No, I haven't finally gone completely off my rocker. True, at this morning's weigh in, once again, the scale told me I'd lost not one single pound this past week. I am, however trying to put a positive spin on it.
The weight may be the same but (or I should say "butt" - pun intended), my jeans continue to look and feel baggier! Can't beat that with a stick.
I guess I must be losing fat and gaining muscle. Yup, that must be it. Me and Arnold. Same muscle mass.
Hubby is feeling a little glum at the moment because he gained three pounds in the past week.
All of this is not without understandable reason. We are both emotional eaters and the past couple of weeks have been rife with emotional stress. Hey, it happens to all of us . . . and hopefully one of these days, we'll learn to handle it in a more mature way rather than trying to eat away our tensions.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Getting In Wood
If anyone ever figured the number of times one single piece of wood is handled before it is burned, there might be the possibility that no one in their right mind would use wood as a heating fuel.
While getting in wood today, I thought about the whole process and documented it. We use wood to heat in the garage and also in the house. So that means we need a supply of wood in these two spots to fuel those two stoves.
We've got the bigger of our two wood sheds full of maple or hard wood. This is the wood we use in the coldest weather and/or for overnight fires because it burns slowly and gives off more heat than soft woods . . .
. . . which is what we have in the front part of the smaller of the sheds. (Zoey the Wonder dog has to check to see if any chipmunks or squirrels have taken up residence in the stacked wood.)
Even though we've had a very snowy winter, we haven't had any sustained periods of really frigid weather so we've got lots of wood left as we approach the last couple of months of our wood heating season. Good news, and we're mighty thankful for it!
To fill the wood rack for the garage stove, we fill a wheelbarrow in the wood shed and bring it to the people door of the garage. It's easiest to roll the garage stove wood rack right to the door where the wheelbarrow is and fill it from there.
When the rack is full, it gets wheeled through the unheated part of the garage to its spot near the wood stove in the smaller heated part of the garage. There. That's taken care of.
We have a wood box on our enclosed back porch where we store the wood we use inside the house. So another wheelbarrow full (or two most of the time) of wood gets parked by the door to the porch . . .
. . . and the wood is hand carried from wheelbarrow to the wood box on the porch.
We have a rack that we keep full of wood in the house right inside the door leading to the enclosed porch so it's handy to fill this rack from the wood box on the porch.
How often do we have to bring wood into the garage and house? Depends totally on how cold the outside temperature is. In the very coldest of weather, the garage rack needs to be filled every other day. Because the wood box on the porch holds more wood, it's less frequently for that supply.
Of course, getting the wood into the house and garage is only one part of the operation. How many times is a single piece of wood handled as it goes from a pile of 8' long logs to being stacked in the wood shed? Many, many times, trust me. Sometimes I feel I know each and every piece of wood intimately because I've handled it so often.
While getting in wood today, I thought about the whole process and documented it. We use wood to heat in the garage and also in the house. So that means we need a supply of wood in these two spots to fuel those two stoves.
We've got the bigger of our two wood sheds full of maple or hard wood. This is the wood we use in the coldest weather and/or for overnight fires because it burns slowly and gives off more heat than soft woods . . .
. . . which is what we have in the front part of the smaller of the sheds. (Zoey the Wonder dog has to check to see if any chipmunks or squirrels have taken up residence in the stacked wood.)Even though we've had a very snowy winter, we haven't had any sustained periods of really frigid weather so we've got lots of wood left as we approach the last couple of months of our wood heating season. Good news, and we're mighty thankful for it!
To fill the wood rack for the garage stove, we fill a wheelbarrow in the wood shed and bring it to the people door of the garage. It's easiest to roll the garage stove wood rack right to the door where the wheelbarrow is and fill it from there.
When the rack is full, it gets wheeled through the unheated part of the garage to its spot near the wood stove in the smaller heated part of the garage. There. That's taken care of.
We have a wood box on our enclosed back porch where we store the wood we use inside the house. So another wheelbarrow full (or two most of the time) of wood gets parked by the door to the porch . . .
. . . and the wood is hand carried from wheelbarrow to the wood box on the porch.
We have a rack that we keep full of wood in the house right inside the door leading to the enclosed porch so it's handy to fill this rack from the wood box on the porch.How often do we have to bring wood into the garage and house? Depends totally on how cold the outside temperature is. In the very coldest of weather, the garage rack needs to be filled every other day. Because the wood box on the porch holds more wood, it's less frequently for that supply.
Of course, getting the wood into the house and garage is only one part of the operation. How many times is a single piece of wood handled as it goes from a pile of 8' long logs to being stacked in the wood shed? Many, many times, trust me. Sometimes I feel I know each and every piece of wood intimately because I've handled it so often.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Straight from the Hives
Even though it's way too early for our honey bees to be thinking of venturing out of their winterized hives on a daily basis, we slogged through the 2-3 feet of snow on the ground around their chain link enclosure to check how they fared over winter.
We went into fall with five hives. Two were weak and, in hindsight, we now realize we would have been much wiser to take these bees out of the big hives and put each group of bees into their own nuc for over-wintering.
The nuc "housing" would have provided a smaller, more compact, more easily heated set of living quarters for the bees.
The downside would have been that come February, the queen wouldn't have had the room needed to start laying eggs and raising brood.
So we gambled that the bees in each full-sized hive would make it through the winter and then could get a running start on building up their populations in the hive by spring.
The bees still had plenty of food stores in each of their hives, but the bees are all dead. There just weren't enough bee bodies in each of the big hives to keep things warm and do what needed to be done through the long winter.
I suppose you could say we were being greedy (certainly not using our best reasoning capabilities) in hoping that somehow each hive would survive, and we'd have the two full-sized hives as opposed to the ones in the nucs that would be way behind on raising brood needed for the coming season. Bad bee management on our part.
The other three hives are looking good, I'm happy to report. One is exceptionally strong and the other two are in good shape. All three of these remaining hives have plenty of food to get them through these last couple months of unfriendly bee weather in these parts. (Hang on, you little pollinators and honey makers, the worst is over now.) Before we know it, we'll be having some bright, sun-shiney days when the temperature climbs to the 40s. Then the bees can get out for much needed cleansing flights and put an end to their cabin fever. (Hive fever?)
Honey bees face an uphill battle in our climate of long, cold winters, but each year we learn more and are able to do better by them.
We went into fall with five hives. Two were weak and, in hindsight, we now realize we would have been much wiser to take these bees out of the big hives and put each group of bees into their own nuc for over-wintering.
The nuc "housing" would have provided a smaller, more compact, more easily heated set of living quarters for the bees.
The downside would have been that come February, the queen wouldn't have had the room needed to start laying eggs and raising brood.
So we gambled that the bees in each full-sized hive would make it through the winter and then could get a running start on building up their populations in the hive by spring.
The bees still had plenty of food stores in each of their hives, but the bees are all dead. There just weren't enough bee bodies in each of the big hives to keep things warm and do what needed to be done through the long winter.
I suppose you could say we were being greedy (certainly not using our best reasoning capabilities) in hoping that somehow each hive would survive, and we'd have the two full-sized hives as opposed to the ones in the nucs that would be way behind on raising brood needed for the coming season. Bad bee management on our part.
The other three hives are looking good, I'm happy to report. One is exceptionally strong and the other two are in good shape. All three of these remaining hives have plenty of food to get them through these last couple months of unfriendly bee weather in these parts. (Hang on, you little pollinators and honey makers, the worst is over now.) Before we know it, we'll be having some bright, sun-shiney days when the temperature climbs to the 40s. Then the bees can get out for much needed cleansing flights and put an end to their cabin fever. (Hive fever?)
Honey bees face an uphill battle in our climate of long, cold winters, but each year we learn more and are able to do better by them.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Random Thursday Thoughts
Our chickens are finally starting to lay decently again so we have enough eggs for our own use. Hooray! (We eat a lot of eggs . . . when we have them. When we don't, it's the pits!)
I really enjoy the distinct difference between summers and winters in our part of the country. It is truly as if we live in two different worlds.
As burnt out as I am on gardening in the fall, I'm ready to get out there again in the spring.
The geese remain so clean and pristine looking when they have access to the pond. After being cooped up with no method of bathing this winter, they look pathetic. (Fortunately, they seem to feel better than they look. Apparently, they have no pride. Or mirrors.)
Two people don't need a lot of food. We have so much food left in our freezers and on the canned goods shelves as we go into spring that I wonder why I spend so much time growing and preserving all the food I do.
My cousin recently sent me copies of pictures of our family taken during our childhood years he found while going through his mom's things. What vivid memories those pictures bring back. Absolutely vivid. I was so fortunate to grow up in a large extended family. I wish my daughter could have experienced the same thing.
We can get plenty of outdoor exercise in the winter time, but it's not nearly as inviting or easy to go outside when you have to put on a heavy jacket, insulated pants, boots, gloves and/or mittens, hat and sometimes a face mask.
It's so hard to watch your dog get old. I mean really old so that she no longer is the same pup she was up until a few months ago.
Since we're staying away from most baked goods and desserts, I've been surprised to find how very much I actually miss making these products. A couple of times I've simply had to make a batch of cookies and then give them away or hide them in the bottom of the freezer.
How in the world can I have a daughter who will turn forty this summer when I'm not that old myself? (Well, okay, I am that old -- plus, plus, plus -- but I sure don't feel it.)
The saying, "Live each day as if it were your last," is pure balderdash. What a quick mess I could make of my life if I were to follow that!
I really enjoy the distinct difference between summers and winters in our part of the country. It is truly as if we live in two different worlds.
As burnt out as I am on gardening in the fall, I'm ready to get out there again in the spring.
The geese remain so clean and pristine looking when they have access to the pond. After being cooped up with no method of bathing this winter, they look pathetic. (Fortunately, they seem to feel better than they look. Apparently, they have no pride. Or mirrors.)
Two people don't need a lot of food. We have so much food left in our freezers and on the canned goods shelves as we go into spring that I wonder why I spend so much time growing and preserving all the food I do.
My cousin recently sent me copies of pictures of our family taken during our childhood years he found while going through his mom's things. What vivid memories those pictures bring back. Absolutely vivid. I was so fortunate to grow up in a large extended family. I wish my daughter could have experienced the same thing.
We can get plenty of outdoor exercise in the winter time, but it's not nearly as inviting or easy to go outside when you have to put on a heavy jacket, insulated pants, boots, gloves and/or mittens, hat and sometimes a face mask.
It's so hard to watch your dog get old. I mean really old so that she no longer is the same pup she was up until a few months ago.
Since we're staying away from most baked goods and desserts, I've been surprised to find how very much I actually miss making these products. A couple of times I've simply had to make a batch of cookies and then give them away or hide them in the bottom of the freezer.
How in the world can I have a daughter who will turn forty this summer when I'm not that old myself? (Well, okay, I am that old -- plus, plus, plus -- but I sure don't feel it.)
The saying, "Live each day as if it were your last," is pure balderdash. What a quick mess I could make of my life if I were to follow that!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Give Me a Biscuit and I'll Go Away Happy
A couple of nights ago, I whipped up a ground beef sloppy joe type mixture for dinner. I usually serve this in a bun, but still being on our "no bread" food plan, I thought of serving it over mashed potatoes.
Now although this would have delighted my husband no end (meat and potatoes . . . what could be better?), the thought of that combo just wasn't doin' it for me.
"Heck," I thought. "I'm gonna make some homemade biscuits and ladle the sloppy joe mixture over those." (Please don't call the diet police.) "But I'll make 'em as healthy as I can."
I got out my recipe for Spelt Biscuits. Spelt, you say? What is spelt?
Spelt is a sub-species of wheat that has not been widely know, grown or used in our country although it's been popular in Europe for a long while. It's an old, old (ancient actually) grain that has the nutritional value close to that of oats. It's only been in the fairly recent years of folks getting into the organic, nutritionally-conscious, whole foods frame of mind that spelt has come to be recognized as a wholesome grain. Because it hasn't been widely popular, it hasn't been hybridized as nearly all of the commercially grown wheat is in our country. An added advantage of spelt is that many folks with an allergy to common wheat can tolerate spelt.
I find it to have a sweet, nutty flavor, and I've used it interchangeably in any recipe calling for whole wheat.
SPELT BISCUITS
2-1/2 cups spelt flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/3 cup butter
1 cup buttermilk or sour milk
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. With a pastry blender cut in butter and grated cheese until mixture is uniform in size.
Add buttermilk (or sour milk) and stir just until well mixed. Batter will be very moist at this point.
Turn onto a floured surface (I use unbleached white flour for this part of the process) and sprinkle dough liberally with more flour so that you can gently handle it. You want to be able to work with the dough but keep in mind the more flour you add, the less tender and flaky the biscuits will be.
Knead 8-10 times and roll out to 1/2" thickness. Cut with a 2-1/2" biscuit cutter and place on an ungreased baking sheet.
I have this set of square biscuit cutters I just love. I used the biggest which is about 2-3/4" across.
Bake in a 425 degree oven for about 12 minutes or until golden brown. I got ten good-sized biscuits with my cutter.
These turn out to be a hearty but very moist, great tasting biscuit. They tasted particularly good with the sloppy joe mixture. We each ate one biscuit and then I froze the leftover remaining eight. (They do freeze very well, by the way.)
Now although this would have delighted my husband no end (meat and potatoes . . . what could be better?), the thought of that combo just wasn't doin' it for me.
"Heck," I thought. "I'm gonna make some homemade biscuits and ladle the sloppy joe mixture over those." (Please don't call the diet police.) "But I'll make 'em as healthy as I can."
I got out my recipe for Spelt Biscuits. Spelt, you say? What is spelt?
Spelt is a sub-species of wheat that has not been widely know, grown or used in our country although it's been popular in Europe for a long while. It's an old, old (ancient actually) grain that has the nutritional value close to that of oats. It's only been in the fairly recent years of folks getting into the organic, nutritionally-conscious, whole foods frame of mind that spelt has come to be recognized as a wholesome grain. Because it hasn't been widely popular, it hasn't been hybridized as nearly all of the commercially grown wheat is in our country. An added advantage of spelt is that many folks with an allergy to common wheat can tolerate spelt.
I find it to have a sweet, nutty flavor, and I've used it interchangeably in any recipe calling for whole wheat.
SPELT BISCUITS
2-1/2 cups spelt flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/3 cup butter
1 cup buttermilk or sour milk
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. With a pastry blender cut in butter and grated cheese until mixture is uniform in size.
Add buttermilk (or sour milk) and stir just until well mixed. Batter will be very moist at this point.
Turn onto a floured surface (I use unbleached white flour for this part of the process) and sprinkle dough liberally with more flour so that you can gently handle it. You want to be able to work with the dough but keep in mind the more flour you add, the less tender and flaky the biscuits will be.
Knead 8-10 times and roll out to 1/2" thickness. Cut with a 2-1/2" biscuit cutter and place on an ungreased baking sheet.
I have this set of square biscuit cutters I just love. I used the biggest which is about 2-3/4" across.
Bake in a 425 degree oven for about 12 minutes or until golden brown. I got ten good-sized biscuits with my cutter.
These turn out to be a hearty but very moist, great tasting biscuit. They tasted particularly good with the sloppy joe mixture. We each ate one biscuit and then I froze the leftover remaining eight. (They do freeze very well, by the way.)Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Who Woulda Guessed!
Okay, gotta tell you about something that has just tickled me no end.
Last Thursday, Jane at Hard Work Homestead did a post on making your own Grape Nuts. You know, that crunchy cereal that's been around forever. The cereal is a little weird starting with the very name. I know many people wouldn't eat it if they were starving, but I've gotta admit it's always been a favorite of mine. So what if it is a little like chewing ground cement and sounding like a horse masticating whole grain while doing it. Either you love it or hate it. Well, as I say, I've always been one of the lovers but rarely purchase it anymore because I know the ingredients including the preservatives, just plain and simple, aren't good for me.
But back to Jane's recipe for making homemade Grape Nuts. Last Sunday afternoon I finally got around to following her excellent tutorial and recipe. (I nearly incited a full-blown riot when hubby saw the first stage going into the oven and thought it was a sheet cake. He's really battling sweet deprivation since we've been on our weight loss kick.)
As I worked through all the stages of the creation of healthy, homemade Grape Nuts, I was really very leery of it coming out tasting anything like my beloved cereal. But I followed the process through to the end.
The two pans of the finished product sat in the turned off oven overnight as Jane had suggested. First thing yesterday morning I bottled up the cereal. I had already planned a poached egg breakfast so that's what we had. (Besides, hubby is not a cold cereal eater so I knew I didn't dare feed him Grape Nuts [healthy variety or not] for breakfast.)
After finishing breakfast, I couldn't wait any longer so I put a small portion of "Jane's Grape Nuts" (as they will now always be known) in a small bowl with some milk and let them sit for a couple of minutes.
Then the taste test. Did they taste like store-bought Grape Nuts? Heck, no. THEY WERE MUCH BETTER! I happened to have about 1/2 cup of purchased Grape Nuts left in the back of the cabinet so I dragged them out and gave them the taste test after sampling Jane's. The commercial ones tasted very stale (I don't believe they were as I'd stored them in a well-sealed jar) and tasteless compared to the ones I'd just made.
The one change I would make to the recipe was one Jane suggested herself. In future batches I'll experiment with cutting the sugar amount as so much simply wasn't needed for my taste.
Never in a million years would I have guessed you could make Grape Nuts at home let alone a better, more nutritious, delicious and healthy substitute.
Now I have one question for you, Jane. Can you come up with a recipe to make healthy Cheerios, my other childhood favorite cereal??
Last Thursday, Jane at Hard Work Homestead did a post on making your own Grape Nuts. You know, that crunchy cereal that's been around forever. The cereal is a little weird starting with the very name. I know many people wouldn't eat it if they were starving, but I've gotta admit it's always been a favorite of mine. So what if it is a little like chewing ground cement and sounding like a horse masticating whole grain while doing it. Either you love it or hate it. Well, as I say, I've always been one of the lovers but rarely purchase it anymore because I know the ingredients including the preservatives, just plain and simple, aren't good for me.
But back to Jane's recipe for making homemade Grape Nuts. Last Sunday afternoon I finally got around to following her excellent tutorial and recipe. (I nearly incited a full-blown riot when hubby saw the first stage going into the oven and thought it was a sheet cake. He's really battling sweet deprivation since we've been on our weight loss kick.)
As I worked through all the stages of the creation of healthy, homemade Grape Nuts, I was really very leery of it coming out tasting anything like my beloved cereal. But I followed the process through to the end.
The two pans of the finished product sat in the turned off oven overnight as Jane had suggested. First thing yesterday morning I bottled up the cereal. I had already planned a poached egg breakfast so that's what we had. (Besides, hubby is not a cold cereal eater so I knew I didn't dare feed him Grape Nuts [healthy variety or not] for breakfast.)
After finishing breakfast, I couldn't wait any longer so I put a small portion of "Jane's Grape Nuts" (as they will now always be known) in a small bowl with some milk and let them sit for a couple of minutes.Then the taste test. Did they taste like store-bought Grape Nuts? Heck, no. THEY WERE MUCH BETTER! I happened to have about 1/2 cup of purchased Grape Nuts left in the back of the cabinet so I dragged them out and gave them the taste test after sampling Jane's. The commercial ones tasted very stale (I don't believe they were as I'd stored them in a well-sealed jar) and tasteless compared to the ones I'd just made.
The one change I would make to the recipe was one Jane suggested herself. In future batches I'll experiment with cutting the sugar amount as so much simply wasn't needed for my taste.
Never in a million years would I have guessed you could make Grape Nuts at home let alone a better, more nutritious, delicious and healthy substitute.
Now I have one question for you, Jane. Can you come up with a recipe to make healthy Cheerios, my other childhood favorite cereal??
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