...and two deer came by the trailcam at the right moment.  Now the one in front may not have actually had a red nose, but you never know! 😆

We wish you all a wonderful and very merry Christmas and holiday season.  We hope you get everything you wanted and have a happy day.

Now since it's also Sunday, we can't forget to share a little Hobart and here he is moments ago...

...basking in the glory of playing in the discarded wrapping paper until he passed out from all the excitement.  Because...

#notspoiled

BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE

2nd Family sent this.  Sure we have our apps on our devices that tell us the temperature but seeing it in reality is another thing, ha.  

About 14 degrees this morning.  Thankfully we have no moisture in the atmosphere so no sleet, ice, snow. Just bone chilling temps.  We know there are other parts of the country WAAAAY colder, but for us, this is pretty intense.  We have the lights on under the house, the heaters on in closed off kitchen and mudroom, the heat lamps in the bathroom and the water running in small streams, though in retrospect, I wish I had turned them on to a bigger stream.  But at least they aren't just dripping, so there is that...

So to distract from worrying about what's going on out there, here are some more of our ornaments including some new additions:

Here's one I got for 2nd Man on our anniversary so we could put it on the tree this year.

This Santa we've had for years but he's so neat looking and old world we had to let him make an appearance!

Here is a new one this year, sent to us by a very sweet friend.  A snowman with a galvanized bucket on his head!  I mean, come on, how fun is this?  We love it!

I think we may even have a bucket just like that at the farm!  Of course, we're not saying if we've ever had our bucket on our heads but hey, Frosty can do whatever Frosty does in his off time!

We got this one in Oklahoma (my home state) a few years ago when visiting relatives.  A Christmas themed covered wagon is pretty cool.

And this one and the next one were gifts from a coworker.  She knew of our love of sparkly old world style ornaments and the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead so she gave us these.  The white one is so pretty and looks like many of the "sugar skulls" that you see.

And then she found a yellow one that's just as pretty and unique.  Sparkly blown glass. Love it!

Hope you all are having a good weekend and staying warm wherever you are.  A friend just send me a text and said it's currently 55 degrees in Boston Massachusetts and 19 in Houston TX.  Go figure.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve...

PREPPING FOR A HARD FREEZE

The bottom is about to fall out of our temperatures...

Thursday night it's getting down to 20 and possibly teens.  We are hoping they are wrong, at least maybe by a few degrees the other direction, higher!  But this is going to be a hard freeze, rare for us. 

Last weekend, we bought foam pipe covers and some accompanying "T sections" and "elbows" to cover bends and turns in the system.

It was a bit on the cool side so I grabbed my gloves and headed to the back of the house.

And I spent a couple hours on Saturday crawling around under the house covering all the pipes.

I also wrapped the outside faucet and put this box over the wrapping.  After this picture I put a couple of large rocks on top to keep it from blowing around.

I also got the two radiator type portable heaters ready for the kitchen and utility room so all I have to do is turn them on. We did this last year and it worked great, though we didn't have quite this hard of a freeze.

Then the other day, I thought of one more idea to help save the pipes:

I bought two of these.  They are construction/worksite lights that are on a heavy duty cord.  Each one holds five light bulbs in a cage and they use 150 watt bulbs.  Of course, for the heat to come off the bulbs, we needed actual incandescent bulbs and not LED.  I found some and also got some screw hooks.  The plan is to put them under the house.  I will drape them from the hooks, one strand plugged into the porch outlet on the front and the other from the porch outlet on the back.  Those 10 bulbs should put out enough heat to keep the pipes from freezing.

Today, I am taking a 1/2 day off work and going to the farm to turn on the heaters, drip the water and put these under the house.  Oh and no worries, our new plants/trees/bananas will all be inside in the kitchen and mudroom where the heat is.

And then we wait...