QUILT OF MEMORIES

A few weeks back, we posted some pics of the bedroom and several of you asked about a quilt on the end of the bed.  We took some more pictures to share.

Here they are:

It's a patchwork quilt that's big enough for a queen sized bed (it's folded in half here).  It was made by my Grandmother using mostly scraps of fabric from my Grandfathers overalls because that's pretty much all he ever wore or at least what I remember him in.

One side has other types of fabric scraps.  It also has the little tied-off green "tails" or whatever they are called.  I'm not sure if that means it's the top or the bottom?  I kind of feel like its supposed to be the top.

Not sure where this fabric all came from, probably scraps she had on hand when she made them.

But the other side is neat because it is made up entirely of pieces of my Grandfather's jeans and overalls.  The light blue color ones and the blue ticking stripes...

...actual denim from jeans and beige overalls...

...and to be sure that nothing went to waste, even the ones with holes were used and the holes "repaired" as best as they good be to make them usable.  

When I was little and we went to visit, I always got to sleep on their "rollaway" bed (that thing had a wicked dip in the middle, ha).  I always wanted one of these quilts to sleep under.  There are two and I have both of them.  It's funny though, they don't don't have a light and fluffy feel like a regular quilt might, because of what they are made from, they are more heavy and dense and best of all, warm.  That's why I liked them.  Looking back on it now, I think these were sort of an original version of a "weighted blanket" that's all the rage now...I guess Grandma was ahead of her time!

We have other quilts stored (carefully) away and when we have a place we can put them out to display/use, we'll get photos of them.

Quilts are wonderful!

FREEZE 2022 UPDATE

It was cold, for us anyway.

25 was the official low at the farm.

There was sleet and lots of ice but no snow that stayed around.  Of course we were worried about the pipes.  Here's what we alluded to in the post about prepping.

We share a well with 2nd Family.  That's because our house used to be their Mother's house and she sold to us when she moved to Florida.  Because we weren't out there full time, they never cared as we didn't use much water other than watering and it's "free" well water anyway.  We always offered to help with any repairs, electricity if needed, etc.  So our house had a separate shutoff valve for us at the well that let our house be turned off, that way we could drain the pipes and make sure they were empty.

Normally, that was that.  

However, they have had a new home put on their property (last Spring/Summer).  It's nice.  But because they still have their old house on the same property, the plumbers tied the new one into our line.  The other night, we sent a note to turn off our water and I'd come out and empty the pipes.  She replied and said "um, we can't now because our line is tied into yours, if we turn it off it turns off ours".

Oops!  I called "R" who has done some of the plumbing out there.  There was a valve at our end in the ground by the front faucet that turned off "some" parts of the water in the house.  Not sure why it's set up like that (years of patching) but it is what it is.  He said to shut that valve off and leave the water running from the faucets in a small, steady stream (not just drip drip).

So that's what I drove out during the work day to do.  I also turned on two oil filled radiator type portable heaters we have (like the ones above), putting one in the kitchen and the other one in the mudroom.

The bathroom is so small that I put up three of these hooded lamps with 150 watt bulbs (they were rated for that size) and pointed one at the water heater area, one at the sink and one toward the toilet.  With the two doors closed, it warmed up nicely in there.

I went back to work (in the high 70's!) and all we could do is cross our fingers and hope for the best.

The cold blast hit and by the next morning it was 30's and temperature dropping into the 20's at night and not getting above freezing for more than 24 hours.

I don't think either of us slept much, worrying about the house.  See, if the pipes were broken, they'd have to shut off their water so that our leak would stop but then we wouldn't have the luxury of just putting our repairs off (we don't need water out there right now), we'd have to get emergency repairs done so they could get their water back on. 

I drove out this weekend to check on things.

I got there and it was nice weather.  Still a bit on the cold side, mid to upper 40's.  It still "looks" like Winter in the yard.  I knelt down to look under the house where we can get a good view of the pipes.

As you can see in the picture above (this is a spot I can crawl into), the ground was bone dry.  There was no leaking.  Phew.  SUCH a relief.  I shut off the running water, unplugged the heaters and turned off the hooded lamps.  I must have looked under the house about five times before I left, just to make sure!

Next, I uncovered the plants on the porch...

...unfortunately there was one casualty.  One of the pineapples didn't make it.  Not sure why, I must have missed a gap that let some freezing air blow in.  The other one is fine.  The bananas are looking a bit rough but everyone has told us they sometimes die down to the ground and come right back.

We'll see how they do come Spring.

After all the worrying, I just sat on the porch and tried to unwind a bit.  It was cold in the shade but nice in the warmth of the sunshine.

Some of you may ask about us having our own well and yes, 100% we will do that.  That's part of what we'll do in getting a new house out there.  We even have the surveyed spot that it will go because it will be dug into the same aquifer that their well goes down into.

No more freezes in the 7 day forecast and we're back neat 70 by the end of the week.  We'll take that.

Dodged this bullet...hopefully next year at this time we'll have a regular house with protection for freezes.

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

It's been a roller coaster week with weather.  We started with 50's and then made it to the 70's and then the bottom fell out into the mid-20's!

Yesterday, it was finally above freezing for the first time in a couple of days...

Chicken soup and dumplings

...so 2nd Man decided to make a pot of chicken soup with dumplings.  Chicken, carrots, onions, peas, seasonings, broth, cream and of course, homemade "slick" dumplings.  The recipe he uses is adapted from the great chef Emeril Lagasse.

It was another great "cold weather" meal.  Now we have enough to eat on for a few days.

Curled up Hobart

Speaking of keeping warm, here is Hobart all snug and happy, though we're not sure which end is up in this picture, ha!  He's in the classic cat position, all curled up and warm.  He slept here for a good three hours.

We always make sure he is warm and comfortable, whenever and wherever he wants to be.

#notspoiled

WINTER STORM 2022

 It's baaaack!

Thankfully not nearly as bad as last time.  

It arrived quicker than anticipated so I had to head to the farm during the work week (on my lunch break) to turn off the water.  I had done part of it Saturday but I was waiting to see when the cold would arrive.  The night before, we found out that something changed in relation to our water out there (more on that later) but I did what I could. We'll have to see if it was enough.

I took a two hour lunch, 45 minutes each way and 30 minutes to do what I needed to do.

I put extra coverage around the banana plants.  Freeze cloth on them (two layers) and then towels around the base and a cardboard surround for wind.

Same for the pineapples a couple of other smaller plants.  Freeze cloth, towels and a cardboard surround.  I did put a second cardboard "wall" higher up after this picture was taken.

This is the front water faucet.  The pipe underneath all this has one of those pipe protectors around it, then an old insulated grocery bag over the faucet with towels around that and then cardboard on top of all of that.

This is the back of the house faucet, did it pretty much that same as the one on the front, but because it was on the bottom of the house instead of coming out of the ground, I had to figure out a way to keep the cardboard on there.  I used the garden cart (it's heavy) to hold everything up against the wall.

I left a couple of oil filled radiator type heaters on, one in the kitchen and one in the mudroom, center of the room of course, nothing around.  Also, like we did last year, three 150 watt light bulbs on reflectors in the bathroom with the doors shut, to keep the stuff in the room above freezing.

Look at these weather app captures:

When I left the farm on Wednesday afternoon and got back to the office, here is the screen shot.  It was 73 degrees, humid, cloudy.

The same time the next day...

32 degrees, freezing rain and SNOW!

What a difference 24 hours can make!

I'll go back out either Saturday or Sunday, depending on when the freezing is over and check on things, uncover the plants, etc.

STAY WARM IF YOU'RE SOMEPLACE COLD!

LAST OF THE COLLARDS AND A MEAL

The weekend before last, I cut the rest of the collard greens.  They were really struggling and we guess that the last couple of light freezes didn't help that.

As things go though, this was a pretty good final harvest.  I cut and cleaned them and then 2nd Man used them for a delicious meal...

...he sautéed them in a pan with sliced up sausage and onions as well as some minced garlic (also our own) and a pinch of red pepper flakes.  The sausage gave off its own fat but he added a bit of olive oil to get everything started and then it just all cooked together.

Once it was all cooked and softened, it was time to dish it up and enjoy it.  It's a very good and satisfying meal and nice to know that we grew a large part of it.

Not sure why they faded so fast though, we thought collards were good with freezes.  It may be more related to them being closer to the end of their life cycle, regardless of temperature.  One thing for sure, we'll always grow Fall collard greens.

SOME MORE ANT KILLING

 We moved our HOMEMADE FIRE ANT KILLER from a ziplock baggie to a jar.  I used the tall wide mouth jars and one of the screw on lids I found on clearance at the store a while back...

...then I made label for it and now it's on the shelf at the farm ready for use...and I did use it.

When working on the raised beds for the fruit trees a few weeks back, we found that fire ants seem to love the corners of the beds and make nests there.

So I put the ant killer down again...

But a week later, some were still alive.  I think I was a little too light handed in putting it down this time.

I put it on more heavily and then I did this...

...I took a piece of rebar I had in the yard and made a hole deep into the mound.  Then I poured a lot of the homemade ant killer into the hole and around it.  A week later, they were all dead.  That was good because I needed to use the weedeater to get the last of those weeds and I speak from personal experience when I say, it is no fun hitting a fire ant mound with a weedeater!

No flying fire ants!

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

It's been a nice weekend.

Cold of course, but clear and beautiful.

2nd Man had to work again and it is the time of year when there is not much to do at the farm.  I went out to prep some things for a possible freeze later in the week.

Pan seared pork chops

We had some nice, thick pork chops I found at the store the other day.  He pan seared them and turned the drippings into a sauce.  Then we had our favorite lemon pepper broccolini on the side.  Currently, there is banana bread in the oven and it smells heavenly.

Hobart

Here's a cute picture of Hobart.

I wish it was clearer but by the time I got my camera, he looked up at me and I could tell he was about to get up...I had to click fast, ha.  He frequently lays down and crosses his front legs.  It's so cute when he does that.  It always looks like he's just so relaxed...he just needs a book to read, ha.

We'll catch up on comments later today/tonight.

Hope you are having a good weekend!

BREAKFAST FOR DINNER

 The other day, 2nd Man texted me at work and said "do you want breakfast for dinner?  I was thinking of making waffles and sausages?"

Waffles and sausage

So we had waffles with maple syrup, whipped cream, toasted chopped pecans and sausage links.  It was a great choice.  It was very good and oddly satisfying on a cold weeknight after work.  We often do this.

When I was growing up, Mom would often make pancakes for dinner or sometimes bacon and eggs, even oatmeal and bacon.

Breakfast for dinner?

Weird or do others do this too?

HAM AND BISCUITS

Was at the store one day and saw these.  We love the Frick's hams and we usually buy their "carver hams" but they sell these too...look closely at the name, they call them "BISCUIT HAM SLICES".

Of course they are round thick slices of ham...perfect for frying up in a pan...

Making some homemade biscuits...

And putting them together into one glorious food moment, ha.  We made extra and froze them, we're going to see how they warm up in the microwave for a quick homemade breakfast.

2nd Man is still loving his Lodge 'biscuit pan' as he calls it now.  That's what we use it for all the time.

PICS OF THE MASTER BEDROOM

It was cold this weekend, at least it was sunny but it was cold.  Inside the house (remember, no heat) it was 37 degrees when I got there.  On the porch it was 50's.  The sun was shining and it felt better out there, ha.

But I did a bit inside, mainly declutter, dust, and vacuum the bedroom floors and dead bugs in the windowsills, ha.

Here are a couple of pictures of the master bedroom...

This is from one corner looking back toward the other side of the room.  That area on the other side of the half walls was an add on by the previous owner.  We currently use it as an area to keep all of our crafting supplies.  One side has storage boxes and all sorts of cubbies for things and there is a giant bulletin board on the other side with a matching lower cabinet below it.  The two chairs are just some extras we had and it seemed like a good place to put them.  The middle table is a file cabinet end table/stand that we brought from town when we sold the other house.  So few people have a need for file cabinets nowadays (with everything digital) and that's why we decided to keep it.  We print out things we find online, articles from magazines, recipes, etc and keep them in there.

Then I walked over to that opening between the two areas that you just saw and turned around to take a picture back the other direction.  The open doorway goes into the living room and toward the kitchen.  The door on the left side of the mirror is the (tiny) closet and the door on the right side is the (tiny) bathroom.  The windows are just off camera to the right.

We went with a blue and white color scheme here as you can tell.  This is the room where this corner shelf is with the few blue and white pieces we have.

Hope you enjoyed the mini tour.  Whatever we end up doing with the house, we'll keep our blue and white colors in the room because we find it relaxing and calming...and besides where else would we put it, ha.

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

 Another cold weekend but at least it's been sunny and clear.  I went to the farm yesterday, 2nd Man stayed in town because there is a big work project due Monday.  But he did manage to whip up one of our favorite meals...a hearty potato soup.

Potato soup with ham, bacon and cheese

Here is the recipe he used from the time we posted it:  

POTATO SOUP WITH HAM

It's super easy...in addition to potatoes of course, it has a couple of carrots and two stalks of celery, some diced up ham, seasonings, broth, milk and cream...it's just so comforting and hearty.  We top it off with some shredded cheddar, bacon bits (you cook the bacon to save the fat for sautéing the veggies), and some dried chives that we had saved from our garden.

On a cold Winter day, it was heaven in a bowl...

Hobart Sunday

And of course we know you like to see him, so here's Hobart, posing for all of you.

On his afghan.

From the dining room chair.

That we push over to the window so he can watch outside and have some sunshine coming in.  

#notspoiled

Hope you are having some good food and warm weather this weekend.

MISSED IT BY THAT MUCH

Here is the radar image from Thursday night/early Friday morning...

...the farm is the little red "pin" on this radar image.  The pink and light blue is sleet/freezing rain with some snow behind it...the dark blue and green is just rain.  We were just in between the two.

2nd Family said there was some frost on Friday morning but no frozen precipitation fell, just rain.  As this posts, I'll be heading out there, it's currently 34.  It's cold (for us) this morning, 29 out there as the low temp overnight.  Since I skipped last weekend with the rain and previous cold blast, I need to go check on things.  Of course, yet again, it's wet and very cold...so there is not much I can do outside.  I will just water the plants on the porch and do some cleaning inside until it just gets too cold. 

2nd Man is making some potato soup for us to have when I get back.  It'll make the day go faster with that as my end goal, ha!

We hope your weekend is off to a good start!

ROLLING DISASTER IN THE MAKING

OK, so on day recently, we were sitting in bumper to bumper traffic and this car drove by in the HOV lane.  I noticed it and took a picture (FYI, we were stopped and I was in the passenger seat).

It was five large containers of gasoline.  Now in all fairness, we're not sure if they had gasoline in them.  They could have held water or something else, but we  noticed that they had "flammable" and "caution" stickers on them.  In the light and shadows, you could see liquid sloshing around in them so they were full.

If they did indeed have gasoline in them, we can't imagine what might have happened if someone rear ended them in traffic.  But of course not any other way to transport that much either?  Certainly you wouldn't put them inside your car.  

Smart idea or risky idea?

FROG VISITOR

Here is a post I thought had gone up but guess it didn't.  We wanted to make sure we posted it.  When I was cutting back the bushes by the front steps, a few weeks back, my eye caught something.

Do you see it?

Right here on this branch...it was definitely in a good hiding spot that I interrupted. 

Here he/she is in a closeup.  Just chillin' on the branch, though I'm pretty sure it was giving me "side eye" for ruining a good nap.  Needless to say, I quit cutting on this bush and left the frog alone.  Then when I was finished with everything else, I still needed to move it elsewhere.  I got a clay pot and saucer and coaxed him in.  The frog was then relocated to the back of the house in a shady spot.

Side note, love their little suction cup toes.

MAXIMIZING OUR OVEN USE

Not too long ago, we posted a picture of our meatloaf meal.  We ate it over the weekend and it was so good.  Thankfully, 2nd Man made two.

Sliced meatloaf

Here it is (you can just see the edge of the other one on the side).  This one was sliced up and vacuum sealed for the freezer.  We found that two fit side by side on the largest sheet pan we have, so we just double up the recipe and make two.

We do the same thing when roasting chickens...

Two roasted chickens

...we do two of those as well.  Our philosophy for cooking things like this is that if we're going to heat up the oven to cook one anyway, two can cook at the same time and temperature and we have future meals ready to put up in the freezer.  For the chickens we will have one for immediate dinner and then when the other has cooled down, I pull all the meat off and vacuum seal it for using in other meals.  It's like having a rotisserie chicken at the ready most any night we need one.

Now if we could just figure out how to get two turkeys in one oven at the same time, ha.  Side note, don't those chickens look delicious?  Now I'm hungry!

2nd Man has always wanted double ovens in his kitchen.  If we end up with that at the farm, then we could have 4 chickens and 4 meatloaves and 2 turkeys at a time, LOL!

Anyone else do this?

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

DUE TO AN INTERNET CONNECTION ISSUE, THIS WILL HAVE TO STAY UP AS MONDAY'S POST TOO, SORRY ABOUT THAT.  MORE TOMORROW!

Cold today.  Well, cold for us.  Windy and just cold.  Low 30's with "feels like" in upper 20's.

TexMex comfort food

We stayed in town this weekend (see yesterday's post) and 2nd Man made a meal of tamales (made by a coworker) and then he made Mexican rice, refried beans and I whipped up some pico de gallo and served it over some sliced avocado.  TexMex comfort food!

Warm Hobart

It's cold outside and Hobart knows this.  So he is on the couch, on "his" fuzzy blanket and of course, we are required to cover him up because, well, #notspoiled. 

Stay well fed and warm wherever you are!

ONE OF THOSE WEEKS

 It's been one of those weeks where stuff went wrong.  Of course other than my trash to treasure finds, ha, see yesterday's post for that.

The other day at lunch I had a flat.  That's never fun.  I was able to make it back to my work parking space before it went completely flat.

Got the spare put on but of course, while bigger than a "donut" spare tire because it's a 4x4 vehicle, it's still a little smaller than normal so all the warning sensors and lights are on inside and it pulls to the left.

Because it was getting close to time for new tires anyway, we decided to just go ahead and replace all four.  That's never a fun expense to incur, sigh.

I will deal with that next week.

Then, there were rumors flying that Harris County (where Houston is) was going to threat level red for covid. Sure enough, they upped it... 

...at least we're vaccinated and boosted and other than the grocery store once a week and me going to work, we stay in and mind our own business, ha. 

We personally know four people who currently have COVID.  One is unvaccinated and is very sick.  The other three are vaccinated and experiencing symptoms like a cold except for one who said it's like a bad flu that they wouldn't wish on anyone.  Even a mild case can result in long haul COVID symptoms in some people, so we're happy to just keeping masking, social distancing and avoiding catching it if at all possible.

Today when we got up to head to the farm, we looked at the temps out there and thought "no heat at the farm, a cold wind blowing, let's just stay in town this weekend".  It's nice to have a break and just relax.  there is nothing to really do out there right now.  We can stay in town where it's warm and read, catch up on some TV/movies and have some good food.

Nothing wrong with that.  Hope you are having a good weekend and staying warm if you're where it's cold.  If you're where it's warm, send some this way.