weekend

Saturday morning: 

Friday night we got many more inches of powder.

The annual challenge of keeping water available to everyone, everywhere, all the time, currently means carrying a lot of buckets, three times each day. While it's nice to have all these visits with the herd and the hens, it's a mystery why the (eventually) successful system of bucket de-icers and extension cords that worked last year is not working this year. I've got one more idea to try, but it involves a two-minute task in the crawlspace. It's genuinely quite spacious in there but even if I could still creep through a cellar window on my belly, working on the ground - and especially, getting back up off the ground - is not a simple matter these days, and it's possible I'd just have to do that two-minute task and then get used to living in the crawlspace.

But!

Yesterday my neighbor AM came by to take measurements for a plumbing line replacement that's been on the list for a few weeks, and we went to the hardware store for materials. He may be coming today to do the job, which will take place in the crawlspace. I already have my outlet adaptor and new extension cord ready for the crawlspace-based de-icer experiment. Fingers crossed!

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the morning in snapshots

Morning windows: a late start today.

Didn't get outside til nearly 8!

East from the portico:

Joined by Team Intrepid:

Hard to get Violet in focus, as she moves toward me

the moment I get to the barn:

By contrast, Azalea stands her ground, waiting for me to open gates:

Mallow is content with his location...

...as is Della, when I come back in to make breakfast for the rest of us.

I hope your day has been lovely.

~~~~~

 

wordless wednesday

 

morning chores, 24th December 2025
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color

 

This isn't exactly the view I wake up to, because I wake up hours before daylight.

But it is the view from my bed, where I usually bundle back up and have breakfast after coming in from morning chores. Most days I have to bribe Della with treats to get my spot back; she appears out of nowhere and occupies the central location before I'm even out of the room.

Here's a closer look at the trees behind my workshop:

And here's how they look on a rainy day:

I love the richness and depth of colors on a gloomy day.

The rain is returning, so I must get out there and make sure everyone is set for the night.  Here's a little more color to peruse while I'm gone:

And...we're back to rain.

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when you least expect it

A post about food.

Since discovering Extra Extra Coarse Bulgur a few years ago, it's been a staple in my pantry. I stopped cooking with rice; I find the bulgur has more flavor and texture, and holds up better to the freezing and reheating that are standard procedure here.

The tricky part: this particular bulgur - Duru Extra Extra Coarse - has only been available to me from the shop where I buy Turkish coffee, and I rarely have access to that shop because it is 45 minutes away. So when I do get there, I stock up on both coffee and bulgur.

Well, the last two times I borrowed a car and made the trek, there was no stocking up. The first time there was neither Extra Extra Coarse Bulgur nor Mehmet Effendi coffee on the shelves, and in fact the entire shop looked alarmingly thin in stock. The second time, months later, the shop was "Closed for Renovations." Uh-oh. I began rationing my last bag of bulgur. That's it, in the picture above.

Of course there was still plenty of neglected rice maturing in my cupboard, and a couple of months ago, by a happy chance, I saw a one-minute video about adding more food value to a bowl of white rice. The method also adds more texture and flavor, making this rice mixture a good substitute for the bulgur which had earlier become my substitute for rice. And because the person in the video was using a rice cooker, I tried using the Rice setting on my Gourmia pressure cooker. It worked beautifully. I think a regular pot would work just as well, though the timing might require testing.

Here is the mixture:

1 cup rice, 1/2 cup quinoa, 1/2 cup lentils, 3 cups water.

I've been using red lentils, and all sorts of combinations from half-empty bags of jasmine rice and arborio rice and plain old white rice. The result has more flavor and texture than plain rice, and if freezes and reheats well. Bonus: I finally have a genuinely interesting way to use that bag of quinoa that's been on the shelf for, well, quite a while.

Also it looks rather festive, especially made with tri-color quinoa:

Extra Extra Coarse bulgur would still be my first choice but until

Oh my gosh. Weirdly coincidental newsflash: my Occasional Helper just emailed a news clipping. No details, unfortunately, but the shop where I bought bulgur and coffee from Turkey now has a "for rent" sign on the building. Big sigh. It was a family-owned  business for 20 years. I can only hope the owners and employees are all landing on their respective feet.

I may be making and eating this rice mixture for a while.

Glad I found it.

Let me know if you try it.

~~~~~