I've meant to post for a few days now. I started February off pretty strong and was thinking that maybe I'd do yoga every day and post to my blog every day, for 28 days, and that I'd have a great leap into spring! Well... I've missed a few days with the yoga, and I've missed more than that with the blog.
I think the cold has something to do with it. That episode of 30 Rock a few weeks ago that talked about January's "Winter Madness" (also the name of the episode I think, if you head over to Hulu to watch it) was right on target. The cold, the gray, the damp... the constant swamp in our back yard and the fact that our painters can't get here to do the job because of the weather just add to it.
Last weekend was fabulous with the lovely snow and quiet, and the bright, crisp landscape... but then Monday came and traffic started up and the melt began and we had two or three days of gray blech. It's like New York preparing for a parade. Then the parade comes and it's so great and festive... then everyone goes home and the streets are just a wreck. It's like that but with wet slush.
Paige has said a number of times over the past week, "I hope we never have to live anywhere colder than this." And before you say that Durham is no Boston or Chicago... that's exactly what we're talking about. It's been cold, but it hasn't been as cold as it's been further up the coast, and we're glad for that! Because if the Winter Madness has taken us in quiet little 38-degree high Durham, imagine how Seasonally Affected we'd be somewhere else.
In happier news, I was pleased to find this post, How to be inspired every day, using my "Explore" feature in Google Reader. It's from a digital photography blog/website, but it talks about inspiration in a more holistic manner which I appreciate. I especially appreciate numbers 3, 4 and 9, respectively: Read biographies of artists that you admire, experiment, and look after yourself. Good ideas.
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Monday, February 01, 2010
Time warp much?
Paige and I are totally in a time warp today. It's 3:45 and we feel like it's barely noon. Even by my Pacific Time Zone work day comparison, it's later than it feels. What happened? It's as though two days in the house, with no obligations and everything in the Triangle completely shut down, we lost our concept of time. This would be fine if not for the fact that we both have time-based commitments: meetings, deadlines, classes, etc.
I should note too, that it's not even like we're just slacking off. I did yoga this morning, worked for a few hours, we did our Hypnobabies scripts and then had a relatively busy morning. I had a good meeting at 9 Pacific, followed by a fairly productive day working this spreadsheet I've been dealing with, and (and!) I shoveled the front steps, walk and driveway leading out to the sidewalk at "lunch" so that our 4" sheet of ice on our steeply pitched approach wouldn't be treacherous and necessitate our parking on the street tonight, when Pagie returns from Whole Foods in a few minutes. Also, Paige went to class today so there's that. All this, and I still missed a meeting today... while I was sitting in my chair working! Sheesh! What's going on here!
Time warp, I'm telling you.
I should note too, that it's not even like we're just slacking off. I did yoga this morning, worked for a few hours, we did our Hypnobabies scripts and then had a relatively busy morning. I had a good meeting at 9 Pacific, followed by a fairly productive day working this spreadsheet I've been dealing with, and (and!) I shoveled the front steps, walk and driveway leading out to the sidewalk at "lunch" so that our 4" sheet of ice on our steeply pitched approach wouldn't be treacherous and necessitate our parking on the street tonight, when Pagie returns from Whole Foods in a few minutes. Also, Paige went to class today so there's that. All this, and I still missed a meeting today... while I was sitting in my chair working! Sheesh! What's going on here!
Time warp, I'm telling you.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Tassajara Focaccia - Olive Oil Bread with Rosemary
In advance of today's snow, yesterday I cooked up some Great Northern Beans and threw them in the fridge. Today, they went into a nice pot with some carrot, leek, onion, celery, garlic, potato, white wine and S&P. Then, the real work began... which bread?
Edward Espe Brown's Tassajara Bread Book is one of my favorites. I'm a bread person. I truly can't get enough. Wheat, sourdough, English Muffins, tortillas, nan, bao -- whatever... I love it. And on a cold, snowy day -- which demands, positively -- a hearty stew, there is no other accompaniment than a nice bread.
So looking through the book I came upon a fantastically simple focaccia. I forget about focaccia. Its delicate hole structure, its "spongyness", its lovely crust, and the essence of whichever herb or ingredient you use to give it flavor: sage, olives, jalepeno... rosemary -- fantastic!?!
Thanks to Google Books, you can flip through the 1970 edition and on page 47 (scroll down, don't use the arrows on the page), you can see the exact recipe I used (more or less; we were out of whole wheat flour so I substituted a cup of buckwheat for the cup of whole wheat, in the first part).
It's a fast recipe for a yeast bread, so the fast gratification is a real plus. The only thing I'll counsel: use good oil to finish, and a nice, coarse sea salt on top if you like. Enjoy! :)
Edward Espe Brown's Tassajara Bread Book is one of my favorites. I'm a bread person. I truly can't get enough. Wheat, sourdough, English Muffins, tortillas, nan, bao -- whatever... I love it. And on a cold, snowy day -- which demands, positively -- a hearty stew, there is no other accompaniment than a nice bread.
So looking through the book I came upon a fantastically simple focaccia. I forget about focaccia. Its delicate hole structure, its "spongyness", its lovely crust, and the essence of whichever herb or ingredient you use to give it flavor: sage, olives, jalepeno... rosemary -- fantastic!?!
Thanks to Google Books, you can flip through the 1970 edition and on page 47 (scroll down, don't use the arrows on the page), you can see the exact recipe I used (more or less; we were out of whole wheat flour so I substituted a cup of buckwheat for the cup of whole wheat, in the first part).
It's a fast recipe for a yeast bread, so the fast gratification is a real plus. The only thing I'll counsel: use good oil to finish, and a nice, coarse sea salt on top if you like. Enjoy! :)
Winterizing the chick-chicks
In the previous post I was asked how we winterize the chick-chicks...
If we had more -- say, if we hadn't lost two and still had four -- I wouldn't be at all concerned for them in their hutch. They roost in a line and periodically change who's on the outside so that only one (or two, if both sides are exposed, though usually they'll cram over onto one side) is cold at a time. With the two of them, I've sometimes seen them both get into the nesting box which is roomy for one but snug for two, and huddle down. I'd worry about their laying time if they had to do that all the time.
That said, I put extra straw in their hutch when it's going to be a cold night, and I turn on the 40-watt bulb I put in there too. I only turn on the bulb when it's going to be below 25 at night, and I leave it on during the day only if we aren't going to get above 35. It seems sort of arbitrary (especially if you're an experienced chicken keeper), and I understand that this may be more for my own mental health than for the chickens, but remember that our girls are bantam, so they are smaller and less meaty than a lot of larger breeds. This time next year, when our standard size chickens are 8 or 9 months old (they will arrive as 3 day olds in April) and they're all together as a happy brood, it probably won't be an issue.
Of course, I'll still have to go out in the morning with fresh water and the tea kettle to un freeze their water and leave them with some extra, but they seem to do fine overnight.
As to the bulb, we have noticed, especially during that 12 day period where our high didn't get out of the 30s and our lows were in the teens, when I left their bulb on continuously for that period, that they start to get a little stir-crazy... or maybe just crazy, if the natural light cycle is out of whack. This is why I try not to leave the bulb on too much continuously -- they need to be able to roost in the dark some time or they just go mad.
What they do to prevent that, is -- and you can't really see it in the picture -- roost outside the hutch. There's a rod inside the hutch where the bulb is and where their nesting box is, but there's also a big stick in the pen that you can't really see because of the tarp. When they get sick of the light they move out and roost on that stick.
So... this is how we winterize the chickens. As you can see from the picture above, they are doing fine. We have 6" of snow and its still falling mixed with ice pellets. I think we're supposed to accumulate throughout the day. Fun!
The yoga studio is closed. I bet 1/2 of the Triangle is closed. If this were a weekday, the cities would be at a standstill. Thank goodness it's the weekend.
If we had more -- say, if we hadn't lost two and still had four -- I wouldn't be at all concerned for them in their hutch. They roost in a line and periodically change who's on the outside so that only one (or two, if both sides are exposed, though usually they'll cram over onto one side) is cold at a time. With the two of them, I've sometimes seen them both get into the nesting box which is roomy for one but snug for two, and huddle down. I'd worry about their laying time if they had to do that all the time.
That said, I put extra straw in their hutch when it's going to be a cold night, and I turn on the 40-watt bulb I put in there too. I only turn on the bulb when it's going to be below 25 at night, and I leave it on during the day only if we aren't going to get above 35. It seems sort of arbitrary (especially if you're an experienced chicken keeper), and I understand that this may be more for my own mental health than for the chickens, but remember that our girls are bantam, so they are smaller and less meaty than a lot of larger breeds. This time next year, when our standard size chickens are 8 or 9 months old (they will arrive as 3 day olds in April) and they're all together as a happy brood, it probably won't be an issue.
Of course, I'll still have to go out in the morning with fresh water and the tea kettle to un freeze their water and leave them with some extra, but they seem to do fine overnight.
As to the bulb, we have noticed, especially during that 12 day period where our high didn't get out of the 30s and our lows were in the teens, when I left their bulb on continuously for that period, that they start to get a little stir-crazy... or maybe just crazy, if the natural light cycle is out of whack. This is why I try not to leave the bulb on too much continuously -- they need to be able to roost in the dark some time or they just go mad.
What they do to prevent that, is -- and you can't really see it in the picture -- roost outside the hutch. There's a rod inside the hutch where the bulb is and where their nesting box is, but there's also a big stick in the pen that you can't really see because of the tarp. When they get sick of the light they move out and roost on that stick.
So... this is how we winterize the chickens. As you can see from the picture above, they are doing fine. We have 6" of snow and its still falling mixed with ice pellets. I think we're supposed to accumulate throughout the day. Fun!
The yoga studio is closed. I bet 1/2 of the Triangle is closed. If this were a weekday, the cities would be at a standstill. Thank goodness it's the weekend.
Friday, January 29, 2010
I give up... for now
It's going to snow tomorrow. Everyone in Durham is freaking out because the news says 8-10" of accumulation. Our painters have been powerwashing for three days to try and get a jumpstart on the job. It's moving at about the rate I should expect. We're about 4/5 done with the wash, then they will go over everything again and treat the wood to prevent sap leeching through the stain, and even out the weathering that already exists.
The chickens have been in a tizzy since the painters have been here because usually when I'm out I let them out, so they see people and can't figure out why they are still penned. Thus, one has found out that she can fly up onto the coop and they it's a short hop over the extended fence. :: sigh :: I put her back in 5 times today then just locked them in the coop. But they cried (squawked) for about 20 minutes and I gave up. Not 10 minutes later, the one was out on the coop and over the wall... So I just let them both out. I'm trying to keep an eye on them so they don't go to "the zone of death" out by the azaleas... which are now cleaned up so there's not the false sense of shelter.
Once it gets near dusk, hopefully they'll make their way back into the pen.
Once this weather clears, I'm totally going to shore up the fencing.
The chickens have been in a tizzy since the painters have been here because usually when I'm out I let them out, so they see people and can't figure out why they are still penned. Thus, one has found out that she can fly up onto the coop and they it's a short hop over the extended fence. :: sigh :: I put her back in 5 times today then just locked them in the coop. But they cried (squawked) for about 20 minutes and I gave up. Not 10 minutes later, the one was out on the coop and over the wall... So I just let them both out. I'm trying to keep an eye on them so they don't go to "the zone of death" out by the azaleas... which are now cleaned up so there's not the false sense of shelter.
Once it gets near dusk, hopefully they'll make their way back into the pen.
Once this weather clears, I'm totally going to shore up the fencing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
