melted and refroze - january ice storm tennessee - february 4

 

Charlotte and Melody (goat) had discussions with me this morning about the ice still outside, and about food stores.  I am increasingly glad we went for that extra animal feed run last week and bought extra bags while we were there.  And Esme found that gallon of milk, and I keep weird things in the cabinets that I will eat even though they may be time-intensive and I don't do them often.  We had filled ALL of our propane tanks in the days leading up to the storm, standing in line for an hour on the last one (which was when everyone else decided it was time to fill), and still ran out before this ice was done, so that is on our 'to be better prepared' list - another 40 gallon tank to keep full.

They've declared a state of emergency, closed the schools for the same full two weeks I've been iced in, and I do know we're not the only ones - although much of the towns and main highways are clear, there are a lot of people asking for help and also a lot of people getting themselves and rescuers in trouble on the road trying to drive in these conditions. 

It melted some a couple of the 40 degree days and only reformed into harder and tougher ice during the cold overnight temperatures.  It got up to maybe 36 today, and maybe 38 tomorrow.  We still feel lucky to have the electricity fixed (after that outage last Sunday) and the water pipes working.  Although I will admit : my feet are so cold, I've done double socks and slippers and a wool rug under my feet, and been able to work at my desk.   Esme is wrapped up in hoodies and blankets in her room, which is well-insulated and next to the house furnace.  Mark is sitting next to a wellhouse heater just to stay warm enough for his lungs - and I did bump the whole house heat up some.  Our elderly animals are enjoying the heat lamp he set up.  At dinner we pile up under some covers and are watching a criminal investigation show again for a few hours before bedtime.  All of our chickens are winter-type breeds and they are doing quite well, although not laying any eggs (understandable).

I am also lucky I've been able to work from home a little and actually help out with some things that needed to be remembered and/or done at work.  I've been allowed to log a little time on that.  I know I will have stacks of things to do when I can get in - buckle down and power through those physical paper things that I could not get done this week not being there. 

I took a few more walks out today, with the last one being a full two mile walk with the camera and took a couple of videos as well that I posted on FB.  It is still ice out there - even where it melted yesterday, it has refroze.  Just look at that garbage can - with the sun on it and some melting it is now sitting in a hole in the ice berm.

 

in order : our hill going up into our driveway 

 

looking back at our drive from Grandma's house and mailbox 

looking out at the next neighbor's house past Grandma's

Looking down the hill into the intersection with the county road

This is the only place you can see some road, because the neighbor ground the wheels on his very large 4 wheel drive truck on one of the slushy times 

 

 

down and around the first corner 

looking up at this side of the double 'S' hill, there was the sound of water running all the way down into the gullies there - and the sides of the road are clearing up some, which means another couple of days of melting it will maybe be passable (for those who don't have a huge 4 wheel drive truck) - but I think that the neighbors, too, got out at the slush time with that truck and haven't been back in since the melt - and that their relative with the baby had left at the beginning of the storm and is wisely staying in town.

Mark had me looking for the yeast today, which we have some but it is four years out of date.  I made a box of jell-O.  We still have food for dinners that everyone would want for a few days, Mark says 'because we're weird, cook from scratch AND keep a lot of stuff in the freezer / cupboards' - having pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts, peanut protein powder, making pea soup and onigiri and a variety of other things, yes, that's about right, but he is still thinking I might try to make some other bread experiment with Esme tomorrow.

On languages?  I'm studying Turkish on one platform and have kicked into the high grammar Japanese on the other and some Lithuanian practice here and there.  I'm listening to Japanese cartoons and French.

experimental cookies with hazelnuts

 I made an experimental alteration on the peanut butter cookies, and it turned out half alright.  Will have to try that recipe again when we have more eggs.  I used the last one doing this, as Mark had requested more cookie and wanted me to use the nuts for more energy.

This recipe either needs more flour or less butter, or some balance between the two fixed.

 

1 stick softened butter (I'm thinking 3/4 stick now, in retrospect would have been better) 

probably 1/4 cup of cashew butter, softened with the butter

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

 

1/4 cup of granulated white sugar, ground to a nut butter with a quarter cup to a half cup of whole hazelnuts and about the same ofa black walnuts he found in the freezer, it came out to be about 1 cup total 

 in a separate bowl : 1/2 cup of flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt

mixed the nut mixture and the flour mixture into the wet mixture half and half until it was fully combined, even added a bit more flour to the end, because it still felt too wet... but not enough apparently

 

 

350 degree oven preheated, baked on parchment paper (MUST) on metal pan

10 minute cook, then pull out and transferred sheet immediately to a cool surface, because it needed that  

they crisped up a bit but were very buttery and greasy - put them in layers of wax paper on a plate, taste very good 

 

the beginning of the melt - ice storm tennessee january 2026

 

 

 

 It is February 3rd, and the ice has begun to fall off the roofs, but the road is still covered in it.  Yesterday, at the peak of the temperature, an hour before dusk, some bits of the road were slushy.  Other areas, mostly in shadow, were still as slick as the bottom of an enameled bathtub.  Today, at 9:30 am, no bit of the roads are slushy, yet.   And today is overcast, where yesterday had sun.  It is forecasted to rain a bit this afternoon, as well - we will see what happens.  I loaded the propane tanks into the car, and a box of salt and a couple of bottles of water.

I walked out to the 600 hill again, which is halfway to the highway from us, about two miles there and back.  I saw a blood trail where something, perhaps a deer, had crossed the road.  My hound went nose-down into the woods and followed it a bit, and came back to tell me it how it smelled.  I worried about her last night, when she went out at 1 am and didn't return until after 4.  I told her she almost had me planning missing posters with all the melting and falling ice and slick gullies etc, and the coyotes howling and foxes arguing that ring out over the hills.  The geese and turkeys have been loud - and I heard a woodpecker when I was out there this morning.  I saw a murmuration of starlings at the highest point of the hill.  I did not see enough melting to go get in my car and try the hill.  I barely saw any road at all anywhere, only where the one neighbor has had his monster truck in and out to check on his relative and then struggled getting it back up the hill to his house.

 I feel trapped and that perhaps I should be brave and just go for it - but I've also been down in the ditch in a much worse situation than I had been earlier in the morning, for trying such a thing.  And that time it was very difficult to get anyone to  come out and help even the next day - they heard where, and said 'no, not in this weather.'

Mark says 'don't go down the mountain until you know you can get back up it.'  Yes.  The only good thing about that is if these roads become clear, we can be certain almost everywhere else is.  Yes.  He has been cold all night (66 degrees) which is less than he can usually afford with his breathing condition.  We had a wellhouse heater and a heat lamp in there to bring it up to 69 yesterday, but for safety's sake had turned it off and turned the house heat up for the night.  With the propane, we keep it at 72 for him usually.

So, *blow air up forehead*  I'll get my walking in and go back out there again after another few hours.  Sat down and drew a hungry heron looking at a fish in the water before I set out this time. (below) with a bit of gold wishing in the corner for the sun to shine a bit more on this ice and melt it.

 

february 2

went out three times today,

it was still glare ice at 11 am

at 1:45 - it was starting to break a little and the roofs were beginning to drip again

the ice above is from 3:30 pm today, but a small bit of the county road was slushy, will refreeze overnight, but we'll hopefully get somewhere tomorrow as it is set to be as warm as it ever got today a little earlier tomorrow, but then it is supposed to start raining in the afternoon

the propane ran out for Mark's heater last night - I turned up the electric heat and then rigged him up a wellhouse heater and he put a heat lamp out for our little elderly cat who wanted to be warm in his room but didn't like the air blowing out of the heater 

mountain top

side of the road in front of the next gully

It was still zamboni smooth ice at 10:45 - you can see the shine on it

Minerva walking up our driveway

Winter Wise

pens and gold paint 

 

simple onigiri with adzuki bean paste

 

Well, we've been iced in all week, and I have this cupboard of dry foods that I eat, but no one else in the house does, or rarely.  These are habits I learned in Fargo, where we had organic health food and Asian market stores.  The onigiri, though, I only learned the full form of in the past few years.

First : the adzuki beans.  One of my local stores had them last year and I was happy!  I bought a bag and have been using it up.  They require at least 12 hours of soaking, and then cooking for a long time, and then pulverizing and cooking some more, and a little bit of brown sugar (and mirin, which I finally found this year, too - the local stores are carrying more oddity things).  They sell the finished thing in the store as 'red bean paste' or 'adzuki bean paste' but that is even sweeter and would be expensive to buy pre-made.

So I spent the morning experimenting, once again, with the bean paste that I rarely make.  I also ended up putting some baking soda in it at one point and being afraid I had done something terribly wrong ala chemistry.  But, no, that worked well.  It just foamed up and looked odd for a few minutes probably with the bit of rice wine vinegar I had in the water during the boiling.  Anyway, it became success.

Once that was turned off, I started the rice - which I'm pretty good at by now.

1 cup of rice, washed - 2 cups of water, bit of olive oil, bit of salt, bit of rice wine vinegar, boil until it is almost dry, but not quite.

Mix in 1/4 cup or LESS of white sugar, and just enough rice wine vinegar on top of that until the sugar is wet, no more - mix while still hot, over and over, scraping the spoon over and over, until the mixture is soft - then add white sesame seeds, and mix one more time. 

 

At the beginning of learning this rice mixture, I just made rice balls out of the rice mixture itself, and added a little bit of seaweed on top of each one - it was still very good, and easy to bring in a lunchbox. 

Here is the pinch point.  The rice will be hot and doing it by hand is possible but your hands will turn red.  When I did that I put some salt on my hand, made the ball, and then put the ball down in the glass plate, salt in hand, repeat etc.  I bought some little onigiri triangular molds last year and have used them a few times.  The trick is to not put too much rice in the first layer - and then add a tiny bit of salt (shio), then a spoon of the bean paste, then another layer of rice, and press the mold together until it is firm.  Press the mold out on the plate and it should look like the onigiri in the picture below, white rice on both sides, with a bit of bean showing in the cross section.  Take a small piece of seaweed and wrap it around the bottom of the triangle so it can be held easily.  Stand the onigiri up and move onto the next.

This can get very messy.  I probably need more practice.  I end up washing and wiping my hands clean every minute or so until I am done - and end up with a stack of nice snacks.

I put some red curry paste, real mayonnaise and wasabi paste on a plate and eat one with a fork - probably not allowed, but I really like the condiments. 

Time-intensive, the materials were harder to find, but NOT expensive.  

Even the onigiri molds were only three dollars - it was just getting them when we were getting something else and then actually using them that is the kicker.

   

dry goods cabinet - with split peas, lentils, rice, noodles, and dried beans.  There are a few cans of sardines and some more curry paste and blocks behind there, as well. 

peanut butter cookies (again)

 1 egg, no milk

 

preheat oven 350 degrees, parchment paper on baking sheet

cream 1/4 c. (half a stick) butter and 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter with 1/2 cup packed brown sugar and 1/4 cup white granulated sugar

mix in 1 large egg and 1 tsp vanilla

combine in separate bowl 1 cup flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt, mix thoroughly to avoid clumps of soda or baking powder

mix dry into wet ingredients just until dry is fully combined

 make small balls not much larger than fifty cent pieces and press down on top with a fork to flatten

 

bake for 13 to 15 minutes, pull out and put onto a cold surface to harden and avoid overburning the bottoms by leaving them on the pan

will be crumbly, but undercooking is also better than overcooking, as they continue to 'cook' for a few minutes after they are out of the oven and overcooked ones get very hard when they cool