GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

Solo to the farm yesterday since no mowing (more on that tomorrow) and when I got back into town, 2nd Man was working on dinner.

We had pork chops, sautéed mushrooms and broiled cauliflower "steaks".  The pork chops, pan seared with simple salt and pepper as always, the mushrooms were sautéed whole in butter and then a splash of white wine and the cauliflower was sliced thick and sprayed with olive oil and seasonings and then oven roasted and broiled at the end.  It was all delicious!

Today Hobart is sleeping on the couch, swaddled up in his fuzzy blue blanket.  It's hard to tell which end this is, but his ears are there somewhere, ha.  He is sleeping peacefully and warm.  Because...

#notspoiled

 

DEER HAVE RETURNED TRAIL CAM

With the return of the green grass, the deer have also returned to our yard.  The trailcam has been quiet for months, capturing an occasional bird or insect crawling across the lens, but nothing else.

By the way, the time stamp is off but we think the dates are correct.  I'll have to doublecheck this weekend.

 

We caught these two roaming through the green of the front yard.  No antlers on them, so they were either young bucks or doe.

Here's a young one picked up on the camera late one night.  Gosh it looks so small.

Later that night, there were friends coming by (or maybe Mom and siblings?).  There were four this time but they were gone by the time the sun came up because no more photos of them in the daytime.

We did capture this one on camera in the daylight  another day.  A male with a rack of antlers.

I cropped the photo to get a more closeup view.  He's probably still youngish, but we're not sure how you count the points on a buck.

Still nice to see them back now that things have greened up.  They have never caused any problems (knock on wood) for us.  Of course we do have the orchard area sectioned off with the fishing line fencing so they leave those alone.  "J" said she sits out on her back deck in the mornings (facing their back pasture which is the other side of that fence in this picture) and has a cup of coffee as she watches them graze in the pasture and hope the fence back and forth.

She said it is very peaceful...

UNEXPECTED MILITARY FLYOVER

We were on the porch when we heard a strange noise and so I stood up...

...and saw these two military helicopters (Black Hawks I think?) coming in low and fast.  In the time in took me to pick up my phone...

...they were already flying over.

This second one was so low when it flew over the house, if I had been on the roof, I literally could have reached up and touched it.  "J" from 2nd Family said it rattled their windows.

We're guessing it has to do with this:

It looks like they were heading in to get ready for this training event.  It was cool to see but a bit unsettling as it happened live and unexpected.  We know why they are used in battlefield situations...they can sneak up on you and you'd never know it until it was too late.

NOT SO ZEN AGAIN

It was a beautiful weekend, temperatures were mild and humidity was very low.  There as a cool(ish) breeze and the grass...

...was definitely in need of mowing.  Remember, I hadn't mowed in two week since it rained Labor Day weekend.  The grass was pretty tall.  But then remember a couple of weeks ago, when I had the battery problem on the mower?  Well I didn't finish mowing then and so in some spots, it has been THREE weeks since the last mowing.  Like this:

No, Bill the Truck isn't sinking into the ground.  This is three weeks without mowing.  After our months long drought, it's back with a vengeance.

I stopped at the John Deere shop on my lunch break one afternoon and bought a battery.

It was fairly easy, and I always remember what my Dad taught me about changing batteries, everything off, key out of the ignition, black (negative) disconnected first, then red (positive), put the new battery in and do the reverse, red first and black last.

About ten minutes later, mission accomplished.  Reminder, wear gloves next time, ha!

I was having a great time on the Zen Machine.  I got the driveway done, some of the back and front, I moved the truck so I could mow where it was parked and then...the mower started acting up.  It would sputter and backfire and sounded like it was surging before finally dying.  The battery didn't appear to be the issue, it would start right up every time and was running the proper voltage when I tested it.

With no rain in the forecast, I just left the mower where it stopped.  You can see where I left much of the yard unmowed.  At least the driveway was done.

Here's the view from the porch.  I went over the higher parts with the mowing deck raised so it would take off the worst of it and then back over it with the regular mowing height.  It was going great like this until the mower decided to stop cooperating.

2nd Man and I think that the mower may be nearing the end of its life, or at least aging to the point where it's going to give us more and more problems.  We'll have to see how much this will end up costing.  If we can get it back up and running, maybe next year will be the time to get a new mower.

It's always something.

Goats rented to graze image via wikicommons

We just hope we get it back quickly or we might have to rent a herd of goats! 😂

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

Yesterday was...well, one of those days, ha.  More on that in upcoming posts.  Today we are relaxing, have some things to do in town but as we do most every Sunday, it's time for some good food and some Hobart.

Here's a meal we had the other night.  Roasted broccolini, rice with chopped jalapeños and chicken with sautéed red onions (made in 2nd Man's electric skillet).  It was delicious.  I love sautéed onions anytime but these were done in the pan with the chicken at the same time and using the red onions added a wonderful sweetness.  It was very good.

Hobart has spent the better part of the weekend sleeping, as cats (especially senior cats), so often do.  Here he is in one of his favorite weekend spots; in the dining room chair that we must push over to balcony window with his afghan carefully folded for his comfort.  Because...

#notspoiled

And let us pause to remember that dark day that changed our nation.  Twenty one years ago today.

Where does the time go?

RIP QUEEN ELIZABETH II

We're not British, but so much of what we have enjoyed over the years is classically British.  Some of our faves: Absolutely Fabulous, Dr. Who, Keeping Up Appearances, Are You Being Served?, and so many other movies and shows and singers and entertainers.  In fact, our TV is on BBC America as much as any other station.

We've never traveled to England, but it's definitely on our list of places to visit and while don't follow much of the monarchy in detail, we are aware of the drama that sometimes goes along with it.

We can't help but be saddened by the death of Elizabeth, but we can marvel at her amazing life.

She was certainly colorful!  Who wouldn't know who this was in an instant?

Her love of horses was beautiful to see.  How happy does she look here?

And we all know about her corgis and her decades long love of them.

We love this picture of a beautiful young Queen who would go on to:

Reign through 14 US Presidents (meeting 13 of them)...

Oversee 15 Prime Ministers (including Churchill)...

Travel to at least 117 different countries and well over a million miles...

She would serve through wars and disasters, tragedies, and family controversies but also through victories and changes and wonderful moments, carefully guiding her nation from one century into another...

And yet through it all, she maintained her calm and steady leadership, her royal steadfastness as it is sometimes called, becoming a symbol of stability for generations of people around the world.

This photo, indeed her last official one, was taken just a few days ago when she met with the new Prime Minister.  Seemingly small in stature, but definitely larger than life, she gave 70 years of dedicated service to her country...and now, at 96, she rests.

RIP QUEEN ELIZABETH

CHORIZO AND EGG BREAKFAST TACOS TEX MEX CLASSIC

Here is a great quick Tex Mex staple that we often have for breakfast but also for lunch and even dinner.  It's that good and satisfying.  They are made with Mexican chorizo (different from Spanish style chorizo link sausage) and is more like ground sausage.

San Manuel Chorizo
We love this brand (we don't get anything for mentioning them, just a shout out for good quality).  Whatever brand you get, there are lesser priced versions that use 'cereal filler'.  It's good but you really want all meat.  Often the good versions will be called "chorizo fino" (meaning "FINE").  This one has pork, vinegar, spices salt and garlic and that's it.  All natural, no MSG, preservatives, or fillers.

Remove it from the casing and put into a skillet.

Cooked chorizo
We cook it until it's done, about 10 minutes.  It's much like cooking ground beef.  We add a little dried cilantro (or you can use parsley) to add some color.  Definitely no additional seasonings needed.  It's very flavorful.

Depending on the pork's fat content, you might have some residual grease.  If it's more than you'd like, just like ground beef, drain the chorizo before the next step.

Eggs cooking in chorizo

To the cooked chorizo, we add 6 eggs and begin stirring  it gently to let the eggs cook into the chorizo.

Keep stirring it until...

Cooking eggs and chorizo 

...you get them looking just like scrambled eggs, only these are scrambled eggs with chorizo.

Chorizo and egg

All that's left to do is get some warm, soft flour tortillas, spoon some in, fold them or roll them up and enjoy.  You can have some salsa on the side or just eat as is.

ROADS MAY FLOOD

The county has recently put these signs up seemingly everywhere around the farm.

We're lucky on our property, we are on a high area (high relative to the areas around) so there is never a danger of the house flooding.  The yard will get very wet with standing water and the driveway too, but the house is on the highest point of the property.

Good thing because this was Saturday at the farm.  The red pin is the house.  This storm cell lasted about 2 hours over the area.  Between Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday, 2nd Family said we received a little over 4 inches of rain in their rain gauge.  Areas to the West got as much as 7 or 8 inches of rain.

The ground was wet enough that there was minor flooding of the yard.  2nd Family warned us the ground was very squishy and muddy so needless to say, there was no mowing and certainly no need to water the fruit trees and bushes.  We needed the rain.

This picture is NOT from this weekend, ha. This is a flood years ago (their front yard) at 2nd Family's house which butts up to the front end of our property (that's how we share part of the driveway).

2nd Family said that when their daughter was a baby, Dad needed to go to the store to get some diapers.  This photo was after one of our monsoon rains that we are known for in these parts and every single road around the farm (except one heading North) was completely flooded at some point along the path.  This was their yard and there was only one way out.

Now that they have put up these signs all around us, including that road going North, we're guessing we could be locked in by flooding at some future point.

All the more reason to be prepared and have all our supplies on hand.

Hope you all had a more productive weekend!

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

Well, it's a rainy, wet, yucky weekend.  But it's also a long weekend (we're both off Monday) so it's a good weekend for reading, watching TV, and relaxing.

Oh and eating.

Baked tortellini and broccoli salad

On Friday night, I made broccoli salad (RECIPE HERE) so it would sit overnight and develop the flavors and then yesterday afternoon, I made baked tortellini (RECIPE HERE) that is really more like a lasagna.  They are a good complement to each other.  By the way, we broil it at the end so we can have a crispy cheese top.

Pound Cake

2nd Man woke up and decided since I was doing the main parts of the meal, he would bake a pound cake with vanilla glaze.  So yummy.  He just uses the traditional recipe of a pound of eggs, pound of sugar, pound of butter, and pound of flour.  Then extract flavoring of your choice, etc.  It was a great dessert.

With all this food, we'll be repeating the meal a few more times this long, rainy weekend.

Hobart

And of course, it might be raining, we might be relaxing and resting and eating, but Hobart is patiently waiting for us to give him his food.  Because...

#notspoiled

 

NO FARM THIS WEEKEND

No farm today.  And probably not all weekend...

Current radar.

It's already rained at the farm on and off overnight and this morning and all of this is moving up this direction...

...and this is the forecast for today, tomorrow and Monday.  Maybe this is nature's way of telling us to stay home and relax.  Of course, all I can think about is how tall the grass is going to be in another week, but still, we are grateful for the rain.

So today, 2nd Man is making a pound cake and I've already made broccoli salad (so it could sit overnight in the fridge) and later we'll make our baked tortellini (that's more like lasagna).

We will eat well all weekend, ha.

SWASH MACHINE 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 is one of the latest (and biggest)!

This is the SWASH machine by Whirlpool.  It was sitting in the loading dock area just like this with a note on it:

Someone moving overseas and not wanting to take this with them.  They even included some cleaning pods.

I brought it back up and 2nd Man said "what the heck is that??".  Now we did some checking and the machine is no longer made.  The pods are still relatively easy to find but not sure for how much longer.

You pull the knob and slide this out, you pop in the pod (it's like a K-cup for clothes, ha), and then you hang the clothing item (two max at a time) and use clips that pull out to pull the clothing taught.  Then close it, push the button and it takes about 10 minutes.

Here is a shirt.  You can see how it works, you hang it on the hanger and then put the sleeves through the bars, cross each other and the pull out the retractable clips to pull them taught. Then, you do the same to the bottom edge and the sides with the other clips.  It holds the shirt tight and then the machine steams on the inside and the wrinkles get out.  

It doesn't clean clothes like dry cleaning but it freshens them up and gets wrinkles out.  We've already used it on a couple of my works shirts and slacks and it worked great.  It will extend the time between dry cleaning bills and there's nothing wrong with that.

Especially since we didn't even have to pay for the machine!  Free is best!