The Food - Omlette in a Mug

Omlette in a Mug

This is my every morning breakfast, no matter how much of a hurry I am in.

1 egg
2 egg whites
1 tbs. of top milk (half and half)
salt
fresh or frozen spinach
a bit of chopped onion if it's handy
2 tbs. of grated Italian cheese blend

Warm or cook a mug full of raw spinach (and onion) in the microwave for 1 minute on high
   It will wilt and shrink.  Push it to the bottom of the mug when done
Beat the eggs, salt, egg whites and top milk in a bowl
Pour  this mixture into the mug over the spinach
Sprinkle the Italian cheese on top
Microwave on high for 1 minute
Remove and stir
Microwave for 1 more minute on high

You have an omlette in a mug!

You can take it in the car if you hve to and  eat it on the fly.

When I don't have fresh spinach I have used salsa or leftover skillet vegetables from the night before.  Sometimes we add leftover sausage or other meats too. 

I got this idea from my Aunt and just fiddled with it a bit. 

It's convenient and good.

The Riding/Training - All Shoes pulled 11/30

All Shoes Pulled 11/30

Except for Elvis

The Farrier came on Friday and pulled all shoes for the winter, except for Elvis who is going to wear shoes and snow pads on his back feet this winter.  We are doing this because his feet grew so crooked and funny last winter - all splayed out to the outside.  I don't have any pictures but it made him  pretty cow hocked.

It was fun because the farrier also did a demonstration of horse shoeing for a first/second grade class of gifted school children from a small private school in Denver.  They are studying fire and he showed them how fire and heat played a role in shoeing a horse.

If I get photos from the school, I'll post them.       

The Buildings - Sauna Progress

Sauna Progress

 

The Riding/Training - 11/25 Prima and PJ

11/25 - Prima and PJ

 

I worked with PJ first.  She has been getting a bit pushy and demanding when we are working with the other horses, so I decided she needed some attention and maybe a little discipline.   I caught her, tied her and let her stand for a bit.  Then I brushed her.  She really loves being brushed.  Then I put her in the cross ties  in the barn by herself and left her there for a bit.  She was good. Then I got out the stick to measure her.  The last time I did this it took a long time because she was very warey of the stick.  Not this time!  She was not the slightest bit afraid of it.  She showed some healthy curiosity when I first approached with it, but then I just telescoped it out and she looked as if she remembered it and we were done.  She is officially 14'2"hh. at almost exactly 18 months of age.  I don't know what that means for her ultimate size, but I am thinking around 16'2"hh.  She was good and got a handful of cookies and back  out she went.  She really didn't want to go back out and I maybe should have hand walked her, but I wanted to get to Prima and maybe Elvis this day.

 

 

She has a nasty chip out of her left front foot.  She isn't lame and the farrier is coming Friday, so we decided to leave it.  

 

I worked Prima next.   I worked her in the English cross country tack with a rubber pelham bridle.  I lunged her in side reins first and then we went on a long, fast marching walk around the farm.  I checked fence as we went and found a few places that needed untangling, stretching and re-attatching to the insulators.  It has been windy on and off.  She had a very wet blanket when we were done, but she showed a great attitude.  I felt bad having to put her muzzle back on.  She has lost enough weight that I might be able to stop using the girth extender soon - or switch to a shorter girth.   Good girl!  

 

We were trying to get out to do some Christmas shopping, so I didn't try to ride Elvis.  He will get done Tuesday.  The weather will be nasty tomorrow.     

The Food - Turkey Stew

Turkey Stew

 

 

We boiled the carcass for a whole day, then covered it and let it cool over night.  The next morning we removed the bones, skin and scrappy bits.  Into the pot went the meat, yellow, red and purple potatoes, scallions and carrots and salt.  (I just realized that everything in this stew was produced here on the farm, except the salt.)  After bringing it to a rolling boil again it went on the back burner with the lid off to simmer. 

 

 

 

After some of the liquid had reduced, we thicked the broth and added the gravy we had made the day we roasted the turkey.  We will have this tonight with whole wheat biscuits and freeze the rest for fast winter suppers to come. 

 

 

 

We were able to freeze 4 gallons, mostly in 1/2 gallon bottles.  But we did a couple of quarts as well.  Good old Tom!

 





 

The Grass/Land - Perhaps a Mystery Solved

Perhaps a Mystery Solved

But Another Mystery Presents Itself

This past summer we had a spate of leg injuries to the horses that we just couldn't explain.  There were new horses introduced across our fence lines on all sides so we were concentrating our search for booby traps along the fence lines.  We could find none.   Below are photos of some of the injuries. 

 

 

 

 

Today, we noticed that some young pines in the middle of the chicken pasture had some bark damage that looked like it was done by deer.  We rode closer to inspect and found that right in the middle of this stand of young trees there was a place where the sod was worn away and there were two exposed holes in the ground bordered by old timbers and jagged stones.  These holes opened to standing water that was up to about four inches below grade.  This "thing", whatever it is, is man made and pretty old at first glance.  My husband went back after our ride and determined that it is over 3 feet deep and the water is quite fetted: not like an artesian well or a place where our well has been pumping fresh water unbeknownst to us.  It is above the level of the house and in the opposite end of the pasture from our septic tanks and leeching fields, so it is unlikely to be tied to those.  We don't know how deep it is or what it is and we need to investigate further, but I am pretty sure that falling into these holes is what caused the leg injuries this summer.  We didn't find the holes because we weren't looking in the middle of the pastures for the problem.  The deer are drawn to this place, I am sure, because of the water.  It has been  so dry there is no standing water anywhere else.  But the question remains: since it has been so dry, where is this water coming from? 

 

 

 

 

 

I will take photos of the site tomorrow.  We are lucky we didn't have a broken leg!

 

 

 

 

I put my foot in this last one to show scale.  Anyone out there have any ideas about what this might be or who we could call to find out?

 

 

11/27 Update

I have called the county commissioner's office and they told me to call the county health department if I think it is an old septic tank or to call the state water board if I think it might be an old well or old cistern for fresh water.  I opted to call the state water board because I do not think it is an old septic tank because it is uphill from the house, and no one with any sense would put their septic tank uphill from the house.   Also, we know where our waste water goes and it  is not there.  I talked to someone at the state water board and she said it sounded like it might be an old well or even artesian well!  She said that no one at the water board is really qualified to evaluate something like this and she suggested we call a well drilling company and have them come out and look at it.  She said they would have experience with old water wells in the area and they  have underwater cameras on cables that they can lower down into places that are not accessible to see what's going on.  So I called a local well driller and left a message. 

 

As an aside, my great grandfather, Asa B. Conklin of La Salle County, Illinois, had a creamery that he built on a piece of land that had an artesian well.  I guess in the nineteenth century they could pipe the cold water from an artesian well into a "cold house" (usually a winowless stone building) where they could age cheese and keep cream and butter cool before refrigeration.  This old farm was originally a dairy and if it had an artesian well it would have been very handy for them.  What a nice feature it would be to find here!   

 

 

11/28 Update

I talked to the well guy today.  He has drilled wells in this part of Colorado and maintained them and updated them for people for decades.  He says that we have an artesian well!  It was used to supply the house with water as late as twenty years ago, when he added a pressure pump for the then owners.  He is coming out next week to look at it and advise us how best to reactivate it's use.  We are extremely excited about this!   It makes perfect sense for a dairy, as I said above, but in this dry place, in this dryest of times, it seemed too much to hope for.   Maybe a little pond?  Maybe a drip water system to keep the garden moist?  Maybe an aesthetic water feature?  Maybe a spring fed endless lap pool between the spring and the garden?   Maybe spring water for the sauna?  What luck!



The Riding/Training - Elvis and Gus Do Some Hill Work

Elvis nd Gus Do Some Hill Work

I rode Elvis and my husband rode Gus.  We did trotting hill work.  We rode in the English cross-country tack.  I had Elvis in a rubber pelham.  He went very nicely in it.  There was a little diving and curling up behind the bit, but I took the trainer's advice and asked him not to do those things when they happened.  And he was doing it less and less frequently. 

After the hill work we went to the arena.  My husband and Gus did canter laps and worked on rein back.  Elvis was not used to working in the arena with another horse cantering, so we worked on not paying attention to the other horse and paying attention to me.   We did a lot on the center line: walking straight, bending left and right, leg yields left and right, turns on the forhand, turns on the haunches.  Then we did an exercise I had not tried with him for over a year and back then he couldn't do it.  We did bending on the circle - counter bending on another circle - bending on that circle - and so on.  He got it and it made him very soft and round.  He found a "happy place" as one clinician once put it.  So we stopped there, with both a wet blanket and a tired brain for Elvis.  But also with a sense of success.

I am ashamed to admit that I was still sore from my lessons on Wednesday...

 

 

PJ has a big chip out of her left front hoof.  She doesn't seem to be lame. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure if we need to do anything about this.  The farrier is coming on Friday.  



The Poultry - Cooking Old Tom

Cooking Old Tom

I have decided to cook the old tom this weekend, for leftovers. We are going to relatives for dinner, so we won't have any.   He is 24 lbs., but I daren't use him for guests because he might be tough.  The older turkeys we have butchered in the past have not been tough, but they were not this old.  If he turns out tough, I can make him into stew and if he turns out well, we can have friends over for leftovers... or freeze him in sections for later leftovers for us.  That's the plan, anyway.

 

 

I defrosted him in a cooler in the kitchen.  It took 48 hours.  Then I put him in the roaster on the front porch to stay cool while I went to town to get the rest of the 'fixins'.

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to do this bird the old old-fashioned way: the way my gramma did hers.  I boiled the neck and the giblets for a couple of hours, carefully removing the liver after only a half hour.  I used the broth from that to moisten the seasoned bread crumbs.  I added chopped onion, celery, liver, gizzard, and heart to the bread crumbs and also a couple of large duck eggs, beaten.  I always thought that the thing that set my grandmother's stuffing apart was the fact that she put summer savory in it.  I can't buy that here, so I have to grow it.  I added that and some parsley that I had dried from the garden and stuffed the mixture into both cavities of the bird.  I had enough left to fill a one quart baking dish as well.  I will cook that after the bird comes out.  I rubbed the outside of the bird with olive oil and salt and pepper.   No brine, no fancy stuffing, nothing tricky.





 

I do not own a meat themometer. I cooked this 24 pound, stuffed bird  for four and a half hours at 350 degrees.  (If I were at sea level I would cook it at 325, but here it needs to be 350.)  I cooked it with the roasting pan lid on.  The humidity is so low here that drying out is always a risk.  I checked it often but it did not seem to need basting.

 

 

Above is what Old Tom looked like after an hour in the oven.  All is well.  A little Dry Sack, a little crudite, a little pickled herring ... and waiting.  The house began to smell very good.  

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

After three and a half hours of cooking, the breast skin split open.  Not good.  I don't know why this happened.  Maybe I should have basted him... but I thought that was to make the skin brown, and it was browning nicely on its own.  I hope this won't mean the breast meat will be dry.  We knew we wouldn't cook with the cover off the roasting pan at all, after this happened. 

 

 

 

After four and a half hours he was done. 

 

 

 

When I lifted Old Tom out of the oven,  the handle on the roasting pan broke off.  I almost had the whole thing land on the floor!  I was lucky to get it to the island without spilling anything.   The breast was not dry but he was tough. The skin was tough and I think that was why it split. So I ate between the sinews on one leg and Jeff had sliced breast meat. The breast was tenderer and I think we can eat more of that just sliced. But the rest goes into the stew pot tomorrow!

 

 





 

 





  

For me, Thanksgiving isn't about pilgrims or indians.  I have an ancestor that was on the Mayflower and I have an ancestor that I'm pretty sure was at least part indian.  What the Americans did to the Native Americans was  genocide, attempted extermination, and I am dedicated to telling the whole truth about it as we teach history to the next generation.  If we could all see the history as if we were European and Native American, then we might get a sense of what really happened.  But that is not what Thanksgiving is about to me.  It is a harvest home celebration in the best of folk traditions from northern Europe, and if you are Christian, it marks the beginning of Advent.  Not the time to put Christmas decorations up, mind you, but a time to start getting ready for Christmas, a time to start thinking about  it.  And definitely not a time to shop until you drop.  (Of course, if you have to mail a lot of things, then you need to get going with the lists anyway).  It is not a time to tell a bunch of feel-good propaganda to children about only their white forebearers, but it can be a time to think about the whole story of the birth of our nation.  We are not perfect, as a people, and our history is not all praiseworthy.  Perhaps if we had a longer history we wouldn't be so hung up on painting it all with a rosey brush.  Nations like China and Britain don't try to whitewash their histories so much.  History is full of good stories and bad ones and they probably all need to be told.   The living record of a literate populace is often where the stories that authority wants to bury lie safely until someone with courage finds them and  brings them to light: in diaries or logs or journals that are secreted away.  So after thinking about it this year, Thanksgiving for me became a time to be thankful for the educational opportunities that are out there for so many Americans and a time to make sure we are doing all we can to insure that fewer and fewer of our people fall through the cracks in the system and fail to acquire basic literacy skills.  We need all the people to be able to read and write and think critically.  We need them all to tell their stories.



The Food - Roasted Root Vegetables for Thanksgiving Potluck

Roasted Root Vegetables for a Thanksgiving Potluck

I was asked to bring roasted root vegetables.  Our garden produced these in abundance this year, so we have plenty.   We did yellow, red, and purple potatoes, carrots, parsnips, scallions, and beets.  I tossed them in salt, pepper and olive oil and roasted them for 40 minutes in a 450 degree oven. 

 

 

 

 

I roasted the beets separately because they discolor everything if you roast them in the same pan.  I did not put any oil or seasoning on them or peel them before roasting.  The big ones took about an hour in the oven.  When they were cool to touch, I peeled them, cut them into chunks and tossed them in olive oil, salt and pepper.  Pretty easy!

 

 

 



Vegetables when done, above.  Beets cooling, below.

The Riding/Training - Two great lessons on Elvis and Gus

Two Great Lessons on Elvis and Gus

We got the arena dragged early this morning so the footing was good for lessons. 

I rode Elvis first.   He was very heavy in the hand and a bit pig-headed overall.  I guess you can expect that kind of inconsistency with the youngsters.  He was willing to accept some contact at the walk and trot but was really diving and rubber necked at the canter.  For that reason we did not try many canter laps on him today, but stuck to canter 20 meter circles and trot/canter/trot transitions on the circle.  Those went better.  It was as if he got on the 20 meter circle and recognized it from being lunged and settled down to trying to stay on the circle and keep his balance.  Going large he was all over the place, today.  There have been days in the past when he was fine going large, so I hope there will be more such days in the future.  But today was not a good day for that. 

We also worked on bending at the walk.  This was new for him.  He was a bit confused and resistent at first but eventually got it.  We were working  on leg yields and decided to ask for one or two steps in half pass because he would not straighten or bend in the direction he was going.  This will be something to reinforce and practice in subsequent rides. 

Not so much a wet blanket for him today as a tired brain. 

 

 

I rode Gus second and we worked on his changes!  And he got them!!!  Not perfectly, mind you, and one direction was harder for him than the other.  But he got them!!!!  He was very good and only got a little emotional about my being in his way in one direction.  But I think we got it sorted out and I think with just a little practice he will be super at them.  We started schooling them a couple of years ago but stopped because I wanted to show him second level and I didn't want to lose his beautiful counter-canter.  They seem to be relatively easy for him to do and they are very smooth when they come. 

 

Third Level, here we come!

 

We warmed up at the canter and did trot work last.  That seems to be best for him.  The quality of his canter comes easier and the quality of his trot is always better after the canter work. 

 

 

Gus got a bath, wintergreen and alchohol on his back and stifles, and Bit Butter on those sensitive lips.  What a good horse!

The poultry - Turkey Delivery Day

Turkey Delivery Day

I had to work today, so before the sun was up I was out in the machine shed, wiping out coolers and lifting frozen turkeys out of the freezer.  I put one turkey in each of four coolers and loaded them into the car.  I had forgone the delivery of fresh turkeys to people this year, opting instead for the frozen route.  This way I could butcher earlier, avoiding the crush at the locker plant.  I could deliver at my leisure, instead of having to pack the freshly butchered, warm carcasses in ice and race all over town to get them delivered before it melted.  Last year had been pretty hectic. 

But I have some misgivings about this choice as well.  The birds do not look as picturesque all plastic wrapped and frozen into odd shapes from being stacked in the big freezer in Simla.  I can't really inspect them.  I hope they are plucked nicely and the skin isn't damaged ... but I don't really know.  I hope people will tell me if there is something amiss, but I bet they won't. 

I think I like the fresh turkey delivery system better. 

The Garden - Still Getting Greens

Still Getting Greens

It's November 18th and we are still able to cut greens for dinner!

 

 

I'm not sure how long this will last, but it sure is nice!  This is a mixture of chard and mustard greens.

The Riding/Training - Elvis and Prima Go Walking

Elvis & Prima Go Walking

My husband rode Prima and I rode Elvis this afternoon.  It was a bit of an adventure for my husband because Prima was in a foul mood.  She stomped and kicked out while being saddled, and tried to charge Elvis and bite him whenever she could on the ride.  He got to practice keeping her on the bit.  Then she went pretty well.

I did all the gates on the ride, so Elvis got a lot of practice standing for mounting and dismounting.  He was a model child.  After his performance at the clinic last weekend, I thought I might have some trouble.  But no.  With no one looking and nothing to lose, he was a perfect child.

We rode western, so I got to practice riding Elvis on a loose rein and steering with my legs.  He seems not to have forgotten how to do any of that.  It has been a while since we worked on it.

We lunged them both first and then went on a long walk around the farm.  Elvis and I did some trotting as well.  It was very low key and relaxing.

Here they are cooling off afterwards.

The Buildings - More Progress on the sauna

More Progress on the Sauna

 

 

There is more progress on the sauna this beautiful weekend.  The door was moved last weekend, as I suspected.  

Inside, the chimney has been completely installed and the stove has been moved in.  It is not hooked up as the floor under the stove has to be put in, still.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It needs to be fire proof.

 

 

 

 

We are using the stove that used to be in  the TV room.  We replaced it with an air-tight Yotul and we were going to put this one in the cabin down on the ranch.  But the sauna seemed more pressing. 

 

 

 





The Riding/Training - 11/17 My Husband and Gus

11/17 My Husband and Gus

Gus got some hill work and arena work on 11/17.  He was a bit naughty, so he got more hill work and arena work.  I think in the end they both had a good time.  I drove in just as they were ending and there was a big smile on the human face, anyway.  Gus had his chastened-juvenile-delinquent face on and a pretty wet blanket.  I'm not exactly sure what went on, but apparently, it got handled. 

The Garden - Cold and Dry

Cold and Dry

The garden covers and light bulb seem to be working to some extent.  There is some wilting and damage from the cold, but the plants have not died and I think new growth will come in that will be in good condition.  Time will tell.  It's an experiment.  My friends in Santa Fe have good luck with this, but we are further north. 

The Buildings - Mysterious Happenings Last Weekend in the Sauna

Mysterious Happenings in the Sauna Last Weekend

Last weekend I was away and when I got home the sauna had a differnet look.  It is all stapled and nailed shut, so I am not sure what went on, but I think there is a heater in there now.  And perhaps the new door has been cut out.